Chapter 32

Percy woke up in the morning and repeated the same schedule of searching the forest. He made it an extra goal to avoid Grace and specifically Luna the whole time they searched the forest. Even during breaks he sat calmly and avoided answering Jason's insistent questions about what happened. The first half of the day was relatively uneventful. They ran into groups of Spinarack but no major problems or events happened.

They were just resting after a battle of about 15 Spinarack and 1 Ariados. Suddenly a loud crashing could be heard in the forest near them. Some of the faster Prodigies looked into the dark forest for what made the sound. The forest descended into silence once more. Their eyes warily scanned the forest around them.

A tree fell and the sound of shouting and loud clicking could be heard close to the group. Almost immediately all of the Prodigies Pokémon were out. Something burst through a bush and came to a skidding halt in front of the Prodigies. A trainer covered in cuts and with two unconscious people over each shoulder.

He looked around and was happy that he finally found someone to help. "Please help us. We're being chased by a giant Ariados. I left the others behind and tried to find help." He started hyperventilating and collapsed to his knees. "I left them behind." He whispered. Aurora immediately ran to the mans side and started comforting him. Aurora and Grace started removing the people on his shoulders and started treating them.

Ash started directing people to tasks and getting ready their defense. "Kushida, Marcus you help Grace and Aurora treat them. Percy you protect them, and everybody else line up and get ready to defend." Ash ordered. Percy immediately arrived at Auroras side and watched his surroundings. The crashing through the trees got progressively louder. Percy could already hear the Ariados' mandibles clicking together.

He glanced down at the victims of the Ariados. They looked extremely hurt and in terrible condition. A boy was unconscious and was completely missing an arm. He was bleeding profusely and was becoming more and more pale as the seconds passed. The trainer that carried them had only minor cuts and would be okay. Pretty much everybody but Aurora was looking away from the victims while gagging.

Percy swallowed his bile and told his Pokémon to be vigilant. He kneeled on the ground next to Aurora and assessed the damage on the other trainer. It was a girl and her skin was tinted an unhealthy purple. One of the girls legs was dark purple and radiated an incredibly unpleasant stench. Percy fought the urge to throw up and asked Aurora what he could do. "What can I-" Percy started but stopped after seeing Auroras face.

She was absolutely horrified but couldn't take her eyes off of the two trainers. "Aurora!" Percy called out. She looked toward Percy. "Yeah." "What can I help with." He asked desperately. Having lives in his hands didn't feel great but he had to do something. Grace, Marcus and Kushida were throwing up and couldn't be of any use. After all, they were only 16 year olds.

Aurora looked back at the trainers with a blank stare and finally snapped back to reality. "Ch-Chansey please use Heal Bell." She stuttered. A bell rang out from Chanseys body and covered the trainers in pink light. A lot of the cuts on the trainers bodies healed but the major injuries remained with seemingly no difference.

The girls general purple hue was removed but her leg remained a dark purple. The boys missing arm starting spewing blood slightly slower but he still got progressively paler. "Aromatherapy please." Aurora requested. Green light covered the girl but her leg remained purple. Aurora shook her head in disappointment. "What is it? What's wrong." Percy asked. "We are going to have to amputate her leg. The poisons completely taken over.

It must've been poisoned for at least half an hour. If we're lucky than we can recover her leg, but we'll have to get back to the cities Pokémon Center quickly before there is no more chance to save it. Same thing with the boys arm. Hopefully the nurse Joy there have a high enough level healing Pokémon. If it's high enough than it can regrow recently lost limbs." Aurora explained. Percy cringed at the thought of cutting off the girls leg.

Suddenly a giant spider crashed through the trees and arrived before the Prodigies. "Holy shit." Percy muttered. The spider was easily the biggest Pokémon Percy has ever seen. When compared to an average Ariados it was easily 10 times larger. It's about 10 meters tall and each of its 4 legs as big and thick as a tree trunk.

Percy was about the size of just one of its mandibles and it seemed to be able to swallow Percy in one bite. Of course Ariados suck the blood out of its victims so it wouldn't swallow anybody. Percy tentatively raised his Pokédex to check the monsters level.

Pokémon: Ariados

Level: 33

Abilities: Sniper, Insomnia, Swarm

Gender: Female

Potential: Red

Moves: Swords Dance, Focus Energy, Venom Drench, Fell Stinger, Bug Bite, Poison Sting [E], String Shot, Absorb, Infestation, Scary Face, Night Shade, Shadow Sneak, Fury Swipes, Sucker Punch, Leech Life, X Scissor [E](Inherent Move), Hyper Fang [E](Inherent Move), Poison Jab[E] (Inherent Move)

"Oh no." Percy whispered. The Ariados scanned the Prodigies with its predatory eyes. It spotted its previous prey kneeling on the ground crying next to Percy and Aurora.

It quickly charged a move and shot purple darts at the trainer. "Fúria!" Percy shouted. Fúria jumped in front of the quickly moving darts and used Protect. The white shield stood no chance against the poison needles. Her shield was easily broken and the needles struck her in the chest knocking her to ground unconscious.

Percy recalled her to her pokeball and turned to the giant threat. The rest of the Prodigies reacted quickly and assaulted the Giant Ariados with moves. The attacks barely made any difference against it but the fire attacks seemed to sting it a little bit. It being giant made it have a lot of health and defense.

Fortunately it made it super slow so as long everybody coordinated no one would get hurt. The Prodigies were able to take its attention away from Percy and Aurora and circled it. "Oh no." Aurora whispered. "What's wrong." Percy asked. "I didn't bring any amputation tools. I didn't think I would have to amputate anything on the field." Percy could see tears pooling in the side of her eyes. "Do we absolutely have to amputate her leg. Is there no other way?" Percy asked desperately. Aurora shook her head, "I'm not able to get rid of the poison in her leg so there's no way an antidote will. If she's lucky she'll live another 10 minutes."

Percy bit his lip and pulled out his hatchet. "Will this work?" Auroras eyes dulled, "If you can get a clean cut and make sure it's straight through. No sawing motion is possible with that axe." Percy hit himself in the head with his fist to align his thoughts. He's never struck an innocent person before much less cut off their leg.

The Beedrill boy doesn't count as he was seriously abusing his Pokémon. Percys arm slammed down cutting the girls leg clean off. Some poisoned blood splashed on his cheek and his cheek burned from the acidity. She remained unconscious and Percy pulled the heavily poisoned leg away from her.

The leg squished and decomposed at just the slightest touch and he felt his breakfast coming up his throat. Aurora finally acted and started stemming the bleeding of both of the trainers with her Chansey and medical equipment.

Percy crawled a few meters away and violently threw up into a bush. He glanced back to check on the battle against the giant Ariados. The battle was at a semi stalemate and Percy had no way of predicting who would win. At the moment a few of the Prodigies Pokémon have been knocked out. It only took one hit for each of them to become unconscious.

Ash's Pidgeotto, Mistys Poliwag and Lunas Ekans were the only Pokémon knocked out. The Ariaodos lost about 25% of its health and was still fighting viciously. Grace, Kushida and Marcus were dry heaving on the ground having already thrown up everything. "Help me stem the bleeding. Take this cloth and apply pressure." Aurora tossed a white cloth to Percy who immediately rushed to the armless boys side.

He had a little bit of medical knowledge from some books he read. Just basic stuff like how and were to apply pressure. He tried his hardest to stem the bleeding of the boy but what was making poor progress. Soon enough Aurora finished stemming and wrapping the girls stump and had Chansey use Life Dew on her. She moved over to Percys who's hands were covered in blood.

Aurora was able to temporarily stabilize the two trainers and moved onto the boy who carried the victims. He was quite built and a bit older than them. He was muscular enough to run with two people on his shoulders. Percy predicted the boy to be about 18. The boy stared wordlessly at his friends on the ground and shook his head from side to side.

Aurora put a hand on his shoulder and slowly rubbed it. Unfortunately Percy couldn't watch because the giant Ariados shot a poison needle at the huddled boy. Aurora and the trainers would be caught in the attack. Percy was standing a few meters away and won't be able to reach it in time. Percy rushed forward and racked his brain for a solution. Percy had already seen the power behind it's attacks and didn't want to experience it.

If the needle hit him he was sure it could take a chunk out of his body. Crash was moving way to slow to intercept it and Percy could only react fast enough. Even Auroras Chansey wouldn't be able to make it to use protect. Percys arm reeled back and he used every muscle in his back and shoulder to propel the hatchet into the needle.

The axe left his hand and spun through the air nailing the needle. The needle deflected centimeters into the ground next to Aurora and Percys axe flew away into the foliage. A small grin reached his lips as he realized he was able to save them. The attacks on the Ariados increased in ferocity as everybody saw Percy defend against a deadly attack. "Marcus!" Aurora called out.

Marcus raised his head from a slumped position. "Can you teleport these two to the Pokémon center in the city. Request for a limb regrow and don't worry about the price I'll pay for it later." Marcus nodded and directed his Eggxecute to the unconscious trainers. A second later they teleported away.

Percy was somewhat surprised that the Eggxecute was able to teleport far enough with 3 people. But as he thought about it it made more sense. Marcus most likely only had Eggxecute practice Teleport and it was abnormally strong at Teleport for that reason. Percy and Aurora changed their attention to the attack on the titan of Ariados. Percy made sure to retrieve his axe from the bush and stood guard in front of Aurora who was busy healing Pokémon.

Percy had her heal Fúria. The giant went around in circles attacking individual Pokémon. Ariados was clearly not the smartest Pokémon ever. It could have wiped out the Prodigies with different moves but it seemed pretty reliant on its size to finish the job. The Prodigies flowed like clockwork with Ash's directions. Occasionally the giant would catch them off guard and knock a Pokémon out.

After a hot game of cat and mouse the giant finally collapsed to the ground from its combined injuries. It took 10 minutes to knock it out and the combined unconscious Pokémon the Prodigies have is 10. Ash caught the giant Ariados and directed the Prodigies out of the forest onto safer territory. Aurora was busy with healing all the Pokémon and collapsed in exhaustion.

Percy picked her up from under her knee and back and jogged to reach the outside of the forest. Not too long later Ash tried talking to the trainer boy. "What's your name. Do you know where your other friends are?" The man slowly stood up and greeted them. "My name is Dan. I appreciate your help and am very thankful for you." He took a deep breath and continued. "I left them a little bit north of where we met. There were about 5 Spinarack but our Pokémon had already been wiped out by the giant Ariados.

It's possible that they are alive and I would like to go back and search for them." Ash shook his head. "There's no way I can let you go like this. We'll escort you back to the city and pay for all of your medical bills. Is there anything I can recover from your camp or friends." "We all had matching bracelets. It'd be nice if you got the bracelet from Jared's cut off arm." Ash smiled wide and nodded. "How many of you were there.

Just in case I'm able to meet one of them on the way." "6 of us total entered the forest." "Alright then. You guys can escort him back to the Pokémon Center and meet back here in half an hour. I've got to go get something I left where we were fighting the Ariados." Ash said and turned around heading into forest. Jasper immediately raised a very suspicious eyebrow. The group turned around and left toward the city at a speed walk.

Aurora called Marcus with her Pokédex to check up on him. Marcus was able to successfully get the injured to the Pokémon center and they were stabilized by the Nurse Joys. Marcus said that their limbs were able to be regrown and they would make a full recovery. That received a sigh of relief from Dan. Dan thanked the Prodigies again for at least saving some of his friends.

Marcus also added that the head nurse of the Honey City Pokémon Center wants to see Aurora. Aurora informed Marcus where to meet them and hung up. Suddenly someone tugged on Percys sleeve. Jasper was beckoning Percy and Jason to come to him. "I think Ash went off to find the other trainers and I've got a bad feeling about it. I'm going to go get him if you want to come with. They'll be fine as long as they're vigilant. Route 1 has pretty weak Pokémon. I'll tell Misty so she knows where we went." Jasper whispered into Mistys ear and left with Percy and Jason in tow. The reason that Jasper didn't tell the whole Prodigies was there wasn't much they could do. Ash's poor decisions and hopeless morales made him know that they wouldn't have let him go.

The Prodigies were very tired and in no state to chase after a suicidal nice guy. The boys sneakily slinked off of the group and went toward the location Dan had described.