Dear diary,

…

Who… am I?

Pokémon

Transgression

By Crukix

|The First Step Leads to Nowhere |

-O-O-O-

Normal.

It's a strange word.

People define themselves by it so much. They celebrate the fact that they fit into everything by the way they act and the things they do.

They tell me I'm not normal.

All because I don't want to be a trainer.

I watch a troop of them –the pokémon trainers - gather outside the town's gym and wonder just why they'd ever want to travel round the world with the little creatures at their side. Sure pokémon may be useful for some – okay, a lot – of things in our day-to-day lives, but still…

What's the point?

I don't see the fun in wandering around in the wilderness and getting lost every day. It's not appealing to me to entrust my safety to a bunch of creatures that can't speak any word I can understand. Sure, the psychics can, but that requires even more training than normal. There's also the translation collars but they're really expensive and you only ever get one if you get your first pokémon from a big initiative. When the local research labs or the schools give them out, they come with translation collars.

If parents buy their children's first pokémon, they have to pay extra for the collar. Most people that get their pokémon from their parents end up having to scrimp and save just to be able to speak to their pokémon.

I don't understand why people would want to do that. I want my friends to understand me. I don't want to have to try and understand little flicks of ears and the different tones in each growl.

In short, I really want nothing to do with pokémon training.

It's strange – my parents have accepted it. All my friends are always complaining about how their parents don't understand; they won't let them be a trainer because it's too unsafe or they want them to be a trainer so they can experience the world. I don't see why they think it's the end of the world.

My parents accepted my decision almost instantly. Dad was a little upset that I didn't want to travel, but I think that was because he never got to. He says his parents forced him through education. He works at one of the local universities as a maths professor, but he still trains pokémon in his time off.

Mum says it's because you can only regret what you never did.

Mum is the one who used to be a trainer. Supposedly she won tournaments in both Sinnoh and Hoenn when she was younger. Dad says she was still travelling when they were dating. They always make the joke that she competed in an Unovian championship while she was pregnant with my older brother. Mum says that's why he became a trainer.

Jerry left on his own journey about five years ago. He still comes back every so often, when he can. He's always here for birthdays and Christmas though. I think Mum and Dad would go mad if he ever missed any of them. They bought him his first pokémon a year before he set out. On his ninth birthday he got a doduo.

It's still creepy.

It's a dodrio now, but every time I see it, one of its heads always stares at me. I'm sure it never blinks. It just stares. Jerry laughs and tells me I'm imagining things.

I'm certain I can't be. One angry head, one normal head and one really creepy head.

It's not normal.

Just like me.

Except I don't tend to stare into nothing and drool on children's heads.

Dad tells me it's just the creepy doduo that puts me off being a trainer. Mum normally tells him that there are creepy people that do that too. She tells him that since I like people, that can't be the reason.

Honestly, there's nothing alone that puts me off being a pokémon trainer. Instead there's just a lot of things, coupled with me just not wanting to be a trainer.

I'm impartial to pokémon. That's what Jerry says. It sums it up the best. I don't mind pokémon on a daily basis. I like using them for things I can't do myself. But I just don't want to go out skipping into the wilderness and have to fend off a hydregion with only a patrat between me and certain doom.

Which is why I was so upset the day I finished school.

-O-O-O-

"Da-ad!" I whine and glare daggers at the paperwork in his hands. "I don't wanna be a pokémon trainer!"

He gives me an apologetic look that I know isn't completely true. "I know kiddo, but it's the only way. We just don't have the money to send you to the private school you want to go to. If you collect five gym badges, they'll let you in on a scholarship."

I want to be a historian. I might not want to train pokémon, but their myths have always intrigued me. I love everything about history and the little beliefs people used to have. All the different religions they had, all the different monsters they feared and every mythological explanation they gave for little, important things, like the sun.

I finished the basic schooling everyone has to go through until the July after their tenth birthday. I have the grades now to get into the big School of History in Castelia City. But they say that they can't afford the school's fees and the cost for me to live there or even travel in.

My sadness switches into anger quickly. "What use is your job then?" I snap. "You're meant to be smart and paid a lot, why can't you afford this?"

He shrugs and sighs. "Look kiddo, things aren't as cut and dry as that. My money goes on paying for this house, the car, food, looking after the pokémon, everything like that."

"What about Mum then?" I moan.

Mum's out of her seat and crouching in front of me before I even realise. "Look honey," she says and wipes her thumbs underneath my eyes. "I'm only working part time at the school teaching pokémon training classes. You know that. We send Jerry money every so often too. And it's not because we like him more than you! It's your choice; if you really want to go to this school, you'll have to travel for a few months first. If you don't want to do that, then I'm sure there's another school you can go to."

"But-" I start. Mum gives me the look which means that she's not budging. It stops me speaking and makes me silent instead. I huff at her, fold my arms and turn my head away. "Fine," I growl. "I'll go to another, stupid school instead!"

Mum just laughs and pulls me into a hug. "I had a feeling you'd say that. I am really sorry you can't go to the school you wanted, but it'll work out at your new school, you'll see." She stands up, wipes my tears away again and just smiles at me. "Craig rang for you earlier. I told him you'd knock for him once we'd spoken to you."

I glance up at the sudden news. "He did?" I whisper. The disappointment's forgotten under the haze of excitement. "Can I go?"

Mum smiles. "You can go. Just take Kiki with you."

That crushes the joy I was beginning to feel. "But Mu-um! Do I have to? It creeps me out!"

"You say that about all pokémon," Dad tells me. "And besides, she's your pokémon, you need to look after her once in a while."

I glare at him. "But I didn't ask for a pokémon anyway."

"We treat you and your brother the same," he tells me. I poke my tongue at him and he pokes his straight back at me. Mum just sighs and calls us both immature as she tries to find some of her pokémon to train. "Take Kiki with you," Dad reminds me before I can turn to leave. "Have fun. And be back in time for dinner!"

My eyes roll almost of their own accord at him. "Yes dad," I sigh and quickly leave before he can lecture me anymore.

-O-O-O-

Craig's house is weird.

It's the only word that can really describe it. Mum and Dad think so too.

There's nothing outright strange about it – it looks like every other house on the street. A semi-detached house with a normal sized front garden and little gnomes that stare out at the sky. It's the inside that's weird though.

His mum has OCD. Craig says it means 'obsessive compulsive disorder.' Dad says it's because she's an 'old, crazy dingbat'.

I still laugh when he says that. Sometimes he uses worse words than that for people. I know he wouldn't be happy if he hears me saying them around him though, so I pretend that I don't know any words like that. Craig and I sometimes hang around giggling at all the words we know that our parents won't let us say.

But Craig's mum is a little weird. She cleans all the time. Not just little things though – she cleans everything. She's the sort of person that will clean and then dry the sink. Why dry something that's going to get wet about five minutes later? She vacuums, varnishes, waxes and dusts everyday too. She won't let anyone in the house if they've got any dirt on them. If she has to then she usually ends up having to clean them even as she's talking to them.

It doesn't surprise me that Craig doesn't like having people round his house because of it. He doesn't mind me as much, if only because my parents know his mum so well. That and I won't make fun of him about it. He knows too much about me that he can make fun of too.

"Hey!" Craig smiles as he bounces out of the door. He's had all his hair cut off again. It makes his face look a bit fatter and his eyes a bit browner. He flashes a big smile and I see he's lost another tooth – when will I lose more? – and it reminds me that the tooth fairy owes me money. He wears a big blue hoodie with a smiling pikachu and shoes that have light up with every step.

"Your shoes are so cool!" I tell him and try to grab at them. He laughs and lifts up a foot to better show me.

"Like them?" he taunts. "Dad sent them to me yesterday."

His dad is a travelling trainer. He usually comes back to town once a month but he's always sending Craig presents. He sent Craig his first pokémon last year too – I'm still amazed he's allowed to keep it; his mum's always going on about how messy pokémon are. Luckily his dad managed to get one without fur, which swayed his mum into letting Craig keep it.

Craig grins at me and grabs my arms. "I've got something to show you!" he tells me.

"Really?" I ask him, already smiling and eager. Last time he found this little tree house a couple of trainers had built when they were passing through town. We spent the rest of the day there, lost track of time and scared our parents by forgetting to come home.

Even now Dad still likes to remind me of that. Whenever I tell him that I'm responsible enough to stay out after dark, he tells me I wasn't responsible enough to let him know where I was.

Craig nods excitedly. "It's on the beach!" he declares. "Follow me!"

He takes off in a fast run instantly. I shout at him, calling him a cheater before I start chasing after him. He leads me out of Accumula town and towards Nuvema. The beach is about halfway between the two and about twenty minutes away from my house.

We slow down quickly to catch our breath but we keep speeding towards the beach. I can't help but wonder what it is he's got to show me. I heard that a wailord had gotten stuck on a beach once – apparently it took a couple of cranes to try and help it get back into the ocean. Mum always tells me that when she was travelling through Hoenn she found a little cluster of islands where people had trained the wailords. Apparently they used to ride on the big whales across the ocean instead of using boats.

I'd rather take the boat. Boats don't spit water at you whenever they feel like it.

"Come on!" I whine at Craig once I see the golden sand of the beach. "You gotta tell me what it is!" I gasp and grab his shoulder. "Is it treasure?"

He laughs and points forwards. "Maybe. I don't know. But it's cool!"

It's enough of an incentive for me to keep going. He leads me through the beach and across a weird cluster of rocks. It's a more closed-off part of the beach that most people don't go to. Craig and I have been there a couple of times. There's always really weird things that wash up from the ocean. One time we even found a message in a bottle! We couldn't read what it said in there, but we showed it to my dad. He took it into work and said that one of the other professors told him it was a message from over a hundred years ago!

Whatever Craig's found has to beat that.

He slows down to a walk and smiles toothily at me. "Nearly there," he says. "So what did your parents want to talk to you about? Your dad sounded really weird over the phone."

"Dad always sounds weird on the phone," I say reflexively. It's true – his voice goes all weird and gets higher. There was one time he inhaled a helium balloon and his voice went all squeaky – his phone voice is something like that. Mum laughs every time she answers the phone and speaks to him. "Dad said that I can't go to the school in Castelia."

"What?" Craig stops walking and turns to me. "How comes?"

I shrug. "Apparently it's too expensive. If Jerry wanted to go, they'd let him go!"

Craig stares at me for a long moment. Then he smiles and bounces along. "I'm happy you can't go. I mean – it sucks that you can't, 'cause you want to go, but now you won't be moving away and leaving me!"

His smile infects my face. I smile back at him as I realise the truth of his words. "Yeah, you're right. Maybe I could go to school round here! Maybe the same one as you!"

"Yeah!" he cheers. "You can find out all the really cool stories, then I can paint them!"

Craig's a lot like me in that he doesn't want to become a pokémon trainer. Ever since we were little he's always loved painting and drawing. He's better at drawing than my parents! He's going to an art school in Accumula in September. It's always funny to see him bringing home charcoal pictures though – his mum is always really happy when she sees what he's done, then she freaks about how dirty his hands are.

"When's your brother next back though?" he asks me. "He said that next time he's here he'll let me see his pokémon so I can draw them."

I shrug. "Not sure. I spoke to him last week and he said he'll be back sometime this month." I bounce forwards a step and spin round to face Craig. "You've seen his dodrio though, right? Don't you think one of its heads is really creepy?"

He laughs. "The one on the left, right?"

I nod enthusiastically. Finally someone that sees it! Everyone else tells me that I'm just imagining things!

"That one creeps me out," Craig says. "At your birthday party it just kept staring at me when I was eating my cake. I didn't know if it wanted my cake or if it just didn't like me!"

I laugh along with him then shudder at the thought of the creepy bird. "I can't tell if it doesn't like you. I thought it never looks at anyone but me with that blank face. I think Jerry's trained it to creep me out. He always said he'd train his pokémon to get me."

Craig laughs a little. Abruptly he leaps into the air and points wildly in front. "We're here! We're here!" he declares and races off once more.

I'm stuck behind him once again. I chase after him as quickly as I can and find he's leading me to a warmer part of the beach. There's little pebbles on the shore and I can see a couple of pokémon out at sea. There's a little krabby that scuttles away from our laughter and a larger one that glares at us as we run past it.

"Here!" Craig announces.

I stop next to him and stare at what he's been talking about.

It's weird.

It's a pokémon.

It's dead.

"What is it?" I wonder and inch closer. Its bright blue and face down on the sand. It looks all shrivelled up, like the way my fingertips go when I've been in the bath too long.

"I think it's a tentacool," Craig says and goes to poke it.

"Don't!" I tell him and grab his arm. "What if it's poisonous?" We glance at the pokémon and both take a step away in caution. "I don't think it's a tentacool," I tell him. "They look like jellyfish. This is kinda like a big, blue splodge."

"I think it has arms," Craig tells me. "And antennae."

"It looks dehydrated," I say and move closer to it again. "Do you think it's safe to touch it?"

He shrugs. "I know!" he shouts as his face lights up. "I'll get Spike to check it!"

He plucks a poké ball from his pocket and throws it onto the beach. It bursts open with a loud explosion of sound and light, leaving behind a strange white silhouette of the pokémon. It forms into a bright blue jellyfish with a white, frilly collar of skin around its neck. Its eyes are black with red pupils and there's a little white crown atop his head.

The frillish floats eerily in the middle of the air and stares at the shrivelled up remains of the pokémon.

"What is it Spike?" Craig asks the pokémon. "Is it poisonous?"

His pokémon floats above the corpse and stares down at the creature. It makes a sound, almost like its humming before it turns to Craig and shakes its head.

"Not poisonous, huh?" he whispers. "Do you know what it is?"

Again it shakes its head.

"Oh well," Craig sighs. "Thanks pal. Do you wanna go for a swim for a little bit?"

The pokémon makes a little sound and floats down to the sea. I shudder as it goes past me and chills the air just a little. The only reason why Craig's mum let him keep the pokémon was that it was ghostly and so didn't need to be in water all the time. It can just float through the air and even through the walls sometimes. In fact, his mum loves it for that – every time it floats through something it leaves a little wet splodge. His mum often uses it to help wash the walls. And then she wonders why the paint seems to be smearing.

"I think it lived in the ocean," Craig says as he crouches down and pokes the shrivelled up dead thing. "Hey!" he leaps up and grabs my arms. "Your dad might know someone who knows what this is, right? Have you got your phone on you?"

I nod quickly and grin back at him. "Yeah, right here," I say as I dig into a pocket. "We should flip it over; see what its face looks like."

"On three?" Craig asks me. I nod and crouch down next to the thing. It smells like the ocean; the salty air and water, all in one. It feels like a prune – like Grandma's skin! We put our hands underneath the thing's side and count down together.

We flip it over and send sand flying everywhere. The sand rains down over us both and we laugh as it gets stuck in our hair and eyebrows.

The weird pokémon has a big red jewel in the middle of its chest. There's two blue marks above its eyes. But the eyes themselves are weird. They're all cloudy and just staring out at the sky, but it's like they can't even see anything.

It makes me shudder in fear.

"Take a picture!" Craig instructs me. "Come on! You're dad's gotta tell us what this is!"

I nod and quickly snap a shot of the thing on my phone. As soon as I've got the picture I turn away from the strange thing and try to find a warmer spot to go to.

"What's the matter?" Craig says from behind me. "Are you scared of it?"

"No!" I bite back. "I just… don't like it, is all. It's weird. Its eyes are dead and just staring. It freaks me out. Can we go now?"

"Okay," he says with a swing of his arms. "They've got a new machine at the arcade now too! We should try it out!"

I smile at him. "Sure," I say. It sounds like a brilliant idea. Anything to get away from the weird, dead pokémon.

-O-O-O-

I wake up late the next day. It's so nice to be able to sleep in and not have to bother with getting ready for school, for once. I crack open an eye enough to see the time on my clock and decide it's not worth getting up just yet. Dad will be at work and Mum will be leaving soon enough. It means they'll leave one of their pokémon in charge of the house while they're gone.

As long as it isn't Dad's mr. mime. That thing scares me.

I finally pull myself out of bed and get ready almost twenty minutes later. Mum's just getting ready to leave as I get downstairs and throw my towel in front of the washing machine. Mum glares at me until I sheepishly pick it up and place it in the dirty washing basket.

"You playing with Craig again today, honey?" Mum asks me as she puts her earrings in. She seems a bit weirder today than normal. She keeps looking at the garden door. I don't know why. I guess that maybe she had a row with Dad while I was asleep or something.

I shrug and pour myself a bowl of cereal. "Maybe. Not sure yet. I might go round there after I've eaten and see if he's in."

"You could ring him," Mum suggests. "Remember that you need to look through a couple of prospective schools for when Dad gets in. He wants to get you registered and enrolled in a school tomorrow, so you'll need to know where you want to go by the time you go to bed tonight."

"What about the school Craig's going to?" I ask around a mouthful of cereal.

Mum glares at me. "Don't talk with your mouth full," she scolds. "And I'm not sure. I think that's mainly for teaching art. They might teach history on the side, but I can't be certain. I can ask some of the teachers at work if they know anywhere good, if you'd like?"

"Okay." By the time I've finished my breakfast Mum is only just ready to leave. She smiles down at me, checks to make sure I've got my keys and that she has her pokémon with her before she shuts the door behind us. "I can give you a lift to Craig's if you'd like? It's on the way to work anyway."

I glance up at her. "In the car, right? I don't want to ride on your pidgeot again. It flies too fast."

Mum laughs. "In the car," she promises me. "Is that a yes then?"

"I suppose so," I say with a smirk. She smiles at me and unlocks the car for me to get in. It smells like fur inside and I see the bright red hairs her arcanine has left behind. Mum sighs and says that she'll have to clean it tomorrow. She checks that I have my seatbelt before she starts the car and drives to Craig's house.

"I really am sorry you can't go to Castelia," Mum says. "I know how much you wanted to go there."

I sigh and stare out of the window. "It's okay. I wouldn't have known anyone there anyway. At least this way I might still know some people from school."

"That's the spirit," Mum reassures me. I smile back at her and then turn around to watch out of the car window again. We pass through a few streets before we finally pull up just outside Craig's house.

"That's odd," Mum says. "Since when did Emma ever leave her front door open?"

Emma is Craig's mum. I never call her by her name because Mum always says it would be rude. I always call her 'Craig's mum' or 'Mrs Porte.'

"Maybe she's vacuuming the grass again?" I joke. It's happened before – we went round to their house for dinner to find her attacking the front garden with her vacuum cleaner. She said that the grass wasn't clean enough for guests to see.

"Maybe," Mum says. Her face is creased up into a frown. "I'll come with you to the door," she says. "Make sure I know what you're up to. If Craig can't come out, I'll give you a lift back home."

I nod. I know I won't be able to convince her otherwise anyway – Mum's wearing the face that means she's not going to take no for an answer. She hops out of the car after me, locks it and stays a step in front of me as we walk up to Craig's house.

"Emma?" Mum shouts through the open door. "Emma?" she shouts again as she pokes her head into the house. "Are you in? Craig?"

I spot something out of place instantly. It's enough to make me stop and grab my mum's hand. "Mum," I whisper. She glances down at me and I point forwards.

The hallway is a mess. Not just a general damage by living mess, but a full blown disaster. There's a muddy footprint on the floor, things have been broken and smashed and there's a really weird stain on the wall, sort of like it's been burnt.

Mum curses. My head shoots round to her as shock and terror flood me. Mum never curses, not unless she's really upset or angry, or something bad's happened.

"Stay behind me honey," she says and squeezes my hand. Her free hand goes for a poké ball and releases the creature inside. A large blue penguin appears from the ball, its head adorned with a golden, three-pointed crest. Its flippers look like they're lined with blue metal and its feet are a bright orange.

"Keep an eye out, Jake," Mum tells her empoleon. "Something's not right here."

Her pokémon nods and scouts the nearest room. Mum follows closely behind it, her eyes darting around her head constantly. I squeeze her hand and want nothing more than to be out of there. I hope silently that Craig and his mum are playing a trick – that they're going to leap out any second and scare us half to death.

"Can you hear anyone in here?" Mum asks her pokémon. It stands completely still for a second, raises its head to the roof and then shakes its head. Mum bites her bottom lip and glances around the living room. I thought the hallway was a mess, but the living room is so much worse. The chairs look like they've been torn through by little holes. I don't know what they are but Mum seems to instantly. She presses me into her and tells me not to worry.

But all I can do is worry. I worry about why the house is in such a mess and what's happened to my best friend?

"Come on honey," Mum says. "Let's go back home. I'll ring the police and let them know something weird's happened here."

I nod into her stomach and hold her a little bit tighter. She squeezes me and tells her pokémon to lead the way out. It seems to take forever until we're back in the car and Mum's starting it up. I don't even remember her recalling her pokémon before she's driving back to our house.

She rings the police on the way. Once she's given them all the information she knows she rings her work and tells them that she won't be able to come in today. I guess they ask why when she tells them that a friend might have hurt herself.

When we're back inside our house, Mum's pacing once she's made me a hot chocolate. "Did Craig say anything to you about going on holiday?" I shake my head. "Maybe if his dad was coming back or something?"

I shake my head again. I bite my bottom lip as I think back to the weird, dead pokémon we found yesterday. If Craig's mum knew, I wouldn't' be surprised if she freaked and took him to the nearest hospital to have him medically cleaned.

Mum seems to know that I'm thinking about something. "Do you know something, honey?" she asks me. "Did Emma say something to you?"

I shake my head. "I-we… yesterday, Craig and I found something on the beach." Mum raises an eyebrow at me, clearly not impressed I haven't mentioned this sooner. "It was… I don't know what it was. But it was a pokémon. And it was dead."

"You didn't touch it, did you?" Mum asks me instantly.

I scratch my arm sheepishly. "Well, we had to flip it over to see what it was, so yeah."

Mum curses and slams her fists down on the table. "How many times? How many times have me and your father told you not to touch anything like that? Who knows what could have killed it?"

I feel myself start to well up. "B-but," I start to sob. "We didn't know what it was and we thought that if I could show Dad, he'd be able to tell us! I-I just wanted to know what it was!"

Mum sighs and sits down opposite me. "I'm sorry sweetie," she says and grabs my hands. "But you should know better than that. What if something had poisoned it and it transferred over to you?" She gives me a little smile as she squeezes my hands. "Now you said that you wanted to show Dad it. Were you going to take him there later today?"

I shake my head. "N-no. I took a picture on my phone." I glance at Mum and see the look in her face. Reluctantly I pick the phone out of my pocket, select the picture and hand it to her.

She smiles her thanks at me then looks at the phone. Instantly all the colour drains from her face and she drops it on the table. She lets go of my hands, leaps to her feet and stares at the phone as if it were a ghost.

"M-mum?" I ask uncertainly.

"Give me a moment," she says shakily. "I need to ring your dad. Once I do, you're going to tell me everything you know about this, alright?"

I nod and can't help but wonder how much trouble I've gotten into.

-O-O-O-

Dad's back home within the hour. He's white as a sheet and keeps sharing little glances with Mum that I don't understand. I repeat everything I know to them for what feels like the hundredth time. It only seems to make them panic even more.

"You said you and Craig found this pokémon?" Dad asks as he paces the room. "That was yesterday? Then today you went round his house and found it a complete mess, with him and his mum gone."

I nod silently.

"You know what Emma's like, Joe," Mum says quietly. "Everything always has to be clean. She's ended up cleaning our house when she came round for coffee before, remember?"

He sighs and runs a hand through what remains of his hair. "I know," he says quickly. "But… this is unreal. This can't be unrelated."

I frown at them both and realise I'm missing something. "You're not telling me something."

Mum shakes her head quickly at me. "Of course not honey. We're-"

"Carol," Dad says quietly. "We shouldn't keep this secret."

Mum glances sharply at him. Finally she sighs and looks back at me. "You know I'm originally from Sinnoh, right?" I nod. "We have our own set of myths and legends about pokémon there. One of them is a pokémon known as a phione. It's meant to be a creature of pure water and meant to be the child of manaphy – a pokémon that's meant to be able to read the hearts of creatures as easily as you or I read the daily paper."

Mum takes a breath and hugs herself. "That pokémon you found on the beach yesterday. That was a phione."

A little bit of me jumps for joy at finding out what the pokémon was. Craig and I didn't just find a pokémon, we found a mythical one! I want nothing more than to run round to his house and tell him the good news.

Then I remember what's happened at his house.

Dad sighs and squeezes Mum's shoulder. "Last night there was a lot of noise outside. Kara was barking and growling at something or someone that we couldn't see."

Kara is Mum's arcanine. It's older than me and been with Mum since the days she travelled through Kanto.

"We found Kara this morning, passed out in the woods nearby," Dad tells me. "We all know Kara; she wouldn't just randomly go to sleep if she thought we were in danger. We found little holes on the side of her body, like she'd been shot with a dart. Whoever was here seemed to have been chased away by your mum's pidgeot and my kadabra."

"If that happened here," Mum says in a whisper. "The same night as you find a phione… the night before we find Emma's house in such a state… we can't be blamed for leaping to a hasty conclusion."

"Someone doesn't want people knowing about the actual existence of phione," Dad says. "If people find out, they'll be scouring the globe for any of the other legendaries. There's already been enough attempts to find and capture them. Definitive proof would tip everyone over the edge."

Terror builds inside me. It's new seeing my parents so afraid of something. It's new and I don't like it.

"Are you sure?" I ask them, hesitantly. "Maybe you're just overreacting?"

Dad makes a face and calls his kadabra in the room. It sits down and waits attentively for his command.

"You know Emma's place, don't you Bruce? I need you to teleport there – stay out of sight and see what's going on. There should be police there; see if you can listen in on what they're saying."

The kadabra growls and disappears with a flash of light. Mum and Dad look more anxious than ever; they're both turning whiter by the second.

Finally the pokémon appears back in the room. Its sudden appearance makes us all jump. It looks at Dad, its eyes shining blue as it tells him what's going on.

Dad swears. "Suits," he tells Mum. "The police said it looks like suits had gone through the place."

"'Suits'?" I echo, confused. "Don't you wear one to work though, Dad?"

"Not that sort of suit, hon," Mum tells me. "You remember Uncle David?"

I nod. Uncle David was Mum's brother. He always seemed to be jumpy whenever he was visiting, almost like he was expecting something bad to happen. Mum says that was because of his work – he always had to be aware and ready, whenever and wherever. They never told me his job, nor did he.

He died about six months ago. He was shot somewhere in Hoenn. I don't know any more than that.

"David worked for the police," Mum tells me. "In one of the armed-response units. If there was something big, like a drugs bust, he'd be one of the people ready and waiting with a machine gun to take down the bad guys. He always said that the suits were people not to be trusted – they had clearance given to them straight from the government and could make people disappear overnight."

My mind reaches the same conclusion my parents have. "These people made Craig and his mum disappear?" It breaks my heart to know something like that has happened. My heart and stomach shatter when I realise it could happen to us too.

"We're gonna have to disappear," Dad says as he rushes around the room. "What happened to Kara last night wasn't an accident. They can't let it get out that people found a phione – they'll be freaking and thinking that the kids could have been exposed to anything. Remember how much they tried hunting down the kids that managed to catch the dragons here a while back?"

Mum nods silently. Her face betrays the panic she's trying so hard to hide. "Where can we go?" she asks. "What about Jerry? We've got to let him know!"

Dad stops moving and thinks for a second. "I'm not sure where we'll go. I'll send Bruce to find Jerry; he can tell him what's going on. Jerry's in Viridian in Kanto at the moment, isn't he?"

"He was there when I spoke to him last," I tell him. "He said he was going towards Pewter for a badge there."

"We'll tell him to wait around Cerulean," Dad says. "We'll send a letter to the pokémon centre there for him to pick up. It'll let him know completely what's going on and a new number for him to ring us on."

I'm as confused as ever. "Why would we need a new number?"

"They can track the numbers easily," Mum says. "They can trace your phone to see where you are and even who you've been calling. David knew a lot about it. We're lucky we have pokémon – if it wasn't for them chasing away whoever came last night, we probably wouldn't be here right now."

Again I feel myself start to well up. It's all my fault after all. "I-I'm sorry!" I sob. "If Craig and I hadn't found the pokémon, we wouldn't be doing this right now! You guys wouldn't be afraid and Kara wouldn't have been shot and Craig and his mum wouldn't have gone missing!"

Mum wraps me in a tight hug and shushes me as she rocks side-to-side. "It's okay sweetie," she tells me. "You didn't know this would happen. None of us would have thought this would happen. But it doesn't matter. You and Jerry, you're our children. There's nothing we wouldn't do for you two, you know that. It's just safer to be on the move right now."

I realise that I won't be able to go the history school I wanted to. I won't be able to go to any school because my parents are going to be constantly afraid.

There's only one thing I can really do right now, as much as I really don't want to.

"Dad," I say quietly. "You've filled in all the forms for me to be a trainer, right?"

"Yes," he says reflexively. "Why?" he glances at me and sees the look in my eyes. Instantly he grabs me by the shoulders and shakes his head. "No way kiddo. You're not being a trainer now. If they were able to find out where you lived a few hours after you found that phione, you're not going to be safe on your own as a trainer."

Mum looks deep in thought. "Joe," she says slowly. "It's the best solution."

He shoots her a betrayed look. "How? I mean, how is this the best solution?"

"Think about it," Mum says. "They'll be looking for a family of three on the run. If it's just us two, we'll look a little different. The child they know of is disappearing on a trainer journey." She looks at me quickly. "You'll have to use fake names, is that alright with you?"

I'm stumped for a second. I like my name. It's who I am! But I suppose that if I've gotten us into this trouble, the least I can do is lie to people about my name. I give Mum a little nod and she smiles back at me.

"Good. Joe, listen, we'll tell people that our only child is Jerry. They'll believe it. As long as we're normal – don't draw attention to ourselves but don't become too secretive – people will just believe we're a normal, two-parent family that's downgrading their house now their child's left on a trainer journey."

"What about me?" I ask.

Mum crouches before me again. "Two towns over; Nacrene city. We'll send a letter to the pokémon centre there. It'll be under Grandma's maiden name – you remember that, right?" It takes me a little while to recall it and when I do, I give a tiny nod. "Good. Take Kiki with you, she'll be able to protect you along the way. Try to catch another pokémon or two. We'll tell you in the letter what our new address is and our new phone number. That way you'll be able to contact us. We'll send you a new phone with it too."

"We'll let Jerry know to meet you in Nacrene," Dad says. "It should take you about two weeks to get there – that should be more than enough time for him to travel back here and meet you in the pokémon centre there. Don't argue!" he snaps as I open my mouth. "Jerry's an experienced trainer. He'll be able to look after you. Even if you don't stick with him for long, he'll be able to protect you."

"I know how to be a pokémon trainer," I mutter defiantly at them. "I just never wanted to be one."

"We know, but this was your idea," Mum reminds me. "If you don't want to be a trainer, we can think of something else."

I shake my head. "No, this is better. You two will be safe this way, won't you?"

Mum smiles and kisses the top of my head. "Alright then. Go pack your bag sweetie; we'll wait down here for you. You know what to pack, don't you?"

I nod and recite the list of things I'll need. Dad smiles at me and tells me that the item capsules are in his room, under the bed. They look almost exactly like poké balls but have a large 'I' inscribed across the red top. They can minimise almost everything I need for this journey – tent, books, clothes – they just can't do it with food. For whatever reason, the food goes all weird when it's placed in an item capsule.

I find them and quickly rush to Jerry's room. I find one of his old backpacks in his wardrobe – do those clothes even still fit him? – and run into my room. I manage to sort and pack everything I know I'll need – sensible clothes and shoes, a few books, tent, sleeping bag and some pots and pans.

I stare sadly and longingly at everything in my room I can't take with me. All my posters, my CDs, videos, pictures and most of all – my bed. I really want to take it with me, but I know I can't have a big bed in the middle of the woods somewhere.

I sigh to myself and slip on some shoes. I grab Kiki's poké ball from my desk before I stop and stare at myself in the mirror. It's the last time I'll see myself for a while anyway.

My hair's the same brown colour that Dad's used to be – Mum dyes hers black. I've got Mum's blue eyes as opposed to Dad's brown ones, as well as her pointy nose, but with Dad's smile. My big, baggy black hoodie and equally baggy jeans should be enough to hide myself in and comfy enough that they won't hurt as I travel.

I sigh and look at my phone once more. It lies there, almost sad that I can't take it with me.

I snatch it up quickly and run to the computer. I know that I can't take my phone with me, but I want to keep the photo that's caused this all. I use the computer to move it onto my camera – I should be allowed to take that, right? – and quickly turn everything off afterwards.

I grab Jerry's – my – backpack and sling it over my shoulders. It's heavier than I would have thought. Kiki's poké ball goes in my front pocket and I quickly find my tattered old wallet.

When I'm back downstairs Mum hands me some extra money and piles my backpack up with food and drink that she says I'll need. She tells me to take one of her pokémon with her – I tell her a ten year old with a big, trained pokémon would be too obvious.

More than that, I need to do this on my own. I've already stolen their lives – I can't steal their pokémon too.

"Here, kiddo," Dad says as he gives me a little present. "I was going to give it to you later, to make you feel a little better about not being able to go to the school you wanted."

I stare at the box with wide eyes. A present? For me? I forget about everything for a moment and unwrap the item with as much excitement as I feel. Inside is a little white box; inside that is a little emerald leather collar with a tiny electronic box attached.

My fingers shake as I pull the gift out of the box.

"I know you're always complaining that you don't like Kiki because you can't understand her," Dad tells me. "I figured this might help you like her a bit more."

I know that if I had received this on a normal day I probably would have hated it. But now, Kiki's my only protection. It has to protect me in the wild. The one little present means more to me than I thought it ever could.

"D-dad," I stutter. I can't think of anything to say. Instead I just fling myself at him and cry into his shirt. "I'm sorry," I mumble between tears.

He shushes me and strokes my hair. "I know kiddo," he whispers. "Don't worry about anything. It'll all work out – you'll see. Take these too." He hands me a little pile of papers. "They're your trainer forms. Take them to the pokémon centre in the next town and hand them to the person behind the desk. They'll give you your licence and a pokédex too. You'll like it – it's got a little thing about the history of all recorded pokémon."

He kisses the top of my head and lets Mum hug me afterwards. She tells me to be strong, to not take any shit – it shocks me a little to hear her say that – then kisses my cheek and tells me that everything will be fine.

I sniff and wipe my nose on my sleeve. "Love you both," I tell them.

"We love you too," they say together. It makes us all laugh for the briefest moment, then we're back to being sad again. I finally manage to tear myself away from them and force a smile upon my face.

Only when I shut the door behind me do I realise the gravity of it all.

I've become a pokémon trainer.

I'm one of the normal people now.

The thought stays with me as I walk down the road. There's so many rules that I have to follow in being a trainer. Every time Jerry comes back home, he always tells me a few more things he's found out. My parents are right that he should help me on my journey. I still feel bad for it though.

Guilt is a heavy weight in my heart. I follow the signs for the way out of town and towards Striaton City.

Something makes me stop at the final gate towards the city's exit. I turn around and look back into my hometown. The cars are still running, people are still walking down the street and everything seems no different than a few hours ago.

Yet it feels stranger to me than I could ever have imagined.

I'm about to turn away again when something draws my gaze. I see a little girl stood on the other side of the street. She doesn't seem to notice me as she stands there, skip rope clutched tightly in a hand. She looks unreal; perfectly straight blonde hair and a white dress that seems brighter than anything I've seen before.

She smiles at the sky and starts to play skip rope. Somehow, even though I'm not close enough to hear, her song drifts around my ears.

"The hero's a cheat. The liar's a thief. The world can do without them~"

She stops suddenly and glances my way. Her smile is eerie. Something about her doesn't feel right. I need to know more. She turns away and runs down the road. I call after her to stop and chase her down three blocks and finally round a corner.

I stare at the large brick wall that marks a complete dead end. I know that she ran this way; there's nowhere else she could have gone.

Except somehow, she's not here.

I frown, poke the wall and realise it is real. With a sigh I turn away and try to forget about the little girl.

Though now I know, without a doubt that I'll never be normal.

Disclaimer

Pokémon is a registered trademark of Satoshi Tajiri, Game Freak, the Pokémon Company, Nintendo, etc. All trademarked characters, locations, themes and ideas are used without permission in a work of fan-created fiction. The following has been done without profit for purely entertainment purposes. All original concepts, characters, themes and ideas within are the copyrighted property of the author, and are not to be reproduced without his prior consent.