A Matter of Trust

By Farla

I got the beginning of this musing on alakazam's pokedex entry, and it kind of changed from that into this. Before you read this, think about how alakazam evolves.

"Alakazam! Use psychic now!" yelled the trainer.

The huge alakazam turned and glared at it's 'trainer', it's eyes filled with contempt and anger. Beneath them was some other, unreadable emotion, but the trainer could not see it. He was too shocked by alakazam's surface to look within. [I will not obey you. You are a fool] Behind the contempt and anger also twisting in it's voice was…something.

Turning back, it let out a short and weak swift attack, using a miniscule fraction of it's true power. The small rattata keeled over from the attack. He was not as strong as the alakazam.

The other trainer recalled the rattata, walked over, and threw the money at his feet. "I shouldn't even give it to you," he said angrily. "It's not like your alakazam won because it obeyed you. It didn't follow a single order. At least rattata obeyed me. He may have lost, but at least he obeys me." He stalked off.

The trainer stared after his opponent before recalling his alakazam, once his prize pokemon. He sighed in defeat, even though he had just won. "Oh alakazam, why won't you listen to me?" he whispered to himself.

From inside the pokeball, the alakazam responded [Why should I obey you? You told me to use a powerful attack when a weak one was better. I know more of battling then you.] The alakazam knew, in it's heart, that this was only an excuse. But the trainer did not. Drifting into sleep, it remembered…

It had been caught as an abra. Fighting hard, it soon became his strongest pokemon and evolved. Then one day, he met another trainer. Being his strongest pokemon did not seem to make alakazam's trainer emotionally attached, apparently, not as far as Alakazam could tell. To the trainer, there was nothing wrong with trading. The pokemon would just get another loving, caring master. But to alakazam…

"Alakazam, use psybeam!" he yelled.

The alakazam ignored the order, creating a barrier then ignoring the other pokemon. Turning, it looked at it's new trainer. [You are not my master. I will not obey you.] it said firmly. The attacking charmeleon stopped. She had no wish to fight a pokemon who did not want to. Besides, she would need to save her strength for the next pokemon.

"Grrr…I can't believe I wasted one of my good pokemon on one who won't even battle!" yelled the trainer, enraged.

It didn't take him long to track down the original trainer and demand to trade back.

"Go, alakazam!"

The rebellious alakazam popped out of it's pokeball. It glared at it's first trainer.

"Attack that pidgey with swift," he ordered. He didn't really care about the pidgey, but had to get alakazam to obey. Why was it so disobedient? Was it because it had evolved?

[No. I will not obey you.]

"Alakazam, I don't understand. I traded you to a nice trainer. If he had abused you or something, I could understand you being angry, but-"

[No]

"I'm your trainer. I know what's best in battle. You need to listen to me…"

For a moment, tears glistened in the alakazam's eyes, but they disappeared before he could see them. [How can I trust you in battle, if I can't trust you outside of it?]

Behind the sentence was betrayal, an accusation, but the trainer didn't see.

It was all a matter of trust.

Well, as I'm sure at least one person will notice, no one in the story is named. No, I did not do that because I'm an idiot who doesn't know how to write. As more perceptive readers may notice, every person and pokemon is given a gender but alakazam. Again, I didn't do this because I'm a moron. I really shouldn't even bother to write this, but since if I don't I can guarantee that someone will flame this, mistaking their poor reading skills with my lack of writing ability.