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Chapter Text

The Unova Dream! To be rich! To be famous! To be more than just you! The Unova Dream is the goal of all Unova's migrated or native. 

So come to Unova and find your dream

-Insert from Traveler's Guide to Unova

+++

Charizard glides around Hydreigon’s three Hyper Beams as he closes the distance between the two pokemon. His claw glows a vibrant violet as he prepares a Dragon Claw. The fire type nears his foe an—

*ding*

I whipped my head away from the TV towards the door as a bell chimes. An older man in his late fifties dressed in his usual white button up and brown slacks enters along with Herdier at his side. 

“Good afternoon Samantha, I'm surprised to see you’re still in town,” he waved.

“Good afternoon to you as well Albert. Why are you surprised I’m still in town?” I waved back.

Albert chuckled as he collected a bag of his usual pokefeed along with a can of Rob’s berry mix, “This year's circuit starts tomorrow. I know you’re big on battling, and most of the others your age have already left for Striation City. So I was wondering why you haven’t left yet?”

I nodded, and moved around the counter to give Herdier's fur a good ruffle, “Oh, I’m not going on a journey.”

Alberts raised his eyebrows in response, “That is surprising. Most youngsters around here are eager to go on their pokemon journeys as soon as they turn fifteen.” 

I scanned Albert's items as I shrugged back, “I’m not most youngsters.”

Albert paid for his pokefeed and chuckled, “Well, have a good evening Samantha,” he waved as both he and Herdier left the store.

My eyes wander the shelves looking to see if anything needs to be restocked. Rob’s Poke Supplements is a small local pokefeed and supplement store within Accumula. Most of the store's business comes from old retirees like Albert who settled in Accumula to live the peaceful town life.

Seeing that the shelves were properly stocked, my attention wanders back to the TV playing Nimbasa’s pre-circuit tournament, and am disappointed when the after battle commentary is playing.

“Wow, what an amazing battle, wouldn’t you agree Steve?”

“I agree Catherine, Austin Brickwork’s Charizard decimated the competition in this tournament. I’d say he has a good chance of winning the conference this year.”

“Not just the conference Steve, after Alder's retirement I’d say he has a good chance of becoming Unonova’s new Champion.”

“You think Austin could become Champion?” Rob’s deep voice asks. I glanced back to see that my elusive boss had emerged from the back. His dark skin squeezed into a shirt that I swore was at least two sizes too small, overly highlighting his muscular frame. 

“Maybe,” I leaned back in thought, “He certainly has the skill to become Champion but I'm not too sure who the competition is. A gym leader, or a member of the Elite four could push for the title. Maybe even an elite from Black City will take a shot or some rookie will, Cynthia became Champion at twelve.”

“That’s a good assessment. Although I would rather Austin didn’t become Champion,” Rob glared at the TV now showing an interview with Austin.

I tilted my head at that, “Does it really matter who becomes Champion?”

Rob nods, “Of course it does. The position of Champion is not just a title, it also holds a good deal of political power.”

“I don’t remember Alder doing anything political,” I probed, curiosity getting the better of me.

“You wouldn’t,” his lips thinned. “Alder was a passive Champion, he kept the status quo and that's it. With his retirement everyone with any sort of political ambitions will be aiming for the position of Champion. My problem with Austin Brickwork is that he is a mouthpiece for X-Tran, and if he becomes Champion, Unova will be basically ruled by that monopoly.”

“Huh,” was my eloquent reply. I expected a bit more of an explanation on what a Champion actually does, not another one of Rob’s anti-monopoly rents.

Rob snorts, recognizing my disinterest in his rants, “Anyways enough of my rambling, I have a few errands to run in town so hold down the fort in my absence.”

I shrug, with how often he has errands to run I could basically run the store by now.

Rob smiles, “Good, keep up the good work Sam and you might earn yourself a raise.” 

At the mention of a raise I make sure the store is in top form by the time Rob returns and my shift ends. 

+++

Accumula is a boring town. It's close enough to Striation to have a city feel yet not so far as to feel like you're living in the middle of nowhere like Nuvema town. Only folks looking to retire or raise a family away from the city move to Accumula. The idea of living a "town life” was so appealing the population of Accumula boomed and the town council was forced to stop expanding and place a population cap on the town so it wouldn’t become another city. Trying to keep with the town feel means limiting the number of businesses to the town's main strip, everything else in Accumula is the same five or six cookie cutter urban houses.

Boring.

Walking back home my eyes naturally drifted away from the static background towards the local pokemon. Pidove flocked through the skies in search of any free food, a crew of Timbers were building a new playground, and a pack Trubbish munched on some littered garbage.

Another left and I turned towards Accumula's only trailer park. A block later I made it to trailer #113.

“Hello,” I called, as I entered. Taking off my shoes I glanced around the house making sure the hurricane known as my sister didn’t make a mess of the house while I was gone.

Our mobile home was small, a tiny kitchen stuffed into the corner of the house, dishes that still needed to be done were soaking in the sink. The living room was split into two halves both so small and compact to truly be called a room. Nearest to the kitchen our dinner table sat, piles of paper I assumed where either homework or bills littered the table making it impossible to see the surface. A few feet away from the table the floor transitions from old tile to a carpet that never released any of the old stains it had received over the years. Past the living room were two doors one led to Mum’s room the other to the room that my sister and I had shared.

Nothing had gotten messier, but nothing had gotten cleaner. 

“Hey,” My twelve year old sister Elizibeth or Liz called back. She was lounging on the ratty couch I found last year in her Lillipup themed pajamas watching some sort of drama on the TV.

“Didn’t I ask you to clean up?” I asked while grabbing the remote and switching the channel to Pokebattle Net.

I felt Liz’s hazel eyes bore into the side of my head before she huffed. “I swept.”

I hummed and we both settled in to watch the latest battle. "Anything interesting happened today?” I asked, as Cryogonal's Blizzard covered the screen.

“Mmmm, not really. I was watching a new musical show when someone decided to change the channel on me,” she snarked.

“Oh, you were watching a musical? Glad I changed the channel then, I don’t want to watch people talking for hours on end only for the contest to be over in a few minutes,” I challenged.

“Please, a few minutes of a musical are much more entertaining to watch than this slugfest,” she gestured back to the TV where Gurdurr slammed its bream into Cyrogonal. “Plus, the build up to the contest is called plot, something your battle brain can’t comprehend.”

I shrugged and tossed the remote back to her, “I concede on this battle being a slugfest, what are they fourth badgers? They battle more like first,” I complained as the two pokemon traded blows back and forth. A quiet snort was my sister's response. 

I tossed the remote back to Liz, “Anyways guess you can watch a show with plot or whatever, I’ll go cook dinner.” 

In a flash the channel changed back and I made my way over to the fridge. Inside was a carton of expired milk, some synth ham, a few eggs, and a bag of lettuce.

“Did you buy some lettuce?”

“No?”

I shrugged. Mum must want us to eat more greens or something. I checked to see if the lettuce was expired or brown.

“Do you want any?”

“Lettuce?”

“Ya.”

“Why would I want plain lettuce?”

Welp more for me then. I opened the bag of lettuce to snack on as I made my way over to the pantry to see if we had any other food. There was a bit more in the pantry than the fridge. A bag of curly noodles, two cans of tomato soup, an empty bag of rice, a half empty thing of powdered cheese, and some bread that's probably not moldy. 

Grabbing the noodles, powdered cheese, and synth ham I got to work. Boil the noodles, cut and fry the ham, strain the noodles, add some powdered cheese, mix, add the ham, mix, and viola Synth Ham Mac and Cheese.

“Dinners ready,” I called Liz and Mum if she was awake yet.

Liz flopped into a seat at the dinner table and shuffled some papers away with a frown, “Mac and Cheese again.”

“If you want something different, go make it yourself.”

Liz just huffed and began eating. About halfway through dinner Mum emerged from her room.

People often say that I look like a younger, healthier version of Mum and I agree with them. Her long black hair has become dry and stringy, skin wrinkled to look a decade older than she was. Her once healthy and fit body had withered to become gangly and pale, and her shining blue eyes had dimmed to a dull gray. I often wonder if that's how I would look when I’m far older.

She smiled warmly at us as she sat down at the dinner table.

"How are you feeling?” Liz asked.

“Well enough,” she nodded, her voice quiet as a whisper. “How are you two doing?”

“Been watching contests all day, I’m not excited to go back to school tomorrow.”

Mum gave her an understanding look, then turned her questioning gaze to me.

“Same old work with Rob. Nothing new or exciting,” I repeated the same answer I had given her all summer.

Mum smiled at us both, “That's good to hear, and thank you Samantha for cooking dinner.”

“Oh ya, thanks,” Liz mumbled with a mouth full of noodles.

“Liz, don't talk with your mouth full,” I sighed at her.

She shrugged back and continued with her meal. When we were all finished and I was washing up the dishes when Mum called out, “Samatha dear, I—” she was interrupted when she erupted into a coughing fit. 

I was at Mum’s side in an instant holding her steady as she tried to catch her breath, “Do I need to grab some of your medicine?”

After catching her breath Mum nodded, “The blue bag by the door please.”

Making my way over to Mum’s room I caught a glimpse of Liz looking over at Mum with worry in her eyes as she lounged back on the couch. I gave her hair a good ruffle as I walked past making her squeak in defiance. As I grabbed the blue bag by the door to Mum’s room I noticed a laptop that I don’t recall getting Mum sitting on her desk. Returning to Mum I handed her the bag and filled a glass of water for her. 

“Thank you Samantha,” she smiled after swallowing a pill along with half a glass of water. “As I was about to say I have a gift for you.”

A gift? I frowned, we haven’t really done gifts since Mum got sick and most of our money went towards her hospital bills. Has this something to do with that laptop?

Slowly and carefully Mum placed a small red and white ball on the table.

“A pokeball,” Elizabeth whispered, just as stunned about the gift as I was.

“Mum. When did you buy a pokeball?” I questioned. One pokeball cost about as much as I made in a week. Not a lot on the grand scale, but for our poor family Mum basically placed a brick of gold on the table.

“I took a few extra shifts from Ms. Joy.”

“Mum, you can hardly walk let alone work!” I nearly shouted at her, “Besides, I don’t need a pokeball.”

“Thank you for your concern dear, but I've just been helping with the online paperwork, nothing too extraneous.” She shook her head, “But this isn’t about me, it's about you, and this pokeball is my gift to you so you can go on a pokemon journey.”

My pokemon journey!? Why would I go on a pokemon journey?

“We can’t afford for me to go on a journey, what about your hospital bills? Who’s going to take care of Liz?” I pointed to my frazzled sister.

Me pointing at her must have snapped her out of her stunned state as she shouted, “I can take care of myself!”

I glared at her trying to convey that now was not the time to argue.

“Samantha Aurora Morrison,” Mum barked, and my head whipped back to her at the sudden steel in her voice. 

“You and I both know that Elizabeth is a responsible young lady, secondly Ms. Joy and I have recently come to a deal with me working at home. Third, I know we have a solid amount of emergency savings and we will survive a year without your help. Lastly I know you young lady you’ve been glued to Pokebattle all summer and have been getting more depressed as the start of the season nears. You want to go on a pokemon journey and I am saying that you can.”

Each point felt like a physical blow, both Elizabeth and I have been generally taking care of ourselves since Mum got sick and Dad passed away. If Mum can work at home for her medication all the better, but those emergency savings were supposed to be for a cure for Mum. She needs the assistance of a high level pokemon and skilled doctors to cure her sickness, not something easily affordable. As for if I want to go on a journey.

“I…” don’t want to go on a journey, I almost say. Yet I can't bring myself to utter those words. Instead I snatched up the pokeball, “I’m going to return this,” and remove the temptation of going on a journey.

“Samantha—” mum started, yet I dashed out the door before she could finish.

Chapter Text

“Your starter pokemon is the most important pokemon on your team! They’re the foundation from which you build the rest of your team, and the pokemon who will be with you for the entirety of your journey!”

“Machamp!”

“Now let's get into the best ways for you to catch your starter!”

-The intro to Marshall Tyke’s hit Poketube video, “How To Catch Your Starter!”

+++

Soon I found myself outside of the local pokemart clutching the miniaturized Pokeball in my pocket. 

I’m going to return this pokeball, I’m going to get rid of this temptation and get back to helping Mum, I chanted as I entered the Pokemart. The interior was split into two sections, the first was stocked with ordinary snacks and groceries for humans. The second with anything pokemon related from pokeballs to the cheap pokefood that Rob loves to rant about. Light pop music washed over me as I made my way to the counter, and placed the pokeball down.

“I would like to return this,” I declared with all of the confidence I could muster.

The cashier blinked at me, “Sure do you have the receipt?”  

I blinked back, “Umm, no?”

“Sorry to say, but you can’t return this pokeball without a receipt.”

“Oh, umm right,” stupid me forgetting about the receipt, “I’ll just take this and go.” 

Heat flushed to my cheeks as I grabbed the pokeball and dashed away from the store. Stupid me, ofcourse I need a receipt to return something now I can never return to that Pokemart or else I might have to face the sheer embarrassment I felt about forgetting such a simple thing.

I didn’t have a destination in mind as I fled. I just wanted to be alone with my thoughts. 

What was Mum even thinking, getting me a pokeball? I would have to catch a pokemon on my own which can be a very dangerous thing. Even if I caught my own pokemon I would have to use my limited funds to care for them, the circuit starts tomorrow and with a freshly caught pokemon I would be behind others on their training. Finally to even challenge a Gym I need two pokemon. Those are… all the problems I would realistically face.

Let's be honest I can catch a pokemon on my own, and am confident enough to train them up to par. Preferably I would catch a ghost or grass type to cut down on food costs, I can even forage for berries and such to help. Buying a second pokeball is a big bite into my budget but I could make it work.

Am I really considering this? 

Well the con’s—

A snowball collided with me knocking me to the ground. I growed blinking away my disorientation. Where did a snowball come from? It’s late August. 

“Van,” the snowball groaned. 

I looked at the snowball that was actually a pokemon. It looked like a Vanillite. Its body was made of Ice in the shape of an ice cream cone with two stubby arms, yet instead of an ice cream swirl for a head, atop its body was an oval like head of ice with eyes, nose, and a mouth.

“Vanillite,” it said. 

Maybe it was a Vanillite?

“There you are!” 

At the shout my attention snapped back to reality. The sun had set long ago, trees lined the path on either side of me emulating the feeling of being in a real forest. I was deep into central park, a sort of mix between park and pokemon reserve. But the scariest thing was the six and a half foot tall fat man covered in tattoos charging towards me like a rampaging Bouffalant.

I screamed as my flight or fight instincts kicked in and I scrambled to my feet sprinting in the opposite direction. 

A gangster!? Why is there a gangster in Accumula? 

Nothing ever happens in Accumula!

Trees blurred past me as my legs burned after what felt like a few steps in contrast to the freezing cold resting in my hands. It took a few more steps for my brain to catch up, and it seemed in my haste to flee I grabbed onto the bald Vanillite and was carrying them. 

“Drop the Vanillite kid, or there will be consequences,” The gangster shouted, this time he was much closer. 

I looked towards Vanillite as I considered my options. Their mouth was curved down and eyes drooped in disappointment like they already knew I would give them up. 

“Damn it,” I muttered, damn my bleeding heart.

As my heart pounded faster I checked over my shoulder to see how close the gangster was. He was gaining on me fast, thirty feet, twenty five feet, twenty feet. I swallowed back my fear and waited until he was within ten feet or so. I could hear the gangsters thundering footsteps now as he pounded closer and closer.

“Freeze the ground or something quick Vanillite!” I shouted as I lifted the pokemon to my shoulder and aimed them at the gangster. 

There was a surprised “Va!” from Vanillite before the cold tickled at my heels. The loud “Fuck!” I heard meant that my plan was a success yet I didn’t stop running.

Five minutes later I was gasping for air inside one of the park's many outhouses. 

“Do… you… have… water… or… something…” I looked towards my partner in maybe crime.

The still bald Vanillite frowned for a second before nodding, they focused their little hands together and slowly an ice cube began to form. Once it was of satisfactory size the ice-type handed it to me. 

“Thanks,” I mumbled, plopping the ice cube in my mouth and savoring its cooling effects as it melted into sweet, sweet water. 

Catching my breath I turned to the ice-type who was breathing out large puffs of thick snow and using that to re-decorate themselves into the shape of ice cream. 

“So, why are those gangsters after you?”

Vanillite stopped their re-decorating mid way. Wait, is the snow like clothing to Vanilite? Are they actually getting dressed? 

“You can finish up first,” I hastily corrected.

Vanillite nodded and finished covering themselves in snow. “Vanillite, van, van vanillite, lite,” they explained. 

“Ya got none of that,” I shook my head. 

What followed was the longest game of charades I had ever played. Vanillite eventually started drawing in some snow they created to try and get the point across. 

“A cage?” I asked, looking at the box with lines that Vanillite had drawn.

Vanilite nodded and placed themselves over the box. 

“You were in the cage?” 

Vanilite nodded again.

“Oh,” dread settled in my stomach. “Are those gangsters actually pokemon poachers?”

Vanilite nodded once again. 

I took a deep breath and held my head in my hands. Pokemon poachers catch and steal pokemon to sell them illegally on the black market or use them for personal use. They're like Haunters, you hear about on the news sometimes, but never actually expect to run into one. 

Why are there pokemon poachers in Accumula? Nothing ever happens in Accumula!

I let out my held breath and tried not to scream. 

“Okay,” I hyped myself up. “We can just call the police. They can come save us, and you can give your testimony to them.”

I fumbled around my pockets for my phone finding nothing. 

“Okay,” I repeated, remembering I stormed out of my house earlier today without my phone.

Stupid. 

“Okay,” I didn’t panic. 

What could I even do against some pokemon poachers, I couldn’t hide in the outhouse forever. I would have to make a run for it. But could I even make it to the police station in time. That's almost five miles, I could hardly outrun one fat poacher. Could I outrun how ever many there are out there and their pokemon? No I don’t think I can so what's left sneaking? Can I sneak past poachers? It’s dark out so that's a plus. A minus is that central park is generally a flat open plain, there are a few small “forests” like the one I’m in, deeper into the park but generally the place is wide open. 

Ice pressed against my cheek and my eyes shot open. Vanillite was floating by my face poking my cheek, their emotive face was filled with worry. 

Some distant part of my brain realized I was hyperventilating. I placed my forehead against Vanillite and used their chill to help ground me as I calmed my breathing.

A minute later I looked back up at Vanilite. If one thing was clear from my panicking it's that I won’t get out of this situation alone. 

“Hey Vanillite, do you think you can get out of this on your own?”

They paused for a minute in thought, then shook their head. 

“Ya, I don’t think I can do much better on my own either. So why don’t we work together again just like earlier?”

This time their response was instant.

“Vanillite!” 

I smiled at their cheer, “That's great! To new partnerships!” I held out my fist for Vanillite to bump it. They floated forward and bumped it with their icy nub. As we touched I flinched back as I felt a freezing sensation jolt through my body, flowing from Vanilite to me. Looking at the ice-type he was looking questionably at his hand, he too must have felt something. I reached back out and gave him a poke.

No shock. Weird but okay.

Wait. Him.

For some reason I’m absolutely sure that Vanilite is male.

“You're guy right?” 

“Van,” he confirmed.

“Do you know what that just was?”

He shook his head.

“Huh, weird.”

We both shared a confused look before I clapped my hands together to get back on track, "Anyways, if we want to make it out of here we're going to need two things, first is my noodle legs, second is your snowmist.”

“Vanil?” 

“Ya your snowmist, or whatever you were doing when you dressed yourself. Think you can make a big cloud of that, enough to obscure vision.” 

The ice type thinks for a bit before nodding. 

“Good, I’ll give you the signal for when, but until then it's up to me to sneak out of here,” I grabbed all my fears and nerves with a big breath in, then exhaled it all out. 

“Ready?” I held out my arms.

“Van,” vanillite floated into my arms. 

I opened the outhouse door and we were off.

+++

Honestly I expected to be immediately besieged by poachers the second I opened the door yet it was surprisingly quiet. We didn’t even spot a poacher as we made our way out of the deeper parts of the park. 

Sadly our luck ran out there. 

On the long stretch across the open park two poachers and their pokemon stood watch. The poacher that chased us was pacing about with a Scraggy at his side. While a second scrawny poacher who looked more like a Cacturne than a person sat on a bench petting his Houndour who was lighting up the area with their fire. 

“Grahhhhh!” Fatso screamed and kicked a small pebble, “I hate this waiting! Why aren't we in there looking for that bitch!”

Skinny chuckled, “Work smarter not harder, a concept a brute like you can’t understand. If the girl and the ice cube make a run for it, we have a few guys watching all the exits to the park. If they try to wait us out they’ll find a nasty surprise when Growlithe finds them,” a nasty smirk crossed his face. “Where at the closest exit to the police station, the odds are good that the girl will come this way.”

Fatso kicked another rock, “I fucking hope so, I owe that bitch a poundin.”

My grip around Vanillite tightened as I took stock of the situation. Both Scraggy and Houndour have the numbers and type advantage over Vanillite, plus even if a battle breaks out I doubt the poachers will play by league rules. Fatso is likely to try and charge me and who knows what Skinny will do. What else? Come on me, think!

Around me are bushes and trees I could hide in, skinny is sitting on a bench, the ground is flat, Houndour is providing light.

Light! 

That's it!

A plan slowly clicked in my mind, “How much of the field can you obscure with your snowmist?” 

Vanillite gestured about a quarter of a battlefield's worth if he had a few seconds to prepare. It would have to do. “Think you can hold off Scraggy and Houndour for a bit in your snowmist?” 

He frowned but nodded.

“Good, the plan’s simple. I’ll stall for a bit and get them to charge us. You begin preparing as much snowmist as you can, and when they get close you cover as much area as you can with your snowmist and just survive. I’ll call out to you when you can drop the snowmist. Understood?” I stared Vanillite in the eyes.

“Vanillite,” he stared back. 

I gave him one more reassuring squeeze and we stepped into the light. 

“Hey Fatso, good to see your ugly mug again,” I waved as I stepped into sight of the two gangsters.

“You!” Fatso shouted, “You almost broke my nose!”

I shrugged, “It’s your own damn fault for tripping.” 

“She’s got you there Fatso,” Skinny jeered as he stood up from the bench, “Still it’s unexpected that you came to us so easily, girl.” 

“Please like the two of you are going to be a challenge,” I puffed my chest out and raised my chin, "You're talking to Samantha Morrison, trainer extraordinaire.” 

“Trainer extraordinaire my ass little girl!” Fatso shouted.

“Believe what you will but we shall settle this with a pokemon battle,” I tried to inject as much false bravado as I could into that statement. 

Fatso snorted, “like we would—”

“Sure, let's settle this in a pokemon battle,” Skinny finished. He then made eye contact with Fatso who looked confused for a moment, with some eyebrow waggling from Skinny, Fatso caught on to what his partner was thinking then grinned like a con artist afterwards. 

“Ya, let’s settle this with a pokemon battle,” Fatso agreed. 

This is it. All my blustering has led to this moment. I released my iron grip on vanillite and gestured for him to float forward. Without the ice type to hold onto, my numb hands clenched themselves into fists. Scraggy and houndour mirrored vanillite and stepped forward. 

“I’ll count us down, three, two—”

“Let's go!” Fatso shouted, springing forward along with the other two pokemon, “This ain’t a league fight little girl, there are no rules out here!”

I waited as the two pokemon and human charged towards us. As soon as they were in range I shouted, “Now!” and the world was plunged into snowmist and darkness. 

The snowmist swallowed up both pokemon and human snuffing out the light houndour was providing. I dashed through the snowmist off towards where I last saw Skinny hanging back and hoped my sense of direction was good enough to find him. A moment later I burst through the snowmist close enough to Skinny. His eyes were wide open trying to adjust to the sudden lack of light. 

I know nothing about fighting, but I can guess a few things like how one, Skinny probably knows about as much as I do about fighting. Two, all men have the same weak spot. 

I slammed my leg into a surprised Skinny’s crotch and watched him crumble with a weez. Quickly I grabbed the pokeball on his belt and positioned myself to take down the other gangster. 

“Hey Fatso,” I screamed into the thinning snowmist, “Skinny went down like wet paper. That means you're next.”

“You think you're such a clever bitch. A little snow won't keep you from me!” Fatso shouted back, running towards my voice. Fatso suffered from the same vision problems as Skinny so when he barreled out of the snowmist his shin met a bench. He tumbled over the nearby bench, ass over face with a loud, “Fuck!”

I dashed in quickly snagging his pokeball and scrambled back before he could retaliate and called, “Clear!” 

With my command the snowmist let up revealing the pokemon. Both Scraggy and Houndour looked unharmed beside some snow clinging to them. Vanillite on the other hand was clearly injured, some of his snow had melted off and cracks were spreading across his body. As the snowmist faded both pokemon glanced at their trainers sprawled out on the ground and I took that moment to return the both of them to their pokeballs and lock them.

In a flash of red the battle was over. 

“Wooo!” I cheered and joined Vanillite giving him a big hug. 

“Van!” He cheered back.

I collapsed to the ground, my legs reminded me of how worn out they were as all of my exhaustion came crashing back. 

“Bitch! You broke my nose!”

Adrenaline flushed right back into my system and I whirled around to Fatso as he stumbled back to his feet, “Ice em!” I shrieked.

A gust of Icy Wind blew from Vanillite’s mouth freezing the ground between me and Fatso, then I clambered back to my feet and broke off in a sprint.

The run to the police station was a blur. At some point Fatso stopped shouting after me and I stumbled my way into the station. Hastily explained the situation to the stunned officer working the night shift and gave him the poachers' pokeballs. Then I slumped into a chair when he went to report this mess to his superiors. My exhaustion must have caught up to me because that was the last thing I remembered.