Work Text:
KanJoh Deez Nuts
- 12:14 P.M. -
god's favorite dexholder: yoooo did u guys miss me
is pink persian a pyroar: HEYYY its so good to see u man!! Did u make it home ok?
insult generator: Glad to see you're up and around.
Here's the Kicker: Gold!!!!
god's favorite dexholder: crys we literally talked two hours ago
> HEYYY its so good t...
god's favorite dexholder: yea moms home now n silv is settin up the dvd player
god's favorite dexholder: @Protein Bromega
Here's the Kicker: ... why are you pinging him if he's setting up the DVD player
god's favorite dexholder: wanted him 2 pull his phone out
god's favorite dexholder: b4 u ask again: funni
god's favorite dexholder: hes glaring at me
Here's the Kicker: And he's in the same room as you
god's favorite dexholder: lol
insult generator: I see your personality is still intact.
god's favorite dexholder: 👍
Patron Saint of Gender: I came sa soon as I heard hi gold!!! :D
god's favorite dexholder: damn I even got yells on her phone I should get hospitalized more often
Protein Bromega: Gold.
god's favorite dexholder: I DIDNT REALIZE U STIL HAD RU OHONE OUT
Protein Bromega: I was waiting for you to say something stupid
Here's the Kicker: Stop texting each other while you're in the same room
god's favorite dexholder: ok mom
Protein Bromega: (￣ ￣|||)
Patron Saint of Gender: Im just glad that you're ok
Patron Saint of Gender: We were all really worried
god's favorite dexholder: nah s all good
god's favorite dexholder: do u think i would go down like that
god's favorite dexholder: murdered by an uncooked omelete
god's favorite dexholder: i have standards
owes me ¥500: Noted 👍
god's favorite dexholder: hi blue LMAO
owes me ¥500: I'm eating lunch atm but glad to hear you're alive
owes me ¥500: 💕
god's favorite dexholder: yea thx
god's favorite dexholder: so uh
god's favorite dexholder: now that everyone who's important is here
insult generator: I think Daisy is pretty important.
owes me ¥500: Is your brother in law not? lol
insult generator: Not my brother-in-law. Also, no comment
god's favorite dexholder: now that every important DEXHOLDER*** is here
god's favorite dexholder: do we wanna. talk abt it
Here's the Kicker: Do you want to talk about it?
is pink persian a pyroar: thank th birds you said something i was debating abt it for like 5 mins
god's favorite dexholder: i mean no but 2 my understanding we have a liek
god's favorite dexholder: national crisis on our hands
god's favorite dexholder: that i was a victim of
> thank the bir...
insult generator: Is that why you were staring at your phone like you were attempting to decipher a code?
is pink persian a pyroar: (≖_≖ )
Here's the Kicker: Why is everyone texting each other from the same room
owes me ¥500: I'm assuming you have a pet peeve
Here's the Kicker: (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻
Patron Saint of Gender: ┬─┬ノ( º _ ºノ)
insult generator: Guys please, Gold is being responsible for once in his life.
god's favorite dexholder: thank u 4 recognizing my efforts im so honered
Here's the Kicker: Right, sorry orz
insult generator: Well, if you want the general debriefing, things went from bad to worse pretty quickly.
god's favorite dexholder: gathered that
insult generator: We're mostly just trying to keep it contained. The Hoenn kids are more involved in the research of how to stop it, since Hoenn is sort of a hotspot.
Patron Saint of Gender: Im trying to keep things in check in viridian, theres a lot of birds here so theres a lot infected DX I mostly just report them to Green cuz I don't like dealing with them myself
god's favorite dexholder: how do u even "deal w them" i could barely even scratch the thing
Patron Saint of Gender: Oh you blow them up
is the pink persian a pyroar: I MEAN
god's favorite dexholder: HWAT DO YUO MEAN YOU BLWO THEM UP
god's favorite dexholder: I WANT TO BLOW THEM UP????
insult generator: You just set them on fire. They don't explode. Though I will admit it's cathartic.
god's favorite dexholder: did u already blow up the 1 I had (edited)
insult generator: Is that-- oh. Yeah.
insult generator: You named it?
god's favorite dexholder: nvm
god's favorite dexholder: just wish i got 2 nuke it myself
insult generator: Fair.
is pink persian a pyroar: im gonna be honest bud, if you get even remotely near one of those things ever again it will be too soon
Here's the Kicker: ^
god's favorite dexholder: dude theyre literally
god's favorite dexholder: idk. infringing on my turf
god's favorite dexholder: im not abt 2 stand by n watch that happen
Here's the Kicker: Speaking of that... you should probably close up the Nursery for a while
god's favorite dexholder: lmao y
Here's the Kicker: What do you mean why???
is pink persian a pyroar: gold we have no idea how these things are spreading
god's favorite dexholder: yea let me just ask celebi 2 stop performing the miracle of life while im at it
gold's favorite dexholder: im not letting this scare me out of what i do best
insult generator: As far as we're concerned, any business that deals with egg production and raising is a potential hotspot for infection. The problem is already difficult to contain in the wild, we can't handle human and domestic cases at the same rate.
is pink persian a pyroar: and I really can't stress enough that we almost lost you
Here's the Kicker: There's no way we can let you put yourself in that position again.
god's favorite dexholder: u guys r such worrywarts
god's favorite dexholder: fine ill shut down for a while
god's favorite dexholder: wouldve been fine anyway
god's favorite dexholder: @Here's the Kicker do u want to come over silv figured his shit out
Here's the Kicker: Oh sure. What are you watching?
god's favorite dexholder: idk some dumb thing he picked out
god's favorite dexholder: not rly paying attention
Here's the Kicker: I can be over in 15
god's favorite dexholder: coolcool
god's favorite dexholder: talk 2 u guys l8r
Patron Saint of Gender: O bye gold!! Have fun with ur movie!!
is pink persian a pyroar: see you later bud
insult generator: Take care of yourself.
owes me ¥500 changed god's favorite dexholder 's nickname to most worrying dexholder
insult generator: Blue.
owes me ¥500: Look Ruby isn't in this chat there's no competition rn
is pink persian a pyroar: lol
Gold dumped his Pokégear on the end table with a heavy sigh, propping his head up on his palm. The title screen of the movie Silver had picked out, some adaptation of a Unovan cartoon he very vaguely remembered watching as a kid growing up in the 90’s, was playing a blaring, action-movie type track made to get the kids all hyped up. He wasn’t immune to that sort of thing, even if he wanted to pretend otherwise, but it was easy enough to keep up his grumpy facade when there was a familiar, burning headache sitting just behind his brow. It wasn’t nearly as bad as it had been a few days ago, but still annoying. And maybe kinda grim.
God, what a weird thought. When it had been happening, he was convinced he’d been like that for weeks. But no, a few days was all it took for that stupid Egg to nearly kill him. He couldn’t get his mind off it, so he just convinced himself that it was because he really, really wanted the pleasure of destroying it himself. Especially now that he knew you could blow them up.
Silver was, per usual, sitting on the floor instead of the couch like a normal human being. He was fiddling with the remote like it was a toy, tapping the buttons without actually pressing them. Admittedly, Gold kind of hated that they’d gotten good at reading each other. Gold could tell Silver was thinking about him. Silver knew Gold didn’t want to be thought about. All that left them with was awkward silence, aside from the TV.
He made the bold decision to break the silence. “You can probably start it already, I doubt she’s gonna care.”
His friend balanced the remote on the tips of fingers, eyes focused but mind wandering. “I’m not going to be rude if she wants to come over.”
Another long, suffering sigh. Silver, in a swift series of events, dropped the remote, grabbed it out of the air in the split second before it hit the floor, and finally looked up at him. Silver had actually been pretty damn emotional for a good while there while Gold was “sick”, not unlike he could be when they were off saving the world, so the return to a blank stare felt weird. Especially when it meant the return of the awkward silence. After a while, it started to become annoying that he wasn’t being asked a ton of intrusive questions.
Of course, that would shortly solve itself when Crystal finally arrived. A bag of snacks in tow, she was greeted at the door by a crowd of house Pokémon who could apparently put their quiet vigils on pause just for a moment to beg for treats. She laughed harder than she probably intended to, completely caught off-guard despite knowing these Pokémon for years at this point. "You'd think these guys have never been trained a day in their lives!" She joked, setting the bag on the end table, a small herd still persistently gathered at her feet. Despite her complaints, they were rewarded with some biscuits she'd bought just for them.
"They were raised with me, you think they aren't food-motivated?" Gold responded with a snort. He half-sat up to make room for her, not fully willing to give up his comfortably laying down. Crystal didn't mind, and snacks were quickly distributed - cheese snacks and soda for Gold, a packet of miniature cookies and a canned tea for Silver. Despite most of the Pokémon dispersing, Crystal was quickly joined by Togetaro, who, similarly with little regard for politeness, plopped himself in her lap without caring about how it affected her ability to see the TV. She pet him anyway.
For how casual it all seemed on the surface, the atmosphere in the room was deceptively awkward. Between the two of them and every house Pokémon's palpable worry, Gold felt like he was going mildly insane. Worse yet, he wasn't sure how to combat it until someone said something, which he was at least ninety-percent certain none of them were actually going to do. So instead, he found himself once again nudging Silver. "Start it already."
This time he obliged, and Crystal strained her neck to talk above the massive pile of Giant Bird in front of her. "What's this movie about?"
"It's about Wartortles that got mutated into humanoids and were trained in ninjutsu," Silver informed her, making Gold suddenly very aware of how funny the concept seemed out of context.
"Oh, I think I've heard of it. It used to be really popular with the kids," Crystal mused. Togetaro cooed as she scratched under his chin. "Seems like something you would be more interested in, Gold."
Gold scoffed, shifting so he could cross his arms behind his head. "Yeah, when I was eight years old." As the opening narration continued its spiel, Gold made a point to not seem interested. "I don't like this little kids' crap anymore."
Instead of bringing up the valid point that Gold had been the one to ask to watch it in the first place, which he would've actually had some form of comeback for, the phrase seemed to trigger something in Silver's brain - "actually, the original comic was for young adults…" And the distraction shifted to the suddenly apparent amount of research Silver had done on this topic.
Maybe it was obvious then that the movie wasn't really the goal here, then. Gold didn't care much about it (though he did care more than he let on - what 90's kid didn't like this franchise?), he just wanted company. They both probably knew that. And they probably also knew that that was why he was being such a smart-ass about it.
Man, having friends that actually knew you and could understand you beyond the surface level was annoying as hell.
It didn't take long for the movie to be more or less abandoned, distracted idle chatter pulling them all away from the actual dialogue. Gold was filled in on various things that happened while he was out - Crys talked about her trip, cut short for what she had apparently referred to as a family emergency; Silver about the weekend he spent at his sister's house. Sporadically, Gold's mother popped in to check if they needed anything. Despite that, it wound up being Crys who reminded him to take his medicine.
When the film ended, they all seemed equally surprised by the sudden disappearance of their excuse to be here together. And it was then that everyone's mutual unspoken understanding finally announced itself. "I could probably afford to spend the night," Crystal said suddenly, fiddling with one of her star-shaped earrings. "I have to check in with the Professor in the morning, though."
"I didn't know we were planning a sleepover," Gold responded absently from his spot on the couch. He knew the meds made him sleepy, but it was kind of nerve-wracking anyway. He rubbed at his eyes just harshly enough to make them sting a bit, hoping it would wake him up.
She might've flushed at the comment, it was hard to tell through the pressure-induced static, but she did get the slightest bit defensive. "I assumed Silver was going to spend the night."
Silver, who at some point during the flick had been made the victim of a 175-pound cuddle monster named Explotaro, tilted his head up to look at the two of them. "I am."
"Yeah, you always do," Gold nudged him in the back with his foot playfully. "I'm surprised my mom doesn't make you pay rent." Funnily enough, he probably would if she asked.
Crystal was still a bit flustered, maybe by Gold's teasing, but she continued. "I just understand if you want company for a while. We should stick together during all this."
Petty as he might be, Gold couldn't bring himself to be a jackass to such an earnest statement. He couldn't act like he wasn't flattered either, or that the gesture meant nothing to him. Because she was right - he didn't want to be alone. Resigned to his fate, Gold took a breath and tried to play it cool. Couldn't let them know how happy it made him or anything. "Yeah, alright. If we're making this a whole thing we should probably find more movies to watch."
Silver piped up again. "Godzilla?"
Crystal frowned, crossing her arms. "You two always get to pick."
"Yeah, Silv, let our guest pick," Gold said.
"I don't live here," Silver said, a defensive lilt to his tone that almost made it sound like he felt like he did live there. He faltered immediately, glancing up at Crystal. "You can pick the movie, Crys."
She rolled her eyes playfully, moving to sit up. "What gentlemen," she teased, walking over to the DVD shelf. Silver might've pouted, which only made Gold snicker harder.
- 8:26 P.M -
most worrying dexholder: got like 5 secs until they realize im not checkign my email wats up
most worrying dexholder: wait wtf
most worrying dexholder changed their nickname to god's favorite dexholder
god's favorite dexholder: do not take away my title
Patron Saint of Gender: Lol wb!! We're just talking sleepover arangements ^ ^
insult generator: I'm not sure it's still called a sleepover when you're in your late teens.
is pink persian a pyroar: she can call it whatever she wants
is pink persian a pyroar: also imagine still being in your late teens this post was made by the 20 yo gang
insult generator: Would it be poor sleepover conduct to murder my boyfriend before the guest arrives?
is pink persian a pyroar: ∑(O_O;)
Patron Saint of Gender: Green no!!!!
insult generator: I'm joking.
god's favorite dexholder: is the situation in viridian that bad
Patron Saint of Gender: Not really but ive been getting a weird vibe all day which isnt a good sign
is pink persian a pyroar: I have so much faith in yells vibes 👍
Patron Saint of Gender: 💕
god's favorite dexholder: fair nough
god's favorite dexholder: stay safe yellers
insult generator: How have things been going with you?
god's favorite dexholder: good weve been marathoning shit
god's favorite dexholder: started out as nostalgic stuff devolved into literally just barbie
is pink persian a pyroar: nice
Patron Saint of Gender: You like barbie stuff??
god's favorite dexholder: anyway
Patron Saint of Gender: O I didnt mean to sound judgy!! Im just suprised :0
god's favorite dexholder: o shit
Patron Saint of Gender: ?
god's favorite dexholder: sry not @ you
god's favorite dexholder: but I actually checked my email
god's favorite dexholder: @insult generator i think ur account got hacked
is pink persian a pyroar: uh oh
insult generator: What makes you say that?
god's favorite dexholder: just realized i couldve mentioned this in pms but whatev
god's favorite dexholder:
god's favorite dexholder: this is u right
is pink persian a pyroar: what kind of spam mail even is that thats terrifying
insult generator: Well, that certainly appears to me.
insult generator: I can log in fine? Doesn't seem to be in my sent mail folder.
insult generator: I'll PM Bill about it. Thanks for the heads up.
Patron Saint of Gender: It looks like some sort of creepy code o_o
god's favorite dexholder: glad im not just hallucinating again at least lmfao
insult generator: I'm not unused to people messing with me like this. Don't understand why they would email someone pretending to be me though.
is pink persian a pyroar: o yea no gold youre fine
> I'm not unused to peo...
god's favorite dexholder: normal thing to be used to
insult generator: Not my fault my grandpa incited the wrath of a Ghost-type master.
Patron Saint of Gender: I cant wait for things to settle down again. Everythings been so weird lately T~T
is pink persian a pyroar: yea same
insult generator: Never heard you quite so thrilled to help in a situation as what's been going on lately (sarcasm).
is pink persian a pyroar: cant help it man im so old now. my bones are tired and brittle
is pink persian a pyroar: youll understand when youre older
insult generator: I'm
insult generator: .
insult generator: @Patron Saint of Gender is murder still off the table?
Patron Saint of Gender: Green!!!
Gold stared across the room at his bed, feeling remarkably humbled by his current predicament.
Predicament being; a. It was probably in his best interest to sleep in a bed; b. He quickly realized upon entering his room at what felt like an entirely too early time to go to bed (Crys would say that nine-o’clock was a perfectly normal time for someone to go to bed, actually, disregarding that Gold routinely stayed up until two in the morning) that being in his own room made him feel… incredibly uneasy.
Maybe he was just vastly overestimating his own bravery, but he really hadn’t anticipated this being a problem until he was confronted with it. He didn’t even have enough time to steel his nerves to convince his friends that there was nothing wrong before they noticed. So now they were knee-deep in brainstorming how to deal with it.
It was Crystal’s suggestion to try rearranging the room. Gold was immediately discomforted by the sheer thought. “I haven’t moved my bed since I was, like, twelve.”
“Maybe now’s a good time to change that,” she offered. Her voice was gentle, and he was used to her using it around kids. Which, y’know, was kind of embarrassing. She shifted into “dealing-with-kindergarteners” mode every once in a while, but Gold was used to receiving what he liked to call her “customer service” voice, where she was audibly being as patient as humanly possible.
"Fine," he said after a second. "Been meaning to do something about that giant pile of shit in my closet anyway." He heard something about how change was good for the mind anyway. Even if he didn't like it when it affected his room.
Curious, Silver wordlessly wandered over to the closet as Gold and Crys discussed their plan (more accurately, Crys discussed it and Gold sort of squinted at his room and tried to visualize what she was saying). His eyes widened at what he saw. "I didn't know you had so many stuffed animals."
"Yeah, I used to be embarrassed about it when I was, like, thirteen, but now I mostly just stuff 'em in there out of habit." He peered past Silver's shoulder, realizing abruptly that he had very little attachment to most of these anymore. Having a million Pokédolls kinda lost its effect when you had a bunch of the real things running around. "You can have some of them if you want."
"Really?" Silver asked. Once again, his tone was flat, but there was a fascinated twinkle in his eye, particularly as he picked up a relatively large Teddiursa doll Gold was pretty sure he won at some carnival when he was a little kid.
Gold rolled his eyes. He wasn't sure anyone who didn't know this guy too well would believe you if you told them he was totally into toys. "Knock yourself out," he said, roughly patting him on the shoulder before going back over to Crys, only to be slightly flustered when he noticed her looking at the two of them fondly. "What?"
She never directly responded, only prompting them to get started. Gold wasn’t a horrible host, so he tried to help out a little, even if he was completely off-limits from any heavy lifting. A few house Pokemon even poked their head in to see the spectacle.
By the time they were done, everything had basically swapped sides of the room, and a little lightly-used rug Silver had found rolled up in some closet was now covering where Gold’s brain told him the bloodstain on the carpet should be. Some plushes Gold still felt strongly about were dragged out and strewn across the room, a well-loved Kangaskhan doll situated right on his bed.
And it wasn’t that he didn’t appreciate it. His friends just uprooted their whole evenings to hang out with him, and then a whole other hour just to rearrange his entire bedroom on a whim. Even his mom, who more or less kept to her own areas of the house most days, had gone out of her way to clean his room top to bottom while he lazed around watching movies. So yeah, he was thankful, more than he would ever bother putting into words, actually.
The issue was that it wasn’t enough.
New room layout, new sheets, and a freshly bleached carpet and he still couldn’t shake the sense of dread just being in the room he nearly died in gave him. And when he put it that way, maybe it made more sense than he was giving himself credit for.
"This is stupid," he announced bitterly with zero context. He'd absently flopped down on his bed, feeling prickles of anxiety in his chest just from the texture of his blankets. For emphasis, he added, "this fucking sucks."
"Well," Crystal started; he couldn't even see her and he was sure she had one of those way-too-serious looks on her face; "like I said, it's perfectly understandable to be anxious. You just went through something really traumatic."
Gold scoffed. "Trauma? Never heard of her."
Either not recognizing the sarcasm or not caring, Silver replied with a similarly audible frown and a tone so flat it almost drowned out the exact sarcasm it was meant to convey, "Gold, we've been best friends for three years now."
He nearly wheezed at the comment alone, but remained steady enough to prop himself up and fire back. "Aww, I'm your best friend?" He asked, voice raised to the most condescending pitch he could manage. Silver promptly chucked the Teddirursa doll he'd picked out earlier at his head.
"I'm being serious, Gold," Crys said gently, completely ignoring the two of them. "I'm not going to lecture you on this, but… we're here for you. Any way we can help." Silver simply hummed, likely still a bit miffed by the earlier teasing.
Gold took a breath, mulling over his options. As much as he wanted to act like he could deal with this on his own, it was already pretty obvious he couldn't, and he supposed he couldn't turn down help from people who were making it very obvious they wanted to. He looked over his newly rearranged room, knowing that now was probably as good a time as any to trust his gut instincts.
"We could just keep marathoning shitty movies until we all pass out," he offered. It was maybe painfully teenager at a sleepover of him, but in his defense, they were all teenagers.
It earned a little encouraging smile from Crys, and Silver apparently forgiving him for the earlier incident, giving him a slight nod. "That sounds good."
So back downstairs they went. The lights were turned off and everyone re-situated themselves on (or by) the couch. Crys got back up at some point to distribute blankets, and not long after, Gold was thoroughly conked out, lulled to sleep by cheesy b-movies and the way his friends spoke just above a whisper. Silver tried his best not to pay attention as Crys went about making sure he was more comfortable in the awkward position he'd passed out in. (Mostly because he didn't want to embarrass her, partially because something about how tightly Gold was holding that Kangaskhan doll to his chest made Silver uneasy).
Crys was supposed to wake up early in the morning, but Silver had a feeling neither of them would be falling asleep anytime soon. The situation was getting to all of them - even the house Pokémon tended to linger around wherever Gold situated himself, all fully prepared to sleep with one eye open.
Silver felt some level of duty to do the same. Maybe just because he'd been the one to witness the after-effects of the Egg's toxin, but he wasn't fully sure he'd feel comfortable letting Gold out of his sight for the next few days. Or at least until he proved capable of handling himself again (which Silver was fully confident would happen in the next few days, whether he wanted it to or not).
Despite himself, he was just beginning to nod off at a strangely early time for him (Crys would probably point out, again, eleven at night is not a weird time to fall asleep) when Crystal's Pokégear buzzed. Silver had switched his off a little while ago, so he glanced up at her to judge if it was something important. There was a brief, unreadable twitch in her expression before she shifted to text a reply to something. "What is it?"
"Nothing," she said, closing the device and setting it down at her side. "I guess Yellow is running late to something."
????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Yellow was not a helpless trainer. She knew that much of herself. Maybe a pacifist, maybe someone who preferred to settle conflicts as humanely as possible, but never someone who looked at a challenge and threw in the towel. Never someone who figured herself too weak to do something.
But now, thoroughly backed into a corner, she couldn't help but feel small.
Back pressed against a tree, she covered her mouth with one hand, careful not to make a sound as her eyes scanned the shadows, hoping the Pokémon she was hiding from in plain sight would stop toying with her already and come out. At her feet, Chuchu bristled, ready to pounce at any given moment - maybe not the best battler in all the world, but more than eager to protect her friend.
Unfortunately, she was quickly distracted from the task at hand by the sound of footsteps behind her. Oh, geez. On one hand, help would be absolutely appreciated right now, but on the other, she really hoped to avoid anyone else getting hurt by this thing.
Thankfully, as the footsteps got close enough to where she could actually peer around to see who was approaching, it was someone who she was certain would immediately understand the situation. The second Green noticed her, she lifted a hand to silence him, hoping that her general body language and the fact that she was pretty sure there was zero blood in her face at all at this point converged the severity of the situation.
Her former mentor, astute as ever, immediately began looking for the threat, one hand slowly reaching for his Poké Balls.
Before either of them could say or do anything though, Chuchu apparently noticed something the two of them didn't. With a determined shout, the little rodent barreled towards a nearby shadow, fur popping with building electricity.
"W-wait, Chuchu–" Yellow shouted, but it was already too late. The Gengar burst from the shadows under the poor Pikachu, sending her into the air, rolling back to Yellow's feet. By some miracle, the static in her fur apparently startled the Pokémon, and it remained tangible for a moment, staring at the new contender in the ring with wide, red eyes.
She'd never seen a wild Pokémon act like this before. Sure, aggression wasn't unusual, but this poor thing was acting completely feral. Every noise and every movement was a threat to it, and it lashed out like it was defending its life. When even she couldn't get something to settle down, it was a sign something was seriously wrong.
Before she could think much more about it, there was a flash of light, and the Gengar reeled back in apparent pain. Hissing like an angered cat once it recovered, the Gengar dove back into the shadows, rustling in the bushes indicating it finally left them alone.
"That scared it off. It should leave you alone now," Green announced, relieved. Yellow looked up from bundling Chuchu up in her arms, seeing that Green had actually grabbed his Pokédex instead of a Poké Ball - Porygon2 hovered in the space above it, seeming pleased with itself before ducking back inside. "Are you alright?"
She inspected Chuchu's state, finding that she only had a few scrapes. Thank goodness. "She'll be fine," Yellow replied with a sigh, pulling some of her strength into healing her. It was only when that was done that she realized that Green had actually been addressing her, not her Pikachu. She opted to ignore that. "Thank you. I have no idea where he came from. I thought we cleared out all the experiments forever ago."
"We did," Green said. He frowned at the space in between the trees the Pokémon had disappeared into. "That Gengar couldn't have been domestic, but it was too strong to be fully wild. We should stay on guard." As if Yellow was going to be lowering her guard anytime soon. "We need to regroup with Red and make sure that Gengar doesn't track him down next."
"Red's here, too?" Yellow blurted.
"You think he would let me come here to look for you alone?" Green asked. Though there might have been a hint of teasing to his tone, his face remained completely neutral, to the point where she genuinely couldn't tell if that hint had been there at all. She blushed. "Come on."
She hated how the forest was making her feel lately. This place was her home, and she understood it like no other. It was unlike it to shrink away from her, and make her feel cold and alone. She couldn't imagine how much pain it was in, with all the Bad Eggs and now Pokémon like that Gengar lurking around–
Their wordless wandering was interrupted by an explosion of noise not far from where they stood. Another battle, they both quickly recognized, between two equally matched foes. Something that really shouldn't happen between Red and something living in the Viridian Forest.
When they arrived, though, it wasn't a Gengar he was fighting. Rather, his Venusaur was sent out against a massive, rabid-looking Nidoking. From the tip of its horn to its feet, the thing had to be at least six feet tall - absurdly large when most of the species were around four-foot-seven. It already looked pretty tired, which meant that it wasn't as easy to scare off as the Gengar, but probably wasn't going to stick around much longer.
Green noticed its odd appearance, too. "What's wrong with it?" He asked quietly.
"He must be sick or something," she said, noting the red rims of its eyes, though she knew that couldn't be true. Sick Pokémon didn't go out of their way to attack people, least of all someone as friendly as Red. It was just like the other one - acting completely without reason.
With one more assault of Razor Leaf, the Nidoking seemed to finally grasp that there was no winning this battle. Flattening its ears and growling, it turned and stumbled deeper into the forest.
Red released a breath he'd been holding, glancing back at where he'd apparently noticed Green and Yellow had been standing. "Uh, hey. Glad to see you two are alright."
"I figured you could handle that on your own," Green said, stepping out of the shadows. Yellow tentatively followed after him.
"Well, aside from the Safari Zone flashbacks, I think I handled it fine," he joked, returning Saur to his Poké Ball. "Still, geez. I can't believe something that huge managed to sneak up on me."
"The Gengar came out of nowhere, too," Yellow said. More and more wasn't adding up. She could maybe imagine how a Gengar might find its way into the forest, but a full-grown Nidoking?
"Gengar?" Red asked, looking at the two of them in confusion.
Green furrowed his brow, clearly thinking hard about something. "We can tell you on the way home. For now, I think it's in our best interest to get out of this forest."
"Agreed." With little more commentary, Red began to follow his partner.
Yellow hung back though, staring off into the shadowy distance. She didn't like leaving the forest behind in this state. At this rate, it was practically eating itself alive, and she hated feeling so helpless to it. There had to be more she could do.
"Hey." Yellow jumped a little as Red suddenly appeared out of the corner of her eye. He was smiling gently, looking sympathetic as ever. "I know how much this all sucks, but it'll be okay. We can talk to the Professor in the morning and we'll figure something out. Just take it easy for now, alright?"
She took a breath, willing herself to relax. Red was right. Worrying so much wouldn't help anything. Now was the time for action. She gave him the biggest smile she could manage. "Yeah. Thank you, Red."
With one of those trademark grins, he patted her on the shoulder and guided her out the forest, where Green hung far enough ahead to pretend he was considering ditching them (of course, he wasn't). Even if all their minds were focused on hope, though, they all had one lingering fact of reality in the back of their minds.
Whatever was wrong, it was only getting worse.