Danielle

Prologue

~Flashback~

Sighs of relief were heard from the maternity ward as a mother finally pushed out a daughter. But then there was scuffling as doctors rushed and nurses panicked as the baby was rushed out of the room. The mother was scared, very scared. "What happened?" she asked. She had arrived at the hospital alone, claiming that the father had been long gone. Now her only family slash companion, albeit a small one, was being rushed out of the room.

"Your daughter has STICA, I'm so sorry. If we don't give her medical treatment, she won't survive the night."

The mother cried and cried, but watched as her daughter received treatment. Finally, her daughter could be released from treatment, and she held her for the very first time.

A nurse walks by. She gasps in recognition.

"Evelyn!"

The mother looks up at her name, and her eyes shimmer in recognition as her classmate, now a nurse, appears.

"Harper!"

The nurse giggles. "You recognize me."

Evelyn laughs. "Who wouldn't remember my silly Harper?"

Harper smiles and looks at the baby. She doesn't remark on how the baby has a severe condition. Instead, she tickles the little infant under her chin and says:

"She looks like you. What are you naming her?"

"I have no idea. I kind of wanted to name her Daniel before she was revealed as a girl, so…"

"Name her Danielle, then. Since it's similar."

Evelyn smiled at her baby. "I hereby dub thee Danielle Star, child of Evelyn Star."

"You're using your surname. I thought you were married?"

Images of being punched, kicked, smacked, hit, and scolded at flashed in front of Evelyn's eyes. The twenty-year-old said, "I don't…want to talk about it."

Harper looked sad. She then looked at little Danielle, her face framed with blue curls and baby blue eyes staring at her mother.

Evelyn sighed. "I hope you never meet your father."

~End of flashback~

Little Danielle sighed. As with all promises concerning her father, they never came true in a good way.

Her father, she never knew his name, and if her mother had told her, she always forgot.

Her father often abused her mother for giving birth to a problematic child or just for fun when he and his cronies were bored.

Even at three, Danielle understood what was going on. Leavettys tend to stay in human form most of the time, so they don't look their real ages. Leavettys mature much faster than humans, so in truth, Danielle was already a pre-teen. She just looked different.

Sure, Leavetians in human form retain the behaviours of the age they display, but usually, their minds are pretty developed. Danielle would suck her finger but would easily tell you what the why the evolution of pokemon in a short period of time was necessary.

She was indeed sent to school but was expelled every time they found out she had STICA. Leavetian school was demanding, but not cruel. After all, six years,  three hundred and sixty-five days a year, with only fifteen holidays(previously, they only had fourteen, but the arrival of the fifth pureone changed that), what could be not demanding? The schools encouraged dealing with stress also, which was a problem.

Danielle had come to learn that her disease, STICA, had a very technical name. Stress or trauma-induced cardiac arrest, or STICA for short, was exactly what the name said. Any form of stress would instantly cause her to go into cardiac arrest. When the doctors examined her closer, they gave it an alternative name, stress, or trauma-induced heart attacks, which would also happen. It would be triggered when she was stressed, scared, or experiencing traumatic happenings.

Danielle was jerked out of her thoughts by a sudden cry — her mother. The sole reason Danielle never seemed to remember her father's name was that he always abused the woman whom she called her friend and mother.

She ran downstairs, not knowing what had her. There, she saw a terrifying scene.

Her mother was bleeding. A lot. Her father punched and punched her, threw her into a wall, and broke the sofa so that he could use its wooden support to hurt her mother.

His cronies were here too. Laughing as they saw her poor mother being thrown around. She didn't fight back, she didn't block any of the onslaughts. She just stood there, and Danielle admired her for her bravery.

That's when things went wrong.

Her father grew bored with throwing her around. He looked at his cronies and, tapping his wallet, said, "how much is it this time?"

"I'll give ya seven for da woman, twelve for da child."

For a moment Danielle was afraid they'd caught her. But then she took note of the strange smell in the room.

It was her mother's work. The smell was so strong it had befuddled the noses of her father and his cronies. But why?

A glint of silver flashed under her father's arm. A long, thin flash. It wasn't the rods normal Twisetans used for combat. No, it was…

A knife.

Her mother gently turned her head and saw her daughter. They maintained eye-contact for one second.

Her mother then mouthed: run.

Danielle's eyes filled with tears, but she heeded her advice as she ran out of the house on her pudgy legs without her father and his cronies discovering.

Just moments later, in Leavetian form, she had the sound of a knife and a scream.

Then her world faded to black when her entire childhood exploded in a giant fireball behind her—

And never felt the arms that picked her up, the feet under her that sprinted, and the mouth that told her reassuringly that she was going to be fine.