"It's now that I hand over the microphone to our head scientist. Without their drive, this incredible achievement would never have taken place. Please give a round of applause for August Collins," Mr. Tanegashima, the head of the Mossdeep Space Center says as he gestures for me to take the stage.

With a smile, I appear from backstage and approach the man in a formal suit next to the podium. I shake his hand calmly and put on my best smile as I stare at the crowd of people dressed in a similar fashion. I adjust the microphone to my height and attempt to calm my nerves as the applause continues.

From the corner of my eyesight appears the curious face of my lifelong best friend and the reason I'm standing on this stage. Its green eyes twinkle and it waves at me while yellow, green, and red lights on its hand flash. As the applause dies, it ducks further backstage while wishing me good luck with its smile.

Finally, I'm ready to begin.

"Firstly, I'd like to thank our investors and Hoenn's taxpayers. Without you, this great accomplishment would never have been possible," I begin before stopping to applaud with the audience. It's common courtesy to at least thank them, and I'm afraid if I don't now, I'll forget at the end.

The applause dies down before I begin my speech once more, "Now, I'll admit, my specialties lie in science, not speech-giving. However, I'll try to make this entertaining. I was told to come up here and tell everyone what drove me down this path of science and technology, a path you rarely find people like me in. So, allow me to tell you the story of the young child from Unova that, like many others, found love and comfort in their Pokémon.

~*~

"What have I told you, woman. If you just listened to me like I told you to, you wouldn't have messed up everything again!"

"Well, I'm sorry, but why don't you try—"

I shove my fingers into my ears.

I can't take any more of their yelling.

The darkness of midnight surrounds me as I silently lie under the plush covers of my bed. Nowadays, my parents seem to try to find things to argue about until inevitably one of them ends up physically injured thanks to the other.

"I miss you, Alex. Why did you have to drop out of college? You knew this would happen," I mutter to myself as I reminisce better days.

It's difficult to believe it was only two years ago that we would play outside in the streets with other kids.

Only a year and a half ago we would swim in the public pools with the other kids of darker skin color.

It's hard to imagine just a year ago you went off to college to learn to be a doctor and help people like you always wanted.

Just six months ago you were forced by dad to drop out and work to help pay for mom's medical bills.

Four months ago you went off to war with other young men to fight in a pointless campaign.

And two weeks ago I learned you would never come back.

"I don't even know why I bother to keep you around. You're just a drain on our finances!" I hear my dad yelling at my mom downstairs.

I want to leave this house, and a part of me wants to join you. If this is all life has to offer me, why shouldn't I go see you?

I sit up in bed. There's no point in thinking horrible thoughts like those. Suicide is a sin that would never allow me to ever see Alex in heaven, anyway.

In an attempt to calm myself, I stand up and stare out the window and see the suburban neighborhood I grew up in my whole life. Our car lies on the driveway behind the white picket fence typical of houses like ours while two unused bikes lay rusting next to a shed.

A wind picks up and suddenly the sand typical of the outskirts of Castella City appear. Whoever decided to build a city next to a desert clearly didn't think about the consequences to the air quality that comes about from sand constantly blowing around. The sand covers everything in a fine layer, and it makes perfect cover to hide in wherever it build up. For example, the corner where the two parts of the fence connect to go around our house is filled with sand.

Then I see it.

In the small corner I am looking at, a small Pokémon stands in the sand. The light green creature cannot be more than a foot tall as it doesn't reach the top of the fence. Its giant round head looks around our family's front yard before it yawns and sits down.

It's honestly rather cute.

The creature sits in the sand and I begin to notice the lights on parts of its body. Its green eyes glow faintly in the semi-darkness of twilight while the more prominent lights on its hands flicker red, yellow, and green.

I can't help but want to run up to the creature trying to bury itself in the sand to hide and hug it. The little thing is rather cute, and it's a shame it feels the need to hide. I want to... No, I need to go hug it.

I have an attraction towards cute things.

I can hear the front door slam open before it closes with another slam. My mother walks down the driveway before she arrives in front of one of the cars. I silently watch as she drives away, a part of me hoping she doesn't come back.

I open the window in an attempt to see the cute green creature better as my window is rather dirty. The little creature continuously fails to get the sand to stay. Any attempt to make sand layer is combated by the wind blowing away the material.

"Hello there!" I call out to it while waving and attempting to make it clear I don't have a Poké Ball on me.

"El?" the cutie says as their green eyes look at me, their voice faint due to the distance.

"Hiya! I don't mean to scare you off, it's just that you're really cute and I like cute things... Don't mind me! You can use the shed if you want! It's open! I can get a blanket and food if you want it!" I continue while mentally screaming in joy that the green creature hasn't run away yet.

"Elg," it says as it gets up and flies out of view. This green little buddy is certainly strange. Can they be a psychic type? Or maybe... Are they from beyond the stars?

"Don't be stupid," I mutter to myself. While I can't say I would be surprised by a creature coming from space due to the amount of testing being done to send a rocket into space, the idea the government hasn't found this creature and captured it is unbelievable.

Then again, perhaps that's why it's hiding.

I quietly open my bedroom door and open the linen closet to search for extra blankets. All I can find besides sheets is a collection of towels. It'll have to do.

With the knowledge only my dad is home, I creep out of my room and down the stairs. My dad is kneeling on the ground with his hands together. He's probably praying.

As my foot reaches the second to last step, the wooden stairs betray me as they creak loudly.

Dad stops and looks at me before he says, "I'm sorry, July. I didn't mean to wake you up."

"It's fine," I say as I step into view. "It was mom's shouting that woke me up in the first place."

He stands up and walks over to me before embracing me. "Look on the bright side, you'll be free in a year. Ignore your mother. If you want to go to college, you should. Now then, go to bed."

I look up at the tired man as I phrase my next words in the best way I can, "Um, uh, well, I kinda came downstairs because I saw a really cute Pokémon in the yard."

My father raises an eyebrow at this comment. "And let me guess, you want to hug it?"

"Yeah, a little bit."

My dad shakes his head and sighs before saying, "If you must. Just come in soon, please."

He walks upstairs to his bedroom while I pad over to the kitchen to search for food. We don't have any Pokémon food, but berries have to be good enough.

Armed with a bowl of Pecha Berries and a towel, I slip on my shoes and open the front door. Little buddy is no longer in the corner. I hope they went in the shed like I asked and didn't run away.

I hold up the towel to prevent sand from flying in my eyes as I walk towards the shed. Seeing it open an inch, my hopes are confirmed. I open the shed before I slip in and close the door behind me.

"Elg!" little buddy yelps in a panic as they see me.

They begin to summon some sort of an attack before I screech, "I have food, please don't hurt me!"

Seemingly taken aback by this clunky human's loud noises, the cute creature pauses and lets the attack fade as I slide my bowl of Pecha Berries to it. The Pokémon looks at the bowl strangely before it floats towards it and picks a berry.

It takes a bite and gives me something reminiscent of a smile. "Elgy!"

I hope the little guy stays around for a while. It would be nice to see a smile once in a while out of someone in this household.

~~~

"Would you look at that, Elgy. We reached the moon. Doesn't it look amazing?" I mutter to my green friend as I stare at the small black and white television.

"Elg!" my little friend agrees from her spot on the couch next to me.

"I doubt it's a surprise for her. I bet she's seen the stars already, if not more than that," my dad says with a chuckle. Elgy does a motion similar to shrugging before scooting closer to the television.

It's been a year since I first met Elgy. After weeks of her hiding in the shed, she finally came into the house and is more or less a permanent member of the family. My parents were hesitant towards the idea of me keeping an unidentified Pokémon in the house for quite some time, but her happy and modest nature eventually warmed them up to the idea

Sure, she doesn't fill the hole Alex left, but she's never failed to place a smile on my face.

Elgy floats away from the television and towards the staircase. She flies away from my sight and is most likely going to bed.

"Goodnight," I say as I hug my dad and move to follow Elgy.

"Goodnight. Try not to wake up your mother," my dad says as I nod in confirmation.

I travel upstairs and enter my bedroom to see Elgy standing in front of the window I first spotted her through only a year ago.

"Heya, what are you looking at?" I ask as I kneel next to the green creature.

She points at the sky before simply saying, "Elgyem."

"The sky, huh? Did you really come from there?" I ask Elgy. My family and I always theorize Elgy comes from outer space, but she never answers us.

Elgy nods in response to the question and seems to be fixated on a specific star.

"Is that where you came from? Or is it in the general direction?" I ask Elgy like she can actually give me a response in spoken human language.

"Elg... Elgyem," she says while holding up a finger. I'll assume that's where she's from then.

"Huh," I say as I quietly kneel next to her for some time. "Do you miss it? Your home world, I mean."

Elgy looks at me and nods with an added, "Elg."

I stare up at the twinkling sky above us. My mind wanders to places I don't want it to wander to before I finally ask a question I know I can never take back.

"Would you ever want to go back?"

Elgy turns to look at me before she turns back to the window. I can't understand her facial expressions, but the tone of voice is enough to send my heart into a sinking pit it can never return from.

"...Elg. Elgyem."

"She's a Pokémon," I tell myself. "It's impossible she really meant it."

No matter how hard I try to change my thoughts, I cannot. I can't even muster up the will to ask for clarification. My entire being is convinced she said one thing.

Yes. Yes, I would.

~~~

Mother is pissed at me.

She won't say it, but I know it.

"Thousands of dollars we spent on you," she complained to me on the phone only ten minutes ago, "and you can't even find a husband."

"She's convinced the only thing college is to a woman is an opportunity to get an MRS Degree. After four years of college, I have nothing to show for her. Four years at the most prestigious school for technology in the entire world and I only have a degree in Aerospace Engineering.

"To her, I might as well have dropped out a semester before I got my degree. But... It's not like I can ever tell her the truth. I can never tell anyone the truth. Even if I wanted to get married, I can't stand being so fake to a man who probably sees me as a vending machine with a nine-month waiting period," I complain to Elgy.

"Behee," she says to confirm she has listened to my rant.

She's grown in the past four years. In fact, she's evolved. She went from being a tiny and green Pokémon known as Elgyem to a much larger and bronze Pokémon named Beheeyem. Even if it may not be appropriate anymore, I still call her Elgy.

"Sometimes... I almost wish she wasn't here anymore, but that's a horrible thought," I mutter as fall back on my bed located in the bedroom of my small apartment.

With the remaining funds I am allowed due to my father's ability to stand up for himself for once, I moved to Hoenn. More specifically, I moved to the town where I went to college.

Mossdeep City is a hub for space progress thanks to taxpayer's funding and private donors.

This is the place where I can change things.

Young, old, male, female, white, black, nobody cares here. In this world, you defined by your work thanks to years of reforms.

"This is it," I say, "this is where I'll find a way for you to go home."

"Beheeyem?"

"What else am I to do? I can never get married and spend my life devoting myself to a man, Elgy. I'd love to find some way to help you instead."

"Yem?"

"If it's just a visit you want, I want to make that possible," I say as I pet the seemingly confused metal creature and continue, "And if you want to stay forever..."

I can't help myself. I can't bear the thought of abandonment. But at the same time, she's been there for me, so why can't I repay the favor and give her what she wants?

"That's fine as well."

I don't really mean it, though.

"Just visit occasionally, please."

"...Beheeyem?"

~*~

"It has been a while since those days. More specifically, it has been thirty-five years spent dedicating my life to travel beyond the stars in the hopes my dearest friend could find a way home to see her family and whoever else. There isn't much else for me to do, you see. My mother's cancer finally ended her suffering only a year after I started working, and my father developed dementia a few years ago," I say as I allow the audience to suck up the dramatic sob-story I am told to tell.

"But nonetheless, I think you've gotten a proper insight to my devotion. In the process of space exploration, we've developed technology nobody could imagine when I was a child. Can you believe velcro was created from space exploration all those years ago? It's crazy to believe. But now... Now we have more efficient solar energy than you can imagine on top of other sustainable energy plans scientists have created," I say as I begin to wind down my speech.

"So, ladies and gentlemen, I implore you to see our journey to the stars as not only an adventure to faraway lands, but also an opportunity to create inventions for our home. Once more, thank you to our investors and Hoenn's taxpayers. I am hoping for a journey to a better future with all of you," I conclude as applause erupts. I quickly exit the stage as Mr. Tanegashima enters.

"Behee!" Elgy says to congratulate me for not fainting in the middle of my public speaking session.

"Thank you, Elgy. Arceus, I'm old. All I want is a nap. I don't want to participate in cocktail party formalities any longer," I say as Elgy and I travel outside the auditorium and outside the building to fresh air.

Elgy leads me to a small bench and we quietly observe the night sky.

"Make sure to visit me, alright?"

Elgy looks at me and I finally realize something anyone else would have come to understand years ago.

"Beheeyem."

I'm staying.

"Miscommunication is quite a dreadful thing," I mutter as I fall asleep on Elgy's shoulder.