The two trainers had spent most of the morning at the park, followed by a late lunch and some shopping for supplies in the early afternoon, before actually heading out onto the route to Rustboro as the late afternoon set in. Most of the day had gone by already but they weren’t really in any hurry, so were taking a leisurely stroll, enjoying the sights, sounds and smells of nature. It was a pity they weren’t heading South, but with trouble apparently brewing at the docks, the wilderness perversely seemed safer than civilization. They both had Pokémon with them, so figured it shouldn’t be too dangerous, despite how overwhelmingly powerful Pokémon could be, plus they’d been down this way before just a day or two ago.

Becca had picked up Ed at Oldale. They’d been headed towards Petalburg along Route 102 before deciding to go up onto Route 104 to see the sights and get a little bit of training in — maybe capture a Pokémon or two — before heading back down into Petalburg to head around the Southern coast, but the reported troubles in the docks had nixed that idea. So now they were heading up all the way to Rustboro, Becca’s old stomping grounds, before seeing what else they could find, maybe hit Meteor Falls, maybe see what the Northern Coast looked like.

That was if they could get to Rustboro in the first place; the Route was supposed to be kept clear, but it seemed nature had other intentions. It wasn’t enough to have daily reminders of humanity’s place alongside Pokémon — arguably humans not only weren’t the smartest, but definitely weren’t the most powerful species on the planet, let alone the most numerous at only around a couple hundred million or so — but even the plants had to let the humans know they only borrowed the land they lived on, and one day the Green would take it back again.

“Hmm, the undergrowth’s getting thick again. Come on out Bart, time to help Cut our way through.” Becca threw a pokeball in the air. It popped open and ejected its occupant before returning to its trainer’s hand.

“S-sand… sandshrew!” the sandshrew curled up into a ball, motionless.

“I know, honey, but they’re nice people and mon. Even the eevee.”

“Eievui!” Lux stuck a tongue out.

“Okay I take it back, Lux is a monster. But she’s our monster and won’t hurt you.”

Ed chuckled to himself as his travel partner cajoled her sandshrew into working. He was just enjoying the sun as it played through the branches, dappling the trail in spots of light and shadow. Tully was around and about, Sissy was… off doing whatever it was Sissy did when they were travelling and Shadow was snoozing in his ball, as was Chompy. She’d been brought out earlier, but popped back in herself. She’d been training hard the last few days before they’d found Lux, so she was maybe allowed an extra day or two off. Chompy was… Chompy. Turning back to the eevee and sandshrew, Ed saw that Bart and Lux were somehow getting on like a camerupt on fire.

“Sh-shrew sand-san-sand shrew shrew?”

“Vee ee eevee vee vee ee.”

“Shrew shrew.”

The two ‘mon turned to look at Becca, then turned back to talk to each other. The shrew put a paw behind his head and chuckled. “Sh-shrew shrew.”

“Eeeeeevee.” Lux rolled her eyes,slowly. Bart tried hard not to cough into a paw.

Becca screwed up her face. “Augh! If this is about that squirtle bottle, you totally deserved it!” Rebecca watched the two ‘mon chattering away again. Lux looked at least a little bit repentant, so hopefully she was going to continue to behave.

“Come on, get to Cutting, Bart. I don’t think it’ll be too thick and besides, it’s good practice.”

“Sandshrew,” agreed Bart, turning and brandishing his claws.

Soon, the group was moving again, albeit at a slower pace.

“So you told a steelix to piss off? And I bet that went well for you, right?” Bart chuckled, his soft voice easy to listen to. He eased his way under some low-hanging branches as our small group made its way through the forest along the now mostly clear Route 104.

I chuckled ruefully in return. “About as well as can be expected. Weird thing though, as we were fighting, I… I don’t know, but I think I learned a new move or two? Though I’ve been trying and I can’t do it anymore.” I absent-mindedly thwapped a few leaves off a bush with my tail.

“A new move, huh? How many do you actually know?” Bart asked, turning to look at me.

“Umm,” I thought for a moment. “I can be really scary when I Growl! A-and I can do that thing with my tail, um, and I used to roughhouse with my brother, at least? I don't know how many of those are actual moves though.”

“Roughhouse? Is that a move? Your brother, did he get captured too?” Bart looked down at the ground. For a moment, I thought he was going to curl up again. My breath caught in my throat for a minute. My younger brother, the one who— I shook my head.

“Nah, nobody could ever catch him.”

“Pity,” said Bart. Then he shook himself, blushing. “G-goodness! I m-mean, I—”

“Relax,” I said, “I know what you mean.”

Bart nodded. “Humans may be weird but they do know how to bring out the best in people.”

“Yeah, like my mum she-” I paused, feeling my ears droop.

“Your… mum? You mean your, uh, old trainer?” Bart stopped still for a moment, watching as I padded on ahead a few steps.

“S-something like that,” I hedged, not turning my head and meeting the sandshrew’s gaze.

“You’re too young to have had a trainer before Ed, and I thought he caught you wild? I-I-I mean you look young, a-and… g-goodness.” The shrew saw my discomfort, and I could almost palpably feel the second hand embarrassment he was feeling at bringing this up. I smiled brightly, then bapped him with my tail.

“Don’t roll up again, Bart, I don’t want to have to push you around. It’s… let’s keep it between you and me, it’s complicated.”

“B-but I-I don’t know how I’d feel i-if I lost Becca.”

“I know how I’d feel,” I huffed. Worst Child had already been teaching Best Child how to wield the squirtle bottle if I misbehaved. Don’t snatch the treats. Don’t scare the wild Pokémon. Don’t climb up the trainer just to get to berries… such a spoilsport.

“She’s not like that at all, you just-”

“Yeah, I know, I… I kind of do that. To everyone I ever meet.”

“You haven’t done it to me,” Bart comforted, reaching out a paw. He didn’t go quite as far as actually touching me, but as a gesture of trust it meant a lot coming from him. I didn’t deserve him as a friend.

“Yet,” I mumbled, darkly.

“Yet what? What’re you ladies discussing?” Tully swooped down and took up a perch on my back. I rolled my eyes as the oversized feathered pain wriggled down into my fur.

“None of your combee’s wax, Tully.”

“As your older brother, I order you to tell me.”

“As your younger sister, I refuse.” I peered back at the smirk on his beak and then rolled my eyes again and sighed. “Is it too late to take that back?”

“Oh far, far too late, sis.”

“Uuuuugh. Fine. I confer upon you the position of honorary big brother.”

“What about me?” Bart opined, wringing his paws together.

“Little brother,” I said.

“Little brother,” agreed Tully.

“B-but I-I’m a greater level than-”

“Little. Brother.” The taillow and I both said, at the same time. Bart blushed, bowing his head.

“So, dorks, what’ve you been up to whilst I’ve been napping?” The bird Pokémon fluffed his feathers and got more comfy. I considered knocking him off my back, but relented.

“Comparing movesets,” I answered, ignoring the dig.

“She says she p-pulled off a new move, but can’t do it anymore.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah,” I replied, looking over at the sandshrew. “Whilst I was fighting that steelix. And winning, I add, I kinda… shot him with Bullet Seed. I think. That sunflora shot me with it first.” Tully was silent, but I felt him fluff his feathers up. “I think I also finally got a handle on my Bite, and I used Double Team.”

“Wait, wait, stop. First, sis, tell me your move set.”

“She’s good with her Tail Whip, a-and she’s got a fearsome Growl. And she can tackle!”

“No way,” replied Tully after a moment. “We gotta try this. Bart, up and at ‘em, I’ll be your trainer for a moment. Use Dig. Lux, watch what he’s doing and then do the same.”

“Okay! Here we go!” The sandshrew almost literally threw himself at the ground, and in a flurry of dirt and sod, the entire creature disappeared from view almost instantaneously. I dived after him.

“...Ow!” I said, as I unsuccessfully attempted to follow Bart underground. I got half my head stuck in the rapidly collapsing hole and sprained my back as I almost flipped over. Tully grabbed my tail and pulled, and I flew free. I whimpered, straightening my fur. “Did you have to pull that hard?”

“No, no, I did not. But I wanted to.” He rapidly flew higher, giggling, as I snapped at his tail-feathers. “Okay, okay, try again. Bart… attack Lux! Cut now!” Tully’s words all but barked from his beak, a staccato order.

Almost like a switch had been thrown, the usually docile sandshrew turned, brandished his claws and sliced them in my direction. Acting upon instinct, I moved around to face him, time slowing down as I got myself in exactly the right position. I drew back my paw, unsheathed my claws and swiped back.

There was a metallic clang and I swear I saw sparks as our twin Cuts connected.

“Yeah, see, there’s yer problem,” Tully replied, alighting on a nearby tree branch as the two of us stood, panting, eye to eye. We turned to look up at the humans who’d stopped momentarily, but were now shrugging and moving on. “You can only Mimic a move that’s being performed as an attack against you. Probably just some kinda mental block. You’ll get it.”

“My fourth move is Mimic? I have a fourth move and it’s Mimic? Arceus’ teeth!”

“Imagine if you could use Fly,” Bart said, wistfully.

I snorted, the noise turning into full on hysterics. “Yeah, yeah, that’d be perfect. I should just, what, whirl my tail around, right? Imagine, like one of those helicopters. Whuppa-whuppa-whuppa… bwaaahahaa! Imagine a fox flying like that!”

“I bet it’d work if you were a vulpix. Twin tails has gotta get you a lot further, four or six’d be even better!” giggled Bart.

“Think of the tricks you could pull off with all nine tails! You could do barrel rolls for days!” I agreed.

Bart and I tussled as we made our way deeper into the forest, laughing and playing. It was one of the nicest days I remembered having, over either of my lives, but soon enough it started to grow darker and, tired and a little hungry, our trainers made camp.

We’d been travelling for less than a quarter of the day — the morning and early afternoon spent in Petalburg — but we weren’t really in a hurry, so making camp was a good way to decompress.

After lots of huffing and puffing, our owners had their pop-up tents popped up, the fire burning, the curry currying and our campsite was more or less ready. Whilst it was clear where we Pokémon were on the hierarchy — our bowls were on the floor whilst our owners’ were set on a little table — I can’t say that sitting on the seats they had would’ve been very comfortable, so I wasn’t going to complain too much. The less said about the jumping on the table and the squirtle bottle incident the better. I was halfway through my second bowl of curry when Bart asked the fateful question.

“Hey, you were caught right around here! This is the same campsite you ran through, I think!”

“So?”

“Uh, aren’t you wondering what your Mama’s thinking about you? Won’t she be worried?”

“I-I-I...” I hadn’t thought about that. After all, me and… my ears drooped. Mama would probably be going spare!

“I… I think I gotta go see her,” I said, backing away from the bowl of food.

“No, no, you should wait until morning,” Bart said. “I-it’s not safe to travel a-at night!”

“But… but what if they don’t want to… I have to see her! I have to! Tell the others I’ll be back!”

I was running before I knew it. I heard Ed, Becca and even the Pokémon behind me call out after me to stop, I even heard the chairs hit the ground as he and Worst Child both leaped after my retreating form, but Bart’s words had lit a fire under my tail. I had to see Mama. I couldn’t leave her without at least trying to let her know what was going on.

At times I swear I was using only my ears and nose to navigate, as for some reason my eyes were just watering, probably from the speed. The sun had long since set and the moon was high before I even slowed. As an eevee on a mission, I somehow managed to avoid most of the wild Pokémon that might have caused me trouble. There and abouts I could smell some blood where the poochyena pack, and their totem mightyena, had tussled with at least one powerful Pokémon and had been driven off, most likely why I stayed unmolested. Mama had stepped up, just a little bit too late to stop her kit from being captured.

I don’t know how long I ran — time doesn’t mean much to a Pokémon, let alone a kit — but it was a good time later when I found Mama’s cave. From the way the area smelled, the way the earth under my paws felt, the way Mama’s presence was spread around the area, I could tell a long way off when I was getting closer, so that when I finally stood at the entrance to an otherwise unassuming cave dug into the side of the mountain, a yawning portal of blackness that was a good five feet tall but only a few across, it may as well have been lit up with search lights and fireworks.

I stepped in, twin images flowing through my mind causing me to stumble. What is it you want this time? Mum almost spits. Why can’t you just be like your younger brother, he— I shook my head.

“M-Mama?” I called, plaintively. I always came back. I always tried. I always disappointed.

There was a short blast of wind and warm, fetid air from deeper within the cave as something moved. I tasted sweat and salt, and some amount of blood. Very little of it was Mama’s. Mama wasn’t hurt, of course she couldn’t be hurt, she was the toughest, most amazing hard-ass in the world who— I stepped forwards once again, lowering my head, ears and tail as I slinked into the dark enclosure.

“Who are you?” came a voice. It didn’t enter through my ears, but some other method, resonating inside of me. Immediately I felt my treacherous ears and tail flick up in hope, and then down in fear.

“M-mama it’s m-me,” I said, voice hoarse. I’d been running a long way to get back to Mama and—

“No, no… who are you, little one?” The voice was curious, tinged with a smattering of… confusion, pique.

“It’s… it’s me, Mama,” I tried again. I could hear the quaver in my voice. I trembled as I stood on the threshold, unable to take any more steps forwards.

“Lies!” There was a sudden burst of movement and anger, and before me was a larger, lavender, eevee-like form. Her teeth were bared, her eyes flashed, her fur stood on end. “You are not my daughter!” The espeon before me seemed ten times her own size, full of vim and vigor, her aura flaring with pain and anger.

“Please!” I whispered. “Please!” Hot tears rolled down my cheek. “Just once I’d like—”

“What you want is of no importance to me! Imposter! Fake! Vile charlatan who wears the skin of my Most Beloved! What evil are you that stands before me, and throws its lies in my teeth!?”

“I-I-I j-just—”

“You come here to taunt me! To flaunt your ability to hurt me at my most vulnerable! You are not my daughter! How dare you? HOW DARE YOU!”

I fled, what else could I do? It was what I did. It was what I always did, move from disaster to disaster, ruining my life one bad decision at a time. This rejection hurt even more than most… but why would I have been welcomed with open arms? I wasn’t her daughter. I wasn’t the son she wanted. Why would either of them want me? I ran, and I ran, and I ran. And eventually, the ground ran out under me and I fell. I tumbled down a hillside, bouncing from bush to bush, impacting trees and branches as I dropped helter-skelter down what swiftly turned into scree. I’m not entirely sure when I came to rest, but for a long time I didn’t move, not even after I could.

The night grew colder and eventually my tears subsided. I had no more to shed. Instead I just felt… empty. Dragging myself over to a nearby lake, I tested my paws enough to stand and finally drink, at which point I started crying again.

“WHY?” I shouted. Cliche, perhaps, but sometimes there is only the obvious to do. I half expected jeering answers, but all that happened were my plaintive cries echoed throughout the small canyon I found myself in. I slumped, pain in my ribs from shouting myself hoarse on top of probably bruising one or two from the fall. Eventually I slept.

Night wheeled on and I awoke disoriented, hungry and thirsty. The first and last I could deal with, but the hunger was going to be…

Splash!

The roaring of the waterfall that had, at some time, carved out this niche faded as I heard an interesting noise.

Splash!

I perked an ear up, and limped closer to the waterfall to see a magikarp leaping up, again and again, as it attempted to swim up the side of the cliff, only to fall down once more. My stomach growled, and took control. A crouch and a leap later, and I was on the other side of the waterfall basin with a large, flopping creature in my muzzle. Almost twice as big as I was, it didn’t seem able to do much of anything about my capturing it. Before I knew what I was doing, I was fighting and clawing at it… no, I was playing with it. It kicked its tail once or twice and reflexively I bit down, and it stopped moving, the flapping becoming nothing more than the occasional twitch.

I was licking my paws clean, whimpering as my left foreleg didn’t quite bend properly, before I realized what I’d done, the magikarp before me little more than a greasy stain on the rocks. I retched slightly as my conscious brain worked out what had happened, but I just couldn’t make it come back up, it was far too delicious. It had been nothing but skin, bones and scales to start with, almost no meat at all, but even the slight nourishment I’d gotten from the most useless of Pokémon had been like the nectar of ambrosia to my starving senses.

“What have I done?” I wailed, screwing up my muzzle in shame and howling.

“I’ll tell you what you did, you murdered me!” came a voice. I cast my gaze about to see who the speaker was, but spied nobody.

“Oh, great, I’m going mad, hearing voices. As if I didn’t have enough problems to deal with.”

This voice, like that of Mama, seemed to echo like hollow stones in my head. It certainly didn’t enter in through my ears, and it left a cold wake as it passed. I looked down at the remains of my meal and instantly felt burning shame again. “I didn’t mean to do it,” I whispered, pitifully trying to put the pieces of the fish Pokémon back together.

“You did too! You ate me all up, crunched and munched, leaving barely even bones!”

I spun, turning around and around but spying nothing. “I… I didn’t know what I was doing,” I said, hopefully to myself.

“You knew exactly what was going on. You thought I was delicious! The cool blood, the sticky bones, even the scales!”

I wiped a paw across my muzzle. I was drooling at the remembered taste. “I knowwwww!” I wailed, collapsing, putting my paws over my eyes. “I ate a Pokémon! I’m a monster!”

“And monsters deserve to be cursed!” Peeking through my paws, I finally saw a dark ball of something hovering above the magikarp’s remains, collecting itself and growing from second to second. “You deserve a curse, Pokémon-killer!”

“Oh I do, I do! I’m an awful person! The worst.”

“At least we agree on something.”

My stomach turning knots, I scrunched myself up under a bush. “I can’t… I just… I wish…” After a few moments of feeling extremely sorry for myself, I felt a cold, wet and sticky pressure enter my ears. The hallucination had Licked me! I screeched and leaped up onto all fours.

“You don’t deserve death! Death’s too good for you, you… you… you evolution-wrecker! I was one jump away from fulfilling my destiny! I was going to become a dragon! I was going to pass through the stars’ gate and enter the heavens!”

I tilted my head, partly to get the slobber out of my ears but mostly just curious, as I looked at the small, floating ball of darkness. “You were… going to evolve?”

“I was going to enter heaven. Up there!” The ball of darkness, vaguely purple with a hint of eyes and teeth, floated halfway up the waterfall then back down again.

“You could… you could still go towards the light, you know,” I suggested, hopefully. I didn’t see any light, but then I didn’t think I was dead, despite wishing I was.

“There’s no point now, you murderer. You ate me. Now I’m dead, my potential unfulfilled. All I have left is to make your life naught but pain!”

“Yeah? Well get in line, I’m doing a great job of doing that myself.”

“Your suffering is garnish, your tears are pudding. Your wailing is, uh, side-salad.”

“Oh yeah? What are you actually eating then?”

“Your misery!”

I snorted. “I should have guessed. You’ll get fat at this rate.” I paused, looking from the ball that was floating nearer and nearer to the… remains. “Should I… should I bury you? I’m not sure I can with a busted paw.” I held the paw up. I could stand on it, but it hurt to do too much with it. I hoped it would get better.

“Why? Some other Pokémon would just have to dig me up to eat what you’ve wasted, you… you wasteful murderer, you!”

“Good point.” I stood up and stretched, yelping as my ribs caught. I didn’t like how laboured my breathing sounded, but what choice did I have? I was tired, dirty, I ached all over, I’d badly sprained at least one of my paws, my tail had a kink in it and I had no idea where I was. I was probably going to die forgotten and alone. And I deserved it. Hello, rock bottom, should I start to dig? “There’s no heaven up there, you know. I came from there. It’s just the top of the waterfall.”

“For you, perhaps,” the ghostly voice in my head retorted. “For me, it was heaven. Fated to climb the mountain, should I succeed in my task, I would be welcomed to the halls of the ascended.”

“You mean if you’d gotten powerful enough, you would have evolved into, uh… a gyarados, I think.”

“And now I’m naught but fumes of the dead!”

“Are you-” I reached out a paw and tried to poke the ball. It zipped out the way of my probing foreleg. “Are you really here? To haunt me? Why?”

“You ate me. And you ask why!?”

“What, am I supposed to off myself because of you? You already said death’s too good for me, and I agree. I’d throw myself into the water but I know how to swim. Maybe I can just… jump from the top of the waterfall,” I mused.

“You do that! I hope you hit the rocks!”

“It’s a lot of work, I could just… wait.”

I sat for a while. That got boring, so I started moving. The valley at the bottom of the waterfall was long and deep, but it did eventually peter out. The night sky grew brighter as I walked, until dawn finally broke. The sun rose in a clear blue sky, bringing back blessed warmth, as I finally managed to find a faint path that was headed roughly in the direction I thought I wanted. As the day wore on into the afternoon — with stops only for necessities and berries — and a city came into view, I realized how wrong I had been. Ordinarily the sight of Rustboro would have been welcome, but this time? I was at least a day off of course, if not more. And my injuries were getting worse.

“And now you’ve abandoned your trainer. You’re literally the worst.”

...Okay, so I wasn’t quite alone. Head-butting a tree in annoyance, I made my decision. With what felt like a fever rising, I had no choice but to seek medical aid.

“Hey you ghastly ball of gas, we’re heading to Rustboro. I need to heal up, before I keel over or some ‘mon decides they’re going to eat me-”

“Oh wouldn’t that be terrible? Being eaten is probably about the worst thing that can happen to a Pokémon,” the gastly said sarcastically.

“Yeah, yeah. Also, can you stop the ‘talking right into my head’ thing? Just… just talk normally? I’ve got enough of a headache, and that makes it worse.”

“Fine,” the gastly complained. “I’ll talk normally. It was, uh, doing my throat in anyway.”

“You have a throat? And not using it... wait, do you even have lungs?”

“I used to,” gastly fixed my gaze with a mean look.

“You were a fish.”

“Gills. My point stands.”

“Sorry, again. Still, Our destination really is Rustboro. We’ll come back for the kids once I’ve visited a Pokémon center. If I make it that far.” I limped along out of the thicket back onto Route 104.