Big and Small - Joy for All!

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The sun was shining brightly onto the rugged, sharp cliffs of the Black Mist Mountain, as a small, white spot was crawling across these black plains, an easy target for any Flying type choosing to attack.
"Why...why did my clan...no, the clan have to live that far away from anything resembling civilisation again? Couldn't they - I dunno - live in a town or something?", the white spot asked himself, breathing heavily. It was Ned the Nincada, having recently fled from his old clan and now searching for a place to stay. On his journey, the Ground type had traversed much of the land, but a civilized Pokémon he hadn't encountered yet. He had no idea, where Grassveil Town was located, but he couldn't just return to the clan either. They would just continue their dirty work, without any concern for morals or truth.
Who knew, maybe he would even take them out one day?
That was if he would manage to find the guild or any Pokémon for starters.
Hopefully that would happen soon - the little bug wasn't sure, whether he would be able to carry on  much longer.

Proteus huffed in annoyance as the bird seemed to remain in its place, far away from them. The nincada seemed to be trying to speak to him. He turned, "What was tha-" he was interrupted by something being chucked down is throat. The spearow flashed by in a streak of white as it utilized a Quick Attack to cover the distance quickly. It had released the stun seed into the large beast's throat, and the effects were beginning to take place. The large gyarados tried to counter by unleashing a Water Pulse at the spearow, striking a wing, but ultimately collapsed as the effect of the stun seed came into effect.

Seeing the immense beast collapse to the ground in front of him made one thing very, very clear to the despairing Nincada. If the situation hadn't been bad enough before, it certainly was now.
With him in his weakened state against an adversary with a type advantage and his only hope for protection lying around motionlessly, there wasn't much the small bug would be able to do.
Cowering in fear, Ned weakly attempted to strike the charging Spearow with a Scratch attack, awaiting his inevitable doom.
And he waited.
But no doom came.
Instead a shriek, that would have been capable of chilling Ned to the bone, if he had any, echoed between the mountains. In an insane fit of luck, the Bug type had managed to hit the Flyiing type right in the eye, interrupting its attack.
But while this was a miracle to celebrate, one shouldn't begin to celebrate just yet, as one lucky hit did not mean, that the adversary would be defeated. Quite the opposite actually, as the Spearow now seemed to have become rather furious, determined to end the small bug.

Proteus struggled to move, laying motionlessly on the ground as the stun seed's effects ran through his body. His attempts were only answered by twitches of his body. He needed to get to the Spearow and help the defenseless bug! What kind of pokemon would he be if he didn't? Sure this spearow was probably hungry, but this Nincada was most certainly not going to be on the menu!
The atrocious pokemon continued his struggle, only receiving twitches once more. He heard the screech and assumed it to be the spearow as he didn't think the Nincada could make that kind of sound. Go...erm whatever you are! Proteus thought, he finally relaxed, seeing if that would make the paralysis pass quicker. Instead he spotted a strange object on the ground...

This dice is not existing.

And yet again the Spearow charged  at the Nincada, it's aim slightly off due to its damaged eye this time however, causing its charge to be directed at a similar object nearby.
That object was a Sleep Seed, probably left there by accident by some feral Pokémon.
Unlike the Nincada, the seed did not manage to hit the Spearow in the eye and thus quickly fell victim to its attack. The still shocked Nincada could do nothing but watch, as the bird swooped down to pick up the seed and...didn't rise up again.
Instead it was just lying there, sleeping carelessly.

Finally Ned managed to break the deadly trance, that had been binding him, slowly crawled over to the Flying type and...sank his fangs into its flesh. Using the move Leech Life to drain his opponent, Ned gradually grew more and more energetic, staving off the threat of starvation for now.
And even if the Spearow would wake up before the Gyarados would be able to move again, it would be severely weakened, so the Ground type might actually have a chance that time.

Proteus's first controlled movement was a flick of his massive finned tail. The effects were slowly beginning to wear off and he was able to force himself into a coil. The movements inflicted pain, but no damage. He rested his head on his body and hadn't noticed the Nincada leeching the life out of the Spearow, even if he did he would have assumed that the nincada wouldn't actually kill the spearow.
"You okay?" Proteus managed to say, the stun effect receding as the time passed. His concern for the nincada was rather obvious in the sound of his voice, since he still had no clue that the spearow was down and out and the nincada had looked rather weak when he last saw it.

As he left the Spearow in its sleep again, Ned came to realize the massive body of the sea serpent shifting, finally managing to move again if only for a little.
"I guess I am...", the Nincada responded, more energy in his voice than before.
"Are you okay though? You don't look too good."
The defeated Flying type sleeping behind him, the Bug type slowly began to realize, what had happened in these few moments, which felt like several eternities.
He had won his first real battle. Against an enemy with type advantage. While in a severely weakened state. That was the final proof he had needed. Ned did not need the clan. He could be strong by himself. And he could remain honest.

"I'll be fine....just the effect of the seed it threw into me. Always hated the seeds with these kind of effects..." Although Proteus had no real experience with this kind of seed, he hated the mentioning of them when he learned what they could do. He loathed not being able to have control of his body, what if there was a seed that forced his consciousness into a shell, and allowed instincts to run rampant and change him into the monster nearly every other Gyarados was? What would others think of him? He would surely be a true monster.

"Phew...that's good to hear. Although I have to say, that these seeds can be very useful and important actually. Without them weaker Pokémon like I am would not stand a chance against more powerful adversaries."
Obviously the Nincada was relieved to see, that the beast, which had attempted to protect him just moments ago wouldn't suffer any permanent injuries.
Still, the fact, that there were hostile Pokémon in the area wasn't a good thing at all, and Ned knew that he would have to leave as quickly as possible if he ever wanted to reach that town.
"So...what do we do now? Do you need any help?"

"Well..I had planned to search for some items here, some friends of mine might need some in the future and I'd like to be able to save them some time if need be.." Proteus spoke as if it were clear despite the nincada not knowing about his friends, a calm Milotic that enjoyed making peace with others and a strange Omanyte that seemed to know little about this world. Proteus still did not understand what had happened to the omanyte, and wondered if it was the same thing that had happened with a Sneasel named Crysel when she had suddenly forgotten everything about herself and those around her.

While he knew, that he would probably regret - okay, that he would very, very likely regret this descision, the tiny bug adressed the giant Gyarados once more:
"Well...you certainly did save me back then, so I guess it would only be fair of me to offer you my help. I know, that I won't be able to do much, but I have to make the offer at least."
Ned didn't know, which one would be the preferrable outcome. On the one hand, he could be dragged into a murderous, insane journey and not be a help at all, on the other hand leaving the Pokémon behind, who just saved his life would be enormously unfair. Luckily he didn't have to be the one to choose.
His fate now was for the Flying type to decide.
Anxiously the Nincada awaited the giant's reaction.

Proteus frowned, he didn't want to be the one to decide! It was the Nincada's decision, so he spoke, "It's your choice, i'm not going to force you to come or go. I would help you go back to grassviel myself, but by the time I get back here it'll probably become the time to leave. If you leave when I leave I could give you a ride if you like."
The large pokemon had never really thought about letting pokemon ride on him like he was some kind of cattle, but this pokemon seemed like he wouldn't even feel that the pokemon was on him, plus it seemed as if the tiny bug wouldn't be able to make it far on its own. It seemed to appear a bit better though somehow, maybe it could do whatever it did more often and replenish its own health little by little.

"Uh, thanks, I guess. I do certainly owe you a big one - pun not intended - so I believe it to be my duty to accompany you."
Why was the Gyarados that friendly? The small bug could not possibly be of much help for such an enormous creature, and the Water type had nothing to gain from helping Ned, so why was he?
Maybe the Pokémon here really were different from how they were back ho- back THERE.
Slowly but surely the Nincada crawled onto the Gyarados' back...or side where his face wasn't at least, always careful not to poke him with his claws.
"So...where would one find items around here? I haven't been in the area for long after all..."

"Usually they're just lying around...I haven't visited this place much aside from one other trip. The gyarados remembered coming here with a sneasel and a strange spiritomb. The two seemed friendly enough but the spiritomb had given him a strange feeling he had guessed was his instinct to stay away from the seemingly unnatural. Proteus hardly felt the nincada crawling around on his head, and began moving forward and more towards the large towering mountain that many pokemon called home. The gyarados was reminded of his own home, well technical home, the sea. He didn't have an exact place to live, in fact he hadn't returned to the sea ever since he finished his trip to the tower with his friends, he wondered what they were up to at that moment...

This dice is not existing.

Luckily Ned had been one of the Nincada living in the higher parts of the trees back there, so he didn't have to vomit all the blood he had just sucked on his saviour's head.
Still, the tiny bug had never seen this much of the world, as usually there were the leaves obscuring his vision, and during winter his species wasn't one of the most active ones.
But then again the Nincada hadn't seen much anyway, as his species' eyes were absolutely terrible, the Ground type rather utilizing its antennae to explore its surroundings.
"So...found anything yet? I sense lots of rocks in the area, not much else..."

"Well there's an X-Eye Seed over here, do you want that? I have no real need for it, but what about you?" Proteus offered the item he had found to the pokemon that rode on the back of his neck. The gyarados felt as if he were talking to himself due to not being able to see the pokemon on the back of his neck nor feel it. The large atrocious pokemon had stopped as he waited for an answer, doing a quick survey of the area in case another spearow decided to pluck his new found acquaintance right off of his head. Bird pokemon used to be a threat to him when he was a magikarp himself, but now they seemed to leave him along since he was too big to be picked up and carried off, let alone be eaten.