~~~ Ch. 4 - Earned ~~~

Lanky sat down under the tree, pulling from his bag a sandwich that smelled of sugar and eggs. Miltank meat? Maybe the one pheasant type, uh, unfezant, right? Climbing up the tree, again I reached out my stick-arm, rubbing the small barbs against the stem of a few leaves sticking out on the end of some branches. The leaves caught, and with a slight tug, they detached. As a medium-sized oak tree, the leaves were large.

I hopped back off the branch onto the ground and into the noon sun. A quick pull of muscle in my arm, and the leaves released onto the ground. Lanky talked. I turned my head to him. He proffered another berry, making an up-down motion with it in his hand.

Ugh. The kid continued waving his berry at me. What do you want, kid? I’m not gonna do tricks for food. Then he tossed the berry up in his hand and caught it. Ah. I open my mouth and he tosses it. The arc was too short, and I wasn’t about to try playing berry-catch with my mouth. It missed and hit me in the thorax. Spearing it with the end of my arm, I plucked it off and ate it. It was some good stuff. This shit was sweet.

Turning my attention back to the project in front of me, with the leaves in front of me, I sat down and spread the leaves apart. A quick slice down the center of each leaf's central vein, and they were ready for grafting.

A few more cuts to align the now-split leaves together, and they were in the basic outline of the curve of my right forearm. Lanky continued to take small bites of their sandwich, as I hummed to myself a little tune. "E, e, e eeA!" Get me a record deal, stat.

It was time to sew them together. A quick pressure in my mouth, and I opened my jaw, letting it drip onto the leaves like a kid who didn’t know how to spit. Crisscrossing the silk over the split sections, the layout was set. While the silk began to dry, I tried whistling again, but the lack of muscles and flesh meant I couldn’t shape my lips, preventing me from making those high-pitched vibrations.

I picked up the soon-to-be-leaf-blade, and sewed it together all along the ridge that would get attached to my arm, first spraying it with silk, then biting small puncture holes and threading it through. Over-under, over-under, over-under, so the process proceeded.

Of all the leaves I’m covered with, only the ones behind my head seem to grow naturally. At least, grafting new ones on around the back would be an incredibly awkward affair. I hadn’t had to graft any new ones on in that spot. I set about laying a small line of silk like glue along the bottom of my arm.

Lanky continued to watch as I laid down on the ground in a plank-position, hoisted by my left arm, I slid my right arm into place, attaching the sewn-together leaves in place. There were rumples and some gaps, but once the leaves set, it would naturally iron out. This was the most complicated self-graft I’d performed my entire time since waking up as a pokemon.

That was when I heard it, or rather, felt the vibrations of it. The yipping. The dog I’d passed earlier, a few blocks down. Still in plank position, I waved my right arm around a little, raising slightly off the ground. The sliced-and-resewn-leaves wobbled, but remained attached.

The yipping was getting closer, followed by some kids’ voices.

I sat up again and stood back up on my legs, waving the new leaf-blade-to-be around a little. I’d just have to hope that it wouldn’t fall off while handling whatever was about to happen. When the leaf only wobbled a little, it would have to be enough. I could produce a surprising amount of silk, but that mass didn’t arise out of thin air.

Lanky was saying something, motioning, pointing towards the street. He wasn’t holding a berry. "Eeeeeaaa," I moaned at him. He chirped back in response. "Sorry, leafbug. I don’t like dogs either." I’m going to put words in humans’ mouths, so long as they’re not making any sense!

With the kid on my right and a view of the park and street to my left, I sense-heard the vibrations of the dog yipping. Once again, even as I stood up, Lanky’s mouth moved, and vibrations continued emitting from his vocal cords, but the dumb rockruff from down the road. Stupid dog. I hate dogs. It was barking more. Stupid, poorly-trained weiner dogs yipping away at me from the comfort of their owner’s purses as human-me tried to make a double-mocha frappe late on ice but minus all gluten, shaken, not stirred, oh, and it had to be lactose-free.

As the dog rounded a corner, the two bullies were in back. Bully Blonde held the leash as the rockruff tugged and yanked.

I stood up a bit taller, pulling out a couple of razor-leaf-blades and loading one onto my good arm, walking out towards the cement to greet my challengers, Lanky in tow. Two more kids rounded the corner, followed by the purrloin from earlier. Great.

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The dog saw me and stopped barking, instead just trying to tow Blondie forward. Bully Brown-hair had changed shirts. Did potions work on humans? If I actually hit him with that blade from earlier, he didn’t show it. I didn’t see any pokeballs, either.

Despite the pup’s constant pulling, it didn’t strain or even break Bully Blonde’s grip, the end of the leash was lashed around his forearm, threaded through meaty fingers. The kid wasn’t fat. He had to be a good meter taller than me.

I stood up straighter and proffered my blades, the bullies stopping about 50 feet away, the smaller kids behind sat further back, watching me.

Oh, Arceus. This is going to turn into a straight-up pokemon battle. I tried to frown. Unfortunately, I don’t have the facial muscles for that. Instead, I spread out my blade arms and hissed as they approached.

In the games, even a smaller and weaker but trained pokemon could beat a wild one, if only by virtue of knowing better moves. I surveyed the surrounding area. With the park partially fenced off, the only place to fight was the street.

I looked at Lanky, who just shouted at the bullies with some exaggerated movement. "Leafy here’s going to make you regret bullying me!" The dog was about a fourth of my height. And evidently, not really trained. The purrloin from earlier took its perch on one of the smaller kids’ laps as they sat even further back.

"Next you’re going to tell me there’s a torchic behind me and I’m about to die from some flame attack," I complained, but neither the pokemon, nor the humans cared to respond. Probably because what came out was incomprehensible pokemon blabbering. Bully Blonde pulled the dog back and knelt down next to it, whispering into its ear. Well, it wasn't quiet enough that I couldn't pick up the vibrations, because I did hear them. But their words were about as comprehensible as my own. I did not understand human speech any more.

The dog was stupid and untrained. But that didn’t really mean I wanted to hurt it. So long as I didn’t take a direct hit, I could scare it and the bullies off from my park again. Grass-type advantage would give me some unfair extra damage. I resolved to resolve the interaction as best I could without harming the dumb dog.

I knew what to do, as I approached the center of the road, posturing some more. Encouraging the now-four-kids-two-pokemon to back down. Purrloin may have just been licking itself but decided to never take its eyes off me. Rockruff was barking again.

Improperly trained. Probably. I probably wouldn’t have to deal with complex strategies. An untrained animal might mean it wouldn’t stop if it got the upper hand when let off the leash. My arms being used as a chew toy for the dog weren’t an ideal image.

Lanky took a position directly behind me, saying things more to the bullies, who responded in kind. Insults, I was sure. At the bare minimum, the yipping dog-type would be limited by their owners.

Blondie let the dog off the leash, and time slowed as it launched straight at me.

The dog was 30 feet away, the leash hit the ground with a clink.

Straight at me. 20 feet away. The pressure built in my mouth, jaw clamped shut. I widened my stance and raised my right arm.

10 feet away. The thought of silk, the pressure held back behind the shut jaw.

The dog leapt at me, right at my thorax, right in the chest area.

5 feet away.

I step to the side with a twirl, raising my right arm and taking a couple steps back. The rockruff hits the street, moves to turn back around—and my right blade-arm was already there. Pressing the leaf into the animal’s shoulder, pushing it into the cement, I opened my jaw and sprayed the overeager pup with string.

A yell comes from behind me while I hold the dog down. Using the bottom of my leg to keep the dog still as the silk dried, I stood up.

Lanky takes a fucking bow. I spin around, rotating with all my weight still on the pup, turning to our aggressors. The dog lets out a soft whimper.

Whatever the fuck, I say to myself, mimicking Lanky’s motion with my left arm as I faced the would-be attackers, taking a bow of my own.

The dog will just be getting left with a good bruise today instead. Tentatively, I take pressure off the dog, and when it doesn’t get up… Holy shit. Time returns to normal, the dog rolls over, and the shouts from the bullies indicate they were presumably calling the animal back to them. No pokeball, no return. Shit sucks.

The area around me felt brighter.

With the bullies and their (siblings?) watching, I stuck my foot at the rockruff, gave it a nudge, measured the trajectory, calculated the needed force, and gave them some courtesy airtime on the rockruff express, right back to its owners, plowing into Bully Blonde in the chest and knocking him on the ass.

We all have dreams, all right? The skirmish decided, and eyes, ears, and tail of my opponent drooping, I pulled a step back from the rockruff, who stands up and heads back to their owners. The drying silk keeping it from outright running, it trips over itself on the way back.

Proud of my restraint at giving the dog a trip on the discount airtime express, I looked at Lanky, his mouth moving as he talked. He offered up another berry from his bag.

When he tosses the berry. This time, he didn’t miss.

"You earned this"

https://i.imgur.com/IoL8Iun.jpg [https://i.imgur.com/IoL8Iun.jpg]