A/N: Hey everyone, I hope you're enjoying this story. This is my first attempt at a plot-based, multichaptered story in a while so if you have the time to leave feedback, I'd really appreciate it! Thanks and happy reading.

Murphy's Law: anything that can go wrong, will.

Murphy was mad at me. I wasn't some Pokémon whisperer or anything, but I could tell anyways. For one, she completely and obviously ignored me when I talked to her, whereas usually she would usually acknowledge my blabbering with an indulgent glance or a mew.

"Look, I'm sorry," I said for the fifth time. Murphy was sitting with her back towards me, her tail fluffed up and lashing about in agitation. "I'm a crappy trainer. I get it. But could you at least—"

Murphy pointedly ignored me and began to exaggeratedly lick her paw and smooth it over her ear.

"Hey, work with me here!" I said, only mildly desperate. If she ignored me altogether, how was I going to battle? It'd been more than a week and I still wasn't out of Mauville, even though I'd been so eager to leave that I would have left on the second day had I not set my sights on the Gym. I was already behind; Cam, Amelia, and almost all of the other drafted trainers had left, and a few had even beaten the Gym before they'd done so. I had no idea how they managed to do so in such a short amount of time; I was behind, and I knew it. And the only other option was to let the Roselia out of its Pokéball and deal with the fallout of its temper tantrum.

I tentatively reached a hand out to smooth down a tuft of wayward fur on Murphy's head. Her fur fluffed up and she hissed at me, backing away and churning her tail. She lashed out a paw at me.

"I'm sorry!" I protested. Even though I knew it was a bad idea, I reached out again anyways. Murphy made a complaining sound but let me pet her this time. I scratched behind her ear, in the spot I knew she liked best, and she purred reluctantly.

I couldn't deny that once or twice, I had seriously considered ditching Murphy. Raising a clawless Meowth was a lot harder than I thought it would be. I know, I know, it wouldn't have been the nicest thing to do, but Murphy's utter lack of offensive options frustrated me to the point where I lost sleep over it occasionally. But every time I thought about releasing her into the alleys and wishing her good luck, some part of me remembered the desperate expression in her eyes when we'd first met and I couldn't bring myself to do it. Besides, if I released her, there wouldn't be anything to stop the Roselia from strangling me.

"I shouldn't have let you wander off and start a fight we weren't expecting. We'll get it right next time," I promised. Murphy meowed somewhat grumpily and rolled over onto her back, exposing her soft underside and stretching. I reached down to rub her belly and she attacked my hand, latching onto my fingers with four paws and nipping at them with sharp fangs.

"Ow! Hey!"

I decided to meet our newest team member in our room at the Pokémon Center, figuring that if I was mauled I would be able just run downstairs and call a nurse. Murphy was perched on the desk next to my bag, watching the Pokéball I held in my hands with slight wariness. I was kneeling on the floor, staring at the Pokéball in my hands with even more wariness.

"Okay," I said, placing my finger over the button on the center of the Pokéball. "I'm gonna do it."

A few seconds passed. I stared at the top half of the Pokéball, observing the shiny red color with intense concentration.

"I'm gonna do it," I said again. "You know what? Really. I'll do it." On the bed, Murphy yawned.

Maybe I should have left the door open. I'd closed it because I was afraid some hotshot trainer would walk by and see me being attacked by my new Pokémon. On the other hand, if I screamed and the door was shut, would anyone be able to hear me?

"Screw it! I'm doing it!" I said, clicking the button. The red-and-white ball burst open with a beam of light and the Roselia from earlier appeared, healthy again after the nurse had healed it but looking no less terrifying (well, to me). It raised its head and its tiny black eyes seemed to widen a fraction as it took in its strange surroundings.

"Uh…" I cleared my throat. The Roselia swiveled its head towards me. "Hi," I said weakly.

The Roselia did not move. The seething rage I had seen in its eyes when I'd tried to capture it had cooled to a frosty stare. It turned towards me, crossing its giant flower-arms in front of me in a defensive posture.

"Are you hungry?" I asked. I held out a handful of slightly damp…mulch-y…pellet-things. The cashier at the Poké Mart had said they were nutrient-rich, good for grass-type Pokémon. But the Roselia ignored it and stared at me instead. I couldn't tell what it was thinking anymore, and it made me more nervous than anything. I would have almost preferred its obvious anger to whatever it was doing right now. I set the pellets down, thinking it would feel more comfortable taking food from the floor instead of from my hand, and scooted back a little.

Whatever weird nutrients were in the pellets must have triggered some primal feeding instinct inside the Roselia's head, because it inched forward cautiously, extending one stem-like arm as if it was about to poke the food I'd given it experimentally.

That, of course, was when Murphy chose to knock my bag onto the floor. The sudden noise started the Roselia and it scurried away hurriedly.

"Whoa! It's okay, relax," I said quickly. "Look, uhhh…I'm sorry we got off on the wrong foot. I'm hoping we can work together?"

The Roselia glared suspiciously at me and backtracked slowly until it was hiding under the desk. Then it proceeded to sulk for the next five minutes as I watched it stare balefully at me. If looks could kill, I would have probably died a dozen times.

"...Murphy," I whispered eventually. Murphy, alerted by the sound of her name, turned towards me. "Go over and see if you can make friends."

Murphy yawned, revealing pointed white fangs.

"Come on!" I hissed. "Please?"

Murphy did not respond at first, and I wondered if she had understood. Then she stretched languidly and leaped down to the floor, padding over to sniff at the Roselia. It backed further into the corner, holding one red rose out in a defensive posture. Murphy meowed. The Roselia made an angry noise and shook its petals menacingly.

It looked like we weren't going to be getting anywhere any time soon. Murphy huffed, backed out from under the desk, and glanced at me as if to say, whatever, what can you do.

"This is not really the best start to my career," I said out loud. Murphy purred and bumped her head up into my hand, looking for ear scratches.

"Poison Sting, Absorb, Stun Spore…"

I stood in a patch of knee-deep tall grass, frowning at the notebook I'd bought and jotted down with notes. The nurse at the Pokémon Center had been sympathetic when I'd brought Murphy and the Roselia to her for the second time in one day. While I'd been training the Roselia to respond to commands, it'd decided to start a fight with Murphy instead, and both Pokémon came away bruised and bleeding. In any case, after listening to my angry tirade, the nurse had wryly suggested that it might be easier for us to bond if I began to think of the Roselia as a he instead of an it (although how she discerned its…his gender, I had no idea—Roselia just looked like plants to me), and gave it…him a name.

After I spent an hour patching up the tiny holes the Roselia's barbs had pierced in the fabric of my bag, I was thinking of a lot of nasty names (none of which I can print here), and none that I could use. I eventually decided on "Thorn", after a good half an hour searching up plant-related names. Thorn because thorns were prickly…and he was a prick. Haha. Maybe instead of becoming a trainer, I should have started stand-up comedy.

Even though Thorn had none of the problems that Murphy had with her lack of claws, he was also far less obedient than she was. Originally, I tried to train him in the same area I'd caught him in, but once we'd returned near the same patch of grass, he promptly refused to obey any of my commands and had a worrying habit of wandering off. So we went south instead, towards the Cycling Road. I didn't have a bike, so we walked under the shadow of the overhead pathway for a little while, listening to the sound of cyclists chatting and battling above us.

Some distance away from us, an Electrike was sniffing at the grass, the sunlight gleaming off its green fur. Murphy looked vaguely interested, although she seemed more interested in peering over the edge of the path and into the water below, where Magikarp swam. Thorn very obviously did not want to be here. I had never seen a more unenthusiastic plant.

"Thorn!" I said loudly and firmly. Thorn twitched at the sound of his name, which I guessed counted as progress. "Poison Sting!"

Thankfully, he seemed to understand that I was ordering him to attack and raised one arm to shoot a wave of barbs at the Electrike, which yelped in surprise and darted aside. It turned towards Thorn, baring its teeth and bristling with electricity. It snarled and charged straight at us!

"Stun Spore!" Thorn twirled, sending a cloud of yellowish dust towards the attacking Pokémon. The Electrike didn't seem to be bothered; it still managed to barrel into Thorn, sending him skidding backwards into my leg. Murphy watched the spectacle disinterestedly, then turned to bat at the water with one paw.

"Come on, you can take it down," I encouraged. Thorn ignored me completely. "Get closer and use Absorb!"

With a flick, the same glowing green vines that had nearly strangled Murphy leapt out and ensnared the still slowed Electrike, which growled and tried to back away. But Thorn's vines held, and the Electrike's struggles grew weaker and weaker. It slumped to the ground.

"That's good," I said. Thorn released the Electrike cautiously. "Nice work—"

And then with an explosion of movement, the Electrike stopped playing dead and leapt up, yelping and dashing away from us and into the tall grass.

"Hey!" I shouted. But it was too late. It was gone. "Darn. Well, at least you're listening to me most of the time now, right—?"

Thorn gave me a look of pure apathy. I felt vaguely disturbed; did he really care so little about the outcomes of our battles?

Then there was a yowl and a splash as Murphy fell into the water, and I abandoned that train of thought to go fish her out.

Thorn must have been severely annoyed by our first meeting, because it'd been almost a week since I'd had him and he still refused to touch any food I'd given him.

"I'm sure photosynthesis is convenient and all," I said, crouching down to his eye level and holding out some of the mulch pellets I'd offered earlier, "but you should probably eat some of this. I bought it for you and Murphy can't eat it. And it's good for you."

The Roselia gave me an unimpressed stare, then turned away deliberately. I sighed. Why did my Pokémon had to be so..weird?

"Here. You don't have to take it from me. Just try some." I set the pellets down and rolled them towards Thorn. He backed away, his beady eyes scrunching into something very much like a frown. I marveled at how strange his face looked; the tiny black eyes, long eyelash-like tufts, a small mouth, all on the face of a walking flower bush. The fact that the texture of his skin looked a lot like a leaf didn't really help much, either.

"Come on." I prodded another pellet at Thorn. Murphy, who'd been lounging nearby watching us with lazy disinterest, suddenly sat up. Her ears perked and she padded over to stare at the little earthy balls of plant food with her tail twitching. Thorn, meanwhile, rolled a pellet back at me with the large, beautiful red rose on the end of his stem-like arm. I rolled it back. We repeated this several times, rolling it in between us, when Murphy darted out one paw and knocked it askew, sending it skidding to the side.

"Hey!" I said. Thorn turned the force of his glare on Murphy, who managed to look extremely unimpressed and nonchalant in the face of one of the most terrifying death stares I'd seen a plant give.

"Thorn, look at me." I poked forward another pellet. Thorn backed away, scowling. "Don't give me that look, it's good for you." All the handbooks I'd read said that giving Pokémon food was an easy way to gain their trust—so why did this have to be so hard? Why did he have to be so difficult?

"Just eat it—" I began, then the pellet was knocked into the air by another one of Murphy's quick jabs. "Stop! Murphy, these aren't for you."

Murphy meowed sulkily and reached out one deliberately defiant paw to bat at the rest of the mulch pellets. I slammed my hand down as a shield. "What is up with you guys? These aren't toys, they're food. Thorn, watch—" and without thinking, I picked up a small ball of mulch and popped it into my mouth.

A word of advice? If you're planning on eating what is basically very moist dirt, don't do it. It tastes disgusting.

I coughed, instantly realized my mistake, but it was too late for my taste buds. I spat the soil out, gagging and sticking my tongue out. It did nothing to alleviate the disgusting scent and I sprang up, scrabbling to reach for a napkin. The box was empty, so I braced myself on the desk and retched for a good two minutes, trying to get the taste of the mulch out of my mind. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of my Pokémon on the floor. Murphy still had one frozen paw raised to bat the rest of the pellets, staring at me with a curious expression. Thorn looked absolutely perplexed, his black eyes wide.

"Shut up," I said, then regretted it as my tongue came into contact with the roof of my mouth. "Blegh! Stop it!"

I got the distinct impression that if Thorn had been a human, he would have been raising an eyebrow and shaking his head in disbelief. Instead, he picked up a small ball of mulch (I had no idea how the large flowers of his picked anything up, but then again I wasn't going to get close enough to find out) and swallowed it, looking at me straight in the eye when he said so.

The jerk.

I bet you're thinking, oh no, not a bonding montage. Well, you're in luck, because there isn't really wasn't much bonding happening anyway, and not much more I could say to describe the amount of time I spent getting to know Thorn. There was a lot of sullen silence, a lot of deliberate disinterest, and a lot of accidentally botched Poison Stings that somehow ended up shooting straight towards my face. I was having a hard time getting Thorn to accept me like Murphy had. Although if I was being honest I had accepted her and not the other way around; she'd been the one who followed me until I captured her, after all.

While Murphy was much better at listening to me, it was still hit-and-miss as to whether Thorn would actually listen to what I said. Most of the time he was willing enough to obey my commands in battle. But I could yell at him to get off the bed until my face turned purple, and he would totally ignore me, like I was a really annoying Taillow that wouldn't stop screeching at him. After seeing him react to some of my more complicated battle commands, I was fairly certain that he was able to understand he majority of what I was saying, but was just totally unwilling to obey.

He didn't really get along with Murphy, either. He always seemed a little wary around her, probably because she'd gnawed off part of the leaf on his shoulder (it was growing back, but very, very slowly). And Murphy, after a few more tries to at least make peace, seemed to have given in. Now she mostly ignored him.

Despite the bumps along the way, I decided that it was time for us to move on and stop beating up on the wild Pokémon. We were going to advance to trainer battles. I departed Mauville to head south once more. We'd been doing most of our training in the tall grass under the Cycling Road, and I knew there were plenty of trainers milling around in the shade. Now it was a matter of finding someone we would have a fair fight against.

There was a dark-haired girl with an intimidating-looking Seviper, which I wrote off immediately. There were a few very young trainers walking around with Pokémon more similar to my own team. I saw a boy who couldn't have been more than ten years old with a Zigzagoon, and another equally young girl with a Plusle and Minun. They seemed like more realistic opponents, but part of me felt somewhat embarrassed to battle kids who were eight years younger than me—I would either feel bad about winning, or mortified about losing.

Eventually, I found someone who looked promising. He was still younger than me, but probably not too much; two, three years at most. Sitting at his feet was an Electrike, like the wild ones we'd battled so many times before. The trainer was typing something into a Pokénav, oblivious to the world around him and completely missing my approach.

"Uh…" I cleared my throat. "Hey! Do you want to battle?"

The boy looked up and smiled. He was friendly, at least. "Sure!" he said, tucking the Pokénav in his pocket. "It's kinda what we're supposed to do. I'm Sean, what's your name?"

"Riley," I replied. "So, uh…how are we going to do this? I've got two Pokémon, so..."

"I have three," said Sean. "But we can make it a two-on-two to be fair, I guess." he unclipped a Pokéball from his belt. "Are you a new trainer? I am. I'm from Slateport."

"That's a nice city," I replied, never mind the fact that I'd never been to Slateport. I pulled out Murphy's Pokéball and clenched my other hand into a fist. Now that it was really beginning to happen, I could feel my heart beginning to pound in my ears. Might as well get it over with. "Less talking, more battling."

Sean grinned. "Ha! I like that! You're up, Lily!" he threw the Pokéball, which opened in a burst of light. The ray of light coalesced into a Skitty, blinking in the sudden sunlight and mewing. Its pink fur was pristine and well-groomed, and its fluffy pink tail stood straight up.

"Murphy!" I pressed the button; Murphy appeared in her own burst of light, her slitted eyes widening as she saw the Skitty on the other side of the battlefield. Her tail lashed back and forth and she bared her teeth.

"Lily, Tackle!" Sean commanded. Lily the Skitty bounded forward on short but surprisingly powerful legs, headed straight towards Murphy.

"Fake Out!" I shouted quickly. Murphy moved with blinding speed, smashing her paws down on the Skitty's head. It made a surprised sound and flinched back, cringing slightly.

"Bite!" I said, trying to capitalize on the time that Skitty's flinching had bought us. Murphy leaped forward and sank her teeth into its ears. The Skitty screeched, twisting its short body, but Murphy clung on valiantly.

"Stay calm! Doubleslap!" Sean retaliated. Skitty suddenly lashed out with its tail, hitting Murphy straight in the face with strikes so rapid I could barely detect them: two, three, no, four times. Murphy let go and backed away, spitting angrily.

"Tackle!" Sean ordered again.

"Growl!"

Murphy let out a surprisingly intimidating snarl that froze Skitty in its tracks temporarily. I frowned. The encyclopedia I'd read had described it as a "cute" move…but then when was Murphy ever a normal Meowth?

Intimidating growl or not, Skitty's tackle connected and Murphy was sent stumbling back. "Bite!" I called quickly, wanting to end the battle before either she or I panicked. And Murphy obeyed beautifully, bounding forward in a flash and chomping down on the Skitty's flank with a surprising viciousness. It wailed and rolled over in submission.

"Lily, come back! I think that round goes to you," Sean said good-naturedly, clicking the button on Lily's Pokéball. There was a swoosh and the Skitty was gone. "I've got one more go, though! Sparky, you're up!"

The Electrike at his feet bounded forward, teeth bared and growling. Murphy hissed at it, her fur slowly puffing up. I felt slightly more confident. We'd battled plenty of Electrike before, and Murphy was usually fast enough to handle them.

"Thunder Wave!" Sean called. Sparky the Electrike was suddenly wreathed in small webs of electricity, the rays darting towards us. And Murphy was fast, but she couldn't outrun lightning for very long, and soon one of the waves hit her and she stumbled, her fur bristling with static.

"Use Bite," I said. Murphy began to charge forward but stopped, cringing, her limbs locking up. Damn it, it was the paralysis.

"Spark!" And Electrike was wreathed in electricity and hurtling towards Murphy, slamming her into the ground. I blinked in surprise; it was much faster than the wild ones had been. She got up again, but more slowly this time.

"A little bit longer, Murphy!" I encouraged. "Bite!" In the back of my mind, I wondered if I sounded like a broken record, ordering Bite after Bite. But it was the only attacking move that Murphy knew outside of Fake Out, which I'd figured out (after some research, but mostly trial-and-error) only could be used at the start of each battle for some reason.

"Quick Attack!" Sean said. The Electrike suddenly darted forward, moving so quickly it blurred and slamming into Murphy, who toppled over and groaned in pain.

"Murphy, that's it for now!" I recalled her. Now it was time to test out Thorn. Part of me was excited to see how he would perform against a stronger, trained opponent.

I threw the Pokéball and Thorn appeared in a burst of light. As usual, his first response was to turn towards me with a look of utter annoyance and thinly veiled loathing. I felt the strange urge to apologize to him, until I remembered that I'd done nothing wrong.

"Sparky, Charge!" Sean ordered. The Electrike suddenly began to buzz with static electricity, tiny arcs of energy radiating from its green fur.

"Stun Spore," I called. Thorn obeyed, but Electrike ducked under the slow cloud of spores easily and charged towards him with startling quickness. I had to stop it before it rammed into Thorn.

"Poison Sting!" And Thorn sent out a wave of small barbs. The Electrike veered away quickly, but a good amount of the small glowing thorns made it into its fur and it yowled in discomfort, shaking its head and pawing at its fur in discomfort.

"Keep it up!" Sean encouraged, but the Electrike didn't look very well to me. In fact, it looked slightly nauseous. I was reminded of the hours I'd spent throwing up after Thorn had pricked me with a Poison Sting attack and felt slightly encouraged. If it was poisoned, then it was just a matter of stalling now.

"Spark!" said Sean, and Electrike charged forward with the same electric tackle that had nearly taken down Murphy. But it was slower this time, and seemed to run gingerly, favoring the side of its body that had taken the brunt of the Poison Sting. I decided to stop it in its tracks.

"Thorn, Mega Drain!" I said, as the Electrike neared. Outstretched green vines arched forward from Thorn's body, tripping it and latching onto its paws to bring it to a stop. The vines glowed as Thorn began to drain the Electrike's energy, and it yowled in distress.

"Get free, Sparky! Bite the vines!" Sean ordered. The Electrike hesitated, then bit down with sharp fangs onto the vines that ensnared it. Thorn hissed in pain and let go almost immediately. The Electrike bounded away, stumbling slightly as the poison took its toll on its tired muscles.

"Poison Sting again!"

"Swift!" Sean said, and I watched, surprised, as the Electrike sent out a burst of star-shaped energy that deflected the poison barbs and slammed into Thorn, knocking him back. None of the wild Electrike we'd battled had known that move.

"Mega Drain!" Thorn summoned the green vines again. Electrike tried to dodge, but Thorn was faster. Wrapped in the glowing, draining, vines, the Electrike struggled briefly, then went limp and fainted. Thorn still clung onto it for a while, stubbornly continuing to drain its energy.

"Thorn, that's enough," I said. For a split second I thought he wasn't going to respond, then he dropped the Electrike and glared back at me balefully. Sean recalled his Pokémon with a sigh and turned towards me.

"That was fun," he said. I wondered how he could look so cheerful even though he'd lost. "It was harder than I thought it would be. I haven't been battling a lot of trainers." He rifled through his wallet and handed me a few bills. I took it, trying not to seem too eager. My first income!

"Me neither," I admitted, pocketing the money carefully. "I didn't know Electrike could learn Swift."

"They normally can't," said Sean. "I have an older brother who's a breeder—he likes tinkering around with breeding different Pokémon that wouldn't normally breed, so their offspring have weird moves. He gave Sparky to me."

"Oh." I said. I briefly wondered would it would have been like to have a sibling, or someone to help me through the start of my journey. I didn't think about it for long, though. Like Cam sometimes said, if wishes were sandwiches none of us would go hungry. And yet most of us still were. Or had been. "That's neat," I said lamely.

Sean grinned. "Thanks," he said, hoisting his bag onto his shoulder. "Well, I gotta go heal up these two now. I'm hanging around Slateport for a while longer, but I'll probably make it to Mauville next week—maybe I'll see you around?"

"Maybe," I said, personally thinking that if I had to spent another week in Mauville when I could have been anywhere else in the world, I would almost definitely go crazy.

Sean waved at me and left without further ceremony. I watched him leave, then turned to Thorn.

"That was really good," I said, and I meant it.

Thorn gave me another look of pure loathing. Apparently he didn't care for my compliments. In the distance, the sun was setting, the red and orange clouds reflecting in the still water. It was a nice view. We didn't really get to see many sunsets in Mauville. That was one of the downsides of an indoor city.

"Come on, let's go," I said, turning away from the view to head back to the glowing night lights of Mauville. I'd only taken a few steps before Thorn stuck out a vine and tripped me neatly. "Hey! What gives?"

Murphy, to absolutely no one's surprise, didn't learn Fury Swipes.