Quick Note: This first chapter is a little bit saucy with a few potent swears and will largely fade in chapters after that. There will also be a lot of pokemon violence (I mean... it's Pokemon), though it is not depicted as exceptionally graphic.

Champion of Pokemon

Chapter 1:

March 31

Seb, or Sebastian Conner to give him his full name, watched the lights go by sitting in the back seat of his parents' car as they drove down the highway. Night had fully fallen, but the rain had stopped, leaving behind the reflective sheen of the wet roads. It had been a good night, his parents' 25th wedding anniversary. His mother had absolutely insisted that her children treat them to a nice dinner to celebrate which Seb and his sister had happily obliged. He shifted his legs uncomfortably. How had he gotten put behind their father in the driver's seat? He had virtually no leg room. He loosened his tie further and undid the top button of his dress shirt.

"No. Tidus nooo." Seb heard his sister growl out in rising frustration. He pulled his glance away from the mesmerizing pattern of passing streetlights to look at her beside him. Her dirty blonde hair was a near match to his own, only slightly lighter in shade. Typically it fell to her shoulders, but she had tied it up in some manner of intricate bun that Seb could not name. She wore a seafoam green cocktail dress, probably one of her finest outfits. She was staring at the Nintendo DS in her hand with rising venom. If memory served, she regularly named her pokemon after Final Fantasy characters. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and rubbed her index finger along the back where Seb knew she had placed a sticker and a Post-it Note.

"You doing alright Naomi?" Seb asked with a smile.

The dim light of the screen was just enough to display her annoyance with the game she was playing. "Shut up Seb. Give me a second." She dismissed him instantly, clearly focused elsewhere. Seb shrugged and returned his gaze out the window.

"It's a shame you can't stay longer, Sebastian. We would love to catch up." His mother intoned from the front seat, turning to look at him. "And Naomi's musical is this weekend. Will you be coming back for that? She got Fantine, you have to hear her 'I Dreamed a Dream."

Seb scratched at his close cropped beard before answering. "Sorry mom. I've got work in the morning so I really need to head out tonight. I have to unlock the doors and get things situated for the true gymrats that show up at ungodly hours of the morning. But I should be able to make one of Naomi's performances. I made sure to switch shifts with a coworker." The jerk had known how desperate Seb was too, gave him his locker room duty shift.

His mother smiled widely at that. "Well, that's something anyway. It was so nice having you back with us. It feels like it has been so long."

Seb rolled his eyes good naturedly but didn't bother responding. He had moved out for his last two years of college and then moved the incredibly vast distance of an hour away to take a job as a physical trainer after graduating.

"Nooo!" Naomi called out in dismay. "Damnit!" She slumped back in the seat with all the attitude a young woman could. "Well, there goes another Nuzlocke."

Seb watched her for a moment to see if she was done before speaking. "What killed the run?"

Naomi gave him a death glare as she answered. "Set-Itemless Ruby. Guess who?"

Seb thought about it for a second. "Probably Wi-"

"Winona!" Naomi interrupted. "I hate her! She always fucking destroys me!"

"Language." Their dad commented from the front seat.

"Get over it, dad. I'm 18. I'm an adult." She responded immediately.

"Adult, she says." their dad responded neutrally. "Playing Pokemon in the back seat of the car. Not much has changed."

Seb decided it best to come to Naomi's defense at that point. "She is allowed her hobbies. She has a music scholarship already waiting and we all know she is going to kill it. Unlike me, she'll be supporting you in your old age."

"She could pick a more mature hobby." Was their dad's eventual response.

"What was that you were saying, Mr. I-have-the-full-original-Star-Trek-crew-bobblehead-collection-in-my-home-office?"

"That's different."

"No. It's not. We all bring the things we loved as kids forward with us and that isn't a bad thing." Seb rebutted quickly. "I still love Pokemon too." Naomi gave him a thankful smile before he continued. "And I pay my own rent."

Naomi slapped his arm and slumped back into the seat again while rolling her eyes. She looked out the window and wistfully sighed before speaking. "Still, I know it's childish, but I do wish pokemon were real. I wish I could really compete with others. Training Pokemon, battling at the highest level like is shown in the anime… you know except… a lot smarter than is depicted in a show intended for children."

Sebastian cocked a half-grin. "So… you want to be… the very best?"

"Yes, yes. 'Like no one ever was.' Everybody knows the lyrics to that song, Seb. It isn't impressive." She said with an exaggerated exasperation.

"Yeah, but do they-"

"No Seb, nobody else in the world but you would still have the entire 2.B.A. Master soundtrack memorized. Of all the things to memorize, that has got to be the worst. It was before your time anyway. Why would you learn that? It's miserable."

"I disagree." Seb said with a shrug, his smile still in place. "Is that your current Jirachi Post-it Wish?" He said, gesturing to her 2DS. "To battle with real pokemon? Or is it still to meet Idina Menzel?"

She looked down at the device in her hand before sliding it into the purse sitting beside her. It, along with the dinner jacket Seb had shrugged out of the moment they got into the car, was between them in the back seat. "No, just wanted to get a Swablu." There was a brief pause before she continued. "What would you wish for? You know, in the Pokemon World."

"Hmm…" Seb thought about the question for a moment. "I guess… for me it was always about the journey. Just, you know, it was about being a kid, learning who you are and helping pokemon discover the same for themselves. The battling is fun and of course you want to do as well as you can, but the process trumps the conclusion. And the process is helping pokemon find themselves."

Naomi gave him a confused stare. "What?"

Seb rolled his eyes. "Okay, remember watching the heartbreaking episode where Ash releases Butterfree?"

"Actually no, I never watched that far back in the series. I know what you are talking about though."

Seb gave her a mock horrified look before continuing on. "Okay… well you need to watch that. Anyway, point being, he let Butterfree go because he wasn't just building a strong team. He was helping his pokemon be happy. It isn't about getting the strongest pokemon and just battling masterfully. Pokemon are people essentially. You can find the teammates that will work with you to succeed, but a lot of pokemon are like a lot of people and not everybody dreams of being a star athlete. They can be friends who have no direct connection to your overall goal of being Champion. As much as the games always made it about battling, to me pokemon was always supposed to be about found family and helping each other discover ourselves. Pokemon, for me, has always been about making friends and going as far with them as you can."

"... So Karen's ideology? 'Strong Pokémon. Weak Pokémon. That is only the selfish perception of people. Truly skilled Trainers should try to win with the Pokémon they love best." Naomi quoted at him.

"I like her style. She understands what's important." Seb finished without pause.

Naomi snorted a laugh. "God damn, we are nerds to be able to do that."

Naomi's smile faded a little at their dad's interjection. "Language!"

"Adult!" Naomi shot back in the same tone and Seb shook his head with a smile at her antics.

A momentary silence descended on the vehicle before his sister spoke up again. "Well, Winona just killed my run, I'm bored, and I need some inspiration… do something for me?" She said with a hopeful look towards Seb.

He returned her look with a wary one of his own. "What do you want?"

She gave him an innocent grin. "Moa-cules?"

Seb leveled a stoic, grim expression at his mercurial little sister. "Aren't you a little too old for Disney mashups, little Miss I'm-an-adult?"

"Oh, I am never too old for Disney." Naomi answered without a trace of shame.

Seb sighed. "Why do you want me to sing? Naomi, you are good at singing. I get why you would sing, but why sing with me?"

She cocked an eyebrow and gave him a textbook perfect you're-an-idiot look. "Uhh… 1. It's a duet. Kind of hard to do both parts by myself. 2. You sing fine. You were a theater nerd too."

"Yes, in high school. And, in his immense wisdom, Mr. Tartmitt never chose to give me a solo." Seb defended.

"C'mooon. Please?"

"Oh yes, Sebastian. I'd love to hear you two sing again." His mom joined in on the pitiful pleading. Seb had always had trouble denying either of them individually, but together? He knew to just give in now and get it over with.

Seb dropped his head in his hands and groaned. With a heavy sigh, he agreed. "Fine. You start. Your part opens."

"Yes." Naomi declared with a fist pump. Then looked at Seb with a victorious glint in her eye. "And I find it interesting that you always know the lyrics to do Disney songs with me, Mr. I-pay-my-own-rent." She looked immensely proud to turn his words back on him the way he had done earlier.

"Look, my part is mostly 'Go the Distance' and it is a fantastic song in my workout playlist."

"Uh huh." She said unconvinced. She queued up the song on her phone and set it on the seat between them on top of his jacket.

They listened to the opening notes as their mother did a very poor job of trying to discreetly record it with her own phone. Naomi rolled her eyes at it as she started singing, a smile firmly on her face. "I've been staring at the edge of the water…"

Seb waited while Naomi continued. Their mom was clearly loving it. She had never gotten tired of hearing her little girl sing. And an idea came to him. It was the perfect opportunity to deploy a classic. He carefully schooled his face so he wouldn't smile.

With her intro segment done, Naomi turned to Seb expectantly. Seb took a deep breath and sang. "We're no strangers to looove. You know the rules, and so do I!" Being sure to throw in the ridiculous dance for good measure.

Naomi hit his arm again and Seb laughed as she berated him. "Seb! You fucker! C'mon-"

Their dad turned around to look at her. He wasn't furious, but Seb could see annoyance definitely building in the cobalt blue eyes the man had passed down to both of his kids. "Language! That is entirely inappropriate."

Something about the lighting was off and Seb looked past his dad's headrest in front of him. The headlights of the approaching car were off angle. Almost as if... "Dad! Look out!"

But it was too late. As Mr. Connor whipped his head back around, Seb threw himself across the seat to cover his sister, his back taking the brunt of the glass that exploded from the windshield. A terrible noise of crunching steel and fiberglass and more glass shattering, violent motion swirled all around him as he held tight to his sister. The noise quieted, the motion stopped.

And then the pain began. His back hurt. A lot. He wasn't sure which way was up. He could feel something warm and sticky dripping down his back. Oh God. Is that my blood? That seems like a lot of blood.

"Sebastian?" He heard Naomi say right next to him. "Seb! Are you okay?!" Her voice sounded weak, trying to force it through a throat tightened by emotion and panic. Sebastian tried to answer, but could only groan. "Mom?! Dad?!" She cried out louder this time.

"Na...o…" Seb managed to croak out.

"Seb! You're okay! Oh my God!" He felt her moving around and then curse at the door. With a loud slam and a cry of pain, she managed to force it open. "Arrgh… I'm going to get you out of here."

"Hey, you uh… you okay in there?" He heard somebody nearby call out, slurring the words a bit and then vomiting. "Ugh. I'm gonna sit down."

Seb felt Naomi fumbling with his seatbelt which was now tangled up around him from his lunge across the car and the following crash. She swore again before finally getting it off of him and pulling him out of the vehicle. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no, no." She said, looking down at him. "Hold on, I'm going to check on mom and dad."

Seb heard her walking away followed shortly by a wracking sob from her. He heard her throw up on the side of the road before walking back towards him, but her strength seemed to sap out of her and she fell into the grass nearby. Seb tried to force himself up, but couldn't find the strength. He was weak and was beginning to feel cold. He noted absently that the rain had started up again lightly.

He wasn't sure how long it took, but in the strange timeless sensation of laying there by the roadside he eventually heard sirens approaching. Moments later, more people were walking nearby, taking stock of the damage.

"This one looks okay! Bruises and probably a concussion! Intoxicated!" Seb heard a female voice call from maybe a hundred feet away.

From nearby a gruff male voice answered. "Figures. The drunk ones always come out fine. The two in the front here are definitely goners. It isn't pretty in there."

"Damnit Chris," the female called back. "Show some professionalism."

The man scoffed before moving again. "Young woman here. Unconscious, probably shock. Some cuts and bruises, but looks like she'll be okay."

"Ambulance is only a couple minutes out." The woman answered.

Seb tried to speak up, to let them know he was conscious, but couldn't make the words come. The man found him soon anyway. "Holy shit! Dispatch, we need that ambulance soonest if possible! This guy looks rough! Looks like he got the whole damn windshield in his back! And one of his legs is… well, obviously broken!" Now that the man mentioned it, Seb felt the stabbing pain in his left leg throbbing in time with his heartbeat. Seb heard the static heavy response of dispatch but couldn't make out what it said.

Another timeless period later, during which Seb's focus stayed on the two officers moving around the scene doing what they could, more sirens could be heard rushing down the highway. Seb felt himself being lifted and moved until the bright light inside of an ambulance struck him. The paramedics moved around, talking, doing things Seb could no longer focus on.

And then Seb realized he was alone. Something had pulled the paramedics away. He was cold, far more cold than he thought he should have been. The pain in his leg throbbed weaker now, more slowly. He sighed. I'm… dying. Huh… As his eyes drifted closed he saw the briefest, blurry glimpse of what seemed to be pink fur and felt a faint sense of warmth. Then unconsciousness took him.

Seb's eyes snapped open and were immediately assaulted by the blinding light of full day. His vision was greeted by blue and green, blue and green everywhere except for a menacing gray wall in the distance. He also realized, with a nausea inducing rush of vertigo, that he was falling. Twenty feet later he crashed into the waves and splashed his way back up to the surface, spluttering and coughing. "What?!"

In his fall he had only seen one thing that wasn't sky or sea or storm and that had been what looked like driftwood nearby, but he wasn't sure where he had been facing and panic was quickly setting in. "No, no, no. This can't be happening." He floundered around for a few seconds before he felt something hard pushing against his back.

Seb tried to turn and look at it, but before he could he was being rocketed forward through the water, his chest being buffeted by the waves and salty seawater splashing into his mouth. "Wh- cough?! Achk!" What is happening?!

A moment later he felt himself pushed up against what looked to be a group of palm trees floating together through the ocean. Their fronds somehow haphazardly wrapping together had allowed them to remain affixed to each other in the ocean. Seb threw his arms up on top of them and pulled himself up as much as he could and found there was something else on the natural flotsam.

A rather large, silver-blue… rodent? Armadillo? What is that? It was curled in on itself, holding tightly to the palm trunk. Then it looked up at him.

Seb blinked and for a moment the stunned disbelief washed out the rising panic. The two stared at each other for a solid five seconds before the creature made the first noise. "Shre… shrew."

Seb could barely hear it's quiet voice over the sounds of the lapping waves. He turned and looked at the water around him and saw, next to him in the water, a large golden-brown starfish creature with a red jewel at its center. "Wha…?" Was all Seb managed to say at first. "Did you push me here?"

"Yuu! Staryuuu!" The Staryu nodded to him somehow and then dove into the water and disappeared.

Seb looked back to the silver Sandshrew clinging to the palm tree in front of him and spoke. "Uh… mind if I use your raft?" It eyed him for a moment before hesitantly shaking its head. Seb hauled himself up to straddle the tree and addressed the pokemon. "Okay, here's the good news. I can probably lash these together much more solidly than they are currently so it will be more stable."

The Sandshrew watched him with a desperate hope. "The bad news is… well, first there is a storm over there and I am afraid it is getting closer." He pointed to his right where the large dark gray wall was approaching. Then he looked out at the waves all around them and could feel his hands shaking. "The second thing is…" He took a deep breath, "I'm uh… well, I'm- I'm afraid of the ocean. You know… full on Thalassophobia." and he gave the Alolan Sandshrew a weak smile and clenched his trembling hands tight.

Seb spent five minutes with his eyes clenched tight, breathing deeply trying to calm himself. As much as he tried, he could not distance his mind from the up and down motion of riding the waves or the sound of the water around them. "C'mon. C'mon Sebastian, you can do this!" He wasn't sure how well the pep talk worked, but he started on his task anyway.

Carefully, he disconnected a single tree at a time and rearranged them to create a more organized single structure. He firmly affixed each one the best he could before moving on to the next tree. The shoelaces of his shoes were sacrificed to the cause. And without them the shoes wouldn't stay on his feet and so were set aside and soon lost. He tried to use his socks as well, but they weren't long enough. His jacket sleeves were tied and knotted around a tree each, leaving enough space under the knot that a hand or claw could be slipped in to grip and hold on for dear life. With a last desperate surge of effort he managed to get the fifth and final tree in place right as the waves started building up more movement from the coming storm.

He crawled back to where the Sandshrew now held on tightly to the handhold Seb had crudely made. He took his own spot in front of it and began trying to focus his mind on something other than the panic. Luckily, I have a pretty big and thought provoking thing to focus on. Namely, what the heck is going on here?

"Alright, uh… Sandshrew, I guess." It looked up at him, listening. "I am going to bounce my thoughts off you. I'll probably ramble. Don't mind it." It nodded. "Cool. Cool, cool. Uh, first. The uh... well, the big thing is uh… you're a pokemon. I, uh… I don't mean to be rude. But pokemon aren't real."

The Sandshrew cocked its head to the side curiously at this declaration. Sebastian shrugged. "Not where I'm from anyway. Which is the second thing. See, the second thing is, well… we're in the middle of the ocean. Last I remember I was about 200 miles from the nearest major body of water and that was a large inland lake. Which was great because I hate the ocean. So much!" Seb took another deep breath. "Sorry. Trying to stay calm."

"Okay, so… the uh, the next thing is the jacket we're desperately holding on to. The clothes I am wearing. These are not the clothes I was wearing. I was in a fancy suit. Well fancy shirt and pants and shoes anyway. I had taken the actual suit off because screw that, you know? Loosened the tie and all." The Sandshrew watched his diatribe against formal clothing with heavy interest. "But the bigger thing is that when I took the jacket off, this jacket here, I mean. Not the suit jacket. Point being, well… look." He held his arm out to the Sandshrew. "My arm hair is thinner. My arm is scrawnier too."

Seb had a sudden thought and felt his face. "And my beard is gone! No! I worked hard on that." He banged his head against their makeshift raft with his eyes shut. "No, that is fine. I can deal with that. Next thing on the list: you're a pokemon! It's not possible!"

Seb, eyes clenched tightly shut, felt a cold, hard paw pat the back of his hand comfortingly. "Thank you." He sighed. "Sorry about saying you don't exist. I'm just not having a good day."

He looked up into the eyes of the Sandshrew. "Because the biggest thing, the real whopper, the absolute kicker to this whole situation… is that I'm pretty sure I died." He took a deep breath and then had a thought. Carefully holding on with one hand, he reached up and felt under the sleeves of his t-shirt up to his shoulders. There were bumps and ridges, tender skin. Reaching farther, he felt them as far as he could reach on to his back as well. He looked down and pulled his pant leg up. His leg was whole and perfectly functional. The bone seemed to have mended perfectly, but just like his back, the skin had been left to scar. His leg hair was thinner too, he noted casually.

With a sudden inspiration he reached into his jean's pocket and felt something there. He pulled it out and found not a phone, but what his pokemon-filled childhood instantly recognized as a pokedex. Holding it up for the Sandshrew to see, he said, "Also not possible." Then flipped it open to an ID screen. It displayed a picture he recognized vaguely as himself from High School. It listed his age as 15 years old, his citizenship was listed as "International."

While looking at it, stunned, it chimed a prompt for him. "Please input name." Seb blinked at it. It had, similar to seeing a pokemon, managed to jolt him out of near panic by its blatant absurdity. He carefully typed "Sebastian" with one hand. He stared at the last name entry.

He looked at the Sandshrew. "Let's just go with the delusion for now. I'm clearly insane, so what do you say we embrace it?" The Sandshrew didn't answer and so Seb continued on. "If I'm in the Pokemon World and somebody can get away with the obvious name of 'Ash Ketchum' here, then I am going to make my own last name and it will blatantly state my purpose too."

Seb wracked his brain as he heard thunder in the distance. Rain started to fall as well, not heavily yet, but it was coming and he heard a rumble of thunder. "Uh… a general! A master of the battlefield. If I am going to train and battle pokemon, that sounds good right?" The Sandshrew gave a shrugging nod of reluctant agreement. "It's good, trust me. But it can't just be… Sebastian General. That sounds stupid. So… something foreign maybe? A different language. What other words for 'general' do I know? Oh! An ancient Greek general was called uh…c'mon Western Civ 201...what was it... Strate… Strategoys? Strategoi! I probably have the wrong noun form or something, but who cares. So how about that? Sebastian Strategoi? Alliteration is good."

The Sandshrew thought on it for a bit, before nodding in approval. "There we go! Glad we got that sorted out." Sebastian slowly typed it in, double checked the spelling, and then submitted it. He smiled at the Sandshrew as he pocketed the Pokedex. "Yeah, glad that is taken care of. So… now what can we, uh… do to uh…" He took a deep breath. "To uh, distract me more? 'Cause I'll be honest, I am still freaking out."

But the storm was upon them.

This was Seb's worst nightmare. Literally, he had had actual nightmares about this general scenario. Pokemon had never been involved in his most horrifying of dreams before, but set adrift in a storm at sea? Pure nightmare.

Seb and the Sandshrew held tight to the raft and to one another with Seb almost entirely unaware of the passage of time. As much as possible he kept his eyes closed and his head down. He dry heaved a couple of times due to the nausea of riding the storm tossed waves up and down. Through the thunder and rain Seb thought he heard the roar of monsters somewhere out there. He remembered Ash' lost at sea episode and wondered if Gyarados were raging somewhere not too far away. Seb clung tighter to the raft.

If it hadn't been for the distinct memory of the car crash, this would easily have taken the top spot as the worst moment of his life. And similar to the sensation after the crash, he could feel himself getting colder. Only now it was caused by the waters gradually leeching the heat out of him, wind and rain and wave pelting him with cold from every side.

And the Sandshrew. The Sandshrew was a lifeline for him of course, a reassuring presence of another life there with him. But Seb also remembered that Alolan Sandshrew were Ice and Steel type. The Sandshrew was cold. It clung to him and he clung to it though it was barely more than a foot tall. But Seb got colder.

Seb couldn't really piece the whole event together too well afterward, but he was fairly certain he babbled or cried or yelled in terror fairly regularly throughout the ordeal. Every time, the Sandshrew would pat his hand or look him in the eye with reassurance. We will get through this. It was telling him. Even though it was shaking too.

But then one of the trees making up their raft broke loose. It cost the Sandshrew their safe positioning. Their jacket handhold came untied and they started to slip off. There was no doubt in Seb's mind that the heavy Steel type would instantly sink in the turbulent waters.

"Nooo!" With all the strength he could muster after however long the forever in the storm had been, shivering and clinging on for dear life, Seb reached and grabbed the Sandshrew in desperation. With an adrenaline pumping roar, Seb pulled the dense creature back up and tucked it underneath him so it could use his handholds with him and Seb lay atop it, bracing it steady with his body and ready to grab again should it slip.

But now Seb was colder. It lay directly against his core and his temperature dropped rapidly. Not too long of eternity after that, a wave of nausea swept over him. His body ached like he had the worst flu he had ever experienced. He felt like he was roasting. Then he was freezing again. Then back to roasting. And then a horrible stinging, burning pain in both of his eyes. He sobbed softly, but he couldn't bother up the energy to really cry out with any force.

And then it was gone. His breathing, which had grown sharp and ragged he realized, steadied. He felt warmer than he had before the episode, though still cold. He slumped in fatigue onto the Sandshrew which turned its head to look up at him. "Shre? Sand?" It asked, barely audible in storm despite being right next to Seb.

"Sorry. Just... so tired all of a sudden." Seb answered what he assumed the question was.

Another distant roar. Another crack of thunder. And the storm raged on.

Eventually the storm did finally slow and even stop. Seb had no idea how long he had been stuck in that personal hell. He guessed it was at least a day.

He looked about now at the calmer seas. "Nope. Still hate it." He said after tucking his head back down onto the raft so he didn't have to look at the waves around him. He had hoped that after the storm the calmer sea would be easier for him to handle.

The Sandshrew started to make its way out from underneath Seb. Careful to remain on all fours, it crawled along and Scratched a series of deep gouges all along the raft. Seb watched with interest and finally saw that it was making some grips it could fit a claw into to move around the raft with a small measure of safety.

After making itself two particularly large grips, it settled down away from Seb in order to wait. It knew it was making me cold. He smiled at it. "Thank you." It looked up at him and nodded weakly.

And it must be famished. Seb had no idea how long it had been out here when he arrived, but calling upon his zero actual experience, he was pretty sure a Sandshrew should be a bit more rotund than the one here in front of him. He was hungry himself, and thirsty. But there was nothing they could do about it. "What's the quote? 'Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink.' I probably got that wrong." He admitted to the attentive Sandshrew.

Maybe an hour later, salvation arrived. At least relating to the concern of food. Two Goldeen and a Seel accompanied a Mantine carrying an assortment of odd looking fruit on its broad back. The Goldeen and Seel picked up anything that fell off and returned it. The Mantine came right up alongside them and waited while Seb carefully removed what he assumed must be berries of varying kinds.

He carefully piled them in the middle of the raft and offered one to the Sandshrew. "Your choice first. You've been out here longer than I have." The Sandshrew crawled forward and grabbed one out of the pile. A purple berry that Seb couldn't name.

Honestly, he couldn't pick out the proper name to any of these except maybe the Nanab Berry. And that might be a Bluk Berry and a Razz Berry. Really not sure though. Also not remembering the flavors attributed to each one he grabbed randomly for one that looked like a large cherry. Actually, weren't those just called Cherry Berries? Except spelled wrong somehow. He took a bite and quickly regretted it.

It was spicy. A spicy cherry. Whose idea was that?! He finished it because he was starving and didn't want to waste what had been given to them.

Suddenly remembering his benefactors he turned back to the water and was met by the large smiling face of a Mantine staring at him. "Uh… thank you. How did you know we needed this?"

Still smiling, it pointed upwards with one of its large Ray appendages that Seb couldn't name. Is it a fin? A flipper? I am so out of my element here. Is it a wing? "Man. Ma-mantine!"

"Somebody up there let you know? A flier? Was it a helicopter or something?!" He asked with desperate hope.

Mantine sadly shook its head. "Tine."

"Flying pokemon, then?" Seb followed up.

The Mantine grinned again and nodded. "Mantine!"

Seb carefully reached out and pet its head. "Thank you for the food Mantine. This might literally be a life saver." Then he was struck by sudden inspiration. "Wait! Do you know Water Gun?"

Mantine nodded. "Tine?"

"Can you…" then what he was about to ask hit him. It was awkward and weird. But then, it was potentially life or death. "Uh… would that be drinkable?"

Shaking its head, Mantine answered. "Tine. Tine. Mantine. Manti- tine. Mantine, tine. Maaaan. Mantine." It gestured a lot with its fin-flipper-wings throughout the answer, but Seb was wholly unable to make any sense of it other than the negative.

"So, no then. Alright. Well, thanks anyway. If we make it through this, I won't ever forget your kindness." He told it, giving it one more pat on the head.

The Mantine disappeared into the water and a moment later exploded out again a hundred feet away. It reached the apex of its jump and glided away from them, looking in every direction. When it eventually splashed back into the water it repeated the maneuver. All told it jumped four times before it returned to the raft with a sorrowful look on its face.

"No people or land around, huh. Well thanks for looking." The Mantine drifted away from them slowly and waved a fin-flipper-wing in farewell. "Goodbye. And thank you!"

Over the next couple of hours, Seb and the Sandshrew ate the pile of berries. It wasn't water, strictly speaking, but Seb's college courses on nutrition did let him know that the liquid in the fruit would help with hydration. It was also an interesting grab bag of flavors. He typically kept a website open when he played the games so had never bothered to memorize the berries. Never knowing if the next bite would be sour or bitter or anything really did not make for the best dining experience.

And of course, Seb was still cold. The ferocity of the tempest had left, but the conditions were still bad for his continued survival. He was largely numb from the cold and was shivering constantly. He was tired, but couldn't sleep.

With a start, he realized he could do something else for the Sandshrew. "Sandshrew, the sun looks like it will be going down in about… okay, I am not an expert on this, but it is getting low. Point being, I want to untie the jacket from this handhold set-up and use it to try to sort of buckle you in. That way, you might get some sleep."

The Sandshrew studied the jacket and the raft before looking at him. It carefully lifted a claw and pointed at him. "I know. I need sleep too, but the thing is… I don't know that I'll get it anyway. Until my body just force shuts down, which I imagine will happen at some point, my absolute terror of the ocean is going to keep me awake. I can't even imagine going to sleep right now." It still watched him with concern and patted his arm. "Besides, I'm concerned that if I black out or go to sleep or lose consciousness at all, the next time I wake up a big viking of a man in a roughspun tunic will tell me I was caught crossing the border."

The Sandshrew frowned at him in confusion but patted his arm again. "Thanks for comforting my fears, the immediate and the ridiculous. But you need sleep. Think of it this way: with you well rested, or better rested anyway, you will be in a better position to help me should I need it." It thought about this for a moment and then nodded.

"Excellent." Seb carefully got to work untying the jacket as he had done previously and using it to simply tie the Sandshrew down to the raft. "There we go. Batten down the hatches." He said, studying his handiwork. "I don't actually know what that phrase means other than being a nautical term for tying things down or... maybe nailing them down?"

The Sandshrew looked at him curiously. "Thanks for putting up with my nonsense rambling. I guess you don't have too much of a choice actually. We're kind of stuck here. Has that been bothering you?" It shook its head.

"Are you just saying that to be nice?" Another shake of its head.

Seb shrugged. "Okay then. Well, you should try to get some sleep now if you can." The Sandshrew curled its head down and closed its eyes, seemingly trusting Seb to keep it safe. Seb reached out and stroked its head softly with a small smile.

The jacket worked surprisingly well and the Sandshrew slept, though shallow and fitfully. It woke often from both internal and external factors and checked on Seb each time. Night came and passed slowly with Seb's ongoing, now accustomed, panic the only presence to keep him company.

By morning, he was succumbing to the physical and mental stress of the ordeal. Fatigue, malnourishment, dehydration, increasing hypothermia, and pure exposure to the elements had finally done their work. The Sandshrew watched him helplessly as he began to drift in and out of consciousness late in the day and illness wracked him.

Seb vaguely remembered muttering more nonsense to his quiet companion, including most of a rant about the many flaws of the Star Wars prequel trilogy. He remembered seeing stars above him again. And then he remembered more blue everywhere. And being hoisted and shifted around and voices talking around him. The paramedics were back apparently, moving him again. It was about time. They better not let him die a second time.

Or the Sandshrew. "Sandshrew." He mumbled out. "Get the Sandshrew. Save the Sandshrew. Don't you dare let… the Sandshrew…" And Seb was out again.

Naomi lay in a hospital bed. The room was dark. The lights had been turned out and it was still night, or more accurately early morning. The nurses had made sure she was comfortable and then left and now she was alone.

The sobs had stopped for the time being and the tears were slower now. She had heard the paramedics that left her brother in the back of the ambulance talking.

"A lost cause." One had said.

"That poor girl." The other had said.

She had seen her parents. Or the ruined forms they left behind anyway. Nobody needed to say anything for her to know the truth there. Her entire family had died and gone and now she was alone.

Naomi turned to the nightstand beside her and grabbed for her purse. It had been recovered from the site of the accident and like Naomi was remarkably still intact, having suffered very little damage. Like he had for Naomi, Seb had protected it with his own body. Of all the things Naomi would have wanted to make it out of that car okay, her purse was low on the list.

She fumbled inside the purse and pulled out her DS. She looked at the back of the clamshell casing and stared at the folded Post-it Note there. Gently pulling it off, she opened it. She stared at the words she had written there for a long time as the tears built up a new surge of strength. "I wish to live up to Seb's belief in me."

Absently, she rubbed a finger along the Jirachi sticker she had put on her brother's old DS years ago and made a new wish. "I wish I wasn't alone in this world." The thought was with her until she eventually fell asleep on her tear stained pillow.