After the Sandstorm finally stirred alive, the first battle was almost a foregone conclusion in Larry's mind. The Wooper didn’t seem to be able to work around it and not being able to aim its ranged attacks forced it to enter the Sandstorm.

Wooper fought against the Sandstorm with squinted eyes, it peeked through the dust as it tried to locate Larry. The jagged pieces of sand were cutting into the poor Wooper's figure, its side was already red and bruised by the sharp rock particles.

Larry could feel his opponent's fear inside the sandstorm, its sibling's rude comments were all missed over the sound of the ranging Sandstorm. With the Sandstorm stirred he released his control over it and let it flow, he slowly approached from behind and shot forward when in range with a charged Bite. His teeth bit down onto Woopers tail and its head whirled around in panic, it immediately tried its hardest to pull its tail away to the side, but to no avail. Larry didn’t release and kept himself latched onto its tail, the Wooper suddenly ripped its tail back in, before pulling at its TE and lowering its body.

A late release wasn’t possible and Larry, still latched onto Wooper's tail, was slammed into the ground. His mouth opened and the Wooper tail was released, it immediately turned around and charged up another Water Gun. Larry didn’t have an attack to counter, so he pulled at the Normal-TE in a desperate bid.

An earsplitting Screech was released and echoed in the tiny cavern, Woopers concentration broke and his attack was lost in a gurgle of Water which dripped out of its mouth uselessly. The Wooper took a few steps back in the hope of readjusting and Larry saw blood in the water, he rose while pulling at Dark-TE in its body and it obeyed. Pursuit enhanced him and allowed him to close the distance before Wooper could get its bearings.

His fist was wreathed in Dark-TE for a second time and Wooper took his fist straight into its face for a second time. Its legs lifted off of the ground and it landed a foot or so away on its back, completely knocked out.

Larry raised his arms and head in celebration, huffing for air deep inside his slowly receding Sandstorm. He could feel his jaw, it felt raw and irritated from the rough Slam he’d taken, he could feel his heartbeat from the wounds from Water Gun on his arm and face and he finally felt alive.

“Huff…Huff…I won…” Larry heaved.

For half a minute or so Larry caught his breath while the Sandstorm receded, he could’ve walked out or stopped it himself, but he didn’t feel energized enough to trust himself to stay standing.

When the Sandstorm finally stopped completely, the first thing he saw was the angry scowl of the Wooper's mother.

“So he lost…” She said in an irritated tone as she finally spotted Larry's form, still raising its arms and head in victory and huffing heavily.

“Ohh, bro got served!” One Wooper celebrated as it entered their arena.

“Yeah, bro’s a weakling! Haha!” The other one hollered from the distance.

Their mother scoffed, before speaking up as she carried off the unconscious sibling, “So, which one of you is next?”

Larry lowered his head and hands at the sudden silence, the two stopped their jeering and joking instantly, turning meek under Larry's gaze.

“I mean…Sis can go first if she wants…” One suggested in a low voice.

The sister looked at her sibling like he had just thrown her to the wolves, “Wah?! Shouldn’t you go first, bro?! You were so excited for the fight weren’t you?”

Larry already felt faint just keeping himself up on his legs with the adrenaline of the fight slowly leaving his body, “Sorry to say, but I don’t think I’m ready for another fight right now…”

Both siblings seemed to jump at the mention of postponing the rest of the fights, “Y-Yeah, rest up for now! We can fight anytime!”

“Yup! We’ll be waiting here when you’re rested!” The other sibling chimed in magnanimously.

He laughed to himself at their obvious reluctance to fight after seeing the results of the previous fight while making his way out of the ring, ‘It seems they’re a bit too used to ganking their prey, considering how I met them last time.’

…

His fight had gone well and Larry felt content with the results, he knew he had weaknesses, like his range. That issue could be remedied with a Rock Slide or Rock Throw, but in a friendly spar like this, they were simply too much to use.

After giving himself a quick once-over, cleaning out his wounds of any dirt and grime and checking for any larger injuries he went back over to the pond the Wooper family were now relaxing in. The Wooper who had fought him before had already woken up again, a bit bitter at the loss but still far from angry.

“That fight was amazing!” It gleefully recounted, “I can’t wait to see how my Sis and Bro will do!”

For today, the sparring was over and with his plan to descend the cavern, he might not be able to have any other chances for sparring in the future.

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“Sorry to say this, but my mom and I were moving inside the cave when I happened upon this cave. I won’t be staying here much longer, I would have loved to spar some more, but my mom will continue on the way when she’s awake again!” Larry apologetically said.

The Wooper deflated at the mention of Larry leaving, “Aww, that is stupid!” His mother seemed happy enough to finally have the home invader leaving and the Wooper's sibling also seemed relieved not to have to fight, but Larry had another idea that they might like.

“If you enjoyed fighting so much, why don’t you simply have spars against each other in the future? You could train against each other if you ever want to.” Larry suggested.

The Wooper's eyes shone at the mention of more fighting, “Yes!” Its head quickly turned to his mom, “Mom! Can we do that?!”

She only sighed with a slight smile, “We will, but only if both want to fight.”

It pumped an imaginary fist in celebration, “Yes!”

Larry smiled at the situation, it seemed his impromptu battle had lit a fire under a young Pokemon and he had made a fan. At least one of the Wooper had been motivated by an actual battle to improve themselves for the next one. The Wooper won’t be ambushing anybody else it seems.

After a series of heartfelt goodbyes, Larry finally left the tiny cavern the Wooper and Quagsire called their home, he mosied out of there and saw his mother's form in the distance sleeping soundly in an outcropping. He planted himself in her arms, wincing for a second when the cut on his arm scraped against his mother's tough stony hide.

Sleep came to him quickly and Pokemon biology made its best effort to hide Larry's impromptu battle injuries from his mother.

…

“What happened?” His mother's words woke him up and he looked around in a slight panic, he still had a sore jaw and his cuts had only healed slightly.

Larry played coy, “What do you mean?”

“The cuts.”

“Uhh?” Larry looked down at himself as he stood up and stretched, “Yeah, what about ‘em?”

“What. Happened.” She repeated, this time a bit more sternly and Larry immediately folded.

“Uhh, you know down in that cave where I said there was just a bunch of water?” He asked.

“Yes.”

“Well, turns out there was a Quagsire down there who lived there with her three Wooper children. She would’ve killed me if you wouldn’t have showed up.” Larry mentioned casually.

“What?!” His mother rose suddenly at the mention of violence and looked at the hole in the distance in anger.

“W-Wait! Wait! Let me explain!” Larry yelled back quickly, jumping at her and clinging on in the hopes of pulling her back down onto the ground.

“I, uhh, calmed her down. I recommended I spar against the kids and she allowed it.” Larry explained.

“Oh,” His mom answered back dumbly before looking down at him, “You won?”

“Yep, it was closer than expected though.” Larry proudly proclaimed, plopping back down onto the ground with his mom lowered herself again.

“Good…Good…” She said, calming down and lowering herself back into her sleeping sleeping position.

“Yeah, the one Wooper I fought seems to really look up to me now.” Larry said with a slight smile on his face, remembering the last time he was here, “Kind of surprising considering that they almost killed me last time I came here…”

“WHAT?!”

…

It took a considerable amount of time for Larry to get his mom to finally calm down. Her arguments were rock solid and Larry did unfortunately find himself agreeing with her. He eventually acquiesced and agreed to act with more care, watching out for danger and returning to his mother instead of trying his best to befriend the Pokemon trying to kill him.

But could Larry be blamed? His human side remembered the anime and other pieces of media, all of which posit Pokemon as ‘man's best friend’ and show off how with a bit of friendship you’ll be a better trainer. Being able to completely understand every single Pokemon is a dream come true for Larry, but Pokemon didn’t seem to take advantage of the blessing in the same way humans did.

Where humans had built a society with each other by surrounding themselves with one another, building a support structure by relying on each other. Pokemon seem to live by the opposite, individuality and strength are the final goal for Pokemon. Even Pokemon who do team up seem to only do so with the hopes of attaining more strength.

The idea that Pokemon were just humans in a cuter and much more marketable skin which the Pokemon media in his old world had built seemed true, but only on the surface. Their brains seemed to work differently, it was like talking to a psychopath. Because at the end of the day, for a Pokemon it was always about fighting.

Larry saw so for himself, the Quagsire mother had the same love for her children as a human mother. But in the same way, a mother in human society hopes for their kid to grow up and improve themselves to help the society that has been built. Pokemon mothers seem to focus all of their efforts on the survival of their young in the same way a wild animal does. She seemed incredibly happy when she saw her kid in a fight, the same pride of a human mother watching her kid pick up their diploma.

In his mind, Larry knew Pokemon would take over the world if they ever decided to found a society, their instinctual and individual drive for strength and conquest is what is holding them back in that regard. They need to work together if they ever want to stop being put into Pokeballs.

…

On the way down Larry had tried his damndest to keep his mother talking, when the cavern had begun to open up, he mentioned it to his mother. When the caverns on the side of the walkway widened, far enough to let his mother walk down them again, he mentioned so, but his mother didn’t seem to be able to care, only deigning him with a low, rumbling “Mhmm…”

The arguments and talks with his mother had slowly subsided and they had continued their way down Mt. Silver in that awkward silence Larry had become so used to and before long that feeling had started worsening.

“U-Um, Mom? Do you feel weird as well?” Larry asked candidly. His head whirled around in the hopes of finding the source of the feeling but nothing was wrong, his wounds still pulsed with a slight tinge of pain and bruises still marred his rock skin, but Pokemon regeneration had done away with most of his injuries.

“What do you mean?” His mom asked as she stopped and turned around to look at him.

“I don’t know…” Larry said, “It- Just something feels off and I can’t place my finger on it…” He gave his surroundings another check, but it was still the same boring walls and an empty cavern on the sides all around.

His mother turned around and continued with a heavy step, “Then let’s get out of here.” She turned back around to check if her kid was following, only to find nothing in the cavern behind her.