• Published 9th Dec 2014
  • 4,517 Views, 664 Comments

Old Scars, New Chances - Arcticbrony



Ethan Summers is a Pokémon caretaker that has been hiding from the law for several years. But when Arceus sent them to a new world, he finds himself teamed up with an unusual and unwanted partner. And running away from his problems is not an option

  • ...
29
 664
 4,517

Prologue

Ethan groaned slightly as he felt the warm rays of the sun hit his face. As much as he liked to sleep in he had a lot of things that needed doing, meals to prepare and mouths to feed. He rolled off his makeshift bed, rubbing the sleep gunk out of his eyes as he stretched, feeling a few pops in his back.

“Hey, wake up, Vernus.” He nudged the leafy bundle that was curled up at the edge of his bed.

“Leaf?” The Leafeon yawned as he looked up to his trainer, questioning why he had disturbed him from his rest.

“It’s morning, buddy, can you wake the others while I make breakfast?” Vernus nodded in confirmation. “Thanks,” Ethan smiled brightly as he scratched his friend behind the ear, making the Leafeon let out a small purr at his touch.

Vernus hopped down from the bed and began making his rounds around their home; it was not a particularly fancy house, but it was home. The roof was made of branches that had been carefully twisted and organized so it was waterproof. The same went for the walls; a combination of the long branches that stretched down from the roof and vines growing up from the ground formed a sturdy wall, and the only gaps in it were the small openings that had been made to form windows and the large part where the door was. It was rather nice for a secret base, all things considered, and it served its purpose.

The floor was covered in all kinds of Pokémon, and Vernus had the task of waking them all up. As tempting it was for him to simply let out a loud cry, he knew better. Some of the Pokémon that lived there did not have the best of pasts and could react badly if they were woken abruptly, so he began gently nudging each and every one of them making sure they were all up and ready to eat.

“Alright, everyone, come get your fill!” Ethan exclaimed just as he had finished filling the last bowl with food, almost having to throw himself out of the way as every Pokémon rushed to their breakfasts. Well, almost everyone.

Ethan felt a small tug on his arm.

“What’s up, Zoey?” He asked the Zangoose that was standing beside him.

“Zang,” she pointed off to a small basket where a small Skitty was laying. It had not moved at all, and was instead simply staring at the other Pokémon as they ate.

“Go eat, I’ll take care of it.” Ethan sighed, picking up a small bowl of food and making his way over to the Skitty.

“Not hungry?” He asked as he sat down besides the small Pokémon, receiving a head shake as an answer. “Both you and I know that’s not true.” He picked her up from her small basket. She was incredibly light, even for a Skitty, and while it was not as evident as it used to be, you could still see her ribs.

“You got to eat something, Chii.” Ethan placed the small cat Pokémon on his lap. He gathered some of the food he had brought and held it out in front of her, only for her to push it away. “I’m not letting you go until you eat.” They had been over this before; the first time the Skitty had refused to eat, he had sat with her for half a day before she finally gave in.

“Zoey, Vernus. Take the others outside when you are done. We will be joining you soon.” He smiled to his two friends as they started gathering up the other Pokémon that had finished. He could always trust those two with helping him out.

After a while the last of the other Pokémon went out the door, leaving only him and Chii inside the base. He could make some liquid food and force-feed her; he had done it in the past when it was needed. But having her give in and eat on her own was for the best, and he did not have to wait too much longer this time either. After an hour, the Skitty finally gave in and began eating the food he had been holding out in front of her. “There, was that so hard? Tell you what. If you finish everything, we will go out and you can play with the others after you are done. How does that sound to you?”

“Skitty!”

“Alright then, it’s a deal.” Ethan smiled as the Skitty picked up her pace, consuming all the food he held out for her. Taking care of Pokémon that needed help or couldn’t take care of themselves was Ethan’s job. In most cases, it was enough to take care of them until they were old enough to live on their own or until a suitable family or trainer could be found. But sometimes special cases came up, Pokémon that were damaged, either physically or psychologically. They could in some cases be a danger to those around them, but more importantly, a danger to themselves. Those required a little more attention and closer follow up than the rest; this Skitty was one of those cases.

“There, go have fun. You did well.” The Skitty purred happily, nuzzling Ethan’s hand before running outside to join the other Pokémon.

Walking outside after her, Ethan smiled as the forest around them was teeming with happy Pokémon playing with one another. The Skitty had run off to join some of the younger ones, while Zoey was watching them, making sure none of them hurt themselves. She had always been good with the younger Pokémon, acting like a mother figure to a lot of them. She had been one of the Pokémon he had saved, but after making a recovery she had decided to stay and help him out instead of leaving. It always filled him happiness to see what had become of the once battle-crazed Zangoose.

The forbidden forest had some nasty rumors stuck to it, some of them planted in order to keep humans out, and some had some truth in them. It was certainly a strange place to call home, but being wanted by the authorities in the first place, the forbidden forest provided Ethan with the perfect place for a home while hiding them at the same time. It was true that the grass Pokémon that lived there did not like humans; there had been several close calls in the beginning. But as time went on, the Pokémon that lived there learned to tolerate Ethan once they learned that he did not want to do anything to harm them.

One would not think that someone that specialized in rehabilitating and taking care of Pokémon would be on the wrong side of the law. But not everyone agreed in his methods when it came to saving Pokémon, or about what Pokémon needed saving.


“Hey there, sleepyhead.” Ethan sat down besides Vernus, who was relaxing in the sunlight. “You haven’t been very talkative lately, something on your mind?” Ethan asked with a grin, he already knew what was bothering his Leafeon but decided to tease him about it.

“Leafeon!” His companion huffed and turned his head away.

“Oh really? Well it certainly doesn’t look like so to me. I think my little Vernus has fallen for someone, maybe a certain Zangoose?”

“Leaf…” Vernus let out a sad sigh.

“Don’t be silly, the two of you are great friends and you always seem to enjoy spending time together. How can she resist such a handsome Leafeon such as you?” Vernus snapped his head around, blushing furiously as he stared at his friend.

“Leaf! Leafeon. Leaf, Leaf Leafeon.”

“That’s just a bad excuse and you know it.”

“Leaf?” Vernus asked him, tilting his head slightly.

“Oh don’t try making this about me; we are discussing your love life right now. Mine can wait for another day.”

“Leafeo…” Vernus had started, but stopped suddenly, his ears rotating around to the forest nearby. “Leaf!” He yelled suddenly.

“Trouble? What are you talking about I don’t see any…” A burst of Pokémon rushed out through the trees close to them, rushing past them in a hurry. “You lucked out this time, but we are not done with this talk.” A Sunflora stopped in front of them, it took a few seconds to catch its breath before speaking up.

“Sunflora. Sun! Sun, Sunflora. SUN!” The Sunflora spoke quickly, in almost a frantic manner.

“Um… Vernus, you mind translating?” Ethan asked his friend, he was good at understanding Pokémon, listening to their tone of voice and observing their body language but he had his limits.

“Leafeon. Leaf leaf leaf” Vernus spoke firmly making several gestures with his paws to carry the meaning over to Ethan.

“There are intruders in the forest? How many of them are there?” He asked the Sunflora, whom tapped the ground three times. “Alright, can you describe what they looked like?”

“Leaf, Leafeon. Leaf” Vernus translated as best he could for his friend.

“The three of them all have a fire type with them? Three Growlithes, and their trainers are all dressed in blue...” Ethan really hoped he was wrong, but it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Can you get the other grass Pokémon to hold off confronting them? I know you guys normally don’t like humans, but we will see if we can get them to leave. Can you do that for me?” The Sunflora thought about it for a moment, before giving in.

“Flora.”

“Thanks, we will take care of it. Promise” He gave the Sunflora a comforting smile before sending it on its way.

“Hey Zoey!” He yelled, catching the attention of the Zangoose. “We might have some trouble on our hands; keep an eye on the little ones while we are checking it out. Get Sax to help you, we will be back as soon as we can.” He trusted her to keep an eye on things while he was gone. But in case some trouble arose Sax would be able to handle it. “Come on, Vernus, lead the way.” The Leafeon took lead as they ran into the forest.

“By the description it sounded like three officer Jennys. You up for a fight if that’s the case, buddy?”

“Leafeon!”

“Thanks, good to know that you have my back.”

After a while, they took notice that fewer and fewer grass Pokémon could be seen. Ethan hoped that meant that the Sunflora had managed to convince the other Pokémon to let them handle it. If the Jennys were here, they were most likely after him, and that was his problem to deal with.

“Leaf.” Vernus let out a quiet warning for Ethan as he stopped and listened closely. He stood completely still for several minutes, searching for any foreign sound in the area. “Leafeon.” he pointed off to the direction he was sure that he heard some voices from.

“Alright, buddy, you know the drill. Run ahead and lay out a few toxics in the area close to them, which should mess with the Growlithes’s sense of smell.” Getting a nod as confirmation, Vernus sprinted ahead, leaving Ethan behind.

They had dealt with Growlithes before. If Ethan even tried to get close, they would smell him immediately. Slowly walking after his friend, Ethan soon spotted some purple lines of smoke in the distance, meaning Vernus had already completed his task. As he got closer, he started hearing several voices coming from what appeared to be a small clearing in front of him.

“That stuff is everywhere; I thought we managed to scare away all the grass Pokémon.”

“Just don’t breathe any of it in, the last thing we need is to get anyone poisoned.”

“Who in their right mind would come here anyway? I can’t imagine anyone hiding out here, not with the local Pokémon population being as hostile as it was.” The Sunflora had been right, three officer Jennys and their Growlithes were standing in the clearing.

“Leaf?” Vernus had found his way back to Ethan and was now standing at his side waiting for what they would do next.

“Let’s try to scare them out of this forest. They came in and invoked the wrath of the grass Pokémon down upon themselves. Hit and run tactics, stay out of sight as you make your way around the clearing while sending different attacks at them. Energy Balls, Razor Leaf and Magic Leaf. Make it seem like there are a lot of grass Pokémon attacking them. You don’t need to hit them directly though, we are trying to scare them so just blast the ground around them.” Ethan hoped to end this without a fight; they had little to no chance in a direct fight. There were three against one and they had the type advantage. Worst case scenario and they would have to flee.

“Hey! I think I saw something move in those trees… AAAH!” An Energy Ball hit the ground in front of the Jennys sending a wave of dirt and dust against them.

“I said coming here was a bad idea.” One of the Jennys shouted as several Razor Leaves almost hit the Growlithes, making them jump back.

“We finally got a lead on him; I’m not letting that go. Growlithe use Ember.” One of the Growlithes started throwing Embers after where the attacks came from, the other two following its lead in trying to bring down or scare away their attackers.

“This is definitely not going as planned.” Ethan grimaced as one of the Embers hit the trunk of a tree right next to him. “Vernus use Grass Whistle!” Ethan shouted, deciding to abandon their current plan.

“There he is. Growlithe… use…” A soothing melody filled the air, making all its listeners fall prey to its sleep inducing powers.

Waiting until after the attack was finished, Ethan removed his hands from his ears and walked out into the clearing, where three Growlithes and two Officer Jennys were sleeping on the ground, only one of them had been fast enough to act against the Grass Whistle.

“Wake up, Growlithe. Please! Wake up!” The remaining Jenny was shaking her Pokémon in a feeble attempt on waking it up.

“Admit your loss, and leave. Your friends won’t wake up anytime soon and you can’t take me on alone, not without your Pokémon.” The Officer Jenny looked like she was having troubles accepting what had happened.

“We will come back. We have finally found one of your hiding places.” She simply refused to give up; she still thought she had gained a small victory in all of this.

“And what good will that do you? I have plenty of time to escape in the time it will take for you to organize another party to search for me. But say if you did come back here, I will not be here to stop the grass Pokémon from attacking you a second time. You might have managed to scare away the little gathering on the ones that were there when you arrived, but they were planning to come back in much greater numbers.”

“We will still try. There is no way that we will allow a criminal like you to roam free.” Vernus growled at her when she mention of the word criminal.

“… Vernus use Grass knot to bind the sleeping ones to the ground.” The grass around the sleeping Growlithes and Officer Jennys grew exponentially, twisting itself around their bodies until they were completely bound. “There is a village just outside of this forest. If you go there, I’m sure that they will help you free your friends. They do not take too kindly to humans entering this forest though, but being a police officer, I am sure you will do fine.” The villagers would probably just lecture them in why humans were not to enter the forest. They were a peaceful bunch of people.

Ethan turned around and was just about to leave as he began to feel like there was something pressing on his mind. Everything became heavier, and he tried to speak but to no avail as both he and Vernus fell to the ground. A single sentence echoing in their minds before everything went black.

Rest now my children, for when you awake a whole new world shall be your home.