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Ash pants, holding pikachu closer. His eyes widen as he runs through the forest, the branches scratching and grabbing his clothes.
Ash makes a rough turn, throwing himself shoulder-first into a tree before quickly bolting off again.
Pikachu whines in his arms, a broken hind leg and a bit of drugging means it won't be able to run on its own.
"We'll be okay, pikachu," Ash says determinedly. However, his determined mask starts to crack as he narrowly dodges a dart to the neck.
He's rare.
Ash shudders at the word, focused on dodging the roots and branches slowing him down.
Ash needs to get through this forest. The further into the woods he gets, the harder it'll be to track him. He needs to get pikachu to safety.
Ash forces his breath to slow. He can't afford to be tracked. Ash feels tears well up in his eyes, blurring the world around them.
Ash barrels through a bush, accidentally kicking a small Pokemon out of its home. Ash doesn't have time to apologize to it; it fires off a flamethrower towards him, and Ash gets hit straight to the back.
He hisses but curls around pikachu, ensuring the flames don't hit it. He can't afford pikachu getting more hurt.
Pikachu whines again at seeing its trainer hurt, but it's too delirious to do anything about it.
Ash huffs, forcing one step in front of another, dodging as a net is thrown at him.
Ash is leaving a trial. He knows it. His arm is bleeding out, leaving a trail of blood everywhere he goes, but he doesn't have time to bandage the wound.
He needs to get away.
Ash wipes the tears away with his bloody arm. He can't afford the world to be blurry right now.
"We'll be okay," Ash reassures pikachu. But Ash knows the odds. He'll eventually be caught. The world is getting fuzzy from blood loss, his steps growing clumsy in the darkness. But he has to get as far as he can get. Find pikachu a hiding place for it to recover from its drugging, even if Ash ends up captured. Pikachu needs to be safe.
If pikachu gets out, then it doesn't matter if Ash doesn't. If pikachu makes it out alive, then it doesn't matter if Ash doesn't.
Ash trips over a root, sending pikachu rolling into a bush nearby. Ash doesn't have the strength to get up. His world fading out from blood loss.
Pikachu is hidden. He just needs to recover over time in that bush. Ash can only hope he passes here. Pikachu just an arms reach away, a painless, numb, death. Ash slowly closes his eyes but feels people talking around him.
He knows he'll be taken back. Ash hopes he'll die before they get back.