#and i did

rumplestiltskin:

⊙ω⊙

Some modern!AU Charmes! 

Maybe some rocker AU vibes? 

Laziest background ever or laziest background ever?
I wanted to draw Magic, my first Gyarados I caught back when I was six and playing Red for the first time. Needless to say, I was a victim of the Magikarp salesman and I literally spent all of my remaining money (that I kept losing anyway because I was terrible at battling) on buying her.

I had to face Mt. Moon with no potions or repels because of her and I loved her a lot.

Bonus origin story:

“Hey, kid.”
Sappire turned her head towards the voice, giving her legs another swing as they hung over the edge of the couch in the center’s lobby. “Mm?”
“Hey there.” Grinning, the man dared to inch a little closer to where she sat, causing her to lean away instinctively.

He was a stranger and Charmeleon was still back being healed, leaving her- an out-of-shape six year old- pretty much defenseless. His choice in clothes further made her nervous; dark glasses and a wide-brimmed hat shielded most of his face from view, and he wore a long brown trench coat that made his exact build impossible to determine. In all honestly, she thought to herself, he looked exactly like one of the men from the PSAs they liked to play in the Pokemon center waiting rooms. The men they usually cautioned young trainers to stay away from.
“Um,” she said at last, dropping her eyes to the floor and tensing her shoulders. “Hi.”
“Hey,” he said again, coming still closer, “you all alone?”
“Mm,” she replied, not wanting to admit to anything. Maybe if he thought she had someone else there he’d leave her alone.
“I don’t bite! C'mon, you come here with anyone? An older brother maybe?”
Sappire shook her head.
“What about a mommy or daddy?”
She didn’t want to respond to that and placed her hands on either side of her on the cushion, inching towards the edge of her seat as if she intended to get up.
“Oh now, hey!” The man started to reach a hand out towards her shoulder in an effort to stop her, but paused a second later when a threatening growl was heard from the direction of the center’s main counter not far away.
“Hold on-!” came the harried voice of the nurse, only to be stopped when a very large, very angry Charmeleon vaulted over the top of the front desk in a single leap and ran quickly in the direction of the two by the couch. In a moment he was positioned between the girl- who had jumped up to meet him- and the man now frozen with an arm partially outstretched. With a snarl, Charmeleon narrowed his eyes and released a puff of black smoke from his nostrils, clearly more than capable of stopping anyone from laying a hand on his human.
Though the stranger returned his hand to his side for fear of losing it- he really didn’t like the look of those teeth- he found himself trapped when a nurse came running up to join them.
“Charmeleon, what-?” She stopped, then turned an accusatory glare to the man that had started all of this. “What’s going on?”
“N-nothing,” he began quickly, shoving both hands safely into his coat pockets. “I just saw the little lady was sitting alone and-”
Charmeleon took a step towards him, lowering his head like a creature preparing for an attack. Unsurprisingly, this did wonders for speeding up the explanation.
“I was- I was just looking for a customer! I thought maybe she knew someone and-”
“What kind of customer?” the nurse demanded, placing her hands on her hips.
“I’m just a small businessman-”
“What kind of customer?”
“Here- here, uh,” he undid the top button of his coat and reached into it, removing a single pokeball polished to a shine from some unseen pocket.
For a split second, Charmeleon looked braced for an attack, but the man immediately placed it gingerly on the couch cushion and gave it a nervous pat.
“There,” he went on, sounding desperately hopeful, “it’s uh- this one’s on the house. Just a- just a gift! Go ahead, little girl, just, uh… I’ll be going.”
“Now wait just a second-!”
The nurse’s protest fell on deaf ears and the man practically sprinted past her to escape, holding on to his coat as though afraid something would fall out in his attempt at a getaway. The next second he had rushed out the center’s front doors and off in the direction of Mt. Moon.
Hmph'ing in disgust, the nurse turned back to Sappire and leaned over, watching as Charmeleon turned back to her and nudged her shivering form with his dark nose.
“Are you alright, hun?” she asked gently.
Sappire took her Charmeleon’s head in both hands for a second before pulling him in for a tight hug around his neck.
“Mm-hm. I think so.”
“That’s good. Did you catch that man’s name?”
“No.”
“That’s alright, don’t worry. Your Pokemon are already healed up- Charmeleon, here, just jumped the gun a minute ago and ran out of the examination room.”
Releasing the Pokemon in question from the choking hug, Sappire took a step back to look at him in awe.
“Did you know I was scared?”
“Meleon.”
“T-that’s so cool!”
The nurse smiled faintly at seeing some of the tension lift and straightened back up, instead approaching the pokeball that the man had left behind. Before she could walk away with it, however, Sappire stopped her.
“C-can I see what’s in the pokeball?”
“Hm? Oh, well…” She turned back to the little girl with some confusion. “It might be a dangerous-”
“That’s okay!” Sappire brought her little fists up even with her chest as though she herself was ready to fight. “Charmeleon is feeling better, right? He can take ‘em!”
As if in agreement, Charmeleon turned to the nurse and raised his head in pride.
“Well-”
“Please? Just for my Pokedex?” Dropping her arms so she could wiggle free of her backpack, she shoved a hand into one of the side pockets to remove the device that had been given to her by the professor. “I’ll just- I’ll just read its Pokedex entry and then you can return it. Pretty please? The professor wants me to see all the Pokemon in the whole world and it’s gonna take a really really long time and- and maybe it’s a rare one!”
Though she hesitated, the nurse finally sighed and wrapped her fingers more tightly around the ball, turning it outward. “Alright. Only for a second.”
“Yay!”
A flash of white light later and all three of those present found themselves staring down at a rather pathetic Magikarp. It gave a single flop of its tail in response to being released, but then lay still.

A little too still.

Sappire’s Pokedex beeped to life, but it was quickly thrown on the couch beside her as both girl and her Charmeleon dropped down onto the floor to better observe it and confirm that it hadn’t immediately died on the spot.
The nurse herself dropped the pokeball and brought both hands to her mouth with a quiet gasp before her training kicked in and she turned back towards the front desk where an obliviously calm Chansey now stood.
“Chansey! Get the doctor- it’s an emergency!”
“Cha~ansey,” came the cheerful response as the large pink blob turned around to comply.
“Sappire- Sappire, don’t touch it.”
Sappire was, in fact, touching the Magikarp when the nurse looked again. She was stroking it, to be exact, and talking softly to it as she tried to determine its condition.
It was still breathing, but that much was only noticeable thanks to the wheeze in the poor thing’s lungs. More interestingly, though, was that petting it on its side resulted in a thick coat of green slime on the girl’s hand when she removed it. It smelled a little too much like raw sewage, and made it obvious that it hadn’t come from the cleanest home environment.
“It’s so dirty,” Sappire said quietly, turning concerned eyes up to the nurse. “Is it- is it gonna be okay?”
“… The doctor will be out here shortly and we’ll take her back to the… to a special room.”

—

Sappire was again sitting on the couch in the center’s lobby, a single pokeball in her lab as she swung her legs anxiously in the air. At her side, Charmeleon had curled up on the cushion and rested his head over her arm, joining her in staring at the ball.
Waiting was hard.
The light above the door where the Magikarp had been taken had remained on for a good hour now, and the girl was beginning to doubt that any good news would ever come.
Finally, with a deep breath, Sappire slipped her arm out from under her Pokemon’s head and rested the hand on top of him, giving him a small pat.
“It looked really bad,” she said, still speaking softly in the otherwise empty room. “It… it probably hurt a lot.”
A tiny nod. “Char.”
“If… if it hurt a lot, maybe… maybe it would be better if… if…”
“Char?”
Sappire clenched her small fists, allowing the pokeball to settle in the folds of her skirt as she placed her hands on either knee and stared down hard at it.
“If- a Pokemon is in a lot of pain, then… then sometimes it d-dies,” she managed, swallowing a lump in her throat as tears started to fill her eyes. “That- that’s what mommy used to say. A-and sometimes that’s better 'cause it doesn’t… it doesn’t feel anything any more.”
Charmeleon lifted his head to nudge her arm gently, hating to see her upset. It was a Pokemon’s job to help their trainers, wasn’t it? Surely there was something he could do to make her feel better about things.
Before he had the chance to try, however, the light above the door finally dimmed and the nurse from before stepped out of the double doors very carefully, pausing to look around the room. Noticing Sappire was still there, she tried to put on a small smile.
“Sappire?”
The girl looked up, tears now running down her face as her hands returned to the pokeball, gripping it tightly in hopes that it would give her some kind of strength.
Looking sympathetic, the nurse’s smile became just a little more genuine when she saw the tears. “The Magikarp should be fine.”
Sappire swallowed another lump in her throat. “R-really?”
“Her lungs were very… dirty,” the nurse went on, trying her best to simplify their findings for the little girl. “She’s still very weak, but… would you like to come back and visit her?”
Choking out a sob, Sappire stumbled off of the couch, barely aware that she was still holding the pokeball in her vice grip. “Y-yes.”
“Please, come with me. You’re welcome to come too, Charmeleon.”
“Meleon!”

A few minutes later found the girl and her Pokemon standing beside the small bed that the Magikarp had been tucked almost humorously in. Her scales were clean now, and her breathing was quiet and steady. Even the bad smell had been cleared away.
Still, Sappire was already an emotional mess and quickly burst into tears the moment she lay eyes on the poor Pokemon.
Charmeleon peered over the edge of the bed himself and tilted his head to one side, curious as to why the fish was tucked into the sheets. Didn’t fish belong in the water?
In response, the Magikarp gave a single flop of its tail from beneath the blankets, and Sappire finally dropped the pokeball to the floor and reached over the bed, partially lifting the Magikarp gingerly up into her arms so she could hug it, tears quickly making the sheets wet.
Another feeble wiggle.
“I thought you were gonna be dead!”
Wiggle, wiggle.
“I- I dinnit want you to be dead!”
Flop.
“Y-you’re a good Pokemon! You’re- you’re a r-really good Pokemon!”

—

It was much later that night when Charmeleon dared to leave the side of his sleeping human. She had fallen asleep on the bench that was pushed against the room’s window, having exhausted herself with crying and worrying, and he had been curled up on the floor beside her.
They obviously weren’t going to be traversing Mt. Moon tonight.
Despite the fact the Magikarp was the reason for this, Charmeleon couldn’t resist the opportunity to talk to her and made his way very carefully across the floor, making every effort to keep his claws from clicking on the polished tile as he moved. Coming up to the bed, he lay his head on the edge of it and inched himself closer to the fish in the middle of the blankets.
{Psst,} he hissed, giving the bed a little thump with his chin.
The Magikarp’s eyes flew open at this interruption of her sleep and the one facing upwards moved to look at him with some curiosity.
{Hi!} Charmeleon began, flashing a wide, toothy smile. {My name’s Charmeleon! How are you feeling?}
The Magikarp gave a little flop. {Better…?}
{That’s good. Sappire was really worried about you.}
{S… Sappire?}
{That’s my human! The little girl over there.} He pointed his nose towards the bench. {She’s nice.}
The Magikarp flicked her eyes over to the girl for just a second. {Oh, yes. She cries a lot.}
{Only because she was worried. She means well!}
{I don’t mind.}
{Say, um… can I ask what happened? You looked really sick.}
A small, anxious wiggle. {Bad things.}
{Yeah, I bet! It looked really bad.}
{Bad things,} she repeated, shivering, {really bad things.}
{Er.} He tilted his head a little in confusion. {Do you… do you remember what kind of bad things?}
{Dead. Lots of dead.}
{Dead… Magikarp?}
{Yes! Dead! So many dead.} She gave a small, weak hop. {They died, but they stayed. So many.}
{Like… in a tank maybe?}
{Yes! Small tank! Many dead! It was scary. It was full of bad things.}
Charmeleon furrowed his brow at this, taking a moment to consider the somewhat broken sentences. {Were you raised there?}
{Hatched. Hundreds of eggs. Small tank. Dirty.}
Another short pause for consideration. {… Well, it’s a good thing you’re not there any more!}
{… Yes.}
{Is this your first time out in the world, then?}
{Yes.}
{It’s nice out here! Sometimes it’s a little scary and big, but my human is nice and she likes to battle. I like to battle, too! We’re going to get really strong and beat all of the other trainers to be the best.}
{… I’d like to be the best.}
{Oh! Um… well, maybe you can find a human? There are a lot of them.}
{No one wants me.}
Again, the Charmeleon had to pause. {… Of course someone wants you.}
{No,} the Magikarp sighed, {not me. No human for me. I am a disappointment.}
{That’s not true! Sappire was happy to see you were safe- she wouldn’t have been crying like that if you had disappointed her.}
{I was raised to disappoint.}
{No you weren’t! Well… well, maybe you were raised to think that- but it’s not true. Any Pokemon can find a trainer.}
{Human man sells us. He tells other humans that we are great. He gets lots of money for great Pokemon. We are not so great and we disappoint. We are brought back to him.}
Charmeleon wiggled his upper body a little more on the bed, standing on the very tips of his clawed toes. {Well- well even if someone did pay for you, any Pokemon can be good.}
{Not for me. I am no good.}
Charmeleon frowned. Then, turning his head, he aimed his scarred, blind eye towards the Pokemon on the bed. {Here- look.}
A beat, then, {… Blind?}
{Completely,} he replied, turning back to face her head-on so he could see her properly. {It was an accident during a battle. Everyone said a half-blind Pokemon would never be able to battle again and told Sappire she should try something else like- like contests or something. I wanted her to replace me at first since I’d slow her down.}
{But… she did not?}
{No. She didn’t. She just buckled down on the training and tried to teach me how to work with a blind spot. I’m good, too! I even beat the Pokemon that took that eye from me. Everyone said I wasn’t good and that- that I would only bring disappointment. Sappire proved them wrong! That’s what humans do. Humans see things that are bad and try to make them good. They’re smart. They can be our eyes when we lose one- or even both- and they take care of us. You can find a human to take care of you, too.}
{I cannot fight.}
{Well… well maybe not yet! But you could! Like that backpack Sappire always carries around with her? It’s got a Pokemon inside. A Kakuna! Kakuna can’t even move, but Sappire keeps insisting that he’ll evolve one day and be useful. Right now he’s just kind of… sleeping, I guess. But still! Maybe you’ll evolve one day, too.}
{I… don’t know.}
{You won’t know until you try! Maybe you’ll evolve and be really, really strong! You’ve just got to find a human to help you. They can take you places and teach you things. They can keep an eye on you while you’re weak.}
{… I would like that.}
{Yeah! See,} Charmeleon smiled once again, {you’ve just got to believe in yourself a little. You’re away from the weird man now, so you can find a trainer that won’t be expecting something else from you. They’ll catch you just for you.}
Magikarp gave a small, almost excited little flop among the sheets. {Maybe I will. Maybe I will be strong!}
Laughing softly, Charmeleon finally lowered his feet fully back to the floor, leaning away from the bed. {For now you should sleep. You need to heal up before you can get strong.}
{I will rest.}
{And then you can wake up in the morning and be ready for the new day!}
{I hope it will be a good day. I would like to be strong soon.}
{You will be. Just don’t try to rush it.}
{I will try.}
{Good night, then. Sleep well!}
{Good night, Charmeleon.}

—

“Okay, so Magikarp with white whiskers are girls,” Sappire was muttering, perched on the edge of the recovering Magikarp’s bed and consulting her Pokedex. She paused here, however, to look at the Pokemon in question and grin. “So that’s how come everyone knew right away that you were a girl!”
She wiggled a little in response.

The nurse had already been in that morning and informed everyone that the Magikarp would be free to go shortly. It was too complicated to go into when speaking to a child, but they were presently attempting to track down the man who had been trying to sell her in hopes of hitting him with a charge relating to the state his 'merchandise’ was in.
Unfortunately, it seemed as though the search turned up nothing and, as a result, it was around noon when the nurse returned with an almost sad smile.
“Everything’s settled,” she announced. “Magikarp is free to go.”
“Yay!” Sappire sprung off the bed and broke into a wide smile, stopping for a moment to turn and pick up the wiggling fish into her arms before turning back to the nurse, struggling to hold onto her. “Where does- where does Magikarp go now?”
“Well.” the nurse paused and crouched down so she was about level with the little girl. “Well you see, she doesn’t have a trainer any more.”
“Okay.”
“That means she has to go back to the wild until she can find a new one.”
Sappire frowned just a little. “… But she might not be better yet.”
“We think she’s well enough to fend for herself. Pokemon heal very quickly, after all. Would you like to come with us to release her?”
The girl hesitated, giving the squirming Magikarp a little squeeze as she considered her options.
“… Okay.”

A few minutes later found Sappire and the nurse standing beside a small pond tucked away in a corner of Mt. Moon’s craggy border. At Sappire’s side, Charmeleon was looking at the little collection of water suspiciously.
It was a little out of the way. There was a chance no trainers would think to stop here while traveling.
Sappire seemed to have similar qualms and hugged the fish a little more tightly to herself, causing it to squirm around in her arms.
“Are you sure this is a good place?” she asked, looking to the nurse.
“It’s the nearest body of water,” the nurse replied. “She can stay here as long as she wants until a trainer comes along.”
“Is she gonna be safe here?”
“Most aggressive Pokemon stay away from the area near the Pokemon center. I’m sure she’ll be fine.”
Sappire crouched down very carefully, arms still around the Magikarp, but stopped again before placing her in the water.
“Do you think she’ll find a nice trainer?”
The nurse smiled kindly. “I’m sure she will.”
Leaning forward, the girl came within inches of letting her go only to stop yet again and look back at the nurse.
“What about her pokeball?”
“We’ve already deactivated it. That means we’ve turned it off so someone else can catch her in a new one.”
“A nice person, though, right?”
“Of course.”
At last, if a little reluctantly, Sappire dropped the Magikarp into the small pool before sitting back on her heels and watching as she flicked around in the water eagerly. At least the water was clean and probably easier to swim in than wherever it was she had come from. That was a plus.
Charmeleon released a happy growl as he bent down near the water’s edge, grinning at the surface. In response, the Magikarp chose to give a particularly impressive jump out of the water only to come crashing back down and send the splash directly into his face. As he sat back and snorted, shaking his head to dry it, Sappire again looked back at the nurse.
“Can I stay here and talk to her a little?”
“Of course you can,” she replied, giving her a little pat on the head. “I’m going to head back inside, though, if you’ll be alright.”
“Okay.”

The minutes that followed were mostly spent in silence with Sappire staring down at the water with a look of deep concentration on her face. Finally, she leaned forward and placed her hands at the waters edge.
“Magikarp?”
A rustle of water and then the orange head emerged, curious.
“Are you feeling better?”
A little nod. Or at least it looked like a nod- it was hard to tell when her face was practically built into her body.
“Do you… do you want a trainer?”
Another full-body nod.
Sappire hesitated, chewing her lip nervously for a second. Then, finally, “… I kind of want a water type Pokemon.”
“Kaaarp?”
“I have Charmeleon and- and Drills, so that’s fire and bug and poison, and Otto is flying and normal and… and I don’t have a water type. Water types are supposed to be good for Mt. Moon.” She turned pleading eyes on the Magikarp. “You’re a good Pokemon. W-would you… would you like to be my water type?”
The Magikarp stared at her for a moment, eyes wider than usual at the proposition.
“I mean- you don’t have to. You’re probably still a little tired and stuff but…” She bit her lip again before sliding the backpack off her shoulders and shoving a hand into a random pocket. Pulling out a pokeball, she held it up to the edge of the little pond.
“If you want,” she said quietly, “you can come with me. If- if you don’t want to, you can just stay here and wait for someone else. I know I’m little and I have a whole lot to learn but- but I really like you. I think you’re really strong.”
Cautiously, the Magikarp swam a little closer to the pokeball, looking at it as though trying to determine if it were a trick or not. When Sappire continued to hold it in place, she released a delighted shout of “Kaaaarp!” and lunged, allowing the light to engulf her.

She would be strong one day.
She had a human now.

xxx

“Okay, Magic,” Sappire was saying, holding the Magikarp in the shallow part of the river outside Cerulean Cave, “Splash!”
Magic obeyed, flailing wildly between her trainer’s hands and wiggling her fins around in glee.
This had been their training for the past week.
Sappire had been stumped by the difficulty of Nugget Bridge, and even being young she could still come to conclusion that if the bridge was hard, the gym would be impossible. As a result, her and the team had come out here near the river’s shoreline every morning and she would wade in up to her ankles to hold on to her Magikarp and command her to splash. The goal, ultimately, was to teach her to escape from her trainer’s grip in hopes it would help her to become more mobile and useful in battle.
Charmeleon’s task was to ward off any Pokemon that came too close hoping to take advantage of either of the girl or Magic, and Drills- that is, the Kakuna that was now a Beedrill- hovered around her head to cheer them on.
Drills knew firsthand how it felt to be useless. He’d struggled with being trapped in a cocoon for long enough to understand the frustration of being unable to contribute. As such, he quickly became the Magikarp’s personal cheerleader.

Magic flailed a few more times in the water before pausing, out of breath from the burst of exertion.
“Ha!” Sappire threw her head up, triumphant. “I win again!”
“Karp-karp,” Magic admitted, sounding defeated. “Karp.”
“Aw, no, you’ll get away one of these times! You’ve just gotta keep trying.”
“Maybe you should just let her get away.”
Sappire turned at the strange voice, and felt the brush of Drills’ wings as he dropped to shoulder height, buzzing angrily at the interruption. At first, the red hair and swimsuit of the approaching woman meant nothing to the girl, but then she spun around- releasing Magic in the process- and pointed an accusing finger.
“You’re Misty!”
“That’s right,” the gym leader replied, sounding stern as she came to a stop in front of the young trainer. Throwing her towel over her shoulder, she frowned as her eyes flicked towards the water’s surface. “What do you think you’re doing to that poor Pokemon?”
“W-what?”
“That Magikarp. It’s cruel to hold them like that- it’s not like they can get away from you.”
Sappire glanced down at the water around her feet where Magic now sat propped up against her ankle to watch the conversation. “N-no, see, I was…”
“No excuses!” Misty crossed her arms over her chest and looked furious at this development. “I see kids come out here all the time to bother the local water Pokemon- and I’m sick of it! You either need to learn how to respect them or else-”
“Meleon!”
From the tall grass nearby, Charmeleon’s voice caused the woman to stop and look in some surprise. A second later, the Pokemon himself had leapt from the damp greenery and darted around her, placing himself between his human and the stranger much as he had at the base of Mt. Moon. Sappire bent down and scooped up Magic and stepped out of the water, standing carefully behind Charmeleon and holding her Magikarp close.
“She’s my Magikarp,” Sappire said, speaking quietly and looking nervous. “I wanted to train her to be strong enough to get away.”
Drills reminded them of his presence by buzzing in agreement. This was delaying their training and he very much wanted to get back on track.
Glancing between all three Pokemon present, Misty finally settled her gaze back on the girl. “Aren’t you a little… little?”
“I’m six!” Sappire replied, giving her Magikarp another squeeze. “Professor Oak gave me Charmeleon and- and I caught everyone else by myself.”
“Are you traveling alone?”
“No. The professor is s'posed to be showing me around a little.”
“Wait a second…” The woman crouched down so she could better see the Charmeleon- who snorted in frustration at her- and her eyes widened when her gaze fell on his scarred eye. “You’re the blind Charmeleon Brock was talking about!”
“Char?”
“Charmeleon beat Brock by himself!” Sappire offered, sounding more than a little proud of the fact. “I’ve got his badge on my backpack. We’re gonna- we’re gonna try and beat all the gym leaders!”
Misty straightened back up and looked doubtful of this. “With a Charmeleon and a Beedrill?”
“Well- well I have a Pidgeotto, too! She’s in her ball, but she’s strong! And- and Magic, here, is our newest friend so-”
“So that’s really your Magikarp?”
“Mm-hm! R-right, Magic?”
As the girl looked down at the Pokemon in her arms, she was greeted with an enthusiastic “Karp!” and an excited wiggle. For Magic, the idea that she was part of a team was the best thing she could possibly be reminded of.

One day soon she’d be strong.
She’d be strong enough make her trainer proud.

—

The day Magic broke away from Sappire’s hands and slipped right into the water was the day she knew she was getting closer to reaching her goal.
She could feel herself getting stronger, and the force she used to free herself from Sappire’s grip had sent the girl flying into the knee-deep water herself. Magic had only been able to celebrate for a brief second because of this, as the next she had swam up to her fallen trainer with concern, only to be met with her sitting up and laughing through the coughing up of river water.
It had made a good start to the day.
For that matter, Drills and Charmeleon hadn’t been idle, either. Though the mornings had been spent in the water, the afternoons were spent with them sparring in the tall grass, working on their speed and ability to dodge. Even Otto had brought herself to join in to make the battles all the more challenging. As a result of the combined improvement across the board, the evening found Sappire finally standing at the end Nugget Bridge, Pokemon huddled around her, and grinning widely at the upcoming challenge.
She’d beat the bridge and then she’d beat Misty.
Her team was going to be unstoppable.
Hugging a squirming Magic close to her- the Magikarp had grown large enough she was now almost too big for her to hold in both arms- she led the group unto the first plank.

The battles moved swiftly due to the week’s worth of training they’d done and Charmeleon alone had been able to make swift work of almost everyone on his own. Drills had been eager to help with the few poison types they encountered along the way, but when they came to the final young trainer with a Mankey Otto came out of her Pokeball long enough to secure the final win.

“Congratulations!” The man at the end of the bridge announced, laughing as the little girl came bobbing up to him with her Magikarp still held close. “You’ve beaten all the trainers and won a prize!”
As he reached into the bag at his side to remove one of the nuggets he kept for the victorious trainers, the girl grinned and turned back to behold the now empty bridge. After losing, they’d all retreated to the Cerulean center, grumbling about having to heal their Pokemon again. It solidified her confidence that she had done a good job to see them still missing. Turning back to the man clad in black just as he pulled out the lump of gold that was her prize, she ventured a question.
“Where do you find so much gold to give away?”
“Hm?” He glanced at her, then to the prize in his hand. “Oh, my boss gives 'em to us.”
“That’s awful nice of him.”
“It is! He’s a generous kinda guy. Maybe when you grow up you could work for him? You’ve got some good Pokemon there and he’s always looking for more help.”
Not missing a beat, Sappire’s smile widened. “What kind of help?”
“Oh, you know. Collecting things.”
“What kind of things?”
“Pokemon and uh… other stuff. Do you have a hand for the nugget or-?”
“Charmeleon can carry it for me!”
At the sound of his name, Charmeleon pulled himself away from the water’s edge where he had been watching some of the fish and approached the man cheerfully. Just as he went to accept the gift, however, the man pulled his hand away and recoiled in terror.
“The blind Charmeleon!”
Both trainer and Pokemon tilted their heads almost in sync at his sudden outburst.
“Do you know my Charmeleon?”
The man stumbled back against the fence behind him, shoving the nugget back into his bag as his other hand went to the pokeballs on his belt. “You were the kid from Mt. Moon! It was you-!”
“Mt. Moon-?” Sappire continued to look confused for a few seconds, and then something clicked. The man’s hat and his clothes, though they were a solid black and lacked any kind of insignia, looked all too familiar. “Team Rocket!”
In a moment, Charmeleon had taken a battle stance, head lowered and teeth bared. Before he could strike, however, the man had already sent out both an Ekans and Sandshrew.
Squaring her shoulders, Sappire braced herself for the upcoming battle. “Charmeleon, Ember! Drills-” she stopped, then turned around in confusion, “… where did Drills go?”
Unfortunately, the temporary distraction cost her a moment later. While Charmeleon had taken it upon himself to lunge for the Sandshrew, flames licking at the corners of his mouth, the Ekans was granted a rare opportunity.

He had a clear shot at the girl.

A dash and leaping tackle later saw Sappire falling backwards, one arm flying out to try and find something to grab on to. Just as the snake opened its mouth wide to show off venomous fangs, however, angry buzzing filled the air as a single sharp drill drove neatly into his side, sending him flying in the other direction.
By the time he rolled to a stop in the grass, Drills was already on top of him again, the second strike ready and making direct contact with his skull.
As far as Drills was concerned, you didn’t touch his trainer. Attempting to bring her any harm automatically made any value placed on your life null and void in his eyes.

It was all over in a moment and both Drills and Charmeleon turned to face the Rocket member, staring him down angrily and awaiting further instructions.
They didn’t come.
A few seconds passed before Drills looked over his shoulder only to release a panicked buzz, his deadly arms falling to his side in a moment.
Charmeleon only afforded a quick glance behind him, unwilling to let the grunt out of his sight, only to do a double-take and spin his entire body about.

Their trainer was gone, leaving only a small puddle on the grass where she had been standing, evidence that she had stumbled back into the water and was now the source of the occasional bubble rising to the surface.
Needless to say, both Pokemon immediately forgot the importance of the Rocket and rushed to the shore, peering down into the depths in desperate hopes of locating her.
Despite their buzzing and calling, however, no answer came.

Sappire herself was presently curled up around her Magikarp, panicking internally as her held breath began to slowly run out. She couldn’t swim. She had never had reason to learn. Even now, clinging to Magic, she had no idea where to even begin if she wanted to reach the surface again.
Magic wiggled in her arms again, and at last the girl released her.
Did Magic need air? Sappire wasn’t entirely sure, but it wouldn’t make sense to keep her from it. At least Magic could swim if she needed to.
“Karp,” Magic began, swimming around so she was near the girl’s head. “Karp-karp?”
Sappire couldn’t respond, looking at her Pokemon with nothing short of pure terror in her eyes.
“Karp! Karp, karp!”
Still no response.
It was so quiet underwater, Sappire realized suddenly. Aside from Magic’s frantic attempts at getting a response, there was no sound. There was no anything, really. It was slowly getting darker, and soon she suspected there wouldn’t even be any light. Closing her eyes against the idea, she wrapped her arms around herself and shivered.
In a panic, now, Magic relocated herself to underneath her trainer, swimming upwards in a vain attempt to push the small body back to the surface. Humans needed air. Her human needed air. Her human- the only human who had been willing to keep her and treat her well and make her feel useful- her human was going to drown if she didn’t get air.

Curse her stupid, useless body. If she couldn’t even get her human back to safety- back to land- then what good was she?
If she could just swim harder.

Back at the water’s edge, Charmeleon had taken to pacing anxiously, pausing every few seconds to lean towards the water itself and get his nose so close he was almost touching it, only to retreat again.
He couldn’t swim. Even if he knew how, it was no secret that suffocating his tail flame would result in his own untimely death. Without a doubt, if he were to dive in after his trainer- as desperately as he wanted to- he’d be dead before he could even locate her.
Drills likewise knew his own jumping into the water would end no better. He’d sink like a rock and be unable to offer any help on his way down. Buzzing overhead, he flitted from one end of the small river shoreline to the other, hoping for any trace of the girl floating back to the surface. If she could just get that far, he was confident he could get a hold of her somehow and fly her back to land safely.

Just as the wait began to stretch into the minutes, another bubble surfaced, larger than the others, and brought with it a terrifying finality. Both Pokemon started to react in horror, but both were also silenced a second later when the surface of the river all but exploded upward.

At first it looked as though a pillar of water had risen from the depths of its own accord, but once the shower had died down this proved to be false.

Charmeleon and Drills were staring up at a giant Gyarados.

Huge, translucent fins ran down either side of her back, fluttering delicately despite the creature’s explosive entrance, and the face was thin and sleek, built for beauty over raw power. Even the tail that floated to the surface behind the beast was thin and fragile-looking, though much longer than that of a normal Gyarados. Opening her mouth and revealing a set of razor-sharp teeth, she let out a deafening roar that made the ground shake beneath their feet, and a single flick of her webbed tail sent a small wave washing over the nearby bridge.
She might have been pale and delicate compared to others of her kind, but her size highlighted the fact that she was just as deadly.

For just a moment, both Charmeleon and Drills forgot about their trainer in the face of a terrifying sea monster that had seemingly materialized out of nowhere. Then, before they could even recover, the graceful head bowed low and the pointed nose touched the shore, giving itself a little shake to cause the small form of Sappire to slide off of it, sputtering and choking and gasping for the air she had been deprived of for too long.
As Drills rushed to their trainer’s side in concern, Charmeleon allowed himself a moment to stare up at the Gyarados in awe. He started to open his mouth to thank her, but was stopped when she turned familiar eyes to him and the corners of her great mouth curled upwards in a small smile.

{I have finally become strong.}

franmaya my beloved…….