He said up and looked at me, "That really stung!"

I began to laugh hysterically. Here I was, expecting my first and only partner to be dead! But that was not the case, he was very well alive.

And whiny.

I collapsed onto my sleeping bag in front of the fire to catch my breath and relax a second, maybe even drift off for a quick nap.

Standing over me is Tom struggling to hold up the bucket of fish in his arms and my fishing pole in his mouth.

I sat up quickly to assist him before he spilt dead fish all over me.

"You can't sleep until you've cooked!" he said.

"But didn't you eat while you were catching these?" I asked.

"Well, yeah but those were just light snacks!" Tom snapped back, offended. "I don't enjoy a full meal unless it is with my friends!" Tom said in a stern tone. "At least that was the rule back home." he said, looking to the sky with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Oh, like with your group back at the enclosure?" I asked.

He nodded and closed his eyes. "It's only been a day and I miss them already."

Why didn't I think to take his whole group?!

He opened his eyes and stared at me, as if he had heard my thoughts. "I wouldn't have wanted you to capture them. Jet, err... the tailow doesn't trust humans because a group of hunters killed his mom and almost him, too." Tom said in a sad tone.

"Oh my arceus! That's horrible!"

Tom nodded and continued " The fennekin, Aria, had been abandoned by her trainer after only a week because she couldn't quite comprehend how to use her fire at a moments notice." Tom scoffed at his words and continued. " The scatterbug, who we have come to call Skitz, was beaten and abused from the day he was born. Once his egg had hatched his mother, a vivillon, shot a small cloud of silvery powder at him and flew off, he started crying like any scared baby would do, that only led to a fletchling attacking him. He managed to escape it and began following a road to the nearest town hoping for a nice person or pokemon to take him in. Of course no trainer wanted him and just fought him for training and left him for dead."

My heart sank at his words. How could these poor pokemon be treated with such cruelty?!

" Wow, I had no idea." was all I could muster. I gave Tom a hard look and said " Well I swear on my life that I won't leave you. Back in the lake...I'm going to get myself a weapon of some sort." He shot me a worried look.

"Look, it would be only to protect you or I when a situation like that happens." I motioned to the dead tentacool's carcass that had washed ashore. His worry changed to contentment and he focused on the fire. " Alright, now that I know your friend's life stories would you mind telling me about yourself?" I asked.

Tom chuckled a bit and looked at me again. " I don't have a tragic backstory. Maybe it's tragic because I don't know my parents but, no. Nothing too special. I was hatched in a lab on a table with two other pokemon, an orange lizard and a green frog, upon hatching we were greeted by a smiling old man known as 'oak' he took care of us and played with us for a while. Until one day two trainers came in and picked up the lizard and frog, it seemed as if they were rivals. I remember the spiky haired one going on about smelling and the other boy with the hat just shaking his head. But after they left oak explained that since I wasn't chosen I would be sent to an enclosure in sinnoh. I guess that's where all lost baby pokemon go."

Spiky hair? A boy with a hat? Could he be talking about red and green? No I'll ask about that later.

" You aren't sad you never knew your parents?" I asked. He shook his head " I can't be sad about what I don't know." he said, sounding bored as he did.

"Ok." I said, not wanting to press the issue any further. "How about we cook up these fish!" I proclaimed trying to raise the turtle's spirits. He brightened up at my words. " Excellent! Let's find some roasting sticks!"

Tom motioned towards the tree he had knocked down earlier. " Perfect!" we both found suitable roasting sticks and proceeded to roast and eat the fish while telling jokes and stories around the fire until we got tired.

A huge yawn escapes me " Hey Tom, put out the fire will ya?" I asked as I rolled up into my sleeping bag. He muttered something about me being lazy and put out the fire with a flurry of bubbles then curled up into his sleeping bag next to me.

Sleeping felt amazing after a day full of excitement.

We were both jolted awake and alert by a loud screech followed by some crackling and hissing. Tom and I both sprung to our feet and scanned the area for what was going on.

The tree we had toppled over was on fire an there was a buneary trapped in some of it's branches and a bit of what looked like a spider web. The little rabbit was covered in blood and large cuts that almost looked like it had bites taken out of it.

Tom shot a concentrated beam of bubbles at the tree to put it out, but the fire was just so fierce and resilient! I emptied out the fish bucket by hastily slopping leftover fish all over our makeshift campsite and raced to the lake to fill it with water while Tom kept up with the bubbles.

The bucket of water and bubbles was finally enough to put out the fire, however the buneary was charred to a crisp by this time.

"What the hell?!" was all I could manage through a wave of pants. " I made sure to put out the fi-" Tom began before he was interrupted by a hiss from behind him.

Tom snapped around to see a larvesta standing atop the partly incinerated tree nibbling on the corpse of the buneary. " A-Ambrosia?" Tom questioned aloud.

The larvesta hissed at him and shot a small ball of fire towards him that he distinguished with his bubbles. "What are you doing here?" He asked, his tone suddenly bright. The larvesta hissed again. "Come on, Ambrosia! I know it's you!" he shouted at the insect.

The insect stopped hissing and cocked it's head at Tom. "Hold on." Tom said as he moved closer to the larvesta. The two pokemon began communicating through a system of growls and screeches. The conversation lasted for a short while and at the end the larvesta was looking quite angry.

" Master! Run!" Tom shouted at me before launching an assault of bubbles on the hissing bug.

"What? Why? Tom what's going on?" I asked, ignoring his orders. " He turned back to shoot me a look of pure anger " Just run!" He shouted in a tone I never heard him use before. I decided he knew what he was doing and quickly ran back to our camp.

I watched Tom battle the larvesta with fear and wonder coursing through me.

The larvesta was shooting flames at Tom that were rendered useless by his bubbles that managed to break through the flurry of flames and make contact with the bug a few times. It screeched out in pain as the bubbles popped in it's face, showering it in water. It's blue eyes suddenly narrowed as it shot out a stream of white silk towards Tom.

Oh fuck! It's gonna trap Tom with the silk!

"Tom! Avoid the silk!" I screamed. Tom nodded his head and jumped over the silk stream, causing the string to get caught on a nearby tree. The larvesta hissed again and made a charge towards Tom. Of course it didn't get close as Tom was relentless with his stream of bubbles. The insect while taking notable damage from the onslaught of bubbles was still charging towards Tom. Once it was about a foot away from Tom it managed to shoot a strand of silk onto Tom's mouth, disabling the further use of bubbles.

Tom started to furiously swipe and claw at the string covering his mouth, however it only served as a distraction to himself and allowed the larvesta to ensnare his legs and lower body into a cocoon of silk.

No! No way am I gonna let some stupid bug eat my only partner!

I sprinted over to the two pokemon as fast as I possibly could. I directed my attention to the larvesta and charged it. With all my might I let loose a fierce kick that sent the small insect flying into the forest screeching all the way.

Tom continued to wildly flail behind me, still entangled in the webbing. "Just stand still!" I shouted at the struggling turtle. He remained still and allowed me to try and tear off the silk. I could only manage to slightly free his legs from the stuff.

He stood up and held up what I assume what is his pointer finger to signify he had an idea. Suddenly he leapt into the air, disappeared into his shell, and began to spin wildly, sending strands of silk in every direction.

The shell landed on the ground and suddenly his limbs and head poked out of the holes, his smiling face suddenly in view.

"So what the hell was that?!" Tom shook his head. "That was Ambrosia." he said. "The larvesta that you had seen at the enclosure? She followed us here because she wanted you as a trainer, but you didn't choose her. Then I suggested she just join us as a team and that didn't go over well..." Tom explained.

"But she never even approached me at the enclosure! When I made eye contact she fled from view!" Tom shrugged "It's not a big deal. All I need to do is make sure not to get caught in that webbing if she attacks again."

"What if she tries setting us on fire while we're asleep, Tom?!" I shrieked at the turtle, feeling distressed.

"She won't. She wants you as a trainer, if anything she'd go after me, and I can beat her." Tom said. "Why are you so worried anyway?" he asked sounding annoyed.

"Because! I know that larvesta have some of the best senses beside psychic pokemon! She will be tracking us down till either she or we die!" Tom's face became thoughtful. "So we kill her or somehow convince her to join our team. There's no other options." Tom said after a while of thinking. " And it won't be easy to make her join us. We might have to nearly kill her to do so."

I really don't want to hurt a pokemon so badly, after all she just wants to be my pokemon... and I already feel so bad for kicking her...

"I guess you're right there." I conceded."Should we find her and go through with the plan? She can't be too far off or too well healed by now." I proposed to the squirtle. He nodded and asked where it was that I kicked Ambrosia to. I pointed off towards the north.

We walked into the forest surrounding the lake, searching for any signs of the larvesta. A few feet in there was a small burn mark on a tree and we knew she would be close. We continued north until we heard a screech come from the left of us.

Sure enough the larvesta had trapped a victim in her web and was using her fangs to suck the life out of the trapped pokemon.

Tom shot at Ambrosia with his bubbles and landed a direct hit. She focused on us and shot us both a loud hiss. I whispered to Tom "On my command, launch yourself at her from inside your shell." Tom nodded and waited at my side.

"Join us or die." I said holding out a pokeball to the larvesta. She hissed and glared at Tom and I.

Tom tensed up next to me but I put a hand on his shoulder to calm him "Not yet." I whispered down to him.

Ambrosia continued to overlook Tom and I as if to weigh her options, and finally let out a small whine as she lowered her head and slowly approached us. I clicked the pokeball to her head and it absorbed her after changing her to red energy. The pokeball gently rocked in my hand.

Once

Twice

Thrice

Click!

And so Ambrosia had joined us. I looked down at Tom. He was smiling up at me and gently clapping.

"Alright, let's head to Sandgem town!" I proclaimed to Tom. He made a small happy sound and we headed south to the exit of the lake. Once we exited the lake and began walking west to Sandgem. Tom hopped onto my shoulder and started digging in my pack. He pulled out the cartridge and a potion.

"Oh, right. I should heal up Ambrosia and set up her translator." I took the items from Tom and released Ambrosia from her pokeball in a loud, white explosion.

She slumped onto the ground and began to whimper. "Oh, it's gonna be okay. Here let me just heal you up." I said as I sprayed a bit of the solution into her wounds. She winced at the pain but quickly got over it.

Once healed up Tom explained to her what was about to happen with the translator chip. She nodded and looked up at me with willing eyes. I bent down and pricked her with the chip, she nipped me in the arm.

"DNA sample retrieved. Please remove the chip from the body of the pokemon and replace it into the cartridge." The familiar robot voice chimed.

Ambrosia looked up at me. "Sorry for biting you." a pleasant female voice that belonged to her said.

"Oh, it's fine. It was probably just a reflex." I told her. "Okay, now we aren't going to hurt you anymore Ambrosia but would you mind explaining yourself a bit?"

She sighed and then nodded. " First off, I would prefer you call me Lydia. Ambrosia is the name my tribe bestowed upon me as a hatchling. I am no longer part of the tribe and do not wish to carry a name with no meaning." She explained.

"Okay, Lydia. What happened to your tribe? Why aren't you still with them?" I asked curious to know about her past.

"First of all, I wasn't accepted by any of my fellow members, due to my abnormal colouring. While the rest of my tribe has yellow horns and green eyes I have red horns and blue eyes."

Was her whole tribe...shiny?

"And it doesn't help that I murdered a few of my brethren."

"You murdered your brothers?!" I asked, surprised at her casual mention of murder.

" Of course. I couldn't stand the constant ridicule so I strung them up in my web and ate them. You see, we may be the same species but our webs are different, we all have individual webs that we can control and manipulate that others can't." She explained, a devilish grin forming over her face.

A pokemon that kills without a second thought. That doesn't bother me for some reason, actually it could be useful.

"Okay. Well as long as you don't go killing me or Tom." I joked.

" I've learned that Tom can easily best me. That is why I so willingly joined you, that and I suppose I have imprinted on you. You now have my love, dedication and protection." she said, a hint of embarrassed-ness infecting her words as she spoke.

"Oh! That makes more sense! I knew larvestas and volcaronas were one of the few pokemon that do that, I just didn't think you would have done so on me!" I said.

"Yes, well at the enclosure when I first saw you I could sense something about you. Something that I liked." she said, even more embarrassed.

" Well, I am happy to have you on the team, Lydia." I said feeling full of pride that she would think that of me. "Now, you must know we will be training and fighting other trainers as we progress through the region. If that doesn't sound fun to you then you can say so and I'll let you go" I explained to her.

" As long as I can kill every now and then I will gladly follow you, master." She bowed as she said so.

It was funny to see a bug bow to me.

"Then let's get moving!" I shouted as we began marching toward sandgem town.