Chapter 7

The days after our encounter with ninetales had been mostly uneventful. After we hiked back to the Viridian pokemon center, we had healed and rested for a day while I got to know my newest team members.

Spearow was an unusually docile member of the species, and while she had expressed an interest in being trained to evolution, had made it clear she wasn't much of a battler. Likewise with Rattata. Both seemed to enjoy the training regimen I put us all under, but neither were that enthusiastic about actual battling.

Pidgey, on the other hand, was another matter entirely. Rather than the docile little birds the games had lead me to expect, Pidgey was a warrior at heart. He seemed most at home and in his element when in the midst of a tough battle.

My Nidoran were both more typical of the species. My male was aggressive, protective to a fault, and frankly a little bloodthirsty. Once he had decided that I and the rest of my Pokémon were family, he had decided that that meant his, and it was very seldom that he wasn't keeping watch over us.

My female was a nurturer at heart. While she was still tough as nails in a fight, her main skills were as the den mother of my little group, often soothing ruffled egos and resolving the few conflicts that flared up. She was also an unrepentant cuddler. That's not to say that all of my Pokémon didn't enjoy physical contact, indeed most nights at days end found us all in a pile near the campfire, but my Nidoran seemed to love nothing else as much as a good cuddle while I scritched behind her ears. Except maybe for the male.

The two of them were almost overwhelmingly adorable. At this stage, they acted more like children, but if I watched them when they weren't looking, I'd catch them flirting shyly with each other.

Which brings me to Ralts and Vulpix. As the only two Pokémon I had who could somewhat effectively communicate with me, the two of them had started something of a rivalry with each other. Both were fiercely loyal to me personally, but they would often compete with each other for my attention. To be honest, I didn't really know what to do with the situation, so I resolved to let them figure it out on their own, stepping in only if it got out of hand.

The two of them seemed a little wary of Misty, however. I could only guess as to why. Misty herself seemed to enjoy traveling together, and to be honest, so did I. My Pokémon were awesome, but it was still nice to have human companionship. And she was skilled at Pokémon training, as befits a gym leader.

We found ourselves in the middle of the Viridian forest, groping through the dense trees towards pewter city. I was on the lookout for three particular species of Pokémon that I knew lived here, but all I seemed to find so far were bug catchers. My team and I had battled until we were exhausted, yet still we kept getting accosted by more and more of them.

"Pincer, use visegrip!" The large stag beetle lunged towards rattata, it's pinchers clacking together as it screeched menacingly.

"Rattata, quickly! Use super fang!" The tiny mouse Pokémon disappeared in a quick attack flash before harshly sinking her large incisors into the pinsir. The pinsir screamed, flailing wildly before rattata was flung into the ground, hard.

I held my breath as she got to her feet, shaking badly. This had been a tough fight, I knew she was almost at her limits. She shook herself with a determined squeak, then the wondrous happened. Bright light engulfed her small frame, infinity energy. I watched excitedly as she rapidly grew, her ears lengthening, her body filling out rapidly. Her tail lost its curl and fur, becoming a long wormlike appendage, her fangs grew even longer, her whiskers lengthened. As the light faded, a Raticate stood where a Rattata once was.

"Holy crap! That was awesome! Congratulations Raticate!" Raticate looked back at me and smiled, before turning back to the pinsir with a snarl. "Hit it with a bite attack!"

The much larger rodent lunged at pinsir, faster than she ever had been before, before sinking black glowing fangs into its carapace. The pinsir dropped to the ground, passed out.

"That was indeed a good fight! Never have pinsir and I been so challenged before! Take these winnings and good luck on your travels, trainer from pallet town!" The bald samurai said as he returned his bug.

As he passed over my the prize purse, I couldn't help but ruminate over the differences in this world and the games or anime. For one, there was a marked scarcity of male trainers. The vast, vast majority of the bug catchers I had fought were female, which was in and of itself odd. If misty was anything to go by, I would have assumed that girls were terrified of bugs.

Every time we fought a bug pokemon, she tensed up and started shaking terribly. I tried to by sympathetic, phobias weren't always reasonable or logical, but I still couldn't help the fact that it was a little funny.

I bent down to talk to Raticate before I sent her to the ranch. "Alright girl, I know you've never been much for battles, but you've evolved all the same. I am very proud of you and I can see how happy with that you are."

"Rrrrrrrati!" She smiled. "Cate." She pointed at my pokedex.

"You want to rest at the ranch?"

"Cate! Cate! Rrrrrraticate!" She nodded emphatically.

"Alright then. You know to keep up the regimen right?" She nodded. "And any Pokémon I send over, you'll look after right?" She smiled and nodded again. "Ok then. I'll still bring you over sometimes so we can see each other. I'll miss you." She padded over and gave me a hug. I petted the thick fur of her back for a minute, then returned her to her ball.

I pulled out the pokedex and started fiddling with the menu. Eventually I came to the box link function, and pulled up the list of my reserve pokemon. It showed one entry; Spearow. Navigating the options, I set up an exchange, then waited.

Spearow, and any other Pokémon I caught, weren't always just waiting in stasis like the games, most often they were loose and out on the ranch grounds. Which meant that an exchange consisted of the professor receiving a notification and then going and getting the Pokémon in question. Eventually, the pokedex would transfer the pokeball from my belt to the lab and the replacement from the lab to my belt. I'd hear a loud ping when it was done.

Until then, me and Misty packed up and kept walking. We were about halfway through the forest at this point, talking while I kept an eye out for Pokémon.

"Misty, I don't mean to be insensitive or anything, but why exactly are you so afraid of bugs?"

She flushed with embarrassment. "It-it's kind of stupid."

"I won't judge." I said as we walked through the trunks.

"Sigh. I'm the youngest of four sisters. When I was little, my sister daisy pulled a prank on me. She switched my stuffed teddiursa plushy with a real dewpider. I woke up cuddled up to this really scary looking spider thing. It scared me so bad, I've never been able to look at bugs the same way ever since."

Ah. Well that made sense. From what I remember of the anime, it never really went into the whys and wherefores. A young girl suddenly waking up next to a large spider would do the trick. "That was really mean. Do they still treat you that way?"

"No not really. My sisters are a lot older, I was kind of a miracle baby, so they're very overprotective. It's one of the reasons I decided to strike out on my own for a while. I wanted to prove I could handle things on my own."

Again, that made sense. Although… "Misty, do your sisters know where you went?"

"Uuuuuhhhhh…. Weeeeeeeell…."

I shook my head ruefully.

It was at this point that a small yellow shape burst out of the woods frantically before collapsing several feet away.

"What in the blue hell?"

"Scott look! It's a pichu!"

And indeed it was. The small yellow rodent looked banged up, covered in scratches and scuff marks. It looked right at me with wary eyes as I eased my way closer. I palmed Ralts' pokeball as I crouched down, noting the sparks flickering around its cheeks as it watched me.

"Easy, little fella, easy. I won't hurt you. Ralts, I need you." I hit the button and my first partner appeared in a flash of white light.

"Rrrrralts?" She looked at the pichu with clear concern.

"Ralts, I need to know what happened. Can you ask this pichu how it got this badly hurt?"

"Ralts ra ra!" She gave me a jaunty little salute, then started speaking rapidly to the little mouse. It answered the best it could, weakly squeaking as it struggled to muster the energy to breath. I rummaged in my pack for my supplies, picking out an oran berry and a full heal.

"Pichu, I want to give you some medicine for your injuries, is it ok if I rub this ointment on you?" The little mouse tensed up fearfully, looking back and forth between me and Ralts, before warily nodding. I opened the full heal and scooped a glob of it on my fingers. I touched the mouse Pokémon and felt a weak electric tingle cross my skin.

"Woah. That's different."

"Pi?"

"Oh! Sorry, I've never touched an electric Pokémon before. It's almost like touching a battery. I can feel your electric charge."

"Pi-chu pi." It, she, huffed. I could sense that a tinge of amusement was peeking through the fear and pain.

I continued to rub the full heal into her skin, making sure to cover the scratches and abrasions. When I finished, I helped her sit up before I handed her the oran berry. She looked a little surprised when I gave it to her, her mouth a little "o". As she gingerly took the berry, I turned to Ralts.

"What'd she say?" Ralts turned to me and we touched minds across the ineffable connection we shared. The sensation was indescribable, but I got images of angry yellow and purple shapes, swarming around a large tree. The air filled with stings and powders.

"Oh no."

"What is it Scott?" Asked Misty.

"You won't like it."

She paled. "It's bugs, isn't it?"

I nodded.

She whimpered.

We burst through the trees to see a shocking sight. The air was filled with butterfree and Beedrill, swarming around a large tree. As I looked closer, I saw a strange machine at the bottom of the trunk that seemed to be sucking up small yellow and green shapes.

"It's stealing their young!" Misty said. "I don't like bugs but this is still deplorable!"

"We can't get to it without going through them first."

Pichu, who up to this point had been riding in my backpack, pointed frantically to the branches of the tree. I saw a small group of black ears poking through the leaves.

"I take it that's your family?"

"Pi-pichu!"

"Lovely. Alright then! All hands on deck, prepare for an all out assault!" I said as I threw my pokeballs in the air. "Nidorans! Attempt to break through and stop that machine! Spearow, Pidgey, Vulpix! You three have type advantage, try to take out the swarms! Ralts, try to teleport into the tree and get the pichu out safely!"

Meanwhile, I heard Misty giving her own instructions. "Staryu, starmie, water gun the bugs so they can't fly! Don't let them get near us!"

A chorus of trills, chirps, barks and noises from the sea stars that I can't properly transcribe met our commands, as our Pokémon moved into action.

Ralts disappeared with a flash, as Spearow and Pidgey began launching gusts at the swarm. Vulpix shot barrages of fireballs while Misty's pokemon waterlogged the flying bugs. My nidorans charged through the mass of body's, the male covering for the female as they reached the machine. She cracked it open with a double kick and a wave of Caterpie and Weedle washed out of it.

I took the opportunity to catch one of each, then turned my attention to the fully evolved forms still swarming around us. They weren't in any mood to calm down, broken machine or not. This was going to suck.

I continued to issue orders until Ralts landed on my shoulder, panting heavily.

Pichu. All. Safe.

"Good job Ralts."

"Ra."

The onslaught continued. In ones and twos, bugs kept falling out of the air, but I could tell my Pokémon were getting tired. I wasn't sure how much longer this would last. We might have to make a run for it, which didn't fill me with a good feeling. A blind panic run could get us lost.

Pidgey shot out of the swarm like a meteor, hitting the dirt with a thud. Spearow followed soon after. Pidgey shook with rage and bloodlust as he struggled to stand. Spearow was all but spent, but gamely tried to stand as well.

Suddenly both birds erupted in white light. Pidgey grew much larger, his tiny feet grew into large talons, his head grew out into a sporty red crest and his tail feathers lengthened and turned a rusty red and cream.

Spearow also grew larger. Stubby wings grew long and majestic, the short neck and beak both lengthened out, the legs grew long and the claws sharp.

The light faded and both birds shrieked their jubilance to the skies. Pidgeotto and Fearow took to the wing, and the bug pokemon began to fall in large numbers.

"Congratulations you two! Damn fine work!"

My Nidoran limped back to me, covered in stings and bruises. They were done. "Return guys, mission success! That was very well done!" I returned my Nidoran to their balls, clipping them to my belt. Ralts rested off to the side, while not as battle intensive, multiple rapid teleports had left her utterly exhausted. She wouldn't be able to help much after this.

That left three Pokémon, half of my active team, left active on the field. As I watched, a massive fireball exploded from the center of the mass of swarming bugs, knocking about half of them into the dirt, smoking.

Vulpix was standing in the center of a large blackened area, shaking and panting heavily. She was just about done.

"Vulpix! Great job, return!" I called her back to her ball. The swarm was now noticeably thinner, my Pokémon had worn through the majority of them. Pidgeotto and Fearow were sending powerful flying type attacks through the remaining clusters, KO'ing them one by one.

It was then, of course, that all hell broke loose.

From one of the last few clusters of Beedrill, a truly massive one burst forth. Big, easily twice the size of a normal Beedrill, and angry, the Beedrill made a loud, deep call, then lunged for me. I dived out of the way as quickly as I could, and tried to figure out what to do next.

It dove at me, again and again, and each time I dodged it, making it madder and madder. Then it saw the family of rodents.

It lunged for them and I tackled it. It was big, but it was still a bug, and it couldn't carry my weight and stay airborne. We both crashed to the dirt, the Beedrill stinging me the whole way.

My vision started to blur, I felt violently ill. Crap. The Beedrill picked itself up and I slugged it in the face as hard as I could. That almost did it. It was reeling. As my vision tunneled out, the last thing I saw was a massive electric bolt hit the Beedrill, knocking it out.