Shadows and Ash Chapter 46: Can't See the Forest for the Exeggutor, a pokémon fanfic

Chapter 46, everybody! Which might be the last one for a week or two as I catch up on what comes next…love that I have over 100 pages written ahead but none of them are on the chapters immediately coming. ^^;

Zaralann, shukkets, GreenCAT the second, thanks for the reviews, and I hope to continue to please! :D

ChangelingRin, thanks for the review! Probably. We'll see. :D And thank you, glad you liked her! She's terrifying. :O

Vulaan Kulaas, thanks for the review! I finally wrote up to a chunk I had pre-written, that's what it is. The implications are bone-chilling now—it doesn't help that it shows up again in ORAS. We could maybe squint and let it slide as a product of the times with the magician, but an adult making comments about a (forcibly) scantily-dressed ten-year-old in the 2010s is just…ergh. Yes! SOON….

Talesfanjmf, thanks for the review! We shall soon see…just a tiny bit. ;) And glad you liked Lenny—he's a good Gyarados. :D

Dragonkeeper10, thanks for the review! A very bad time….

AverageHiveMind, thanks for the review! Yes! No! And yeah, Ash has been having a time lately…but at least we get some Lenny for his trouble. :D Ooh, very cool—only ever got two shinies throughout the games (a Swablu and a Zigzagoon, both in Pokémon Ruby :D). And that is a very important job…yes, yes they do….Um, shouldn't be too long now, sometime between a week and eleven months. I shall do my best! :D

Thanks for the review, Sparky! Possibly, yes, and possibly. And yeah, you're right, it's a little early for Charmander to be evolving here. Darkrai doesn't like crowded areas—paparazzi, don't you know. ;)

JuptileNamudori253, thanks for the review! Er…I have actually never seen that episode, so it probably won't be coming up. ^^; (there's actually a lot of episodes I either truncated or skipped over, to be fair—the entire "Island of the Giant Pokémon" arc, for example). Good question—let us find out….

DOOT76, thanks for the review! This would be, but we shuffled up canon a bit so Charmander's evolving a little later. We shall find out…and if you love Frenzy, you're going to love this chapter. ;)

JackO'Lantern-Summers, thanks for the review! Me too—this has been fun. :D

HuangShenLong, thanks for the review! Glad you enjoy rereading the story! :D

Marionette of Ancient Relics, thanks for the review! Fortunately, you don't have to wait long for the resolution. Thank you, and I hope to continue to please! :D

Louie Yang, thanks for the review! Hm, we could also argue that for this fic, that is more of a scientific distinction, and for the average joe like our group, that's just splitting hairs.

Pokémon © Game Freak; Nintendo

And now, for something completely different:

Earlier today, Mr. Rood, with Team PLASMA, sat with one of our interviewers and answered several questions relating to their protests. He detailed that PLASMA is focused on the preservation of Pokémon and the avoidance of their exploiting. PLASMA, Rood maintains, is entirely centered on the well-being of Pokémon. Mr. Rood exhorts all trainers to release their Pokémon so that they may live the lives they were meant to be. The Unova News Network would like to remind our viewers that the opinions of those on our broadcasts do not reflect the UNN's opinions. Please send your angry letters to PLASMA Headquarters in Castelia City.

Misty and Brock scrambled around once the smoke had cleared, trying to figure out in which direction they had gone—

"It's no use like this," Brock said finally. "Misty, get dressed and we'll try a different approach."

Misty nodded and headed for the back. "Right. Just so you know, when we find that guy, my approach will be to beat him senseless."

"Take a number," Brock sighed.

Here was hoping his idea would opt to be helpful.

Patches had been sleeping during the whole debacle, wasn't woken up until he was let out—

Twitched his ears back and shut his eyes against whatever the Exeggcute across from him was trying—Ash would give an order soon, this was definitely a battle.

Except when no order was forthcoming, he eased an eye open, just to check.

Some weirdo human was busy crowing over them all, Ash standing there and looking dead on his feet. Come to think of it, everyone looked like that. Except for Frenzy, but he was pretty sure Frenzy was affected by exactly nothing.

"Look at this! You really outdid yourself this time, Exeggcute!" the human said—his voice made Patches want to slam his head against a rock. Preferably the guy's head against a rock, but he'd take what he could get.

"What's going on?" he hissed to Charmander, standing next to him. No response from Charmander.

"I bet this trainer and his Pokémon will last a long time against those Exeggutor, don't you think?" the weirdo human asked his Exeggcute. "Now! Let's go catch some! This time for sure!"

The Exeggcute bounced as the weirdo human got onto a seat with wheels and sticks attached—Ash grabbed the sticks and started pulling, the other Pokémon following.

"Come along, peons," the Exeggcute said, bouncing onto the seat with his trainer. "My trainer is going to be the best magician in the world, and you lot are going to help! I'm almost certain you'll succeed where others have failed."

Patches didn't like the sound of that. Something was most definitely wrong.

Unfortunately, the only other Pokémon that he thought wasn't under this Exeggcute's thrall was Frenzy, and he wasn't sure how to communicate a plan to maybe beat up these guys to the Paras. As far as he knew, he was on his own.

But this also meant his trainer was in danger, and he couldn't have that.

So he'd play along for now, find out where they were going and what was going on….

And then when he did, he could either fight or run for help. Fighting was what he wanted to do, but running was in his very nature. Less so now as a Nidorino, but as a Nidoran….

He mentally recited the creed his and other prey species knew by heart, steeling himself to do the thing he didn't want to do but that would be the best for his team.

…if they catch you, they will kill you. But first, they must catch you.

Misty and Brock ran out of the ruined tent, Misty back in her usual outfit and looking much relieved at that—but fuming and embarrassed at everything else.

Brock, meanwhile, was looking for something helpful—specifically, a certain shadowy shape. But of course, he'd probably not be where there were a lot of people…why hadn't they invested in a Flying type.

"Come on," he said, waving at Misty as he ran down the row. "Let's get back to the woods."

Misty was hot on his heels, expression saying she had already guessed who he intended to ask for help. That expression also meant she was mentally going through her Pokémon and knew she didn't have a good tracking one among them.

Which only left one option.

"Darkrai!" Brock yelled, once they were in the woods.

"I hate having to ask him for help," Misty said to Brock.

"Right now we don't have a choice. "Darkrai! YO!"

"WHAT?"

Brock nodded, turned to face the turquoise eyes glaring out at them. "We need your help—Ash is gone."

"So you need help throwing a parade?" Darkrai asked, floating out after apparently satisfying for himself that there was no one else around.

"Ash was kidnapped," Misty said, glaring.

"I'm not seeing any change in sentiment."

Brock sighed—these two grated on each other too much, and one of these days he was going to have to convince them to sit down and at least pretend to tolerate each other, but today was not that day.

"Guys, quit it," he said finally, cutting through the argument. "Listen, Darkrai, we need someone who can cover a lot of ground fast and you're the only one we have who fits the bill. We don't have room for an argument, Ash is probably in trouble and we need to find him now. Okay?"

Darkrai narrowed his eyes at Brock, head shifting slightly as he loomed up, and for a minute Brock was worried he might have overstepped.

And then Darkrai was gone.

"Well," Brock said, gusting out the word in a sigh. "That happened."

"Please tell me we have a better plan," Misty said.

"Right now? Pray."

They had reached their destination, as far as Patches could tell.

Patches was not happy with it.

Because apparently, their destination was a forest full of Exeggutor, huge sentient trees stomping trunk-feet big enough to squash a Nidoran whole around, currently milling about aimlessly, but that would definitely change if they were riled up.

The weirdo human was proposing that they rile them up.

"If you catch all these Pokémon for me, I can use them to be the best magician ever!"

Patches didn't understand this line of reasoning, and he certainly didn't understand attacking a whole forest full of Exeggutor. One or two, Patches would be more than willing to face off against; the typing was with him, after all. A whole forest—no thank you.

But judging by the way everyone was angling, they were still hypnotized into thinking that they ought to be listening to this idiot instead of their trainer—but Ash was still standing there, dead-eyed and limp-shouldered, having none of his energy and just letting this weirdo boss them around….

Something was stupendously wrong, and would be horrendously worse if they attacked the Exeggutor. He had to do something.

And fortunately, Lenny was currently between him and the stupid weirdo and his Exeggcute.

Patches dug down, dug ahead, nose twitching at the shards of Leaf Stones in the earth—they weren't Moon Stone shards, fortunately, because suddenly doubling or tripling in size would have really screwed up this plan.

But it was a good plan, a plan that had worked once before, when they were fighting against Lt. Surge.

And when he squirmed back up through his starting hole, he was careful to cover it back up to disguise his action.

"All right!" the weirdo human grunted, finally managing to undo the trunk on the back of the weird seat that he had been fighting with. Pokéballs spilled out. "Everyone! Attack those Exeggutor!"

The Exeggcute bounced, glowing, cementing this order—Patches ducked down and closed his eyes again, making sure to avoid the attack—felt the others charge ahead—peeked—

Vee and Pikachu shot ahead, naturally faster than the rest of them, Lenny right behind and Charmander right behind him. The only ones who hadn't moved were Patches—and Frenzy.

The weirdo human was currently looking at the Paras. "What did I just say? Go attack those Exeggutor!"

Frenzy didn't move—of course not, Ash hadn't been the one to give the order. Patches couldn't help the snicker that escaped.

The weirdo human and his Exeggcute looked up sharply at the noise—Patches quickly feigned sleep, one eye cracked open and feet poised to run if need be.

The weirdo human sniffed at that. "Exeggcute, go get that Nidorino moving like the rest of them. Wake up, you," he said to Frenzy.

Patches watched carefully as the five eggs bounced over to him, subtly readying an attack as they came nearer….Horn Drill had too much of a risk of missing…better go with Horn Attack, but with a bit more kick to it. Here was hoping that the poison he was focusing in his horn didn't glisten in the sun as it leeched out.

"You heard the man, get up," the Exeggcute ordered, bouncing about a foot away from him. Too far for a good hit—shuffle away a bit, paw at his face like he was still dozing, making sure his ears were turned away and his eyes were readily shut against any psychic attacks. He heard the Exeggcute make an aggravated noise, risked a peek to see it bouncing closer—

And then the weirdo human had apparently run out of patience and done the stupidest thing possible: he kicked Frenzy.

Frenzy went for a little tumble, landed on his side—legs twitched once, twice—

And then Frenzy was upright and ramping up, letting out an angry war screech before charging the weirdo human, who screamed and took off. The Exeggcute rounded, crying out, ready to defend their trainer—

He wasn't going to get a better opportunity—Patches charged forward, slammed his poison-coated horn into one of the eggs so hard that he broke its fibrous shell—spun, slung it free, completed the turn—

And ran for all he was worth, looking over his shoulder when he heard his tunnels collapse, skid to a halt to watch—come on, that attack should have snapped any control the Exeggcute should have had—

Except the others were busy climbing over the far end of the hole, Pikachu, Vee, and Charmander climbing up Lenny's back as they continued after the Exeggutor—the Exeggcute was bouncing around in a raging spitting fury, the poisoned one slinging yolk about—Frenzy still after the weirdo human as Ash stood there passively—

And then the Exeggcute started glowing.

Patches watched in horror as the individual eggs grew together, grew larger—

Of course. The Leaf Stone shards. No wonder there was such a huge concentration of Exeggutor here.

The light burst, revealing the freshly evolved Exeggutor, faces glaring—

Back to the original plan: run for all he was worth.

Darkrai flew high above the road, scanning the area through squinted eyes—oi, they'd have done better sending the Zubat out, what with the way it could use echolocation. Not that he'd ever tell them that—and besides, even if he did mention the tiny little fact that he was built for night vision, they'd probably send him out anyway. Didn't want to hurt the dear Zubat's sensitive skin, after all—send out the Darkrai, he's expendable.

He ground his teeth and continued on down the road, grumbling darkly under his breath about how the yutz was going to so owe him for this especially if it was a false alarm he'd give him such a whallop—

He jerked up, dove into the woods—someone was coming down the road. Peek back out, peer at the shape rapidly galumphing down the line—

Speed back out when he realized he recognized said shape.

"HOLD IT!" he bellowed, arms spread to block but still several feet above the ground—he wasn't about to try to stop a charging Nidorino, no sir!

Patches, at least, did skid to a halt, eyes rolling and spittle flecking his mouth—Nidorino were built for short dashes or a more trundling pace; he must have been running for a while. Or worn himself out beforehand.

"What happened?" Darkrai demanded, figuring he'd get a better answer from a Pokémon.

"Ash," Patches gasped, turning his head to point with his horn and toppling over in the process. "Ash and the others are in trouble…Exeggutor…lots of Exeggutor…."

Darkrai narrowed his eyes at the Nidorino, looked up the way he had come…a dust cloud was blurring the sky further on.

"Exeggutor tend to run in a straight line—I'd get out of the road if I were you," he told the Nidorino, glancing back—theoretically, Misty and Brock were asking around at that silly fair. "Unless you can make it back to the others."

Patches struggled to get upright, tottered over to the edge of the road, collapsed again.

"I'm fine," he gasped, chest still twitching from breathing so hard. "Ash…get Ash…."

Darkrai rolled his eyes, shot up and away, figuring whatever the mess, the kid had probably started it.

That opinion quickly evaporated when he arrived at a warzone, where Exeggutor used to mass.

Right now, they were falling apart under the concentrated assault of four Pokémon—Charmander torching them, Pikachu zapping them, Lenny blasting them, Vee slamming into those still standing and knocking them down. And Frenzy, currently running down some idiot in a magician's outfit, an Exeggutor following behind and trying to stomp on the Paras. Still didn't see—

There—fly down, about to speak—froze when he saw how Ash looked.

He knew this look.

And knew just what to do to undo it: Darkrai grabbed him, hoisted him up to glare into his eyes, his own turquoise ones burning. "WAKE UP!"

Ash jerked so hard he ripped himself out of Darkrai's grip, falling hard on his posterior element. On the plus side, it meant he was properly jerked awake—and currently looking around in confusion.

"Wait a minute—where am I? What happened to the carnival?" he asked. "I remember being with Misty and Brock and some magician and his Exeggcute—"

And then he spotted his Pokémon attacking the Exeggutor.

"AAH! NO!" he yelped, jumping up and running over to them. "What are you doing!? Stop it!"

Darkrai, meanwhile, turned his attention to the idiot magician, still fleeing from Frenzy. Tempting to let them go…but that Exeggutor was starting to catch up. Blast it with an Ominous Wind when it was off balance to send it tumbling.

By then, Ash had stopped his Pokémon, snapped them out of everything, was doing a quick headcount—

"Wait," he said. "Where's Patches and—FRENZY!"

Frenzy skidded to a halt, turned, and scuttled back to stand by Ash's side. The idiot magician, now that he wasn't being pursued, collapsed in a heap.

"I'm confused," Ash said, looking at Darkrai.

"Hi confused, we'll talk about what an idiot you are later," Darkrai said, glancing at him briefly before attending to more pressing matters—such as looming over the idiot magician, who was currently quaking in his cape.

"W-what is that thing?" the magician asked, in a hatefully bland voice that still managed to tremble in fear, the Exeggutor that had been chasing Frenzy now in front of him and trying to be intimidating.

"Me? I'm a Darkrai," Darkrai said mildly, before deepening into a growl. "And I'm the last thing you'll ever see."

"Uh, wait a minute!" Ash said. "What'd he do?"

"Hypnotized you and yours into attacking a bunch of Exeggutor for starters?"

Ash looked at the whole mess surrounding them, his confused Pokémon and the flattened Exeggutor, before looking back at Darkrai.

"Okay," he said, nodding. "Now that I know."

Darkrai savored the way that hopeful expression slid off that idiotic magician's face as he turned back to him. "Now, do I want you over-easy or thoroughly scrambled?"

The Exeggutor snarled, shot a Psybeam right at him—

Darkrai didn't dodge. Darkrai didn't need to. Darkrai was a Dark type and therefore laughed at any Psychic types—the attack slid harmlessly off his fur.

"Yeah, that's not going to save you," Darkrai said, tipping his head slightly before shooting forward, slamming into the Exeggutor so hard that he could feel its bark breaking beneath him.

And with it out of commission, he could turn his attention to its trainer.

"Please," the idiot magician wailed, hustling forward to Ash on his knees. "Mercy! You've gotta help me!"

"You know, just asking would have gotten you a lot farther," Ash said. "You could have asked Misty for help, you could have asked me for help—"

Ash didn't get much else out—as soon as the idiot magician got near enough, Frenzy ramped up screaming and charged him. The idiot magician screamed, ran—didn't get very far—

"Frenzy!" Ash yelled. "What's gotten into you?"

"The bug has good taste. You know, I was starting to worry about you," Darkrai said to Frenzy as he scuttled back to Ash. "And now you," he said, turning his attention to the magician. "I can tell you right now, I've never even seen your act, but I can tell you're a hack. Pity you'll never improve."

"Darkrai," Ash noised, tone warning.

"Don't worry, I won't kill him," Darkrai said, giving Ash an aggrieved look. "He's just going to take a little nap and think about what he's done."

Ash nodded at that, smiling—of course he did. Darkrai had never seen fit to tell him just how much more potent Dark Void was than Hypnosis.

And he didn't need to know the difference now, either.

Hence why Darkrai hid his feral snarl until his back was to Ash. Oh, you'd better quake, you idiot. Using that stunt—

This was now officially personal.

Misty and Brock, after confirming that people had seen Ash and the magician leaving the carnival and in which direction, ran down the road as fast as they could. Misty, long-legged and fit from swimming, was making good time; Brock, from years of sprinting after his siblings, kept pace.

They were a good mile out from the fair when they found something purple laying on the side of the road.

"Hey!" Misty yelped, skidding to a halt and changing tacks. "I know that 'mon—Patches!"

Brock angled, skidded to a halt next to the Nidorino, dropped to a knee to gingerly examine the Pokémon.

"I don't see any injuries," Brock said. "Not on this side, at least—he looks like he ran until he dropped."

"Rhiii," Patches noised, half-lifting his head before dropping it again.

"Oh no, you poor thing," Misty said, a hand to her mouth. "I don't—we don't have his Pokéball—is there anything we can do?"

Brock carefully lifted each of Patches' paws, checked his breathing, carefully touched his ribs—all while being mindful of his poisonous points.

"I don't know," he said finally. "I think he's just exhausted—when we find Ash—but we can't leave him here…hold it, I got it." Pull a Pokéball off his belt, open it—

"Geodude," the rock Pokémon noised, glancing around in mild confusion before spotting Patches.

"Geodude, I'm going to need you to carry Patches for us," Brock said. "Can you do that?"

"Geo," Geodude noised, scooping Patches up.

"That's right, Rock types are immune to poison," Misty said.

"Correct," Brock said, straightening up. "Now come on—we must be heading in the right direction."

About five minutes later saw familiar shapes on the horizon.

"Hey!" Misty called. The smaller shape started, bolted for them—

"Hey guys—OW! What was that for?" Ash yelped, rubbing his head.

"That was for scaring me!" Misty shot. "Now are you all right?"

"Up until getting hit in the head, yeah—wait is that Patches WHAT happened while I was out?"

"You were hypnotized and kidnapped, I imagine," Brock said, before indicating Patches. "But putting him in his Pokéball right now would be best—we can piece everything together later."

"And no thank you for the 'mon who actually went and found him," Darkrai said, drifting by with his nose up in the air.

"Thank you, Darkrai."

"For being surprisingly useful for once," Misty said.

"Still more than you managed," Darkrai shot back.

Ash and Brock watched as Misty chased after Darkrai. "Should we stop them?" Ash asked.

"Nah," Brock said, returning Geodude. "Let 'em work it out."

Now here was hoping they'd leave the others out of it as they did.