Seargent Sato repeated Larry's answer for the record, before pausing for his own answer, “Alright, thank you. To my first question then.”

  “Are you in any way involved in the incident at Mt. Silver?”

  Larry was planning to play dumb and act his age. He could trust Valerie with a secret or two, but a Hypno and the police? ‘I’d rather keep my secrets from humans.’

  “Yes, my mom was nearby when the bird woke up,” Larry wasn’t a good actor but he tried his best to keep a childish tone of voice, “She fought it while I ran away.”

  Hypno relayed his words to Sato, who quirked an eyebrow as he repeated them for the recording, “That sounds like quite the event, could you elaborate on what exactly happened?”

  Larry didn’t specify why they were down on the first layer, but he started with how they found a weird cave and decided to investigate, “We found a lot of Magmar who were all huddled in a cave, worshipping the bird while it slept.” He made some big motions with his arms to accentuate the childishness, “My mom wanted to fight it, but I told her off.”

  The officer repeated his words once again, but before any more questions could be posed Larry continued, “We slept nearby, and after we woke up and were planning to leave, the bird woke up! Everyone fled, and my mother forced me to flee.”

  His audience looked terrified by Larry's story, clearly amazed that he’d even survived the encounter.

  “Mom destroyed the ground during the fighting, so as I was fleeing, I was sucked into a channel of water while digging. I couldn’t breathe and passed out, later I woke up in what the Chansey who was helping me called a Pokecenter.”

  After the story was relayed by the Seargent, Valerie spoke up, “And I found you unconscious in a river…” She covered her mouth with a hand in shock, “Oh my gosh! Larvitar! I knew something had happened, but I didn’t know it was that crazy!”

  Larry nodded as the sergeant repeated his words, “You saved my life, Valerie! Thank you for that.”

  Sato also nodded heavily, “During the event, which we can now in full confidence say was caused by your mother and the legendary bird Moltres. An earthquake, rockslides, fissures, and entirely new channels of water around Mt. Silver came into existence, most dried up by now but some still exist.”

  “We had theories on what had happened in the bowels of Mt. Silver and since there aren’t many Pokemon other than a Tyranitar which could hold a candle to a Moltres, it was also our going theory. It’s good to have it finally confirmed.” He shook his head ruefully, “Tyranitar are truly terrifying beasts.”

  Larry deflated slightly at the sergeant's choice of words, “She’s my mom, you know…”

  “Larvitar…” Valerie could hardly think straight, “I-I don't know what to say…It’s crazy how much you went through…”

  “I don't know what happened to my mom in the end,” Larry began, facing Valerie, his words still being relayed by Sato, “But I know I need to find out. Before I left her, I made a promise that we would meet up again after the fight.”

  “Sure thing,” She nodded along with a smile on her face, still stuck in her own machinations, “If you want to go back to your mom, then I’ll go back there and release you. I caught you after all. It's my responsibility.”

  He shook his head, “Yes, but I think you don’t get it.” Larry pointed out, still using the Sergeant's voice to get his opinion across, “I don’t want to be released, I just need to know if my mom is safe. I want to keep being your Pokemon, Valerie!”

  “...Wha-” Valerie looked dumbfounded by the revelation, but before she could respond.

  “I see, so you wanted to come back for your mother.” Sergeant Sato interrupted, trying to lead back into the interview. The man didn’t seem to like to play interpreter if it wasn’t for the job, “I think the entirety of what has happened at Mt. Silver has been revealed with your interview. Thank you very much for the information. Is there anything else you think noteworthy to bring up?”

  He shook his head, “No, that should be everything.”

  Hypno and Sato closed their eyes as they seemingly conversed with one another, around ten or so seconds later they finally returned.

  Sato nodded and moused around on his laptop's touchpad, “Alright, then that should be everything we need from you.” The Hypno next to the man released the Telepathy between them and the Sergeant grunted in pain, before muttering under his breath, “Ugh! You still gotta get better at that man…”

  “Wait, why was there a Moltres in Mt. Silver anyway?” Valerie asked suddenly.

  Sato turned to her, still cradling his head, “The quick answer is, we don't know. The long answer is: Classified information. Miss Riston, you did sign an NDA before you were interviewed, did you not?”

  Valerie nodded as she looked between the officer and her Pokemon, still unsure if she should butt in and try and get some more minutes of Telepathy out of the man. She looked like she desperately wanted to continue talking with her Pokemon, but decided to hold her tongue with a pout, “I did. Are we done here then?”

  Stolen story; please report.

  “Yes, we’ll hand you back over to your ranger friend so you can go inside Mt. Silver and help them with their end of the investigation. The police found out what went down at Mt. Silver and investigated the people involved, our part of the work is done. From what I’ve heard, the rangers on the other hand haven’t made much progress inside the caves due to the destruction, it looks like the cave was about to collapse at a lot of points when they tried their luck.” He explained as he packed his stuff, and stuffed various papers into a variety of folders, “You’ll have to watch out and keep some Rock and Ground-Types around to reinforce the cave if you want to get anywhere inside.”

  “Alright, thanks for the tip…” She spoke disappointedly as she rose from her seat, “Let’s go, Larvitar…”

  …

  Outside, Valerie sat on the stairs of the tower with Larry plopped between her legs a stair down. She watched as the police packed up and the rangers prepared for their second trek into the caves of Mt. Silver, with Valerie included this time. Nobody was talking to them right now, they were simply watching as rangers milled about.

  In the distance, the afternoon sun was still up in the sky, but quickly falling towards the horizon. They'd woken up late and had had a busy schedule the whole day. It was quite amazing to Larry that Valerie had the energy to do all this just a day after almost passing away in a natural disaster, the girl was just a teenager!

  Valerie had pulled her arms around Larry's body, hugging herself to him like he was a plush toy as they sat. Though Larry was unsure how comfortable the position was, he didn’t think his rocky skin was the most huggable. There was also the difference between his mental and physical age to keep in mind, so Larry couldn’t get himself to relax in the arms of a teenager, normally he was supposed to be the one doing the comforting.

  “Was what you said back there the truth?” She asked without looking at him as she ran a hand over his head.

  “Yes.” Larry nodded as he spoke. He knew she couldn’t understand him, but it felt right to say the words out loud. After all, maybe she could glean something from them.

  “You wanna be my Pokemon? You’re sure?” Valerie didn't look at him, instead looking somewhere in the distance, “I didn't have any big plans of becoming a trainer until recently, you know…”

  “I didn't even know I wanted to become a trainer until like a week ago. Are you sure you want to be trained by someone like that? You’re so young as well, are you sure?”

  Larry wanted to assure his trainer, tell her that as long as she stuck with it, dedicated herself to improving and becoming a good trainer, everything would be alright. He wanted to explain his own worries, about having wasted his first life, about feeling an incessant need to DO something with it, even during his newborn young age.

  Suddenly it felt like a curse to be stuck only being able to say the Syllables “Lar”, ”Vi” and “Tar”, but it was a curse he’d be forced to bear. Unless he'd somehow manage to find himself a free vocal coaching studio as Meowth had in the anime or he'd suddenly manage to grow opposable thumbs to write with.

  So the only thing he decided to do was nod, “Yes, I want you to be my trainer.”

  “Larvitar…” His trainer paused, choosing her words carefully as she held him gingerly, “Then why didn't you listen to me during the fight? Is it because you’re so young?”

  “What?” Larry was surprised by the sudden mention of the battle, he turned his head to the side to look at Valerie.

  “You know, Pokemon are supposed to listen to their trainers during a fight.” She looked hurt, “Were my commands that bad or do you just not trust me?”

  The reason Larry chose not to listen to her back then was for exactly those two reasons. “Sorry…” he turned his head back forward, slightly embarrassed.

  “Look Larvitar, I don't know if I'll be the best Trainer out there for you. Hell, I don't even know if I'll be a good trainer…” She continued caressing his rocky skin, “But if we're going to be trainer and Pokemon, then I'll need you to cooperate with me. I can't have you going berserk on other people's Pokemon because you think you know better than me.”

  “I'm not saying you don't, right now at least,” She quickly corrected, “but I'll learn, you know?”

  She stared at the trees for a moment, watching them rustle in the wind, “My dad used to say ‘The relationship between a trainer and his Pokemon is as much personal as it is contractual.’ We're friends, helping each other, but we're also teacher and student, improving as we go on, as I learn more to teach you. When one half gets stronger, so does the whole.”

  Some choice words from the original anime opening came to Larry, ‘You teach me and I'll teach you.’

  Pokémon develop new moves, evolve, and see the world with their trainers, while trainers learn responsibility and the art of Pokemon training. It’s a surprisingly reciprocal relationship all things considered.

  “So? Will you give me a chance and listen to me during a fight?” Valerie questioned.

  Larry knew if he wanted to work with humans, he would be forced to bow down and listen to one of them sooner or later. He turned and looked Valerie straight into her eyes as he nodded with a smile, “Alright, I’ll let you train me.”

  She smiled back in turn and put a hand on his head, “Great! I guess that means, welcome to the team?”

  …

  A Xatu stood unmoving, watching as the sun slowly melted back into the horizon. Its sight focused squarely on the gigantic ball of fire, yet at the same time looking straight through it, at something far beyond it.

  Near it, it's young followed similar practices. One looked at a pine tree downhill, another stared holes through the fruits of a berry tree a short distance away, a string of saliva slowly dripping from its beak towards the ground as it did so.

  Its thirdborn though, had chosen more distanced sights, staring at the large cavern opening of a mountain in the distance. Burn marks marred the entrance and large cracks scarred the face of the far-away mountain as it inspected the structure.

  The thirdborn Natu had performed this gazing ritual thousands of times by now, but this time, and with this sight specifically, something was different. Its eyes began to shimmer fantastically in all the colors of the rainbow as they involuntarily imbued themselves with Psychic-TE for the first time.

  Suddenly, its body shivered, and the shaking continued until the thing was lying on the ground. It spasmed on the ground helplessly with its very first revelation of the future. Its siblings and parent did not help the poor thing, being entirely entranced in their own rituals of gazing.

  Once the episode was finally over the Natu rolled back onto its legs, it had only a single thought about its sight of the future, “I see…”

  With that singular exclamation, it hopped along and down the hill with a measured pace. It needed to make it to that cave entrance in time after all.