Shot Down
Chapter 2 – Shot Down
"What the fuck are you?"
Articuno groaned, turning over in his pain-induced slumber. "No, Moltres. I already have a boyfriendddd..."
His tail feather twitched, and his left wing moved to block out the sunlight intruding on his much-needed beauty sleep. Bad decision.
A white-hot spike of pain drove itself into his skull, as his wing screamed in dissent, shocking his eyes wide-open. His body hurt everywhere, from the tip of the crest on his head to the end of his tail.
Fully awake now, Articuno gingerly rose to a sitting position and took stock of his surroundings. He appeared to be in the middle of a self-created clearing within a forest, at the end of a long furrow dug into the ground, most likely from his impact. Wincing, he slowly inspected his own body to insure nothing was damaged.
Unfortunately, fate was not on the blue bird's side, as his left wing was bent at a unnatural angle that made him nauseous just by looking at it.
"I said, what are you?" the same voice questioned.
"Huh?" Articuno blinked dumbly at the vague outline of a Pokemon his. Although his vision had yet to clear, he had to be blind to miss that this intruder was female and also, ahem, very beautiful.
Apparently, the intruder decided Articuno's excessive staring was unappropriate, and found it fit to slap him. Hard.
"Oww!"
"Stop gawking at me, you pervert! What are you, stupid or something? I asked you a question! What are you? Who are you? What the fuck are you doing here?" she interrogated.
Once Articuno's vision cleared up, he was able to make out the entrancing figure of a purple, winged dragon with a red underbelly and yellow star on her forehead. She was, unfortunately however, currently glaring at him.
"By Palkia! What's wrong with you?! Do you have problems understanding me? Me, Garchomp, you…?" The self-proclaimed Garchomp demanded, rather frustrated.
"…Articuno. Where am I?" The confused bird asked.
"Finally! We're getting somewhere!" Garchomp threw her hands- Err, claws?- up in the air in pure relief. "Although… I've never seen a Pokemon like you before. We're in Black Forest, within the lands of Cynthia's villa. Now, what are you doing here?"
It was Articuno's turn to pause and think. "I don't really know… One minute, I'm flying peacefully back home; the next, I'm blasted out of sky." He looked at his broken wing. "Tyranitar's shit, how am I supposed to get home now?"
"Yeah… that's terrible." Garchomp avoided Articuno's eyes. "We should probably get you to a Pokemon Center to get that with of yours checked out."
"NO! No Pokemon Centers!" Articuno burst out, before awkwardly trailing off. "They, uh, make me anxious."
"Why?" asked Garchomp suspiciously. "Are you wanted or something?"
The legendary snorted. "You could say that."
Suddenly, Articuno found his back painfully pressed against the ground, with his wings eagle spread and pinned down by the dragoness, completely unable to move. His eyes grew wide at the sight of a very sharp talon at his throat. He gulped.
"Are you a criminal?" demanded Garchomp fiercely. "Do you work with Team Galactic?" She dug her talon deeper into his throat.
"Okay! Okay! Let's not get ahead of ourselves here." The prisoner laughed nervously. "No, I am not a criminal, and I most definitely do not work for any terrorist organization. How could I?"
Garchomp lowered her talon infinitesimally. "What do you mean, how could you? Are you special or something?"
Realization dawned upon Articuno. "Wait, you mean to say… that you don't know who I am?"
Choler colored the dragon's face. "Of course I don't! Why do you think the first thing I asked you was 'what are you'?"
Shock made itself evident on Articuno's face. It wasn't everyday that he was pinned by an admittedly attractive dragoness who didn't fawn over him due to his status as legendary, after all. Blushing, he looked away when he realized what a compromising position they were in.
Oblivious to Articuno's discomfort, Garchomp only pushed herself closer onto him. "Hey, birdbrain! I asked you a question!"
Still blushing, Articuno decided that the best course of action would be to lie; she might have a trainer, you know. Stammering, he barely enunciated the words out properly, "Uh, I just said how could I, because, um, I just really don't like bad guys. Who abuse Pokemon. You know?"
Unconvinced, Garchomp, fortunately for flustered ice-type, decided to give him the benefit of the doubt, and slowly stood up. Given freedom again, Articuno immediately scrambled backwards, yelping when he accidentally put his weight on his bad wing.
Garchomp had the grace to look sympathetic at the injury. "Well, regardless of whether or not you are 'wanted', you should still treat that wing."
Kneeling down next to the bird, Garchomp began to slowly pat down his wing. "Tell me when it starts to hurt, alright?"
As soon as she reached the forearm, Articuno let out a cry of pain. Garchomp grimaced. "As I thought; you have a fractured bone right there. You'll need a splint or something to stabilize it, so please try not to move before I come back."
Just before the dragon could turn away, though, Articuno quickly grabbed onto her, and voiced one of his main concerns. "Err, just before you go... You don't have a human with you, do you?"
Garchomp glanced at him. "Why does it matter if I do or not? Cynthia's awfully nice towards all Pokemon, except those who try to take her ice cream. Although she is a tad, uh, obsessive when it comes to researching legendary or ancient Pokemon."
Articuno paled. "Heh heh, you know what? My wing doesn't feel bad now! In fact, I'm fine! Just fine! I'm just gonna, uh, go now. Thanks, though!" Articuno was just starting to sneak away, when he felt a claw tighten around his crest.
"Oh no you don't! You're hurt and you need help! I'll be damned if I'll just let you walk off and hurt yourself even more!" Articuno was suddenly yanked downwards by his head feathers, causing his to flop onto the ground in defeat.
"Oww… fine. But can you please please please not tell her to come here?" The once might legendary pleaded desperately.
Garchomp merely huffed in his direction, before giving a curt nod, and flying off.
Articuno slumped back down. What have I gotten myself into?
~SD~
Night had already fallen over the sky by the time Garchomp had returned to Cynthia's villa. Knowing that she had to get into the kitchen, where Cynthia kept all the first aid, she intelligently decided to avoid passing through the master bedroom.
Quietly pushing open the door, Garchomp snuck a quick peek into the house to make sure no one was awake, before tiptoeing inwards in search of some potions, a splint and some bandages. Soon enough, she had collected all the necessary items from the Medical Aid cabinet and, against her better judgement, also took some strawberry-flavored ice cream from Spiritomb's "secret stash". Quickly ensuring she had left no evidence behind, the dragon snuck out and flew off.
~SD~
It had already been an hour since Garchomp left, and Articuno was beginning to worry. What if she had told her trainer that he was here and the human was coming to capture him in his weakened state? What if Garchomp had been forcefully returned to her Pokeball and wouldn't come back? Or worse; what if she was coming, and her "helpfulness" had all been a façade? What if she was coming back with a clan of dragons, hungry for a late snack?!
No! Don't think like that! Garchomp would do something like that… would she? A nagging voice at the back of the legendary's mind that him he had only known her for a few fleeting minutes. How could he know what she was really like? He wasn't psychic-type, after all!
Shit. And thus, the great winter beast shall die. I can see my grave already; 'Here lies Articuno… or what remains of him. He got shot out of the sky by a random hit, was fooled by some pretty face, and got eaten.' I don't even get to die saving the world. Articuno thought miserably. Stupid, stupid, stupid. He proceeded to repeatedly smack his head on the trunk of a tree, as if to berate himself one final time before his death.
"I leave for an hour and this is what I come back to. Are you trying to end your miserable existence by brain trauma? Cuz I can think of faster ways to go."
Articuno yelped at the sudden intrusion, and reflexively let out an Ice Beam in the voice's general direction. "St-stay back! I'm not going down without a fight!"
When the dust cleared, it revealed a very irritated Garchomp (alone, thank Arceus), her entire face covered in a thin layer of frost, seemingly unaffected by the supposedly "super-effective" attack. Growling, she pounced onto the frightened bird, who let out a loud squawk, characteristic of terrified Pidgeys, and dug her Dragon Claw into his shoulder.
"Listen here, you good-for-nothing pile of Tauros crap. If you're going to want to live off of my sheer, magnanimous generosity until you wing heals, we're going to have some rules in place. Rule 1: you do not leave the confines of this forest, or you will die. Rule 2: you do not approach the villa in this forest or you will die. Rule 3: you do anything that remotely pisses me off and I will personally ensure that you. Will. Die. Understood?" To emphasize her point, the furious dragoness used Scary Face. When Articuno didn't respond out of sheer terror, she dug her claw deeper into his should, eliciting a cry of pain. "UNDERSTOOD?"
Weakly, Articuno managed to get out a shaky nod, before he was unceremoniously dropped onto the ground by Garchomp.
"Good." She then proceeded to bind Articuno's wing, resulting in a fairly decent sling, before apathetically spraying some antiseptic onto his wounds, ignoring the patient's hisses. "There. Now go to sleep. I'll be back in the morning." The dragon said, before flying off back to her trainer.
Articuno merely stared at her shrinking figure in the sky, before letting out a shaky breath in relief and a sliver of pride tinged his cheeks. Relief that that nightmarish Pokemon had left, and pride that he had managed to not wet himself during her tirade, as any Pokemon would be.
Laying down to sleep, he tried not to let thoughts of tomorrow terrorize his mind as he dozed off from exhaustion.
A/N
Started: August 9, 2016
Finished: August 12, 2016
Hey y'all! Miss me? Probably not cuz not a lot of people have read this story yet... Also, did you see that absolutely amazin' pun I stuck in? "Choler colored'? Hahaha...
Anyway, thank you to my first 2 reviewers, DracoSheild234 and Kurama The Platinum Zoroark! You guys probably made my day when I read your blurbs!
DracoSheild234: Thanks, and yeah, I really did not think the meeting through all the great, did I? Well, I assume Palkia probably opened some wormholes from the Hall of Origins to the homes of some hard-to-reach legendaries, ie: Kyogre. Also, I have no clue what's going on in Pokemon after Gen IV (haha), so most post-Sinnoh Pokemon (who's Hoopa anyway?) probably will not make an appearance.
