Part 2

Andrea was left completely baffled by the words her brother left her with. She went and sat back in the booth where they were eating and rested on the table. She reached into her pocket and took out Mudkip's Pokeball.

"You see something in me, but what is it?" she thought to herself.

She got up, paid for the meal, and went to her bike to begin the ride back to Rustboro City. When she arrived back at home, it turned out All had already been there and he left a note with their mother to give to Andrea. Andrea opened the note and read it. It said to train and challenge Roxanne when she was ready. That night, Andrea sat in her room staring once again at the Pokeball. She clicked the button to expand it and sent out her Pokemon.

"My brother said you see something that I can't. Is it true?" she asked the little Mudkip.

He nodded in reply, sat in front of her, and kept on watching her.

"Well I hope you're right little guy," Andrea said as she relaxed, pulled the sheets over herself, and drifted off to sleep.

The next morning, Andrea woke up and looked around her room but her Mudkip was nowhere to be found. She panicked and began searching every nook and cranny where he could possibly be hiding. She ran downstairs and frantically looked around. Just then she spotted him in the kitchen with her mom.

"He's an active little fellah. He woke up an hour before you and ran downstairs," Andrea's mom said while entertaining the little Pokemon.

Andrea ate her breakfast, made sure Mudkip was nice and fed, then the two headed off together to begin training in the woodlands around Petalburg City. They started small battling and catching normal wild Pokemon, gathering information for the Pokedex, and collecting what berries or items they could find in the surrounding greenery. After hours of exercising on various different wild Pokemon they encountered and catching several others, Andrea and Mudkip decided it would be best to take a break. Andrea took out some of the sandwiches she had packed up and started to eat. She noticed Mudkip was looking at her and figured he was hungry and wanted a bite.

"Here you want one?" she said as she held the sandwich in front of the little amphibious creature.

He nudged it away with his snout and motioned to her basically saying he thought she needed it more than he did.

"Well okay then. You want anything to eat? I got some berries you want some of those instead?" Andrea asked.

Mudkip shook his head. He appeared to not be hungry.

"Hey! That Mudkip belongs to you?" asked a boy as he approached Andrea.

"Yeah he's mine, why?" she replied with food still in her mouth.

"I want to see what he can do. You want to have a battle?" he asked with enthusiasm.

Andrea almost choked while swallowing, "A battle already? Um I guess."

Mudkip got excited and he couldn't wait to begin despite Andrea being somewhat hesitant.

"Alright how many Pokemon you got?" he asked.

"I got about five by now," she replied.

"Whoa! You've been busy," he said with a laugh then continued, "alright well since I only have two, let's make it even. Use your Mudkip and any other Pokemon of your choice. Seem fair?"

"Sure," she replied.

"Perfect! Now let's get this started," he took out a Pokeball threw it out and continued, "Let's go, Aron!"

Andrea began to think to herself, "Mudkip is a water type but he doesn't know any water moves yet. If he did, this Aron would be much easier to deal with. Shroomish should help."

Andrea took out her Pokeball and sent out Shroomish.

"Ah a grass type, if Aron was pure rock this would much worse for me. Let's see how it'll play out," the trainer said with enthusiasm. "Aron use Tackle!"

The little steel Pokemon rushed forward and slammed the Shroomish head on. The small grass pokemon reeled but was still standing firm.

"Shroomish is slower," Andrea thought to herself for a moment then acted, "Shroomish, use Stun Spore!"

Shroomish swayed back and forth before releasing the glimmering powder that crippled the Aron making him much slower.

"Perfect! Now I have the advantage! Alright Shroomish use Mega Drain and get back some of that health," Andrea commanded.

Shroomish channeled and drained Aron's energy restoring his own. Aron tried to act but couldn't move his body.

"We got him now Shroomish, use Mega Drain again!" Andrea shouted with excitement.

"Well I must say you put me in quite the tough situation," the boy said. "However, you failed to account for something. Your Shroomish took a pretty solid amount of damage from Tackle alone so let's see if he can withstand this next attack. Aron use Metal Claw!"

"Oh no, Shroomish watch out!" Andrea shouted as the steel Pokemon raked the Shroomish.

Shroomish writhed but was able to withstand the blow.

"Shroomish now use Mega Drain and finish the Aron off," Andrea shouted.

Shroomish sucked up the last of Aron's strength and the iron Pokemon collapsed.

"Nice job Shroomish!" Andrea said with excitement.

"Well done! Using Stun Spore to tip the speed scale in your favor was clever, but we'll see if Shroomish's base speed will be enough against my next Pokemon, go Geodude!" "Geodude use Rock Tomb!"

"What?" Andrea shouted in complete shock.

Geodude materialized a cluster of stones and buried the Shroomish alive in them. When the rocks shattered, the Shroomish was down.

"No, I needed Shroomish. What can I do now?" Andrea said as she got discouraged by knowing the inevitable outcome. Mudkip can't beat a Geodude with only normal moves and she knew it.

Mudkip got excited and prepared to take his stance when Andrea called out, "Mudkip no, don't do it."

He turned back at her in utter shock. Mudkip began crying out eager to test himself against the strong opponent but Andrea remained stoic.

"Mudkip don't battle that Geodude. I'm sorry you can't win against him," she said disheartened.

Mudkip hung his head and turned back to her side.

"I'm sorry but I'm forfeiting. There's nothing I can do against that Geodude," Andrea said to her opponent.

"What, you're really going to give up? Come on at least call out a move. I won't use Rock Tomb if anything," the trainer said trying to coax her back into it.

"I'm really sorry but there's nothing I can do. If you want I'll pay you for your victory," Andrea said.

"Man that's a shame. I really wanted to test my abilities against a hard opponent. A water type would have been perfect and your Mudkip really looks strong but oh well I suppose. Keep your money; it's alright. Sorry for bothering you into battling me," the boy said as he withdrew his Pokemon and walked away.

Andrea sat down and hung her head. Mudkip walked up to her and nudged her leg trying to get her attention. She turned to look at him and noticed he had a stern look on his face.

"What do you want me to do? I can't just send you out there to lose. You don't know any water moves yet. The Geodude would have won that matchup for sure," Andrea said trying to reason with her Pokemon.

Mudkip turned his head and looked away from her.

"I'm sorry. I just need to work harder and get you stronger. This was my fault," Andrea said trying to comfort him.

Mudkip turned around and sat down staring at the ground. Andrea reached out to pet him but he pulled away from her.

"Come on Mudkip, let's go home," Andrea said as she packed up her things and headed back to Rustboro.

Mudkip followed closely behind her still hanging his head. They walked for ten minutes without saying anything to each other. Andrea would occasionally glance at her Pokemon trying to understand what bothered him so much. When she got home, she greeted her mother and sat down to have dinner. Mudkip ran upstairs to the room.

"Did something happen, Anne? You seem a little upset," Andrea's mother asked with concern.

"No I'm fine mom; I just lost a battle," Andrea replied.

"Oh don't worry it's just one battle. You can't win them all you know. Besides you're just starting you'll get better as you go on," her mother replied trying to cheer her up.

"I know. That's not the problem. The thing is, Mudkip's mad at me," Andrea said.

"Why? Did you two fight?" her mother asked.

"No I didn't let him battle the trainer I was up against. He didn't have any water move so the Geodude would have beaten him easily," Andrea responded.

"Anne! Why did you do that? You didn't even let him at least make a move?" her mother replied in a stern voice.

"It didn't make sense. He would lose," Andrea responded in a somewhat angry tone.

"He would have lost but at least he would have learned from it and so would you. You didn't even give him a chance," she continued.

"What's the point? He wouldn't have won," Andrea said.

"That doesn't matter Andrea. Let him try. The little guy was obviously eager to give an effort. Don't tell him he shouldn't battle. Even if he would lose he wanted to work as hard as he could and you took that away from him. That hurts a lot more you know," Andrea's mom explained.

"How would it hurt more? I don't get it," Andrea seemed puzzled.

"You know what you tell him when you say don't battle because you will lose? Whether it's true or not do you know what you instill in his mind when you say that? It says you don't believe in him," she clarified.

"I didn't even know. You really think that's true?" Andrea asked in a regretful tone.

"Look at him. Really look at him. Do you think he's mad or hurt?" she asked. "If I were you I would go up there and talk to him," Andrea's mom advised.

"Okay, I will," Andrea said as she got up from the table and went up the steps.

Andrea went up to her room and saw Mudkip sitting on her bed. She walked up and sat next to him.

"Hey, you okay?" she probed.

He turned to her and she could see the poor little thing was full of sorrow.

"I'm sorry Mudkip. I didn't know how much that battle meant to you. I just didn't want to see you lose. It was my fault. I should have put in more work. I should have let you learn how to use your abilities first before accepting his challenge. I can't believe I let myself make such a stupid mistake," Andrea said sounding more and more frustrated. "I agreed to the battle because I wanted to look tough but in my head I knew I wasn't fully prepared for it. All always used to tell me not to make rash decisions and to know for sure what it is I want and to stop being so indecisive. I jumped headfirst into this whole trainer thing and never once thought about what it's like to have a Pokemon, the fact that they have their own personalities as well, or any of that stuff. I thought that maybe if I studied extra hard, got really good grades, and worked with All that I could be like him but no matter what I did he did it better. Earlier he told me that if it came to it and we ever battled, it would be extra hard for me because his Pokemon can easily beat you at your strongest and I know that even if I got a type to give me an advantage he would have some way to stop it and then I'd have to think and plan out an entire team to," she got cut off by Mudkip.

He barked out at her and gave her a stern look. She tried to speak again but again he cut her off and gave her the same look. He walked into her lap and nudged her with his snout before looking at her in the eye. He repeated the action three times before she started to understand.

"I get it. I wasn't afraid of you losing. I was afraid of myself losing. I don't know what to do after All said that he would beat me, even if I got strong," she asked her Pokemon.

Mudkip jumped off the bed and used Tackle on her nightstand that had a picture of her and her brother. He clutched the picture in his mouth and tore it in half.

"Mudkip what are you doing?" Andrea shouted.

He climbed back up on the bed with the two halves in his mouth and laid them out for her to see. He tapped on her half with his foot then pointed at her with his snout.

"Yes it's me. What about it?" Andrea asked trying to figure out the meaning of his strange action.

He walked over to All's half and tapped on it with his foot then looked at her and shook his head from side to side. He walked back over to her picture tapped it and nodded, then walked back to All's , tapped it and shook his head. Andrea finally realized what he was saying and raised her hand to cover her face. Mudkip kicked off All's half of the photo and brought Andrea's half to her. She raised her head and saw him put the picture down in front of her, sit behind it, and smile. Once again he tapped it and pointed at her.

"I get it. I get it Mudkip. That's me. All is not me, but how do I be good if I'm not like him?" Andrea asked choking back tears.

Mudkip walked back into her lap and once again nudged her with his snout.

"Inside me, what does that mean?" Andrea asked.

Mudkip nodded and smiled.

"It's inside me. I just have to find it by being me and not being All. That's what you're saying right?" she asked.

Mudkip looked at her and nodded with a big smile.

"Okay but how? How do I find it?" Andrea asked wanting eagerly to know.

Mudkip walked off the bed, grabbed Andrea's Pokeballs containing himself and Shroomish, jumped back on the bed, set them in front of her, and tapped each one. Afterwards he sat down, looked at her and smiled.

"Of course, you guys will help me?" Andrea tried to understand.

Mudkip nodded and smiled.

She picked him up, hugged him, and said, "Thank you so much Mudkip. I understand."

Mudkip cried out and nuzzled her lovingly. She set him back down and patted his head tenderly.

"You really are a clever little Pokemon aren't you?" Andrea joked.

Mudkip cried out and smiled as if to say "yes".

"Alright Mudkip tomorrow we're going to train hard. I'll try my best and no matter what I won't ever pull you out of a battle like that again. You just put your faith in me alright?" Andrea asked as she extended her hand out as a means of making an agreement.

Mudkip put his little foot in her hand and the two shook solidifying the deal.

Andrea rested that night with Mudkip comfortably nestled at her side. She petted him while he slept and felt reassured that with him keeping her on the right path, she could learn to walk it herself.