A Birthday To Remember

(Longest Chap so far at 3,216 words) 

Waking up on the day of my birthday was slightly different. The two pokemon that usually slept in the same room as me had vanished.

As I walked down to the kitchen, I saw a note had been left on the counter that read.

"We are preparing something. Go out and come back at 2 pm. Have fun! -Mom"

I couldn't help but let out a small chuckle before walking out the door and teleporting to Lake Verity.

The whole place had a calming aura. If you relaxed and breathed in the air, it would be as if your burdens went away for a second. 

Soon I would be leaving home. I had a promise with Ash and Serena that we would meet to fight once we all got our starters, but Serena wouldn't get hers for another 2 months, which gave me time to start my journey. The battle would be a little unfair, but it was mainly the thought that counted. Maybe I could catch myself a new pokemon to use against them.

Sitting down next to the water, I was about to close my eyes to try to contact Mesprit one last time before I left. But it seemed fate had other plans.

I felt my whole body scream at me for a moment with only one word, Danger.

Turning around, I saw a man with a face that showed no hint of emotion, his eyes seemed to be focused on the lake before he turned to examine me. He was dressed nicely in a uniform with the logo of Team Galactic located just to the left of his chest. He raised an eyebrow for a second as he looked at me.

With every step he took toward me, my instincts screamed louder and louder to get away. Something was wrong.

If I teleported away, that would make me look suspicious. If I showed that I recognized him, that would make me suspicious. My mind went into emergency mode as it looked for solutions before choosing the one that would make me seem harmless. My whole body was screaming that if I messed up, I would regret it. Yet almost as if the feeling had been a hallucination, the feeling vanished. Making me even more concerned.

As he stood next to me, I made a smile appear on my face before asking.

"Hey there, come to see the Lake?"

Cyrus only stared at me for a second before turning to the lake and answering.

"Indeed, I have heard rumors about a unique creature that resides in this Lake. You wouldn't happen to know anything about them. Would you?"

Rubbing my chin for a moment as if I was thinking, I replied.

"All I have ever seen around here is mainly Gyarados and Magikarp, but those are everywhere." 

It was true, I had never seen anything other than those two pokemon in the lake.

Cyrus' eyes narrowed for a second before putting his hands behind his back and closing his eyes. Taking a deep breath of air.

As he opened his eyes, he turned to look back at me.

"Where are your Pokemon?"

Oh, shit. What did he know? Did he even know who I was? Was he simply asking because of how old I looked? Millions of questions flooded my mind before one managed to slip out.

"I'm sorry?"

The feeling of danger screamed at me for a second before vanishing as if it was never there once again.

His eyes that showed no emotion turned from me back to the Lake.

"It is rare to see someone wandering around without a pokemon to protect them. The world is filled with strife, it's incomplete, it's crude. I need to do something at this lake. If you have no pokemon to protect you, it would be best for you to leave." He said before focusing on the cave in the middle of the lake.

Taking this as my chance to leave, I simply nodded my head before making my way out. He shouldn't have a way to capture Mesprit yet. If anything, he was here to monologue or some crap like that. At most, he should only be here for a few minutes before leaving back to one of the buildings team Galactic owned. There was honestly not much else I could do at the moment other than wait for him to leave. 

For a moment, I had even considered using my psionics to attack him, but my gut told me it would have only led to my death. I could sense that one of the pokemon he held was a psychic type, ready to exit their pokeball at the first sign of danger. Pokeballs simply facilitated the transportation of pokemon. Unless you got some from a black market, the pokemon would be free to leave it at any time. If, by any chance, the pokemon that Cyrus was hiding was a Malamar, I would be screwed as they would be able to nullify my psychic attacks. This only reinforced my belief I had to train and continue to work on my fighting without using my psionics.

It was strange to be so close to the man who led the organization I was going to oppose in the future. I had never felt such a pure sense of danger before in my life, as if one wrong move could have ended in something really bad happening.

I will take myself leaving this encounter unharmed and mostly being ignored by Cyrus as his birthday present to me. Thanks, Cyrus. I appreciate it.

Getting as far away as I could, I ended up going all the way to Jubilife City. I had a few hours to kill before my party was supposed to happen, so I decided to go help out at the pokemon center. Nurse Joy seemed to have expected this as she gave me random yet easy tasks to kill time.

I had to admit I was deep in thought the whole time I was in the center. If I ever reencountered Cyrus, what would I do? Would I be able to defeat him? If it came to it, would I be determined enough to kill him? If my reaction after fighting Gyarados had taught me something was that I had to learn when to harden my heart and do what I believed I had to do… But would I be able to follow through?

As the time I was supposed to return drew near, Joy shook me out of my thoughts by not so subtly telling me it was time to leave.

I would put those thoughts to the back of my head for now. I didn't want to make the people at the party worry about me. So I simply put a smile on my face before opening the door to my house.

"Surprise!" I heard a group shout at me as some confetti fell from the ceiling.

The house was surprisingly full, and I saw some faces I didn't expect. Georges, Maylene, Ash, Serena, Olympia, Oak, Lila, and Nurse Joy, who had somehow managed to get here before me.

I was swarmed with a barrage of congratulations. I could feel the worries of the day wash away as the party began.

Ash had a Pikachu resting near him. He had only recently begun his adventure and was about to get his first gym badge. He had been beaten by Brock before he made his way here for my birthday. From what I could gather, his journey was pretty similar to the one in the anime. However, there was no real mention of Team Rocket interfering directly with him. This was somewhat strange, as I knew that Team Rocket was somewhat prevalent back in Kanto. I simply tossed it to having protagonist's luck. I made sure to warn him plenty to not hold back against them if he ever fought them. He really wanted to fight me and one of my pokemon after the party but Serena told him that we had to wait for her to fight each other.

Serena was anxiously awaiting the day she got her starter. She was eager to begin her journey too, and was a bit jealous we had been born before her. She seemed very determined to become a strong trainer, and compared to when I had met her during the pokemon camp, she seemed to have way more confidence. Her father was a prominent pokemon battler back in Kalos and had made sure to instill in her the basics she would need. She even had some experience battling against her father, which gave her good instincts. She had even spent some time battling her father with his pokemon in order to get the hang of combat. Though she also hadn't slacked when it came to practicing for pokemon contests.

Maylene wanted to fight me again to see if I had been practicing, but Georges held her back. Georges had taken her as his personal disciple in order to prepare her to become the future gym leader. She had gotten her starter a few months ago, and she had chosen a Machop. Rather than immediately start the gym challenges, she had gone directly to Veilstone City to continue her training.

Georges had told me that she was getting to be quite a reliable student. That he could see her taking the mantle sooner than he expected. He then spent some time reminding me to continue to practice fighting so that I could join the Tournament that would happen in a year. Maylene was using me as her rival to continue to work hard, and that if I were to be beaten very easily she would lose her primary source of motivation.

I had to be honest when I said I had been spreading myself a bit thin with the different things I had been pursuing. Splitting my attention between raising newborn pokemon, training my psionics, exercising, and practicing fighting hand-to-hand combat. All of them were important to me, but before the tournament, I would have to put my complete focus on hand-to-hand combat once again.

I was researching and experimenting with infusing my body with my psychic energy to strengthen my punches, but so far, I was only able to do it in short bursts. The other thing I was working on is fluttering my opponents with my fairy typing. It would be fighting dirty, but hey, all's fair in love and war. To be fair, if they lost their focus because I gave them a wink, that just meant that they needed to work on keeping their focus during battle.

Olympia and Oak didn't really say much other than give me general updates on how things were going. Oak had already developed several Rotom-pokedex combinations, but they were still experiencing some problems with Rotoms going rogue.

Lila, one of my mother's friends who was a stylist and occasional pokemon contest participant, shared the excitement that I would follow in my mother's footsteps. She had told me that after today, I would no longer be "Unfashionable." So I could only assume that her gift to me was a new outfit.

The party eventually settled down when my mother said that Ralts had a gift for me. She had deemed the lights in the house before beginning to play music. When Ralts emerged from where she was hiding, she did a dance throughout the whole house. Lifing all of the confetti that had been thrown to the ground in order to incorporate it into her dance. I could tell that she had worked quite hard on the routine, but I was shocked by what I saw.

As she was near the end of her dance, she made all of the confetti spin around her as a glowing light began to emerge from her body. Just as the song finished, the confetti began to fall down to the ground slowly to reveal that Ralts had evolved into Kirlia. Ending her dance routine by doing a curtsy. Kirlia's face seemed to glow with happiness as she heard all of the applause. And though I was incredibly proud of her, I could also feel my eyebrow twitch a bit as realization struck.

I knew she should have evolved some time ago, though when it didn't happen, I didn't pester her. But  I had just realized the little angel was waiting for an audience in order to go through with it.

After things settled down, Carolina said it was time to give me my trainer id. It was a simple card that showcased my name and age, along with a picture of my face. In order to see most of its functions, the id would have to be scanned with either a pokedex or another device. Since there were many guests around, she had returned to her formal facade, but I could tell she wanted to tell me something in private. The disappearing Dreepy was hanging on top of her Garchomps head, and judging by the look he gave me, I knew it had something to do with him. It made me slightly nervous, but Carolina didn't seem disappointed, so I couldn't really guess what it was they were hiding.

Once the party drew to an end, most of the people that had come had to leave to go back to where they had come from. It was a pleasant surprise to see them all again. I could only look forward to when the time came to meet with them again.

Before I was able to go to bed, Carolina told me to follow her. She had a slight smile on her face as she led me to one of the rooms that were meant for testing pokemon moves in the lab near my house.

"Kid, I knew you had it in you when I entrusted you with Dreepy.  Though the imprinting didn't work entirely, the show you put on for him was the final push. Let me put you to the test. What is one of the things that helps dragon types in the wild become strong?"

Thinking about one of the books I had read, I answered.

"Most of the dragon-type pokemon are exposed to the pressure of their parents, which lets them build their own strength as they follow their parents' example when witnessing their fights. Another way for them to gain strength is through repeated fights against stronger enemies. The harder the fight, the more they grow. Even if the fight ends in their loss, as long as they survive, they will become stronger.

I wanted to go with that method at first, but the pokemon here are either weaker than Dreepy so it doesn't help him as much, or stronger to the point that Dreepy would be defeated immediately with heavy injuries and risk of death. That's why you brought Garchomp, to act as a parent for Dreepy and let him experience the pressure of a dragon."

Carolina nodded with approval before asking.

"It has been working, but slowly, slower than it should. The answer evaded me until this morning when I saw Dreepy watching over Ralts. Tell me, Lucas, why is it that Dreepy hasn't been able to grow as strong as he should have? Why is it that even when exposed to the pressure of a dragon, he isn't shaken to the core? Why is it that rather than fearing my Garchomp, he sees him as his ally?" Carolina said as the smile on her face grew wider and wider, almost to the point of being creepy.

Carolina and I had both gone through different books trying to figure out the best way to train Dreepy. According to all of the research done before, what we were doing was supposed to make him grow stronger at a faster rate. But it was slow.

It was at this moment that Carolina's questions clicked. We both had focused too much on the research that had been published and kept trying to find things that would help us come to a solution. But the books we were using had been the issue the whole time. We had been so far inside our little boxes that we hadn't managed to put the pieces together.

"The show of strength I gave Dreepy was thanks to me using my psychic powers. Most of the strong figures in his life have been psychic, so he must have been trying to grow by imitating how Ralts and I used our psychic powers." I began to answer, at which Carolina interrupted with an excited question.

"Now, you aren't the first psychic trainer to train a dragon-type pokemon, but why is it that you are having such an issue?"

"Because of my innate Fairy-type! Ever since the little one was born, he has been pressured by me subconsciously. Seeing me as a threat, it saw the pressure I gave off as if it was the pressure his parents would have used on him… But I haven't ever really focused on what my fairy typing could do or how to strengthen it."

Carolina couldn't hold back her excitement as she said.

"Dreepy needs to be pressured by Fairy types to grow! Very little research has been done on innate human typings, so we overlooked this. Most dragon types innately detest fairy trainers, so it was never worth it for them to deal with how troublesome it was to raise one. But since it is imprinted on you and has grown next to you, his requirements for growth are different."

I nodded my head in understanding before my expression turned a bit awkward.

"So that means that I have to… pressure Dreepy… and make him as uncomfortable as possible…"

The exact opposite of what I had been trying to do this whole time.

"Just like their parents would in the wild. It's either that or you'll have to find a cementrary and settle there to strengthen his ghost type until he evolves. Once he reaches his middle evolution, you can work on the second method of training a dragon type. Through battle against stronger opponents."

Seeing me process through the information, Carolina said.

"Go to bed, kid. The journey you are going to be going on is going to be a long one. And you can't start while being sleep deprived. I look forward to seeing you grow. You are quite a unique case. So I can only look forward to see what Dreepy will become by being by your side."

~Author's Note~

This one was a tough one to write, lol. I hope you all enjoyed it. It's 2am as I am writing this, so I am exhausted and going to go to bed. This marks the end of Volume 1. I am taking a break from writing so no chap tomorrow, but they should resume the day after. But before the chapter ends there is one thing left to do.

Those suckers from the FBI raided the wrong wedding. Now that I am happily married the next step is to find a new place to live. Send me your power stones so that I can buy a new house.