Chapter 17 – Viridian Forest Part 2

I pushed through the underbrush of the Viridian Forest heading towards the sounds of conflict. My Pokemon, the Butterfree Pyra talked with, and a more than a little reluctant April follow after me. After a minute or so of walking, we come to a clearing and the site of the battle.

The grassy clearing is surrounded by trees on all sides and has one large tree in the center where the battle, or rather one-sided slaughter, is taking place. On the right side of the forest, I see dozens of Weedles and Kakunas cheering and shouting their support from the forest floor, trees, and canopy. They shoot string all over the place in celebration of the impending victory. In the center, right under the large tree, is a small cluster of Caterpies and Metapods huddled close together shaking in fear. Around them, in a defensive perimeter, lay 5 other Metapods and a Butterfree, clearly knocked out. Only one large Metapod still stands in the way of the 6 Beedrills swarming around and taking potshots at it. The Metapod's shell is severely cracked in several places and the bloody wounds are purple in color and causing its shell to melt away from the poison. It looks to be on its last leg - metaphorically speaking - but is standing strong, hardening its remaining shell in a last-ditch defense.

I grit my teeth seeing this and yell, "Pyra!"

She doesn't hesitate and releases her Minimize, growing to her full height and size, and unleashes an earsplitting roar. 

The forest around us grows quiet as all the wild Pokemon turn to look at us. I step in front of Prya, patting her back, and say,

"Beedrills! No one questions your success in this attack, but I cannot allow you to kill these innocent Pokemon. Let me gather them and leave and you may claim your new territory. No one needs to die over this." 

The Beedrills look to the largest one, a hulking 5 foot tall, light green variant with pale blue eyes. It shakes its head and thrusts a stinger in my direction.

"Drill. Beedrill!" It shouts.

As a quick side note, I have mentioned it before, but variants - this world's version of shinies but in many different colors - are much more common than they were in Max's games. The rules of Biology took hold here and where there is one deviation, there are many, many more. Different colored Pokemon are only rare in the sense that 1 out of 100 Pokemon are variants instead of the 1 out of 8192 from the games. Biology and ecological diversity work against the game mechanics in this sense. Variants would be a much bigger deal if they were truly as rare as they are in the games and I doubt I would even have one at all. I mention this because there is one variant Weedle in this clearing as well.

Back to the fight.

"It says...we are...not welcome here. Leave...and it promises...to spare...all of us...except for you." Pyra growls, anger in her tone and her tail fire burning brighter and hotter than ever in her rage. So hot, in fact, that it melts the Fire Cage on her tail like cheap plastic. The cage bubbles and falls to the forest floor freeing Pyra's tail as the flames rise to nearly a foot in height. Sweltering heat blasts all of us in the clearing as her pink flames flicker between fuchsia and violet.

She steps in front of me and pushes me back lightly saying, "Char! Charmeleon! Char Char!" Ending her statement with a roar. I can feel the anger through our bond and her violet eyes seem to dance in fury.

{She was not happy that they threatened you. She said to release the Pokemon or she would burn their entire clan to ashes and dust...} Celeste offers me from the side. I nod to her and stare at Pyra. I could order her down, but this looks like it is going to turn into a fight and she and Angie are best equipped to handle this. 

"Angie, support Py-" I start but am interrupted by Pyra slashing her hand out and turning her head to look at the swarm of Beedrill.

"I will...handle them." She says with cold anger in her tone. 

"Pyra, there are 6 of them! Not to mention if the others get involved! I don't want to see you get hurt like that!" I yell feeling anger at her sudden stubbornness myself. 

"Trust me...as I have...always trusted you." She says turning back to me and offering me a savage grin. "You have...protected...and encouraged me...time and time again. Now...It is my turn...to protect you." She nods once to me and turns to sprint forward, meeting the already charging Beedrills head on 20 feet in front of us. 

I feel a mixture of emotions at her statement, but take a deep breath to center myself and shout, "Go get 'em, girl!" The rest of my gang, Butterfree and April included, all cheer and shout for Pyra as we watch her move into the confrontation. 

As Pyra runs, pink fire spills from her mouth, coating and coiling around her large body. When she meets the Beedrills, she lets out another roar as the Fire Spin takes hold in a circle around her torching the grass and adding an obstacle for the Beedrills to get through. Unfortunately for Pyra, they could all fly and just go over the obstacle landing a series of Fury Attacks on my pink Charmeleon. She grits her teeth as they pierce her hide, leaving small wounds in the joints of her scales or otherwise bounce off leaving bruises. 

Pyra retaliates with a savage Fire Claw to one Beedrill, sending to crashing to the ground through her Fire Spin. It leaves a small furrow in its landing and lays on the ground unconscious and smoking. She gets another with a well-aimed flamethrower as it zips straight up into the air to get out of range of her swipes. It falls to the ground next to her, smoldering slightly, and Pyra stomps it once for good measure...probably to put the fire out...as it falls unconscious. 

The big green fucker responds by shooting out a series of solid purple needles using Toxic Spikes from its stingers and littering the ground around Pyra, effectively trapping her. It follows up by hovering above the Fire Spin's inferno and using Focus Energy. Two of the three other Beedrills move in to try for a Twineedle against her already open wounds while the other follows in their shadows landing a powerful Pursuit right on her neck where her head meets her spine. 

Pyra screams in pain as the critical slashes a line in her neck and blood pours from the wound. In her agony. She takes a few steps forward, onto the Toxic Spikes, and tendrils of purple can be seen in her feet as poison enters her veins and bloodstream. By pure chance, her move forward causes the second Beedrill to try Twineedle with its's stinger still in her chest to crash into her and tumble through the Fire Spin and onto the other side. It is still up, but its wings are singed and it can't fly anymore.

I bite my lip until I taste blood. I want to help her. I feel the need to help her...but I can't. She wants to do this on her own. Me stepping in would be a betrayal of her trust. 

'She is a big girl. She can do this, I know she can.'

"Toast the fuckers, Pyra!" I scream in encouragement and my Pokemon around me shout out as well. 

Celeste is using the battle as a distraction to slowly pull the frightened Caterpies and Metapods over to us one by one with Telekinesis. Her eyes and tattoos are lit with purple energy and It looks like we have about half of them already. The Butterfree from the path has landed with them, chattering quietly. Celeste must have communicated with them telepathically because the guardian Metapod seems to know what is happening and understands we are not a threat.

Pyra roars again and sends a massive fuchsia-colored Fire Blast at the Beedrill that slashed her neck. It dodges, but the blast is too large and engulfs it pink flames. It plummets to the ground and lands with a loud *Thud,* smoking and moving no longer. Pyra is being very careful with her flame attacks as to not light the forest on fire. She launches them straight up into the sky where they pass by the treetops in the clearing and go out after a hundred feet or so. 

'She can do this. Just 2 more. She can do this!'

As if answering my thoughts, the giant green Beedrill dives down towards Pyra as she winces due to the pain from the poison running through her system. Its abdomen stinger is shinning with Purple energy and Pyra looks up just in time to see it plunge its barb into her neck, unleashing a massive amount of poison from a Poison Jab and a spray of blood from Pyra's neck. She turns her head in time to get grazing cuts on her cheeks from its hand stingers instead of getting them to her eyes. Still, this seems to be too much for her as she collapses to her knees, breathing heavily. The other Beedrill uses this moment to launch towards her already wounded neck, intending to open in further and let her bleed out. 

"Pyra! No!" I shout staring in horror as my massive pink Charmeleon falls onto her stomach and further onto the Toxic Spikes around her. The green Beedrill observes from above with obvious glee as its companion moves in to bring the giant Pokemon down. I stare at Pyra through the pink translucent flames around her and we make eye contact. She is breathing brokenly and her eyes look glazed. Her tail fire flickers wildly before...flickering out.

"PYRA!!!!" I yell running forward to grab her. Fuck the fire. Fuck the Beedrills. I was saving my girl. Only...I am held back as a wave of psychic energy surrounds me and holds me in place.

{Calm down Finn! Calm down and watch!}

I glare hatefully at the fake Kadabra and then turn back to my broken baby girl. If she dies because of this, fuck my quest and The Watcher, I was killing a mythical Pokemon.

As if in slow motion, I see the Beedrill approaching closer and closer until...

Pyra explodes. 

Everyone around, human and Pokemon alike are thrown back a couple of feet as a massive shockwave emanates from her. Bright white light is drowned out but impossibly hot purple flames that climb a good hundred feet in the air in a massive fiery vortex that immediately catches the nearest trees on fire. The Beedrill moving in to finish Pyra has part of its body and half of its wings melted off in an instant as it careens to the ground as the green Beedrill evades quickly to avoid the fire. A roar so loud that I feel it in my very soul emanates from the vortex and, quick as a bolt of lightning, a massive purple figure grabs the green Beedrill in its jaws and throws it to the ground in front of me like it was nothing more than a toy. The vortex winks out leaving the trees around smoldering, but not fully ablaze, thank Arceus.

The Green Beedrill slams down in front of me, making a small crater and trying weakly to get up, as Prya lands on the ground next to it and stomps onto its abdomen for good measure. She chuffs and flaps her massive wings as she roars up into the sky once more in victory.

I smile, tears in my eyes, as I behold my giant Charizard. My baby girl. She stands nearly 10 feet tall, with a wingspan of what had to be 30 feet, and a tail almost 15 feet long. Her scales had hardened and thickened and the color had changed from pink to pale purple, as has her tail fire, except for a white patch of smooth looking scales on her stomach. Her body is all rippling muscles and powerful claws or fangs. The inside of her wings are a deep forest green color and her violet eyes are now a mauve with flecks of ruby red in the irises. They shine with pride as she looks down at me. 

Then I move, full-body tackling her in a hug.

"Pyra! Arceus, you are amazing! Look how beautiful you are! Look how big you are!" I exclaim with a laugh.

"Thank you, Finn. Not your...baby girl...any longer." She says with a chuff of amusement. 

I glare up at her and motion with my finger for her to lower her head to mine. She is too tall for me to grab it any longer. She gives me her equivalent of a smirk and lowers her head to me. I grab it when it's in reach and pull her Dragon snout against my head, forehead to forehead. 

"I told you the last time you evolved and I will tell you the next time as well," I whisper to her with all the affection I could, "I don't care how big and strong and intimidating you get. You will always be my cute baby girl. Understand?" I say firmly. 

Pyra rolls her eyes at me but gives me a lick of her, now much longer and nearly scalding, tongue. I laugh and wipe off the saliva as I pull a Super Potion from my bag as well as something I had been saving for her. The green Beedrill must have tried to sting me or something because Pyra raises her foot slightly and slams it down on the Bug Pokemon again eliciting a defeated, "Drill..." 

I spray the Super Potion and antidote in her mouth and on her injuries liberally and then show her the gift I have been preparing. It was a large leather stringed necklace I had made in my free time with many Dragon's fangs hung on it. I had asked Lance for the discarded fangs and he didn't have an issue with me collecting some while I was in the Dragon breeding cave under his gym. In the center, carved into a massive Canine tooth and secured with leather straps, was a marble-sized, black Z-stone.

"I made this for you girl, I hope you like it. I promised you we would be the strongest together and I plan to follow through. You just evolved, but there is no reason we can't start preparing early for your next one." I say with a smile and hold the necklace up for her to inspect.

*Gasp* "Is that a Z-stone? How can a Jr. League trainer affor- No, I guess you could afford it, couldn't you." April asks in shock then sighs in defeat. 

"Nothing but the best for my girl," I say simply with a grin up at her.

Pyra inspects the necklace for a moment, before straightening out her neck horizontally to me in an invitation to put it on her. I do so and she straightens again and licks my cheek once more.

"I love it...Thank you, Finn." She says in her deep smooth voice, noticeably deeper than before, and rests her head on mine again. "But...won't Lara...be angry with...you giving...another girl...a gift like this?" She says with another smirk and I hear Angie and Celeste yip and chuff with laughter.

I roll my eyes this time and laugh as well as I pat the side of her snout. "She'll manage."

I part from admiring and appreciating Pyra and the rest of my Pokemon step in to replace me as I look around the clearing. April had sent out her Wartortle to put out the smoldering trees, so that was one issue taken care of. Celeste had finished the transportation of the Caterpies and Metapods leaving only the knocked-out ones and the badly damaged Metapod - Who was still up amazingly. I look over the burnt Beedrills and then over to the Weedles and Kakunas who were cowering behind the trees on the right side of the field. Their earlier cheer completley gone. 

I clap my hands and draw everyone's attention. "Alright. You lot." I say pointing to the Weedles and Kakunas, "I will heal up your Beedrill buddies, but only if you wrap them tightly in your string. I am not getting stung by one who wants revenge." I say with a shudder remembering the Poison Jab Pyra received. That would probably kill me in a matter of minutes. 

They all look at each other, then back at me with clear hesitation. That is solved, however, when Pyra growls. Then they jump to comply and start wrapping each of the Beedrills up leaving only their heads exposed. I tell them to double up on the green one just to be safe as I walk over to the knocked out Butterfree line Pokemon. I could totally catch that variant Beedrill, but I don't want one. I said before, but I will only catch Pokemon I intend to use for the long run.

I start administering Revives, Antidotes, and Super Potions to the downed Pokemon. I wanted to start with the injured Metapod, but it shook its head...well, body in a negative and nodded towards the others. I took the hint. Once they were all up again and the Butterfree was flying around me trilling in thanks, I scooped up the giant 3 1/2-foot tall Metapod who, seeing its defense was successful, promptly passed out. I healed it up as best I could, but the Poison damage and cracks in its shell still might end up leaving scars on its Butterfree body when it evolved. 

It woke up after the healing but was still exhausted so I decided to carry it with me. I went around and healed up the Beedrills then offered to heal up any of the Weedle or Kakuna that were injured from today or in the past. I used up nearly all of my Super Potion healing even minor or inconsequential injuries, but I didn't mind. I also put out most of my Bug Type food pellets for everyone to eat and, in the end, I was covered almost head to toe in wiggling Bug Pokemon as they nuzzled me with affection. I had April take a picture so I could show Lara later.

'I bet she won't touch me for days.' I thought with a laugh. 

The Butterfree, who was clearly female, was enthralled with Thorn who remained on my shoulder during this entire encounter. He stayed with me as a guard or maybe was just too lazy to get down...I still can't read him. Either way, he was now being drowned in "Free"'s from the Butterfree and I could see Celeste pouting in the background. That also made me chuckle. Honestly, not a bad end for a crappy situation. 

I gathered up the group and put the wrapped Beedrills up against their new tree. They won the turf war and I wasn't going to steal that from them. I cut their restraints with a pocket knife one by one with my full team standing next to me ready to blast them if they so much as twitched in the wrong direction. I offered them one of my last handfuls of Bug Food pellets as recompense and that seemed to win over all of them but the big green one who flew up into the tree canopy and disappeared.

'Let It sulk if it wants.' I thought with a smile, patting Pyra's neck, and enjoying watching all the Pokemon interact and get along.

Then, it was time to go. I waved goodbye to the Beedrill line Pokemon and then rounded up all of the Caterpie and Metapods with help from the two Butterfrees. We headed back the way we came, towards the path, and I made sure the Metapod in my arm was comfortable. I let the first Butterfree lead and told it to take us to where the others went. It didn't seem to have a problem with that and lead happily. Pyra shrunk down again - And let me be the first to say that a chibi Charizard is amazingly cute - and was flying around with her new wings, obviously having a ton of fun with it. Angie was following everywhere Pyra went, yipping and waggling her tail. Celest was right next to me, staring daggers at the other Butterfree that was still trilling at Thorn. Thorn...Thorn sat stoically on my shoulder as always. 

"You're kind of amazing," April comments as we make our way back a couple of minutes later.

"Hmm?" I question her with a raised eyebrow. She hasn't hit on me so far, I hope that it doesn't change now.

"I thought you would heal up Pyra, catch the green Beedrill for your team or to sell, and move on. Instead, you stayed, treated all of the wounded Pokemon at great cost to yourself, fed them the right food, and spent time with them. You even got the Butterfree line and the Beedrill line to interact in a friendly manner with each other! They normally hate one another! Then, if that wasn't enough, you are now escorting the left behind Pokemon you saved back to their kin...You would make a really good Ranger, Finn. Or maybe even A Pokezoologist."

I laugh at that, "Maybe in 10 years, but for now, I just do the best where I can. I am out here looking for the best of the Butterfree line I can find, and I found it. Makes sense I would save its kin." I finish with a smile. 

She nods and smiles back and we continue back giggling at Angie who is trying to nip playfully at Pyra as she passes overhead. It is quite the feat of aerial acrobatics to fly in a forest, even with her being so small. She does crash a few times, and we all laugh, but she gets back up smiling and goes at it again. 

'I can't wait to fly on her back! ...Gotta get my license first though...'

We reach the path we left earlier and the lead Butterfree continues past it in the direction the others went.

"You can stay here and wait for me if you want? I should be back quickly." I offer to April and she smiles widely and shakes her head.

"No way am I missing a Butterfree grove!" She answers with stars in her eyes.

Apparently, these were something special.

Arceus, was she right.