Jade's Refresh

I'm never doing a raid. I'm just here to kill time before work. I'd never join a big crazy world event boss battle. No way, Jose. Give me a Tree of Worms any day.

Jade had been telling herself this for the last six months, but here she was anyway, fresh and early and goddamn panicking about the whole thing. She paced back and forth across the platform, arms crossed over her chest, muttering like a mathematician. Her Combusken, Roger, sat on the edge of the elevator with his talons dangling off the side, head lolling slightly to one side. Can't believe he's still sleeping. How the hell isn't he more nervous?

"You got your moves ready? Learned all your... everything?"

<Mmhmm.>

"Everyone evolved? I ain't taking babies up there. Not even Andy."

<Andy's in your bag. She's coming. Everyone else is evolved.> Roger, who had opened one eye, closed it again. Jade made a motion as if to tear out her hair. "You kidding? I told you, no babies! It ain't safe up there!"

<She'll be fine. She's an electric-type, like Zapdos. If any of us are ready to fight in a thunderstorm, she is.>

"Aw, hell, don't remind me!"

Zapdos. That's where all of this was leading. Jade had gotten the e-mail from Professor Ash and she'd heard the announcement when she arrived at the forward camp, but it was still a hell of a story to believe. She'd never even seen the Giant Shrine before it had up and gotten itself stolen, and now they were supposed to just drag it back down again with their bare hands. The only shrine she'd ever seen was the High Tide Shrine, and everyone she met swore up and down it wasn't even active. Was she supposed to just know this one when she saw it?

Jade recalled Roger into his Pokeball as the platform began to rise. She took a few deep breaths to calm the raging sea of fight-or-flight survival instinct currently boiling within her. It'll be all right. Hell, at least there's nothing to get stuck in up here. The memory of being half-buried alive in honeycomb rose up to choke her and she almost gagged. No Pinsir. No bugs. And no armor. Or grenades. Or potions. Put it that way and it left her feeling pretty unprepared after all.

Continued here...

COMBUSKEN'S rarity increased by +5 to Very Rare!