The clicking mandibles were enough to alert him that there was something on the other end of the line, and he quickly reeled it in as fast as he could manage, before seeing a Magikarp that—

“Hold it right there!” he exclaimed as he ‘froze’ in that comical-looking position while the Kabuto’s red eyes were staring up at the flopping, struggling ‘Karp on the line as he reached over to the open note pad that had the scribbled ‘notations’ so far; adding ‘tiger-stripe Magikarp’ to the list before returning in-game.

“Okay, I got that one recorded!” he continued as the line started moving again, before the beast of a ‘Karp continued flopping around on the sand.

‘But I think this is not one you’re intent on keeping, is it?’

“Not right now,” he hummed; before the Kabuto understood the cue and flung themselves at the Magikarp, mandibles clicking menacingly.

living up to the fishing hype

In some kind of repeat from several fishing trips ago (honestly, it was just the first one) he remembered seeing a Magikarp that looked like the one that was now fighting on the end of the line.

‘Looks similar to the pink one,’ the Kabuto remarked as the staring red eyes looked up at the thrashing fish on the end of the line. ‘Only instead of pink it’s a different color.’

“Yeah, that checks out,” he would nod, freezing in the strange position as he documented what he’d seen in the game on the note pad that was open—right now it looked like some kind of a gathering of mad scientist notes, however fact of the matter was that there was sense to all this.

“Okay, I got this one recorded,” he chirped once he returned; and the Kabuto knew that was their cue; immediately launching themselves from the rock they were sunning themselves on to drive back the rambunctious Magikarp.

living up to the fishing hype

Both human and Pokémon thought that this next Magikarp that turned up on the line was a nice shade of blue; however thanks to his eagle-eye spotting the design he realized that—

“What, whoa? Really?” he blinked as he stood back; the familiar purple color of the Magikarp sparkling in the sunlight as it dangled off the line.

‘We already have this one, correct?’ the Kabuto would confirm, to which he would nod a few moments afterward. At least the human wasn’t going to ‘glitch’ and freeze in a funny position while he ran to the note pad to take note of the strange phenomenon.

All too soon the Kabuto would launch themselves at the purple Magikarp, tussling with the multiple clicking mandibles while he stood back watching the scene with this bemused look on his face.

living up to the fishing hype

The next ‘guest’ to come up on the line was—well, it definitely wasn’t a Magikarp, but something else…

“Well, I thought we were going to fish up nothing but Magikarp all day, but look at this one!” he would remark as the Kabuto had seemingly fallen asleep waiting for the next fish to end up on the line.

“Huh… you slept?” he would chuckle quietly as he looked over to where the fossil Pokémon was now… well, if the mandibles clicking steadily in some kind of manner wasn’t the indicator, the fact that the red ‘eyes’ weren’t staring out of the void was the indication that his Pokémon companion had indeed dozed off.

“Well, what am I going to do with you,” he sighed as he watched the Mantyke swimming, dragging the line along and causing the fishing rod to bend at weird angles as it swam along excitedly.

(Sure, a Mantine definitely hit two of the… well, that was tempting, to say the least. Plus it was definitely a ridable Pokémon unlike the Shellos…)

came for the Magikarp, ended up with the Mantyke

Thankfully, the Mantyke would ‘give up the ghost’ not too long after the singular attack from the Pikipek caused it to squeal and get free from the line—eventually landing in the sand, before flopping around like some kind of… a demented… Magikarp.

“Thank you, Sam,” he would say to the Pikipek, recalling the loud avian before pulling out the golden Pokéball and then bopping it gently on the Mantyke’s antenna, watching as it was sucked into the beam of red light…

Boy would the Kabuto be surprised to find out that he’d caught something else entirely different and not a Magikarp this time around!

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catch attempt on Mantyke!

came for the Magikarp, ended up with the Mantyke