Ed was back! Ed! He’d come for me! The stupid, wonderful, impetuous, foolish child had wandered up the mountain through thick and thin to find… me. I could hardly believe it. He’d caught me unawares, yes, but he’d not meant anything but good by it. My eevee side was overjoyed.

As a human, I’d been aware of the mantra that it took a human to bring out that something special in a Pokémon, but I hadn't thought much of it. Before all this, Pokémon had just been… tools. Furry — mostly — tools to shout orders at, to use and to put away again. Now, as a Pokémon, and with a trainer as… as open, as kind, as loving as Ed, I could see what I’d been missing all those years. It was humbling.

I tumbled into my ball, chest hurting with the knowledge of the pain I’d caused that child, and I slowed down time as the restorative cycle ran and the warmth of the process washed over me.

Sonorous tones echoed somewhere in the darkness beyond the confines of my ball as waves of heat and energy rolled in. It was like getting into the hottest hot spring, the deepest of baths, and it flooded your entire being. I looked down at my body and I could see the injuries melting away. I was so stupefied by the miracle that was taking place within me, I almost didn’t hear the words.

“Welcome back, Lux.

We are beginning your restorative program.

Quantifying mass-energy requirements.

Optimum physical trajectory computed.

Applying apeiro-quintessant matrix realignment process.

Please relax, you are being healed.”

With the final pulse of the last cycle of the machine, the glowing warmth inside my body almost felt like it was overflowing through every pore. It was such a relief compared to every hellish second before that I almost stumbled as I was summoned out of my ball. I leaped into Ed’s embrace, unafraid for the first time in my life of what the future held for me, because I knew: it was him, my trainer.

“[Welcome back, Lux,]” he whispered, burying his head in my fur so I wouldn’t see or hear him cry again.

“You did good, kid, I won’t do that again, I promise. This is a brand new me.”

“About that,” interjected a voice. I turned my head, Tully was sitting on Worst Child’s shoulder. “We met somebody, up on that mountain. She told us a very interesting story.”

“Oh, er, yeah?” I replied noncommittally, as our trainers carried us through the back of the pokecenter and out into the recovery yard. It was less of a recovery yard, and more an excuse to have ‘physical therapy equipment’ — aka a Pokémon-suitable playground — setup in a relatively private, peaceful miniature park. I was beginning to understand why those places you could temporarily leave your pokemon were called 'daycares'.

I found myself surrounded as all of Ed’s and Becca’s Pokémon were brought out by the humans, even Chompy.

“Yeah,” Tully continued. “A very interesting story. See, we met an espeon up that mountain. Said you’d been to see her.”

“Oh, you had, I could smell you," Sissy added, with a backwards grin. "No offence. It’s kind of what I do. And I could also tell you left pretty quickly. What I want to know is… why?”

“And I,” Chompy asked, fixing me with a rather direct gaze, “have a quessstion.”

“A qu-question?” I stuttered. The seviper was unnerving at the best of times.

“Oh it’sss very sssimple - tell me of the pact.”

“The, er, pact? I, I, I… d-don’t…”

Chompy was quiet for a moment, unblinking eyes focused on me. “Very, very interesssting,” she said, and was silent again. “No further quessstionsss.” I wasn't sure if she was playing up the hissing, but it was working if she intended it to intimidate.

“P-please, Lux, it’s o-okay, w-we won’t hurt you, we’re here for you, but we have to know… what did the espeon mean, when she said you wore the skin of her daughter, but that you’re not her?”

I shrank back, ears flopping down hard against the back of my head. “I-if I tell you, y-you have to p-promise not to… h-hate me, o-or m-make fun of me, o-or… or anything. Promise? You gotta promise, right?” My heart thudded in my chest. This was it.

Bart, and Shadow, both moved to either side of me. “We promise, Lux, we’re on your side about this. Whatever your story is, we’ll stand by you.”

“W-well, I…”

“Murdered a Pokémon in cold blood!” shouted Guy, as the ball of gas shimmered into visibility right in front of me. “He killed me!”

There was dead silence for a few seconds, and then Sissy clapped her paws together. “Way to go! Didn’t think you had it in you.” She sniffed at the gastly for a moment. “Magikarp, right? Awful, wasn’t it?” She looked at me when she said that, and Guy shook with repressed anger.

“For me! And I can’t believe you’re taking her side!” Guy complained, eyes flashing. He zipped forwards, tongue rolling out of his body, before Sissy just turned slightly, and opened her larger set of jaws, showing off her larger set of teeth.

“Oh by all means, keep on coming. You may think you have the type advantage, but are you sure you wanna try it out?”

Guy paused, then mumbled something incoherent, and retreated back to orbit my head.

“This is Guy, and yes, I… I killed and ate him when he was a magikarp. And then, apparently, I brought him back, like this.”

“Oh, Lux, that’s… that’s not normal,” stated Shadow, slightly fearfully. “That’s not normal at all. Ho-oh, hallowed be, can bring back the dead, but n-not a normal Pokémon!”

“It’s not like I brought him back all the way! And I don’t even know if I did, he just… kinda said I did.” I stared around the watching crowd, then blurted out, “Does it help if I say I used to be a human?”

“Oh, that… that actually makes sense.” Shadow nodded to himself thoughtfully, after visibly relaxing. I could almost feel the tension draining out of the room.

“Ah, now I see,” agreed Tully, nodding.

I looked around the circle of Pokémon as they all seemed to relax, murmuring amongst themselves.

“Wait, wait, wait… I tell you I’m a human, and suddenly everything’s alright?”

“Oh, yeah,” said a large zigzagoon I didn’t recognize. “We were all wondering if it was something bad, like a rogue mimikyu — don’t hate on me, I’ve met a few mimikyu and they’re cool guys, but you hear stories, am I right? — or a zoroark or zorua, or maybe Giratina’s evil cousin or a darkrai or something. A human turned into a Pokémon makes a lot more sense.”

“It alssso neatly explainsss why you do not know about the pact,” hissed Chompy.

“What’s the pact?” I asked, furrowing my brow as much as my vulpine features let me. Chompy’s eyes shone, and I could swear I saw a smile on her lips.

“Asss I thought. All in good time, sssnack, all in good time.” The seviper slithered away to go pick on somepoke else. I wasn’t sorry to see her go.

I shook my head. “You’re telling me… what? How often do humans get turned into Pokémon? It’s gotta be-”

“There was that kid from… where was it? Palette town? Turned into a pikachu at least once, more than a few years ago. I fought a nidoran who said she fought that kid’s pikachu and she was telling me all about it,” said Shadow.

“There’s that human Pokémon professor that gets himself turned into a Pokémon every few months or so, keeps tinkering with some machine he’s been working on for the last few years. I actually spoke to him once. My cousin delivers his mail,” added Tully. “Well, my cousin’s… cousin’s… something. That was a bit of an odd migration. Went on a bit of a fermented berry bender in Johto, woke up in Kanto with a leg ring and a headache big enough to withstand a continental crush.”

“ARE YOU GUYS SERIOUS!?” I shouted, spinning around, looking at all the nodding muzzles as various anecdotes were swapped, covering strange potions, odd machines and even entire cities temporarily — or not so temporarily for all the inhabitants — suddenly becoming Pokémon. “Augh, you know what, fine! So yeah, that’s what it was. That espeon is the mother of whichever pokemon’s body I’m now inside. And I’m not her daughter, I’m an ex-human.”

“You look kinda fine to me… give it a few months, a year, you and I could have a bit of a romp, eh?” asked the zigzagoon, trying to flex.

“If that ever happens, I’ll ask her to just eat me,” I swore, flicking my tail at the seviper off in the distance as she terrorized some egg Pokémon.

“Suit yourself, but you’re a beauty, any Pokémon worth his moveset would be honoured to give you an egg.”

I head-butted a nearby berry tree, repeatedly, as Guy sniggered above me. He was no longer listening to the conversation now it wasn’t about him. This was my life now.

“I guess,” I said to the zigzagoon, once the stars had gone away, “that I should say thank you for the, er, compliment. Just you should know… the other reason this is awkward for me? I think I used to be a boy.” I swear his eyes gleamed.

“I-”

There was a blast of lightning as Ziggy was silenced.

“Don’t mind Ziggy,” Shadow said. “He’s new, and doesn’t mean anything by it, but if you’re feeling a little… odd, we’ll all do our best to make you feel comfortable, okay? Being a boy or a girl seems to be a big question for you humans… er, you know what I mean. The Pokémon professors always ask it just before they give us to you. Them.”

“There is just one question left,” whispered Bart, swallowing, “what happened to the daughter?”

“I-I-I d-don’t know,” I said, a cold flush of panic rising.

“Calm down, let’s think this through,” Tully said. “Mama-espeon said she smelled other humans and Team Rocket on that ball that Ed caught you with, right?”

“Uh huh, she did,” replied Bart.

“So what happened?” Tully asked. “When you… became you?”

“Well, I was running through the forest, running away from the-” I flinched at the memory, “-poochyena pack. The same one that tore me up outside Rustboro, I think. A-and I w-was also running through the forest looking for… something, when I guess I ran into… myself. And then Ed beaned me, us, both with that damned weird ball, and… tell me, what was it like when you were captured?”

“Oh, it was a bit scary,” said Bart. “But just a little. It was dark, and close.”

“Like being in a full body hug!” said Ziggy, having recovered enough from the paralyzing blast for coherent speech.

“Yeah, and then this voice told me I was being captured. I was kinda tired at the time as I’d been fighting Shadow. It said I could leave if I wanted to, but I said no each time.” Bart nodded his head.

“Wait, wait,” I asked, “yours said you could leave? What about you?” I asked Ziggy.

“Mine didn’t ask me if I wanted to leave, but it… it said I could?”

“Mine too, it asked me if I was sure,” said Tully.

“That’s interesting. Because mine didn’t. I mean, it hit… it hit both of us, the human me and the eevee me.”

“Pokeballs don’t work on humans though,” interjected Sissy. “Pokeballs are used by humans. On Pokémon. That’s kind of their thing.”

“This ball was different, I guess? It just… worked. Or tried to. I don’t know if it was confused because there was a human, or if it was confused because there was both of us, but it sucked both of us in and it didn’t ask if I wanted to leave, or tell me I could. It just told me I was being captured, once it had finished freaking out about me. I mean Us.” I turned around and around on the spot. “My ball was different,” I trailed off.

“It’s a different colour at least. There’s lots of different types of balls, it must be something special,” added Tully, thoughtfully fluffing up his feathers.

“Yeah, my current ball’s got that black and red colour scheme going on,” I said. “It doesn’t really know how to make my virtual environment though. It makes a bedroom, and puts it in a cave, and there’s this field, and a bath and-”

“Hold up, the eevee has a luxury ball?” grumbled Ziggy. “And she has a pool in there?”

“Yeah, it’s how she got her name. Kid was blown away when he realized what he’d got, and apparently the name kinda stuck.”

“Arceus teeth! If I’d known I could have picked a luxury ball…” Ziggy stomped off to the little lake, where he grumbled and swiped at the water, splashing the magikarp, the lotads and various other aquatic and semi-aquatic creatures. Soon enough there were sounds of relatively good natured fighting as he worked off some steam.

“Well then, first thing we need to do? Find out about your old ball. What it is, where it came from, what was wrong with it, that sort of thing. You said big-you was running through the forest? Maybe you were trying to get it back?” Shadow asked, his tail wagging.

“Team Rocket was up there,” Sissy said, nodding, as we closed in, discussing feverishly. “Maybe they had it, and you were taking it from them?”

“I guess that might be it,” I said. “Everyone knows Team Rocket are always up to no good. I don’t exactly remember much, but I remember I was looking for something. Since I got… pokemonified, my memory’s all full of holes, and I don’t know what I don’t know.”

“Oof, that’s going to be tough, but we’ll help. We’ll teach you how to get along,” said Bart, putting a paw on my shoulder.

“Thanks Bart,” I said, leaning into him, ignoring the indignant ‘oh come on!’ from elsewhere.

“Yeah, so that ball is something special… we need to get in touch with somebody who can tell us more about pokeballs, or… oh. Oooohhhhh, I have an idea.” Shadow’s muzzle widened in a huge grin.

“Ohh no, don’t tell me,” Tully trilled, rolling his eyes.

“Oh yes.” The electrike looked overly happy with himself.

“What? What?” I asked.

“We need to get somebody who can understand Pokémon, so they can tell our trainers what we’ve worked out, or to let them let us work things out for them! After all, Pokemon can go places and do things that a human just plain can’t.”

“What, like… this professor you were talking about who turns himself into a Pokémon every so often with some machine he’s been working on?” I asked, thinking hard.

“That’d work,” said Shadow, “But he’s a long way away and not always a Pokémon besides. We need someone closer. And more accessible. Somebody that most humans won’t miss. Somebody more our size.”

“You mean Meowth?” asked Bart, rolling up instantly into a ball. “O-oh goodness!” His muffled voice sounded more than a little panicked.

“Giratina’s shade, yes I mean Meowth!” howled Shadow triumphantly. He bounced up and down excitedly as he planned our next move. “We’re going to pokenap that Pokémon and get him to tell our trainers everything he knows, and everything we know, and we’re going to work out just what happened to your fluffier half.”

“What, we’re going to kidnap a meowth? How’s that going to help?” I asked, confused.

“Because this meowth is not only with Team Rocket — the troublemakers who are ultimately the cause of your looking like that — but he’s able to talk Human!”

I stared in shock at Shadow, muzzle almost hitting the floor. “Their Meowth actually speaks Human? Why by Palkia’s pendulous nutsack can’t I then!?”

“[Alright Bart! Now Dig!]” ordered Becca, gesturing wildly. Just as I leaped at the armoured mouse Pokémon, he vanished underground.

“I’m not letting you get away this time!” I shouted. There was a kind of tingling sensation behind my eyes as I zeroed in on the hole made by the sandshrew’s powerful claws. I leaped after him, and Dug.

“[Lux! Follow him!]” cried Ed. “[W-wait! Not like… uh, how are you… no that’s awesome! Get him! Tackle!]”

The ground flowed around my body like gritty soup as I stormed after Bart. With a sudden explosion of light, the both of us were out above ground. I Tackled him and we both rolled across the battleground, rocks and mud flying around after us.

“[Oh you think you’ve got me, huh? You’re right where I want you! Bart, bury her and use Earthquake!]”

“Wait! Wait! Wa-”

When my head cleared, I was upside down in a small pit, half covered with a good amount of the surrounding scenery. "Uurgh.." I slumped.

“[Lux is unable to battle! Bart, and Becca, are the winners!]”

“Uurgh, help me up,” I groaned, as Bart leaned down to Dig me out of the trap he’d put me in.

“A-are you okay? Gosh, I hope I didn’t hit you too hard.”

“No, no,” I groaned again, as I clambered out of the hole and shook the dirt from my fur. “That was great. I feel… fantastic!”

“Yeah well, better take it easy for a while, Guy might like to see you keel over, but I wouldn’t,” Ziggy said. I glanced over at the zigzagoon. He’d mellowed out in the last few days, but I’d been unable to dissuade him from making me the object of his affections. At least he really was a gentlemon, if a bit crass and direct.

“Don’t worry, your fruitless quest will continue a while yet,” I replied. His tail wagged. “Oh brother.”

“[Next Pokémon?]”

“[Tully! I choose you!]”

“[Chompy, time to battle!]”

“Oof, this is going to be painful. At least it won’t be me heading back to the pokecenter this time,” I commented.

“Chompy gets enthusiastic, but Tully gives as good as he gets, this’ll be an interesting match to watch. You may even pick up a few things,” said Sissy, as she lounged by the side of the battleground. The mawile leaned in closer to me, "but between you and me, Chompy will take it easy on him."

The Pokémon battleground was a large, roughly oval shaped theatre, with a large rectangular section in the middle marked off with paint. A circle in the middle of that was bisected by a centre line, and then there were two semi-circular areas at each end where our trainers stood. This particular battleground was pock-marked and scarred from more than a few battles this morning already, but it was quick to repair so only the non-superficial damage remained between major bouts. There wasn’t that much of a crowd, but still a good few tens of humans and several more tens of their Pokémon were watching and cheering on, enjoying the sunshine and general good weather from up on the bleachers.

“So if we’re planning on pokenapping Meowth, what’re we doing here?” I asked, licking a paw and using it to smooth out and clean my coat. Explosions echoed around me as parts of the battleground were once more torn up, launched into the air and used as oversized clubs. As my world went dark, I dug myself out from under the dirt pile, sighed, and started licking and smoothing over my coat again.

“Two problems,” replied Bart, watching the match intently — Chompy laying down a Haze and using it to hide in, Tully obliterating it with a Boom Burst — as the seviper and taillow squared off. “One, we don’t know where Meowth is. They’re around somewhere, although they could have ended up a long way from Rustboro with Tully’s attack. And two? If we’re going up against Team Rocket’s Meowth, we’ve got to make sure we have all got our skills honed.”

“[Tully! Get back!]”

“[Chompy! Wrap him and chomp him!]”

Chompy scornfully threw the bird Pokémon to the ground, where Tully tried his best to get up after being wrapped up and bitten.

“[Tully! I believe in you! Throw it off! Show her what you’re made of!]” cheered on Ed.

“I can do this! I can do this! I CAN DO THIS!” Tully heaved himself to his feet, took a deep breath, and threw open his wings, calling out his determination. As he did so, a bright flash of light came from somewhere within his body. It rapidly swelled, filling his entire form, bulging up and outwards as his whole being expanded. Moments later, Tully shook himself off as a swellow. He soared into the sky, calling out triumphantly. “YES!”

“[Awesome! Tully! Finish her off with Aerial Ace!]” Moments later, it was all over. Tully stood triumphantly over the downed seviper, one clawed foot on her snake body as she breathed heavily.

“You did good, kid,” Chompy said, getting herself to her… feet. Foot. Body. “You’ve improved.”

“Thanks Chompy. You okay there?”

“I’m good. I’ve gotta up my game, I sssee.”

“That’s what we’re here for… oof!” Tully was snatched up in a massive hug from Ed as the triumphant trainer congratulated his newly evolved Pokémon, now almost too big to hug.

“[If there are no other Pokémon?]” the referee asked Ed and Becca, who shook their heads. “[Then the match results in a draw, with one win per side! Well done trainers and Pokémon!]”

“[Come on Tully, let’s get you checked out at the pokecenter,]” said Ed, as he perched the oversized bird on his shoulder. “[I want to make sure your evolution went through without a hitch.]”

“[I’m sure it did, he’s a fine looking swellow! Come back Chompy, take a rest, let’s all go get a once-over and then some food.]”

The pokecafe was a lot more forgiving than it could have been. I half expected to eat on the floor again, out of bowls. I was half-right; the food was served in bowls, but they were placed on a large, Pokémon-friendly table that was low to the ground, raised enough to make it clear we were customers, not just… pets. Having said that, there were more than a few chubby Pokémon that definitely weren’t on a fighting team getting fed from fingers, generally babied and wearing everything from onesies that wouldn’t look out of place on human toddlers to dresses. I was, momentarily, slightly jealous. Visions of bows danced somewhere in my brain, which made me feel decidedly... weird.

“So,” I asked, as I scarfed down my bowl of food, “any new ideas pop up?”

“I do. If you were listening to the humans, we’re going shopping!” said Sissy, clapping her paws together. I rolled my eyes.

“And how is that going to help us?” I asked, flicking my tail about dismissively.

“Well, I don’t know how many of us can read that well, but have you looked inside your pokeball before you end up in it?”

“Uh uh,” I replied, shaking my head, spraying food everywhere. I licked my chops and got back to eating.

“You should, you really should. Especially you, darling. Silph makes most of the normal ones, but Devon makes Luxury Balls.” Sissy pointed to Ed’s running shoes. I tilted my head, finally noticing the logo and the name printed on the bottom. I blinked. With a distant horror, I realized that I couldn’t read, but I did recognize the brand at least.

“Devon… Devon Company!" There was a large Devon mall in this town! "Of course! So what’s the plan? Break in tonight?”

“How about we just walk in, today? We’re Pokémon, we can do what we want. Watch.” Sissy theatrically looked at her empty bowl, picked it up, and wandered over to the shopkeeper with it. She held it out, sadly, tragedy oozing from every pore.

“[You’re done? You’re giving it back to me?]” the shopkeeper asked, reaching down for it. Sissy just hunched over it, trembling a little and shaking her head.

“Oh good grief,” I whispered, as the shopkeeper shook her head too, her eyes glistening.

“[Oh, what am I going to do with myself? Here you go, you poor little thing, have a bit more then… just don’t tell anyone!]”

Sissy skipped for joy as she returned to our table with her newly refilled bowl. “See? We just need a suitable excuse to run amok in the store without those two blaming us for it,” she flicked a paw at Ed and Becca, “and we won’t even get in trouble! Snoop around a few floors up or down from the shop front, get as far as we can before getting caught, compare notes. Does that sound good?”

“What, you think Devon made that weird ball?” I asked. "I don't recall seeing anything like their logo on it... hmm." I pondered for a moment, before eating some more.

“Maybe?” Sissy shrugged. “If not, maybe we’ll just… learn more about pokeballs, about how they work. You in?”

I shrugged, then sat down on my haunches and licked my paw, cleaning my muzzle with it. “It’s as good a place to start as any, and I think I know just the Guy to start some trouble for us. We’re just going to have to work out what it’ll take to get him on our side.”

Sissy smiled, with both her sets of jaws. “Oh, I know exactly what he wants. And even better, we won’t have to lift a paw.” She leaned on Becca’s bag, and pulled up one of the zippers, to reveal a few of the pokeballs that had been ‘requisitioned‘ from Team Rocket.

“If that’s your plan,” I answered with a sigh, “then that pain in my tail is coming on my team. Ed needs the firepower if he’s going to reach the top.”

Sissy blinked, sharing a look around the table. “Oh, so little miss ‘wasn’t always a Pokémon’ is aiming high, huh?”

I chuckled. “One way or another, Ed’s going to have an eevee on his team. The kid’s the first person who’s ever done right by me despite… everything I’ve ever done to them. Maybe it’s the eevee in me, but I want that kid to get somewhere with his life, not end up like… like some of the bums you see around.” There were a lot of burnt out wanna-be trainers in the world. I wanted to make sure Ed wouldn't become one of them, even if his life took him somewhere else.

“I feel ya,” said Ziggy suddenly, breaking into the conversation. “No, no, I really do,” he said, stepping back as I glared at the paw he’d tried to place on my back. “Out in the wild, it’s just a struggle for existence. Here, with a trainer, it’s… the human world is amazing. Like this! Food! Just given to you! And I can be clean! I didn’t know that was a thing until Ed gave me a bath. I slept in a bed! And… and he pet me. Between my ears, where I can't reach. And all he wants is that we playfight, and afterwards we get fixed up and fed and cleaned again! This is brilliant! I want this kid to go all the way too. Call me selfish if you want, but if this is what that human can give me, I’ll give him everything to keep getting it.”

“You know,” I said slowly, shaking my head and chuckling, “I’m not sure if that’s the most or least noble thing I’ve ever heard anyone say. But I’ll give you this: you’re a better Pokémon than I…” I paused, catching the next words I was going to say before I said them, and reconsidered. “Better than I expected.”

“I’ll take that,” he said. “I know you don’t get me, but… I want you to, you know?”

“Keep trying,” I replied shortly, then realized what I’d said as the others all sniggered at me. I dunked my head in my food bowl and tried to drown myself in poke-kibble. It didn’t work.

Speaking of drowning, I glanced around for Guy. He wasn’t into hanging around with too many humans present, but he usually didn’t go that far from us, me in particular. Sure enough, I spotted him lurking outside the shop in the bushes and terrorizing various customers — both human and Pokémon — as they entered or exited the cafe. This would be easier than I thought. Feeling slightly guilty as I knew what it would do to Ed, I stood up, stretched, and then padded to the doors of the cafe. The weather was nice, so they were permanently open, with a set of chairs and tables outside for dining. I bounced outside, flicking my tail around.

This is going to be so embarrassing, I thought to myself. As soon as I went outside, I saw Ed stand up, before he was gently pulled down again by Becca. I also noticed, however, that both the trainers were watching me to see what I did. I was going to put on quite the show for them . I went from table to table, sniffing the legs of said tables and chairs, then found the perfect bush — the one Guy was hiding inside as soon as he saw me come out — and I blasted it, and the gastly, with both barrels, as it were. I turned around, lifted my tail and let nature take its course.

“Hey! What… augh! What are you doing?” Guy complained, phasing into view.

“Oh, are you still here?” I asked nonchalantly, peering over my shoulder. “Thought you’d left.”

“I haven’t… why would I? It’s your fault I’m-”

“Yeah, well,” I replied, angrily, “that just sounds like a waste of both our time. You’re just a ball of gas, and I’m a Pokémon with a trainer. I’ve got places to go, Pokémon to beat.”

“You-!”

“I mean, what are you gonna do? I put up with worse gas attacks than you nightly.”

“You think so, huh? You think you’re all that? Well I’m gonna show you who’s just full of hot air, and it ain’t me!”

Guy had been getting angrier and angrier as our exchange progressed, but my final insults had tipped him over the edge. His eyes flashed red and he plummeted towards me. I flinched as he passed, purple lightning crackling around his ball-body, so I didn't notice the huge ball of dark lightning that he threw at me from behind.

Pain lit up my body, and I howled. As I spun to face him, I noticed Ed coming barrelling out from the cafe.

“[A gastly! What’s one of them doing here? Lux! Time to battle! What’ve you… what’ve you got… Tackle!]”

I flicked my ears, shaking my head. I knew this wouldn’t work, but I guess Ed would have to learn the hard way. I bunched up my muscles, and leaped at Guy, passing right through him.

“[Damn it! Normal moves won’t work… Lux! I know! You’ve got to listen to me! You’ve got a power within you, all Pokémon do, but you can use that power! Your teeth are an expression of that power! Put your power into your teeth! Bite him!]”

Ed’s words empowered me. He hadn't seen me use Bite, but he knew it was one I could learn... and so did I. I didn’t really hate Guy, but he sure did piss me off at times. More than that, he was a reminder of my shame, a taunting example of my weakness. And I hated it! I hated it more than anything! Pouring all that hate into my jaws, I screamed, leaped… and bit down. I felt my teeth sink into Guy’s aetheric flesh, coming away with a sense of… coldness. Not letting up, as I landed I spun, sweeping the ground with my tail. I flicked up a healthy amount of grit and sand, flinging it at the ball of gas. Now it was Guy’s turn to flinch.

“[Tully! Now it’s on the ropes! Aerial Ace!]”

Out of nowhere, the swellow dive-bombed his way through Guy’s form, almost bursting the dark blue-black bubble of gas.

“Look at you!” I taunted Guy, as he struggled to reform. “You're just a memory of what you were, fading away. But! All it takes is a trainer to become great. To get yourself a name, even a legend.”

“I… what?” Guy stammered, as he shook himself back together, my words striking a chord deep within him.

“You could be great if you wanted, if you'd let us help,” I whispered, leaning in. “Look at the kid, see his hand? See what he’s holding? It’s just one of two possible futures. One of them has you carrying on like this, forever, until you fade away into nothing. And the other… in the other you get everything you ever wanted. All you’ve got to do… is say yes.”

“[Ed! It’s weak!]” Becca called.

“[Pokeball! Go!]” my kid cried.

There was a flash of red light that enveloped Guy, whose form was sucked into the little red and white ball. It shook three times, then flashed once, and was still.

“[We did it! Awesome job Tully! Lux! You learned a new move!]”

Huh, I considered, I guess I did, at that.