Vaporeon: The Bubble Jet Pokemon.

Vaporeon are a quadrupedal mammal that exhibit characteristics of amphibians: they harbor lungs, and can thus breathe on land, but also have gills, which allow them to participate in deep aquatic diving for extended periods of time.

However, they are unique in the fact that they are able to so-called "melt away in the water", allowing them to seamlessly camouflage themselves and disperse and diffuse into water like raindrops. This ability is due to the fact that their bodily composition is 95% water, save for the viscous membrane and translucent organs that can be manipulated into a variety of shapes. By controlling their membrane, they can shrink down to as little as five percent of their size and effectively "melt away".

The habitat for the Vaporeon species is quite limited, as most Vaporeon are domestically bred and fresh-water aquatic organisms. These Vaporeon are found primarily near lakes or urban settings, despite the latter environment's obvious detriment to the pokemon. Vaporeon who are neither domestic nor fresh-water can be found in sparse colonies along the coast of Kanto and Johto.

Vaporeon are averse to polluted environments and saltwater, both of which can be detrimental to their bodily systems if not properly adapted to.

There is a tribe along the Kantoan coast that uses saltwater-adapted Vaporeon to engage in fishing and diving activities. They are also known for fishing up various treasures from old shipwrecks that lay at the bottom of the ocean.


I closed my book, The Natural History of Pokemon, before looking out the bright window. It was nearly mid-morning by now, having eaten a luxurious breakfast of Tauros steak and Chansey's [Softboiled] eggs. Our group had previously bedded up last night in separate rooms in the A.S. Aeroacrophilia, each surprisingly capacious for each guest. Space is a most costly endeavor for air travel, where every square meter meant sacrificing or altering design plans and structural integrity. Despite all of that, the blimp was the length of several Wailord strung together, totalling about thirty meters in length, and hosting roughly a hundred patrons and fifteen staff.

It was somewhat of a concern that the slightest spark from a tame Pichu could likely set the whole thing aflame or a stray Pidgey could pop a hole straight through the taut vellum, but we were repeatedly assured that the blimp was designed to be inflammable, and a large entourage of pokemon, specifically, clusters of Pidgeotto and Golbat, drove away any approaching curious passerbies. However, as the old adage goes, "an unsinkable ship…"

I wonder how much it cost the Professor for this. More importantly, I wonder if I can cajole him into renovating my hut on Mt. Silver. Even if I don't go back, real estate property prices and all...

Commercial regulations prevent the release of pokemon that might be a threat to the passengers and staff, so pretty much all of my pokemon except Pikachu were recalled until the end of the voyage. Even then, Pikachu received an electrical device that strapped to his tail, a one-ounce battery, good for sucking up static electricity like a black hole and releasing it as heat. Pretty handy. I'll ask the Prof to get me one for later use. Pikachu was snoozing off on my lap, fur warm to the touch. He's always snoozing off at this age, huh.. Unexpectedly uncharacteristic of his type, but I guess age catches up to everyone.

Gold, on the other hand, was playing blackjack with his Weavile and Noctowl. The bird cocked its head to the left in a poor display of trying to look at its partner's cards, which earned it an impetuous rake across the beak with a claw, and then he therefore folded. Weavile hissed in delight, and displayed her cards, drawing an exasperated sigh from Gold as he found himself hopelessly outclassed.

"Two, twelve, and six. Aren't you guys a little too good at this?", Gold hopelessly smacked his hand onto the table. Weavile looked away, smirking at its current win streak, and Noctowl turned its head one hundred and eighty degrees with a faint smile.

It was obvious that the two were cheating against Gold. On several occasions while I was watching, Weavile expertly shuffled and rigged the deck in its favor, and Noctowl, with little to no effort at all, was card counting. And looking at the pocket mirror I put up right next to me to reveal Gold's hand.

Not that I was going to tell him that, of course.

Gold got up and pushed his chair in while I hurriedly hid the pocket mirror before turning to me. He recalled Noctowl and Weavile.

"It's the same every time I play with these guys. Mahjong, blackjack, chess, GO, even racing games. And Noctowl doesn't even have hands!" His shoulders drooped and he looked up at me, obsidian eyes glinting. "I think they might be cheating or something. Otherwise, I'm just no good at games."

He pursed his lips and looked outside the window before turning around. "Regardless, do you want to see the gondola? The view up here is kind of limited, but I heard that down there everything opens up."

"... I guess so."

I patted Pikachu on the head to rouse him, and as he jumped down I put my book away.

"Do you think that we should drag Blue with us?"

"Leave him be. He'll cause enough trouble sleeping, anyhow."

It wasn't hard to remember the time when I tied him to the bed in Cerulean when he was drunk, only to find him hanging out by a limb on the side of a skyscraper. The faces of the bystanders as Charizard flew up the sides to catch him were distressing, to say the least. Faces contorted in fear as the wind pressure began to break windows in succession...In the end, traffic in the city was paralyzed as police began a complete investigation into a perceived act of terrorism. While I got away with minimal effort, the idiot Blue was left to fend for himself, paying for all damages and receiving a court injunction by the Kantoan federal council of domestic affairs.

Anyways, the moral of the story is: don't be an idiot, and especially don't be Blue.

We left the passenger room and headed down the main hall, walking down a flight of stairs at the end that led to the gondola, and the exit. Downstairs, we were greeted by a large observatory, the sides of the aluminum-plated walls covered in plexiglass windows. At the fore of the gondola, rows of instrumentation were full of staff, managing the airship and its flight.

"Ah, Red, Gold. Taken the time to see the view, am I right?"

Oak greeted us from the corner, lip upturned as he wore his signature red flannel and slacks. This was a vacation for him, was it? Why is he still wearing his work clothes? I asked him and he laughed.

"Even when I'm out of the lab, I'm still working. Who knows what I can find outside. It's truly a benefit of my work and passion."

"Benefit, you say…"

"Yes, Gold. You'll realize it too one day when you find what you want to do. Anyways, do you enjoy the scenery? We're right now flying over Route 17; it should only be a couple hours before we hit the Bay of Kanto and until nightfall that we reach Vermillion.

"So kick back and enjoy the ride."

He smiled at his last remark and moved to join Mother at the viewing platform on the sides. Gold then looked at me and asked, "So what do you want to do first?"

"Well, if I were to do anything, I'd be going out and getting fresh air." Nothing better than flying outside, right? The ride was elegant, especially the bathrooms, which was a plus on a long flight, but even with the size of the dirigible it was still too closed.

Maybe it had something to do with the calming sight of blue as far as one could see and the wind blowing through my hair.

As I said that, Gold looked at me in shock.

"Huh? You're going out? How are you going to do that?"

"Like this."

With that, Pikachu jumped out of my arms to stand beside Gold, and I handed him my bag and my cap. I went further towards the back where the entrance well was, and sealed up the door behind me. I opened the hatch and the wind came blustering in, whipping up my jacket and hair. Below, was the open sea, cut in half by a glittering road of cement and steel. On it were automobiles and bikers, riding down to Fuchsia City, roughly a several days away by foot.

I expanded a ball and holding it away from me, released a red infrared light. As usual, the technology astounded me in how versatile it was. Around the cap there was a scroll wheel that manipulated the distance the light would manifest the pokemon, ranging from one to fifty meters. Of course, this increase in distance also resulted in a huge drain in battery, but I was not lacking in chargers -i.e. a certain electrical rat- to power my electronic gadget needs. And if I needed a little more range, I could throw the ball, and it would emit a burst of energy upon release that would bring it back by means of recoil.

This latter method requires training in catching the ball, though. Many balls were thrown and many faces were hit on my first day.

"Hey, what are you doing! Get back in here!" Voices sounded from behind the airlock, a porthole revealing crew and passengers alarmed in my attempt of apparent suicide.

To justify their thoughts, I jumped.

10 meters.

20 meters.

30 meters.

From below a shadow loomed, and I was grabbed by Charizard, who was breathing plumes of smoke, halting my inertia of fall. He then flung me up and I landed on his back, and we dived down, through a wave of alarmed Golbats and their trainers, our entourage, until we were just above the scintillating sea.

We skimmed the waves, Charizard roaring in delight at the steep drop as an exercise to spread his wings, and we flew along the Cycling Road, surprising bikers and cyclists who were cruising along. We remained like that for a good while, until the A.S. Aeroacrophilia was distant on the horizon, and turned around to speed after them.

We rejoined the crowd of pokemon and trainers, they giving us wary looks for pulling off our earlier stunt and scaring them out of nowhere, and we continued along until a black cloud appeared on the horizon of the far southeast, climbing across the pale rose sunset.

A trainer beside us, obviously meant to monitor our actions, took out a radio and began to converse in serious conversation with who I assumed to be the bridge of the airship. His brow creased into hard lines, and he began directing the entourage to climb up and towards the northeast, following the dirigible's wake as it tried to avoid the storm.

I got a little closer and hollered at him. "Hey, what's going on! Is there a reason why we're changing course?"

He looked at me with a weary face. "We have reports of a wild Zapdos heading our way. We hit it and the immensity of the static charge might just blow this place sky high."

"Huh. I was hoping for something a little tamer, like an idiot trying to teach Dragonair how to ramp up [Rainy Day] and making it get out of control."

"I wish. If we had something like that it wouldn't be so hard to maneuver this island of a thing." He pointed at the A.S. Aeroacrophilia. "This isn't its maiden flight, but it would be especially unfortunate if it wrecked in the middle of the ocean like its predecessors."

"...I see. I guess I'll go take care of this then." I caused an expression of alarm to appear on his face as he realized what I was about to do, and he made to stop me. "Wait, are you mad?! Going into a Zapdos storm, much less fighting Zapdos is asking for death! I cannot allow this!"

"Heeh….. courageous but no joe. Later."

I knocked on Charizard's back, and he, like me, knew what was in the cloud and was anxious to fight it. He strained his wings, and we burst at supersonic speed out of the formation again, almost as fast as a Salamence.

The edge of the storm clouds were about a couple kilometers away, rumbling and shaking as arcs of lightning streaked between layers. As we rushed to it, the direction the cloud was growing changed from the airship, beginning to travel towards us. From afar, it looked kinda tame, but up close… The size of the monster was gigantic, towering far above us. It turned into a cumulonimbus in an instant.

"I think it's noticed us, buddy," I told Charizard, and he blew smoke from his snout in response.

We flew into the maelstrom, almost dropping a couple feet upon entry as the low pressure system hit us. The absence of wind was noticeably present, and lightning arced around us in a frenzy of bolts. Above was a black shadow, illuminated briefly to reveal the shape of the culprit behind the storm.

Black and yellow plumage, spiky feathers and appendages. It glared at us silently, making the lack of sound except the surrealistic thunder in the distance almost ominous. Charizard flapped to gain altitude, meeting it face to face. The two seemed to regard each other in seriousness, and I was reminded by a distant memory back at the start of my journey.

Before winning the Kanto League, when I was thirteen, I and my team were looking through the abandoned Kanto Power Plant, seeking out electric type pokemon rumored to be living there, for filling the Pokedex. We had, contrary to our expectations, encountered a Zapdos residing within, and was forced into a life or death encounter to defeat it. It wasn't long until our team was defeated, and Zapdos took mercy upon us instead of frying us alive with a terrifying electric current.

But I remember Charizard, back then a Charmeleon, standing defiantly against what was called in legends a thunder god.

Recognition dawned upon me and I looked fixedly into the glinting pupils of the pokemon that stared at us. "It's you, right? The one back at the power plant."

It opened its beak and screeched in confirmation, resounding through the air. With a flap of its wings, a strong gust surged and the surrounding thunderclouds were shoved out, revealing an eye of the storm.

Charizard roared in response, flaming blasting out of his mouth into the sky, and I recognized his call.

It was time for a rematch!