“Thank you?” I replied instinctively, burying my skeletal arm in the sand and returning to my normal Pokemon form.

  The feeling was a bit strange, like putting on your pajamas after coming home from a long day at work. It was nice. All my training hadn't tired me, at least not physically, but perhaps I had overestimated my mental endurance.

  I had to make sure I didn't overuse my mind so much in the future, although that didn't seem very complicated.

  “It wasn’t a compliment,” Mr. Krabs said with a ugh, cutting through my thoughts. “What are you doing with your skeleton? It looked absolutely terrifying.”

  “Oh, that? I was just trying something… Oh, right! Thank you so much for sharing your infinite wisdom with me, Mr. Krabs!” I excimed, doing my best imitation of a reverence. “Following the advices that you gave me yesterday, I seriously thought st night about what I could do to fulfill my dream of traveling the world…”

  After that, I began to expin the solution I had found and all the training I had done. As my narration continued, the curious Corphish who had approached after overcoming their initial fear again backed away scared, for some reason, although I could detect a hint of respect and admiration in the aura of some of them.

  “Big brother, are you sure she’s not crazy?” asked the second rgest Corphish in the… pack? colony? brotherhood? “Every thing she says sounds worse than the st. I agree that she doesn’t seem like much of a threat, but I don’t know if we can trust her.”

  “Shut up, Pincitas! I’m perfectly sane, thank you very much” I said, crossing my sandy arms as best I could to show my indignation.

  “Pincitas? Is that even a word?” the overgrown lobster could only reply, blinking in confusion at his older brother.

  “She likes to give everyone nicknames, you'll get used to it” Mr. Krabs told, patting him on the back with his cws.

  “Pfff, Pincitas… HAHAHA” squawked the Wingull, the one who wasn’t seem embarrassed. “Just with that I already like you… Sandy?”

  “In shovel and sand,” I replied, waving at the bird that nded in the middle of the conversation. “I’m gd to see someone on this beach appreciates my jokes.”

  “Don't even mention it. It's very hard to find good humor these days from these uncivilized, wild Pokemon.” The seagull shook his wing, pointing at all the Corphish with an air of unquestionable seriousness.

  After a few moments of silence, we both started ughing like a couple of drunks in a bar, much to the confusion of the crustaceans. It seemed that this was a Wingull of culture, we would get along.

  “Ha, ha, very funny,” Mr. Krabs interrupted, hiding his own smile as best he could. “At least that saves me some of the introductions. Sandy, this Wingull is the representative of his flock, sent by their leader Pelipper to ‘attest to the danger you represent’ and ‘proceed with negotiations if deemed necessary’.”

  “Bah, nonsense,” croaked the old seagull. “That’s just the excuse I’ve given Big Peak to see with my own eyes a future Beach Nightmare… Or should I say Palossand? Though you may not become one after all.”

  “What do you mean?” Pincitas asked, having recovered from my initial shock. “Pokemon can only follow their evolutionary line, right? If she keeps training as hard as she described, it’s inevitable that she’ll one day become a Beach Nightmare.”

  “Normally I would agree with you, young Corphish, but I have seen some very strange things in my life,” replied the Wingull, assuming the curious tone of an old sailor hardened by countless voyages. “I'll never forget that archipego I visited a few years ago… Raichu riding the waves as if it were Water-type, Muk in bright and varied colors, looking like a liquid rainbow, Exeggutor standing over 10 meters tall radiating a draconic presence…

  “At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if Sandy evolves into something very different from the typical sand castle of her kind.”

  “That's true, I had completely forgotten about the existence of regional forms…” I muttered to myself.

  “Regional forms? Is that what those Pokemon were?” the Wingull asked, intrigued by the new term.

  “Yes. Some Pokemon, when they grow up in environments very different from those they are used to, develop some unique characteristics over the generations that separate them from their original counterparts,” I began to expin, surprising some of those present with my vast knowledge taken from WikiDex. “I'm sure the archipego you visited was Alo, right? If you'd explored a little further, I'm sure you would have seen some white-ice Vulpix and Dugtrio with golden manes, too.”

  “Now that you mention it, I think I’ve seen a few of the tter, though I thought they were just wearing wigs,” the bird added. “They looked di-vine.”

  “Right? That hair looks amazing on them, and when you find out it's actually steel fiments, it only gets better…”

  “I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation, but I think we should start discussing why we're here.” Pincitas cut in, not at all sorry about ruining the mood.

  “Why the rush, brother?” asked Mr. Krabs, who until then had been content to watch from his spot. “Let them have fun, we have all day to talk about it… Or at least until Sandy gets hungry,” he added at the end with a smile.

  He couldn't have said it at a better time. I was pretty sure I had no guts, but the roar that came from my sand was hard to ignore. Everyone seemed to agree with me, as the incredulous look they gave was priceless.

  “Now that you mention it, I’m a little hungry. Did you guys bring any berries or anything?” I asked, not at all embarrassed.

  “Sure, here,” said the eldest crustacean, suppressing his ughter and tossing me some blue berries.

  The oran berries, except for their color and slightly smaller size, were very simir to the tangerines. Almost identical, in fact, as if a certain four-legged God had been inspired by my old world to create his own… or just the opposite. The doubt about which came first was always there.

  Back to berries, the aura they radiated belied any comparison I could make with a normal fruit, being, to my ‘eyes’, more alive than most of the Corphish in front of me. They even seemed more alive than me, although that wasn't too difficult, to be honest.

  Without hesitation, I threw one into the gap that was my mouth and chewed, amazed at how absolutely delicious this magical fruit was. An explosion of multi-fvored citrus juices flooded my taste buds (?), completely replenishing my energy and relieving almost all of my mental fatigue with just a few bites.

  Looking at the remaining pair of berries, I wondered if I should save them for ter. On the one hand, I could use their energy to expand my reserve, but on the other, just one had been enough to satisfy me, and they would be a great help in replenishing me after my training seasons.

  After some thought and a quick gnce at Mr. Krabs, I shrugged, grabbed both berries with my misshapen appendages, and popped them into my mouth at the same time. The ensuing burst of energy stunned me for a moment, but I managed to channel it into my well properly.

  I'm pretty sure I leveled up, whatever that means in this world, just by eating some berries.

  “Well, looks like someone's a bit of a glutton, huh?” the rgest crustacean ughed. “I'm gd to see you can eat berries, but no one was going to take them away from you, Sandy. We've got plenty more where those came from.”

  “I still don't see why we should give them to her, though…” the second rgest crustacean muttered. “We gain nothing by doing this. If the problem is that she can absorb our life energy, avoiding her range of effect is enough. Helping her doesn’t benefit us, it only harms us by wasting resources on a danger that we can solve by simply evading it.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong, little brother,” Mr. Krabs replied. “Since when is helping a Pokemon on our side of the beach considered a ‘waste of resources’? Besides, as a former human, she can teach us many things, and she can protect our territory until she leaves, all for a few berries. I only see benefits in establish a good retion from the start.”

  “And here we go again…” said Pincitas, rolling his eyes. “Brother, there's no way she was a human; ghost-type Pokemon don't work like that. They're born from resentment and negative emotions, they're not ordinary spirits. In fact, some of them feed on spirits.”

  “So, you think she lied to me?” the big crustacean asked, arching an eyebrow at his younger brother.

  “No, you have great intuition when it comes to such things. However, there is a much simpler expnation; she is crazy,” he stated, pointing at me with his cw without even looking at me.

  “Wow, those are some big accusations. Remember that she beat me in battle. Do you think some wild, crazy Pokemon could beat me?” Mr. Krabs asked again, somewhat irritated.

  “…Maybe,” said Pincitas, in a defiant tone.

  While this was going on, Wingull and I watched from a corner, enjoying the show and eating imaginary popcorn, until we shared a gnce and decided to join the party.

  “Hohoho, what do I see there? Pincitas doubting his older brother?” the bird and I said at the same time, surprising ourselves a little at how synchronized we were.

  “You two shut up, this doesn't concern you,” he replied, increasingly offended by the nickname I had imposed on him.

  “That’s where you’re wrong, Pincitas,” I prompted, prodding him a little more. “You’ve been insulting and belittling me for as long as we’ve known each other, and now this doesn’t concern me?”

  “Indeed. What are you going to do about it, you little parasite?” he spat, puffing up a little in an attempt to intimidate me.

  Mr. Krabs looked like he wanted to interfere, but the old Wingull gave him a gaze and the crustacean gave up, shaking his head. Ha, just as I expected. The seagull had immediately caught on to my pn, now I just needed this little jerk to take the bait.

  “That’s simple, dummy. I challenge you to a fight!” I excimed, pointing at him with my sandy appendage, the third generation wild battle music starting to py in my mind.

  “I refuse,” said the crustacean. “What’s the point of fighting someone who defeated my older brother? I should be—”

  “I see, a master at talking trash without the strength to back it up.” I cut off, stopping him from spewing any more garbage. “You insult me, you belittle me, you defy me, and you back down at the slightest thing? Pathetic. No wonder you're the eternal second fiddle.”

  “What did you say?” he asked, turning even redder than his kind already was.

  “That you are pa-the-tic, Pincitas.”

  Before I could finish speaking, the lobster had already lunged at me, being even faster than his older brother. Dark energy swirled in his cw, fueled by anger, smming it into my head in a powerful, super-effective blow.

  I was pretty sure that would have hurt… if I hadn't been Harden up since I joined into the conversation.

  “Not as bad as I expected… But it's not enough,” I stated, unfazed by the cw half lodged in my face.

  While this was happening, the rest of Corphish gathered in a circle around us. Most of them were cheering for their brother, naturally, but a few were watching our fight with interest. I noticed that those were the ones who had shown respect and admiration as I told them about my night training.

  Interesting…

  Looking away from the spectator gallery, I turned my attention back to the battle and unleashed my Mega Drain, which was just a couple of training sessions away from becoming Giga Drain. Pincitas, not seeming to notice the drain on his energy, continued to attack with a series of quick and powerful blows infused with a sinister aura, despite the futility of his attacks.

  His cws were able to pierce through my hardened sand, but it recomposed even faster than I lost it, leaving me, for all practical purposes, unharmed. If he had taken distance it wouldn't have helped much either, as I would have forced him to come closer with a sand tomb, just like I did with Mr. Krabs.

  However, the fact that he didn't even try said a lot, leaving me sighing inside.

  From there, the battle became a mere formality. Pincitas attacked, I hardened the area he was going to hit and I continued absorbing his energy, little by little but without pause. The fight sted a couple of minutes, but the crustacean inevitably fell first.

  By the end, the rest of Corphish had stopped cheering him and just looked with pity, as if they saw their second oldest brother with anger and self-esteem issues punching a wall. And he seemed to be the smart one in the family… I guess appearances are always deceiving.

  The way I fought, though disgusting, was the best I could think of, but that didn't stop it from leaving a bitter taste in my mouth. The difference between this fight and the one I had with Mr. Krabs was like night and day. Sure, ‘technically’ Pincitas had held out longer, but he couldn’t compare in wit to what his older brother had shown.

  This battle, if it could be called that, had been more simir to a child having a tantrum than the epic fight full of unexpected moves from yesterday. My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined.

  After watching the lobster writhing in the sand for a while, I said, “Well, that was a thing. Who's hungry?”