I'm still getting 389 when I count... including these two. And I'm not counting Missingno in that number, since the glitch Pokemon doesn't count into any totals. Of course, I'm counting by subtracting what I haven't covered yet, as that's easier.
And here's the entry for Mother's Day. I was originally going to do Lilligant, but then the story ended up too tragic. I'll get around to that one later. And then the one I chose ended up being on the tragic side too, as was Chimecho which I did for another Mother's Day entry. How come this holiday keeps getting me tragic stories? My Mom's great and I love her.
I kind of want to polish this one up better too, like I did with Gallade and Gengar.
In Process: Meloetta
On deck: Scrafty, Klang/Basculin, Woobat, Sealeo/Luxio, Lilligant
Reserve: (#400)
Finneon and Lumineon
At night, the world seas often sparkled, holding little lights like shimmering stars in their depths. Some areas had a great many Staryu and Starmie causing this. Other areas held populations of Chinchou and Lanturns. In this part of the world, it was the Finneons and Lumineons that made the waters of night shine. While the older ones remained on the sea beds, many Finneons came up to the surface and could be seen from land.
One Finneon in particular kept coming close to the low bridge that sat between a small island and the mainland. Humans came up to the bridge often, and they would fish for Pokemon. For several nights now, he had been getting himself caught on purpose. He wanted to be a Trainer’s Pokemon. It was an exciting prospect. If he got captured, he could go on a journey to see the world, become stronger, and be well-known throughout the world! He could also wind up as just somebody’s house pet, but that was fine too. Anything would be better than staying in the sea.
However, the fishermen kept throwing in him back. They had plenty of other fish Pokemon, but none seemed interested in keeping him. It was frustrating. What did he have to do to leave? Was he just not good enough? Attractive enough? If he knew what would get a fisherman to keep him, he’d do whatever it took.
Tonight, it seemed like all the usual humans on the bridge tonight. That was disappointing; he already knew that none of them would take him. As he considered taking a trip to find another fishing spot, another blue and black Finneon surfaced beside him. “Hey Mark,” she said, “Your Mom’s asking to see you soon.”
He frowned. “Is she? I’m a grown Pokemon now; I wish she’d quit nagging me.”
The girl Finneon splashed him with her fin. “Aw, she just worries about you a lot. I wish my mother would worry about me too. She practically shoved me away. So be glad you have one that cares enough to nag.”
“You say that because you’re not the one who has to deal with it,” Mark muttered. “Okay, fine, I’ll go down and see her.”
“Good.” She then dove back down.
Not long after, he followed suit. There was something that bugged him about the Lumineons. Why did they always stick to the bottom of the ocean? A Pokemon couldn’t be seen well down there. If they were up at the surface, other Pokemon and the humans would admire them more. Sure, prey was easier to catch down there, as the low-light denizens were attracted to or hypnotized by their natural glow. But the opinion of one’s food didn’t matter.
Once he got to the murky sea bed, he then spent some time trying to figure out where his mother was. It wasn’t as easy as finding yellow-green glows, as that could be any Lumineon down here. Eventually, he did spot her familiar pattern and swam over. Mark increased the glow of his line markings to get her to notice.
She was soon by his side. “Ah, there you are Mark. Look, I found an area with some pretty pearls.” She handed over a small one. “You could go look for a larger one to be a treasure to keep. Or to give away to a sweet girl.” At that, she winked and smiled.
He examined the pearl in his fin. It was white with a faint pink blush to it, but it was much to small to be a worthwhile gift. “Mom, I don’t have time for those kid games now,” he said. “I’m trying to find myself a Trainer. I think I might have to swim far off to find one who will take me.”
Shaking her head, she sighed. “Oh Mark, I’ve told you many times before: that isn’t a good idea. You’ll only end up disappointed, maybe even heartbroken. The humans don’t care for our kind much. Best you could get is being put into an aquarium and then we’d never see each other again.”
“I can prove how great I am, once a Trainer captures me. I’ll prove everyone wrong. So I can’t be wasting time.”
The Lumineon bumped her head against his side. “I’m just concerned about your well being. But if you must do this…”
She was finally starting to give in? Excited and not wanting to let her change her mind, Mark gave her a head bump back. “I’ll be fine,” he insisted. “I love you too, Mom, and I’ll remember you. Bye!” He then darted off back to the surface.
“I suppose I couldn’t have kept you around forever,” his mother said sadly, although he didn’t hear.
Back at the surface, the Finneon considered which way to go to find another fishing spot. But on looking at the low bridge, he spotted a new human. This one didn’t look like the other fishermen: he was younger and didn’t wear the same things. Yet he was pulling out a fishing pole and a Pokemon was waiting by his side. One last chance at being caught here? Mark decided to take it by watching where the teenager threw his line.
He swam right for that area to search for the hook. Or rather, the bait. It looked like a small non-Pokemon fish floating around. However, it didn’t swim like it should and it smelled far more tasty. Mark already knew from experience that he couldn’t really eat it. But to be caught, he bit down on the fake fish.
That familiar force of the hook grabbed onto his mouth, then the human started reeling him in. He was rougher with it than the others. By the time Mark broke through the surface, he was hurting a bit already. He was left flopping on the bridge looking up at an unfamiliar Pokemon.
“Well that’s a new one,” the human said. “Crusher, False Swipe it.”
“Sure thing, boss,” the Pokemon said in a sarcastic tone. Mark put up a show of a fight, hoping he made himself look good. Still, it was hard to be cool when he was being attacked painfully and didn’t seem to have much of an effect on his foe.
Right as he thought that he might faint, he felt a force similar to the hook energy. The world went blurry; was he finally being captured? Mark accepted it, but it was so disorienting. The energy dug deep into his body and seemed to be changing it. Once it had absorbed into him fully, it healed the damage he had taken and calmed his nerves.
“Hey newbie!” a loud voice called out. “Welcome to the lunatic asylum!” It laughed.
“Huh?” Mark opened his eyes and found himself swimming in place, in the air. He saw a Mr. Mime there, standing on the gray cobblestone ground. All around them, there were well trimmed bushes and trees. Several other Pokemon were milling around too. “Lunatic asylum?”
The Mr. Mime clapped his hands together and grinned. “Yeah, this is where you are going to go crazy, just like the rest of us.”
“I told you to stop greeting the new ones like that,” a Buizel said while walking over. “There’s a reason that nobody likes you.”
Crossing his arms over his chest, the Mr. Mime sniffed. “I’m just giving them the truth. There’s no escape. You’re stuck here forever.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Where are we exactly?” the Finneon asked, swimming closer to the Buizel.
“We’re inside of a computer storage device for Pokemon, a Box,” he said. “That guy who caught you, Jim, he caught everybody in here. But he only keeps a few out with him. The rest of us are waiting until he decides to use us too.”
“But he won’t, ever,” the Mr. Mime said. “We’re stuck in the Box.”
Mark figured that the Mr. Mime was messing with him, so he struck up a friendship with the Buizel. Some of the other Pokemon in the Box were friendly, but there were others that did seem a bit on the crazy side. To himself, the Finneon promised that when he got taken back out, he would prove himself to be a great Pokemon, worthy of being kept out of the Box.
-+-
Time was incredibly hard to tell in the Box. The light changed from time to time, but it didn’t feel right to Mark. From time to time, new Pokemon came in and others left. Some spoke of having been moved from a different Box without going back to the ‘real world’. But he and the Buizel stayed, as did the Mr. Mime.
One time, Mark woke up to find his small pearl missing. The Mr. Mime taunted him that the Trainer Jim stole anything that the captured Pokemon came with. he wasn’t the only one who lost a precious item coming in. Trying to ignore the teasing, the Finneon told himself that once he got free again, he could get another pearl easily. He could even get a bigger and prettier one.
But in thinking of that, as time went on in the Box, Mark grew discouraged. When was he getting out? It seemed harder and harder to get excited about growing strong. More often than not, he found himself missing his mother and his home waters. Maybe she was right.
Then one day, he got withdrawn from the Box.
He found himself back in the real world, outside of a Pokecenter with Jim and another strange unfamiliar Pokemon. Mark found himself able to swim in the air, thanks to the mysterious power of the Pokeball. Swishing his large tail fins, he felt his excitement peak again. “Oh, you’re finally going to use me? Great! You’ll see how good I am.”
The strange Pokemon laughed. “Dream on, wimp.”
Kneeling down, Jim started to attach a band to Mark. “All right, you’re the next one.” When the band clicked, he slipped his fingers underneath to check how secure it was. Then he recalled the Finneon to his Pokeball. “Let’s go,” he said, sounding weary. “This is taking forever.”
Mark wondered what was going on. He wasn’t sure how he was going to be released from the Pokeball, as he had gone from being caught straight to the Box. How was he going to prove himself if he was going to stay in the ball? He closed his eyes.
And then, something peculiar happened. The band emitted a warm energy and Mark began to experience something. He was walking (walking!) along a dirt path, right beside Jim the Trainer. He was a different shape, a different body. However, he couldn’t control anything he did. Was he actually experiencing what the other Pokemon was doing?
“Okay, let’s find a fight,” Jim said as the pair walked into a patch of tall grass. “I hope this doesn’t take forever like the last one did.”
“More fights for me,” the Pokemon with him said. “I don’t care.” He spotted a movement in the grass and rushed forward to attack. Mark had a brief glimpse of a frightened Pokemon before it was knocked unconscious.
Such power… it was nothing like Mark had ever known! This was how he wanted to be, able to defeat opponents easily, barely breaking a sweat. And with this band, it was like he was fighting the battles himself. While the other was a land Pokemon that fought much differently than he did, the Finneon felt that he was learning much quicker than he did when he was fighting on his own in the sea. This seemed to confirm that he had made the right decision to be captured.
After several hours of this, including times when the other Pokemon was briefly rested and healed, Mark felt a well of energy burst from within. Was it already time? He thought that it would take a couple more years before he was ready. But no, he was evolving now. It was like the time he had been captured, but the power that invaded him felt much more natural and less invasive. It took over his body and changed it, shifting the positions of his fins, making them bigger, changing the glowing portions, and bulking up his body. When the energy calmed down, Mark was released once more, but as a Lumineon.
And I won’t be one to hide on the bottom of the sea bed, he thought proudly. I’ll get to be out in the sun and show off the majesty of my kind to all of the humans. With that, surely he would change how the whole world viewed him and his kin.
Jim had the Pokeball Mark resided in attached to another device and was quietly reviewing the information. Then, he frowned. “Hmm… disappointing.”
Wait, what? Mark looked up to the human, wondering what could make him say that. He’d never fought for him, had never gotten a chance to show his stuff. How could he disappoint without ever doing anything.
“Those stats aren’t good enough to compare with what I’ve already got; not enough potential.” Grumbling, he detached the Pokeball, then took the band off Mark’s outer right front fin, where it had moved when he evolved. “At least the Experience Share is helping get data for the Professor. Otherwise, this doesn’t seem to be worth the bother as I seem to have picked right in the first place.” He then recalled Mark to his Pokeball and headed off.
And not even an hour later, he was back in the Box.
-+-
Buizel was now a Floatzel, as he had gone through the Experience Share ordeal too. The two of them had been moved to a Box that was like a shallow sea bed. Also in the sea bed Box, there were many other underwater Pokemon inhabiting the virtual landscape. While it was closer to home, Mark somehow felt more homesick while in there.
At least they didn’t have to deal with the horrid Mr. Mime anymore. Not that some of the other ones weren’t crazy too. The Lumineon began to get depressed.
And then, after a great deal more time, Mark and the Floatzel were removed from the Box again. Neither of them was optimistic about their prospects, so it was a surprise to be called out into the sea. They and a number of their Box neighbors were there, but Jim was not. Instead, there was a young woman with very short orange-red hair.
“I’m hoping this makes me worthy,” she said, kneeling down at the edge. “I’m going off to join that Team Plasma, but I want to make sure that they’ll take me So I hacked into my dumb brother’s account and I’m going to release all you Pokemon that he’s got wasting away in there. I was told how… let’s see if I’ve got this right.” She started fiddling with a wrist device and the Pokeballs, getting the Pokemon detached from them.
It took some time as she had to do them one by one. “So we get to go back to the wild?” his friend asked. “I’m not sure where my home is from here.”
“This is my home area,” the Lumineon said. “I was caught right here, actually. I want to go see my mother.”
“Hmm… maybe I’ll live here for a little while instead.”
Then Mark felt that energy filling his body again. But this time, it departed as it changed him once last time. When he knew he was free, he swam underwater briefly. He came back up to tell the Floatzel, “I’ll come back to see you once I talk with her. I have to apologize… she was right about my wish to leave.” Then he dove underwater.
At the sea bed, he spotted a glowing yellow-green pattern. It wasn’t like his mother’s, but he tried to brighten his own. However, he had been out of the sun for so long that his patterns were dim. He wouldn’t get anyone’s attention that way, kin or prey.
“Hey,” he called out into the murky waters. “Have you seen… a Lumineon named Laura?” He nearly said ‘my mother’, but then felt that they would not recognize him. How long had he been away?
He came up to the other Lumineon, who was looking up from searching around the sand. “Huh? Dunno who you’re talking about. Who’re you?”
“I’m Mark,” he said. “I lived here some time ago, but I got captured by a human.”
“I think I remember Laura,” another Lumineon said, coming into view. “But she died several years ago, after her son disappeared.”
Died? No… Mark didn’t want to believe that. “Are you sure? She has to be all right.” He then dashed off to find someone else to ask.
But they all told the same story: she had died several years ago, after he had left her.
When evening fell, he came back to the surface. There were still a few of the Pokemon from the Box milling around, trying to figure out what to do. This included his friend the Floatzel, who was floating with his yellow skins fully inflated, looking at the starry sky. When Mark came up, he lifted his head to glance at him. “Did you find her?”
“No,” he said, trying to keep from crying again. “But she was right. I thought I could be something great, but nothing came of it.” He sighed. “Maybe I’ll come with you to find your home waters. I, I don’t feel like staying around here anymore.”
…
Finneon Diamond entry: After long exposure to sunlight, the patterns on its fin shine vividly when darkness arrives.
Lumineon Diamond entry: It lives on the deep sea floor. It attracts prey by flashing the patterns on its four tail fins.
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Originally Posted by Ysavvryl
