Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)
Side Story: Espy’s Day Off

Espy strutted forth with her head held high, velvety lilac fur glistening under the sunlight as she revelled in the looks of admiration that her dimwitted cousins were throwing her way.

To her side was a book that she held aloft with her mighty Psychic aura — it was what she planned on reading today — a book on future-seeing. 

Espy had been trying to learn how to read the human language for some time now. And as expected of a genius of her caliber, she had made great progress. She could now recite all letters in the alphabet and read through The Little Prince in its entirety!

So then the next step was obviously to learn how to read the Psychic textbooks that her human had purchased for her benefit.

“Are you sure, Espy? These books might be too advanced for you. How about we move on to The Three Little Lechonks instead?” Nina had said.

But Espy was undeterred. How dare she treat her like a child! Espy was now an adult, a mighty Espeon! She would show Nina that she was wrong to underestimate her.

“Espy, why don’t you go and visit your dad and your cousins over at Bill’s ranch today? It’s been awhile and I’m sure you miss him an awful lot. That way the doctors could work in peace…” That last part was said quietly in Nina’s mind, but Espy picked it up all the same.

That foolish girl! How could she trust those clumsy humans to administer her treatment? Espy was just looking to supervise their work to ensure the people in white coats treated her human right. So what if she restrained one of them that one time — they were about to poke a big needle into her!

As Espy was quietly fuming, she finally reached her favorite spot; a nice little Berry tree by the pond. But to her dismay, the spot was currently occupied by three precocious little Eevees who were clumsily trying to climb the tree to reach its sweet fruits.

“Es!” The Espeon let out a haughty cry, to chase away the trio of rascals that were getting in the way of her recreation.

However, instead of being intimidated by her like her father when he cried out a command, the furballs just lit up with beady eyes, rushed towards her and began yapping incessantly.

“Eee! Eee!”

Espy frowned and took an involuntary step back when the rascals began excitedly pawing at her lustrous fur with their grubby little mitts.

These annoying little brats! Did they even know how much work went into grooming her beautiful self this morning? Her human even took extra care in brushing her as compensation for transferring her away.

In a fit of annoyance, Espy enveloped the three troublemakers in a layer of Psychic Type Energy and tossed them into the air, catching them before they fell and juggling them back and forth to teach them a lesson.

However, instead of crying out in remorse, the three Eevees seemed to be enjoying the rough treatment as they giggled in joy each time they were sent flying.

Espy felt a pang of irritation at the noisy trio, but it did not matter. What’s important was that they were now out of her way. So she proceeded to settle down whilst juggling the three furballs with her mind, before eventually tossing them up onto one of the branches so that they could get at the Berries — there was only so much of their noisy yapping she could take afterall.

Finally, peace was restored as the three Eevees stuffed their faces full of Berries. Espy breathed in a sigh of relief as she rubbed against the tree and circled around it a few times to find just the right spot to curl up in — a tight little crevice between the intersection of two roots. The little nook was curved just right to fully encapsulate her feline form and the root just the right height to serve as a headrest.

Espy licked at her frazzled fur and settled down. She then lowered her book and studied the title; Pre… Preco…g… ni…Ti… on?

The Espeon furrowed her brows in frustration. Why must the humans make everything so complicated?! Why couldn’t they just convey their intentions directly like civilised Pokemon? What was the point of stringing together such a complicated word?

But Espy would not allow herself to fumble on the first step. She would master this knowledge no matter how long it took! Now if only she had access to Nina’s little red device, that would make things a whole lot more convenient.

In truth, Espy had tried to sneakily use Nina’s Pokedex once but the Espeon couldn’t even get the thing to turn on. She had seen her human just touch her finger to the screen and look into its camera to unlock it, but no matter how hard she tried with her paws, she just couldn’t get it to work.

In the end, Nina just found Espy glaring at the Pokedex in a corner, laughed and pulled the mischievous Espeon in for an overbearing cuddle session, swooning over her in the way that she usually did. All the while, Espy struggled against the girl’s hold, embarrassed by her own failure and at being treated like a child.

Just recalling that moment was enough to stoke the embers of determination in Espy’s eyes as she flipped the book open to begin deciphering its secrets. Wait, where were the pictures? The Little Prince had pictures!

Espy was stumped by the wall of text she was confronted with. And they were so tiny as well! She could see some familiar words though, ‘eye’ and before that was ‘mind’ — mind’s eye! See that wasn’t so hard, she could do it if she tried. The wall of text was just a trick, an illusion. And just like all illusions, Espy just needed to look past the surface to peer into its core.

“Kukuku…” However, just as Espy was about to dive deep into the book before her, she heard an ominous laughter. 

Espy sighed to express exasperation the way that she saw the humans did all the time and turned to look up at the shadow hovering above her.

The crybaby was with their human, and for the better, since he would be moping incessantly if he were separated from Nina. And where the crybaby was, his lackey would follow. Then there was the newbie, also another crybaby who refused to leave their human’s shadow. But then that left one more — the annoying one. Espy would call him an idiot but their human got mad at her the last time that she did.

“Es, espeon. Espy, es.” Espy cried, telling the annoying Golbat to go play somewhere else and not bother her. She would use telepathy but their human told her to communicate verbally whenever possible to get Brucey used to Pokespeak as opposed to constantly needing her to interpret.

“Gol?” Brucey tilted his head in confusion and landed next to his adopted sister with a claw full of Berries in his grasp. Espy could see a trail of Berries following Brucey’s path and a litter of Eevees fighting to get to them, the Golbat’s claws were clearly not good for grabbing stuff.

“Brucey is trying to be nice, Espy. So be patient with him.” Nina’s words echoed in Espy’s mind. 

Espy sighed and accepted the offering. The Espeon was feeling a little peckish anyway, something about studying really made her crave sweets.

“Es, espy es.” Espy thanked the Golbat for the Berries, only to receive his usual laughter in return.

“Kukuku…”

Espy sighed. “Es, espy es es espeon. Espy es.” She was trying to tell Brucey to use his speech. Despite her and Nina’s best efforts, Brucey was still struggling with Pokespeak. And honestly, Espy didn’t think it mattered anyway since their human wouldn’t be able to understand him regardless. But Nina insisted that this was beneficial for his emotional development.

“Gol… Golbat?”

Espy nodded in approval and turned her attention back to her book, only to feel a sudden raking sensation on her back, eliciting an involuntary purr from the Espeon.

“Espy es!” Espy cried. She was trying to tell Brucey to leave her alone because she was studying.

“Kukuku…”

Espy had no idea what that laugh meant, but reading his mind, she could tell that he wanted to give her a massage. “Espy es es.” She declined the offer because she wanted to focus on her book instead. However, it seemed like her companion wasn’t understanding her intentions.

“Gol?” Brucey cried out in confusion once more.

“Espy es es.” The Espeon repeated, receiving yet another head tilt in confusion.

Espy could feel a vein bulging from her forehead, and in a fit of irritation, directly conveyed her intentions to Brucey via telepathy.

“Gol. Gol-gol!” Some of Espy’s irritation must have slipped through because the Golbat started bawling in remorse.

Espy sighed in exasperation and began to begrudgingly caress her companion with gentle Psychic pats. Why was it that there were so many crybabies in the team?! And when her Psychic consolation wasn’t working, Espy got up in a huff and reluctantly allowed Brucey to cuddle her, enduring the tears and slobber staining her flawless coat.

Espy groaned. She was definitely complaining to her human when she got back later!

In the meantime, to distract the needy Golbat. Espy told him to go collect rocks, his favorite pastime. She would do this back in the dorm as well to get Brucey to go away. The resulting collateral was the big crybaby Dragon getting his beanbag steadily filled with rocks over a period of time.

After Brucey flew off to do his own thing, Espy slinked over to the pond to wash away some of the filth covering her. But just as her luck would have it, a pair of Vaporeons materialised from the water to greet her.

“Vape?”

Espy let out a subdued growl of exasperation. “Espy es. Espeon.” She conveyed that she just wanted a quick dip in the water, but the Vaporeons got overly excited and said that they would help wash her.

Espy shook her head frantically, a high pressure burst of pure Water Type Energy was a surefire way of washing away her precious conditioner. However, the Vaporeons couldn’t understand and did it anyway.

“Es!” Espy hissed in outrage as she deflected the two Water Gun aimed towards her with a Psychic barrier. She was used to more powerful attacks from the big crybaby in their team, it would take more than some pitiful Water Gun to faze her. But it didn’t make her any less angry as she enveloped the two Vaporeons with her Psychic aura and threatened to bash them against each other.

“Umb!”

But before she could do anything, an authoritative voice sounded out from behind her. Espy whined and let go of her Psychic hold before turning around with a pout to face Umber, her father. 

Stupid Dark Types! Why were they so good at sneaking around? Espy didn’t even sense the old Umbreon’s approach.

“Umb, umbreon.” Umber gestured towards the Berry tree where there was a trio of crying Eevees looking apprehensively at the ground, too scared to make the leap.

Espy puffed up her cheeks and averted her gaze. They were supposed to be mighty Pokemon, how could those brats be afraid of a little fall like that? Espy had gone through much more harrowing battles when she was an Eevee!

That said, Espy still lifted the three Eevees into the air with her mind and hovered them down. It was barely an inconvenience for a powerful Psychic like her anyway.

“Umb.” Umber nodded in approval and approached to give Espy an affectionate lick on her face, only to receive an annoyed growl from his daughter. 

“Umber, umb. Umb-umb.” Umber was asking Espy if she had gone to visit her mother in the cave yet.

“Es…” Espy wilted and shied away from her father’s judgemental gaze. She didn’t like how naggy her mother was and intentionally delayed her visit. 

Back before Espy adopted her human, her mother would always go on endlessly about how important it was for her to evolve into becoming a strong Pokemon and bear many eggs. For a noble and intelligent Eevee like Espy, such banal aspirations were way beneath her.

Umber shook his head in exasperation and let out an admonishing “Umb!”

“Es! Espy es.” But instead of responding, Espy tried to change the subject by complaining about her Water Type cousins, saying that they were bullying her.

Umber rolled his eyes with a sigh and told the two Vaporeons to go away and let Espy wash herself in peace. He then brought his daughter over to one of the Flareons and asked them to help dry the fussy Espeon.

Espy thanked her father with an affectionate nuzzle and was just about to go back to her spot to continue reading the book she brought, only to be halted in her steps by the feelings of sharp fangs on her scruff.

The Espeon may be too big now to be carried around like she used to, but Umber was a powerful Pokemon, not lacking in strength. So he easily dragged the whining Espy over to his cave to greet her mother.

“Es! Es!” Espy cried indignantly as she struggled to get out of her father’s hold. It was utterly humiliating to be handled like this — Espy was a fully evolved Pokemon now, she could walk on her own!

Espy lamented the fact that her Psychic Energy had no effect whatsoever on her Dark Type father and vowed to come up with more anti-Dark countermeasures with her human when she got back home.

***

Author's note:

This will be the first of the 7 Side Stories that I'll be releasing during this interim. Next one will most likely be this Thursday and it will most likely be a double release.

The Novel will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!