Sunlight beams concentrated on my face, occasional relief coming from the few trees around me blocking it briefly, only to return again soon after. I wasn’t the hugest fan of the sun. It was usually just bothersome and draining to me.

It had been a restless night, waking up from constant nightmares that ranged from scary to being sad enough to have me awake in tears. The events of just a day ago were strong with me.

A Charizard had rampaged through my grandma and auntie’s village due to a group of maniacs with guns inflicting pain to its body before killing the poor thing.

And I’d lost one of the first Pokemon I’d ever owned. My Beedrill. All because some coward of a Trainer got scared during the attack and ran away after we traded our Pokemon. She had good reason to be scared considering a Charizard was endangering the lives of everyone, but she took off with my Pokemon! My Beedrill! And she abandoned her own Kingdra. The trade was a good one really, at least for me, but it was the principle of it that mattered.

These thoughts and a few others remained with me as I walked, my hands shoved hard in the pockets of my jacket, not noticing the trees were vanishing completely. When the heat of the sun didn’t break away after a while, my eyes remaining squinted at the ground below, my hand rose to block the sun and I came to a stop as I realized I was now standing on sand. My foot kicked through it and I looked up, seeing the sea before me. The salty scent of the water reached me and I inhaled even deeper the fragrance.

The sun glistened above it, the reflection twinkling on endlessly. The sight was surreal, peaceful in contrast to the traumatic thoughts in my head.

I had a sudden urge to gather up all of the troubles I had, put them into one big ball of pain, and throw them all into the water at once and just relieve myself of the stress I was feeling. I would’ve if such a thing were possible. My eyes shut as I inhaled deeply, trying to calm myself and just focus on the sounds of nature around me.

The waves moving and splashing against itself. The wind also pushing against it, through the sand, and maneuvering past me.

It was like building blocks being put into place. All of the problems I had been dealing with seemed to be arranging themselves into a more manageable position in my head. The overwhelming, emotional feelings I was going through were feeling a little more lessened as my problems were washed away from me and taken away to the skies and sea.

Maybe this feeling is what people talk about when they speak on meditating, I considered. Maybe I’m having one of those moments. Whatever it is, it’s very calming. Reflective, and positive. Uplifting is a better word. Exhaling, a smile crossing my face, I opened my eyes. “AAAHHH!” I screamed and stumbled back at the sudden sight of the kid staring at me. “Who the hell??”

“Sorry about that,” the kid apologized. “I was going to say something, but you seemed to be lost in thoughts and I didn’t want to startle you, and then you suddenly turned around and… Well, sorry.” He laughed.

I grabbed my chest, trying to calm down my heart from this sudden scare. “Well, what do you want?” I asked, a little angry at the interruption of my peaceful moment, and also embarrassed that this kid had seen me here meditating like a weirdo.

“Well, I noticed you’re a Pokemon Trainer, and wanted to challenge you to a battle,” he explained.

“A battle?” I repeated.

“Yeah,” he nodded expectantly. “How about it?”

“Well…” I thought about it. I wasn’t really in the mood for a Pokemon match right now, but maybe it would help relieve my stress a bit further.

“I should let you know one thing, though…” he started hesitantly.

“What’s that?” I asked cautiously.

“The Pokemon I’ll be using in this match is just a Magikarp.” He lowered his head shyly.

“Magikarp?” I said in shock.

“Yeah... I have two Badges so far and I’m really hoping to compete in the Pokemon League. I wanted to raise a really powerful Pokemon and I’m a big fan of Gyarados. Their power is tremendous! Unfortunately, all I could find were Magikarp after literal hours of fishing. Then, a Gyarados did appear, but my team was no match for it and it chased us all away, so I settled for a Magikarp I found afterwards and am trying to raise it to battle. It doesn’t seem to know any moves other than Splash attack, and they learn Tackle only at level fifteen. To top it all off, Magikarp are known to take a long time to grow, so getting it to the evolution stage is gonna take a ton of time. Do you think you can maybe take it easy on us and not go too hard in this battle? But, please, use something really strong so we can gain some extra experience?”

I thought about his request for a moment, staring into his pleading, eager face. With a sigh, not really wanting to, I agreed. “Alright. We can battle.”

“Wow, thanks a bunch!” he exclaimed. “By the way, my name is Rog. What’s yours?” He held out his hand to me.

“I’m Gary,” I told him, shaking his back, taken by surprise by how sharply he shook my hand, clearly delighted I’d help him with his Magikarp problem. “I’m from Pallet Town. I’m also on the path to challenging the Pokemon League. So far, I have four Badges.”

“Wow! Four Badges! Your Pokemon must have tons of experience and sound just perfect for what my Magikarp needs. Just please, go easy on us, okay?”

“Yeah, no problem,” I agreed.

Rog happily ran away several feet from me, giving us space to have our battle. He held up a Poke Ball and smiled. “Let’s battle!” He threw his Poke Ball.

The Poke Ball flew through the air and opened, sending out the king of the carp. “Magikarp, Magikarp, Magikarp,” it gasped, flopping around pitifully.

I stared at the poor fish, then considered which of my Pokemon I should convince to not completely beat the crap out of it. “Primeape! Let’s do this!”

“Priiiiiiimeape ape ape!!” Primeape screamed excitedly once he appeared from his Poke Ball. He began jumping around in place.

“Primeape, we’re gonna help this kid raise his Magikarp, okay?” I called out. “So don’t attack unless I say so and go easy on the thing. You understand that?”

“Prime…?” Primeape seemed confused for a moment as he turned back to me.

“We’re doing this Trainer and his Pokemon a favor, so just follow my orders and don’t go crazy this one time.”

Primeape just stared at me at first, but then his eyes seemed to close happily and he nodded, turning back to Magikarp.

I smiled and turned to Rog. “Okay, go ahead.”

Rog nodded and with a sudden look of determination, he looked down to his Magikarp. “Try and use your Tackle!”

Magikarp continued to flop in place.

“Magikarp, please! Try and do something else than Splash attack!” Rog pleaded with it.

Magikarp continued flopping in the sand.

Primeape turned to me with a helpless look.

I could only shrug back.

Rog yelled for his Magikarp to keep trying to attack, apologizing to me and Primeape after every couple of pleas.

We were standing there for at least an hour straight. It had to be an hour. It was at least far too long to be going through such nonsense, especially for somebody I didn’t even know.

Primeape was getting weary and sat down on the sand, watching Magikarp flop as its Trainer continued demanding a different action.

I sat down as well a little while after.

Rog continued to urge his Pokemon on and eventually, with a loud sigh, fell forward onto his knees in the sand, his head down. He looked up at me and smiled. “Well, I guess that’s that, huh?” he laughed.

“Huh?” I shook my head, kind of awakening myself after all the time that had passed. “That’s all?”

“Well, what else can be done?” he shrugged. “Let’s just call this one a draw or something. Thanks for your help though! I think we got a ton of experience from this... I hope...”

“Hmm...” I got up and shook my head, and a smirk came over my face. “Not quite. Primeape, Karate Chop!”

“Prime?” Primeape sat up and hopped to his feet. Then, with a loud cry, he charged forward at Magikarp.

“Gently…” I added.

Primeape raised one huge fist and froze for a moment as Magikarp flopped and Rog gasped. My Pokemon then brought his fist down slowly but strongly and shoved Magikarp a few feet away from him.

Magikarp flopped more frantically, saying its name even louder.

“Why’d you do that?” Rog asked in shock.

“Your Magikarp needs to be in a battle, not a staring contest. It’s not gonna get much stronger just by flopping around. We need to motivate it. Get it excited and ready for an actual battle. Make it feel real.”

Rog thought about this for a moment. “Good point.”

“Primeape, return! Thank you.”

“What are you doing now?” Rog watched my Primeape return to his Poke Ball.

“Let’s try something different,” I suggested. “Next up, Charmeleon!”

“MEEELEON!” Charmeleon cried out, head to the sky, and shot a long, powerful flame into the air. He then looked down at his opponent eagerly. “Char...?”

The utter disappointment on Charmeleon’s face upon seeing Magikarp was priceless, almost causing me to burst out laughing, but I held it in enough to merely snicker.

“We’re helping out a friend today. I’m just asking you to go easy on it and only attack when I say so.”

Charmeleon turned to me with a blank stare, blinked, and then sighed. He raised one claw to scratch his head and finally nodded.

“Karp Karp Magikarp, Magikarp, Magikarp Karp,” Magikarp flopped about.

“Give it a little nail Scratch attack,” I instructed.

Charmeleon calmly walked over to the fish and extended a claw. He pointed out one sharp pointed finger to the fish and gently flicked Magikarp with it.

Magikarp continued flopping about, not reacting much to the scratch.

“Alright, maybe an actual Scratch attack would work better.”

Charmeleon pulled back to viciously cut Magikarp up.

“Gently…” I added.

Charmeleon growled but eased his arm and used a lighter Scratch on the flopping carp.

Magikarp cried out a little as it fell back from the attack.

“Fight back now, Magikarp!” Rog shouted. “Tackle it back!”

“Magikarp, Magikarp, Magikarp,” it flopped helplessly.

“Scratch again!”

Charmeleon walked over to Magikarp and pulled back his arm, resulting in another sharp Scratch attack that sent the fish sliding across the dry sand.

“Alright, just wait now,” I told Charmeleon.

Charmeleon stood still.

“Magikarp, are you okay?” Rog jogged over to his Pokemon.

Suddenly, taking me and Charmeleon by surprise, Magikarp bounced up and tackled Charmeleon!

Stunned by this action, Charmeleon cried out and fell back into the sand. He got up and glared at Magikarp.

“Magikarp did it!” Rog gasped. “It leveled up to fifteen! It knows Tackle! We can fight back a little bit now!”

“Okay, Charmeleon. Stay focused and let’s be careful to dodge those Tackle attacks. But I still don’t want you to attack back too roughly, either. Got it?”

Charmeleon nodded, his focus on Magikarp.

“Okay! Tackle!” Rog demanded.

“Magikarp, Magikarp, Magikarp, Magikarp, Magikarp,” Magikarp said, using Splash attack.

We all were staring at Magikarp.

“Magikarp?” Rog asked.

“Magikarp, Karp Magikarp.” It continued flopping.

“Magikarp, Tackle that Charmeleon!” Rog yelled.

Magikarp completely ignored Rog and continued to Splash.

“What’s going on…?” Rog asked, confused. “Why is it ignoring me?”

“Hmmm. Charmeleon, Ember!”

“Wait, what?” Rog protested.

Charmeleon opened his jaws and let out a light flame at Magikarp, who screamed out against the hit.

Magikarp then used Tackle again, bouncing off Charmeleon’s chest, sending him back just a couple of inches.

“There it is again! Magikarp, Tackle once more! Just like that!” Rog ordered excitedly, smiling. But that smile faded as, in dismay, Rog watched his Magikarp continue to use Splash. “But, why?? I don’t understand!”

“Hm…” I said, pulling out my Pokedex to try and find an answer.

Magikarp. The Fish Pokemon. Popularly referred to as the weakest of all Pokemon. They are found in nearly all bodies of water. Studies indicate this Pokemon may once have been extremely powerful many years ago.

“Hey, Rog... According to my Pokedex, your Magikarp is at level nineteen and not far from reaching level twenty, which is when it evolves. It knows both Splash and Tackle.”

“Huh?” Rog ran over to me and I showed him my Pokedex. “Nineteen? But, I don’t understand! Do you mean this thing has only been ignoring me this whole time? It didn’t do anything but Splash on purpose? It’s just being disobedient?”

“That seems to be what’s going on,” I responded slowly.

Rog’s mouth dropped open in shock. “How weak of a Trainer do you have to be that even a Magikarp won’t obey you???” Rog’s hands covered his face.

“KARP!” Magikarp suddenly burst out.

“Meeeeel!” Charmeleon wailed out.

We both turned to see Charmeleon on the ground, Magikarp laying on his stomach. Charmeleon shoved Magikarp off him and charged full force at it. Before I could order him to stop, Charmeleon pulled back his claw and used Scratch on Magikarp with all his might, sending the fish screaming and flying through the air before it landed with a huge splash in the ocean.

Magikarp splashed about in the water frantically as if it couldn’t swim. It was such a sad sight.

I let out a sigh and walked over to Charmeleon. “HEY!” I barked.

He jumped and faced me, his face in shock.

“What’d I say about listening to me?” I growled.

“Char…” Charmeleon looked down, squinting at the ground, avoiding my stare.

“Bad move!” I snapped, kneeling down to face Charmeleon. “You know better, Charmeleon. Don’t lose your cool with me. I didn’t do anything wrong, here. You did.”

Charmeleon frowned and looked away from me, crossing his arms and snorting, a pair of small flames coming from his nostrils.

“I didn’t ask for you attitude. I only asked you to help me out because I know I can depend on you when I need you. You’re gonna prove me wrong now?”

Charmeleon’s arms fell at his sides, but he continued to frown and not look at me, opting for the sky instead.

“MAGIKARP!” Rog suddenly shouted.

Me and Charmeleon turned to see a white flash in the sea where Magikarp was splashing.

The tiny white ball grew and expanded. It grew taller, and longer, longer, and even taller! My head tilted back as the shape continued to expand and grow. The light exploded in a flash, and I saw the new creature.

“Magikarp evolved!” Rog screeched. “Magikarp evolved into Gyarados!”

Gyarados. The Atrocious Pokemon. Gyarados are said to be drawn to violent atmospheres. It is said that during evolution, their brain structure changes drastically and results in their new, violent temperament. Once in a frenzy, it is said they won’t calm down until everything has been destroyed.

“Wow!” Rog ran up to the water to see his Gyarados closer.

Gyarados roared at him and stopped him in his tracks.

“Hey…” Rog said warily. “It’s me! Rog! Your Trainer!”

Gyarados roared once again.

I was getting really uncomfortable.

Rog didn’t look like he was in a favorable position right now. “Hey! Come on now! I raised you from just a little Magikarp!” Rog sounded hurt and upset, but determined. He stepped into the water and made his way through it to his Gyarados. “I raised you as best as I could. I want to continue to raise you. I want you to be the best, strongest Pokemon out there! You’ve finally evolved, but our goals have barely begun! Now, let’s team up.” He reached his Gyarados and looked up at it, bravely placing one hand on the frightening monster’s body, and then he turned to face me and pointed. “And let’s challenge Gary to a Pokemon battle!”

“What? You wanna battle us with that?” I didn’t mean to sound like such a coward, but, well... this was a freaking Gyarados!

“That’s right,” Rog said cheerily. “Gyarados versus whatever Pokemon you wish.” He turned to Gyarados. “What do ya say? Let’s have a real battle this time. Together.”

Gyarados, looking ready to swallow its Trainer in one gulp with that naturally vicious look all Gyarados maintain on their faces, let out a roar that pushed Rog away a few feet.

Rog fell over and was chest deep in the water, completely soaked. He made his way out and turned back to Gyarados. “Well, let’s see how this works out.” There was now uncertainty in his voice. He turned to me. “So is it gonna be Charmeleon?”

Me and Charmeleon turned to face each other.

“Char Char, Meleon!” Charmeleon gave me the thumbs up. He turned and ran across the sand towards Gyarados.

“No!” I spoke.

In shock, Charmeleon tripped and fell face first in the sand.

“Sorry, buddy, but I have another idea to take out this thing.” I returned Charmeleon to his Poke Ball. “This battle will be held on water if that’s okay with you.”

“A water battle? Sounds fine to me,” Rog nodded.

I walked a bit closer to the ocean, but stayed away from Gyarados, my eyes glued to it as its eyes locked on me. “I think I’ll be best to give this one a test drive.” With a grunt, I flung the Poke Ball into the ocean.

The Poke Ball popped out of the water first and back into my hand.

Kingdra appeared from the waters soon after. “DOOOOOOOO!”

“Dude, a Kingdra? That is so totally cool!!” Rog approved.

“Thank you,” I said quietly with a brief nod, keeping my eyes on my Pokemon. “Kingdra, you ready to battle?”

Kingdra turned to me but didn’t say anything.

I stared back intently at her and then looked over to the Gyarados.

The aggressive Pokemon was now eyeing my Kingdra.

My eyes then went to Rog. “You ready?”

“Yeah!” He smiled sneakily, confidently. “Let’s battle!”

“I insist you have the first move in celebration of your new evolution,” I offered.

“Hey, that’s really kind of you, man!” He faced Gyarados. “Okay! Start off with Bite!”

“Kingdra, dodge it now!” I called, pulling out my Pokedex and looking up my Kingdra’s moves.

“DOOO!!!”

Her scream made me look up from my Pokedex. She hadn’t moved! She took the Bite!

Gyarados lifted her high in the air in its jaws and shook her violently. The long snake-like dragon flung her from its mouth and let out a huge roar as Kingdra splashed into the water.

“YYYYYES!! You’re doing great, Gyarados!” Rog was jumping up and down for joy.

“Kingdra! Use... Twister!” I read off the Pokedex.

Kingdra shook her head, staring blankly at Gyarados, not moving. Her eyes suddenly lowered. She seemed distracted by something.

“Kingdra?” I yelled. “Attack! Twister attack!”

Kingdra closed her eyes tightly and didn’t listen to me.

“Looks like your Pokemon is fully evolved but not listening,” Rog stated. “Gyarados, use your Twister!”

Gyarados let out a roar and opened its jaws even wider. Its teeth suddenly grew just a little bit longer and sharper and glistened in the sun. It then flew at Kingdra and attempted to take a huge bite into her again.

“Wait, that’s not Twister, Gyarados!”

“Doooo Doooooooo!” Kingdra used Smokescreen, sending a cloud of smoke from her mouth to blind Gyarados.

Gyarados flew through the smoke and attacked where Kingdra was, but she was gone.

“I didn’t say use Ice Fang, Gyarados!” Rog was getting upset that his Pokemon was still not listening.

Kingdra appeared on the other side of the smoke where Gyarados couldn’t see her.

“Use Yawn!” I ordered.

Kingdra froze up and didn’t move a muscle.

The smoke finally cleared but Gyarados was still looking in the wrong direction.

“Come on, Kingdra! What’s wrong? This is your chance! Twister! Hit it now!”

Kingdra looked away from me and out into the ocean. “Dooo… Doooo. Dooooooo…” Kingdra said in what kind of sounded like a sad voice.

“Kingdra?”

Gyarados turned around and with a loud roar, charged through the water at Kingdra.

Kingdra let out a panicked yell.

Gyarados’s tail lifted up from the water and smacked Kingdra out of it and high into the air. Gyarados’s fangs glistened with ice again and it bite into Kingdra, who screamed helplessly.

“Kingdra!” I was stunned by what was going on. This was completely out of my control! Was Kingdra disobeying me, too?

“Gyarados, you still have to listen to me, you know!” Rog stomped one foot into the sand furiously, fed up. “Drop it and use your Twister attack, damn it!”

Gyarados turned to Rog, still holding Kingdra in its mouth.

Rog’s eyes opened wide. “Uh... Gyarados?” Rog said slowly.

Gyarados bit harder into my Kingdra as she whined weakly, then Gyarados flung Kingdra at Rog!

Rog was hit hard by my Dragon Pokemon and hit the sand.

“Rog!” I ran over to them. “Kingdra, are you okay?” I tried to pull her off of Rog, but she was too heavy to budge.

Rog groaned under my Pokemon’s weight, unable to move.

Kingdra looked up at me weakly, her mournful eyes in tears.

“Gyarados... What’s it doing…?” Rog managed to speak.

I turned to what he was staring at.

Gyarados was in the water, spinning in a wide circle, faster and faster.

The sky began to darken out of nowhere.

“I don’t like the look of this…” I muttered, pulling out my Pokedex.

Dragon Rage. This move is classically known to have been used by Gyarados years ago as a final means of attacking villages, towns, and cities, and bringing utter destruction.

“GET RID OF THAT THING!!!” I bellowed, jumping up and returning Kingdra to her Poke Ball, and then helping Rog up to his feet.

Rog ran out to Gyarados, waving his arms in the air frantically. “STOP THIS!!”

A water twister rose from the sea and spun in front of Gyarados before speeding out right at Rog.

Rog screamed as he was swept up into it.

The tornados hit the sand, going from the blue color of the water to a sand color as it absorbed it from the ground, chasing after me as I ran.

I didn’t get far before I was lifted off my feet and sucked inside. I spun around and around inside of the sandy tornado, closing my eyes and certain I must have thrown up at some point, screaming the entire time.

All I was aware of was that I was breathing. My eyes remained closed and I just continued to inhale and exhale. My head was spinning and my body was shaky and moving didn’t feel like a good idea. The sound of water splashing in the distance grabbed my attention, and my ears focused on that. Kingdra! My eyes shot open as I remembered my Pokemon. And Gyarados! The darkening, evening sky above me tilted slightly, but I ignored that and sat up. The entire beach started tilting around me. I didn’t want to move any further, trying to get rid of the dizzy feeling to make the beach stop swaying, but the sight around me made me turn around to take it all in.

Everything looked like a tornado tore through it. Tree branches and dirt were mixed in with the sand near the ocean. Sand was visible in heaved amounts on the ground in the forest beyond, looking completely out of place.

Rog stood by the ocean, a Poke Ball in his hand, close to his glaring face. He turned to me and his face went into shock. “Gary!” He ran over to me. “You okay?” Rog asked, reaching out to me.

I accepted his hand and stood up, my stomach churning. “Yeah, I think so,” I said shakily as he dusted me off. “Are you?”

“I’m fine, dude,” he shook his head. “That Dragon Rage was pretty intense though, huh?” He laughed weakly.

I forced a lifeless, quick “ha” and nodded.

“I guess we could use some more training,” Rog said, staring at his Poke Ball briefly before returning to me. “But, what happened out there during our match?”

I looked down at my Poke Balls on my belt. “I guess you two aren’t the only ones who could use some more training.” I laughed lightly.

“I guess so.” He wore a smile, but genuine concern was in his voice. “It almost seemed scared.”

“Maybe so.”

“Let’s just call this a draw.”

“Deal.”

We shook hands.

“Well, I think now is as good a time as any to start going after more Badges if I intend to get enough to compete in the Pokemon League in time.” Rog looked away and towards the wooded area. “I think I’ll be on my way to Saffron City.”

“Saffron??” My heart stopped. “Wait a minute-”

“I know, I know,” Rog interrupted. “It’s supposed to be like, a graveyard and the police are supposed to have the entire city on lockdown, but I wanna just take a quick look. The story makes absolutely no sense! I have to see what’s going on down there myself. The news reports sound like complete lies and nonsense. It’s impossible what they’re trying to get me to believe.”

I simply nodded. There wasn’t anything I could think to say to him.

“Have you been there yourself?” he asked.

“No,” I replied quickly. I wanted to get away from him right now. I didn’t want to talk about Saffron City ever again. I was going through enough problems. Plus, I needed to handle something. “I’m going on to Celadon now, so I’ll see ya. Good luck.”

“Oh, I just came from there myself!” Rog opened his jacket and showed me two Badges clipped to the inside. The Rainbow Badge and the Thunder Badge gleamed inside. “What about yours?”

“Oh, yeah...” I didn’t feel like being around this guy anymore. We got his Magikarp to evolve, so I was pretty much done with him. “It’s...” I paused and took a deep, impatient breath. “It’s somewhere in the bottom of my bag. You know how packed these bags can get, ha ha. No point in pulling out everything. But I have the Boulder Badge, the Thunder Badge, the Rainb… I mean I will have the Rainbow Badge soon... The Dimensia Badge and… the Soul Badge.”

“Really?” he said in awe. “You beat Aurora and Ozne?”

A flashback of Aurora and her Kabutops slicing through my Primeape flashed in front of my eyes. “Yeah, and now I’m off to beat the Gym in Celadon.”

“I had trouble with Vincent, the Celadon Gym Leader, but Aurora and Ozne were something else entirely! You should have no trouble at all, man.”

“Thanks for that.” I shook his hand. “Good luck. Hope to see you in the Pokemon League.”

“You, too! Next time we meet, I’ll have this baby obeying me and we’ll be unstoppable!” Rog said assuringly. “He’ll be another power hitter on my team and we’ll win officially against you next time. You, and every other Trainer out there.”

“Same here, Rog. Our training will make me and my team closer and stronger than ever, so once we run into each other at the League, that’s gonna be where it ends for you.”

Rog laughed. “We’ll see, Gary. Bye for now!” He waved and took off in the other direction.

Smiling, I turned and walked along the sand, close to the water. After a while, I looked behind me.

Rog was nowhere in sight.

I came to a stop and let out a sigh. Both hands scooped up my six Poke Balls. “Come on out, everyone!” I threw most of them at the sand.

“Charmeleon!”

“Hoothooooot!”

“Priiiimeape!”

“Freeeee! Freeee!”

“Trio Trio Trio!”

“Kingdra, go!” I tossed her Poke Ball into the water.

“Dooooo!”

I turned to the other five Pokemon I owned and beckoned them to come just a bit closer to the water, closer to Kingdra.

Charmeleon and Dugtrio hesitantly drew a couple of inches closer.

My eyes were on Kingdra, the girl staring from me to the other Pokemon repeatedly. I turned to my other five Pokemon and inhaled, trying to figure out my words. Exhaling as I had an idea of what I wanted to say, I took in a fresh breath. “Everybody, this is the newest member joining us, Kingdra,” I announced.

Everybody turned to Kingdra, who looked back at them silently.

They all happily greeted her, but she didn’t return the feeling. She stared down and greeted them without much enthusiasm.

“Please be kind to Kingdra,” I continued. “She is new and kind and very shy. I’d like you all to pay attention to what I have to say next, please.”

Everyone looked up at me, including Kingdra.

The words were caught in my throat, but they needed to be said. “Beedrill will no longer be with us,” I forced out, and everyone but Kingdra gasped.

Butterfree started crying out and began to fly around sporadically.

“Butterfree, please, listen to me!” I insisted to it, taking a couple of steps back. I didn’t like the giant insect fluttering around like that. It was just like how regular butterflies fly and flutter their wings; without a real pattern, seeming to be everywhere at once, and seeing it in giant form was enough to make me want to rip the goosebumps off my arms.

Loosing tears, Butterfree floated in place, slowly flapping its wings.

“Beedrill is okay. He’s just taking a very long vacation with a friend to another part of the world,” I told them. “He’ll be okay. He’ll be happy. He wants you all to know that he loves you all and wants you to all keep him in thought but not to worry. He hopes, one day, he’ll be back to join our team once again.” My eyes began to tear up as I spoke, my voice getting weaker, lower. “He… loves you all so much. And hopefully, we’ll see him one day soon. Okay? Just remember him until that day.”

Aside from Kingdra, everyone’s face was a mix of shock and sadness, tears glistening collectively in our eyes.

“Freeee…” Butterfree let out lowly.

“However, we were given a new Pokemon to raise.” I tried to bring my voice up and sound more cheerful, though it didn’t work too well. “Kingdra here will be traveling alongside us.” I stopped talking and took a deep breath, trying to figure out how to get this right. “We hope to get Kingdra back to her Trainer, and we hope to get Beedrill back to us. There was a…” I paused. “Something occurred and Kingdra will be with us now and Beedrill will be exploring another country.” My eyes teared up even more. This was impossible. I was trying to make it sound like a better situation than it was without lying, but it wasn’t coming out right.

My eyes went over to Kingdra, who was staring back. Screw it, I thought angrily, my eyes narrowing, and I turned back to the others, blinking out tears. “Kingdra will probably be my permanent Pokemon. And Beedrill will probably never come back,” I said firmly and loudly.

This seemed to hurt my Pokemon even more to hear, but they remained quiet.

I turned to Kingdra. “Your Trainer wasn’t ready to become a Trainer. She wasn’t ready for what it called for from her. She didn’t know what to expect. Things got rough and she fled. But damn it Kingdra, she loved you! She loved you, okay? She wanted you to be safe, and she felt you’d be safer in the situation that occurred if you were with me. She was looking out for your wellbeing. And I don’t ever want you to forget her or think badly of her. She loved you. But she wasn’t ready. Not like I am. I won’t desert you. I won’t leave you. When things come down to life or death, either you’re getting out of it alive with me or we can both die together. I’ll die before I just run away to leave you to someone else. I promise you that, Kingdra. I know you’re confused and hurt right now. I know you couldn’t even battle today because this was all so sudden. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have sent you out like that. I’m taking the time now to try and make this a little less uncomfortable and warm you up to me and your new friends.”

Kingdra’s eyes watered as she listened.

“We’re friends, Kingdra,” I told her, my eyes overflowing with tears. “We don’t leave each other behind. We would never leave someone behind. But Kingdra…” I moved closer to her, stopping right at the water, and I kneeled down to her level. “Don’t hold anything against Drock. Cherish the times you both had together. Forgive her. It wasn’t her fault.”

Kingdra stared at me emotionally, tears slowly running down her face. With a loud cry, she leaped out of the water and into my chest.

I grabbed her wet body in a hug and held tight.

“Dooooo! Doooo!” Kingdra wept in my arms.

Tears flowed faster down my face, my mind focused on her, and thinking of my Beedrill I missed so much, too. “I won’t abandon you, Kingdra. There’s no chance of that. I promise. I’ll do everything in my power to earn your trust. I’ll never leave you.”

It wasn’t long before my other Pokemon drew closer to us.

Charmeleon hugging me and Kingdra from one side.

Primeape doing the same from the other side.

Hoothoot hopping over and resting against Kingdra and I.

Dugtrio digging through and resting on me.

Butterfree landing on my shoulder and placing its large wings around us all.

I noticed this act by Butterfree, but I held my breath and accepted it. Nothing would ruin this moment. “We’ll never leave you, Kingdra.”