"Ugh," I groaned slamming my door shut behind me. "I swear Sinnoh has it out for me," I said, stripping off my soaked clothes and settling down on my sofa. I kicked my shoes off immediately when I stepped inside. I really didn't want to buy a vacuum so soon.

True to my promise, the one I made more so to myself than Anne, I walked my friend home. The storm outside had only worsened and a yellow warning had been given out for the city. I mean, a yellow… seriously? If I were in control of the weather forecast, the first thing people would see, at least right now, is a giant red thundercloud entitled, 'The Heavens Are Opening!' with hug droplets beneath it.

If that didn't get people to get inside, nothing would.

I've never, ever, had to contend with such horrid weather before. The storm that we went through on the ship nearly submerged us beneath the massive wave crests in front of us. At times, I was frightened. I even nearly cried at one point when everyone in my compartment was flung from their beds into a sprawled-out heap on the cold floor.

Luckily I was on the top bunk meaning I didn't run the risk of being piled on. Interestingly enough, the old man below me hadn't moved an inch when the boat shifted. From that, I concluded he had to have been a sailor at some point in his life. The groans and complaints hadn't woken him from his drunken stupor.

The flashes of webbed lightning filling the murky sky left me fearful every single day. No matter what the crewmates tried to say, or do, everyone was feeling awful. They still rocked at making food, though, and that did make the overall mood feel a bit more ambient… more excitable.

Getting used to the idea of one day waking up surrounded by Sharpedo and Gyarados had left its mark, although I'd never admit to it. Dorsal fins were now my worst enemy, behind Rayla that is. Now she was terrifying. I'd take the fins over her any day of the week.

Moving on past my thoughts of her, I approached my television. Not many people like to use them nowadays, not since the whole Rotom conundrum. Fifteen thousand of the finicky buggers burst through televisions all across Sinnoh about two, maybe three years ago and wreaked havoc. This city was at the forefront of the problem due to a shipping container that was carrying thousands of televisions dropping its anchor between the Iron Islands and Canalave Port.

Awkward.

I fiddled with the switch on the plug socket until a static screen popped up. I dropped the remote and held my ears. The static was so fucking loud!

"Fuck me that was scary," I winced at the ringing in my ears, mostly the left one as it was literally right next to the black screen of death.

Larvesta was actively sleepwalking in circles beside me by the time I had figured out how to use the remote. The remote was weird, alright! So many buttons on such a small thing, it was ridiculous.

"…as it turns out this storm seems to have appeared out of the blue. We've seen storms that were pretty bad over the years but this one is huge. We've just received news that a strange boat was moored at the centre of what we believe to be the storm only three hours ago."

A boat in the middle of this? I was tempted to grab hold of Larvesta's horns again just to make sure that I had heard that right. Could there be a possible link between that weird team Anne had mentioned earlier and whoever had control of that boat? The news channel, which was named Sinnoh's Synopsis, made an effort to not sound distressed but I could tell that they were faking.

"John, what do you think about the storm?"

"Well, I've seen some bad ones before. Remember Ellie's Tantrum? That rainy dance persisted for a month, now that's what I call powerful. Oh and for those at home that somehow don't know who Ellie is, and no not my dear friend here," I raised a brow at the slight shift in Ellie's demeanour, "Ellie is our mighty guardian Gyarados who lives mostly around the deepest points of Sinnoh's waters, but has made her presence known near Canalave since last month."

I tapped Larvesta's mane nervously. She stopped going in circles and waddled over to me, brushing her head up against my leg. "Sorry for waking you up but just watch the news with me, please?"

Dutiful as ever, Larvesta kept her head pointed in the direction of the television. She kept her movements to the minimum, enraptured by the sheer scale of the storm displayed on the screen.

"…but no, this storm is the worst in Sinnoh history. Our dear guardian also seems to be angered by the sudden change in weather, perhaps another Gyarados has come to Sinnoh?"

His colleague, Ellie, seemed to revert back to her professional demeanour in an instant. She really was good at her job.

"I doubt that, John. If that was the case, I wonder, why hasn't Cynthia–"

The screen distorted for a moment as I tried to catch what she had said last. Either that was really lucky timing for Cynthia or something else was going on here. Once everything reverted back to normal, the presenters seemed… different. John now had a stoic demeanour, contrasted only by the saddened expression of Ellie.

"Well that's all for today folks stay calm and better yet, stay safe. Thank you for tuning in…"

The show displayed a red triangle and within it a message, "Heroes never make it far," before it quickly vanished only to be replaced by a yellow triangle. I rubbed my eyes and checked again. Still, the yellow triangle was displayed on the screen.

Loud booms of thunder rattled me from my thoughts.

"What do you think is going on?"

"Vesta!" she shouted.

Ugh, why couldn't someone make that damn conversation device sooner rather than later? I feel like there's so much we could ask Pokémon that we'll never hear the actual answer to ever.

Purple and blue streams of energy danced in the sky, only eclipsed by the brightness of the crescent moon above. An interesting feature of my new place was the ceiling, it was the only reason I could see the outside world from where I sat. Right above the sofa, it appeared that there in fact wasn't a ceiling at all. However, there indeed was a ceiling. It was made of thin, transparent material making things seem more… relaxing? Well, it did to me.

Larvesta seemed to agree with the sentiment but couldn't for the life of her crane her neck, so she improvised. Sometimes she really impressed me with her intellect.

"Please be careful when you climb the walls, Lar– actually do you want a more unique name than just your species' name?"

Now I know for a fact that she heard me, but she made no motion to act like she had. Instead, she started climbing quicker. Well, as quickly as an insect of her size could climb.

"You can't run away from this, come back down!" I shouted.

Larvesta shimmied her body and released… something? I don't know why but I suddenly felt more tired than I had ever felt before. So tired I could almost fall asleep.

And I did.

When I awoke the storm had passed. Now that was peculiar. I mean, the way the news reported it, it sounded like the end of the world. Glad to know the world hadn't ended literally the week that I had arrived.

I went to move but stopped once I felt a weird sensation. Larvesta was sleepwalking on my chest, her usual sky-blue eyes were closed and hidden behind her fluffy mane. My hands were no longer nearly as cold as they had been after I escorted Anne to her apartment complex. Feeling merciful, I chose to remain still.

"To the daylights fire, I sing to thee my heart…"

I hadn't a clue where that had come from until I thought about the lyrics more closely. My mother used to sing a song to me whenever I was upset or ill, and no matter how old I became those were the only lyrics I actually remembered. Maybe I would strike gold someday and find someone that was selling the song in a music shop. I had spotted one at some point but I couldn't pinpoint it in my mind.

It felt so wrong to do, yet I had no choice. Anne would know where it was.

"Ves?"

"Hm? Oh, good morning. Sleep well?" I teased.

"VESTA!" she responded. Her little, stubby legs wouldn't carry her high but she was trying to jump. I ran a hand over her mane.

"I slept well too," my eyes turned accusatory. "Now, how could I have slept so well on an uncomfortable sofa, Larvesta?"

"Vesta?" she asked innocently, avoiding eye contact.

"You spored me!"

Her eyes didn't falter when my green ones met hers. Had she heard me on the ship turning over and over fighting away the sleep out of fear? Drowning was the last on my priority list so I didn't really care if she was worried about me. Or was it something as simple as her not wanting a name?

Consciousness made me realise a few important things. Most important of all being that I smelled horrid. And no it wasn't just because I refused to shower in the communal showers on the ship. It… had to have been the gases inside Larvesta. Speaking of which… I had to name her something.

"Nippy?"

No response.

"Blazes?"

Again, no response. To be honest, my Pokémon probably thought I'd gone insane.

"Ellen–" before I even finished speaking Larvesta's head raised at the name. "You like Ellen, huh? Want to know something pretty awesome?"

Larvesta stomped a little on my chest, probably telling me to get a move on and explain myself.

"Ellen is the name… was the name of my mother."

"Vesta…" she responded almost knowingly. Did she just nod?

"Sorry, but you'll never get to properly meet her. She was… awesome. A real Pokémon trainer that fought against things you wouldn't believe. I think she had a thing for Pokémon that were difficult to train. I've avoided watching any videos of her online, but I heard stories every so often about her Steelix… Magenta? I think that was her name."

I knew for a stone-cold fact that it was… I was just pretending. Acting clueless. It'd be safer that way.

It was true that I avoided my mother's Pokémon battles like the plague. I hated the idea of seeing her on a screen again. I'd done it once on the cruise liner here and nearly turned tail and swam back home. Deep down I knew I was scared and you know what? Sue me, I'd bet anyone they'd be scared of going through what I had.

Once I returned Ellen to her Poké ball, which I had to get used to saying, I stood in the shower and let the warm water soothe my strained muscles. My legs stung so badly from all the walking yesterday.

Shampoo… oh how I had missed it. The smell of tangerines filled my nose reminding me of the farms back home. Running through orchards chasing Pidgey and Combee… those days were so much easier. Now, well, now I had responsibilities, oh, and a dream. Can't forget the dream part otherwise I would literally lose my drive to move forward.

A mixture of water and shampoo coalesced and ran down my forehead straight into my eyes, catching me completely off guard. I cursed at the burning sensation and left the comforting warm shower far sooner than I had hoped to, grabbing at the towel on the handrail blindly. I missed it four times before succeeding.

I pondered what I could do next. Maybe watch some Pokémon battles? Explore all of the channels on the television perhaps. So many choices with so much time.

All of my extremely expensive valuables, such as my laptop and framed photos, had arrived sooner than I had, so right now I was just tearing open each cardboard box that I saw. Small or big, if it was in the way I was about to move it out of the way.

Why was I trembling? My hands wrapped around my laptop and lifted it up an inch or two before I caught sight of… them. Framed pictures filled most if not all of the box in front of me, and they weighed less than the laptop, so why did they look so damn heavy? It wasn't like I couldn't just leave them in there to gather dust.

They were too heavy to lift so I just left them by my bed. At least then I could pretend they didn't exist.

Ellen released herself from my Poké ball and approached me but fell short of actually saying or doing anything. Instead, I watched her explore my room. The curtains. The windows. She even stood on the windowsill and attacked the ivy that reached for the windows like they had some kind of bad blood between them. She released small Embers to push the green vines back and I know she'd deny it because she's stubborn like me, but I saw her biting at leaf stems angrily.

It was kind of cute in a spiteful kind of way.

She then turned to me and waddled over, her presence making the room a little bit lighter than before.

"Ellen, what are you doing?"

She ignored me and started climbing the side of the cardboard box.

"Ellen stop it, you're not allowed to go in there and neither am I… it hurts too much," I confessed. I grabbed her but she stuck one of the framed pictures to her feet. Those sticky feet are going to be the end of me, I swear.

We sat there in silence staring at the frame like it was some piece of art. It wasn't, hell it wasn't even the best one I had in that box and I knew as much because I was forced to pack the blasted thing. It was a picture of me chasing a Mareep in some park or other, and chasing after me was a Gible no larger than how big Larvesta is right now.

Suppressing the memories would never work. I wanted it to work so badly.

"I never did learn of the Gible's name," the small dragon was adamant about catching my trouser legs, so much so that it fell over and face-planted the mud right after the photograph was taken. "Shame really, I don't remember much anymore."

"Vesta…" she approached the coffee table slowly like she was nervous about something.

The flames around her built up and spiralled upward bursting forth like a flower blooming in summer. On instinct, I shielded my eyes expecting a searing pain all over my one good arm. To my shock, the pain never came, but it did feel weird. Not the good kind nor the bad kind, just weird. All this time I had been wallowing in sadness I had never thought to check on how my own Pokémon was doing. I'm such a dunderhead sometimes.

She was grieving with me. My friend. My first Pokémon and none could ever be worthy enough to take her place. I'd have others, sure. Maybe hundreds of Pokémon would pass through here someday. Thousands. I honestly hoped to see all Fire-types in existence, breed them, and then share the offspring with the world. However, she held a special place in my life now. My Larvesta.

I had to be there for her as well.

I hoped to make the world a brighter place. I only wished it wouldn't be too bright, can't count on some crazy fanatic to ruin everything.

"Come on," she followed me to the landing and then down the stairs. I watched her thump down the steps as she lazily pressed her body forward. Each time before she landed she would retract her little legs, avoiding any possible injuries. "You're lazier than a Slakoth."

Two Embers, seriously? I had no idea she could use more than one move at once. Sometimes it's good to be wrong I suppose.

Loading up my laptop was taking far longer than I had expected. 1% every minute or so.

"You know what?" I turned to Ellen, "I've been thinking about how I'm supposed to get other Fire-types from other regions here. I know I don't have a special license yet," the computer screen blinked on, "but I reckon I can at least browse the general cost of some Pokémon online. Ah but first I should look into getting electric fences and maybe getting a quote on building some kind of sanctuary out back. Then after all of that, I can start making a wishlist of sorts."

Ellen complained for a solid minute straight. Once she calmed down I finally spoke in the softest voice I could muster. She saw right through it.

"I know it's our garden but I really want to be the best breeder here, in Sinnoh. I picked the right city for it as well, I mean who's going to turn down one of my Pokémon after they get beaten down by a Steel-type specialist?" it all lined up perfectly. Learning from Anne's example, I started considering a marketing campaign of sorts. I could even get a stand like the one she had. "If you agree I'll show you where I hide my Pecha berries. Oh, and the rest of the cake that you didn't get a chance to eat as well. What do you say?"

There was definitely money to be made there. However, I did run the risk of pissing Byron off. I laughed imagining a bright red neon arrow outside his Gym pointing toward my house. No, that might be taking things a little too far.

Ellen nodded her head hesitantly, clearly unsure whether or not she was getting the best deal here. Honestly, we were both winning a little here. She gets a temporary pleasure with a side of obesity, and in exchange, I get to permanently renovate our garden. That was a 50/50 deal, of course, it was fair.

Once I had logged in and checked that everything was in order, I opened up a tab and typed in potential companies that could help me with the fencing and renovations. 'Fence Fabstar' caught my attention so I called them for a quote. Throughout the conversation, I had to pause several times to gently push Ellen away. It wasn't like the cake was going to grow legs and run away. If she keeps this up, I'll call her a prissy princess from here on out.

"…yep. Ok, sounds great. When can I expect you?"

"We're currently in the city for another project. I can send a few workers up with fencing equipment and be done with it by the end of the week."

The end of the week. The end of the week!?

I had to ask him over and over if they meant to just take notes of the dimensions of the property. He rebuked me each time claiming to have the fastest workers in the business. If they managed to make it up the mossy slopes and not get attacked by Ellen, I'd make them a pie. Honestly, I would.

They ran through their typical procedures asking me about dangerous Pokémon. I side-eyed Ellen and smirked, telling them there was no danger in the area. She really didn't like that I made her sound weak. Fortunately, I convinced Ellen not to send fire in my direction because of my laptop and how much it cost me. She watched me closely though.

Now I'd never leave this chair. Not even if she evolved and became a Volcarona.

The team sent to my house arrived twenty minutes after our conversation on the phone. I stressed that I'd be getting money in two days' time and asked if that was alright, the man on the other end of the line said it was fine. They all looked a little tired but greeted me with warm smiles. Yes, I had to compromise with Ellen by giving her two Pecha berries, but it was worth it.

I returned their smiles with one of my own, flinching slightly when I felt something sting my back lightly. I jumped at the sensation.

"You ok?" one of them asked. A Machamp stood behind them flexing its muscles proudly.

"Sorry, it's not every day you see a Machamp," I said through gritted teeth.

"Oh–" one of them said. It was difficult to differentiate between them, their helmets made them all look similar. Did that make me a bad person? The workers all looked at one another with panicked expressions. "We can come back with some Timburr if you'd like, they work slower but…"

"There's nothing wrong with him though. I mean her. I mean… I'll just show you where I want the fences," my feet couldn't carry me quickly enough. I just wanted this to end.

The gate to the garden was a little old but I managed to push it aside with little issue. Machamp immediately stomped on ahead with a giant fence in its grip barrelling a few bushes out of his way. His trainer, or at least who I believed to be his trainer, approached me running her hands over the back of her neck.

"I'm sorry about him," she pointed at her Pokémon confirming my suspicions, "he gets antsy when the weather starts playing up. He was up all night and refused to stop standing guard, it was pretty weird."

All night?

"Don't worry though," she quickly added, "he's in top form. In fact, he could probably lift up your house." I nodded trying to keep up. Only after I walked to the middle of the garden did her words settle in my mind. A Pokémon that could pick up my house probably wasn't one that should ever be annoyed.

Once I put some distance between the group and myself, I let out a nervous breath. That couldn't have been any less embarrassing. The Pokémon in my garden, Butterfree mostly, all fled deeper into the forest in search of a new, temporary sanctuary.

There was little I could do to prepare all of them for the sudden influx of new people, but it needed to be done. Despite wanting to only have Fire-types here, I was open to having little bugs and birds around. To see them flee almost as soon as a new person appeared… left a bad taste in my mouth. Some of them even sought refuge in the small ponds littered around the property.

Wild Pokémon were skittish, I understood that. However, the degree to which these Pokémon were afraid, No, terrified of humans... just what had happened here? Thoughts of mistreatment and possible illegal activities filled my mind.

I whispered a low warning to Ellen. "Don't play any games with their Pokémon, I'd rather not lose you so soon."

"Vesta!" she roared loudly.

I backed up to try and muffle my Pokémon's screech. She could be really damn loud when she wanted to be. For some reason, however, my feet weren't carrying me backwards any longer.

"Conk," a deep resonating voice boomed. "Conkeldurr!"

I gulped, as did Ellen. I could feel her starting to warm up as the seconds passed by, ready to defend me in an instant. I could run… until a concrete beam landed on me and crushed my spine, that is.

A giant Pokémon with two enormous pillars of concrete bigger than myself stood right behind me. It was so tall and muscular that I could have sworn I would've mistaken it for a solid wall had it not boomed its name out loud. This species of Pokémon were notoriously powerful, able to move more than even a Machamp, and native to the Unova region.

When I did turn, Conkeldurr bent its neck and stared into my soul. Maybe it was because of the situation, but I laughed. I couldn't stop myself. The giant red nose on Conkeldurr's face was so huge it was the size of my fist. How could it even see straight?

"Concker– girl stop acting all tough," the same lady from before shouted. "Or do I need to show our dear friend a picture of you dancing in the rain? We all know you love a good dance…"

"CONKELDURR!" she shouted back waving her concrete pillars in the air.

"MACH!" her Machamp shouted back, finishing a row of fence panels before the first thirty minutes had passed by. He rested an arm on top of one of the fences clearly bragging about how much he had done.

Conkeldurr didn't complain again and instead threw several fence panels in the direction of Machamp. Definitely not to hit her dear companion. No, it looked like they worked well together. Oh, who am I kidding? This is a mess. Half of their Pokémon were taking sides between the two behemoths, Ellen was burning my back again, and one of the fence panels was nearly stood on by Conkeldurr in a fit of rage.

This had to be the most dysfunctional, foolish team of wannabe engineers that Sinnoh had available and of course, it was me that hired them. Some other soul in the city was probably cursing me for taking half of their building team. You know what? Screw them, they should've picked another day. Today is my day.

"I'm going inside," I shouted. "Try not to fight each other," I looked directly at Machamp and Conkeldurr. "If you stop fighting I'll… give you some cake."

Now as things stood that was a good move. Every Pokémon on their team immediately got to work. But, and there's always a fuckin' but, Ellen was furious. I could feel her rage boiling over at the thought of someone else having her cake. She was gearing up to scrape me with her whorled horns again, I knew it. The sooner I got inside, the sooner I could get her off me.

As luck would have it the moment I slid the glass back in place, although unlocked still in case the team needed to talk to me, I spotted Anne through my living room window with a basket in her hands.

I threw off my t-shirt and quickly returned Ellen.

Out of sheer fury, she re-released herself and only stopped when she saw Anne waving through the window. Anne's expression changed from happy to downright terrified. I looked down and felt my cheeks burn.

"Larvesta–"

"One sec!" I shouted. Why did I shout? It's not like she could hear me anyway. With my shirt now on, I approached the door.

Anne was already hastily walking down the path, her basket left outside my front door in clear view. I chased after her but it was already too late and before long she was gone.

I breathed my frustration out through my nose and clambered up the path feeling down in the dumps. Ellen stood at the top of the path and gave me a contemptuous glare, her horns practically glowing.

"So… about the whole cake thing…"

She sent a flurry of Embers my way from all of her horns. And yes, I did deserve it.