I soon made impact with ground, hard enough it seemed to even shatter the gemstones on my back. In slow-motion I rolled over to see the dark sky, a high-hanging tree, a blur. It wasn't my consciousness that I felt slipping away, as it had often done when I had first met Brendan, but my whole life seemed to be teetering on the edge of oblivion. I had come so far, travelled the world - from caves to mountains to grasslands to oceans, now to die in the forest. As I was dragged into my ball, I saw that shadow...that tall, dark, elite silhouette of my new nemesis, and now replacement - Absol. A crack broke its way into my diamond eye.
The granite walls of the cave sparkled in the light of my Treecko's flash, while the darkness in the distance remained murky and unwelcoming. My friend and I made haste, vaguely searching the tunnels and valleys for someone named Steven, to give him a letter I happened to know nothing about. Understandably, we were feeling a little unpleasant.
Suddenly, from out of nowhere a purple figure appeared in front of and attacked Treecko, sending him flying. The thing then shot off into the darkness as quickly as it had come. I jumped manically in my bag for my PokéDex, but a glint in the distance both distracted and scared me. I remained frozen with fright, and in due time the creature gnashed its teeth and jumped straight at me. However, Treecko intercepted the attack and carried the beast straight into the wall to the right of me.
With some more skirmish, and a smartly executed stun spore attack, it was down, left within an inch of life. I scanned it and found that it was Sableye, the darkness Pokémon. Contemplating leaving it, as Steven was still at large, I was met with a surprise. Against all odds, the Sableye began trying to get back up and fight. Just one tackle would have probably knocked it out for good. It was a dedication I had never seen in a Pokémon before, as if it didn't believe in weakness - only in strength.
I descended into a spiralling maze of number and wires, unable to perceive where I was. Within a minute I had landed softly onto what appeared to be a flat plain of grass. There was no sky, but a white void that sparked occasionally, accompanied by an incessant humming sound. As I investigated I saw the field was inhabited by various other Pokémon, living in the distance.
I walked their way, and found that all of their faces were familiar; indeed these were adventurers and party members of Brendan's from days gone by. There was Linoone whizzing around, a Torkoal doing much the opposite, a Pelliper floating in the white air... Most interestingly I found a very old friend, a Treecko, who was sitting on his own my the edge of the field. It seemed that all of these characters, like me, must have been abandoned by Brendan at some point. Now just numbers, sitting in a box.
I set off away from Fortree City with my new Absol trailing behind me. It was an elegant creature, but not very keen to follow the road, often running off its own way. I knew that convincing it that it wasn't free anymore would be tough. The act was important, however, as I needed a dark-type to challenge the upcoming Mossdeep City gym and Absol was my best bet stat-wise to win.
After emerging from a grass patch, a bird-keeper jumped out on me and demanded a match, claiming to be a trainer too. This seemed like a good place to officially start my bond with Absol. He sent out his team, consisting of a single Swablu. Pitiful, it seemed. Absol immediately jumped into battle and used its bite attack, gnawing on the bird's little body with incredible strength. It seemed absolutely helpless. Yet all the time, the young bird-keeper was shouting to his friend, "You can do it Puffy! Just hang in there!"
Puffy? It seemed like an oddly appropriate nickname, but calls of such variety are barely helpful. Within a minute of fighting Absol had caused the bird to faint and won the match. As he gave me my prize money and we moved out I just couldn't get those cries out of head: "Puffy! Puffy!" They seemed so fruitless yet so meaningful - why would he even send out the poor thing if it was obvious it would lose?
Being student to a Pokémon trainer has one lead a very different life to what they normally would. It is something I had not known until then because of how deep into the cave Brendan had to travel to find me. The world looked completely different, and not for all the right reasons; a hot fireball in the sky beat down on my brittle body and glinted into my eyes, ruining my vision. If that wasn't enough, we travelled far and wide across all kinds of terrain. The first place we visited was a beach, and then I encountered a large bridge with cyclists on it.
Still, being with Brendan made me feel good for some reason. He gave me every opportunity he could to have me challenge other Pokémon of all shapes and sizes with my cave-honed fighting skills. Sometimes I would win, often I would lose, but Brendan kept on pushing me to be the best I could. That made me, at least for a short while, happy.
My team and I had nearly made our way through the rains to Fortree City, and aimed to have some rest at the PC upon our arrival. I had presumed the coast has clear over the last couple of wet fields, but to my surprise a large, black-and-white form dived into my field of vision. I whipped out my PokéDex to see it was an Absol, the disaster Pokémon. It looked rare, and incredibly powerful too, so I thought as a last-minute decision to catch it. "Go, Sableye!" I shouted as I threw its ball into the air and saw it hop out onto the battlefield. The battle thus commenced, and throughout I began thinking about their compared strengths; as long and hard as Sableye tried to battle, its use of faint attacks and night shades just weren't doing as much damage as the newcomer was. The Absol was jumping all over the field, pummelling its way through the rain and biting Sableye with tremendous force. I was definitely impressed.
Its power overshadowed my partner's greatly, and I was hardly surprised to find that Sableye, as per usual, fell to the ground after being thrown into a tree, not to get back up. It lay there motionless in the rain, while its opponent begged for more competition. I returned Sableye to its ball and set myself to catch this beast of a Pokémon.
I spent what feels like an eternity inside that computer. Lingering around, doing nothing, ageing as if I was actually living. The whole time numbers followed me around, suppressing me with facts and figures about my strength, defences, speed... the more I was told how much weaker I was than my contemporaries, the less I actually wanted to go outside and meet them. I was content with being never used, at least I wasn't disappointing anyone.
A quick flash shot down from the sky, lightning rods began revolving around the plain, I was lifted by some unprecedented force towards the sky. All the others stared as I shot upwards, as if held by God. As I moved up, I saw another figure move down. Closer and closer we became, and soon enough it was clear who it was. I shed a tear. Absol no longer held my place in Brendan's heart. He loved me not for what I was, but for who I am.