I've started a new story, and I hope you'll enjoy it :)
Sorry if the first chapter is a bit depressing, it will lighten up later :) And I know it's a bit short - can't do anything about that, but maybe the next chapters will be just a bit longer.
I want to thank my amazing beta Reppad98 for saying yes to proofread this, and already giving me great advice, since I am blind for this story now, not able to see for myself what works and what is not good. So thank you, you're amazing!
Note: For those who are interested, at the bottom of this chapter is an explanation to why such a scenario can occur in nature, why it actually is beneficial for all parties involved (even if it is sad).
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, as you already knew.
Chapter 1 – In Which She Contemplates the Color Green
She had lost the Wallace Cup. She had retained the smile, forced it upon the surface of her face as a permanent fixture, for her friends. For Dawn. Her loss was still a failure. She was the experienced one, with the clear advantages and she should have won. She was not ready to face them yet, see the disappointment, feel the pity, or Arceus forbid, resentment. The pathetic girl who lost to a newbie, no longer offering the challenge to be a worthy rival. Well...that last train of thought was probably her insecurities speaking, painting the future in black. It wouldn't be anything that bad, but she was still a pretty sad mess. Thus she found herself trudging alone through this miserable forest, deeper with every step and totally lost, of course.
With this happy contemplation to occupy her, she stumbled upon a glade. A spot of sunshine in this darkness, and it was occupied. There was a beautiful, green pokémon sleeping in the grass, perfectly comfortable, with a crown of rosy petals around the neck. May would have been sorely tempted to catch it, if not for the five babies sprawled on the forest floor. She backtracked as silently as she could possibly manage, content to watch from the shadows. Discovering a litter of wild pokémon was not an everyday occurrence.
"A new episode of May's expedition, and today we have been graced with this adorable sight. Let's consult the 'dex." Pokedex told her, with minimal volume: "Chikorita, the Leaf Pokémon. Chikorita uses the leaf on its head to scan for warmth and humidity in its surroundings, and loves to sunbathe."
The Chikorita were cuddling each other, softly nibbling each others leaves and snuggling in the grass. One of them was prone to engage in playful combat. May was impressed. It was easily the strongest of them, clearly the dominant sibling, happy and confident and so healthy. Such a beautiful green color... May wanted it badly. Her picture perfect reverie came to an end as the mother stirred. Lazily she stretched her muscles, before she began standing up and called for her babies.
"Chi?" A soft answer came from a thicket in the outskirts of the clearing, and something stirred inside. The reactions from the five Chikorita were immediate. And aggressive. The leader, top of the hierarchy, the emerald beauty of pent up talent sent a flurry of razor leaves towards the sound. The mother did nothing. A small cry of "ka" was the only response from the undergrowth. May drew a sharp intake of breath, and was too late to stifle the sound, alerting the pokémon to her presence. The mother decided to move, and her litter followed to the other side of the meadow. From the bushes emerged a sixth Chikorita, with shaky steps and a shivering form, even in the heat of the day. It was weak, and sick, and everything a baby pokémon should not be. But this was nature, in which a parent protected the strong offspring, the safe bet. In nature, siblings competed for the parents affection, to enhance the chance of survival. There was no place for an outcast in this world. The outcast was left to die. This little Chikorita, whose colors had lost the radiance of spring, would die. Its small autumn leaf hung in sadness from its head. And after autumn would come winter... Still it tried to follow its family.
May felt her eyes burn, and a heavy feeling settled somewhere inside. She stood up, started moving. She felt numb, but her legs held her. Soon she was in between the happy family and the tiny failure. She could see the panic in those eyes, because now an impossible obstacle was blocking the way to the only kind of comfort this creature knew. May could see how it wanted to cower in fear, but it could not give up: Soon the siblings would be out of sight, and already the mom was gone. Her sight became blurry as she knelt down, even as the little Chikorita thumped into her in a desperate attempt of a tackle attack, to get past her, to the supposed safety beyond. Too weak, feeble but still struggling somehow. It growled as she picked it up and placed it in her lap, wriggled and turned in her hands, shivering, desperate.
May began to hum her childhood lullaby, made her voice soft, reassuring. The struggle stopped, not because of lack of will, she suspected, but a lack of strength. The trembling of a fever continued, even as the creature slipped from consciousness. May shrugged her backpack off her shoulders, and started every treatment she knew, hoping that something would work.
She made camp in that glade, put up the tent and tucked the Chikorita nicely inside a blanket. She stayed aware for the rest of the day, with her patient in her lap and empty bottles of antidotes and potions littering the ground around them. She missed Brock badly, and Solidad's calm presence. She took short naps through the night, but checked on her patient regularly, giving it water and coaxing it to eat. Every little whimper would startle her out of her daze, and she would try again. In the early morning, the little Chikorita finally accepted some food. In the afternoon, its condition was stable. It was awake, calm and used to her presence, although still a bit cautious. By then its family was long gone.
Appendix – In Which the Author Explains why her Scenario Occurs in Nature
This is an explanation as to why the scenario above can happen in nature, for those who are interested. I recently received a review stating that my scenario was unreasonable, and since I have studied biology, I want to explain it (hopefully I don't sound defensive with this). Also, I'm of course up for a discussion on the topic :)
So, first off, both predation and competition are factors which influence natural selection. Competition occurs for a vast variety of resources, such as food, shelter, parental care and a partner. The sentral thing in this is: It does not help to survive if you can't reproduce. Fitness is measured as an individual's contribution of genes to the next generation.
Parent: A parent want to ensure either or both the quality and quantity of offspring. Some organisms have thousands of offsprings, with little investment in each, hoping that a few will survive and be successful. Others have a few, invests more heavily in each, and opts for quality. In addition, egg laying (as for pokemon) costs less than pregnancy and live birth.
Meganium has six children, and as a pokemon, she is egg laying. As such, she probably didn't invest much in each egg, but she wants a few good offsprings. The issue, in addition to survival, is reproduction. An offspring which survived but failed to reproduce has only been a burden, because the resources used for its survival could have helped the other children. For the mother, this means that although she wants as many children to survive as possible, weak and sick babies should be ignored in favor of the more promising children, unless the weak one is the only child (in which case she has no choice anymore).
Thus, a parent reacts to specific stimuli, signals from its offsprings, such as sound, smell, touch, and vision (in birds, the hatchlings signal their parents by calling and the red in their mouths when gaping. More sound and more gaping means more food). If the child for some reason are unable to signal the parent, it will recieve no parental care.
Siblings: The siblings compete for all the resources and benefits the parent can provide. An individual is 100% related to itself, but on average only 50% related to siblings. As such, if two sisters would share a cake, they would want 2/3 for themselves and 1/3 for the other. It does not want the sibling to starve, because it still has inclusive fitness through its sibling. Thus, as long as the siblings reproduce, they have a gain in fitness, even though they individually lose some resources. The sick Chikorita, on the other hand, is probably too sickly to ever get a partner, and will thus be a dead end (no inclusive fitness). Therefore it is beneficial to get rid of it, so that more resources can be distributed to the remaining siblings, helping their survival and making them more attractive (stronger, healthier etc.) in competition for a partner.
Chika herself: She has inclusive fitness from her siblings. Furthermore, she has r=1 (relatedness) with herself, and r=0,5 with her siblings. As she has five siblings, the total relatedness to them is about 0,5*5=2,5. Thus it would pay off to sacrifice herself if that saved her siblings (lose her genes of r=1, but save genes of five r=0,5 (2,5)). As her condition is severe and her chances of reproduction slim, her demise would be beneficial, as her resources would go to her siblings and increase their chances of success.
Thus all parties involved benefits from Chika's demise, either by strengthening the direct and/or inclusive fitness.
Based on this, I believe the possible benefit of predator protection is far outweighted by the direct benefit of less competition, as the sick Chikorita has no fitness value. I also would believe camouflage (they are green, after all) first, and secondly fighting (because they are pokemon), would be the strategy to evade predation, both in which numbers are less important than in a flight strategy (and they would not run very fast on those short legs).
From what I know of nature, the factors described above would result in something like the scene I described. There are many examples of siblings bullying the weaker offspring, or even killing it (in some sharks, who give birth to live young, the bigger siblings even eat the smaller ones before birth). In birds especially there are many examples of siblings being ignored or bullied until they die, because they were a little weaker from the start (I know those examples best, as several of my professors specialized in birds). The inspiration for the scene, however, came from the T. Rex episode in 'Walking with dinosaurs' – that little T. rex baby looks so sad and cute, the image kind of stuck to me.
If you have any questions, you can PM me. I'm always up for a discussion, as I said, and I would be interested in other opinions, arguments or anything I overlooked :)