Chapter three has arrived folks! I did receive some more submissions, but haven't been able to use them in this chapter. Sorry! They'll come in soon!
OC submission remains open! See chapter one.
Trees are for the birds, Bessie the Buneary thought as she hopped from branch to branch, eager to get this blasted rescue over with. For about the tenth time today, she asked herself why? Why am I doing this? And a good question it was; why was she helping a Cubone she had never met until only a few hours ago? And why did she agree to this of all things? She felt lucky that the Ariados hadn't tried to eat them, but now she was scared that the Fearow would eat them. Bessie wasn't sure if Fearow ate Buneary, but she wouldn't put it past them.
A tiny, sad sound cut off her thoughts of death. Sobbing. Opening her large ears, she listened closely and made out the words, "Momma… help…"
Bessie's legs were moving before she even had time to process the information as she agilely leaped in the direction of the sobbing sounds. It took little time to find the wooden nest nestled in the high branches, made of twisted twigs wrapped together. Bingo.
She hopped into the nest and saw a tiny, bruised up green creature, cowering by himself. "Hey!" she whispered.
The Spinarak turned, its dark eyes filled with fright. "W… who's there?"
"Shh!" Bessie whispered to the spider. "I came to rescue you! Your parents sent me!"
"They did?" the Spinarak asked. "Oh, yay! I'm safe!" he declared, scurrying around in circles happily.
"Shh!" Bessie repeated. "You don't want Fearow to hear you do… uh, where is Fearow?" she asked, noticing that she hadn't seen a single sign of one yet.
Spinarak stopped scurrying. "I don't know," he whispered. "He was gonna… eat me, but then he heard something down below. He said that he was going to get appi… appitiz…" the child struggled with the word
Bessie swallowed. "Appetizers?"
"Yeah, that was it!" Spinarak said. "Wow, you're smart!"
Buneary ignored the complement. "I hope you're not talking about…" she began. However, anything else she had to say was cut off by a scream. Cubone's scream.
Buneary paled. "Come here!" she said, reaching for the spider. Spinarak climbed into her arms and onto her back, holding onto her fur with his legs. "Okay," Bessie said, as she wrapped the webbing that Ariados had given her to the branch firmly. "I'm gonna take us down, so hold on!"
The Spinarak nodded and Bessie jumped down, holding onto the web for dear life, and hoping she wasn't too late.
Cotton, despite her incredibly young age, considered herself to be a sensible Rattata. She knew when she outclassed. And that was why she was hiding under the pile of bones, watching as Cubone did her rescuing. After all, this wasn't her job.
Cubone, sadly, wasn't handling herself very well. The large bird was relentlessly pecking at her, trying to catch her in his long, sharp beak. Had Cubone known that this was what would happen, she would have come with more bones. Sadly, that wouldn't have helped her; she was a Ground Type, and Flying Type like Fearow weren't affected by Ground Type attacks. Oops. Well, mistakes like these weren't going to get you farther in the world. Especially in a life-or-death situation.
"Help!" screamed Cubone again as Fearow's beak narrowly struck her tail. "Cotton, come help meeee!"
"No way!" Cotton replied, terrified.
"But he's gonna get me!" Cubone said as she ran towards the bone pile, panicking, with the grinning Fearow right behind her.
"No!" Cotton cried as Cubone jumped into the dead pile. "Don't lead him to me!"
"I'm not!" Cubone replied, digging through the pile. "I'm just getting another bone!" She pulled out a femur and leaped out at Fearow, tossing the bone and shouting, "Bonemarang!"
The bone flew through the air at the bird. Fearow, however, was completely unimpressed, and dodged effortlessly. The bone sailed back to the surprised Cubone, who was promptly smacked in the head by her own weapon, knocking her down.
Cackling, Fearow poked his head into the bone pile and grabbed the dazed lizard by her tail, shaking her roughly as she screamed in anguish.
Maybe this hadn't been a very good idea…
"T… Tackle!" shouted Cotton, unwilling to watch Cubone get eaten. She charged and hurled her trembling body into Fearow's feathery belly. The bird let out a surprised squawk and released Cubone who plopped to the ground, tears leaking through her eyes. Neither wasted any time as the bird clutched his aching gut with his wings they jumped back into the bone pile.
Cubone was already sobbing, and clutching her wounded tail. "I wanna go home…" she moaned.
Cotton began to cry too, unable to hold it back. "Me too…"
Their crying was cut off when the Fearow thrust his head into the pile and narrowly missed Cotton's neck. The two girls screamed as the monster began to reach for…
"Dizzy Punch!"
Bessie, holding onto a web rope, swung down and thrust one of her large ears forward, smacking the surprised Fearow in the head. He staggered back and fell into the bone pile, nearly crushing Cubone and Cotton. Fearow landed with the sound of crunching bones, as Cotton and Cubone retreated to Bessie.
"Did you save Spinarak?" asked a battered Cubone.
Bessie turned around and displayed the spider on her back. "Hi," Spinarak greeted.
"Miserable little pest!"
The group turned to see Fearow shaking off the old broken bones and glaring at them. "You will all suffer! I'll eat like a king tonight!"
The group backed away as the monster began to flap his wings and launched himself into the air, circling the three.
"Alright!" Bessie said, taking charge. "Cotton, take Spinarak and hide back in the bone pile; it'll be safer than out in the open like we are! Cubone and I will handle him!"
"Sounds good to me!" Cotton said as Spinarak hopped off Bessie's back eagerly and they ran to the cover of the bone pile.
Fearow dive-bombed the two, shouting, "Peck Attack!" Bessie grabbed Cubone and hopped away, narrowly avoiding the fatal strike.
"We need a plan…" Bessie said.
"My bone won't work, so don't ask me!" shouted Cubone as they jumped aside from another Peck.
Bessie thought about it, and then she grinned, an idea hitting her. "Get in front of the tree!" she whispered as Fearow circled again.
Cubone, having no plans of her own, did as she was told, and she and her comrade stood at the ready. Bessie shouted, "Hey ugly! Are you a Fearow or just an itty-bitty Pidgey?"
"Pidgey!" shouted Fearow. "I'll show you a Pidgey!" he began to dive-bomb them and began to spin around and around. "Drill Peck!" he screamed.
However, the Fearow's anger had gotten the better of him. As he charged at his targets, the two friends moved away, and Fearow flew beak-first into the tree, ending up stuck with his beak impaled inside the tree. As he struggled to pull himself out, Bessie shouted, "Let's get him!"
"Right!" Cubone replied, courage filling her body.
The two struck the moment the bird pulled himself out.
"Headbutt!"
"Dizzy Punch!"
Both attacks struck Fearow in the face. The bird let out a terrible, weak sounding shriek and fell down, knocked out by the force of both attacks. The once mighty bird teetered over, smashing onto the forest floor with a tremendous thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.
When the dust cleared, Cubone opened her eyes and stared at their fallen foe. A cheer began to build up inside of her, and she let it out of herself, yahooing loudly as she embraced Bessie. "We did it!"
"Yeah," Bessie said, breathlessly. "I guess we did!" She let out a breath of relief.
"Is it safe…?" asked Cotton as she and Spinarak emerged from the bone pile. Spinarak immediately ran up to the fallen Fearow and began to poke him with his leg.
"Yeah, it's safe now!" said Cubone.
"That was sooooo cool!" said Spinarak, scuttling around in circles happily. "I wanna be in a rescue team, too!"
"Uh, yeah," Bessie said. "Well, we did do pretty well."
Cotton let out a breath of relief. "That was not worth any apples," she muttered.
"Well that was the deal, so we're sticking to it!" Cubone said, pulling a few more shiny apples out of Bessie's bag. "Here you go! Now can you take us back to the front of the woods?"
"To get out of this place?" asked Cotton. "Sure!"
The spider family reunion was happy to say the least. The Ariados mother and father, along with the older brother, who had recovered, embraced the small Spinarak as he swiftly recounted the events that had taken place.
Happy tears in her eyes, the Ariados mother crawled into their webby nest and came out with a large web bundle of berries. "Here," she said happily, giving them to Bessie. "Please accept them. It's the very least we can do!"
"And if you're ever in the forest again," the father said as his son happily perched on his back, "be sure to drop by. We promise to tell all about you to our friends."
"We will!" said Cubone as they began to walk away. "Thanks and bye!"
"No!" the father replied. "Thank you!"
"Goodbye!" the mother called in her strange, creepy voice.
"Bye Rescue Team!" Spinarak shouted.
The trio walked away happily, waving goodbye and running off.
"That was crazy," muttered Cotton, though she was thrilled when Cubone placed some of the berries next to her, along with more of her promised apples. "Do you think Fearow is done eating other Pokémon?"
"Maybe," Bessie said as she glanced at her pile of fruit. "He looked pretty banged up."
"Yeah," muttered Cotton. "Well, I guess it was worth it, for all this food, and to see that bully get beaten up."
"Yup," said Cubone happily as she tried to juggle the fruits. "We are the best rescue team ever!"
"Bessie Buneary!" an angry voice cried, cutting off any further conversation. A thin creature that looked a lot like Bessie hopped towards them angrily. "Where have you been all day?" she demanded.
"M-mom!" Bessie said, surprised. "I was just… uh…"
"She was with us!" Cubone said. "We went into the woods and saved a Spinarak!"
"What? Bessie! You know that you aren't allowed in those woods! Especially with this kind of… riffraff!"
"Hey!" protested Cotton, before an angry look from Bessie's Mother stopped her.
"You are coming home right now!" the Lopunny declared, grabbing her daughter's ear and bag, before hoping off, a protesting and angry Bessie being dragged behind her.
"Um… see you tomorrow, Bessie!" called Cubone, unsure of what happened.
"No you won't!" Lopunny called back before she and her daughter disappeared into the tall grass.
Cubone blinked. "What did she do wrong?" she asked.
Cotton sighed. "She's a mom. She's a worrier. Sometimes they go crazy when their kids don't follow their plans." She looked at the sky. The sun was beginning to set, and the dark of night was approaching. "I wish my mom was still here," she whispered softly.
"Me too…" Cubone said. "But don't worry! You have me!"
Cotton didn't reply.
Cubone yawned, now realizing how tired she was. "I'm going home now," she announced. "Want to come?"
Cotton got up and began to walk off with her fruit. "No," she said. "Bye."
Cubone shrugged. "Okay!" she said cheerily. "Bye!"
The sun had almost set by the time Cubone had arrived home with her armful of fruit. The cozy little hole waited for her, its dark and warm embrace ready to rock her to sleep.
"I'm home~!" she called into the hole.
A groan echoed back. "You're back again?" her friend asked.
"Yes!" she said happily. "And I got apples and berries, and I made friends, and I'm part of a rescue team!" she declared, walking into the burrow. It took little time for her to see the purple lizard thing that gave shelter to her. His brown eyes were staring at her. "I made a friend named Bessie and a friend named Cotton and, and…" she paused. "Hey," she asked. "Why do they have names and I don't?"
Her friend sighed. "Do you want a name?" he hissed.
"Yes!"
"Alright. Your name is Bonehead."
The Cubone thought about it for a second before cheering, "I have a name now!" She put the food in front of her friend and began to dance around.
Her friend sighed. "If you're going to be here than be quiet!" he snapped.
"Okay," Bonehead said, plopping to the ground. After a second she asked, "Friend, did you spend all day here?"
"No," her friend replied. "I got a drink at the watering hole and then sunbathed on my favorite rock.
"Oh… Friend?"
"Yes?" was the irate reply.
"Do you have name?"
"Yes. It's Venom."
"Oh. That's a nice name. Very nice."
"Go to sleep, Bonehead," Venom said, sighing.
"Okay!" Bonehead replied.
Venom himself went to sleep as well, as the night air was filled with the gentle noise of insects, night birds, the wind, and h the annoyance in his burrow singing gently, "My name is Bonehead~! My name is Bonehead~!"
Tomorrow, he'd have to teach her about insults.
Well, glad I finally got to use Spinarak, one of my fave Pokemon in a story. Submit OCs and review!