Chapter 2

My trainer is so much fun. I wish this could've happened sooner. This seemingly random thought reminds Autumn of something Fitzjerald had once said, a long time ago. He had expressed that being caught is a bad thing and all trainers are mean and nasty. Autumn bought this story; she had been young and impressionable at the time. But now she that she was older and experiencing having a trainer herself, she loved it. Stargazing by the fire at night, just her, her trainer, and the houndour, whose name was Trigger, watching the sky. I wonder...what kind of heartless person could've been Fitz's trainer? Who could've been so mean to make a pokémon hate all trainers? Autumn sits inside her poké ball and ponders these questions, starting to remember more and more about Fitzjerald. Then, without warning, a psychic vision hits her.
It was one of the past, she could sense it, a tall imposing figure stood before her. His expression was one of hate and loathing. "I can't believe it...of all the pokémon I could've gotten, I got a useless trapinch." He kicks Autumn, or rather, the pokémon whose memory Autumn was channeling. Her vision blurs, the pokémon was crying. I couldn't get away...I was too slow. This is my punishment for being slow... The vision begins to fade.
Autumn emerges from the vision, shaking her head to clear it. "That was, Fitz, when he was little." she gasps, for some reason channeling the memory was physically tiring. "That explains why he hates trainers and humans in general. I understand now. I wonder if he could ever learn to have a trainer again... she wonders as she gently floats off to sleep.

Fitzjerald sat in a pool of his own self-pity. He was truly a pathetic sight. Since Autumn disappeared, he has cried himself to sleep most nights. He walks everywhere because he's too sad to fly and becomes depressed whenever something reminds him of her.
He was sitting on a grassy hill, watching a storm roll across the sky and thinking of Autumn, when a claw taps him gently on the shoulder. A female flygon gives him a worried look as she sits next to him. "What's wrong?" she asks, genuinely concerned for Fitzjerald.
"A friend of mine was captured. I can't find her." he manages to answer between sobs.
"Oh, that happened to me once." the female flygon continued, "I had a skarmory friend, his name was Blade, and he was taken by trainers in weird looking clothes." she furrows her brow in thought. She takes to glancing between Fitzjerald's face and a spot on the ground, like she wanted him to look at her but she was afraid of him looking her in the eye.
"Autumn. She was an absol, my friend and companion all through childhood." he blinks away tears, reminiscing about Autumn made him miss her more, "I...had been abandoned by my trainer because...he thought I was...weak and... useless."
"Poor baby." She says in a comforting tone, stroking back his antennae.
"He released me after catching a poochyena. I remember it because it left scars." he leans his neck over and points at the base by his shoulder. Three thin strips of lighter green stands out against his skin. He lifts his arm and shows a U-shaped formation of scars, a bite mark. The female flygon just looked at the scars in horror. Fitzjerald just sat quietly, his expression moving from sadness to anger, "He left me in critical condition. Just walked away and I, the young and stupid pokémon I was, clung to life believing he'd come back. But the hours passed, it grew dark and cold. I had come to realize that he was long gone. I would've given up right there if I hadn't seen...her."
"Her?"
Fitzjerald nodded, "Autumn. She was like a pokémon angel glowing orange against the shadows of night. A shiny absol had come to me, a lowly and critically injured trapinch on the verge of death. She had worry written in her face as she approached me, dropping a berry in front of me to ask if I was alright." he smiles at the fond memory, it had made him feel better, "I ate the berry she gave me and we never left each other's side since...til now, that is."
The female flygon nods along to his story, edging in closer every once in a while until she was laying her head on his shoulder. She looks down the road below them, a shadowy figure is visible in the distance, "What do you think that is?" she asks him pointing.
Fitzjerald looks to where she points, "It's probably just some trainer." he looks to the ground, "We should probably go. Don't want to get caught." he starts to get up.
The female stops him, "No, stay with me. Besides, you could probably defeat that trainer. A big, strong flygon like you." she flirts.
Fitzjerald settles back down stiffly, "I suppose, if I tried I probably could." a little sideways smile crosses his face, "Yeah, I can take it."
"Of course you can." she agrees. The figure had gotten closer now; close enough to tell it was a male trainer dressed in a dark and well-worn purple jump suit. It had white pin striping on the seams, looking somewhat like a racing outfit. Closer still and they could see the orange pack, stained from traveling. The figure stops directly below the pair and looks up, Fitzjerald recognizes him, "It's him." he growls.
"Who?"
"The trainer that abandoned me." every feature of Fitzjerald's face contorted with hate, "I'm going to teach him a lesson." with that, he dive-bombed the trainer. Plunking down in the middle of the path, blocking any further progress. Fitz lowers his head and growls, challenging the oblivious trainer to a battle.
"What the...a flygon." the trainer smirks, "Don't have one of those yet. Go, Mightyena!" he hurls a poké ball into the sky. It snaps open to pour the white light onto the ground, revealing a large and scruffy mightyena. It growls as the sky darkens, the sun had set now and a nasty looking storm had started to roll in.
Lightning flashes as Fitzjerald and the mightyena stare each other down.
"Mightyena, bite attack, now!" the trainer issues the call and the hound runs forward, teeth bared.
Fitzjerald just waits until the mightyena is close enough before delivering a swift uppercut to its lower jaw, causing it to yelp in surprise as it tumbles to the side. It shakes its head, growling at Fitzjerald, "Blast you!" it yells, "Wait a minute...those scars. Are you that pathetic little trapinch I pulverized when I was a pup? Thought you'd be dead by now." it smirks, awaiting response to the taunt.
Fitzjerald cracks his knuckles, "For one, I'm not a trapinch anymore. For two, I don't take kindly to being left for dead." Fitzjerald sends a steady glare into the mightyena's eyes, hardly blinking.
The mightyena falters, quite intimidated.
"Mightyena! What are you waiting for? I gave you and order! Bite, again!" the trainer yells impatiently.
Mightyena gathers itself and launches at Fitzjerald again. Fitzjerald counters with a kangaroo-style kick and a fire blast, singing the hound's fur.
The trainer grimaces as he recalls the mightyena, "Blasted worthless pokemon." he mutters as he brings out another poke ball, "Go, Jynx!" it appears with a smooch and a wink to Fitzjerald.
"Jynx, Ice Beam."
Fitzjerald had no time to dodge as the freezing blast hit him in the chest, winding him and leaving him severely weakened.
The female flygon moves slightly as if she wants to help him but doesn't want to get frozen, "Come on, Fitz! You can handle this thing."
He rises slowly, snorting fire out his nose angrily, "Never underestimate the will power of a mad dragon."
"Jynx, Sweet Kiss." the jynx blows a kiss to Fitzjerald.
He ignores the little heart that floats toward him, flicking it away from his face. He lunges forward, biting firmly onto the Jynx's shoulder and blasting fire directly onto it.
It shrieks shrilly as its energy drains. In the confusion, the trainer tries a poke ball.
Fitzjerald releases the Jynx to crunch down on the poke ball with his teeth, shattering it into several pieces.
The Jynx sways and topples over, its weakness to fire too much to overcome. A vein throbs in the trainer's temple as he recalls the jynx. He unclips his third and final poke ball, "You'd better not faint." he mutters to it, "Go, Dragonite!" the light forms into a tall, round figure. Wings sprout as the color floods the form and a beautiful dragonite stands before Fitz, waving girlishly.
"No flirting with the enemy! Dragon Claw, Now!"
The dragonite pouts before she lashes out with glowing claws.
Fitzjerald dodges and tries to strike back. He knows he doesn't have a lot left to give in this fight and that he'd be caught if he lost, "I refuse to belong to that trainer ever again." he swings his tail, knocking the dragonite off balance and ending her attack. Fitzjerald stands and pants heavily, "I will not lose to your pets, Jeremy!" Fitzjerald points a claw at the trainer, his point clear even though the trainer couldn't understand the pokemon language Fitzjerald was using.
The dragonite struggles back to her feet, waiting for another order from her trainer. The trainer narrows his eyes at Fitzjerald, "Leave it, I don't have time for this."
Fitzjerald and the dragonite get puzzled expressions at his readiness to give in, "Return." the ball shoots the familiar red beam toward the dragonite and she dissolves, returning to her ball. Jeremy turns and walks back the way he came, muttering something about wasted time and poke centers.
Fitzjerald sways slightly and collapses, to energy of staying upright became too much. He breathes deeply as the female flygon approaches, "Are you alright?" she cradles his face in her claws to look him in the eyes.
He struggles to stand again, brushing the dirt off himself, "I'll be fine. We should move on." he turns to smile at the female.
"You want me to come with you?"
"Sure. We can help each other. Me to help you find Blade and you can help me find Autumn."
She smiles and nods, walking over to him and taking his arm. The two then take off into the sky, regardless of the storm, and fly side by side into the horizon.