Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

“Shinx!”

“Not yet, we still gotta wait a little longer.” Nina giggled and gently caressed the drooling Shinx and his siblings by her side. In particular, Nina was especially enamored by the cute little star shaped tails that they were waving around in barely contained excitement — a hallmark of the species that they carry with them throughout their Evolution. 

“The most efficient way to get to a Pokemon’s heart was through their stomach!” The girl proclaimed.

The moment that Nina got a fire going, she immediately started roasting some of the sausages that she brought with her. A portion of them were made with vegan meat for her own consumption, but the rest were meant for the Shinx which she bought an excess of since she didn’t know how big their appetite was.

Setting up camp was easy since no one brought tents with them. Both Nina and Kerry only had blankets, but that was fine, because Nairy could coil himself up and allow the girls to sleep against him.

Once the smell of succulent sausages permeated the surrounding air, the eager Shinxes began to congregate and not even their parents could stop them.

“Lux!”

Nina turned to see a Luxio with a perpetual frown on his face approaching his younger siblings who were all bunched up around her.

“Hey, Luxio. Do you want some sausages too?” The girl asked, only for the Luxio to turn his head in contempt, but then deepened his frown when his stomach began to growl at the wafting smell.

Nina laughed and beckoned for the posturing Pokemon to come over. “Come on, you just went through a battle. And I betcha you didn’t eat much while you were guarding your dad.” Nina waved a stick of sausage in front of Luxio, and the awkward lion couldn’t help but snap at the piece of meat.

“Shinx! Shinx!” Seeing that their older sibling got to eat before them, the younger Shinxes all cried out in unfairness, eliciting more giggles from Nina. 

“Alright, alright. You guys can dig in too.” Unable to resist the adorable little lion cubs, Nina finally acquiesced and placed the medium well sausages on a few bowls that she had lined up beforehand, thinking that the carnivores could probably handle a bit of raw meat. She also produced some Berries and added them to the pile as well just to help supplement the juvenile Pokemon’s diet. “Here Luxio, this is yours.” Nina said as she prepared a separate bowl for the rapidly growing Luxio.

“Lux.” The Luxio, unable to resist the tasty food before him, begrudgingly acknowledged Nina and chowed down on the offering.

“No fair, you started without me!” Kerry exclaimed as she approached the Shinx litter to pet them. The girl had earlier gone into the cave with Ohm to check on the Luxray patriarch’s recovery.

Nina chuckled and offered one of the vegan sausages to the girl — those didn’t require much cooking since they weren’t raw. “Why don’t you stay here and hang out with them while I go feed our Pokemon then?” She said as she got up to do just that. Nina had enough tact to allow Kerry some space to bond with the Shinxes. After all, their primary objective was to help her obtain one.

“Thanks for all your hard work earlier, Clody.” Nina commended her Wooper by feeding him some Berries. She would have loved to pet the little guy, but it still stung to touch him due to the poisonous membrane coating him. Which at this point, they had all but given up on trying to suppress. Sir Clodington’s Poison Energy manipulation just wasn’t deft enough for such a subtle feat. And Nina did not want to risk neutering the overall potency of his Poison.

“And you too, Espy.” Nina reached out with her other hand to scratch the nonchalant Espy by the nape of her neck, receiving a mental wave of haughty dismissal in return. Nina laughed and pulled her princess in for a hug. “Haha, this is a small matter to you huh? Not even a fully evolved Luxray could trouble you.” 

After spending a bit more time with her Pokemon, Nina set about preparing food for them. It was a good thing that she brought enough for a day’s meal, but she still supplemented the feed with some freshly roasted sausages, much to Nairy and Brucey’s delight.

***

That night they all gathered around to bask in the warmth of the campfire, even the two Luxrays joined in at the urging of their children. So both Nina and Kerry were luxuriating amongst a heap of sparky lion cubs at the moment, while Ohm was busy preparing dinner for everyone.

Normally they wouldn’t have enough supplies to feed the entire Shinx pride, but the local Pokemon Rangers dropped off a care package in the periphery of the pride’s territory after their call with Ohm. It contained within it a whole bunch of nutritious foodstuff and medical supplies that allowed Kerry to further heal the previously injured Luxray. 

By this point, the young Joy determined that the Luxray patriarch could fully recover on his own and wouldn’t need to be brought to a Pokemon Center, thereby solving their biggest conundrum.

“Alright, all done!” Ohm declared, much to the excitement of the yapping Shinxes surrounding them. “Dinner tonight is meat and potato stew with a healthy dose of Berries and Chansey’s eggs to help energize everyone after a long day.” The Ranger explained as he began scooping food into bowls and distributing them to the Pokemon. Nina got up to help out as well, while suppressing Kerry and telling her to stay put. The girl was too helpful for her own good.

“Here Luxray, eat up. I loaded your bowl with extra Soft-boiled eggs to help with your healing.” Nina said as she gently caressed the luscious black mane of the injured Luxray. The male Luxray was actually a lot friendlier than his cynical mate, or maybe it was just the magic of a Joy at work.

“Wait, what are you going to eat, Nina? There’s Mareep meat inside that stew.” Kerry asked, to which Nina just shrugged in response.

“I’ve still got MREs and some vegan sausages leftover.” said Nina. “Though I wouldn’t be opposed to having some of that Chansey egg.”

“But the broth is okay?” asked a confused Ohm.

Nina frowned in hesitation. “I mean my main gripe is that I can’t really bring myself to eat Pokemon, but like, fish and unintelligent animals are fine…” Nina was wavering. Despite her having largely assimilated in this world, her unwillingness to eat Pokemon had been a constant part of her second life. “I dunno…” the girl murmured, before shaking her head to renew her conviction. “I think it’s fine, I’ll pass on the stew.”

Kerry smiled warmly at her friend and pulled her in for a reassuring hug. “It’s okay Nins, when we get back, I’ll ask my mom to cook some egg dishes for us.” Kerry’s promise immediately got the dejected Nina to perk up in anticipation.

“Lucky… Kerry’s mom is a great cook.” Ohm remarked, as he sat down with his Raichu. He opted not to release his other Pokemon to avoid overcrowding the space, saying that he would feed them separately later on.

“So, you guys are childhood friends?” Nina asked.

Ohm chuckled. “Pretty much, I’ve known Kerry since she was a tiny wittle baby.” The boy formed a small gap between his thumb and index finger to illustrate just how small Kerry was, eliciting an indignant huff from the girl. “I was never that small!” She exclaimed.

The group laughed, and Ohm continued speaking. “Yeah, I remember I was what, seven or eight? When my mom brought me over to visit little Kerry. My mom works as a nurse too, so they knew each other from work.”

“Wait, Does that mean your mom is a Joy?”

“Hah!” Ohm snorted. “Nah, as if my old man has the chops to bag a Joy. As far as I can tell, most of them can’t stand him.” Kerry nodded sheepishly at that last sentence. “My mom’s just a regular nurse. Gotta have a few of them you know? There’s not enough Joys in this world to help everyone.”

Nina nodded in understanding. In fact, she knew that the majority of people working in healthcare were not of the Joy clan. It’s just that the clan of pink haired matriarchs ran the entire system and was largely considered to be the face of healing.

The night proceeded under the auspices of a crackling campfire, the lingering smell of the savoury stew and charred firewood, like a warm blanket enveloping the sated bellies of everyone surrounding it. Both Nina and Kerry spent their night marveling at the little blue and black lions surrounding them. In particular, the Shinxes were very eager to show off their abilities to the humans by showcasing their limited movesets.

“So cuutee…” Nina swooned and pointed at one of the Shinxes who was currently flexing its stubby little legs. “Look at that one, it needs to charge up its Electricity by doing leg pumps!”

“Yeah, the Luxray line is capable of converting kinetic energy to Electric Type Energy.” Ohm explained. “Not sure how it works, but it does. And it’s also the reason why they become such incredible physical attackers once they Evolve — the stronger and more developed their muscles are, the more powerful the Electricity they can generate.”

Nina nodded. She did her research on the species since she had originally intended to catch one if given the opportunity. Not only were the Luxray line incredibly strong, they were also fast, though not at the level of an Arcanine or a Rapidash. Not to mention the fact that the species developed X-ray vision at the Luxio stage.

“Huh? That actually makes them great for a nurse like Kerry now that I think about it.” Nina mused. The X-ray vision would help with diagnosis, and having such a fast Ride Pokemon was useful in getting Kerry to and from places that required her services. 

Before this, Nina was mostly considering her own needs, thinking that having a biological X-ray machine under her belt would be great for exploring ruins and searching for treasure. “No matter, a Ghost Type will do much the same job. Though it’d be great to get a Ride Pokemon at some point.” 

Having what would effectively be a power plant in the form of a cool looking star lion was also a plus, but Nairy could harness Electric Type Energy as well, so that wasn’t much of a loss. Besides, Nina planned to travel with Kerry during the first leg of her journey, so they could take advantage of each other’s Pokemon. In that sense, it was better to have some variety in their lineup.

“Welp, no point dwelling on this. I’m sure there’ll be other Pokemon out there for me.” Nina mused as she wrapped herself in a blanket and cuddled up next to Nairy for sleep. By this point, everyone was ready to call it a day — the humans in particular, after all the excitement they went through.

***

“I don’t know if I should, Nina… I don’t want Luxray to think he owes me or anything,” said the hesitant Kerry.

Nina sighed and looked helplessly towards Ohm, only to receive a wry smile in return. It seemed like the Pokemon Ranger was not willing to chime in on this.

Even as morning came and the group of humans were preparing to leave, Kerry had yet to broach the subject of adopting one of the Shinxes yet. The girl did want one of the cute little lion cubs, that much Nina could tell. But she was too worried about her request coming across as coercive or transactional due to the fact that she had helped cure the injured Luxray the day prior.

“You’re overthinking this Kerry…” Nina sighed once more and looked towards her Espeon for help. In response to her trainer’s silent plea, Espy rolled her eyes a little and sauntered over to the Luxray couple for a talk.

“Wait, Espy!” Kerry exclaimed, but Nina just held a hand up to silence her.

In the meantime, there was a silent exchange ongoing within the minds of Espy and the Luxrays until the mother lion furrowed her brow and raised her head to stare at Kerry with a judgemental gaze, causing the girl to break out into sweats and shrink behind Nina for assurance.

When the discussion ended, the Luxray patriarch broke out into a roar, causing Kerry to jolt in fright. But both Ohm and Nina were unfazed, the former because he sensed no hostility, and the latter because Espy had kept Nina in the loop during the conversation. 

Listening to Pokemon talk to each other was an odd experience, because they didn’t exactly speak with words the way that humans do. It was more like an exchange of emotions and intent, simultaneously nuanced yet straightforward at the same time, possessing an almost refreshing honesty that was mostly absent among conniving humans and their awkward wordplay.

Luxray’s roar prompted their children to gather up neatly in front of him as he began to yap at them to see if anyone wants to leave their den and venture out into the wider world. In a similar vein to the problem that Nina had when she was adopting an Eevee, most of the naive little Shinxes didn’t fully understand the implications of what their parent was asking of them, causing the two Luxrays to growl in frustration as they threw a barrage of questions and confused cries their parents’ way.

Until eventually, one of the Shinxes asked something along the lines of; “Will I get to eat lots of tasty food like yesterday?” as interpreted by Espy. To which, his father huffed in acknowledgement and proceeded to grab that particular Shinx by the scruff of his neck before plopping him down in front of Kerry and Nina.

Nina smiled in amusement and pushed Kerry towards the new member of her team. “Go on, say hi to him. You guys will be spending a lot of time together from now on, so gotta make sure you get along.” She said, opting to omit the circumstances in which the Shinx was chosen to avoid causing her friend any unnecessary worry.

Kerry looked back at Nina with a fair deal of uncertainty, but still bent down and reached a hand out to the naive little Shinx. 

The Shinx in question tilted his head in confusion and approached Kerry’s hand to give it a little sniff, recognizing the tasty smell of food lingering on the girl’s hand from breakfast, before perking up and licking at her affectionately.

Kerry’s face bloomed into a warm smile in response as she grabbed hold of the Shinx and cradled him in her arms. “Is this okay?” The girl asked as she looked up to the pair of Luxrays with timid eyes, earning her curt nods in return.

Nina let out a congratulatory cheer and gave her friend a light pat on the back. “Congrats, Kerry! You got yourself a Shinx now.” She said, not feeling jealous in any way. Nope. Nuh-uh. No jealousy whatsoever.

Kerry giggled and looked down at the Shinx in her arms with a loving gaze. “I think I’m going to name you Lynxie.”

And with that, the group said their farewells to the lion Pokemon and made their way back to Vermilion City on Ohm’s Manectric. This time, Nina had the chance to wrap herself up properly and tell the reckless rider to slow down, citing a desire to enjoy the scenery as an excuse.

***

Author's Note:

Patreon chapters are up to Chapter 146. Which means that by next week, I'll be doing a daily chapter rush from Ch 150-160 to the end of Part Two.

Recently, I've been considering the idea of adding in another $2 tier to the Patreon which would give subscribers an advanced 5 chapters. 

The $5 dollar tier would then remain at 10 advanced chapters while the $10 tier would give 15 advanced chapters.

I'm interested to gather some feedback on this. How many people here would actually be interested in the lower tier?

Any changes would only be realised once I officially start posting Part 3 on Patreon of course.