This chapter may or may not his in the feels, you have been warned.
•~~~~•~~~~•~~~~•
I laughed softly as Koraidon kept me in her hug, and then with practiced precision I slunk out of her arms and stood beside her as I scratched her chin.
"Good job girl, take a rest." I said and recalled her as Blaine approached me. He had since returned his Magmar to their pokeball.
"You have an excellent bond with your Pokemon, they trust in you, and you do the same, but perhaps you need to learn to focus your mind." Blaine said as he stroked his mustache. How the hell did he hide that thing?
"Thank you, I will definitely try to learn to focus properly, but I have to ask, how in the reverse world did you hide your mustache!? It's bigger then the disguise one you have!"
"Gahahahaha, you youngsters always fooled by that huh? It's simple, I tape it and use sticky material on the back of my fake mustache!" He laughed again and I sighed, and here I was hoping he did some minor psychic energy bullshit or something.
Lame~
"Thank you for the battle and lesson Blaine, it was very eye opening in where I need to improve myself." I said and Blaine nodded happily as we started to head out of the gym.
"It's nothing, after all I enjoy passing on lessons to the younger generation." Blaine said with a smile.
The rest of the walk back to the island was quiet, though I grew slightly bored with that, so I asked about what was the final turning point to moving the gym.
"They tried to interfere in the gym battles because they weren't pleasant enough for them." Blaine said and I would have spat out my drink, if I had one in hand and you know, drinking it.
"Seriously? Wow, humanity never fails to disappoint me." I muttered in response and Blaine only nodded in agreement.
"Yes, but I still find challengers who have the thrill for battle, the drive and desire. To become the very best, to find themselves, or even simply just to have a good battle." Blaine said with a very happy tone, and I let a smile form on my face at that, but didn't respond as we entered the Pokemon center and handed over our Pokemon to be healed.
"Can I ask you a question as someone who's experienced a lot of things?" I asked as we sat down and waited for our Pokemon to be healed up.
"Of course." Blaine said happy to pass on any experience he can.
"If you were struggling to figure yourself out, say you just had your whole life flipped around, you've gotten a great family." I softly scratched eevee's ears as she purred.
"You realize you're only just recently letting it all hit you, only after time did you really understand what it meant for everything to change, how would you go about it? To understand and get pass it." I asked with perhaps a dash of hope.
"Trust in your family. Confide in them. Tell them everything, they love you, so let them help you get past it. Once in my youth, I abandoned everything and left, never looked back, only when things got tough did I realize it was too late to turn back, I started breaking down, did things I wasn't proud of, but then my Pokemon, my family helped sort me out. Now I'm here and happy." Blaine offered his own experience, and I smiled.
"Perhaps that's what I need to do. Just trust in them as they did me." I said as Blaine let a big smile show on his face.
The remaining time was spent in silence.
•~~~~•
I had all my pokemon in their pokeballs as I silently set up camp by myself, thinking on what Blaine had said.
He was right. I needed to trust in my pokemon as they had me.
I have issues, I'm aware of that. I can be egotistical at times, overconfident, arrogant, rude and more. I can struggle to sometimes identify this world as real, sometimes I wake up thinking it a very long and realistic dream.
I need fucking therapy.
"No therapist can be trusted, but my family can. I can let myself trust and love a new family again." I declared to myself softly before I placed the last of the camp gear out and started cooking.
Soon once I was done cooking, I placed everyone's meals out and let them out as I sat on a log, idly nibbling on a piece of my food as I silently stared at the four of my Pokemon.
Koraidon, I don't know if she even has a backstory or if Arceus just created her out of nowhere. Perhaps traveled back in time, grabbed her from her family and sped up her aging in a moment to be fully grown. She's my favorite, I can't even deny it. She's my ace and the one I hold the most love for, I'm not stupid enough to not recognize it, ignore it yes, but I did recognize it.
Haunter is in the same boat as Koraidon. Was he just created as a full grown Gastly? A newborn Gastly taken and given to me and aged up?
Eevee, my tragic little girl struggling with her old trainer, being a complete asshole to her, hurting her and force feeding her tm's. She toughed it out, lived in the wild, and eventually joined me. Was she perhaps cohereced my by aura to join me? Did John or Arceus have something to do with this? Was she tortured just so I'd have a strong eevee? Not to mention how she seems to be better at being my emotional support then me her.
Lapras, the least tragic of my team. He just wants to battle. He's a simple mon, and I respect that. He's also very aware of things, especially when to sing a nice song. At least with him, I offered to battle and he choose to do so knowing he might have to leave his pod.
"I have a story to tell, so listen up you rascals." I tried to make a joke at the end, but it just came out dry and lacking. The four definitely noticed my mood by their looks of concern.
"23 years ago, in a hospital in a different universe, on a different planet, no pokemon, no legendaries, no Arceus, just humanity, and two of those people, Morgan and Arthur, happily married and loving individuals received great news. Morgan was pregnant with their first child." I smiled softly as I went to clutch a familiar pendant around my neck, but like always it wasn't there.
"Nine months later, inside of a hospital Morgan gave birth to a healthy baby boy. For 15 years they all lived happily together. Arthur had a great job and provided for his family, always making sure he spent time with his wife and son. Morgan was a stay at home mom who liked to take care of the house and laze about, she ensured her husband and son were always happy and cheerful." I sighed as I pulled my legs up to my chest.
I could see the worried looks, they no doubt started putting together the connections of why I was telling this story.
"Their son was a happy teen. His parents loved him, he had few friends, but he was happy. On his thirteen birthday, his dad had gotten him a device. A game." I took a deep breath.
"Pokemon Red. A game where the world of Pokemon existed inside of it. The Kanto region. Explore the region, conquer the eight gym, stop team rocket, beat the elite four and become the champion after defeating your rival. It hooked the teen on thr existence of Pokemon." I said with a soft smile as I glanced up at the sky. It was rather beautiful today wasn't it?
"So he looked up the existence of Pokemon. Grew addicted to it. He watched the show as a kid went and solved the problems of the world with his rag tag group of friends and a electric rat." A humorous smile formed on my lips at that. It sounded like a joke.
Three kids and a yellow rat walk into a bar. One's ten, one's twelve and one's fifteen. The ten year old had a yellow fat rat on his shoulder.
"So he delved deep into the existence of Pokemon. Made up theories using existing information. Books upon books worth of information written by him. He was oh so very happy." I let a dry chuckle escape my lips, I wanted to cry, but I don't think I had any tears left to cry.
"Then tragedy struck. The teen turned fifteen, it was his birthday, it was the weekend, so his parents gave him some money to go and have fun in the city with his friends. He went and bought a bunch of manga, picture books with some wording to tell a story, watched a movie about Pokemon. He ate his favorite junk food." I tried not to hyperventilate right now. I needed to finish first, then I could have a panic attack.
"He said goodbye to his friends who had joined him to have a fun day, he walked home happy to see his parents, but when he arrives, all he sees is red and blue flashing lights, the cops, the authorities the equivalent of Officer Jenny, surrounding his home. He didn't even realize he dropped everything in his hands as he rushed past the cops, ignoring their yelling to stop and come back." I really was close to having a panic attack right now remembering all this. Just a little more.
"The teen froze as he stared at the bodies of his parents, murdered in their own home. So the teen received his final present he would ever get from his parents, their lives." I smiled hollowly as the lights flashed in my head. The scream that tore from my throat.
"The cops had the teen eventually left with his aunt and uncle who didn't want him, so they shoved him into foster care. For three years the teen went through things. Terrible and abusive homes. Screaming. Bullying. He went through it all. Traumatized, reaching out for someone, he was drowning, going deeper and deeper, no one would reach out though." I sucked in a deep breath of air. Man, I can feel my heart beating a million miles per second.
"Then the teen turned eighteen. Kicked out of foster care. He lived on the streets for a couple months. Though calling it living would be a stretch. He was merely going one moment to the next. Then one day a man offered him a job, perhaps it was out of pity or some form of care, but the man offered the teen a job."
I'm pretty sure the four were about to try and smother me by their looks, but I wouldn't let them try, not till I at least finished the story, I NEEDED to finish it.
"So the team was given a small apartment, cleaned up. Fed. Ensured he was back to being physically healthy. For four months the teen worked like a machine, but then he got a call from a lawyer, he could finally inhert all his parents things, all the things they owned. Inside there was the present from his thirteenth birthday, Pokémon Red."
Almost done, keep it together, you got this!
"A hand had been reached out to him. Not by a person, no, by a game, a world known to him as fictional, but a hand nonetheless. Pulled him out the deep ocean he had fallen into. He started writing theories again, going into forms after years and talking about Pokemon. It made the teen feel something. Alive after so long."
You're almost there you fool, keep your heart beating and stay conscious and aware, breakdown when you're alone and done.
"Years passed and the teen became a young man. Twenty one years old, he worked for the same man still, wrote his pokemon theories, talked in online chat groups, stayed holed up inside, but he enjoyed that. Then one day before work he got into an interesting conversation with someone online. For a while they chatted."
"Then one day, a hand came through his computer, but the young adult was still mentally broken, so he just curiously let it grab him. There he met the person he had been talking with online. He called himself John. A being with power rivaling Arceus. He and many others like himself were always curious on just how Arceus made everything, so he asked his new friend for help."
"John asked the young adult to enter the world of pokemon. Cashing in a favor with Arceus, the young man was given two Pokemon. He traveled, fought some gyms, along the way he met a little brown fured pokemon, and she eventually came with him after a battle and much indecision. Then the young adult met a battle hungry ocean pokemon who joined the young adults team."
"The young adult suppressed his trauma, treating the world as fake, having nightmares as the days went on, believing it all to still just be a dream, to wake up to find out it all wasn't real and he had dreamt everything up. To be back and drowning in the cruel world that was humanity."
Just a little more.
"The man realized he was so incredibly in love with his pokemon, but he was so scared. His fear led him to becoming egotistical, losing focus in battles, believing himself powerful enough to handle anything, yet his mental condition only kept deteriorating. Getting worse and worse as the days passed by."
"Then the young man battled his most recent gym battle, nearly losing the battle because he was overconfident, stuck in his head, assured of his victories because of his knowledge beyond others. He let his Pokemon get hurt because he couldn't get over his issues and let it affect him."
"He managed to win, just barley, and the old man gym leader a wealth of experience willingly gave his experience to help the young man who oh so wanted to stop drowning. He was given some simple, but great advice, to trust in his new family, and so the young man followed that advice and told his story to his new family. The story of Raven Inanis, son of Morgan and Arthur Inanis."
"My story." I finished with a hollow chuckle before suddenly I was pounced on by Koraidon, then the others who were crying, and it was only now did I realize I had tears of my own as well.
I could still cry after all.
In that moment, I was no longer at the bottom of the ocean, I was high above the water, and around me was my new family.
Koraidon, Haunter, Eevee and Lapras.
I was oh so in love, just as they were to me. I could feel their burning emotions, the raw and pure love we shared for each other.
"We love you." "You'll forever have us." "Don't leave us!" "We're family!" I sucked in a deep breath, I didn't care I just understood all four of them, I was too busy crying happily as I clung to them.
I was happy again.
Mom and Dad were gone, and never going to return, but perhaps it was time I move on past that and embrace the family I have in front of me.
•~~~~•~~~~•~~~~•
Damnit man, this shit got me emotional writing it, like holy super crap.
Anyways ima stop here now before I break down crying because of it. So I hope you enjoyed the chapter, because I probably won't write something this emotional for a long while again, I hate getting like this.
Toodles~
-Voidy, The Insomniac
P.S. I'm not crying, it's just raining, only by my eyes where the tear ducts are! That's all!