You Never Truly Appreciate Something... (Part A) by Michael Keens/ Exodus  

Scott was dismayed, the worst events had just happened to him.  
Sitting in the hospital awaiting the doctors, he thought about this whole 
mess.  
Scott was your average young man, twenty years old, spiky black hair, and 
usually wore black and blue clothes, especially a trenchcoat.  
He always managed to get himself into trouble, his friends left a lot to be 
desired.  
They were into partying and drinking, this led to tragedy when a drink driving 
accident occurred and Scott’s closest friend perished in a motorbike accident, 
all because Scott couldn’t stop him from his obsessive habit.  
Scott became withdrawn after that, Davis was the only reason he hung with the 
group in general.  
He got a real seeing to by his parents who believed he would go down the same 
route.  
He was tired of being treated like a child, he was twenty for Pete’s sake.  

“Why can’t you just grow up?!”  
“Look what happened to Davis, is that what you want to happen to you too?!”  

Even through all the shouting he received, he never shed a tear in public, he 
always bottled up his feelings and then had brief outbursts later, keeping such 
feelings inside was never too good for one person.  
After losing his best friend, he turned to Pokémon Training, without a real 
goal, he just wanted some loyal friends with power like theirs.  
The first Pokémon he caught was an Onix, which he caught without help from a 
Pokémon...  

“These Pokéballs are so expensive, it’d better work or I’ll give the store 
clerk a good seeing to!”  
Walking down a mountain path, Scott tripped over a selection of rocks, and gave 
it a good kick.  
There was a scream and the rocks turned out to join up to each other.  
Scott swore as the stone snake rose up and roared.  
“ONNNIIXXX!!!”  
“Now that’s my kinda Pokémon.  How would you like to come along with me, it’ll 
be a blast.”  
“OOONNNN!!!”  
The Onix used its tail like a really strong whip and Scott was swung into the 
nearby wall.  
“Don’t push me! I’ve had a really bad week!” Scott screamed grabbing the Onix 
in mid-tackle and both plummeting down into a deep river.  
A jagged rock in the water connected with the eye of the rock snake causing 
massive pain for the Onix, it screamed, dragged itself out the river and 
crawled away.  
“Drat.  I should’ve caught it.”  
About to walk away, he heard the Onix again, but it was different, a much 
smaller weaker voice.  
A selection of rocks fell to the ground and a rather small Onix crawled out, a 
little battered, it entwined around him and crawled into Scott’s arms.  
It was about a metre long, obviously a baby, it was quite pleased to see him, 
but for what reason? Scott looked back at the large Onix running away.  
“That big bully did this to you, didn’t he? I’m glad I didn’t catch such a 
nasty Pokémon.”  
Scott thought long and hard about what he said, was he lying, deep down? Was he 
just as nasty?...  No...  He didn’t think so, he was selfish and rude at times 
but never enough to pick on those weaker than himself.  
“Go on home, shrimp.”  
“onniiixxx...” it whimpered.  
“You don’t have a home...  But if you can grow as big as that other one, then 
you’d be pretty fun to have around.  You wanna go with me?”  
“onix...”  
“Then don’t resist when I throw this at you.”  
He put it down, walked away, and threw the Pokéball, it obeyed and willingly 
stayed in the ball.  

That was his first catch, maybe it wasn’t what anyone would expect, capturing a 
tiny Onix, but Scott had the ability to be a good friend, provided the other 
could return the favour.  
The Onix grew quickly, Scott gave a lot of time and care towards it, over his 
own parents, his little sister Casey didn’t mind though, she liked the Pokémon 
her big brother brought home.  
It gave her motivation to be courageous and look for a Pokémon herself.  
She was thirteen, a sweet innocent girl with long red hair, just like her 
mother, while Scott’s hairstyle was similar to their father’s.  
The Onix liked Casey’s company as well as Scott’s, she was a great person and 
she looked after the big lug when Scott went out on the town.  
He was still a bit of rebel, not quite seeing the point to waste life on 
college or work, he wasn’t ready to be tied down to someone who didn’t properly 
respect him and had to let loose every so often.  
He had a motorbike and constantly plowed through Azure Town late at night, 
resulting in complaints to his parents, who in turn, shouted at him and only 
caused him to continue making trouble in spite of it.  
The Onix, nicknamed Shard, was genuinely worried about where his life was 
going, if he ever hurt anyone doing the things he did, one of the Officer 
Jennys would arrest him and he would miss Scott too much.  
Unfortunately, Scott couldn’t understand the complex language of Shard, he 
could only make out the essentials:  Food, drink, rest, playtime, things like 
that.  
Scott was ever so slowly walking the road to ruin, and no one could do anything 
to stop him.  

Every weekend he rode the now grown up Onix, down the mountain paths where he 
first met Shard, he felt so free riding the Pokémon that plowed down the rocks 
in the way, more than tearing up the road on his bike.  
This pleased Shard as he got to spend time with Scott outside their home and it 
kept him away from his bike.  
He brushed his hair back, this was a great place, no one around to moan or 
complain at you, there were no street laws here.  
If it wasn’t for Casey he probably would’ve run away from home, but she relied 
on him to be there, to see her growing up and help her when she needed it.  
She was a great kid and an inspiration to Scott to stay on the straight and 
narrow, so as not to go like Davis did.  
There was more rumbling on ground level than usual.  
“What’s the matter Shard, putting on a little weight?”  
Shard stopped and looked around.  
“Pi... Chu...”  
Scott jumped off and followed the quivering voice.  
It led to a small alcove where a tiny yellow mouse was hiding.  
“What’s an Electric Pokémon doing out here?”  
It was badly damaged, bruises and cuts everywhere.  
“Come on out, I’ll help you.”  
Scott was answered by a flurry of electrical sparks and bolts.  
“PICHU!”  
“If you don’t want my help, fine!”  
Scott walked away, the quakes increased again.  
“Shard, let’s leave, this place is getting too weird.”  
The ground burst open and an Onix flew upwards, landing hard on the ground.  
Its left eye was kaput with a heavy scar running down it.  
Scott swore under his breath, “... Its him.”  
“OOONNIIIXXX!!!”  
It was the Onix Scott first battled with, it recognised him, as the nasty boy 
that pushed it into the water and made it lose an eye.  
“OOONNNNIIIIXXXX!!!!!!” it shouted, with pure rage in its voice.  
“Onix!” shouted Shard.  
“Yeah, you’re big enough now to battle him, we’ll teach him not to pick on 
little ones! Shard! Use Screech!”  
Shard emitted a deafening sound, the other Onix rose up in pain, without any 
limbs it couldn’t cover its ears, Shard took initiative and tackled it while it 
was distracted, Shard had a score to settle too.  
The other Onix’s eye widened, somehow it recognised the little worm it once 
abused, and having been bigger than Shard then, it was slightly bigger than it 
now and easily bound around it and squeezed.  
“Onnnn!!!” squealed Shard, unable to break free.  
Scott was angry, no one bullied his friends, and got away unharmed.  
Running towards an old fence, Scott ripped out a thick line of metal, cutting 
up his hands in the process, as he ran back, Shard was being suffocated.  
Scott took one swing with the sword-like blade, and lopped off the majority of 
the Onix’s tail.  
“OOONNNIIIXXXX!” it screamed dropping the little worm and charging at 
the ‘nasty kid’.  
Scott was out of his league and was pushed off the rocks into a chasm.  
Satisfied, the Onix turned back to the little worm.  
Shard was shocked, and picking up some rocks by circling its tail around them, 
it charged forward and swung the rocks towards the Onix, a Rock Throw as humans 
called it.  
“OONNNIIIXXX!”  
Images of fire glowed in Shard’s eyes, it entered the Rage attack, it was 
beaten by the Onix a couple of times after it activated its Rage, but it only 
made Shard more angry.  
Flying forward, it slammed down on the Onix, then collapsed, the damage brought 
on by the bully was immensely powerful.  
“OOONNN...” groaned the bully crawling ever so slowly to finish off Shard.  
“CHU!”  
An electric bolt hit the other eye, the one part of Onix that conducted some 
electricity.  
Blinded in both eyes, the Onix squirmed around in blind rage hoping to hit 
someone.  
Shard finished the job, barging into the Onix and knocking him off the cliff, 
if he survived, he wouldn’t be bullying anyone if he couldn’t see them.  
“Pichu...”  
“Onix...”  
Shard looked deep into the small mouse’s eyes, they had an understanding, both 
were hurt by that bully and after working together, they had put a stop to 
that, but what of Scott?  
“Onix... Onix...”  
'Ride on my back, we have to find my trainer.'  
A rough translation of what Shard said to the Pichu, an unevolved form of 
Pikachu that most researchers hadn't discovered yet.  
“Pichu...”  
It hopped onto its tail, and Shard burrowed underground towards the area that 
Scott would have landed in.  

Shard broke through a wall in a cavern with water, there was light from above 
so he could have fallen down here.  
“OOONNNN!!!” called Shard.  
‘Ooonnnn’ was his way of saying Scott’s name, no reply.  
Shard crawled around faster, careful not to fall into any deep pools.  
“Pi... Chu...” said the Pichu with concern, that man tried to stop that nasty 
Onix, and after he tried to shock him too.  
He just couldn’t be dead, the Pichu would never forgive itself if he was.  
“Ooonnnn!” shouted Shard, finding him face down on the floor, he appeared to 
have hit a hot spring, and pulled himself out before he could pass out and 
drown.  
Shard nudged him a couple of times with his head, but he wouldn’t move.  
“Ooonnnn...” said Shard sadly, its heart shattered by these events.  
If only he had defeated that Onix faster, Scott wouldn't have fallen down 
here.  
“Pi!” said the Pichu jumping off and scurrying towards Scott.  
“Pi... CHU!” screamed Pichu shocking Scott, “CHU!... CHU!... CHUUUUUU!...”  
Pichu shocked Scott some more, screaming each time, “CHUUUUUUUUUU!... Pi...”  
It started to cry, a hand patted it on the back.  
“Pi?!”  
Scott coughed up a little blood, “So you do care...”  
“Pichu!”  
“Ooonnnn!”  
Shard helped carry Scott out, he rested on his back until they got back to 
town.  

“Oh my god, Scott!” shouted his dad running forward, “What have you done you 
stupid Pokémon!”  
“Ooonnnn...” said Shard sadly.  
“Pichu!” objected the Pichu.  
“Get out of here! You shocked him you little vermin!”  
The father took a swing and caught the Pichu making him fall off Shard.  
“Get back in your Pokéball!” yelled Scott’s father removing the ball from Scott 
and recalling it.  
“You’ll never hurt him again...”  

End of Part A  

Part B
Back to the Side Stories
Back to the Pokézone