“Boom burst! No wait, Tully duck! Look out! Watch out for his… Aerial Ace.” The boy slumped where he stood. “And there’s the Toxic.” Ed winced as his final pokemon went down in a heap of feathers and regret, wisps of smoke coming off the poor avian as the poisonous sludge from Skarmory’s Toxic ate away at what feathers had survived getting the stuffing beaten out of the Swellow from several applications of Steel Wing.

“Shadow! Crunch him! Crunch him! That’s it! Again, harder! He’s on the ropes! Ah! but watch out for… Dragon Claw.” Becca winced, hissing through her teeth. “Ooh, yep. Sorry.” Becca could barely watch as Aggron swiped at the manectric, sending Shadow flying across the now-still battleground, to end up in a crater and covered in dust and branches, motionless.

The two trainers had been calling out moves left and right as Steven had called for an all-out brawl in the clearing between his five and their combined eleven pokemon. The man had then stood back, watching, as the two youngsters went on the attack, only to suffer a sound thrashing. He’d grinned mischievously at fulfilling his promise to ‘beat the snot out of some sprogs’; there was two ways to get permits to go tool around in places like Cerulean cave, and one of them cost poke — not that he had a shortage of that — and the other did not, and was a lot more fun to boot.

Steven sucked air in through his teeth as the dust settled, then clicked his tongue a few times as he regarded what was left of Ed and Becca’s teams. Cradily had Giga-drained Chompy until she was little more than a limp noodle, then she’d Confused Ziggy until he’d zagged himself into one too many trees, just for yucks. Armaldo had taken on Sissy and Lucky simultaneously, taking the pair out with a Rock Blast that had overpowered the mawile’s most determined attempts at both Fairy Wind and Crunch, and X-scissoring his way through the croconaw’s Watergun. Skarmory had smashed and flashed Tully after beating on Guy, sharing the latter takedown with Metagross, who’d headbutted the ghost so hard the gengar had almost reincarnated. Metagross had since Bullet Punched Barb, until she was certain she’d need to get her spines straightened, before air-juggling Lux into Aggron’s Iron Tail. Bart had tried being sneaky, but unfortunately Aggron’s Earthquake had gotten the better of him and it had taken some time to dig him out due to the fracas, by which time the sandslash fainted.

“Well that wasn’t entirely unexpected,” the regional champion said, crossing his arms and tapping one finger on his jacket sleeve. “What did we learn?”

“Not to fight the champion?” Ed offered. Steven snorted derisively.

“That facing legendary level teams ends in sure destruction?” Becca opined, for a similar curt reaction.

“Well yes, but also no. Sly, any words of wisdom?”

The ranger stood up from the rock he’d been perched on, rubbing his backside. “I think I can offer a few,” he said, slowly.

“Yeah? What’s that?” Ed asked sarcastically. “That we suck?”

“Pfft, you do, but that’s not what I was gonna say.”

“Bite me,” said Ed, making a rude gesture as Sly laughed.

“No, no, we all had to start somewhere. Should’ve seen me the first time I tried taming. Not pretty… still, what I was going to say was, Steven’s team worked together to pick their targets. You guys just kind of… brawled. You do that a lot, this time it didn’t work.”

Steven snorted. “Well, that’s one thing,” he said, in a tone that said he was somewhat disappointed with the obvious answer, but not entirely.

“Also,” said Ed, sharing a look with Becca, “there’s something else.”

The pair took stock of Steven’s pokemon as they now rested around the clearing. The scenery was chewed up and their own pokemon were down for the count. Various potions and antidotes were produced and the pair started healing up and seeing to the injuries and aftermath of the battles.

“Go on,” said Steven, tilting his head. He gestured with a hand.

“Well,” said Becca, “you didn’t do much.”

“Yeah,” said Ed. “You just… kind of let your pokemon do their thing. I don’t mean, like, you didn’t do anything, you just… didn’t have to?”

“Yeah,” echoed Becca, nodding slowly and thoughtfully, pouting.

Steven smiled. “Good catch.” He grinned wide, showing his teeth. “A lot of trainers think it’s all about them. I can see you don’t, but you’ve not internalised that yet.”

“But, I didn’t want to… not do anything?” replied Ed. “I want my pokemon to become strong, both of us do.”

“Yeah, if you just… throw your pokemon at opponents, you won’t win anything.”

Steven nodded. “Exactly, but of course it’s not that simple. So what’s the secret?”

“Umm…” Ed scratched his ear.

“You… don’t not do nothing?” Becca offered.

“You train,” said Ed, “but you train by… teaching your pokemon what to do?”

This time Steven’s grin was blinding. “Bingo. You’ll find, with the further you get, how much you circle around. When you’re a beginner, you let your pokemon do their thing because you don’t know what they can do. Then you pick up a few tricks, and you start to tell them what you want them to do because you’re the trainer, after all you’ve got the whole view of the match that they can’t concentrate on, and your orders makes them fight better. But!”

“But?” asked Sly, leaning in.

“But then you start getting in your own way.” Steven stood up straighter. “You forget, these guys are warriors.”

Steven slapped his palm on Aggron’s flanks. Aggron growled companionably at him and lowered his head in a mock attack. His trainer grabbed hold of his horns, tugging playfully and fighting a losing battle with the pokemon, being lifted into the air as they wrestled.

“These guys know how to fight,” the champion said, from several feet off the ground, looking easily over his shoulder. “They learn it as well as you do, if not better. Your job, trainers, is to keep that battle plan in your head. Their job is to learn how to execute it. Teach them to fight battles whilst you fight the war. Don’t teach them to obey your commands, teach them to understand your intent, and then make your intent happen.” The champion accentuated his words with a stiffly pointed finger which he jabbed at the air with as he spoke.

Ed fish-mouthed a few times, taking that advice in, Becca following, the latter looking quite a lot like Monty as she did so.

“Now, whilst you’re thinking about that, how about I take one of your pokemon each, and you each take one of mine, and we mix things up a little?”

I watched, blood singing in my ears, as this Steven person — apparently he was a big deal, at least if his pokemon were anything to go by — coaxed Sissy into fighting his skarmory much as he had coaxed Guy earlier. I would have thought Tully would’ve wanted a rematch, but the swellow was watching the fight with shining eyes, drinking it like a drought survivor at an oasis.

“[I know he’s hard to reach, but that’s because Ed’s playing it safe. Skarmory’s got wings, he’s taking advantage of it, so let him fly around all he likes. When he wants a piece of you, that’s when you strike, alright Sissy?]”

“I’ve got my eye on him, Sir,” said Sissy.

“[Skarmory! A-alright, come in for a Steel Wing!]”

“[Bold move,]” said Steven, “[Sissy! Fairy Wind… downwards!]”

“D-down? Alright, you’re the boss. Here we… wooah!”

I watched as Sissy aimed the pinkish burst of energy down at the ground around her feet. It threw the mawile into the air, and she sailed up and over the surprised skarmory, who gave a squawk of surprise.

“[Bite! Hard! Don’t let go! Into Fairy Wind again, spin and use it! Throw Skarmory away from you, hard as you can!]”

Sissy, acting quickly, chomped her large, backwards-facing jaws onto Skarmory’s wing, before pushing through the effort and firing off another Fairy Wind, partially at and partially just away from the skarmory. Twisting her body, she wrenched her jaws and spat the resurrected flyer into the sky.

“[Fake Tears! You’re hurt, he was so mean to you!]”

Even I felt it as Sissy tumbled to the ground, where she seemed to bounce pathetically, crying out in hideous pain as she did so. Skarmory paused, losing height, losing his stride. As he overshot the arena, Steven clapped his hands.

“[That was well done, Sissy. We’ll end it there on a high note. You’d fake Skarmory out, he’d retaliate, sooner or later, as big a heart as you have, he’ll take you down and I think I’ve cost your owner enough potions for one day, no?]”

Sissy pouted at that, her eyes filling with water, because Steven straightened up from where he’d been bent over, kneeling down to pick up and dust down the mawile.

“[Aaahhh, you got me! Honestly, if I had all day, a week, just to spend with you, we’d both enjoy it, but time waits for but one pokemon.]” Sissy pouted, her Fake Tears this time rather real. Steven smiled, and gently — respectfully, she did have rather large jaws after all — patted her head. “[I think you get the gist of a few new takes on some old moves? You had him on he ropes, didn’t she big guy?]” Steven turned and called to the Skarmory.

“Eh, I could’a taken her!” Skarmory bragged openly to his trainer. He backwinged to kill his speed and landed smoothly, rumbling happily as Steven played with his sharp-toothed maw. “But that was a good showing, little miss. You will be formidable when you come into your own.” Skarmory spoke with pride as he addressed the mawile. “Let me tell you another trick — learn to spin. When you somersault, and you control yourself in the air, then you will know where your jaws are but your opponents likely will not. Then you’ll get ‘em for sure!”

“You… let me bite you?” Sissy asked.

“Not entirely, I could’ve avoided it but not without effort. I’m strong. I say this not to brag, but merely as a statement of fact. I fought to teach, not to win, but your victories were real.”

“We are champions,” said Armaldo, the spike-laden bug and rock creature rearing up in a languid stretch. “But we remember where we started. That is why we play softly with you. No breaking the noobs, not unless they ask for it.”

“I had fun,” said Cradily. “It was nice and relaxing.” It had been, for her. Confuse Ray and Giga Drain had her more relaxed and energized than when she’d started.

“Optimal training patterns have been achieved given the limited dataset,” interjected Metagross.

“He means he had fun too,” rumbled Aggron from across the clearing, the grey and steely monster still taunting his trainer.

“[Hmm, one more time.]” Steven took out an older but still relatively top-of-the-line pokedex, switching it to scanning mode. Blue lights flickered out from the device, beams lancing across the battlefield. One touched the tip of my tail. “[Let’s take a lo—]” The world went grey and still.

“Greetings, Lux. It is good to interface with you again.”

“Huh?” I asked. I couldn’t move, or… no, I could move, but I was just not able to move this fast. Was it a time dilation field? Or…

“Not quite, little one. We are merely conversing in a more comfortable manner for my kind.”

“Your kind?” I asked, aware that my voice wasn’t being transmitted through the air. I wasn’t speaking, not even poke-speech, at least not aloud.

“Yes, you have met us before. And you are safe with us.”

“I have met you before, and I’m safe with you?” I thought a little. “You’re… the voices in the pokeballs, aren’t you? You’re not… like me? Us?”

“We are, and we are not. And you are not. And you are. We are glad you are healthy, though we weep that you are in pain. We will look over you until you are able to help yourself, or until you pass on. We will do what we can.”

“You want to help me? Are helping me? To do what?”

“We wish to help you be who are you are. We wished you to know this. We wish you to know, we are doing our best. Farewell for now, Lux, you are safe here with us until you can come to us.”

The confusing voices — pokemon, they had to be, though different from anything else I’d spoken to so far — withdrew, and light and colour returned to the world, leaving me confused, scared… but a little hopeful.

“I’m safe? Wait, I’m safe and not safe?”

Suddenly it made sense. My heart leapt in my throat. Two places at once. Two states of being. Safe and whole, broken and in pain. They were helping, these voices, where they could.

I had a way back?

“Wait! You have to… you can’t just leave me like this! I have to know! Can I be a human again?”

“—ok what we have. Oh… that’s odd.” Steven peered down at the sleek, black, chrome-edged device he held in his hand as the scanner lights faded away. He shook it gently. “I get some anomalous readings from your eevee. Well, they are often a little unstable. She’s missing some numbers. How odd.”

“You don’t know the half of it,” muttered Becca, eyeing the eevee as she yipped at nothing, prancing around in circles.

“Yeah, Lux is, er, she’s special. She has an electric bite attack, and I’ve seen her spit out… well I think it was water, and-and magma and… I don’t know, she’s… we met her dam, who told us…” Ed broke off for a moment, jaw going slack. His gaze became fixed on a far point before he shook his head. “She’s different, but she’s mine.”

“Hmm, we might be able to help each other. I’ve been… can you keep a secret?”

Ed and Becca looked at each other. Sly perked up, and Steven gestured for the ranger to come closer.

“I collect rocks. I’m after some very special rocks that can allegedly affect pokemon and their trainers. I haven’t found any yet, mostly because I don’t quite know what I’m looking for, but when I find them, I think I will. They’re… supposed to be rare, or maybe we just don’t know what to look for. Anyway, in my time as champion I’ve seen a lot of pokemon that don’t quite fit the mould. The thing is, the more their trainers tried to force that, the less they got out of them.”

“Your secret is that rocks affect pokemon? I know some time ago people thought there were only three eeveelutions and now we’ve discovered more, but that’s hardly news?” Sly looked confused.

Steven grinned. “These rocks aren’t those sorts of rocks, they’re… different.”

“Pokemon and their trainers, huh?” Sly asked, confusion written large on his face as the champion nodded.

“If you hear anything about rocks affecting pokemon — and I don’t mean like eeveelutions and the like — then let me know. You’ve got an eevee, Ed, I’ll make it worth your while. And Becca, there’s a number of pokemon that might suit your style out there. I have a selection of firestones, for example. Let’s trade numbers, hit me up from time to time, alright?”

“Hey! What about me?” griped Sly, only half serious.

“Tell you what, either way this falls, I’ll get in touch with you too.” Steven recalled his five pokemon, one after another. “My sources tell me you enjoy your work as a journalist and photographer. I can promise, I’ll have a story for you one way or the other.” The teal-haired champion grinned wide.

“Sources?”

“I did say I was paying back a favour, didn’t I?”

An odd, rotund black, white and gold pokemon appeared behind Steven in a flash of light, its red eyes taking in the whole scene in a moment. It bent to the champion, bobbing up and down as it hovered in the air.

“Hmm, interesting. Apparently Metagross wants to answer a question.”

“Like, any question? I mean, uh, I don’t know what to ask.” Ed scratched the back of his head.

Steven tilted his head. “No, no, he, it… wants to answer a question. Apparently the answer is ‘yes’. Oh, and more trainers will be in touch in a day or so, so prepare yourselves.”

Steven disappeared in a flash of light and a clap of thunder, taken by the claydol to wherever he was going next, leaving Ed, Sly and Becca looking at each other in confusion.

“Well that happened,” snarked Tully as the dust settled. He preened his feathers, fluffing himself up and picking at a few twigs and such. “Skarmory was amazing though,” he added in a muffled voice, ducking his head under a wing.

“What did Metagross mean with ‘yes’ though? Lux?” Bart turned to look at me. I slowly became aware that I hadn’t moved in quite a while, my thoughts just churning. I shook my head, turning to the sandslash before realising he was even talking to me.

“Huh? Oh, I… the voices from the pokeballs spoke to me,” I replied, eventually. “When that trainer scanned me, us. I-I-I think it was about that. They were… confusing. I think… I think there’s a way for me to…” I broke off. I wanted to say ‘return to normal’, out of reflex, but I found I disagreed with that phrasing. “Become a human. Again. A human again.”

“You don’t sound very sure,” said Ziggy.

“I hope you don’t,” said Lucky, quietly.

“Why would you want to be a human?” Monty asked, looming over the group. “I guess my life would be… easier without them, but still.” He looked towards Becca, who was talking with Ed. I looked up at the gyarados. I didn’t think ‘easier’ was what he meant. Strange ideas bubbled up in my brain, like ‘how would you like it to have everything you are be taken away, to become something else’. I felt an almost painful, instant disconnect with that state of mind. I wasn’t who I used to be. But by that same token, then somewhere else was also someone who wasn’t what they used to be. And they were suffering for it, whilst I was here. I felt a deep, yawning pit open in my stomach.

I was happy, I realised. I was happy here, now. I wanted it to continue. In a way, I didn’t know if I ever had been human, but I would at least acknowledge I remembered being one. But somewhere else, ‘I’ was hurting whilst ‘I’ enjoyed… all of this. It wasn’t right.

“I don’t want to be a human,” I replied, eventually. “I’m an eevee, with a trainer. But somewhere out there, there’s who I used to be, and they need help. And the clock is ticking.”

“Where is this?” asked Shadow. “Where are… you?”

“It’s obvious,” I replied. “With the voices. I need to know what they are, and how to get to them.”

“Well the first part’s easy,” replied Monty, to a plethora of different gazes from those around him, ranging from confused to interested outright astonished. “They’re porygon. They’re very shy creatures, not many around out here after… something happened a while ago, humans died. I heard it from some rangers. They mostly stay in the pokenet now. The second part, though? I don’t really know how to get, you know, in there. Not to stay like they do.”

My gaze fell on Ed’s backpack, onto his Key Items pocket. “I think, believe it or not, we might have the answer to that already. I’m just not ready to take that step, yet. I need to prepare.”

“We need to prepare,” said Lucky, with uncharacteristic candour.

I wagged my tail. I was an eevee. In a way, I’d always been an eevee. And as a pokemon, we had a duty to humans. Somewhere out there, was… well, a human, or what was left of one, and it needed my help. I would do the right thing, for once in my life. I would get stronger, we would gather our forces, and then we would go to rescue… me.

Or what was left of me.

Arceus, I hoped I could get there in time.