Work Text:
City management sucks quite a lot sometimes. Doubly so when every sunset, 3 random sections of the city are cordoned off for a damn free-for-all that doesn’t end until the sun rises the next morning.
Granted, Nick doesn’t absolutely HATE his job. He loves this city, faults and all. But when some of the strongest trainers in the region, let alone the city, are setting off localized earthquakes and firing hydro pumps strong enough to leave craters in walls? It definitely starts to wear him down a lot faster than it did a few months ago, before the tower went insane. When he only had to worry about one Battle Zone per night.
Thankfully, City Hall definitely saw fit to hire a few extra hands to help out with the cleanup each night. Even those idiots knew full well that with triple the battle zones comes triple the work each night. A shame they didn’t just say NO for once in their lives to Quasartico when the prospect of 3 Battle Zones per night first came up. Aren’t they supposed to be in charge of the place, and not a doormat for this tourist megacorporation?
No, no… get those thoughts out of your head, Nick. You’re better than that.
Even with the extra help, however, the work still managed to get worse. Why?
Because for some Arceus forsaken reason, the move EXPLOSION had suddenly spiked in popularity. And on Garbodor, no less.
Now, Nick loves a good battle. Before work started to pile up each night, he had gone out a few nights to fight in the Z-A Royale. He actually didn’t do too badly until those MZ kids popped up and clean swept the entire competition each night. While they definitely hadn’t been around as much, with 3 zones spreading their rampages thin when they do happen, the thrill just wasn’t there anymore. Especially with how busy they kept him. Thankfully, from what he’s heard, the Savior of Lumiose personally hadn’t taken to turning his team into bombs. But that weird Floette he’s seen a few times before still leaves a swathe of carnage in her wake. Dead plants and ripped up bricks aren’t a fun job.
And that’s not including all the craters from these damn explosions. Why is this move so popular now, anyway!? The Z-A Royale is as far as one could POSSIBLY get from a nice, organized Doubles match where it would actually have a meaningful impact! Half the time, a Pokemon is only on the field for half a minute at MOST before they’re on the way back to their ball! Why speed that up!? Why risk your OWN Pokemon’s health for basically no return!?
Those spiraling thoughts were what caused Nick’s most recent rage induced break during cleanup the next morning. Even after working for 2 and a half hours straight, he had barely cleaned up ANY of the mess from last night.
And naturally, it had to be the Battle Zone that he cuts through to get to work on time.
Damn those MZ kids and their wish to Distortion and back.