It took a gentle tug to yank his foot out of the sand as he dared to keep walking. Alas, the water's beckoning was interrupted. Rather quickly, the researcher's eyes tracked the high-pitch call of what sounded like a kettle steaming up. What happened next would make no sense to Raziel.

"What in the fuck..." there it stood, seemingly out of nowhere. A Torkoal stomped toward him from across the very small island, and Raziel wondered how on Earth that Fire-type had managed to land himself here, in the middle of the ocean. Rather than stepping forward, Raziel stepped back, his soaked shoes reemerging to meet the sunkissed sand. Steam blew out of Torkoal's ears and shell, perhaps angrily. Raziel supposed that would be the emotion the Torkoal was feeling -- he was stuck on this fucking island, after all. "Zell, let's helping this guy out -- er, at least calm him down." not a single fiber of his being wanted to take this angry Torkoal anywhere, but the least he could do was tire him out.

With a flashing of light, his newly-attained Absol appeared. The white knight of a Pokemon lived up to his reputation and stood tall, a mystifying air constantly surrounding him. He certainly looked the part of badass, it was time to test how well the two meshed together in combat and "walk the walk." Zell looked over his shoulder eagerly, awaiting his first order. Raziel nodded. "Double Team." the evasive move was quickly becoming a favorite of Raziel's as he watched the copies spread around and surround the angry Torkoal. Their subtle movements matched one another perfectly -- Zell must have been good at this even before they began training together.

The Torkoal seemed stumped, its frustration elevating even further as it began to spit flames from its mouth. Bright orange flames reflected in Raziel's eyes as numerous spouts of Flamethrower roared out of the Torkoal's throat, targeting individual copies of the Absol that surrounded it. None of them moved, only disappearing at the guessing game went on for several tries. Clearly irritated, Torkoal changed tactics and unleashed a Lava Plume from its shell that spewed out in all directions around it. Running down the sand like a river, the lava raced after Zell.

It was time to act. "Bite!" All of the copies of Zell nodded before collapsing into the true version of the Absol as he leaped into the air. High above the magma, he flew like a bird as his trainer looked on and watched the Pokemon dive down onto the Torkoal's now-cool back. With quiet precision, Zell dug into the Torkoal's neck with scary precision for a moment before leaping off of its back onto unaffected sand. Torkoal let out a scream as the lava around him hardened into extrusive rock almost instantly. With the field free of hazards again, Zell leaped back into action, preventing the Torkoal from recovering from his bout of angry firing. Bite after Bite after Bite landed on the Torkoal, who could only scream as his assassin made quick work of him.

His fiery anger dripped out of him with the fresh blood of battle as the Torkoal tried to escape -- at least to put space between him and Zell and keep the close-range fighter away from him. Raziel sighed. "Pursuit." the Absol tracked down the tortoise almost instantly and landed a finishing blow. The Torkoal was completely satiated and collapsed into the sand for a nap.

"Zell...you're amazing." the researcher allowed himself to remain in awe of the Absol for just a moment before taking the adrenaline of battle with him back to the water's edge. The researcher returned him pokemon and dove into the water -- not before summoning Fanny and Nicky to make sure he made it out from above. He needed to make it to the next island just a short swim away.

It might have been damn near suicide.