Before the accident, it was just me, my pokemon friends, and my trainer.
My trainer obtained me as an egg when he was very young, and protected me from his more reckless younger brother, for I was a rare female among my kind. Their childhood was full of pain and misery. Throughout my life with them I never once saw a person who could be described as a mother or father to either of them; the adults of little Pallet Town cared for them instead. Given their past, my trainer was not the most stable of minds, as I saw in our time together. I wasn't only his best friend, but his anchor within the chaos between his harsh childhood and his fragile mind.
The bond I shared with him went very deep, which made me very strong and precocious for a Charmander. He even tied a pretty scarlet ribbon to my tail back then, embroidered with my name on one side, and his on the other. We went on a journey when the boys were old enough, and the Professor had given both my trainer and his brother a Pokedex, before they both went on their respective journeys.
As my trainer had me fight in every battle he entered, and I won almost all of the time, it took a surprisingly short amount of time to evolve into a Charmeleon, and eventually a Charizard, letting the ribbon be moved from my tail to my horn. Before we both knew it, we were soaring through the skies of Kanto on our first flight; one we both never wanted to end.
Eventually, we made it to the Elite Four, and defeated them all in one fell swoop. We found that my trainer's brother had made it to the Champion's Chamber first, which meant we had to battle him for the title. We won of course, and my trainer assumed the title of Kanto's first Champion.
A while after, my trainer's brother asked him to trade me to complete his Pokedex, which he had been working on since losing to us a few times. My trainer was hesitant, but we soon agreed before I was returned into my Pokeball. I felt the transfer going along smoothly, when a sudden, very strange electric shock and matching crashing noise surged through the trade system. Time suddenly blurred in a way that was far too fast for any pokemon, so much so that I unfortunately passed out.
Next thing I knew, I was suddenly forced out of my ball within a mass of wires that almost instantly began tangling around me. They tightened around my body, tail, snout, and neck like the vines of a Tangela or Tangrowth, which was frightening to say the least. I felt myself growing faint as my throat was being closed by the wires wrapping around it, and I couldn't open my mouth or wings. Not long after, I felt the wires suddenly fall off harmlessly as I dropped to the ground and opened my eyes.
"What the -? You're not Mira!"
I looked up to see a teenage girl with several Charizard around me. A few of them looked like they had just cut the wires with their claws. I felt several places where the wires cut into my skin, and thus felt that the marks would remain for a long time, if not forever.
"Someone must've hacked the trade system," the girl scoffed. "It's hard to believe, but it looks like you came here from an entirely different region, and we weren't even sending anyone there! Who knows where Mira is now."
I couldn't remember anything at the time; my memory was blank by the time I was forced from my ball. All I knew at that moment was I had to keep it with me, along with the scarlet ribbon embroidered with two names. All I knew was I had found myself in a place where there lived scores of my kind, led by a girl named Liza, and her companion, a bow-wearing female Charizard named Charla. And I had lost my memory of everything, even my own name.
I lived in that place, Charicific Valley in the Johto region, for about three years. I wore my Pokeball clamped inside a locket as a necklace, though I didn't know why it was so important to me at the time. I still had my ribbon on my horn, which was the only way I, Liza, and the other Charizard could know my name. Charla became one of my best friends, and I even grew to love the strongest of the male Charizard, a lonely black one named Inferno. I also quickly climbed up the ranks to the top. Inferno eventually grew fond of me as well, and we ended up having eggs together that hatched perfectly in the valley.
Every time our little ones hatched, I suddenly ended up getting several flashbacks of my memories in Kanto; ones I had at first never thought could've been mine. I saw my trainer and his brother, the rest of my trainer's pokemon, myself curling around him to calm his nightmares, our first flight, and more.
One night, I sat at a cliff at the edge of the valley, holding my locket haphazardly in my talons. By then, I fully remembered my life, and fear quickly began to grow of my trainer's mental state during my absence. He had to have already lost himself by this time; I knew I needed to get back to him as soon as possible, but I didn't know where to start, or if it was already too late. Knowing him, he would've already blamed his brother for the incident by now, maybe even think I was dead! If that were the case, no doubt he'd try to bring me back, but it's a crime against all nature.
"{Steven,}" I muttered. "{Please be within help's reach.}"
"{Is something wrong, Miki?}" Charla asked as she and Inferno approached me. I didn't respond.
"{It's your trainer, isn't it?}" Inferno figured.
I looked up at them and nodded. "{I have to get back to him, but I don't know where to start. I don't know if he can even be saved at this point. A monster runs wild inside him when I'm not around, and it's been three years. How would everyone in Pallet Town react if I suddenly showed up, alive and well, when they all thought I was… dead?}"
"{I don't think anyone can be too far gone, Miki,}" Charla countered. "{Or that you can be dead. Just look; the tip of your tail still glows with the fire of life. I'll tell you what, Liza keeps lots and lots of berries in storage, and a map of where to find your home region; we can send you home, with a peace offering of berries, by sunrise tomorrow.}"
"{Good idea,}" Inferno nodded. "{Don't worry about the kids, Miki. I'll take care of them, and you and your trainer can come by anytime you like. But for now, get some rest. You need it if you want to hop to another region}" I hesitated at first, but then nodded in agreement as the three of us returned to the valley.
By dawn the next morning, Charla, Inferno, and I went to the storage chamber. Liza was there, and seemed to understand the situation as I was staring at the map of the Kanto region; my home. "You want to get home, don't you, girl?" she realized. "And you want to bring some berries back home, too." She ran her hand along the markings on my neck and wings from where the wires had nearly strangled me. "I understand. Come on. We can all send you home with a good care package for your trainer." I nodded once as my only reply, and bent down as a crate of mixed berries was strapped to my back between my wings. Liza even stuck a note into the crate as well, to help explain everything.
We went to the center of the valley, where all the Charizard living there came to bid me farewell, each with their roaring Flamethrower attacks aiming at the skies. Even Inferno was there, and all of our children joined in with their little Ember bursts. With a final roaring Flamethrower up to the clouds, I spread my wings and took to the sky.
After what felt like an eternity of flying across endless ocean, I began to see the familiar houses of Pallet Town coming into view. I saw Steven's brother Mike coming out of the Professor's house as I passed over him, and he looked up at me with widening eyes. I circled around where he stood before I slowly spiraled down, landing right in front of him.
Mike, and everyone else that was outside, stared wide-eyed at me, like I was a ghost or something. Which may have not been far from the truth of what they thought. We all stood still in the eerie, tense silence until Mike's voice stammered out, "M-m-Miki? You're… alive?"
I nodded at his questions before turning around and crouching down to show the crate, letting Mike pull out the note to read it. I turned my head to see his wide eyes spilling over with tears, his hands shaking.
"So that's how it all happened," Mike said finally. "Someone hacked the trade system - maybe Team Rocket? - and you accidentally got swapped out for another girl Charizard named Mira. You survived almost being strangled to death like Mira was, but you suffered amnesia in the transfer. So you've been in the Charicific Valley in Johto for the past few years." He wiped his eyes before he took my talon in his free hand, pulling me along. "Come on. It's time we bring Steven back from the brink."
Mike led me to their old house, eerie and old and now surrounded by a barricade of rocks. It looked like a haunted mansion. I used Brick Break to crush the rock at the doorway before we both went inside, preparing for any frightening sights that could be ahead.
Mike and I walked to Steven's room, seeing him huddled in a corner, rocking back and forth. His outgrown, blackish-brown hair was a mess, and I heard muffled crying and faint sounds of my name. I warbled softly to get his attention, and he looked back at us, his bangs overshadowing his face, nothing but his eyes showing as a luminous red.
"Easy, Steven, I don't want any trouble," Mike started, putting his hands up in defense. "There's something you need to know. You never had to bring back Miki. The Charizard that was strangled to death wasn't Miki; she's right here beside me. You can leave Missingno behind. Just come back to us, and we'll explain everything!"
"{Please, Steven,}" I plead alongside Mike. "{I can see that you've lost yourself, but you have to come back! You never had to bring me back, Steven. I never had to be brought back. I never left in the first place.}"
Steven's eyes only narrowed in disbelief as his only Pokeball rolled out, and a glitchy, literally half-dead excuse for a Charizard emerged. "Only the real Miki will survive this battle," he hissed, a maniacal grin spreading across his face. The undead Charizard had no skin - sometimes nothing but bone - in several places on its body, and its whited-out eyes glowed an unnatural yellow. A series of various bloodstained cables and wires were wound tightly around its neck. There was even a bloodstained, blue ribbon hanging off its horn, only holding on by a haphazard single knot. There was no flame burning on its tail, and its entire body and Pokeball radiated dead, black particles.
I gasped at the horrifying sight, but steeled myself against terror. My trainer was not in his right mind and needed my help; I couldn't let myself back down now. That creature… that thing... was not me. It could never be me. I growled at it in rage, white-hot flames burning in my throat. On sheer instinct, I unhinged my jaw and let a blazing Flamethrower fly to the creature. It let out a single distorted cry before both it and its Pokeball vanished into the blaze, completely gone.
Steven's glowing eyes widened before he lifted his head, showing his face, pale and ragged. The red glow in his eyes receded into the familiar lime green hue I remember so well, though bloodshot and tired. He looked like he hadn't slept in a month; scorch that, he didn't look like he'd slept at all in the past year of my absence. It seemed as if he hadn't even eaten, for that matter. Mike and I slowly walked to my shivering, exhausted trainer, detaching the crate from my back and lowering it to the floor.
"Mi…ki…?" he rasped, struggling to stand up. He only took a single step before he collapsed into me, as I wrapped my wings and arms around him in an embrace. I could feel that his head burned with fever as his hat fell to the floor. "I'm sorry, Miki," he sobbed quietly into my chest. "I thought you were dead all this time. I lost myself thinking you were gone from this world. I realize now… you never left."
I steadied him with my wings and helped him sit down on the floor, opening the crate with my claw. I skewered different berries on my claws and gave them to Steven, watching as he took the berries and began to eat. I took a few of them myself as a snack, and so did Mike as he explained everything that had happened. I even opened my locket to give my Pokeball back to Steven, which he gladly accepted as I left the empty locket behind. When we all had our fill, and Mike finished the explanation, I turned my back towards Steven and crouched before I looked back at him, nodding towards my back.
Steven nodded in understanding - likely recalling my similar motions the day of our first flight - before he slowly struggled onto my back, helped by his brother. He clasped my shoulders as my wings helped to support his legs. Mike took the crate as we headed out of the broken home, and back to the main part of Pallet Town.
The first person who came out to see us was the Professor. He was shocked and amazed that I was alive, and that my trainer was back in his right mind.
"Miki! Steven! You're both back!" he cried out and rushed up to us. "Please come inside and get some rest! You look terrible, Steven. Mike, come in to put the crate in my lab, then go and get my grandchildren."
"Some welcome you're giving us, Professor Oak," Steven murmured. "Mike, get going and bring in Daisy and her kid brother. Maybe Red, too, if you can. We'll be fine."
"Right," he nodded as I followed the Professor inside, with my trainer in tow.
Steven was laid down on a bed that was popped out of a couch in the lobby, with me curled around him. His head rested on my neck, and a blanket was draped over him under my wing. His expression was peaceful as he slept, nestled against me.
"I'm quite pleased that you and Mike brought him back from the edge, Miki," the Professor told me. "Ever since the accident, he was never the same. We all thought you were gone forever, and we likely forgot about his mental stability, or lack thereof. The circumstances at the time may have deteriorated him into insanity. Thank goodness he wasn't too far gone like I - like all of us, really - let ourselves believe." He stood up and headed out to the pokemon fields. "I'll come back when Steven's ready to have dinner." I nodded as he left before settling into the bed, watching over my trainer.
I looked up when I saw the door open to reveal Daisy and Blue, along with Red. I noticed that Blue and Red had both grown quite well, and Daisy seemed to be crying at the state of my trainer. Red whispered something to Blue, who nodded before they took the crate of berries and went to the kitchen, probably to make some food for dinner. Daisy walked up cautiously, even though I looked up at her in invitation.
"He's really back," she breathed, sitting on the bed on Steven's other side. "You're really back." I realized she was talking to me as she brushed at Steven's dark brown bangs. "I may still be upset about the accident, but after Mike told us everything… I was so grateful that you weren't truly gone, Miki. He can finally get rid of that Missingno… He can finally get better…"
That was her breaking point. She kissed his cheek, tears still running down her face as she laid down on the bed, her head buried into Steven's chest. I nuzzled her cheek as I whispered, "{It's alright, Daisy. We all missed him. Now, we can all rest, knowing that Steven is no longer out of his right mind.}"
"…Miki? …Daisy…?" Steven groaned as he slowly opened his eyes. He looked down at the girl beside him, smiling softly. His arm moved out from under the blanket, slipping under Daisy's shoulders as she lifted her head to look him in the face. "Hey," he greeted his girlfriend.
"Hey there… Steven," Daisy smiled at him through her tears. "I missed you."
"I missed you, too," my trainer replied, brushing her tears away with his other hand. "Both of you. I'm... sorry about worrying you guys, though."
"You know," Daisy began, "we were all a little scared when you nearly strangled your own brother. Grandpa and the other adults thought you couldn't be saved, but Red, Blue, and I never gave up on you. When your house was barricaded with those boulders, all we could do was wait, and hope you were going to come back. At that point, it didn't matter if you were going to apologize; we just wanted you to come back, and become the Champion you became while Miki was with you. And now that everyone knows the whole truth, and you're back to your old self again, you can. Alongside all of us."
"And when I get better, we will," Steven replied. "We'll take the Kanto region by storm; just like back then, but better."
Daisy smiled before she suddenly yawned, causing me and Steven to soon do the same. " Seems I haven't slept all that well in the past few years," she confessed, eyes starting to droop. "I guess I've been just that worried about you."
Steven smiled and pulled her down against his chest again, his arm wrapping around her. "Then you can sleep with us," he murmured, spreading the blanket over them both. "The three of us could use some rest. Don't worry, I know no one will wake us up." He kissed her head as Daisy nodded slowly before she drifted off. When Blue and Professor Oak peeked into the room, I looked up at them and growled lowly at them.
"Oh, of course," the older man understood. "We won't disturb. Carry on." He and Blue quietly left the room before I felt Steven's other hand gently scratch between my wings, letting me relax. "You deserve some rest, too, Miki; you heard the Professor, he'll leave us be. Get some sleep, girl," he murmured as he closed his eyes again. I smiled as I grew drowsy under the atmosphere, laying my head back down on the bed. Curling closer to my trainer and his girlfriend, I finally decided to let my eyes close.
I woke up finding that my head was resting on a soft pillow. The familiar scent of Red and his own childhood pokemon friend, Pikachu, was quite obvious on the pillow, letting me safely assume they were the ones who put it there. I noticed that Daisy and Steven weren't by me anymore. They must've woken up and headed to get dinner. The sun was going down when I looked out the window to prove me right, and the whole gang was having a picnic outside. After I clumsily got myself off the bed, I went out the slightly-ajar door to join the others.
"Are you sure you don't need more rest?" Daisy asked my trainer. "You came in with a fever and haven't slept or eaten right in three years."
"I told you, I'll be fine," Steven reassured, wrapping his arm around her. He looked up when he heard me come. "Hey there, Miki."
"Well, the sleeping beauty finally wakes," Mike jokes. "No need for explanations, Miki. The whole gang knows your story now."
"And they all know I'm back to normal, too," Steven added.
"It's good to hear you've been kicking tail and taking names in Johto," Blue grinned. "Red's done the same thing, but he never stopped by Charicific Valley." The red-capped boy in question scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Daisy went through her own journey herself, and she got a really rare pokemon as her starter. Why not show everyone, big sis."
Daisy sighed and pulled out three Pokeballs. "Okay, little bro; I only brought some of my pokemon. But be warned, I had him in with the best person who could train his kind. And who knows? Maybe Miki already knows him." She tossed up the two capsules, with a Chansey coming out of one, another brought out an Ivysaur, and the last one had…
"{Inferno?}" I asked, bewildered at seeing the black Charizard in front of me.
"{Miki?}" he asked in return, looking just as confused.
"They definitely look like they know each other," Mike mused. "Quite well, actually. Wait! The letter said Miki got especially close to a shiny Charizard named Inferno. Daisy, are you saying…?"
"Yup," she grinned. "Inferno's my big boy. And it sounds like he and Miki already know each other and love each other," she smirked in our direction.
"Well, this is an interesting turn of events," Professor Oak mused. "Two people and their pokemon unknowingly bound together by such emotions. It's as if you four are a family already, bound by your shared destiny."
Inferno raised an eyebrow at the man. "{Is he always this far out of his head?}" he asked me. "{I've never been able to tell.}"
"{Unfortunately,}" I confirmed in chagrin as we joined with our respective trainers. "{At this point, I believe all the Professors in the world have some sort of quirk. Be it humorous like Elm's oddly comical lack of organization. Or queer like Oak and his ridiculous revelation concerning the bonds between us and our trainers.}"
"{We made plenty of pokemon food, you two,}" Red's Pikachu told us. "{Help yourselves!}"
We both looked at each other in confusion about the interrupting Electric-Type, then shrugged as we began to eat some of the pokemon food. It was definitely tasty, with all sorts of flavors to it from the berries in the crate. The other pokemon in the field also came up, each taking some of the plentiful, delicious food.
"So you'll be going on our journey again after you're fully recovered?" the Professor asked.
"You bet," Steven grinned. "And this time, Daisy, Mike, and I will be going as a full set, our pokemon included. And this time, I'll go without the hat. At least I'm not like Red; I don't flip out when I lose my hat."
Red only shot him an offended glare that made everyone laugh.
"We might as well get our teams back together, too," Mike added. "After all, it'll definitely help get things back on the road."
"{You should see some of the pokemon we've met,}" Daisy's Chansey told me. "{I think they're some of Steven's old pokemon before he released them.}"
"{At least that can help bring the gang back together,}" I mused. "{Let's hope that Steven gets back on his feet soon.}"
It took quite a bit for Steven to finally be deemed able to go on a journey again. I figured that would be the case, but there was a long list of problems from even before I disappeared. He was malnourished, sleep-deprived, and - as I had figured - was rendered very vulnerable and sickly because of it. Nevertheless, we all helped him until he had fully recovered. We could've just as well called it a holiday when Steven was able to go on a journey, and Mike and Daisy knew it was well worth the wait.
Along with new clothes to replace the mere rags we found him in, Steven stuck to his word and didn't get a new cap. Daisy stuck with a green headband, as per usual, and Mike still had his usual blue-and-brown colors. Professor Oak even arranged for the tombstone in Pokemon Tower back in Lavender Town to have the name changed from "Miki" to "Mira."
When the time came to head off, everyone in Pallet Town came to bid us good luck, though I might argue with a bit more vigor than the first time. After all, this wasn't just any ordinary journey, and neither were the people or pokemon going on it. We were all a family, and this new journey of ours was a rebirth. The strengthening and rebirth of a friendship, a relationship, and a brotherly bond; but most importantly, my trainer's soul.
A/N: I admit, I'm a sucker for happy endings. I just wanted there to be an actual ending for the Strangled Red Creepy/Pokepasta, because leaving it like that didn't cut it for me. I'm sure Miki, Steven, and company are glad for what I wrote, and I hope that you are, too.