Standing in the backyard under the warming morning light, Jared held in his excitement as he pointed to an old tree.

"Show me what you can do pidgey!"

Hopping from Jared's shoulder, Pidgey soared above the treeline.

After a moment, Pidgey narrowed its eyes, and the wind began to whip up.

Jared knew this one, it was gust. Hopefully, he knew more moves than just this...

Three dozen tiny blades of wind erupted from the small bird's wings, and cut into the tree like a butterknife on concrete.

Papercuts appeared all around the trunk. The damage had lots of bark but no bite, the damage was not even a centimeter deep.

Seeing the effect, Jared felt it was a bit lacking. Sure it would probably be strong enough to slowly take him down, but the blades of wind were nothing like the pidgey he had seen yesterday.

Before Pidgey could do anything else, Jared spoke, "Pidgey, let's test something. When I call for it, do the same thing!"

Flapping his wings, Pidgey continued to hover in the air. Waiting.

"Alright Pidgey, Use gust!"

Jared felt something flowing through him. Whatever it was, it didn't hurt, but it seemed to be building up to something.

Suddenly Pidgey released the wind blades, and Jared suddenly fell unconscious. It had felt like millions of little papers flying out of his body, each one giving his body a painful cut.

Upon hearing the dull thudd, the little brown and white bird's eyes grew wide with alarm, and he flew down and inspected his partner's body.

Unsure of what to do, the bird began cawing loudly to wake Jared up.

Being woken up at the crack of dawn by a relentless screeching pidgey, Richard, still half asleep, left the house with Growlithe in the lead.

"What's this racket then? Do you have any idea what time it is you bugger?"

Nearing the source of the disturbance at the back of his house, Richard found Jared and the shrieking bird. A

When the ranger neared, Pidgey would puff itself up and flap its wings threateningly.

"Will you get off him, I need to see if he's okay."

"You damned bird, you already know who I am, will you cut that shit out, or do you not want me to help him?"

.

Jared woke up to a feeling of pins and needles throughout his body. He had felt the same feeling once when his leg had fallen asleep, but it wasn't going away. It was unpleasant, but not that painful.

Looking around, he found that he wasn't in his bed, but rather somewhere else. If he had to guess, it was yet another 'hospital.'

Hearing a sudden caw, Jared turned and found Pidgey perched on the back rim of his bed's backboard.

"What happened to me?"

"piii geey"

"You don't know?"

As Jared shook away the sleep, he then began to remember.

"I see now, I felt a buildup of something in my body, and then, it was like I was being ripped apart. "

Looking around, Jared was full of questions.

"Who brought me here?"

"piiddgg"

"Richard?"

"Pii"

By chance, a nurse walked past the doorless room.

"Hey, miss, where am I?"

"Pewter Regional Pokemon Center."

"Er, how long was I asleep?"

The nurse casually meandered to a sheet of paper fitted into the front of the bed.

"Your chart says you were checked in Yesterday at seven AM."

"What time is it now?"

"Eight AM."

Jared nearly choked upon finding out he was unconscious an entire day. At most, he assumed he would have been out for a few hours!

Scratching the side of his face, Jared unhooked the IV from his arm and stood up.

"Thank you, but I feel fine now, and I need to get back."

"Don't move please, just let me call the doctor..."

.

Due to not finding any injuries on Jared's body after being admitted, and due to the fact that Richard informed the doctor of his fainting episode on the hike a few days ago... this all culminated in the doctor living under the assumption that Jared had been prone to fainting.

After assuring the doctor he would be more careful, he was finally discharged.

Jared asked for directions and was soon on a familiar street, but the old pine tree in the backyard was nowhere to be seen.

"???"

Going in for an inspection, he found the tree had two dozen tiny holes going into the trunk. It looked to be in a sorry state.

That wasn't all, behind the tree, he could see that some parts of the ground also looked like swiss cheese.

Jared and pidgey looked at each other, "Did we do this?"

Raising his wings victoriously, pidgey screeched.

"Pii!"

The young man felt some joy and curiosity, "Is this the result of invoking a move? It really is powerful!"

When Jared returned inside, he found a note. He then proceed to read it out loud for pidgeys convenience... although the small bird didn't seem to really care either way. "Something unexpectant came up. A wild crobat was spotted, and we believe it is the cause of the disappearances in the forest. I don't know how long the hunt will take, but I will likely be back in a week at most, and by then we should have heard something about your parents or relatives. If you wish, check the police station periodically.

"Just between you and me, Gym Leader Brinock Harrison is personally dealing with the issue. There is no need to worry, he and his pokemon are incredibly powerful. I'm just there to scout."

PS: "The pokemon center fees were paid for. I also got you a poke holder. It can be used with other poke holders to transfer money. It connects to the porygon network in town, and everyone has one. It will need to be charged after an hour of use. There's a poke holder charger coming out of the wall in my room. Find the cord, and stick it in the hole. You can use it to purchase goods at a store with it. The code for your poke holder is 19552. You'll need that code to turn it on. There's $200 poke on it. If you get bored of the food we have, you can buy more."

"That was nice of him... but if he's gone for a while week, who am I going to ask questions to?"

At a corner of the table, Jared found the so-called poke holder. It looked like a little Tamagotchi with a metal protrusion on the right side, and a receiver on the left. When he flipped the switch, it turned on, and the screen was just like a calculator. It said $200, and nothing else.

After feeding Pidgey, and having something to eat, he went back to the backyard to inspect the tree again.

"I don't think my situation is normal. If a trainer passes out after 'amplifying' their pokemon, then Richard would have told me about that. This has to be an exceptional situation... Or maybe just naturally weaker than the other humans in this world. We will have to train hard if we want to catch up with the rest of them."

Without really knowing what Jared was talking about, Pidgey just agreed.

"Piii"

"It's good you agree, so how about we run another test?"

Remembering the last 'test', the small bird was tentative.

"pii..."

"Alright, good, when I call for it, use the weakest gust you can manage."

Unsure as to why Pidgey still agreed.

"Use gust!"

Pidgey began channeling a small amount of elemental energy in his wings. Due to how little effort Pidgey was putting in, the elemental attack was channeled five times quicker. Instead of three dozen tiny blades of wind, it was simply four. Two from each wing.

Meanwhile, Jared was bracing for impact. Similar to before, he began feeling a buildup in his body, then suddenly it painfully emptied out.

Gritting his teeth, Jared watched three blades of wind carve into the trunk, while another went haywire and cut into the ground.

With beads of sweat going down his face, Jared sat down weakly.

He felt like he had just run a marathon.

Screeching in the air, Pidgey seemed ecstatic. He barely did anything, yet look at the result! This was the kind of power he was hoping for! Joining a trainer was all worth it! However, he felt concerned upon noticing his trainer seemed to be struggling quite a bit.

Wiping the sweat off his head, Jared commanded, "Again, use your weakest gust!"

Once again the four blades of wind cut into the tree trunk, while Jared kept gasping for breath.

He had tried to focus on the energy coursing through him in an attempt to control it, but it seemed impossible. It was like trying to control the blood in your own veins to flow backward.

Time passed.

Since Pidgey was using the minimum effort possible, the small bird was able to go all day in between breaks.

After practice, Jared ran a few tests on himself too. He found that he was able to move around just fine, and no matter how he moved or stretched, the pain he was experiencing wouldn't increase or decrease, and the majority of the pain only lasted for about a minute, while other lingering effects continued to build up. However, whatever the side effects of this amplification were, it didn't seem to be directly wounding his body.

Jared didn't believe in souls, but now he was beginning to wonder if they existed. If amplifying a pokemon used his soul, then that would conveniently explain a lot.

Lying in bed that night, Jared had never felt so drained. His mind felt as if his mind was still being cut apart by little blades of wind.

He chuckled, "Did I overdo it?"

The sound woke up the tired bird.

"pid Piidddgey?"

"Sorry, go back to sleep."

"pii..."