Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

“Stay down!” Nina yelled as she pressed Kerry down onto the ground to avoid accidentally catching a Thunder to the face. 

“I’ll handle Ohm. If you black out too then there’ll be no one left to treat him!” Nina’s words seemed to have gotten through to the girl because she nodded with tear-filled eyes and stopped her struggles.

Nina sighed in relief and took a moment to assess her surroundings; Ohm’s Raichu could no longer be seen as she took off to battle their assailant. Probably not wanting to stay near her trainer to avoid accidentally implicating him.

Meanwhile, Nina could tell that Ohm was injured, skin charred and veins exposed, but still alive, his body occasionally spasming and breathing shallowly. As expected of someone whose family ran an Electric Type Gym, he had probably developed a certain degree of tolerance towards being shocked.

Nina would have preferred to find cover first before moving the injured Ranger, but she did not want to risk hiding under a tree and there was no other shelter nearby. So she expanded two of her Pokeballs and released Espy and Sir Clodington. The former immediately jumped into action after scanning through her trainer’s mind, no words needed to be said.

Espy enveloped the fallen Ohm with a purple Psychic aura and gently lifted him back towards the girls, while Nina turned to address Sir Clodington. “Clody, there’s a Raichu ahead that’s battling whoever’s attacking us. Could you go over and provide some backup? But don’t try to take the lead, okay? Raichu’s the more experienced of you two, so just focus on supporting her.” 

The initially excited Wooper seemed to wilt a little at Nina’s addendum, but still nodded resolutely and rushed off to do as he was told.

“Espy, get ready to shield us if you sense an attack coming.” Espy nodded stiffly as she finally retrieved Ohm and settled him in front of Kerry, who immediately sprung into action to check on her friend’s vitals.

“How’s he doing?” Nina asked, after Kerry was done with her preliminary assessment. Meanwhile, the noise of an intense battle could be heard from where the Shinx pride was supposedly located. 

“He’ll be fine.” Kerry said, with a great deal of relief. “That flash of Thunder was brief and low powered enough to just knock him out and paralyze him.”

Boom! Crackle. Another Thunder, but this time away from them. Sir Clodington was immune to Electric Type moves and Raichu should be fine. Yet, Nina couldn’t help but feel a deep sense of urgency welling deep within her. 

Nina took in a deep breath to calm herself, her brain spinning rapidly to try and grasp their predicament. “Whoever attacked us just wanted to scare us off.”

Nina frowned. “This is bad, I know the fundamentals of taming an unruly Pokemon, but how the heck do you go about defusing a situation like this?!”

“Do you think you can transmit your findings to Raichu?” Nina asked Espy, to which the Psychic shook her head and replied with a bunch of concepts in return. “Raichu has her mind shielded huh? Figures… How about Clody?” Espy responded by indicating that she had already gone ahead and done that.

Nina smiled at her Espeon’s initiative. But unfortunately, Espy followed up by conveying that the Luxray their companions were facing was too worked up to listen to reason right now. “Dammit!” The girl cursed, the only option she could think of right now was to recall their Pokemon and run away. She was certain that Thor the Manectric could be persuaded to take them to safety. 

The other option was to have Thor go and beat the Luxray and Luxio duo, but that felt wrong to her. “They’re just trying to protect their injured kin, no point antagonizing them for that.”

Nina turned to Kerry and briefly recounted her findings and thoughts to the young Joy, before asking; “Do you think Ohm can stand the strain of being on his Manectric, or do we need to buy time for you to stabilize him?”

Kerry shook her head in response. “I have a better idea.” She said as she released her Happiny. “Do you think you can safely escort Peppy over to the Luxray and have her talk to them?” She asked the bewildered Nina.

“Are you a hundred percent sure about this?” Nina asked in return, her voice filled with doubt.

Kerry replied with a resolute nod. “Positive. And if this fails, then we can always withdraw.” She added.

Nina sighed and looked towards Espy for her opinion, receiving a mental pulse of assurance in return. “Welp, looks like Espy is confident that she can keep Peppy safe. Let’s do it your way then,” said the girl. She then proceeded to secure Peppy on Espy’s back like a princess and her steed, much to the noble Espeon’s annoyance.

Despite her protective urges, Nina wouldn’t be following along to monitor the proceedings in order to avoid any complications. Instead, Espy would maintain her Psychic connection with her trainer and keep the girl abreast of the events and seek instructions when necessary. Not that Espy needed Nina’s input, the Psychic Pokemon knew the plan and was intelligent enough to make her own decisions.

Nina offered a silent prayer. To pray for their Pokemon’s safety and their safe retreat.

***

Ohm woke up to the smell of burnt hair, a stiff neck and a splitting headache. He instinctively tried to reach up to cradle his head, only to find that he could barely feel his arms from all the tingling. The feeling of being shocked by electricity was all very familiar to him, having grown up in the Vermilion Gym around so many Electric Type Pokemon.

The Pokemon Ranger took in a deep breath and began to methodically recalibrate his appendages, starting from his toes and slowly working his way up.

“You’re awake,” came a voice, right as Ohm was flexing his arms. The voice sounded a little dull amidst the buzzing in his ears. He tried to open his eyes to see, but found it hard to focus his vision.

“Easy there…” The voice continued. “Kerry said she did the best she could, but we’re still a little short on supplies and equipment out here.” The mention of Kerry’s name seemed to jolt Ohm’s memories as he recalled the preceding events. 

“What… ha…ppened?” Ohm forced himself to speak despite his sore throat, his voice coming out hoarse and strained.

Nina helped Ohm to sit up, keeping a hold of the older teen until she deemed he was stable enough to not fall. The girl then chuckled as she grabbed some water from her backpack. “You got struck by lightning, that’s what. Or should I say Thunder, since that’s what Luxray used.”

“Lux…ray…?” 

Nina nodded as she poured some water into the cap of her thermos and gingerly fed it to the weakened Ohm while summarizing what had happened after he fainted.

“... So after that, we sent Peppy and Espy out to meet with the Luxray who, as it turned out, was the matriarch of the pride.” Nina continued. “She wasn’t very willing to listen at first, but after exchanging a few moves with Espy, Peppy had the bright idea of trying to appeal to Luxio instead.”

The Happiny had noticed that while the Luxio was supporting his mother and keeping Sir Clodington at bay, his emotional state was not as intense as Luxray’s. So after asking Sir Clodington to stand down, Peppy managed to convince the Luxio to help calm his mother down.

“Then, Peppy explained to them how we could go about helping the Luxray’s injured mate.” Nina concluded. “Man the Blissey line sure is neat huh? Between their inherent likeability, Charm and Disarming voice, Luxray acquiesced pretty quickly.” 

Not that it always worked, the species were often hunted by aggressive predators in the wild because of their healing properties. So it was also lucky that Luxray was amicable enough to listen to reason.

“Where’s Kerry?” Ohm asked, his voice sounding better after having a bit of water, but still concerned over his friend.

“She’s in the cave right now, tending to the injured Luxray.” Nina said in response. “But don’t worry, I had Espy tag along to keep her safe — she’s keeping me updated even now. Apparently, the Luxray was injured after fighting off an encroaching Primeape troupe, then on the way back, he was ambushed by an Arbok. Just a series of unfortunate events.”

The girl then explained that Kerry seemed confident enough about stabilizing the Luxray. But after that, they would have to rely on Ohm to possibly arrange for more help or persuade the Luxray to come along to a Pokemon Center.

Ohm groaned. “I’ll try, but I think it’s best we hold off on any follow-ups for now.” Calling more strangers into the territory was a bad idea, and it was unlikely that Luxray would want to leave its pride.

Nina simply shrugged and grabbed the Rawst extract and Cheri extract that Kerry instructed her to feed Ohm after he woke up. “You’re the expert.” She added.

Not long after, Kerry exited the cave with a feeble smile and a tired look, but then immediately perked up again after she saw that Ohm was conscious and well. “Thanks for the save, Kerry.” Ohm gave the girl a warm smile and a gentle pat on the head before approaching the Luxray matriarch with a stiff gait to talk.

“How are things?” Nina asked Kerry.

“Good,” replied the other girl. “But not ideal. The worst of it was just the Poison, which I’ve dealt with.” Arbok venom was pretty common, so a quick application of Antidote sufficed. “I would like it if we could bring Luxray with us to a Pokemon Center, but judging by his vulnerable state and the wariness of his family, that might not be possible.”

Nina nodded. “Yeah, Ohm said something similar, we’ll just have to see how it goes then. Do you think they’ll still let us adopt one of the Shinxes at this point?” She said as she looked over to Ohm, who had lowered his body and was trying to gently liaise with the Luxray.

Kerry didn’t reply and just watched over her childhood friend with barely contained concern.

“How’d it go?” Nina asked, when Ohm eventually returned to their side.

Ohm chuckled wryly. “Welp, good thing they still recognize me from the few times I came by on patrol.” He said as he assuaged Kerry with another pat on the head. “Aside from that, I managed to get us permission to camp out here for tonight as a token of their apology for nearly frying me.” The older teen laughed in self-deprecation. 

“We’ll see if they loosen up a bit in the morning and if we can’t persuade them to accept more help. But of course, if the two of you want to head back, I totally understand and I’ll get Thor to take you back.” He offered, but both girls shook their heads in denial. One was worried about leaving Ohm out here by his lonesome, and the other was determined to at least play with some Shinxes after being forced through that troublesome ordeal.

“Alright, can I trouble you girls to set up camp and get a fire started? I need to make a call to HQ and report on the situation.” Nina and Kerry both nodded in acknowledgement.

“Ohm, would it be alright for me to release my Dragonair here?” Nina asked, not wanting to alarm any of the wild Pokemon with the presence of an imposing Dragon Type.

Ohm frowned in consideration, but promised that he would ask the Luxrays later.

“Okay,” said Nina. “I’ll go get some firewood. Kerr, you stay here and rest up a bit.” The young Joy protested, but neither Nina nor Ohm were having any of it. It was without a doubt that their friend was the MVP of the occasion and deserved a break for her incredible performance.