The Mysterious Visitor (and other short stories)

The Pokemon Trainer (C)

"Why can't you be more like your sister?"

It was a question I got a lot from my parents, teachers, and sometimes I asked myself the same thing.

My sister was a world class ranked Pokemon trainer. She traveled the world and boasted a Pokemon collection of almost every type of Pokemon there was.

I, on the other hand, hadn't made it past the second gym one town over. Now, it wasn't that I wasn't a good trainer. In fact, my Pokemon were all pretty strong. I just wasn't good at the whole competitive battling thing. I mean, don't get me wrong, my Pokemon loved battling as much as any other, but competitive battling got super cut-throat. I had seen the brutal training sessions my sister had put her pokemon through, and steroid use was pretty much required to get past a certain point. I couldn't bring myself to put any of my pokemon through that.

"Squirtle! Squirt!" I was startled away from my thoughts by my squirtle, Blue, tearing past me.

Ah, Blue. There was another example of my failure. Every one of my sister's pokemon was fully evolved. Those who didn't want to evolve were evolved by force. But when Blue's time had come to evolve, I had taken one look into his sad eyes, and I knew I couldn't do that to him. He didn't want to evolve into wartortle, but he was willing to do it for me. So I told him to stay as he was. I couldn't be happy knowing he was unhappy, even if it meant giving up my dreams of becoming a successful trainer like my sister.

"Why can't I be more like my sister?"

Lilly, my Ninetails brushed past me, racing off after Blue. I smiled. Now, Lilly was another story. When she had evolved into ninetails, she was absolutely over the moon. She had sent a full week parading her tails around the house, waving them in everyone's face. My mother had scoffed and told me I missed out on teaching her some high level moves by letting her evolve too soon, and I had "ruined her", but Lilly was so excited to evolve, I couldn't bring myself to make her wait.

It wasn't until Moonlight, my Umbreon ran past me that I noticed something was off. Where were they all going?

I stood and walked in the direction they had gone. They were sitting together with my other Pokemon staring at a poster nailed to my front door.

"ATTENTION: All pokemon are now decreed to be free to do as they please. Any human who has previously claimed the title of "trainer" or otherwise held ownership of a pokemon shall hereby be brought to the nearest Pokecenter and imprisoned in a pokeball, where they shall await trial. Signed, your new king, Mewtwo."

I felt the blood drain from my face as I read the note. I glanced down at my friends, who were chattering amongst themselves. At once they seemed to come to an agreement and Moonlight ran inside the house. He returned, holding a box containing the piece of paper I received at 11 certifying me as an official pokemon trainer, as well as my one gym badge and a few empty pokeballs.

Poof. Lilly breathed out a small fireball and the contents of the box dissolved into nothing.

"You...you guys are protecting me? But why? My sister and I, we've dedicated our lives to catching Pokemon."

Blue shook his head and nuzzled my face. The message was clear. "You are nothing like your sister."