The Journey Home (Comments and Feedback welcome)

To Grader:
Pokemon Aimed For: Eevee and Riolu
Necessary Length: 50000
Actual Length: 54322
Note: Although the Eevee and Riolu evolve in this story, I don't want their evolutions. I want their pre evolved forms. I don't even want to think about writing a story long enough for a Lucario and an Eeveelution. Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story!


Home is where the heart is.
-American Proverb



My life was perfect before I found out about humans. I had other Riolu to hang out with, a loving family, and a nice home. It didn't last long though. I was only six months old when I was taken. I'm two now. The day I was taken was just like any other day. Perfect.

I woke up early that morning to meditate. The other Riolu and Lucario teased me about it, but it didn't bother me too much.

“What do you think you are, a Psychic-type?” my brother had asked.

I had ignored him at the time, instead choosing to focus on the rising sun.

“Whatever,” he said and walked away.

I wish I had known. I wish I could have said goodbye. After meditating, I headed off into the woods to look for berries. That's when it hit me. Literally. I bent over to pick an Oran Berry and something hit me on my fuzzy, blue butt.

“What the-” my expletive was cut off by a swooshing sound. I was now in the dark.

“Where the hell am I?” I yelled and tried to break out of the cramped dark space.

SWOOSH! Suddenly, it was bright again.

“Dammit!” someone shouted.

I tried to turn around to see who it was, but I got sucked up again. I was getting dizzy from being sucked in and out, so I decided to sit still for a moment. Bad mistake. The tiny room shook back and forth for a moment, before I heard a clicking noise. Then, I passed out.

I woke up in a comfy, red room. There were lots of other Pokemon, including tons of species I had never seen before. I turned around and saw a human's face right next to me.

“Agh!” I yelled in surprise.

“Aw....you're so cute,” it responded.

I tried growling at it. It pointed some kind of little machine at me, and then stared at it.

“It says here, that you're sassy and strongly defiant,” the human flipped the machine closed.

“I am not!” I shouted back, but by now, I kind of realized the stupid thing couldn't understand me.

The human shook it's head, “You seem like you have a lot of promise, but I don't have time to train a Pokemon that's strongly defiant.”

“I'm not strongly defiant!” I shouted, then realized that there was a contradiction in what I had said.

“I guess I'll have to store you in my PC for now,” it sighed, “Maybe I'll have time for you after I'm done with the next gym.”

“You're going to store me where?” I asked, but by the time I had opened my mouth, it was dark again.

The next time I woke up, I was in a large room with some other Pokemon. This time, I couldn't see any humans. I walked around the room. There were a few pieces of furniture. A couple beds, a couch, a TV, and a bookshelf with about tons of books in it. There was a door, but it was locked from the outside.

“That door's locked, dude,” someone said to me.

“Yeah, I figured,” I turned around to see who had spoken.

A small Pokemon was stretching on the floor in front of me. It looked like me a little bit. We had the same bushy tails and pointy ears, but that's where the similarities ended. It was mostly brown with a ruff of cream color fur around it's neck and a white tip at the end of it's tail. Unlike me, it walked on all fours.

“So why did Red put you here?” it asked me.

“Red?”

“You know, the human,” it raised an eyebrow at me.

“Oh yeah, that guy. I think he said I was 'sassy' and 'strongly defiant',” I used my fingers to put quotation marks in the air.

“Oh. He said I was 'impish' and 'somewhat of a clown'. He was kind of right.”

“So,” I paused to think of something to say to this, “What kind of Pokemon are you?”

It scoffed, “An Eevee, of course. Mind telling me what you are?”

“A Riolu! Everyone knows that.”

The Eevee stuck it's nose in the air, and walked away looking offended.

“Wait!” I called after it, “I didn't mean to hurt your feelings!”

Immediately, it turned around and trotted back, it's eyes twinkling, “I was just kidding!”

“Oh. Well that's okay then.”

This Pokemon was so strange, I thought.

“Are all Eevee this confusing?” I ventured to ask.

“Nope. Just me,” it smirked, “Why don't you tell me your name?”

“My name's Katsu,” I told the Eevee, “Yours?”

“My name's Cleo. Your name's kind of strange.”

“Is it?”

“Well, yeah. You have a human name,” Cleo looked at me like I was stupid.

“I do?”

“It's Japanese. It means victory.”

“You speak human?” I asked stunned.

Cleo nodded, “A little. Just English and Japanese,” she looked at my stunned expression, “Humans have more than one language.”

“That's odd. Why's everybody else sleeping?” I said finally noticing the other Pokemon.

“There's not much to do around here,” Cleo shrugged, “Actually, I could probably wake them up now that you're here.”

Cleo hopped up on one of the beds and began poking the Pokemon under the sheets with her paw, “Wake up, dude!”

“Huh?” the Pokemon jerked awake. It looked over at me, “Who's that?”

“That,” Cleo told the monster who was sizing me up, “Is Katsu.”

The unknown Pokemon rolled off the bed. It was huge! Or at least, way bigger than me. It was a cream color and was distinctly feline-looking. On it's head was a red dot.

“Hello, Katsu,” it purred, “I'm Leo, a Persian. What are you?”

“A Riolu,” I told him. Never had I wanted to be a Lucario so badly.

Leo winked at me, “I see you've met my girlfriend, Cleo.”

SMACK!

“I told you I'm not your girlfriend!” Cleo shrieked, her voice breaking the sound barrier.

I covered my ears and stared, “You're a girl?”

The angry look disappeared off her face and she laughed, “Yes, I'm a girl.”

“What in the hell is all this noise?” a voice demanded from the other bed.

“We've got a new roommate, Sam,” Leo said.

“Is it a chick? We need more chicks.”

“He's almost a chick,” Leo called in response.

“Let me see,” Sam crawled out of bed, revealing himself to be a Sneasel.

I felt myself crouch down instinctively, and a growl rose in my throat. Sneasel are natural enemies to Riolu and Lucario.

“Let me guess,” Sam said, “Sassy and strongly defiant?”

“Yuppers!” Cleo said enthusiastically.

“Hey!” I shouted defensively.

Cleo laughed, “Don't feel bad, Sam was bold and quick tempered.”

“And I was gentle and liked to flee,” Leo volunteered.

“We're all rejects,” Cleo said brightly, “Welcome to the club!”

Before the conversation could progress further, the door opened. We all turned around.

“Hi, Professor Oak!” Cleo yelped and leaped into the human's arms. She began to purr as he pet her.

This human was much older than the one who had caught me. He also felt safer to be around. An aura of kindness radiated off of him, and I was tempted to jump into his arms myself. He was wearing a stained lab coat, and some other human clothes. He greeted all the other Pokemon, though he couldn't understand them, before turning to me.

“It seems Red has caught a new Pokemon,” he looked at me carefully, “Riolu are pretty rare, too.”

He picked me up and began to look me over. I held as still as I could, though I didn't like being poked and prodded. Finally, he set me down.

“You're awfully young,” he sighed, “I wish Red would take better care of the Pokemon not on his team. He just leaves you all here,” he shook his head.

“He feels sad,” I commented to Cleo.

“What do you mean?” she asked me in Pokemon language.

“You can't feel it?” Then realization hit me, “Oh. You can't feel it.”

Cleo stared at me curiously.

“Riolu and Lucario can sense emotions,” I explained.

She opened her mouth to ask a question, but before she could, Leo said, “Come on, let's go outside!”

Professor Oak smiled and opened the door wider. We all followed him out. Outside of our room, was a huge garden. Around the building our room was in, were tons of other small buildings. In the distance, was a much larger building. The garden was beautiful, filled with flowers, ponds, and artificial waterfalls. Hundreds of Pokemon of all shapes and sizes played on the grass. Even though it seemed like paradise, I couldn't help feeling homesick.

“Hey,” Cleo poked me with her paw, “I know somebody you're gonna love. Come on!”

She ran off. I shrugged to Leo and Sam, and followed her. I could barely keep sight of her in the huge crowd of Pokemon, and when she stopped suddenly, I collided into her.

“Hey, try not to look so clumsy!” she told me, “You're embarrassing yourself in front of Kiley.”

“Who's Kiley?” I asked.

I got up off the ground and came face to face with a petite pink cat Pokemon.

I blushed, “Hello.” Silently, I berated myself for looking stupid.

“Hey,” Kiley said. I stared at her a little too long, “Where did you find this one?” she muttered to Cleo. Cleo giggled.

I blushed furiously, “Hi,” I said again.

“He's much smarter in front of girls that aren't as pretty,” Cleo commented.

“I think you're pretty!” I blurted and began blushing again.

Kiley's tail began twitching back and forth, and she rolled her eyes. This time, Cleo didn't bother hiding her laugh. She laughed harder every time she looked up at me.

“Go away for a minute,” she gasped, “I'm about to crack a rib!”

Sheepishly, I walked away, with my tail literally between my legs. This time, I bumped into somebody that looked like they could kick my ass.

“Who's there?” said someone high above my head.

I looked up and saw a Charizard. The big, orange dragon Pokemon looked around, then finally saw me.

“Um, hello!” I tried to sound cheerful, but the words came out in a squeak.

The Charizard bent down and picked me up, “Looks like we've got a new friend,” he said sarcastically to a Venusaur and Blastoise on either sides of him.

“Yeah, let's show him how we welcome new Pokemon,” the Blastoise said.

I felt hatred coming from them. How could they hate me already? I couldn't see where we were going, because the Charizard was now holding me upside down. I didn't know where we were going until I smelled it. The bathrooms. There was no way this would in well.

I had a brief glimpse of tile and porcelain before my head became soaking wet. I pulled my head out of the toilet, “What the hell did I do?”

The Charizard's eyes narrowed, “You were born.”

Then I heard flushing. I winced and closed my eyes, ready for the worst. Nothing happened, I opened one eye. The Charizard and his gang weren't looking at me, they were turned around, looking the other way. I sensed...fear?

BOOM! Suddenly, the Charizard was blown back above my head. The bathroom became bright, and I looked up to see a hole in the wall. CRASH! I heard a roar of pain, and the Venusaur was gone. There was another hole in the wall. SNAP, SNAP, SNAP, SNAP, SNAP! A third hole appeared, and Blastoise was gone. Standing in place of my tormentors, were three new huge Pokemon, that I couldn't identify. One was a blue frog/fish thing, the second was a big green lizard with a fern blade for a tail. In the middle, was a red Pokemon with yellow legs and clawed hands. Around each hand, was a roaring flame.

“So you've met Chad?” he asked.

I nodded. Were these guys going to beat me up now? I didn't sense danger. I relaxed.

The blue frog/fish laughed, “We sure showed him. I think I saw him crying a little.”

The green lizard didn't comment, he just leaned forward and asked, “Are you okay, kid?”

“I'm fine, I think. Thanks,” I tried to sound cool.

The fire Pokemon nodded, “Good. I'm Blaze,” he went to shake my hand, but I flinched back. “Oops,” he said and extinguished his flames. This time, I shook his hand.

“I'm Katsu. I'm a Riolu.”

“Never seen one of you little guys,” he bent down and looked at me curiously, “I'm a Blaziken, by the way.”

“I'm Max,” the blue frog/fish told me, “A Swampert.” I shook his hand...er...flipper.

“And I'm Blade,” the lizard said, “A Sceptile.” We shook hands too.

Blaze stood back up, “If Chad messes with you again, just call.”

They walked through the hole in the wall closest to the ground.

“So you met Chad and Blaze's gangs?”

I looked up to see Cleo on the back of the toilet.

“What are you doing in here? This is the guy's room!”

“And that,” she said pointing at the hole in the wall, “Is the lady's room.”

I peered through the hole and someone threw a roll of toilet paper at my head.

“Pervert!” someone yelled at me. I shrank back down.

I heard a bell in the distance. “Lunch time!” Cleo yelled and raced off. I turned to follow her.


The cafeteria was a large building filled with tables. One side of the room was a huge fish tank with tubes that led to other fish tanks and ponds across the grounds. Another wall was taken up by a kitchen where we went to get food. Cleo somehow managed to find Leo, Sam, and some other people she knew. After we got our food, we all sat together at a table.

Cleo and I were eating berries, while Leo and Sam were eating something dead. I didn't look closely. Also at the table, was Kiley, who was eating flowers, and a Pikachu, who was eating some sort of roots.

“This is Thunder,” Cleo told me, “He used to be our roommate, but he got moved with Chad's gang.”

“That sucks,” I sympathized.

Thunder shrugged, “They're alright as long as you're not new. You're lucky. You got saved by Blaze. Actually, maybe you aren't so lucky. They're really going to hate you now.”

“Why do they hate me so much?” I asked.

Thunder laughed bitterly, “They hate anyone who threatens them.”

“When did I threaten them?” I demanded.

Kiley patted me on the shoulder with her tail, “It's not your fault, sweetie,” I blushed, “But when you evolve, you'll be a Lucario. Even though you'll technically be weak against Blaze, he's afraid Red might take a liking to you.”

“I don't want Red to take a liking to me,” I growled.

“He only wants the most powerful Pokemon,” Sam said darkly, “Right now, you're useless. You're just a baby Pokemon now, but when you evolve, you'll be one of the most powerful Pokemon that exist. Lucario have always been champions.”

“Raichu can be pretty powerful too,” Cleo added, “But they leave Thunder alone since they know he could knock Chad straight out of the air.”

“I'd cook that Charizard like a fried chicken,” Thunder boasted.

Everyone laughed appreciatively. The bell rang again, and our laughter changed to groans.

“Time to go back to our rooms,” Cleo said dejectedly.

We all got up to leave. As we walked back to our rooms, Cleo sneakily managed to separate us from the rest of the group.

“I'm so glad you're here,” she sighed, “It's nice to be able to laugh again.

“I'm going to take that as a compliment,” I deadpanned.

Cleo laughed, but I felt an underlying sadness coming from her.

“What's wrong?” I asked

“I can't stand it here,” she admitted, “The professor's great, and I've got lots of friends, but it's nothing compared to being free. You're pretty young, so you might not understand.”

“I'm not that young!” I said, but she stared at me until I confessed, “Okay, I'm six months old.”

“I'm five. Leo and Sam are ten. Blaze and his gang are all around one hundred and fifty.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah. So like I said, you're pretty young compared to us. Anyway, I just feel so caged in here,” I saw her eyes fill with tears, “Sometimes I just want to die.”

Please don't cry, I begged silently. She rested her head on my shoulder, then suddenly jerked it back up. Her eyes were now fierce.

“No. No way. I'm not going to give up anymore!”

I didn't know what she was talking about, so I stayed silent. It began to rain. I hadn't noticed the clouds that had drifted across the sky while we were eating.

I couldn't tell if Cleo was crying or if it was just rain on her face, “I'll find us a way out of here,” she promised.

Then, we were back to our room, and she was back to normal.

“Where did you go?” Leo asked, “Were you guys making out again?”

“I just wanted to give you and Sam some alone time,” she said making kissing noises.

Sam was sitting in the corner watching TV, “Could you guys be a little quieter? I'm trying to watch Quiz Wobbuffet.”

“I love that show!” Leo said and trotted over to the couch.

Cleo rolled her eyes, “They're so obsessed with TV. When Valley Squirtles used to come on they, like, totally talked like this. Ohmigod.”

I laughed. She walked over to the bookshelf, “Ever read The Outsiders she asked me?”

I shook my head.

“Get reading!” she tossed a book at me.

I held it gingerly, like it was an injured animal. “I can't read,” I admitted.

Her eyes got huge.

“You shouldn't have said that,” Leo told me.

Sam covered his ears in preparation.

“YOU. CAN'T. READ?!” she screeched loudly.

“No....”

“Well, now you'll learn,” she said cheerfully, her voice returned to normal.

She pulled out some pieces of paper and pencils from one of the shelves. She laid everything out on the floor.

“This one is 'A',” she told me and showed me a little triangle thing, “It makes the first sound in apple, and arm, and and.”

She went on until we got to Z. I understood that each letter made a sound, but putting them was a little complicated for me.

“Don't worry,” she told me, “We'll work on it tomorrow. Follow me.”

She showed me a smaller door I hadn't noticed before.

“We have a backyard,” she explained.

Outside, there was a small concrete slab that had a picnic table on it. The whole area was surrounded by chain link fence. I looked up at the night sky, and saw it through more chain link.

“I told you how depressing this place was. Come up here,” she said and jumped on top of the table. She flopped down and rolled over on her back.

I followed her onto the table, laid on my back, and put my hands behind my head.

“Aren't the stars beautiful?” Cleo asked me.

They were, even though I could only see them from behind bars. I sighed a little, and rolled over. I was shocked to see Cleo staring straight into my eyes.

“You're eyes have stars in them,” she told me and giggled.

I felt a warm, bubbly feeling coming off of her. “You feel warm,” I told her.

She looked surprised, “Are you coming on to me?”

“What? No! I mean, your emotions are warm,” I blushed.

She laughed, “When you blush, your face turns purple,” she started giggling excitedly.

She jumped off the table and went inside. I stayed outside for a moment, and glared at the stars. The clouds from earlier must have been blown away by the wind.

When did my life get so complicated? When the humans caught me, I answered myself.

I sighed and went inside. Sam and Leo were watching TV, but Cleo was laying on the floor, reading a book. I didn't want to talk anymore. I crawled into bed and fell asleep. I woke up in the middle of the night, and saw Cleo staring at me from the bed next to mine. I opened my mouth to say something, but she held a paw up to her mouth, signaling me to be quiet. She closed her eyes. I flipped over, and tried to sleep, but I felt her eyes on my back. Finally, I fell back asleep.


“GOOD MORNING!” someone screeched in my ear.

“Mom?” I asked.

“Guess again.”

I opened my eyes and saw Cleo.

“How are you doing, hot stuff?” she asked.

“Okay. I guess.”

“Do you know what day it is?”

I shook my head.

“It's Monday. Do you know what that means?

I shook my head again.

“TIME FOR SCHOOL!” she grinned maniacally, “But breakfast might be good first.”

I got up and headed for the door, but Cleo stopped me.

“We're not going to the cafeteria today,” she told me, “When I found out you couldn't read last night, I filled out the form for in room breakfast.”

“When did you do that?” She'd talked to me all night until we went to sleep.

“While you were sleeping.”

“I'm afraid.”

“You should be.”

She started to teach me more about reading and writing. I advanced pretty quickly, and by the time breakfast got there, I could read small words.

“You know,” Cleo said with a mouth full of blueberry pancakes, “I didn't think about it last night, but,” she swallowed, “you're amazing.”

“I know I am.”

“You really are sassy,” she retaliated, “But what I meant was, there's no way you should be able to learn this fast. The only Pokemon that can learn this fast are Psychic-types, and you're a Fighting-type. It doesn't make any sense.”

“Well I am strongly defiant.”

“So?”

“Maybe I'm strongly defiant against stereotypes.”

She laughed, “Whatever. Let's see how well you read,” she went to the book shelf, “I know it's around here somewhere...here it is!” she pulled out a book and handed it to me.

“The Meowth from the South,” I read the title, “By Dr. Seuss.” On the cover was a picture of a Meowth in a sunny desert.

“Well, we know you can read that well at least,” Cleo said, “Try to read the whole thing.”

“It was hot outside. It was too wet to play. The children could not go outside, on that very warm day,” I began.

Half an hour later, I had finished the book. I had only needed help on a couple of words. Cleo helped me with those. Now we were taking a break, and Cleo was telling me about all the books she had read.

“There's The Hobbit, Of Ratatta and Men, The Jungle Book,” she mused, “You could probably read The Jungle Book in a few weeks at the rate you're going.”

“Are there any books written by Pokemon?” I asked her.

“Yeah, but not as many. I only have one.”

She dug deeper in the bookshelf, “Here it is!” she handed the book to me.

The title was “Partners or Slaves: What Are We Really?” by Psych the Kadabra.

“There are more by Pokemon, right?”

She nodded, “But like I said, not as many. Most are autobiographical.”

I stared.

“It means they wrote about their lives.”

“Why didn't you just say that?”

“You'll understand when you read more.”

The bell for our break rang.

Cleo stretched, “We haven't been out today. People will start talking if we don't show up.”

“About what?” I asked, then thought about it, “Oh.”

Cleo laughed, “Exactly, come on!”

She raced out the door. I followed, and again, I had a hard time keeping up.

“You need to get into shape,” she called back to me.

She stopped suddenly, but this time I didn't collide with her.

“So you've learned how to stop.”

“Hi, Kiley.” I was less shy today. A little bit.

“And today you're not blushing, either!” I blushed at her words, “Well, you weren't....”

“Hey, meet Goldy,” Cleo said.

“Who?”

“Right here!” a voice called.

The voice came from the pond we were standing next to. I looked over.
“Oh!”

In the water was a beautiful white fish with orange spots across it's body. It had a sharp horn on it's head.

“I'm Goldy, a Goldeen. And you are?”

“I'm Katsu, a Riolu,” I told her.

“Pleased to make your acquaintance. This is my husband, Neon.”

I looked to her left and saw another fish, this one with a double tail. It was various shades of blue and pink.

“I'm a Finneon,” he said, “I'm not from this region, which might be why you don't recognize me.”

“You guys are husband and wife? How old are you?”

Cleo slapped me across the face with her paw, “Don't be rude!”

“Oh, it's all right, darling,” Goldy said, “I'm thirty eight, and Neon is forty two. We've been here since we were teenagers.”

“You've been here that long?”

She nodded sadly, “Red hasn't bothered to train us.”

“There's no getting out,” Cleo told me.

Just then, I heard wings over my head. I had a bad feeling. I looked up, and saw a Charizard.

“If it isn't the little baby Riolu! Aren't you gonna hide behind Blaze!” he called.

“I don't need him to protect me!”

“We'll see about that!” he dropped towards me and tried to strike me with his claws.

I dodged out of the way, and responded with a Quick Attack.

It knocked Chad back, but didn't seem to really affect him.

He laughed at me, “Is that the best you got!”

He plummeted down again and managed to strike me this time. The force of the blow knocked me into the lake, and sent up a huge wave of water. I was hurt badly, but I had an idea. I used Counter while the water was still in the air. Suddenly, the water changed direction and struck Chad. He roared in pain. He wasn't looking so good anymore.

“You think you're such hot stuff,” he sneered at me, “Try to counter this!”

I had climbed out of the lake, and Chad was now hovering above me. He opened his maw, and I prepared to be roasted alive. I felt the air get scorching hot, and I heard the sound of Chad's roar, but nothing happened to me. I opened my eyes, and saw Blaze creating a force field with Protect.

Chad stopped using Flamethrower and saw Blaze. He roared angrily. Blaze took down the fore field.
“Quick, Max,” he shouted, “Get him with Hydro Pump!”

I saw Max hop out from a crowd of Pokemon, and let loose a raging torrent of water. The water knocked Chad to the ground, from which he did not get up.

I looked at him nervously, “Is he...dead?”

Max laughed, “I wish. He just fainted, kid.”

Then Professor Oak ran up, “What happened?” he yelled.

“Chad attacked Katsu, Professor! Max saved him!” Cleo said in human, and jumped in his arms. She shivered in fear.

“Who's Katsu?” he asked her.

She pointed towards me.

“Oh, the Riolu. I didn't know his name. In any case, Chad needs to be punished,” he said sternly.

He pulled a red and white ball out of his pocket and used it to suck Chad up. Cleo jumped out of his arms and landed next to me. The Professor walked back towards the main building. I noticed everyone was staring at me. The bell for lunch rang, and everyone started to head for the cafeteria, but I could still feel people watching at me. I blushed.

“Why is everyone staring at me?” I whispered to Cleo.

“Because you beat the crap out of Chad! You're a hero, now. People are going to love you as much as they love Blaze, Max, and Blade!”

“I didn't even really do anything! Max is the one that knocked him out!”

“But you stood up to him!”

“I'm still not sure why that matters.”

She shook her head, “You haven't lived here long enough to understand. But people will look up to you now.”

“Sure they will,” I said.

I didn't know it at the time, but she was right. We sat together again at lunch, which was unfortunate, because people started coming up to me and thanking me. At first it was a nervous, “Thanks,” whispered as someone walked by, but soon, I had a tiny Smoochum standing next to me, telling me, “Thanks, mister! Chad used to beat me and my friend up, just because we're Ice-types. I love you!” she said and hugged me tightly.

Every time someone thanked me, Cleo just nodded and smirked at me. When we went back inside, she said, “I told you so.”

I was blushing too much to say anything. She went back to tutoring me until dinner. We hadn't eaten yesterday, even though everyone ate dinner inside. We were too busy reading. That night, I started learning how to read and form more complex sentences.

Finally, Cleo said, “I think if I show you why you need to be able to read, you'll learn better.”

She pulled a good-sized book off the shelf. The cover said, “Harry Potter” by J.K. Rowling.

“It's not exactly a masterpiece, but everybody seems to like it. I have to admit, it is a fun book,” she cleared her throat and started to read, “'Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.'”

She continued to read until Sam said, “I'm going to bed, so could you try to shut up now.”

“Come on,” Cleo whispered, “Let's go outside.”

We laid underneath the stars talking about the book until we grew too tired to stay out any longer.

“I still don't understand why he named the Noctowl, Hedwig,” I said as we went inside, “And why was it white? Was it shiny?”

Cleo shrugged, “In books, anything you want can happen.”

I thought about that as I fell asleep.

The next day was much the same as the last. Every day seemed like a continuation of the last day, and it went on that way for weeks. Finally, one day, during my reading lesson after lunch, Cleo stopped me.

“I think you're ready to read this,” she said and handed me a book.

“The Odyssey” said the title, by Homer.

“Like on The Simpsons!” I said.

Cleo rolled her eyes, “Homer Simpson was named after Homer as a joke,” she explained, “Because Homer the Greek was smart, and Homer Simpson was dumb.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, this is a kid's version, so it's not the full length version. That would be hard for even me to read.”

I flipped through the pages, “What's it about?”

“The journey home,” she told me and pulled out another book that she began to read. This one was The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath.

I had a feeling she didn't want to talk anymore, so I began to read. Every now and then, I would ask her for help, and then she would respond.

“What are these words?”

“Scylla and Charybdis.”

“What do they mean?”

“They're the names of monsters. The Greek humans probably saw legendary Pokemon and thought they were gods or something.”

Every day, I read more of Odysseus's journey, and began to understand my tangled feelings. Love, loss, homesickness, and so many others. I was going on a mental journey, and though I didn't yet know it, I was going to go on a physical one soon.

One day, I woke up to excited whispers, “Red is here! Red is here!” All through breakfast, I didn't here one person talk about anything else.

“I wonder who Red's here to pick up?” Sam wondered absentmindedly.

“Chad, hopefully,” Kiley sniffed, “He's been trying to flirt with me, it's pathetic really.”

“Yeah, Chad's been kind of a nightmare, huh?” I asked.

“Not that you would know, Katsu,” Kiley responded, but she was smiling.

Chad hadn't been messing with me lately. Not since he decided that I was Blaze's pet. However, he had been horrible to everyone else. Blaze, Max, and Blade had their work cut out keeping him and his cronies off of people's tails.

Suddenly, I felt a tap on my shoulder, “Could you please come with me?”

I turned to see Professor Oak, “Could you come too, Cleo?” he asked.

“Sure thing, Doc,” she hopped down and followed him. I was right behind her.

He lead us to the main building he worked in. I had never been inside before, and was astonished to see how big it was up close. Every room had an interesting looking experiment going on inside. I tried not to talk to much, but every now and then, I couldn't help asking, “What's this?” Professor Oak always responded with good humor. Finally,we were at his office.

The office was incredibly messy, every inch of space, including the floor and the chairs, was covered in scientific papers. I tried reading some of them, and was delighted to find that I could understand them. Professor Oak pushed the papers off a couple chairs and told us to sit in them.

“Why do you want to see us, Professor?” Cleo asked.

He leaned forward, “I didn't want to startle anyone in the cafeteria, but Red has specifically asked that you and Katsu be added to his team.”

“What?” Cleo jerked back in surprise.

“Red wants you to go with him on his journey. He's recently beaten the Johto league, and is heading to Hoenn. He thinks you would both be good Pokemon to have with him on his journey.”

I thought for a minute, “Professor, where did Red catch me?”

The Professor thought for a moment, “I believe he caught you in the Johto Safari Zone. You and your family had been transplanted there from Sinnoh.”

“We were what?”

He tried to look casual, but I could see he was embarrassed, “Transplanting to Safari Zones happens all the time.”

“And it's allowed? That's nothing but poaching.”

The Professor looked away. We sat in silence for a moment. Then, there was a knock at the door. The Professor opened it to a boy who looked about seventeen. He was wearing blue jeans and a red shirt and cap. He was covered in dirt, and he looked tired.

“Are the Pokemon here?” he asked.

Professor Oak nodded, “They're right here,” he gestured to us.

Red pointed one of the rad and white balls at me, but Professor Oak stood in his was, “Red, I wanted to talk to you. You've been so distant, since you started your journey, and-”

Red pushed the Professor out of the way, “Look, can you talk to me when I get back from Hoenn. I've got to catch a boat.”

Cleo hissed, “How dare you talk to the Professor like that!”

Red stared until his mouth formed a smile. It wasn't a happy smile. I felt a strange emotion coming off of him. Then I recognized it. Greed.

“A talking Eevee! I guess I'm lucky. Maybe I'll stop in Sinnoh. I know the perfect place to evolve you.”

Cleo had never taught me how to speak human, but I could read and write in English so it was worth a shot.

“Don't...look...at her...like that,” I struggled to find the words and make my mouth and tongue form them, “You look...like a...Sharpedo...watching...it's prey.”

Red smirked, “Is that your boyfriend, Eevee? I'll make sure to let you guys spend some time together. He needs to evolve though.”

“My name is Cleo, and that,” she pointed to me with her tail, “is Katsu.”

“Fine, Cleo,” he said, putting an emphasis on her name, “I'll call you by your name.”

He held up the ball, “Cleo, return!” and Cleo was sucked up inside the ball.

“Cleo!” I yelled, tears springing to my eyes.

“Now wait just a minute, Red!” the Professor shouted.

Red ignored him, “Riolu, return!”

Nothing happened. Then he smiled, “Oh yeah, Katsu, return.”

The last thing I remember was feeling Professor Oak's sadness and guilt.


When I woke up, I was in the freezing cold. White stuff kept getting in my eyes. I felt numb. I looked around, and started to make out shapes. I saw Cleo.

“Cleo!” I ran towards her and hugged her, “Cleo,” I murmured.

“It's...so...cold,” she said, her teeth chattering.

“Hey, Cleo!” Red called. I turned around and bared my fangs at him. He didn't seem to notice, “Touch that white rock, Cleo, and I'll take you somewhere warmer.”

“I don't trust him,” I whispered.

“Neither do I, but it's too cold to stay here,” she told me.

She stepped away from me, and forced herself to touch the frozen rock. Suddenly, she started glowing.

“Cleo! What's happening?”

I wasn't speaking human, but Red must have noticed my confusion, because he said, “She's evolving, stupid? What kind of Pokemon are you?”

My eyes flashed with anger, I'm not stupid.

Suddenly, I felt myself growing warmer.

Am I back in the ball? I thought, but I was also growing larger, which didn't make sense. Then, I was cold again. The ground seemed farther away. I looked down at myself.

“Whoa!” I was much taller than I had been. Also, I had spikes. Awesome. But it was still confusing, “What happened?”

I heard someone laugh. It sounded like bells ringing. “You evolved, Katsu.”

I turned and saw Cleo. My mouth fell open. Cleo was now a light blue. Her ears were much longer, and her fur ruff, had now turned a navy blue and migrated so that it hung loosely around her face. She was beautiful.

“So, what do you think?” she did a movie star-like catwalk.

“I think you look great,” I blushed.

She laughed again, “You still turn purple when you blush.”

Behind me, Red wolf whistled. That raised my hackles.

“Wow, a twofer. You and your boyfriend evolved at the same time, Cleo. Now you've made me happy.”

“Too...bad,” I struggled to say in human.

Cleo laughed, but unfortunately, it hadn't upset Red too much, “Nothing you say can stop me from being happy now.”

Then, he returned me to the ball.


I woke up feeling much warmer. It was nice. I looked around and saw tall human buildings. The sun was bright in the sky, and I felt good. Even better, sitting next to me was Cleo.

“I'm so glad to see you!” I told her.

“Me too,” she smiled.

“What kind of Pokemon are you now?” I asked her.

“I'm a Glaceon,” I opened my mouth to tell her what I was, “It's okay, I already know you're a Lucario.”

I hugged her, and she purred. I felt waves of warmth coming from her. Then, I felt Red's presence.

I looked up, “What do you want?” I didn't bother to speak human.

“I called both of you out, so we can challenge the Rustboro Gym. Have you ever been in a battle before?”

Cleo nodded, but I stayed silent. Then she poked me and said, “You fought Chad. Remember?”

I nodded, and Red took that as a yes.

“You're part Steel, which means you're good against Rock-types. This next gym is all Rock Pokemon, so you better defend your girlfriend. Ice-types are weak against Rock. She faints, this is on you.”

My stomach knotted up. Cleo might get hurt! I hugged her tight, but the mysterious red and white ball pulled me away from her.


I woke up to the sounds of cheering. Cleo was next to me again, but now it was cooler. Not as cold as that other place had been, more like air-conditioned. I still liked the sun better though.

“What are all these humans here for?” I wondered to myself.

“They're here to watch us fight,” Cleo told me.

“You better stop talking soon,” Red said, “Roxanne's letting her Pokemon loose.”

From the other end of the building we were in, I heard, “Go, Geodudes!”

Suddenly, two weird boulders were floating around.

“Both of you, aim Rock Throws at the Glaceon!” a voice commanded.

Red yelled, “Cleo, dodge them. Katsu, respond with Aura Sphere!”

Cleo didn't dodge fast enough, so I pushed her out of the way, and let the rocks hit me. It didn't hurt too bad.

Which one was Aura Sphere again? I thought, Oh, yeah.

I made myself concentrate on the feelings deep within my own body. I felt anger towards Red, sadness that me, Cleo, and Red's other Pokemon didn't have a better trainer, and love for Cleo. Suddenly, all of these feelings exploded out of me.

One of the Geodudes was knocked into a wall, and fainted instantly. The other was luckier, and had only been knocked through the air. It still wasn't in too great of shape, though.

“Geodude, return!” a voice called.

The Geodude that had fainted was sucked up into one of the red and white balls.

“Go, Nosepass!”

Where the Geodude had been, there was now a bigger rock with a weird face on it. It kind of looked like the picture of the Easter Island Heads that Cleo had shown me once.

“Katsu, finish the Geodude off with a Force Palm! Cleo, try using Bite on Nosepass!”

“Nosepass, Rock Tomb on Glaceon! Geodude, try using Tackle on Lucario”

Cleo darted forward and bit down hard on the Nosepass. It didn't seem to be doing that much damage. I tried to ignore her hopeless battle against Nosepass, and focused on the Geodude. It was zooming forward, getting ready to tackle me. I braced myself for the impact.

Right when the Geodude was within arm's length. My arm shot forward and smacked Geodude in the face. This time, Geodude hit the wall and fainted. I turned to the Nosepass. Cleo was still biting it, but now, I could see parts of the ceiling shaking.

“Cleo! Watch out!”

I raced forward to push her out of the way, but I was too late. A chunk of the ceiling collapsed and hit both her and Nosepass, burying them in rubble.

“NO!”

I started digging through the boulders, throwing them aside. Anger and fear was clawing at my belly. Suddenly, without meaning to, I felt myself using Aura Sphere. All of the anger, fear, and hatred flew out of me, and knocked all the boulders aside. Apparently, it also knocked Nosepass out, since it was already damaged.

“Cleo?”

She was laying in the dirt. I could see her flank rising and falling with breath, but I was worried about how badly hurt she was.

“Cleo?” I asked again.

Suddenly, she started coughing and sat up. The crowd cheered. I hugged her.

“I'm so glad you're safe,” I buried my face in her fur.

There was a collective “Awwww....” from the crowd.

I felt myself being sucked up into the ball. It was really starting to annoy me.

When Red let me out, I could feel happiness coming off him, but I could also feel more greed.

“You guys did a great job out there!” he said, “Neither of you fainted, which looked really good. Cleo, you've got to start pulling you weight, though,”

I growled, “You put her in...a battle...where she had...a huge...disadvantage.” My skills at speaking human were improving.

“You both have to learn how to do good, even when you have a disadvantage!” he shook his head, “You guys are so lazy, coming up with excuses-”

His lecture was interrupted when a young female human ran up to him. She looked about the same age as him.

“Are you the trainer who just beat Roxanne?” she asked.

“Yeah. Why, do you want my number?”

I felt lust coming from Red and bewilderment coming from the girl. I laughed. Red glared at me, so I silenced myself.

“Actually...I wanted to buy your Pokemon.”

“What?” he sounded shock.

“I saw how well they did in that battle, and I think I could adapt their skills for contests.”

“These Pokemon aren't for sale!” he looked like he was about to return us to our balls. He pulled one out of his pocket.

“Not even for a blank check?” the girl asked.

Red froze, “How much are you willing to pay?”

“Anything you want.”

“Riolu and Eevee are both rare, and these Pokemon are both evolved already.”

“Of course. Why don't we find somewhere to go over the transaction.”

“Sure. Cleo, Katsu, return.”

Well, I thought, life can only get better.

When I woke up again, Red was nowhere to be seen, but Cleo was. I hugged her.

Red is gone, and Cleo is here. That's paradise for me.

“Hi, guys!”

I looked up. The female trainer from earlier was standing next to us.

“Hello,” I said slowly.

“Hi,” Cleo greeted the trainer.

“My name is Sapphire. Do you have names, yet?”

“I'm Cleo, and this is Katsu.”

I nodded.

“I want...to stay...with her.” I said with conviction.

Sapphire looked surprised, “Of course you can stay with her! I wouldn't separate you two.”

“Red would.” Cleo said with venom.

Sapphire stared. I hadn't had a chance to examine her yet. She looked like the exact opposite of Red. She wore a black skirt and a blue blouse, and had pale blonde heir. Her eye were a clear blue. I felt waves of peace and happiness coming from her. I liked her.

“Why would he separate you?”

“He never managed to do it to us, but he's separated tons of Pokemon.”

“Really?” her eyes were full of concern.

“We don't have to worry anymore, Cleo. We'll help them someday, but right now, we can just be happy.”

Cleo purred, “That's true.”

“Where are...we, anyway?” I asked Sapphire.

“You're at my secret base!”

I must have looked confused, because she said, “This is where me and my Pokemon live.”

“Where are the Pokemon?” Cleo asked.

Sapphire laughed, “You guys are the Pokemon.”

Cleo and I explored the base. There was a table with three chairs at it, a TV and sofa, a whole room that was filled with books, and two beds.

“Why are there only two beds?” Cleo asked.

“You guys share a bed, don't you?” Sapphire asked.

I blushed.
Cleo laughed and nodded.

Sapphire seemed amazed that we could read and write in English, and I was sufficiently amazed that Sapphire's home was in a tree.

“How do you keep it from falling down?” I asked amazed.

Our first contest was only a month away. Cleo and I were excited, but nervous. Our schedules were much different than they had been when we lived with either Red or Professor Oak. Here, we ate breakfast with Sapphire every morning, before starting training. Training wasn't too difficult, but it took me a while to understand the concept of a contest. In the end, Cleo had to explain to me.

“In a contest, you have to use your moves differently than in a battle. Your objective isn't to knock out the other Pokemon, it's to look impressive. The more powerful you make your move the better, but make sure it doesn't affect any of the humans in the audience, or the other Pokemon. Aside, from the part with the moves, you also have to learn to dress and catwalk.”

Training consisted off three parts: Wardrobe, Dance Lessons, and Choreography. Wardrobe and Dance Lessons took place before lunch, and Choreography took place after. Training ended an hour before dinner, and after training, we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. Sometimes in the evening, I watched TV, but most of the time, I was in the library with Cleo. Every night, I slept pressed up against Cleo, and we both fell asleep in the comfort of each other's arms. Once in a while, after dinner, Sapphire would point a metal thing at me or Cleo, and rub it against our forehead. Eventually, I realized it was the same machine Red had scanned me with when he first found me.

“What is that thing, Sapphire?”

She looked down at the metal device in her hands, “Oh, this? It's a Pokedex. I'm using it to teach you guys new moves.”

“I don't remember learning any new moves.”

She smiled, “Come outside then.”

I had only gone outside the house a few times since we got here, because it made me nervous climbing down the ladder to the ground. Unfortunately, in Fortree, where Sapphire lived, all the houses were like that, so if I wanted to go somewhere, I had to climb up and down tons of ladders.

Once I was on the damp ground, Sapphire said to me, “Try Water Pulse.”

I shook my head, “That's a Water-type move, I don't know how to do that.”

“I used the Pokedex to teach you how. Concentrate on controlling the water.”

I nodded and began to dig inside myself. This is how I started attacks when I used Aura Sphere, but Aura Sphere came much more naturally to me. Eventually, I felt a pushing pulling sensation inside of me, similar to the ocean tide. I grabbed hold of it mentally and began to pull. Suddenly, water rose out of the ground and dripped from the tree tops. Before my eyes, I amassed enough water to fill a small lake.

“Now let it go, slowly,” Sapphire instructed.

Very carefully, I loosened my grip on the water, until I only had enough left to fill a large bath tub with.

“Only use that much water. It's much easier to control.”

I found that I could also shoot pulse waves through the water with my thoughts.

“So that's how you get confused by Water Pulse,” Cleo said next to me, “That makes sense.”

Through Sapphire's instructions, I found I could move the water however I wanted, bending and shaping it with my mind. Finally, I let the water flow out. I knew other moves too, and so did Cleo. I watched Cleo play around with the move Captivate. The first time she used it, I'm pretty sure I embarrassed myself, because when I stopped staring wildly at Cleo, I noticed that her and Sapphire were rolling on the ground with laughter.

A few weeks passed, and the date of our first contest was approaching. My stomach was filled with butterflies, but Cleo seemed excited. Finally, the day of our contest was upon us. Sapphire apologized and said she had to put us in pokeballs until we arrived at the contest building. I found out that those were the red and white balls all humans use. I told Sapphire that I didn't mind to much. She smiled reassuringly, and I was sucked up into the pokeball.

When I gained consciousness again, I was in front of a colossal building. Out front, were several fountains that shot water twenty feet into the air. Everyone walking by was dressed fancily, and most of the Pokemon I saw had on accessories like jewel encrusted collars. I turned around and saw Sapphire was wearing a shimmering blue dress. Next to her was Cleo, who was licking herself clean with her tongue.

Sapphire looked down at her watch, “We don't have much time before the show starts, we'll have to hurry and go get dressed.”

She lead us through the contest building, and I felt waves of excitement from all the humans and Pokemon near me. I could hear cheers coming from the building already.

“There are other contests going on at the same time,” Sapphire explained.

Finally, after many sets of stairs, escalators, elevators, and security guards, we made it to a small room.

“This is where you guys can get ready,” Sapphire said.

Cleo and I began to dress in the outfits we had picked out for the show. I had a tuxedo, and Cleo had a kind of dress thing that was made for four-legged Pokemon. Mine was standard black and white, while her dress was blue like Sapphire's.

“Our team colors are blue and silver,” Sapphire explained, “That and that dress just looks amazing on her.”

We left the room and headed to the stage. All three of us were shivering with excitement, especially when we looked around at all the sooty looking Pokemon and trainers. Everyone seemed excited, but I growled in anger when I sensed some of the emotions coming from the other male Pokemon.

“I don't like the way that Arcanine is looking at you,” I muttered to Cleo.

She laughed, “You're so cute when you're jealous. Better make sure he knows we're together,” and she stood up on two legs, and leaned against me before kissing me lightly on the cheek.

I blushed deeply.

“You know, I'll be sad if you ever stop doing that,” Cleo told me.

I happily noticed that the Arcanine had stalked off and I felt waves of defeat coming from him.

Finally, a woman walked up to Sapphire without looking at me or Cleo, “Three minutes to showtime.”

“What a bitch,” I said.

Sapphire ran her hands through my fur, “That's just how some people are. Better get in our spots.”

All of the humans and Pokemon were lining up by number.

“We're number seven,” Sapphire told us.

A few minutes later, a man's voice called out from behind the curtain, “Welcome to Lilycove's normal rank Beauty Contest. Please welcome our contestants,” he paused for the loud applause of the humans, “Here's group number one, Maddie and her Pichu and Smoochum!”

Sapphire leaned over to me, “A Pichu and Smoochum would have done better in a Cute Contest.”

“Group number two, Ralph and his Zigzagoon and Gulpin, Ziggy and Gretchen.”

Sapphire winced, “Why would he use Zigzagoon and Gulpin? They don't complement each other at all!”

I quit listening to her talk about contest jargon, and instead listened to the man's voice calling out numbers, “Group number five!group number six!”

Finally, I heard, “Group number seven, Sapphire and her Lucario and Glaceon, Katsu and Cleo. We've got a special treat today folks, these are both rare Pokemon.”

We stepped past the curtain and were met by applause punctuated with “Oohs,” and “Ahs.”

We stood on the side of the stage until the judge had called out all the other numbers. All together there were twenty entries.

“All right, you've seen the contestants in their outfits, now let's see them dance. Group number one, please start us off.”

Music started playing overhead, and the Pichu and Smoochum started waltzing adorably.

“They're adorable, but not beautiful,” Sapphire whispered to me.

Each group went off without anything major. Group five stumbled a bit, but nothing major.

Then I heard, “Group number seven, your turn.”

The music we had picked out was piped in through the speakers. Cleo stood up on her hind legs and placed her front paws on my shoulders. I stopped paying attention to what was going on around me, and instead, I paid attention to what was going on in Cleo's eyes. I felt sparks of warmth coming from her. If I could have felt my own emotions, I would have imagined them as being the same. Finally, the song ended, and we bowed. There was wild applause as we headed back over to Sapphire.

“They cheered louder for you than any one else!” she squealed excitedly.

By the end of the dancing portion, only one other group, a Jynx and a Magmar, had done as well as us.

“We will now vote to keep five groups in for the acting portion of the contest.”

We all went behind the curtain and waited with our fingers crossed. Five minutes later, the judge returned to the microphone.

“We have decided that groups one, seven, nine, twelve, and fifteen will proceed to the acting portion.”

“Yes!” we all high-fived.

Most of the other humans and Pokemon left. The only ones beside us who stayed were four humans, the Pichu and Smoochum, the Jynx and Magmar, a Blaziken and a Sceptile, and the Arcanine from earlier with a Rapidash. We kept our order from earlier in the contest, so we were now third.

The Pichu and Smoochum went first. They skipped onto the stage, and I had to admit, they were adorable. Smoochum gave Pichu a Sweet Kiss, and Pichu blushed. Then Pichu gave Smoochum a Sweet Kiss with the same result. They followed this up with Smoochum singing, and Pichu using Charm.

“They were really cute, but I don't know how they'll do in this contest.”

Next went Jynx and Magmar. They did pretty good, using their fire and ice to create beautiful patterns. When the fire melted the ice, the water came raining down around them, which made Magmar jump a bit.

“They probably deducted points for that,” Sapphire said,

The judge called for us next and Sapphire wished us good luck.

We went on stage, and started with Water Pulse. Cleo and I both drew enough water to fill a swimming pool out of the ground, and we used our minds to bend it around us, forming a translucent, moving wall. We let the water soak back into the ground, and Cleo made another wall with Mirror Coat. The move made a glass-like dome that covered us. Next she used Blizzard, causing snow to fall around us. We danced inside our dome, knowing we had made the impression of being trapped in a giant snow globe. I used Swords Dance, and topped it off with an Aura Sphere that shattered the dome, letting the pieces of it fall so that they reflected the light and shimmered. We bowed.

This time, there was silence, before the crowd burst into applause. We walked back to Sapphire who hugged us proudly. The other two groups went, and did okay, but not as good as us. I smiled smugly when the Arcanine tripped over it's own feet.

After the last group had gone, the judge said, “We will now take a momentary break for judging.”

Cleo closed her eyes and hid her head in my arms, “Tell me when it's over.”

The judge came back, “The winners of this normal rank Beauty Contest are...Sapphire and her Pokemon Katsu and Cleo!”

We all cheered, and accepted our ribbons.

“I'm so proud,” Sapphire told us through tears.

That night we went out for ice cream and had a ball. When we got home, Sapphire went outside, but me and Cleo sat and watched the stars.

For a while, we were silent, but then I said, “Didn't you say we'd get home one day?”

Cleo turned to me, “We are home, Katsu.”

And then she kissed me. I felt warm.



That was about two years ago now. We've progressed a lot since then, and we're now winning contests all the time. Last night was Christmas Eve, and we had just got back from a holiday contest when I got the biggest news I had ever had in my life.

The tree house was warm and cozy. Sapphire had somehow designed a fireplace that wouldn't burn the whole house down, and we were enjoying it. A Christmas tree was set up with presents underneath, and I was sitting on the couch with Cleo, when she turned to me.

“I have something to tell you. I was going to tell you tomorrow, but I can't wait anymore.”

“What?”

Her face broke out in a grin, “I'm pregnant.”

“That's...great,” I was shocked.

When I paid close attention to her feelings, I could sense five smaller emotions that differed from her main one.

“There are five of them,” I told her.

“You can tell?”

“Apparently.”

Cleo slapped me playfully and we talked a while before going to bed.


That was last night. I've got to go now. Cleo's calling, and once again, my life is perfect.

 

Awww... That was so cute and fluffily. I really liked it. There were a few sparse grammar issues, but nothing major that I noticed. I would've liked it if you attributed your quotes a bit more, but it didn't at all diminish from the quality of the story.

 

Claimed for grading. Please wait a day or two while I read and think about your story. ...there is a lot of story.

(edit) Finished reading. Grade is about a quarter done.

 

Here we go!

THE JOURNEY HOME
ALASKAPIGEON
EEVEE & RIOLU
HARD + COMPLEX (50000-70000)

INTRO
What impression did I get when I started reading this?

You open with an epigraph. That's nice. It's a straightfoward quote too, suggesting that I'm going to see themes of family and love in this story.

After this, we have first-person narration. A Pokemon is the protagonist! You descibe it indirectly as a Riolu, and imply that Pokemon have social structures in the wild. Interesting.

You set your Riolu apart, first by mentioning its capture, then making it kind of the odd one out. It's the only one to meditate, actually.

You mix in some foreshadowing with the narrative; you alternately talk about what he's doing and the fact that he's about to be captured.

Then the capture occurs. I'd have like a little more consistent description of what it's like to be captured- you mention flashes of light and dark, and cramped spaces, but then a few lines later you talk about a "tiny room." You should try to unify this a little.

That's it for the intro. We've seen what I'm going to assume is "the formative experiences that made me the Lucario I am today" or something. Pretty good- you make me want to know what happens to this guy next.

(Addendum from later: I got a little confused a few times about which gender your characters were. You transition from "it" to "him" and "her" as you establish the characters, but it's not the smoothest. For example, Cleo. You start using feminine pronouns like "her" when you introduce her name. Sure, this is perfectly fine; Cleo is a girl's name. However, for Katsu to not immediately realize that she's a female kind of seems like a delayed reaction. You maybe should have had him say something in hindsight about how he wasn't good with human-style names or something.)

PLOT
Is it a good story?

Looks like I was pretty spot on with the "formative experiences" prediction. We've got a bildungsroman/coming-of-age thing going here. The form of the story is old and well-known: protagonist starts from humble beginnings, is introduced to the wider world, faces adversity, and in the end finds success, happiness, maturity, and perhaps someone to love. And, in your case, five children. J. K. Rowling wrote such a story and so did you.

You've used the nature of the Pokemon world to help you tell such a story. Going in and out of Poke Balls provide handy scene transitions. Maturity is linked with evolution. The nature and priorities of different Trainer types provide immediate and serious lifestyle changes. You even use the Pokemon-human divide to give Katsu and Cleo another obstacle to surmount. I like it!

You also take advantage of Riolu/Lucario's nature to speed up character interactions. Since Katsu can sense emotions, we get to see how humans and other Pokemon feel around the protagonists. That's a useful thing to have.

Here's what I think about each part of the plot after the introduction:

With Professor Oak: Roommates are introduced, Cleo meets Katsu, and the fully-evolved starters appear. You drive a lot of the plot by having Cleo rope Katsu in to her scheme to understand human language. They get introduced to literacy, and you get to make a lot of allusions to your favorite books in the process. Katsu becomes well-liked by the others after the big conflict with the Kanto starters. You probably should've gone a little more into how nobody at all was able to resist the bullies except the Johto starter group. Even after Cleo explaining just why everyone would love Katsu after the big fight, it didn't seem to be quite enough. The mental journey you mention should probably be fleshed out more as well. I can figure out what Katsu is probably thinking, but it's best to be sure.

With Red: A short (maybe too short) but vivid episode. We see Red in a power-gamer persona who force-evolves them and then makes them fight. The battle was pretty good. You kept good track of the double-battle. However, it seemed a little corny to have Katsu take a hit for Cleo. (I don't think Pokemon have that ability, unless it's like Me First.) Might just be me. I'm not sure how to feel about the way Katsu evolved. Riolu usually evolve via happiness, and Katsu was definitely not happy. I guess you're interpreting it as strong emotions causing evolution or the power of hot-bloodedness or something. The point at which they evolved is the point at which their relatively happy and sheltered lives end, however, which is a nice parallel.

With Sapphire: A better master, a better life. You've made the conflicts here less hostile than in the previous section- it's just a Pokemon Contest. Some rivals are present, but they're not enemies. This is the part where you have the protagonists recover from all the bad stuff that's happened to them. It's a good way to wind the story down. The ending, I imagine, was calculated to make me go "aww." It did.

DIALOGUE
Do we understand what they're saying?

I usually have very little to say about this aspect of stories. As long as it flows well and doesn't sound stilted, well, what can I say?

...I don't have much to say. Good dialogue! I guess there is one thing, though. You had repeated uses of "dude" in Cleo's dialogue, probably to set her up as a down-to-earth, slightly hyper character. I liked it, but there could've been more. It really only was noticeable at the beginning. If you're making it a speech habit or tic, it should be more prevalent.

Oh! The dialogue at the ending was awkward. That's a good thing- Cleo announcing she's pregnant really should leave Katsu at a loss for words.

CHARACTERIZATION
Are your characters original, well-defined, and compelling?

I'm sorry, but every time I see Katsu's name I think breaded pork cutlets and get hungry. You ever have katsudon? Though your translation of his name as "victory" is correct, "katsu" is also a loanword originating from "cutlet." Asian languages and their plentiful homophones can cause all sorts of unintended consequences.

...um, anyway, Katsu is a fairly sympathetic protagonist. I'm guessing he's more or less pushing adulthood by Pokemon standards (thus the having babies) but this could be made a little clearer. He's kind of an outsider everyman character, the beloved protagonist of the internets. I also liked the way you used the Pokedex and the nature game mechanic to give us an early introduction to the personalities of the main characters. They're pretty spot-on too, though I guess Katsu could be sassier.

Cleo's rather erratic. She can be happy, depressed, standoffish, or whatever else. She covers quite a range in the story. I've already talked about what I'm seeing in her personality. Like Katsu's, it seems to be standard for fanfic. Standard isn't bad; you pull it off. I thought they were kind of charming.

Their relationship is fast-moving but played down a bit, probably for rating reasons. I don't know much about writing relationships, but I thought it was a little fast, especially jumping straight to sharing a bed. I suspect it had to be fast for the purposes of the story.

As for the others: I first thought that Red was out-of-character, especially with the greed aspect- then I remembered that Red has no personality. As the player character, he's kind of a blank slate. Alternate character interpretations like yours remind me that there are many ways to portray people like Red (and Sapphire). You introduce a whole lot of characters, but most of them of them are fairly well-defined. The Kanto-starter group are stereotyped bullies, the Johto-starter group are the second strong group who show their strength by protectiong others, and Kiley is the, um, token pretty girl. Leo and Sam, however, are a little harder to keep track of. They could be better-defined than "roommates," but you can't flesh everyone out. Others like Goldy and Neon are bit characters, but that's okay too. Everybody has them.

GRAMMAR
Does you talk pretty?

Minor typo-ey stuff. I'm going to make a run through this thing split-screen and see what I pick up:

Use of pluperfect in the introduction.

You should probably use regular past tense (my brother asked) except for the foreshadow-ey things Katsu is thinking.

I'm not sure that comma should be there.

This one's definitely optional.

In regular writing, I don't think this comma is needed. In dialogue, it's an acceptable way to show speech patterns. So this one's fine.

It's/its. This one is the possessive, so it's "its." Remember that "it's" is a contraction. Also, since shaking one's head isn't a type of speech, you can't just put a comma there and go straight to dialogue. It should be a period. You can put commas only after speech verbs, e.g. The human shook its head and said,

You're trying to get across that there are so many books that Katsu thinks there's a ton of them, right? The particular way you used is awkward. You could say instead: "what seemed like several tons of books."

This should be "cream-colored." Also, two more it's/its problems.

This should be a period, not a comma: 'sassy' and 'strongly defiant.'"

There it is again.

I'd use dashes instead: "Japanese-" she looked at my stunned expression- "You know, humans have"

Should be a comma after said.

The sound barrier is a measure of speed. Do you mean the limits of hearing? Like, really high-pitched?

Past tense of pet is petted.

These two commas aren't necessary.

Singular/plural: "somebody" is a singular pronoun, so you should say he or she instead of they.

"End" instead of "in." Typo.

Comma probably isn't necessary.

Same here.

Same here.

Dashes here too.

Formatting error. The second quotation mark should've been after "Outsiders," with a comma added. Also, since this forum supports rich text, you can do the stylistically-correct thing and italicize or underline book titles. Use the buttons in the text editor or use the formatting tags [ i ] & [ /i ] for italics and [ u ] & [ /u ] for underlining. Remove the spaces between the brackets and the letters inside. First tag at the beginning; second tag at the end of the formatted text.

You're should be your.

With perfect grammar, this would be "Is that the best you've got?" I guess when talking you might drop the contraction, but it should still have a question mark instead of an exclamation.

Here/hear. Typo again.

Missing space after the comma. Actually, I'm not sure if this was just me damaging your file in my text editor.

That first comma should be a semicolon; you're linking two indepenent sentences here.

Should be a question mark.

Whoo, this is taking a while.

Yep, it's/its.

No comma.

"Me" should be "I."

You forgot the period.

These two fragments should be one sentence: comma instead of period.

"What?" He sounded shocked.

Two different sentences. Capitalize "he."

Question mark instead of period.

That should be in past tense: "Red was gone, and Cleo was here. That was paradise for me."

Plural "eyes."

I laughed.

"Catwalk" isn't a verb. Try "walk the catwalk" or something.

Comma splice- connecting two sentences with a comma. This isn't proper grammar; remove the comma and replace with a period.

She and Sapphire.

Capitalized, two words: Poke Balls. The same thing for the sentence at the end of the paragraph.

Typo: to should be too.

No comma.

Comma splice, just as before. Use a period or semicolon instead.

Oh man, should I really be doing all this?

Lead should be led.

Should be "snooty-looking," with the n.

Add space and capitalize.

You accidentally ended this sentence with a comma.

As the Grammar Nazis say, "Cleo and I."

"Got" should be "gotten."

DETAIL
Can we see what you're saying?

This is another area where I don't have much to say if I don't have much to complain about. Good description. I especially enjoyed your description of the compound where Professor Oak keeps Red's Pokemon. There are two consistency issues that I can remember:
You imply that Katsu is placed in a PC box but don't explain that he was withdrawn to be placed at Professor Oak's lab. For the first few paragraphs I thought they were in a virtual reality in the Pokemon Transfer Network.
Does Sapphire live in a tree house or a secret base? Or is it both? I can't tell.
Also:
You should've probably mentioned discs or something so we knew that Sapphire was slotting TMs into her Pokedex.
There should've been some indication that Katsu was living in a Safari Zone, right?

PLAUSIBILITY
Does it make sense?

You've written a story from the Pokemon's point of view. These are always fun! You try to show how human society looks like from the outside, and how Pokemon and Humans interact and where injustices might come in. I love this kind of stuff.

I have issues about the languages, though. You mention both English and Japanese. Why does Katsu have a Japanese name? Why is everything else from Western culture (besides the fact that you're probably American) like the literature? Is this set in Japan or somewhere else? It has to make a little more sense when you're throwing around real-world references all over the place. (By the way, is The Bell Jar any good? I've heard of it, but never read it.)

For what would Red give up two powerful Pokemon? Just how much did Sapphire give him? We're left hanging here.

I also got hung up on the ages. It seems like Pokemon treat months like humans do years. It is possible to interpret what you wrote as saying that Katsu was six months old while Cleo was five years old. Having children with someone who was ten times your age when you first met... not cool, right? You need to make it clearer when you're talking about months and when you're talking about years. Also, how young is "young," when referring to Katsu? Young kid, young teen, young adult? This also should be a little more specific, to let us understand the character better.

Will they try to rescue their friends from Oak's compound? Or is this a sequel hook?

LENGTH
Is it long enough?

Double capture:
Eevee (HARD: 20000-30000)
Riolu (COMPLEX: 30000-40000)
Total: 50000-70000
My word processor says 53784. You're in like Flynn.

OVERALL
What did I think, personally?

A charming story.

FINAL
To catch, or not to catch?

Spoiler

All stories have flaws. The longer the story, the more flaws. The few flaws you had didn't matter- I really liked the story. Especially the bookends about how Katsu's life is perfect. Really bringing it full circle, huh?

So, yeah.

Double capture successful! Eevee and Riolu were caught. Enjoy your two new Pokemon!

 

Thank you so much. The reason there was so many errors was cause I wrote it out in a few hours late at night. I couldn't sleep and suddenly had this idea about a Riolu and an Eevee being in love. I had to write, and I didn't stop until I was done. I've never read the Bell Jar, but I know it's a book about depression, and even though it was very brief, I wanted to get a snapshot of how depressed and moody Cleo was. I wanted the books to each be a piece of her, and a piece of who Katsu would become. As for Katsu's name, I just looked on a name site and thought Victory would be good. Not because he was a strong fighter, but because he got out of Red's posession with his true love. The ages were kind of weird, but they are basically teenagers or young adults in the years of their species. They are a lot like cats, in that they age differently at different points of their life. They're at the same level of maturity, so it's not like Cleo is a cougar or anything creepy like that. Eevee and Riolu will each live about twenty years if they don't evolve, but Riolu live to be in their fifties and sixties, as do the eeveelutions. Of course, all that info is based on The Journey Home canon, and other authors might interpret ages of Pokemon differently. Also, the mixed American and Japanese culture is supposed to mirror the Pokemon games. Honestly, a lot of American stuff is in there, since this is aimed at Ameircan and other Western cultures, though I put some Japanese stuff in there to give an impression of Pokemon's Japanese roots. Also, the reason Katsu wasn't withdrawn from the PC, is because I imagined putting a Pokemon in the PC automatically sent them to Professor Oak's lab (kind of like the anime). I don't like the idea of Pokemon being frozen n a computer, but maybe that's just me. Also, the story is set in the Pokemon world. Professor Oak's lab is in Kanto, Katsu was originally from Johto, and Cleo was originally from a different part of Kanto. Sapphire's secret base was in a tree, so she lived in her secret base (which was a treehouse). Katsu evolved into a Riolu, because he felt a mixture of anger (at having Red treat him and Cleo like property), love for Cleo, and fear (that Cleo would be hurt). All these emotions gave him a surge of emotion that caused him to evolve. Their relationship DOES feel kind of rushed, but this was a short story, and, honestly, even if we were aloud to use graphic romance situations, I have trouble imagining an intimate scene between a two legged and four legged creature. Awkward. I feel bad Sam and Leo didn't get more personality in the story. I have that problem with writing, where I have the character perfect in my mind, and I forget that the reader has to rely on what I write about them to get that character. In my head, Sam and Leo are pranksters with a bromance. Their buddies and have known each other a long time. Leo's a bit quieter and less aggressive than Sam, and Sam is bolder and more likely to make a crude joke (Though Leo gets a few in). I don't know if there will be a sequel, but I uploaded this to fanfiction.net, and my readers there requested it, so maybe in the future. Right now, all I know is that they're happy in the part of our minds that they live in, and that they have three healthy baby Riolus, and two healthy baby Eevees.

I tried to answer as many of your questions as I could. Thanks again for grading my story, and grading it so well.

 

No problem! Those little things you mentioned do clarify the story more. If you ever do a rewrite or anything big like that, they'll make the story even better.

I heard you passed the Grader Test recently (congratulations!) so do you think you could... grade my grading? This is, like, my third grade ever, so I'm not very experienced myself. Where could I go better in evaluating stories? Thanks.

 

I would, but I have the same problem. xD I'm just waiting for grader's wages to come out so I can see what Galleon will yell at me about. At last count, I had 16 or 17 grades done, but I don't think any of them were good.