Izuku stared at the glowing light around his hand in wonder, the four year old shaking in joy and excitement. His Quirk was here!

Pulling back his fist like All Might, Izuku punched out as quickly as his little body would let him. The air in front of his fist cracked and broke like when he dropped a plate. Light shined through the hole in the air, and Izuku stared at it in open jawed confusion. One hand gripped his small All Might blanket as his feet moved forwards, into the light. It grew brighter with each step until he was clenching his eyes shut and pressing his hand against the "wall" as he went.

And then, quite suddenly, the light grew dimmer and he was able to open his eyes. His toes left the strange hard-not–hard floor of the tunnel he had made to dig into hard packed dirt. Dank, musty air hit his nose as he stared into the dimly lit cave.

Oh. Man.

"My Quirk lets me punch portals!" Izuku giggled, staring down at the still glowing hand. Maybe he could punch villains right to those places All Might said they went? Prison? Jail? That'd be so cool!

"Trio?" Izuku whipped around, staring open mouthed at the three heads staring at him from out of the dirt, long, weirdly clean blond hair on each head. What kind of Quirk was this!?

"Hi!" Izuku said. Crouching down in front of them with a smile, he reached out a hand in curiosity, "I'm Izuku! What's your name?"

"Dug…"

"Dug? Your name is-"

"Trio!" Izuku yelped, and fell on his butt, as the hair suddenly became shiny and sharp and flew over his head. The three heads began to bob up and down in the dirt, quicker and quicker until the ground beneath Izuku and them felt like it was shaking and cracks stretched out from where Dug was. Then, Dug took off towards Izuku like a rocket and Izuku did the only thing that seemed natural.

He punched a portal between them, closing his eyes and clenching his eyes shut, listening to the distant, confused "Trio!?". Reaching out with glowing hands, he grabbed both edges of the portal and pulled it shut.

Sorry, Dug, I hope you get home alright…

Izuku flopped back onto his butt, sighing and wrapping his now dirty All Might blanket around himself. This place was weird…

Izuku definitely didn't scream like a girl as the ground between his legs suddenly cracked and popped up. He was a big boy, big boys didn't scream! Kacchan said so!

Reaching out with a shaking hand, Izuku pushed aside the chunks of dirt, and came face to face with a short green, scaled snout covered in dirt, red eyes surrounded by purple diamonds staring at him. They weren't like Kacchan's eyes, confident and with something Izuku could never recognize. These eyes were like his, wide and curious as they blinked up at Izuku and Izuku blinked down at them.

"Hi?" Izuku said.

"Tar?" The face said back.

— X Larvitar X—

Larvitar was tired and hurting as he burrowed up, though it didn't know how it knew which way was up or even what "up" was. Just that he was leaving the place where he had hatched, a small hollow, though he didn't know that word either, where "down" had been warm and comfortable. But he had quickly grown hungry, so he had found "up" and began to eat his way out of his small home.

He missed it, but couldn't turn around in the tunnel he made so he kept eating upwards. And along the way, he had been attacked by brown worm-things with small tufts of hair and been forced to fight, instinctively, by smashing his head into them and making them run away with cries of "Diglett!" and spiny legs tearing at the dirt. Which, luckily, made it easier to eat at least

Finally, after only knows how long, up turned to a hard crust. Pulling back his head, he slammed it into the crust, causing it to crack and bulge and let in musty air that was still fresher than anything Larvitar had ever known.

"Ahhh!" A voice, unlike the Digletts he had fought, called from above him, and Larvitar stopped, ready to defend himself from whatever this new threat was. Nothing happened for a long second, then the ground over his face began to be brushed aside by something warm and soft.

Over him appeared a creature Larvitar had never seen before. Green things like what the Digletts had but longer and in soft curls sat over a face that was softer than his or a Diglett's. Eyes the same green as the soft things stared at Larvitar.

"Hi?" It made a weird noise, but wasn't aggressive.

"Hi?" Larvitar said back in confusion, hoping it wouldn't get aggressive suddenly. He needed a nap. Or to find his family. One of the two.

"Do, uh… do you need help getting out of there?" It continued to make the weird noises, something dropping to the ground behind it as it stood up. Wow, it was bigger than Larvitar. It reached down, and Larvitar bit at its fingers sharp teeth, causing it to pull them back.

"I'm trying to help you get out!" It made the noises Larvitar was pretty sure was its way of talking, looking around and walking towards a rock, picking it up with both hands, "Do this. Do-"

Larvitar forced himself the rest of the way out of the tunnel, stumbling forwards on shaky legs. He only got a few steps before he touched something really, really soft.

"Nevermind." The Thing said, dropping the rock with a heavy thud, walking back towards Larvitar as he flopped down onto the soft, warm thing. His eyes fluttered open and shut, and he saw the thing grab part of the Soft Thing. Was it planning to take it? Larvitar didn't-

Then the Thing put the Soft Thing over Larvitar's body, wrapping him up like he was back in the nest and reaching out to rub Larvitar's head. Oh.

It was a nest, and this thing was a friend.

"Thank you." Larvitar yawned, leaning into the rubbing and drifting off to sleep in his new nest.

— X Olivia X—

Olivia walked through Diglett's Tunnel with a lit flashlight, just to be safe even though there were floodlights every twenty feet or so to keep things bright for both the workers, and the children undergoing the Island Challenge. Even then, the eighteen year old Kahuna had already tripped and fell half a dozen times, generally as the ground shook under her feet from a Diglett or Dugtrio moving fast enough to cause a micro quake under her feet.

In front of her, her Midnight Lycanroc was sniffing out the area. There had been Tyranitar sightings in the cavern and that needed to be dealt with quickly. Catch them and ship them off to Mt. Silver where they'd be less likely to accidentally kill someone in their searches for challenges. It had forced the entire cave to be shut down until they were dealt with, which meant nobody could go from Heahea to Konikoni without taking a Ride Pokemon over the mountain.

"Roc!" Lycanroc suddenly snapped to attention, just for a second, before bolting off into the distance. Olivia didn't pause, she didn't hesitate, and she didn't trip as she took off after him. They thundered down the cave, Diglett and Dugtrio ducking into their holes as the Kahuna and her Pokemon barreled past them.

What they came across caused her heart to sink. There was a boy, who couldn't have been older than three or four years old, sitting on the ground and petting a swaddled Larvitar. And looming behind them, in the relative darkness between two floodlights, was a nesting mother Tyranitar. Reaching into a pack at her side, Olivia pulled out a X-Speed from it and threw it into the air in front of Lycanroc, "Lycanroc, Play Rough!"

Lycanroc's fur flared with Fairy type energy as he crushed the pill in-between his jaws, his paws coming down with greater speed as he rushed towards the boy, leapt clear over his head and smashed into the Tyranitar with a howl. Paws and Tail flashed with more Fairy Energy as Lycanroc knocked Tyranitar back and into the light. Red eyes flared as she reached down, digging her clawed hand into the ground and threw a boulder of earth and stone at Lycanroc.

The boy's eyes widened, and then he threw himself over the Larvitar protectively, drawing a tired, "Tar?" from the Pokemon. Olivia rushed forwards, even as she barked out orders, and threw herself over them both.

"Rock Smash, then Play Rough again!" Olivia reached into her pouch again, hand wrapping around one of the ultra balls she had brought with her. Lycanroc's tail flashed, first deep brown as he smashed through the Rock Throw, then fluorescent pink as he launched into another flurried Play Rough. Olivia stood up, throwing the ultra ball at the Tyranitar and watching it vanish into the ball with a flash of light and a hiss of escaping air. It snapped shut with a loud click and fell to the ground, Lycanroc standing over it as it shook like a leaf in a storm, until finally, thankfully, it gave a click.

"Come on, kid," Olivia said to the boy, who was staring up at her with his arms around Larvitar, "let's get you out of here."

"What about him?" The boy said, moving his arms the best he could to gesture about the Larvitar.

"He can come too, if he wants."

— X Izuku X—

Izuku followed the lady and her dog out of the cave, hand in hand with the little thing wearing his All Might blanket like a cape. Occasionally, it would give an adorable yawn and drop its head onto Izuku's shoulder… which would make Izuku's knees buckle and cause the dog to turn around and gently bump its head up with its nose. Finally, the dog gave the doggy equivalent of a sigh and picked the little guy up by the blanket and dropped him onto its back… where it slumped over, asleep.

Izuku adjusted the blanket over them a bit.

"What kind of doggy is this?" Izuku asked.

"Doggy?" The lady said, lips turning upwards into a smile, "He's a Lycanroc."

"L-lycanroc," Izuku repeated, running a hand through the large plume of fluff over the Lycanroc's head, feeling sharp chunks of rocks mixed in with it.

"And this little guy," two fingers on the lady's swept up the fin on the sleeping guy's head, "is a Larvitar."

"Larvitar," Izuku repeated again, alongside the gesture, running his entire hand along the craggily fin and getting a happy hum from the sleeping Larvitar.

"Thinking about making him your partner?" The lady said.

"Partner?" Izuku blinked up at her as they exited the cave and into a sunny place that wasn't anything like home. Trees with giant leaves swayed in the gentle breeze that smelled like the beach, and other animals stared at them from tall grass on the side of the road. Larvitar made a grumpy noise on Lycanroc's back, shifting so his face was buried in Lycanroc's fur.

"Your Pokemon partner? You and the little guy seem to have bonded a bit. I could give you a pokeball, if you want."

The words swirled around Izuku's head. Pokemon, Pokeball. What did they mean? How was a ball supposed to help with being partners with the Larvitar?

"Sure?" Izuku said, not really sure, and the lady pulled out a small black ball with a gold band around the middle and a red one between two more gold ones on the clear plastic on the top of the ball. She pressed a button on the center and the tiny ball expanded to be the size of a baseball and handed it to Izuku.

"That's called a luxury ball. It'll make your little friend nice and comfy, even by pokeball standards," she said with a nice smile, "just tap him with it."

Izuku did so with a confused look on his face. The ball popping open and sucking in the Larvitar and his blanket in a flash of red light, before shaking in his hand. Finally, after three shakes, the ball let out a burst of light like a firecracker and stopped moving.

"Wha-?"

"Congratulations!" The lady said, crouching down and ruffling Izuku's hair, "Now you and Larvitar are partners. Do you want to give it a name?"

Izuku stared at the napping, tiny Larvitar through the clear plastic of the top of the luxury ball, nodding.

"Blanket. He's Blanket."

—