Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ One Pokemon ❯ Final Evolution ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

ONE POKEMON

Final Evolution

By Michael O'Hare

Before, the quiet serenity she found while formless inside her
Pokeball brought her comfort and lucidity. Now, however, all she felt
was emptiness, loneliness, and pure misery.

It had been a little over a month since she had gotten lost in those
woods, and met that male Vulpix. It had been a little over a month
since they had fallen in love. It had been a little over a month since
he had been killed by a Pincer.

It had been a little over a month since this young Vulpix's life was
destroyed.

Ever since then, she had lost the will to fight, and to live. Over the
period of a month, she had suffered a series of humiliating losses.
Her trainer, extremely concerned for her, had struggled to find out
what was wrong with her. Repeated trips to several Pokemon centers and
psychoanalysts had yielded nothing.

There was no way they could ever find out, anyway. And, even if they
did, they could never understand what she was truly feeling. She had
watched the one she loved die. Now, she had been consumed by
depression, hardly having enough will to even stand up, much less
battle.

As she floated in the formless state within her Pokeball, a state
which once brought her so much serenity and lucidity, she was aware
only of her own sadness. Suddenly, she felt her Pokeball move.
Apparently, there had been a battle going on outside. She heard her
trainer's voice, although it lacked the enthusiasm she was used to
hearing within it.

"Vulpix... I... choose you."

As she felt her body's essence quickly flood out of the Pokeball and
take form, her misery was slightly overcome by a hurt feeling. For
this whole time, she had been too preoccupied with her own feelings to
take into consideration what she was doing to him.

This realization hit her hard. She felt hurt and guilty at the same
time. All those battles in the previous months where she had given up
or not even tried must have torn him apart inside.

Her body then began taking form once free from the Pokeball. In that
instance, her determination returned to her, at least enough to
overshadow her depression.

Slowly, her body took its form, and her vision returned to her. She
quickly got a good look at her opponent, and her determination waned
slightly.

Standing before her was a very graceful looking, extremely powerful
looking Arcanine.

He stood before her, proud and strong, his fire - like fur flowing
gracefully from his body. He exuded power and grace, and she felt
intimidated simply looking at him. Behind him, his trainer stood, a
young girl who looked almost as proud and graceful as he did, her own
hair an uncanny mirror of her Pokemon's fiery fur.

For a moment, her resolve shook, and her confidence waned.
Immediately, however, she shook that away, and prepared herself for
battle, determined not to surrender.

Her trainer, seeing the dramatic change in his once despondent
Pokemon, cheered her on, and the battle began.

As usual, she fought defensively, letting her opponent attack and
leave himself open for an eventual attack. He arrogantly paced around
her, waiting for the right moment to strike, their eyes locked. There
were several instances where she was irritated by his arrogant,
prideful demeanor, and almost attacked him because of it. She held
herself back, however, knowing that was exactly what he wanted her to
do.

The moment she had been waiting for finally came when he suddenly
opened his maw and released a surprisingly large torrent of fire at
her. It was larger than she had expected, and she had expected
something large. Surprised, she almost failed to leap out of the way
in time. The explosion of flame blinded her momentarily as she landed.
It was enough time for him to leap at her and swat her with his paw,
sending her flying across the field.

She was shocked by the raw power behind the blow. Quickly, her
determination and confidence gave way to fear, but she managed to keep
herself together. She quickly leapt up and spun around to meet her
opponent, just in time to see his jaws bearing down onto her.

She screamed with surprise and terror as the jaws snapped shut just in
front of her snout. She could feel his burning breath on her face, she
could hear his feral growling reverberating in her ears. She quickly
leapt away as he struck out at her once again, each of his attacks
seemingly intended to kill her.

She was definitely outmatched by her opponent, there was no way for
her to deny that. All she could do was avoid taking any damage long
enough for an opening to present itself, and, if she was lucky, she
might be able to...

Her train of thought was abruptly and violently halted as the Arcanine
delivered a devastating kick to her chin, sending her flying
gracelessly through the air and falling painfully to the ground.

Slowly and painfully, she struggled to lift herself off the ground,
every part of her body throbbing with pain from the last kick.
Everything, her sight, her hearing, her thoughts, was clouded by pain.
She could make out her trainer screaming, but she could not tell what
he was saying. She could not even tell what the tone of his voice was.
Her vision was severely blurred, but she could still see her opponent,
standing proudly, staring down at her in disappointment.

The arrogance he was showing made her blood boil. She pushed herself
harder than she had ever pushed herself in her entire life to simply
stand up and prepare to continue fighting. As painful as the kick was,
it had not hurt her too much, and she was far from having to worry
about passing out.

However, there was nothing left inside of her. She had never really
regained her will to fight, she had simply been forcing herself to do
so. She could, however, force herself no more. She simply collapsed on
the ground, refusing to fight any further, regardless of her
condition.

Both trainers looked at her, confused.

"What's wrong with your Vulpix?" the Arcanine's trainer yelled,
clearly insulted. "Why are you sending a weak Pokemon against us??"

"She's not weak!" her trainer yelled back angrily. "She's just...
just..."

He stared at her, waiting for her to do something. She could not even
look at him, and she hung her head in misery and shame. She certainly
was strong enough to fight her opponent, but whatever once drove her
to fight was now dead.

When it became evident that she was not going to fight, much less
stand up, her trainer sighed, as he slowly brought up her Pokeball.

"Vulpix, re-"

He was cut off as the furious Arcanine blasted out a large stream of
fire, striking the earth in front of her trainer, and creating a large
pillar of fire. As everyone stared in shocked confusion, the Arcanine
continued the stream of fire, rolling it across the earth, creating a
wall of fire impossible to see over or get through.

After finishing the wall of fire, he walked up to her, and stared at
her scornfully. He knew she was holding back, and he refused to let
this battle end with her just giving up. She looked up at the scowling
Arcanine in front of her, and slowly stood up. She stared at him,
confused, waiting for him to explain himself. He said nothing, simply
staring at her with the same disapproving scowl.

She suddenly realized what he was doing. He knew very well that she
was not even trying to fight, and felt deeply insulted by her apathy.
She was going to have to fight, or he would kill her. With the wall of
fire around them, she had no other option but to fight.

She quickly stood up, a rush of adrenaline brought by fear rushing
through her body, and backed away from him, dropping into a defensive
position and waiting for him to attack. The Arcanine slowly circled
her, his face cold and free of emotion. She trembled uncontrollably as
she turned herself to keep him in his sight, her fear more than
evident in her face. He had quickly noticed the fear she was giving
off, and couldn't help but smile slightly, revealing his teeth in a
small, sadistic grin.

This was too much for her to bear, and quickly spun around and ran,
any rational thought in her mind overwhelmed by panic and terror. She
charged forward, blind with panic, but suddenly felt the searing pain
of his teeth sinking into her back.

She did not even have time to fully register the pain before he picked
her up and slammed her small body onto the ground several times,
tossing her to the ground after several painful blows. Before she
could even realize what had happened, he gracefully spun around and
delivered a devastating kick to her with his hind legs, sending her
flying into the center of the ring of fire.

She could not get up, even if she wanted to. Her entire body burnt
with pain. Her vision finally focused in time to see the Arcanine
charging at her, ready to deliver the final blow.

By now, she had given up, and was more than ready to die. She shut her
eyes tight, and prepared for the oncoming strike that would end her
life.

It never even had a chance to land.

She had no control over her body when she stood up and released a
stream of fire at the Arcanine with lightning speed, but it caught
both of them completely off guard, and knocked him off his feet. He
quickly recovered, at first believing that she had been planning this
all along. However, upon seeing the confusion on her face, he realized
that was not the case, and was stunned with confusion.

At first, she panicked at the fact that she had momentarily lost
control of her body. Something like that had never happened before,
and her mind raced to find some sort of explanation to it, quickly
forgetting about her opponent.

The Arcanine was similarly confused by what had just happened.
However, he quickly noticed that she was paying no attention to him at
all, almost as if he was not there, or they had not even been battling
in the first place. Upon realizing this, anger and insult replaced his
confusion. Apparently, he thought, she did not see him as enough of a
threat anymore to even pay attention to him. Enraged by this perceived
insult, he charged at her, his fury evident in his eyes.

She had been too preoccupied with what was happening to her to notice
her opponent charging furiously at her, but, upon seeing him, she
quickly charged at him, as well, despite such an action being
completely against her better judgment. Her mind was telling her that
charging the Arcanine was suicide, but every single other part of her
was screaming that it was the right thing to do.

As the Arcanine was bearing down on her, he opened his jaws and lunged
at her, intent on biting her in half. Just then, she effortlessly
leapt straight up into the air, a seemingly impossible move that left
her almost as surprised as it left him, his jaws snapping shut on
empty air. He looked up in time to see another ball of fire racing
towards him, impacting painfully on his head, and sending him reeling.

As she landed, she could feel her entire body overflowing with
adrenaline. At first, she was confused and frightened by what was
happening, but those feelings quickly gave way to an unexpected calm.
Quickly, the sensation grew stronger than anything she had ever felt
in her life. She could literally feel every single atom in her body
beginning to heat up. Her opponent, at first intent on striking her
down, stared at her in shock. She looked at herself, and saw why.

She was glowing. Every part of her body was glowing with an almost
ethereal, yellow light caused by the intense heat her body was
producing. Yet, despite this, she felt no pain at all. Rather, she
felt an odd combination of unprecedented bliss and a burning
adrenaline rush.

Just then, flames began to leap from her body. Slowly, the fear and
sadness that had once filled her disappeared. All her emotions, in
fact, quickly drained from her mind, leaving her in a completely lucid
state.

In an instant, every atom in her body burst into flames. For a few
seconds, she felt her existence spread out over the entire planet, her
emotions and thoughts intermingling with every aspect of existence she
could possibly imagine, and several she would never have thought of.
Slowly, the euphoric feeling subsided, replaced by a rush of power
like she had never felt in her life, as the swirling firestorm that
was her body reformed once again. The flames died down, revealing her
new form.

Her small, infantile form had grown into a long, sleek, graceful body.
Her once dark violet fur was now beautiful, porcelain white. Her six
small, curling tails had multiplied and grown into nine long, lupine
tails. The small batch of curly hair on her head had lengthened into a
beautiful trail of hair.

It was the last thing she had expected, but it had finally happened,
in the direst of circumstances. She had finally evolved.

She was now a Ninetales.

The Arcanine could only gawk in stunned amazement at the new,
beautiful form in front of him. He had long since resigned this battle
to a victory for himself, comforted by the fact that his opponent had
at least not allowed him to win. However, with this sudden occurrence,
it appeared as though the battle had only begun. He smiled as he
prepared himself for what she might do.

At first, she did not know how to react. In the space of a single
second, she ran through every emotion possible, from shock, to fear,
to outright joy. And it was fortunate that this race of emotions only
took a second, for it allowed her to quickly remember that her battle
had, in fact, not ended. She quickly turned her attention towards the
Arcanine and crouched defensively, waiting for his attack, and he did
the same. For what seemed like an eternity, they both stood perfectly
still, glaring at each other, the raging inferno around them the only
sound.

Finally, the Arcanine could not hold back any more, releasing a
torrent of fire from his maw at her. She effortlessly leapt out of its
way, with such speed and agility that she even surprised herself. Upon
landing, she took the time to steady herself, and was barely able to
move out of the way of her opponent's quick charge, he himself barely
able to stop himself before he would have collided with the wall of
flames he had created. Quickly spinning around, he saw her, crouched,
ready to attack. They slowly circled each other, looking for an
opening to attack.

Without warning, he charged at her once again. She stayed perfectly
still, seemingly unconcerned by her charging opponent. When he was
certain he was too close for her to dodge, he lowered his head, ready
to ram into her. He hit nothing.

Confused, he stopped and searched the area for her. Suddenly, he
realized what she had done, and quickly looked up to see her graceful,
beautiful form, framed by the full moon, bearing down on him. Awed by
the vision before him, he could do nothing as she violently landed on
him. With lightning speed, she leapt off of him, violently yanked him
up with her teeth, spun around, and gave him a strong kick to the
head, sending him rolling back. Before he could get up, he felt the
impact of her body landing on his, and the sting of her teeth sinking
into his collar.

Quickly, she rolled her body back, picking his body up and lifting him
into the air. For a brief second, he was supported in the air by her
legs, before she violently kicked him into the air. She quickly rolled
out of the way as he plummeted back down, his body impacting painfully
with the ground.

Slowly and painfully, he stood up, staring angrily at his opponent.
She stood some distance away from him, silent, confident, the most
graceful thing he had ever seen in his life. If he had not seen her
evolve, he would have never known she was once that sad little Vulpix
he had so savagely beaten earlier.

Instead of the awe he had felt earlier, however, he was now filled
with rage. Quickly recovering, he charged at her, his fangs bared.
Once again, she stayed still, seemingly allowing him to charge at him.
At the last second, she leapt up once again, only to be surprised
herself. He was not so stupid to try the same trick twice, it turns
out.

Instead of continuing his charge, he leapt up at her, his head
colliding with her stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Still
ascending from his jump, he threw his head back violently, throwing
her off and onto the ground. Upon hitting the ground, she tried to
recover and stand back up as quickly as possible. Not fast enough.
Upon spinning around, she was able to see her opponent's hind legs
swinging at her for a split second before her vision was clouded with
pain. She felt her body fly abruptly through the air, before impacting
against a tree, the only object that had not caught fire yet in the
ring. She quickly shook the pain off and focused here eyes towards her
opponent, in time to see a large ball of fire about to impact with
her.

The Arcanine smiled soberly as the ball of flame exploded, enveloping
his opponent completely. This battle had taken an unexpected turn, and
it had been close, but he had won.

Quickly, however, his relieved joy turned into shocked denial as he
saw a form moving within the flames. It was definitely her, and she
was still up. His shock increased even more as he saw her bound out of
the flames, streams of fire trailing from her body. Her fur had been
slightly singed, but, aside from that, she was undamaged. She landed
not far from where his attack had impacted, and stared at him. He
quickly tried to compose himself as best he could, and opened his
mouth to fire another blast of fire at her. As she saw him do this,
she did the same, the light coming from within her throat and glowing
brightly.

Finally, a humongous stream of fire erupted from the Arcanine's maw,
accompanied by his enraged bellowing. She did not move, and she did
not even flinch as the raging river of fire hurtled towards her,
instead allowing the burning light within her mouth to become even
more and more intense. Finally, as the flames were about to swallow
her, she let out her attack.

It was not, as one might have expected, a large plume of flame.
Instead, it was a thin bolt of flame, almost like beam of light.
However, as it burst from her mouth, it was still able to effortlessly
cleave her opponent's attack, sending ineffectual streams of fire
spraying in its wake. The Arcanine could only stare in shock and
disbelief as the beam of white - hot flame, brighter than the sun
itself, flew towards him. The beam suddenly stopped in front of him,
quickly collecting into a ball of fire, and exploding. Immediately, he
was enveloped in an intense pillar of blinding white fire. Unable to
scream or even move, the Arcanine silently took the blazing attack's
punishment.

After several moments of intense light and burning, the pillar of
white flame died down suddenly, leaving the Arcanine standing, shocked
and dazed, within a circular patch of ground that had been reduced to
white powder by the flames. As she watched and waited, his senses
slowly returned to him, and he smiled weakly, before collapsing.

The battle was over, and she had won. She approached him, walking
slowly from fatigue. As she approached, he slowly and weakly stood up,
and bowed his head with respect. She smiled gently, and did the same.
He looked up and smiled back at her, before finally passing out.
Seeing this, she panicked. She quickly checked to see if he was still
alive, and sighed in relief when she saw he was still breathing.

"Vulpix! Vulpix!"

Through the sound of the spraying of the foam over the quickly dying
flames, she heard her trainer frantically calling her. She suddenly
tensed up, as she realized she had not thought about how he was going
to react to her sudden evolution. One thing was for certain, and that
was that he would be very, very shocked. She searched through the
smoke and foam for her trainer, when she heard him behind her.

"Vulpix! Are you... OH MY GOD!!!"

She quickly spun around and saw her trainer gawking at her, amazed
beyond speech or movement. She smiled gently at him. At least, she was
right about that.

Slowly and nervously, he walked up to her, and stroked her fur.

"Vulpix?" he said cautiously, "that IS you, isn't it?"

She nodded happily, and he cried out in joy and hugged her.

"Oh, I knew you had it in you!" he yelled, tears of joy streaming from
his eyes. "I knew there was nothing wrong with you, after all!"

She smiled softly and shut her eyes as he said this, allowing herself
to cry slightly. Their tender moment was suddenly interrupted as they
heard the other trainer's voice.

"Arcanine, return."

They both turned to see the Arcanine's trainer holding a Pokeball, a
stream of light that was her Pokemon flowing into it. As the process
finished, she sighed, and approached them, staring at him with an
arched eyebrow.

"Now, hold on," her trainer said defensively before she could say
anything, "I know what you're thinking, and we didn't plan this out at
all!"

"I know," she replied, smiling, "I can tell. That's some Ninetales you
got there."

Her trainer looked at her, and smiled proudly.

"I'll say."

Later on, at the local Pokemon center, after her checkup, Nurse Joy
returned her to her trainer.

"Your Pokemon is the very picture of good health," Joy said happily to
him. "You'd hardly ever know she had gone through a battle like the
one you told me about."

"But," her trainer asked, "aren't there any effects from her evolution
that I have to look out for?"

Joy looked the clipboard she was holding, an awkward look on her face.
"Well, no..."

"Well, then," her trainer said happily, "if there's nothing else..."

"...However," Joy replied, her voice a mixture of awkwardness and
happiness, "there's one more thing. You're Ninetales is... well..."
She cleared her throat.

"...Pregnant."

"PREGNANT?!?"

"NINETALES? !?"

Both she and her trainer cried out in surprise simultaneously. That
was the last thing either of them had ever imagined hearing.

"Whaddaya mean, she's pregnant??" he yelled, more shocked than
anything else.

"She was showing signs of a pregnancy, so I checked," Joy responded.

"Now, hold on!" her yelled, "I had her checked over just a couple of
days ago, and she wasn't pregnant then! What's going on, here??"

Joy thought silently for several seconds.

"Well," she finally said, "she more than likely mated when she was a
Vulpix, and, since a Vulpix isn't capable of mothering children, it
must've stayed dormant until she evolved."

"Could... that have been why she evolved without a firestone?" he
asked.

"Possibly," Joy replied. "Much of Pokemon reproduction is still a
mystery."

By now, her own shock had changed to overwhelming joy. She was
pregnant! She was carrying the children of her lover! She was going to
be a mother!

"Vul... Err, Ninetales."

Her trainer, who still had not gotten the hang of calling her by her
new name, broke her joyous train of thought.

"When... when??"

His voice was a mixture of confusion and happiness. He was so shaken
by the news, that it looked like he was about to faint, and nurse Joy
was forced to rush to his side and give him support. She quickly
rushed to his side as well, and followed him as Nurse Joy led him to a
chair and sat him down.

"Are you okay, sir?" she asked.

"Yeah," he said, breathing heavily, "I'm... I'm fine... I..." He
stopped once again to try and catch his breath.

"Stay here," Joy said, standing up, "I'll go get you some water... and
a paper bag..."

As Joy rushed off, he stared at her, his face a mixture of
mind-bending shock and utter joy.

"This... this is..."

Slowly, his gasping turned into laughter.

"...Great! This is great! You're going to be a mom!"

He fell to his knees and hugged her tightly, as tears of joy streamed
down his face. Slowly, tears of joy also began to flow from her eyes.
She had never been so happy in her life, and she could not help
crying.

The night air was particularly refreshing tonight for her. She sat,
silent and alone, on the grassy plain outside of the city. She needed
to be alone, and her trainer more than understood. He certainly needed
some time alone, himself, after discovering her pregnancy.

She thought back to the day she had met her mate when she was lost in
the woods. She had no idea that they would fall in love, or that she
would have lost him. After he died, she never thought that she would
have anything to live for. As it turns out, she now had several
reasons to live.

She would be giving birth to a litter of Vulpix within a few months.
She had already been warned about the unpleasant things that were
going to happen to her. The nausea, the aches, the mood swings; they
did not matter to her. She had been afraid that she would forget him,
but, now, she never would. And, she would make sure that her children
would always remember their father, as well.

She took a deep breath of the cool night air, and stared up at the
beautiful starry night. She was happy to be alive.

DISCLAMER(S)

Nintendo owns Pokemon and all related characters. I own this fic, for
lack of better term. I also own an old USSR pocket watch, but that's
irrelevant. It's a nice pocket watch, though. Much nicer than whatever
YOU are wearing, I'll bet....

AUTHOR'S NOTES

Well, nice little trilogy. I could've extended it further, but a
trilogy seemed appropriate. I'm happy enough with this story, however,
that I could always consider extending it. Of course, then I'd have to
give the protagonist a name, wouldn't I? Any suggestions? No? OKay,
then...

Plus, looking back, maybe I should have given her trainer a name?

... Nah!

Soviet Giant Squids Are Useless Against Boomer Submarines. It's True.