Grimer,- Grimer felt weird. First, it was getting carried away by some man from his mother and her trainer, and then after that, it was silence. Even with a pokeball's 360 vision, there was nothing to see inside of that place, just darkness. And the longer he spent in there, it started to feel as though he was asleep but also not really. He did sleep a few times, especially when his Pokeball was still getting carried by a person but after that? He was placed inside a crate and then he could no longer sleep. The ship that he was on constantly rocked back and forth too, making it even harder for him to fall asleep.

He felt other Pokemon with him during that time, some just like him but most were unfamiliar. Dangerous. They made him feel as though he was back on land even though he knew they were at sea. He didn't like them but... he felt as if he was connected to some of them.

And then, it all collapsed as water poured over the crate and an attack, something fiery washed over the wooden box he was on and burned it, releasing all of the Pokeball inside including the one he was in and when the light was finally there, he was able to see what attacked the ship; it was big, with red, interloping scales like that of a crabby, those crabby-like scales were stacked on top of each other, their ends being sharper instead of blunt.

The attacker had whiskers, both red, and right in the middle of them was a large mouth big enough to eat Grimer a thousand times over. The body that the mouth belonged to was even larger, it was large enough that the Sharpedoes, Vaporeons, and other water types attacking it didn't do anything other than make it even angrier, and even then, calling it angry was an understatement. It was mad and saw nothing else other than rage. It threw out more and more attacks that destroyed further chunks of the ship and finally, when it reached the boiling point of its madness, a small ball started to glow inside of its mouth, it grew larger, and larger, and larger, until the size reached a quarter of the massive ship it was attacking and then-

It fired.

The Hyper Beam reached the ship, melting through it like it was nothing and then it reached the sea, creating a whirlpool of steam and fire that sucked everything down including all of the humans, Pokemon, and Pokeballs that were on the surface of the water. The only thing that went unsucked was the gargantuan monster.

Grimer felt his heart sink as he got closer and closer to the whirlpool but the feeling was nothing when he saw the edge of his Pokeball crack and black spiderwebs started to crawl across the 360-degree vision that enables him to see everything around the ball. The webs widened and furthered as Grimer felt pain when seawater invaded the inside of his ball, the salt did considerable damage to his body as it started chipping him off and he couldn't do anything else other than silently watch.

And then, his Pokeball cracked open and the nightmare worsened. Pain assaulted his body but that wasn't the worse of it, all around him were Pokemon and Humans, torn to shreds by metal debris or other Pokemon, they all suffered under the devastating attack of the-

The-

Crimson eyes met his own, in them, there was nothing but anger and he felt himself choke under that gaze, he felt his mind come to a halt as the monster looked down on him. On that small moment, one that felt like forever, Grimer felt small. But, as it is nothing but a moment, it passed and the monster's eyes moved elsewhere, clearly trying to find a thing or place to redirect its anger at. He was simply too weak to be considered a punching bag and Grimer felt nothing but relief at the thought of that.

That small moment of respite enabled him to think clearly. Grimer used a move that he has constantly been mocked with- Shadow Sneak, was something that he never thought would be useful. Still, as he felt himself become light, almost ethereal even, he became glad that he had it and in the blink of an eye, he found himself on one of the debris, right next to a panting, damaged Wartortle with a cracked shell.

He popped out of the Pokemon's shadow and the two of them stared at each other, "uh-" he panicked,

"no, it's fine." the Pokemon smiled, "you got caught up in the crossfire too huh?" the turtle was calm and that energy washed over Grimer as he nodded,

"I didn't- this..." he murmured, trailing off as he tried to explain that he didn't go here on his own.

"me too but I guess I was just swimming in the wrong place at the wrong time," he chuckled, "never thought that a storm would bring me disaster,"

"I... wasn't really swimming here,"

"either way, got caught." the turtle coughed out a chuckle.

And that was that, he passed out soon after and woke up to a missing Wartortle, he hoped that the water type survived.

With the storm cleared, Grimer saw a beach in the distance and after taking a deep breath to calm himself down, he jumped down the metal debris and then he continuously used shadow sneak to preserve his life until finally, he was on the beach and with him being weakened, he started eating and eating until-

...

"so that's what happened," Chansey smiled, her chippy voice getting a slightly higher pitch to it. "now then, what about the place that you had come from?" the pink blob asked and Grimer froze. Seeing this, Chansey chuckled, "ah, you don't have to worry," she waved him off, "patient confidentiality and all that, I won't tell anyone."

"well... if you say so," Grimer told him where he came from, about a hot place that the humans there called Alola, about a culture that was dedicated to the sea, and the peacefulness that had come with it. He also told him about the place's want for isolation, about how the humans there do not like other regions because of a myth that had come from the Star-Bat, the Goddess of the Moon Lunala that told them other humans would simply bring war over-

Over-

"it's fine," Chansey said, "you don't have to tell me, I know a panic attack when I see one." Grimer felt a heal pulse calm him down, "must be a pretty important secret if you react like that huh?"

"well, Solgaleo would punish me if I say something about that." she said,

"another God of yours?" Chansey asked and Grimer nodded, "they must be pretty protective of their home huh?"

He nodded again, "the Sun and Moon do not like it when we divulge island secrets."

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

"I see," Chansey smiled, "we also have our Gods here you know?" she said, changing topics and keeping up the conversation, "one of them once came to the burned tower and out came three more Gods,"

"really?"

Chansey nodded, "really, the legendary duo Ho-Oh and Lugia and then the legendary beasts named Entei, Suicune, and Raikou."

"huh," Chansey looked behind her as Grimer fell into deep thought, there were other gods?

"it seems that your trainer is here," Grimer pushed himself out of his thoughts and looked over to his trainer.

He never really told Grimer his name but from what he heard from the Persian, his name is Lionel. Lionel gave him a wave, "hey there bud, you fully healed?" he smiled,

"yep! And I managed to learn from Chansey too, I didn't know you guys had Gods!" he replied back and almost as if he perfectly understood what Grimer said, his trainer nodded and gazed at Chansey,

He smiled at the pink blob and shook his head before placing his eyes on Grimer again, "yeah, we do, Ho-Oh, Lugia-"

"Entei, Raikou, and Suicune!" he cut him off and Lionel nodded.

"those guys." Lionel turned towards the other human in the room, Nurse Joy, "uhm, thank you for taking care of him and the uh,-" his unsure eyes moved over to Grimer, "information about him as well."

The other human nodded, her pink hair bobbing up and down. "it's a part of the job!" she happily answered,

"thank you still," Lionel smiled and picked up his Pokeball from Chansey, "come on bud, we're going to leave."

"of course! See you Chansey!" the pink blob smiled.

Then the two of them left.

...

When they were out, Lionel kept him inside of his pokeball as they walked through the city and Grimer slowly became enraptured by the sight of the place as they made their way. The buildings here were titanic compared to the ones back in his home and at times, he shudders at their sheer scale. They reminded him of that monster's size, Grimer's sees that monster in them too. Sometimes, his focus went over to his right, there, a massive red building stood. For a brief moment, he was convinced that the building would swallow him whole and any time now, it would come alive and... thankful it didn't.

He sighed in relief.

He forced himself to think of something else as they walked and it worked for a while as his memories of his mother and her trainer came to his mind but eventually, his thoughts drifted over to the time those people took him away from them and then they trapped him in that crate for... Solgaleo knows how long and then-

fire, pain,

the seawater made him feel paiN!

red eyes! RED EYES-

A tap on the pokeball cleared his head, "you okay there?" he heard Lionel speak, "the pokeball was shuddering just now."

For a while, his trainer kept looking at him and when Grimer didn't answer, he shrugged his shoulders and looked forward.

Grimer felt... - was thankful to that monster that he got freed of course, why wouldn't he be? But... the way that monster looked at him wasn't right, it saw him as nothing more than a Durant and yet its gaze was so laced with anger that it didn't care to use its sheer power against him... or even anyone in that ship for that matter.

Still, what's done is done and it's best to look forward instead of backward. That's what his mother's trainer always said,

And the way forward is with Lionel. Back then, when he was getting healed, Chansey told him about the dangers of what he was and Lionel too partially warned him back in their house and even on the beach before that. Saying that the Grimer in this place didn't have "lips" (he doesn't know why they even see it that way, last he checked, they were just a line above his mouth.) and what's more, his coloration is the equivalent of a shiny Grimer in this region.

And everyone knows that shinies are important enough that people would go to great lengths to catch them.

And the reason why he was even in that ship to begin with is because... well, because of what he was- An Alolan Grimer.

Grimer shuddered inside of his ball and closed his view of the outside world, instead, he found comfort in the darkness and perfect temperature inside the ball.

as he lay there, in the darkness, he felt himself go limp, his senses dull, and his mind fading. Soon, there wasn't anything more that could've disturbed him enough to forcefully pull him out of his drowsiness and it didn't take long for him to sleep.

And then just as quickly, he woke up.

Blearily, he looked around and saw a clean home, the interior was the same as the other homes he peeked through back in Alola; a couch for sitting, a TV, windows, wooden floors, and a white ceiling was what took most of the view but there were other decorations here as well, a young Lionel with his mother and father on a picture frame was on the other side of the room, sitting idly on top of a closed drawer and right next to that is a shelf filled with trophies, most of them had Lionel's name on them but the others simply had the name of the competition.

"are those yours?" he asked the human behind him and he heard a chuckle,

"yeah, I was sort of obsessed with competition when I was young," he said, "I wanted to prove something and I guess I got what I wanted." he barely heard the soft mutter of Sort of that came out of Lionel's hand-covered mouth.

"huh,"

"yep," Lionel stretched, releasing a soft pop, from his back. "anyways, I gotta go ahead and buy you food, Persian's up on the roof if you need help and I already told Mom about you before we left for the center earlier."

Grimer looked at a nearby trashcan and then he met Lionel's eyes, he chuckled, "yeah, no, you're not going to eat trash from here on out." he explained and patted him on the head, "you're weirdly solid huh?" he asked, looking at his clean hand. He gave him one last pat before walking over to a coat rack. He picked up a purple jacket, printed at the back was a Nidoking roaring at the skies.

"take care," he said before finally leaving.

Grimer slumped, then looked around as the feeling of alienation crept up to his head. He... wasn't familiar with the place and he couldn't help but feel a throbbing pain in his head as he gazed up at the large furniture. Subconsciously, he shrunk in on himself before a voice made him prep up, "stupid, stupid Lionel." a gruff voice said and he turned to see the Persian that used a Glare on him so strong that he could barely move even after stuffing himself,

"don't think he's bad because he did that yeah?" the older Pokemon said with a defeated smile, his deep voice oddly soothing to listen to. "he's usually like that but beneath that apathy? The kid's quite soft."

Grimer nodded, "okay..."

Persian walked over to him and propped himself down to his right, yawning, he stretched his neck and the large orb on his forehead glowed, "what about you? How're you keeping up?"

"I... don't know?" he answered, "I mean, it sucks that I only spent a month in total back home but I do hope that I can spend a longer time here before I have to move..."

"hmmm..." the feline hummed, producing a deep, guttural growl out of his throat. "what do you mean move?" he asked,

"well, my trai- breeder, breeder said that I would get relocated to a nice home soon when I was still under his care." he felt confused, "I thought that it would happen quite a lot?"

Persian laughed, "that so?" he shook his head, "ah, to be impressionable, I bet one of my kittens would've loved to play with someone like you."

"I would love to as well!" he replied rather quickly,

"never expected a Grimer to act as you do," Persian replied, "besides, even if you wanted to, I bet he would probably get tired of you quite easily."

Grimer frowned, "really? Why?"

"that's just the way he is," replied the feline, a soft smile on his lips. "and he's older than you by a full year," he gave Grimer a pat on the head with his large paw, "you should play with kids your age,"

"I... can probably play with him still!" he reasoned, "where is he?"

"off to some kid named Whitney," Persian replied, this time, smiling viciously, "hope her whiny attitude and tendency to hug him sets that stupid cub straight." Persian laughed,

"he's okay right?"

"of course he is," Persian replied, "whiny as she may be, Whitney is a good trainer with a talent for battling." he grinned, "she outgrows that whining and you got yourself a good and proper trainer,

"after all, there's a reason why Lionel's Dad gave her one of my cubs." he shrugged helplessly then both of his eyes went over to the door, "speak of him and he may come," the Persian mused, standing up, he stretched, "your trainer's Dad is here, introduce yourself to him but I best get going before he thinks I'm a softie yeah?" he chuckled and then...

Just disappeared, Grimer didn't even see him run away or use a move.