“Why the hell didn’t the door break?!” Larry fumed inside his Pokeball, he sat in the alpine landscape, letting the vista calm down his nerves, “I tackled the crap out of that thing!” The next thing Larry tried after being recalled was escaping again, but as it turned out, Pokeballs had locks. After his capture, the Nurse turned the outside of the middle button on the Pokeball. And when he’d attempted to escape his ball again, he couldn’t get out no matter how much he pushed against its walls.

  “And who the hell locks their pet in a miniature cage?!” The memories of his own Pokemon playthroughs were conveniently forgotten. He wondered if he could contact a Pokemon rights group for some support. Was PETA a thing here? Considering cockfighting was a legally encouraged and integral part of human society it probably wasn’t.

  “Damn it,” Larry complained in an irritated tone before finally capitulating, “Fine, I’ll meet that girl!” Pushing away the landscape, he once again checked the room he was in. He’d been put back onto the tray, probably ready to be presented to the girl, like some kind of prize.

  Shaking his head, Larry exhaled, ‘Gosh, I’m just not in the right mood… Chansey said trainers aren’t as bad as they’re made out to be. Gotta calm down…’

  He wasn’t among other Pokemon, it was only natural that a human was going to treat him differently than a Pokemon who he could converse with. Humans saw Pokemon as friends and companions but also as tools and weapons. Larry had seen enough war documentaries in his last life to know what humans were capable of doing to one another when they stopped thinking about their enemies as humans.

  Every interaction with humans so far, Larry had been talked down to. It was obvious why he was being babied, he quite literally was one. The dismissive attitude of Nurse Joy or her helper had annoyed him to no end, it felt like he was a car in for maintenance. The only one who’d seemed to care for Larry, the person, was her helper Chansey.

  Granted, Larry could understand the human’s behavior to an extent.

  Even if he was being generous, it probably hadn’t been a month since he’d hatched. A normal Larvitar might’ve taken that first month of their life slowly, eating their fill of soil underground before maybe deciding to come up to meet their mom. Larry's peculiar circumstances of birth, or maybe rebirth, had probably made him one of the most active and quickest-growing young Pokemon in the entire world. While the nurses were seeing a bumbling mess of an infant who’d somehow managed to get ejected out of its home during a natural disaster, they were in actuality babying a young adult in the infantile body of a Pseudo-Legendary.

  Larry agonized over his fate as he watched the Pokecenter clock through the clear acrylic of his Pokeball wind over deep into the nighttime. He was committed now to at least meet the girl who’d supposedly saved his life and caught him.

  ‘Ugh, let’s just hope the girl who caught me is better than the Nurses…’ Suddenly, a scary thought came to him, ‘Wait, don’t little girls love giving their pets nicknames?! Am I going to be treated like a housecat and get a stupid name like ‘Pebbles’? Let’s hope not…’

  Returning to the environment in his Pokeball, the starry nighttime in the alpine landscape looked breathtaking, with no light pollution the sky lit up in the night with hundreds of different clusters of stars. So naturally, sometime during his agonizing, Larry had fallen asleep. He had slept like a baby thanks to the peaceful atmosphere of the Pokeball’s environment. The wind swept through the tall grass, flowers, and herbs alike as Larry snored away.

  …

  Suddenly, Larry was jostled awake by movement from his ball, ‘Whuh?!’

  As he woke, Larry cursed, ‘Ugh, what is it now? No solicitors!’ He was just about to turn his Pokeball see-through, but before he even could, the Pokeball opened. Clack!

  After the flash of light, Larry stood up from his seated position on the ground and looked around blearily. He halted when he heard the voice of Nurse Joy say, “-we healed his injuries, he had a few sprains which we found quite confusing considering you found him floating in a river, but he got healed quite quickly. You already read through his file?”

  “I did. Thank you, Nurse Joy.” The other voice was new to Larry, she sounded far younger and Larry turned his head upwards to find out who she was.

  Next to Nurse Joy, a girl squatted down and hugged her knees close to her chin, she met Larrys eyes, “Hey, little guy.” The girl had bags under her eyes and looked worn-out, even her hair looked unkempt, exemplifying her haggard looks.

  She had long, peach-colored hair, pulled into a long ponytail. Her face looked Eurasian, giving Larry pause as to the composition of the human race in this world since every other human he’d seen so far had looked Asian. The girl wore a clean and oversized bomber jacket over a simple dirtied graphic T-shirt. On her lower half, she wore a half-removed orange overall, whose arms were tied around her waist. The overalls were caked in dirt and dust and the simple pair of sneakers the girl wore looked like they’d been through hell, yet all the mud on them had long since dried.

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  ‘So this is the girl? She can’t be over fourteen years old!’ Larry couldn’t be sure this was his soon-to-be trainer, but considering no other young girls had visited him yet, he could only assume her to be it. He knew about the world of Pokemon's traditions of sending children out to journey the country, yet it hit differently when such a girl was standing in front of him. Middle schoolers were out here, taming and befriending beasts during an adventure around the country, it just felt weird.

  “We actually had a little event with him a few hours ago, he broke out of his ball and tried to run away. Luckily for us, Pokecenters are built sturdily enough to hold out some simple attacks.” The Nurse Joy shook her head disapprovingly with a rueful smile, “He certainly has an attitude.”

  Larry turned away from her with a huff.

  “Really?” The girl looked like her eyelids were about to flutter closed any second, she mustered up all the energy she still had to give a surprised face to the nurse, before turning to Larry, “A rulebreaker, huh?”

  ‘Rulebreaker? You’re the guys locking me in a ball!’ Larry eyed the pair of them suspiciously, still unsure if he could fully trust humans. He knew they wouldn’t understand him, since he could only make raspy, adolescent hisses. So instead, he simply nodded her way in agreement, ‘Guess I am.’

  The girl stuck out an arm lazily, making some effort to interact, “I’m Valerie, but you can just call me Val if you like.”

  ‘Valerie, huh?’ Larry didn’t have any strong opinions regarding the girl herself, but she had saved his life, so he stuck out his arm in return and answered, “The name is Larry.”

  Trilling back in something that a person with a creative mind might say sounds like the words, “Larv-, Larvi, Tar-Tar!” Larry answered as he stuck his arm into Valerie's hand.

  After an approving nod, Valerie turned to the Nurse pleadingly, “Nurse Joy, can I have some time alone with Larvitar?”

  “Sure thing,” The Nurse tittered, “you are a new trainer meeting your first Pokemon for the first time. I’ll be at the front desk, get along well.” Nurse Joy agreed and left the room before Valerie could even thank her.

  Once the door closed behind her, all the energy seemed to drain from Valerie as she slumped even further into her squat before releasing a gigantic sigh, “Haaaaah!” She raised herself with a groan before she pulled out an office chair from a desk nearby and practically falling into it.

  Laying in the chair, she had closed her eyes. Larry looked around the room awkwardly, expecting some kind of hard talk to begin, but when he looked back at Valerie, he found her already nodding off.

  “Ehm!”

  Valerie jolted, before rubbing at her eyes as she sat up, “Mhm, sorry, sorry, Larvitar. I couldn’t sleep yesterday night cuz I was so excited for today. I’ve been awake for almost 2 days by now…”

  Larry was missing a lot of information, but he nodded back regardless, ‘Guess not everyone gets to nod off inside of a Pokeball.’

  She ran her hands across her hair as she scratched the side of her head, “I’ve been in police interviews for so many hours by now, I think they know me better than I know myself.”

  She turned back to him, clearly not done complaining, “The police practically explained everything to me that went down, but it still feels unreal. You wanna listen? Considering you were involved.”

  He nodded back eagerly, he still wasn’t entirely sure what had gone down in the end and needed someone to catch him up.

  Valerie begins her explanation with her drive to the ranger station and the census, explaining why they were at Mt. Silver, her explanation starts simple, but gets increasingly more ranty as she goes on, “I mean, come on! Suddenly the entire mountain shakes, and a rockslide and earthquake happen right by us. Then, what I find out later to be a legendary Pokemon, suddenly comes out of the entrance of the mountain and burns my dad's back off!”

  Larry sweats a bit at her description of events, which did sound similar to what he’d last experienced. Her rant continues about her father and how he calmed her down and managed to get her to call in an emergency. She talks about treating her father's injuries and the need for more water for the burns. So her dad sends her away to fetch some water, where she happens upon him and suddenly stops her rant.

  A silence descended on the room again, Larry couldn’t be sure what the girl was thinking, but she looked to have a lot on her mind. Sighing, she began, “I’m sorry for catching you, but it was the only way to save you.”

  Now that surprised Larry, a Pokemon trainer remorseful about catching a Pokemon without their consent? In the games and anime that wasn’t something he’d ever seen. Most Pokemon simply acclimated to their new life after some time and befriended their trainer in the process.

  Valerie shook her head, “I can go ahead and release you soon if you want. Then you can go back to Mt. Silver and continue to live your life there.”

  She slid off of the chair with her energy entirely depleted, sitting on the ground next to Larry cross-legged, “I read their report on you, you’re young, very young.”

  “I love my dad, and you probably also love your family. So, do you have a family back in Mt. Silver? The rangers are currently exploring the insides of Mt. Silver for some clues as to what happened, I could go with one of them to take you back inside.”

  Larry considered her words, then suddenly stopped, ‘The earthquakes suddenly stopped, then Moltres came outside and flew away…’ A shiver ran down his back, he hadn’t had to face the facts regarding his mom yet, ‘Do I still have family in Mt. Silver?’

  He didn’t want to think about it, but he’d made a promise with his mom. Again, his breaths became shallow. It felt like a logical fallacy was building in his mind, his mom couldn’t be dead, she’s bound to be alive in Mt. Silver somewhere, right? He still had a promise to her. Tears beaded on the edges of his eyes, but before he could break out into a panic, Valerie pulled him into her embrace.

  The girl squeezed him tight against herself, her tired voice was gone as she muttered next to his ear, “I shouldn’t have asked. The police and rangers told me their theory, not much other than a Tyranitar could even begin to take on a Moltres.”

  ‘H-How did she know?!’ Larry calmed as he reciprocated her hug, squeezing himself against her longingly.

  Valerie smiled, as she seemingly read his mind, “My dad says I always pick up on stuff quickly.”