This story originally starred a different Pokémon, which I ended up changing not because I didn't like the choice but because I appropriated it for a different snapshot that's a little more fitting to it. So if there's any obvious oversights, let me know so I can fix them. The other story...well, it's not finished yet, and I probably won't post it right away even when it is. But at some point it'll be out there.

I've got a little soft spot in my heart for the middle evolutions (can you tell?). They seem like the forgotten ones. I mean, your base evolutions are generally the cute ones that draw the most attention from the kinds of people who are into that sort of thing, while your final evolutions are the big tough brawlers that everyone uses for combat because they're built for it. The middle evos are like teenagers - everyone just prefers to forget about them because they're more trouble than they're worth. Well, I'm a fan, at least of some. So when I found out about Sandile and its evolutions, it was pretty much a shoe-in that I'd like Krokorok.

This story was a little strange to write, since I was going for a little lighter feel yet at the same time knew I was going to be putting in this section that was going to be my best effort at surreal. There's a little bit of stylistic dissonance in there. I hope it works anyway.

Endurance

Friends can be a very bad influence. Take myself and my buddies for example, we're the cause of a lot more of the pain and suffering we go through than all the battles we've ever fought combined. It's not malicious or anything, it's just kind of the way we are.

I'm a Krokorok, and my friends are a Sandslash and Drillbur. No names, I don't want to embarrass anyone. Anyway, the three of us have a lot of fun together, but I'd be lying if I said we weren't competitive, too. We're always trying to outdo each other and push each other into doing things that are...well, I'll put it lightly and say they're inadvisable. You know, the kind of stuff that has a "don't try this at home" disclaimer.

It wasn't long ago that I got goaded into a really bad one. To be fair, I'm pretty much the idiot here because I let my pride get the better of me. Yeah, I just had to say those magic words to them:

"I'm the strongest of all of us. I can take on anything you throw at me."

Because, you know, apparently I hadn't filled my stupid quota for the month or something. I swear to you, I usually know better than to go spouting off like that, and especially to those two, who seriously must lie in wait with ideas to torment me. As soon as I said it, they issued a challenge, and because I was still in mode stupid, I accepted.

The challenge: sit in a pool of ice water for an hour.

Now, you don't have to go lecturing me about the choice I made here. I'm perfectly aware of how bad a choice that was. Obviously, it was tailored to my weaknesses, both ice and water. Maybe if I'd been one of those types, I'd have done all right. And it did occur to me to have one of my trainer's Water-types hit me with Soak before going through with this stunt, but that would be cheating and my pride refused to let me seriously consider it. Stupid pride.

The details were settled quickly - yeah, you just try to tell me they hadn't been sitting on this for ages. We were flown to a northern region, way away from the little ranch our trainer keeps us at while not taking us along on a challenge. Along for the ride (actually, he was the ride) was his Charizard, who had been roped in to transport us there and perform vital rewarming after I either won or lost. I mean, we can be stupid, but we're not that stupid; none of us is going to knowingly put one of the others in that kind of danger without someone on hand to take care of us. He wanted me to make sure I noted that he didn't approve of any of this, but if we were going to do it, and we were going to do it regardless of his opinion, he figured someone responsible should be there to make sure it didn't turn into a catastrophe. Such a pal.

Anyway, once we got to the location, Charizard set up the warming tent and stayed inside that while Sandslash and Drillbur fashioned a little ice and water pool for me. Rather than using an existing water source, they made a little chamber in the ground and filled it up to about the level of my neck as I was sitting down. It was ready far too quickly for my tastes, and I swear I have never seen Sandslash grinning so widely in my entire life.

"Well, you ready, bucko?"

I could've smacked him over the head, but I managed to keep just enough restraint for that. I may have made a gesture that should not be repeated, though. Not that that fazed him any. I made my way to the water pit. It wasn't deep in the ground, so I could easily be pulled out, or easily jump out if I wimped out early enough that I could still move.

"And no pansying your way in, either!" I heard Drillbur say with an evil chuckle. "The timer doesn't start until you get in all the way!"

They were doing everything they could to make this harder. "I know, I know. Now shut up."

I decided there was no point in delaying it; I was going to be in that water at some point, and I figured I might last longer if I didn't get a head start on the torment. So as soon as I was poised over the pit, I dropped myself in.

That...MAY have been a mistake. While it probably did help ensure that I didn't drag it out before getting the timer started, it also ensured that my initial reaction was holycrapfreakingmotherofPAIN. All the way throughout my body, too - my head was spared the splash but it felt the ache just as badly somehow. I'm fairly sure I cussed like a jilted Nidoqueen (Poison types always have the foulest mouths in every sense of the word), which perfectly delighted my buddies. Someone told me that that's actually supposed to help with pain. Whatever. I sure as hell didn't feel any better. Maybe there was just too much pain or something.

Well, after the initial shock, it was just the slightest bit better. Not much, mind you; I was still pretty much in constant throbbing agony and I'd started shivering almost instantly, which didn't really help all that much. I started to really wish I'd brought something to grab onto and hold tight to try to help endure everything. Sandslash and Drillbur taunted me every now and then, but I was really too distracted by the pain to make much sense of what they were saying. Really, they were kind of bad at it if they couldn't even be memorable. My kind's good at taunting, it's kind of how we get our rep as tough guys.

I guess I'm getting a little distracted from the story. Well, I mean, it wasn't terribly interesting in the early stages, at least from my standpoint. I wasn't really able to keep track of how long I was in there while I was in there, it was just too hard to focus on that. I was mainly just trying to deal with the pain and the shivering. Cold water has this annoying effect where the pain's really sharp at first, then dulls down, but as it starts numbing you it gets sharp and stabby again. It was rotten when I was going through that phase, it would have been bad enough just on an arm or leg or something, but this was happening all over my body. I think I was making some very pitiful moans or something like that, I'm not really entirely sure. I also wasn't sure exactly how Sandslash and Drillbur were responding at this point, but I'm pretty sure it was still unmitigated glee.

At some point along the line, though, something very strange began to happen. It came on kind of slowly, but it was like my body just completely stopped responding to the cold, or to anything. I felt like I couldn't move, but I also couldn't feel any pain. It's not like being paralyzed or frozen in a battle situation, no, this was a lot purer, just like everything just completely left my body. Even my head, which wasn't submerged, I stopped feeling anything there, too. All my senses were going loopy. I couldn't see straight, all the sounds were just garbled noise. It seemed like everything was getting distant, like I had entered a whole other world.

It was weird, like I wasn't with myself anymore. It put me in a kind of weird zen state, or at least that's how a Psychic Pokémon I asked about it put it. Weird, I always thought zen was a code word for "I don't want to pay attention to you right now so I'm going to ignore you while pretending to do something deep and meaningful." Apparently zen actually means something. Go figure. I'm not really for that Psychic stuff, which probably doesn't surprise you.

Anyway, yeah, it was really surreal. It was kind of like, I dunno, I was in a hollow rock, just seeing stars all around and not really...well, being, I guess. Kind of a state of un-ness. It was throwing a bunch of questions at me - who am I? What am I? Why am I? Don't ask me, my brain was shutting down, I couldn't figure out why I was thinking these things either. It's kind of hard to ponder the nature of existence and such when you're experiencing a major case of hypothermia.

I gotta say, though, it was the only part of this whole ordeal that I actually enjoyed. I mean, there was just something about it that was kind of...freeing, I guess. Like I didn't have any worries or stresses, like I was galaxies away from my problems. Like there wasn't any reason for anything to bother me because there wasn't really a me. It doesn't make a lot of sense even now, but I think it's just something that only really means anything when you're experiencing it. I'd love to have another experience like it...well, that is, without having to sit in freezing-ass water for far longer than is healthy.

It couldn't last. Or, rather, I couldn't. I wasn't really aware of anything back on the real world between when I fell into that state and when I woke up in the heating tent, completely enveloped in Charizard. I could almost hear him thinking "what an idiot" and truth be told he would have been perfectly correct. My entire body still ached, but it wasn't as bad as being in the water.

"Hey, welcome back!" Sandslash and Drillbur were there too, looking as relieved as they could while still being infuriatingly smug. "About time you rejoined us here, we were starting to think you'd checked out on us!"

"Would've been your fault," I mumbled back. "How long?"

"27 minutes, 48 seconds," Drillbur announced proudly. Damn, not even halfway. Still better than I expected, and probably than they expected, but that didn't translate to challenge complete.

"Hah! That wasn't even close!" Sandslash was positively giddy. "So much for the best! Betcha you'll think twice next time before going around bragging you're better than us!"

I'd just been undermined by my own unwitting arrogance, played right into a trap that had been laid for me for ages, endured two of my worst weaknesses for far longer than ever advised, and had some kind of dream trip as a result of my brain checking out on me. Yet, in the end, I think it was worth it all just to have them hand me my revenge on a silver platter. Now it was me starting to grin like a madman.

"I don't know about that...seems to me that my time of 27:48 still beats out both of your times of exactly zero. You want to say you're better than I am, you're gonna have to jump in yourselves and beat that time."

Their smiles dropped like a Golem rolling off a cliff, an inversion of my own expression as they realized the impact of those words. I could hear Charizard let out a grumbling sigh of irritation, knowing that I wouldn't be the only victim of our utter lack of common sense. I didn't care. What is it they say? Revenge is a dish best served cold? I think in this case, it was only fitting.

For the record, I've never tried sitting in icy water for a long time, but I think it'd be more liable to kill me than give me any strange experience like that. I urge you not to try this at home unless you have your own Charizard ready to attend to you at any moment.