It was still early in the day when I approached the small lake; the sun had not been long over the horizon, and the layer of fog had yet to completely clear from between the trees, reducing them to light shadows in the mist, drifting in and out of my vision like specters. It was the time of day that I most enjoyed, and was most beneficial to my daily meditation, given that most Pokemon were either not yet awakened or simply disliked the dampness of early air, before sunlight baked the moisture out.

I traversed the mossy forest terrain with little noise or evidence of my passing: long practice and many hard lessons learned while hunkering down in a bolt hole had impressed upon me the utmost importance of hiding my trail, especially when said trail would lead back to my current abode. I had lost a few homes- and many good books- to the careless leaving of tracks, and I was a bit too fond of my current home to up and abandon it now. I was aware this was rather a moot point for any trainer possessing of a Pokemon with an adequate sense of smell, but it made me feel more secure to know that I left little visible trace in my wake.

I passed the final tree, an old oak scarred by years of activity, and entered a clearing right on the shore of the body of water. There, on the other side of a small meadow, was a collection of flat stones, deposited here perhaps hundreds of years ago, sheared out of the small cliff that lined one edge of the shore by the indefatigable process of weathering distended over an incredible length of time. Wisps of mist still curled from the surface of the water, creating a scene that was majestic, almost magical in it's serenity; as always, the perfect spot for an early meditation. I crossed the meadow and slid atop one of their number, the stone giving no protest and making no sound as I put my weight upon it. Satisfied, I pulled my legs up over the edge and folded them, placing one paw atop each knee and closing my eyes, relaxing and allowing myself to be absorbed into the morning silence.

Silence that was almost immediately shattered, because of course it was.

"Hey!"

The voice startled me slightly, as I had not been expecting any sort of interaction this day- in fact, I had purposefully avoided any sort of elongated contact with the locals ever since I had come into the area. As such, I had no real idea as to who, exactly, was addressing me; they could have lived right next to me for the past three and a half months and I wouldn't have recognized their voice. The first hint that this was no local, however, was that the voice had been decidedly human-

Oh.

… Well, shit.

Human voice, addressing a Pokemon directly, meant one thing: trainer. Being a reasonably strong Lucario myself, I had run into-and subsequently defeated-my share of trainers; it was a fact of life for many strong Poke that we would be chased by humans attempting to claim our power for themselves. Mostly, I found these human aggressors aggravating at best, infuriating at worst; they desperately attempt capture, only for them to fail at my hands, after which I would pack up and move yet again. It was not as though I could not deal with said trainers, it was more of I had more important goals to accomplish than dealing with a steady tide of humans looking for status and prestige. This latest human, whoever he was-the voice was decidedly male-simply meant that I had to defeat his companions and move yet again-an unfortunate outcome, as I had been enjoying the aesthetics of this particular area. I sighed in a deep, dramatic way, attempting to give vent to the feelings of aggravation and frustration that rose in response to this newcomer, before swinging my legs off my stone, standing and looking in the direction the voice had come from.

Surprisingly, the- boy? Teen?-did not exactly resemble a trainer. Though it was difficult to tell, both due to distance and the ankle-length black coat he was wearing, he did not appear to be carrying pokeballs, or even a trainer's belt. His attire did not exactly match any sort of typical trainer, either-the coat could be attributed to a Dark-type trainer, but that hypothesis did not exactly fit with the tee-shirt emblazoned with flame decals, nor the off-black cargo pants. Generally, he appeared to be either an amateur or, strangely, not a trainer at all. Exactly why someone like that would walk right up and speak to me was either a gross display of overconfidence, or incredible ignorance.

He approached closer, showing absolutely no signs of worry or fear over the fact that I was probably strong enough to break him like a twig without real effort. In fact, he seemed almost cheerful, and came closer without any sign of hesitation before making a simple statement, which somehow was the most confusing thing I'd heard in many, many years.

"Hey." He said simply; shouting was unnecessary at this juncture. "Wanna fight?" He then got into a stance, lowering his center of gravity and raising his arms.

I was completely taken aback; aghast, startled, surprised-however you wanted to say it, this was not the outcome I was expecting. I stood there processing his question for a full three seconds before I even realized that he actually intended to fight me HIMSELF, without even assistance from Poke allies. At this point, I was deciding whether to call him insanely stupid or stupidly fearless.

"Tch…" I murmured; I'd end this with the first blow, then begin moving to a new place, preferably a few miles away. I snapped into a quick stance, then lashed out with one paw, covering the short distance between us with that strike which was sure to be soft enough to just knock him out without causing any sort of egregious harm; after all, I didn't want anyone to be hunting me down as a "rampant danger" or something like that.

To my shock, the blow didn't land; my now-smiling opponent simply moved out of the way of it while simultaneously grabbing my arm and spinning, throwing me a couple yards. I quickly used one of my paws to flip myself over, landing on my feet, where I saw him rushing at me, wearing a grin that was practically ghastly as he did. I redirected his first strike, noting that there was surprising force behind it, then delivered two punches of my own, one of which dodged and one of which he actually caught full with his forearm. Instead of breaking instantly, his arm actually weathered the blow, stopping all the force of the strike. I was now quickly coming to the conclusion that this person was not normal in any way, shape or form.

"Sorry, but I need to end this here." I used Extreme Speed to flash-step behind him, intending to land a light blow against the back of his skull, knocking him out, only for him to dodge again and taking the hit to the shoulder instead.

"Mnnn…" I grunted in frustration, then tried to chase him down again, going instead for a frontal approach and launching a short barrage of strikes. To my continued shock, he somehow managed to block, dodge or otherwise negate every attack I threw at him, grinning like a maniac the whole while. I growled aloud, launching another punch, this one faster than any that had preceded it.

His grin, which was now almost unsettling in it's width, widened a little before he ducked under the punch entirely before lashing out and striking me full in the stomach. I let out a short "Whoof!" as the air was knocked out of my lungs, and I was thrown backwards for a few feet before barely recovering, sliding to a stop on my feet. I gasped a few times, attempting to recover, then noticed that my opponent was completely gone; I wondered for a second where he could be, then something incredibly hard and strong hit me square in the back. I desperately stumbled a few steps, spinning in the process and finding him standing there, hands in his pockets and a single foot, which had apparently been what had hit me, raised. I grit my teeth a little; I should not have been taking so many blows from a mere human, though, to my credit, he was far faster and stronger than I could have anticipated. I was done, frustrated, and it was clear that normal strikes wouldn't work.

I clenched my right paw, a familiar tingling sensation working its way down towards my palm as I charged a ball of aura in it. Just as it finished growing to an adequate size, I snapped my arm up and launched it towards him; the blue-and-white ball of energy rocketed right at his chest, leaving a trail of sparks in the air as it did. For one second, I had won; I was so sure that whatever he was, he would not be able to weather such a blast. Again, he shocked me by simply holding up a hand and CATCHING the sphere, which exploded in his palm, surrounding him in a cloud of dust and swirling mist. I tensed and watched the cloud, hackles raised as if some part of me expected him to come running out unharmed to continue the fight.

One second passed.

Another.

Three. Four. Five…

I relaxed; if he had still been conscious, he would have surely attacked me by now, meaning that I could finally get home and begin moving. Really, he had been rather a fascinating subject of study, as a human that could fight almost on par with a Poke, but I suppose this result was inevitable. I began turning away, intending to return to my current home, then halted and spun when I heard a series of quick footsteps. I saw him there, fist swinging right at my head and smile fully intact, then nothing. f

Blackness.