Written in the Stars Extra Chapter 2:

   THE PRETENDER

               

4TH JOHTO POKEMON LABORATORY, 1½ years ago, 12:17

   A Totodile headbutted a Cyndaquil in the stomach, and sent the furry little creature flying through the wide open room. It tried to get up, but the blue alligator was faster at closing the distance and stroke at it again. The beaten fire-type tried to retort, counterattacking with a leap towards its opponent but the Totodile grabbed it and effortlessly smashed it against the wall, over and over again until a buzzer sound made it stop. The gator backed down with a vile grin while the Cyndaquil remained down, gasping for air on the ground. A woman in a white labcoat rushed out of the door on the other side of the room, and to the injured pokemon with a first aid kit in hand..
       In the control room next to the battle arena a young scientist with short blonde hair and nasty, beady eyes sighed when he watched the Totodile happily waddle away from the room.
 “Those two sure are problem children. We keep telling them to stop before either sustains serious injuries, too,”
he talked thoughtfully and crouched down to pet a Chikorita in his feet, looking kindly at the grass-type.
  “You must be lonely. Usually the pokemon groups we train together become good friends with each other, but you got put in with such difficult personalities”.
The Chikorita looked up at the scientist with pleading, sad eyes and shyly spoke up:
  “A bit, but I´ll manage. They`re not really bad guys, either”
  “I see. Just let us know if anything is up. Bullying and abuse in these situations is not unheard of, and we take our pokemon`s welfare seriously”
the man assured. The pokemon awkwardly smiled in return and ran off, leaving the professor to proudly look after it. Just then his female colleague stormed back in, holding a swab against a wound on her hand.
   
     “The little lunatic scratched me! I was just trying to patch it up after that battle when it suddenly jumped me and ran off!”
she ranted in disbelief while disinfecting the wound on the sink in the corner. Her body language screamed frustration when she wrapped a bandage around her wrist with and turned to the man to say:
   “We should get rid of it altogether. The Totodile is even crazier, but at least it can battle properly. The Cyndaquil is unsocial, unskilled, unwilling, bad-tempered and has a horrible attitude. The worst trainee I´ve ever seen. Tell me, where would he go? No trainer would find him useful, he`s not good for contests, household helper, anything?!”
  “Calm down, Maria. I know you`re stressed out, but we can`t just dispose of pokemon. That`s not what we do”
   “I say we should,”
the woman huffed and grabbed a chair, flipped it around and sat down with her arms on the backrest.
  “Why can`t they all be more like the Chikorita?”
she pouted.
  “It`s almost a shame it`s not a fighter, so it could teach them some manners. But I just love how friendly it is, if a little shy. I don`t think I´ve ever seen any pokemon pick up proper behaviour so perfectly. It`s fit to be company for the royalty”
    “I know what you mean. Tea?”
 the man asked, holding up a kettle and filling it till two cups when the female professor gave him the thumbs-up. While boiling the water, he looked at the charts with data on the three pokemon hung on their office`s wall.
   “The pokemon are grouped according to a long series of personality tests to make sure they match, to help develop social skills and conversation...that`s what they tell us. I wonder who fucked up this time?”
   “Really,”
the woman called Maria laughed and messed with her curly hair.
  “They gave us an all-braw-no-brain, a hopeless case and a model student”
   “Well, they`ll be out of training in another year. Chikorita just needs to stand those two until then. If things get really bad, we could always get permission to switch her to another group”
     “I kind of want to do it right now. She always gets badly beaten up in combat training  too, since that moronic Totodile doesn´t know how to hold back”
Maria was still playing around with her hair when the other professor handed her the cup.
   “Thanks. Hey, Ted. Couldn`t I keep her?”
     “Let`s not get ahead of ourselves”
the man winked one eye while sipping his drink, and the woman laughed.

13:10

     “You don`t bite the hand that feeds you, moron”
the leafhead preached from atop the pillows in our playroom. I was already at my limit, my whole body ached, my head hurt, I felt bad for attacking the caretaker. I didn`t mean to, really. I was just so damn pissed off after having Gator kick me around like a bag of peas for the hundredth time, so when she came to swab my wounds with that stingy disinfectant thing, I just kind of snapped. So I didn`t really need anyone to tell me I was in the wrong, and I let Chik know it too:
  “Mind yer own business, please”.
 Well, thinking back, I might have lacked some distinct punch in my lines back in the day. That one too, she mainly laughed at, elegantly sliding down from her throne. Yes, that`s the only word you could really use of her. Elegant.
     “I don`t really get it. If you hate getting beat up so much, why do you keep trying to seriously fight the Totodile?”
she asked me and gave the leaf sprouting from her head a twirl: A habit I really learned to hate during those months in the lab. I don´t know if it was due to that, or her question just didn´t sink, but I was seriously confused.
   “What you mean why? What should I do then?”
I asked. She looked at me like I was some kind of moron. Well, that was exactly what she must have thought I was.
   “What? Just don`t take it so seriously. You`re weak as shit, so let it show. Just let him kick you a couple of times for show and then just lie there whimpering”
she shrugged and waltzed off while I was left scratchin` my head and wondering whatever did she mean by that?

14:00

  The Totodile charged at the Chikorita that awkwardly tried to jump out of the way, but the opponent`s body crashed in its side and sent it flying. The pale green creature let out a terrible cry of pain and was left squirming in the ground when the Totodile backed down with a bored expression on its face.
   “You. Boring. No fight, coward,”
it complained, unsurprised when the buzzer went off like the house was on fire. Secretly from the male professor bashing through the door, the Chikorita gave it the tongue before being carried off for treatment. On it`s way back to the gardens, the Totodile stopped to greet the Cyndaquil that was watching the fight from the doorstep.
   “You. Better opponent. Hope we soon fight. So I win again”
the gator smiled before leaving. The other pokemon looked away, after the Chikorita, deep in thought.

15:45

  “So. That’s how ya do it?”
I said, pretty unsure of myself. I wanted to look like I understood what exactly that little pain in the butt was trying to tell me, but frankly I had no idea. I don`t know if she bought the act, lying on the pillows with a band-aid on her bruised side, but she seemed content at the very least.
   “Yup. Just play your part well and they`ll take pity on you. Take the lesson, Quil. Pity gets you further than power”
 Somehow its words just didn`t sit right with me, so I tried to argue.
       “But couldn`t ya beat the Gator if ya tried hard enough, Chik? I mean, grass is powerful against water and all”.
 Again, that look that put the stamp of the official moron on my forehead.
  “Yeah, sure. Maybe. Suppose I could try as hard as I can. Suppose I could bring out every last bit of power within my body, and actually beat the Totodile. Great. What then?”
   “What, wouldn`t that be an achievement?”
  “You two idiots are so concentrated on fighting you`re not thinking at all, are you. What about you then? If you ever win against the Totodile, what after that? When you get out of this place, there are hundreds upon hundreds of pokemon you can`t hope to lay a single claw on. So why bother?”
 it pat the fat pillow under it with one of its legs. I have to admit I got lost halfway through, but I still kind of understood what she was getting at. Though she continued her little speech before I could get a word in:
     “Fighting isn`t going to get you anywhere, unless you happen to be a real genius. If you´re weak, just go with that. Then nobody expects you to battle anyway. When you`re weak and try as hard as you do, of course people are going to hate you. Because it`s annoying, that way of getting up every time no matter how often you get beaten down”.
 
      I listened in awe. Yeah, I was honestly impressed. I had never thought anything that far before. I guess I was easily swayed back then, because her idiotic speeches actually begun making sense to me at this point. Maybe I was tired of losing, afraid of the pain and whatnot. But it was tempting when she was showing me a way to where I needn`t try at all to get the kind of life I wanted. And it might be that showed on my face at that moment because her eyes lighted up and she got all excited about it:
   “You should really try it, Quil. The next time you fight, just let yourself get beaten. Don´t fight back, just take the hits. The professors are softies, so they`ll come to save you at some point. Then just act all cute and they`ll take care of your wounds and feed you and everything!”
  The warning bells did ring. They did, but I refused to listen. Stubborn as a Marowak, even back then I guess. So I just decided I would do exactly as she asked me to. I´d get away from the harsh training regimen and the self-loathing that`d creep in every time I realized I wasn´t getting any stronger. Yeah, it sounded good. Turning over a new leaf. Like she did. God I hated that leaf on her head so damn much…..

THE NEXT DAY, 12:00

    The Cyndaquil and the Totodile took on fighting positions with the professors and the Chikorita watching. The Totodile attacked, and the Cyndaquil didn`t fight back. It got hit, bitten and beaten with the gator growing more impatient with each strike upon realizing the opponent wasn`t fighting back at all. The pokemon that never seemed to show any emotion besides the joy of battle grew in anger and vent it all out on the fire-type while shouting:
   “You! Why! No battle any more?”

  In the audience the professors began impatiently fiddling around with their pencils and data sheets, expecting the Cyndaquil to get up and force itself to fight back as usual.
  “Hey, should we stop the fight?”
 Maria questioned the male professor, and the Chikorita next to them grinned without either noticing.
   “M-maybe. That does seem pretty bad,”
Ted replied uncertainly with his hand hovering over the buzzer button. In the arena, the Cyndaquil spat blood when the enraged Totodile kicked the grounded pokemon in the stomach.
   “Stop it already, please! Please, he`s going to die!”
the Chikorita heartbreakingly cried out. Just when Ted was about to hit the button, Maria grabbed his wrist, eyes focused on the arena.
    “Wait”.
 The Chikorita turned its eyes to look in disbelief as the Totodile backed down with bloody scratches bleeding on its face, and the Cyndaquil charged after it. Moments later they were in full brawl, scratching biting and kicking at each other, desperately reaching to each other´s weak points. The professors both relaxed notably and Ted withdrew his hand just as the Totodile slammed the Cyndaquil against the wall with a blissful look on its face.

        After the battle, the Chikorita approached the Cyndaquil sitting against the wall, loathingly looking at the black eye and bloody scratches around its body.
   “See? You lost again, and gained nothing out of it,”
it whispered. The Cyndaquils calmly eyed it with its single open eye.
  “Ya know, having a bit of blood knocked out of my system seems to have cleared my head. In the middle of that fight I really realized something. That I really, really, really, absolutely, definitely, without a doubt, hate losing. More than anything”
     “So why would you keep losing like an idiot,”
the Chikorita insisted but shut up when the scarlet eye focused on its own. There was such pressure in the gaze it emitted that the Chikorita felt fear for its life, despite the Cyndaquil being so badly beaten it could probably knock it out with a single spin of its leaf.
  “Ya and I have different definitions of losin`, apparently. I´m not saying ye`re wrong, but yer mind and mine. They`re a bit too different, it seems”.
 The Chikorita seemed to waver and turned away, the fire-type calling out after it.
  “As for what`s next, once I get out of here, I´m going to look. If I just keep getting stronger, I´m sure there`ll be an answer somewhere. With all those crazy pokemon I can´t hope to lay a single claw on trying to strengthen themselves, there has to be something on the end of that road, don`t ya think?”
the Chikorita gritted its teeth and ran past the female professor, almost tripping her on the way. After regainin her balance, Maria looked worriedly after the Chikorita and then turned her eyes to the Cyndaquil, uncertain of whether to approach it with the first aid kit or not.
   “Hurry up, will ya. I won´t bite,”
the Cyndaquil grunts and draws a bloody smile across its face.

AZALEA TOWN OUTSKIRTS, PRESENT DAY, 12:14

   “Now that`s none of yer concern,”
I really don`t bother trying to cover up the annoyance in my voice while responding to the Rocket Reject`s speculations about my experiences with weakness and such. She made me remember something unnecessary, after all. It looks away pretty hastily. Not sure if I hurt its feelings, and not certain that I care either way. She needs to train a little more and pry into my secrets a little less if we ever want her to get stronger.

   That Chikorita from the lab never came to Elm´s place with me and the Gator. Some rich heiress practically bribed the institution to let her take the Leafhead in as some kind of a household mascot or something, I don`t know. I haven´t seen her since. But I´m sure she`s doing well. She`s probably had the entire family wrapped around her annoying little leaf, and is enjoying a luxurious life without bothering with things like training or getting stronger or beating the champion. Let me make myself clear: I hate her and her weak philosophy. But I´m also thankful, if that`s even the right word for it. I learned a lot of valuable lessons from that little wimp.

     After that I really picked up the pace and concentrated fully on the fighting training without bothering with excess socializing, and it paid off. At some point I began matching up to the Gator. And then beating it, until eventually it wasn`t a match for me at all. Every loss I took to get that far felt totally worth it at that moment. True enough, I lost the taste for it eventually. But now I also knew that that euphoria was there somewhere, waiting, as long as I kept going…

“So did you help me because that`s how I was…?”
 the bat starts up behind me again. I sigh and turn around, ready to answer even more bothersome questions about my motives and whatnot. Kind of nostalgic, makes me remember how the Chikorita was always breathing on my neck at the lab.The reason why I began training the trashbat may actually be because it reminded me of both myself and the Leafhead at the same time. And I want to see, which one she`ll turn out to be.