Sorry for the late upload, still another one coming out on sat/sun.

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Chapter 5

"Sticks and Stones"

The Center had been quite a relaxing experience for Avery in the days that followed. The food was good, the place was peaceful, and from what he could tell about the other children, they were all very nice. Of course, he couldn't hear if someone had talked behind his back, but he decided long ago he wouldn't let those things bother him. The few children he did speak to through writing were mostly just curious about what it was like being hearing impaired, and then they quickly treated him like a regular friend. A few of the older boys were definitely a bit wild, and he had almost got in their way a few times. But they quickly apologized.

Avery spent most of his time reading in the library, at his bed, or in the courtyard against the tree. It was the only thing that let his imagination run wild, and allowed him to enter a world completely of his choosing. Playing physical games with the others was much harder, and he could tell that when he did join them, they'd all sort of play a bit easier on him… It didn't upset Avery. It was something that Lea had asked him if it was bothering him multiple times, but his answer was always no. He just took it as a sign of kindness from everyone else, and chose to do things that he was more suited for. Lea wasn't very happy about it overall, but she accepted his answer.

Avery was a little lonely, not having someone to converse with all the time like he had with Avah back at the bunker. But he decided the trade off for that was eating with a bunch of other friends. And sometimes Lea would link her mind with him as she went about doing chores, so that she could get to know the boy a bit better. She said she admired how positive he was about his situation, and that he would become a very strong and smart person when he was older. Avery shrugged it off a bit, stating that he felt he was being more selfish than anything.

One day, Avery was leisurely reading another book on his bed. It wasn't often that anything outside the window would catch his attention, but today was a slightly different case. It was a very cloudy day with storms on and off. He was reading when he noticed something bobbing up and down in his vision, looking to the window in curiosity, he got up to check. At first he didn't notice, but when looking down at the doorway he noticed many pokemon, at least a dozen. They were all yelling something, and some of them had signs. The signs were too hard for Avery to read with the window fogged up.

He lifted the window and poked his head out slightly to read the signs, and he did not like what he'd seen at all. Each sign had some sort of hateful comment on it, usually relating only to humans. Avery felt his stomach drop reading some of them.

"Let THEM be the animals this time!"

"Get rid of their stains!"

"Nobody will miss them!"

"Filthy humans, get rid of them!"

He stopped himself from reading anymore, as he was in complete shock already. He had no clue that some pokemon would feel this way, but he also understood… Some of these pokemon used to be wild pokemon, with a terrible opinion on humans. Especially if they knew about the fact that humans had almost driven everyone in the world extinct…

Avery didn't like it but he understood. So he felt no malice towards the pokemon parading their opinion at the bottom. In fact, he felt pity. He was a little zoned out as he watched the crowd, and hadn't realized that their attention had moved to him. Shouting insults and otherwise to the unsuspecting child. It was only when something made contact with his face that he snapped back to it, falling backwards onto the floor in a daze. Slowly he looked down to his right and there was a rock, not a huge one but it was sizable enough to injure. He touched his forehead, and after bringing it back to look his entire hand was red with blood. And it started to run down and over his eye.

He felt a psychic energy prick at his mind, and he allowed it in. Lea questioned him worriedly, "Avery are you alright? I could sense that you felt upset." She asked quickly, knowing that he rarely got upset.

Avery replied, she could sense a growing pain coming from him through the connection, "I… somebody hit me…" He trailed on, seething with pain.

It was only a moment or two when Lea entered the room, rushing over to him on the floor. When she saw what had happened to the boy, who was cowering on the ground. Avery could feel the boiling rage and malice towards the crowd outside. She glanced at the open window, and the rock on the floor. "They did this!?"

Avery nodded, "I don't know why… I…" Lea's breath seemed to freeze and her anger put on hold, as she looked again at the child's face, covered in blood which was slowly dripping over his eye. Her heart ached at the view, reminding her of some of the earlier days of the catastrophe. It was made all the worse as Lea could feel the same pain he was through the connection. She choked back a few tears of empathy as she kneeled downward and embraced him.

She suddenly picked the child up in her arms and shushed him as Avery began to cry as well, the pain catching up to him even more. She glanced out the window with a hate filled scowl, and almost every pokemon froze as they felt the anger. It was so powerful that she had a visible psychic field around her. She held it for only a moment as she rushed Avery to the bathroom, where she sat him on a stool. Finn rushed in behind her, "Lea what happened? Your-" he stopped abruptly as he saw the injury on Avery's head. "Was it?-" A nod quickly responded to him.

"Oh they've really done it this time." He said clenching his fists angrily.

"Finn be a dear and get me the first aid kit," She said in the sweetest voice, it was almost scary how calm she talked with how angry she was. Finn only nodded and rushed away.

Lea grabbed a small cloth and wetted it, before gently dabbing it on his forehead. Finn returned only a few moments later and set it down on the counter as he pulled out a phone. "I'm calling the HRR. There's no way in hell I'm letting them get away with this."

Avery hummed as she continued to clean the blood, "It's not that big of a deal honestly. I understand why they hate us, I was just confused."

Lea shook her head, "It's not okay, Avery. If that rock had hit an eye, or broken your nose…" She seethed with anger again. Shaking the very thought from her head.

Avery only nodded once at her words, as she revealed the actual injury below all the blood. It was an ugly scrape full of cuts and pebbles, she thanked Arceus that it wasn't a gash that needed stitches. She had Finn take a picture of it before she cleaned the wound, and put a large bandage on it. She washed the blood from his hands, and afterwards she soothingly caressed the child's cheek, "It's all patched up now sweetheart."

Finn poked his head back in, "They said they're already on their way. Someone on the street saw it happen and called it in." Lea nodded once again.

Seeing that he was still upset, she picked him up and into her arms, cradling him to her chest. "That was a mean and awful thing they did to you."

Avery didn't know why it had upset him as much as it did. He understood their anger and their hatred, but it felt so unfair to be on the receiving end of it. But then he felt angry at himself, for being upset. "But I.. I can understand… should I forgive them?"

Lea even noticed his feeling of confusion, and quickly corrected it, "They weren't in the right by doing that at all. You have no obligation to forgive them. Alright?" She said sadly as her anger returned.

"O-Okay…" Avery said as he buried his face into her neck, she smiled and placed a hand on his back.

She walked downstairs, most children had no clue what had been going on as they were too busy playing. It was only when a few of them saw Avery and the aura of anger around Lea that they all realized what had happened. Avery realized slowly that she was walking to the front door. He almost panicked for a second but she rubbed his back gently. "You are safe, little one, do not fear. But I must show them the effects of their actions, some pokemon may be older but they act like children themselves." Avery wasn't quite sure if he understood, but he allowed her to continue.

Upon opening the door, the crowd which had begun arguing with themselves went completely silent. The aura of pure anger grew larger around Lea as she glared at the crowd, "You're lucky," She said frighteningly.

She watched their confused expressions for a few moments before continuing, "You were given everything in this new world. And yet you all chose hatred." A few pokemon flinched at her words as murmurs racked through it.

"You want to know the part that disgusts me the most?" She said scanning over the crowd, "As I was cleaning his face, which was covered in blood. This child asked if it was alright to forgive you already." A few pokemon turned their heads away at that. "A child has more compassion and maturity than every single one of you combined!"

"You all make me sick." Lea spat at them with hatred as her aura grew larger, "You're no better than you were eight months ago when you roamed the forests as a wild animal! You should be ashamed!" She yelled.

One pokemon stepped forward, an angry looking Rhydon, "And who are youuu to preach to uuus? All you do all day is look after the little… *hic* rodents. A bunch of pests is all that they are." He looked around him to the crowd for support but they were all averting their gaze, conflicting feelings washing through them. He hummed in disbelief, "You all are going to believe what sheee says!? Listen to her, she's a… complete maniac!" It was clear at this point based on a few slurred words, that the pokemon was also not completely sober.

Lea stared deep into his face, "Anyone know who threw that rock?" A dozen or more hands all raised and pointed at the Rhydon immediately.

Rhydon glared angrily around him as he shouted, "What? Is that such a bad thing? Hey, you know w-what!?" He shouted, "I'll say it again, I'll neeeever respect anybody that speaks for one of those.. damn rodents! Do you hear me boy!?" He seemingly shouted to Avery.

Lea slowly set the child down, he was only sniffling his tears away. And she slowly approached him, the rest of the crowd stepped back a few times, "The 'rodent' as you so insist on calling him, his name is Avery."

She took a few more steps and Rhydon grinned smugly, "I don't… rightly care." he said whilst stumbling.

Lea continued, "Avery, saved a child he didn't know from a burning vehicle on that day. He was found living out in the wilds after seven months."

Rhydon growled, "I really don't care. You think this changes my opinion?"

"Avery," she said, stopping and leaning forward to glare in his face, "Is deaf."

A few murmurs came out of the crowd at that, and Lea grinned, "Yep, that little insult you just threw was such a waste! I'm sure when I tell the HRR about what you've been saying they'll be so thrilled!"

The Rhydon stomped his foot angrily, "The HRR won't do a damn thing. And meee and the rest… of these people will keep… *hic*... carrying on, regardless ooof what you have to say missy."

There was a resounding sound of things hitting the ground. Rhydon turned around angrily to see multiple pokemon dropping their signs of hatred to the ground. Lea felt herself smile smugly, she couldn't help it. As just at that moment half a dozen cop cars stopped just outside the place, and the expression on Rhydon's face was golden.

Many officers rushed onto the scene as they surrounded the crowd, and Zane, the chief of the HRR walked up to Lea, eyeballing the Rhydon who was shaking. "I see you've put the fear of Arceus into them already tonight Miss Lea."

She nodded slowly, "And it was my pleasure," The chief laughed at that and brought someone else over to write down her report.

After explaining the entire story to him and showing him the pictures as proof, Zane glared at Rhydon, "Hey, loser!" He shouted at him, catching his attention and pointing towards Avery, "Me and my team just saved that child from drowning only five days ago. Hurting him is like an insult to me and my team!"

Rhydon was now visibly shaking as he held his hands up and begged slightly, "I won't do it again I promise! I-I'll-"

Avery had stood up finally, and walked over to the Rhydon who was on his knees. Zane reached his arm out to stop him but Lea quickly grabbed it. And Avery stopped right in front of him, the Rhydon stared at him in utter confusion as the child spoke. "I forgive you… I don't k-know exactly what you've said… But everyone deserves forgiveness." Avery reached out and grabbed the Rhydon's hand, and surprisingly, the Rhydon didn't budge for a moment.

It was only a few seconds later when a look of hatred passed over the Rhydon's face again, and he pulled his other hand back to punch the child. His fist didn't go far, as it was caught by Lea's psychic power, and he was quickly tackled to the ground by two more officers. Lea came over and picked up the saddened Avery, who was looking at his feet again, "Not everyone can be reasoned with sadly." She said, wiping a few tears off his face.

The rest of the crowd who was not long ago protesting, had now joined in on yelling at the Rhydon and spouting insults. Lea smiled at that, "But those that can be, were definitely moved by your actions. Wonderfully done dear…"

Avery smirked looking up into her eyes, "Did I do a good job?"

She giggled and kissed his forehead, "Your plan worked wonderfully. The rest of them seem to be having a change of heart already." She said smiling as she watched the crowd yell at him even as he was placed in the back of the cop car.

Zane shook his head, "He'll be in there for a long while. Sorry for taking so long, Miss Lea."

Lea shook her head, "It gave me time to yell at them, which works fine for me."

Zane smiled and looked at the child, "Are you sure he doesn't need a doctor's visit?"

She shook her head, "I checked to see if he had a concussion already, he'll be alright."

This being the first time Avery had seen Zane since the time he was saved, Avery smiled, "Thanks for s-saving me with the o-others."

Zane smiled brightly and ruffled his hair with a wing, before turning to shout. "Alright! Unless you would also like a one way trip to the jail, I'd suggest you scatter back home!" He quickly followed it up with another comment, "And I hope you think twice before doing this again. I see some familiar faces in another protest you're not going to like me!"

The crowd dispersed, picking up what was left of their signs. A few even came up and personally apologized to Lea and Avery, saying that they only hated what humans had done and hadn't thought it through when they decided to protest an orphanage. Kairo came over, informing his chief of the fact that they were done gathering evidence and witness testimonies. Before they could leave, Lea stopped him, "Sorry but, Avery was wondering how the search for his partner is going."

Kairo turned around, and from his look it wasn't the best news. "We're trying our hardest… Apparently a data breach by what's left of Team Flare caused our data to get corrupted. So we've lost a significant portion of the index of partners still looking for their kids. At this pace, the data recovery will take another week hopefully. And even then there's… No guarantees." Kairo was obviously upset by having to relay this information, and Lea nodded understandingly.

"I'll tell him. Thank you for your work tonight officers." She said bowing slightly.

They said their goodbye and left. Lea retreated back inside just as it began to drizzle again, where Finn was waiting in the doorway having seen it all. She brought him into the connection so Avery didn't feel left out, "Never a quiet day," Finn commented.

Lea just smirked, "But it's always an interesting one. Come on, I think it's time for dinner."

"Lea," Avery quipped, still being carried in her arms like a small child, "Thank you."

She hugged him again, and wordlessly sent her love through the connection. She knew that the children here were temporary, but she always allowed herself to get attached. But the children loved her, and that's all that she needed to make it worth it.

As the officers arrived back at the office, they filed all the evidence for the arrest of the Rhydon. It was growing late now, and many officers were leaving for the night, being replaced by a few overnight officers. Kairo was at his desk, organizing what he had done today back into folders as he collected his things. Another pokemon nearby tried to strike up a conversation, "So, what do you think about the whole thing?"

Kairo glanced tiredly up at the quistoner, a Drilbur that was looking over the top of his cubicle. Kairo raised his brow, "About what thing?"

The Drilbur acted like this was an obvious answer, "The part where the office is no longer an HRR office. Y'know? Miss Spiritclaw is turning us all into run of the mill cops here…"

Kairo leisurely shrugged, as he took his officer hat off and put it in his bag. "I'm not so sure it changes anything. I mean you were there with us earlier, it's going to just be more of that. Keeping the order in town."

The Drilbur hung off the wall, releasing an exhausted sigh, "But that was just some call involving humans. What we're getting into is going to be a lot more dangerous. Like taking down those pokemon groups that still work for the terrorist organizations."

Kairo stood up from his desk, glancing at the Drilbur like he was rambling, "I'm going to do whatever keeps the paycheck coming now. And if I save a few people, that's great." He turned his back on his colleague and walked for the exit.

Drilbur chimed one last time, "Don't you think it's silly? Risking our lives for humans? I mean, that's really all those terrorist groups want gone anyway."

Kairo grit his teeth, and clenched his fist. "If you have a problem, than I'd suggest taking it up with that Spiritclaw gal." He said before shutting the door to the offices.

Kairo sighed away his feelings as he walked, making his way down an elevator and passed his bosses office. "I'm out Zane."

"That's Chief to you." Zane called, "Good work today." he said following it up.

Kairo smirked, and thought back on what had happened. Remembering that Avery was still looking for his partner, he decided to give it an extra check. Maybe they'd gotten lucky and fixed it already? So before he left the building he turned down a hallway for the research center. When entering there were a couple pokemon going about their work, and one overseeing the main system. "Hey, Arlo." He said, greeting a Krookodile.

His friend absentmindedly waved and smiled, until Kairo stopped next to him. "Kairo what's up buddy. Thought you left already."

Kairo shrugged, "I was about to, but then I thought of checking up with you guys. How's the recovery going?"

The Krookodile scratched his head, and groaned slightly annoyedly, "Well… It was a whole system failure. At this point we're just begging it to work again, let alone get our registry info back."

Kairo's eyes widened, "Isn't that like a big deal though? There's still tons of children missing, and many looking for their partners as well."

Arlo huffed, "Yeah, it's a real disaster alright. But we haven't given up on it yet. We have a few really old backups, we're hoping they have most of our mandatory info still."

Kairo and Arlo sat in silence for a while as the Sceptile stared at the screen that said 'DATA RECOVERY, 32%' and grimaced. He didn't want to have to give any kid bad news that they would possibly never see their friends again. But he suddenly remembered something, "Oh yeah, how'd you guys send a report to Miss Spiritclaw anyway?"

Arlo glanced between his other colleagues which had suddenly stopped typing, and Kairo raised his brow at this. "Did you even-"

"Look," Arlo said with a sheepish laugh, "We sent a physical report, but knowing all the mail raiding that those groups keep doing… It might not have made it. Best to wait for the digital space to be back up, no?"

Kairo shrugged, rubbing his face exhaustedly, "You know what, you guys keep at it. But I'm out."

Arlo waved at his friend's fleeing form, "See ya later alligator!"

Kairo couldn't help the large smirk that appeared on his face from his friend's old antics, "After a while Krookodile." He said laughing his way out of the building.

A week had passed since the incident with the Rhydon. Avery was keeping his cheer up, but there really wasn't much to hope for. Avery knew that if they really couldn't find Luna, that he'd have a hard time making it through. The holidays were coming through now though, and every child in the building was helping Lea decorate. They did many group activities and arts and crafts, making autumn leaves and turkeys. One day they all pitched in the rake in the leaves from the outside, until there was one giant pile and they all got to play in it.

With the days counting by, Avery was definitely becoming more of a recluse than he'd previously meant to. At first he was ecstatic to be here, and actively played with the others. But eventually at some point he just stopped, unless Lea made everyone do it, he wouldn't show up. Instead, he'd often find himself hanging out with Finn, who considered himself too old for many of the activities, and had no qualms with having some extra company. They were in Finn's room, Finn would often sit at his desk and draw, while Avery would sit in a beanbag and read. Finn would encourage Avery to mostly read out loud, he always said he wanted him to keep his voice used. He was hearing impaired, not mute. And if somehow he ever gained his hearing again he'd want to be able to speak.

Avery didn't mind it much, he was more worried about how Finn would feel with him reading out loud. But Finn said it helped his imagination, oftentimes he'd draw certain parts of the book that Avery was describing. Avery would always stare in wonder at each picture, Finn was a very talented artist, each picture looked exactly how he'd imagined in his mind. One day while reading, he was happily reading along, that was until something happened in the book that upset him. Finn noticed that his narrator was gone, stopped abruptly, and glanced at the child. Avery was just staring at the page, his vision becoming unfocused as his eyes were vacant.

Finn turned in his seat, leaning forward. Avery noticed his curiosity and he stuttered back to reading, "A-And if it w-weren't for the… quick thinking of Jeremy… we all would have gone up i-in flames. T-The fire roared in the… In the v-vehicle and-"

Finn got on his knees and slowly lowered the book from in front of Avery. So that he couldn't read it anymore. He quickly wrote out, "You don't have to read that part Ave. Okay?"

Avery shook his head, "It's fine. I-I don't know why I'm…" Avery zoned out as he remembered the burning vehicle, and then the explosion afterwards. He could swear he almost felt the heat of it again, as the blast hit him. When he was in the bunker it hadn't really hit him. But now living back in the city again, it was hard to think about. Something so simple and ordinary had changed his life completely…

Finn shook him lightly, displaying a kind look as he shook his head no. And from the desk he brought down another book they'd been reading. He smiled at him as he coaxed him on, Avery quickly flipped to the page they were on. And began reading again. This was a fantasy book, so there wasn't much risk there. He knew that it was childish to freeze at the simple mention of a burning vehicle, but he was glad that Finn wasn't bothered by it.

A few more days went by even, and Avery was curious. He loved it here, but he just knew that this wasn't where he belonged. His injury had healed, at the least. He just became worried over the simplest of things, that if he thought about it for a moment more he would reply 'No' to. But yet they would still plague and ache in his head until he'd cry, but he never liked crying.

His thoughts were always doubtful. Maybe Luna was gone forever? Or maybe she'd simply moved on without him and forgot about him. Then the worst one he couldn't help but think of each time… Maybe Luna just didn't want to be with him anymore? What if his last family member simply didn't care about him? That was Avery's biggest fear, being stuck with only your own thoughts for most of the day was a curse sometimes. And he would occasionally have panic attacks over that very question. Lea was very good at soothing him out of those, but the doubt still lingered. And it always would unless he finally was reunited with her.

It was a rather quiet morning back at the HRR offices, Zane was quietly lounging at his desk with a sigh. Ever since they'd found everyone in their jurisdiction, it essentially felt like they were being paid to sit around. There weren't orders yet from higher ups, and the city overall was quiet with not much need for law enforcement. It was when his secretary called him from the front office, that Zane raised a brow. This was a rare occurrence. He answered the phone, and listened for only a moment, as he was patched through to somebody else. His eyes widened and he sat upright and straight again. "Y-Yes! This is Chief Zane of the Santalune City HRR."

He nodded his head as if the person on the other side could see him, "Yes Ma'am. I apologize."

The Garchomp sighed, "So sorry ma'am. Our database has been completely wiped by a cyber attack the past month…"

Zane stood from his chair, mumbling more apologies into the phone as he made his way down the hallway with a bit of speed in his step, "Right away yes, yes."

Zane made it to the research center, "Just give me one second!" He said before covering the phone to block noise, "Arlo!" He yelled urgently.

Zane looked back at one of the other workers, "Go get me Kairo wherever he is. Right now please."

Arlo came running from a server room, "Yes sir! What's up?"

Zane suddenly looked very pale as he looked down at him, "Did you get the server up and running? And did you send that report already?"

Arlo hummed, "Afraid the server is just barely rebooting today sir. We sent a physical copy but-"

Zane heard shouting from the phone and quickly brought it back to his ear, "Yes! Yes of course we are so sorry! I could let you speak to my head of research here right now if you'd like!" Arlo took a step back as he grew fearful.

Kairo suddenly entered the room with a supremely confused look, "You needed me chief?"

Zane walked quickly over to him, as he nervously talked to the device, "Yes I'm sending somebody over there right now! I promise, no more delays!" He apologized on the phone as the caller finally hung up.

Zane looked around nervously, and grunted as he leaned in to whisper in Kairo's ear. After a few moments a growing look of apprehension covered Kairo's face. The Sceptile looked shocked, suddenly he blurted out;

"That's his partner!?"

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END

Thanks for reading, see you next chapter!