Like No One Ever Was

My schedule did change a bit with my tutors giving me more advanced assignments. Occasionally they’d come in person, but most just held the sessions over video call. I wasn’t sure if it had to do with the Ghost (Type) within the machine or some other technical advancement in this world, but such video calls went very smoothly and never had lag or connectivity issues.

More things than just my study curriculum changed. Honestly, doing the work of a third grader wasn’t all that different for me than that of a kindergartener. Especially with Rotom helping cover for me, I can still spend tons of time looking up battles and stuff!

As one would expect, battling was not like it was in the games. One glance at competitive matches showed that. “Look at Champion Iris go! This is her Hydregion’s fifth Draco Meteor!” Despite that, the three-headed monster gave a mighty cry, the attack rained down as strong as the first attack had, only looking a bit more winded than before. Stat changes aren’t as permanent or strictly defined as they are in the games. Some boosts only last a little while, some debuffs can with the right training, just tire out the Pokemon a bit more instead.

No turn order or Move set limitations like that meant that people fought in very different ways. Oftentimes I’d see someone give an order to do an attack that wasn’t super effective, or even was not very effective, just because it was faster, or had better range than an attack that in a turn-based game, wouldn’t have been the right choice. Of course, sometimes even in professional battles, mistakes are made, or adapted around.

It was a subject of much debate in online communities, looking back on big matches to see what strategies were good, the best for the time, or actually incorrect, all viewed through the lens of hindsight. I decided to try and watch a lot of these famous battles before researching what people thought of them after the fact, comparing my insights at the moment to those of the wider world later.

“Bzzt, that’s the third Iris video you’ve watched in the last hour. Do you really like her?” Rotom inquired. I’d gotten more used to the device I was watching, asking me questions and occasionally commenting on what I was doing. It was actually quite nice, having a friend constantly around and interested in what I was into.

“Hmm? Oh, she’s fine. Her Pokemon are what are truly impressive though.” Admittedly, I really liked Dragon Types - hardly an uncommon sentiment from kids my age… but I wasn’t exactly ‘my age’, was I?

Oh well, they’re cool as heck. Maybe I’m ‘basic’ for liking Dragon Types, for Charizard being my favorite starter, but they’re popular for a reason.

“Her Hydergion is quite, uh, something, bzzt. Do you like it?” They had an odd lilt to their voice as they asked the question as if they were nervous or something.

“Oh, it’s pretty cool.” Hydregion was definitely up there on my list of favorite Pokemon. Almost all of the pseudo-legendaries are awesome. “A shame that it’s got that double weakness to Fairy though. But, to be fair, most dragons have one double weakness.”

“They do, bzzt?”

“Yeah, Dragons are naturally weak to Ice, and a ton of them are dual Flying Typed, which also has that weakness- oh, it’s here!” I interrupted my train of thought to focus on the main star of this video. Gleaming in greenish-yellow scaled plating, a black underbelly, and crimson-tipped claws and tusks, Haxorus gave a mighty roar as he entered the field.

“Dragon Dance, then use Dragon Claw!” The Unovan champion shouted, and her dragon followed the command with grace. It managed to make the sinuous movements of dragon dance align with dodging the opposing Gengar’s Shadow Balls, and then rush ahead at lightning speed with its glowing claws, rending into the ghost and knocking it out in seconds.

“Woohoo!” I cheered, watching her Haxorus sweep the rest of the team. I already knew how this battle was going to end, having seen the results online before, but it was fun to watch, and informative. The end results didn’t let me see the techniques and tricks used to achieve those results.

“You really like Haxorus, don’t you.” It wasn’t so much a question as it was an observation from Rotom, but I explained a bit more anyway.

“Oh yeah, they’re probably my favorite Type of Pokemon. So fast and strong, a physical powerhouse! Here, he’s using Outrage, one of the strongest Moves a Dragon Type can learn…” I rambled on as the match continued, extolling the virtues of Haxorus. The one reason I didn’t mention loving them for was probably the most relevant, however.

Haxorus was one of my most memorable team members from the games. I trained up an Axew in Pokemon White on my first playthrough. The XP balance was wack in that game, so it took forever to train him, but I wanted a Haxorus for the Elite Four. Then came N with his giant castle summoning trick, and I fought through Plasma and captured Zekrom. I thought I had to put Zekrom on my team, but when I tried to refuse, I found out I could! So I boxed Zekrom, and kept my original team up against N. Haxorus was up first, against Reshiram, and when he managed to just barely beat a Legendary on his own… It was incredible. One of the greatest moments I’ve ever had in a game. And now I get to live it for real!

As the video ended, Rotom reminded me “Bzzt, you’ve got some more work planned with Cyan, don’t you? You should probably get changed out of your pajamas.” They not-quite reprimanded. On the one hand, it was past noon, but on the other, my new pajamas were super comfy. On the third hand, so were my other clothes. On the fourth hand, to round out the Machamp dilemma-based metaphor, I hadn’t had to go out yet today as I just had some online assignments I completed early on, but could probably change now.

Dismissing Rotom who had some ‘things to discuss with Leah’, I got changed. My caretakers had taken note of my sudden changes (mostly just chalked to ‘growing up’) and made sure to start buying fewer dresses, thankfully. These days I wore pretty much just cargo pants and t-shirts. Hoodies when it was a little chilly. It was colder when I first remembered my past life, but as summer was coming and it got warmer, I started wearing shorts more often. It’s funny, I didn’t like shorts at all in my old life, at least not on me. I don’t mind them here. Might change as I grow up though. A prospect I was still dreading, but there wasn’t anything I could do to avoid it.

Getting changed, I walked over to my sister’s room and found her in there watching a stream. Not wanting to interrupt her and knowing it was about five minutes from the end, I just settled in beside her, pulling up the other chair in the room. She loved streamers, as I found out and with our much-improved relationship, she would invite me to watch some with her.

Iono was already around, and had a sizeable following but wasn’t super popular yet, still a little too early for her to hit the ‘big leagues’. Likewise, she wasn’t a Gym Leader either, but I knew much could change in ten years.

I wasn’t too keen on any of them, but there were plenty of streamers Cyan adored on the Pokenet. She liked this one streamer called ‘Garbinator’. His gimmick seemed to be reviewing things and either calling them ‘Spicy’ or ‘Garbodor’, and would toss whatever the product or CD was of the bad stuff to his Garbodor, who would happily chew it up. I get the idea of listening to someone else review the thing, but these are pretty much just reaction videos that cover 90% of the show, spoil everything, and somehow get more views than the original content! I don’t even like watching sports that much since it means I’m not there, doing the cool thing. Watching Pokemon battles was fine though, since it could give me more ideas on how I’d train up my future team.

I invited her to train and go on runs with me a few times, but she gave up after one outing. She barely even did as much as I did, and that’s like, half of what I could manage working out back in my first world! Admittedly, half of what a fit adult could do is probably pretty impressive by most standards. Something in me churned every time I’d see a video of the massive destructive powers a truly experienced Pokemon could manage. I might not be able to do that, but I know there’s so much further that I can go than where I am now.

After the stream was done, Cyan turned to me and said “Why do you have to wear stuff like that?” She said glaring down at my cargo pants. “It’s so unfashionable!” She didn’t sound as scandalized as the first time she had seen me in them, but this was clearly a battle she wasn’t going to give up right away.

“They have pockets! So many pockets.” I countered eloquently, showing her the many pockets I had. I didn’t have anything to hold in them right now, but it was the principle of the matter.

“I need to show you real fashion sometime. Whatever,” she sighed before pulling out some of the comics we had been working on, and the story-boarding ideas I had given her. “I had some issues with this.”

“Yeah? With what?” Does she not like the constant alliteration? It might be a bit much, but I have to be true to the source material!

“Doc Octillery betraying Petey. I really don’t like it. She was a good person and a mentor to Petey, it feels like the betrayal comes out of nowhere!” Cyan crossed her arms, pouting.

“Well, it is meant to be a shocking swerve. Gotta keep the readers hooked for the next issue.” I argued.

“Isn’t it just a rehash of what happened with Curtis Corners before he becomes Lizardon?”

I stopped at her argument, realizing she did have a pretty solid point there. “I mean, I didn’t have Curtis as much of a mentor to Petey as Octavia was, but you’re right. I do kinda need Doc Octillery to make the Savage Six, hmmm… oh! I know, Doc Octillery will seem like she’s turned against Petey, but actually she was being controlled by the Green Grimmsnarl!”

She smiled, mollified by my suggestion. “Good idea, you said the Green Grimmsnarl was gonna be his archneme-nem- enemy, right? That can help, umm foreshadow their rivalry. And then Octavia and Petey can fight him together.”

“Yeah!” I cheered and we got down to writing. It was a fair bit of actual work, figuring out the art, panel layouts, speech bubble placement, colors, and everything else to fit with the plot. I didn’t mind though, it was a lot of fun, to hang out with my new sister and our parents adored our work.

Later that day, Leah asked me what my favorite Pokemon was. I’d often get asked which ones I liked and had opinions (to the point that people usually stopped asking me that), but she insisted, even when I tried saying I liked all of them.

“Well, Rotom might have already told you, but I like Haxorus a bunch.” Can’t exactly mention Legendaries or Mythicals as my ‘favorite’ then, and I’m guessing Ultra Beasts and Paradox Pokemon fit into those same categories. Legendaries definitely fit the name in this world, and were often revered as such. You wouldn’t just throw out the name of a being in some lands worshiped as deities as your ‘favorite’. Oh sure, there were some people that could fight Legendaries with their whole teams, or even their ace Pokemon. Of course, those people were Champions or World Champions. Even then, it’s never a guaranteed thing.

She blinked, suddenly sweating a bit. Is the heat getting to her in that maid uniform? “Ah, yes, Rotom did mention that. Just… wanted to confirm”

I started rattling off their strong points, explaining just why they were so great to her. “... Dragon Dance can boost their speed and attack, or Swords Dance for even more power. Usually you need a few Technical Machines or ways to teach them Moves to have coverage against Ice or Fairy Types, but that’s not hard. There’s a bunch of other strong Moves they can learn from TMs like Earthquake-”

“Ah, yes. Thank you, Young Miss. By the way, did you finish that test I gave you?”

I frowned, trying to remember her giving me any test and not recalling it at first until I figured out what she meant. “Oh, you mean the Pokemon quiz thing you gave me? Yeah, I finished it a while ago.” Searching through my desk I found it and passed it back to her. “It was fun but really easy.” The questions were pretty basic things, like asking what conditions like Poison and Burn did to your Pokemon, if Berries could help a Pokemon recover, and the most basic of Type match-ups. “Let me know if you find any tougher ones.”

She had a weirdly strained smile on her face. “I should have expected it was too easy to challenge you, Young Miss. Excuse me, I have some arrangements to make. Perhaps Hamber can help…” She muttered to herself. Weird, wonder what that was about? I thought about it before putting the discussion out of my mind. It was only later that I realized the significance of it.

***

My birthday was something I had to be told about the week before it would pass and marked the sixth month since my ‘memories’ had come back. Some days, I wondered if my ‘past life’ had all just been a dream. Other days, the nightmares of everything I’d lost were in full force and I had no such doubts. ‘My’ birthday was one of those days, and I woke up grumpily from such a fitful night. I tried to conceal it and act like nothing was wrong, but Leah saw through me pretty easily, remarking on it at breakfast.

“Someone’s a Grumpig today.” She said as she poured syrup over my pancakes. Perhaps I was just getting spoiled, but that hardly even felt like a special ‘birthday breakfast’ at this point. “But don’t be upset, it’s your birthday today! And we have an extra special surprise for you today.”

“Will B- Mother and Father be coming home early?” I hated how desperate I sounded there. It’s still hard for me to even call them ‘mother’ and ‘father’, but a part of me hopes they’ll be here for a birthday that doesn’t even feel like it’s mine. God, I’m such a mess. Or should I say ‘Arceus’ now?

No divine intervention came to correct me on the proper ways to address them, so Leah continued, her smile dipping for just a second. “Sorry, it looks like work is keeping them busy, honey. But they really wanted to be here.” I already knew Cyan would be busy, she was away on a trip to the Sevi Islands but had spent a day hanging out with me before she left and gave me a fancy notebook.

“I know, thank you, Leah.” I tried to sound thankful, and I was! I knew I could have things a heck of a lot worse than being reborn into an incredibly wealthy family in a near-utopic world of adventure and discovery. But my thoughts still plagued me.

After I finished the meal, I sat at the table and on a piece of paper from my new notebook, started idly writing a poem.

‘Once, there was a Maiden…

… who was always looking forward to the way things would be.

She said, ‘Someday, I’m getting out of this place.’

‘Someday, I’ll kill the boy that put me here.’

‘And while I wait, I don’t much mind,.’

‘Cause it’s better to dream tomorrow than be there.’

‘I’m holding at bay,’ she said, ‘what I know to be true.’

‘That I’ll never get out. I won’t let my dreams die!’

‘I’ll hang on to hope,’ she said, ‘until time itself ends. But-’

‘There’s always an ending,’ said Time.”

Leah peeked over at what I was writing, and I let her. I had taken to writing tons, as well as my training and studying. A desire to keep a hold of the knowledge I held from the other world before I forgot or it got muddied. Everything from books to TV. shows, and songs, I tried to write down as many ideas and reminders as I could. The songs were often only half-remembered, maybe only the chorus written down, but I hoped to be able to find someone with the musical talent to recreate some of my favorites someday. Others, I wonder why there’s any point holding on to scraps of a world far gone.

She seemed fascinated and a bit disturbed by what I had written. I wonder what she’d think of the stuff I actually keep hidden? Information about Pokemon, mostly Legendaries, that would qualify as state secrets at least. It was an amusing idea, but not one I would ever do. I wrote any of the more important stuff in a code and hid it in a shoebox in my closet. I hardly had perfect knowledge of this world, or even Pokemon media in general, but I’d played through most mainline games and there was a lot of dangerous stuff you could pick up there.

Honestly though, what I was most worried about if she, or anyone else ever found out those notes would be the notes about myself. Or rather, the girl Nemona would have been without me. Would they see me as just an imposter, masquerading as their daughter, sister, or friend? Hate me for lying to them about who I was, call me a fraud for relying on my knowledge and maturity, passing it off as fake brilliance? Despise themselves for not noticing, as if anyone could suspect something like this? Or maybe - well, best to just leave that Pandora’s Box shut.

“This is quite a… vivid poem, young Miss.” Leah eventually said, bringing me back to the present. “Quite imaginative.” Her smile was brittle like she didn’t know how to respond here… so she changed the topic, quietly pocketing the paper. “Do you want to see your gift?”

That perked me up a bit, and I nodded, washing up and following her to the living room. In the time I had been eating and writing, the other staff had set up party decorations. Others were shaking their heads, checking the furniture and walls. Are they planning on doing renovations? What really caught my eye however were the two gift boxes sitting on the table in the middle of the room. One was a square box, the other rectangular.

“I know it’s a bit early, we wanted to keep the surprise, but go ahead, open it.” Curious, I sat down on the couch and opened the box. Within it was a gleaming white orb. A red line runs almost all around it with a white dot in the center.

“A… that’s a…” I was speechless. A Pokeball. I’m getting a Pokemon already?!

“It’s a Pokeball! Happy Birthday!” Leah said, and the other butlers and maids cheered as well. “That’s a Premier Ball, so it’s extra special.” I wonder what actually makes a Premier Ball special compared to a regular Pokeball? I took the ball in question and held it reverently. As I did so, I noticed a small card in there as well. It said on it ‘Nemona Glitterati: Junior Trainer License’ with a bunch of different information, like my birthday, eye color, identification number, etc. as you’d expect from a government-issued ID.

“What?” I asked, still a bit shocked by it all.

“That’s a Junior License. For gifted young kids like yourself, you can own a Pokemon! Only one though, until you upgrade to get a full license.” Leah said.

“Wow, that’s incredible. But shouldn’t I have to like, pass a test or something to get this?” I thought I remembered something about that online. Anise just waved me off as she passed by, hefting of all things, a heavy dog bed. If the dog was nine feet tall and needed a bed made of titanium mesh.

“You already did, Leah and Rotom had you take it,” the plump maid said as she dropped the bed in the corner. I opened my mouth to argue, but then closed it, remembering a conversation I had with Leah a while back, where she asked me a bunch of general questions about Pokemon and what to do in the wild. That was it?! I mean, a lot of it was just common sense stuff and I have been looking into it, but still. I guess Rotom recorded it all and they had it sent into the League.

Leah chimed in too. “You already know so much about Haxorus, I’m sure this will be a breeze for you.” It sounded like she was trying to convince herself there, more than me.

I puffed out my cheeks. I mean, I probably would pass any test set for a kid, but still! There’s a bunch you need to know for actually caring for a Pokemon. Even among Type specialists, there are huge variances for each Pokemon from dietary needs to- wait Haxorus?

I must have said the last part out loud because Leah nodded. “Yup! You said it’s your favorite Pokemon. So your parents decided to get you a Haxorus for your birthday.” She had a big grin on her face, but her left eyelid twitched a little as she said that, I distantly noted.

“A Haxorus,” I repeated. “Not an Axew?” She just nodded her head.

“The other box even has a couple of the Technical Machines you mentioned, and a carrying case for when you get more.” I opened it up numbly, still trying to process that, and saw that it indeed had many of the moves I’d mentioned to her. Earthquake, Poison Jab, Iron Head, Body Slam, Shadow Claw, etc. were all in there.

“So there’s a Haxorus in here?” I asked again, holding up the Premier Ball. Outwardly I was remaining calm, inwardly, I was screaming. A freaking Haxorus?! I mean yeah, I love them, they’re really cool, but I never expected to just be given one!! Let alone my whole feelings on the matter of gifting/trading Pokemon, I always thought I’d catch like an Axew and raise them up! Maybe earn the respect of a rowdy but well-meaning Fraxure and form a close bond through battle? I don’t know, just not that I’d have a fully evolved Dragon as my first Pokemon! Ahhhh!!!

“Oh, no. The Haxorus is being shipped over for tomorrow when your parents can see you catch it.” Leah then turned to address some of the other staff. “No, we should probably move the bed over here so the Haxorus can lie in the sun in the afternoon, most Dragons are cold-blooded after all…” A part of me was touched that she had put that much thought into this. That all of them were working so hard to try and get me an incredible birthday gift. The other part of me… This wasn’t what I wanted. It’s not how I hoped any of this, my Birthday, or my first Pokemon catch would go.

With all the adults busy, I slipped out of the room, and then out of the house. Finally free. Huzzah. I wandered down the path to where the cliff was. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure if this was the cliff from the start of the games, where the Player would meet the box Legendary, but it could have been.

Looking out I saw the vast, glittering blue ocean, stretching out to the horizon before me. Behind me were lush fields, trees filled with berries, and flowers well in bloom. It was springtime and you could feel how alive the world felt. Pokemon scampering about in the fields, or flying ones letting out their cries as they flew over the ocean, the sounds of the waves splashing in drifting up.

“What’s wrong, bzzt?” Rotom asked, having followed me. They are an insightful one. I wonder what they know, or at least suspect about me? I’ve always sorta wondered what other people are actually like, but I don’t think you could ever get a perfect picture of who someone else is. Not even if you were a Psychic.

“Nothing. Nothing is really wrong. I mean, I guess I’m worried about a lot of things, but that’s not new.”

Rotom looked upset. “Bzzt. Did- did you not want a Haxorus? We were so sure-” I waved them off.

“It’s not that. I appreciate the effort. I just- I want to make sure that any Pokemon that is going to follow me on my journey wants to be with me, you know? Someone prepared to battle by my side, be my companion, help me through thick and thin, and be willing to let me do the same for them. I don’t know what this Haxorus will be like. If they’ll respect me or even if they wanted to be here for this.”

“I see bzzt…” We sat there for a moment in silence, simply taking the world and our thoughts in. “Would-” I interrupted Rotom as something down below caught my attention at the same time. Slithering about on the sand, I saw a yellow snake-like Pokemon shifting back and forth. It seemed confused and lost.

“Hey, I think they’re in trouble. Let’s help!” I ran to the edge and Rotom nervously followed me.

“What are you, bzzt, doing?!” It cried out as I approached the edge.

“Help me down!” I called out and jumped down. There was a screaming in my ear that I’d later recognize to be Rotom’s as it raced ahead of me. I caught on to the phone case with my free hand and suddenly my momentum was greatly decreased as I drifted down the rest of the way, Rotom still screaming and panicking as I did so. That was awesome. I feel so alive!

Of course, before those screams died down and Rotom recomposed themself, we garnered the attention of the Dunsparce I had seen down below. Immediately the winged snake turned and faced us, shocked and afraid, but from the angry set of its eyes, not unwilling to defend itself if need be.

Holding my hands up in a placating gesture I said: “Easy there. We just saw you and thought you might be in trouble. Do you live around here?” I don’t think Dunsparces lived here in the games, but I could easily be mistaken. Even if I wasn’t, Pokemon here hardly stick to so closely defined areas and routes in absolute fact.

Dunsparce shifted a bit, looking around. Is he… embarrassed? I think he might be looking for a home here. But why? “I don’t think this is the best place for you to make a home.” His head slumped down at that and I thought I might have seen a tear fall from one of his eyes, though it could have just been the salty spray. I hastily amended “I just meant that any tunnels you made would be hard to make into a proper nest in the sand and the water might wash them away. I could help you try and find somewhere better, if you want?”

Offering a hand out to the Dunsparce, he slithered closer, a hopeful expression on his face. One that I unfortunately soured with my next words. “Do you have any family nearby?” I had just been thinking that he might have fallen off the cliffs or taken a path down and gotten a bit confused.

He instead thrashed about angrily, kicking up sand with his tail and moving back and forth taking different postures. It took me a moment to realize that he was acting out others from his family, or whatever group of Dunsparces he had been in before. They were glaring at ‘him’ or dismissing ‘him’ with sweeps of their tails before eventually a group of ‘bigger’ ones (he puffed himself up to represent that, and I noticed that he was actually a bit on the smaller end for Dunsparces) drove him off. He then rolled over and flopped around a bit, which I hoped was just him being lost and confused and not that they had actually pushed him off a cliff! That’s super mean, even if Dunsparces are very tanky.

“That sucks,” I said bluntly. “But I think I could help you, if you’re willing to let me.” He looked curious at that. “We can help you get out of here and find a proper home.”

There was a soft flutter of his tiny wings. I got the impression of a ‘sure, nowhere better to be.’ Seems like telling me his story tanked his mood huh?

“There’s better places than the beach for you to lie on. The sand is coarse and rough, and it gets everywhere. We’ll get you fixed up in a great home. And I’m sure one day you’ll show those jerks that pushed you out what you’re really made of.”

“Dunnn…” the Dunsparce mournfully said, clearly disagreeing with me on that point. But I refused his denial!

“No way, you could be really great one day. Dunsparce are incredible, and I can already tell you have the traits to be strong one day.”

“Really? Bzzt.” Rotom said, hovering in between us. “How can you tell? What- Bzzt. What makes someone strong?”

“A desire to be strong. More than a desire really, a drive. And I can tell Dunsparce has that! When we first landed, most Dunsparce would try to run away, but this guy here, he got ready to defend himself!” I turned to the Pokemon in question. “I’m pretty weak too right now, but I want to be the best, like no one ever was. And I’m going to be. I’m gonna work hard and become the best Champion this world has ever seen!”

At that moment, something crystallized for me. I’ve been feeling morose about what I’ve lost or what didn’t work out, but honestly, I have a great life. Dunsparce’s tale illustrates that well. So, I’m done worrying about the past. I loved the people in my first life, and I’ll do my best to never forget them. Remember everything my friends and family have taught me then… but I won’t be weighed down by that regret either. If I want to be the best, I gotta give it my all. And I honestly do want that. I want to see how far I can go.

Turning down to Dunsparce I said, “Actually, if you want, you could have a home with me.” I held the Premier Ball down for him to inspect. “This is a type of Pokeball. They serve as stasis pods for Pokemon and a way to easily carry you around and let you relax while I travel. But it won’t be all relaxing! I’ve got a ton of training to do if I’m to reach the top, so that means you’ll have tons too.”

Rotom looked on in shock. Dunsparce just tilted his head to the side and said “Dun.” The meaning was pretty clear this time. ‘Why? Why me?’

“Like I said, I think you can do great things. Any Pokemon can, if they have that desire. They’re all blessed with near-limitless potential.” Even a small electric rodent could fight Gods and win. “So if you want to, I’d like you to be my Pokemon, and I’ll be your Trainer. Of course, if you don’t want, I’ll still help you out of here and find a good home, I totally understand-”

“Dun! Sparce Sparce!!” A big smile burst on his face, tears definitely flowing down his eyes this time as he raced ahead. He moved faster than I thought a Dunsparce could go, ramming into the Premier Ball. I wasn’t sure he actually knew how Pokeballs worked, but by chance, he hit the trigger and in a flash of red light, was sucked in.

“That’s- you caught a Dunsparce?” Rotom said, a little disbelieving at the same time as I held my hands up in the air.

“I caught a Pokemon! Woohoo!” I turned around, beginning to run back up, barely noticing what looked like a tunnel off to the side by the cliffs. “C’mon, let's go tell everyone!” Rotom sighed but floated after me as I burned through the energy only a child can have, running back home.

Bursting through the door was a bit of a shock to everyone, and even more so when I opened the ball and revealed my Pokemon. “I caught my first Pokemon!”

Dunsparce gave a loud cry as he was released, then looked around, taking in the strange surroundings and bunch of new people. He seemed a bit frightened at first, slinking back half a foot before shaking it off and slithering in front of me. Aww, so brave! Unnecessary, but still a nice gesture.

The staff were whispering amongst themselves, but Leah was the first to approach me. “That’s wonderful dear, but you can only have one Pokemon with a junior trainer’s license. You’ll have to release him to get your Haxorus.” I could swear at that moment the other staff suddenly glared daggers at her, for some reason.

“No! I wanna keep Dun!” I picked him up and hugged him close to my chest as if someone was going to try and take him away from me. Leah, if anything, seemed relieved.

“Welp, if that’s your choice then. Ok, let’s take all the Haxorus stuff back everyone!” The staff was in a surprisingly good mood, not a word of complaint at having to take back the stuff they spent the morning bringing in. I did stop them when they went to take back the Technical Machines, however.

“Wait, I can still use those! I think Dunsparce can learn a lot of those moves actually.” Earthquake at least, and I think Poison Jab too? His tail can definitely be used for jabbing, even if Poison-Type energy wouldn’t come too naturally.

Leah was surprised. “Really? You still want to battle with…”

“Dun will be a great battler! Dunsparce and Dundunsparce are super tanky, so they’re great at powering through attacks, and as a Normal Type can learn a lot of different moves. Hyper Drill is a super powerful attack of their Type that can pierce the heavens!… Or at least break through any Protect, which is still very impressive given the power it boasts. Oh, you don’t mind if I call you ‘Dun’ for short, right?” I asked the Pokemon in my arms and it nuzzled closer to me. It might not be the most imaginative of names, but if he likes it, that’s good enough for me.

“Dun! Dun Dun!” I laughed at his enthusiastic response.

“I’ll take that as a yes, then.” You know, I think today is a pretty awesome birthday.