"Happy birthday dear Keiran, Happy birthday to you!"

Suddenly, all I could see was a sky of fire. The blazing oranges from Dad's Magmar tangled with the bright white eruption of Mom's Rapidash, both creatures dancing in delight at their pyrotechnics. The yellows from pop's Growlithe pack concluded the display, Flamethrowers blooming across my sight, roaring out their own rendition to the timeless song into the night. A corona brighter and more welcoming than any fireworks display.

I look down to the picnic table and see my passho berry pie, each berry freshly plucked from the passho trees surrounding our ranch, and baked to perfection by Mom herself. I don't like cake, (so sue me) Mom learned by my eighth birthday to stop forcing it and get creative with the desserts. Sixten flickering candles spread across the lattice crust. Breathe in and blow! Quick, now the wish!

I wish Mom never has to leave again…

"Now, now, birthday boy. What did you wish for?" Dad asks, "Maybe for that girl down at the Safari counter to go on a-"

"Honey, is now really the time to tease? This is his time to shine." That's Mom for ya, always one to defend, even when I know Dad is just being silly. He's always been like that. Never missing an opportunity to try and make us smile. Never-not looking out for us. Never not caring.

"Mag!"

"Alright, alright," Dad chuckles, "Even you, Kaen?"

"Magmar ma"

"Dad, I love you-"

"I love you!"

"But quit being a dumb wingull."

"Kiran, it's rude to point out the obvious, even to your father." As she says this, Mom comes over to hold my head between her hands and gives me a kiss on my brow. Dad somehow pouts and preens at the same time, as if being called 'a dumb wingull' was what he wanted all along.

My vision gets a little misty and my face starts to hurt, maybe from smiling so much, or because Mom is still squishing my cheeks. Dad is giving the same amount of affection to his Magmar, Kaen, as mom is giving me. Pouting up at Dad, Kaen wags a claw as if he were just a hatchling. And speaking of hatchlings! The juvenile Growlithe pack surrounds the table, tongues out and tails wagging. The youngest ones may not know what we are celebrating exactly but Mama and Papa Growly nuzzle up next to me on my left and right. Their snouts, snowy from old age, rest on my thighs.

"I love you two, too!" I say rubbing just behind their ears, somewhere that they haven't been able to quite get at since half a year ago, back when we celebrated their own 16th birthdays.

A hot wind comes across my neck, demanding in a way I've only known one to achieve. "Hahna, I could never forget you. Don't play that card." How could you forget an 8ft flaming horse?

I carefully dislodge the senior canines from my lap to stand up and hug the neck of Hahna. As a master of her typing, Hahna could have her mane go from an inferno to what it is right now, a delightful warmth, so welcomed on this December eve.

She whinnies to show her pleasure, rocking her head up and down. Tip-tapping her hooves. Even after a long day of keeping the ranch safe and sound, she still has the energy of a Ponyta. And protecting is what Hahna was born for. She wasn't my mom's first pokémon but she is the strongest. Hahna brought my mom to a 27th, 15th, 9th and finally 2nd place finish at the year-end Kanto League Conference Tournaments. She is a paragon of her species.

I then notice that in my distraction with all the pokémon, Mom and Dad come from the house baring a egg. A big egg. Orange, with auburn speckles. Did Aunty Growly give birth?

"Is Aunty okay? She wasn't due for another week at least!" I ask as they walk up. But instead of an answer, Dad holds out the egg to me. I take it, feeling the warmth coming from inside, accompanied by some internal wobbling.

"Aunty is fine. This isn't her's. It's yours."

I freeze (which is saying a lot because the egg really is warm). A pokémon egg? I now own my own pokémon egg?!

"I think we broke him, Dear."

"I think he just needs a moment. Think back to the moment when you got Orion?"

Dad's face glows in this moment of nostalgia, "Baby Orion was so cute! He just had one little white tail back then and the fur on his head was so curly! And the little noises he would make when I'd cuddle him! He'd go 'Vulpix pix' and 'Hmmm erm hermemer'."

With Mom's hand muffling his rambling, I finally come back to the present, needing all that time to reboot my brain.

"Mama, Papa Growly. Could you keep this warm?" I ask as I gently rest the egg onto the ground where they wrap it up in an old puppy hug. I lunge, wrapping my parents up in my arms. Screaming into their shoulders, my 'Thank you!'s and 'Love you!'s might have been heard in between unintelligible sobs of joy.

After a totally normal and not embarrassing amount of time, I pull back and look at them. My parents. They may not have been my first set to have, but they are the best. It's hard to believe, even after 16 years, but this isn't my first time at life. Not even my first world, either - but no body knows this about me, not even my parents.

Oh yeah, my parents! My dad, Rhys Lee. Above average height for a Kanto native at 6'2", but still has the average Kantonian looks, with his dark hair, and warm sun-kissed skin. He is a man that would break his back if it helped his family. A man that left his home and everything he knew to pursue his dream of 'Fire'. He lives it, breathes it, breeds it. Our branch of the Lee family are the foremost breeders of Growlithe, Ponyta, Vulpix, AND, the only (and I mean only) home for Charmander outside of Charicific Valley. That last bit cannot be overstated. Dad has 2 of the 5 habituated Charizards in all of what is now United Indigo. Ama and Kojin, his Charizard duo, other than being the logo for 'Flying L Ranch', act as protectors for all the pokémon on the ranch.

Next up is the incomparable Mary Lin Lee. Five foot flat, with hair so orange that my dad affectionately says she's been 'kissed by fire' (which I fully believe is what caused his initial attraction to her). It even helped coin her moniker, "The Fire Maiden" in Conference Tournaments. A smattering of freckles crosses under her round eyes, that reflect the colors of a cloudless winter sky. Her porcelain skin is marked by a scar from a Johtan Sandslash catching her with a scratch vertically across her brow and left eye, but she would never see it as a blemish. Something I've noticed about people who've been through war is that they don't sweat over trivial beauty standards or appearances. Being put in dangerous circumstances changes how you see yourself.

Before the draft, Mom was a competitive battler. I mentioned before her 2nd place finish, which all came down to her last pokémon: Her team of Onix, Machamp, Raichu, Starmie, Pidgoet and of course Hahna the Rapidash. She has a seventh team member named Obsidian but I have never met her. My parents keep saying, "When you're older."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

So these two amazing people are my second parents. My first set weren't necessarily 'bad-bad', but I was more of an accessory than a cherished child. And my first life was far from awful, but one thing my world lacked was the abundance of pokémon creatures: wild or tamed. After the infamous 'Big C' took me down in my first life, I woke up in this world at only a few years old. I wonder if my first parents missed me, or maybe they just miss the idea of what they projected as the perfect family? In this crazy world, I got to know Rhys and Mary, and now they are everything I ever need in a family. Warm, comforting, present. So much like all the pokémon we keep! And now, we'll have one more to the family.

"You okay, bud?"

Maybe I was staring a little too long. "Yeah. I'm super okay! You got me a pokémon! My very own pokémon!" At this I pick up the egg from the fluffiest incubator à la Mama and Papa Growly's fur.

Mom speaks up, drawing my attention, "Kiran, we are so proud of who you are turning out to be. When you go out on your Journey, we want you to be prepared and be protected with partners you can trust."

Dad reaches out and claps my shoulder, "And it's our job to help you be prepared. We will provide anything you need for the founding members of your team!"

…'S' is such a funny letter. It is the most populous consonant in English dictionaries. How adding an 's' or 'es' to the end of a noun can make one into more than one. Into something like…

"Ok Kiran," Mom snaps her fingers in front of my face.

"You said 'partners'!" Mom jumps back from my sudden outburst, "You said 'members'! With an 'S'! An S!"

A glare wasn't what I was expecting. It certainly wasn't what Dad was expecting when it was turned on him. Without taking her eyes off Dad, Mom says "Kiran. What did your father tell you about Aunty's next egg?"

"He, uhh, he said that it was going to the Champion as a gift. Isn't it like a peace offering to Champion Wataru? A Kanto staple for the Johtan Champion?"

"A gift for the Champion?" Mom's face softens as she says this. Is this the calm before a storm sort of thing? I mean, she looked so angry a second ago. Why is she now kissing dad all over his face?

"You. Incorrigible. Man. So. Sweet." Each word punctuated by a fresh kiss.

I glance at Kaen to see if he understands the situation any better but he's eyeing my birthday pie, as if calculating the worth of stealing an early piece. Hahna just whinnies, enjoying the love I suppose.

"As much as I enjoy that my parents' romance is still going strong, can either of you explain what's going on?"

Dad picks up mom with a twirl and with a goofy smile splitting his face says to me, "Well, the eggs are for you. Both of them. This one and Aunty's. You're going to be Champ one day so that's what I meant. A gift for the Champion!" He ends this declaration by still holding mom's waist in one hand and giving me a thumbs up with the other.

—-—-—-—-—-—-—

After the most adult and cool freak out of my young life, passed with mostly more hugging and exhaultations, we finally settle back down to cut the pie. Me with my new egg in my lap, Mom with her Raichu, Static, in her lap, and Dad, lining up the pack with a little paper plate of pie for each of them. Static happily munches away with crumbs all over his cheeks, while the rest of the pack give even less effort to keep their faces clean of pasha berry juice.

This is heaven. When I died 16 years ago and was reborn to these two and in this world, I couldn't imagine a place that would give me more of … well, everything. Sure, the war wasn't all sunshine and daisies, and the constant threat of wild pokémon leveling the city isn't something to add on a travel brochure, but this moment right here, is perfect.

Not to mention that I actually got to make it to 16 this time around. In my 'Before Life', I only made it to 15 and a half. Leukemia can do that to you. Especially when it's caught late. Some people, who will remain nameless, didn't notice things about me until it vomited all over them and their Super PAC donor party.

But through the 18 months of hospitalization and treatment, I had Pokémon to keep me company. I was going to play my way up from Red to Scarlet. I only made it to the first gym in Black. I knew some thing's about the game's past, but never made it to them. At the end, I was maybe lucid an hour or so a day?

Anyway! I had Pokémon to keep me company. And now I live Pokémon. 16 years of living here and I still get swept away by it sometimes. Though this world is hugely different from the game.

I look down at my egg, finally done processing and ask my first question about it, "Where did you guys get the egg?"

Right away I knew it wasn't one of Ama and Kojin's eggs. For starters, they haven't had an egg since 2 years ago and they have never allowed one to leave the Ranch before. Dad says that one of the Charmeleons is considering going with Professor Camphor for a short while. She said she wanted to discover the evolution method for Charmeleon to Charizard. Dad knows it but filed it under The Law of Discovery Act. Which basically is a piece of paper telling The League to keep their noses out of something that isn't their business. Mom says they were more pissed about him keeping that knowledge to himself than they were when the Blackthorne's razed Pallet Town to the ground in the opening stroke of the war. I don't even know how he's done it! He isn't worried about Camphor figuring it out though. He told me "The way people view the Charizard line will keep them from ever figuring it out."

"Well, that's kind of a long story," he interrupts himself, "You might not remember it but 10 years ago a trainer came here and stayed on for a few weeks. She had a Rapidash of her own and came to speak with your mother about Hahna. And, and, she had some really rare Fire types! Magcargo; he was so cute! His goopy face! And her Torkoal was so sweet!"

"The 2nd degree burn on your neck disproves that," Mom chides.

"It was a sneeze! I was just too close when it happened."

"Focus, Dad,"

"Okay, okay. She had Pokémon that had never come to the shores of Kanto or Johto! You see, she was from Hoenn."

At his words, I instinctively look to the skies in the Southeast. My memory superimposes the current night sky with the image of dark ash clouds that for over a year permeated the landscape. A temporary memorial to that which was lost. Goosebumps begin to form along my arms as I think about the destruction of a continent. The scars of sooted skies may no longer be visible, but the effects are still felt.

Hoenn was once a region about 450 miles south off the coast of Johto. A place of life and beauty now simply a molten hellmouth. A land draped in death and ruin. A crown of Annihilation. People still don't know what happened. All expeditions by air burn up before they make landfall and oceanic trips meet nothing but the roughest seas approximately 40 miles from shore.

The only survivors were the tourists that were visiting at the time and their 'pet' pokémon. None of them were battlers except for one. The rich legacy of Hoenn's native Pokémon were reduced down to a few surviving members. The one exception was-

"Flannery was here?!"

Mom answers this time, "Yes. We had almost come to a breeding agreement with her when it happened. We felt the aftershocks first, then that first night we could see a glow coming from Hoenn even from this distance. The next day came the ash cloud and she knew something was wrong. She left right away and we haven't heard from her since. Her home. Her people. Her culture. Gone in a breath. We thought she had been lost trying to get home somehow."

Here is where Dad cuts back in, "Until 14 months ago. When we went to Cinnabar and found Flannery had been staying on the island near the volcano. It's a more comfortable environment for some of her pokémon. We rekindled our correspondence and came to a new agreement." He starts drumming on the table. Mom joins in. Hahna does her tippy tap dance, and even Kaen clacks his claws. Each adding to the drumroll.

"You're killing me!"

"What you have there is the first and only Torchic egg from her Blaziken and Orion. But most likely not the last. She really took a liking to his tails, and that Blaziken kept pestering Orion to wrap her up in his nine tailed cocoon-of-cuddly!"

My poor brain! How many times can they do this to me? A Torchic! A Torchic! A Torchic. A Torchic. A Torchic .Ow!

I look down to where Mama Growly is biting the toe of my shoe. "I did it again huh Mama G?" She just gives a short yip in response.

Deep breath in and out. I have a Torchic!

—-—-—-—-—-—-

Author's Note:

Hiya! I've been a 12 year long reader on this site and finally thought, "Maybe I could write one!" You know, maybe contribute to the community that has given be countless hours of enjoyment. I am going to try my hardest to not abandon this story. I know many an author sets out with this mindset but I hope that by banking up 23 chapters already, will give me plenty of time to stay ahead even though my wife is soon to have a baby. We shall see!

Feel free to leave comments and what not but just be aware, story decisions and the like are locked in with the 20 chapters in the bank. Lastly, ever story here has an aspect of wish fulfillment. So if those parts of my story rub you wrong, then I apologize. I want what I want. (P.s. I don't mean this in a sexual way. I mean in Kiran's team building.)