• The three of us were in my living room. Flare was standing in the doorway to the kitchen, I was pacing in front of the fireplace; across the room from Flare, and Connor sat on the couch, head in his hands, between us.
    “Charly, there’s nothing you could have done.” Flare said
    “If I had payed attention I would have been able to stop them.” I replied.
    “I am there any way I could understand you two?” Connor butted in, “maybe if I knew what you were saying then I could be of some help.”
    “Quiet!” I screamed at him. I stormed upstairs and grabbed a bag then went into the kitchen, almost knocking Flare over, and started to pack some food.
    “What are you doing?” she asked.
    “I’m going after them,” I replied, “don’t try to stop me.”
    “I won’t, I’m going with.”
    “No you’re not.”
    “I am and you won’t stop me.”
    “Whatever, might as well ask him.” I indicated Connor. I walked into the living room as Flare finished packing the food.
    “What do you want?” he asked harshly.
    “We’re going to save my family.” I told him, “Will you h…help us?”
    “Sure, it’s my fault their gone. I should help with the problems I created.”
    “Th…thank you.” I began to turn away, but then he grabbed my arm.
    “I’m sorry about earlier. I just don’t like to feel useless like I did.”
    “It’s okay.”
    Flare came out of the kitchen, the bag filled with food. “Ready?”
    “Let’s go.” I grabbed the bag and walked outside with Flare and Connor following me. Once we were outside we started to look around.
    “Now where do we go?” Flare said.
    “I don’t know.” I replied, “Can’t remember which way they went.” We continued to look for tell-tale signs in the trees.
    “While you two were looking in the foliage,” Connor called to us, “I’ve been looking for tracks.” He put something in his pocket. “They went that way.” He pointed to the west...
    “Great, that’s just great.” Flare moaned, “Straight into town.”
    “Come on.” Connor said, starting to walk towards the tree line. He stopped, “What’s wrong?”
    “I can’t go there.” I told him.
    “Why not?”
    “Humans, fear.”
    “What? You’re afraid of humans? I can tell tha—”
    “No. Humans fear me.”
    “Well, More protection then.” He ran into the trees.
    “No, stop!” I yelled, chasing after him.
    I used to go to the edge of the forest and watch the humans in the town when I was younger. It had been so long that I had forgotten how close we were to the town so by the time I had noticed that I had left the forest I was already in the center of town.
    People were staring at me. I could see Connor arguing with a shop owner and Flare was watching from the edge of the forest.
    I started to walk towards the shop when something flew past my head. I looked down to see a poke ball on the floor. I heard someone grumble and turned to see a kid in a ball cap pulling out another poke ball. He threw it, this time I grabbed it and crushed it in my hand. That must have made them angry because the whole town started to send their Pokémon after me.
    I used a Mirrorsheild to deflect various ranged attacks and knocked a few of them back. The rest I had to rely on strength to get rid of. I don’t know how long I was fighting but the Pokémon retreated because a ring of fire started to form around me. All but one of them ran off. A Blaziken was in the ring with me.
    “You must be a good fighter If you can hold them off without a scratch.” The Blaziken said in a rough voice.
    “Just let me go, I have no reason to fight you. I just want to leave.”
    “To leave you have to fight.”
    “Oh well, if you say so.” We charged each other. He was an exceptional fighter. Every time one of us would strike the other would dodge or block it. Neither one of us ever touched the other.
    The fighting stopped when a voice cried out “Enough!” A Grovyle stepped through the flames.
    “Charlie, why’d you have to stop us?” the Blaziken asked him, “I was just startin’ to have a bit of fun.”
    “Blaze, I know you were having some fun but I couldn’t see through the fire.”
    “What? Your names Charlie?” I interrupted.
    “Yah, you heard of me?” he replied
    “No, it’s not that. My name’s Charly too, spelled with a y.”
    “Well, mine’s spelled ie. Nice to meet you Charly.”
    “I’m comin’, Charly.” Connor yelled, jumping through the flames.
    “Pants.” I told him.
    “And?” he asked, looking down at them, “Oh god!” His pant leg was on fire. He ran around trying to find water to put out his leg. After it was out he walked over to us. “So, you not fighting?”
    “No.” I told him
    “Good. I’d like to leave. It’s hot and I can’t seem to be able to buy some chocolate.”
    “We should get going, She won’t be happy if we’re not back soon.” Charlie told Blaze.
    “She?” I asked him.
    “You’ll see.” Blaze answered, snapping his fingers. The flames dissipated and I could see that it was already getting dark. The whole town was empty. They must have run from the fire.
    We left town, Connor and I following Charlie and Blaze. We came to a girl sitting cross legged on a large rock.
    “Jenn,” Charlie said to her, “this is the reason for the commotion back in town.” He indicated me.
    “I thought it would be something bigger, I had to move because a Hariyama almost landed on top of me. Though he does have a kind of athletic build, he could probably throw one.”
    “She can understand us?” I whispered to Charlie.
    “Only Me, Blaze, and some of our old friends.” He told me.
    “How can you understand them?” Connor asked Jenn.
    “With this medallion.” She answered, pulling out a small metal medallion that was on a chain around her neck.
    “Oh-ho-ho!” Connor exclaimed “I’ve been looking for one of those. May I?”
    “Sure. Why have you been looking for one these? How do you know what it is?”
    “I’ll tell you in a bit.”
    At that moment Flare shot out of the sky, aiming a kick at Blaze’s head. Before she hit him though he grabbed her leg, pulled her down towards the ground, picked her up, pinned arm to her side and twisted the other behind her back.
    “You may be getting better.” He growled, barely audible to the rest of us, “But I’m still the best.” Then he released her.
    “Nice to meet you too, Blaze.” she shot at him.
    “What?” I blurted out, “You know each other?”
    “Yah,” Flare answered, “He’s my brother.”
    “Brother?” Connor asked.