"Mien!" Cried the mienshao as it slammed into the dirt. The dust cloud that had been kicked up from the crash slowly settled, leaving the bleeding, clearly beaten pokémon visible to everyone in the audience. There were many small cuts all over its body, and it appeared to be in great pain as it struggled to pull itself back up to face the serperior that had dealt the blow.

"That's enough, Mienshao!" It's trainer shouted, recalling the badly injured pokémon back to its pokéball. In its place, the girl sent out a mudkip.

The elegant serperior didn't even need to wait for instruction from its trainer. It immediately whipped its long tail around, creating a powerful tornado. As the serperior's tornado grew in size, it began to pull razor-sharp leaves from nearby trees in the stadium. A smirk seemed to form on its face as it watched the mudkip charging.

"Water gun, Mudkip!" It's trainer called.

The mudkip and serperior both launched their attacks at each other. When the jet of water and the green tornado met it was clear who had been successful. The green tornado now had a blue swirl to it, but kept screaming toward its target.

"Are you shitting me?!" Frank yelled at the girl. "Why the fuck would you use a water-type, a mudkip, against a serperior?! Does anyone use their brains anymore?! And why the hell does no one use ice-types? If it was Rii out there--"

~~~~~~~~~~

The glaceon's ears perked up and her eyes opened at the mention of her name. She looked over at her trainer who was screaming at the TV. with his arms raised in the air.

"Dork." She chuckled

Rii looked around a little groggily at her surroundings. Her younger sister, Stara was next to her watching Frank with her head tilted slightly to the side. Rii knew Stara had probably been watching him for a while now, taking in everything she could and analyzing it. The eevee was the youngest of the household. She was sweet, incredibly smart, and infinitely curious. Stara studied everything that interested her until she had it completely figured out. This quality made her quite the troublemaker.

*Take the ice machine incident from earlier that week: Stara had figured out how to make the dispenser on the refrigerator drop ice onto the floor, which...she promptly left there, and of course, me, being the older sister, was the one that was blamed for the giant puddle of water it left behind,* she thought.

Still feeling a bit tired from her interrupted sleep, Rii laid her head back down and closed her eyes, the small silver bell on her collar making a 'chink' sound against the hardwood floor.

Stara noticed the sound of her sister's bell.

"Ah, good night again, big sister." She said softly with a smile.

"Mmmm. Hello Star. Having fun?" Rii managed to say.

The eevee answered, "I was just wondering what Master will do with me."

" 'Do with you?' She lifted her head again. What do you mean?"

"My apologies, big sister. I meant the evolution that Master will choose to have me undergo."

Rii thought about it for a second. "What if Frank wants to keep you the way you are; as an eevee?"

"I have considered that, but Master has a very strong normal-type in Binx..." Stara pointed her muzzle over to the cinccino on the other side of the room blissfully munching on a bowl of berries.

"Normal-type?" Rii inquired.

"That's correct, sister. The humans have invented a clever system to categorize pokémon. Both Binx and I are classified as normal-types."

"Po- pokiman? What? And I'm not sure I'd call them clever. Why is it that they can't understand us, if they're so smart? I can understand them." Rii asked, huffing.

The conversation had clearly gone above Rii's head and Stara picked up on this. She decided not to delve any deeper, for her sister's sake.

She responded simply, "Fascinating isn't it? Besides that, if Master wished for me to stay in this form wouldn't he put an everstone pendant around my neck? I have learned that this is the easiest way to keep me from evolving, and I know that even if I'm not evolved artificially, I will eventually become an umbreon or an espeon. Eevee are unstable."

"Look hun," the glaceon said, exasperated. "I really believe you're overthinking this. Frank is probably just being lazy."

Rii gave a loud yawn and went back to her nap, resting her face in the back of her paws.

"Perhaps, big sister."

Stara watched Rii sleep for a while, the look of admiration from a younger sibling in her eyes. Stara knew she wasn't her real sister. Rii had been given to Frank as a present when she was still an egg. Stara, on the other hand, had been born in the wild. Frank rescued her after she was abandoned by her mother. When she was at the limit of her fear: starving, scared, lonely.

She watched Frank throw a fit in front of the TV. and thought about that day. She remembered the hydreigon that chased her through the woods; how she arrived at a dead end and gave up hope, accepting the fact that she would be devoured by this beast. She recalled closing her eyes, preparing for the oncoming pain. She could vividly recreate the moment she had expected her death, only to hear the predator cry out in agony; to see a young glaceon leap at the hydreigon, and anchor it's claws deep into the monster's hide, pulling it to the ground.

The glaceon bared her fangs, which became elongated with ice, and then drove them mercilessly through the hydreigon's neck, straight into a vein. Warm arms wrapped themselves around her shaking eevee body, scaring her, and she viciously bit at one of them. The man yelped in pain but held onto her, soothing her and trying to assure her that it would be ok. The man's glaceon continued to ravage the hydreigon's flesh, snapping it's head back and forth, ripping through muscle and arteries.

She vividly remembered the blood spewing from the wounds, and the horrendous cry the beast let out as the glaceon used its strong jaws to crush one of the monster's necks. She watched, in his arms, as her attacker collapsed to the ground, bleeding profusely, screaming in the pain and terror that she had expected upon herself. The glaceon bit into another of its necks and shook hard until a distinct snapping sound was heard and it became limp. She dropped it and turned her attention to the last head. It was very clear that the monster was terrified. It's eyes moved back and forth rapidly, desperate for escape. It tried to crawl away, surely having given up all thoughts of the eevee. The glaceon didn't pause, it slammed its paw down on the last neck, crushing the windpipe, and putting the hydreigon out of its misery.

Stara was eternally grateful for both her sister, and the man that had held her and kept her away from the beast. He had taken an interest in her pitiful life. He had given her a safe home, warm food, and a family. After calming down and settling into her new life, she found she had a crush on him. A crush that had developed into love over the next few years.