A Dragon Someday
You crouch as you peek out from the bushes along the stone fence line, the salt tang in the air pricking your nostrils as you crouch and pull a set of sharp leaves on your arms taut into each other as blades. Humans call the place you're in 'Mossdeep City', and you are in one of its neighborhoods somewhere in its northwest tip. Here, the houses are big with broad yards, ones that belong to humans with many treasures.
Treasures that you and your human partner used to ambush such humans for.
You paw at a small, black wristband hiked further up your right arm and ask yourself why you feel so nervous right now, when it occurs to you that if your partner was here, he'd pull you back into your Pokéball on the spot and give you an earful later. You don't know what exactly he'd say, since your grasp of human language is still a bit shaky, but the gist of it would surely be that taking this sort of risk for a treasure was a terrible idea and that you were an idiot for even thinking about doing it.
Your partner instructed you in the past that it was not safe to go through houses such as these blindly. Many of them are watched by the likes of guarding Manectric, and others have eye-like machines hidden about which allow humans to see those who prowl about their territories and track them down later. It was better to snatch the things of the humans from these big houses while they were out and about in the busier parts of the city, where a human like your partner could lose a pursuer among the crowds as easily as you could among the treetops of a forest.
You look out from your hiding place and see a broad, green lawn—a rarity for houses outside this neighborhood. You start to feel your stomach knot up as you realize that all the tricks you and your partner used to use won't work here. You'll be completely in the open the moment you leave your bush, so it is imperative that you slip in and out unseen.
Your earlier plan had been to try and snatch your mark's treasure back deeper in town, when you'd first seen this man and overheard him with some companions of his. You hadn't made out all of his conversation, but he'd apparently found stones that made Pokémon stronger. You'd tailed him the entire way back on your own, occasionally stopping and pretending you were waiting for a trainer if passersby found your presence as an unattended Pokémon strange. It'd cost you an opening to make your move more than once already.
Now, your attention drifts back to the scene at the house where your mark is seated on patio furniture near an overlook of the sea: a man in white hair in a black suit… who is tending to a Metagross. You gulp and begin to understand why you haven't seen any guards here. This human and just this companion of his alone are already strong enough to be their own guards, to say nothing about any others that might be hiding in those other Pokéballs on the holster around his waist.
You feel a cold shiver run down your spine and start to get second thoughts about this whole idea. Attempting direct battle with those two would be tantamount to suicide. You'd feel much more confident if your trainer were still here for you. If he were, he'd simply distract the man and his companion while you cut open the bag,snatched those stones within it, and ran off. He was always crafty with battle strategies, and were you caught, he could even potentially get you out of trouble by pretending you'd been misbehaving and feigning an apology.
Except, he isn't here alongside you right now.
You glimpse back at the wristband on your arm. As the memories of your trainer locked up in that little silicone strip start to swirl about in your memory.
Your trainer was a kind human. He never treated you ill, and was always there to come to your side when you were hurt or frightened. He was a bit loud and brash, but you frankly preferred having a partner of that sort who wasn't afraid to stir up trouble on behalf of his friends.
… Right, trouble. There certainly was no shortage of that when you two were together. Perhaps you should've suspected that something was wrong from the way you and him kept getting into fights with other humans, often over little trinkets or bits of paper and metal that humans value. Sure, as long as you were able to overpower their Pokémon, those fights usually came to an end quickly: after all, you were the one with Leaf Blades, and humans tended to lose their will to fight without a strong partner at their side.
But other times it had been you who lost the battle, even if you took it all in stride. It was thrilling, almost like hunting: but with key differences. Even if you failed, you'd get more second chances, and your human and you would be there to have each other's backs.
… Until one night last year, when those second chances ran out. You'd ambushed your foes to snatch their belongings like many a time in the past, except partway through the battle, one of your usual enemies intervened, a human in a peaked cap with a Growlithe. You remember a flash of panic coming over your partner's face, a gout of fire hitting yours that hurt more than you expected it to, and then everything going black when you hit the pavement.
You remember waking up afterwards on a bed in the backroom of a Pokécenter with your mouth muzzled, your ankles zip tied, and your wrists similarly bound behind your back. You panicked and called out for your trainer, expecting he'd be there to help you like he always was. He never came, and the Chansey on-staff told you not to expect him, and to not cause trouble since you were only allowed to be out of your Pokéball at that moment because your wounds needed overnight observation.
One thing led to another, and after wriggling the zip ties around your wrists loose enough, you cut your limbs loose and broke from your bedding to try to fight your way out of the room to freedom. That didn't last terribly long since there was a human with a peaked cap waiting outside in the hall partnered with the biggest Arcanine you'd ever seen. Before you knew it, the fight was over, with you pinned to the ground on your stomach with a snarling mouth filled with sharp fangs hovering just overhead.
Things were kinda hazy after that moment. You remember curling up under the Arcanine's grasp and sobbing and begging for him not to roast you before one of the Pokémon on staff hit you in the face with Sleep Powder. It's probably for the best, since from what you can remember of that moment, you know it's not one of your prouder ones.
When you came to again just before daybreak, you woke up with a fresh set of zip ties on your limbs, fastened tight enough to start digging into your scales, and saw the Arcanine and his trainer scowling at you at your bedside. You panicked at first, but gathered before long that at least you weren't going to die. The way the Arcanine pointedly told you afterwards that if you'd caused further trouble, you'd have your arm leaves cut and either spend the rest of your observation period sedated and drooling into your bedding or be sent back to your Pokéball regardless of your wounds was a good enough hint.
You heeded the hound's warning since your fighting spirit had long worn down since your earlier encounter, but your trainer still didn't come. It took all your courage to ask the Arcanine when your trainer would come for you, when he answered you with words that haunt you to this day:
"Your trainer isn't coming. He's been taken away to be penned up for harming other humans and Pokémon. He'll most likely be there for a number of years."
You started to cry after that and begged and pleaded for you and your trainer to be let go. You tried to explain that you didn't know your trainer had put you up to something he wasn't supposed to and just been trying to help him like any Pokémon with a human would. He was your dearest friend, and you swore up and down that if they'd just let him and you go that neither of you would cause any harm afterwards.
In retrospect, you're not sure why you thought your words would make any difference.
Right, that's why you're doing this. For your trainer. To get the strength to find him and reunite with him. It was admittedly a shot in the dark, but you reasoned that one of those stones in the man's bag might help. Maybe there was one inside that could make you stronger. Heavens knew you could've used something like that back when your partner was around. Before that night the humans in the peaked caps took him.
You suck in a breath and try to dismiss those memories as you look back out at the lawn, but a few continue to linger stubbornly. Mainly ones that have got you worried about your entire plan right now.
You think back to when you were discharged from the Pokécenter after that awful night and were passed back along with your Pokéball to your human's parents, an elderly couple who live here in Mossdeep City. Most of the trip went by inside your Pokéball after it was pushed into a darkened container before it was removed and you were unceremoniously dumped out into the outside world, still-quivering, onto their doorstep. The humans in peaked caps pulled your human's parents aside to explain something to them, while the Arcanine from your Pokécenter room was there too and sternly warned you to stay out of further trouble.
In the dog's words, continuing on your trainer's path would almost certainly bring you to an unpleasant end. You remembered him telling you that there were analogues to the buildings with human cages for Pokémon, in which Pokémon would be penned up in their Pokéballs for most hours of the day, and only let out for short periods of time into drab, featureless rooms. Being sent to such a place was one potential fate for Pokémon that kept getting into trouble the way you did. Getting cast out into the wild and being forced to relearn how to survive that lifestyle was another one. If you really got into trouble, the Arcanine warned you that you could even be put to death.
That last thought makes your attention drift from the yard outside your hiding place and sends a shiver up your spine. You've been ignoring the Arcanine's warnings for some time now, and while you haven't gotten caught yet, if you did, you don't know what threshold the humans would use to decide whether or not to take your life.
You remind yourself that you're not taking this great risk for the thrill of it. As far as you know, you're the only one out there, human or Pokémon, that still cares about the fate of your partner.
Your trainer's parents would normally be the ones to come and defend him when he was younger, but ever since you were handed over to them, they seemed to have forgotten about him. They stopped talking about their son and took down the pictures they had of him around the house. They even got rid of most of his belongings, with the band on your arm being one of the few items you were able to snatch away for yourself.
They don't pay you much mind either and basically ignore you as long as you come home at night and don't show up obviously injured. You don't know whether or not it's because you remind them of the son they seemingly forgot, or if it's just because they've grown older and more sedentary.
The various friends your trainer used to have similarly haven't done anything either. You haven't even seen them beyond a couple chance encounters on the street. Their own Pokémon told you that there was nothing to be done for your human until he was released from his captivity.
That left just you to try and get your trainer back, but you would need strength for that. Strength more than what your occasional scuffles in this town's back alleys and snatched item here or there from your daytime wanderings would accomplish. Strength like what those stones are supposed to provide, which from what you overheard from the man in black's Pokémon said, carry a power that can transform Pokémon entirely.
You snap back to attention after hearing heavy footsteps and see the man and his Metagross head off for the house, with his bag sitting unattended on the patio table.
This is your big and only chance. It could be the last thing that you or your partner ever stole for all you care, so long as it helped you get him back.
You burst from the brush, reminding yourself to make this an in-and-out encounter. You bolt up to the table and hop up one of the chairs, hurriedly tipping the bag over and pawing through its contents.
Inside, you find all sorts of rocks. Small ones, large ones, rough ones, smooth ones. Tools for measuring them, tools for chipping away at them. … Was this human raised by an Aggron or something? Since you can't say you've ever run into a human that cared about rocks this much before.
As you paw through the stones, you see it: a round, light-blue stone with an orange and white swirl. That must be one of the ones that made Pokémon stronger.
Just then, you hear a door slam open and freeze up. You wrap your claws around the blue stone and leap off the chair, bolting across the lawn for the fenceline. You leap to try and scrabble up it, when a harsh, metallic voice barks at you to stop.
You see a bluish aura envelop your body, and your eyes shrink to pins as an unseen force abruptly freezes you in midair and holds you aloft. You thrash about to try and break free, to no avail. You gulp and look back, as the man in black approaches you and the Metagross with him holds you aloft with telekinetic force, glaring daggers at you all the while before it gives a passing insult at your intelligence for thinking it wise to steal from them.
"'Grovyle the Thief', huh? Whoever put you up to this one's been reading too many children's stories."
'G-Grovyle the Thief'? 'Stories'? You didn't pick up all of the man's words, but humans have ones about Grovyle that steal things?
You try to glare back and flash your leafy blades to show that you won't go down without a fight, when his Metagross lets out a metallic-sounding hiss and makes a clacking noise from its lower body before telling you to go ahead and make its day. You shiver at the sound when you realize the noise probably came from the Metagross' mouth. Metagross are supposed to be vicious predators that pin their prey under their bodies to devour them, and this one has you completely at its mercy.
You suddenly feel so small and alone. No human partner, and this was your desperate attempt to get him back. You pull your tails tight against your body and begin to stammer an explanation back in your tongue as your words come out in a squeaking stream. That you were never really going to hurt anyone. That you'll leave right away if the man in black will just tell his partner to let you go. That Grovyle don't taste good for anyone to eat, and especially not for Metagross.
The Metagross growls and remarks about you putting up a 'pathetic display', while the human doesn't seem to pick up on anything you said and begins to approach. You draw in shallow, tense breaths and let out a frightened whine as he nears; then you look up and blink in confusion.
He's… smiling at you right now. You're not sure why, but he turns his eyes down at your paws still wrapped around the blue stone and points at them with one of his fingers.
"Oh, you were trying to grow stronger, weren't you?"
'Stronger'? This human knows about that? About how you're trying to get strength to get your partner back?
The man says something quietly to the Metagross that makes the Steel-type sigh. The force holding you pulls you back from the fence and lets go. Without thinking, you turn to run, but before you can get more than a couple steps away, a sharp bark rings out and demands to know where you think you're going. You skid to a stop as the Metagross blocks your path and tells you that it and its human aren't done with you. Because of course they aren't.
You gulp and shrink back, and look at the white-haired man, only to see that he doesn't seem angry with you. The Metagross relays the man's question to you and after a moment's hesitation, you give a timid nod back to him in reply. The man hesitates after your answer, before making his way back to the bag you tore up to fish through the other rocks that were inside it.
You're not sure if you're in trouble right now or not. The human seems friendly… but definitely not safe. You look down at the blue stone in your paws. From how little you understand his tongue, it's for the best not to make assumptions: for all you know, he's toying with you right now before he turns you over to the humans in the peaked caps… or feeds you to his Metagross.
When you look back up, you see the man return with his right hand cupped around something. It's probably a Pokéball. He must think you live in the wild and be planning to try and catch you. You're pretty sure it won't work since you can still go in and out of your trainer's just fine… not that the man in black would know that.
"I'm afraid you wouldn't have any luck getting stronger with that stone though. That's for my partner; this was the one you wanted."
Something about the stone you're holding. Something about his Metagross. You forget for a moment that humans can't understand Pokémon tongue and reflexively open your mouth to ask him to explain, only for him to pre-empt you by opening his right hand and showing off a pair of spherical stones in his grasp. One of them is a light green stone with a red and green swirl in it. You look down at your body and then at the stone, then at the one in your paws and off at the Metagross.
His Metagross then asks you how you planned on being able to use a Metagrossite in the first place. You blink at the question and suddenly feel a lot stupider. Of course a stone that would make a Pokémon stronger would look like the Pokémon that it would work on, and you snatched the one that looked nothing like you!
"I found this Sceptilite on a recent caving expedition, but I don't really have need for it myself. Not too many of my friends would be able to use it, either. But It could make you strong, and awaken the might of a dragon in you for a short time."
You missed most of his explanation, but managed to pick up part of his last few words. 'Might… of a dragon'? You turn and ask the Metagross if that little rock would make you into a dragon? As in those strong creatures that fly about the skies as they please? The ones that humans tell myths of roosting in this land and soaring up to strike stars from the heavens? Of controlling time from a distant land in the far north?
You don't know how on earth that's possible, but you certainly aren't going to turn it down right now. That's exactly the sort of power you'd need to get your partner back.
The Metagross swiftly crushes your excitement by pointing out that the stone would indeed do that… for a Sceptile, while you are a Grovyle.
You hang your head a little with a low, disappointed whine when you remember that there is a second stone of many colors with a swirl in it in the man's hand as well. One that seems to match a pin that's set in place on the collar of his suit. What's that one for?
"It'll take you some time to use that Sceptilite, and you also wouldn't be able to use it on your own. You'd need the help of a human like me that you deeply trust. Though it looks like you already have someone like that, don't you?"
You follow the human's finger towards the armband around your wrist. The second stone… is for your partner? The Metagross confirms your theory and explains that this second stone is a 'Key Stone', and it apparently works together with stones like this 'Sceptilite' somehow.
You don't understand how those things work, and you're not fully sure why these two are just dangling them in front of you. The man in black holds out the hand with the stones, and then the other empty-palmed. You hear the sound of heavy footsteps and see the Metagross backing out of the way, and cast a glance between your escape route and at the man in black.
"So what do you say, Grovyle? Seem like a fair trade for that Metagrossite and letting you go?"
The Metagross tells you its trainer is offering you a trade and encourages you not to turn it up, since it frankly would've preferred to Meteor Mash you and call it a day. You look at the blue stone in your paws, and the pair in the man's hand. You could turn and flee now while the path is open, or you could take a risk and give up this stone that he evidently cares so much about, which surely must be valuable if he's willing to give up two others in exchange for it.
You hesitate for a moment, when your mind turns back to your partner, waiting caged and alone somewhere, and you look at the two stones in the man's hand. In a swift motion, you make the trade and palm the green stone and the iridescent stone.
You back up for the stone fence, nervously reminding the man that you made a trade and that he promised you your well-being. Your words go over his head, but beyond giving an unamused scowl, his Metagross does not move to cut you off, and the smile remains on the human's face as he looks down at you.
"I figured you'd like it. Just don't get yourself into trouble trying to impress your friend, okay?"
You nod back and clutch onto the stones before hastily scrabbling over the fence and into a back alley behind it. You stay there panting tensely for a while, when you gape up and see that the sun is further towards the west than you remembered it. It's time for you to go home before your trainer's parents get too worried about you.
The whole time, you make your way down confident and at peace, without the earlier nervousness you'd had for much of the day. You don't know when the day will come, but someday, you will be a dragon. And one way or another, you will wield that power alongside your old friend. Together.