EVERYONE: Liz's Journey

[Princess Viola]

Spoiler: Author's Note

This story is episodic and the first few chapters are set in the past, prior to the main timeline and setting of the story. Also please expect variance in chapter length because of the episodic nature of the story, as not all chapters would need to be as long as others. Thanks.

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Chapter 1 - Liz and Eevee, Part 1

Liz was excited to wake up this morning. Today was her sixth birthday and she just knew her parents had to have something special planned for today, they just had to. She got out of bed and quickly got changed out of her pajamas, changing into her favorite blue dress, before rushing downstairs to the living room, where her parents were waiting for her.

‘Happy birthday, sweetie!’ her mom and dad happily greeted Liz as she entered the living room.

‘Thank you, Mom and Dad!’ she replied, smiling brightly at her parents.

Liz’s dad picked up a small box that was wrapped in green wrapping paper with yellow polka dots and a pink bow on top and handed it to her. ‘Here you go, Liz,’ he said. ‘A present for you from your mom and me.’

She looked at the present, her eyes wide in surprise and wonder, she wanted to know what was in it. She shook the box, trying to see if she could tell by the noise.

‘Why don’t you open it?’ her dad asked.

‘Can I?’

‘Of course, you can. It’s your birthday and it’s your present. Today’s your special day.’

Excited, Liz pulled the bow off the top of the present and tore off the wrapping paper, revealing a plain white box inside. She opened up the box and saw that inside it was a 150 piece jigsaw puzzle. Liz was happy, she liked doing jigsaw puzzles. She preferred trying to figure them out by herself and loved it as she slowly pieced together the puzzle.

‘Wow! A new puzzle! Thank you so much!’

‘That’s not all, dear,’ her mom said. ‘You have more presents that we’ll open up later tonight after your birthday dinner. And we’re going somewhere special today after breakfast.’

‘We are?’ Liz asked, her eyes full of curiosity. ‘Where are we going?’

Liz’s mom gently tousled her daughter’s hair, ‘That’s a surprise, Liz. But come on, I made you your favorite breakfast this morning and you don’t want it to get cold, do you?’

She grabbed hold of Liz’s hand and walked with her to the dining room where on the table was Liz’s favorite breakfast: blueberry pancakes with whipped cream and maple syrup, scrambled eggs, sausage and bacon, and two slices of toast with apricot jam. Next to the plates of food was a tall glass of milk, a bit of condensation sliding down it.

Liz gasped in delight and cheerfully said, ‘Wow! It all looks so good! It’s all my faves! Thank you, Mom!’

‘You’re welcome, dear,’ her mom said. ‘Now how’s about we all sit down and have a nice birthday breakfast together?’
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After they had all finished their breakfasts and Liz had gone into the living room to watch some cartoons, she was a bit restless with excitement. She wanted to know where they were going, she wanted to know more than anything.

‘Where are we going, Mom?’ she asked, hoping her mom would answer her this time.

‘I told you, sweetie, it’s a secret.’ She smiled at Liz and continued, ‘We just have to wait for dad to be done washing the dishes and then we can go, OK?’

As if on cue, the door to the kitchen opened and Liz’s dad stepped out, wiping his brow with the back of his hand. ‘Whew,’ he remarked. ‘Quite a lot of dishes and pans to clean up this morning, but they’re all spic and span now. Just finished putting them in the dish rack.’ He looked at Liz and smiled at her, ‘Hey, Liz. You all ready to go?’

She checked over herself, seeing if there was anything she was missing. There was nothing, the only thing she had needed to put on was her socks and shoes, which she put on after breakfast. She nodded and said, ‘Yup! I’m ready!’ Her dad smiled and gestured for Liz and her mom to come out to the car so they could go.

The three of them headed out of the house and got into the car. Liz’s dad got in the driver’s seat, her mom got in the passenger seat, and Liz herself sat in the backseat - with her mom making sure she’d buckled up before closing the door for her. Her dad started the car and backed out of the driveway and began heading towards whatever this special place was going to be.

As they drove out of their neighborhood and headed towards downtown, Liz gazed out the window and watched the buildings go by. She also couldn’t help but wonder where they were going, she hoped it was somewhere fun but also not anywhere too crowded or noisy. She didn’t like crowds and loud noises caused her discomfort.

After about half an hour of driving, Liz’s dad pulled into a parking lot and parked the car. As he turned the car off, he said, ‘Well, Liz, we’re here. This is the special place we were talking about.’

‘Huh?’ Liz asked, as she looked out the car window. She didn’t know where she was, she saw that there was a building but she didn’t know what this building was or why her parents took her here. ‘Where are we?’

Liz’s mom unbuckled her seat belt and said, ‘Liz, why don’t you get out of the car? Then you’ll see where we are.’

Liz nodded and did as her mom said. She unbuckled her own seat belt and opened the car door. She got out of the car and closed the door behind her, making sure it latched shut. Now out of the car, she could get a better look at the building. It was a large two-story building that was made out of off-white concrete, it had many windows all over it but she couldn’t see inside from where she was standing. As her eyes looked over the building, she found the front entrance and on the wall next to the entrance was an image of a Poké Ball and the words ‘Pokémon Adoption Center’.

Pokémon. Liz had had a number of encounters with Pokémon during her six years. She’d seen Pidove at the local park and Rattata scurrying around her neighborhood, looking for scraps of food in people’s garbage, for example. She’d also seen Pokémon trainers with their own Pokémon whenever her parents to her out to places. Some kids at school also had Pokémon and she’d see them play together after school.

But she didn’t have one of her own. She didn’t understand why her parents took her here but she wanted to know why, so she decided to ask.

‘Mom, what are we doing here?’

Her mom bent down slightly so she’d be face-to-face with her daughter and gently put her hand on her shoulder before she began speaking. ‘Liz, sweetie, we know you have problems making friends at school. We know you feel lonely sometimes because of it. So, we decided for your sixth birthday to bring you here so you can adopt your first Pokémon.’

Liz was momentarily taken by surprise and couldn’t say anything. A Pokémon? For her? She was going to get a Pokémon? As she stood there, she suddenly felt someone grab her hand - it was her dad, who lead her into the Pokémon Adoption Center, with her mom following close behind them. Entering the building, they found themselves in a large room with a front desk and a number of seats laid out. There were also quite a few people there too, which made Liz feel a bit uncomfortable. She squeezed her dad’s hand tight to try and calm herself down.

The three of them walked up to the front desk, where a woman - who appeared to be in her early 30s and was wearing a plain blue t-shirt with a name badge attached to a lanyard - was looking over some papers. She looked up at them and smiled before greeting them.

‘Hi! Welcome to the Pokémon Adoption Center! My name is Amanda, how can I help you today?’

‘Hi, Amanda,’ Liz’s dad began. ‘My name’s Matthew and this is my wife, Lisa.’ He gestured towards his wife who waved her hand at Amanda. ‘We’re actually here to adopt a Pokémon, it’s our daughter Liz’s birthday today and we thought this would be a great present for her.’

‘Oh my!’ Amanda said, excited. ‘A birthday present for your daughter, that’s so sweet!’ She looked down at Liz and smiled cheerfully at her ‘And how old are you today, young lady?’

‘S-six...’ she answered, shyly. She didn’t like talking to strangers and she felt uneasy with how cheerful Amanda was.

Amanda put her hands together and giggled. ‘Six years old! Only a bit younger than I was when I got my first Pokémon, I was seven when my parents surprised me with a Marill for Christmas. He’s an Azumarill now but I still love him very much.’ She looked back at Matthew and Lisa and asked them, ‘OK so I assume your daughter doesn’t know what Pokémon she’d like to have, does she?’ After they confirmed that her assumption was correct, she continued, ‘Alright, well we have a large number of Pokémon available here for adoption. So I’m going to call Olive over, Olive will walk your daughter through the shelter so she can see all the different Pokémon and decide which one of them she wants to adopt, is that alright with you?’ Liz’s parents had no problems with it. ‘Great, so why don’t you take a seat for a minute and I’ll call you over when Olive is here and ready.’ Liz and her parents walked away from the front desk and found a set of three empty seats and sat down in them.

After a few minutes, Amanda called for Liz and her parents. Heading back up to the front desk, they noticed that the door next to to it was opened and a woman was standing there. This must’ve been Olive. In contrast to Amanda’s appearance, Olive was dressed much more eccentrically. She was wearing a multicolored t-shirt, a jean jacket with a number of iron-on patches of Pokémon, a dark blue skirt, rainbow leggings, and neon green sneakers. She also had a pair of blue sunglasses on, despite being indoors, and streaks of bubblegum pink in her dark brown hair. But just like Amanda, she also had a lanyard with a name badge attached to it.

‘Yo!’ she greeted them, flashing a peace sign. ‘Amanda here told me about the whole “adopting a daughter for your Pokémon” thing and-’

‘You got it reversed,’ Amanda politely interrupted.

‘Huh?’

‘You said “adopting a daughter for your Pokémon” and not-’

‘Ah, yeah, yeah,’ Olive said, waving her hand in a mixture of acknowledgment and dismissal, like she didn’t really care that she’d mixed up her words. ‘I meant “adopting a Pokémon for your daughter” and yeah I’m gonna take your daughter, Liz is her name ain’t it, and I’m gonna show her all the Pokémon we got, cool with you two?’ Liz’s parents nodded and said they were OK with this. ‘Great, great. Well c’mon, Liz, don’t got all day,’ Olive said as she turned around and headed inside. Liz, who was feeling a bit nervous about all of this, followed after her.

Inside, Olive and Liz made their way down a hallway for a short while before Olive stopped in front of a closed door. She turned and looked at Liz and told her, ‘OK so Liz, this is one of our Pokémon rooms. Got a number of Pokémon all in here in cages and kennels and things like that. I’m gonna let you in here, you can look at the Pokémon, and see if there’s any here that catch your fancy. Got any questions, I’ll be here and if you don’t like any of these Pokémon, well we got a lot more you can check out too, alright with you?’

‘Y-yeah, that sounds good.’ Liz answered, nervously.

Olive smiled and opened the door, letting Liz enter first. The room was large and brightly lit. As Liz walked through the room, she saw a number of different Pokémon. The first ones she saw were a group of three Yamper playing together in a kennel. The Yamper took notice of her and began to playfully bark at her, with some sparks shooting out of them. Liz thought the Yamper were cute, but they seemed too energetic for her tastes, so she kept walking and looking at all the Pokémon. Other Pokémon she saw included Poliwag, Teddiursa, Klink, Salandit, and Scorbunny. She thought they were all cute or interesting in their own way but none of them grabbed her to the point where she felt that were The One.

She told Olive she wanted to go to the next room and they did. Yet, the same thing happened in the second room like in the first room: Liz didn’t find a Pokémon she wanted. It happened again in the third room, the fourth room, and even the fifth room. Liz was starting to get worried, what if she couldn’t find a Pokémon that she wanted? That’d mean her parents wasted their time taking her here and it meant that the special surprise for her birthday was meaningless.

It was while she was in the sixth Pokémon room that it happened. She noticed a large cage in the corner of the room with a cloth partially covering it. Curious, she made her way over to the cage and lifted up the cloth and peeked inside. Inside the cage was a brown furry Pokémon with a large and cream-colored furry collar, a big bushy tail, and long and pointed ears. It was an Eevee. The Eevee was curled up in a ball in the corner of the cage, trying to make itself hidden, and it looked scared.

Liz felt something while looking at this Eevee and she reached her hand into the cage to give it a pet. As soon as her hand touched the Eevee’s fur, it suddenly cried out in fear, ‘Eevee!’ and tried to back away from Liz and curled itself even tighter.

Something was wrong with this Eevee and Liz wanted to know what, so she called Olive over and asked her, ‘Olive, what’s going on with this Pokémon?’

Olive looked at the cage and sighed, ‘That’s Eevee. She’s been here for over a year now, I believe. Her old owner dropped her off one day saying that she was “weak” and “useless” and that he “didn’t have time to waste training a useless Pokémon like this”. He was cruel to her, he’d yell at her, force her to battle Pokémon that were much stronger than she was, she even had wounds from where he’d throw stuff at her. Because of this, she’s developed a complete fear of humans. She thinks they’ll hurt her like he did.’

Liz felt a mixture of emotions after hearing all of this. She felt anger, anger at Eevee’s old owner for hurting such a cute and innocent Pokémon like he did; sadness, sadness for what Eevee went through and why she’s so scared nowadays; and understanding, she felt an understanding for Eevee’s feelings, as Liz herself was often scared of her classmates because some of them thought she was weird and was worried they’d say mean things about her and didn’t know how to talk to them or make friends.

She wanted to let Eevee know that not all humans were mean like her old owner was, so she decided to talk to her. She spoke in a quiet and gentle voice and began, ‘Hi Eevee, my name is Liz. Today’s my birthday today and I’m six years old now.’ Eevee, still curled up, gave no reaction to what she was hearing, but Liz continued anyway.

‘I heard from Olive about what you went through. I think that was very mean and not nice what your old owner did to you. You’re a very cute Pokémon, you know?’ Eevee’s ears perked up a bit. ‘I think you’re actually a lot like I am, in fact. I’m scared of kids at my school, I don’t really understand how to talk to them and I’ve heard some of them say I’m weird and I’m afraid they’ll just say mean things to me. So I’m alone most of the time, just like you.’

Eevee cautiously looked up at Liz, who kept on talking. ‘But we don’t have to be alone like this, you and I. In fact, I think we can help each other out. I-I want to pet you, Eevee. Is that alright with you?’ Being careful not to startle Eevee, Liz reached into the cage again and gently began to touch Eevee’s fur. Unlike the first time only a few minutes ago, Eevee didn’t try to get away from Liz. Instead, she let Liz pet her.

‘You’re very soft, you know that?’ Liz told Eevee as she rubbed her hand over her fur. ‘I think you’re a very special Pokémon and I think that...well I think that...I think I want to be your friend.’

Eevee’s ears twitched when she heard that word. ‘Friend’. No one had ever said they’d wanted to be her friend before, her old owner only ever called her ‘useless’. She looked into Liz’s eyes and saw something that something that she’d never seen before in them - she saw a kindness in them, she saw caring, she saw trust.
‘E-eevee,’ she quietly murmured as she started to uncurl herself, growing comfortable in Liz’s presence.

Liz gasped in surprise at what Eevee was doing and made her decision. She called Olive, who was busy checking her phone, over and pointed at the Eevee and told her, ‘Olive, I want to adopt this Eevee.’

Olive was unsure and frowned a bit. ‘You sure, Liz?’ she asked. ‘I mean, I did tell you about all the stuff Eevee went through. She might not be best as your first Pokémon, you sure you don’t want to consider something easier to start with?’

Liz shook her head.

‘No, I want Eevee.’

Olive scratched the back of her head and sighed. ‘Alright, Liz, can you wait here, I’m gonna go get your parents.’

She left the room for a few minutes before returning with Liz’s parents. She explained to them about the Eevee their daughter wanted to adopt and why it might not be a good decision to let Liz adopt Eevee, considering the circumstances.

Liz’s dad crossed his arms, ‘Well, Miss, I do hear what you’re saying about this Eevee, but this is for our daughter’s birthday. I don’t think we can really tell her “No” about this.’

He looked at his daughter, who was still standing by the cage with Eevee inside it. ‘Now, Liz, you understand that this isn’t a toy, right? This is a living creature, who’ll need love, care, and compassion.’

Liz nodded, ‘Yes, I know it. I want to help Eevee, she’s just like me. We can be friends and I can make her not scared and she can help me too. Please let me adopt her, Mom and Dad.’

Her parents looked at each other and then back at Liz, who had a look of absolute pleading on her face - she wanted Eevee more than anything.

‘Miss,’ Liz’s dad began. ‘We understand that it might be difficult, but we want to adopt the Eevee. We want our daughter to be happy and don’t want to make her sad on her special day.’

Olive shrugged her shoulders, figuring that there was nothing she could say to change their minds about this, and said, ‘Alright then, so you want to adopt this Eevee. Just follow me to the front, Amanda’ll have some papers you and your daughter need to fill out and I’ll get some things you’ll need.’

‘C’mon Liz,’ Liz’s mom said to her as she and Liz’s dad followed Olive out of the room.

‘Coming, Mom!’ she answered. But before she left the room, she looked inside the cage and spoke. ‘Eevee, are you excited? You’re going to come home with me today. We won’t be lonely anymore.’ Liz waved goodbye to the Eevee, for now, and followed after her parents.

‘Eevee?’ the Eevee said, curiously as Liz left. ‘Home’, it thought in its own way. Will it really have a home now? And a family?

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‘And just sign your name on the adoption certificate here, Liz,’ Amanda told her as she pointed to a line that had ‘Name of Adoptive Trainer’ printed below it. Liz did as she was told, carefully writing her name on the line.

After she was done and gave the adoption certificate and pen back to Amanda, she asked, ‘Is that it?’

Amanda checked over all the papers both she and her parents signed, making sure that they hadn’t missed anything, and smiled. ‘Yes, that’s everything. The papers are all signed and in order, I just need to get Olive, who’ll come out shortly with Eevee and things you’ll need.’ She picked up the phone and called for Olive, telling her that they’d just finished signing the papers and everything was ready to go.

Only a couple minutes later, Olive came out. She was carrying Eevee’s cage in her arms and had a small box balanced on top of it. She carefully placed both the cage and box onto the floor and crouched down slightly, so she was closer to Liz’s height. Picking up the box, she showed it to Liz and began to tell her what was in it.

‘OK, so Liz, there’s some very important stuff in this box for Eevee. There’s a brush, so you can make sure her fur is nice and groomed. Some toys for her to play with, although considering her current state - she probably won’t want to play with them, but hey when she starts getting better, there you go. Also got some food for her, when you need more, you can just buy some at any store. And most importantly - her Poké Ball.’ She opened the box and took out the Poké Ball, which was a standard red and white one shrunken into its more compact form, and gave it to Liz. ‘Eevee’s already registered with this Poké Ball, so all you gotta do is press the button on it so it’ll expand to full size - you can press it again to shrink it - and then point it at Eevee and she’ll be sucked into the Poké Ball, where she’ll be nice and safe until you want to send her out. And all you gotta do to send her out is just toss the Poké Ball when it’s at full size.’

Olive smiled as she unlatched and opened Eevee’s cage, ‘Why don’t you try it out?’

Nodding, Liz did as Olive said and pushed on the button on the center of the Poké Ball, which immediately caused it to grow to full size. She felt a bit nervous about doing this for the first time, but she carefully approached Eevee’s open cage. Eevee, who also still felt nervous and unsure, was curled up inside the cage - although she wasn’t entirely hiding like she had been before.

Then it happened. Eevee caught a glimpse of the Poké Ball Liz was holding and began to panic. She tried to back away from it and began to cry out, ‘Eevee! Vee! Eevee!’ It was a cry of fear and worry.

Liz didn’t know what to do, did she do something wrong? ‘Eevee, what’s wrong?’ she tried to ask Eevee but Eevee just kept crying and trying to get away. Liz began to cry, thinking that this was all for naught and maybe she shouldn’t adopt Eevee after all.

Olive took notice of what was going on and decided to intervene. ‘Liz, sweetie,’ she began, putting on a more calm and caring tone of voice. ‘I think Eevee is just scared of the Poké Ball. She might have bad memories because of her old owner, why don’t you try telling her that it’s OK if she doesn’t go in it.’

Wiping the tears from her eyes, Liz did what Olive suggested. She carefully approached Eevee’s cage, where Eevee was still trying to hide in fear, and spoke softly and sweetly to her, ‘Hi, Eevee. I-I’m sorry about that. I didn’t know you were scared of your Poké Ball, it’s OK if you’re scared and don’t want to go in it.’

‘Eevee?’ Eevee said, looking up at Liz carefully. It was as if she was asking ‘Really?’

Liz nodded and said, ‘Yes, it’s OK. You can stay outside your Poké Ball if you want. We can be better friends that way too, I think.’

It took Eevee a minute to comprehend everything that was going on. Not only did this girl say that she was ‘cute’ and that she wanted to be her friend and take her home with her, but she also didn’t want to force her to do anything she didn’t want to. This girl actually cared about her feelings and didn’t just think of Eevee as a tool to try and force to act the way she wanted her to act? Was this the way Eevee was meant to feel around people? She still didn’t know, but what she did know at this point is that she felt happy.

‘Eevee!’ she happily cried out, smiling as she did so.

Liz smiled back at Eevee and was about to speak when she felt someone touch her shoulder. She looked up and saw her dad, who was smiling down at her.

‘You ready to head home, Liz?’ he asked. ‘Your Mom’s got the adoption papers and I can help you bring Eevee’s stuff to the car.’

She nodded and closed Eevee’s cage and latched it, making sure it was properly latched and would stay closed. Her dad picked up the box of supplies for Eevee off the top of the cage, allowing for Liz to pick up and carry the cage using a handle that could fold up from the top of it.

Before they left the Pokémon Adoption Center, Liz’s mom told her that maybe she should say goodbye to Amanda and Olive and thank them for everything they did today. A bit nervous, Liz thanked the two of them for letting her adopt Eevee and for making her birthday surprise so special.

When they got to their car and as Liz’s dad helped strap Eevee’s cage into the seat so it wouldn’t rattle about, Liz whispered to Eevee, ‘Hey, Eevee, are you excited about heading to your new home?’

‘Vee! Eevee!’ she cried out, clearly feeling cheerful for the first time in a long time.

Eevee was going to have a home.

She was going to have a family.

She was going to have a friend.

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Spoiler: Post-Chapter Author's Note

This is my first time writing a Pokémon fanfiction (and my first time writing fanfiction in general in a couple of years), so I am a bit rusty but I appreciate any and all comments/reviews I get.