[X] My Assistant

[Ganymede]

OOC.

It was nice to be out of the rain.

The sun shone through the ever-thinning layer of clouds overhead, filtering through the treetops before bathing the two men in hazy green light. Birds sang constantly, filling the forest with sweet melodies and the distant flapping of wings. Nincadas hummed lazily and out of sight, telling secrets to one another. They paused, along with the men, as a small group of Oddish crossed their path before darting back into the trees.

"Here you are, daylight star, made out of miracles..."

Eron Ingress hadn't sang in what seemed like forever. If all had gone according to plan he would have been reclining in a fancy hotel in Gigarte right now, listening to the cheers of his adoring fans through a smoked window. Instead, he was walking through a fairly beautiful forest with a deaf guy he didn't really know in order to escape his crazy dad. Fun times.

"...each atom sings to me, set me free from chains of the physical...oh, free me..."

His voice was still hoarse from inhaling ash during the incubator fire at Loch Ranch. It had been only three days ago, and in another time Cameron would have already been rushed to the hospital for extensive voice therapy. Eron simply had a passing worry about singing on-key, and possibly if a certain someone liked a slight rasp to voices.

"Where you on outstretched wings sing within the garden of everything..."

A nearby bird picked up the melody and Eron smiled, singing just a bit louder.

"Eyes of pure, deep azure, quite unbelievable, sun's daughter - you've been made not fade to fade - quite inconceivable..."

Runner's ears perked and he lifted his head from where he had snuggled close to Eron's neck. The Pichu gazed at the trees with wonder, having spent most of the last few weeks in a heavily polluted city, a large plain, and a fire. He was still sniffling, but most of his cold was gone, thanks to the caring hands at the ranch. He listened to the song for a while longer before uneasily noting that the trees were starting to get taller and more...well, he couldn't describe it, but he could sure avoid it. He ducked his head back into Eron's hood and shuddered briefly. The teen ignored him, slowly fading from full-out song to a soft hum, opting to simply listen to the birds sing the tune.

He frowned. That was definitely not a Pidgey. The note replication was too perfect; it sounded almost exactly like Eron's voice, rasp included. A flash of bright colours flew across his vision. He stopped, feeling Celino bump into him.

"Celino," he said, turning. "I think we're in the rainforest now."

Before they had left Loch Ranch, the owners had bestowed upon them plenty of gifts to help them on their way to Aridana. A map (which Eron gave to Celino, as he knew next to nothing on how to read the damn things), some dried berries (Runner had already demolished the Grepas), some canned food, rope, and various other tools Mrs Loch declared was necessary for proper mountain-climbing.

We're going around the mountain, Celino had wrote.

"Well, trust me. That rainforest has taken down even th' most confident of explorers. Mark me, you'll be on that mountain before nightfall the first day."

The blond-haired teen tilted his head. The rainforest didn't look that intimidating. Sure, the undergrowth was getting higher and the sun was blocked now - yet it was still uncomfortably warm - but aside from that it seemed like an ordinary collection of trees. Nodding to his newly-acquired friend, Eron pushed through a rather large, broad-leafed bush, Runner clinging to his shoulder. Almost immediately Eron was glad he'd exchanged his form-fitting undershirt for a loose, plain black shirt - the humidity jumped noticeably. He grimaced as he waved aside a trailing frond, yelping a little when it turned out to be part of a Weepinbell. Taking a deep breath (and nearly choking on the thick air) he moved forward.

An hour later, the two emerged into a space conspicuously devoid of any underbrush. Eron sighed in relief and stumbled into the middle of the clearing, tossing his pack down before collapsing on top of it.

"I really hate this forest," Eron grumbled at Celino, who shrugged. "It's rained how many times since we got here - I have seen enough rain for the rest of my life, honestly - all these little bugs keep stinging me-" which, he decided, was why Mrs Loch had told them to keep their jackets on. "-and this stupid humidity is killing me!"

Well, at least he didn't have to worry about his hair puffing up. It had been doing that since he'd cut it and he was steadfastly ignoring it now.

Runner sneezed and crawled out from under Eron's hood into his lap, looking forlornly at the bag. There were no Grepa berries inside, but he could hope, right? If his nose wasn't all stuffy he'd sniff some out; Shep was confined to his Luxury Ball for the time being, so no help from the oaf. His eyes sparkled as he saw Pride slide from Celino's shoulder, looking rumpled and distinctly unhappy from the long trek. Runner's tail twitched as he motioned to the other Pichu and then the bag, making excited "Pi!"s as he gestured.

Eron watched the rodent in amusement before pulling a small water bottle - another gift from Mrs Loch - and taking a long gulp. He then unzipped the top of his jacket and peered into the green-tinted darkness, making sure the egg was okay. The ranch hand who had given it to him had called it a Blitzle, whatever that was.

It hit him that the people at the ranch were generous, almost to a fault. Eron was used to being showered with gifts - especially from his Girlfriend of the Day, although those were more like disgusting dollar-store heart-shaped chocolates and teddy bears (which, inevitably, ended up as one of Shep's chew toys when he dumped the girl). These gifts made him feel weird, though. It wasn't a bad weird, but a...a weird weird.

"Weird," Eron said. He sighed and turned back to where Runner had been a second ago. There was nothing there but dead leaves and a thoroughly unoffensive twig. His blue eyes locked in on the twig, mentally judging the hell out of it.

"Hey, did you see where Runn- ow," he whined, rubbing his head. He lifted the crumpled piece of paper Celino had launched at his head and scanned it, shaking his head.

"No, that's what I was asking you. Think they went off somewhere together?"

☼

Terry paced back and forth in her living room, biting her bottom lip.

She'd made a mistake.

Cameron had been found by an anonymous caller near Loch Ranch, sporting shorter hair and new clothes. The helicopter had left immediately, although they hadn't found the boy there. The ranch hands didn't seem to have a clue about any famous singers named Cameron, either - just two younger men heading north.

They did find a Togekiss, though. One that was staring, rather transfixed at the smouldering remains of the ranch's incubator, holding a letter with very familiar handwriting.

The middle-aged woman sighed and glanced at her door for the umpteenth time. Two men in serious black suits and sunglasses were outside it, keeping her inside. She didn't know what Damian was going to do to her - before Elia died she would have expected a petty squabble, maybe getting fired or mysteriously vanishing from her sister's will.

Now, she was worried for her safety. She felt her body freeze as voices mumbled outside the door.

The knob turned.

Terry's Blissey, Togekiss, and Wigglytuff were clustered around the couch nervously, Damian's Persian lounging beneath them. At the sound of the door swinging open they all jumped to attention, Togekiss fluttering her wings anxiously.

Damian was on the phone as he entered, ordering whomever was on the other end to search everything within the area of Mt Carello, into next week if they had to. He snapped the phone shut and slipped it into his pocket before smiling at Terry, his teeth much too white. Her eyes were drawn to the large red-violet animal that slunk around his feet, purring in a oily-sounding way. The Persian growled, low in her throat.

"Like her?" Damian said, leaning down to pat the strange cat's head. "It's a Pokemon from Unova. Liepard, I believe they're called. Speaking of lying..." His ice-blue eyes glinted as he stood. "You've been keeping secrets, Terry."

The ex-Nurse held her ground as Damian approached, the Liepard throwing a smirk Persian's way. The guards were watching, so he wouldn't do anything crazy - she hoped. He paused a foot in front of her, crossing his arms.

"We know that you've been talking to him. Told him to go to the ranch. That's kidnapping, right there. I'm not even going to go into all the other laws you broke, keeping his location from me."

"He ran on his own," Terry said, eyes narrow. "I just told him the nearest place to go where he could rest. Did you ever consider that it was possible that I was going to tell you where he was?"

Damian's smile told her that he'd called her bluff. "Tsk, Terry. More lies? The letter we found had instructions leading to your old house in that backwater fishing town. You had no intention of telling me anything. Well," The tall, gaunt man waved his hand, the jagged gash still red. A new man in black entered the room, holding a strange, pink-and-tan creature in his arms. He gently set it down and a look from the Liepard sent it scrambling over to the corner, soft eyes wide.

Damian smirked. "Think of it as a present," he said. "You keep it, and tell me anything you know about that boy's location."

Terry glanced at the poor thing, clearly rattled. "I'm not telling you anything."

"That's fine," he said, shrugging. Terry blinked in shock. "Keep it anyway. I think it's called an Audino. Should be useful, should you ever return to Pokemon Care." He turned and walked across the plush carpet towards the door, his new feline padding ahead of him into the hallway.

"Oh," he paused. "Don't think of trying to get custody of him again. The judges here don't think very highly of you anymore. Goodnight, Terry."

The song Eron is singing is The Garden of Everything by Maaya Sakamoto and Steve Conte. He found the lyrics in his mother's room, but never actually performed the song - a. Damain refused to endorse it; b. he never found a girl with the right voice to sing with.

[stbyleth]

We’re going around the mountain, he showed Mrs Loch, scrawled on the crumpling pieces of paper. She didn’t understand as she just shook her head and grinned a motherly grin.

“Well, trust me. That rainforest has taken down even th’ most confident of explorers. Mark me, you'll be on that mountain before nightfall the first day,” and she laughed a hearty laugh.

Celino was beginning to believe her as he trekked through the rainforest behind his partner. Pride curled around his neck shyly, swatting away any stray flies that dared to come near him. The Pichu tried to shove himself deeper into Celino’s collar of his bright orange shirt to try and get away even more. This was not going as planned for either of them. Blue wasn’t fairing well either. He kept tripping on spare branches, which he then moved for his deaf trainer so he wouldn’t also trip, and it was just getting frustrating. He’d rather climb a mountain a million metres tall at this rate! The Riolu was ready to punch someone in the face, and he wasn’t very violent. Cut, the Nincada, of course, stayed within his pokeball. He was an insect, but this heat was just too much for him.

Celino stopped a bit as Eron began complaining for the umpteenth time this hour. He didn’t really mind (not that he really had a choice), so he just kept quiet like always. He threw his sack on the ground and fell on it, almost falling off. Celino shrugged at him, standing in front of him. He pulled his jacket on tighter, swatting away God knows what this bug was this time. He chuckled softly, covering his mouth with his hand to stifle some of his laughs, at how Eron’s newly cut hair was reacting to the humidity.

As his trainer stood there, Blue traveled a ways away to keep an eye on everything. If there was anything that could potentially hurt either of them, he would stop them, put an end to them. They would have no jugular after he was done with them.

… The heat was really messing with his brain.

Pride hopped onto the rainforest floor. In hindsight, it was a bad idea. Suddenly, there were eight million needles pricking into his paws. He sat down – bad idea once more – and began picking them out one by one. This was horrible. He wanted to be home. Forever. Just… forever. He was hungry and Celino was keeping him on a strict diet after the ranch incident because of the way they fed him. But now that his stomach was enlarged from the large meals, he was hungry a lot easier. It was crazy. He was going to start foaming at the mouth soon… It was jungle fever – he was going crazy –

His thoughts of false insanity were interrupted when small “Pi”s came drifting from the bag Eron was sitting on. The other Pichu of the pack, Runner, was motioning toward the bag that smelled vaguely of Grepa berries. Pride knew that there were no Grepa berries in there, but the other was saying they should go find some… They were in a jungle! It would be possible! He would get his food!

Celino sat his bag down gently, unlike Eron. He had his egg, the ranch called it a “Sewaddle”, in there as well, but he wasn’t risking cracking it prematurely. He didn’t want anything sunny side up, and it was certainly possible in this dreadful and stuffy weather. He rubbed his nose with his sleeve as he glanced around. Ignoring the roasting and airless climate, the rainforest was actually kind of beautiful. Although it was probably raining twenty feet from them, it was really nice. There were all kinds of colours all over the place, and some rainbow birds fluttered away. He’d never seen them before, but neat… He wanted one, or something, some more friends, yes, yes.

Blue tapped at his shoulder. He looked over at him, and the Riolu gestured to Celino’s neck and then to Eron’s bag. Something was missing… What was it? Something important… Very important, he had a feeling. But what was missing? Blue sighed and tapped on Pride’s pokeball, which released nothing. Pride was gone! What? Impossible! He hated these climates, probably couldn’t breathe, poor thing. Why would he just up and run away like that? Now that Blue mentioned it, Runner was nowhere in sight either…

Grabbing up his notepad, he scribbled down, Where did Runner and Pride go?, crumpled it into a very nice ball, and tossed it crudely at Eron’s head. He was mid sentence when the attack landed, but he put it off and read it. He noticed they were gone too… where would they have gone? Blue didn’t see anything…

Another ball of paper, hitting Eron straight on the nose.

We have to find them before we go on!

Celino stood back up, began walking in any given direction.

This post has been edited by Cavalcade: Feb 15 2011, 03:21 PM

[Ganymede]

Eron grabbed his pack and reluctantly stood, wiping some sweat off his forehead. Leave it to the Pichus to cut their break short. He briefly thought of letting Shep out to sniff out where the two had gone, but thought better of it - the Electrike had had more than enough excitement for the week. He deserved a rest (hell, they all did, and they were just about to get it when Runner and Pride had vanished). Grunting in the heat, he adjusted the egg under his jacket and set off after Celino, keeping his ears alert to every sound.

It would take some time getting used to him, Eron thought, watching the back of Celino's jacket bunch up as he stepped over a fallen tree. He'd never been with a disabled person before (ZZ didn't count, even though Cameron'd thought of his sleep issues as a disability more than once after a missed rehearsal) and, to be blunt, it was slightly unsettling. He was pretty sure Celino could talk; it wasn't like his ears were connected to his vocal chords or anything. The somewhat eerie silence coming from the other man set Eron on edge and he noticed, ever since they'd entered this damn forest, that he'd been straining his ears a little too much.

Why should I be working? It's his problem. That had been his first thought. He'd promptly bashed his head into a tree, earning himself a shower of stagnant leaf-water, no doubt full of mosquitoes and Poliwag larvae and who knew what else.

"Hate this stupid forest," Eron hissed, shaking his hair out.

☼

"Chu..."

"Pi! Pi!"

They'd been walking for who knew how long. Pride was in the lead, valiantly slaying any stray twig that landed in their way. Runner dragged behind, sniffling occasionally. He'd hoped that the detour would be quick and yield a bunch of beloved Grepa berries; so far it had been long, unfruitful - literally - and now he was wet.

There was also that weird noise he kept hearing, which Pride either couldn't hear or was ignoring.

"Chu," Runner whined, pressing his ears low. "Pi, pi, chu pi..."

"Pi," Pride replied, firm. They would get those berries or die trying, damnit. Well, not die. Maybe trip over a rock. Accidentally step on a bug, at worst. Runner sighed an continued the trudge, wondering if Eron had noticed his absence yet.