FicWad

A/N: Oh yeah, Gage’s wife’s name is actually Jadyn, but her nickname is ‘Abbey’, like how Greg is sometimes called ‘House’; however, her full last name is Abbey-Caldecutt. Jade took this name, too. Sorry, I should have made that more clear before.

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Chapter 46

Émile’s POV

I didn’t feel very good. Mainly because I just now found out, I was related to Cynthia. I had a one-night stand with her when I was twenty-nine. I have no idea what she would be, a half-sister or a half-aunt… or…? I have no idea… I blushed so hard that everyone noticed.

“D-dad… are you… OK?” Stan looked at me funny. “No, Dad! Don’t you dare vomit! You need to get over it!”

“Stan, I’m not going to vomit! I’m just scared… of incest…,” I dug my face into my hands.

“Dad, it was a long time ago, you didn’t know!” It sounded like he was about to cry. “You’ve been through too much pain in your life! You don’t need anymore! Stop… it…,” he broke down. “D-dad…”

“S-Stan…,” I blinked. “A-are you OK…?”

Jasper sighed. “I say, we’ve all had a crappy week…”

“Huh?” Everyone mumbled and looked at him.

“At least I have. I lost against the Cerulean gym and then I got food poisoning…,” he stroked Phyllis’s fur. She squeaked quietly and yawned while falling asleep. Jasper was beginning to become like Ash almost. Nothing wrong with that, though. I miss Ash, Dawn and Brock. Everyone felt bad for him, so they murmured. “T-thank you…,” he smiled.

“Say… Jasper, how would you like to borrow my Piplup?” Stan asked.

He looked at Stan and mused. “Maybe so,” he nodded.

My cell phone rang. “Huh?” I mumbled. “Hello?” I picked it up.

“Put this on loudspeaker please,” Jake commanded. I pushed a button and did what he said. Make sure Stan, Rico and Cassidy can hear this. Intelligence officers in Oriss have reported that Team Havoc is still up to their dirty tricks… I’ll assign Cassidy, Rico, Stan and you to work there. I suggest that maybe your family stay out of this. This is very dangerous, they’ve already shot a police officer and he’s in critical condition. I don’t even suggest sneaking in or going undercover. They are much too smart; these are twice as smart as the ones you shot down two days ago. Émile, Stan, Rico, Cassidy – all over you, good luck. Bye.”

I hung up. “I hope you heard that, I know Stan did, but did you?” I looked at Cassidy and Rico.

“Yeah,” they both replied while nodding. I looked at everyone else.

“The safest place you all can go to is either my house outside of Pewter City, Uncle Sam’s or Dad’s lab, you got that?” They all nodded. “As soon as you get there, you call this number,” I quickly wrote on a napkin. “Ask them for police protection. They’re more likely to protect you if you mention me.” They all murmured and stirred. “In fact, I had to protect someone’s family because some of the Havoc bastards wanted to kill their family…”

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Everyone said their poignant goodbyes… Stan and I decided to go together, while Cassidy and Rico went a different way. Jake gave us more instructions just shortly after everyone else left. We had to go to the Hawk Perch Forest… I dreaded it. People (and even Pokémon, too) actually get lost in there, for weeks… months… even years… the only way to get out is if someone had a GPS with them… Rico and Cassidy were lucky; they got to go to Orchid City.

“S-Stan… there’s something you might not want to hear… people get lost in Hawk Perch Forest…” He gasped and was silent for the longest time…

“D-dad…,” he finally broke the silence. “W-was Granddad lying, about what he said?”

“I didn’t see any body language suggesting he was; however, he was being slightly aggressive. That’s just his nature though; he’s always been like this. I saw the same thing in Carolina’s body language and tone, too. She was quite saddened about my half-sister dying.”

“I could definitely sense that, though,” he nodded. “I may not be able to read facial expressions quite like you, but I can sense emotions. Oh yeah… think you might like to see this,” he grabbed a poke ball and let out his newly caught Gible. “I just now realised it was shiny, how could I have missed that?”

I blinked. “You know what, I missed that too! How could I have been so blind?!” I looked at it and picked it up. He, because I saw a cut in his fin, stared at me with his greyish-black eyes. “Aw… he’s so cute. I just love his colours, too. I love yellow and aqua together. It makes a nice combination.” I felt something wet hit my boot. “Huh?” I looked down to see that it was pissing on me. Stan fell over laughing.

“M-maybe that’s why he has a yellow b-bell-y-y!” He stuttered because of all the laughing. I blushed and couldn’t help laughing either. We eventually stopped laughing and he got back up.

“Anyway, it doesn’t matter, really. We’ll be out in the middle of nowhere. Is it OK if I carry him? I think he’s so cute.”

“Sure thing, you can have him for now,” he replied. “By the way, why are we walking? Can’t we fly?”

“Starry Sky City and Cottonwood City are close by. The quickest way to get to the Hawk Perch Forest is going through the Rainbow Cave, which is the middle of Cottonwood.”

“Hmm… I see,” he nodded again. I looked down to see that Gible had fallen asleep in my arms.

“Oh yeah… something else I forgot to mention… remember that person that was choking, when we were on the ship?”

“W-was it you?”

“Yeah, it was me… I tend to choke easily. I’m also allergic to shellfish… but only if I eat too much of it. I can stand two bites but anymore than that, I’ll suffocate to death in less than 10 minutes.”

“You can play the piano, too?! Now that you mention it, I think it was you! Why didn’t you say anything before?”

“I wasn’t thinking of it at the time,” I mused. “Either way, I must thank you for saving my life. For some odd reason, there were oysters in the shrimp scampi…”

“Dad, no problem,” he grinned. “I never would have noticed shellfish in scampi though; I was too busy wolfing it down. What kind of dish is that anyway?”

“I don’t know,” I shrugged. “It may have been an accident. Oh yeah… whatever happened to Mewtwo, Suicune, Raikou and Entei…?”

“Well, Mum and I went out while you were sleeping and we hit their poke balls with a bat. So, I assume they ran off to wherever they live,” he replied.

“Hmm… I see… well, we’re in Cottonwood City now,” I rubbed the Gible’s head. “Rainbow Cave is downtown; we should be there in about fifteen, twenty minutes.”

“All right,” he nodded. “Say, you like CSI, don’t you? It’s a really cool show; I haven’t seen much of it though.”

“I love all of the CSI shows. I have all of the seasons for all of them. You should have looked in the cabinet at my other house,” I winked. “I also have all the seasons for NCIS, all of the Law & Order shows, House, Criminal Minds, Cold Case, Lie to Me, Bones, Without a Trace… I love crime scene shows (even though House isn’t one, but who cares?)… Did you know, ever since CSI came out, a lot of our techniques and technologies have been borrowed from that show?”

“Wow…! No, I had no idea – that is so cool!”

“I know, it is,” I grinned.

“Is there anything else you can do?”

“I can score over 300,000 in Tetris,” I grinned. We arrived at the Rainbow Cave. “They used to have tours, but they don’t anymore. It’s a real shame; it used to be popular until people got lost in it and accidentally fell through holes and got lost in the Hawk Perch Forest. It’s one of the few ways to get there,” I slowly stepped into the cave and Stan followed. “It really only got its name for its interior: it is almost magical, but very colourful: there are shades of white, green, red, blue, orange predominantly but also some fluorescent green and blue if a person shines a UV light on them.”

“Wow… sounds beautiful…”

“Stan, you lead the way, my eyes don’t do well in the dark and I don’t have my flashlight.”

“Don’t you have those night vision goggles?”

“Right, I do,” I handed him his Gible and reached into one of my jacket pockets. I put them on and then turned them on. “Nice, I can see perfectly. Thanks, I never even thought about them!”

“You’re welcome Dad,” he patted me on the back. I led the way: mainly because I have been here before.

“Oh yeah, there tends to be a lot of earthquakes in this cave… not sure whether you can sense them or not.”

He sniffed the air. “D-dad… I-I can… w-what should we do?”

“The only thing we can do is wait until it passes…,” I stopped walking and Stan nodded. The quake moved on and we began to walk again. “We have to be careful of aftershock though… but another mile or so, we should be out of here.” We were silent for quite a while. I could see dozens upon dozens of footprints in the sand and dirt on the bottom of the cave. “Lots of people have been here,” I looked behind us and I could see our footprints, too. “Even though there are hundreds of footprints, I can still see ours: mainly because they stand out from the others and they are fresh. Fresh footprints are definitely different than old footprints, that is all I can say,” I continued to look around. “Hang on… Stan, correction, I forgot… these are actually infrared goggles.”

“Ooh… they’re still awesome nonetheless… is it possible I can get a hold of some?”

“They’re extremely expensive,” I grunted because we walked into a place with sunlight. “Ow… that hurt. Never wear these in the sunlight. They’ll burn your retinas out,” I rubbed my eyes. I looked up to see a Bastiodon. “S-Stan… whatever you do… d-don’t m-move…” We stood still as a statue and watched the lumbering beast walk past. We both sighed in relief. “The Orissian government released a lot of Bastiodon and Rampardos to this cave. They thought it was the perfect habitat. In fact, it is, and they are thriving and reproducing. They also tend to be smaller than the ones that trainers have. No one knows why.”

“Wow…,” he gasped. We just happened to see its tail end as it slowly walked off. “Are we almost out of here?”

“Yeah, just past the main cavern… it’s beautiful… I cannot even begin to describe it,” I walked on while he followed me close behind. Both of our stomachs rumbled again. “Damn Stan, you get hungry easily.”

“I’m an animal,” he replied sarcastically.

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Stan’s POV

Dad just chuckled at me. “S-Stan, look up,” he pointed to the ceiling of the cavern. I gasped again and nearly fainted: all colours of the rainbow were on the ceiling. There were shades of blue, azure, green, emerald, purple, indigo, yellow, orange, red, scarlet, tan, brown, grey – all shimmered because of the tiniest amount of sunlight shone through.

“D-dad… y-you were right…” We sat down and carefully lied down (while lying on our arms, of course). We must have lied there for an hour. We slowly stood up. I could sense another earthquake coming. “Dad… I sense another earthquake… should we be going now?”

“Yeah… let’s go,” he moved on and I followed him. The ground shook again and it almost knocked us off balance. I looked up to see a stalactite about to fall.

“Dad, look out!” I pushed him out of the way of it. We both tumbled down the cave floor (it was slanted). We fell for several minutes and landed face-flat onto the normal ground. We were out of the cave.

“Y-you saved my life,” he looked at his hand. It was covered in blood along with his legs, face and chest. I looked at my body and noticed the same thing. “Thank you. I don’t think there’s any way to repay you.”

“You’re welcome, I don’t need to be repaid. You’re my dad and I don’t think there’s anyone that could ever replace you.”

“T-thank you,” he hugged me tightly.

“You’re welcome,” I smiled, slightly wheezing.

“Well, we’re out of the cave obviously,” he looked at me and let go. “Shall we move on?” He looked at my legs. “Whoa you really scraped your knees.”

“Well, so did you. That really hurt. I’m glad we’re okay though,” I looked around and all I could see were trees. “Damn.”

“I know… I hate this place,” he reached into one of his pockets and grabbed his cell phone. “Luckily, I have a GPS.”

“What if your cell phone runs out of batteries?” I blinked.

“I have an emergency radio and I have a GPS, but I prefer my phone though.”

“Oh. All right, shall we continue?” I asked. I looked up ahead and saw something brown and green run in front of us. “Huh? What was that?”

“Huh? I didn’t see it, what colour or shape was it?” He looked at me funny.

“It looked like a bird and it was brown and green.”

“Oh! I know what it is. It’s probably a pheasant. If I had some tranquiliser darts that could be our dinner, but for now…,” he grabbed a poke ball and threw it to the ground. “Go, Astur…” Astur and all of his beauty appeared. He was shining in the light, as usual. “Astur, help us find something to eat, but stay close, please.”

“Right,” Astur nodded and flew off in front of us as we were walking. He just flew effortlessly. I blinked and sighed happily.

“I wish I could fly like that… it would be fun,” I looked up at Dad.

“Yeah… it would,” he looked down at me and then up at the sky. “I say, we should make camp soon. The sun is going to set in about four hours.” Boom! We heard a loud noise up ahead. Astur fell with a giant plop onto the ground.

“ASTUR!” We both yelled and ran up. Dad grabbed his gun and aimed it straight through the trees. Whoever shot at Astur fell down with a thud. I picked up Astur and he looked up at me. I could see that his wing was bleeding.

“A-Astur… your wing… oh thank God… it missed your heart… c-can I look?”

“N-no… I won’t hurt you,” he replied.

“Vive la Caldecutts!” We both looked at Dad. “Fucking Havoc poacher,” he shot the person one last time. “I want all of you fucking bastards dead,” he growled deeply. “Vive la France!” He spat on the person. He walked up to us and just started bawling. “Oh St-Stan… I’ve turned into a-a lunatic…,” he put Astur’s head on his lap. “A-Astur… don’t die on me, all right?”

“Émile… I’m fine, Stan, help me pull out my wing.” I nodded and did what Astur told me to do. I was extremely careful because I knew that birds’ bones are hollow and they break easily. I carefully lifted it into the air and we could both see that he had a bullet lodged in his ulna (the arm bone). Dad and I looked at each other.

“I think he’ll be fine. He just needs to rest. How would you like to ride on my head?” I asked.

“Stan, are you stupid?!”

“Dad! It’s the only thing I can think of, unless you want to carry him! Let’s stop the bleeding for now, OK?!” Luckily, I had some bandage (the kind a person wraps around a limb) in my pocket. “Shh… it’s okay Astur…,” I rubbed his head while I carefully wrapped it around his wing. He made a soft cooing noise and I put pressure on the bandage. “See, you’ll be fine,” I rubbed his head. “Can I pick you up and carry you? Is that all right?”

“Not at all Stan,” he replied. I carefully picked him up. I rubbed his head some more.

“Dad, shall we go?”

“Y-yeah… let’s go. Let’s go make camp for now,” he walked off and I followed him. Astur fell asleep in my arms – he wasn’t dead though – he was still breathing.

That day, I learned to appreciate birds more. I think they are amazing. How the bullet lodged in his ‘arm’ I can only guess.

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A/N: Sorry that was a filler… but the next chapter is going to be interesting.