@d_s_t_e's one-shot: "Luminescence"

The girl comes everyday when she thinks no one is watching. As the first rays of morning light filter through the clear water, her wavering image appears above the ripples of the surface. A girl with brown hair and a white patterned dress. It’s hard to tell humans apart sometimes, but I recognize the sad and lonely look in her eyes as she gazes on the waterfall.

This side of the pond is covered in shadow still, so I crouch in my tiny little cave, waiting for the light to make me plain again. The rocky walls are covered in the purple glow of my fluorescence, trapping it and bouncing it back so that every fluid centimeter is changed by it. Every night, I swim in water colored like the faintest beginnings of a sunrise. And every night I dread that my hiding place will be discovered.

The girl is hiding too. From someone or something. I don’t know because she never speaks, but I like to think she’s just like me. Hiding from the world.

She watches the waterfall, and I watch her. She never talks, but her face changes, like her thoughts are so loud they refuse to stay trapped inside. Her frowns come and go like clouds drifting across the surface of the sun. Sometimes out of nowhere her eyes will close and her face scrunch up into an expression of deep pain like something inside is jabbing at her. But most of all she sighs while those sad eyes reflect the water crashing down in waves.

I never let her see me. I don’t want anyone to see me, but especially not her. I like it when she comes here, and if she saw me, if she watched me for long enough to see who I really am, she would never come back again. What we have here isn’t much, but it’s everything I have. And the only thing that I would do is ruin it.

I wish I knew what was wrong with me so I could just hide that instead of hiding everything.

The sunrise is particularly beautiful this morning. The reflection of pink clouds dances on the surface as a Goldeen’s tail flicks the water into motion. I lift my eyes from the picture just in time to see that the girl’s eyes were focused on it, too. She smiles just a little, not like she’s happy, but perhaps wistfully. I wish I could flap my tailfins and make the picture dance again, but maybe it was doing things like that that made my last trainer abandon me.

After my first trainer traded me away, I thought that I was weak. He never told me that, but I knew that it had to be. I had lost too many match ups, failed to climb too many waterfalls, unforgotten too much from our training sessions. I was sad for weeks, but then I got determined. I pushed my Water Guns to new heights of volume and pressure, flexed my swimming muscles constantly, remembered every move and combination my blond-haired trainer taught me.

And when that didn’t impress her, I tried to dazzle with everything I had. I tried to communicate my support for her, showed off my best jumps and flips, and absorbed so much sun that I glowed like a purple moon at night.

But I didn’t know that there was something wrong with me. I didn’t know, and then I blew it. One day I was playing games with her other Pokémon in the pool of a cruise ship, and the next day I was watching her snap my pokéball in half from this little pool on the Sevii Islands. So far away from home. I spent the first two months trying to determine what I’d done wrong, and then I realized that I really had done everything I could, everything I thought she would like. I had done my best, and my best wasn’t good enough. I’m not good enough.

I get so lost in my thoughts that I don’t realize the brown-haired girl is crying until she lets out a sob. My heart jumps inside, and I don’t realize that I’ve left my cave until it’s too late. The girl’s eyes widen.

“F-Finneon?”

My eyes lock with hers, and it’s like I just can’t pull away. I feel the new sunlight on my scales and know that my glow is gone, but she still stares as though she can’t take her eyes off of me, either. In the instant I swam out, I was filled with nothing but compassion for her, but now the panic speeds my twin tail fins as I dive back down into my cave.

“Wait!” she calls out. “Finneon, wait!”

I swish my side fins until I turn around in the cramped little space, then push my tail fins together just enough to push my eyes to a place where I can see her.

The girl is down on her hands and knees, bent over so far that the ends of her hair trail down through the water. I blink in fear as I realize she is looking right at me. The sun has reached the far edge of the pool, and even the tiny entrance to my cave will grant it entrance before too long. The girl is usually gone by now. I should be out gathering my breakfast from the plants that grow among the rocks and dodging glances from the Kanto-native fish.

She stays perfectly still, looking at me, and this time I can’t help but continue looking back. Finally, a cloud passes through her face again, and she stands, brushing off the mud on her palms.

The next morning she comes back, but her eyes are not staring out into the waterfall. They’re darting around the surface of the water, looking for something. Looking for me? I stay deep down in my cave, where I know it’s too dark for a human like her to see. Before long, her eyes come to rest on the place where she saw me emerge yesterday, and the corner of her mouth twists. I feel my tail grow warmer.

“No, no, no!” I think. But I can’t stop the light. My purple glow spreads out, illuminating the cave entrance.

The girl gasps in. “It’s beautiful,” she whispers.

Beautiful?

The girl smiles at my glow and settles in to her usual spot. Then it must be that her thoughts creep up on her because she grows sad again, staring into the waterfall like it’s the only thing that comforts her. For the rest of that time, both of us are quiet, and I’m relieved that it seems like she’ll forget me and keep coming back.

The next morning, when I see her coming, I glow again.

“Good morning, Finneon,” she says.

The next morning it happens again. And again. And then one day she looks down at the little purple glow outside the entrance to my cave and asks, “Why don’t you ever come out, Finneon? I won’t hurt you.”

My light fades back a little. I know that she won’t hurt me. I know she likes my glow, but the rest of me? My first trainer told me I was nothing but a waste of space.

The girl frowns and repeats herself. She tries to convince me of her gentleness, empties her pockets to show she isn’t carrying any pokéballs, and even offers me a bit of bread crust produced from somewhere beyond my field of vision. Finally, I see her nostrils flare out into a little sniffle. A hand swipes across her cheek, and even through the distortions of the water’s surface, I can see her eyes start to puff up.

“Please,” she says. “I only want a friend.”

Regret and shame sweep in like a cold current over the surface of my scales, and I feel my light blink out.

“Finneon!” Her eyes close into that grimace of pain that’s so familiar. It always hurts me when I see it, but this time it hurts double. I open my gills wide, trying to take in more oxygen from the water, and then she’s gone. I whip my head left, then right as far as the walls of my little cave will allow. I swim forward just far enough ahead to poke my head out.

Nowhere. She’s nowhere. And the pond water is as cold and dark as the nighttime. I swim back into my cave and smash my head against the rock. I did this.

I still my fins and wait until I drift down to the floor. The rough bumps scrape against the pale blue scales lining my belly, but I don’t care. I skip breakfast that day. And dinner. None of the other fish care anyway. They think I’m a waste of space and a foreigner who doesn’t belong.

I stay up all night waiting for the brown haired girl, glowing bright with a hope that fades with each new ray of sunlight piercing through the water. I bang my head against the wall twice more, then eat my breakfast with fins so weighted down by hunger and sadness that they will barely keep me afloat.

I was right. I ruin everything. I wasn’t anything but a glow to her, and I ruined it. She’s never coming back, and I will be alone for the rest of my life. I knew that before. I knew it, but then she came and gave me a tiny little sliver of hope that I could have a tiny little sliver of something. And now it feels like she ripped it out of me and left it bleeding. I never want to hope again.

I swim back to my cave and think, “this is all because of you.” She would have forgotten about me if you’d been big enough to hide a little bit of extra light. You need to be…

“Bigger!” I cry out in Poké-language, flapping my tail fins as fast as they will go, charging in through the entrance of the cave, and banging my head on the far wall with a thunk even my Magikarp neighbors will hear. But I don’t care anymore. I bang again, willing the rock to crack, to push back just two centimeters. Two centimeters. That’s all I need. Once more, twice. On the third time I back up so far I can feel the pull of the outside pond currents on my tail.

And then I hear a splash.

“Splash?” I think. “Rocks are supposed to make a thunk.

I drift back in my confusion, and then there are fingers on my tail.

“Eee!” I squeal, pulling forward instinctively, but the fingers won’t let go. They drag me backwards, in spite of the protest put up by my tiny little side fins, back and out, all the way into the pond water warmed by morning sunlight.

“Finneon, what are you doing?” the girl’s voice cries. A human girl. My human.

“Here, put her into this tank,” says another girl.

“No, she’ll only hurt herself again!” my human protests. “Be quiet, you’re scaring her! I thought you knew what you were doing!”

Drip, drop. I hear tiny splashes hit the water like raindrops. My human is soaking wet, her nice blue cotton dress clinging to her stomach while the skirt swirls in the current beneath the surface, scaring off every other Pokémon in sight. But the drips are coming from her eyes again.

“What I know is that Finneon needs help, and I can’t do anything unless I can see her,” the other voice argues.

My eyes catch sight of a big glass fish tank sitting at the pond’s edge, barely a meter away from where my human is supposed to sit, and I shudder with my entire body. My enemy crouches next to it, a girl with orange-colored hair wearing a lot less than the usual amount of clothing. I think humans call it a bikini. Or is it a swim… Swim something? I can never tell the difference.

“You promise you won’t let her get hurt?” my human asks.

“What kind of gym leader would I be if I didn’t know how to take care of Pokémon?” the orange-haired girl demands.

I struggle harder as I feel my human’s hesitation.

“Look, she’s hurt her head,” the orange-haired human says angrily. “She isn’t thinking clearly. Let me use a potion on her. I’ll take a quick look while it’s going into effect, and then we’ll put her right back in.”

“Ok,” my human says reluctantly. She wraps both hands around me like a cage and forces me over to the water’s edge

The orange-haired one lowers the tank into the water with a quiet splash, and, before I know it, I’m pushed in and being lifted up. I swim back to take a leap.

“Oh, no you don’t.” The orange-haired girl slides a cover into place with a slapping sound.

Trapped where everyone can see me. My gills are open, but I feel like I can’t breathe. I close my eyes and shake.

I feel my gills take in something other than plain water. I open my mouth to taste it, but it’s not like anything I recognize. Neither of my trainers ever did this to me.

“Is she going to be ok?” my human asks. Then, “Are you really sure she’s a she?”

“You see the part of her tail that looks like the bottom half of a Beautifly’s wings? It’s smaller than that for male Finneon.”

“Oh. I always thought he was a boy. I don’t know why, I guess.”

I open my eyes and glare at the orange-haired one accusingly. She only smiles. “Looks like she’s feeling better.”

My human snatches the cover off the tank, and I jump higher than I ever thought I could. I feel water flying off my scales in rivlets as I sail through dry, lifeless air. I hit the water’s surface hard and sink down fast, using the momentum to propel myself back into my cave

Another splash, and my head almost hits the ceiling as I see the big brown eye of my human staring in at me. She doesn’t belong underneath the water!

And sure enough, she doesn’t stay for long. Her big long human legs retreat and pull themselves out of the pond at the other side.

“She wasn’t hurting herself again, but she looks more scared of me than she was before,” my human accuses.

“I don’t think this Pokémon is scared of people,” the other one replies.

“What does she know about it?” I wonder.

“Finneon are native to the Sinnoh region,” she continues. “I don’t think she got here by accident. I think someone must have abandoned her. That means she’s had a trainer before.

“But how do you know she’s not afraid of people? She might have been treated really horribly!”

“Not physically, at least,” the other one argues. “There would be signs of that, especially since Pokémon can only heal so well without potions and Pokémon Centers. I could be wrong, but I think she was perfectly healthy when she was released here.”

“But… couldn’t her trainer have been really cruel to her in other ways?” my human asks.

“Yes. It’s going to take a lot of time to earn her trust.”

“But how can I do that?”

I look up to see the orange-haired one shake her head. “You probably know that better than I do. You’ve already developed a connection with her.”

“But I’ve only ever seen her twice.”

“Did you know that Finneon don’t just glow because they want to? That little stripe across her body soaks up sunlight all day long so she can’t help but glow at night. Think about it, why would she hide herself away in that little crevice and also light herself up so that anything that gets too close could see her? She doesn’t want to glow, it’s just a part of who she is.

“But way back in the times when our world wasn’t as friendly as it is today, Finneon evolved a defense mechanism to turn off the light whenever they feel scared or threatened. Like how you blink when something comes too close to your eyes.

“But wild Finneon also travel around in schools, and at night they use their light to find each other. It’s another instinct, almost tied to their emotions. A Finneon glows brighter when she’s looking for a friend.”

“She must be so lonely without a school,” my human says.

The orange-haired one smiles. “I think you understand exactly how she feels. I’ll lend you this book about the species, but I think you already know what’s really important. Good luck.”

“Thank you for coming all the way out to Two Island, Misty,” my human says.

Orange-haired Misty smiles. “Hey, you’re the one who takes the credit for traveling all the way out to Cerulean City to see me. You must care about that little Pokémon a lot.”

My human mumbles something I can’t make out.

“I’m sorry, Finneon,” she says when she comes back before the break of dawn the next morning. “If you can ever forgive me, I’ll just sit here with you for as long as you want. If you feel safer there inside your cave, it’s ok. You don’t have to change anything for me. But I just…” Her voice gets quieter. “If I talk about stuff, will you just listen?”

I open my gills wide, suck in as much oxygen as my lungs can take, and swim out of the cave. I poke my head up above the surface of the water, looking at her through the strange filter of air instead of water, and see the purple radiance reflected in her big brown eyes. My light has escaped its cage, just for a few moments. My fins beat faster with anxiety, and I flee. Back to my cave. Back to safety.

But the girl above the water’s surface looks right down into my hiding place and says, “Thank you.”

@DerpyPatamon's one-shot: "Aquatic Rebellion" | "Water Race"

Aquatic Rebellion:

I'm swimming deep in the ocean, Wailord right next to me.

"Marlon, it's time to wake up." He reminded.

"Marlon.."

"Marlon..."

"MARLON!"

I yelp and fall out of my chair.

"It's about time, I thought I'd have to put you in a choke hold while our Pokèmon battle." Crasher Wake said, gritting his teeth.

A sheepish grin tugs at my lips, pulling upwards. "Sorry guys..."

"Now, gym leaders, shall we continue?" Juan asked, pointing at a large projected screen. "The annual water-type conference is happening as we speak, as for we are in it right now." He used his hands to help.

'Gosh, I'm so bored, why don't the other gym leaders have to be here?'

"Marlon, your presentation." Misty sighed.

I stood up and my toes shifted comfortably in my sandals. After posting a diagram if the ocean with pictures of rare water-type Pokèmon.

”So, in conclusion, if we obtain a Manaphy egg, it will hatch and lead us to an unknown place deep underwater. After that, we set a camera there and in exactly one year, we'll get the camera and handle the rest from there." I explained, taking down my diagram and sitting.

"Good, I like it." Lourie spoke. Even thoughshe was technically a ice-type elite four member, she was allowed to come. 

"Alright,lunch break." Wallace dismissed us.

I was the first out but didn't know what to do so I looked for a good place to swim and train my Pokèmon.

"Hey! Marlon! Wanna join us in a race?" Misty yelled, waving from atop her Starmie.

"Yeah, its gonna be fun!" Cress said, on the back of his Simipour.

"Um, sure!" I agreed, tossing out a pokeball once I was at the starting point. "Go, Carracosta!"

Water Race:

Cissy was hosting it. "Okay,first one to reach the final of three check points wins!" She announced. "Also, you are allowed to battle each other, but don't let it sloe you down!"

I get onto the back of my Pokèmon. Misty, Wake, Cress. Those are the only Leaders I have to beat.

"Get your mark!"

"Get set!"

"Go!"

Carracosta dashed under water the second I patted his head. So far, only Wake was my real opponent. Misty and Cress were a little behind.

"Scald, Carracosta!" "Carra!" He blasted Floatzal with a heated stream of water.

"Brine!" Wake ordered. Floatzel narrowly hit Carracosta with a powerful water blast.

I took that as my chance to speed up. "Use Smack Down as a propeller!"

"Aqua Jet!" Wake and Floatzel jetted 10ft into the air before splashing back down, far more ahead.

'So Wake's actually using his brain? Interesting.'

"Shell Smash!" I yelled. Carracosta increased in speed and was trailing behind Floatzel. "Crunch!" He bit down on Floatzel's tail but Wake told him to keep going. Somehow his tail still moved in Carracosta's mouth, which was full of water.

A large stone was coming up ahead and I put our into action. "Use Scald!" Floatzel yelped in pain from its scorched tail and crashed in to the large stone.

"Now use Smack Down!" He bring up his large flipper and smashed the stone allowing him to pass ahead.

Time Skip

"Next time, your mine!" Crasher Wake said, drying off.

"Whatever you say, bruh." I joked.

There wasn't really a prize for winning. But all I know is, I can't wait for next year.

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