Kamish gives Aurora a betrayed look as he floats inside the cruiser, taking his seat next to Sol.
Aurora hops onto the front seat, the one next to the driver's seat, and pretends she did nothing wrong.
She nods with conviction, her and Sol were just trying to help Kamish, if they didn't do what they did, would he be able to learn the move he did? So instead of being angry, he should be thanking the two of them.
"And we are ready to leave this place." Lazarus says as he puts the last of their stuff inside the trunk of the cruiser, "I still can't believe Kamish learnt a new move without even training for it. Guess unconventional means do work wonders sometimes. Maybe you should all drink a cup of coffee every day."
Aurora rapidly shakes her head and tries not to grimace, she can think of ten things she would rather drink than that bitter substance. She has to convince her trainer not to make them drink it, in fact, he shouldn't be partaking in it either. She worries it could be harmful to his health.
Kamish gives Aurora and Sol the side eye as he tries to hatch a revenge plot against them.
Eidolon looks out of the windows, not willing to miss any detail. He wants to see the world as it really is. Lazarus's stories are amazing, vivid even, but that's not enough, merely hearing about something is not enough. He has to see it with his own eyes, touch it, listen to the sound it creates, and only then will he be satisfied, only then will he truly know.
The cruiser takes off from the spot that's been serving as their home for the last few days, in search of a new temporary home and all the adventures that come their way.
Lush green grass, puffy white clouds, the sound of birds, and herbivores grazing upon the local offering.
A herd of Taruroses scatter and make way for the cruiser to pass through, they complain by mooing and stomping their hooves into the ground.
Some of the bull pokemon consider chasing after the vehicle but ultimately decide it's not worth the energy they will have to spend. Soon the cruiser passes, and they go back to munching on the grass, the taste of which is particularly sweet today.
The cruiser autodrives itself through the rolling hills as Lazarus looks through a list of pokemon nearby.
Drones are flying above and besides the cruiser in a formation that project back footage that gives Lazarus the full view of everything within a few kilometers.
The footage is sent to his visors or any screen he wishes to project it to, a pokemon identification algorithm categories the pokemon around, sorts them by threat level, type and a few other variables. It also calculates the distance between them and the pokemon, so they get a rough estimate of how soon they can reach the pokemon and vice versa.
Lazarus hands Sol a tablet. "Guys, look through the videos, and if you see a pokemon you don't like the look of, let me know so we can fight it. Learning to adapt better means you guys need to fight pokemon you don't know anything about. But at the same time, be mindful of what our capabilities are, don't try to bite off more than you can chew. Okay?"
Aurora is the first one to nod as she jumps into the back seat. There are many pokemon she thinks are ugly, and she wouldn't mind beating up a few of them, maybe they'll look better after, and even if they don't, it's their fault for being hard to look at.
Kamish decides to finalize the finishing touches on his revenge plot later, right now, he needs to fight some moderately strong pokemon.
Sol holds the tablet in his hands, as the rest peek from the side.
The tablet shows footage of every the pokemon the drone spots, Sol and the others can see exactly what each pokemon is doing, some of the pokemon are alone, most are in groups.
A few minutes have passed, and no decision has been made.
"Did you choose anyone?" Lazarus asks.
Sol shakes his head, all four of them want to fight different pokemon.
Aurora wants them to fight a pokemon that has a big mushroom head with white spots. She is adamant that this pokemon is the ugliest of the bunch and should be beaten up.
Kamish thinks the mushroom pokemon is weak and instead they should fight the four pokemon that are mock fighting against each other, just like they were.
Eidolon argues that they should predict what abilities a pokemon might have based on its appearance and choose a pokemon the four of them will collectively be strong against, but his opinion has been completely ignored by the other three.
Sol doesn't really have a strong opinion on who they should fight, he is just having fun scrolling through the feed.
"If you can't decide, then just we fight them all one by one, so you all get a pick."
That is an acceptable solution to all of them.
"We'll go with Kamish's pick first. Let me see." Lazarus takes back the tablet and confirms with Kamish the pokemon he has chosen for them to fight.
Four bipedal pokemon covered with shaggy brown fur, two of them have a pair of horns extending out to the sides of their head, the other two are bigger with horns that curve towards the back.
"Okay, two Skiddo and two Gogoat, that is very doable for you."
The cruiser's dashboard screen shows a live map with the constantly changing position of their cruiser and the pokemon they are supposed to fight.
"We will reach them in five minutes. Which one of you wants to create the strategy for the fight?"
Aurora jumps at the chance and doesn't let anyone else raise any objections to her planning the strategy.
"They are all pure grass pokemon. Good luck."
Four and a half minutes later, the cruiser stops a hundred meters away from the target, so as not to spook them.
Kamish flies out of the window and sneakily approaches them, with Sol following behind.
Eidolon flies out next and levitates Aurora out of the car and into the air.
Aurora telepathically tells Eidolon which direction and speed to levitate her at. So the experience of flying feels very hands-on.
The two Skiddo ram their horns against each other as the Gogoats watch.
One of the Skiddos manages to overpower the other one and pushes it to the ground and then waits for it to get back up, and as it gets back up they clash against.
This is how Gogoats train their young Skiddos in the wild, by having them ram their horns against anything they can find.
As one of the Skiddos stands on its hind legs to add more force into the ramming motion, it sees a monkey pokemon with a flaming tail coming towards them, so it bleats and warns the rest of the family of the possible threat.
Both the Skiddos stop their sparring and stand ready to fight at the order of their parents.
The Gogoats come to take up an attacking position, with both the Skiddo behind them, ready to defend their young if provoked.
As the fire pokemon approaches, they see a few shards of ice fly towards them from somewhere. The Gogoats use their big horns to shatter them and then look towards the sky.
They see a beautiful white fox pokemon flying in the sky, as if swimming through the air, everything they known about pokemon says that a pokemon like that shouldn't be capable of flying, but they don't have time to ponder on that particular detail right now.
Both the Gogoats put their energy into creating sharp leaves and then unleash them upon Aurora.
One of the Gogoats bleats, and the two Skiddo run to intercept Sol.
Eidolon sees the dozens of sharp incoming leaf blades and quickly moves Aurora out of their way.
Both the Skiddo sprint towards Sol to tackle him hard at their top speed.
But when they reach him Sol uses his flame jet to rocket into the air.
Skiddo's being grass pokemon want nothing to do with fire, so they run back towards their parents, only for Sol to descend right on top of one of their backs.
The Skiddo jumps around, trying to throw Sol off its back as the other one prepares leaf blades.
Kamish makes his presence known when he tackles the Skiddo that was trying to make the leaf blades. He wanted to play a prank on the big ones first, but the others just went ahead and attacked them, so he has no choice but to fight whichever pokemon is free.
The tackled Skiddo is surprised by the flying pokemon that came out of nowhere.
The Gogoats see their children struggling against the two pokemon so one of them runs to help them as the other one fights against Aurora and Eidolon alone.
That one counters Aurora's ice with long and thick vines used as a whip. Whenever Aurora makes something out of ice, the Gogoat uses the vines to hit hard against the ice to shatter it, and then tries to grab Aurora with the same vines, but the ice pokemon always manages to get away.
Eidolon is pretty much immune to any damage the leaves or the vines could cause him, so he just stays floating in one place and focus solely on making Aurora fly properly.
The other Gogoat reaches its children and makes its vines latch onto Sol, who is still sitting on top of the Skiddo with his hands grabbing its horns.
Sol generates flames around his body to burn the vines before they can throw him away.
Kamish is slapping the other Skiddo around with his tail, though not at full power. And when the Skiddo tries to retaliate with a tackle, Kamish just phases through it.
On the other side, Aurora uses ice beam to freeze all the vines, which shatter as the Gogoat tries to make them move.
Soon the Gogoats and Skiddo all realize that they have no way to resist these attackers.
The bigger of the Gogoats, the one fighting Aurora, gets on his hind legs and bleats in a loud voice and runs to where the other Gogoat and Skiddos are, who all heard it and know what to do.
When the Gogoat reaches the rest, they all start running away from the Kamish and others.
'Let them go. They have decided to run away. Chasing after them serves us no benefit.' Lazarus speaks to all of them telepathically.
Sol jumps away from the Skiddos back, and they all watch as the family of grass pokémon runs away.