How To Use Your Pokemon-1

When you see Pokémon, you see creatures that you can battle with, creatures you can trade and collect as if they were cards.  They are animals.  They are status symbols.  They are pets.  They are warriors.  That's what a lot of people see.  Some people see it differently.  
Red, the legendary hero who stopped Team Rocket, saw them as companions that were always ready to fight by his side, always ready to tackle any obstacle no matter how great.  
Leaf, his childhood friend, saw them as creatures of comfort that stayed by her side, though she didn't see them as pets, but as friends.
Ethan, who followed in Red's footsteps and defeated the rise of Team Rocket, also held Red's view of Pokémon as companions, though the way he played with them in brief moments of peace made them seem like more like friends than fighters.  
Lyra, the daughter of the runners of the Pokémon daycare, looked at them the same way she looked at children, things she needed to help grow and become strong.  
May, the daughter of a gym leader and the woman who took down the combined force of Team Aqua and Team Magma, saw them almost like members of the army, strong fighters who are always loyal to her.  
Brendan, the son of a Pokémon researcher, saw his Pokémon as strange creatures that he knew too little about and he needed to learn and grow with them, but he also saw them as close friends to relax and have fun with when he wasn't working.  
Dawn, the young, courageous girl who brought Team Galactic to its knees, saw her Pokémon as spiritual guides.  
Lucas followed in Brendan's footsteps in many ways, both in whom he worked for as well as his views on Pokémon, though he sought to learn along with them and learn about the world rather than simply research them or play with them.  
Hilda, a fast talking country girl who showed N her view of Pokémon as traveling buddies, creatures from a different world than she was used to and she wanted to see as much of the world as possible alongside them.  
Hilbert was just a regular guy from the city who had two different views on Pokémon, one evolving into the other.  He first saw them as a status symbol that needed to be shown off, but then he saw that they were the best of friends one could posses.
But what did the rest of the world think?  Well, their views of Pokémon were different in many ways, some more practical than others.  Some looked at them and saw food, and others looked at them and saw a means of working.  Without the traditional animals and plants that are familiar to Earth, they needed some way to provide meals.  It never occurred to the teenagers where the food came from, that the cute little animal was the same as the slab of meat on their plate.  They seemed completely different.
This is the story of these teenagers and seeing how their Pokémon are used in daily life, not by trainers.

"Are we there yet?" Brendan groaned from the middle seat of the car, pounding his hands on the windows to punctuate how childish he was.  Everyone in the car rolled their eyes, but they themselves were holding back the same words.  How long had they been driving?  How many tracks of the same CD have they gone through?  How many times did they fall asleep, expecting to wake up at their destination when the car stopped only to find it was another bathroom break?
Lucas reached over the seat to tap Brendan's head.  "Brendan, the Bulbasaur ranch is far away."
"I know, I know…it's just…" Brendan broke off into a groan and fell against the window, causing another round of eye rolling.  "Those Bulbasaurs better be delicious." Lyra turned around and hit Brendan.  "Ow!" he protested, though his voice wasn't full of pain, but of questions.  He didn't mind being hit.  What he cared about was the reason.
"That was from Leaf."
Brendan bit his lip, cheeks turning red as he looked to the side.  Oh.  He unbuckled and climbed over the seats, forcing Lyra and Lucas to assume the crash position to protect their heads.  Brendan rested his head on the space between Leaf and Red.  "Hey, I'm sorry.  I'm not looking forward to chowing down Mudkip, but it's gonna happen eventually.  I'm sorry you had to be first."
Leaf looked up and shook her head a bit.  "Someone had to.  And it's not Bulbybutt, so it's fine, I guess."
Red rolled his eyes.  He didn't like dragging up an old topic, but…"I still can't believe you named your Bulbasaur Bulbybutt."
"Blue named his Squritle Shellshocked and you named your Charmander Flamebroil."
"So?"
"So we all name our Pokémon unimaginative, stupid names."
What followed was the rest of the car following down the line, saying their Pokémon's names.
Lucas:  "Babyleaf."
Eathen:  "Chompers."
May:  "Cockapunch."
Brendan:  "Fishface."
Dawn:  "Flamedance."
Lucas:  "Sprouty."
Hilda:  "Smugface."
Hilbert:  "Sammy, short for Samurai."
Leaf gestured to the car.  "See, we all suck at naming Pokémon."
Red tucked his hat over his face and pretended to be asleep, though the already-feeble ruse was quickly broken at the sound Brendan made when May pulled him back into his seat.  It sounded like a wet Meowth.
The commotion calmed down to silence, Hilbert turned his gaze out the window.  He was born in Castelia City and spent his entire life looking up at the sky and seeing buildings blocking his view.  When he wasn't there, he was in Nimbasa City, testing himself on the Battle Subway.  He thought that was a small city.  God, he was wrong.  He thought that it was bad enough walking along Route 4, and that had buildings and a highway.  The road they were driving on had nothing.  Nothing but grass and pavement.  It was…scary.  Hilda looked over at him and tapped his shoulder.  Their eyes met and she tapped his cheek with her fist.  "You get used to it."
Hilbert shrugged.  "I just hope that Charmanders like the industry."
Silence fell once again until May sat up and turned in her seat, a wide smile on her face that teased as much as her words.  "Hey, city boy!  Civilization is here!"
Hilbert's excitement quickly fell into disappointment.  It wasn't the civilization that he wanted.  It was still the wide fields of green except for the fact that it was contained by a fence made of Flaaffy's wool and there was a larger than normal shed next to a house.  And it was surrounded by the various stages of Bulbasaurs.  Not exactly civilization.  But there were people there:  An old man and his wife and a man their age.  They looked up from their work when the car stopped and the teenagers threw themselves into freedom.  Only the younger man still worked, the woman going inside, and the man approaching the gate.
"Come on in." The elderly man said, lifting the latch on the gate and opening it for the ten teenagers, flashing them a smile as he did so.  Even though he was obviously old, his face a map of valleys and canyons, his back was straight and his arms were strong.  He hadn't retired yet.  The younger man, his grandson, most likely, was nearby, rubbing the rough side of a Venusaur.  She was surrounded by a bunch of babies, the small Bulbasaurs pawing and chewing at their mother's claws and the ranch hand's shoes.  He looked up at the teenagers and made his way over, quickly kissing the Venusaur's blue-green scales.  Leaf traded places with him, laughing as the Bulbasaurs crawled onto her lap.  Dawn grabbed Lucas and joined her, the three of them enjoying the little babies.
Hilbert walked around, staring at everything.  The clear sky, the grass, the air…It was all so…clean.  No trash.  And it was easy to breathe.  He coughed a bit.  Too easy.  He was really too used to the city pollutants.  He kicked some grass at his feet.  "Damn.  Never seen anything like this."
"Grass?" May asked, her voice falling into its traditional teasing tone.  Not that it ever left.
Hilbert glared a bit at May, not happy that he was the butt of the joke.  Again.  "No, I mean a ranch this big."
The ranch hand laughed.  "Boy, you been to a ranch before?"
He was caught.  "Well…I mean…that is to say…I came from the city."
He laughed.  "It ain't that big.  This is just a local ranch.  Besides, we don't need a lot of room.  Venusaurs don't take up much space, and we tend to give everstones to most of the Ivysaurs.  If this was an actual mass production ranch, there'd be a lot more space."
These things got bigger?  He really felt like a city boy.  He tucked his hat down and fell in behind the group.  Hilda rolled her eyes at him.
Before any more teasing could happen, the woman called from inside the house, her voice echoing.  Everyone raised their heads, including the Pokémon.  "Come on in, all!  I'm almost done cooking." Red grabbed Brendan and Hilda the three of them dragged Leaf, Lucas, and Dawn in, the three of them not eager to leave the happy babies behind.  As they entered the house, the all removed their hats—Bredan received a quick tease about his hat and how it looked like hair, but it shut off quickly, obviously ready to be continued once they were out of public view—and shook the woman's hand, complimenting her, the smell of the cooking, the house, etc.
"This is a nice place," Ethan said, kicking the ground as if that counted as compliment.  Lucas punched his back, not reprimanding him with words, but with a sharp glare.  Ethan laughed awkwardly and offered an apology, scratching the back of his head.
Lucas then showed Ethan what a true compliment was.  He walked up to the woman and bowed his head, touching his forehead.  He was going to touch his beret, but he wasn't used to not wearing his hat.  He did his best to make the gesture look as natural as he could.  "It's an honor to be here.  I didn't know that this family was edible.  You don't see them on menus."
She nodded, taking the opportunity to lecture the teens on the Pokémon.  "This family is very delicate," the woman said, walking into the kitchen.  "It goes beyond the fact that the Pokémon are rare."  Hilda licked her lips as the smell of sizzling steaks greeted her.  She followed her nose to the stove, peeking over the woman's shoulder.  The woman glanced at her and continued.  "The meat is only good when they're a Bulbasaur, because they are not as muscular when they are that young, and their leaves aren't as good as a Venusaur as they are on an Ivysaur."
"Well, wudoya do?" Hilda asked, sniffing the air.  She almost started drooling as the meat sizzled and sparked as the woman tended to it.
"What you smell there is meat from a Bulbasaur." She held up two fingers.  "Just two little guys."
Brendan peeked behind Hilda so he could see the stove.  "That's alota meat for two little guys."
"You haven't seen many Bulbasaur." Leaf said, obviously thinking fondly of her own Venusaur.  "They're generally lighter than the other starters, but there's not a lot of bones or shell to weigh them down.  All meat."
Red blinked and then nodded.  "Now that I think about it, Bulbasaur is a lot more plump than other starters…"
"Oh.  That makes sense." Brendan tried to push it off with a laugh, but no one was convinced, especially Lucas.  Honestly, his own father was a Pokémon researcher and he couldn't even do simple observation?  From his father who worked in the field?  Lucas would kill for half of the experiences that Brendan was wasting.
He wanted to reprimand Brendan, put his thoughts into words, but May did it in fewer words than he ever could.  "See, Brendan, if you actually used that brain under that stupid hat…" May pressed her hand into his head, rubbing vigorously, trying to press knowledge into him.  Brendan shoved her and the two of them started brawling, slapping at each other's arms and the side of their heads.  Leaf and Red calmed them down while the woman kept talking.
"Of course, since they're grass-types, we've got to harvest their leaves.  The bulb is sour, so we tend to use that for stews.  Sadly, I don't have that for you.  Sold it." she shrugged and the trainers apologized for her, saying it was no problem and that they should put profit ahead of their meals.  "Ivysaur has the flowers, and that is truly the best.  And even better is the fact that we don't need to kill them.  The leaves themselves aren't the best, but the flower is what we want.  It's very sweet, a great component in a salad if you go to the right restaurant.  The final flower in a Venusaur sadly isn't the best, but it's a nice flavor is small proportions.  I'll put some on the steak for you." She turned from the meats and chopped up some thick pink petals into tiny bites.  Lucas offered to set the table and, after complimenting him on his manners, the woman thanked him for his help.  All ten of them sat around the table, waiting patiently for the sweet smelling food to be ready to eat.
Eventually, the woman came in with plates and handed them out.  Hilbert grabbed his knife in his fist and was ready to dig into it, but he was kicked in three sides, Leaf on his left, Lucas in front of him, and Hilda on his right.  He rubbed his sore legs, muttering under his breath that he'd never help Hilda on the Battle Subway again, though the threat didn't receive much more than Hilda sticking her tongue out.  The meat was placed before them and Dawn led them in prayer before they ate.
The dish was simple in its presentation, unimaginative, one might say.  But it let the smell and taste of the meat speak for itself.  The meat itself was dull green, much like skin of the Bulbasaur and had a very crisp earthy smell to it.  It was sitting on a bed of petals, the bright pink slowly dulling as they absorbed the juices that were slowly drenching them.  Green Venusaur leaves dotted the meat, though it functioned more as a garnish, adding nothing but a slightly bitter taste.  This was counteracted the sweet pink flower petals that were underneath the meat as well as the slices of petals on the meat.  
The meat itself had a strong taste of herbs, a blend of bitter and sweet, all of them swirling together in their mouths.  The taste was strong, and each bite seemed to bring more herbs into bloom.  For some, the taste was strong, the scent stinging the back of their nose and they needed to take frequent breaks to drink their spring water while others dug in, savouring the taste and the sensation.  But all of them would agree that it was delicious, and a meal they weren't likely to eat cheaply again.  Bulbasaurs were rare enough without the meat production.
"With luck," the ranch hand said, eating his own, cheaper meat, "we'll be able to raise enough Bulbasuars bred to help push them into Pokemarts.  Their meat will always be expensive, but their greens can be taken with just a bit of discomfort.  It really is too good to just let it fade away."
None of them argued with this.  They thanked the ranch hands and shook their hands as they left, full bellies and a new understanding.  "That wasn't bad," Red said, as the car started moving again.
"Where are we to next, Professor?" Lyra asked their silent driver.
"The city for Charmanders."
They looked behind them, to the sides, in front of them.  Nothing but green to be seen.  Hilda groaned.  "Another long car ride…"
Brendan sighed, rubbing his head.  "Three down…How many more to go?"
Red opened the Pokedex.  "A lot."