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Pepper remembered.

It was unusual, but not unheard of, for a Pokemon to remember their hatching day. Pepper did. She remembered being the 2nd of 4 eggs laid by a Bayleef at a breeder in Johto. She remembered those icy cold but caring hands from an elderly man carefully laying her out for measurements, then a quick wash in the sink before being deposited in the care of her Mother. It was all very hazy and indistinct, as most childhood memories are.

She remembered, vaguely, her 3 brothers. None of them had names, but at the time it hadn't mattered. What had mattered was her gender: as the sole female among a group of males she was constantly bullied, though never quite badly enough to warrant mother's attention. It was an unwanted poke here, a careless shove there, some kibble stolen from her bowl come feeding time, and of course a total disregard for her opinions. It hurt, and the dejection was very real, but the adults never noticed. In time her dejection turned to anger.

Pepper remembered the day she first smacked her older brother. A solid *crack* of a vine whip she'd never used before that sent him sprawling and crying straight to an angry mom. Pepper couldn't remember the punishment if only because she remembered the feeling of dominance when she smacked her middle-brother the next day, proving she would accept any punishment from on-high as long as she got to establish her place as top-'mon in the herd. She remembered being left alone after that.

Pepper remembered the day she was taken to the lab. Her mother, now a Meganium, hugged her close and told her to never stop fighting, even, or especially if everyone told her to stop. Pepper remembered that moment because it was the moment she realized that her Mother had known of her brothers' petty behavior, but had ignored it, believing it was an adversity that Pepper had to learn to overcome herself. Her mother was a wild pokémon once, maybe that was why she believed that. Pepper couldn't remember how she learned that.

She remembered arriving at the lab and first learning that she was going to be a starter pokémon; a gift to a child with the goal of becoming a master in combat. On that day, Pepper vowed that not only would her trainer become the best, but she would become the best, like no other! The other starters laughed at her for that. She beat the snot out of that Cyndaquil for his petulance, and was knocked out by the Totodile when she wasn't looking. That was the day she learned how potions worked. A very...painful memory, but satisfying.

Pepper remembered the day she was given to a trainer, a boy named Teal. She remembered that beyond his smile he looked...disappointed. He probably wanted the Totodile...No matter! She would prove to him the resilience and power of Grass! She threw herself into fights with reckless enthusiasm and would almost always come out of her fights with far more and greater wounds than anyone else. But she rarely fainted, and she never backed down. She wasn't much for learning or strategy back then and her battles tended to be wars of attrition and grit. Sometimes she won. Most times she was recalled before the fight could be determined.

He named her Arnia.

She couldn't remember what they caught on the way to the first gym. A Hoothoot, maybe? And a Pichu? She did remember not getting to fight in the first gym, because according to Teal she couldn't beat flyers. Come to think of it, she couldn't remember getting into many fights at all: Teal always had a more appropriate type than her, and only really let her fight occasionally to stay in shape. Was he ashamed of her? Or was he just following the common sense of the day to always counter type A with type B? Pepper still wasn't sure.

Then Pepper remembered the day. The day. The accident. They were fighting the steel-type gym, and the leader led with a Scizor that stopped their Hitmontop cold. Then after exposing their only fire-type, a Houndour, and nearly losing it to a Magneton did Teal turn to Pepper. It wasn't even because he expected her to win, but because he was hoping to force out the Gym's final pokémon and give the Houndour time to rest! But Pepper remembered, to her satisfaction, beating that stupid flying magnet into the ground! Literally, too! She grabbed a pair of stones with her vines and used them to beat the magnetite into bluescreen with an improvised series of pseudo-rock-throws. That was actually the first time she truly realized the utility of vine whip. Shame what came next.

She didn't remember the snake, though apparently it was a Steelix. In her mind, one moment there was a bright red light from the gym leader's side of the field and then suddenly everything was eclipsed in shadow. She definitely didn't remember the tail whip that caught her flat-footed and flung her clear into the wall. She couldn't even remember the pain or if there was pain or if she just immediately blacked out. But she remembered the exchange between trainer and leader as she was sucked back into her ball.

"That tail-whip looked really bad! Maybe we should take a break? Call a Nurse?"

"Worry about your own! I'm winning this now!"

Pepper remembered waking up a few days later, pinned to the bed by a multitude of straps and bars and a special collar that prevented her from using her vines. She remembered the bedpan. Ugh. And the doctors carefully explaining to Teal that his Chikorita was permanently disabled. Shattered spine, treatable but not curable, and the damage had been aggravated by the long wait between injury and surgery. Not a mere fracture or even a dislocation but a literal shattering, with multiple fragments of bone requiring removal and the careful readjustment of the remaining pieces. Some of her vertebrae were replaced with synthetic replicas, even. On the bright side, the blow was low enough down that she hadn't lost control of her bowels, thank Arceus! But then she remembered hearing the words that changed her life. She remembered the doctors telling her.

She would never.

Fight.

Again.

That wasn't the worst day of her life, but it was damn close. Pepper remembered crying. She remembered Teal, her trainer, her best friend, promising that they would still travel together, but that she would need to spend some time back at the lab for recovery and careful study. He promised that even if she couldn't fight, ­­they would fight! And they would become the best damn team the world had ever seen! But first she would need to heal, and once she was fit to travel Teal would swap her out as soon as he could. He had acted so kind, so selfless.

Did Teal change while they were separated? Or was it all just an act?

After two weeks in the Pokemon Center, she was put in a body cast and sent back to the lab for long-term healing. And then she was alone but for another starter trio and a few reserve pokémon Teal had caught and boxed for later. Most didn't speak to her after the first couple days. Fine. She wasn't in the mood to talk anyways.

Pepper remembered those first few weeks of misery. Immobile, helpless, carefully tended to by the Professor and his interns but only when they could find the time. It was awful, but she suffered hopefully. After all, soon the cast would be off, and she could once again travel with Teal. So she waited. She lay on the pillows the interns provided and watched as others played and fought and trained outside. It made her restless, but somehow, she found the patience. She remembered flicking through the TV channels, hoping against hope to see Teal in one of the televised tournaments or wandering the background of a newscast. No luck, but then what else did she have to do?

Well, she had time to learn what the weird human scrawls were and what they meant, at least. Some of those shows had been quite educational if a little condescending.

She remembered the day the cast was finally removed, and they discovered the tender sore that had formed around the synthetic replacements. She learned that any sufficient blow to that area would render her comatose with pain. Not by taking one, of course! The lead scientist just sent a small jolt into the spot and inferred from there what would happen should a truly hard blow hit her in the same area. Once again she was told in no uncertain terms that she would never again enter the ring.

It was no matter! She was free! Ready to travel! Ready to fight! If not de-facto, then at least in spirit! All she had to do was wait for Teal to call in and they could switch her back into the team! Another week passed. No calls. Pepper occupied her time learning to move about with the aid of a plastic flat-bottomed sled courtesy of the lead scientist's nephew. Another week; Teal calls in at 10:00pm while Pepper was asleep in her ball. Hangs up before she wakes up. No matter, he was just dropping off some recruits anyways. A month passes; Teal still hadn't picked her up from the laboratory. The staff and the other pokémon encouraged her not to give up hope. 'He was busy' they said, 'He probably misses you, badly'.

Another month passed. Pepper believed this was around the time she started experimenting with her vines. First, she tried controlling more than 2 at a time, a disorientating experience but not too difficult. Soon she was deftly manipulating items in 4 vines, which with her functional front legs brought her back to 6 in total! Pepper remembered the junior scientists being impressed and running lots of little tests to see what she could do.

Then when she had mastered 4 vines she started on 6, and by the end of the third month she could yank herself around the fields behind the lab with all 8 vines, and assign them each simple tasks like pulling, pushing, and letting go of objects all at once! Many of the scientists were speculating if such coordination was unique to her, a result of her condition, or possibly a latent ability of all grass-types that was simply rarely attempted. For the first time in a long time, Pepper remembered feeling proud of herself. And, she realized, there was so much more she could do! It wasn't a matter of difficulty but creativity, and that's when Pepper started getting smart.

With the beginning of the fourth month, Pepper realized that Teal simply wasn't bringing her back, and again the other Pokémon on the ranch would invent reasons for the abandonment. 'He needed a full team because the opponents were getting tougher,' one said, 'Maybe since you're his oldest pokémon he figures you can help train us!' another reasoned. That last one, silly as it was in hindsight, struck a chord with the Chikorita. Training! He wants me to train!

And with her motivation restored, Pepper began her greatest challenge yet: Walking. She would use her vines as her new legs. Better legs! Legs 2.0! And all she had to do was figure out how to operate eight limbs in tandem while also supporting her own weight and somehow turn it all into muscle memory!

...Easy!

She started rather foolishly by immediately trying to lift herself on all eight vines -- that went about as poorly as one would expect. That was the first time she experienced the pain of a direct hit on her sore-spot, when she accidentally extended 3 of her front vines too quickly and flung herself onto her back. That was back when her sore spot was still...sore, and any strike to the general area would set her off. Her screaming was so loud half the laboratory came running to her indoor pin assuming a wild Poochyena had gotten in. She remembered that first white-hot agony as clearly as the day it happened, and no strike to the back had ever been quite as bad as that.

She also lost control of her bowels. Why couldn't she ever forget about the parts concerning her bowels?

She was encouraged to take it easy after that, but Pepper refused to stop trying. She would never stop fighting! She started again, this time braced against the corner of the room amongst piles and piles of pilfered pillows. In time she learned to stand, and then she learned to walk fall flat on her face. So then she took a step back -- pun not intended -- and started looking at different stances. She could stand tall, or squat close to the ground like a spider, or range her limbs far across the room or field to prop herself high in the air, looking for all the world like a terrestrial Tentacruel. In the process, she gained finer and finer control over her limbs, and started finding ways to better coordinate them, such as timing the movements to a beat or rotating the limbs in and out in specific orders, like clockwise or alternating opposite sides.

Pepper could not remember the first time she walked across the room without assistance. Probably because that was such a slow learning experience that by the time she did it with any degree of fluidity it no longer felt like such an accomplishment. Not that that stopped the scientists from going absolutely nuts over her progress, taking notes and pictures, calling in more and more specialists and showering her with praise. What she did remember was one day skittering across her pen to look at a picture of Teal and herself from their first day on the road, and realizing she had forgotten how long it'd been since they had seen each other.

But now that she'd learned to walk, she started learning to run. And now that she could walk, she started training with the other Pokémon. Sure, she couldn't battle, but she could sling rocks for them to practice dodging or carry an insulated shield for them to shoot at with fire or ice or lightning or what have you. In short, she had turned into a team coach, which was as close as she thought she'd ever get to the ring. She had long abandoned the sled now, and would instead wrap herself in her own rear vines while deftly dragging herself across the grass, then seamlessly springing into the air into a spider-like skitter form before looming over the other pokémon in her imposing strider form. She had regained her mobility, and she had found a purpose. Things were finally looking up!

It was almost a year to the day of her injury when Teal came home, in person, after finally gaining his last badge of the season. Pepper had never once managed to catch his sporadic calls, and Pepper's suspicions had long congealed into conviction that he was avoiding her. So she met the news of his return with excitement...and trepidation. Nonetheless, when the crowd of some 15 pokémon and two dozen family and friends met at the lab for a reunion, Pepper was front and center. She couldn't wait to finally, finally show him her progress. Or at least just see the boy! It had been a year for crying out loud!

Meeting Teal's 'new' Meganium was not the worst day of her life. But it, too, was close. Damn close. She had not been forgotten or ignored or avoided as she suspected; she had been replaced! He had left her in the lab to rot and traded with some newbie trainer somewhere for a brand new Chikorita. And not only that, but he had even given that Meganium the same nickname as her! 'Arnia the Meganium', the Meganium she was supposed to have become before the accident, noticed her staring, and gave her an oblivious smile.

That...hurt.

Pepper fled the farm that same day, when all the staff and the family and the friends were distracted at a little reunion party/picnic/exhibition in Teal's honor. She told no one, not even the other Pokémon that she was leaving. She couldn't trust them; they had all lied to her.

Pepper remembered those weeks swinging, skittering, fleeing through the forest. She had subsisted off grass and berries and her own photosynthesis. Those were rough times. She had to chase off bug types by flinging stones, and she learned to fend against flying types by forming webs out of her vines to catch and crush the overconfident creatures. But she was weak, and the predators knew she was weak, and she came out of each battle more and more battered and exhausted than the last. But she would not turn back. She couldn't; the betrayal she felt was more painful than the pecks and bites and scratches ever could. So she endured, and about a week later she stumbled onto a dirt road many weeks north of home.

Pepper remembered the day she met Mary, and the day she earned her new name. She had just finished brawling with a hungry Ekans, a fight which ended with the poison type choked to within an inch of its life at the mouth of its own den Afterward, she tried to pick some oran berries from a nearby tree when fatigue overwhelmed her and she slipped from the branch. She hit the forest floor on her back, no longer such an issue on its own, but an errant tree root struck her right in the spine. Because of course!

The Agony, as she came to call it, overwhelmed her in an instant.

When she woke up, she found herself not in the grass but surrounded by soft fur and cushy linens. A trainer, Mary, had found her screaming bloody murder just beyond the forest road. The furry creature wrapped around her was another of Mary's pokémon: a Linoone named Cinnamon who was blind. Turned out, the girl seemed to have a habit of collecting dysfunctional or disabled pokémon, because every one of her tiny, understrength team had some sort of impairment. Be it an Emolga with malfunctioning electrical sacs or an antisocial little ghost-type that froze whenever more than two eyes met their flickering gaze. And Mary wasn't all-there herself: She seemed so doting, so emotionally fragile, so self-conscious...as if even a splinter in her one pokémon's feet would be a sign that she was a failure of a trainer. It was such a contrast to Teal's confident negligence that Pepper wondered how she even survived this long as a trainer. Especially with a team of pokémon who had not a scrap of combat prowess between them.

Mary was also the one who gave Pepper her new name. Not the most fitting name, in her opinion, but any name was better than just 'Chikorita', and if she ever heard the name 'Arnia' again it'd be too soon.

Nonetheless, Pepper quickly found a place in the group. A group that seemed to have no ambitions, no drive or even any real direction. They were just content to wander aimlessly from town to town, allegedly in pursuit of badges though even a passing glance at the team's roster would tell you that nobody here was fit for sport-battles. A Blind normal type? A Flying Electric type that couldn't fly or electrocute? A Paraplegic Chikorita? How could these people even get through a route unscathed, let alone win a gym battle?

It turned out the answer was Hastur, or 'Honey' as Pepper came to know them: a reclusive little Mimikyu that almost never spoke but constantly crafted little trinkets to hand around. The strange little creature was never seen outside of its strange disguises: either a yellow sheet alleged to look like a Pichu, or a particularly strange pile of trash that, with a bit of squinting, looked somewhat similar to a baby Mareep. It turned out the unassuming ghost could...see the future? Or something close enough to it, though they insisted it was more complicated than that. But whenever they were destined to meet another trainer on the road, Honey would pull the team away from the path to let them pass. They almost never fought a battle, and when they did it was only when money was critically low.

Pepper remembered resenting her new companions for reasons she herself couldn't understand. It wasn't that they were unkind to her, or that they harbored any contempt or even judgement towards anyone else. If anything, she found herself in the middle of a big, happy family. Perhaps it was how... content they all were: never pushing themselves, never trying anything new, just moving about from place to place experiencing come what may. Pepper never thought she could feel the same. At least at first.

This was also when Pepper first experienced real responsibility. For the first time, things were truly expected of her; namely cooking the team's food. Mostly by accident, the Chikorita had discovered she had something of a knack for turning their scavenged rations of kibble, berries, herbs, Chancy eggs, and leftovers into semi-palatable dishes even a human could eat. Mary wasted no time assigning the Chikorita to the role of 'team chef' and charging her with turning whatever truffles or apricorns or cans of vegetables the team could scrounge up into a functional meal. If anyone asked, the secret was always the leaf on Pepper's head; it regrew quickly in good weather and with the right variant of sweet scent could be used as a cheap substitute for any number of herbs or spices.

It felt nice to be useful. Felt even better to feel loved.

Time passed. Pepper watched and learned more about her companions. Cinnamon, the Linoone, started competing in races using the Emolga, Sugar, as a sort of seeing-eye rider. He never seemed to get any faster, but he never really cared: he just loved to run for its own sake, and the money and prizes he occasionally earned was irrelevant. Honey fashioned various crafts for the team: newer and better saddles for Cinnamon, a custom satchel and goggles for the Emolga, a walking stick for Mary and so on. Pepper remembered receiving a sort of body armor fashioned out of old shin guards designed to protect her sore spot. She still had that gift laying around somewhere. It was uncomfortable, amateurish work, and she never ended up using it, but she still appreciated the sentiment.

Pepper remembered...the day they met Teal again.

The team had been wandering for a time now and were about halfway towards another major municipality. Pepper had taken to lagging behind the team to collect what nuts and berries the forest could offer. Mary would occasionally send Cinnamon and Sugar back to check on her, but otherwise she was left to her own devices. Yet another stark contrast between her trainers; Teal would never let his pokémon out except to feed, train, or fight. "He who travels alone travels quickly." He had said.

When she saw the Linoone and his rider skidding to a halt on the road and calling her name, she thought nothing of it. It was a trainer, they said. A teen flaunting a rather powerful team and looking to battle.

"How?" Pepper had asked. Ordinarily such teens were easily avoided thanks to Honey. But the only answer she got in return was a shrug and a comment about 'asking the wrong questions.'

Still, they had prepared for this. Standard procedure for trainer encounters was to gather everyone up and ready to move just in case there was an emergency and Mary had to run down to the nearest Pokécenter. Pepper remembered gathering her spoils and swinging about from branch to branch. She was in a good mood! Battles, even the quick curbstomps Honey would deliver in the rare occasions they didn't avoid them entirely, were always a joy to watch. She could meet all kinds of new pokémon; see what they could do, their gimmicks and strategies. Then Honey would unceremoniously shadowball them into unconsciousness and they'd collect their winnings, or else Honey would discreetly signal that the opponent was too strong, and they'd pay a forfeit fee (and flee).

Either way, a good escape from the routine.

But then she saw Teal, and her good mood died on the spot. For a moment she thought maybe she could duck into the undergrowth and avoid him, but before she could change course, Cinnamon shouted a greeting and suddenly they were the center of attention. Pepper remembered what happened next with terrible, terrible clarity.

"No way. No friggin' way! Arnia?" He was still using her name. Why? It wasn't hers anymore.

"You know Pepper-My Chikorita?" Mary turned and reached out to allow Pepper to swing directly into her arms.

"She was my starter! My first Pokemon! She ran away, like, months ago!" He sounded pleased. Did he still think her a friend? Pepper growled. She'd disabuse him of that notion posthaste.

"Where did you find her?"

"She was lying on the ground having some sort of seizure on Route Fourteen." Mary, bless her, had caught on to Pepper's scorn and furrowed her brows. "But why did she run away to begin with?"

"It's a long story."

"I'm not busy."

"It's complicated."

"I'll figure it out." That was Mary for you; she'd be perfectly polite and non-confrontational right up until the well-being of her Pokémon was at stake. Then she'd be direct and persistent to the point of folly. Nothing would hurt her Pokémon on her watch.

Teal sighed in frustration and explained how Pepper had come to run away from her trainer. Except...He left out how he had waited to get her to the hospital. His promise to take her with him once she had healed. How he had gotten a replacement starter and never told her.

"...and when I returned to Lab a little while later she was gone!"

"Just like that?"

"Just like that."

'Little While? It was months!' Pepper's growling intensified. She pushed a vine into his chest accusingly. Mary's watched her Chikorita's outburst and her expression hardened. "Sounds like there's more to this story you aren't telling."

Teal shrugged "That's the long and short of it. But I think I know why she's so mad..." He looked her in the eyes. "Pepper, now, right? I'm sorry I abandoned you at the lab for so long."

Pepper's eyes widened.

"...I shouldn't have abandoned you like that. Left you alone for so long. You were right to leave after being left to rot like that."

For a very brief moment, Pepper felt vindicated.

Then Ro continued "I should have just released you from the start."

'What?'

"What?" Mary asked.

Teal shook his head "I shouldn't have held onto so many useless pokémon out of some sentimental notion that I might somehow need them or want them or use them again later. Especially since I wasn't training them at all! I just got their hopes up and left them alone in Purgatory."

'useless...he thought I was useless. I was useless!'

"After you went missing, I took some time to look at my team and realized I was hanging on to far too many deadweight pokémon. And in doing so I had been hurting them, keeping them from moving on with their lives. So I released everyone that didn't fill a role. Now its just me, my six primaries, and a few niche types back at the lab!" He sounded so proud of his epiphany.

Pepper was too distracted to hear the next minute of so of conversation. She was too focused on that word. 'Deadweight'. It made her feel sick.

Mary's grip tightened around Pepper, "-You seriously release your pokémon the instant you find a stronger one? That's so cruel!"

"No, it's practical. What's cruel is sending them to a lab to wait around and do nothing for the rest of their lives!"

"You're throwing them away like toys!"

"Better than locking them away to rot like a collector's item! Compared to how long was 'Pepper' sitting neglected in that lab? Better the bandage be ripped off early"

"Then stop catching so many pokemon!"

"You can't be telling me you plan to fight in the league with the likes of Pepper and..." Teal surveyed Mary's collection of misfits and frowned. "The fuck is this team?"

"It's my team. And are we going to battle or not?"

"You can't tell me you intend to compete in the league with a team of cripples, do you--"

That was the point where she snapped. It was the first time she'd ever struck a human, and it was her own former trainer of all people. And it happened so quickly too. One minute she was trembling in Mary's arms, the next Teal was screaming on the ground and clutching his face, and she was fleeing into the forest.

That was another awful day. Very nearly her worst. She'd never felt so worthless than in that moment. It wasn't even that Teal had called her a useless cripple so much as the way he said it: Like he was sorry he hadn't realized it earlier and thrown her away the day of the accident. And the worst part was, in her mind at least, he was right.

She was crawling, swinging, dragging herself through the forest, heedless of the cuts and bruises she acquired in her efforts to once again put as much distance between herself and Teal as she possibly could.

She wasn't sure why she had provoked that Ursaring. Was it to prove to herself that she wasn't a failure? An outlet for her feelings? Or was it just an elaborate attempt at suicide. Whatever the reason, she didn't hesitate. She saw a groggy brown bear emerging from its den and immediately changed course to deliver a headbutt. Surprisingly, the irksome creature almost ignored her; it shook its head, looked down at her, and then dismissed her without a second thought and began to walk away. That only made her even more desperate to fight. She wasn't worthless! She wasn't weak! She was capable! She was a threat!

'Stop ignoring me!'

Pepper picked up a rock and slung it at the Ursaring's head. The stone ricocheted off the thing's skull with a dull 'thump', and this time the great bear turned to face her. It growled. She growled. It reared onto its hind legs. She stretched up on her vines to look it in the face.

The fight was on.

That was the first time since the accident that Pepper had fought an enemy so much larger than herself, and she had forgotten just how fast something so large could move. The Ursaring twisted around and backhanded her clear across the little clearing outside its den, then fell to all fours and charged. Pepper countered by slinging more stones at the creature before launching herself at the creature. Body slam met Take Down and the smaller Pokemon was once again thrown across the clearing. She was outmassed, outclassed. She didn't stand a chance. But she was too angry to care. Too angry to think.

The little paraplegic propped herself back up and screamed in defiance of the beast bearing down on her. She grabbed more stones, and without hesitation threw herself at the bear. This time, she struck at the creature directly, beating at its face and shoulders with stones held in whipping vines from every direction. She ducked beneath the beast; she entangled its limbs in vines; she threw razor-sharp leaves into its stomach. None of it mattered: The Ursaring simply shrugged off the blows and dropped onto its -- his -- stomach, crushing the nuisance like an insignificant little weed.

Beneath nearly 130 kilograms of muscle, an angry Chikorita screamed impotently. Vines thrashed feebly at thick fur. Pepper scratched and bit and tore at her prison...but it was hopeless. She was hopeless. Slowly, her struggles ceased, and she began to suffocate.

And that's when Mary found her.

The weight of the beast suddenly shifted, and the half-conscious starter was forcibly pulled out from underneath the fleshy prison. Her world was inverted as Honey's ribbonlike limbs moved to pull her away from the enraged bear. And as she watched as Mary ran forward with a tree branch to distract the monster. In a way, that was the worst part of the whole affair: A Pokemon having to rely on a human child to protect them! She really was dead weight.

Pepper watched as the Ursaring reared onto its hind legs and backhanded her trainer away. She stared as Honey flung shadowballs at the creature's exposed stomach and forced it to retreat to its den. She sulked as Mary spirited her away back towards their camp on the road. She cried as she was set down and left by the fire pit while her trainer quickly tended the other pokemon.

'Worthless. Deadweight.' Pepper remembered surveying the cuts and bruises and Mary's labored wheezing courtesy of a couple bruised ribs, and knowing in her heart that Teal had been right. No, she was worse. She was like a millstone: Assaulting a trainer, actively dragging her team into a fight they couldn't win and nearly getting herself killed in the process. She had heard his cruel words and in her haste to prove his assertions wrong had cemented them as truth.

And then Mary came to her with medkit in hand, and Pepper realized she wasn't the only one feeling miserable. Mary was, at best of times, a nervous girl. Now, she looked distraught. Frantic, jittery hands picked her up and inspected her for wounds. Potions were sloppily applied in generous, even wasteful amounts, and when she was done wrapping the Chikorita in bandages, Mary picked Pepper up and cradled her in her arms. She whispered into her ear.

"Pepper? Pepper I'm s-so sorry! I'm sorry! B-But please don't leave us like that again! I was so worried. I can't...I'm sorry but...please don't run? I-I don't think..." Mary took a deep, ragged breath, and when she spoke again her voice cracked "I can't lose you!"

Pepper looked up and gave Mary a guilty frown.

"Look. Your old trainer's...he's full of it. You're not dead weight, you're not useless. You're our cook! And you're my friend! And..." Her voice grew so quiet it was barely audible "...I don't think I can afford to lose any more friends."

Pepper glanced questioningly at the others, and the looks she got in return seemed to confirm it. Everyone; Cinnamon, Sugar, Honey ...they were all here as emotional support 'mons. A surrogate family for a lost little girl far from home. That was why Mary didn't care if she could fight: she didn't want pokémon who battled, she wanted pokémon who were loyal. At least, that's what Pepper thought at the time. The real answer was a lot more complicated than that.

Mary had fallen silent, then, and settled on trying to express Pepper's importance to her purely through hugs. Pepper simply sat in silence and accepted the affection. But her mind still dwelled on her old trainer's words. Particularly Teal's thesis of replacing weaker 'mons with stronger ones. Would the same thing apply with Mary? Would she be left alone in a daycare the moment she found a better cook? Or a more loyal Chikorita? And would Mary be right to do so? Pepper was under no illusion that her cooking was actually any good, and she'd nearly gotten herself and possibly the rest of the team killed running away. Maybe she should just go...for everyone's sake.

Mary seemed to sense her doubts, "Pepper? You have helped immeasurably these past few weeks. The berries you find? Those meals you cook? We've never been better fed. If you have to leave I c-can't...can't stop you. But I promise if you stay with us, we'll never leave you behind. Not like him. You'll be our only cook, ever. Alright?"

Those were words Pepper needed to hear. For the first time since the fight she unsheathed her vines and wrapped her trainer in a hug. Thank you!

"Thank you..."

Pepper spent a lot of time after that just...existing. She became something like the others in her family: content, without drive. She was nothing but the broken cook for a team of broken Pokémon under a trainer with a broken heart, and it actually felt...kind of nice. Her family was supportive in ways the scientists and her old team never were. Nobody seemed hesitant to offer a hand when it was needed, but nobody offered more than was asked for. Pepper never felt pitied, but assistance was always on-hand.

She remembered growing proud of her role. Not since the accident had she truly felt so useful, so needed. It felt so good for someone to finally praise her for her results, and not just her efforts to become something closer to normal. The feelings she felt when she watched five other people enjoy the fruits of what was ultimately just a little technical labor were almost addicting. Mary would gather ingredients and cookbooks from the towns they wondered, and Pepper would spend her days reading and her evenings contriving the new recipes into the team's meal plan. It was...relaxing.

Though not very fulfilling.

Then one day, Pepper remembered Mary getting a call from her mother. It started like any other call, with Mary casually lying about her recent triumphs and training regimens and other trainer-y things they never did. Then she grew quiet, and the voice at the other end began to ramble for a time. The rest of the team gathered around and by the time she was finished with her call, Mary's expression had gone from troubled to a sort of half-panic. She glanced down at Pepper and paused. "Everyone, back in your balls!" She announced, and before Pepper could ask why, she and everyone else were being sucked away.

By the time they were returned to reality some twelve hours later, the surrounding forests had been replaced by a suburban park, and Mary was staring intently at a black and purple pokéball on the ground. It opened. That was when Pepper met the Charizard.

She was a battle scarred, greying-black affair, with a permanent scowl and massive rips along her wings. She was irritable, quick to judge, and uncooperative, and proud. Whenever she was released from her ball, which was rare, she'd glare at the others through cataract-covered eyes. She insisted on hunting her own prey, even though she was far too slow and too weak to catch anything. So every night Pepper would offer the Charizard her portion, and every time it was disdainfully dumped in the dirt. But when Pepper woke up the next day the food would have inevitably disappeared.

Oddly, Pepper couldn't help but like her. Or at least, tolerate her more than the others. In time, Mary would come to call her 'Truffles'.

And all the while, the team continued to drift.

Pepper watched her new friends continue to make incremental advancements in their hobbies. Honey's craftsmanship improved, and Cinnamon unlocked a new move of some sort that would send him rocketing ahead of any other racer, albeit at the cost of any ability to turn. It nearly got him and Sugar killed the first time it happened, but afterwards they managed to perfect the move, and suddenly they were winning prize money with regularity. Mary was able to afford some real luxuries like extra rations, a walking stick, and even a change of clothes!

Truffles started coming out of her ball voluntarily. Not every night, but often enough, and would tell stories to her and the other Pokémon as they made camp every evening. Pepper loved those stories, even if they were laced with casual insults and negative observations of present company, because many of them included play-by-plays of various fights for dominance among and between packs of Charizard. Every feint, every ambush, every weird and powerful move; Pepper ate it up, even if everyone else couldn't care less.

Even Mary began to change. With each passing week, she held herself just a little bit higher. The extra money gave her confidence, her Pokémon conviction. One day after careful discussion with Honey and Truffles she even decided they'd go back and try one of the gyms; a task she'd been avoiding forever out of fear for their safety. Still, even as the ghost's power and Truffle's experience earned them a couple badges, the pain of her past never quite left her eyes. If anything, the competitions seemed to bring that pain into focus.

Pepper observed, but never battled. Everyone changed, but she remained the same. Just a wannabe chef, cheering from the sidelines and watching her friends grow. It was okay, really! She was glad to have the pressure of failure lifted from her shoulders. She was loved here. She was happy.

But she wasn't complete.

Pepper remembered the worst day of her life, and it came not from a neglectful trainer or a physical altercation or some terrible revelation from a nurse in a lab. No, it was merely an epiphany.

The team had taken refuge in a Pokecenter in the middle of a City somewhere. She forgot the name and by that point had lost interest anyways: It was just one more stop on an endless meandering journey to nowhere. The Pokecenter has a common room with a kitchenette, and Pepper was dutifully turning a bunch of berries, spices, and eggs into a series of kitchen-sink omelettes for Mary and company. Mary was on the couch grooming Cinnamon, Sugar was snoring on a pillow, and Honey was fiddling with a broken remote control. The TV was on, and she had been keeping an eye on the proceedings of a match on the screen.

It was a battle tournament in Sinnoh, with some kid's Charmeleon putting up a spirited fight against a larger and more experienced Lucario. The trainers behind them were yelling themselves hoarse, and the crowd cheered with each blow and counterblow. All of a sudden, a wave of nostalgia hit her. The fight on the screen calling back memories of her own battles some 2 years ago. Memories of that false comradely with a trainer, of the promise of fame and notoriety

Of the drive to improve. Of that promise she made back in the Lab.

Of her Mother's last words to her before she left for the league.

...what was she doing? Pepper turned from the television to look at the others. She had turned into one of them! She had become complacent, lost all motivation! She was treading water in an endless ocean content to let the currents push her about for the rest of her life before sucking her under without a trace! Two years ago, she had vowed to put her name in the history books and now she was a mediocre cook for a mediocre team with no ambitions and not an ounce of drive between them. She had stopped fighting. She had finally given up.

She dumped the half-finished omelette on the floor.

Pepper used to beat up fire types for mocking her goals, and now when her own trainer told her she was an invalid she just lay down and accepted it. Pepper spent a year relearning to walk for no other reason than she thought she could, and now she spent her days fumbling around with kitchenware and table scraps!

She slammed the hot pan into her face, leaving a nice big dent in the middle of the old iron. It burned. It felt good.

*Bang*

She was supposed to be a starter Pokémon! A lifelong battling companion bred and raised to wrestle Ursarings and strangle dragons, and here she was playing the passive role of emotional support animal for a trainer too scared to train and too fragile to fight!

*Bang*

*Bang*

She was a fighter, not a cook! She was supposed to be Leading a team, not cooking their meals!

*Bang*

She was supposed to be better! She was supposed to be getting better!

*Bang!*

Her Life! *Bang* Was not! *Bang* supposed *Bang* to go *Bang* like this! *Bang* Arceus *Bang* Fuck *Bang* DAMMIT! *Bang* *Bang* *Bang*

Strong hands wrapped around her face and chest, and she felt Honey wrestling the pan out of her vines. Mary pulled her into her chest, screaming for her to stop. Damn her! Damn her for tempting Pepper into complacency! Stupid trainers! Stupid Spine! Stupid fucking Steelix! Why couldn't he have squashed her flat and ended her there and then!

There was a lot of crying that day. Pepper remembered afterwards being carried to a sink seeing her own face beaten and bloody and covered in bruises from the pan. Mary was next to her, wiping at the cuts and carefully spraying potions around her eyes, still wearing an old white shirt now ruined by blood and snot and tears and rips where pepper's nails had dug into the fabric. She kept asking Pepper what had triggered her little episode, but Pepper never answered. Even with Hastur acting as translator, Mary wouldn't understand why, when everyone else in her family was content with each other, Pepper still coveted more and greater things.

Pepper remembered waking up in the middle of that night. Mary had fallen asleep on the Common Room's couch with Pepper still snug in her arms, and Pepper knew from experience that whoever fell asleep with Mary was not getting out of that death grip until morning.

Across from her sitting on the floor lay Truffles, watching her.

"So, you still want to fight?" She asked.

Pepper's voice came out raspy, her throat hoarse from crying. "...Yes."

"Then do it" It almost sounded like a command. Pepper just sighed and closed her eyes.

"Do. It." The Charizard said again.

"I can't." Pepper replied. "I'm...broken. I'm too weak."

The great grey dragon rumbled with annoyance, "There's potential in you, but you're not using it. You're not weak; you're lazy! Even more than the rest of them." Truffles leaned forward, snorting in Pepper's face, "Be better, child!"

As if she could be anything more than what she already was. Pepper looked away, scowling.

"Pepper," Truffles pressed, "When those Humans fucked with your spine, did they ever predict you'd walk again?"

"No" Pepper said quietly.

"But you can walk now. So what do they know? They had no idea what you can be!"

"This is different." Pepper explained, shaking her head. "I can't...its dangerous. And I haven't battled in years. I'm too weak."

Truffles snorted. "So was I, until I wasn't."

"But what about Mary? She's never let me battle like this."

"So change 'this'. Train. Learn. Be better!"

"She'll never let me battle!"

"She will. I know."

"How?" The question was supposed to be a challenge, but the way Pepper's voice cracked it sounded more like a plea.

She smirked. "Because pokémon like us have a way of getting what we want, and humans like her will roll over if we want it enough."

Pepper sniffed, closed her eyes, and thought. If Truffles was right...if this wasn't her only path...it almost seemed like a fool's hope. A cripple like her, battling again. Joining tournaments, training; Just like the old days. Pepper recalled how she felt in those earliest days of adventuring. That feeling of excitement, that endless potential, that need to improve and the desire to become the best.

She wanted that feeling back.

"Will you help me?" She asked.

The dragon made a show of considering, then shrugged. "Got nothin' better to do!" She rolled over on the floor and covered herself with a wing. "Night, runt."

And that was it. The worst day of Pepper's life. The day she realized she had broken her own vows.

Pepper remembered the next day as well. She remembered waking up hungry like everyone else, because after her episode nobody save Truffles the ever-grumpy had felt like eating. Also, the force of Pepper's headbutts had split open the center of the pan.

They went out for breakfast that morning and feasted on pancakes courtesy of Mary's entire savings account. Mary kept the Chikorita in her arms or her lap the whole morning, and even went so far as to offer to spoon feed her when their breakfast arrived. It was blatant coddling and were it not for Truffles she might have glumly accepted it. Instead, she stuffed herself by herself and was the first one out of the booth when it came time to leave. She walked tall with her head held high, at least until she hit her head on the rafters. Then she walked with her head held...Medium-high-ish. She was going to show them her true strength. Mary, the team, Teal, the world; She was show them all!

She began immediately, explaining her ambitions to a nonplussed Mary through Honey's hesitant words. She was...less than receptive towards letting her Chikorita battle. In fact, the terms "Never", "Absolutely Not", and "I'd rather feed my left arm to a woodchipper" came up no less than twice apiece...but she saw no harm in letting her train. They paid a visit to the Library that very afternoon to tap into a resource very rarely used by trainers: books.

Pepper remembered 3 in particular:

"The Cult of Aggression"

"Dark Tricks for Dirty Trainers"

"Overcoming Type Advantage"

'Be aggressive, never give your enemy time to think. Cede the initiative at your own risk.'

'Disorient your enemy and disrupt their ability to see, hear, or even walk. Cripple their fighting ability, and pick them apart.'

'You cannot cover for every typing, but the battlefield is littered with tools. Use them! Fight the enemy with everything you have!'

Pepper thought back to before the injury, when she had beaten a Magnetite in unconsciousness with the stones littering the gym. If she could effectively improvise a ground type attack out of her grass-type vine whip, what other possibilities were there?

At night, she would stay up to read through Mary's Pokédex, and used its limited internet access to search for new training techniques. One of the most memorable (read, painful) was her discovery of 'Callusing': Deliberately exposing your Pokémon to their elemental weaknesses in order to build up a resistance.

And then it was Truffles' turn.

When Mary woke up the next morning she was treated to the panic-inducing sight of her Chikorita roasting beneath a Charizard's fiery breath. It took some time to calm her down from that, and Mary wasn't entirely unconvinced that this wasn't another episode. But Truffles eventually convinced her that this was for the greater good, and perfectly safe...mostly. And just as Truffles promised, Mary backed down. Though she suggested maybe not deliberately torturing oneself until they at least stocked up on potions first.

She started exercising. First some obvious techniques like one-vine pull-ups or curling weights, then progressing to more inventive regimens such as swinging down the road from the overhanging trees as they traveled. That particular exercise didn't just make her stronger: it required quick thinking and snap judgements to determine which branches could hold her weight and for how long she needed to grab them to achieve maximum speed. She fell a lot and even triggered her sore spot once! But no matter the pain, she always got back up. She had too! She refused to stop.

Pepper remembered when started inventing her own moves, and this was where her fellow Pokémon really started helping.

Rock Sling: literally pick up a rock and throw it. With vines as long as Pepper's this particular move packed a deceptive punch. At first her target was a trash can lid wielded by Sugar riding Cinnamon back and forth across a field, but after a direct hit sent Sugar flying off his mount, they had to modify the procedure. Now it was a pillow glued to a trash can lid, and Cinnamon and Sugar were both wearing helmets. Totally safe!

Piledriver: A suggestion from Truffles, inspired not by wrestling but actual piledrivers. Immobilize an enemy, rise into the air, then pull hard on all Vines to rocket into the ground and deliver a gravity-assisted body slam.

Pendulum Pound...

Vine Bind...

The list of strategies (and Sugar's names for such) expanded constantly, the Chikorita finding inspiration everywhere from battles to books to everyday objects. And with each new idea came experimentation, then improvisation, then perfection. She was moving forward, getting better!

But Mary still wouldn't let her fight, and it was driving Pepper up the wall. She didn't entirely resent her trainer for the coddling though. Any sign of danger, any injury or discomfort, Mary took as a sign of personal failure. Even Pepper couldn't deny the dangers of what was basically a blood sport, no matter how much she wanted it. And so, time and again, she was denied the opportunity to battle. Even if it was as much for Mary's sake as her own, Pepper yearned to try out what she learned.

So she got desperate.

One night, around an hour after midnight, Pepper slipped away into the forest. Foolish? Probably. But this wasn't like last time. Honey was with her, the ghost never needing to sleep, and they brought a potion just in case, and instead of the first creature she found, they carefully selected a pokémon irritable and vain enough to provoke, but slow and weak enough to escape should things turn south. It didn't take long, either: The Donphan in this area were some of the most hotheaded creatures she'd ever seen!

...No, she hadn't seen a mirror recently. Pepper was many things, but vain wasn't one of them.

But the long and short of it was that it worked. Now, with proper opponents to fight, Pepper could finally start to test her theories in real combat. Some of them worked, most others didn't. Sometimes she won, sometimes she lost, and a few times Hastur had to drag her back to camp. Pepper didn't mind; every failure was a learning experience, and every lost fight just gave her newer, better ideas. She grew more skilled. She kept moving forward.

But heedless of her progress time continued to pass. Mary quickly cottoned on to what Pepper was doing. There was no missing the cuts and bruises and sores Pepper accumulated during her nighttime escapades. But even if it was blatantly obvious, the girl could never bring herself to lock Pepper in her ball and deny her happiness. Just like Truffles said.

Halfway into Pepper's third year after the accident Mary finally, barely obtained the last badge required to enter the semiannual Battling Tournament, in what would be the last real battle Honey would ever fight. But even as they started winding their way North towards the competition grounds, everyone knew they weren't really going to compete... No, Mary had every intention of throwing the first fight and spending the rest of the week gorging on free food and resting in free board. Then they could move on. Maybe go home and, presumably, return to a life of herding Mareep with all the credentials of a Trainer and none of the shame of failing to make the league.

Joy.

But whatever Pepper's personal feelings on the matter, everyone else agreed this was the best plan for the health and wellbeing of the team. Even Honey couldn't carry an entire tournament on their own, Cinnamon and Sugar couldn't fight in anything other than doubles matches due to their respective conditions, and Mary point-blank refused to risk a spinal injury to send either Truffles or Pepper into battle. This was to say nothing of Mary's constitution, which had her stress-puking at the first sign of a poison attack. No, they had no business in the tournament. Better to get in, get beaten, and get out as quickly as possible.

Pepper remembered the day they reached the tournament. The whole scene had put her in a very dour mood. All the pomp and circumstance one could imagine had been thrown into the league. There were interviews with contestants showing off their finest champions, the elite four were giving their inspiring speeches every day after the final matches, there were parties and exhibitions and all kinds of commemorative trinkets. There were even multiple stages set up on opposite ends of the main thoroughfare from which bands would play everything from pop to heavy metal.

Pepper had dreamed of the day she and her trainer would first enter the games together. But she never expected to come here as an outsider. A spectator. It was almost a mockery of everything she had ever wanted. And then she saw Teal, the bastard, showing off another acquisition; some massive centipede-looking creature that towered over the other trainer. The Meganium was nowhere to be seen. Had he discarded her the same way he had discarded Pepper? Or was the poor creature stuck in the lab hoping against hope she would actually get to experience the tournament they had worked so hard to enter?

Pepper had had enough. She reentered her ball.

Their room was nice, at least. Since the tournament was held in the same location every two years, the league had the luxury of building permanent, insulated cabins to house the contestants. Mary ended up sharing a small multistory structure with another trainer, a boy from her childhood. Kinda reminded Pepper of her brothers the way he marched into the common area with a Typhlosion in tow.

"Well lookie here!" The kid's tone practically invited a rise out of Mary, who simply stared back with a cool indifference. "And here I was, starting to think you'd gotten yourself eaten!"

"Hello, Jay."

"You're late! What, too busy chasing a bunch of sentient cotton balls around to join our little tournament?"

"No."

"What took you? And where's Fluffy?"

Mary responded by taking a swipe at the kid's face, forcing him to flinch. Pepper smirked. THAT was how you established dominance!

But then the mood changed, and Pepper was forced to reevaluate what she had seen. See expected the boy to be indignant or fearful or even threatening in an "I'm telling mom!" Sort of way, but instead Jay grew quiet and surveyed the Pokémon crowded around Mary's feet, before looking again up at the trainer shepherding them, and her five Pokeballs.

"Mary." He sounded concerned, "What happened to Fluffy?"

"Ask that again and I'm throwing you off the balcony."

"Mary..."

"Jay!"

"Please tell me you're not entering the tournament with a team of disabled Pokémon!"

Pepper quietly growled. What did he know about them? Mary quieted her with a rub on the head. "...No. I'm just here to complete my journey and go home. We're only entering the first match for food and board." She replied.

Jay sat there for a moment searching for a response. "What happened?" He finally asked.

Mary didn't answer.

Then Cinnamon decided that things were too awkward and introduced himself with a shoulder rub.

And with that, the tension broke and the two teams were brought out in full to introduce themselves. Pepper couldn't remember Jay's complete roster, just that it was mostly rats and mice of varying types: A Rattata, a Raichu, a Marille, and so on, save his starter the Typhlosion, all named and affectionately petted as they came out of their balls. Pepper wondered if she had misjudged the boy. He certainly showed more care for his Pokémon than Teal, at least, and his attitude with Mary...what was their relationship? One moment he was smarmy and antagonistic and he next, he was offering sympathies and concern. Was this what a real rivalry looked like? Pepper didn't know. Her Trainer never let her meet the other trainers.

They spent most of that night trading stories, and if there was one thing that stuck with Pepper it was the clash in tone.

"We went to the City where a bunch of toxic waste had created these HUGE Tentacruel and the local council actually had an embassy installed on the beach for them to negotiate with because they were that dang intelligent!"

"Chemical Waste? That's how Cinnamon lost his eyes!"

"Did he grow super huge?"

"No, he just went into shock."

They were all like that; Jay would spin a yarn about Daycare Center Conspiracies and natural disasters, and Mary would talk about butterfree migrations or fossil hunts. Pepper wondered if Jay was just bullshitting them or if her team's nonconfrontational lifestyle had simply locked them out of the preverbal loop of adventure. Then again, among the Pokémon the conversation was almost entirely about Mary's team.

"Wait, you outran the Johto Express? I freaking trained into agility and I can't break 60 kilos!"

"Holy miltank, you look like some sort of alien when you do that!"

"So what do you look like under that disguise anyways?"

On second thought, that might have actually been worse. Especially for Honey, who absolutely hated being the subject of the conversation. The poor ghost type was practically frozen in his shell and had to rely on Sugar to answer their questions for them. It wasn't that the others were mean, just...intrusive, and the way they asked made Pepper's multivine control less like an accomplishment and more like...like a carnival attraction. Pretty soon the entire team, save maybe Sugar, really just wanted to be left alone. They tried their best not to show it.

Evening segued into night. Jay and Mary agreed to eat in if only out of exhaustion from all the excitement of the tournament and the weariness of travel respectively. The whole of both teams thus dined on canned meat and veggies in silence. Once again, Pepper notes the contrast between the two groups. Jay's ate quickly, vigorously, jittering with anticipation and nervousness of the upcoming tournament. Mary's ate slowly, methodically, savoring what taste wasn't obliterated by salt and preservatives. Pepper wondered; would she be like that if not for the accident? Constantly shaking with energy and vigor? Or would she still have ended up back at the lab, or released into the wild with so many others? If so, would she ever have found a more caring trainer? Would she have ever even met Mary and the rest?

Was...was the accident, breaking her spine...ultimately a good thing?

Pepper shook her head vigorously. No. No it wasn't! Screw these convoluted Butterfree effect-type questions! Tomorrow she'd focus on learning. She would meet new Pokémon, figure out their weaknesses, and devise hypothetical counterattacks. She would watch and experience and learn, and maybe even enjoy herself a bit!

The last thing Pepper remembered was clocking back into one of the pokéballs lying on the coffee table. She wasn't sure, in hindsight, if she had picked the wrong ball, or if the balls had gotten mixed up in the next morning's panicked rush to get out to the battle arenas for the first rounds. But if it really was her mistake, it might just be the best mistake she ever made.

Pepper remembered waking up the next day knowing something was wrong. For one thing she was still in her ball, which was strange. Mary always woke up first, early, and always let them out of the pokéballs for breakfast. Then there was the fact that the lock on the ball was fully engaged. Mary never locked their pokéballs! As far as she was concerned, her Pokémon were free to come and go as they pleased, save perhaps an emergency. So that was worrying.

The semi-stasis of the ball allowed its occupants a limited awareness of what was outside. Mostly noise, and almost entirely muffled. When Pepper focused, she could just about make out the sound of yelling. Lots of yelling, really. A crowd? Were they in a stadium? That had annoyed the Chikorita something awful. She understood Mary's caution, but she could at least let Pepper watch the fights!

She considered forcing her way out but decided against it. If only out of trust. Mary wasn't Teal: if she was keeping her locked down it was only because it was an absolute necessity...right?

Almost as if in answer, the ball split open and Pepper was ejected without warning. Blinding light, hot sand and choking dust greeted her, and it took her a moment to reorientate herself. She was in...an arena? No. The arena! Which meant...She was being called to battle?!

Pepper remembered blinking the sun out of her eyes, confused. Her vision flitted around: to the crowd, to the scoreboard, to the confused trainer gawking at her from behind: Not Mary, but Jay. They must have gotten their pokéballs switched around when they woke up earlier! 'Which means...' Pepper craned her neck to look across the field.

There, standing in the shadow of that massive Scolipede, was Teal.

'No way.'

"Pepper!" Pepper looked over to see Mary leaning over the barrier, calling for her. The blood had drained from her face, and next to her stood Jay's Typhlosion.

Behind her, Jay was frantically signaling for a time-out, and both Teal and the referee were running over to speak to them. The situation was quickly explained: That there was a mix-up with the Pokéballs, and that Jay had intended to toss in his Typhlosion and not some, as Teal interjected, "an unevolved grass-type cripple!"

Pepper growled softly. It went unnoticed.

Jay asked, then pleaded to switch out his Pokémon, but the Referee shook his head. The match was a best of six, and both trainers were on their final Pokémon. They weren't going to stop the match so one contestant could run off to switch out their missing teammate, especially one who just so happened to have a type advantage against the final opponent.

"So I guess you forfeit then?" Teal prompted. Her former trainer was vibrating with barely restrained glee. For a moment, his eyes met Pepper's, and Pepper realized that everything he had done to her; all the teammates he'd left behind. It was all about to pay off. Teal wasn't just pleased; he felt vindicated.

And she'd be responsible for it.

'No!'

Pepper looked back at the Scolipede watching disinterestedly in the background, then back to Jay. The trainer was clenching his fists and grinding his teeth in frustration. Was there anything more humiliating than losing your first tournament because of mixed-up Pokeballs? He was stalling. He was desperate. Perhaps even desperate enough to...

"Pepper!" Mary screamed over the noise of the crowd, "Pepper! Get over here it's dangerous!" She waved desperately to get her attention. "Pepper don't--"

But Pepper had already made up her mind. In an instant she was balanced atop her vines, assuming a combat pose with fore-vines extended. She chirped to get Jay and the ref's attention.

"Pepper? What are you--"

"NO!"

"Are you serious?" Teal raised an eyebrow at Pepper. "You can't be serious!"

She ignored him and gave Jay a determined look. 'I can do this!'

Jay's eyes widened in recognition, and Pepper could see him running the scenarios in his head; weighing Mary's fear against Pepper's hopes, the humiliation of a concession versus the dangers of a fight, his own ambition against common sense.

"You're gunna get yourself killed, y'know!" Teal said with arms folded. There wasn't a hint of concern in his voice: just condescension. Pepper responded by cracking a vine whip an inch from Teal's face, forcing him to flinch away.

C'mon...

There was a long, painful pause. But ultimately Jay couldn't deny his own selfish pride. He pumped his fist in the air. "We fight!"

The crowd roared. Mary screamed bloody murder and vaulted the stands, but only made it a couple steps before Honey and a pair of security guards tackled her to the ground. Pepper briefly gave her trainer a guilty look, knowing how much it would kill Mary to see her hurt. But this was her decision; her ambition; her dream! She wasn't going to let it slip away.

Pepper steeled herself and stepped into the ring.

She remembered the roar of the crowd as the referee relayed their decision. She remembered glaring at her old trainer as he and Jay took up positions behind their pokémon. He noticed and returned a knowing smile. Pepper had to force herself to look away; she needed a plan, and for that she needed a hard look at the battlefield.

Dirt. Lots of dry, bare dirt and dust, with some scattered boulders for barebones cover. A quick probe into the ground told her that there were some roots beneath the ground, though they would need some time to call to the surface. Other than that, there was nothing. Just her, the Scolipede, and Teal.

Oh, and also Jay. But he may as well have been another spectator for all she cared.

Pepper remembered the split-second's silence as the ref raised his hand...and then...

"Begin!"

Looking back, it had been a messy, uncoordinated affair. For all her self-training and strategizing and exercise, Pepper hadn't truly battled someone in years. Pepper could remember every vine that mixed its mark, every missed stone, the multiple times her vines failed to gain purchase in the dirt as she scrambled around the arena. She was sloppy. She was not ready for this fight in the slightest.

But neither was Teal, nor the Scolipede.

She was simply too fast to touch, movements too erratic and unconventional to predict. Her fighting style was undeveloped, but it was unprecedented, and her opponents had no idea how to counter a grass type that skittered and skidded and flew and dragged itself about quite like her. That was her saving grace. That was how she lasted so long.

The Scolipede gave her no quarter, offered no openings, and aggressively pursued her wherever she fled. For Pepper, it was if all the world had disappeared but for the field and her opponent. The Crowd, the referee, and even Jay faded into a blur of color and sound, which turned out to be a boon because upon watching the tapes, Pepper learned the boy had been yelling vague and contradictory orders the whole time. But all that came later; Pepper's mind was entirely in the moment.

She remembered dodging and weaving between the stones. She remembered the terror, the adrenaline, the Scolipede roaring in frustration as she ducked and twisted between sludge bombs and acid sprays. She chucked stones in return, at best bruising the flesh beneath the carapace but mostly just annoying it. She started getting tired. She began to slow. The sludge bombs began finding their mark. She remembered the acid soaking into her skin. She remembered getting weaker. She almost fainted from exhaustion.

But then came the second wind. A thing of rage and fury at her own impotence; a store of extra energy unlocked through desperation. She remembered the sudden clarity at that pause in the battle and the plan that emerged half-formed in her mind.

The beast bore down on her, egged on by Teal, and Pepper was forced to shove away from a boulder moments before the Scolipede smashed it to pebbles. Pepper was thrown backwards into the dirt. Mary was screaming, blood roared in her ears. But in the brief moment it took the Scolipede to pull itself off the ground she had an opening.

Pepper took it.

As the beast reared back onto its hind legs, she launched a pair of vines directly at, then around, those massive antenna atop its head. And with that momentary grip she launched herself forward directly at the creature's face.

She remembered the Venom Drench, fired in desperation. The agony as it clung to her skin, the terrifying numbness as her forevines vines withered, turned black and died. But she had the momentum, the vines accelerating her even as they began to rip and crumble. She remembered closing her eyes and screaming. Then she was through, and she turned that momentum into a headbutt so hard, the Scolipede's exoskull fractured with a mighty *Crack*!

Then she was above it, down two vines and with a massive headache. Perfect! A second pair of Vines - those located on either side of her neck, raced backwards, framing the Scolipede's head whilst burying themselves deep in the soil. Pepper yanked on them both, instantly reversing direction to bodyslam the Monster's head into the dirt.

It was prostrated. Vulnerable.

Pepper tumbled off the stunned Scolipede and ripped her remaining vines free, only to plunge them back down into the dirt. Massive, decades-old roots rose from the ground to grip the great Bug-type's many legs, holding him down. The disoriented beast began to struggle, but with each passing moment more and more roots pushed themselves skyward before draping and gripping and crushing the beast in a cocoon of dirt and wood.

Pepper remembered Teal yelling for the Scolipede to pull free, as if that needed saying. There was desperation in his voice. Beautiful, cathartic desperation. But Pepper was too busy to savor it. Instead she was busy searching...feeling...looking for something beneath the ground large enough to...'There!'

Roots shifted and wormed through the dirt, loosening it. A hundred thousand tiny limbs gripped the boulder and pushed and pulled and shoved. And then it was there in front of her: filthy, covered in old dead and dying roots, awkwardly shaped and very heavy, the boulder was roughly the size of a household stove. All at once the entire stadium saw what was coming. Teal screamed for his Pokémon to sludge-bomb itself in desperation.

Pepper buried half her vines into the dirt to brace herself, and stretched the remainder around the boulder.

The roar of the crowd rose to a crescendo.

It took all her strength to lift it over her head, and for a moment she nearly lost her grip and crushed herself! She hefted it high, as high as her vines would reach.

The wooden cocoon burst with acidic goop and began to wither away.

She rocked the boulder back, winding it up.

The Scolipede thrashed against its dying restraints. It managed to pull its head free just a split second too late.

Pepper gave Teal one final glare. And with a screech born of nearly three years of frustration, of betrayal, of discouragement, of training, of determination, and pure, unrefined spite, Pepper slammed that half-ton chunk of rock directly into the Scolipede's head.

Crunch!

The sickening sound of splintering chitin echoed through the stadium, and for the briefest moment Pepper feared she'd just accidentally killed someone. But the great boulder had hit at an oblique angle, and while the beast's carapace was shattered and bleeding, the depression the boulder left behind wasn't actually that deep. Teal's Scolipede was still breathing, but it wasn't moving. As the last of the roots binding it withered away, the creature inside slumped forward, unconscious.

For a long couple of seconds there was silence

And then...

"Scolipede is unable to battle! Match goes to Jay Carpus of Bloomingvale!"

There was cheering. The announcers were besides themselves. In the corner of her eye Pepper could see Cinnamon, Sugar, and Hastur all making a beeline for her. A trio of Nurses and their attendant Blissey ran forward to treat the ailing Scolipede. Slowly it dawned on her what had just happened.

She'd won.

She won!

At a type disadvantage, outweighed thirty times over and with a broken spine no less! It was...surreal. Pepper was sure she had to be dreaming. But no. It was real. After years of being sidelined and ignored and pitied she'd actually got to fight and she won! Pepper couldn't stop the grin splitting her poison-coated, filthy bloody face. A pair of gloved hands picked her up and suddenly Mary was squeezing her against her chest offering relieved praise and worried fussing in equal measures.

She remembered Jay joining in too, after getting up off the ground with a black eye. Mary may or may not have been involved.

And Teal...

He was gone. Just...disappeared. No post-battle handshake, wasn't at the post-tourney celebrations a week later, didn't even come back for the Scolipede as far as she knew. Indeed, that last glimpse of Teal she'd stolen in the battle's final moments was the last she'd ever see of her old trainer. Her tormentor, her first and worst friend, gone without a word.

...Meh!

That was the greatest day of her life. But it was not her greatest battle. No, because after a showing like that, even Mary had to relent. Not a day later she was battling again, and battle was even better than the first. And the one after that was even better than that! Because now she was building a reputation. Not as a poor paraplegic Pokémon but as an implacable paragon of battle. She didn't need to fight to prove herself anymore; she could battle for the sheer thrill of it! Anytime, Anywhere. Unhindered by a doubtful society. Unbreakable in will. Untouchable on the field.

Pepper remembered.

Pepper would be remembered!