Story Notes:
No pokemon are mine, obviously, blah blah blah.... Grace is, however.
Aren't we lucky! ... Aren't we?
Dawn seeped in trough the slits in the blinds, waking Grace from a fitful sleep. She didn't entirely remember lying down on the couch, let alone when she'd fallen asleep. Archie was curled up beneath her on the ovular rug on the floor which made her feel better about the back door being left wide open. Gingerly, she sat upright and tried to ignore the stiffness in her hips. The activities of the night prior made her shudder and look down at her belly expectantly. But, upon seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she shrugged and rose to her feet. After casting a cautious look outside, she closed the backdoor. After finding a pen and paper, she left a note on the counter, telling the elderly couple that everything was fine and in good order; probably wise to leave out the fact that four of their tenants had raped her last night. Trying her best to put that thought from her head, she dressed herself in some of the clothes she'd packed. 'I guess it's a good thing I packed extra everything...' She slipped into a nice plain skirt and blouse set and called it good.
"Well, Archie, you ready to go...?" But where did she want to go? By the time she got home, the tournament was bound to be over and her parents and all-star brother would be there, waiting to rub his alleged victory in her face. That just really wasn't something she wanted to deal with, not that morning. Come to think of it, she never wanted to have to deal with it ever again. Hevin's words echoes through her head, stabbing into her chest like a thousand needles. 'Just the same old girl... Well, not anymore!' Determined to show her friend just how different she could be, she grabbed the phone off the receiver and dialed her home phone.
"Hey, mom, dad, it's Grace. I won't be coming home, not for a while. I've got some of my things with me; I'm taking Archie, too. I'll talk to you all later. Thanks for the memories." With that, she hung up and hefted her backpack on her shoulder. Doing her best to keep from turning right round again, she riffled through the mini fridge in the corner, taking whatever food-stuffs and medical supplies were in store. After packing them all away in her bag, she hefted it up again and looked at the Arcanine at her side. "Well... I guess we're off on an adventure, now, buddy." And, keeping any thought of how utterly terrible this idea was drowned under layers and layers of denial, she opened the front door and started off toward the beaten path. Unsure of where exactly she was going, she just went opposite of 'back home' and never looked back.
She was pretty sure of her decision. At least for the first hour or so. By then, she was well into the forest and far from any path she'd ever been on before. Apprehension brought back the krik in her neck as her chin tried to surpass her shoulder's limit. The forest itself was well sheltered from the rising sun, which she supposed was good for avoiding the midday hour. But, for now, it was just making things dark. "C'mon, Archie, let's find a way back to the main road..." She stopped walking and looked around for another fork to take, but saw nothing. She was starting to get tired, and was now getting frustrated with herself for ever thinking she could leave home. She wasn't an adventurer. She was a farm-town girl with no ambition, no dreams... What was she going to do, anyways? Challenge the local gym leaders for their badges? Hardly. 'Man, I'm pathetic. I'm already tired after a little over an hour of walking...' She sighed and fell back against a tree. Slowly sinking down to her rear, she flinched. 'I already have a cramp from walking? Man, this was a stupidâ�"Ah!' A sharp gasp left her mouth, then and her hand flew to her aching stomach. "Whu..? Oh no. No, no, nooo- Ooow!" Grace grit her teeth and rolled over onto her side, hands trying to press back against her steadily expanding womb. Why was this evening happening; why to her? Tears welled up in her eyes as she tried to sit up straighter. Frantically her mind raced over the night before. She tried to recall everything. There had been, what, four Pokémon the night before? Two had used her as their mate - and then the previous night's worries began to enter her mind. Were there really two eggs growing inside her? Would she have to bear both of them? She moaned loudly as the bulge shifted in a southwardly direction. Fingertips pressed tentatively against her belly, but it felt as though there was only one growth within it. She wasn't sure whether or not that was a good thing.
Forgetting herself for a minute, she stripped out of her panties, leaving them down around her knees. Her fingers moves down between her lips and a shiver went through her. She entered her sex as far as she was able, but she couldn't feel anything foreign. She released a dry sob; that meant it hadn't yet 'dropped.' That meant that the worst was yet to come. As if on cue, an intense pressure began to press against her hips. The egg was dropping into her cervix. Delivery was now just a minute away. Doing her best to take in deep, soothing breaths, she propped herself up against a tree and brought her knees up to her chin. All she could do now was wait until nature took it as far as it would go. Deep breaths soothed her nerves, though her mind began to wander and kept her from seeing her traveling companion come toward her and stick his nose into her pussy.
A sharp gasp brought her back into reality and she tried to tell the Arcanine to scram, but a hot breath against her lips shattered any chance of that. Chills took her breath. A hot, rough tongue began lapping up against her lips, making the girl moan. "Archie... S-Stop it... You aren't..." But he wouldn't stop and ignored her begging. A soft moan escaped from between her lips. Soft pleasure waved through her as his lapping accelerated. She could feel the egg dropping further and further down, now, though the tongue delving inward to meet it kept her from focusing on the pain. Finally, her partner stopped and she looked down at him through her knees, wondering why. It wasn't until she felt the egg crowning that she realized that he had actually been helping. "Th-thanks, Archie..." He whined in reply and lay beside her as she pushed. Within another minute, a snowy white egg, just as big as the two she'd borne before it, lay in the grass. With a heavy sigh, she shifted herself and slipped her panties back up to their normal spot. Shakily rising to her knees, she scooped the egg up into her arms and wondered which Pokémon's this was. There had been that canine-like one. He'd told her his name... Absol, wasn't it?
"Whatever, doesn't matter..." She sighed and nodded down the path. "Come on, let's just get outa' here." Archie barked and came to stand in front of her, barring her path. "Oh, come on. We have to... What are you doing?" She tilted her head, confused, as the canine laid on his stomach. She stood there for a minute and shook her head. "I really don't have time for this." She muttered, attempting to just step over him. He, however, rose up on all fours when she tried, planting her on his back. "Wha! What..? I get to ride you?" He barked and his tail wagged. "Well, this is a pleasant change." She said ironically and laughed a little at her own sick humor. Another bark was his reply, and soon the pair was trotting down the path.
Before the sun set, they came past the densest part of the forest and into more of a meadow. There were still trees around them, though not so thickly placed together. Archie stopped and kneeled down to let Grace step off and then the pair walked over to a little rock cropping and sat down. "Thanks for the ride, Archie." Grace said, patting her Pokémon on the head. "I could have walked, you know." But the Pokémon only growled lightly and nudged the egg with his nose before lying down at her feet. Grace smiled and shook her head, leaning back on her elbows. The sky was starting to turn a dusty orange as the sun began to set somewhere beyond the canopy's edge. Taking a moment to relax, she let of heavy breath of relief pass through her lips.
For now, the worst was over and behind her. She'd already birthed the egg that had been more or less planted inside of her, and Archie was more than likely going to protect her from anything else that might try and rape her out in the wilds. At the very worst, he'd need to use her to deposit his load, but she'd already done that once... What was she thinking? A quick shake of the head cleared her thoughts. How could she rationalize that mating with a Pokémon was 'alright?' had she already become so jaded in a week? That wasn't going to happen. She wasn't going to just succumb to the wiles of that 'Arc' guy. She wasn't about to willingly become his own personal breeding machine... even though the pay was good, and it really wasn't much hassle since no one ever had to see her pregnant for an extended period of time, or at all- 'No!' She growled at herself under her breath and tried to focus on another topic entirely. Like the way Archie was suddenly standing, with his hackles raised, growling menacingly at the forest's edge beyond. Blinking, she turned, instantly afraid that there was some Pokémon being drawn to her. Or that one had followed her scent from any 'leakage' she'd left from her earlier delivery. Or... Hevin? At least the gangly creature with a head full of brambles, twigs and leaves looked like it could be Hevin. And the tall blue-and-black Pokémon leading her by the elbow like a gentleman looked like one of the ones she's shown her the day before. But the general composure was all off. Then again...
"Lucario, you aren't helping, damnit!" The blonde swore, quite loudly, and broke out of her Pokémon's grasp, staggering to stand on her own. As if he'd said something, she shot him a venomous glare and swore again. "I swear, if I find that punk kid again, I'm gonna whip his ass so hard, he won't even see it coming! I'm gonna fuck that kid so hardâ�"WHAT? Wait, what?" She stopped short and turned her head toward the outcropping where Grace and Archie sat staring, both mouth and muzzle opened slightly in awe. The Lucario was adverting his eyes, though was gesturing towards the other pair with the flat of his paw.
"Uh, hey Hevin. Rough day?" Grace asked, trying hard not to either laugh or gawk. The blonde had always been so composed, fearless, and sure. Now she was flustered and agitated, and altogether not her typical self, or at least not the self everyone knew her for.
"Grace... What the heck are you doin' way out here? Don't you know your house is, like, ten miles in the opposite direction?" She pointed, her tone a little softer, though like she was talking to a toddler.
"Yes, I'm quite aware. I didn't care for what you said before, so I decided to do something about it." Deciding to take a fools gambit, she made herself appear much more cocky than she felt. "I thought you'd come out here, so I started out in hopes to catch up. I want to battle you. Archie against whatever you want." The Arcanine blinked, looking at his master for a second, before looking back at Hevin. If he could have smiled, it would have been one of challenge.
"W-well," Hevin stammered, still trying to regain her sense of self. "I would love to!" She paused, her hands flitting over the balls hanging at her waist. "It's just... I can't right now. Tired from traveling-"
'And the rest of her team fainted in a different battle. I would accept, but I, too, am too weak to prove as any sort of trial at all.' Grace blinked, then looked at the Lucario. Somehow, she'd heard him speak. Like a person. But without moving his lips.
"I... uh, okay." Still a little perplexed she shook her head. That was now the third Pokémon that had been able to literally talk to her. First Manaphy, then Absol... Stroking the egg in her lap, a sinking suspicious began to rise on her head: Was he a legendary or a rare-type, too?
"Tattle-tell," Hevin stuck her tongue out at her Pokémon before sitting on a rock beside Grace. "Yeah. Good thing you were bluffing, though. Else I would have had to man-tackle your pooch on my own. Probably could have, too. 'S not like you've ever trained with him before, anyways." Sulking, she crossed her arms over her chest and blew a heavy breath through her nose. Finally, something caught her attention and she looked up. "Say, where'd you get that egg?"
Grace blinked, suppressing the depression bubbling up within herself at being called out for being such a failure. "Hm? Oh, from the Day Care." Well, it wasn't a complete lie. "I watched their place yesterday so they could watch the Contests. And they said I could have it. They didn't know where it came from-" A snort caught her off guard.
"Please. They know where the eggs come from. They just don't want to tell trainers that their precious little Pokémon was getting frisky with someone else's. That's all those Centers are good for anyways; breeding. Being a trainer means getting the best Pokémon. So you breed respectable parents to get better offspring, yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah. I've been trying to breed Lucario here for months, but he doesn't seem to like any of the mates I've chosen for him. And bitches are expensive, the ungrateful twerp..." Grace gawked at her friend's bluntness. Sure, after reading the magazines in the lobby, that fact was more or less made clear. But to hear it put so bluntly was jarring. Especially coming from a girl who used to be freaked out by something as mundane as bug-type Pokémon.
"Well, maybe he doesn't want to?" Grace offered. Hevin scoffed, shook her head and said nothing. Lucario, however, turned to face her and smiled. Then, in a voice she knew that only she could hear, he thanked her for understanding. She smiled at him and shrugged. What could she say? 'She's normally not like this?' 'She likes catching butterflies in nets and catching cute little Pokémon, and being all heroic and a complete tom-boy.' But was that even true anymore? Three years of no communication, then she suddenly appears as a total bitch.
"Well, I'm going to bed." Hevin stated and walked off to the other side of the meadow where she unrolled her sleeping bag. Within a minute, she was holed up inside and said nothing more. Lucario followed her and sat before her until he turned bright crimson and incorporeal and flew back into his ball.
Grace just sighed and curled herself up in Archie's soft fur. "Thanks for wanting to come along, Arch." He reached up and scratched his ear fondly before falling fast asleep.
Sunlight was just beginning to lighten the meadow where the newly formed party slept. Grace work first with a bolt, then settled back against her companion once realization and memory took hold. No Pokémon the day before had tried anything on her. The worst that had happened was the egg... Which was gone, now. Looking around her person to make sure she hadn't rolled over onto it in her sleep, she was momentarily confused until a hot breath of air against the back of her neck brought her around. In Archie's mouth was a folded envelope and a card, addressed to her. Her stare flattened, the worry turning to boring old routine and general ire. 'Excellent work, Grace! You are turning out to be a wonderful investment. Do take care, though. Things aren't always as they seem. Certain Pokémon reproduce differently than others.' What the hell did that mean? Shrugging it off, she opened the envelope and found a card for 150,000 poke credits.
"At least I'll never go hungry." She muttered, getting to her feet. She took a muffin from her bag and tossed another to the Arcanine before walking over to where Hevin had set up her camp. The blonde was just packing up the last of her things when Grace arrived. Haughtily, she flipped her lush locks over a shoulder and looked back.
"Well, I guess you can team up with me, Grace. It's not like I can just leave you alone out here. That'd be like leaving a child to a flock of Skarmory, or something. Come on, then..." Hevin had never really been a morning person.
Grace followed her soundlessly, Archie walking at her side, occasionally sharing looks with his Master. She wasn't really sure what they meant. They didn't seem desperate for anything in particular. Though, she did get the feeling that he was sensing something she wasn't able to. The party trekked on for two hours in complete silence before Hevin finally broke the silence between them.
"Uuuuugh, this is so lame." She moaned and stopped, looking back over her shoulder. "If I didn't have to babysit you, I could have Lucario just teleport me anywhere I wanted. Bu no. I have to walk with the kid who thinks they're big enough for an adventure- Hey!"
"Arch!" Grace reprimanded her partner, who was baring his teeth with raised hackles at the other. "That's enough!"
"Yeah, you better listen to you 'Master,' pup."
"I meant from you, too, Hevn." Grace stated, barely a breath between the girls' words. Vivid blue eyes bore deep into Grace's own brown ones until the first huffed and shrugged it off.
"Whatever. I just want to get out of here before some wild Pokémon show up. My Pokémon are injured, remember? I can't save you from anything that might try and attack you." Grace didn't much care for the tone. It wasn't friendly. It was just patronizing.
"Why don't you just have him teleport all of us?" She asked, trying hard to assert herself, while at the same time trying not to punch who she thought was her friend. "I just looked at the map; there's a safe house and rest center less than a mile ahead of us. We can either walk, or get teleported. Up to you."
"Let me see that... Huh. Well, I'll be damned. We'll just walk, then." Hevin pointed in the direction they'd travel, though why she felt the need to on a beaten path was beyond Grace's comprehension.
Within another few minutes, the found the shelter and entered. The interior, however, was caked with a layer of dust the showed that no one had been there in a year or so. "Well, here's hoping the machine still works at least." The blonde grumbled and flipped the switch. Suddenly, a large metal bed with a complex machine beside it came to life. "Yes! Oh, thank you!" Setting her pokeballs into the six proffered slots, she dabbled with a couple more buttons before the balls began to glow and spin in place. After a few minutes, the machine revved down and the balls came to a stop. "Perfect! Not a true doctor's visit, but enough to see us through until we get out of this forest, at least."
"Great." Grace smiled, happy to actually see her friend happy. The expression faded, however, when six Pokémon suddenly came into being in the room, all of them looking rather flustered and beside themselves with conflicting emotions. The two ghosts immediately started to argue, and the leonine electric type looked as though it needed to bite into something soft and fleshy. "Er, Hevin? Why is it I've only seen you after you've lost and pissed your Pokémon off something fierce?"
"Oh, don't mind them. That's just how they always are. Those two are just miffed that the other can't learn a simple strategy, and Rick keeps forgetting that he's not a very good specimen of the breed." She'd said it all so matter-of-factly that Grace didn't even know what to say. Weren't you supposed to love your partners, no matter the opposition? Wasn't that what made a good trainer? Then again, who was she to judge? Up until, literally, yesterday, she'd been holed up in her room, perfectly content with watching the ranch while everyone went off to bigger and better things. Maybe it was just that everything she knew was a fantasy, and the reality was a lot worse off. It wasn't a very reassuring realization. Grace started to feel butterflies building up in her stomach, but thought little of it for the time being. Certainly the cause was the present hostility and culture shock, nothing more.
"Well, let's just get going, then. I don't want to stand here wasting anymore daylight, so everyone back in their balls!" The six Pokémon shimmered and disappeared into their capsules, and Hevin went back out through the door they'd all come through, leaving Grace to follow. And follow she did, for about another hour, until the trees cleared completely and they were all back on the main drag.
"Finally! A real road. Now I can ride my bike and ditch you two losers without feeling like a total bitch. See you later, girl." And with a small 'pop' a bicycle appeared and within seconds Hevin was out of sight.
Grace just stood stock still for a minute, watching as her childhood friend left her for lost. "At least I have a map..." She sighed, pulling it back from her pocket and looking for where she should go next. In truth, however, she had no idea where she wanted to go. She was more or less hoping that Hevin would have let her travel with her, like she'd suggested in days past. But apparently she hadn't meant it then as words of encouragement. She was just mean, now. "So does that make her my rival...?" She mused aloud before ambling down the road, towards wherever it would take her.
Where was she going to go, or did she really care? To be honest, all she really wanted was to get to someplace warm and inviting, and that was all. All she wanted was a real bed, and a hot shower, but where was she going to find that out on the open highway? And weren't there supposedly trainers lurking around ever tree and corner to challenge her to battle? After a time, only one word and question remained in her head:
Why?