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Description

Team Silver Lily

<--Previous | FIN

_____

Lanette was snapped from her stupor by the Sewaddle that still clung to her tail. Taking the crying toddler into her arms, she stood up and glanced once again at the dancing Pokémon in the snow. Though she had no idea what species it was, her heart still swelled at the sight. After so much waiting, the day (or was it night?) had finally arrived.

When she saw it wasn’t going anywhere, Lanette hurried to scoop up the baby bird Pokémon she had come for in the first place. The Pidgey gave her some wing flaps to the face, and the Pidove had nasty talons that it would use to claw at her arms. Eventually, though, the chilly winds were enough for them to snuggle into her chest and fall still. Lanette breathed a sigh of relief and Teleported back to the ground. The children stirred when she wobbled on unsteady feet; the sudden drop in altitude was enough to make her dizzy. Lanette put a hand to the Daycare’s crumbling wall to steady herself, her other arm still securely around all three Pokémon.

“Lanette!” Missy’s voice made her look up. When the Blissey put her paws out, the children were happily handed over. Missy smiled, then stumbled back when Lanette all but rushed past her, balance still awkward. “Lanette! Where are you going? All the children are in the carts already!”

The Rogue spared a glance over her shoulder, her scarf flying up and obscuring her view. “The egg hatched!” Whipping back around, Lanette made her way to the front of what was left of the Daycare. She was usually quite agile, but she now found herself slipping in her haste. There was a sense of urgency she had never felt before. She hated it and could only pick up the pace.

Sliding to a stop, she saw a form, hidden behind the flying snow, bending over something. Lanette took another step and could make out the tent-like shape of the baby born from her egg. Someone was trying to grab her! With the first wisps of a Shadow Ball forming around her hand, Lanette marched up to the figure. Then the form straightened, and the features of a Sandslash were suddenly quite clear. Lanette slowed to a stop in front of her team leader. The Shadow Ball vanished.

Mikko looked up, one clawed-paw holding the child. His snout was turned into a thoughtful frown. Gaze flickering to the backpack in the snow and Lanette’s bare back, he sighed. Instead of pursuing his questions, he turned back to the Pokémon and continued wrapping the ruby scarf around it.

Lanette looked on from behind him, feeling rather useless. “What are you doing?”

Mikko raised a brow but otherwise didn’t look up. “To keep them from the cold. Ice-types have their own freezing temperature, and since she’s so young, she can’t control hers yet. So while she does, she’s going to have to keep covered and make sure none of her coldness escapes. This cold,” he motioned to the blizzard, “can kill her. It’s not the same.”

“Oh,” was all Lanette could say. And the baby looked so happy dancing in the snow. Then something caught up with her. “Her?” she echoed.

This time, Mikko looked up. A smile was playing on his face. “Congratulations. We have a bouncing baby girl.”

The Pokémon gave a chirp of affirmation and tried to get away from Mikko’s grasp. Before she could do so, Lanette picked up the Law Firm Backpack, grabbed their bundle of joy, and placed her snugly within it. With the zippers on either side zipped up, she could struggle but not escape. The backpack held firmly in her arms, Lanette felt an otherworldly cold coming from her daughter. (Her daughter. That was going to take some getting used to.) Ignoring how that made her teeth chatter, Lanette stood up and looked towards where she had left Missy.

“I think we’re done here,” she told the Sandslash. “All the children are in the carts.”

Mikko took one last look around before nodding. The bigger pieces of fallen wood and ceiling had been cleared away from the Daycare and were now being buried under the falling snow. Among the wreckage, he had buried the remains of shattered eggs. He knew when they arrived that not all of them were going to be saved, but handling the broken remains had still made his heart ache.

“Yeah, let’s go,” he said at length.

The carts had been gifts from the ranch folk when they had though the village in their haste for evacuation, and Missy couldn’t have been happier to have them. One had been loaded with all the eggs they managed to save while the other was filled with the youngest children and those that were injured. Flint, in his Zorua form, was in there, one of the oldest and in charge of making sure nobody tried to jump off. When Missy saw Team Silver Lily walking up with one new addition peeking out of the backpack, relief washed over her in waves.

“Thank the Gods you’re alright,” she told them, dropping the last of the children into the cart.

Mikko flashed her a smile and took up position in front of the egg cart, tying himself up to haul it. Missy nodded in appreciation and looked towards the children’s cart. One Machop and one Meditite, both children from the Daycare, took up the second cart and began to wheel it out. Mikko followed suit while Lanette walked beside the cart. She made sure the eggs weren’t jostled too much and that they were properly covered with what blankets they had managed to salvage.

Eventually, Mikko had to ask, “Where are we going?”

Missy seemed to hesitate before saying, “To the Law Firm. Devonshire says he has these tunnels that lead out of the village.” There was a sigh. “He doesn’t know where to, though.”

The blizzard was dying down; the brave teams that had gone to face Sorbet had by now driven him away from the village. Mikko listened to the wind before looking up to the kind Pokémon. “We Rogues aren’t all bad,” he assured her. “The eggs and children will be safe.”

He got a chuckle for that. “You’re right. I’ve had many Rogue team that made great parents, such as you guys.”

It took a while for the words to register, but when they did, Mikko did a rather comical double take. “Us? But, Missy, we’ve only had her for a couple of minutes.”

This just seemed to amuse Missy. “Remember back when you came to the Daycare to leave your egg? You didn’t seem very sure about whether you wanted a new team member.” The Sandslash merely shrugged, not knowing what to say to that. Missy saw that as reason to continue making her point. “From what I saw right now, I can tell you’ve made up your mind.”

There was something like a snort from behind them, and Mikko could tell Lanette had been listening in. He wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of seeing him squirm, so he just plowed on through the snow and towards where he could see the Devonshire Law Firm. Its doors were opened for once, and warm light flooded out to pain the snow orange. The children in the cart and those walking beside it began to squeal in glee. They had never been inside any of the Guilds’ bases.

Team Silver Lily didn’t know what to expect when they entered, but it certainly wasn’t the giant tunnel that had apparently been under the floorboards the entire time. With Lanette’s Psychic, both carts were carefully lowered past the ladder and into the ground. Mikko took up the cart again, but Missy stopped him with a paw on his shoulder. “James will be taking over. You guys should take a rest.”

“James?” Mikko looked up and saw a rather large but rather friendly-looking Rhydon at her side, someone from another team, more likely. Before he could insist that resting could wait, the Rhydon took up the cart’s reins and began to haul it deeper into the tunnel. The Machop and Meditite children followed, Missy close behind.

“Are you going to stand there staring, or are we going on ahead?” Lanette finished waving Flint off and turned to her team leader, a smirk on her face. “Or was the blizzard too much?”

Mikko returned her smirk. “I thought you knew me better than that?” He began to walk into the tunnel with Lanette’s footsteps sounding close behind him.

Lanette. Now with the blizzard outside and the warmth of the tunnels allowing him to think properly, he realized that she was acting rather civil towards him. Not that he couldn’t handle her anti-social self, but the change was rather unnerving. Then again, it probably all had to do with the egg hatching.

Teams upon teams were bustling around them. Lanette cringed and hunched up her shoulders, her grip on the Pokémon-filled backpack tightening. When her quick steps weren’t enough to avoid being bumped into, she huffed, “This is getting ridiculous. Let’s go off to the side.”

Mikko snuck a glance behind him. “What about going ahead?” He tried to look innocent as he said it.

His arm was grabbed, and he was promptly lead to some rock outcroppings on the far left, away from the evacuating Pokémon. The din of their talk, chatter, and cries lessened until Lanette could hear her own thoughts again. Letting go of Mikko, she sat down against a boulder. The bundle in her arms moved, but her grip didn’t loosen.

“You gotta let the kid out some time.” Mikko sat down next to her, one claw against the bandages on his chest. The constant battering of snow and wind had made his entire body ache, which didn’t bode well for his healed but sore stomach. Pushing the discomfort from his mind, he continued, “You can’t keep her locked up forever.”

Lanette pursed her lips but saw his point. Setting the backpack on the ground, she took out the baby and set her down. The Pokémon gave a squeak and tried to wave her hands, but she was too tightly wrapped to do anything other than hop in place. Untangling the scarf, Lanette said to the Sandslash, with some irritation, “You haven’t told me what species she is, and don’t tell me you don’t know because I know you do.”

Mikko made a show of rolling his eyes, something that made Lanette frown deeper. “You caught me red-handed.” Straightening, he then smiled warmly at their daughter. “She’s a Snorunt.”

“A Snorunt.” The Abra tried the name, but it didn’t sound familiar. Shrugging, she continued to untangle the scarf, until Mikko leaned over and grabbed hold of it.

“Look, let me do it.” Mikko then beckoned to the Snorunt, tilting his head and letting his ears flop to one side. He didn’t notice Lanette smiling at the scene.

“Runt,” came the squeak, and the Snorunt tried to walk towards him, only to trip and have Mikko catch her.

“Here,” he gently said. Setting her on her feet, he untangled the scarf then carefully took her fur cone off. The Snorunt looked at her black fur and little feet, then felt the scarf wrap around her again, taking into account her hands. Mikko glanced at Lanette as he worked. “Have you thought of any names?”

She looked at her hands. “No,” she realized, guiltily. Lanette looked towards the Snorunt. “I didn’t know anything about her, so I never thought about it.”

Mikko merely nodded, finished tucking in the scarf, and fitted the child with her overcoat again. Instead of wandering off, she snuggled closer to her father, which resulted in her being picked by two big yet gentle claws. The Snorunt was cold to the touch, but Mikko merely looked down at her. He took in her curious eyes, the smile that peeked beneath the scarf, and the warmth she made him feel. “Well,” he started, “she looks like a Harper to me.”

“She looks like a harp?” Lanette asked of him, eyes narrowed.

“Har-per,” he enunciated carefully. “It’s not a very popular name, but doesn’t it sound nice?”

Lanette rolled the name to herself a couple of times, and though she had never heard of it before, it felt right. “Harper,” she said aloud. The newly-named baby looked to her. When she wiggled to get free, Mikko put her down and let her walk towards her mother. Lanette hugged her close, smiling down and not caring if anybody saw her right now. She never cared what people thought of her, anyway. “Hey, Harper. I’m Lanette. That overbearing guy back there was Mikko.”

“Nice introduction,” the leader quipped. Then Mikko sobered and inched himself closer to them, sliding the backpack out of the way. “Hey, Lanette. I shouldn’t have been so harsh about you adopting the egg in the first place.”

“And why do you say that?” Lanette frowned. “It’s a bit late for an apology.”

Irritated, Mikko scowled. “Because I just got done with burying dozens of shattered eggs out there in the snow. If you had never adopted her egg, Harper could have been buried in the snow right now.”

The words hung in the air. Lanette looked down at the bundle in her arms, her previous frown gone. There was now a small smile. “I told you she was lucky.”

Mikko ran one claw through Harper’s beige and orange fur. “She certainly is. Just,” and here, he grinned, “don’t do it again.”

_____

Sorry for bombarding you guys with five pages of text. It had to be done.

We're done, guys! We have Harper, the newest member, join Team Silver Lily after well, forever. And look, change in scenery! I miss drawing the blizzard. Time to learn how to do spring/summer scenes.

Just a small note: Mikko knows quite a bit about the health of Pokemon because his dad is a nurse. When he got injured back in Mission 4, he treated himself. (The bandages are going to be gone in Mission 6. Man, were they a pain to remember to draw.)

Now we move on to Mission 6! I'm going to do a quick App 2.0 for both of my teams, just so I can get all their information and stuff organized, then I'll start working on it. (I really want to do a comic this time around, especially since I'll be doing one entry instead of two.) There's a bit of foreshadowing in here about something I'm going to touch on in Mission 6.

Now, someone remind me to submit all of these scenes to the Mission 5 folder when it reopens.

Description

Team Silver Lily

<--Previous | FIN

_____

Lanette was snapped from her stupor by the Sewaddle that still clung to her tail. Taking the crying toddler into her arms, she stood up and glanced once again at the dancing Pokémon in the snow. Though she had no idea what species it was, her heart still swelled at the sight. After so much waiting, the day (or was it night?) had finally arrived.

When she saw it wasn’t going anywhere, Lanette hurried to scoop up the baby bird Pokémon she had come for in the first place. The Pidgey gave her some wing flaps to the face, and the Pidove had nasty talons that it would use to claw at her arms. Eventually, though, the chilly winds were enough for them to snuggle into her chest and fall still. Lanette breathed a sigh of relief and Teleported back to the ground. The children stirred when she wobbled on unsteady feet; the sudden drop in altitude was enough to make her dizzy. Lanette put a hand to the Daycare’s crumbling wall to steady herself, her other arm still securely around all three Pokémon.

“Lanette!” Missy’s voice made her look up. When the Blissey put her paws out, the children were happily handed over. Missy smiled, then stumbled back when Lanette all but rushed past her, balance still awkward. “Lanette! Where are you going? All the children are in the carts already!”

The Rogue spared a glance over her shoulder, her scarf flying up and obscuring her view. “The egg hatched!” Whipping back around, Lanette made her way to the front of what was left of the Daycare. She was usually quite agile, but she now found herself slipping in her haste. There was a sense of urgency she had never felt before. She hated it and could only pick up the pace.

Sliding to a stop, she saw a form, hidden behind the flying snow, bending over something. Lanette took another step and could make out the tent-like shape of the baby born from her egg. Someone was trying to grab her! With the first wisps of a Shadow Ball forming around her hand, Lanette marched up to the figure. Then the form straightened, and the features of a Sandslash were suddenly quite clear. Lanette slowed to a stop in front of her team leader. The Shadow Ball vanished.

Mikko looked up, one clawed-paw holding the child. His snout was turned into a thoughtful frown. Gaze flickering to the backpack in the snow and Lanette’s bare back, he sighed. Instead of pursuing his questions, he turned back to the Pokémon and continued wrapping the ruby scarf around it.

Lanette looked on from behind him, feeling rather useless. “What are you doing?”

Mikko raised a brow but otherwise didn’t look up. “To keep them from the cold. Ice-types have their own freezing temperature, and since she’s so young, she can’t control hers yet. So while she does, she’s going to have to keep covered and make sure none of her coldness escapes. This cold,” he motioned to the blizzard, “can kill her. It’s not the same.”

“Oh,” was all Lanette could say. And the baby looked so happy dancing in the snow. Then something caught up with her. “Her?” she echoed.

This time, Mikko looked up. A smile was playing on his face. “Congratulations. We have a bouncing baby girl.”

The Pokémon gave a chirp of affirmation and tried to get away from Mikko’s grasp. Before she could do so, Lanette picked up the Law Firm Backpack, grabbed their bundle of joy, and placed her snugly within it. With the zippers on either side zipped up, she could struggle but not escape. The backpack held firmly in her arms, Lanette felt an otherworldly cold coming from her daughter. (Her daughter. That was going to take some getting used to.) Ignoring how that made her teeth chatter, Lanette stood up and looked towards where she had left Missy.

“I think we’re done here,” she told the Sandslash. “All the children are in the carts.”

Mikko took one last look around before nodding. The bigger pieces of fallen wood and ceiling had been cleared away from the Daycare and were now being buried under the falling snow. Among the wreckage, he had buried the remains of shattered eggs. He knew when they arrived that not all of them were going to be saved, but handling the broken remains had still made his heart ache.

“Yeah, let’s go,” he said at length.

The carts had been gifts from the ranch folk when they had though the village in their haste for evacuation, and Missy couldn’t have been happier to have them. One had been loaded with all the eggs they managed to save while the other was filled with the youngest children and those that were injured. Flint, in his Zorua form, was in there, one of the oldest and in charge of making sure nobody tried to jump off. When Missy saw Team Silver Lily walking up with one new addition peeking out of the backpack, relief washed over her in waves.

“Thank the Gods you’re alright,” she told them, dropping the last of the children into the cart.

Mikko flashed her a smile and took up position in front of the egg cart, tying himself up to haul it. Missy nodded in appreciation and looked towards the children’s cart. One Machop and one Meditite, both children from the Daycare, took up the second cart and began to wheel it out. Mikko followed suit while Lanette walked beside the cart. She made sure the eggs weren’t jostled too much and that they were properly covered with what blankets they had managed to salvage.

Eventually, Mikko had to ask, “Where are we going?”

Missy seemed to hesitate before saying, “To the Law Firm. Devonshire says he has these tunnels that lead out of the village.” There was a sigh. “He doesn’t know where to, though.”

The blizzard was dying down; the brave teams that had gone to face Sorbet had by now driven him away from the village. Mikko listened to the wind before looking up to the kind Pokémon. “We Rogues aren’t all bad,” he assured her. “The eggs and children will be safe.”

He got a chuckle for that. “You’re right. I’ve had many Rogue team that made great parents, such as you guys.”

It took a while for the words to register, but when they did, Mikko did a rather comical double take. “Us? But, Missy, we’ve only had her for a couple of minutes.”

This just seemed to amuse Missy. “Remember back when you came to the Daycare to leave your egg? You didn’t seem very sure about whether you wanted a new team member.” The Sandslash merely shrugged, not knowing what to say to that. Missy saw that as reason to continue making her point. “From what I saw right now, I can tell you’ve made up your mind.”

There was something like a snort from behind them, and Mikko could tell Lanette had been listening in. He wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction of seeing him squirm, so he just plowed on through the snow and towards where he could see the Devonshire Law Firm. Its doors were opened for once, and warm light flooded out to pain the snow orange. The children in the cart and those walking beside it began to squeal in glee. They had never been inside any of the Guilds’ bases.

Team Silver Lily didn’t know what to expect when they entered, but it certainly wasn’t the giant tunnel that had apparently been under the floorboards the entire time. With Lanette’s Psychic, both carts were carefully lowered past the ladder and into the ground. Mikko took up the cart again, but Missy stopped him with a paw on his shoulder. “James will be taking over. You guys should take a rest.”

“James?” Mikko looked up and saw a rather large but rather friendly-looking Rhydon at her side, someone from another team, more likely. Before he could insist that resting could wait, the Rhydon took up the cart’s reins and began to haul it deeper into the tunnel. The Machop and Meditite children followed, Missy close behind.

“Are you going to stand there staring, or are we going on ahead?” Lanette finished waving Flint off and turned to her team leader, a smirk on her face. “Or was the blizzard too much?”

Mikko returned her smirk. “I thought you knew me better than that?” He began to walk into the tunnel with Lanette’s footsteps sounding close behind him.

Lanette. Now with the blizzard outside and the warmth of the tunnels allowing him to think properly, he realized that she was acting rather civil towards him. Not that he couldn’t handle her anti-social self, but the change was rather unnerving. Then again, it probably all had to do with the egg hatching.

Teams upon teams were bustling around them. Lanette cringed and hunched up her shoulders, her grip on the Pokémon-filled backpack tightening. When her quick steps weren’t enough to avoid being bumped into, she huffed, “This is getting ridiculous. Let’s go off to the side.”

Mikko snuck a glance behind him. “What about going ahead?” He tried to look innocent as he said it.

His arm was grabbed, and he was promptly lead to some rock outcroppings on the far left, away from the evacuating Pokémon. The din of their talk, chatter, and cries lessened until Lanette could hear her own thoughts again. Letting go of Mikko, she sat down against a boulder. The bundle in her arms moved, but her grip didn’t loosen.

“You gotta let the kid out some time.” Mikko sat down next to her, one claw against the bandages on his chest. The constant battering of snow and wind had made his entire body ache, which didn’t bode well for his healed but sore stomach. Pushing the discomfort from his mind, he continued, “You can’t keep her locked up forever.”

Lanette pursed her lips but saw his point. Setting the backpack on the ground, she took out the baby and set her down. The Pokémon gave a squeak and tried to wave her hands, but she was too tightly wrapped to do anything other than hop in place. Untangling the scarf, Lanette said to the Sandslash, with some irritation, “You haven’t told me what species she is, and don’t tell me you don’t know because I know you do.”

Mikko made a show of rolling his eyes, something that made Lanette frown deeper. “You caught me red-handed.” Straightening, he then smiled warmly at their daughter. “She’s a Snorunt.”

“A Snorunt.” The Abra tried the name, but it didn’t sound familiar. Shrugging, she continued to untangle the scarf, until Mikko leaned over and grabbed hold of it.

“Look, let me do it.” Mikko then beckoned to the Snorunt, tilting his head and letting his ears flop to one side. He didn’t notice Lanette smiling at the scene.

“Runt,” came the squeak, and the Snorunt tried to walk towards him, only to trip and have Mikko catch her.

“Here,” he gently said. Setting her on her feet, he untangled the scarf then carefully took her fur cone off. The Snorunt looked at her black fur and little feet, then felt the scarf wrap around her again, taking into account her hands. Mikko glanced at Lanette as he worked. “Have you thought of any names?”

She looked at her hands. “No,” she realized, guiltily. Lanette looked towards the Snorunt. “I didn’t know anything about her, so I never thought about it.”

Mikko merely nodded, finished tucking in the scarf, and fitted the child with her overcoat again. Instead of wandering off, she snuggled closer to her father, which resulted in her being picked by two big yet gentle claws. The Snorunt was cold to the touch, but Mikko merely looked down at her. He took in her curious eyes, the smile that peeked beneath the scarf, and the warmth she made him feel. “Well,” he started, “she looks like a Harper to me.”

“She looks like a harp?” Lanette asked of him, eyes narrowed.

“Har-per,” he enunciated carefully. “It’s not a very popular name, but doesn’t it sound nice?”

Lanette rolled the name to herself a couple of times, and though she had never heard of it before, it felt right. “Harper,” she said aloud. The newly-named baby looked to her. When she wiggled to get free, Mikko put her down and let her walk towards her mother. Lanette hugged her close, smiling down and not caring if anybody saw her right now. She never cared what people thought of her, anyway. “Hey, Harper. I’m Lanette. That overbearing guy back there was Mikko.”

“Nice introduction,” the leader quipped. Then Mikko sobered and inched himself closer to them, sliding the backpack out of the way. “Hey, Lanette. I shouldn’t have been so harsh about you adopting the egg in the first place.”

“And why do you say that?” Lanette frowned. “It’s a bit late for an apology.”

Irritated, Mikko scowled. “Because I just got done with burying dozens of shattered eggs out there in the snow. If you had never adopted her egg, Harper could have been buried in the snow right now.”

The words hung in the air. Lanette looked down at the bundle in her arms, her previous frown gone. There was now a small smile. “I told you she was lucky.”

Mikko ran one claw through Harper’s beige and orange fur. “She certainly is. Just,” and here, he grinned, “don’t do it again.”

_____

Sorry for bombarding you guys with five pages of text. It had to be done.

We're done, guys! We have Harper, the newest member, join Team Silver Lily after well, forever. And look, change in scenery! I miss drawing the blizzard. Time to learn how to do spring/summer scenes.

Just a small note: Mikko knows quite a bit about the health of Pokemon because his dad is a nurse. When he got injured back in Mission 4, he treated himself. (The bandages are going to be gone in Mission 6. Man, were they a pain to remember to draw.)

Now we move on to Mission 6! I'm going to do a quick App 2.0 for both of my teams, just so I can get all their information and stuff organized, then I'll start working on it. (I really want to do a comic this time around, especially since I'll be doing one entry instead of two.) There's a bit of foreshadowing in here about something I'm going to touch on in Mission 6.

Now, someone remind me to submit all of these scenes to the Mission 5 folder when it reopens.