The Unloved

"That's the pokémon that your dad got you?"

"What a joke!"

"Figures that fatty would get something like that."

"Should I get you some chocolate syrup to go with that?" Neil, the leader of the group of bullies, finally added.

Tom felt the color rising to his cheeks, and he imagined that the snow falling gently from the sky must be melting as it reached the air around him. "Most of you don't even have a pokémon of your own, so back off already!" he shouted.

Neil suddenly grabbed a hold of the front of Tom's heavy jacket and slammed him against the brick wall of their high school. "They don't have any stupid delusions about being mediocre trainers. That's the difference," he said, his whispered words condensing in the air and hitting Tom's face with a seemingly physical force. "I, on the other hand, actually went to the trouble of applying for an official starter, and I've been training ever since my tenth birthday. But what about you? You're gonna work in Cold Storage, just like your good-for-nothing father. Why else do you think that he'd get you a vanillite?"

The pokémon in question trembled as it hovered in the air, confused and worried but not sure what to do about its new master being attacked.

"Shut up!" Tom shouted, pushing Neil backwards. "Screw your studies, and screw your 'official' starter. You're just a bully, and that's all you'll ever be."

Tom saw one of the others coming in with a punch, but he didn't try to avoid it; he fell with the punch, lessening the impact as best he could.

At least the snow on the ground gave him a soft landing.

"Ha! He's so fat that he probably didn't even feel that! Just like a snorlax!" one of the boys said.

"Then let's give him something he can feel!"

The boys started kicking out with their booted feet, half covering the prone figure with snow in the process. His heavy coat, made for these snowy Driftveil days, absorbed some of the force. But it could only do so much.

A sudden freezing gust of wind blew above Tom's body, and he looked up to see his persecutors covered in frost and his own vanillite hovering hesitantly in the air, unsure of whether she had done the right thing.

"You wanna battle, punk?" Neil said as he wiped the thing layer of ice from his face and glared at the vanillite. He grabbed a pokéball from his jacket and hit the button, expanding it. "Fine, then. I'll show you what a real pokémon can do to a stupid ice cream cone."

"Are you stupid, Neil?" Tom said as he pushed himself up from the ground and stood between vanillite and the trainer. Tom suddenly felt protective of her. She had just tried to help him; the least he could do was return the favor. "We can't battle here! You know battles are against the law within city limits."

With a grin, Neil returned the pokéball to its original size and put it back in his pocket. "Fine. Then you're coming with us."

Tom suddenly found himself being pushed and pulled along, not enough that it wouldn't look like anything more than roughhousing to anyone else on the street, but plenty enough that Tom didn't dare try to break away.

"Mind telling me where the heck we're going?" he asked.

The group laughed but did not respond as they shuffled through the snow, moving slowly towards the east edge of town; Vanillite followed after them, floating along as nervously as ever. The snowfall started to increase in volume, but no one really minded. Tom in particular barely felt the cold; as if his layers and fat didn't already aid him enough, he'd been knocked out and abandoned in snow drifts often enough to be practically immune to the freezing temperatures.

The bullies only let go when they had reached the shore of the great river that cut off Driftveil from Nacrene City to the east.

"And now we battle," Neil said with a smile, finally releasing his tepig from his pokéball. "Loser takes a dip in the river."

"That's insane!" Tom said as he moved closer to his vanillite. "No way I'm agreeing to that! Come on, Vanillite, we're leaving."

He turned to go, only to cry out as a barrage of embers pummeled his back, catching the warm ducklett down lining on fire. He jumped to the side and stripped his jacket off before the flames could do much damage.

"You don't have a choice," Neil said with a grin.

Tom glared and then, wanting the benefit of surprise, immediately began the battle. "Icy wind!"

Like before, the vanillite let out a cold blast of air from her mouth; though it easily hit the surprised tepig, the fire-type simply shook off what little frost there was. In another moment, Neil ordered an ember attack. Vanillite managed to avoid most of it, but was still heavily damaged from the few embers that landed.

"Icicle spear!"

The attack missed tepig and hurtled through the air towards Neil. Neil sidestepped desperately, only to find himself tumbling into the freezing waters of the broad, deep river.

Tepig and the rest of the gang panicked as their leader immediately disappeared under the surface, dragged down by his winter coat.

Tom looked over to Vanillite and suddenly got the idea that this shy, scared little pokémon had not missed that last attack. Not really. And in that moment, Tom realized that if he was going to be the trainer he'd always dreamt of being, it wasn't just his pokémon who needed to grow. He got the feeling that Vanillite knew this already, and this was merely a test. Or maybe that's just how Tom needed to rationalize what he was about to do.

He took a deep breath.

He strode up to the edge of the river.

And he took the plunge.

*Chapter word count: 1000 words

Hi there! So, my writing club at college came up with this thing called Flash Fiction February, which I have decided to take part in. Though for me, it will be Fan Flash Fiction February (FFFF for short). In addition to just being something that sounded like fun, I think it'll really help me make my writing more concise and to the point which, if you've read ANY of my other work, you know I need to work on. If you are currently watching me and are not interested in getting spammed with (roughly) a chapter a day, then I suggest you un-watch me for the month. Though I'd prefer you don't, since having a lot of watchers indulges my vanity. ^_^

Anyway, my rules/guidelines for the challenge:

1. No matter what, I'm not letting this interfere with my ongoing actual pokémon fanfic, "PMD: Defenders of Warmth."

2. 1000 words are the maximum (not counting these author's note things at the end of the chapter).

3. Try to get out one a day, though I'll break from this rule if need dictates.

4. If you have a specific pokémon or general premise you'd like to see in a chapter, review or message me to let me know! There's no guarantee I'll do it, but I might. Just make sure that it is a very general idea, since it'd be difficult to really make the thousand words my own if the entire plot is planned out.

...And that's pretty much it. Seeing as I usually write novel-length stories (with super long chapters) and only occasionally even write regular short stories, I'd certainly appreciate any critiques from people familiar with flash fiction! And, as always, I appreciate critiques in general, whether you're familiar with flash fiction or not.

Thanks for reading!