I woke up when I felt a weight land heavily on me. I groggily stretched out my hand to feel what it was. As I felt the rubbery texture of a bulb, followed by the soft, cold feel of reptilian skin, I smiled.

"Hey Bulbasaur," I said, opening my eyes.

The cute Pokémon bounced up and down on my chest.

"Saur! Bul! Ba!"

"What are you so excited about?"

"Bulba. Bulba saur!"

Bulbasaur curled his vines around my hand and started tugging vigorously.

"You want me to follow you?"

Bulbasaur nodded. I sighed and got up.

Bulbasaur led me down the stairs, into the kitchen, and out the front door, where he stopped.

"What–"

My words were cut off as Bulbasaur wrapped a vine over my mouth. Then I saw it – a huge Seviper, much bigger than a normal specimen. I guessed it was about 4 metres long. It didn't seem to notice our arrival.

Being careful not to make a sound, Bulbasaur started pointing with his vines towards the wild Pokémon, and then to himself.

It took me a while to figure it out, and when I eventually did, I almost was so surprised I almost forgot to breathe.

"You really wanna battle that monster?" I whispered as softly as I could.

"I mean, are you sure you can handle it?"

Bulbasaur shot me a look as if to say, "Are you serious? I can handle ANYTHING."

I like to think of Pokémon as people, which means I often translate what I think they are saying. As a result, I had never refused any of my Pokémon requests before, but I was genuinely worried about Bulbasaur's safety. It was a real moral dilemma.

In the end, I simply said, "Fine, but if you faint, you can't blame me."

He threw back his head and scoffed. "Bul!" I translated it as, "Ha! As IF!"

Unfortunately for us, Bulbasaur said it very loudly, and the Seviper's head jerked up and looked in our direction.

"Well, it's now or never," I thought. "Go, Bulbasaur!"

Bulbasaur jumped eagerly into the long grass.

Seviper curled around Bulbasaur and began squeezing the air out of him.

I knew the move – it was Wrap. I also I knew that I had to react soon, or Bulbasaur might have gotten seriously injured.

"Vine Whip!"

Four vines sprouted from the base of Bulbasaur's bulb and started furiously whipping around. They hit Seviper so hard that they actually drew blood.

Enraged, Seviper uncoiled and dropped Bulbasaur.

Then it lifted its tail, which started glowing with a faint purple light.

"Dodge!"

Even though Bulbasaur moved incredibly quickly, he wasn't quite quick enough. The Poison Tail attack hit him hard, and he was knocked sideways.

"Bulbasaur, use Double-Edge!"

Bulbasaur stood up and shook himself, then charged at the Seviper with all his strength and knocked it into the air. In fact, Bulbasaur had charged into the Seviper with so much force that he had also injured himself.

The Seviper reared up and I saw droplets of purple venom glinting on its fangs.

"Poison Fang," I thought.

"Look out, Bulbasaur!"

Bulbasaur was dazed from using Double-Edge, and was not fast enough to avoid the attack.

Seviper's fangs sunk into Bulbasaur's bulb, and I saw a small amount of sap run out.

"BULBASAUR!" I yelled, now seriously worried.

Astonishingly, Bulbasaur showed no reaction whatsoever.

I decided to use a special move I had invented, and had been practicing with Bulbasaur for the past week.

"Ok, Bulbasaur, time to finish this. Use – Razor Whip!"

Bulbasaur leapt up into the air, and as the vines emerged from under his bulb, he shot off a barricade of razor-sharp leaves. (The move Razor Whip is essentially a combination of Razor Leaf and Vine Whip.)

The Seviper couldn't stand the onslaught, and collapsed on the ground with a loud thud. I could have sworn it caused a mini earthquake.

"YES!" I shouted in triumph. I turned to Bulbasaur.

"Turn out you were up to the challenge, after all."

I paused and thought a bit.

"What I don't get, though, is how you weren't affected by its poison at all."

In reply, Bulbasaur used his vines to reach into my bag and grab my Pokédex. He then held it up in front of his face.

The 'dex beeped. "Bulbasaur. The seed Pokémon. A strange seed was planted on its back at birth. The plant sprouts and grows with this Pokémon."

In other words, nothing I didn't already know. However, the next sentence caught my attention.

"Bulbasaur is immune to Poisoning. As such, Poison-type attacks deal little damage."

I slapped myself on the forehead. "I cannot believe that I forgot that!"

I smiled at Bulbasaur, "So I guess this means that you were never really in danger."

"Bul," Bulbasaur nodded.

I laughed and gave Bulbasaur a huge hug.

"Oh, Bulbasaur," I said, my voice somewhat muffled by his bulb, "You have got to be the sneakiest, most conniving Pokémon I know."

I paused for dramatic effect.

"You're also the best."