1 Chapter 1: How did I get here?

"What's this little thing, Winston?" somebody lifted the little black-and-orange humanoid into the air. The Pokémon in question gave a feeble protest, before blowing some cold air into the bully's face.

"This creature is incredibly useless! Here, Mudkip, defeat this conical object and bury it in the ground, where it belongs."

"No! Stop, Alouicious!" a twelve-year-old me shouted, lunging for my Pokémon and wrestling it from their grip.

"You can't run from a trainer battle, Winston."

A pair of twins held me back, their grips grabbing one arm each. My Pokémon fell from my grasp. It struggled to its little stubby legs as it faced the robust Mudkip from across the clearing.

"Mudkip, use tackle!"

Snorunt fell to the wayside, its soft body no match for the tough amphibian skin. Its meager furry coat offered little to no protection as it was soaked in water, before plunged into the newly created mud.

The twins let me go.

"Come on, guys. Let's go challenge some real trainers, unlike that… rising bollard over there." Alouicious said. Then, adjusting his expensive jacket that he wore despite the heat, he began walking away.

The Treecko and Torchic of the twins appeared out of their balls. The trio then left, their starters squabbling and their respective owners walking away slowly, occasionally casting glances back at me filled with superiority.

"Stupid rich folk. Buying the best starters from the stock." I grumbled.

Sighing, I brushed my white beanie off, and dug my Pokémon out of the mud.

"Hey, at least you're not hot anymore, right?" I smiled weakly. Snorunt shrank in on itself, as if ashamed. I placed it on the ground, and he wriggled its arms and legs experimentally, before giving a little depressed chirp.

"Come on. Let's get that mud off of you." I sighed, walking back to our house.

Rowdy children aside, Petalburg was a nice city. The weather was nice, and many newbie trainers came in to continue their journey after just receiving their starters from Littleroot. A fair score of people started here as well, though starters were less plentiful at the Petalburg Gym than at the lab.

I lived here, after all. When I was even smaller than twelve, I had watched older trainers come in and claim their ferocious, elemental beasts or their cutesy bugs.

I had chosen the ice type for a pretty stupid reason. The summers here got hot. The convenience of shorts alone wouldn't cut it, and having an ice type around just sounded really cool. Very few people used the typing, except for Glacia, the elite four member that had taken a spot of the four several decades ago, and I had thought that it would be pretty unique. Nobody that I knew used an ice type.

When a Snorunt egg actually came into the mobile lab that was staying for the year, I watched it almost religiously in the incubator. The aging Professor Alder smiled kindly, warned me about the fact that nobody usually took an ice type as a starter, before allowing me to reserve the Pokémon.

Being a child, I bragged about it. I smiled widely and told every kid my age that I had reserved a starter at the lab. But of course, with expectations being high, when my starter was a couple of months old and I had finally reached the age of twelve, we realized that… it was actually pretty pathetic.

I would never say it to the poor Snorunt's face, of course, but even I regretted the choice a bit. Still, I saw the potential. Once he finally learned his first proper ice move, we would be unstoppable!

Or at least, that's what I thought.

Powder Snow was a move that was powerful on paper. Ice types were effective against grass and ground types, and Mudkip, one of the more prevalent starters, gained the secondary typing of ground when it evolved. In order to finally defeat the Mudkips and the Treeckos of the beginner trainer population, we trained almost religiously.

And then… we were beaten soundly. It turns out that being a bit colder and having a bit of frost cling to you was not really a threat to a Pokémon on a hot summer's day. Treeckos simply shrugged off the minor discomfort before dashing in close to Snorunt's stubby legs and kicking his face in. Mudkips, being especially robust amphibians, simply tackled my Pokémon into submission.

Trips to the Pokémon center and seeing the eerily similar Nurse Joys became a daily occurrence. I remained somewhat hopeful and consumed Pokémon battling theory like they were comic books. Snorunt, however, got steadily more and more dejected. His Powder Snows got slushier and slushier, and his fur coat slowly lost its luster.

I had considered going to capture another grass type in the woods, but looking at Snorunt's slowly shuffling figure, I put the pokeball I had bought with most of what remained of my allowance away in my bag.

I knelt down and looked the little guy in the eye. His pinprick blue eyes and his fixed toothy frown met my eyes.

"You're bummed out about losing, aren't you?" I said, placing a hand on the slope of Snorunt's cone-shaped figure. He nodded, expression drooping.

"I am too." I sighed. "I'll be perfectly honest, it's been tough battling. I've lost almost all of my allowance to trainer battles."

Snorunt's expression sank even further.

"But that doesn't matter!" I semi-shouted, raising my voice. Snorunt looked up, surprised.

"We're better than all those idiots!" I exclaimed, putting my fists in the air and looking up at the treetops. "They're just buying their way through every battle stupidly! We've been getting better too! We're getting closer to beating them every day, while they spend their days beating up bug type Pokémon and being meatheads!"

Some skittering came from the trees. "No offense." I said quickly, looking at the cascoons grumbling angrily.

"But if we keep working, we can beat the first gym just by ourselves!" I said, looking back at Snorunt, who looked up at me with barely contained surprise in his blue eyes.

"Yes, I know it's a rock type gym! So what? If Glacia can get to the elite four, we can do it too!" I shouted, holding what I thought was a heroic position.

Snorunt stood back up onto his stubby legs and let out a triumphant powder snow. The grass around his feet froze and withered away in the frosty breeze.

"That's the spirit!" I said. "Now, let's go do some training!"

…

"Snorunt, use Astonish!"

From out of the snow blanket, Snorunt leapt with an agility that nobody would expect from an un-aerodynamic cone. The opposing Mudkip stopped spraying the pile of snow with Water gun, looked up, and got a facefull of menacing blue eyes. Some dark energy laced into the air, filling the sunny clearing with an ominous vibe, before pouring into the Mudkip's eyes. The Mudkip staggered, muscles slackening.

"No, Mudkip! Push through! Use tackle on that unscrupulous rogue!"

"Snorunt, Powder Snow!"

"Snor-unt!" my Pokémon exclaimed, rapidly coughing up a dense clump of snow that covered the Mudkip.

"Good! Now keep freezing him!" I said, grinning. I had the opponent on the ropes! The spectators looked in surprise as the Mudkip's struggle to free itself from the watery ice slowly stalled. The eyes of the amphibian slowly glazed over as the healthy blue of its skin gained a pale shade.

The kid acting as a referee looked at the slowly twitching, unresponsive Mudkip.

"Winston and his Snorunt… win?"

I smiled widely. Snorunt, despite his exhaustion, gave an excited gurgle. Walking up to the shellshocked trainer that had trapped Snorunt in the mud a couple of weeks ago, I held out my hand. The feeling of coins rattling in my hand was the most comforting feeling that I could remember.

…

Looking out at Petalburg Woods and the several mile-long trek ahead, me and Snorunt nodded confidently. My sister slowly cried in the background, but I tried to ignore it.

"Julia's just upset that you're leaving. Take care, okay?" Mom said.

"Don't kill too many trees." Dad said, smirking.

I pointed at my timid ice type. Then I pointed at Dad's Torkoal.

"Alright, Winston. I get your point." Dad chuckled.

"Did you pack your money? And-and your underwear? And socks? And-"

"I'll be fine, mom. Dad packed my bags."

"Your father packed your bags?" my mother gasped. I nodded, tired. Snorunt peeked up, confused.

"Yeah." I said again, as my mom stood there silently. "What's wrong with that?"

My travels were delayed by another two hours, as my mother went over everything that had been packed. And for good reason, too.

My tent was missing its stakes.

…

As Snorunt buried another bug Pokémon underneath the snow until its struggles ceased, I gained another couple extra bucks as the opposing bug catcher ran off to potion his Pokémon.

"We're doing pretty well, aren't we?" I said to Snorunt as I staked our tent. Said Pokémon had already entered the structure to avoid the sun. "So far, things are going pretty smoothly."

"Do you want to go back into your pokeball, by the way? The sun is pretty hot right now."

No sound came from inside the tent. I took that as a no.

I lay down on the slightly moist grass, listening to the birdsong and the sound of a distant battle between two Cacunas. Their trainers yelling Harden was music to my ears, for some reason.

For the first time since the beginning of my Pokémon career, I felt… calm. Cheerful. Joyful, even.

"Is this what feeling… better than people feels like?" I muttered. "It's… nice, not to be average, isn't it Snorunt?"

There was no noise of confirmation from the tent. I opened a flap on the green, cameo tent and looked inside. Snorunt was sprawled on top of my pack.

"You didn't do any of the walking, and you're this tired?" I mused. "We might have to do stamina training."

There was no sound of fear or whining. Snorunt was asleep.

"…I'm serious about the stamina training, by the way." I muttered, closing my eyes. The sun glowing overhead cast a red glow that penetrated even my eyelids. Slightly adjusting myself and putting my head in the shade, I fell asleep.

In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea to nap in the wilderness in the afternoon. By the time I had eaten dinner and got ready to keep moving, it was already dark. The progress for the day was stalled, and I was content to stay there for the night. Inside my sleeping bag, I kept Snorunt as far away from me as possible in the tent. The Pokémon didn't understand the concept of "cold nights", it would seem.

…

After a couple more encounters with bug trainers, the odd bird Pokémon, and a particularly persistent Shroomish that I resisted the urge to capture, I arrived at Rustboro city.

"And I thought Petalburg was large." I muttered, shouldering my messy camping equipment and walking into the paved roads that marked the beginning of the city. Snorunt shook his furry coat to rid himself of the already freezing water.

"Now do you regret jumping in to fight that Magikarp?" I said, glaring at Snorunt. To his credit, Snorunt did act slightly ashamed.

"Don't worry about it, though." I reassured the small creature. "A bit of eagerness to battle is good. Great, even!"

Snorunt looked at the bright-red pokeball symbol and began waddling towards it.

"Wait, wait!" I said, stepping forward and putting a firm hand on top of the cone that made up Snorunt's head. The Pokémon was forced down onto the ground, waving its little limbs to struggle and keep going.

"I know what that guy said about checking out a gym and what we should do every time we enter a city." I said, "But… well… do you think you'll have enough energy to fight?"

Snorunt slowly looked at his ragged state, my muddy clothes, and my messy tent… then shook his whole body in a resounding 'no'.

…

There was no lodging at the pokémon center. Why would there be? It was a clinic. There was no free food as well. Healing being free was a luxury already.

…I may be twelve, but I did have the concept of money ingrained in my head. Losing your allowance to trainer battles did that to you.

Instead, I looked for one of the cheaper hotels. I opened my pokenav and found the blog post I had saved.

"Travel tip for broke trainers." I muttered. "You shall be my salvation."

…

I glumly ate mashed potatoes and cereal as I flipped on the decades old television. Snorunt, meanwhile, was lounging on the couch in an oddly catlike manner, surrounding himself with all of the pillows.

"You sure you don't want any of… whatever this is?" I held out the microwavable mashed potatoes that they served at dinner. Snorunt recoiled from the molten plastic smell. "Yeah, that's what I thought. Pokémon food probably does taste better than this stuff."

Looking at the brown grains that remained on Snorunt's food dish, I decided that I was too lazy to get off the bed to consume what was probably better food.

As the television blared on recaps from the stone gym, I noticed a veritable lack of anything resembling our strategy to defeat foes. Instead of slowing them down, most gym challengers utilized brute force, vast elemental powers, or restraining plants to win the battle against the hefty rock Pokémon.

I shrugged.

"Ready for tomorrow?"

Only snores met my voice.

…

"What? We have to fight gym trainers too?" I said, scratching my head.

"Yeah, kid. Did nobody tell you how the gym circuit worked? If you beat the gym trainer you're assigned to, you get to challenge our leader, who will use a level of Pokémon similar to yours."

"Okay." I said, confidently. It was just a gym trainer! How bad could it be? "So, where do I go?"

Looking at the top of my head, he wordlessly pointed at the door furthest to the left. Inside the room was a teenager sitting on a chair, listening to something on his headphones. Seeing the door open and me step in, he sighed.

"Let's just get this over with." He groaned, throwing his pokeball nonchalantly. "I swear, if I have to fight another water type today…"

I threw my pokeball. "Go, Snorunt!"

Snorunt appeared in a flash of red light, solidifying and wadding to face the Geodude that appeared slightly rugged and beat up.

"Oh. That an… Ice type, kid?" the teenager said, leaning forward and squinting.

"Snorunt!" Snorunt declared proudly, snow fluttering behind its coat.

"You must be fu-freaking stupid." He said, laughing. "Last time somebody came here with a type disadvantaged pokémon, their bird had to be-"

"Ahem."

We both turned to see somebody looking in from the hallway.

"Y-yes ma'am." The teenager shouted. "I'll get on with it, ma'am!"

The footsteps slowly turned and walked away as I looked out the doorway.

"Who was that?" I asked the teen.

"The gym leader." The teenager mumbled. "Damn. After this, I only have one more strike! If you don't say anything about what I just said, kid, I would really appreciate it-"

"What happened to the bird?" I asked, tilting my head curiously.

"Never mind that!" he yelled, snappishly. "I mean… kid… want to battle now? Uh… real trainers don't dawdle around!"

"Alright!" I yelled, excited. "Snorunt, use-"

"Rock throw."

The Geodude sighed, before halfheartedly digging its hands into the rocky terrain and flinging several dull stones at Snorunt.

"D-dodge!" I yelled. I frantically began to analyze the terrain. If there were more sharp rocks like this, the situation wouldn't be looking great. Snorunt walk-jumped to the left, getting hit by one of the rocks and crying out in pain.

"Don't worry, buddy! It's not that big a deal! P-powder snow!" I shouted, pointing forwards. "And head for that big rock over there!"

"Smart." The teenager said, bluster seemingly restored. "But that won't save you. Geodude, we can actually win this one."

The rock perked up and growled.

"Ge-o-dude…"

The rock began to roll. It passed through the snow slowly accumulating around it and began to bound around the arena like a pinball.

Snorunt looked on, slightly afraid.

"Make ice around you! In the shape of a ramp!" I shouted. "Keep your back to the boulder!"

"Too slow." The teenager said, smiling. "Geodude…"

The pinball gave out a high-pitched whine.

"Hit it."

The pinball smashed into the boulder straight beside where Snorunt was standing. The little bit of ice that Snorunt had managed to amass was enough to deflect one charge.

"Climb onto the boulder!" I shouted desperately. "Don't let it get to you!"

"Geodude, shake yourself out of that funk and grab that little thing."

Desperately, Snorunt blew a copious amount of snow at the Geodude. The outstretched arms of the rock kept grasping in the air as Snorunt's stubby hands and legs scrambled on the boulder.

"Use ice to make yourself footholds!"

To his credit, Snorunt was able to freeze himself to the boulder about two feet off the ground. The Geodude, about one and a half feet tall, however, was still able to reach up and grab Snorunt's legs. Snorunt squealed and unleashed another torrent of snow. The rock's grip remained firm on Snorunt's legs.

"Toss him." The teenager said, turning his back and adjusting his hat.

Snorunt was thrown out of the ring. I winced as Snorunt screeched as he was pried off from the boulder, the sharp edges of the ice cutting into his circular hands. Then, with a dull thump, he hit the wall.

And then slid down, and down, and down, and down…

…

I retrieved Snorunt from the Pokémon center. He was lying flat on the tray that they took him out of the healing machine on, looking slightly shell-shocked.

"Never thought we'd be back like this, huh?" I muttered, taking the tray and thanking the Nurse Joy that looked exactly like the one that served us in Petalburg. Honestly, they were so similar it was like they were the same person.

As I took the despondent Snorunt back into his pokeball, I took one last look at the Nurse Joy blankly smiling at me before running out of the Pokecenter.

"I swear to god they're all Dittos or something." I muttered. "They don't even change their socks."

After reaching our hotel again, I opened up the pokeball. An emotionally damaged Snorunt plopped out onto the bed.

I… didn't know what to say. I was twelve, okay? I didn't have some encouraging speech every time my Pokémon was feeling down.

"Let's try again tomorrow."

Snorunt chirped sadly. I dug back into my microwaved mashed potatoes.

…

"Okay, let's not try the gym today." I said… tomorrow. "We need some strategy."

Snorunt began drawing circles in the grass with snow.

"It's not your fault. If anything, it was mine." I said, sighing. "I didn't respond to those situations fast enough. I… I could have made better decisions."

"Snorrunt runt snor runt runt-" Snorunt began to ramble in a language that I didn't tunderstand. My eyes slowly gazed over as the speech carried over about two minutes, and at the end of it, Snorunt looked up at me, his arms on my leg. When he saw my blank stare, he blew snow into my eyes.

"O-ow!"

Snorunt kicked my leg, which resulted in basically no damage besides wrinkled clothing, before standing up as straight as a cone could and looking at me attentively.

"Okay!" I said, smiling now. That was probably a motivational speech. "Let's get to running laps!"

The enthusiasm immediately faded away.

"I'll run with you." I said, begrudgingly. "We'll do the same number of laps, alright?"

"Snor!"

I walked around the clearing while Snorunt struggled to keep up with my halfhearted steps.

"Oh, man." I sighed. "This is going to need a lot of work."

…

"Damn. I'm running out of money." I grumbled, looking at my wallet. My stomach felt slightly ill from all the microwaved mashed potatoes I was eating. Snorunt was fine, since my mom had packed about two months worth of food into those potentially magical expanding backpacks Silph co. was selling, and I was considering joining him in consuming a diet of shredded assorted berries.

"How about we give the new strategy a little test?" I said, smiling confidently. "Let's go find some trainers to battle!"

Away to the plaza we went, where trainers frolicked around with their water types or grass types. Looking at the newly caught Shroomish battle an experienced Treecko or watching a Mudkip compete with a Wingull's water gun.

Wait… Treecko… Mudkip…

They were the rich kids from town! The ones that bought the best league-approved starters!

I had defeated Mudkip in a battle, but Treecko and Torchic? Those Pokémon still moderately terrified me.

"Who wants to battle us?" the slightly obese master of Mudkip said, grinning. Besides him, the twins with Treecko and Torchic finished off their battles, with a Shroomish being punted out of the ring and a Seedot succumbing to the burnt cracks in its outer shell.

I hesitated for a moment. The tree stood at the center of the newbie plaza, utterly triumphant in their victory. Before long, I sighed and turned on my heels. Fire types would be rough to deal with, and despite how confident Snorunt was in his abilities after a month of agility training, I wasn't. The Torchic was deceptively fast, despite its small stature. With a robust fire typing and strong fighting type potential, it would truly be a monster among monsters if we were to battle it.

"Hey, Alouicious, isn't that guy that wimp Winston?"

I stopped and turned.

"Hey… guys…" I smiled uneasily. "I was just going to the… uh…"

"Never mind that! You've got time for a battle… right?" Alouicious waddled up to me and grinned shallowly. His eyes, however, burned with the goal of taking revenge. "Just a one to one duel. Mudkip versus… Snarerunt? Like the old days."

I gulped nervously. The twins came up as well, standing behind their de facto leader. I knew there was no escape, but I still took a step back.

"No, no. Winston. Remember?"

My heart began to race as he said the words that had haunted me two months ago. Alouicious gripped my arm harshly, pushing his face forward until we were almost nose to nose.

"There's no running from a trainer battle."

As I nodded frantically, I wondered what I ever did to piss him off. One look at his muscular, angry Mudkip and I remembered.

Oh, yeah. I had actually beaten him once.

"You're so proud of your ice type, aren't you?" he said. "Well, I got just the move to show you up! Mudkip, Ice beam!"

The Pokémon in question glared at his trainer.

"Do it!"

Out of the Mudkip's mouth, a ball of pale blue energy began to gather.

"Dodge!" I frantically yelled. Snorunt began to run from side to side, attempting to confuse the Mudkip. The Ice beam was fired anyways. From where the beam hit the ground, one gigantic spike of ice rose, surrounded by a lot of smaller ice structures. The Mudkip staggered and acted like a limp doll, but I was much too in shock to do anything about it.

I looked up at the ice structure. And up… and up…

My neck pained me as I finally spotted the top of the ice pillar. Having Ice beam form something like this was probably a sign of bad control, but still…

The sheer power…

I gulped nervously.

"Since when could a Mudkip even learn Ice Beam?" I shouted. "He probably c-can't do it again, right? Snorunt, use… powder… snow…" I hsitated. Would powder snow really affect a Pokémon with such an abundance of ice type energy?

Snorunt followed through anyways, and the pile of snow that he coughed up was enough to wrap the Mudkip in a thick blanket.

"Impressed?" he said, head in the air. "I got my father to buy me all the advanced Technical Machines necessary to bolster my Mudkip's move pool. Your ice is nothing but… useless!"

I looked at the quivering snow pile. Somehow, the Mudkip still wasn't out of the snow. Alouicious spotted my gaze as well, and saw his struggling Mudkip.

"Mudkip, use water pulse! Get that snow off of you!"

A weak water gun sprayed out of the pile of snow, revealing a shivering Mudkip, then, it began slowly crawling out of the pile of snow as Alouicious grinned.

"Your parlor tricks are no match for the majestic might that is my-"

"Powder snow!" I shouted, pointing at the pile. "Make a snowman out of that Mudkip!"

"Snorunt!" Snorunt shouted determinedly. Another blob of snow joined the first.

"Now, use Icy Wind to freeze that snow solid!" I said, doing my best attempt at a dramatic pose. Instead, I just pointed forward halfheartedly as cold sweat ran down my back.

If one of those ridiculous Technical Machine moves actually hit Snorunt, who knows how injured he would be. Our best option would be to just freeze the Mudkip solid. Sadly, Icy Wind was one of Snorunt's newer moves. It took a while to charge up, and a while to actually… reach the target. Basically, he had only used it a couple of times before getting much too tired to continue. The difference in power level between Pokémon starters was very apparent now.

Still, the snow pile immobilized the Mudkip well enough, and the feeble Icy Wind that arrived at the blob ten seconds later was enough to solidify the mass into rather slushy ice.

"No! You dastardly knave!" Alouicous shouted. "My family shall hear about this insult!"

"Dude, your dad just owns like… a bakery chain." One of the twins whispered. "What are you going to do to Winston?"

"Nonsense!" he screamed, "You two don't get it, do you? My family owns the third largest bakery chain south of Mauville! Our financial power is immense!"

"Whatever." One of the twins said. The twin brother set out his Torchic to defrost the Mudkip while the sister twin walked out with a very well groomed Treecko.

The Torchic then walked onto the field as well, after my carefully constructed ice was nothing more than a puddle of water. Revitalized by the heat, the Mudkip was up and raring to again.

"Alouicious, just help us beat this kid up once and for all." The sister said.

"Yeah, Alouicious.

"A… A three on one?" I stuttered, taking a couple of steps back. "That's against the rules!"

Alouicious seemingly recovered from his rage and tossed what looked like a considerable amount of money at the kid acting as a referee.

"Is this act against the rules, your honor?" he asked in a greasy tone

"N-not at all, dude." The boy said, sifting through the bills.

"I-I surrender." I said, forcing out the words. I dug into my pockets and got out half of what I had left of my funds. "Please… just let me go."

"Nonsense!" Alouicious smirked. "You gave such a good showing against my Mudkip. I'm confident that you can take us on all at once. Besides…"

"There's no running from a trainer battle." The three said, like they've rehearsed the damn phrase.

"Will you stop saying that?" I shouted impulsively, stomping on the marble tiles so hard my foot felt numb. "Snorunt, let's beat the crap out of these guys!"

"S-snor?" Snorunt turned to look at me in disbelief. I wasn't looking at Snorunt, however. I was looking at those three. Today was not the day I lost again!

"Use powder snow!"

"Flamethrower." The twin brother said, waving a hand dismissively. The snow was instantly vaporized.

"Treecko, quick attack!"

"Snornut, use Powder snow!"

It was much too late. Treecko had shot across the plaza before Snorunt could charge up his attack. Snorunt desperately dodged to the left, but his speed was no match for that of the reptile's agility. A foot impacted his furry coat on the side, and he fell to the ground, struggling to get up. The Treecko then blurred back to their trainer's side, crossing its arms and looking at us dismissively.

The winds were taken straight out of my sails, and I suddenly realized how much of a disadvantage I was at. From out of my childishness, the rational part of my brain frantically began thinking of a solution.

"Mudkip, finish this!"

"Kip." The bulky Mudkip croaked, slowly crawling forwards. I began to brainstorm about my very limited options against the Mudkip. Powder Snow at this range would just get intercepted by the Torchic, and

"Snorunt." I whispered. "Once you get grabbed, use Icy wind on that Mudkip. It's our only shot at turning this around."

Snorunt grunted from his spot on the floor. I could feel a cool breeze gathering near us, and the audience surrounding the sanctioned match collectively took a step back. The trio, however, didn't notice the gathering of power.

Snorunt stood up, staggering, yet eyes glowing brilliantly white. The Mudkip hesitated, pausing a couple of meters away.

"What are you waiting for, Mudkip?" Alouicious yelled. "Use take down!"

"Mudkip!" said pokémon growled, finally lunging on its trainer's orders. As it grabbed Snorunt by the coat and raised him in the air, preparing to throw it on the ground, I yelled.

"Now, Snorunt!"

There was no sound of effort. Snorunt simply released the stored energy that he had been gathering for the last fifteen seconds. The Icy wind swirled around the two, having no effect on Snorunt but causing crystals to coalesce around the amphibian's limbs and head. Eventually, Snorunt struggled free of the frozen grip of the Mudkip that was frozen in place. Snorunt's legs gave out, and he began to sit on the ground and tremble slowly. Still, we had taken one out.

"Snorunt, can you still battle?" I asked the pokémon. In response, Snorunt stood up once again, though much shakier than before.

"Treecko, get it again!" the sister twin said, looking disappointedly at Alouicious, whose expensive jacket was coated in sweat.

"Snorunt." I shouted. "Use Icy wind!"

Snorunt charged up the same attack, but the quick attack came too soon, again. This time, he was hit by the heavy tail of the Treecko. However, Snorunt's cone-like body surprisingly worked to his advantage, and he skidded on the smooth floor tiles like a hockey puck would slide. While sliding away, Snorunt fired off his Icy wind. Treecko attempted to move backwards to dodge the gust, but the sudden cold addled the movement in one of his legs, resulting in an awkward sideways lunge.

"Now! Powder Snow!"

Snorunt regained his balance and threw out a blob of snow. It was much smaller than the ones he had thrown before, but at least the clump still hit its target. The sight of the strategy working reminded me of the bitter failures of the same strategy against rock type pokémon, but I pushed away the thoughts and turned to face the last pokémon of the trio… the Torchic.

"Snorunt, use-"

"Flamethrower."

Without any hint of strain, the fire bird belched out another stream of flames. Snorunt frantically moved, but he was already exhausted. The embers impacted Snorunt and set him on fire. Snorunt's remaining willpower wilted before the flames, and after he got the flames out by rolling frantically, he collapsed, furry coat singed and unconscious.

"And… Alouicious and the twins are the winners..." The referee declared.

I sighed. The Torchic trilled triumphantly as the twin sister and Alouicious came to retrieve their hypothermic reptile and frozen statue respectively.

Despite everything, what we did was still countered easily. If they rushed me all at once, Snorunt would have been defeated… almost instantly. It was only due to their arrogance that I even made any progress at all.

Looking at the singed clump of fur under my arms, I sighed and put him back in his pokeball.

We were going to have to do a lot of training.

…

"Back again, huh?" the same teenager from last time said. "It feels like almost no time at all has passed since we won our last match against you two, right, Geodude?"

The beat up rock growled sadly, but took one look at Snorunt and snarled viciously. I never thought that a rock could look so menacing.

"Man. It feels like we've done nothing but train and battle trainers for this whole chapter of my life." I groaned, pinching my nose. "Snorunt, we got this. We've learnt new moves and come up with more strategies! Let's finish this badge up!"

Snorunt stood up as tall as he could go (which was surprisingly tall, now that he was actually growing for some reason), and narrowed his blue eyes.

"Ready?" the teenager said, hands still in his pockets.

"Ready. Snorunt, remember the strategy." I said.

"Rollout!"

"Snorunt, stand your ground!"

After slipping on a particularly icy patch of floor in the hotel room that was now practically a dump, I realized the potential to use slippery floors to combat fast-moving objects. Said fast-moving object would be a Geodude this time. Snorunt unleashed Icy Wind on the ground, causing the ground to gain a clear sheen of ice.

"Now, powder snow!" I shouted. "And make it really powdery!"

A puff of snow, very much unlike the clumps of snow I had favored in my battle against trainers, took form and covered my side of the battlefield in a white mist.

"Geodude may not be able to see Snorunt, but Snorunt can't dodge Geodude either."

I smirked.

"Good luck making it through the mist, though. We've got more tricks up our sleeves now! Snorunt, make yourself something to stand on!"

Gritting his teeth, my opponent could only wait as my strategy slowly took effect. The sound of panicked cries from the rock as it struggled to regain control was music to my ears.

The rock eventually barreled out of the mist, its sheer velocity clearing the mist away. Snorunt still sat on a pile of snow, perfectly untouched, as the Geodude slammed into the side of the gym.

"Ha! We're winning now!" I gloated, puffing up my chest. "Now, Snorunt, use another Powder Snow!"

"Geodude, use Rock throw!" the teenager said. "Get back onto the arena!"

The Geodude in question shook a couple more times before clarity returned to its oddly humanoid eyes. Using its slightly scratched arms, it lugged itself back onto the dirt playing field just as Snorunt finished constructing the mist again.

Rocks were pelted into the mist, missing its target.

"Snorunt, use Ice Shard! The Geodude hasn't moved much!"

Snorunt didn't give any acknowledgement that he had heard my command, but the feeling of the air getting even colder was all the confirmation I needed. The Ice shards formed above the mist and cascaded down like Hail, the sharp tip of the shards hitting the Geodude… and… bouncing off harmlessly.

My elated expression fell. As more ice shards formed, I stopped the attack.

"Snorunt, conserve energy! We have to wait for Geodude to wear itself out!"

"Fat chance!" the teenager snorted. "Geodude… throw a big one."

Geodude lugged itself towards a boulder as big as itself, slowly raised it in the air, and tossed it into the mist. The shockwave dissipated the mist, revealing Snorunt just… sitting there.

"You're not the first to try to use smokescreens." He sneered. "I'm a gym trainer. I've seen more battles than the hours that you've trained."

I was at a loss. What do we do now? Our strongest attack was completely neutralized. The cold had no effect on the rock. In fact, barely anything that we could perform did.

"Geodude, rock throw."

Sharp stones were flung, once more, at Snorunt. Even if Snorunt jumped off the snow pile in order to dodge, blowing a couple off course with cold wind, we knew that we couldn't beat them now.

The disadvantage was simply too great. As Snorunt's impressive evasive maneuvers ended, the last one involved filling the whole arena with a blanket of snow and trying to evade the Geodude bounding across the walls and using rollout.

We walked out of the gym, defeated once more.

…

While in the middle of another set of stamina exercises, me and Snorunt collapsed during that late summer afternoon. The sun was setting over the trees, and I sat up to watch the sunset while Snorunt stubbornly worked through a couple more sets of "lift the rock".

"Hey…" I said, looking at the clouds. "Don't you ever think… that we're not exactly cut out for all this gym stuff?"

"Snor?" Snorunt questioned, putting down his rock.

"Yeah. I still don't understand you, buddy. I can guess that you're confused, though." I said, sighing. "We've been winning against all those… water types… those Treeckos, those trainers with birds, but Rock types? We've been stuck on the same level of gym trainer for these two tries, but we still lose to the exact same move."

Snorunt fell silent.

"I'm not going to go against my promise. We'll do this together, and just by us. But…"

I sighed.

"This is way too tough. And if we're not making any progress, and I don't pass this first badge… I-I have to go back to school. Summer's almost over, Snorunt."

"S-snorunt…"

"It's not your fault, buddy." I said, patting the sweaty pokémon on the head. "It's mine."

It really was my fault. It was my dumb mistakes, my stupid pride, my idiotic impulses that dug myself into this pit.

"And then, the next gym's a fighting gym. The fourth gym is a fire gym. We're going to constantly be fighting an uphill battle… I… I don't think I can go on anymore. Why are we even working this hard if we're just going to fail anyways?"

I was slapped lightly in the face by Snorunt's circular hands. I looked at him trying to slap me again, jumping up and down on the grass, and couldn't help but snort.

"We'll give it a couple more shots, yeah?"

Snorunt nodded determinedly.

I knew that I was going to fail. But looking at my pokemon's expression and body language, lifting and setting the rock with an intense fervor… something began to grow in my heart. A twisted weed sprouted in the previously clean soil, festering within the garden of happiness and hope.

It was apathy.

…

"Kid. I don't know why you're doing it like this. Go capture a grass or water type, for god's sake. Being a monotype trainer is hard. I don't know if that's what you're going for, but if it is, Ice typing is not the way to go. At least don't get a pokémon that's only an ice type."

Snorunt seemingly wilted on the spot.

"Don't worry about it." I said, sighing. "I made a promise, and I'm going to keep it. Now, are we going to do this or what?"

"You sound more and more like me every challenge." The teenager smirked. "Go, Geodude."

We were defeated again.

…

Snorunt obsessively trained for over a week, barely even stopping to eat. I looked at the pokémon consumed in self doubt and guilt… and I sighed.

One more attempt.

…

Seven years later

…

…though the economy of the Hoenn Region is primarily based on technology and production of said hardware, it's actually a very fragile state of affairs that are keeping the system afloat.

One may look at Hoenn and see that it has one of the highest GDP's of all the nations, rivaling even Kanto. However, this is not the case.

On the surface, the biggest consumer on the island group that is Hoenn is obviously Pokémon owners, which is what the technology products are usually made to target. This whole demand for Pokémon-related technologies like potions, organic products like berries, and other venues like tournament tickets, the sale of confectionaries and other products, tourism, and pokémon ranching are kept afloat by the bubble of interest in the phenomenon known as Pokémon Tournaments.

The job market is also thriving. With a new league competition in the winds, tourism will rise, and locals will spend and earn money by trading products and services that, again, relate to Pokémon Tournaments.

Thus, our labor market is not the core issue for Hoenn's potential total economic collapse. Rather, the economy of the whole world could potentially collapse if, ironically, Pokémon rights activists get their way and end the way that Pokémon tournaments occur.

Pokémon battling has turned from a cultural phenomenon into a full blown industry. Like medicine targeted to humans, instead of being something done purely to save lives, or for entertainment, even our government has-

"If you keep on writing essays like this…" My teacher said, "Internships aren't going to like what they see in you, Winston."

"It's what I think, though." I said, scratching my head. "Do you think I would honestly write so much just for a random cynical complaint?"

"You're exactly the type of sarcastic asshole to do so." My teacher said, turning her head and sitting on the desk. "Honestly… if you keep this up, I'll be confident to say that you aren't going to get into Mauville College."

I sighed.

"Don't remind me."

"Well, there is a way to get you in even if you post these filthy excuses for essays. That's-"

"I'm not going on a Pokémon journey." I said, already walking out of the door.

"Hey, Winston, wait, if you just get a couple badges, then Colleges might-"

I slammed the door shut behind me, taking a deep breath.

I quickly walked away from the classroom, looking out at the setting sun peeking in from the school windows. Adjusting the tie on my school uniform, I slung my backpack over my shoulders, took a swig of water, and

"Why did I have to read like half of what I wrote out loud?" I complained, looking back at the room that I had just left. "It's so fucking annoying sometimes. Thinking that I need to go on a Pokémon Journey or whatever."

I passed the other afterschool clubs. Some people took care of injured Magikarps with the very products I had described in the essays. Others gardened or did origami. The presence of Pokémon could be felt everywhere.

I looked down on the crumpled papers my freeform essay was on. What I had written had been the unadulterated, unaltered truth. Pokémon were integrated into our society. Integrated in so badly that demand for "normal" goods and advancements in fields like food, energy, and water were deemed completely unnecessary.

The next step was, obviously, training an army of humanoid laborers like Machops or Machokes to take over skilled labor. If they could become martial arts experts in two years or so, then they could definitely learn how to can food or package potions.

The worst part was that pokémon could actually be exploited this way. I had seen how Snorunt had almost worked himself to death just to beat that stupid rock back when I was twelve.

Pushing the doors to the school, I walked out to the courtyard. Various pokémon battles were occurring between the youngsters training up for their own journeys. I ran by the pokémon center, got a bag of corn chips from the shop, and slowly began munching on them.

"Why do we have mashed potatoes for dinner again?" I mumbled, slightly exasperated.

As I was peacefully eating my chips, however, I saw a plume of fire rise into the sky. Shocked, I ran towards the little clearing, expecting a rogue fire pokemon… or a Slugma… or a Magcargo about to vaporize our city….

It was Alouicious and the twins.

"Oh, Winston! What a wonderful reminder as to how far we have progressed! You still don't even have a single badge, do you?"

"Alouicious." I said, gritting my teeth. "How. Have. You. Been."

"Fantastic!" he grinned. His Swampert flexed menacingly in the background. "We've just gotten our sixth badge. The battle was of utmost ease, of course. With my father purchasing for me technical machines such as reflect, those birds had no avenue of attack against my team."

"Great. Great." I said, looking at the disgruntled Swellow that the three had flown in on. "Can. I. Leave. Now."

"No need to be so stiff, Winston. How about a battle, for old time's sake? Has that pathetic little thing evolved yet? Is your trainer's license still gathering dust?"

"Unlike you, I don't brutalize intelligent creatures for sport or taunt random passersby to inflate your precious ego. Now. Will you please let me go home?"

"Heh. You just are not capable of admitting that you're completely unviable, just like your ice type, can you?" Alouicious smirked.

"And you can't change your insults either, huh?" I said, forcing out a witty response.

"Enough, Alouicious." the twins said. "Let's stop bothering with this idiot."

I looked sympathetically at the Swellow. The slightly emaciated pokémon looked back, almost hopeful, before it was immediately recalled into their pokeball.

Watching the three walk back into the woods, I sighed. Poor bird, having to listen to Alouicious talk pompously for more than five minutes must be torture.

Driving out concerns about the difference between the well-treated Swampert and the slightly scrawny Swellow out of my mind, I resumed my walk home. Taking several deep breaths and crushing the bag of chips in my hand, I regained my calm.

"It's just Alouicious." I muttered. "He does this every two years. I should just get used to it."

While distracting myself by thinking about the profit-revenue ratio of running a Swellow transportation team, I arrived home. It was a small place, without that many decorations. The lawn was slightly singed and frosted over, however, breaking the perfectly harmonious generic house scene. It gave a look as to what pokémon resided in that household.

I opened the door, shrugging off my shoes and throwing my backpack on the couch.

"Sn-"

"Big bro! You're back!" my hyperactive little pest of a sister said.

"Like I am every day." I said, smiling despite my mood. "Why is it always such a big deal with you two?"

Snorunt, now grown up to my waist, looked at me not unlike a Growlithe would.

"I tried convincing mom to not make mashed potatoes today! I swear!" she said.

"Don't worry about it, Julia." I said, patting her on the head slowly. "I'll just find my own food."

"And you need to stop being so picky." My father said, walking into the room, a stern expression on his face. "We work hard for you two, but money doesn't come easy."

"I don't dislike anything but mashed potatoes, dad." I said. "I think you two might know this, considering I said this many times."

"Well, potatoes were on sale today." Dad said. "So this is what we're having."

I shrugged. "Okay."

Dad left the room, apparently satisfied. Julia immediately ran up to me and began to recount all of her fifth grade adventures, while I nodded and muttered "uh huh" accordingly. Snorunt looked at the resident aging fire type in the house, hissed, and then retreated back to my room.

"Hey, Torkoal. How's your day."

A thin trail of smoke was huffed out of the creature's nose.

"I'll take it as you're tired of potatoes too." I said, looking knowingly at the reptile's eyes, now looking at me with hope. "How about we do a little… fishing?"

…

It was nighttime, and these temperatures were bound to give me a cold.

Why, you ask? The night wasn't cold, but Torkoal was on one side of me while Snorunt was on the other. The hot and cold difference I was feeling between my right arm and my left arm could not possibly be healthy.

"Snorunt, shock the fish." I said, lying down on the grass near the small village pond. Snorunt waddled up to the lake, put a leg in precariously, and then sent a pulse of ice type energy coursing through the lake. The lower leveled Magickarp instantly fainted.

"Somehow, you're getting stronger." I said, pointing at a Corphish that somehow got dragged into all this mess. "Those are usually a lot stronger than these Magikarp. Your turn now, Torkoal."

The turtle waddled up to the fish that Snorunt dragged out onto the sand. Snorunt then scurried away. Taking a stick, I shoved the fish onto the turtle's back, where it slowly sizzled. Julia was used to such scenes now, considering we had potatoes every other week. Some days, we went into the woods to find some wild birds. Other days, we hunted for berries. We did everything we could to resist the tyranny of the potatoes.

…Our parents knew that we did this, anyways, and only usually prepared potatoes for two. They didn't want to waste the little bits of wages they earned from their jobs as gardeners, so much so that despite all of their professional pride about lawns, they wouldn't buy the necessary products to patch our own lawn.

I sighed. It was almost tax season again.

Looking at my ten year old pokenav, I saw that another business internship had rejected my application.

"Your lack of real world experiences does not go in well with our philosophy as entrepreneurs."

I was plenty more realistic than those idiots chasing an impossible dream. I was plenty more realistic than those fools working their pokémon to death. I sighed, though, looking at Julia directing Snorunt for fun and pretending that they were in a pokémon battle.

I guess it was better to live in a dream than slowly bleed out in reality.

My pokenav beeped, and I opened it again. As if to add fuel to my fire, the newest news article from the post I had subscribed to notified me that Mauville college required a… sports extracurricular as of this year.

I looked at my scrawny arms and legs. I wasn't making it into summer track before senior year, when college applications were due.

The words of my teacher from that afternoon echoed back to me. "Well, there is a way to get you in even if you post these filthy excuses for essays. That's-"

"A pokémon journey, huh?" I muttered. Maybe it was time to put away what distaste I had for the industry. Besides, if I surpassed Alouicious…

I had to go on a journey… for college credit… whether I liked it or not.

"Also, if I win money, it does help out mom and dad…" I muttered. "Julia's going to Middle school next year… And it's almost tax season… Okay, I'm revising my previous statement. I'm going on a journey for college credit, personal grudges and financial benefit."

"...That doesn't really sound better at all, does it?" I sighed.

"A what?" Julia asked from right beside me.

I almost jumped into the lake.

"God, you almost scared me half to death!"