Author's Note: The most updated version of this story can be found on Archive of Our Own.
A week and several missions later found me and the other five rookies ensconced at the training grounds where I had first met up with Zach. We were there, of all things, for a picnic. Linda had started lecture us recently about how we all needed to do something together. Surprisingly enough, it had been Joey who suggested having a picnic. It would be a good way for all of to hang out, and would allow us all to meet each others pokemon, which I was admittedly curious about. Zach's Magicarp, Tide was still the only other pokemon belonging to the group that I'd met so far.
All of us had taken at least two missions, so we could afford to pay for all of the ingredients for food. We had been granted access to the Center's kitchen in order to put it all together. Joey and Zach had stumbled their way through making all of the sandwiches, while Linda made some fairly simple chocolate chip cookies, and I put together a berry salad, based off of one of my mother's recipes. Damon had gotten out of helping with the preparations by informing us that he would provide the pokemon food, mostly to pacify Linda. We settled our large picnic blanket as close to the pond as possible without getting it muddy out of consideration for Zach's lone water bound pokemon.
I was the first to release my pokemon, always eager to spend time with them. I had told them beforehand what was going on, so they knew that none of the new people they'd be meeting were a threat. Zach hurried over to the pond to release Tide, while Linda released her Audino, who was named Cindy. Damon gave his signature eye roll, but released Larvitar nonetheless. After taking a moment to review his surroundings, Luca sat down next to me, and I stroked his long ears in greeting. Ari was bounding around greeting everybody in an instant, though he paid Joey extra attention, remembering him from before. Linda's Audino also greeted everyone cheerfully, though in a much less energetic manner. Larvitar remained at his trainer's side, stoic. They seemed quite well suited to each other in my opinion. With the introductions out of the way, though, everyone turned to Joey.
"Aren't you going to let your Skarmory out, Joey?" Linda asked, cocking her head. It had taken several days of working with his pokemon before Joey had been comfortable taking the D rank test, but he'd finally taken it two days ago and passed. The only thing to be heard in the ensuing silence was Tide happily splashing about in the pond. After a moments pause, Joey gave a cocksure smile, though I noticed a wary glint in his eye.
"Sure I am, Lin," he answered, then scratched his head sheepishly. "Just keep in mind that she's pretty big, and she tends to be loud." With that grabbed the pokeball of his best and released his pokemon. As she coalesced in the beam of light, she spread her wings and let out a fearsome screech. He'd really been telling the truth when he warned us about the noise . . . and her size. She looked to stand around 6 feet tall. She was definitely bigger than anyone else in the clearing.
"Eveyone, I'd like you to meet Scarlet." At the sound of Joey's voice, the large bird stepped closer to him, her feathers clinking, and lowered her head. He reached up and pet her beak. "Scar, these are my friends. Linda, Dahlia, Zach, and Damon," he said soothingly, pointing at each of us in turn. "These other pokemon you see are theirs. I want you to play nice, understand?" Scarlet loosed a quieter, metallic noise and turned her black on yellow eyes at us. Everyone seemed be frozen in place, so I stood up slowly, lifting Luca into his favored position on my hip, and approached her.
"Hi, Scarlet. I'm Dahlia, and this is Luca," I said to her, lifting my hand up. "It's nice to meet you." The armored bird pokemon considered me for a moment. Luca was tense in my grasp, ready to move at a moment's notice. Then she let out a harsh sounding trill in greeting and nudged my hand gently with her beak. Joey smiled at me and patted his pokemon's side, careful to avoid her sharp feathers. The others all followed in suit, though only Zach was brave enough to touch her.
Soon enough we were all spread out on the blanket eating our lunches. The pokemon all seemed to like the nutrient rich pokemon food well enough. The sandwiches, though a little sloppy, tasted good, and my mother's berry salad seemed to be a hit with both the humans and the pokemon, who all received a few berries from the salad from their respective trainers. Linda's cookies, though basic, were quite good, and marked the first time any of us had had anything sugary since moving to the trainer district. The food at the Center tasted well enough, but all of it was geared more toward nutrition.
When we were all done eating, Joey and Zach teamed up to play keep away fetch with Ari. After they convinced Damon to join in, Linda sat next to me in a huff and joined me in feeding Tide tidbits of berries that he'd missed out on in the pond. Cindy, a pokemon whose personality was miraculously well matched to her trainer, spent some time trying to coax Luca out of his shell. He stubbornly remained clinging to me, though, so she eventually left to try her luck with Larvitar.
"I can't believe him!" Linda burst out after several minutes of quiet. My brow furrowed in confusion until her next sentence. "I spend all this time trying to be nice to him, and all he does is ignore me, but the instant Joey, or you, or Zach talk to him, he's suddenly fine with social interaction!" She threw her last piece of berry into the pond with a splash, and Tide happily dives down to retrieve it. I went over what I'd observed of their past interactions with each other in my head, but couldn't think what to say. She groans loudly. "Not you, too!"
"I don't think it's anything against you," I started hesitantly. "Maybe your personalities just clash a little." She seemed to be listening, so I continued with a little more confidence. "Damon seems like he's a bit of a loner, so he's not used being around someone so energetic. It also seems like he's got a lot of pride. When you try so hard to be nice and involve him all the time, he might see it as a bit condescending or think you pity him. Maybe if you keep that in mind and try not to focus so much on it, he'll come around," I finished awkwardly, wincing internally at how little sense I'd made. The silence stretched on as Linda appeared to be deep in thought. "Linda?" I really hoped I hadn't screwed up. Her head jerked up at her name, and she seemed to register that I was waiting for her to say something.
"You can call me Lin, like Joey did earlier. I've never had a nickname before, and I kind of like it. Linda is so old-fashioned." She smiled at me. "You actually give really good advice, Dahlia. Thanks." I let out a huff of air in relief.
"No need to sound so surprised," I griped in good humor, glad that my little speech didn't blow up in my face. I still had absolutely no idea what she'd taken from it. Ari chose that moment to come running over, nearly knocking me into the pond in his haste. He licked cheek gently in apology before flopping over onto his side, panting. I rubbed the saliva off my cheek in consternation, but gave his ears a scratch. The boys of the group, who'd been keeping him occupied until then, came over soon after.
"Zach mentioned that he's having a bit of trouble with missions with only Tide, so we all decided to go out and try to catch a second pokemon," Joey informed us, eyes bright with excitement, while the other boys returned their pokemon to their balls. He appeared to have already collected Scarlet. I nodded in acceptance, but Linda spoke up before they could take off.
"At least help clean up a little before you go," she commanded formidably, though I thought she slightly tense. There was a bit of complaining, largely from Damon and Joey, but in short order we had all of the trash gathered up and the blanket folded. The boys eagerly took their leave. That left Linda - Lin and I to take everything back to the Pokemon Center. I noticed that she was significantly less talkative than usual, and seemed down as we walked back. Thinking on it, I realized that she probably felt left out. I hadn't really thought much on it when the boys brought up their planned trip; it was a practical thing to do and I'd subconsciously written it off as a male bonding thing when neither Lin or I had been invited. Lin seemed a lot more sensitive than I was though, and she was a very social person. On top of that, much like the boys, she still only had one pokemon, and it was a lot safer to go outside the walls in a group until we were stronger trainers. With all of that in mind, the solution seemed obvious.
"Do you want to go out and look for another pokemon with me, Lin?" I asked. "Just us girls?" She had been deep in thought when I asked my question, and seemed startled for a second before she lit up and positively beamed at me.
"Yes!" she squealed, grabbing my hands and spinning us around in a circle. "Race you to the center!" she shouted, picking up the basket from where she'd dropped it and racing off. I huffed in amusement, and draped the picnic blanket over my shoulder before taking off after her. It was good exercise at least.
After leaving the picnic supplies at the Center and grabbing some pokeballs to use, we decided to leave from the east gate. It was Lin's first time using the train system since she'd become a trainer, and she seemed discomfited with the way the people on our train avoided us, but she seemed to decide not to let it get her down after the first few minutes. She kept up a steady stream of chatter about anything from what I thought the Center would serve dinner to what kinds of cute pokemon did I want to catch, the latter of which didn't really help with the surrounding civilians who overheard her, but if she didn't care, I wouldn't let it bother me either.
We let our pokemon out as soon as the gates closed behind us. Luca and Ari didn't need to hunt this time due to their recent meal at the picnic. All three pokemon kept faithfully by our sides, ready and willing to protect us from the wild pokemon around. We kept quiet for the most part, knowing that the sound of our voices would scare away any pokemon weak enough for us to capture easily and attract pokemon that were strong and willing enough to try to kill us for being human. A Sewaddle, older and stronger than then one I'd killed on my Trial dropped from a tree to attack us, but once both Lin and I had confirmed that we didn't want to catch it, Ari made quick work of driving it off. The process was repeated when we ran into various more common pokemon such as Pidove and Patrat, a creepy, wild eyed Pansage, and a strong Heracross that had taken all three of our pokemon battling it concert to defeat. The only pokemon Lin had seemed interested in was a Sunkern that I had to agree was truly adorable, but it had fled and disappeared into the foliage before we could even engage it in battle. Things continued it this manner until we came across pond. A few pokemon had been drinking from it, but they must have all been pretty weak, because they all scattered as soon as they saw us. The only ones left were the water pokemon I presumed lived underneath the surface of the water, where we couldn't see them, and one lone Ducklett that was frolicking in the shallows of the water and hadn't noticed us yet. Lin's eyes lit up, and she seemed to quiver in excitement.
"Cindy, use disarming voice!" Lin shouted drawing the Ducklett's attention. The small bird geared itself up to attack in response, but was hit with Cindy's attack before it could. It over backwards and looked dazed when it got back up, but ran forward to batter Cindy with white glowing wings nonetheless, causing the Audino to cry out in pain. "Double slap!" Lin cried out, and Cindy complied, sending the light weight duck flying several feet. "Now pound!" With the last attack, the duck pokemon collapsed, panting heavily and seeming unable to get up, and Lin took the opportunity to toss a pokeball. The Ducklett must not have had any fight left in it, because to pokeball barely shook at all before the usual 'ding' announced a successful capture. After a moment of complete stillness, Lin took one step forward, and then another, until she was near enough to grab the pokeball containing her new pokemon. She then turned around and gave me a smile that was almost manic with elation.
"Did you see that!? Cindy was so awesome! And Ducklett is sooo cute!" she cheered, carrying on for several minutes. When she didn't seem like she would stop any time soon, I began to lead us back the way we came. Lin continued her squeals of celebration and followed without paying much attention, and Cindy was beaming as well, nodding along with everything her trainer was saying. That left it to my pokemon and I to be on the lookout for danger. It took around ten minutes for Lin to finally settle down some, though she was still too distracted to help much with driving off the wild pokemon. In all honesty, I thought it was a very good thing that I'd come along with her, because she and Cindy could be taken out by a Dunsparce at this point.
I fended off a number of pokemon on the way back, and for every one of them that I battled, Lin rattled off the various pros and cons of catching it. She seemed determined that I catch a pokemon as well, now that she'd met her goal. I didn't really plan on catching another pokemon at this point, though, not unless it was one of the pokemon that I'd noted in my studies for the Trial as something I would want to catch. All of my pokemon slots as a pokemon trainer were already full, so if I caught another before I passed the C rank test, it would only be sent into stasis. So there was really no reason to catch another pokemon until I reached C class. That was, until the events that occurred within the next hour had to be taken into account.
When we were a mere ten to fifteen minutes away from the gate, we were disturbed by the sounds of a vicious pokemon battle. Judging by the lack of human voices, it was a fight between wild pokemon. Though it didn't really have any bearing on us, we were curious enough to seek it out. What we found was merely nature following its course, but it was heartbreaking nonetheless. A large Venipede that appeared to be on the cusp of evolution was attacking two Cottonee. Normally grass pokemon weren't targeted as food by other pokemon, most of them not having much, if any, meat to them. The more aggressive breeds of bug pokemon, such as the Venipede line, were the exception. The larger Cottonee was fighting desperately against the predator, regardless of the futility of the act, in order to protect the smaller one, which had been drastically injured. They were most likely parent and child. Upon that realization, I decided to take action.
"Ari, use ember on the Venipede," I ordered grimly. He immediately obeyed, and the Venipede let out a grating screech of irritation as the fire attack impacted its side. It immediately turned its attention to us, letting loose a barrage of poison stings. Ari dodged them with ease, growling with menace. The bug pokemon cringed briefly before shaking it off, but looked slightly more cautious than before, and I realized that it must have been Ari's natural ability to intimidate kicking in. The Venidpede's next move was to use bug bite, darting in and getting the hit in before Ari could move. I realized that the Venipede really was very close to evolving if it knew that move. "Flame wheel, Ari."
If there was ever a time for the Growlithe to get the move perfected, it was now. Fire attacks were the only thing effective enough to give us a chance at beating a bug pokemon of this strength without resorting to roar. It was also a higher level fire move than ember, and was capable of causing more damage. Fortunately, Ari came through, executing a perfect flame wheel and a solid hit against the wild pokemon, who screeched in agony. "Now use ember!" The bright flames flew at the venipede, but a glowing blue barrier of energy stopped it in its tracks. It was using protect. "Again." The same thing happened. "One more time." The ember attack flew through the air once more. This time, though the Venipede clearly tried to use protect again, only a few thin wisps of energy appeared, and then vanished again as the ember approached the centipede pokemon. It wailed in pain.
Then, pokemon curled into a ball and took on a slightly brown tint, rolling forward at a rapid pace. Ari was able to dodge, but it just turned around and came right back around. "Keep using ember on it," I told Ari, but when he tried, the attack kept landing just behind it. "Aim for where its going to be instead of where it is now." With that piece of advise, the Growlithe had more luck, and managed to hit the bug several time. He was having a hard time of it though, having to worry about dodging all of the rollouts, which were steadily increasing in power as they gained momentum, on top of trying to hit his constantly moving target.
"Ari, switch out with Luca!" I called to him after another pass. Luca nimbly jumped forward while Ari retreated back to my side, panting heavily, and glaring at the Venipede with hard eyes. I kept my focus on the battle. "The next time it comes around, stand your ground until the last minute," I told Luca. "When its right in front of you, use the strongest force palm you can." Luca nodded sharply in affirmation, centering himself in a ready stance. It was my hope that using the powerful fighting type move on the Venipede while it was using a rock type move would give it a stronger affect than it usually would have on a bug pokemon.
When the Venipede next came around, Luca he brought forward his glowing white paw and unleashed his energy. The resulting collision threw the Venipede cleanly out of its rollout and Luca back several feet, though he was standing again within seconds. The centipede pokemon writhed on the ground, crackling with sparks and wailing, but otherwise unable to move. Force palm's secondary affect had kicked in and paralyzed it. "Finish it off with another force palm." Luca complied almost before the words left my mouth, and the Venipede's weak movements finally stilled. I turned my attention to where Lin and Cindy had been trying to assist the Cottonees, throughout the battle, and walked over. They were crouched over the grievously injured young Cottonee, while its parent hovered warily to the side.
"Cindy was able to use refresh to cure the poison," Lin informed me, "but she doesn't know any other healing moves, and the potion I tried to use didn't do anything." She was choking back tears. The baby pokemon whimpered softly, and its parent crooned, trying to comfort it.
"I don't think regular potions are able heal such extensive damage," I told her. "I don't even know if one of the stronger potions would work in this case." I could only think of one solution that might save it. I took out a pokeball and turned to the parent Conttonee. "If I catch it, its will be held in stasis until I can get it to the Pokemon Center. They'll be able to heal it," I said seriously to the parent. I wasn't sure how much it could understand, but it was listening intently. "But if I do that, it won't be able to come back. It will have to stay with me for the rest of its life, though, or it will be killed out here." It was true, and the pokemon I was speaking to knew it. Wild pokemon hated pokemon that had been captured by humans and were able to smell, mostly by sent, if another pokemon had spent extensive time among humans. The parent Cottonee's eyes fixed on the pokeball in my hand for several moment, then moved to the baby and back. When the baby whimpered again, the adult crooned and rubbed its face against its child's head. Then it gave me a look of deep sorrow, and nodded. I slowly reached forward to tap the pokeball against the baby, and in a beam of red light, it was sucked in. The ball didn't even shake once before it dinged a successful capture. I then pulled out my pokedex and fit the pokeball into the proper indentation, and the laser shot out to scan it.
"Registering pokeball to Dahlia Moore, D class trainer. Cottonee – the cotton puff pokemon. They go wherever the wind takes them. On rainy days, their bodies are heavier, so they take shelter beneath big trees. Perhaps because they feel more at ease in a group, they stick to others they find. They end up looking like a cloud. When attacked, it escapes by shooting cotton from its body. The cotton serves as a decoy to distract the attacker. This Cottonee is male and has the ability 'infiltrator'. Cottonee knows the moves: absorb and growth." The flash of light came next and Cottonee was gone into true stasis. While just being in a pokeball did put the pokemon in a kind of stasis, it wouldn't have completely prevented Cottonee's injuries from effecting him. Now that he was in complete stasis, he was safe from his injuries until I got him out. I used the pokedex to scan the parent next, wanting to know if it was the mother or father. "Cottonee – the cotton puff pokemon. This Cottonee is female." I exchanged a solemn look with my new Cottonee's mother.
"I promise to take care of him," I said as I stood up, and Lin and the pokemon lined up next to me. With a final nod of respect and farewell, we resumed our trek back to the gate, significantly more subdued than before.