Chapter 12

Percy woke up with, once again, Crash's tail across his chest. He sat up groggily and rubbed his eyes. His body ached all over but he still stood up and stretched his stiff muscles.

He rolled his shoulder blades and felt his muscles warm up. He immediately felt a lot better although he was still a little sore. He got dressed quickly in his usual outfit and stepped outside his tent. He sleeps in the clothes he wore during the day but he didn't like wearing dirty clothes ever since he forgot to change.

Percy saw Jason and Max eating breakfast outside. Jason looked over at Percy and said "We still got 20% of the path left. Lets eat quickly." After talking he stuffed the rest of the dried meat into his mouth. Then he walked over to Charlottes tent to wake her up.

Percy and Crash quickly finished their breakfast. After eating Percy let out Fúria from her ball and fed her his rations. When Fúria was finished eating Charlotte was ready to leave. They didn't exchange any words and started for Honey City. They ran at an even faster pace than yesterday and were taking breaks every hour and a half.

During their first break they were chilling with a cup of water in their hands when Charlotte suddenly shouted "Growlithe!" She immediately ran off with Jason and Percy left sitting with cups in their hands. Percy and Jason looked at each other before immediately ditching their cups and running after the girl.

They both wanted a Growlithe really badly and wouldn't dare let Charlotte get one. Charlotte was running in front of them where she disappeared into a large group of bushes. "Aaahah!!" Percy and Jason immediately heard a shrill scream and doubled their pace and called out their Pokémon at the same time.

Their Pokémon watched them run past them and quickly followed. Percy and Jason burst through the bushes into a nest located in the middle of it. It was quite large and could easily be 10x10 meters. There were packed layers of leaves and fur in patches all over the ground. In the small clearing there was 6 Growlithe standing in a crescent around Charlotte.

Percy noticed an odd one in the pack. Instead of being orange it's fur was yellow. 'It's a shiny!!' Percy thought to himself. A shiny Growlithe was one of the best Pokémon he could find. He would be incredibly lucky to find a shiny in the first place much less in a Growlithe.

Percy and Jason's Pokémon soon burst through the bush behind them. Percy immediately pulled out his Pokédex and checked the Growlithes levels. There were 3 Growlithe that were level 16, 2 that were level 17 and 1 that is 20. The level 16s both had dark green potential, the level 17s had yellow and dark yellow potential and the Shiny was level 20 and had light blue potential.

Pokémon: Growlithe

Level: 20

Type: Fire

Abilities: Flash Fire, Justified

Gender: Male

Potential: Light Blue

Moves: Bite, Roar, Ember, Leer, Odor Sleuth, Helping Hand, Flame Wheel, Reversal, Flamethrower (Inherent Move), Swords Dance (Inherent Move), Metal Claw (Inherent Move)

Right after Percy checking the Pokémon the shiny Growlithe who was clearly the leader shot an Ember out of its mouth towards Charlotte. Percy immediately acted sprinting toward Charlotte.

While sprinting he strengthened his body with aura and unclipped his hatchet from his belt. The Ember flew toward Charlotte. Although the Ember move at first may seem weak, when the move hits it explodes and can turn someone into meat paste.

Percy flicked the hatchet up and the dark metal collided with the Ember. His arm trembled with the collision and he poured more aura into his arm. The Ember was deflected to the side and slammed into the ground causing a small explosion.

Percys hatchet flew out of his hand and into the ground a meter away. Charlotte screamed loudly falling back and ran out of the circle of bushes "Max, Pidgeotto let's go!." Jason yelled at his Pokémon. He ran toward Percys side wielding a large machete.

Percys hand was bleeding terribly and it looked like the palm of his hand was ripped open from the force of the Ember. After seeing Percy step forward Crash and Fúria immediately started to run toward Percy. Crash prepared an Aqua Tail as he couldn't hold himself back from attacking the shiny Growlithe that attacked Percy.

Fúria immediately engaged a level 16 Growlithe next to the shiny. Her fur was now turning red and she got a lot more aggressive with her attacks. Pidgeotto prepared Brave Bird and flew into one of the level 17 Growlithe. The Growlithe was hit in its head and suffered from a critical hit. It was blown back and severely injured.

The other level 17 Growlithe responded by shooting an Ember at Pidgeotto. Pidgeotto was hit in its chest and was blown back in the air. "Don't use fire type moves!" Jason yelled at Max. He knew that some Growlithe had the ability Flash Fire which caused them to be powered up when their hit by fire moves.

Max prepared quick attack and hit the Growlithe that hit Pidgeotto. The Growlithe snarled at Max and prepared a Bite move. The Growlithe lunged at Max who was able to dodge it and prepared another Quick Attack. Two of the level 16 Growlithe ran toward Jason and Percy in an attempt to take out the trainers.

One of the Growlithe shot an Ember at Jason causing him to roll to the side. The Ember striking the ground where he once stood. The other Growlithe ran toward Percy and tackled him to the ground. Crash saw this and tried to help him but was promptly attacked by the shiny Growlithe. He was at a slight advantage but couldn't let down his guard.

The Shiny Growlithe prepared a move and it's paw turned gray. Crash prepared his Aqua Tail and their moves clashed against each other. Fúria was faring well against her opponent and had her Anger Point maxed out. She was tinged an angry red and was preparing a Dig as she knew that it did the most damage.

She dug underground avoiding an Ember and rose from the ground into the Growlithes stomach. Then she repeated the same thing she did with the Zigzagoon and Karate chopped it while it was falling. The Growlithe slid on the ground where it lay unconscious. Then she ran over to Jason to help him as he and the Growlithe were circling each other and were sizing each other up.

Unfortunately Fúria didn't notice the situation as she would've helped Percy who was in a much more desperate situation. Percy was on his back with a Growlithe on top of him. Percy pushed back on the chest of the snarling Growlithe. The blood coming from his palm was splashing all over his face.

The Growlithe lunged at Percys neck ferociously. Percy reacted quickly and used his good hand (left) to grasp the maw of the Pokémon. He threw it back and reached for his hatchet that was lying next to him. He grasped for the handle and was able to grab it and bring it in front of his neck. Still on his back Percy blocked a bite from the Growlithe.

The Growlithes mouth was around the shaft of the hatchet and was shaking its head and pulling back in a attempt to disarm Percy. Percy held on and punched the Growlithe with his bloody hand (right). The Growlithe stumbled back to Percys feet where he picked up his feet and planted a kick in the chest of it.

The Growlithe slid back a meter before lunging toward Percy again. In a futile attempt to dodge its claws Percy tried to push himself back with his hands. He miscalculated his hands condition and couldn't push himself back. The Growlithe reached out its claws and scratched at Percys chest. A long gash appeared across Percys chest and he screamed in pain and released an intense wave of aura energy.

The energy slammed into the Growlithe where its eyes rose to the back of its head and passed out. Percy fell on his back exhausted and breathing heavily. Meanwhile Max has beaten his opponent and helped Pidgeotto defeat hers. Fúria was severely injured against a moderately injured Growlithe.

She was trying her hardest but has already sustained injuries from her first fight and at this rate was going to lose. Crash was fighting on even ground with the shiny Growlithe and would only win after several minutes. Although Crash had a type advantage he was outleveled and had less experience.

Jason ran over to Percy coming to a slide next to him. He kneeled down and pulled out his Pokédex. He took a first aid kit from his storage and got some bandages. He rapped the bandages tightly around Percys hand and his chest all while speaking to Percy encouraging him to stay awake.

"Everything's going to be okay. Just stay awake. Everything's okay." He reassured Percy. Percy was swimming in and out of consciousness and could barely string a sentence together. "I want the shiny." Jason laughed dryly and said "Of course man. You'll get the shiny." Jason stood up and started orchestrating their Pokémon. A few seconds later Pidgeotto and Max defeated their opponent and helped to defeat Fúrias opponent.

Crash was still fighting wildly against the Growlithe and was sustaining some major injuries.

He was getting increasingly anxious as he saw his trainers state and couldn't keep enough concentration on his own fight. Fortunately Pidgeotto flew in surrounded in a golden glow and slammed into the shiny Growlithe.

The Growlithe now noticing what was happened around him tried to back away but was stopped by Max. Suddenly a jet of hot water blew into the Growlithe causing it to pass out. Crash roared in defiance and quickly waddled toward Percy quickly followed by Fúria.

Percy was breathing raggedly and was now unconscious. Jason went around catching all the Growlithe and healing their Pokémon. Suddenly Crash started yelling Pokemon words at Fúria. Fúria sat down with her head down seemingly on the verge of tears.

"Hey Crash it's not her fault she didn't notice Percys situation. If I had just been faster and saved Charlotte, his hand wouldn't have gotten injured." Jason said also on the verge of tears. 'My first friend since I was with 'him'. Why am I always so weak.' Jason thought to himself.

He plopped on the ground with his hands over his face. "Jason!" Jason raised his head to see Charlotte pushing through the bushes with people behind her. She ran up to him hugging him aggressively. "I'm so glad your ok." She said with her head over his shoulder. "I found these people on the road." Jason completely ignored her and called out to the people behind her "Are any of you healers, my friend is injured." A girl quickly stepped forward and kneeled next to Percy.

She looked to be about Jason and Percys age with pink long hair going down to her shoulders. She had a pleasant face that could be described as beautiful but that was the last thing on Jason's mind.

She dressed conservatively with long white pants and a pink and white t shirt. "What happened here?" She asked. Her voice was kind and sweet. "He hurt his hand badly and was scratched across the chess by a Growlithe." Jason explained. She nodded and pushed the release button on her pokeball.

A pink ball with a egg in its pouch came out. Jason would recognize it as a Chansey. "Chansey please use Heal Bell." The pink haired girl politely asked. "Chansey!" Chansey waddled toward Percy before Crash was between them and growled aggressively. The girls friends hands slipped toward their pokeball belts before Chansey started talking to Crash.

Crash however seemed unrelenting on not letting her closer. "Stop Crash they're trying to help." Jason said. Crash still skeptical gave up ground but made sure to stay close to Percy. The Chansey waddled forward and a bell rang out from her. The wounds on Percys body visibly started closing up.

His breathing became a lot more steady. "Did you do this bandage job?" The pink haired girl asked. "Yeah. Is it bad?" Jason replied. "No, actually it's quite good. I wonder how you did this with no prior training." She said. "Lucky first try." "Uuhh" Percy groaned as he leaned up. "Fuck" he mumbled.

Crash immediately jumped onto Percy pushing him right back to the ground. "Get off." Percy picked up Crash off of his body and threw him off. "How do you feel?" Percy saw an unfamiliar face looking at him inspecting condition. "Who are you?" Percy asked. "She healed you. We owe her a lot." Jason explained. Percy bowed deeply. "Thank you very much, is there something I could do for you in return." She looked back at the people who were with her.

A young man stepped forward. He had bright orange hair and a strict handsome face. He was about 180 cm tall and well built. He looked about their age. "Where did you get the Totodile." He asked seriously. Percy looked the young man in his eyes and said, "I got him from Professor Oak." They held eye contact and didn't say a word. "Okay" the boy simply said. He turned away apparently uninterested in anything else.

"Alright then we'll be on our way than." Percy stated. He bowed again and turned to Jason. "We should be on our way to the city, we don't want to be late for Charlotte." Jason nodded and recalled his Pokémon. Then he walked out of the bushes with Charlotte onto the road. Percy recalled his Pokémon and thanked them once more. "Make sure you don't move too much or else the wounds will reopen." The girl with the pink hair called out.

Percy nodded his head but didn't say anything and walked out of the bushes. "Did you recognize them?" The orange haired boy asked his friends. "No." "Not at all." They replied. "Let's ask Professor Oak when we get back to the city." "That was one of the best bandage jobs I've seen from someone who isn't from the Joy Clan." "Let's go." The trio walked out of the bushes and onto the road.