Searching Far and Wide - 142

Teams:

Pierce Lawson:

- Narcissa, Beedrill

- Orion, Onix

- Cygnus, Kadabra

- Bellatrix, Gyarados (Shiny)

- Andromeda, Vaporeon

- Regulus, Meowth

- Sirius, Yamper

Lillian Dale:

- Root, Ivysaur

- Talon, Spearow

- Gem, Geodude

- Star, Cleffa

- Cinder, Vulpix

Route 7 IV

Pierce woke up with a start that day.

A loud bark made him jump inside his sleeping bag, twitching and his good arm reaching out for he wasn’t sure what. A flash of a yamper passed through his mind, as he stirred, trying to come up with a source for the sudden noise. However, his first guess was wrong though, which was no surprise seeing as he was still mostly asleep.

He knew that because Sirius was actually barking by then, apparently.

“What’s going on?” Pierce called, rubbing his eyes and wondering why his day had to start like that. At least nobody was attacking them, he supposed. He was pretty sure he’d be hearing moves thrown about if that were the case. The fact that the sound of his voice stopped the barking contest further supported the theory that things were alright. ‘What pokemon decided to drop by and wake us up… before dawn, what the fuck?’ he thought after checking his pokegear to see the hour.

He was definitely stopping for a nap somewhere during the afternoon.

“An old visitor seems to have followed us,” Cygnus told him. A moment later, he was sent the mental picture of a houndour, which made his eyebrows raise. Sure, they only had about a day’s worth of traveling since the last time they saw the Dark type and sure, it wasn’t that much considering how long it took to pick up and set up camp, but still. “He seems… distressed,” his kadabra supplied then, unsure, which was probably due to the fact that he couldn’t gleam a single thing from the pokemon’s mind, considering the typing. “You’d be correct.”

‘Gotta learn to read others like the rest of us non-Psychics, buddy,’ Pierce told his kadabra as he finally went to make his way outside the tent. He was spared more than a mental scoff as he turned to look at the houndour, who was very much distressed. He was crouching, as if ready to attack, but he was also trembling and looking around nervously. Even the growling sounded more afraid than angry, which was very telling too.

“Hey there, little one,” he greeted, his voice softer and more reassuring than he was already planning on it being. This was a pokemon in need of help, so he guessed it was time to honor the Protector part of his title. “Is something the matter? Do you need help?” he asked, glancing around for any signs that some other pokemon might have bothered it or something of the sort.

No such thing could be found though.

The houndour answered that with an odd, strangled bark, like the Dark type had a knot in his throat that didn’t even let him “speak”. Pierce was growing increasingly concerned with the pokemon in front of him now. Dark types weren’t easily scared. They were bold, angry and borderline reckless at the best of times. Others were scared of them, not the other way around.

“Come on, little one, breathe,” Pierce said, keeping his tone the same as he approached it. He sat down on the ground as close as he could get without making the thing more twitchy than it already was and he started demonstrating. “Breathe with me, alright? In and out, slowly, watch,” he instructed and then spent a good minute getting the pokemon to calm down.

Or that was the plan, because as soon as it got a semblance of calm, it barked a strangled line of “conversation” at him. The most Pierce could put together was that there was something out in the forest that was the root of the houndour’s concern. It kept glancing at a specific spot and it seemed to grow more worried, afraid, every time it did so.

“Ok, something’s going on in the forest, huh? Do you need us to help, or do you need us to be scary for some bully out there?” he asked and his response was an immediate bark. Then the houndour started moving, shifting on its paws and glancing in a way that told Pierce it wanted to be followed. So, he nodded. “Alright, into the forest we go. Can it wait a bit while we pick up everything or is this urgent?” he asked calmly, mostly to Cygnus.

That was replied with an immediate whine from the houndour, who beat his Psychic to the punch.

“His mother is injured, trapped,” his kadabra explained and he felt something cold wash over his mind, like a bucket of water had been thrown over his head. Suddenly, he almost found himself hoping he’d been woken up by a wild pokemon feeling a little too bold and mean instead of… Whatever it was that was going on at the moment.

“Alright,” he muttered sharply, feeling himself more awake. “Andy, Orion, Bella, you’re staying and guarding camp, alright?” he decided and the vaporeon nodded immediately. He must be guessing the urgency of the situation right, if she wasn’t even going to complain about having to babysit the gigantic babies or about the nickname. “Everyone else, I’ll change real quick and we’ll be following Houndour to see what needs to be done. I want you all on your best behaviour, this is important,” he said and, for once, Regulus acted like he knew what the word serious meant.

Sirius, for his part, looked mostly a mix of scared and confused, but that was better than deciding to act up so Pierce counted that as a win. Narcissa wasn’t flying about anymore, but she looked ready to do so if necessary. Cygnus, the last of the forest group, wasted no time at all, moving to help Pierce get ready, picking up his backpack and setting everything he’d need to take with him just in case while he dressed.

“Alright, little one,” he said a few minutes later, feeling very guilty at the increased distress of the Dark type. Going out into the forest in his sleeping “outfit” would have been asking for trouble though, one way or another. Besides, he had to make sure he had everything that could possibly be useful in his backpack and for that he needed a bit of time to wake up fully, in the absence of coffee. The last thing he wanted was to forget something and have to backtrack.

From there, they followed the houndour, who was really in a hurry, by the looks of it. Pierce had to recall Sirius just to keep up and he was struggling, on account of being more than a little out of shape and with an arm in a cast that made moving with any sort of grace and dexterity a struggle. Thankfully, his arm was already mostly fine and the cast was for the sake of extra safety, otherwise he wouldn’t have been able to even try to keep up.

As they moved, Narcissa dashed forward, checking the area and trying to find the houndour’s mother to make sure she was alright. He didn’t know what had injured her or what had trapped her. He didn’t know if there was some aggressive, dangerous pokemon out there either. He didn’t-

‘Wait,’ he thought, remembering that this was the same houndour that had found them two nights before. The same houndour that had seemed on edge, nervous and unsure, if he remembered right. The same houndour that had eaten and then ran off with a berry in his mouth. ‘Was she already trapped back then?’ he thought, a pool of dread opening in his stomach.

He pushed that aside though. He could worry about that later. As it was, Pierce had one thing that he needed to worry about at that moment and it was to find the houndour’s mother and help them both. Everything else was secondary and could come later, as far as he was concerned.

When Narcissa came flying right back though, faster than she’d left and with frantic buzzing, Pierce grew even more worried, borderline afraid. It wasn’t often that his beedrill behaved like that. Something bad must be going on then, and that just made him feel worse about not having tried harder when he’d first met Houndour. Once more though, he pushed that aside.

“Cygnus,” he said and he didn’t even get to voice any more words before the kadabra teleported behind him. “Narcissa, tell Cygnus where to go, we’ll speed Teleport there. You accompany Regulus and Houndour, alright?” All he got was a sharp nod before the Bug type turned towards the Psychic type, but that was fine.

“I’m ready,” Cygnus told him and Pierce nodded before closing his eyes. He had a feeling he didn’t want to just get flashes of different places in quick succession. That sounded like it’d leave him dizzy as hell. He felt his pokemon teleporting them both though, with barely a second between each “step”. Eventually though, after one of those “pauses”, Cygnus reached his mind once more. “We’re here.”

So, Pierce opened his eyes.

“Fuck,” was his immediately response to what he saw.

In front of him was a houndoom, injured and trapped indeed. The problem was that she wasn’t under a rock or a tree. She didn’t have a few scraps or maybe poison stubbornly clinging to her. What Pierce took in was the sight of a pokemon with a steel trap mangling her hind leg. The mother looked awful and that was probably still incredibly generous to the situation.

The Dark type barely looked aware enough to realize she wasn’t alone anymore, but it was definitely awake. Her glassy, dull eyes found him, but they barely seemed to acknowledge their presence beyond that. She let out a weak whine, twitching and whining even harder when she moved her leg.

“Fuck,” Pierce repeated, gulping and trying to assess the situation. Taking off the trap would probably be tricky if the houndoom hadn’t been able to do that herself. It was probably a lot harder and stronger than a mundane steel trap. Maybe a “magic” metal from the pokemon world. He didn’t remember if that was a thing that existed or not. It hadn’t been something at the forefront of things to learn about nor something he’d come across. And if it was, he hadn’t paid enough attention to remember, since the pokemon world tended to trivialize – and make him trivialize – fantastic things.

Even if they could take the thing off, the injury was serious and he wasn’t sure he could confidently treat that without risking messing up somehow. He couldn’t make things worse, not really, but he could make it so that the recovery wouldn't go as well as it should. He could probably check his books and pull it off, yes, but this… this was beyond a simple injury or treatment.

The trap changed everything.

Pierce took a deep breath in before reaching into the side pocket of his backpack and pulling out his pokegear. Immediately, he called one of the numbers he had on the speed dial. Fortunately, it only took a single ring before someone picked up.

“Hello, you’ve called the Emergency Line of the Kanto Rangers,” he heard a man say from the other side of the call. “What’s your emergency?” he asked, not quite urgently, nor dull. There was a cold, efficient and direct touch to his voice that somehow calmed Pierce down a fair bit.

“I found a houndoom with a hind leg in a steel trap in Route 7, off the main path,” he said and there was a long pause. Whether because of the situation or how he went straight to the point, Pierce didn’t know, but he didn’t have enough time to get worked up about it before the man spoke again.

“Understood. Can you give me your name and ID number, sir?” was the question he was given, which he answered almost immediately, taking a deep breath as he waited for the man on the other side to – he guessed – finish typing that down. “Alright, we’ll need you to end the call and turn on the emergency beacon of your device, sir. Someone will arrive shortly to help with the situation. In the meantime…” There was a pause there that confused him for a moment, he’d admit. “In the meantime, if you could keep the pokemon calm and still so that they don’t injure themselves more, that’d help. But please don’t put yourself in danger.”

Idly, Pierce wondered why he’d hesitated to say that, before remembering that it was a houndoom they were talking about.

“Was already planning on it,” he said anyway. “I’m going to hang up now, alright?”

“Good luck, sir.”

A moment later, he was already turning on the emergency beacon as instructed. He could hear Narcissa getting closer, her buzzing reaching his ears, by the time he finished doing that. Not that he was paying a lot of attention to either of those things. No, his attention was on the houndoom, who he approached almost immediately.

In his defense, the pokemon looked so out of it that she couldn’t have attacked him even if she wanted to, really. So, there was almost no risk in approaching or even touching the Dark type. Which was a good thing, seeing as that was exactly what he did.

Pierce knelt beside the pokemon, reaching with his good hand to softly pet her head. Because she needed to be aware that she wasn’t alone, if nothing else, and that might help drive the point home. He could feel her twitching, tense and obviously in pain. Beyond that though, there was a whine coming from her that sounded like fear to him and that sound had no business coming from a houndoom unless they were facing some kind of monster like a pseudo-legendary or something.

“You’re fine,” he whispered, running his fingers softly over the side of her neck. “Your son brought us here. It’ll be fine,” he continued and she twitched again when he mentioned the houndour, a weak bark escaping her. It was apparently loud enough to be heard by the approaching pokemon, because he heard barking in turn coming from further and he turned to see the rest of their little group making it there. “Help is coming, alright? I could help, but I might do more damage than good. Someone will come that’ll help your mother much better,” he explained as calmly as he could when faced with a very distressed houndour and what looked like a dying houndoom.

He really hoped she wouldn’t die on him, that’d be…

It wouldn’t happen.

Houndoom weren’t weak and she was holding on well enough. She wouldn’t die in the time it took rangers to get there. No way. Life wasn’t that much of a bitch, not in the pokemon world. He was pulling on all his knowledge of houndoom and houndour and he was pretty sure that wasn’t just wishful thinking, but still…

What he could do, however, was give her a little boost to make sure she would make it. That’s why he proceeded to mentally instruct Cygnus to procure some oran berries and cut them into smaller pieces. One or two of those would be enough to help the houndoom hold on without making her heal too much.

Which was where the problems could come, since the trap was still on her leg and even if it wasn’t, Pierce wasn’t sure what it’d do to her wound if it healed forcefully while in the state it was. He didn’t want to look at the injury, if he were honest. Alas, he needed to assess it. That’s how he knew that it was way beyond his current capabilities and that it was better left to a professional with a license and such. Still, there were a few things he could do to keep things from getting worse while they waited.

That’s what he did while Cygnus got the berries ready.

“Come on, just eat one or two. You’ll feel better,” he whispered after a bit, taking one of the smaller pieces and bringing it to the houndoom’s mouth. “You can do that much, come on. A berry slice and some water and you’ll be doing much better, I promise,” he kept trying and houndour joined him a moment later. He was much more effective than Pierce, to no one’s surprise, but the good thing was that the houndoom was eating the berry slice.

Half of the already small thing fell out the other side of her mouth, since she was weak, slow, clumsy and eating sideways. Pierce was fine with that. Getting her to eat any of the oran berry pieces would help. He took the water bottle offered by Cygnus afterwards and proceeded to help the Dark type drink some.

“Perfect. You’re doing great. You’ll be feeling better in no time and you’ll go back to how things should be, you worrying about your son and your son making you worry instead of the other way around,” he commented, lightly, softly, warmly. It seemed like the right thing to say, because the houndoom huffed what he thought passed for the weakest of laughs and the houndour protested weakly. “Another slice? Come on, I know you can do that much. Look at you. Some scrap metal isn’t going to take you out, I know that much,” he encouraged, picking the second smallest piece of oran berry.

That’s how a few minutes passed and maybe he was imagining it, maybe his optimistic encouragement had gotten Pierce himself to be optimistic, but he thought houndoom was already doing a little better. There was some life behind her black eyes, even if it looked like cinders to what should be a fire. There was some strength to her whines and barks, even if they came out pitiful where they should be scary. The biggest indicator was houndour though, he was no longer borderline freaking out. He was still subdued and afraid, but it was an improvement all the same.

Thankfully, it wasn’t long until he saw the flash of white that signaled someone teleporting. Still, those were some of the longest minutes in Pierce’s life, if he were honest. Right up there with…

Metal, shouting, pain, red, blurring, quieting, darkness, silence, cold-

“Thank God,” he exhaled, pushing unnecessary thoughts out of his mind and focusing on the ranger that had just arrived. He said nothing else though as the man moved to crouch by the houndoom’s leg.

“Sorry for the delay,” he told Pierce and he sounded like he meant it, even if it was also blended in that monotonous, routine voice some people developed. “You did well calling for us,” the ranger added, eyes still fixed on the houndoom’s leg as he pulled out some pokeballs and started releasing pokemon. A chansey, a machoke, a chimecho- “Now…” the ranger started, finally turning to look at him and seemingly hesitating for a moment. “Do you think you can keep her calm while I work? Otherwise, I’ll have to ask you to stay away.”

“I can do that,” Pierce replied, his hand still softly petting the Dark type’s fur. “The man’s going to help you, alright? It’ll probably hurt and probably will hurt a lot, but I need you to endure that, alright? You’re a strong houndoom. I can tell because you have a strong son,” he continued, encouraging like he had before and leaning down so he could look the houndoom in the eye. “You’ll be fine, I promise. You just have to be strong for a little bit longer, alright? Just a bit.”

[}-o-{]

[Houndoom, the Suffering Mother]

She whined and she barked when she felt the metal shift, her leg’s pain flaring until there was nothing else for her to notice. It drove away the berry’s taste lingering in her mouth. It drove away her son’s barking from her ears. It drove away the reassurances of the man that her son had brought and it drove away the soft caresses on her fur…

Until those last ones shifted.

Suddenly, instead of careful petting, the hand gribbed at the upper side of her front leg. It wasn’t particularly strong, but it was enough for her to notice through the pain. There was something hard, something desperate and it pulled her away from the pain, enough that she realized she was thrashing, barking and almost using moves.

Houndoom tried to stop, she really did, but she failed, miserably at that. Try as she might, all she managed was to stifle her motions the smallest bit. The Protector’s words rang again, but she didn’t have the presence of mind to hear him, even though his Voice pulled at her. It drove away some more of the pain though, his voice, his grip-

And then there was something else stabbing at her, giving her something to focus on other than her ruined leg. Under the Protector’s grip, she felt jaws clenching, weak and trembling. As fangs poked at her skin, Houndoom caught a glimpse of who could only be her son biting her leg, not enough to do damage, but enough to give her mind something.

She whined, and growled, and-

“Open your mouth,” the Voice spoke and she listened, for only a second before the pain destroyed that momentary calm- Except, when her jaws clamped down again, her fangs didn’t clash against each other. Instead, she found herself biting on something, something long and with an odd shape and- “Thanks, Narcissa,” the Protector said and Houndoom blinked for a moment, noticing a beedrill had put their stingers inside her mouth, sideways, for her to bite into.

The pain was far from over, but at least her fangs weren’t hurting as much. One leg was distracting her from the other and the whispers of the Voice kept her mind from clouding. Seconds passed slowly, just like when she’d been trying to walk with the trap on her leg.

And that just reminded her that she was pathetic. Her son had tried to help her for days. He’d had to help her drive away other pokemon that’d tried to bother them. He’d gone around looking for food. He’d helped her walk. How much of a failure of a mother was she that she couldn’t help her son?

“You’ll go back to how things should be, you worrying about your son and your son making you worry instead of the other way around.”

She hoped the Voice was right, she really did. Because she didn’t feel like she could go back to that. She’d thought she was dying and now… maybe dying would have been a mercy if she had to survive only to be crippled, to be weak, and leave her son alone, to fend for himself and for her. Death was better than being a burden.

“You’ll be fine,” the Protector whispered close to her ear and she whined. A prayer that was muffled by the beedrill stingers, but held no less desire for him to be right because of that. Houndoom wished for nothing else than to be able to go back to what she’d been, to be able to go back to caring for her son, helping him grow strong.

She hoped and so she endured, because there was nothing else to do. If the difference was between believing and not, she’d believe. Because a Protector was helping her, so things would be fine. Because a Voice was speaking to her, so she had to listen.

That was all there was to it…

And at some point, Houndoom realized that the pain had… lessened. She still felt like her leg was death itself, clinging to her and trying to drag her down, but it wasn’t torture, it wasn’t just pain. She didn’t have to bite down on the stingers as much, and she could very clearly look around, even when her son hesitated and his bite grew almost unnoticeable, even when the Voice went silent.

It was then that the Protector shifted and said something, not as a Voice, not to her, but to someone else. And then she saw it come into her view, the metal contraption that had almost ended her, that had almost left her son alone. It was right there… away from her leg, lying harmlessly on the grass, stained red with her blood and a little rusted here and there…

But it was away from her.

She was free of it.

And her leg was feeling better, she knew. So, as Houndoom processed that, she realized. The Protector had done his job. The Voice had spoken truth. And her prayers were answered, her pleas listened and her wish delivered.

She was going to be fine.

[} Chapter End {]

Hey guys! How’s it going?

Well, that was a chapter, a whole chapter. Didn’t expect this entire ordeal to take this long, but I’m slowly coming to understand that my writing just always seems to take longer than I think it will. Not that I think that’s a bad thing – although I’m sure plenty of you guys do –, since it allows me to give more information, more context, drive points home and make things a little clearer… Or so I hope.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the chapter, even if it was… yeah.

Discord Link: discord.gg/UTDransjJZ

Random Question: Am I the only one that likes houndour’s design more than houndoom’s? I always feel like houndoom’s design tries too hard. And let’s not even mention the mega, alright?

See you.