When I told my parents that I wanted to start my Pokémon journey, I think they each had two heart attacks apiece. After all, what parents would willingly send their precious little girl into the wilderness to fend for herself after fourteen years of undivided attention (supervision) and love (coddling)? They said no for about the first fifty times, but I pressed them and eventually they caved. If it would make me happy, they said. As long as I knew what I was getting into, they said. It couldn't be that hard, I said. I mean, kids younger than me go out on their journeys and nothing ever happens to them! Still, they we're entirely confident in me. Rather than let me choose one of the traditional starters from Professor Juniper, they special-ordered a Pokémon from a breeder. They told me that it was special, and it would protect me better than a Snivy or a Tepig or any of the usual first Pokémon kids receive.
The breeder came by the Sunday before I started my journey. With him he had a huge metal crate with a door secured by a padlock, carried by a Gurrdurr. I was kind of frightened at first. Did my parents pick some kind of dangerous Pokémon to be my companion? My breath hitched in anxiety as the crate was set down and unlocked. The thick steel door swung open and inside was… nothing? No noise came from the crate, and I couldn't look directly into from my angle but nothing was coming out. The breeder banged on the top of the crate. Tiny clinking footsteps could be heard, before a tiny, red face with two golden saucers for eyes poked out, looking frightened as could be. As the breeder gave my parents its pokéball and collected payment, I locked eyes with the creature. While it was covered in blades, I found the Pokémon to be far less than intimidating than I expected, as it was practically toy-sized. After nearly a minute of continuous eye-contact, it ducked back into its crate and out of sight. It was a Pawniard, the breeder explained as his Gurrdurr tipped the crate, dumping the scared little thing out. Much too Timid to be sold to professional trainers, so he sold it to my parents instead. The Pawniard cowered behind the breeder's leg like a child. It was more scared of us than I was of it. For some reason I found it… cute. I liked it. My parents had made a good pick.
"Is it a boy or a girl?" I asked.
"A male." Answered the breeder. "You can name him if you like, he's quite young still."
I thought for a moment, before deciding to name him after my favorite League trainer. "Lance. I'll call him Lance." Maybe Lance the Pawniard could grow to be as strong as Lance the trainer, I thought.
The breeder left, and Lance was left with us. For the few days he spent in our house as I bought supplies for my journey, he mostly hid in closets and under beds. He hardly ate, and I was very worried. Rather than flush him out from his hiding spaces like my parents would do, I would sit in front of the closet door, or on top of the bed and just talk to him. Not about anything in particular, just anything that popped into my head. Just once I saw him crack open the closet door to look at me, but he closed it as soon as our eyes met. I tried to get him used to his new name, and by the time we left, he would answer to it.
And so we travelled. To start with, Lance would drag behind me, and I could feel him staring at the back of my head as we walked. It disturbed me a little, thinking that he was trying to analyze me or something. But even though I always kept him out of his ball, he never once tried to run away. I would turn to look at him, and he would be still there, a few paces behind me and staring at the ground, embarrassed that I had yet again caught him staring at me. We trained against wild Pokémon, made new friends (Rosy the Blitzle, Chopa the Throh), and challenged gyms as we went. As Lance got bigger and stronger, he grew more confident, and comfortable around me as well. A good indicator of his growing strength, physically and mentally, was where he walked in relation to me. By our third badge Lance walked cheerily beside me, and after our sixth he charged on ahead, "scouting" the terrain ahead, and glancing back to me every other minute to make sure I was still there. His attitude around other people and Pokémon changed as well. No longer did he cling to my leg like a shy little boy, but rather always stood directly between me and any strangers, as if to intercept whatever threat they posed. If they made any sudden moves, he would leap at them, swinging his bladed arms as I embarrassedly tried to restrain him. This often lead to him trying to take on opponents more than twice his size, and his lackluster strength and miniscule size did not help him at all in these instances. So much for being Timid.
Though as Lance grew more confident, he developed strange little quirks and habits all the while. When he would peek back at me when leading our group, I would often pretend to not notice and I keep focus visibly elsewhere. Whenever I made eye contact with him as he "checked" on me, his head would snap back to facing forward and he'd speed up, forcing me to pick up the pace. A few times I have woken up in the middle of the night for one reason or another, and found him watching me as I slept. Unlike when he would stare at me at the beginning of our journey, I didn't feel unnerved by him watching me. It felt more like he was watching over me than he was about to prey on me. Only once slipped up and met his big yellow eyes with my own blue as he observed me. This resulted in him bolting into the dark woods at the side of the road. I stayed up all night waiting for him to come back, and he did at dawn, though for the rest of the week if I tried to talk to him he would shyly shuffle away, head hung. After that if I woke up when he was watching me, I would pretend to be asleep to avoid another catastrophe.
Lance's odd behavior hit a fever pitch as I was on my way to earn my eighth and final badge. He stayed behind the group as we walked down Route 9, dragging his feet and staring at the ground. This concerned me a great deal, as I thought he was regressing for some reason. I fell back, leaving Rosy (who had recently evolved) to lead the group.
"Lance, are you okay?" I asked him as softly as possible, and avoided looking him in the eyes.
He said nothing (not that he could speak in the first place), but glanced up at me, to the road ahead, and then at me again.
I figured that he was sick or something like that, so I stood in front of him, stopping his progress, and knelt down so that I was eye-to-eye with him. I placed my hand in his head, I guess to see if he was feverish, though I all I felt was the coolness of his metal exterior. As soon as I made contact with him, his whole body stiffened, and his eyes widened. This was more worrying. Maybe he really was sick! I walked on my knees to kneel beside him and wrapped my arm around his tiny shoulders to comfort or relax him. At this, Lance jumped slightly. I only had my arm on his for a moment before he roughly shoved me off of him and ran off into the tall grass and out of sight. Alarmed, I jumped up and called after him. It was no use, as he didn't return, even after the sun had set. I wasn't going to move on without him, so we set up camp right there. He had come back before after one of these incidents, so precedent was on my side.
So I stayed up and waited, watching the grass for movement. The campfire became a few smoldering embers, but I still stared out into the dark. Rosy and Chopa were recalled for the night, but I manned the watch for Lance. I stayed up into the wee hours. Or tried to, at least. My eyes began to feel very heavy… and I couldn't go for more than a few minutes without… wuh-aaah… yawning. Maybe if I just closed my eyes for just a second…
The grass rustled. My eyes snapped open. So much for dozing off. I held my breath, listening for what I hoped to be Lance. Another rustle and little metallic footsteps, the source hidden by the tall grass. I couldn't decide at that point whether I should be relieved or excited, so I bit my lip and kept listening. As the rustling continued, I reached into my pack and grabbed my flashlight, shining it in the direction of the sound. Soon enough, out from the edge of the grass emerged a red, bladed face with golden eyes. I squealed in joy as Lance emerged from the grass with… caution? Something was… off. This Pawniard did not have the same big, thoughtful eyes as Lance. Rather, they were sharp and hungry looking. Its blades were chipped, and its metal armor covered in scratches. Just as I was putting two and two together, another Pawniard emerged from the grass with a similar look about it. And another. And then two more. My eyes darted between them as I noticed that they were closing in around me, and beginning to circle around from behind. I did the only thing that my brain could manage at the time: I screamed and ran.
The pack of Pawniard was fast enough to keep up with my frantic sprint, and began to run up alongside of me, closing off possible escape routes. I ran for a good few minutes, lambasting myself all the while for having left my other Pokémon behind, as Chopa could have made short work of these assailants. My steps were slowing, my breath was ragged, and the Pokémon hunting me were closing in fast. Out of the trees dashed another Pokémon, directly in front of me. I skidded to a halt to avoid running into it, and got a good look at it as I did so. It resembled a Pawniard, though much taller and vicious-looking. Its eyes bored into me with frightening conviction as it slowly advanced toward me. The pack behind me had stopped running, now slowly tightening the circle around me. An ambush! I played right into their trap, and I expected that I would then die from it. Tears streamed down my face. I closed my eyes and gritted my teeth between sobs as I waited for the end.
But the end didn't come. Rather, a loud crash behind me shocked me out of my stupor. I turned to see another one of the Pokémon which I assumed to be an evolved Pawniard kicking away the group of them behind me with practically no effort. The Pawniard go flying and scurry away into the grass as the newly arrived Pokémon swats them away. The Pokémon then turned to me, and I gasped in fear. However, it simply knocked me aside with the blunt part of its bladed arms, as its true focus was the other of its kind. The two immediately went at each other, as their limbs became a flurry of blades too fast for me to follow. Slice, parry, stab, dodge; it was like watching a choreographed sword fight from a kung-fu move. Both gained scratches and abrasions from the other, but no truly decisive blows landed. Eventually the newcomer was able to swat the one that had trapped me across the face with the flat of its blade, stunning it for a moment. The blade on the newcomer's head began to glow white as it reared back, preparing to strike with it. Wait a minute… I know this move. Brick break. I taught it to Lance before we battled Brycen. The newcomer used its brick-break attack on the other one, its head-blade sinking into its opponent's chest with a sound like a sword being sheathed. It went limp immediately from the attack, falling to the ground with a great thud.
The newcomer now turned to me, staring down at me sprawled out on the ground with its wide, yellow eyes. There was a certain depth to them, and they distinctly lacked the primal hunger possessed by the wild members of its kind. I'd know those eyes anywhere. I leaped up and hugged the newcomer, Lance, and held onto him like my life depended on it. I buried my face in his metal shoulder and wept in happiness, beyond moved that he had come back just to save me. Rather than shirk me off in his usual shy way, Lance wrapped his arms around me as well, careful not to hurt me with the blades on his arms. I felt him lay his armored head on my shoulder, embracing me with equal vigor. Though he couldn't speak, I felt just by being close enough to him what he wanted to say. That he cared about me more than anything. That he became strong so that he would always be there to protect me. That he loved me more than life itself.
Author's Note
Writefag request on /vp/. Kinda similar to the ending of Apex but whatever.