Chapter One

Eevee

Danni had two options and of those, she chose to break the law. She had never broken a law before. Once, a year ago, she had skirted the edge of legality and felt so strong for it. Surely that was the worst thing anyone could really reasonably think of doing and still consider themselves a good person. Surely, when it came right down to it, the law was the law and you knew when you were on the wrong side of it.

That morning, after a full week of panic, Danni approached a red door in the side of a small, white, two story home. A thin window to the right of the door displayed the "Open" sign. With a quick intake of breath Danni hesitated at the threshold. A soft wheeze escaped Kitkat's nose, urging her forward. She hugged her Eevee closer, and scratched behind her ears. "We'll get you all better, don't worry."

A small waiting room greeted her. Two chairs sat unoccupied to her right, and a receptionist's window has been placed off center in the back wall. Through the receptionist's window Danni could see books and papers in precarious stacks. There did not appear to be anyone present, but as Danni approached the window she became aware of motion inside. There was a girl hidden among the paperwork, engrossed in a book. A fresh wave of apprehension washed over Danni and she thought for a split second about leaving. She stopped that line of thought when Kitkat wheezed faintly yet again.

"Miss? Is Dr. Joy in?" Danni said, trying to get the girl's attention as sweetly as possible. The girl looked up from her book, first to Danni, then to Kitkat. The girl's dark suntanned skin was out of place in an office (she was surely the child of a Ranger? Or a field hand?) It matched poorly with her short sandy hair. If she had walked right off the page of a yellowed newspaper Danni would not have been surprised.

"She is out on a call, what do you need?"

Danni frowned, searching the girl and her desk for a name-tag. Finding nothing, Danni leaned hard on a sweet tone "My Eevee is sick. Her name is Kitkat."

The girl let out a short sigh, "My mom does not treat Pokemon."

Danni knew well enough that the village doctor, Miranda Joy, had a strict 'humans only' policy, she didn't need to be told again. "I am aware, I'm sorry, I need her to make an exception." Danni said, "This is an urgent case."

"An exception?" The girl let out a short, quick laugh.

"I can pay extra."

"There's nothing my mom can do." The girl closed her book carefully.

"Please, I don't know what to do anymore. Can't you convince her? Can't she make an exception?" Danni could feel the tears starting in the corners of her eyes. It had taken so much just to come here, just to risk that much. Kitkat wheezed in Danni's arms, a soft sickly moan followed and hung in the silence.

"What is wrong with him?"

"Her" Danni corrected, when the girl rolled her eyes Danni quickly moved on, "Kitkat has been getting sicker and sicker for a few weeks now, she stopped being able to walk this morning." Danni placed her on the countertop in the reception window. "I just don't know what to do."

"My mom will not see her, just so you know." Then what good is asking?! Danni opened her mouth to protest but was quickly interrupted. "I can help I think." Nicole reached out one hand to Kitkat's snout, inviting it to sniff. With a weak approval Kitkat pushed into her hand.

The girl's room was tiny, and filthy, clothing and dirt were strewn about the floor. The dirt seemed to come from the potted plants by the window, not just general filth, but who could be sure? Her window looked out over the forest, and judging from all the plants, the forest was slowly sneaking inside.

There was a bookshelf to her right, and Danni read a few titles: Knowing the Danger; Migration patterns; Less than Level 6 (and Normal). Danni spotted these ones from the lineup quickly, because she owned them all too. Of course they had the necessary tone that Pokemon were dangerous, otherwise she could never get her hands on them in times such as these, but she was desperate for any information they could provide.

Kitkat was resting on the, relatively, clean bed. The girl was slowly bending each of Kitkat's legs in turn, to check for damage. Danni was quite good at sitting quietly and politely, but the girl sure was taking her sweet time.

Danni fretted with her level meter, a small digital device that could read the current level of any pokemon, for a moment wondering if the girl would ask for Kitkat's level. After a full year Kitkat was already level 5. Danni knew that just owning an eevee was pushing the boundary, but to be on the upper limit of a pokemon's acceptable level before she needed to be...

Danni shook her head. She was well within the law, Kitkat was a normal type, she was under level 6, and no one could possibly know that she had trained her even a little beyond basic household commands.

"Would you please hand me that book? It's brown with no title on the bottom shelf" the girl's gentle request snapped Danni away from her worry for a moment to grab the book. The cover of the book was blank as well as the spine. Danni handed it to the girl who skimmed through the pages slowly. After a moment the girl began to speak, without looking up, "eevees are really on the outer edge of an acceptable normal type."

Danni was familiar with the conversation that was about to happen. She had this conversation with every adult in her life, and every Ranger in their village. "When I picked him out, I didn't know that there are multiple evolution paths for this type. He was just cute. I just wanted a pet."

"Yea, well, that's tauroshit." the girl said casually.

Perhaps Danni was not familiar with the conversation that was about to happen afterall. "Excuse me?"

"You can't just wander into a normal pokemon dealer and get anything that evolves into a non-normal class, except flying perhaps." The girl seemed to have landed on the page she was looking for. "And you've trained him besides."

"I have housetrained him only," Danni hoped that she was expressing shock, she was only feeling fear.

"I won't tell anyone, and I doubt anyone can tell who hasn't studied this," the girl raised her book slightly, "but you will have to get her up another level looks like. What level is she at now?"

"I- ah" Danni faltered. The girl lowered her book, looking at Danni directly for the first time.

"I knew she was over 3 but... well she'll need to hit the next level or she will die."

"I-I - Wha- how do you figure that?"

The girl raised the book slightly to indicate the answer. "Before the Backlash people didn't train pokemon just for fun. Pokemon have unstable bodies. They are prone to cancer and defects." The girl stopped talking and reached over to open up a thin wooden briefcase at her side. Inside were some strange vials which she began looking through. Danni was about to speak up, when the girl continued.

"Each time a pokemon 'levels-up' it is like a mini-evolution, the cellular structure is rebuilt and refreshed. This gets rid of many ailments, including cancer and cysts. As pokemon level up and evolve they reach a more stable physical form, until they are relatively safe from disease." Danni needed to take a moment to process this information fully. She had never really wondered much about why her ancestors trained pokemon, ignoring the blatant risks. Danni always assumed it was the same reason that she risked it; her Pokemon wanted to and she wanted to make her Pokemon happy.

"This is a painkiller," the girl explained as she dropped some liquid into Kitkat's mouth. "Kitkat has an ailment attacking her lungs and joints. If I had healing tech I could fix her up in a jiffy, unfortunately… Anyway, she will need to reach the next level to recover." The girl handed Danni the thick book, open to a page filled with tiny writing and charts with jagged lines.

Danni stared for a moment, but could glean no information from it. "I can't do that," she said finally, looking back up at the girl.

The girl handed Kitkat back to Danni. "If I had another option for you, I would give it." Danni's mind was scrabbling for something, anything to say to make this girl understand that she needed to fix Kitkat. Finding nothing, Danni only reached out for her friend, limp, but no longer whimpering at least. The girl frowned, and spoke quietly "Believe me, nothing deserves to die like this. If it were me I would help my friend. You chose to give a home to a Pokemon. I'm sure you catch a lot of flack for having her at all. I know after level 6 all normal type pokemon are required to be put down just like any other pokemon found within the village boundaries." The girl paused for a moment, "I also know that you are the only person in town wealthy enough to afford a level meter, and I know that I am good at keeping secrets."

Danni held Kitkat closely. Her breath was short and she had fallen asleep at some point during the exam. Danni looked at her feet, and scratched Kitkat behind the ear.

"Do you have your level meter? Is she really about to hit 6?"

Apprehension washed over Danni. It was illegal to deny a request to prove a pokemon's level, but ever since Kitkat had hit level four she had managed to divert the issue whenever it was brought up. "What is your name?"

"Nicole" The girl said, outstretching her hand.

Danni shook it, trying to figure out if it was a 'trustworthy handshake'. Her father always talked about 'judging a man by his handshake.' Danni couldn't tell what she was supposed to be checking for. With a deep breath, Danni used her meter to read Kitkat's level, and showed Nicole her proof. Any minute now Rangers would burst in from the window and take her friend away. It was a trick, wasn't it? To get her to reveal her pokemon as dangerous? She'd fallen for it, hadn't she?

Instead of ruining her life, Nicole placed one hand on Danni's shoulder. Danni stroked her hand down Kitkat's ears. There didn't seem to be other options. She could let Kitkat suffer and die, or she could risk getting caught with an illegally leveled pokemon. Of her two options, Danni chose to break the law.