My beloved Sceptile in Emerald. He was the best partner ever. He destroyed anything and everything for for me. Even when I lost the Lavaridge Gym battle, he put in all his effort into defeating that Torkoal. And the second time we challenged Flannery, we pulled through, several potions later. We continued to plow through Gyms. Even Winona stood no chance. When we arrived at our final challenge, the first three E4 members were pitiful. At Drake though, it was down to my "Sceptile on steroids" against Drake's Salamence. We Leaf Bladed it. 20% damage. I stared. Nothing up until now resisted that move so easily. Salamence then proceeded to use... FLAMETHROWER?! I gasped as Sceptile's health fell down by 40%. This was bad. But I refused to give in. Many, many potions later, something horrible happened. Critical hit. Afterward, I got my semi-underleveled team wiped out. This was my fault. But I intended to fix that. We went back and trained. Trained and trained and trained and trained and trained some more. We trained, one on one, until we were losing our sanity with exhaustion. We rested, and went to the League again. Sceptile knew Strength, Leaf Blade, Giga Drain, and Hyper Beam(saw that coming, didn't you). We proceeded to obliterate everything up to Salamence. It was the final battle. At least, that's what I thought. After finally beating Drake and his Salamence, which I've grown to respect to this day, my heart skipped a beat when he said that dreaded sentence: "Now, go on. The champion is waiting." What champion? Neither of us heard about any champion. I knew that this "champion" person must be way stronger than Drake. I was afraid that we'd get defeated again. I looked at Sceptile. He looked at me. We stared at each other. I knew that look. He was saying to never lose hope. And my confidence crashed through the roof. I wasn't about to fail him again. Not now. I healed him. Practically all our healing supplies were gone. Nearly all of Sceptile's PP had drained away. But we didn't give in. As the battle with Wallace started, he sent out Wailord. He was gone in one hit. Milotic was up next. Quite a coincidence how they were both Water type. Mliotic was down with one hit as well. Ludicolo and Tentacruel went down to two hits each. All of them were Water type. I smirked at this. Some champion this was. Whiscash? Down and out. Finally, the last Pokemon came. A Gyarados. The abomination of the sea. It was now or never. Leaf Blade. Dragon Dance. Suddenly, Gyarados went first thanks to his large boost in speed. A Hyper Beam. Sceptile's health dropped. A LOT. 20%. 45%. 60%. 85%. Then it stopped. Sceptile used Leaf Blade like never before. Gyarados fainted. We were finally champions. We got recorded in the Hall of Fame. Our journey together was finished. My life, both in the game and the real world, seemed complete. I couldn't have done this without him. Ever since I met him when he was a mere Treeko, we both thought it was the start of something special. And it truly was. Today, he remains in my heart forever as my favorite Pokemon. That will always be true. Even if my username refers to Dragonites. He's my... Invaluable partner. Buddy. Guardian. Pal. But no matter what, he will always my friend for all of eternity. Always.