I don't own pokemon, I wonder if I'll forget to do this eventually?...

Natalie had been waiting at the station for an hour all the while her stomach was getting tighter and tighter knots. She just knew that something had gone wrong. After turning this thought over in her head for the dozenth time she got up to talk to the officer. As she walked through the cubicles up to the officer the phone rang, when the officer picked it up and talked into it for only a instant his face fell into one of the saddest expressions Natalie had ever seen on a grown-up. In fact it reminded her of the same haunted look that her dad had the night that they reported mom and Jason's murders. At the sight of the officer putting the phone down on the desk and a tear running down his cheek, her heart started to pound furiously. She turned from the weeping officer that had not yet looked up and began to run toward the door. The second officer was holding his head in his hands as she ran past the desks and out the door. In an instant he stood up from the desk and called "Wait! Some of the Rockets escaped! You're not safe out there come back!"

"I'm not staying here! I-I'll become a trainer, then no one will ever be able to hurt me!" Natalie sobbed

The officer continued to run after her but she soon came to the river by the sea cave and began to swim across. "Dammit." said the officer "Come back the cave is forbidden to citizens! There's dangerous Pokemon you could be killed!" His call faded as she ran into the cave. He followed her into the cave and called out to her as she ran further in. The echo resounded across the cavern and just as he started to give chase however a wild Rhydon appeared and used a small Earthquake to scare the officer away. Unfortunately the cavern couldn't take it and collapsed all around the Rhydon and officer.

Natalie was only a small way into the cavern when she heard a roar and felt a rumbling when she heard some rocks fall near the front of cavern and some fell close in her section of the cave. One flew down and smacked her against the wall. She pulled herself up against the wall as she tasted the metallic taste of blood in her mouth. Her lip was split. the rocks ceased to fall around her and Natalie focused on the prickling feeling in her gums on the right side of her mouth. She was about to check if her teeth were falling out when she heard a short yell and ran back to the entrance. She was about to run up to the trapped Rhydon when aother Rhydon appered next to her. She was very startled at first, until she saw some bullet holes in it's hide. She gasped it could only be Isamu! He was at the raid! Natalie ran up and hugged him and she gave him a hug. Isamu gave a friendly grumbling sound that Natalie knew was his version of laughter. he released her as he walked up to the point where the yells and vae-in had originated.

The officer barely got out a yell when he was crushed by boulders weighing half a ton. The Rhydon wasn't so lucky either the boulders kept falling as he pushed them away and a large one fell on it's leg, crushing it. The Rhydon roared in pain as the rocks of he cavern ceased to fall, he cried out for his kind for help when lo and behold another Rhydon he had never seen before wobbled up to him. This Rhydon hadn't lived in the cave the wild Rhydon noticed, he had the demeanor of one that had been trained by a human, and that had also recently lost something dear. The human, the wild Rhydon thought but it wasn't his concern. "Will you help me? I tried to scare away the human but the rock from the ceiling fell and killed him and trapped my leg."

"Yes I will help you. This is my home now and you are now my family. Bu I must do one more thing in honor of my dead friend and master. I must unblock the entrance of rocks for this human offspring so she can leave. She is too small to be here." a Rhydon with strange holes in him stated.

"Great Arceus do those holes hurt?" the wild Rhydon said as his eyes widened

"They were given to me by the same humans who killed my friend." "They are why I am here now" the Rhydon said

"Humans seem to be nothing but trouble, why are you helping the young one?" the wild Rhydon said but froze suddenly as a young human appeared from the darkness of the cave and stood next to the new one. He gave a small growl that didn't even get a reaction from her, she seemed to overwhemled to care about her surroundings. But he figured that he didn't look very scary by the way he was trapped, so he ignored her and focused his attention back on the newcomer as he said

"Because I have been to the human place with my master where she and her family lived. They were kind humans and were both our friends. I was at the attack today and her father was killed by the same men who killed my dear friend Daisuke." "I like to think that Daisuke would be happy with me to help her." Isamu stated

"Yes that would be honorable." he began to push some of the rocks near him away. "Help me get out and I'll help you with your task and take you to my friends. Should we tend to your wounds first though?" he asked.

"No I'll be alright, my rock skin makes them an irritant. Thank you though, what is your name?" Isamu asked as he began to shift the rocks.

"My name is Doho, and she does seem to be from kind human stock." Doho said as he observed Natalie trying to lift a small rock away from those that trapped him despite the blood dripping down her front. "Only a few more ah-!" he suddenly cried out as he shifted his leg.

"Oh no are you ok Rhydon?" Natalie said worried as she noticed his wince of pain.

Doho gave a small grin and friendly growl as he untwisted his leg and shoved off the last big boulder. Doho stood up ignoring his sore leg, and proceeded to the front of the cavern and began shifting the rocks from the entrance. Isamu soon joined him and even Natalie tried to give assistance, that is until Isamu shifted a big boulder that rolled toward her and nearly squished her. She dodged the rock and Isamu pushed her away until he and Doho cleared the entrance. When the rocks were clear and the sunlight filtered through the entrance it dazzled Natalie, Isamu and Doho. Isamu then led Natalie out of the cave and pointed her up towards a narrow field between the mountain and the river. Natalie knew what he meant, that was the direction of her family's cottage, but she knew she was only going to go home for supplies and to clean herself up. She hugged Isamu who hugged her back gently as possible but then he turned back into the cave with his new friend. Natalie turned and started Northward through the field and pondered her life now set out before her.

"I am now wild like Isamu." she said aloud to herself "He and I have now lost everything and this is our life now. Travelling for me, and cave-dwelling for him. With this life I will run away from my sadness and become strong enough to get back at the mean people, staying here would remind me of how helpless I am. No more... no more will I be weak."

She continued at a steady pace as the sun set and the grassy field turned into an open dirt road expanse before a forest. She knew the cottage was only a little ways into the trees. She was very hungry now and sped up her pace to her temporary shelter when among the trees near her family's property she saw a small flame in the darkness. She paused and considered leaving but she ad no supplies, so she knew she had to continue, maybe she could spy on the thing first and find out what it was? So she sped up to the house and as she got closer she observed that the flame revealed a sillouette of a Pokemon next to the house. She knew that she was in no state to fight anything, but she also thought that most wild Pokemon would avoid human places so this one must be trained. With this reasoning she gathered her courage and crept closer to the sillouette, as she approached it turned jerkily towards her. It was a Charmander! It gave a small wimper and shyed away from her, that was when Natalie was close enough to see bruises over a fair amount of it's body and a shallow cut on it's chest. She immediately felt sorry for it. It looked as scared and beat up as she did, she wanted to help this poor Charmander.

"Hey there little... buddy" she said as she crept cautiously over to it, she wasn't sure if it was a boy or girl as there were no distinguishing marks, but she was determined to continue "I see that you are hurt, I am too, would you like to come with me into this house and I can try to fix us both up and get food?"

The Charmander whimpered longingly, but didn't move. It seemed that it wasn't sure it could trust her yet.

"Please Charmander, I... I just lost my whole family in a very short time, I can't stay here but I need a partner." as Natalie said the word 'partner' the Charmander shifted closer. Natalie was encouraged by this and felt a thrumming in her heart and continued "I don't know what you've suffered through my friend, but we can help each other." We'll both become strong." Natalie finished but backed away as the Charmander grolwed and shook it's head at the word strong.

"I don't understand. Don't you want to be partners?" Natalie asked, confused at the abrupt change of attitude. "We can be strong together."

The Charmander calmed and stared at her again and gave a soft growl in it's own name. She didn't know how, but she understood why the Charmander calmed at her words. "You have always been asked to be strong immediately, with no effort from your trainer right?" Natalie said as her words seemed to come from a place deep within her heart that she hadn't even known existed until now. "You..you moved at the word 'partner', you've always been a slave." The Charmander nodded sadly

"Well no more! I will be your friend!" Natalie barked. The Charmander was startled and fell on it's butt at the outburst but she continued anyway, the feeling in her heart growing.

"I need to be stronger too Charmander! I can't do it without you! We-we were meant to meet. We come from humans and Pokemon that is true, but something binds us, we both have been hurt by bad people and if we join together and train together we can become so strong that one day we will face them and make them regret the day they hurt us!" Natalie finished with aplomb. The Charmander stood up slowly and suddenly growled out a word, now it was Natalie's turn to be startled she thought for sure that she could understand him, for the voice suddenly became distinctly boyish, as though an unknown barrier had been broken.

"What did you say?" Natalie asked again, she wanted to be sure.

"Friend."

"I can understand you Charmander." Natalie said as the shock of the fact was rapidly being replaced with happiness, a happiness she had not felt since her mother and brother had been killed.

"Yesrr." the Charmander said as he approached her and licked her hand. "Chriend nowrr."

She could barely fathom it, but in the intense moment of confession she remebered her heart thrumming and how she could understand him a little, she still felt shocked, but the feeling was there though it had now faded somewhat. She could still understand him though, so she knew a bond had been formed. She thought that she might as well use the situation to aid them so she tried to break the ice some more.

"Hey Charmander lets go into my old home and clean us up and get food, maybe we can talk some more?" she thrummed merrily.

"Char! Charmanood!" Charmander trilled excitedly.

She only understood the last bit, it appeared that they both needed to focus now in order to speak the same Natalie mused. Never the less she brought him into the house and gathered bandages and ointments from the bathroom and tried to clean them both up the best she could. When they both had been bandaged up to the best of her ability (which was still somewhat lacking, but adequate) and she had enjoyed the prickly sensation of ridding herself of her loose baby teeth, she began to prepare some rice for them. Natalie was by no means at all a master chef, but rice was very simple and she prepared a large amount for the both of them as she knew that she was definitley hungry. As they devoured the first half of their bowls Natalie tried to focus again on the feeling that she had felt earlier. The strange stirring in her heart, the she felt it, it was very faint, but since she felt it she proceeded to ask Charmander "Hey Charmander, since we want to be friends do you want a nickname so I don't have to call you by creature name?"

Charmander looked up from his bowl with flecks of rice still on his face and said. "Cha-I like thatrr, whatder name?"

"I don't know." Natalie growled she looked around the living space for ideas and her eyes rested upon a green pillow of her brothers' that had her favorite cartoon charcter on it.

"How about Taz?" Natalie asked and rumbled at the same time. Without being able to distinguish between when the rumbling started and the asking stopped.

"Chaes. Mandat good namerr." Taz laughed

Natalie laughed along with him. It was so fun that the two of them didn't stop for a couple of minutes. When they finally had to catch their breath they stopped laughing, although they continued giggling for a minute until Natalie growl-talked-

"Okay Taz we have to go to bed, we can only stay here one night, and we have to pack in the morning for our journey."

" Charou not bossder of me." Taz winked and continued "Don'r you humerss havder be olderr to train?"

Natalie frowned, she hadn't thought of that yet. But she remembered why she wanted to begin training in the first place and her heart stirred again as she rumbled." We have a more loving partnership tahn many of the older trainers out there could ever hope for Taz." Taz shifted and adorned a serious look and nodded so she continued, "I have a small amount of money for a Pokeball and a book that will enable us to live off the wildplants. We will grow stronger together, but it will be you stay by me and we can help each other with our revenge?"

Taz shook his head "Pokemon don't havrr such chareas." My charld charinerr didn't ker mander forrr a week. He is dead to me. I love you nowrr" Taz finished with resoultion.

"Thank you Taz. I wish that I could forget my troubles as easily as you. But it would be an insult to my family to do so." Natalie growled.

Taz nodded, assured her that he would help her and they settled down to sleep. This night was the start of a partnership that brought much hope and love to two creatures that sorely needed it.

AN: No this is not you're run-of-the-mill corny special partnership. I took a significant idea from a great childrens novel for their conversation and union: The language that everyone can understand. Bonus points if you know where that's from... If you can guess or not, i'll still try to work fast and well for the next chapter.

AN: Yes I did like the prickly sensation of pulling out my baby teeth when I was a kid, yep I'm crazy. :)