I opened my eyes as Sceptile shook me awake. He grinned as I sat up, and I couldn't help but smile myself. "Morning, Nettle."

Bailey came up with the name when she saw a kid crying to his mom. The boy had run through a marsh full of stinging nettle and had gotten a bad rash. Sceptile seemed to like the name, and so did I.

"Master, Red's prepared breakfast for us," Nettle told me as I tossed the blanket off of me and dressed into a simple red t-shirt, blue jeans, and a white and grey button-up plaid shirt.

"Nettle, I'm not your master anymore. I'm your friend," I told him as I sat back down on my bed to talk to him. Sceptile adopted a confused look as I spoke.

"What do you mean?" He asked as he sat next to me. I turned my head to look at him.

I sighed. "I, uh... Look. Those humans that took me turned me into a Pokémon, and that opened my eyes to how cruel Pokémon battling can be. So, I don't want you to fight for me, I want you to fight with me, as a friend."

The Sceptile slightly tilted his head, obviously still confused. "I didn't think you were an abusive Trainer to me when I was a young Treeko. In fact, I rather enjoyed battling."

"That's not what I'm talking about! From what I've seen, humans use Pokémon every day as tools. And everybody knows that it's good to take care of their tools." I told him, my anger rising dangerously.

"No, that's not true," Nettle shouted, jumping off of the bed to stand in front of me. I looked into his eyes. They were determined and unwavering. "You treated me as a friend. I always liked you."

I stood up, throwing my hands up into the air. "You don't get it! I risked your life and long-term health every time we battled. Even more so when I had you fight Zekrom!" Even as I mentioned it, the memory flooded back to me as if the event occurred a week or two ago.

"I let Skarmory die, just to save my skin! I only thought of her as a tool, not a friend." I yelled at him. Surely this would prove my point.

Nettle smiled sadly. "Yes, Skarmory died. But you cried when she did. I saw." My mouth hung open slightly as I tried to speak, but no words came. Then, the Geckgo-like Pokémon gave me a reassuring smile. "No human that thought of his Pokémon as tools would cry if they died."

I sighed, breathing out slow in order to calm myself down. "Thanks, Nettle. I guess I needed that. But still, stop calling me 'master'. Now, let's eat breakfast."

Standing back up, I walked out of my room to see the table was set with two serving plates stacked with buttermilk pancakes. Bailey was already at the table, serving herself a generous serving of the pancakes and drizzling them with razz berry syrup. Red was sitting two seats to the left of her and my mom and dad, as usual, sat next to each other as they ate. Grandpa Raiden was sitting one seat to the right of mom, happily stuffing various berries into his mouth.

"Good morning, Bailey," I said as I sat down on the seat next to her.

She turned to me and smiled. "Good morning. I see that your head's healed."

"Yeah, apparently Nettle knew Synthesis and used it to heal me. It still needs a little recovering, though."

I stacked a couple of pancakes onto my plate and dressed them with Oran berry syrup and butter. My mouth watered as I cut into the pancake and put the first slice into my mouth. The soft, fluffy pancakes were deliciously made. I couldn't resist taking another bite, not that I would try to hold myself back.

"Red made the pancakes, so you can thank him for that." My mom said, carefully grabbing a slice of pancake with both of her paws and put it in her mouth.

"Yeah, thanks Red! This is super delicious." I grinned at him. I took another bite of the pancake. Then I stabbed a few berries with my fork and ate them. They were incredibly juicy and had the perfect balance between sweet and sour.

We finished eating breakfast as we chatted with one another. I couldn't help but stare at mom and dad and instantly felt a pang of sorrow in my heart. They would probably never be the same ever again, not after this experience. I didn't even know if they'd be human again.

I was still in my train of thought when I realized Bailey was talking to me. "...Would you like to go?"

"Sorry, could you say that again? I was thinking about something when you started talking." I replied honestly. It would have been stupid of me to answer it directly since I didn't know what she said previously.

Red asked the question for her. "There was a new restaurant that opened today. Bailey was wondering if you wanted to eat lunch with us."

I eagerly nodded. "Sure! That sounds great." But as of now, I was bored. It was eight O'clock in the morning and it wouldn't be another three to four hours until we went for lunch. Reading books really wasn't my thing... And there was nothing else to do.

And then I had a thought as I looked over at Nettle. He seemed to sense my eyes watching him and turned to me. "Yes, Ma- Uh... What do you want?" I knew what he was about to say, but I was glad that he was starting to avoid calling me "master"

"Nettle, I want to battle you." Nettle grinned. Everybody turned to me as I said this and Bailey shook her head slowly. Red, however, seemed to glow with anticipation.

"Jake, I don't think it's a good idea to do that. Remember what Nettle did to you last time?" Bailey told me. I looked over at her and nodded slowly. He had cut me up pretty badly, I thought, But he had surprised me last time. It wasn't going to happen again.

Nettle grinned and nodded eagerly. "Nothing like last time where I was trying to kill you, right?"

"Right," I said, returning the smile. I was glad to have found my old companion and was even more glad to have his good humor. I nodded once. It was a firm nod, one that showed Nettle I was business now. "Alright, then. We meet at the clearing behind the apartment building."

Nettle and I walked through the door and into the backyard of the building while the rest went onto the balcony to spectate.

Once we were in position, I used my Pokécore to transform into a Pikachu. Nettle still wasn't used to this and showed traces of bewilderment in his eyes.

Red, who volunteered to be the referee, called out in a loud, booming voice, "Alright, let the match begin!"