Chapter 9

Integrating Dash

Dash wakes up and sees that again he is the last one up again. He sits up and realizes that his team handkerchief of Sparks is across the room and he is wearing a white bow tie. Dash is a little confused. "How did this bow tie get on me?" He walks to the handkerchief and he takes off the bow tie and puts on the handkerchief. He walks outside.

"Good morning Dashy," Sparky said.

"Um... Good morning," Dash replies.

"How are you doing?" Sparky smiles.

"I'm doing alright. Did you put the bow tie on me?"

"Yep!"

"Why?"

"I thought you looked cute in a bow tie, but you don't need that to look cute. You're cute how you are."

"Oh."

"This all must be strange to you."

"Ya."

She hands Dash an apple, "You must be hungry. You ran a lot yesterday."

"May I remind you that I was running from you all?"

Sparky looks down, "I know but I couldn't let you go back to him to get beaten for losing Scouter and to get poisoned by his lies."

Dash chuckles, "You act just like your brother; you both say that the other is lying and then say your truth is right."

Sparky doesn't say anything.

"Where are the other two?"

"I sent them off to do something for me."

"And not me?"

"You would drag your feet."

"I guess..." Dash looks away.

"Plus I need to know that I can trust you and right now, I don't.

"Cyndaquil doesn't either and you both have a right to not trust me but I have a right to be trusted too."

Sparky pauses to think about what he just said, "Ya. You do have a right to be trusted and I will if you do what I say."

"If it's within reason I will but I'm not fighting against Sparks. I will also not help him or you with information of the other side."

Sparky surprised said, "So you don't believe what I said about him?"

"I'm not saying that, I just need to put pieces together before I am sure that I want to help your side or Sparks side. If you're telling the truth then you have nothing to worry about."

"Um... okay. I'll respect the boundaries you have put." She pauses, "If you think I'm pushing boundaries then tell me and I'll see what I can do."

"Okay."

"So... What do you think of me?"

"Well, you are nice but we just met and anyone can play nice for a few days."

"I know but please trust me."

Dash doesn't reply.

"Did I say something?"

"Well, you tell me to trust you yet, you don't trust me. So why should I trust someone who doesn't trust me?"

Sparky pauses to gather how to answer the question. She looks away and said, "Well... Sometimes we just need to take a risk. Every time we trust someone we take a risk that they will turn on us or leave us in the open for attack but we put trust in others because we need to. We need to put trust into someone so at least we can feel that much safer. Dash... We need to trust each other even if it isn't long term. You may run away tomorrow or next week or next year, but as of right now, we need to trust each other. You may not realize it but you trust me a little to not kill or hurt you right now. You may not think so but you do. You are not readying yourself to fight me and you're not attacking me to defend yourself. I also am trusting that you won't hurt me right now. So, we do have that little trust for each other. It was stupid of me to say that I don't trust you because obviously that's not entirely true. Come on Dashy we do trust each other even a little."

"Ya... I guess so. Sometimes when our un-trust is more powerful than our trust, we start to lose confidence in that pokémon or person and then we accuse them of doing something thus preventing us from trusting each other."

"Ya," Sparky smiles, "At least we can agree with that!"

Dash and Sparky look at each other for a moment in silence. Dash hands Sparky back her red apple because he wasn't hungry. Sparky eats the apple in front of Dash. She again offers the now half eaten apple to Dash and again Dash refused. Sparky finishes the apple. Dash sits on a fallen tree in the darkened soil. Sparky sits next to him with their hands almost touching.

Dash finally said looking off in the distance, "So you know what I think about you, what do you think of me?"

Sparky replies looking at Dash, "Well I do think you're nice. You are very perceptive too. You also seem to stay with the truth and you don't want to mess of the truth like Sparks and I have."

"That's pretty accurate, I think. Did Penny tell you who I was or something?"

"No. She didn't seem like she wanted to talk about you very much."

"I see," Dash said softly.

"I'm sorry Dash. Penny just doesn't seem interested in you. You're a great oshawott though. I like that mark on your face, it definitely makes you different. Plus you have an awesome personality."

Dash still softly talking, "Thanks."

"Dashy..." Sparky hugs him, "She might not see how cool and awesome you are but I do."

Dash hides the love hurt feelings for Penny from Sparky, "When are they coming back?"

"Who?"

"Cyndaquil and Penny."

"Oh! Fireback and Penny! They'll be back soon."

"Fireback?"

"That's Cyndaquil's actual name. He needed to hide it from Sparks and his team."

"Ah."

Penny and Fireback get back from their orders. Sparky immediately lets go off the hug. Penny said, "Okay, we got as many apples as we can hold."

"We would have got here sooner but Penny insisted that we get a fish for Dash."

Sparky looks at Dash and giggles, "So the otter likes fish. I could have guessed that."

Dash smiles at Sparky, "Yep. I love to eat fish." Dash looks at Penny, "Thanks Penny, very thoughtful of you."

Penny smiles, "Oh, You're welcome."

"So, we have half a day to burn what do you all want to do?" said Sparky.

"Well, Dash is new so we can let him choose." Fireback said.

Everyone looks at Dash wondering what he'll say. Dash shrugs. Sparky said, "We can build a campfire and roast some berries and Dash, you can cook your fish."

"Thanks but I eat fish raw. I don't alter it at all." Dash said, "But a campfire is a great idea."

Penny and Fireback nods.

Sparky orders Penny to go get some firewood and branches and Fireback to secure a place for the campfire. Dash was ordered to go with Sparky to get rocks to border the fire. They all go do their respective orders.

Dash starts speaking with Sparky, "So, it's just you and me again."

Sparky smiles, "Yep."

"So, you don't trust me to get the rocks myself?"

"No, I trust you. It's just that I want to get to know you better."

"Ah. Well there's not much to me."

"Come on now. Someone as cute as you has more to them than they show."

Dash's face turns a little pink, "Well, I don't know what to say about me."

"Can I ask you questions then?"

"Ask away."

"Well, where did you get your marking?"

"Personally, I wish that I knew the answer. I think I was born with it but I can't be too sure."

"Ah. So even the owner of the marking doesn't know. I think you look good with it."

"It has gotten me into more trouble than good."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, for starters, I got kicked out of the oshawott clan that I was born into. Everyone in the clan, including my parents, abandoned me," Dash picks up a rock, "If I'm seen near the group than I'll get beat up and almost killed. Lots and lots of trainers want to capture me because I'm very different. Professors want to do lots of tests on me to see what caused my dash or marking as you call it. I'm curious too but I don't want to be pricked by lots of needles to figure out why."

"I see. Do you hate your marking?"

"Before I met Sparks and you I did, but now, I'm not so sure what I think about it anymore."

Sparky picks up a rock, "You should like it. It's a part of you and you should always like yourself. How can you like someone else when you don't like yourself?"

"You hide yourself from yourself."

Sparky hesitates from the quick answer, "Well that's not the way to live."

"It's a way to hide from the pain."

"You can't always hide from the pain and yourself. You'll be forced to face yourself and all the pain you've bottled up one day."

"I guess," Dash picks up another rock.

"What does pain you anyways?"

Dash remains silent. He picks up the heaviest rock of the bundle.

"Dashers, tell me. If you can't tell me than how can you tell yourself your pains?"

"Luck? Why do you care?"

"Two reasons: the first is that it's my personality to help others that are in pain and the second is that I don't want you to think of me the way Sparks portrays me but I want you to see me for who I truly am."

"You're going to cause pain for yourself if you're always helping others. You might also be hiding pain from yourself by worrying about others and not focusing on yourself. So maybe I should ask you, 'What pains you?'"

"If I tell you then you'll tell me right?"

"Right."

"Okay," Sparky takes a deep breath, "Sparks is someone who pains me right now but maybe it isn't all his fault. Our parents died at a young age. That's why we don't talk about them much. They died at an age that we remember that they exist but not long enough to spend any time that we truly remember. So we are both very hurt by it."

"What happened to them?"

"Deforestation."

"By humans?"

"Yep."

"Yet, you're defending them?"

"Yes and no. Yes I want to destroy the people that killed my parents but not innocent people who had nothing to do with it."

"But you're defending all humans."

"Not really, I'm just protecting the ones who I know is not part of the institution that kill our parents."

"I see."

"I wish I could see them right now. What pains you?"

Dash hesitates to answer. After a minute of picking up rocks he finally said, "The clan I was born into, as you know, kicked me out. I lost a good friend that I watch die when I could have done something to safe him."

"Scouter?"

"Yep."

"If you would have tried to save him you would have been killed too."

"I would have at least tried."

"Come on Dashy. I didn't want to kill him but I had to."

"I wanted to help him but I didn't."

"He ordered you to run."

"And?"

"And you followed orders."

"Maybe I should have disobeyed."

"No. Sometimes it might seem weird but you need to follow orders. When you follow orders, you become united with the group."

"Ya..."

"Come on. Let's go back to the group and make the campfire. That'll make you feel better."

Dash and Sparky walk back to Fireback who was waiting for them. He leads them to the site that they would build the fire. Dash decides that he would wait for Penny when she gets back with the sticks. Dash arrives at the area that they met and Penny pops out of the nearby tree. Dash asked, "How long were you there?"

Penny answers, "About five minutes."

"You were here when Sparky, Fireback, and I met up?"

"Yep."

"Why?"

"Oh, my own reasons."

Dash a little annoyed doesn't reply.

Penny smirks and giggles, "So Dashy eh?"

Dash face turns bright red, "Were you spying on Sparky and I?"

"No. I just happened to be in the same area."

"W-w-well," Dash starts to sweat, "She's calling me that by herself. I didn't ask her to call me that."

"D'awww. You two would be cute together."

"R-really?" Dash realizing what he said doesn't give Penny a chance to answer, "She said the same thing with you and me."

"Not surprising."

"But you're not interested in me."

"Who told you that?" Penny tilts her head.

"Sparky. It makes sense though. You always try to get away from me an-"

"That's what we call hard to get." Penny smiles and leaves to the campsite for she saw where it was when the other three met. Dash stands there for a minute thinking about what she just said and what she was hinting at.

Dash walks to the campsite. His one thought walking there was, "If Penny likes me and she saw Sparky flirting with me, why didn't she stop her?"

Dash arrives at the fire already started and all of them cooking their berries. Dash sits across from Penny and Sparky with the fire in between them. The flames were high and bright. With them cooking their berries, Dash pulls out the fish that Penny had given to him. Dash looks into the changing flames and the cooking berries. Sparky offers him a cooked berry but Dash refuses. Everyone starts to eat their respective foods.

"Dash, have you ever tried to cook your fish?" Sparky asked.

"No," Dash said, "Why alter something that is already good?"

"How can you tell if the normal one is better if you don't try the cooked one?"

"Why risk it?"

"Without risk, how can you live?"

"What? Aren't I'm alive right now?"

"True, but this is a small scale risk. Don't you get curious?"

"Well, ya."

"Why don't you take a piece of the fish you have less and cook it? That way if you don't like it, then you still have some fish that remains raw."

"I don't know."

"Come on Dash."

"Oh, fine," Dash rips off a piece of the fish and hands it to Sparky. Sparky stabs the meat with a stick and puts it in the fire.

After a few minutes the smell of cooking fish fills the air. "That smells good!" Fireback said. Dash doesn't reply.

Few more minutes pass and Sparky hands Dash the cooked piece of fish. After playing "hot potato" with himself, he puts the piece in his mouth. He chews it and gulps it.

"Well?" Sparky asks.

Dash replies with, "It's not bad but I like it raw better."

Sparky smiles and said, "Well aren't you glad you tried it?"

"I guess."

"You guess? You seem to be guessing a lot, Penny is this normal for Dash?"

"No," Penny said, "He's usually pretty sure, and he gives straight answers but him guessing is new. Dash, what's wrong?"

"What are you talking about?" Dash said in a higher pitch voice, "I'm perfectly fine."

"Dash, you're not yourself."

"Hm?"

"Is this because of what happened to Scouter?"

"Perhaps," Dash said folding his arms.

"Dashy," Sparky said, "Please stop living in the past. We can't change it. We all make mistakes Dash. Please forgive us. I never meant to hurt you. I know you still have that heart of yours that wants to forgive."

Penny interrupts, "And that heart scale."

Dash looks away, "How can I forgive someone else when I can't forgive myself?"

Sparky answers, "Dashy..."

"No!" Dash looks at his scalchop and then looks at Sparky, "Sparks may not have been perfect but he never killed my friends."

Sparky stands up, "Dash, calm down."

"I am calm!"

"Dashy, do you really believe that?"

Dash looks away, "N-no."

Penny walks over to him. "Come on Dash. Let's go to sleep. It has been an emotional day for you. Let's go."

"O-okay," tears start to form. He leaves before anyone sees the tears that he has shed. They all sit in silence trying to comprehend what just happened.

"Do you think Dash will be okay?" Sparky asked.

Fireback and Penny exchange looks at each other and they both shrug. "But we do need to help him deal with this pain. We can't lose the pain for him but we can at least guide him in the right direction." Penny said.

"Okay but we need to help him tomorrow he probably is sleeping in tears right now." Sparky said, "Sometimes the best thing to do is let it all out."

They all leave for bed. The fire burns for a little but slowly dies in the night. Eventually the warmth of the fire disappears.