Chapter 45

[Jay]

"Really, Gramps!? I can't believe you forgot about that!" Joey groans as he belittles his grandfather, much to my amusement. We're standing at the edge of Pinwheel Forest amidst the swampy areas riddled with puddles and grass, as we had forgotten to do something important amidst the chaos of today's bug attack. The team has since decided to take a nap inside the AVR, having been through no small amount of ordeals since the day had begun. As such, I am the only one standing next to the two as Joey continues to tell off his elder. "The young are now teaching the old. Oh, how the tables have turned…" I grin as I whisper into the old man's ear, Joey's grandpa smiling in reply to my witty remark.

"To be fair, my memory's not what it used to be. I am getting rather old, after all." He retorts in a joking manner, defending himself from our accusations. I smirk as Joey simply shakes his head. "Let's just let the bugs go. The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get outta this cold air. Brr!" He shivers, the chilly wind of the night biting at his exposed skin. He didn't wear any long pants like his grandfather, nor did he pack a hoodie like I did. I guess Cleo was right about him not thinking things through, eh?

But that's not important right now. What is, however, is the release of the Venipede that Joey's Grandfather had somehow forgotten. Joey's Grandpa had tried to take some of his Mareep to the nearby water troughs to drink without carrying them himself, so he decided to use his TBA to digitalize them and walk over to the troughs. However, he had forgotten the Venipede he had stored inside the device. Not only that, he had forgotten to charge the gauntlet before he had used it for the rest of the day, causing the bugs to exit stasis early due to lack of power to maintain their frozen state and roam around the digital space of the AVR. As such, he needed to release them as soon as possible, as to not have all this free space in the AVR taken up by unruly bugs. "Ready?" I ask the old man, to which he nods. "Remember, Joey. Prepare to run once the little buggers appear completely." I warn the kid, getting him to nod in reply. "Yeah, I know." Typing in the commands to make a bulk release of the Venipede, Joey's Grandfather points the exit point of the gauntlet to the ground in front of us as he presses the button to extract the Venipede from the AVR and materialize them.

As the bugs materialize out of the gauntlet and in front of us, we prepare to run out of their attacking range in case they decide that vengeance upon their captors is a suitable option. Venipede are very aggressive, after all. They always seem to be out for blood whenever they fight for territory, or when they're simply fending off other threats. However, once they fully form, they don't seem to have any intention of doing what I thought they would do. Although some of them let out a hiss or two as a warning for us to back off, they don't intentionally lash out at us. They are injured from the fighting earlier, but they should have attacked us anyway. "Why aren't they trying to hurt us?" Joey asks, truly befuddled by this strange sight. "It is quite odd. Usually, we'd be running like the wind by now." His grandpa adds, getting a nod from me. There is one Venipede that is hissing and glaring at the others as it observes them, making sure that they fall back into the group and not attack us. I guess it's the leader of the group, huh?

As soon as the last Venipede materializes, they quickly turn to leave, moving en masse like a large purple wave of scuttling and hissing. However, I notice a small bump over which the other Venipede are scuttling over, completely ignoring whatever's under their feet. At first, as Joey and his Grandfather turn to leave, I assume it to be a rock or something so I begin to follow them back to the farm. However, as soon as the swarm has fully retreated back into the forest, the moonlight gives me a more accurate look at what that bump was. It's a Venipede, a mite smaller than the average one, just lying there on the ground, barely moving. It lets out a weak hiss before laying its head down onto the ground, eyes closed as if in acceptance of its abandonment by its brethren. I see that it's paralyzed and weakened by the fight from earlier, which makes me extremely guilty to see it in pain like this. I know that Venipede are numerous and that they habitually leave the weak to die, but still…

As I look to the poor little bug, left to die by its swarm, I shake my head and turn to leave. It's the way nature's supposed to be, right? Then why does it feel so wrong to leave it like that? I clench my fist as I think about that, making up my mind. Screw it. This Venipede is not going to die. Not here, not now. I quickly kneel next to the barely conscious insect, pulling out a Potion and a Paralyze Heal from my backpack. Using my hoodie as barrier between the insect and my skin, I pick it up in order to inspect its wounds and apply the potion as needed. Spraying the Potion on the cuts and scrapes on its carapace, I sigh in relief as the cuts close and heal up. I wince once I see a claw marking on its left side, indicating that Katrina got to this one first. Once all the cuts are closed, the Venipede finally opens its eyes. "Ugh…" It groans, to which I gently pet it through my hoodie. "Hold still. You're not fully healed yet, so I'm gonna use this on you." I tell it, holding up the bottle of Paralyze Heal in my hand. It struggles weakly for a bit, and even manages to bite into my hand, leaving a hole in both my hoodie and my flesh. I hiss in pain, but I persevere.

"Hey, I'm trying to help you. Just let me do that much, okay?" I tell the struggling bug, which gets it to hold still. I apply some of it to the bug, which quickly cures it of its paralysis. As it gets up and off the ground, I put my hoodie back on. "There ya go, bud. All better now. Now go on, before you lose the group. They didn't leave too long ago, so you should be able to catch up." I tell it, only for it to hiss threateningly at me as it quickly retreats into the woods, making me sigh as I get up to leave. That was mean. But I do feel better after helping it, so that's a plus in my book.

I quickly run after Joey and his grandpa, catching up to them and quickly slowing my pace down to match theirs. "Whew, you guys walk fast. I almost lost ya for a second there." I grin wryly, while Joey looks at me suspiciously. His grandfather on the other hand, stares at me with a knowing smile. I guess he saw the good deed I did back there, huh? "We weren't walking that fast at all. You just lagged behind as we walked away, because Gramps told me you were interested in something. What was it?" He asks me, getting me to point behind us towards the forest. "A small Venipede got hurt and was left behind by its friends, so I helped it out." I reply, getting Joey to look at me in surprise. "Wait, what?" He asks, in disbelief that I had actually helped one out. "Yeah, I was kinda about to leave it to die, too. But it was a suffering Pokemon after all, and I hate seeing Pokemon suffer." I tell him making Joey's look of disbelief to turn into one of admiration.

"How do you do that?" He asks, making me look at him with confusion. "What do you mean, how do I do that?" I respond, asking for some elaboration on the matter. "How you're so nice to other Pokemon! They didn't do anything to you, but you do so much for them! You don't even get anything in return, not even a 'thank you'! So why do you do all this?" He asks, really confused as to why I would do anything for complete strangers. "Well, think about it like this. If you saw someone really happy due to what you did for them, how would you feel?" I ask, expecting the answer that almost everyone would pick. Sure enough, Joey scoffs as he answers me the way I felt he would. "Duh. I'd feel happy about it." He rolls his eyes, making me chuckle. "See, that right there is exactly what makes me do things like that. If it makes them happy, then I am also happy. That happiness right there is more than enough in return for my deeds." I answer him, making him scratch his head, still confused. "I don't get it." He admits, making me grin. "Let's just say that to me, happiness is priceless." I tell him, making him even more confused, as Joey's grandpa simply smiles at me. I think that he feels exactly the same way I do…

Once we reach the house, I quickly set down my things for the night. Joey's grandfather had left to give the Mareep their drink, and Joey is busy upstairs with his homework. Since Joey and his grandfather were kind enough to let me sleep in their house for the night, I decided not to decline their offer. Well, not exactly offered. Joey wanted me to sleep with them for a night, like a sleepover. His grandfather had no choice to agree with the kid's opinion, as Joey probably would have been really upset otherwise. As I check my phone for any important calls that may have come my way, I hear the sounds of the shower turning on as the two other human occupants of the house undoubtedly prepare for a bath to end off the day. That seems to be a good idea. Might as well get the rest of the team cleaned up too, while I'm at it. I quickly tap into the AVR on my TBA again, to bring up a view of the ranch and get a bead on what the team's up to. As I look around, they seem to have congregated into one spot on the grassy plains area of the ranch, and are simply chatting amongst themselves.

I approach them and make my avatar take a seat on the grass, catching the attention of the group of Pokemon. "Hello, Mister Jay." Chell nods in my general direction, turning away from her conversation with Nesia for now. "Greetings, Jay. We were simply discussing the introduction of our two most recent team members." Katrina tells me, her tail lazily swishing off to her side as she lies on her belly, her front paws placed like a sphinx's would be. Looking at Chell, I can't help but crack a grin. Of course Chell would tell the rest of the team. She might not appear to care, but deep down she cares about her friends the most. Alita is still nowhere to be seen, probably still flying about and enjoying the ranch from a higher angle. The two new teammates in question are still asleep, but they're beginning to stir despite being a fair distance away from where all the talking is taking place.

I'm suddenly jerked away from the sight of the two Grass Types, due to the sudden feeling of a slim, scaly body that had decided to rest itself in my lap. Looking down, I see Nesia's serious gaze directed towards me, her unblinking eyes staring into mine. It doesn't take a rocket scientist of figure out what she wants me to do, as her sudden advance is more than enough proof that she wants some physical contact. "Want me to pet you again?" I ask her, making her nod as she wraps her vines around one of my arms and tugs on it lightly. Smiling at the eager snake, my avatar reaches down to give her scaly head a gentle rub. Nesia seems to like it too, if her newly acquired smile and her sighs of bliss are anything to go by. Her vines have retracted back into the sides of her neck, and her tail is starting to wiggle more from side to side. "Master, I feel so happy when you do this…" She sighs happily, making me roll my eyes as she melts into my hand. Luckily for me, the avatar is made to emulate the natural body temperature of the wearer. "Then I'll make sure to do this as many times as you want me to." I promise her, the Servine opening her eyes to look at me with an expression of delight.

From the corner of my eye I can see that Chell looks to be quite envious of Nesia, who's hogging all of the available lap space. However, her expression remains stoic despite her gaze of longing. "Come on, Chell. You can join in on the petting, too." I tell her, getting her to timidly walk over to my side. Without a second thought, I reach out to pat her furry head as well, getting Chell to smile blissfully herself as she feels the full effects of a good head patting. She sits down in order for me to get a better angle, and also partially due to the fact that she wanted to enjoy the head pats better herself. Even though I'm not touching them for real, I can practically feel the joy radiating off them through the screen.

"Was there anything interesting on the farm to do, Jay? We didn't see you for a while after you logged out." Katrina asks me, slinking over to lie down next to my avatar and the two starter Pokemon. "Well, we had to let the Venipede go. Apparently, Joey's gramps forgot about the little buggers. He didn't realize that he had them still inside his own TBA until he wanted to take his Mareep out for a drink at the lake nearby." I tell her, getting her to raise an eyebrow as she hears me out. "He forgot them?" She repeats, making me nod. "Yup. Older humans tend to forget things more often, so I don't really blame him. I also helped out one of the Venipede that the swarm had left behind. It looked like it was in some real pain, so I used some of my Poitons on it." I tell her, making her shake her head in response. "I'll never understand why you care so much about anything that's suffering, hostile or not." She sighs in exasperation, before a smile forms on her face again. "However, that's exactly why I find your presence to be enjoyable. You're so kind and supportive towards me, even though I had hurt you intentionally the first time we met…" She trails off, looking a little guilty that she had done that to me. "Nah, it's fine. Self defense and all that. Besides, it doesn't hurt anymore." I tell her, getting her to perk up again, a cute little smile forming on her face. I smile back at her, before I finally remember what I had come to them for.

"Oh, yeah. I was going to take a bath, and I wanted to get you girls cleaned up, too. Wanna come?" I ask her, to which she quickly nods. "A bath sounds delightful, Jay. I do feel rather unclean." She replies, to which I then address Chell and Nesia. "You two wanna take a bath, too? Today was a little rough after all, and I highly doubt you two stayed clean after all that's happened." I suggest, getting Nesia to nod from her comfortable position in my lap. "Sure thing, Mister Jay. A bath sounds nice." Chell speaks up, getting me to nod as I look around for any trace of Alita. Where could she have gone off to? There's no trace of her from my screen, so she should be…

"Oh, hey there Jay. What's up?" Alita greets me, her voice sounding from behind me as she lands next to the rest of us. My suspicions proven to be correct, I turn around to face her. "I wanted to give you girls a bath. I feel dirty, the rest of the team feels dirty, so I'd be surprised if you didn't feel the same way." I reply, making the Tranquill nod. "Yeah, I'm feeling it alright. A cleaning sounds good to me." She agrees.

"Ugh, what's with the noise…" I hear Dani groan from her spot, as Lily comes to with a cute yawn. As she sees me, she immediately sports a small smile. "Hello, Sir. What brings you here?" She asks, to which I explain nice and quick. "We're taking a bath, to get ourselves cleaned up. I think you should join too, 'cause your leaves are looking a bit dirty." I suggest, making her nod quickly as she hops over to my avatar's position. I decide to ready Dani for the incoming teleportation as well, as her cotton coat is looking a little dirty to me. "Alright girls, I need you all to hold still for this, as the re-materialization process is the same as the digitalization process." I tell them, punching in the command necessary for the materialization. As the process begins, the team all disappear from the AVR, and my gauntlet begins to project and area for the Pokemon that were selected to reappear. The materialization process takes much less time than the digitalization, and the Pokemon reappear in no time at all.

As soon as they get used to the real world again, I prepare my clothes for myself to use, and get out the scented soaps that the team had chosen for themselves. I also make sure to get some extra towels to dry the girls off, as Joey's grandfather probably wouldn't be pleased to find that I had used some of his towels to clean off my Pokemon of their dirt. As I pick up my stuff to walk towards the bathroom, I notice that my underwear is missing. I only had to turn around for a few seconds in order to get the soap, and I clearly remember putting my underwear on top of my clothing pile. I almost go to search for a new pair of underwear, before I realize something. Looking around, I see that Katrina had taken to putting her tail behind her back again, and she is standing suspiciously close to my clothing pile. "Kat, give me my underwear back. I need that, ya know." I sigh, reaching behind the feline's back and pulling out my pair of boxers. She gives off that cute huff as I expose her cheeky little play, her pout unexplainably adorable. "You're quite the killjoy, you know." She frowns playfully, making me shrug. "I'm not. I like jokes too, ya know."

"Speaking of which, hey Ali. What's that under there?" I ask Alita while I point to the table close to our position. "Wait, where?" She questions me, looking quite confused as to what I had my eyes on. "Ya know, that thing under there." I tell her, trying hard to hold back my laughter. Luckily for me, Alita didn't notice, and she fell for my joke trap hook, line and sinker. "Under where?" She asks, finally getting me to laugh out loud. "Ha, I got you to say underwear." I snicker, making the Tranquill fume as she flies up to slap me upside the head with her wing. "God damn it, you idiot! Why do you always have to make stupid jokes!?" She groans, only serving to fuel Dani's own amusement, making her snicker as well. "Ha! Jay gotcha good, Ali." She grins, making Chell giggle as well. "You were the one who fell for that, Ali." The Dewott smiles, as Nesia simply does an eye roll in my direction. "I don't get it." Lily speaks up, making me pat her leaves. "Eh, don't worry about it. I just find it funny."

"Besides, it beaks being a killjoy, am I right?" I grin, making another pun and making Alita rage even more. "Jay, I swear to God!" She yells at me, while Katrina giggles at the bird's outburst. I then quickly use my hands to hug Alita and cradle her feathery body, making her gasp in surprise as she feels my hands take hold of her. "Hey! What the hell!?" She shouts before I pat her head with my hand, making her involuntarily let out a coo of enjoyment as her face flushes in embarrassment. "Okay, Ali. As an apology, I'll hold you like this after we take a bath. Sound good?" I ask her, to which she quickly settles down and stays quiet in my embrace. "Fine. But you'd better hold me for as long as I want you to, got it?" She growls, getting me to nod in reply. "Sure. I don't mind, holding someone as cute and powerful as you." I grin, making her freeze and blush redder as she hides her face in my chest. "Not cute. Stupid idiot." She mutters, making me chuckle. "Yeah, yeah. Come on, team. Let's go get cleaned up." I speak, getting the girls to follow me and find the bathroom.

It doesn't take me too long to find the bathroom, as the house is only of moderate size. Opening the door, I look around the place to find a bathtub and a sink, as well as a showering cubicle. The cubicle and the bathtub are close to each other, and the glass walls of the cubicle are transparent. Well, I guess this could work if I stand with my back to the team's general point of view. Turning on the water for the bathtub, I set the water temperature to a lukewarm setting, and plugging the bottom of the tub with the rubber plug. "Well, it should take a while for the water to build up, so I'm gonna take a shower first." I tell the team, seeing Chell look at me in a confused manner. "Mister Jay, why are you showering with those on?" She asks, gesturing to my clothing.

Meanwhile, Nesia simply looks confused. "What do you mean?" She asks Chell, making me point to my clothes. Dani and Lily look a little stumped too, as they look at Chell with the same confusion Nesia showed. "Yeah, Chell. What do you mean, with those on?" Dani asks, making me tug at my shirt. "This isn't my actual skin, ya know. These are clothes we humans wear, in order to hide our bodies from the public. We can't really go around nude, as it's a human law to wear clothes outside." I explain, Dani looking at my clothes with scrutiny. "That sounds really dumb." She comments, making Nesia look at me in fascination. "So, they cover your skin, Sir?" Lily asks, surprised that what she had been seeing wasn't really my skin. "Yup. They cover my skin as well as my sexy bits. You know, my penis." I explain, getting Katrina in particular to blush. "But now, I need to take them off for showering. Hold on, just let me get these pants off me…" I mutter, taking off my pants to reveal my boxers.

"Seriously!? Your wear freaking clothes under your clothes!? What the actual fuck!?" Alita groans, seeing my underwear. "Yeah. Otherwise, we'll stink up our pants with how much we sweat down there." I tell her, making her groan along with Dani. "Human rules are stupid." She sighs, to which I ignore her and throw my pants off to the side. Katrina can't help but flush a bit when she sees my bulge. "My my, Jay. You seem to be quite well endowed." She comments, making me blush. The rest of the team seems to be a little red in the face and uncomfortable themselves, with them trying their best to not stare. "Master's thing looks big…" Nesia mutters, making me cough. "Thanks, but I'm not letting you see my dick. Turn around, you perverts." I wave them off, getting them to all turn around quickly in sheer embarrassment.

Now with that out of the way, I turn on the showerhead to a steaming setting and place my towel and clothes, as well as my Xtranceiver atop the doorframe of the cubicle, stepping in as the glass fogs up in order to ensure my parts don't get accidentally seem by prying eyes. "Okay, girls. Wait for the tub to fill and turn the water off when it's almost full." I call out to them, to make sure the tub doesn't overflow before I'm done. I hear Chell call back in her native tongue, her voice stuttering a bit. Chuckling a bit, I squeeze out some of the soap from the bottle, applying the substance to my body. As I rub the stuff over my own body, I sigh and take in a deep breath, smelling the scent of flowers filling the air and finally giving me some temporary peace.

(Meanwhile, outside the shower cubicle…)

"I mean, don't you wanna see how he looks down there?" Dani suddenly asks Lily out of the blue, the Petilil blushing hard as she hears her friend's question. "But isn't that what he doesn't want us to see?" She replies, making the Cottonee roll her eyes in exasperation. "But I wanna see what he looks like without his clothes! Don't you wanna know if he has fur?" She presses on with her questions, making the shy Petilil blush even harder as she thinks about her Trainer's lower area. "I don't want to see it." Nesia suddenly speaks up, making Dani glare in the Servine's general direction. "You're not helping!" She tells Lily, who shakes her head. "I don't think Jay wants us to see, so we shouldn't." She defends her own opinion, to which Chell calmly nods in agreement to from the sidelines. "Mister Jay told us not to, so we shouldn't. It's going to make him hate us." She adds, before Katrina walks up to the Dewott. "Come now, Chell. Aren't you the least bit curious as to how big he is? I for one, would love to know that." She looks at the Dewott slyly, to which Chell shakes her head. "N-no, I don't." She defends herself, despite her face showing a hint of red. Alita however, scoffs in response to the chatting. "Well, I for one don't care about how that idiot looks down there." She huffs, turning away with a red face. "Aw, come on Ali. I'm sure you want to see it too, right?" Dani grins, making the Tranquill stutter. "N-no! I said I didn't want to see how he looked! It's not like I give a damn, anyways!" She yells, albeit with uncertainty.

"Well, I wish to find out what he looks like. So, I suggest that we move his clothes somewhere he can't reach without having to move outside of the shower." She grins cheekily, getting Dani to nod. "Sounds good to me." She replies, in agreement of the plan. Chell and Nesia overhear the conversation and prepare to step in, Chell's paws reaching for her blades. But, before she can do anything to enact her plan, or for Nesia and Chell to intervene, Jay's voice suddenly rings out from the other side of the door. "Kat, don't you even think about taking my clothes." He warns, making the Liepard sigh as she hears the showerhead turn off. "Well, there goes that idea." She mutters dejectedly to herself, saddened by the loss of a prime opportunity to undress her Trainer. Dani also sighs in disappointment, having missed a prime chance.