Model Behavior Chapter Three: Who Knew?, a pokémon fanfic

"Model Behavior"

Author's Note: I did not create the world of Pokémon, the creatures within it, nor the basic concept of it. I did, however, create the characters in this story and would like to be asked permission if you wish to use them. This is the first time I have written in a very long time and look forward to reading your insight on the text. I'm a lot older now, but my interest in Pokémon has not changed. Thank you.

I was floating in a dark, negative space as ominous voices spoke words of disapproval, vaguely reminiscent of Judgment Day or something of that ilk. The voices rose with each passing second, building in intensity.

Then, just when I thought that I could not possibly take any more of it, the voices would all of sudden become one familiar voice, vaguely familiar, but familiar nonetheless. I looked all around for this voice, turning in endless circles, until finally I stopped when I heard my name.

A woman stood before me, draped in white. At her feet there was a small pokémon that too was pure white except for the gray circles on its cheeks. It loomed up at me with large, sparkling eyes. When I took a step forward, it let out a shrill cry and dove behind the folds of the woman's cascading gown. Maybe she was its trainer.

An irresistible force commanded my attention. My eyes jerked away from the pokémon as my gaze was redirected to the woman. Then, overcome with tenderness, I reached out my hands and lovingly touched her face, wondering if she were real. She merely stood there, stoic in both her stance and her countenance even as I wrapped my arms around her tall, slim figure in a tight embrace and lay my head upon her bosom.

I could feel her heart beating.

"Delphine," she would say, her voice as faint as a whisper, and immediately I raised my head to look into eyes that, in spite of their savageness, exuded a silent, though alarming, sadness. It was a look that I had seen every day for many, many years.

"Yes," I squeaked, my voice cracking beneath the weight of the whirlwind of emotions I was experiencing at the time. Could it be?

A look of lingering pain combined with the look of acceptance of a person that has been suffering for a very long time showed on her face. She smiled with squinted eyes, as if the effort were draining the very life out of her.

"Trust," she said.

I slowly walked over to the window in the room that Lucie and I shared. She was still asleep, snoring lightly. I smiled, for a second wishing that I could sleep as peacefully as she appeared to be sleeping right then. For the past few nights, my slumber had been ravished by a nightmare that lingered with me for the rest of the day, only to be repeated the following night. I was both grumpy from being tired and tired of being grumpy. Very little was going according to plan.

The sky was still dark, though at the horizon where the cobalt blue water of the ocean seemed to fall off the face of the World, I discerned flares of soft, pale yellow. Out of habit, I was often awake at the crack of dawn for that was when our day would begin back in Dewford Town. More than ever I thought about home, even more than I had when I first moved away to pursue my modeling career.

At home, there was never this persistent uncertainty that had come about ever since that disastrous rencontre with Whismur in the dining hall. Everything had had its place there. Before I began to model, my future had already been laid out for me. I would go to school for business and then come back home to figure out how to keep my father's shop from going under once and for all. I had both the grades and the quick wit for it. Part of the reason why my father even allowed me to model was that he could see its utility as hands-on experience, which I could only benefit from in the long run. My teachers would comment highly on my way of thinking outside the box to produce favorable results. It was a tactic that I had hoped to use once I began to train pokémon.

But how could I worry about strategies when I couldn't even get my pokémon to look me in the eye?

I tried to place myself in his shoes. Maybe if I were a small pink pokémon with no obvious defenses against others, then maybe I would cry if I saw a six-foot tall woman with brown skin, white hair, and gray eyes. This is what I constantly had to tell myself in order not to dwell on the fact that my first pokémon was a complete disappointment.

A part of me felt horrible for feeling that way for in the Pokémon World it was well known that great things could come in small packages. And though I would never communicate any of this to Lucie, or to Whismur himself, I couldn't help that every time I saw the other celebrities and trainers bonding with their pokémon friend, I regretted ever signing up for the show.

And in spite of myself, I found that it hurt me. A lot.

Finally, I had been one step closer to realizing a dream of mine and one of the final keys was in my hand. But right when I was ready to open that door, I had discovered the true meaning of it all. It was all just a fluke and the key in my hand was a skeleton key; and unfortunately it happened to be the one that didn't work. On top of that, what irked me the most was that Mr. Writing and all the creative minds behind the show played it off as all some sort of joke: giving me a Whismur as a starting pokémon. Well-intentioned or not, they wanted to see me squirm and for once, this was something that I couldn't cover, especially not with my very own camera man following me around!

I supposed that it I had brought it all upon myself. Maybe the gods intended this as a punishment for the horrible way that I treated people as a model. Yeah, I was devoted to my family and did my best to honor and serve them, but the modeling business had toughened me to the point of callousness. As the oldest, I had had to be strong, for my sisters and even for my father, but when it came to the point where people were afraid to approach me, then wasn't something terribly wrong about that?

Where was the Delphine that would willingly miss school to man the fruit stand when Dad was sick, that rocked Jubilee to sleep every night, and that helped Jasmine and Yasmine review for their tests?

A sudden stirring in the room stunned me out of my deep reflection. I was thankful for it; all of that time for thinking was driving me positively insane.

"Mornin', buddy!" Lucie chirped as she propped herself on her elbows, smiled, and peered at me with eyelids still heavy with sleep.

"Good morning."

"Didja sleep all right? I heard some tossin' and turnin' when I got up to use the bathroom in the middle of the night," she asked as she pulled the blanket away from her body and placed her feet on the ground.

"Not really. I had this strange dream, the same one I've been happening since the other night with Whismur."

She whistled. "I see. Well, if you ever wanna talk about it, then feel free to—"

"Thanks," I cut in, "but I think it's something I'm going to have figure out on my own."

She threw her hands up in the air in defeat. "Just know I'm here for you if you ever come 'round."

I smiled at her from the window, a silent thanks. "So what are your plans for today?"

"I'm gonna head down to the beach and do some training with my pokémon. We've slacked off a lot since we got here but now I'm ready to get back to work and start challengin' some of these big shots to some battles. How 'bout you?"

"I was actually thinking of going down to the beach to watch the sunrise myself."

"Well come on, girl. We ain't got no time to waste!"

With one great swoop, I flattened out and then laid down the large beach blanket that I had brought for me and Lucie to sit on. Once everything was settled, I laid out a small assortment of fruit and yogurt for our breakfast. Lucie furrowed in her bag for a moment before retrieving a small round dish. Then, she plucked off a Pokéball from a friendship bracelet that had previously been surrounded by numerous charms, kissed it, and said, "Rise and shine!" Once the red beam disappeared, a cute sheep pokémon with yellow wool remained.

"Morning, Mareep! How are ya feeling this morning?" she asked, cheerfully hugging the pokémon close to her and nuzzling it with her cheek.

"Mareep, mare!" he squealed.

I turned away to look at the rising sun, painfully aware of how close they were to one another. The sunrise on Pearl Island truly was a spectacular sight to behold and was rendered even more striking by the darkness of the water. I had heard that those waters were some of the deepest in the world and that that attributed to its profound color…but that wasn't the only thing that I was admiring from afar.

In the distance, in a shallower part of the ocean, floated a lone man and his pokémon. They were both looking out towards the sun, though by their positioning in the water, I guessed that they were waiting for a nice wave to come their way.

Sure enough, their prayer was answered. A good-sized wave, maybe two meters high or so, rushed towards the shore. The man and pokémon turned the board and began to paddle, gradually rising as the water began to arc beneath them. Even from where I was, I could see the intensity in both their eyes as they rode the wave, their stance never faltering.

One.

Once they were done, they immediately began to head back towards where Lucie, Mareep and I were all sitting. The early morning sun, which some people said was the purest light of the whole day, played upon the man nicely: the green floral print of his board shorts seemed to come alive, his taut muscles churned beneath his golden skin, and his eyes, I could see them in such detail. It was the photographer, but for once, I was the one admiring his beauty from afar.

By his side, staring up at him with a look of adulation was a Totodile. His white teeth shown brilliantly against his cornflower blue skin, which in turn contrasted beautifully with the scarlet ridge of spikes along his spine. Back on the mainland, it would have surely been classified as shiny, but this was the norm on Pearl Island. Their isolation was the root of their different coloring and of, I would later learn, their knowledge of different attacks in the wild.

"Oh my gawd, he is so hot," Lucie told me without moving her lips. "And he's comin' right towards us. He's lookin' right at you!"

I was used to attention, but the look that this guy had on his face, the determination, told me that he was looking for something else entirely.

By the time he arrived, Lucie had flushed a deep red and was practically fanning herself. I guessed that she wasn't so chill when around boys.

I kept my cool, though my heart betrayed me with its quickening beat. After all the years of being in the fashion business I spent surrounded by hundreds of ridiculously good-looking male models, I had never once gone out on so much as a date with one. Relationships while in the spotlight is not a good look for anyone, and especially not for me. But there was something about this guy that made me want to change all of that.

"Good morning, ladies," he said, making sure to make eye contact with both us. Then, he knelled down to Mareep's eye-level and added, "and gentleman."

"HI!" Lucie exclaimed, and then added "I'm Lucie and this here's—"

"Delphine. I already know who she is," he said while looking me in the eyes.

"Who are—ahem, what's your name?" I asked, wishing that I could have been more nice.

"Kai," he said. Then he added, upon seeing our surprised looks: "It means: the sea. My father is descended from an island people that live not too far away from here. I got my mother's eyes though."

He had nice teeth too.

"Cool!" Lucie cried. I could have dragged her away by the ear at that point. I reasoned that she was still probably in her boy crazy stage.

"So what brings you over here to talk to us? It seemed as though you were catching some nice waves over there," I asked, trying to sound as normal as possible. Unfortunately, to many my normal voice sounded a bit cold.

"I came here to battle Lucie's Mareep, if you don't mind," he said, not taking his eyes off of Lucie as he spoke.

"Lil ole me?" Lucie asked, pressing her hand to her heart, feigning shock. But then, as if another person had jumped into her body and taken over, she jumped to her feet and placing one resolute hand on her hip. "Well, I sure do hope you don't think that I'm gonna take it easy on you just because you're good-lookin'!"

He grinned.

"Wouldn't have it any other way."

"I hope you realize that I technically have the advantage here, Mr. Kai." Lucie politely reminded him.

"Ma!"

"We both know; right, Totodile?"

"Dile!"

"Well, with that in mind, I'm gonna have to let you have the first move," Lucie yelled from her side of the beach.

"Fine by me. Go Totodile, tackle!"

Totodile leaped into action almost before Kai could finish pronouncing the words, kicking up sand as he switched to all fours.

"Tackle!"

Mareep responded just as quickly. One of the first things that I noticed was how surprisingly speedy he was as he galloped across the sand. The determination in its eyes was something to see. For something so cute and fluffy, it sure did look menacing on the battlefield. Both pokémon collided into each other with an amazing crack and remained there pushing against one another, neither one allowing the other to overpower him, both equally strong.

"Totodile, jump back and use water gun!"

Totodile used the strength of Mareep to help propel him backwards, adding a little flip as he did. It seemed he had a lot of spunk, that one. Then, with a great cry, he blasted Mareep right in the face, causing him to fly backward quite a few feet. A direct hit.

"Your Totodile is strong, I'll give him that, but me and Mareep have been together for too long to fall to some dinky water attack. Mareep, surround Totodile with cotton spore now!"

"Reep!" he yelled in agreement. Clumps of his wool suddenly began to detach themselves from Mareep's body and hover in the air.

"Totodile, dodge the attack by diving into the ocean!"

"Mareep, bar off the ocean from Totodile with your cotton spore!"

Totodile made a mad dash towards the ocean, where he would have undoubtedly been a lot more comfortable. But Mareep was just too fast, as the cotton balls dispersed all around Totodile, effectively sealing him into some type of woolen cage.

Things were getting interesting.

"Got'em! Now zap the cotton with your thunderbolt attack!"

What a great idea! Since the wool was from Mareep himself, then it would surely conduct electricity. That would make it nearly impossible for Totodile to escape. Lucie was definitely an experienced pokémon trainer, I knew it right then and there. That type of strategy was far from amateur.

"Totodile, dive underground!"

The moment Totodile jumped and dove into the sand, both of our jaws dropped. Totodile had just used dig? We could barely process the thought of it. Poor Mareep didn't know what to do; he just stood there, looking at Lucie in desperation.

"Mareep, stay cool. Just charge up your wool with thundershock! We're gonna blast this ground-type move outta the water!"

"Ree!" Mareep cried as blue energy began to crackle over his body, doubling the size of its wool. It was at that moment that Totodile came out of the ground and sent Mareep flying into the air, squealing in pain as he fell onto his back.

"Now, finish him off with scratch attack!"

Totodile's claws began to glow a blinding white while he was still in the air. Then, he maneuvered himself headfirst as he down towards Mareep, almost like a Noctowl in a stoop to catch its unsuspecting prey. Mareep was still upturned, unable to evade Totodile's attack because of the added mass of his excess wool.

"FLAIL THEN THUNDERSHOCK!" Lucie cried.

With a loud grunt, Mareep bucked legs with a quick undulating motion and hoisted himself straight onto Totodile's outstretched claws. Totodile let out a surprised shriek as the tables were suddenly turned. Struggle as he might, he couldn't remove himself from Mareep's wool. So, while in midair and stuck in this very odd embrace, Mareep shifted his weight in order to take the dominant position before they crashed to the ground with a loud thud. Blue electricity then surrounded Mareep's body for a few seconds, before Mareep finally jumped off, surprisingly smaller than he had been just seconds ago.

Totodile didn't move.

"Wow, those were some amazing moves," Kai said, smilingly taking his defeat with grace. "I wasn't expecting that at all."

"Oh well, me and Mareep have been together for a long time and we always look for a way to win, even when it looks like we're fittin' ta lose!" Lucie chirped, awkwardly scratching her head as she did.

"So have Totodile and I. The dig usually gets us out of trouble with the electric types but I guess that you and Mareep were just a bit too strong," Kai admitted.

I hated how they spoke as if I wasn't there. But most of all, I hated that I hated how they spoke as if I wasn't there. I wasn't used to being unable to connect with people, but unfortunately, I wouldn't even be able to connect with them on that level until I could figure out what to do with Whismur.

I continued to listen to them flatter one another for another minute or so before I told them that I was going to go for a walk in the forest. Lucie asked me if I wanted her to come with me but I gently declined her offer. Besides, I knew that she wanted to spend time with Kai. Humoring her proved the best option for the most of us. I didn't know just how much more of it I could have taken.

Yet, Kai intrigued me, and not only because of his looks. I had heard him say that he and Totodile had been together for a long time.

As soon as the grass along the property began to give way to shrubs and then to full out trees, it suddenly clicked why I had crashed into him the other day in the dining hall. He didn't need to get a pokémon so he had decided to go along on his merry way. And then, had he not also said that usually Totodile's dig attack worked to his advantage against electric-type pokémon? Evidently, he wasn't completely ignorant of the art of battling pokémon. So did that make him a trainer that did photography or a photographer that trained pokémon on the side?

"Either way, I won't be able to ask him as long as Lucie's breathing down his neck," I said to myself as I sidestepped out of the way of a large boulder.

In the forest, I could hear all sorts of sounds: pokémon calling out to one another, insects zipping past my ears, and the constant thunder of a waterfall. Having nothing better to do, I thought that I would follow that last sound and chill there for a while to get my thoughts together. The cameraman had seemed to go on a break or something once I went into the forest, opting to film whatever was developing between Kai and Lucie, if anything indeed was developing between them.

The waterfall wasn't very far away at all, I soon discovered, and it was spectacular in spite of its relatively small size. I quickly found a small slab of slate that wasn't wet from the cascading water and sat down upon it. The stone was cool, a nice soothing contrast to the sand that had begun to gather heat from the rising sun. I felt myself being pulled down to the stone, it was just so relaxing. I titled my head towards the sky and admired the view of the green and brown of the trees and the pokémon that occupied them. The forest was alive around all and I wasn't doing anything at all to add to it.

I thought that I would change that; and without a second thought, I pulled out the only pokéball I owned that had something in it. Then, I rolled onto my side and, after taking a deep breath, exclaimed, "Whismur! I choose you!" That wasn't so bad after all.

The beam shot forth and there Whismur was. Before he could open his mouth to cry I reached forward and grabbed him, placing him onto my lap. Once I was sitting cross-legged, I wrapped my left arm around his body and fixed my free hand over his mouth. There was a look of horror that flashed in his eyes and it hurt me to have been so rough with him but this absolutely had to be done.

"Now, Whismur," I said softly. Then I took a deep breath. "I know that you're afraid of me. And though I'm sitting here covering your mouth, I want you to trust me when I say that it's not because I want to hurt you or scare you in any way. (He began to shake at this point.)

I just need for you to hear where I'm coming from.

"I would love to be friends with you. Really, I would. And I would love to be your partner in battles as well, but we really can't do this if you're going to continue to cry whenever you see me. That's step number one. Now, do you think you could do that? (When I realized that he couldn't necessarily reply with my hand clamped over his mouth, I took him and set him before me.)

"Now, see? That isn't so bad. Wait, wait! Don't cry! Please!"

His mouth was a quavering circle at that point and with each passing second, I was afraid that he was about to blow. His little body inflated and deflated at a rapid pace but somehow, someway he maintained his composure. "Whismurrrrrr," he breathed. To me, it looked like he had yawned. The sound of rushing water had drowned out what little voice he had within him.

"Thank you so much, Whismur, really. This is a great step for us," I told him. I looked around as I figured out some other encouraging things to say. It was beyond awkward. This was the most I had to really push myself to be nice since my sisters were still really young. But back then I was helping to raise them so I guess it was a different game entirely.

"So, um, what type of abilities do you have?"

Whismur looked around as though he weren't sure of himself. His posture sunk but before long, his little arms began to glow a bright white much in the same way that Totodile's had. Then, out of nowhere he leaped at me and socked me square in the jaw. As I was already in a weird position on the ground, instead of being blasted backwards by the force of the blow, I was knocked backwards...onto my head. Yes, right onto the smooth gray slate that I had just been laying on only a few minutes before. A shooting pain echoed through my head and I felt my hands reaching to cradle it. I moaned in agony as I rocked back and forward from the reeling pain.

"Whismur? Whismur!" he cried as he clambered on top on of me. I felt a light pressure on my cheek and was quite sure it was him, though I could barely feel, or see, anything at that point.

Everything faded into gray.

"Yes," I squeaked, my voice cracking beneath the weight of the whirlwind of emotions I was experiencing at the time. Could it be?

"Struggle," she said...