Nella fell to her knees and stared at the small PokeBall. It looked every bit the same as it had before she threw it, but was so different. Now, there was a PokeMon inside. Her PokeMon. What kind did she get? She had barely seen it. Was it a useless Silcoon? An annoying Wingull? Maybe an adorable Aron, though they didn’t live around here. She distinctly remembered a fin. Maybe it was a cute Ralts! And it was hers now. She captured it, and she would train it to be the best ‘Mon it could be.

She picked up the ball, clicked the lock, and shouted.

“Random PokeMon, I chose you!”

--------------------

Kendra was suspended in light, caught floating in a world she had never given a thought to; the world inside a PokeBall. She had the sensation of swimming in warm water, but without the water. Stroking her arms, kicking her legs didn’t move her; she didn’t get any closer to the edge or further from the center of her strange spherical world, only managing to spin herself in dizzying circles while wishing for something to grab onto.

She wanted to get to The Lock, an arm sized circle that glowed a soft light. The bottom of the sphere was solid, infinite white but the top was a translucent red dome through which she could see a shadowy world. A huge world loomed over her beyond the sphere, tilted at an odd angle. She made out the silhouettes of a park bench and trees. And a person running to her. Night black fingers wrapped around Kendra’s PokePrison. She recoiled, but there was nowhere to go, and no way to move.

A click reverberated through the ball and The Lock blazed white. Light consumed Kendra and she was yanked by technology, by gravity, and by command back into the world, where she fell butt-first into the dirt.

In front of her stood a weird girl who looked at her with the same and equal shock. Kendra recognized the get-up of a Junior PokeMon trainer; leggings with matching jacket and shorts, plus a ballcap with a PokeBall on it.

“What kind of PokeMon are you?” The trainer asked, tilting her head.

“It’s a costume!” Kendra shouted, “Does anyone know what a costume is?”

The girl’s jaw dropped and she stared at Kendra, silent and stunned.

“What?” Kendra asked. And that’s when she heard it, finally. She only thought she had said ‘what.’ She actually said, “Mudkip?”

“You can talk! Oh my gosh, You’re the most amazing Mudkip in the world! I’m Nella, and I’m your new owner!” She said proudly.

Kendra flinched from the positively adoring look Nella gave her. “I am one hundred percent, positively, not a Mudkip. And no one owns me.”

“Then how did I catch you, huh?” The girl asked with a grin, as if this was a game. “Can’t catch a human in a PokeBall.”

“I don’t know! I made a wish and that stupid shooting star landed on me, and now nothing makes sense. I just need to go home, get out of this costume, and rest. For like a year.”

The problem was what Nella said made sense, even though it was impossible. Kendra knew what she was saying, but also heard herself say variations of “Mudkip.” She knew she had gone into that PokeBall, and she also felt the strange orange whiskers on her cheeks and the wind blowing on the fin coming out of her head, and tail coming out of her rear. But she couldn’t be a PokeMon!

“I’m your trainer, you can’t just leave!”

That riled Kendra, and she glared at the girl. “I am not your PokeMon, kid.” She stood to leave, until the trainer squeezed on the PokeBall.

“Mudkip, stay!”

The voice and command startled Kendra, and she wasn’t sure why. Nella was a kid, but she reminded Kendra of her mother. Only more important. It felt wrong to disobey the girl.

“I’m not a...”

“Mudkip, sit!” The trainer said, pointing at the ground.

Kendra didn’t sit, but got into a staring contest with Nella. This was so idiotic. She wasn’t a PokeMon. She could do what she wanted when she...

“I. Said. Sit.”

She had the feeling that she would be in so much trouble if she didn’t do as she was told. Slowly, her neck burning with embarrassment, Kendra sat on the ground in front of her trainer. The moment she had, Nella smiled.

“That’s a good girl.”

Kendra gulped, but was too confused and too embarrassed to speak, Why was she so interested in obeying this kid?

Her thinking was broken when something crashed out of the underbrush and a boy shouted, “Aha! I knew it, you were a PokeMon this whole time!” It was the same kid who had been annoying Kendra before she got herself into this mess.

“Hey!” Nella shouted, turning to the Bug Catcher, “She’s my PokeMon.”

“I saw her first; she’s mine!”

“I caught her first; she’s mine!”

“I’m not anyone’s!” Kendra said, but no one cared what she thought. She scrambled to her feet and took slow steps away from the children’s standoff.

“Oh yeah, well if I win, she’s coming with me!” The boy threw out his arm and released his own PokeBall, “Dusty, get ready to fight!” Light flashed and a giant, purple moth almost the size of either kid appeared right in front of Kendra.

“Mudkip, use Water Gun!”

“Use what?!” She asked. This was so far beyond the realm of normal that she yearned for the safety of the PokeBall.

“Dusty, Gust!”

The moth’s wings tripled their speed and sent out a whirlwind of soil, twigs, and pebbles hurtling at Kendra. The wind shoved her to the ground and the debris lashed at her while she shouted. It was too much, all too much and all at once she felt half as strong, half as able to fight. And she wasn’t that strong to start with.

“Mudkip, what are you doing? Water Gun, now!”

“I don’t know what that is!” Kendra said.

“It’s when you blast someone with a forceful shot of water! Water Gun, do it!” The trainer said. She squeezed on the PokeBall, as if trying to compel her PokeMon to obey.

And Kendra wanted to, until she didn’t. This was all nuts. She wasn’t a real PokeMon, even if she was acting like one. She didn’t have to obey this child. But as mad as she was at her trainer, she was more furious with her opponent. Kendra fixed her eyes on the stupid moth, curled her lip, and Growled, “Buzz off, bug!”

Dusty recoiled; its antenna drooped, and it cowered. Now if only Kendra could do that to the stupid girl bossing her around.

“Don’t give up, Dusty. She’s not worth it. Use Poison Sting!”

The moth spun around and sent a thorn right at Kendra, hitting her in the thigh. Hot, painful jabs radiated from the wound, and Kendra gasped, trying to shout in pain, but her voice got swallowed up by the shock. Suddenly weak, she could only stand by holding herself up with her hands on her knees.

“Mudkip, Water! Gun!” The trainer tightened her hand around Kendra’s PokeBall, and her voice rang with more authority than Kendra’s mother. The PokeMon couldn’t ignore that command. Water. Gun. Water. Gun. Over and over in her mind...

“I don’t know how --- burglrglrg!” A gout of clean blue water erupted from Kendra’s mouth as she spoke. Like a fire hose, the water slammed right at Dusty’s fuzzy head. Kendra’s eyes were wide in shock as she stared at the river of water coming out of her mouth. When it stopped, the drenched moth fell to the ground, too heavy and soaked to fly. It heaved a breath, then glowed, and returned to its PokeBall.

Kendra gave into the poison and fell to her knees, while Nella whooped beside her. “Ha! Now, give me your money and scram, butt catcher!”

The boy threw some coins at her and ran into the woods, crying.

Kendra tried to figure out just what happened.

“Wasn’t that awesome, Mudkip?” Nella asked, counting the coins the boy left before coming to her.

“No,” Kendra managed between her shortened breaths.

“Here, this’ll make you feel better.” She pulled out a purple spray bottle and spritzed it over Kendra. The Mon started to protest, until the weird liquid soothed her skin and healed her cuts. The poison still burned, but became much more tolerable. “We need to work on your listening skills.”

“Did we just beat up that kid’s PokeMon and take his lunch money?” Kendra asked. God, everything was a struggle right now. Everything was impossible all the time.

“Trainer’s code. If you lose, you cough up the money.”

“I don’t have any money!”

“Oh, not you. You’re a PokeMon, so you would just faint and go back into your PokeBall until I could revive you.”

Kendra sputtered, her brain refusing to process that information.

Nella stood and looked down at her Mudkip, seeming so tall, so...important. Kendra gulped as she looked at her trainer. How could she make the girl understand that she was not a PokeMon when everything else screamed the opposite?

“I need to get you an antidote for this poison or get you healed at a PokeMon center. That would be free. But the nearest one is in Oldale Town.” She thought about it, and looked conflicted, looking between the nearby Route 101 and Little Root.

“My house!” Kendra said. If she could get Nella to see that she wasn’t a PokeMon, if she could see her house, her things, then the girl would let her go! “My house is back in Little Root. I also have an Antidote in my medicine cabinet.” A blatant lie, but what else could she do?

Except Nella looked back to Little Root and something in the way she did told Kendra she didn’t want to go back. “No. We need to get you to a PokeMon Center.”

“But...”

“No. We’re going to Oldale. And you can either walk, or” Kendra’s trainer held up the PokeBall, “you can go back inside.”