Angel had dreamed of this moment.  The wind blowing leaves across a meadow, trees casting shadows that allowed the light to glow, the scent of unknown flowers tickling his nose.  His precious blue bandanna was tied snugly to his neck, the scent of home reminding him just how far he’d already come.  Behind him towered his trainer, Haru, his eyes sparkling with intense concentration and excitement while he fiddled with his Gengar-faced hat.  Across from them stood their opponent, an Eevee, tense and eager to learn if this human was worthy of him.  This would be Angel’s and Haru’s first capture, their first entry into history.  This was where their legend would begin!

“Angel, use Headbutt.”

Angel glanced back at his trainer with a confused trill.  “[What move’s that?]” he asked, despite the fact that humans couldn’t speak Pokemon.

Something slammed into him, sending him skidding back across the grass.  The Eevee hopped back to where he’d been, laughing to himself.  “[Having problems, are we?]” he chided.

Shaking it off, Angel wriggled back into position, sparing an angry glance at his trainer.  Come on, I’m trusting you here.

“Earthquake!”

Really?  Thankfully, this time he was paying attention and dodged the Eevee’s Tackle, pushing off with his tail and sliding away, fluttering his tiny wings to spin himself around.  “[Uh Haru, you do know my moves, right?]” he chirped.

“Come on Angel, dodge and use Dig.”

Okay, I can do that.  As Eevee went in for another charge, Angel spooled up his drill tail and dug his way backwards into the ground.  Once enclosed in that comforting darkness, the Dunsparce leaned his jaw against dirt and listened for his opponent above.  Initially, all he heard was his heartbeat.

Then a pat.  Then another.

Grinning, he curled up and pointed his drill directly at the source and shoved with all his might.

A hearty smack rippled up his spine as he erupted into the sunlight, Eevee sent sailing skyward.  While his opponent landed hard in the grass, Angel looped back around and came down for a smooth landing.  Now that’s more like it.

“Finally,” Haru grumbled.

Angel glanced back at him.  Excuse me?  Who’s the one doing the work here?

Meanwhile, the Eevee got to his feet with a grunt, “[Cheap shot.]”

“[You hit me when I wasn’t looking]” Angel fired back, wriggling and excited to continue.

“Alright, hit it with Pursuit.”

The blue and gold serpent raced in, using his wings to pick up speed, kicking up a cloud of pollen and dust as he raced in.  At the last second, as Eevee dodged away, Angel spun himself around and landed hard on his tail, and with a heavy grunt lunged out at the mid-air mammal.

He nicked Eevee’s tail but missed most of his target, sliding across the grass on landing.  Guess I need practice on that one.

Eevee, meanwhile, landed with perfect poise, even giving himself a little bow and wagging his tail playfully Angel’s direction, “[Aw, what’s wrong?  Afraid to hurt pretty ol’ me?]”

“Come on, Angel, try Dig again.”

The Dunsparce gladly did as told, diving back underground and launching back out.  Again, Eevee was sent flying, though this time he landed on a tree branch.

“Let’s try Pursuit again, knock him back down.”

There we go, now we're getting it.  “[You got this got this got this got this…]” Angel coached himself as he dug his tail into the ground and perched on it.  With a heavy grunt he hurled himself as hard as possible at his opponent, flapping his wings as hard as possible.  His scaly skin tingled from the speed of the wind whipping over him, the edges of his vision darkening.  Eevee tried to repeat his previous dodge, but this time Angel’s head landed square in his gut.

But Angel didn’t stop.  He pushed himself skyward, bursting through the canopy into the golden sun.  For a brief, beautiful moment warmth washed over his scales and he basked in the view, Viridian Forest stretching to the horizon on two sides, and that wonderful Indigo Plateau calling him skyward.  His bandanna flapped in the wind, making him feel as if he could truly fly.

Then he plummeted back through the trees, crashing gracelessly through the branches and landing hard on his belly.  It stunned him, to put it mildly.

Eevee was already getting up, working his joints and clearly working past the pain.

After shaking his head to clear the stars from his eyes, Angel flashed a smile and said, “[I don’t know about you, but I’m having fun.]”

“[Fun is for pets,]” Eevee snarled, “[I’ve been one, and I won’t return to anyone but the most worthy.  You.  Aren’t.]”

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“[Ooh, I’m scared,]” Angel teased then glanced back eagerly at his trainer, wagging his tail.  “[Ready when you are, partner.]”  Guess Haru just forgot my moves.  That’s okay, we’re still new at this.

Haru turned his hat backwards and commanded, “Time to finish it, use Thunderbolt.”

An exasperated sigh left Angel.  Okay, what move would be good here?  Maybe…

Oh, Eevee’s charging.  There wasn’t time to dodge.  He let the hit come, grunting as he took it on his heavy head, but used his tail as a brace to keep from being pushed back.  Before Eevee could retreat, he lunged and bit him on the leg.

“[OW!  Lemme go lemme go lemme go lemme go,]” Eevee yapped, struggling and kicking.

With a heavy swing Angel hurled his opponent away, winding up and psyching himself to get nice and angry.  Surprisingly, the Eevee managed to land on his feet, though he immediately stumbled, holding his foot awkwardly and whimpering softly.

Angel immediately cooled off.  “[You okay, bud?]” he asked, fluttering his wings and floating over slowly, “[I didn’t mean to bite that hard.]”

In a flash, the Eevee regained his concentration and hurled himself at Angel.  The Dunsparce gasped as he rolled across the meadow, wincing as he settled on his belly.  A truly livid Eevee stood across from him, panting and shaking.  “[I.  Won’t.  Lose.  To you,]” he growled.

Angel shook the pain off and cracked his neck.  Lesson learned, don’t get distracted.  “[Come on, buddy, we’re gonna win, I don’t wanna hurt you too bad,]” he said, not as a taunt but out of real concern.  Eevee looked horribly unsteady on his feet.  Angel must have bitten harder than intended; he was a pretty big Pokemon by comparison.  He didn’t dare look away, but he hoped beyond hope that Haru could see just how rough a shape their opponent was in.  Now was the time to catch him, or at least give him a minor slap to put the fight out of him.

Instead Haru said, “Not what I wanted, but it works.  Now finish it with Rollout.”

Well, at least it’s a move I know.  Sorry, little buddy.  He wound up and sprung forward, somersaulting and grabbing his tail in his mouth mid-roll.  Grass and dirt sprayed behind him as he sped towards the Eevee.  He narrowly missed on the first pass, the brown-furred pokemon leaping out of the way.  Then Angel bounced off a tree and continued the attack.

Eevee tried to jump away, but stumbled in place.  Angel hit him with all his weight and sent him flying.  With a heavy smack, Eevee hit a rock and collapsed to the ground in a pitiful heap.

Even as Angel came out of his roll and flopped back onto his belly, Eevee tried to stand back up, groaning with monumental effort, only to flop down.  “[Ah… F-f-fair p-play,]” he groaned.

Finally, Haru got the message and shouted, “Poke’ball go!”

His human watched intently as Eevee disappeared inside and the ball rocked, but Angel knew it was over.

Sure enough, a gentle ping announced their victory and Haru raced forward.  “Woohoo!  Oh my gosh I caught a pokemon.  I caught an Eevee!  I actually caught an Eevee!  I can’t believe it.”

Angel cheered along with his trainer, bouncing on his tail so excitedly that he wound up falling onto his back.  Naturally, he just laughed it off, rolling back over and shaking the worst of the dirt off.  Though, as he was inching towards his trainer, a massive growl shook his stomach.  “[Wow, I’m starved.  What’s for second lunch, Haru?]” he chirped, starting to inch his way forward.

Eventually, Haru finished celebrating and put the ball on his belt.  “That’s more like it.  I think I’ll name you… Comet,” he muttered, “Now I’m ready for my journey.”  Then, to Angel’s shock, he started walking back towards the main trail.

Uh… hello?  Angel fluttered his wings and floated after him, trilling, “[Don’t leave without me!]”

Haru looked back and laughed, “Oh, yeah, I almost forgot.”

Angel slowly floated back to the ground.  What?

His human turned around and held out Angel’s pokeball, “Dunsparce, return.”

Angel dodged the beam.  He refused to return.  In that moment, all the noise and smells of the forest seemed to evaporate.  All he could see was his trainer.  All he could feel was boiling rage.

“I said, ‘return’.”

Again, Angel dodged.  “[What do you mean you forgot?]” he muttered.

“Stupid Dunsparce,” he grumbled, gripping the pokeball with both hands, “Why won’t you do anything I say?”

“[Are.  You.  Serious?]” he squawked, starting to flutter towards his trainer, “[You think I was intentionally ignoring you?]”  For a moment, he forgot that humans couldn’t understand.

Another return beam narrowly missed as Haru continued, “Dang it, what’s wrong with you?  When I said I didn’t want a Dunsparce this wasn’t why.”

Angel dropped to the ground with a heavy thud.  He… he doesn’t want me?  Another missed him.  Tears leaked from his eyes.  “[W-why?  What did I do wrong?]” he whimpered.

“Oh great, you’re crying now,” Haru groaned, rolling his eyes, “Come on, just get in the pokeball.  Please?”

Even with his heart eating its way out of his body, Angel dodged.  “[I tried my best, master,]” he continued, “[We won!  W-we won.  Right?  We can work on things together.  Right?]”

Finally, Haru managed to get a good aim with the pokeball and hit Angel, but as he was disappearing back into the ball, he heard one last comment, “Stupid Pokemon.  This is why I wanted a Charmander.”

The ball burst back open immediately and Angel hovered in his trainer’s face.  “[What did you say?!]” he screeched.  Surprise, anger, and pain poured through Angel’s tears.

Haru fell onto his butt with surprise, “Ah!  Why’d you do that?”

Despite all his rage, Angel realized what he’d done and slowly floated back down, taking long, deep breaths to cool himself off.  This wasn’t right.  He was supposed to look after his trainer, not scare and hurt him.  Okay, maybe… maybe Haru didn’t want a Dunsparce, that was okay.  Everyone had dreams and not everything goes exactly as planned.  But they could work through it.

Angel sucked up his pride and wriggled over, rubbing his head on his trainer and chittering, “[I’m sorry.  I… I didn’t mean it.]”

For a moment, it felt like they’d made up.  A warm hand rubbed his head and Haru said, “Oh yeah, I guess I shouldn’t have said that.  I’m sorry little buddy.”  Arms wrapped around Angel and he gladly fluttered his way into a more comfortable position, closing his eyes contently.  “That was mean of me.  You did well.”

I understand.  There are other Pokemon you’d rather have.  But I’ll show you what I can do.  We’ll become champions together.  We’ll learn to love each other.

Then Haru said, “It’s not your fault you’re useless.”

Angel snapped awake and looked up to see Haru holding his pokeball, ready to return him to it.  For a single heartbeat, a single twitch of muscle, a wildfire of anger, shock, and pain lanced through Angel.  In that spasm of reaction, he lashed out and snatched the pokeball from his master’s hand…

And shattered it in his jaws.