Butterfree are fun pokemon to battle with. Because of their characteristic raising accuracy, one with supersonic and the status-effecting move of your choice (sleep powder/stun spore) can actually do decently. My Red version butterfree seems to have pretty good luck with supersonic hitting even without a characteristic.

Nope, no point here. Move along.

Differences

-

"Hey!" yelled a boy. He jumped out onto the path, an action that caused Elliot to flinch slightly. "I challenge you!" He didn't wait for Elliot to agree, immediately throwing out a simple red and white pokeball. It split to release a butterfree.

Elliot pulled off one of his own pokeballs and tossed it. Discord appeared.

"Supersonic!"

"Pound!"

Discord seemed unaffected by the noise. It wasn't much anyway, Elliot thought, just some high-pitched squealing, so perhaps the attack had failed. The jigglypuff jumped up to hit the butterfree with one short, rounded limb; this did more damage than it would seem it should.

The butterfree, looking a bit stunned, beat its wings unsteadily. It lost altitude.

"Pound again!"

"Try supersonic again!"

It produced the same sound. Discord jumped again and punched it.

It fainted.

The boy looked upset. "Oh no, Margarine, return!"

Margarine? Elliot didn't get it.

"You'll pay for that!" the boy yelled. He pulled the other pokeball from his belt. "Go!"

Elliot felt somewhat baffled. For a second or two, he mulled over the situation in his mind. The boy seemed really angry, but he was the one who had made the challenge and –

"Fury attack!"

The beedrill rapidly stabbed at Discord, who dodged somewhat ineptly, trying to avoid being skewered.

"Return, Discord," Elliot said. He pulled off another pokeball without thinking and threw it.

Prowler.

Elliot started to recall her.

"Hey, what do you think you're doing?" said the other boy. "You can't keep switching pokemon. It's against the rules!"

It really wasn't, but neither knew that.

"I-" Elliot started to say. I forfeit…That was all he had to say and he could just walk away from this. "I-"

Prowler examined the insect before her. She was mistrustful of beedrill. She hissed softly, under her breath, judged the distance, the way the three stingers bent, and jumped at its midsection. She bit in deeply, splattering her muzzle with ichor. The beedrill tried to spear her, but its limbs couldn't bend at the right angle. The points of its two stingers cut into her back, and she rolled her body out of the way of the larger third. They crashed to the ground, the beedrill's body cracking further, and then it turned red and vanished.

The boy threw down a handful of money and ran off.

It took Elliot a moment before he could act. Then he bent down and picked up the pieces of paper.

"I'm sorry Prowler," Elliot said. He straightened up but still seemed to have trouble looking at her. Prowler, never a fan of eye contact, didn't pick up on this. "I didn't mean to send you out." He recalled her.

It was wrong, he thought, wrong to send her out after what had happened. She'd nearly been killed. It must been frightening now to fight, knowing that could happen. Elliot remembered walking on an old tree trunk across a large stream when he was younger, back when he was a child, how he'd slipped and nearly fell in. He remembered how terrifying it felt to suddenly realize danger in things you took for granted.

Elliot walked on. He didn't meet anyone else. When the first signs of dusk appeared, he stopped to set up camp.

He released them all, Din for the first time since evolving. The other pokemon, save Prowler, stared, unsure of exactly what the mightyena was.

Howler leaned forward to sniff, only to be startled back by Prowler's growl. She jumped over Discord to land next to Din.

((So it evolved?)) Caw said, looking distrustful. ((That's not right. Something must have gone-))

Prowler snarled, interrupting him. Din had just evolved. To speak of anything wrong, anything strange, anything worrying now could cause it, she knew that. She turned to Din, desiring to get away before the bird could say anything else. ((Come with me,)) she said, nosing Din, and bounded off. Without a look back at the other pokemon or Elliot, Din followed. Caw watched them go.

Elliot noticed them leaving but didn't say anything. Prowler probably wouldn't answer anyway. He set out the food bowls and began to eat himself.

The pokemon finished. Elliot watched them play absentmindedly. "Discord," he said finally. The pokemon looked up. "You're not the same color as other jigglypuff. And you look sorta different too. Why is that?"

The jigglypuff shrugged, a comical motion for something without shoulders. Elliot was distracted for an instant wondering why a pokemon would shrug anyway. ((I don't know.))

"But how can you not know about yourself?"

((Your head is brown. Do you know why that is?))

"But doesn't it mean anything?"

((Why would it?))

Elliot didn't know. It just seemed like it should.

-

-

Prowler and Din returned in the morning, Din walking somewhat gingerly, favoring one leg. As she got closer, Elliot could see a patch of blood in her fur.

"Are you okay, Din?"

((Yes,)) said Prowler. Din didn't speak.

"It looks like she hurt herself."

((She is fine.))

((You shouldn't have gone away. You know better. Pokemon are supposed to stay with their trainers,)) said Caw. ((You know that.))

((Stupid Bird.))

"What happened?"

Prowler looked at Din, who seemed to take that as a cue to speak. ((A purple one bit me.))

"Purple one?"

((Rattata,)) Prowler supplied.

"Come here, I'll give you a potion," Elliot said, nervous at seeing the blood.

((The injury is minor,)) said Prowler. ((It will be gone in a day or so.))

"But-"

((My leg is fine,)) Din said.

If she thought it would be okay, than maybe it was. Elliot resumed packing up his bag, still feeling some misgivings. He wondered suddenly why Din would be injured now, after evolving. When she was younger and a poochyena she had always been unharmed when Prowler brought her back, and wasn't she stronger now? How did she get injured anyway, what were they doing? He recalled the pokemon and started off.

The town he came to was ordinary, perhaps larger than usual. Quiet, peaceful, just like all the others. There was a battle in the square, two trainers who looked ten. Elliot stopped to watch.

The boy on the left's charmander was knocked out. He recalled it unflinchingly and sent out his next pokemon.

"Si-i-i!"

A psyduck had appeared. It ran back and forth rapidly, its hands on the sides of its head. The small group of watchers stared at it in disbelief. It was finally stopped when it tripped at the raised end of one cement paving stone. Its stubby legs waved in the air.

The assembled crowd looked back to the trainer, who turned scarlet.

"I, um, just caught it," he mumbled.

"You didn't even have time to bring it to a Center?" asked the other trainer.

"No…" he said, "I had thought I should train it a bit first." He sighed, recalling the still-flailing psyduck. He picked a new pokeball and released a doduo. The battle resumed.

The battle didn't look very interesting, so Elliot walked on, past the peaceful storefronts, the abundance of restaurants, and into the Pokemon Center.

The place was filled with upbeat trainers, most of them Elliot's age. Just as it always was. Elliot handed his pokemon over and went over to one of the video phones.

He dialed his number, feeling a very faint twinge of guilt and apprehension. He'd only called his mother a few times since he'd left. He didn't stay places that long, and he was always distracted when he was there. It was only during the long walks alone on the empty wilderness between towns that he remembered. And when he didn't call for a time he felt anxious about calling, embarrassed that he'd forgotten, and that made it worse.

And then with everything happening, he'd completely forgotten about it.

For a few seconds as he watched the ringing animation on the screen, he wondered if he could tell her what had happened, about Prowler and the girl's psyduck and the rockets.

His mother answered the phone, and when he saw her smile at him it all melted away. He told her instead about his badges – four in as many months, that was great! she'd replied – and about Din evolving and how he'd found a real nugget of gold, he'd give it to her when he came back, and that he'd seen a huge bird that looked like Articuno. She told him a little about what was happening back home. One of his friends had come back already, dropping out with just a single badge. Hearing about that made Elliot more determined to succeed. He wasn't going to return home after failing! He just couldn't.

Once his call was over, Elliot sat down on one of the couches and waited for the Joy to finish healing his pokemon.

-

-

He left once his pokemon were healed, even though it was mid-afternoon and he only had a few more hours before he'd have to set up camp. He didn't know why, but he no longer felt like dawdling. He wanted to get to Vermillion, and then to the next city, and the next. Maybe it was hearing about someone else dropping out – failing – or perhaps the warning Michael had given him months ago about hurrying was suddenly taking effect. Or perhaps it was just that it all seemed less of a game than it had before. He wasn't content to go slowly, was focused on where he wanted to be rather than where he was.

But no matter how much he wanted to get there fast, he wouldn't – couldn't – keep going when it was dark. Not with what could be…what was there now. He stopped when it was still bright out, released his pokemon, started a fire, saw Prowler and Din leave without looking back.

This time the two returned early, before it had even gotten beyond the fuzziness of twilight. Din looked fine, although somewhat subdued. Prowler nuzzled the mightyena's side once, then walked to Elliot sitting by the fire. She rubbed up against him.

Elliot reached out to pet Prowler's head. He felt something odd, a lesser fluffiness over one patch, and pushed the fur in the opposite direction to see an open patch of skin, slick under his fingertips. A scar?

"What's this?" he asked as she pulled away. She didn't like him touching her head. Didn't really like him petting her at all.

((What?))

"There's a scar on your head. Did you hit it in an accident?

((Did I…)) she repeated. Then: ((No.))

"So how'd you get it?"

((I was…)) Prowler trailed off again. ((It doesn't matter. It will finish healing soon.))

"It looks old," said Elliot, who had little idea of what scars looked like.

((It was not long ago.)) She turned and began to lick her side.

((A fight, with your last trainer?)) said Caw.

Prowler stopped grooming and glared. ((I had no last trainer, Bird.))

((But it was in a fight?))

Blood trickling down her eyes. Cuts on her shoulder stinging. ((No. It was no fight.))

Caw ignored her tense posture. ((But is also wasn't an accident? Liar liar, it was a fight wasn't it? And I bet you lost and that's why-))

((It was no fight!)) she screamed, jumping at him. She tore out a chunk of feathers, Caw managing to break lose a moment before she bit again into now-exposed flesh.

Short chapter, sorry.

Well, what do you make of it?

Next chapter: More on the psyduck, pokemon meet, and what's up with the food anyway?