046|

[rivalsweetscent]

Everything was awful pink outside. One moment he had just been snacking on that caterpillar that was on that mushroom over there. Then he had felt kind of funny and suddenly. Suddenly.

Pink.

Pink Everywhere.

Bulbasaur sat back on his haunches, trying to make sense of this new pink world. Despite the different color scheme, things still mostly looked the same. It shouldn't have made any sense, but somehow it did. After a moment of adjusting, Bulba couldn't figure out why he had needed to adjust to anything in the first place. This was pretty normal, wasn't it…?

Okay, maybe not. But whatever the heck, whether or not it was weird quickly faded from Bulba's thoughts when he noticed a figure in the distance. He turned his head, squinting a little. Was that. No, it couldn't be, could it?

Except he knew that frame. How could he not? There was no mistake. There was only one person he'd follow to the ends of the Earth, after all.

Green had come back. Bulba felt a surge of joy well up in his chest. Had it been a secret for a surprise? He must have! It was a brilliant success. The pokemon was off, chasing after his trainer with every intent of greeting him and welcoming him back and generally just being so ecstatic that he was no longer gone.

That had been the plan. He ran. He ran and ran… but that back never got closer. A low growl of frustration rumbled in Bulba's throat. Why wasn't he faster? He should have caught up by now… Well, he'd just have to get his attention then. He shouted Green's name, knowing that the trainer could probably hear it from that distance. And look, he had stopped! Green lingered for a moment, obviously recognizing that some sort of growl had been made in his direction. He was quick to return to his paced walk, not bothering to give the pokemon any sort of response.

It felt like someone had punched him.

But, no, he probably just hadn't heard him. Or maybe he thought it was some other old Bulbasaur or… No. No he probably just hadn't heard him. Yeah. Bulba shook his frown away, chasing after him again. He seemed so far away….

"Green!"

He kept walking forward.

"Green!"

He didn't turn around.

"Green!"

He didn't turn around.

"…Green!"

He wouldn't turn around.

"….Green..?"

This time the young man stopped in his tracks again, turning abruptly to look at the grass type. Bulba stopped, watching carefully. Green walked towards him, and with each step Bulba's smile returned and grew. Oh good. He had heard him. He was so glad..

"Are you the one making all that racket? Shut up a while, would ya? I dropped for you for a reason." Bulba's smile flickered. What did he just say..? Green scowled. "Don't look so surprised. You shoulda known it was gonna happen. I don't keep weak pokemon around, after all." Bulbasaur's smile faded completely, leaving behind only confusion. This had to be some sort of mistake or..

"God you're thick. I thought you were the smart one. Listen, I just came back for the rest of my team, alright?" He jerked his thumb behind him, and if Bulba were looking he would have been able to see a (very derpy faced) Charizard in the sky with a Haunter giving him a noogie. But he didn't see that at all, his eyes locked on Green. Green crouched down in front of Bulba, causing the pokemon to freeze. His expression showed only disdain, making Bulba's stomach crawl.

He reached out a hand, patting him on the head. The touch felt cold. Green was smiling. "I've got a Blastoise and a Charizard. Why the hell did you ever think I'd need a dumbass Bulbasaur that can't even keep up?" Green started laughing, collecting himself to his feet. "Well, whatever. You can sit there and rot, I guess."

"Smell ya later."

He walked off.

Bulba couldn't even find tears. It wasn't going to end that way. He tore off after him…

But he could never quite keep up.

[The most heartbroken looking Bulbasaur in the world is desperately chasing after a butterfly as if his entire life depended on it.]

Comments

[swordonfire.livejournal.com]

A giant bird (http://images4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20080720035214/kirby/en/images/thumb/1/13/Birdon.jpg/120px-Birdon.jpg) fluttered past Meta Knight's head. It was being followed. By the saddest looking duck creature (http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20081119155119/kirby/en/images/6/61/Kapar.PNG) he had ever seen.

Still tugging on his ship, he said, "Be careful. The King almost sank."

[rivalrazorleaf]

Green vanished up around a giant Electrode. Bulba halted in his tracks, trying to see where he had gone. Instead he just found a Voltorb tugging on the Electrode. With... its.. invisible hands.

"Have... have you seen a trainer? Taller? Brown hair?" Wait. The King? This guy almost looked like Meta Knight. "...Did he go by Cheryl Green?" He asked the electric pokemon ball knight whatever very earnestly.

Of course, all Meta Knight could hear was "QUACK QUACK QUAAACK QUACK."

[swordonfire.livejournal.com]

"I... Quackers...?" He furrowed his eyebrows. "I don't have any quackers. This isn't the time. I've got to save my ship." Tug tug tug.

The bird landed on an impossible branch. It was so heavy the branch drooped all the way down to the ground. ...Hm.

A pie rolled across the horizon. The horizon was pink. Strange color for this time of year.

[rivalrazorleaf]

"Mr. Voltorb are you.... are you trippin'... You don't have any hands."

QuaaackQuack Quack.

A dozen metapod descended from the branches around the bird. They started swinging and knocking into each other. Was that... were they making music.

[swordonfire.livejournal.com]

"I don't speak duck," he said, still pulling on the ship.

Oh... Oh what were those things. They were swinging around...? No he had no time for chit-chat Galacta Knight was trying to take his ship.

[rivalrazorleaf]

Bulba was going to explain that he was not speaking duck, but actually Swahili, when he noticed that the bird was melting away.

Green was sitting there, surrounded by the musically talented metapods. He gave Bulba another salute of Smelling and Laters and did a completely magnificent backflip out of the tree before he started walking away again.

"Oh! Good luck with your ship Mr. Voltorb I gotta go!"

And he was off!

[green-arachnid.livejournal.com]

Spinarak was sitting on a bench, taking a rest from her walk around the school, when she noticed Bulba running after a butterfly. Did he want to catch it? Maybe she could help out... but maybe he'd be upset if she did catch it for him...

She decided to call out instead. She raised an arm and waved it around, hoping it would get his attention.

"...Bulbasaurrr....Why are you...chasing after a...butterfly...?" But by the time she finished her sentence, Bulba was almost gone from her sight. Curses, speaking too slow.

[rivalrazorleaf]

[That was until the butterfly did a U-turn and started fluttering towards Spinarak.]

Green had suddenly stopped and started walking back towards him. Bulba halted in his tracks, suddenly looking hopeful for a moment. The moment passed quickly as his trainer simply passed him up and continued in another direction, humming a tune to himself loudly as if to drown out Bulbasaur's cry of, "Green!"

Then there was a girl standing in front of him. "You're... too... slow."

"No," he said quietly. "No I'm not!"

[green-arachnid.livejournal.com]

Spinarak blinked a few times as she saw Bulba turn around and start running back towards her direction. Was he going to answer her question? But when he came back and said those words, she couldn't help but tilt her head in confusion.

"You're...not chasing...after it...?"

Confused Spinarak was confused.

[rivalrazorleaf]

"Can't let you... do that... star..."

She was in the way. Bulba leaned to the side, trying to see where Green was going. She just kept getting bigger and bigger and it was getting hard to see around her.

"I need to catch up!"

[green-arachnid.livejournal.com]

Oh, she was in the way? She looked around, but the butterfly was nowhere in sight.

"Oh...okay..." She took a step off to the side, making a way for Bulba to go. "Hope...you catch the...butterfly soon..."

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

It was a pretty nice day, all things considered. Char was just chilling, getting his bask on. Gnawing on what looked suspiciously like a possum tail. SUDDENLY, Bulbas. Racing right past in hot pursuit of a bug. And looking as if Christmas just got cancelled.

...What.

Okay, that got Char's attention. He got up and lumbered along after Bulba. As clumsy as this body was, being that much taller meant that one of his strides was equal to like three from poor Bulba's little stumplegs, so it wasn't too hard to catch up.

"Whoa, Bulba. What's the rush?"

[rivalrazorleaf]

Even in this crazy pink world (that was totally normal), Char still looked like Char. That would have been comforting if he wasn't suddenly twice his usual height. Had he always been so tall...? More importantly, why was he asking what the rush was? Couldn't he see? It should have been so obvious. Green was leaving them and he needed to catch up!

No... no that was wrong. Green wasn't leaving Char.

He was just leaving him.

He was just a Bulbasaur that couldn't keep up after all. What's the rush?

Bulba pushed himself harder, trying to get that much farther ahead of the dragon despite the impossibility.

"You don't have to rub it in...!"

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

Char quickened his pace a little too, but he continued to look utterly confused.

Rub it in... rub what in, exactly? Jeez, did the kid really want that stupid bug that badly? If he was gonna get that frustrated over it, then might as well give Bulba a hand. That's what big brothers were supposed to do, after all.

So he put on a short burst of speed, long neck darting out as his jaws snapped shut. He lowered his head down to Bulba's level. A single wing peeked out from behind his teeth, giving off a feeble, dying twitch.

"Here," Char mumbled through clenched teeth. "Caught it for ya."

[rivalrazorleaf]

Time worked differently in hallucination land. Moments could stretch into minutes at a moment's notice. The time around Bulbasaur slowed significantly when Char shot forward to be with Green.

They laughed together. Gave each other the equivalent of a high five. They were hugging. Laughing at him. Grinning as they strolled off into that glorious sunset. Reaching down and ripping out the delicate flesh of necks.

Wait.

What.

A big brother's good intentions meant nothing in this pink landscape. Trickles of red liquid ran through the blades of grass at Bulba's feet. The body twitching in Char's jaws kept shifting, unable to decide if he was going to witness his own death or that of his trainer.

Caught it for ya. Now he can't hurt either of us.

Bulbasaur couldn't think. He couldn't breathe. He could only stare at the lifeless form at his feet. It had been so easy. His eyes stung. No. No he didn't want this. He never wanted this. He was... He was...

The smaller pokemon looked absolutely broken and started quivering. Small trembles at first that soon increased to shakes that shook the entirety of his small from. He couldn't stop.

Green was dead.

Green was...

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

Okay. Not the reaction Char had been hoping for.

Really not the reaction he'd been hoping for.

Bulba was staring at him like he'd just shot the president, and Char had absolutely no idea why. It was obvious that whatever was making Bulba so upset about this bug, Char had just made it worse by catching it. It was just a bug and it shouldn't have been a big deal but now Bulba was probably gonna cry or something and it was all because Char did it.

Naturally, he reacted to the uncomfortable feeling bubbling up in his stomach by getting prickly. "What's the matter with you, Bulba? Y'wanted the stupid thing, now here it is." He spat butterfly out on the ground, wrinkling his nose at the lingering, powdery taste of wing scales in his mouth.

[rivalrazorleaf]

Bulba's mind had been stuck in a flatline, but suddenly there was a blip of thought.

No.

He tried to get his mouth to work. Green just stared up at him lifelessly. Bulba nudged his cheek. He was already cold. So very cold. It didn't matter one bit what had been saying earlier. It had hurt but oh God it didn't hurt anywhere near as much as this. Bulba could forgive and forget. He could forgive and forget as much as he needed if it was for Green.

But that only really worked if the boy was alive.

"Why?" He was finally able to rasp out. "Why did you do that?" Bulba was staring up at Char now, urgently searching for some sort of answer that could possibly make sense. Char was spitting out little bits of... well, little bits of Green and making horrible faces. Bulba's stomach constantly churned.

"Why would you... How... How could you kill him? Green was yours too!"

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

Whoa, hold up. Green?

Char looked down at the mangled butterfly. Then over to Bulba. Then back to the butterfly again.

No matter how he looked at it, it was a squashed bug. Nothing about it looked Green-ish. It wasn't even colored green.

"The fuck you talkin' about, Bulba? That ain't Green, and it sure as hell ain't mine."

[rivalrazorleaf]

"He wasn't going to hurt you," Bulba continued on as if Char hadn't said anything. He couldn't stop shaking, and his voice trembled because of it. "He came to get you. He picked you."

Not me.

Why was he so cold already? Maybe if.. maybe if he warmed up then maybe... Bulbasaur nudged under his arm, snuggling against him. If he just waited long enough... Yeah.

If he just waited for as long as it took. He'd come back.

"He'll come back. Then he can take you."

Not me.

He'd come back and everything would be okay.

He just had to wait.

[blazinglizard.livejournal.com]

Char might not have understood what Green had to do with dead bugs, but even he could grasp just what the nonsense Bulba was saying meant. After all, if there was one thing that could strike a chord in his heart, it was hearing a trainer's name and "he'll come back" put together.

Jeez. Was the kid so lonely that he was going nuts or something...?

He had to do something about this. He didn't know what he could do, but... he'd have to figure some way to put this right. Bulba might have planned on camping out next to "Green" for all eternity, but Char wasn't going to have that. He bent down, scooping Bulba up into his arms, and started walking. Leave that stupid thing behind. Get it outta Bulba's head. Running away had always made Char feel a little better, at least.

"Yeah. He'll be back. For all of us, Bulba."

He wanted to add that Green was just one guy -- that with or without a human, he could keep on living just fine, that one little absence wasn't near enough to end the world. But these weren't the kind of words a trained Pokemon could believe, and he knew it.

So he just kept walking. "...Y'still got me."

[rivalrazorleaf]

It would have been comforting. It should have been comforting. He should have been feeling safe in his arms, knowing deep down somewhere that if there was someone else he could count on, it was Char. That wasn't how things were going to go this time.

All the haze was letting him hear was the mighty roars of a dragon. In one moment they were a rolling laughter over his predicament, while the next shook down to his bones and took him back to a lake shore in the dark of night. He couldn't feel angry or scared. The only thing that mattered at that moment was that he was being taken away from Green and that was completely unacceptable.

Bulbasaur struggled against Char's grip. It was absolutely imperative that he get back over from moving spot B to stationary spot A. With all of his twisting and struggling and moving about, he probably only got as far as Char's shoulder on his own.

That was about as far as he needed to get really. A breeze had picked up around them. For the remains of the butterfly, it meant fluttering across the grass.

Green was crumbling into dust right before his eyes in a nightmarish display. Collapsing away into nothing as if he had never existed at all. Bulba stared in complete horror. There was really only so much he could deal with in one day and this had well exceeded his limits. He was broken, unable to do anything but let out a sorrowful cry he couldn't even hear.