Weathering The Storm... (A Pokemon OC Story)

Chapter 9: A Psychic Connection!

"MUDKIP!"

Ellie's voice cracked as she let out the high pitched scream, watching as Mudkip slumped to the ground, completely unconscious. Lucas then looked up at the Ralts on the rock, and a look of guilt overcame its face. It turned and noticed Lucas's gaze, and teleported far away as soon as Lucas tried to make a move to attack back. before teleporting far away from the battlefield. Lucas ran over with his bag full of Potions, ready to help if needed. He observed the damage as Ellie picked up the unconscious Mudkip, skin torn off from the back of its head and a touch of blood spilling onto the rocky surface below.

Zorua and Torchic both ran over as well to see the situation, and Torchic seemed to feel the same concern as Lucas did, but couldn't see what was going on. Lucas sprayed the back of Mudkip's head with a Potion, helping to at least ease the pain, but the open wound remaining. Ellie's tears dripped down onto Mudkip's body, and she pressed her ear against Mudkip's body, hoping for a heartbeat. Luckily, the heart was still thumping in Mudkip's chest, and gaining a more steady heartbeat by the second. Ellie turned around and asked Lucas,

"Can you set up camp?"

Lucas nodded and obeyed immediately, quickly setting work on building camp on the only place of greenery big enough under the shade, the worn battlefield that Mudkip and Ralts had fought. With the help of Zorua and Torchic, they set up their camp in around fifteen minutes, and Lucas yelled out to Ellie,

"It's ready, and I've set out a sleeping bag inside for Mudkip!"

Ellie turned around, with Mudkip cradled carefully in her hands with a bandage wrapped around its head, and walked into the tent, with Lucas following closely behind. Mudkip was laid carefully on top of the sleeping bag, and Ellie laid Mudkip down on the sleeping bag. Lucas turned to Ellie, cautious of what he might say after Mudkip's loss and subsequent injury, and simply,

"Are you doing okay?"

"I'm doing fine."

Ellie stopped for a second, turning around to face her companion and saying,

"We can just cancel me trying to get a Ralts, it was a dumb idea anyways. I can just pick up another Pokemon on another rou-"

"So, you are just going to give up that easily?"

"What else can I do? Ralts are so rare and so often hunted that they'll probably be no others left in Route 102 that isn't in hiding, and I can't win in a fight against the one that seems to be the most out in the open."

"Well, maybe you don't need to fight at all."

"But, everyone knows that you need to battle Pokemon in order to get them weak enough to be caught."

"Not necessarily. I just wanna ask a question, how did you meet Mudkip?", Lucas asked, and Ellie thought for a second, looked at Mudkip and said,

"Well, I saw it coming down the Route 102 injured, so I patched up its injuries."

"And, you caught it just by being kind to it, and Mudkip having trust in you. What's to say that won't work for Ralts?"

Ellie thought for a second and weighed up the odds of her being able to weaken Ralts and catch it, compared to just being kind. She looked at Mudkip, being a living example of how strong Ralts was, and how easily it could defeat her Pokemon in battle. She looked over at Lucas and said,

"Then, I'll at least try to catch Ralts without attacking it. If it doesn't work though, we'll just go back up to Petalburg."

"Sounds good!" Lucas said with a friendly smile, looking towards his sleeping bag and realizing that he can't sleep in the tent.