Monferno’s mind raced, How did he hear me? Did I imagine this? Those worried and frantic thoughts ran through his head. Kev was sound asleep, so confronting him was out of the question at this point. The flame-tailed monkey was at a loss for what to do, as he never encountered anything like this before, and understandably so. He decided to leave it be for the night and get some well-needed sleep, I'll be able to make better judgements in the morning, he thought to himself.


Kev was the first one to wake up, so he set out a little breakfast for himself and his Pokemon, a small round rice cake for himself, and a bowl of Pokefood for Monferno. As he was setting up, a groggy monkey snuck up behind him and gave his trainer a big hug. 


“Woah! Monferno, you scared me! I assume you've slept well?”


“Monferno!” The pokemon said with an extremely upbeat tone. 


Kev was a little taken aback, hearing only his Pokemon’s name and no context within it. Disoriented and confused he said, “Well that's good to hear buddy, you caught me at a good time too! I just finished setting up breakfast for us” gesturing to the bowl of food he set up for Mon. “After that we got a little walk to Amchur town! We could fight the gym leader there, I heard he was a grass type, so we got the upperhand.”


Monferno hopped down and started to eat his food nonchalantly, while Kev was perplexed at his pokemon’s speech. As they ate, the idea popped into Kevs head start battling some wild pokemon on the trip to the new town. If I was lucky, he thought, I could get a new member on the team to help Mon out. 


As they finished up their quick breakfast they went on their way through the forest, only a few miles out of town. As made their way throughout the trees, a few pidgeys and zigzagoons were brave enough to step up to the plate and challenge them, but none strong enough to join the team, as Mon made quick work of them. Only about a half mile out of town now, Kev spotted a Nidorino out in the distance. He quickly told Monferno to stop and get low, to not startle the purple beast. The Nidorino was none the wiser as Kev and Mon snuck up behind him. 


“MON NOW!” The silence was broken when Monferno lep up close to the Nidorino and threw embers at its feet, burning the beast from the ground up. The poison-type was quick to react however, and charged him at full speed with a Horn Attack, smashing into Monferno, knocking the air out of him, cutting the skin ever so slightly. 


As he was trying to recover after being stuck by the Horn of his opponent, Nidorino starting running at him again, leaping through the air and hitting the Pokemon with a Double kick. Monferno was able to stay on his feet during the first kick, but the second one hit him right in the jaw, knocking him across the dirt road they were on. Nidorino starting to run at him again, looking like a bolt of purple lightning he jumped.


“MONFERNO! USE DOUBLE TEAM” Kev screamed at the top of his lungs.


        Luckily he heard him in time and when Nidorino got to him, it was just a shadow. Monferno used this time to duck behind a tree and recover. The pokemon took a few minutes tiring himself out destroying the clones. Whenever Nidorino destroyed them all Monferno just replaced them, frustrating the poison-type even more.


        Kev reached into his bag and grabbed a pokeball, he saw potential in this wild pokemon, even though he knew the time wasn’t right to try and catch it, yet.


        Monferno swung from tree to tree overhead, but the Nidorino was distracted, so he didn’t notice. Weakened from the attacks from earlier, Monferno knew he had to be smart in his next opportunity. He didn’t have the help of Kev, as even his trainer was clueless to where he was. He stood in wait for the Nidorino to make a wrong move.


        The Nidorino wasn’t having it, These people attack me while I’m trying to mind my own business, that's too far. He wasn’t angry about the battle, but the disrespect he was shown, being snuck up from behind like that, not cool. He realized fighting the clones was a futile endeavor that would just end up with him being defeated, so he concocted another plan to get out of this. The Pokemon turned his attention to the trainer that interrupted him from earlier, This will get that damn monkey to show his face, he thought to himself, knowing these weak captured types will do anything for their trainer. The point of his horn started to glow with a bright, blinding, silver light, when he started to charge. He ran, and ran as fast as he could at the trainer.


This is it, Monferno thought to himself, he’s made himself vulnerable. As the Nidorino charged at Kev, he jumped down from his tree landing in front of Kev, and blasted Flamethrower forward at the opposing pokemon. Anticipating this, Nidorino jumped out of the way, running past Kev, letting the attack go past him into a rock. Monferno did not let up though, scorching the path were Nidorino was dodging to. Every jump that Nidorino took, a blast a flame wasn’t far behind. The Pokemon was now starting to feel the effect of the Embers lodged in his feet from earlier, and with every jump he got weaker. 


Nidorino felt it, his power slipping away from him, he didn’t have clones to hide behind to recover like Monferno, he had to end it, and end it now. Jumping behind a rock and got ready, point glowing and ready to strike.


Monferno was primed, the second he jumped out it would be go time, time to end this battle.


Nidorino jumped back onto the rock, landing on the rock and getting a running start. Monferno blasted fire at the pokemons side, the pain from the embers proving too much, the Nidorino slipped and skidded of the rock, finally being met with a harsh blast of red hot fire in it’s side.


        Kevin realized his opportunity to catch the pokemon was getting away from him, but he couldn’t see through the dark, thick smoke that the flames caused. He couldn’t let this get away from him, he blindly threw the pokeball into the smog and prayed that it would hit.


        *Crack* He heard the pokeball smash against something, eagerly him and Monferno watched the fumes. Not a second later they saw a faint, but still noticeable red light emanating from the ball. The smog was beginning to dissipate, the ground around it empty, except for charred grass, pieces of debris from the rock, and most importanty, a pokeball standing up, latched together.


 “YES! WE DID IT MON!” Kevin screamed for joy, picking up his pokemon and giving him a big kiss as he traveled to grab his newly captured pokemon.


That was… uncomfortable for Monferno, he never thought doing that, even after a big win… sure he felt elated too, but not in that way, not in a “kiss your fellow male trainer” type of way, did he? I’m over thinking things, like the pokespeak thing, he was excited and people do crazy things when they feel like that, right? Nevertheless, he started to feel wobbly from these new emotions flowing through him, Wait… He thought, i.. I wasn’t poisoned from those atta... attacks was I...


Kevin, set down Monferno and raced to grab the new Pokeball, grabbing a purple marker out of his bag. Grabbing the pokeball, he marked it with a purple horn to signify whose it belonged too. Putting it in his bag, he reached for his pokedex and put in some info on the newly, captured pokemon. He saw a little round button on the side of his dex that said speak, curious to what it does he pressed it and heard. “Nidorino, the Poison Pin Pokémon, quick to anger, it stabs enemies with its horn to inject a powerful poison when it becomes agitated.”


Kevin laughed, “Hey Mon! This says that if you get hit with the Horn you get poisoned. You got hit pretty hard and nothing happened, stupid old dex”


Not hearing anything from him, he turned around, to see his pokemon fall face down on the grass with a faint groan.


“MON!” Kevin yelled racing towards him trying to get a potion out of his bag. He grabbed one and started to spray Monferno with it. After a minute Monferno began to be more lively, seeing that he was ok, Kevin quickly put him into his pokeball, something he was avoiding to do, but felt like it needed to be done here.


Only a half mile away from Amchur, he thought as he sprinted through the forest, dodging rocks, tree trunks, and debris from other pokemon battles as he tried to get to the nearest town. 


        He could see it in the distance, the bright red light of the Pokemon Center. The sign of life, of hope. It was all taken away from him when a Dustox flew in front of him, using gust, knocking Kevin down. Bag flying, pokeballs everywhere Kevin was defenseless against this giant moth. He tried to run, but there was nowhere to hide, not now, not behind a pokemon, nor anywhere else. He grabbed a sheet of rock and shielding himself, bracing for the worst.


        A large gust of wind hit him from the from, the Dustox was relentless! He couldn’t fight back much longer, chunks of rock were breaking off, he wasn’t going to make it, it was getting foggy for Kev.


        A scorching heat engulfed the area, the Dustox was smashed against a tree after a blast of flame hit it. Kev searched around for the trainer that helped him out, but no one was to be found. He looked around and saw a single pokeball shaking, just like a pokemon was put in it. Kev walked over, it was Monferno’s ball, injured as his pokemon may be, he just saved Kev, and might have put himself at risk, leaving the safe confines of the ball.


        He quickly grabbed his things and started to head back to the town, running as fast as he could. Once getting to Amchur town he was able to get to the Pokemon Center. Dropping off his two pokemon, he was able to go to the Pokemart and get some needed supplies for the journey onward. Kev wasn’t able to stray too far however, as he was just too worried for his friend’s health.


        Once he got back to the Pokemon Center he sat in the welcome room, waiting for good news that his Pokemon were in good health. Minutes passed into hours, and soon it was dark in Amchur. Kev started to drift off, waiting and reading was just too much to handle when he needed to hear some good news. He didn’t realize he fell asleep, but before the night was over he was, out like a light on the welcome room couch.


        An aching pain went through Monferno as he woke up in the Pokemon center. Ugh, I feel like shit. He thought to himself, At least I’m not poisoned anymore. He jumped down from the bed, grabbed his things, and started to explore. The hospital was pretty empty, as they were in a little town in the dead of night. He started to get bored and got out of the main wing of the building, heading for the exit. There he spotted Kev, sound asleep. Once Monferno saw him, his heart melted, He would stay here all night, for me? To make sure I’m okay?, The act made the monkey feel loved. He walked over to his trainer, and gave him a kiss, paying him back for eariler. “Thank you” he said, knowing that he wouldn’t hear it, and jumped onto the couch with him, snuggling up close to get a goods nights sleep, with his best friend.