Splinters hurt. Ryan had one; he sure did. To explain to you accurately how bad his hurt would cause me to devolve into words and phrases too adult, too grotesque to be allowed. Let's just say the sliver of wood he had jammed up his toenail hurt. Real bad.

This war scar had been added moments prior, when Ryan had stumbled over a bramble. He had never felt pain this horrible. He could barely breathe as he just sat there taking wave after wave of pain. He was only a mile into his Pokemon adventure. This was a great beginning. He attempted to sit up. Ryan quickly looked over his belongings – his Pokeballs, Pokedex, food, all that stuff. It was all intact. Just as he was about to go back to sulking in his ruin, Ryan caught a glimpse of a bugger.

Holy Professor Oak, it was a Pokemon! Ryan needed to catch all of them, or something like that. He reached down and grabbed onto Abra's ball before throwing it at the bugger he saw. Abra came flying out of his ball upside down and screaming. He must've been asleep. Nevertheless, Abra got into a battle stance immediately, before giving Ryan a loyal "so how should I kill this guy, boss?" look.

Ryan shrugged before saying, "Um, Abra use your slashy-claw attack!"

Abra offered a quizzical, "Abra ah?", quite unsure as to what to do.

"Uh… um… Abra? Isn't that an attack?" Abra shook his head furiously, "What? But you have claws! You're saying you can't use them?"

"Abra abra abra ra abra abra ah ah ra. Abra! Abra bra ra abra abra ah ah ah!

"Maybe I should try dad's Pokedex."

He fumbled in his pockets for it and whipped it out with a little grace. Pointing his Pokedex at Abra, Ryan said, "What're his attacks?"

"Abra, the Psi Pokemon-"

"Yeah yeah. Just tell me his attacks. I know his name."

"Abra's attacks consist of teleport."

"And…?"

"Teleport is Abra's only attack."

"You've got to be kidding."

The Pokedex did not respond. Ryan turned to his Abra, "Didn't my dad teach you any other attacks, like a TM or HM or something?"

"Abra abra.

"SPEAK ENGLISH!"

"Bra? A'ra!"

Ryan had no clue what Abra just said, but what was he to do? They couldn't communicate. He remained quiet and watched as Abra walked forward, his clawed (uselessly clawed!) hands outstretched in a sort of dazed feel through. But this was no feel through. He was attacking the bugger.

In Abra's hands, blue energy began forming. Ryan smiled in delight. Yes, this was an attack! The Pokedex was wrong! Abra went right up to the bugger and released his blue attack; his psychic attack. It hit. The bugger made no sound as Abra applied his beatdown, but moments later, when the smoke began rising and Ryan so no counterattack, he knew he'd won.

Ryan ran up to Abra. "Good boy, Abra! You got him!"

"Bra."

Ryan, overly gleeful at his first Pokemon battle victory ran to the defeated Pokemon. It was all yellow, and it looked like a banana. Ryan liked bananas.

He picked the thing up, as it continuously smoked and did nothing else.

"What is it? I've never seen one of these before."

"Abra."

"No, it's not an Abra, silly. Let's ask the Pokedex."

Ryan pointed his Pokedex at the creature with one hand, holding it with the other.

"Kakuna, the Cocoon Pokemon. Able to move only slightly. When endangered, it may stick out its stinger and poison its enemy."

"Oh cool! It's a poisonous one!"

Ryan laughed and swung the dazed Kakuna around.

"Abra. Ra ra!" Abra said in a cautioning tone.

"Shut up Abra, he's mine now."

Evidently, Kakunas do not like being swung around, because by doing this, Ryan got himself a stinger in his arm. His scream was shrill as it was loud, long as it was high. He dropped Kakuna and grabbed onto his arm. Shouting curses which cannot possibly be written out, Ryan kicked Kakuna. He began ranting about how it's not fair that Pokemon fight humans and not other Pokemon. However, since he was now poisoned, Ryan was feeling ruddy terrible and needed to get to town fast. He paused his rant to quickly throw up. After that, he threw one of his spare Pokeballs at Kakuna, but it just bounced off.

"Aw come on… Abra, attack him again. Slice him!"

Per order, the ever faithful Abra attacked Kakuna again with his claws. Sharp claws though they were, Abra was not experienced with this type of attack. Not to mention, Kakuna had just silently used harden about fifty times.

Shockingly, the swipe attack did nothing. Abra let out a cry of pain, his tears falling hard and fast. He gingerly caressed his sore claws. He looked up to Ryan as if this was all his fault. Ryan was not watching, though. He was falling into delirium as the poison attacked his nervous system. His vision was going fuzzy. He had no choice. He picked up Kakuna again and began running. Vermillion City was closest. His grandmother lived there. He knew the way. They had a gym, so surely they'd have a Pokecenter. Heck, he didn't have much of a choice.

Ryan did not wait for Abra. Kakuna continuously stung him in the arm as he ran, but Ryan bit his lip and held back his cries. This was his Pokemon. He caught it fair and square. He couldn't just leave it. He would suffer through the pain of holding it.

Ryan came into the city, flying at a speed faster than he'd ever gone. He whirled past the houses and buildings and skyscrapers. He ran as far as he could for as long as his legs could hold out against the poison. And then, his vision went black. He dropped Kakuna and fell on the sidewalk.

Morphine is the greatest creation of mankind. Ryan had an IV in his arm. It was on automatic. Apparently he had been hospitalized, though he remembered none of it, and since then, nurses and Chanseys had attended to him. He just lay in his bed through all hours and pressed his button to give him more and more morphine. It was all a blur; he couldn't even remember why he was here or what injured him enough to get so much attention. The only thing Ryan could think of was how much he loved morphine.

Nurse Joy gave him the hardest bone wrapping on his un-IV'd hand. As she applied it, like she had already applied it to his IV'd hand, she started making small talk. Ryan just nodded and drooled and winced at the hardness being applied and pressed his morphine button until she mentioned his Pokemon.

"Your Abra and Kakuna are in their Pokeballs at your bedside. I was going to mention them earlier, but you were sleeping."

Then the memories came back. The fight, the catch, the run, the poison… he was a Pokemon trainer! Yeah, Nurse Joy, you're treating a Pokemon trainer today.

"I just c-caught Kakuna, you know," Ryan sputtered as best he could.

"Oh really? You must be a Pokemon trainer then. Have you given it a name?"

"A name?"

"Usually you name your Pokemon…" Joy said with a smile and a chuckle. Her eyes sparkled so much. How could they do that? Ryan shifted his position as his arm wrapping became harder and harder.

"Oh… well Abra doesn't have a name."

"Can't you give him one?"

"N-no… he's my dad's Pokemon. I can't do that."

"Oh, but that doesn't mean you can't give Kakuna a name. After all, you caught it all by yourself."

"I guess…" said Ryan.

Joy continued fixing up Ryan, replacing his IV and cleaning up everything. She brought the two Pokeballs off of the table and placed them in his lap. She smiled at him.

"You can take them out and talk to them. I know it's probably pretty lonely up here alone."

"Wait," said Ryan quickly, "Was Kakuna hard to get in the ball?"

"No," replied Joy in a high voice, "She went in fine. She's tame."

"She?" Ryan asked.

"Oh yes, your Kakuna is a female. I thought you would like to know that before giving her a name."

"Oh, thanks," said Ryan.

Joy gave him one more smile (!) before leaving, closing the door behind her.

Ryan let Abra out immediately. The small Pokemon yawned himself awake and stared up at Ryan with its Brock eyes.

"Abra! Abraaaaa."

"Aw, did I wake you up, Abra?" said Ryan, grinning, "Sorry about that."

"Abra."

"Yeah, I know!" Ryan laughed, not knowing what Abra said. Sometimes it's good to just go along with things.

Ryan was more hesitant to let Kakuna out. Last time he'd touched this Pokemon, she'd stung him so many times, he had to come here. He looked over at Abra.

"Did Nurse Joy really get her in there?"

"Ra."

"So she's nice now? Not gonna sting me again?"

"Ra."

"You better be saying yes, Abra," Ryan said.

He opened up her Pokeball and let her out. He was both prepared to run out of the hospital and spam his morphine button dry if she attempted anything. But she did not. Instead, she just lay, occasionally moving her little face around, but never stinging him.

Ryan gave himself a shot of morphine just because he could.

"Abra, abra ah? Raa bra aaaaabra," Abra said to the Kakuna.

"Eiieeiiinnggyyeie," it replied.

"Abra! Bra."

"Nnnnneeeennee?"

"Aaah."

Well this was all very interesting, Ryan thought to himself. Well, except for the fact that he had no idea what they were saying. He couldn't name her nnnnneieieinnei. That would be unsightly. But she needed some name. Ryan had never thought of naming any of his Pokemon. Verily, he knew not that Pokemon were given names. When he read the magazines or saw fights on the tele, they never referred to any Pokemon by name. Why was he supposed to just expect that to be part of the trade?

She was a Kakuna. She was yellow. She kind of looked like a banana. But he couldn't call her that. That would be embarrassing when he went to the gyms and used her in fights. 'Banana go!' would just not work. Especially since he was a boy. They'd laugh. Yes they would.

Then, Ryan thought of the word Kakuna and he realized how similar it was to another word, to another pair of words. It was one of his most favorite songs he ever knew. It was one of his most favorite movies he ever saw. And surely no one would know of the reference to it unless he told them, or unless I tell you, the reader, here now. Which I cannot possibly do.

Ryan sat up as his Pokemon continued talking to one another. He couldn't understand either of them. He didn't understand how they, speaking different Pokemon languages, understood each other. But that is a debate for another time. Ryan had already thought up his name and he was ready to tell it.

"Hey Abra, I thought up a name," said Ryan, leading to both Pokemon to stop talking and turn to face him, "From now on, let's call her Matata."