[X] My Assistant

[Ganymede]

He barely felt Celino run into him, embracing him quickly before diving into the burning building to grab the eggs. Shep was snarling at two Poochyena, sparks from his fur exploding in the smoke. Eron shouted something at the dog - he didn't know what, but he felt the back of his throat start to ache - and, not quite knowing what else to do, grabbed as many grey-and-white eggs as he could. He staggered out of the incubator - well, what was left of it - and felt the eggs lifted from his hands. The teen briefly saw Billy flash him a grimy smile before the man charged headfirst into the flames, followed by a Buizel.

Seconds later, the already heavy rain seemed to double. The fire hissed and wood snapped as concentrated bursts of water hit the incubator from all sides, dousing some of the smaller flames. Eron turned and looked around; a small army of Poliwhirls, Buizels, and a few of their evolved forms stood in a line next to the blackened pond, determined ranch hands standing behind them. A long, low crackle came from the inside of the building and Billy and his Buizel reemerged, holding a jumbled collection of eggs in their hands. Shep, Celino's Riolu, and a smattering of the Poochyena and Houndour made their way through the building, just the roof fell inward.

A shout rose from the crowd. Dozens of water Pokemon and their trainers sprinted to the remains.

Eron tuned everything out, registering for the first time that Celino was trying to get his attention. Shep was nowhere to be seen, most likely chasing the other dog Pokemon. Runner was tugging at his mud-and-soot smeared jacket, tears and snot streaming down his face-

...Runner?

Eron let out a sob as he lurched forward and grabbed his Pichu, cradling him tightly. Runner gave him a weak, reassuring squeak and dived into his jacket, bunching up Eron's shirt in his hands.

"You found him, thank Arceus, he's okay..."

He didn't notice that he was hugging Celino - or that he was squeezing a little too hard - until Runner squeaked again and the man made a weird 'gkch' noise. Eron let go and stumbled back a bit, smiling at Celino. His hair was nearly black from the smoke and ash and he probably wouldn't be able to speak properly for a week, but hey - they were alright.

Everyone was alright.

"Was that all of them?" Mrs Loch bellowed, her voice surprisingly loud. She was kneeling with her granddaughter and a man Eron didn't recognise over a tarp where the eggs had all been laid out.

"Uh, all we could find. Them guys took all the Blitzle eggs 'n' most of th', uh, th' Sandile eggs. An' a few Venipedes."

"Damn," someone muttered. There were surrounding murmurs; a few poeple were crying.

"Nobody's hurt, though. An' those bastards couldn't have gotten far, not in this rain..."

The ex-rock star did a quick count in his head. There had been nearly twenty Blitzle eggs, and the men he'd seen had fairly large bags. At worst, they could have gotten away with close to forty eggs.

He remembered the abused, smuggled Pokemon locked away in Lenolia.

Raven's deaf Larvitar.

Tag's unnaturally silent Vulpix.

Eron's blood hit boiling point.

"Not on my fucking watch!" he shouted, ignoring the pain in his throat. He turned, eyes following the footprints in the mud, and ran.

While some fans of Cameron Ramirez claim to know every single detail about him, the truth is that all they know are lies made up by his press. The first lie is that his hair is naturally platinum blond. The second is that he can play every instrument known to man (he had no idea what a glockenspiel even was, let alone how to play one; let's not get started in the clarinet).

The third was that he wasn't an athlete.

Before Damian had Eron pulled out of private school when Elia first got sick, he was on the cross-country team.


Eron ran.

☼

"You're sure that'll work, George?"

"Positive. They'll be too busy putting out that fire to come after us, 'specially in this weather."

"Uh, if you say so. How many eggs we got?"

"Thirty-two. We can sell these black-n-white ones, the boss says they're just weird Ponytas."

"What about these?"

"Those, we keep. Ickle crocodiles."

"Aww, I love crocodiles. Always asked mam to get me a Totodile, but she never did."

"That why you stole that Feraligatr?"

"Yeah. These?"

"Are mean little buggers. We sell those to the highest bidder."

"Hey, where's the dogs?"

"Behind us - look, there they are. And, uh..."

"That Electrike ain't ours, George."

"Yeah, neither is that kid. How the hell did he catch up to us?

☼

They were on a small vehicle; an ATV, from the looks of it. The eggs were nestled in boxes attached rather perilously to the back of the machine. There were three men in the car, and two of them did not look happy to see him.

Considering the expression on Eron's face, it would be a surprise if they did.

"Shep!" He yelled, hoarse. "Get close and use Spark on the uh, the thing that makes it go!" He was starting to get tired. None of the after-school practices ever involved slogging through mud and fallen bits of foliage during a heavy rainstorm. He just knew he was going to catch whatever Runner had, or even pneumonia, from doing this. His voice was already shot, and now he was traipsing around the forest making it worse. This was stupid.

But it was the right thing to do.

The pack of enemy dogs were slowing down, turning and facing him. Eron stopped dead and vaulted over a log, cursing when he felt his shoulder give. The leader of the pack - the Houndour Shep had taken down earlier, growled and jumped after him, coming face-to-sole with Eron's once-white shoe. Yelping, it backed off just as a slight explosion shook the ground, sending the whole pack running.

Climbing back over the log, Eron ran - well, more like dragged himself - over to the now-disabled ATV. One of the egg thieves had thrown himself over the box at the last second, shielding the eggs from what would have been a messy spill. Shep was off to the side, sitting atop one of the men, his tail thumping on the guy's leg.

"Bastard," one of the men gasped, pulling himself out the wreck. "The hell gives you the right-"

"Give the eggs back," Eron said, his voice cracking. He knew he probably wasn't that intimidating in his current state, but it didn't hurt to try. Although he wished Tag was there, a giant with facial tattoos would certainly help negotiations.

"Heh, right. Now, why don't you be a nice little boy and go back to momma, while we grown-ups do our jobs? That good?"

Does my hair really make me look that young? "First off, I'm not a kid. Second, my mum is dead, so please give a little respect. Third..." he took a step forward. "Give the eggs back."

The man sneered, showing off his less-than-impressive dental work. He opened his mouth and brought up his hand, probably to make a point, but the man Shep was using as a couch suddenly jerked upwards.

"George!"

"What, Rob."

"I recognise him! I mean, he's all dirty and his hair's diff'rent but his voice is the same!"

Geroge paused, looking thoughtful. Eron's heart dropped as a smile broke out on his face.

"Come to think of it, didn't boss say there was a big reward for a missing kid on the radio?"

"A million Poke, George."

"And he does sound awfully familiar, once you get past the Poliwag in his throat."

"Yep!"

George turned to Eron, his smile wider. "Lenny, call boss on the radio. Tell him we found the prodygall son."

"...Uh, I think it's prodigal, George."

"Shut u-OOMPH!"

George all but flew backwards into a mud puddle, the Riolu that had hit him landing in front of the man. Celino ran up beside Eron, clearly out of breath. He could hear more footsteps behind them - spare ranch hands, Eron guessed. George spat out mud as he stood, glaring at the oncoming army.

"George? I got boss, he says he's calling that Ramirez guy right now, what do we do?"

The man looked around and sighed, brushing mud off his clothes.

"We go. Leave the eggs." He smirked. "We know where he's hiding." With that, all three men turned and ran deeper into the forest, leaving Eron to sag and lean over, dizzy. Runner poked out of his jacket and licked his nose, Shep and Blue wandering over to where the boys stood. The ranchers yelped with joy as they saw the crashed ATV, rushing in to get the eggs. A few clapped the two on the back; one even got on his knee and hugged the Riolu and Electrike.

"You know what I need?" Eron rasped, standing and looking Celino in the eye. "A nice, hot shower."

[stbyleth]

He couldn’t really tell if it was raining or not. There were dozens of water pokemon before he went back in, and he was sure that they were the cause of all of the heavy rain all of a sudden. It was beating on the incubator’s already weakened wooden framework, and it would collapse any second, in on itself and whatever, whoever, was inside. Within seconds, Blue was tugging on Celino’s arm, and they were outside. Celino could feel the great wave of wood falling to the ground behind him. He took a deep breath.

Celino was embraced. This was a good feeling. The only other people to really hug him had been his parents and grandparents. To get a hug from a friend was like soaring sky high above the clouds by yourself and said friend. Okay, maybe it wasn’t that dramatic; but it was a big deal to the deaf man, considering that he didn’t make many friends. 

However, he was hugged quite tightly, so tightly that it was wreaking havoc on his small, lithe bones. He tried to push the other away and was thankful when Eron had let go. Though he could have gone for a longer, gentler hug, there were more pressing matters to attend to. Mrs. Loch asked if everyone was okay, and for the most part, everyone was. Celino noticed he had a burn on his arm, but it wasn’t life threatening. If he just washed it and kept it bandaged and clean, it would heal in no time! At least, that's what he was telling himself to keep from throwing a tantrum over the incredible amount of pain he was feeling right then. 

When he turned to Eron to ask him to ask for bandages, he was gone. This was certainly troublesome considering he had just been there a second ago. He pivoted and looked around. Eron was turning a corner in the distance, his Pokémon following closely. Celino barely had time to think before Blue took off after him. What other choice did he have? The trained held onto his hat as he ran after them all, almost slipping in the mud as he turned sharply. Blue fell back to run with his trainer after a few seconds. 

He couldn't hear it, but he saw it. The explosion was rather large. The bright light interrupted the becoming-normal grey light of the overcast sky. The ground shook, but it wasn't nearly as terrible as the explosions in the incubator earlier. Celino took a minute to get his breath back and check on the burn before he took off again. 

That man was threatening Eron. They both were. Eron's facial expression went from the hero's normal to questioning what was happening. What exactly was happening? He motioned for Blue to use Quick Attack on the man threatening Eron. The Riolu waited a minute before throwing himself into the man, knocking him into a mud puddle. And that was that. The men ran away as ranch hands swerved around Celino like he was a nobody, swerving to meet and grab the eggs. He moved and stopped beside Eron to catch his breath again. He was pat on the back and Blue was given attention he didn't want. He moved away from the people and hid near his trainer. 

Celino grinned widely at Eron. He nodded at the shower idea. He could use one himself, he noted. 

•••

They were given everything under the sun for their heroic actions, as well as the ranch hands that went into the fire to save some eggs from destruction. Celino's burn was treated — turns out it was worse than he thought it to be. It needed special lotion that stung a bit, but it numbed the pain nicely, and Mrs. Loch wrapped it expertly — and a bit too tightly — so it could heal better. 

Eron was given a shower. It wasn't as hot as he wanted and it was more like a bath, but he was clean at least. Shep was given a bath too, and all of their Pokemon as well. They were squeaky clean, and Pride loved it exceptionally well. Cut didn't really like it. 

Anyway, once everything was done, Celino sat on Eron's bed, holding the green and yellow egg in his hand. Pride was to his right, stuffing his face with Mrs. Loch's most recent dinner. Cut sat contentedly on Celino's head and Blue was sitting on the floor on front of him. Shep ran around and licked the floor at odd times, even though nothing was there. Runner was doing a lot better too, snuggled against a small stereo. Eron stared out the window, and was interrupted when a piece of crumpled paper was thrown at his head. 

He uncrumpled it and blinked. It was from Celino, obviously. Where to now?

He turned to the deaf man and smiled genuinely. "... Aridana."