Dave moved through the forest, Pointers, his nidorino, and Ariados leading the way. Toji followed close behind. Their target fled ahead of them deeper into the forest, running parallel to the growing fire that had started to consume the woods.
"Damnit!" Dave growled as a branch whipped at his face, drawing a thin red line. Nothing had gone right for him this night, the man from Team Rocket groused internally. Plans A and B had failed, and then the direct assault, the tactic that he had been trying to avoid, had stalled out as well.
However, Dave could at least console himself with the fact that he had not yet failed. The primary target had not yet escaped.
Dave risked a quarter of a second to glance at Toji. The purple-haired man's expression was stoic, but Dave thought he saw a red lining around the man's eyes. Dave knew that he would have to console his subordinate later; Toji had raised Biters the poochyena and later mightyena from an egg. Dave's friend was devastated at Biters' death.
Their quarry was fast despite being wounded, but Dave knew that adrenaline could do amazing things. But adrenaline was fleeting and as long as they kept pace, their quarry would flag and then they would have him.
The small radio on Dave's belt buzzed. Without looking down or breaking stride, Dave grabbed it and brought it to his face.
"Status?" He asked.
"Not good," was Anne's reply through the device. "Most of our pokemon are down now. Do we engage them hand to hand or do we disengage?"
Hand to hand combat with the enemy's pokemon would result in at least one human death and that was assuming that there were enough pokemon from Team Rocket left to assist their humans. But if Dave didn't give that order, then the pokemon from the village could secure the primary target.
"Distract them as long as you can and then withdraw," Dave told her. "Do your best to stay safe."
"I think we're in the wrong profession for that boss," Anne replied. "Good luck. Over and out."
"Good luck yourself," Dave said before putting the radio away.
The chase continued, the terrain sloping downward into a sparsely wooded hill. Dave and Toji reduced their pace so as not to stumble. Their target did not and his speed betrayed him. He tripped and began to tumble and roll down the hill, stray branches and fallen leaves flying.
He came to a stop in a ditch at the bottom, slowly picking himself up. Dave, Toji, Pointers, and Ariados were on him before he could manage.
Following their training, Ariados and Pointers moved in sync. The bug-type wove a silk net with String Shot and hurled it at the target. Pointers fired off Poison Sting attacks to either side of the target, hemming him in.
The target shouted in surprise as he was engulfed by the sticky net. And then, while he was immobilized, the two pokemon opened up with more Poison Sting attacks. The shout turned into an agonized scream as needles embedded themselves in the man's flesh.
He went down. Dave and Toji moved closer to see if he was dead. Dave drew a combat knife as he approached.
The leader from Team Rocket was calm as he approached his quarry. Despite all the trouble and sacrifices they had made to get this far Dave kept his emotions on a tight leash. He couldn't afford to slip up now. His family was counting on him.
He was so intent on his target that he almost didn't hear the commotion behind him. Dead leaves crunched as feet slammed into the ground. Dave turned the bulbasaur from the village followed by the trainer carrying his pikachu.
"Thunderwave!" The boy shouted and the electric rodent complied. Rings of electric power flew through the air and earthed themselves in Ariados. The bug-type froze, limbs locking in place, surrounded by sparks, and then tipped over, falling on its side. It rocked there for a few moments before it was still.
"Poison Sting!" Dave shouted. Beside him Toji drew his own knife, holding it in one hand, his combat baton in the other. He charged under the cover of Pointers's attack.
The boy holding the pikachu jumped to the side to avoid the deadly needles, but the bulbasaur stood where it was. Vines lashed out and grabbed a fallen log that had been hidden under the autumn leaves. It held it up in front of itself and the Poison Sting attack thudded harmlessly into the dead wood before the bulbasaur threw it to the side.
Razor Leaves flew from under the grass-type's bulb and Toji, who had tried to take advantage of the moment when the new arrivals would be diving for cover, didn't react in time.
Human blood, dark and red by the firelight, spurted from his neck.
Toji made a gurgling noise as he clutched at his throat, fingers grasping in a desperate futile attempt to staunch the flow of crimson liquid. His baton and knife fell to the ground at his sides and then the purple haired man collapsed.
"Toji" Dave cried out as he watched his friend fall, his control cracking, his grief and terror slipping into his voice. He dropped his own knife and rushed over to tend to his friend.
Pointers let out his own cry and charged the bulbasaur who snarled in answer. Dave paid their battle no mind. He cradled his fallen friend in one arm, his other arm reaching for a pouch on his belt that would have a basic first aid kit.
Toji's hand, the one not clutching his throat, grabbed that arm, and Dave forgot the kit. Dave looked into the dying man's eyes, his friend's eyes. Toji tried to say something, but all that came out was a wet murmur.
Dave held the man's hand as the light left his eyes.
Dave reverently lowered the corpse to the ground. He closed the unseeing eyes and stood up. He felt moisture on his own face. Dave ducked into the crook of his arm and rubbed his eyes.
"You," a human voice said and Dave looked up to see the trainer. The child was shorter than Dave had thought; he came up to the bottom of Dave's chest. His features as well, they looked younger than Dave had thought they would. The boy was covered in dirt, bruises, and spots of blood. He wasn't holding his pikachu anymore.
"You, you know," the boy continued, voice odd. Dave met his eyes. Something strange was happening there. "You know what it feels like."
A light was shining in the boy's eyes. And not the orange glow of the fire or the silver-white shine of the moon and stars.
"You know what it feels like to lose someone," the boy said. "You know how it hurts."
"Yes," Dave replied slowly, emotion hitching on the edge of his voice, looking for his fallen knife out of the corner of his eye. "I've lost people before. This isn't my first fight."
"Then do you know what it's like to be hunted?" The boy's voice grew deeper. "Do you know how much fear can hurt?"
"Of course, I know," Dave replied with a small laugh. He saw the steel blade on the forest floor. "Team Rocket's hunted everywhere in Kanto."
"You know what it's like," the boy went on. The light in his eyes grew in intensity. Dave could see that it was blue. "To be hunted. To lose someone. Then WHY DID YOU DO IT TO HIM!"
Dave found the light in the boy's eyes to be more terrible than the light of the burning forest behind him. He didn't understand what was going on with the boy and he didn't want to give the boy a chance to show him.
He ducked, snatched the knife off of the ground, and then charged the boy. He brought the knife down in an overhead stab, expecting to easily power through any attempt at defense from the child.
An iron vise-like grip locked around his arm and stopped the motion. The rest of the boy hadn't moved. He still stared into Dave's eyes with those terrible radiant eyes.
"You knew how much it would hurt him to take Ted!" The boy growled, his voice low and accompanied by hints of a strange reverberation.
"I wasn't trying to kill him," Dave protested as he attempted to wrench his arm free. "His lover was an accident."
"And you didn't think that would hurt his lover!" The boy's grip tightened and the knife fell from Dave's nerveless fingers. "What did he ever do to you? What did either of them ever do to you!?"
"Nothing," Dave gasped. "I was just following orders…."
"WHY!?"
"Because I trust my commanders," Dave went on, his mouth running on honesty while he tried to pry the boy's fingers off of his arm. "If they decided that he had to die, then I trust them."
"What did he do to them then!? What did he do!?" The boy yanked on the arm, squeezing even harder and Dave fell to his knees before him. The boy, once so short, now towered over the man.
"I don't know if he even did anything to them," Dave groaned. He thought he felt something snap in his wrist. "He might have just been in the way."
The blow was inelegant, untrained. It should have sprained the boy's wrist; it should have hurt the boy far more than it hurt Dave. It should not have had the power to snap the bones in Dave's shoulders. And yet it did.
"IN THE WAY!" The boy was shouting again, his voice reaching through the fog of pain Dave found himself in. "You hurt him, you hunted him, you killed his lover, just because he might be in the way!"
The boy released his hold on Dave's arms and grabbed the front of his shirt, hoisting the man until their eyes were level.
"You know how it hurts, but you hurt him for such a stupid reason!" The boy was snarling. "WHY!?"
Dave tried to punch him with his working hand, fist slamming into the boy's face. There was a loud crack as delicate bones broke and Dave hissed in pain.
The boy growled wordlessly and threw Dave to the side. The man from Team Rocket flew into a tree, his skull slamming into hard bark.
Dave slumped to the ground and then clutched his head as painful throbs began. He felt like he was going to be sick.
He looked up and saw Pointers thrashing in midair, vines tightening around its throat. Dave tried to call out to it, tried to tell his pokemon how to save itself, but his mouth wouldn't move right. He couldn't get the words to form.
As his pokemon struggled, the bulbasaur turned to look at Dave. Before the wounded man could think, he felt something hot and sharp pass across his neck.
His neck felt wet.
Everything was getting-
Ash rushed over to Aoba, paying no mind to Bulbasaur's battle or the fate of the Team Rocket commander.
The scientist lay on the ground covered in sticky silk, a cluster of needles in his shoulder and another right over his sternum. Too many for Ash to safely remove. He glanced over his shoulder, but remembered that he didn't have his backpack, with its antidotes and potions, with him. It lay somewhere by the former campsite, either destroyed or forgotten.
Ash turned back to Aoba and saw the purple tinge on his cheeks; a sign of poisoning.
He grabbed all the needles over Aoba's sternum, hoping that they hadn't embedded themselves into bone, and yanked. Aoba gave a silent cry of pain as the needles popped out, trailing drops of blood.
It wasn't enough, Ash knew. There was still the other cluster of needles and the poison itself. He needed an antidote! He needed something other than his bare hands!
Melanie, Ash thought, he needed to find Melanie. She would know what to do!
He stood up, ready to dash off to find the blue haired woman, and then the strange feeling vanished.
Ash had nearly fainted several times over the course of the night, but he never came as close as he did then. Nothing seemed to exist except for the emptiness inside of him and the sound of his own breathing.
Like the chill from the Shadow Ball attacks, the exhaustion Ash felt was not simply physical, though it wasn't like the earlier sensation either. If the chill was a feeling in one direction that Ash had never traveled before, the exhaustion was in yet another unfamiliar, untraveled direction without a direct relation to the first.
Eventually Ash was able to gather enough of himself to escape the limbo and he lifted his head from the forest floor. The orange light of the fire had grown even brighter and the smell of smoke had returned.
Aoba hadn't moved and Ash managed to drag himself over to the man; he was too weak to stand. Pikachu let out a small, tired noise, from where Ash had gently laid him down after the last Thunderwave attack. Ash glanced back at the electric type; Pikachu was safe. Out of the corner of his eye, Ash could see Bulbasaur holding a feebly twitching nidorino in his vines.
The pokeraised child turned back to Aoba. The man was still breathing. His eyes were open and, as Ash crouched on all fours beside the man, they focused on the boy's face.
"I'm sorry," Aoba said, his voice weedy and faint. "I shouldn't have run. I should've let them kill me. I should have killed myself before it came to this."
Ash didn't know what to say.
"If I had done that then Ted wouldn't have been killed," Aoba went on. "It was the least I could do to atone for what I did. But I was too much of a coward."
"What sins?" Ash managed to ask. "What did you do?"
"I didn't think it was anything wrong at first," Aoba said, weak hands reaching out. Ash extended one of his own and Aoba grasped it, his hands clasped around Ash's smaller hand as if in prayer.
"I looked into it before I joined the project," Aoba went on. "That's why I didn't think it could be connected to Team Rocket. The funding was all clean, even if it was a little secretive. I thought it was just another genetic experiment, like what I helped with at university."
"What project?" Ash asked, brows furrowing.
"The project on Cinnabar Island," Aoba told him, eyes wild. "I didn't understand how wrong it was! I didn't know! I didn't realize the blasphemy until I saw its eyes!"
"Blasph-whats?" Ash asked, but Aoba went on as if he hadn't heard the boy.
"I quit then, but it was too late, my part was done!" Aoba was nearly babbling now, panic bringing life to his dying voice. "I had already helped to create it! Running helped no one but me! I should have tried to stop the rest of the project!"
"What project? What did you make?"
"When I heard that the mansion had burned down, I knew then that I was dead," Aoba gasped. "I knew it was responsible! I should have never gotten close to Ted. I should have never run! Then Ted would be alive, Melanie and you would be safe! I don't know how Team Rocket is connected, but I should've known danger would find me!"
"What danger?" Ash asked glancing away from the man's face to look at the wound on his chest and the needles in his shoulder. Blood was seeping from Aoba's sternum and Ash wished that he could bandage it. Ash turned his eyes back to Aoba's.
"I'm so sorry," Aoba's eyes weren't looking at Ash anymore. The fingers around Ash's hand began to loosen and the man's voice was growing quieter. "I unleashed it into the world. I'm so sorry Ted. It was all my fault. I should have destroyed it."
"No," Aoba gasped. "I should have saved it from there. It will break the world and it's my fault…."
"What will break the world?" Ash leaned closer, trying to hear the man.
"I'm so sorry everyone," Aoba's fading voice rasped. "I'm sorry Melanie. I'm sorry Aaron. I'm so sorry Ted, so so sorry. And I'm sorry….. Mew…Two."
The air around them changed, or at least Ash thought that it had. And then Ash felt a familiar sensation in the recesses of his mind, the faint sensation of psychic energy.
Panic gave Ash just enough energy to snap his head up and look around, searching for the psychic-type that must have arrived. But he couldn't see anything.
The boy grappled with the sensation in his head, trying to find some trace that would lead to the source. But then Ash realized that the air around him hadn't changed. He was simply surrounded by raw psychic energy.
Pocket Watch was the most powerful psychic that Ash knew. And whenever Ash had sensed his raw energy it had always seemed to be a single point, like a tiny candle; the volume of raw energy had almost never been enough to cover a patch of Ash's skin, let alone surround a part of him.
And this new psychic energy seemed to blanket the entire hill. It was a volcano to Pocket Watch's candleflame, sunlight to Pocket Watch's penlight.
It was like having one's attention focused on some task that lay on the ground on a sunny day, only to have a large shadow fall over the land. And then when one looked back, thinking that a cloud had crossed the sun, they saw a mountainous giant standing behind them instead.
Ash trembled as he realized the sheer scope of the psychic energy around him, the terrifying glimpse at the oceans of raw power, noticing the sheer scale of the presence behind the energy.
The presence behind the energy had noticed him in return. It was as if the moon had transformed above him to reveal a giant eye in the sky and then the eye had looked straight at him. Ash's entire mind, body, and soul was naked before it; he couldn't hide, he couldn't think, he couldn't do anything.
Ash thought that the presence gave an impression of slumber while still being aware. It was cold and uncaring, or so it seemed at first. But as it filtered through every crevice of the thing that was Ash, the boy could feel the thing's anger, burning brighter than the sun itself. And he felt the presence's pain, hidden at its edges, raw and open, a continent spanning crack in the earth spewing hot magma.
It passed over him, through him, in an instant and then the presence coalesced around Aoba. The dying man let out a feeble groan of pain and terror as it swept through him as well. His mouth opened in a silent scream and Ash trembled beside him.
The presence vanished as suddenly as it had appeared.
Ash was left there in the forest, shaking on the ground next to a man who was almost dead. The child curled in on himself, resting in a fetal position, breathing hard and fast. He tried not to think of that thing, tried not to think of MewTwo-
Ash screamed in complete and absolute terror for the first time in his life when he felt the presence return.
Once again, he couldn't run, he couldn't hide. In the face of the presence, Ash was alone; naked in the dark before a thing deeper than the oceans, vaster than the mountains, burning brighter than the daystar. Alone and defenseless as its attention was once again turned on him.
Ash wanted to weep as he felt it once again on the edges of his mind, but he couldn't even do that as he waited for it to sweep through him again.
But the presence didn't. Ash felt psychic energy gently gather at the edges of his being, a soothing touch. His terror began to fade and Ash could feel that the presence had somehow changed.
It was somehow warped, as if Ash were perceiving through some sort of filter or perhaps a great gulf of space and time now stood between him and it. And the anger was gone and so was the coldness. The pain remained, but it was no longer raw. It was faded and old, partially healed and partially scarred over.
It was enough to make Ash whimper in relief. The psychic energy soothed him and the boy relaxed-
Ash shook his head.
What had happened?
Aoba had been talking and then something had happened, but what had it been?
Ash looked at Aoba, who was resting on the forest floor. Dots of blood stained the man's shirt around his sternum, but when Ash looked at the wound it didn't seem as bad as the boy had remembered it being. The needles must not have penetrated very far, Ash guessed.
Ash then looked over at the man's shoulder where he thought there had been more poisoned needles and found nothing. Ash gently shook his head, figuring that he must have been imagining things.
The man's face was pale, but there was no sign of purple on his skin. Ash chocked that up to his overactive imagination as well.
The boy slowly stood up, surprised at how easy the motion was. Ash thought that he had been more tired than currently felt, but he might have just needed to catch his breath. Or his mind might have been playing tricks on him. After all, it had been a very stressful night.
He stood up and turned around to see Bulbsaur approaching him; there was no sign of the nidorino. Ash closed his eyes and let himself silently grieve for the poison type.
How bad is it? Bulbasaur asked and Ash opened his eyes.
He seems fine, Ash said, indicating Aoba with a gentle backwards nod of his head. I think he might have fainted after getting hit with a Poison Sting attack.
He's a wimp, Bulbasaur stated, rolling his eyes. Did you get hurt?
No, I'm fine, Ash stated, entirely truthful. His back didn't even hurt as much anymore.
Good. What's our next move? Bulbasaur asked.
Uuuhhhhhh…. Ash looked around. The smoke was starting to make its way down the hill as the forest fire grew larger. Now that Ash was no longer in immediate danger of being murdered by a criminal/terrorist organization he had time to realize that he was in immediate danger of burning to death in a raging inferno.
We need to deal with this fire and fast! Ash said. Or we need to get somewhere safe! He looked back at Aoba, lying helpless on the ground. Bulbasaur, you stay here and guard Aoba. I'll go back to camp and get the others.
No! Bulbasaur protested. I need to go find Melanie and make sure that she's safe!
We don't even know where to begin looking! Ash pointed out. The only one who might know where she is, is Aoba! And Team Rocket is currently trying to murder him! Stay here, keep him safe, and I'll get the rest of the pokemon! We can start searching for Melanie once they're safe too!
You- I- Gah! You can be as obnoxious as Squirtle, you know that!? Bulbasaur snarled. Fine, I'll keep Aoba safe, until he can tell me where Melanie is.
Melanie would want you to keep him safe even after that, Ash pointed out, jogging over to pick up Pikachu who was still lying exhausted on the ground.
And the only reason I'm agreeing to guard him is 'cause he'd want me to keep her safe instead, Bulbasaur shot back. So, you might want to hurry up before I have to decide which human to listen to.
Ash was able to make it back to the clearing where their campsite had been in fairly good time. He had needed to wrap his jacket around his face as an improvised smoke mask, but the fire's main spread had been in the other direction, so the path hadn't been closed.
When he reached camp, he found three human corpses waiting for him. The bodies lay on the ground, sprawled in unnatural positions, dripping wet, covered in cuts and burns. The bloody pieces of the mightyena lay next to them, and the shattered exoskeleton of the bedrill lay next to that.
Ash closed his eyes and hoped that their passing had been quick and painless.
He opened them again and scanned the burning clearing. There was no sign of the rest of the pokemon from Team Rocket, leading Ash to conclude they had either retreated or scattered into the wilds. He hoped that they would be safe from the fire.
The Squirtle Squad had gathered the pokemon from the village in a pile in the center of the clearing, standing around the unconscious pokemon and putting out the nearby fires. Charmander and Pidgeotto watched from nearby, resting on the ground.
Has anyone seen Melanie! Ash called out, moving to join the Squirtle Squad, Pikachu in his arms.
No! Squirtle called back, looking around as if the blue haired woman might suddenly pop up and say hello.
And where's Tauros? Ash asked, reaching the squad.
I haven't seen her since I got snatched, Squirtle replied.
I hope she's with Melanie, another squirtle said, looking around at the harsh blaze. The squad had extinguished all the flames in the immediate vicinity of the clearing, but the flames were continuing to spread elsewhere.
We've got to do something about this, Ash said. Melanie, the local pokemon, and who knows who else, might be in danger because of this!
Way ahead of you, Squirtle smirked. We've got a plan to deal with this. We just wanted to make sure that we wouldn't get interrupted first.
You do? Ash said.
This isn't our first forest fire, Squirtle said. He put his forepaws on the sides of his shell and turned to address his squad. Look alive, pokemon! It's time to have another dance off!
Ha! I was wondering when we'd get around to it! One of the squirtles shouted back.
Finally! All this smoke is getting annoying! Another called out.
The squad formed a circle in the center of the clearing, Ash and the other pokemon in the center.
Can someone provide a beat? Squirtle shouted. And Charmander, get under something!
I can provide a beat, Ash said, sitting down cross legged and putting Pikachu in his lap. He then began to clap his hands together in a steady rhythm.
Thanks Ash! Squirtle said, looking over his shoulder at the boy. Just speed it up a little and we can begin.
Ash complied and Squirtle turned back to his squad.
Squirtle Squad, Rain Dance! At their leader's command, the squad looked skywards and began to move in harmony with each other and with the sound of Ash's clapping. They swayed and jumped to the side, rotating the squad around the person and pokemon in their center. They constantly looked skywards as they moved.
Ash looked up as well. The night sky had been clear when the evening had begun. It had been choked by smoke after the fires started. And now Ash could see small wisps of clouds gathering in the sky directly above them.
The wisps streamed together, swirling into one cloud, which rotated above the dancing squirtles. It continued to grow and spin in time with their movements, switching direction when they switched direction.
Ash felt the air pressure change and a cool breeze blew through the clearing. The squirtles began to glow with a blue light that grew in intensity the more they danced.
Acting on instinct, Ash upped the tempo of his clapping. The dance grew faster, the cloud grew larger and the light grew brighter. And then, when the dancing and the clapping reached a fever pitch, Ash felt something wet land on his head.
A gentle rain began to fall and the fires hissed. Ash looked around at the rain, a smile on his lips as he viewed their salvation, and he almost quit clapping.
We're not done yet! Squirtle shouted when Ash's rhythm began to falter. Come on people, the party's just begun! Faster and harder!
Ash grinned and complied with the command. The ring of squirtles erupted into a frenzy of movement and the rain began to fall faster.
Steam replaced smoke and the constant hiss of water on fire grew so loud that Ash could barely hear his own clapping. It didn't seem to matter, the Squirtle Squad didn't need a beat anymore. Ash could no longer make out their features through the blue glow that surrounded them.
The blue light shot heavenwards and the gentle rain became a downpour. White clouds of steam rose from the flaming trees and some of the smaller fires were outright extinguished. Ash looked up and laughed, catching rainwater in his mouth.
The squirtles fell onto the suddenly muddy ground, giggling as they did so. Charmander looked on in fear and awe from under an unburnt tree, Pidgeotto providing him extra cover with one of her wings.
The rain continued after the Squirtle Squad quit dancing. The flames continued to burn, but Ash knew that their spread had been effectively halted; everything that wasn't already on fire would become too wet to burn.
You did it! Ash cried out, grinning and laughing, holding Pikachu in his arms and standing up to get off the muddy ground. You stopped the fire!
Maybe I forgot to mention it, Squirtle said looking up from where he had fallen on the muddy ground. But the Squirtle Squad is awesome!
I'll say! Ash agreed, grin growing broader as he surveyed the rain.
And then his expression fell.
We don't have tents anymore, Ash groaned. We're going to have to sleep in this. Oh, and we still have to find Melanie. Ash buried his face in his free hand. And now she's in danger of getting sick.
So are you, Pikachu pointed out, opening one tired eye to look at his trainer. You should probably find some shelter and let us look for Melanie.
Ash looked at the collapsed Squirtle Squad, the unconscious pokemon from the village, Charmander huddled beneath the tree, and then at Pikachu in his arms. He raised one eyebrow in a silent question for Pikachu.
Good point, Pikachu sighed. Well, at least Pidgeotto can help you.
Ash sighed. His night wasn't over yet.
Ash tended to Butterfree before he did anything else. The boy was able to retrieve his backpack, which had been spared any major damage in the night's chaos. He then released Butterfree from his pokeball long enough to apply a super-potion to the injury, before recalling the bug type.
After that, an exhausted Ash accompanied Pidgeotto through the dark, rain-soaked forest. First the pokeraised child had to go retrieve Bulbasaur and Aoba. And then, after helping move the unconscious man back to camp, Ash had to set out again to find Melanie.
Ash and Pidgeotto went to and fro around the clearing, the child splashing through the newly formed mud and puddles. By the time the two finally stumbled over the blue haired woman and Tauros, Ash had been soaked to the bone and was shivering.
Ash had to wait, huddled with the unconscious blue haired woman under Tauros, while Pidgeotto flew back to camp to retrieve Bulbasaur, who's vines were needed to keep the wounded woman on Tauros.
Only after Bulbasaur arrived and they got Melanie back to camp, only then did Ash let himself think about sleep. And then he groaned as he remembered his earlier realization about the group's lack of tents.
Ash didn't whimper, but it was a near thing.
The boy was able to salvage one and a half sleeping bags from the burnt wreckage that used to be their tents. He then looked at the two unconscious adults and groaned.
With Bulbasaur's aid Ash was able to get the two in or under the sleeping bags and then squished the two adults together under a tree to try and keep them warm.
What now? Ash groaned. The various pokemon from the village had been arranged in a pile on the other side of the tree, also sheltered beneath the branches for warmth. Ash didn't envy the headache they'd have in the morning.
Ash didn't envy the headache he'd have in the morning.
Now, we deal with you, Pikachu said, voice thick with sleep. Come on, I got it all ready.
The electric type led Ash to a tree right next to the one where Aoba, Melanie, and the pokemon from the village were recovering. Charmander was curled up in a little ball, tail extended into a small pile of sticks which had caught alit and was now a merry little fire. A pile of leaves and pine needles was stacked nearby, dried by the small fire.
Thanks Pikachu, Ash said with a tired grin.
You're welcome, Pikachu stated. Pidgeotto, Bulbasaur, get over here! Time for bed!
Ash lay on the ground, thoroughly exhausted from the night's events. His pokemon and Bulbasaur covered him in a blanket of leaves and pine needles. Pikachu curled up on the boy's chest, Pidgeotto draped herself over the boy's knees, and Bulbasaur let him use his bulb as a pillow.
Feeling safe once more, Ash drifted off to sleep.
AN: I'd like to thank laurwest and BlackCatSpecialist for beta reading this chapter.
And I'd like to thank everyone who left a review or comment.
Moving on, some people have commented on the pacing of this arc, which is actually a bit of a complex topic. How much of the issue with the pacing was with word count and how much of it was an issue with the weekly releases? Or, to put it another way, will readers who binge this story/arc still think that there's pacing issues?
This is also a bit of an issue with the format of fanfiction and online stories in general. Stories that would be split up into multiple books if they were published are squished into a single story. Honestly, if this was a book series, this arc would be the second volume all to itself.
It is also true that this arc is longer than it's equivalent in Symbiosis and longer than I had planned. I had thought this would be about 60k-75k words, instead of the around 90k it's ended up as. But I had underestimated how much work it would be setting up the character dynamics that Bulbasaur, Squirtle, and Charmander would have with each other, the dynamics they would have with Ash, the dynamic that Bulbasaur would have with Melanie, and how those would all change over the course of the trip.
Anyway, that's enough of my rambling.
One more thing, I won't be releasing a chapter for the following two weeks, both to take a bit of a break and refill my backlog. You can expect the next chapter to be released on the 17th of June.
I hope everyone is staying safe!
And don't forget to leave a review/comment!