The next day, his team fully rested and the sun out in full force, Ran decides against another training day. With his match with Doro planned for some time later in the day, he instead quite enthusiastically decides on a proper beach day. He’s never actually had one and the characters on tv sure seemed to enjoy it, so he might as well. Plus, it’ll be interesting to watch his team interact in a new environment.

  So it is that, around ten in the morning, after sleeping in for once, he has a quick breakfast before buying a newspaper and preparing himself for a trip to the beach. Then he marches out of the pokécenter in his swim trunks, with a large beach towel and his backpack over his shoulders. Thankfully, his trunks are a special model for trainers, meaning that they do have an integrated belt with the normal clip on attachments for a set of six pokéballs. With his full team on his person, the look is a bit lopsided, with three balls on the right and only two on the left, but that’s easily forgotten about.

  Instead, he focuses on the warmth of the sun and the sounds of crashing waves hitting the beach, as a surprisingly strong wind blowing in from the ocean churns up some impressive waves. Already, there’s some surfers, both of the board- and pokémon-variety, as well as swimmers out in the water, but not to such a degree that the beach feels too busy by any means.

  He easily seeks out a spot to put down his towel and put down his bag, taking the time to rub in a decent amount of sunscreen, before pausing as he actually considers just what kind of environment he’s about to bring his team out into. Thinking better of it, he gathers his stuff once more and heads back into the city for a quick shopping trip.

  Half an hour later, when he returns to the beach once more, he’s carrying a big, reinforced beach umbrella. It’s not the easiest work to actually drive its large foot into the sand deep enough to stop the wind from stealing his new acquisition, eventually forcing him to release Croagunk early, as the fighting-type’s combination of raw strength and manual dexterity makes him the best candidate to help.

  After that, it’s easy enough work to ensure that his beach umbrella creates a large patch of shadow in the middle of the beach, the crashing waves only some sixty feet away. When a large gust of wind merely manages to make the material flutter slightly, the structure in its entirety not moving in the least, Ran offers Croagunk a satisfied smile, before releasing the rest of the team.

  He lets them out directly under the sun’s bright light, knowing that even with the size of the beach umbrella, there isn’t enough room there for all of them to fit. Especially not if Ran himself wants to keep his beach towel even remotely free of sand.

  As they come out of their pokéballs, the different reactions are amusing to say the least. Caesar and Skorupi visibly perk up under the hot sun, curiously looking around, whereas Aria and Golbat can’t get to the shade provided by the beach umbrella fast enough.

  Once he’s out of the direct sunlight, Golbat is actually thoughtful enough to be slightly tentative as he tests whether the beach umbrella’s struts can support him. To Ran’s pleasant surprise, the salesperson he talked to proves to have been honest, as the beach umbrella does in fact easily bear Golbat’s weight without budging. As for Aria, she scuttles around for a moment, before coming to a halt.

  Ran watches her for a moment, but when Aria does little more than glance around between the umbrella and the rest of the team, he puts her out of mind for the moment, as he instead turns his attention to the rest of the team, which still lingers in the sun.

  Croagunk is seemingly perfectly content to just stand around and observe the surfers in the water, not paying any real attention to Ran or the rest of the team. The same can’t be said for Caesar and Skorupi, however, as both enthusiastically start to try and burrow down into the sand. It’s an endeavor Skorupi sees a lot more success in than Caesar, as whilst both are successful in digging down, Skorupi’s smaller body ensures that he manages to fit fully within the dry sand, whilst Caesar digs down too deep, at which point his hole starts filling up with water.

  It’s an amusing sight to see the massive Arbok shooting an envious look at the little Skorupi, who manages to exude smugness from his own burrow. It’s an impressive feat, considering the fact that only his eyes are really left visible, the rest of him obscured by the sand he’s hidden himself under. Clearly unwilling to give up just yet, Caesar’s second attempt is admittedly inspired, as rather than dig down again, he instead uses his tail to start ‘brushing’ together a large mound of dry sand.

  Ran is curious to see whether his starter’s plan will succeed, but he’s distracted by chittering behind him. Looking back towards the beach umbrella, he’s met with a surprise as Aria has finally burst into motion.

  She’s actually crawled on top of the umbrella, a large and dense thread of her string having been fired towards the sand to the west. Unfortunately for her, the loose sand doesn’t exactly make for a solid attachment point, leaving what appears to be an intended frame thread to dangle uselessly from the top of the umbrella. It’s only as Ran looks towards Aria once more that he realizes that her chittering is directed at him.

  After a moment’s hesitation, he realizes that he’s being tasked with providing her thread with a better, more solid attachment point.

  Fortunately, he has just the thing, as he digs around in his backpack for a minute to come up with three large tent pegs. Calling out to Croagunk to come and assist for a moment is quick work, at which point Aria starts directly directing the newest team member.

  Soon enough, the tent pegs are hammered into the ground to her satisfaction, at which point she starts working on what can only be a web intended to significantly increase the amount of available shade for Ran and his team.

  Using the umbrella as an elevated attachment point, fires off a total of three large frame threads, after which she starts skittering up and down the threads as she starts working on a tight net of string threads. She clearly isn’t aiming for full cover, but Ran is quite confident that when she finishes, the effect will be quite similar to resting under a tree’s foliage. He honestly thinks the end result might end up being preferable to the total cover provided by the beach umbrella.

  Still, Aria clearly has a fair bit of work ahead of her, so he turns his attention back to the rest of the team once more.

  Caesar has actually succeeded in creating a large mound of dry sand, which he’s now carefully slithered into, ensuring that his, surely unbearably warm, resting place is entirely dry. Skorupi is seemingly perfectly content in his own burrow, whilst Golbat likewise shows no intention whatsoever of moving from his own perch.

  With Aria hard at work on her extension to the umbrella, that leaves Croagunk, who looks around at the others for a moment, before turning his attention to Ran curiously. He lets out a low and long croak, gesturing out towards the sea curiously.

  “Do you want to go for a swim, Croagunk?” Ran asks kindly, not sure just what his new team member wants and not quite able to read his body language to the same degree that he’s capable of doing with the others.

  Croagunk shakes his head no, before pointing at Ran himself.

  “Me? I was planning to catch up on the news first, so the water can warm up for a bit longer.” Ran responds, only to be left with a small but amused smile when Croagunk nods acceptingly, before wandering towards the shade provided by the umbrella, where he plants himself down right next to Ran’s beach towel.

  After another moment to look over the rest of the team, to make sure that they’re all happy with their current situations. The trio of resting pokémon clearly are, as they’re all already dozing or on their way to dozing. As for Aria, she’s started rhythmically clicking her mandibles together again whilst she works, leaving him confident that she’s enjoying herself tremendously.

  Confident that they’re all happy as can be, Ran wanders over to his beach towel, where he swiftly brings out the day’s newspaper, before settling down next to Croagunk, who seems content to croak placidly at his trainer.

  Ran starts to read, only to be interrupted after a few seconds by a slightly louder croak from Croagunk. Glancing towards his new team member in surprise, when Croagunk gives no further indication as to just what he wants, Ran brings the paper up and tries to start reading once more.

  Before he can even properly get back to where he’d gotten, another, louder, more insistent croak breaks him out of his concentration once more.

  “What’s the problem?” He asks, lowering his newspaper once more as he meets Croagunk’s eyes, only for the poison-fighting-type to point at the newspaper insistently.

  You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

  It still takes Ran a few seconds to realize just what Croagunk wants from him but, eventually, the pokédollar drops.

  “You want me to read it to you?” He asks in surprise, not quite believing that he’s interpreting Croagunk’s behavior correctly. But the pleased nod he receives in turn makes it very clear that that is, in fact, what Croagunk wants.

  Seeing no real reason to object, Ran brings his paper up once more, but this time, he starts fresh. Clearing his throat, for a moment, he does his best to start reading out loud in a pleasant way.

  “Following increased criminal activity in Celadon City, the police and Pokémon League have issued a joint statement promising an increased presence of both police officers and Ace Trainers. This measure, which has been a long time coming, was first hinted at-” Ran starts to read, with Croagunk listening along attentively.

  Above and slightly behind him, Aria continues to ‘sing’ merrily as she works, whilst the rest of the team dozes off lightly. Ahead of them, the waves continue to crash into the sands, whilst the strong winds remain, preventing the slowly increasing heat of the day from becoming truly oppressive, even as more and more people gradually make their way to the beach and into the water.

  The next hour passes pleasantly like that, until Ran has read every interesting article the paper has to offer. He considers the puzzle section for a minute, but then decides against it, instead feeling the need to get up and do something already.

  Behind him, Aria has been finished with her massive web for the past fifteen minutes, as she now hangs off of its underside. It doesn’t fully block out the sun, with small holes still letting through maybe a third of the sun’s rays, but thanks to the breeze that ensures that the web is near-constantly rocking in place slightly, the overall effect is still quite pleasant. The rest of the team is still resting in the same places they assumed an hour ago, but as Ran glances around, he feels increasingly energized.

  When he closes his newspaper decisively, Croagunk, who’s been listening along attentively the whole time, still noticeably perks up.

  “Right, let’s go and do something fun already!” Ran declares decisively, drawing an enthusiastic croak from the Toxic Mouth pokémon.

  The rest of the team is nowhere near as eager, seemingly content to continue to bask and lounge around, but Ran isn’t dissuaded. It’s quick work to ensure that he’s got a fresh coat of sunscreen, before he glances around at the rest of the team. Barring Croagunk, the others are still not getting around to moving just yet, which is why rather than go for a swim just yet, he opts for a form of entertainment most of his team isn’t all that well-suited to.

  Digging around in his bag until he comes up with the rubber beach ball he also bought earlier, he’s gratified to see Croagunk perk up in clear interest. As the only one of his team with a body that’s really suited to playing with a ball, Ran is more than happy to lightly toss the ball towards Croagunk, before starting to move backwards, gradually increasing the distance between them.

  Croagunk’s first throw, whether due to the shape of his hands or unfamiliarity with a throwing motion, is wildly off target, forcing Ran to go and pick the ball up on the edge of the water. Still, with just a few practice throws, soon enough they’re throwing it back and forth easily enough, at which point Ran gradually draws Croagunk into the shallows.

  They can’t just claim a whole strip of the shallow water without taking the other beachgoers into account, but they still get plenty of room to throw the ball around comfortably enough. It isn’t the most exerting or exciting way to pass the time, but it’s enjoyable enough and Ran at least learns a few things about Croagunk.

  Because his new team member, though his expression remains remarkably placid no matter what he’s doing, has a significant breadth of different croaks at his disposal. The one Ran rapidly becomes familiar with, is the agitated apologetic one Croagunk releases whenever one of his throws is even remotely challenging to catch. Outwardly, Croagunk doesn’t show much expression, but the combination of his croaks and the faintest notes of tension in his posture whenever he throws a suboptimal ball is actually quite interesting to Ran.

  He doesn’t vocalize his discovery just yet, not wanting to put Croagunk on the spot just yet, especially with how new their relationship is. But if Croagunk doesn’t ease up on himself somewhat over the next few days, he might have to address it directly. For now however, he isn’t sure yet whether Croagunk is just unduly hard on himself, or whether he’s temporarily insecure about his position or value to his new trainer.

  So he simply focuses on the more positive of his discoveries, which is that Croagunk is supremely observant. Or at least when it comes to movements and physical techniques. Whether that will hold true for other things is something he’ll again need more time for, but for now, Croagunk’s ability to pick up on minor technical tricks is astounding.

  It starts with the simple act of throwing a ball, with Croagunk’s grip and throwing motion rapidly improving over just a few minutes, until after just a handful of minutes, his first few misses are distant memories. By that point, not only can Croagunk get the ball to him reliably, but he can do so on a tight line, in a lob, or skipping across the water. The next step is adding spin, which he picks up from just a single instance of Ran deciding to put some backspin on his throw in a spur of the moment decision.

  Maybe it’s not an overall observantness and instead merely something that comes with Croagunk’s fighting-typing, but even then Ran can’t help but be impressed by the speed with which his new teammate picks things up.

  Still, there’s only so much to be gleaned from throwing a ball around and so, eventually, he calls a halt to their game. Instead, he informs Croagunk that it’s time to rouse the rest of the team, which is easily accepted. Croagunk starts to play with the ball by himself, giving Ran an opportunity to go and take a look at the rest of his team.

  They’re all still where he left them, but with the sun out in full force and all of them having had plenty of time to nap already, he’s quite willing to get them moving. Aria is exempt for now, as she at least spent some time building her web. But the others have no such excuses, which is why he wakes them up decisively.

  “Caesar, Skorupi, Golbat! Up and at ‘em!” He calls out loudly, not paying any attention to the few curious looks he draws from other vaguely nearby beachgoers.

  The reactions he gets are varied, as Caesar blearily wakes up, before slithering out of his mound of sand easily and coiling up before looking at Ran curiously. Skorupi actually bursts out of his burrow at speed, seemingly not having been asleep as he enthusiastically scrambles towards Ran, only to think better of climbing up his trainer’s bare back and instead contenting himself with using Caesar’s coils as a jungle gym.

  His starter allows as much, which is a lot nicer of him than the reaction Golbat gives Ran, as the large flying-type angrily rustles his wings before crossing them in front of his body once more, clearly hoping to be left to his nap.

  Ran isn’t so easily dissuaded however, instead heading directly for his bag and fishing out the bottle of sunscreen he got specifically for Golbat.

  “Come on Golbat, you can’t just sleep the day away. I specifically got this stuff for you, just let me put it on and I promise that the sun won’t bother you once it’s soaked in a bit, alright?” Ran cajoles his teammate, who still hangs from the beach umbrella’s struts, actually putting them roughly face-to-face.

  A single, baleful eye peeks out from behind Golbat’s large wings, making it very clear just how he feels about Ran’s suggestion, but then the whole umbrella vibrates for a few seconds, as Aria wanders over from her own resting spot on the bottom of her web. Once she’s close to Golbat, she chidingly chitters something, at which point a begrudging Golbat finally opens his wings.

  The glare he shoots Ran makes it very clear that he’s expected to get on with it already, which Ran is more than happy to do. In just a few minutes, Golbat is covered in sunscreen, to Aria’s evident delight.

  Ran shoots her a conspiratorial wink, before finally directing his attention to the team at large.

  “To the water!” Ran declares loudly, before breaking into a sprint and charging that way ahead of the rest of his team.

  Behind him, there’s a brief ruckus, as his team follows their ingrained habit of sticking with their trainer by chasing after him, rather than actually considering whether they want to get wet. By the time logical thought overcomes ingrained habit, he’s lured everyone but Golbat into the shallows, as the flying-type is still waiting for his sunscreen to properly soak into his vulnerable skin.

  Before anybody can break ranks and flee back to the beach, Ran speaks up, “Alright guys! Options! You can come and swim with me, stay here in the shallows, or work on building a sandcastle! No more sleeping until you’ve actually done something fun first.”

  It’s interesting to observe the team’s varied reactions, as Croagunk just sits himself down right on the spot, sinking down into the water so that only his head is still properly above the water. Beneath the water, Ran can see him scooping through the wet sand merrily, clearly enjoying the feel against his fingers.

  Aria and Skorupi head back out of the water, where they obligingly start working on a sandcastle. It’s an interesting sight with neither of them actually having arms or hands, but between Skorupi’s tail and Aria’s legs, they start making a solid go at it nevertheless. Finally, Caesar hesitates for a moment, before using his hood to float out into the deeper water, the sea clearly warm enough for his tastes.

  Ran is more than happy to join his starter for a moment, before he turns his attention to Golbat, who finally departs the beach umbrella’s protection. As the naturally nocturnal loner’s wings flare open, finally allowing the harsh sun to hit him directly, Ran can tell precisely when Golbat feels the difference the sunscreen makes, as his large mouth opens into a pleased smile.

  With a sharp whistle, Ran calls Golbat’s attention to him, the large flying-type easily winging over to his trainer in response. Ran happily keeps himself afloat by abusing Caesar’s remarkably buoyant hood, until Golbat is within comfortable speaking distance.

  “I know we’re not going to be doing any real flights together just yet, Golbat,” Ran starts to say, “But I think it’d be a lot of fun if you could lift me up out of the water so that I can drop back in! Let me do some dives and flips!”

  Golbat seems pensive for a whole second, before he lets out an enthusiastic cry of affirmation. He descends slightly, once more offering his feet for Ran to grab on to.

  This time however, Ran is a lot more relaxed about things, his grip on Golbat’s feet a lot less nervous than on their previous attempts. Golbat, fully rested and clearly knowing what to expect, still has to work hard to get them ascending, but he manages it well enough.

  After a few seconds, Ran looks down at the water below, realizing that Golbat, whose wingbeats grow increasingly labored, has given him a great height to drop down from.

  With an enthusiastic smile, Ran calls out to Caesar, who still floats roughly underneath them.

  “Bombs away!”

  Then he drops down into the waves with an only mildly terrified but definitely excited shout.