On Your Gardevoir

"'Jerky' is just a term non-jerks use to bad-mouth innocent jerks." - Stan Pines, Gravity Falls

Pikachu

Two days pass and still no town. We only found two humans, neither of which were familiar to me. Both of them tried to catch Absol. The first time, he simply knocked the pokeball back with his horn, glared at the trainer, and moved on. The second time, the trainer missed and Eevee ended up getting sucked into the pokeball. He popped back out, dazed but otherwise fine. Absol, on the other hand… Well, that was how I found out that he could use Shadow Ball.

The longer we travel, the more anxious I feel. Ash and I have been separated before but never for longer than a day. He must be worried sick about me. Part of me wants to break away from the group and run as fast as Quick Attack can carry me, but I know that isn't wise. These guys seem to know the area better than I do, and it's not like I know where I'm going anyway.

It's getting dark, so we decide to make camp for the night. Absol and Eevee are off looking for nesting materials while the females and I split up to search for food. I am following the scent of apples when I hear a pop and a frustrated grunt. Curious, I follow the noise, which is coming from the same direction as the apple-scent, and find a pokemon, a Gardevoir, standing beneath an apple tree.

His tongue sticks out of the corner of his mouth as he holds out his hands, one hanging over the other, and focuses on the small pink orb growing between them. Once it's big enough, he throws the orb - I recognize the attack as Moonblast - into the sky. He then reaches up to it and uses Psychic to stop it from getting too high. At least, I think that's what he's trying to do. The orb instead pops in a puff of glittery smoke. Gardevoir throws his head back and groans dramatically.

"Um," I start. Gardevoir jumps and whips around, the white protrusions hanging from his waist whipping around him. "Sorry! I didn't mean to scare you. I just thought that looked kind of cool."

Gardevoir relaxes but doesn't smile. "Eh, it's not really anything yet, but thanks." He starts up a new Moonblast. "What I'm trying to do is use Psychic to power this up even further." He throws it into the air and uses Psychic but gets the same result. He turns back to me and shrugs. "I'll get the hang of it."

I stare up at the shimmering pink-gray cloud. This almost sounds like the kind of move coordinators would use in pokemon contests, at least in the first round, which is all about the spectacle. Though, it could certainly be useful in battle as well, giving you quite the power boost.

"It could be that you're focusing on too many things at once," I say. His red eyes regard me with interest. "Maybe it would be easier to try using Psychic on someone else's attack first and work your way up to your own. Wanna try it with one of my attacks?"

He puts a hand to his chin and finally smiles. "Yeah, that's not a bad idea. Oh, I'm Gardevoir, by the way."

"Pikachu." My cheeks fizz with electricity, which moves along my skin, finally reaching my tail as I launch Electroweb into the sky.

Gardevoir holds out his arms, sticks out his tongue in concentration, and briefly manages to pause my attack with Psychic. But, Electro Web just as quickly continues its path until it lands high up in the apple tree, forming a sparking yellow web. I call an apology to the startled pokemon that fly off. Thankfully, it doesn't look like anyone was hurt.

Gardevoir puts his hands on his hips and glares at the slowly dissipating web. "Well, that was a little better, I guess."

"You stopped it," I say encouragingly. "I'd call that an improvement. Wanna try again?"

He agrees, and this time I'm careful not to hit anything. Gardevoir uses Psychic, but the same thing happens, and I have to launch a fresh Electro Web to keep the now-falling one from hitting us.

As they collide, resulting in a small explosion, Gardevoir crosses his arms. "Well, that didn't work."

"Practice makes perfect," I say. My eyes roam over to the apple tree. "Aw geez! I'm supposed to be gathering food."

"Got some friends waiting for you?" Gardevoir asks, using Psychic to bring a few apples down from the tree.

"Oh, thank you!" I say as they land in front of me.

Gardevoir smiles down at me. "Hey, you scratched my back, my turn to scratch yours. Is that enough?"

Three apples definitely won't feed all five of us, especially Absol and Wobbles, but I wouldn't want to trouble Gardevoir any further. But, he seems to be reading my mind, because he brings down six more.

"Thanks," I say. I try to gather them up but find that I can only carry three. "Think you could give me a hand? And, maybe you'd like to eat with us too? I'm sure my friends would," I drop one of the apples, "be willing to," trying to pick it up just results in dropping another, "to help you train."

As I continue my cycle of drop-grab-drop, Gardevoir hums and looks off somewhere. "I'm kind of waiting for someone. I promised I'd stay here 'til he got back." I'd be more understanding if these apples would stop rolling out of my arms. Taking pity on me, Gardevoir bends over and gathers up the remaining apples (meaning all but two of them). "But, I suppose this won't take long. You friends aren't far from here, are they?"

Holding on tightly to my apples, I smile in both gratitude and embarrassment. "Not at all. Thanks again."

"And then, a Gyarados jumped out of the water and went rrraaaaahh!"

The next morning, the PokeSquad and I continue our trek to the nearest town, and Eevee is telling us about the dream he had.

Absol smiles at him in amusement. "It said 'rah?'"

Eevee runs forward to catch up to him. "You're saying it wrong. It's rrraaaaahh!" He leaps forward in emphasis and lands face-first in a large bush. Just as suddenly, he screams, pulls himself out, and turns to us with a look of horror. "First Pikachu, now Gardevoir? Why am I so good at finding bodies?"

"I'm not touching that one," I say before processing what he said. If it really is the same Gardevoir, what happened? He seemed fine yesterday!

We all push our way through the thick foliage, the branches scratching us as we break through to the other side. Gardevoir is in the exact same spot where I met him yesterday. Instead of training, however, he is lying on the ground, his long legs on top of a rock, his white protrusions splayed out around him, his mouth wide open.

"All of you, wait here," Absol commands. The rest of us huddle together nervously as Absol cautiously approaches Gardevoir.

Then, we hear a loud snore and let out the breaths we'd been holding.

Absol turns back to us with a smirk. "I think he's alright."

"But, wasn't he waiting for his friend?" Sprout says, echoing my thought.

Absol nudges Gardevoir, who wakes with a loud snort and mutters something that sounds like, "extra cheese." He blinks sleepy eyes at Absol. "You're not the waiter."

"I don't even know what a waiter is," Absol says matter-of-factly. "Or, cheese."

With a grunt, Gardevoir rearranges himself into a sitting position. "A waiter is a guy who brings you food. And, cheese is delicious. You should try it." He watches the rest of us walk up to him, and his situation slowly dawns on him. "Oh, did-did I fall asleep?" He looks up. "Is it morning?" He curses and launches himself to his feet. He looks this way and that then rubs his arms and starts pacing. "He-he's never late. He probably got caught up in a battle or something. Yeah, I," he takes a breath, "I just need to wait it out."

"You mean your friend never showed up?" Eevee asks.

Gardevoir blinks as if just remembering he's not alone. "I'm sure he's on his way."

"Oh my goodness!" Sprout exclaims. "What if something happened to him!"

"If he isn't here by now," Wobbles adds, "he's either in trouble or you've been had."

Gardevoir looks like he's trying to use Glare. "Are you suggesting he left me here?"

Wobbles raises her hands in a shrug. "I'm just saying it's possible."

"He would never do that." Gardevoir takes a dangerous step toward her.

Absol and I jump in between them. "Both of you calm down," Absol demands. "Fighting won't help anyone."

"We need to focus on finding Gardevoir's friend," I add.

"Really?" Gardevoir asks hopefully. "You'll help?"

Eevee smiles at him. "Of course! We're the PokeSquad!" Absol rolls his eyes at the name. "We help everyone!"

"Alright, team," Absol addresses us. "Gardevoir's friend is missing. We'll split up and search for him. Wobbles and Sprout, Eevee's with me, Pikachu stays with Gardevoir." We all nod in confirmation, but then Absol blinks at me sheepishly, remembering that I'm not actually part of the team. "I-If that's alright."

"Of course!" I say. "We all need to do our part."

Absol nods then turns back to Gardevoir. "Gardevoir, what's your friend's name, and what are we looking for?"

"His name's Evan. He's a human," Absol stiffens a bit, "my trainer. He has red hair, blue eyes, pale skin, probably wearing a flannel shirt. You know, one of those long-sleeved shirts with all the squares. I can't thank you guys enough."

The others left to search, but Gardevoir refused to go anywhere in case Evan showed up. If he hasn't shown up yet, I doubt that he will, but I can understand Gardevoir's point of view. He obviously trusts his trainer a lot.

Gardevoir said that I could go and search as well, but I'm not comfortable leaving him here alone. Still, sitting around like this is making me antsy. It doesn't help that Gardevoir's missing trainer has thoughts of my own trainer at the front of my mind. But, I know Ash wouldn't want me to ignore a pokemon in need, and frankly I don't think I could do that anyway.

Gardevoir sits on the rock he'd been sleeping half-on while I am perched in the apple tree, snacking as I search from above for a red-haired human in a flannel shirt. Or, a black-haired one in a red cap.

"Anything?" Gardevoir calls up to me.

Swallowing my last bite of apple, I look for a trash can before remembering where I am and tossing the core to the ground. "Just pokemon." I turn around and spy something in the distance. A speck of dark blue, the coppery color that humans for some reason consider "red" hair. "Hey," I call back down, "I think I found him!" Gardevoir practically jumps off the rock as I climb down as fast as I can. "Come on!"

I bolt in the direction of the specks, Gardevoir hot on my trail. I reach the human first. He is facing away from me, staring at a map and muttering, "Stupid map."

"Oh," Gardevoir appears beside me, his voice breathy with relief, "he just got lost."

Equally relieved, I smile up at him. "Looks like that's all it was."

Evan hears us talking and turns around. He blinks and lowers his map. "G-Gardevoir?"

Gardevoir runs up and gives Evan a hug. I'm about to leave them be when Evan's frown deepens and he pulls back.

He opens his mouth, shuts it, opens it, shuts it, then sighs. "Gardevoir, you know I wanted a Gallade, right?" I freeze in place. So does Gardevoir. "That was the whole purpose of catching a male Kirlia."

While both genders of Kirlia can evolve into Gardevoir, only the males can evolve into the psychic- and fighting-type Gallade, but a Dawn Stone is required for that to happen.

"I-I wanted to be a Gardevoir," Gardevoir says lamely, though Evan most likely can't understand him.

Suddenly, I remember a Charmander, lying in the rain, desperately clinging to life.

"Don't get me wrong. You're still a really cool pokemon. It's just… I mean, you knew I wanted a Gallade. Then, you evolved before I could find a Dawn Stone."

Next, a Chimchar who spent so much time without love that he sobbed his heart out when he finally got it.

"I tried to let it go. I did! But, you're just…not what I thought you'd be."

Finally, a Tepig left tied to a stake in the ground and later found dirty and half-starved.

"Then, I released you, and you just kept following me. I thought maybe you'd get the hint if I told to wait there-"

My skin prickles with electricity, but Gardevoir steps in front of me before I can barbecue Evan. Even after hearing all this, Gardevoir is still protecting his trainer. Wobbles's pokedex description rings through my head. "Gardevoir: the embrace pokemon. A psychic- and fairy-type. Gardevoir are known for their loyalty and will gladly lay down their lives for those they care about. Especially their trainers."

Evan finally notices me and forces a smile at Gardevoir. "See? You've already got a friend. You don't even need me." He turns around and says, "I…I'm sorry," before walking away.

I can't take it anymore. I run past Gardevoir. My tail hardens in an iron tail, but Gardevoir tells me to stop. I whirl on him, still seeing red. "Gardevoir-"

Gardevoir's voice is emotionless. "It's his call."

I want to go after Evan anyway, but Gardevoir's face is pinched and his eyes are filled with tears. I can't just leave him like this. "Gardevoir, this isn't okay. He has no right to do this to you! You should at least let me give him a quick jolt. He deserves it for leaving you for no reason!"

Gardevoir just shakes his head sadly. "I don't expect you to understand." He starts to walk away. "You don't have a trainer."

One sentence, five words, and I feel like I've been Sucker Punched in the stomach. "Where are you going?"

"Back to the meeting spot. May as well tell everyone to stop bothering."

I had expected Absol to have some rude comment about humans, but luckily he holds his tongue. Instead, like the rest of us, he is quick to offer cuddles and gentle licks when Gardevoir eventually breaks down crying. I heard Wobbles mutter something along the lines of, "Saw that coming," but Gardevoir didn't seem to hear, so I ignored her.

Later, we are all sitting together, eating lunch, though no one has much of an appetite. Sprout is sadly rolling a mago berry between her leaves. Wobbles is eating but very slowly. Absol is alternating between scowling at his food and glancing over at me. (If he says one cruel word about Ash, I'll zap him the way I should have done with Evan.) Eevee is snuggled up to Gardevoir, who is simply staring at cheri berry in his hand.

The silence quickly becomes too much. "You know, some of my friends were abandoned by their trainers, too." Gardevoir blinks at me and looks over the other pokemon. "Not these guys," I clarify. "This was before I met any of them."

I don't know if talking about this will help, especially since they are my friends' stories to tell, so I feel a little weird revealing them. But, everyone's eyes are on me now, so I may as well continue. I suddenly find it difficult to face them, however, and am speaking more to my untouched fruit than the pokemon around me.

"There was a Charmander whose trainer thought he wasn't strong enough, so he told Charmander to-to wait for him to come back." I can only imagine what Gardevoir must look like right now. "There was a bad storm. I remember Charmander was holding a big leaf over his head, trying to stay dry. He was really weak when we found him."

"Then, there was Chimchar. His trainer was really mean, always making him take hit after hit so that his Blaze ability would activate. His trainer thought that Chimchar wasn't strong without it. Then, Chimchar clammed up during a battle, and that was that." I clenched my fists, swallowing rising anger. "Though, I suspect Paul was just looking for any excuse."

"Anyway, Tepig was the other one. He lost a battle, and his trainer left him tied to a stake in the ground. He broke free, but… When we found him, he was starving and so dirty you couldn't tell what color he was."

I look up at Gardevoir, who's staring at me in rapt attention. It isn't fair. Pokemon have feelings. We laugh and cry and love and hate just as easily as humans, though some humans seem to forget that. There are plenty of good ones in the world, but there are also bad ones and everything in between.

Come to think of it, aside from Wobbles, I don't know any of my new friends' stories. I wonder if any of them have a similar story to Gardevoir. It would certainly explain a few things about Absol.

"Where are they now?" Gardevoir asks. "Do you know?"

Charizard, fierce and bold. Infernape, courageous and full of energy. Pignite, kind and confident. I smile, pride overtaking me. "They're great. They're evolved and they're all friends, and…and it really makes me happy, you know?"

"See, Gardevoir?" Sprout says. "You feel bad now, but soon you'll be happy again!"

Absol nods. "They say when you're at your lowest point, you can only go up."

Eevee jumps and wags his tail. "Yeah! You've got to prove to Evan just how wrong he is!"

"You'll more likely never see him again," Wobbles says. "But, that doesn't mean you can't live your life."

Gardevoir contemplates our encouraging smiles for a long time. Then, he drops his berry and stands up. "Thanks for the food. Sorry for wasting your time."

"Where are you going?" Wobbles asks.

Gardevoir sighs. "I don't know. Just going, I guess." He shrugs. "What else am I supposed to do?"

Eevee props his forepaws on Gardevoir's leg. "You could stay with us. We're friendly."

Gardevoir smiles sadly and gently shakes him off. "Thanks, but I need time to think. Maybe someday," he adds when Eevee's ears droop. "Hey, if Pikachu's friends made it on their own in those conditions, I'm sure I'll figure something out."

I don't tell him that my friends weren't on their own, that they flourished under Ash's care. Instead I say, "There's a human I know. His name is Ash, and he helped my friends when their trainers left. If you find him, I know he'll help you with anything you need."

"Be careful," Absol says.

"Make lots of friends!" Sprout exclaims.

"So many, you forget all their names!" Eevee adds.

"Try not to get had again." We all glare at Wobbles, who frowns at us. "Too soon?"

We all say our goodbyes, and Gardevoir walks off. As we watch him leave, I try to ignore the weight in my chest. It doesn't feel right, just letting him leave after that heartache. I've always been able to help abandoned pokemon in the past. Why not now?

Because Ash was always there, I realize. My chest feels heavier. Ash would have caught Gardevoir without a second thought. They would have been great friends, and Gardevoir would have gotten stronger and stronger just like Charizard, Infernape, and Pignite. The thought hits me like Take Down. It was Ash who trained them, gave them comfort and care, taught them about love and family.

What did I do? I was there, sure. I gave them advice and a listening ear, but Ash did the heavy lifting. What did I really do?

Sprout's voice breaks through my thoughts. "Are you thinking about your friends?"

I wonder how my face must look. "Yeah," I say. It's not a lie. "Do you think… Do you guys think we could have done more?"

Eevee shuffles his feet. "I don't know."

Wobbles shugs. "I doubt it. I may be a psychic-type, but I can't change Evan's mind for him. None of us can."

Sprout nods. "I guess sometimes you just have to figure things out on your own. We could have let Gardevoir come along with us, at least for a little while, but would that have helped him at all? He must not think so, or he would have taken Eevee's offer."

"I feel like I didn't do enough," I say, but at this point I'm not sure if I'm still talking about Gardevoir.

Absol sighs and shakes his head. "The whole thing is just a mess. But, like Wobbles said, we can't change Evan's mind. And, who knows? Maybe Gardevoir is better off without a trainer." Did he just glance at me? Or, did I imagine that? "The problem is that humans are fickle. If things don't go their way, they overreact. They want us to do what they say, even if we hate it. If you ask me, that's no way to live." Now, I know he looked my way.

I'm about to retort, but to my surprise, Sprout does it for me. "Not all humans are like that." Her tone isn't unkind, but it doesn't invite argument. "Some of them are really nice."

Absol blinks sympathetically - curiouser and curiouser - but doesn't respond. He instead addresses all of us, back to his unspoken role of the leader. "There's nothing more we can do for Gardevoir. He needs to find his own path now. We've delayed Pikachu's mission-" Is that what we're calling it? "-long enough. Let's finish eating and move on. The town shouldn't be too much further."

As we finish our meals, though my own appetite is nonexistent, my thoughts are filled with Gardevoir and Charmander, Chimchar, Tepig, and Ash, Ash, Ash. He would have done everything he could and then some for Gardevoir, and what did I do? I let a heartbroken pokemon walk away. I shake off the thought. Absol's right. What more could we have done? I just hope Gardevoir is okay, wherever he ends up.