"Where are you?!" My voice has made my decision for me.

Keep heading west. Hurry!

I nod and take off sprinting towards the last renegade rays of sunlight. My friend howls and yelps to alert me of his location.

I know I'm at least some fifty yards away.

My lungs ignite with each gulp of oxygen; my ears strain to hear my friend. I cannot see at all anymore, the night has stolen all the colors and definition in the world. I slow to a trot and listen hard.

Pl-please. Please hurry.

The whimpering is pathetic, but it is close. I'm afraid I took too long.

I do not let fear destroy my headstrong commitment to this rescue, "Friend, I'm here. Please help me see you. It's so dark."

I don't really know what I was expecting. I know I wasn't expecting a great orange flame to shoot up into the sky twenty feet to my left.

I hustle towards this flame as if entranced by its spell only to realize that the flame illuminated shadowy faces I'd previously failed to recognize.

My friend is there, a brilliant looking hell hound, with sleek black fur and a ferocious skeletal structure jutting out the front side of him. He is weak, and he is hovering over the body of a girl.

He bears a mouth full of vicious, yellow teeth and snarls at two men. They were older, though I would not have been prepared to say how old they were. They were husky looking in tight white tee shirts and tighter black leather jackets.

The one closest to me notices me first.

The sight of me causes him to belt out in rumbling, malicious laughter.

"Oh look mate. We've got ourselves a hero."

His 'mate' breaks joins him with an obnoxious cackle of his own. "You're damn right we do. Say, maybe 'e wants to play a lit'l game wif us."

"What about it, 'hero'?" The other looks at me. I notice he is taller than his 'mate.' He holds up fat fingers to make emphatic quotations in the air. "Wanna play a game?"

I draw in an audible breath, "eh, can't say I'm interested. Why don't you leave my friend alone."

I take a few steps closer to try and appear threatening.

I am not threatening.

This is the moment when I recognize that I have bitten off more than I can chew.

I remind myself that anything is worth saving a friend. I feel my resolve take me over.

"We already 'ad our way wif your friend, she ain't never gonna to be the same," the two men meet my step forward. Whatever they find so amusing about what they've done, I fail to find amusing myself. "But I 'spose you can 'ave the leftovers." The tall ones smile slowly morphs into a chesire grin, and I hear the flick of a switchblade.

I assess my options. I am in a wooded thicket along the cove, two miles from the town. Just me, my friend, that girl my friend is protecting, and two fat sons of bitches.

I laugh, watching their eyebrows knit in confusion. "I was talking about the Pokémon, but I guess you could stand to leave the girl alone too."

The tall one makes for a quick stab. I duck and grab his leg.

He topples onto a something with thorns.

His partner grabs a hold of my wrist. "Think you're hot shit, eh?" I can feel his spit on my face.

He twists my wrist.

"No!"

The pain makes my vision crawl with white stars. The white stars consume me, covering the affected arm.

I yelp, lean into him and shove him off. I stop to catch my breath.

His buddy is staggering back to his feet.

I accept I can't go it alone this time.

"Friend! I need your help. Just this once!"

I hear my friend move away from the girl's body.

I get behind one of the men, grabbing a meaty arm. I hear incomprehensible curses in my ear, the adrenaline drowns out the details.

I grab his arm, kick his back, and pull at the most unnatural angle I can muster.

The cracking bone resonates throughout the otherwise silent thicket.

I let go.

Everything is still for a moment.

A burst of infernal fire rushes past. I see the two men, one debilitated, running out of the woods. Farther west.

Away from the city.

I fall to my knees, clutch my wrist, and pull in a few deep breaths. "Friend." I am wheezing. "I am so sorry. I did not want you to fight for me. You are free to make your own choices. I didn't want to take that away from you." I breathe deeper, my lungs searching the air I drew in for some oxygen.

I did it because I wanted to do it. It is nothing. We need to get back to a safe place. My friend lumbers towards me and buries his head in my stomach. My friend is an awfully mild-mannered demon.

"You're right, Medical attention would be nice, I guess." I laugh despite myself. I get up, pat his enormous head, and begin to walk.

Urgent barks cause me to stop. "What is it?!" I wasn't sure I was prepared to handle any more unexpected occurrences. "We're going now."

The girl.

Oh, yeah. I had disregarded that fact up until now.

Thinking about her made my wrist throb. I felt like I knew what my friend would have me do.

She's coming with us. She is my trainer. And my friend.

Trainers never treat their Pokémon well. This is true.

I don't understand why my friend is saying the things he is. My friends also never lie. The affection for the girl is peculiar enough. "She's unconscious."

Carry her.

I knew it.

There is no use in denying a friend.

I look her over, and readjust soggy, tattered clothing to give a facade of decency. She has this long flow of matted curls saturated with saltwater. Her skin is rough and salty and tan. Blood trickles out from cuts here and there and bruises remain well disguised in the dark.

"I don't know if she's… going to be okay."

She will be.

I did not want to tell my new friend that I was not exactly eager for a two mile trek back to town with extra baggage. "Okay."

Okay.

…

The walk was worse than I thought it would be. And I never had high expectations. My injured wrist was swelling under the girls' weight, and my legs slowly were turning to jelly. I had to stop to catch my breath far too often. The more I was forced to look down at the girl, the more I was convinced that my slow pace and rough handling would kill her.

She looked like a broken Butterfree. One side of her chest would inflate when the she would breathe out, and would deflate when she took a breath in, giving the overall look of an insect that's feebly twitching away its final moments. She did not open her eyes. And she was growing colder as the journey wore on.

I constantly resolved to quicken my pace.

Even more often I was halted my own limitations.

"Friend, I fear for her condition. Let's move quickly."

He didn't seem to want to reply. He stopped, then, thinking better of it, yes. Could you tell me where we are? Your name? We are not from around here.

It was a diversion. He knew I spoke the truth. "My name is N. This is Unova. What are you friend? I've never seen you're like before."

Unova? I've never heard of that. There is Kanto, and Jhoto, I know nothing beyond that. I am Houndoom. My name is Ombra.

"Did you just say…Kanto, and Jhoto? We're a long—"

We are from Jhoto.

"Still! If you're telling the truth friend," I was getting my energy back with all this surprise. I'd heard of Jhoto, sure, but it was one forever and a half away from Unova, "-and I'm sure you are. What are you doing here?"

We were in an accident at sea. Washed up here a few hours ago. Got attacked by those thugs. The rest you know about.

This story was impossible. "If you were at sea, not in a pokeball, you never could have made it."

I was in a pokeball.

"Well, how did you get out?"

Last feeble moments of consciousness from that girl in your arms when we washed up on shore.

I slowed down and considered this. "So…accident at sea. Are you willing to elaborate?"

I think we're close to town.

Ombra, my friend, was right. The soft, yellow lights of Undella town were coming into view. I began to hasten towards the Pokémon center.

I barreled inside, followed by my limping companion. The nurses gaped at the scene unfolding before them. A soggy, tired boy carrying an indecent, emergent girl, followed by a wounded and foreign Pokémon.

The nurse kneeled down to my position, 'horror' could have legitimately been written across her face. "What happened?"

I sighed and met her gaze. "I found her and my friend… this Pokémon, about two miles west of the main bay area. They were washed up on the shore, and were attacked by two men. That's all I know."

She nods. "Thank you. Are you hurt?"

I look away. "Maybe. I don't know."

"Okay." She calls for help and a parade of Chancey's bring stretchers. Other nurses gather round to see the girl. One of the nurses mumbles something about hemothorax, flail chest, hypothermia… I'm losing consciousness over their assessment.

One of them leads my friend away for treatment. I try to follow.

"No. You should stay with the girl, in the area that treats people. We have that here. The Pokémon will be fine." She begins to walk away before I can begin my rebuttal.

Keep her safe.

I nod. And smile. I didn't know there were Pokémon that could be happy with their trainers. But I'm exhausted. And I'll mull this all new information over later.

I follow them into the Emergency Room. They don't insist on treating my injuries right away. They are preoccupied with the girl.

They are cutting her skin open and inserting a tube in the opening between the ribs. I watch blood trickle down the tube into the collection device. They throw a mask on her and rip off the soiled saltwater clothes. A fresh gown ends up on her after hooking her up to a few more machines. One of the nurses muses about bathing her later, when she's stable.

I watch the nurses and their Pokémon go to and fro the bedside, like insects coming and going from a hive. After thirty minutes and a few sweaty brows they announce that she is stable.

Ombra will be happy that she made it.

I personally admit that I am shocked that she did.

"Hey, honey. Let me see that wrist." the nurse has taken the seat next to me.

I hold it out to her.

"Hmm. It's really quite edematous. And it's red. But I don't think it's broken." She paused, looking at my face this time. "You know, you really are quite the hero."

Suddenly, I wanted to tell her about the legendary dragons. About my ideals. How I would be an actual hero someday.

I wanted to, but I decided not to. The feeling left just as quickly as it had consumed me.

I didn't mean to just tell people about my 'quest.' That would complicate things for father. Besides, the 'quest' apparently came with detours.

I felt very obligated to stay with my friend, Ombra. At least until the girl woke up. I needed to see Ombra just one more time, to know he was okay. I set out on this detour for his sake. So I naturally have to see it through.

I gave the nurse a weak smile, "yeah, I guess so. I'm just glad I found them. Who knows what would have happened."

She put her hand on mine and locked our gazes. "You did a good thing. But you need your rest, too, hero. Listen, there's a vacant bed in this same room. If you use it for the remainder of the night, we won't charge you. I'm going to see if I can get you prescribed something for pain, I'll be back after I call the doctor. I'll write you in the notes as an outpatient."

"Okay. Thank you."

She gave my hand one last reassuring squeeze and took off just as hurriedly as she had come in. I wondered how my friend was doing. But the tiredness was slowly getting to me. I took one last look on the unexpected finding on the rescue mission. She was young, she was pretty, and it was unfortunate, about that accident. I assume it is polite to think about it that way.

I lie down in the vacant bed, and take off my hat and shoes. My eyes get heavy with situational exhaustion.

Yeah, it was a shame about that accident. But accidents happen, I guess…