Ch. 15 A New Task

A/N: Wow, that was quick. Maybe I should take more weekend trips to Montreal. Anyway, here's a hypothetical. If you were surrounded by an army of Dark types, which bug are you picking:

Golisopod

Yanmega

(New & Improved) Accelgor

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"You see, we have a livraison, a delivery, that needs to be brought in. It cannot do it because of the Pokémon that have made themselves at home in our back area. A few Pokémon are making it difficult for us to receive our order, so you can see our problème," Anaïs explained as we walked through the kitchen towards the back.

"Okay, I can understand that. But why not call the Rangers or post it as a Task to ensure a Trainer comes in quickly to take care of it?" I asked.

"Parce que it would be too expensive for us. The Rangers charge for anything that happens in the cities. We cannot afford to pay a Trainer for a task. But you are a Trainer and you cannot pay your bill. Je t'aide, tu m'aides. I help you, you help me," she said with a strained smile.

"Sure, sure, mutual help," I said with uncertainty. It was definitely shady, but I couldn't afford the bill. "Alright, let's see how this goes."

We reached the door that led to the back area. Anaïs opened the door and ushered me in. I walked through and saw-.

*SLAM*

The door slammed shut behind me and I heard Anaïs say, "Knock once you are done. I'll open the door."

"What do you mean you'll open the door!" I shouted, shaking the handle. She had locked it from the inside and now I was stuck. "Anaïs, open the door!"

I banged on the door several times, but I heard nothing. Well, that was a lie. I heard breathing, but it wasn't from the door. I turned around to look at what I would be dealing with.

"Motherfu-," I uttered before freezing. I was expecting a few Pokémon like I was told.

Except, it wasn't a few Pokémon. She had damn near a whole ass party of Pokémon. From what I could see, there were several Litleo and Rattata that had been rummaging through the dumpster, three Pansage on the edge of the roof and with food in their hands, four Fletchling circling overhead, and, to lead them, a Fuecoco that was lazily lounging around while chomping down on some food. The Fuecoco wasn't the normal shade of red. Instead, it was more of a pinkish maroon. The leader of this troupe was a fucking shiny.

Each and every single Pokémon had stopped what they were doing and turned to look. One of the Pansage dropped what looked to be a piece of cake onto the Fuecoco's face. One of the Litleo nervously looked back and forth between their leader and me. There was a total of fourteen Pokémon, most of whom looked to be malnourished. I could see the bones poking through the mangy fur of every single Litleo and Rattata. The Fletchling all seemed to have trouble maintaining their position in the air. Each Pansage seemed to have a dull coat of fur, and their tufts of green foliage looked to be wilting. The Fuecoco seemed to be the only one that was in decent condition.

"Fuec, Fue!" The Fuecoco cried out before sending a few Embers our way.

"Oh shit," I said before jumping out of the way. Inkay had the good sense of also dodging, though he wasn't the one Fuecoco was aiming for. "Disable!" I cried out while running and dodging the small blasts of flames. Thankfully, Fuecoco didn't seem to have a good mastery of the move. Inkay successfully shut down Fuecoco's attack, causing it to growl out.

The rest of the Pokémon sprang into action, pitifully charging and trying to muster enough energy to make their attacks useful. The Pansage were closest to me. One swung towards me as its claws began to shine a dull white. Another spat out seeds that, in all honesty, seemed to be very weak. The third began to clap and cheer, trying to offer a Helping Hand. I was able to dodge the first monkey, grabbing it by its arms mid-air so it wouldn't be able to hit me with the attack. I used its body as cover for the Bullet Seeds, which landed with a thwack and caused my impromptu hostage cry in pain.

While I was taking care of those, I saw Inkay take care of the rest by himself. While they had the numbers advantage, they were extremely weak. Inkay was able to zoom between them and land Pecks and Tackles, occasionally using Hypnosis to reduce the numbers. Once I took care of the Pansage, Fuecoco decided to involve themselves.

Fuecoco jumped forward, attempting to Tackle me. When I dodged that, the round crocodile opened its jaws and belted out a noisy Round. It hit and caused me to hold my head in pain, but it wasn't able to totally incapacitate me.

"Inkay, Hypnosis!" I yelled out, causing my squiddy partner to immediately float over and send out a wave of Psychic rings. The Fuecoco fell asleep, causing the few Pokémon standing to stop in surprise. They kept glancing at each other and at Fuecoco, indecision clear on their faces.

I stopped for a few moments to clear my head of the pain, which could have been a lot worse. The Fuecoco wasn't very strong, but it was clearly in better health than the rest. In fact, I was extremely lucky that they group hadn't decided to just swarm me and instead focused on Inkay. Shaking my head, I focused back on the Pokémon that were now trying to make as much space between us as possible. I looked around the back area to see where they could have gotten in from. The only place was the small road that led to the main street that was gated up, though the chain lock itself was melted.

Fuecoco began to stir, having been asleep for about fifteen seconds. The croc head used their tiny arms to push themselves upright, almost too sleepy to stop itself from falling over on the other side. It mumbled something that I couldn't hear, though it wasn't meant for me. One of the Litleo looked at me nervously before slowly stepping towards Fuecoco. As soon as Litleo was in range, the Pokémon sent an Ember into the tiny lion's face.

"Ka, In Ink Ka!" Inkay snarled out with disdain. All of the Pokémon tensed up. All except for Fuecoco, who just chortled deeply. Fuecoco looked her underlings in their eyes and barked out some sort of response. They all looked down or away from at their leader's message.

Fuecoco then turned back towards Inkay, saying something I couldn't understand. Whatever it was pissed Inkay off to no end seeing as she immediately charged up a Peck. One of the Fletchling flapped its wings nervously, but immediately dove in to intercept the attack at Fuecoco's order. The fear in their eyes told me everything I needed to know as Fuecoco just smiled and began to charge an Ember.

"Wait!" I shouted out, causing everyone to pause. The Embers in Fuecoco's mouth died down while the incoming bird swerved up in relief. Inkay grumbled out something but dispersed the Flying-type energy he had accumulated. I sighed in relief that they actually listened.

"Coco!" the mostly-head croc growled out, though I ignored the growl for the others. "I see all of you are in bad condition. Do you really have to listen to this shitty leader?" The Fire type snarled, but soon smirked at me when the Pokémon hesitantly nodded their heads.

"Do all of you Litleo and Rattata want to scavenge through the dumpster in hopes of finding scrap?" I asked, not receiving a response.

"Do the four of you birds want to be forced to take a hit and then get hit by a burst of flames after?" I asked the Fletchlings. They didn't respond verbally, but I could see a shift in their eyes as they processed my question.

"Do each of you want to spend time feeding this smug fuck whatever and whenever they want?" I turned to the three Pansage. They seemed to be contemplating my question before looking at me with eyes that told me they didn't want to continue but most likely would.

I finally turned to the Fuecoco, whose eyes burned with annoyance and hate. "Fuecoco," the Pokémon barked out before sending a round of Embers at the three Pansage. This caused them to cry out and dash towards Inkay and I.

"That's it," I snapped. "Inkay, put the monkeys to sleep."

I didn't wait for confirmation before I ran the short distance towards the fire croc. I could see their eyes widen as I got closer and felt a slight rise in temperature as I was sure it built up another Ember attack. It didn't matter, however, because I kicked the little fucker up and over the gate and into the alley. Pain shot through my foot and into my leg, but I didn't care. The little shit got what it deserved. I sat down, grumbling about how the stupid crocodile decided to force the others to take hits while also apparently not sharing the food the group found.

"Inkay?" I heard my partner squeak out. I turned to see all the Pokémon staring at me in awe. Well, except for the Pansage, who were all tuckered out.

"Tell them to come here, I think I have enough berries for everyone," I told Inkay. I opened my fanny pack and began pulling out one handful of berries after the other. I mostly had Oran, Pecha, and Cheri, but I'm sure they wouldn't mind. They all looked like they hadn't had proper nutrition for a while.

Now that I thought about it, the fanny pack was able to hold a lot of things. I would say I want to learn the technology behind it, but it would probably go right over my head. Instead, I'd say thank you because it was able to contain a fucking Pokémon egg along with everything else I've picked up.

Inkay brought one of the Rattata over, the only one brave enough to come near me. I held two Oran and a Cheri out, waiting for the rat to take them. The Pokémon sniffed at them cautiously, pausing every time we made eye contact. I nodded encouragingly and gently place them right on the floor. The Rattata grabbed one and looked at me again. When the most-likely starving Pokémon saw I wasn't going to do anything, they grabbed the other two berries and ran off. Instead of eating them, the Rattata brought them to the others. They all sniffed at the berries before eating.

They looked so happy to eat. I felt my chest tighten and looked at Inkay. He was staring at the group with a blank stare. He was probably thinking about his time without food. We looked at each other and nodded. We both walked over to the group of Pokémon, berries in our hands. Well, my hands and Inkay's Psychic hold, even if he only carried four of them. We dropped the tiny mound of berries in front of them and sat down, grabbing one for ourselves.

"Well, dig in. Food tastes better when you have someone to enjoy it with you," I said, a smile spreading across my lips. The merry band of starving magical creatures exchanged bewildered looks before crying out joyously and diving face first into the meal. I had Inkay wake the three Pansage so they could also eat. Their looks of confusion made me choke, but one of the Litleo patted my back with one of their paws and helped me clear my throat.

While we were eating, the door to the restaurant opened up. "I hope you did not have too much difficulté, monsieur. The Poké-," Anaïs started, but froze when she saw us in the middle of our impromptu picnic.

"Oh, hi Anaïs," I said, a bit of Oran juice running down my chin. "I'm just getting to know the group here. Wanna join?"

"Qu'est-ce qui se passe?!" she exclaimed. "What are you doing? I told you to remove them!"

"No," I said, taking another berry and biting into it, "you said, 'I help you, you help me,' and 'Knock once you are done.' You didn't tell me how to solve the problem."

Seeing the old woman's face scrunch up in realization was very satisfying after she'd trapped me back here with the Pokémon. Before she could say anything else, I decided to fill her in on what happened.

"There was another Pokémon, a Fire-type, that was forcing all of these Pokémon into staying here. I got rid of the leader, so I'm sure the rest will be more than willing to get back to their own lives. Isn't that right?" I spoke out. A chorus of agreements, at least I assumed they were agreements, rang out from all around me as the crowd of Pokémon continued to eat their fill. "We'll walk out when we're done eating."

"Hmph," the chef grumped. "Close the gate when you leave. Your bill has been paid."

"About that," I said. "I am very sure it's illegal to just lock me back here with a group of Pokémon that could have easily killed me."

Anaïs paled at my words. "But you're a Trainer. Of course you could handle some Pokémon."

"I started as a Trainer less than two weeks ago, which I would've told you if you'd given me more details about what was happening." I stared her down, not looking away or blinking until she did. "I won't tell Officer Jenny about this, but I need you to do something."

"Merde," she mumbled. "What do you want?"

"I want you to provide some berries and other materials to help me start a small berry grove for this Pokémon."

She stood there, confused. "You want to grow berries for the Pokémon? That is it?"

"Yes, I've never planted berries before, so some tips would be nice."

"Ahem, well, monsieur, if that is all, I am more than happy to get you out of here."

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A/N: Btw, what kind of changes make sense for Accelgor? Not that I don't already have an idea, mind you. Also, we don't have a Water type in the works. Maybe that'll be the next question.