“Dash, relax! Flint won’t hurt you,” Jonas laughed as the bug zipped away from Flint to hide behind Jonas’s back. Flint gave chase, yipping happily, only for Dash to skitter away again when he got close. Flint whined, sitting down beside Jonas, and tilted his head, watching the venipede scuttle about.
This had been the scene for the past half hour as the trio rested beside the road running from Kepler to Nova City. Dash stayed tense, his antennae twitching, while Flint frolicked in the grass making several attempts to play with the newly caught pokémon. At the slightest inclination that Flint was coming close, Dash would squeal and dart away, usually putting Jonas between himself and the playful growlithe.
"Whoa there, take it easy!" Jonas called with a laugh as the bug pokémon zig-zagged rapidly. Flint plopped down beside him, eyeing Dash curiously.
"Alright you two," Jonas said firmly. "We're a team now, so let's all be friends." Flint barked eagerly in response. But Dash continued his frantic scurrying, antennae quivering as he investigated a nearby bush. Jonas thought for a moment then picked up a nearby stick and tossed it towards Dash. "Here boy, go get it!" Flint happily trotted to where the stick had fallen and brought it back, dropping it beside Jonas.
“Not you, silly,” Jonas chuckled, giving Flint a scratch behind the ears. All the while, Dash whirred and clicked to himself, ignoring Jonas and Flint, and stopping only to investigate small flowers.
Jonas’s eyes narrowed as he thought. He whistled sharply to get Dash's attention then threw the stick again. This time Dash noticed, skittering over and clamping his mandibles around the end. But instead of bringing it back, the plump bug darted away at top speed. Jonas sighed in frustration, but quickly began to laugh as Dash ran laps around the roadside field, stick still clamped firmly in his jaws. After a few minutes, he zoomed back over and dropped the stick.
Flint barked, tail wagging as he waited for the stick to be thrown again.
“I was thinking we could try something else, buddy,” Jonas said, digging in his rucksack until he found Flint’s sock. “Now you can play together,” he added, tying knots in either end. Flint carried the sock over to Dash, where he dropped it and let out a soft woof, before picking it back up and giving it a shake, growling playfully. Dash clicked softly, then promptly picked up his end of the sock in his mandibles and chomped through before darting away again.
Jonas laughed heartily as Flint trotted back over huffing indignantly, three quarters of the sock still hanging from his mouth. Jonas smiled and rubbed Flint’s head.
“Don’t take it so hard, buddy. I think Dash might just need a little more time to get used to us.” A bright flash of light enveloped the venipede, and he returned to his ball. Jonas eyed it curiously. Dash was fast, but their bonding was anything but. He tucked the ball back in his pack and stood.
“He’ll warm up to us eventually, Flint. We just have to keep trying.” Flint barked, sounding incredibly determined, and Jonas chuckled while climbing back to his feet. “That’s the spirit, buddy. For now, let’s get back on the road. We still have a long way to go before we reach Nova City.”
Trees and wild plant growth pressed close on either side of the road, and Jonas whistled as they walked, shaded from the afternoon sun. He had never been so thankful for a breeze as he was then, the wind carrying the scent of wildflowers.
There’s something else there too, Jonas thought. He inhaled deeply and his eyes began to water. Beside him, Flint sneezed. Definitely something else. He wasn’t quite sure what it was, but there was an irritating tingle in his nose, and a tickle in his throat, like the early signs of a cold or allergies. Flint sneezed again, pawing at his snout. Jonas's eyes narrowed as he scanned the path ahead.
Ahead of them, the undergrowth near the road began to rustle, and a bipedal blue beetle came limping out. The battered heracross seemed exhausted as it stumbled onto the path. It turned toward Jonas and took one shaky step before collapsing to the dirt.
Jonas rushed to its side. He rolled the large pokémon onto its back to get a better look. Thankfully it was still breathing, but it appeared to have been on the losing end of a battle recently. Frantically, Jonas searched his rucksack for something, anything to help. He grabbed his remaining standard pokéball, grimacing. He’d hoped to save it for something else, but he saw no other way to help. They hadn’t traveled far from Kepler, and Jonas knew he could get the heracross treated there. The pokémon medic had done great work on Dash and Flint.
Just as Jonas settled on catching the heracross, Flint started barking. Jonas turned to watch, his partner advancing toward the edge of the forest growling.
“Flint, what is…”
The heracross disappeared from the ground in a flash of red light. Jonas followed the light with his eyes to where a woman came stumbling out of the woods coughing, her eyelids drooping. She carried what Jonas could only assume was the heracross’s pokéball in her hand.
“Don’t… go… into the woods,” she managed between ragged breaths, then fell to the ground at Jonas’s feet.
***
“Easy now, you’re okay,” Jonas assured the woman moments later, kneeling beside her in the grass. Her breathing was shallow, and she still seemed drowsy, but she was alive. Jonas breathed a sigh of relief and sank back from his knees to sit on the ground beside her. Flexing his fingers, he noticed he was shaking.
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Thank you,” the woman finally whispered, turning to look at Jonas as lucidity returned to her, the glazed look leaving her eyes.
“I honestly didn’t do anything,” Jonas replied sheepishly. In truth, he felt ashamed for how he had panicked, almost wasting one of his pokéballs on her heracross and then failing to help the woman beyond arranging her comfortably. He hesitated for a moment before he spoke again, “What happened in there? Your heracross looked like it was in rough shape.”
The woman bolted upright, searching the area around them for her pokémon.
“Marius! Where is he?!” she asked, frantically.
Jonas smiled, handing her the pokéball that had tumbled from her hand when she fell. “He’s safe. You returned him when you came out of the forest.”
The woman nodded, her breathing becoming more stable. Twigs and leaves stuck out from her disheveled sandy brown hair, and for the first time, Jonas noticed her clothing. She was dressed in a rugged olive-colored shirt and trousers, obviously made for the outdoors, and heavy boots. Embroidered on her chest was a pokéball, along with the text ‘Nova Observatory for Pokémon Ecology’.
Jonas’s jaw dropped and he shouted, “You’re a pokémon professor!”
“Research assistant for now, I’m afraid,” she said with a grin. “Eleanor Aspen, pokémon ecologist,” she added, extending a hand, which Jonas shook enthusiastically.
“Ecologist? So you study….?” Jonas asked, his curiosity removing any embarrassment over his lack of knowledge.
“Oh, sorry,” Eleanor said, taking down her hair to brush out the loose bits of plant life before putting it back up in a loose ponytail. “At NOPE, we study how pokémon interact with their environment. Where a pokémon lives can have a great effect on it’s development! Take your growlithe, for example. There’s an island in the far east with a lot of volcanic activity. As such…” she fished around in her backpack for a moment, then looked up at Jonas, eyes twinkling behind her glasses. “I’m so sorry. Listen to me, just rambling.”
“Oh, not at all! Don’t apologize, it’s very interesting, don’t you think, Flint?” Flint barked happily, scooting closer to Eleanor. She smiled again and pulled a small notebook from her backpack.
“In the Sinnoh region,” she continued, turning to a page with an odd-looking illustration of a growlithe, “they’ve found an area where the growlithe are dual-types. Fire AND rock.”
“You hear that, buddy? You’ve got some impressive-looking cousins out there,” Jonas said, to which Flint huffed. “Don’t worry, they aren’t as great as you. That’s really interesting, professor.”
Eleanor laughed. “Please, just call me Eleanor. There’ll be plenty of time for Professor Aspen when I’m older. So, now that you know who I am, who can I thank for helping me? Flint and…?”
“Jonas, I’m Jonas!” Jonas stuck out his hand, then quickly retracted it remembering they’d shook hands already. “Jonas Brooks. But like I said, I didn’t do anything, not really. You came out of the woods coughing and then collapsed.”
“Yes, that sounds about right,” Eleanor sighed. “That’s actually why I’m here. We’d received reports back at the lab that pokémon in this forest were behaving strangely; aggressive, erratic. Of course I wanted to come see what was the matter. As soon as I entered, I noticed something was wrong. It was like I was coming down with a cold. Itchy eyes, sore throat, you name it. But before I could find any answers, a small flock of fletchling attacked. Marius protected me, but there were so many of them, I’m afraid he was no match…” She trailed off, then quietly added, “something is wrong in there, Jonas.”
Jonas nodded and Flint barked, both acknowledging her experience. “Flint and I had something similar happen just before we saw your heracross. Do you think there’s something in the air?”
“I’m afraid so,” Eleanor said, looking grim. “I’m not sure what it is, but if it’s what made those fletchling so aggressive, then this forest isn’t safe.”
“Well then, let’s find out what it is!” Jonas leaped to his feet. “Come on, Flint, we can help the professor with some research,” he said, ignoring Eleanor’s earlier request.
“I’m afraid that’s not a good idea, Jonas. If whatever is going on in there makes pokémon behave viciously, then perhaps Flint shouldn’t go. Marius was only able to help me because he had been inside his pokéball. If he’d turned on me….” Eleanor shuddered.
“You’re right. I’m sorry buddy. It’s only for a little while, okay? And I’ll let you out at the first sign of trouble.” Jonas pulled out the green and white pokéball, and Flint let out a small whimper as he disappeared in a flash of red light.
***
The atmosphere in the forest was suffocating, but Jonas couldn’t be sure if it was due to the contaminated air or the trees that pressed close on all sides. Sunlight filtered through the canopy overhead, casting a shadowy pall over the entire forest. As soon as he and Eleanor entered, Jonas felt his eyes begin to water and a tickle form in his throat.
“So what are we looking for, prof…” he started. “Eleanor?”
She shook her head, not looking at Jonas as she led the way between trees and briars.
“I’m not sure, but I’ll know it when I see it. Could be anything. Disease, parasites; it could even be a pokémon. Without any concrete evidence, we’re stumbling around in the dark.”
“That, we are,” Jonas agreed, trying to notice anything odd in the dim light.
Eleanor held up a hand, signaling for Jonas to stop. She peered into the darkness ahead where a faint clicking sound could be heard. That sounds like Dash, Jonas thought. He tensed, reaching for Flint’s pokéball.
Slowly and carefully, Eleanor crept forward. Using the growth as cover, she inched forward as the clicking grew louder. At the edge of a clearing she let out a quiet gasp and motioned for Jonas to come closer.
In the center of the clearing was a large mushroom. Or it appeared to be, at first glance. The pale red mushroom was nearly as tall as Jonas. It was covered in yellow spots and, Jonas realized with a start, had large pincers at its base. It rocked from side to side clicking and emitting orange spores into the air. Eleanor squinted in the darkness, then gasped again, her hand flying to her mouth. The parasect’s bulbous white eyes searched blindly around the clearing, seemingly startled by the small noise. Jonas swallowed hard, Flint’s ball clutched tightly in his hand.
Then Eleanor sneezed.