"Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Bran... Happy birthday to you!"

Brian blew out the candles on his special Mudkip birthday cake. In fact, it wasn't just the cake that was pokemon themed--it was everything! The streamers that hung from the ceiling had pokeballs on them, the hats were each decorated with a unique pokemon, and even the paper plates were related to the franchise.

The group clapped for the newly six year old boy. The people there were mostly just family members, but Thomas and his mother had come too. Thomas himself was very excited to be here, as this was the first birthday party that he had been invited to.

Brian tried reaching into the cake with his hands, but Kate swiped it away before he did.

"Now Bran, you have to share with everyone else too!"

Brian laughed. "I know," he said with all of his teeth showing in a huge grin.

"You little goofball! Wait until I cut it, then you can have some."

It was a day dedicated to him. It was the best day of the year to him, and he hadn't even gotten to open his presents yet.

"What part of the cake do you want, Bran?" Kate held the knife over the cake, ready to cut into it soon as she knew where.

That was something that hadn't occurred to Brian until then. If they cut the cake, then that meant that the Mudkip would get cut up too! His innocent mind of a child made him want to cry. "No."

"No what?"

"No cutting!"

"Why not?"

"Mudkip!" Tears well up in his eyes, and everyone else was confused.

However, one of his grandmothers knew exactly what was happening. "He doesn't want to see this critter cut up, Kate."

They all looked at him and expected confirmation. "Is that true?"

Brian shook his head that it was.

She sighed. She figured that she couldn't always win. "Alright, guess we're not having cake this year."

The hyper Thomas stopped bouncing up and down in anticipation for the sweet and looked down at the floor.

"Let's not be too hasty," said Seth. He took the knife from Kate and took the cake into a corner of the kitchen that made it hard to see what he was doing.

"Don't do that!" she complained. "You saw the way that he feels!"

"Just give me a second!"

The grandparents couldn't believe that they had just seen their son/son-in-law do that.

A minute or two later, though, Seth reentered the dining room with his compromise. He had indeed cut the cake up, but before he did that he had cut a thin slice of the top of the cake off, preserving the image that it held. He put the top slice on its own plate and put it in front of Bran. "Here you go. This way Mudkip doesn't have to fight the knife."

Brian's face lit up when he saw the solution, and he gladly dug into the normal slice that was presented to him.

"M-my fav-vorite part is the frosting, but this i-is good too," stuttered out Thomas.

After the cake came the presents--a child's favorite part. The presents were spread out around Brian on the floor, each wrapped in their own designs. Some even had a certain familiar theme to them.

Naturally, he went for the biggest present first. After tearing into it, he revealed a large stuffed Pikachu. Not a small one, a big one. He hugged the big stuffed animal as soon as he got it out of its packaging.

"That one is from grandma and grandpa Hartmann," explained Kate.

"Thanks grama and grampa!"

The old couple laughed. "You're welcome Bran. Happy birthday."

The next present and the next one were also pokemon related too. It was clearly a coordinated event, but the kids didn't know that.

Finally he ran out of presents to open, but he wasn't done yet.

"Wait one sec," said Kate, and she went off to her room.

Seth had no idea what she was doing.

She came back with an envelope in her hands, and she handed it to Brian.

He didn't hesitate to rip open the thin package, and when he tore it open he found an unusual gift. Out from the inside spilled out several Mudkip pokemon cards and a few handmade cards that read "1 hour of pokemon with mom coupon."

His eyes were drawn towards his favorite blue creature, and he held up the cards lovingly. After he had gotten a good look, he put them carefully off to the side. "Mommy! What is this?" he said, holding up the other pieces of paper.

"That's called a 'coupon.' You can trade it to me for one hour of playing pokemon with me, Bran."

"Since when do you play that too?" asked Seth curiously.

She pulled out a new 3DS.

"You didn't."

"Oh yes I did."

Seth wanted to be in disbelief, but he knew that this was the exact sort of thing that she would pull. Sometimes he wondered how he ended up with such a woman.

Brian cheered. "Yay! We all play now!"

The rest of his birthday was fun as well, but eventually everyone had to go home. However, Brian wasn't ready to let the fun stop just yet.

He handed his mother one of his birthday coupons. "Play time!"

-----

"There you go," said Seth, handing Brian's 2DS back to him.

"Yay!" Brian exclaimed, running to his room. He now had an internet connection for his pokemon game. Seth had put parental controls on everything else, however, so the only thing that would have internet access was the game.

It wasn't but a few hours though until something had already gone horribly wrong.

Brian came running, tears streaming down his face and wailing about something.

"What is it?"

"Mudkip's gone!"

He looked at his son confused. "What do you mean?"

"Gone!"

"Let me see it." Seth knew that the pokemon that Brian called "Mudkip" had long since evolved into a different form known as "Swampert," so he searched through the game for that pokemon instead. However, he didn't find either one of them in the game.

"What did you do?"

"Trade," he cried. He evidently didn't understand what "trading" meant, especially when it came to the internet.

Seth understood and leaned down. "Shhh, it's alright. Trading means that you lose something to get something else."

"Can Mudkip come back?"

"No... I'm afraid not. Once you trade something they're gone for good."

Brian wouldn't stop crying now.

"Hey, it's okay. Dad is going to get him back for you."

Brian sniffled a little bit. "Really?"

"Yep," he lied. He knew that there was no retrieving that pokemon from the deep sea of cyberspace, but he also knew that he try and fool him. "Yes, dad is going to go get him now."

Brian nodded and ran off towards his room.

Well shoot. Now how am I going to do this?

He went and retrieved his game and switched it on. He too, by Brian's recommendation, started off with a Mudkip, and he too had evolved his to the third stage by now.

Maybe I can make mine like his was...

Seth went and knocked on his son's door.

Brian opened up a few seconds later.

"Can you tell dad what all you remember about Mudkip? He needs clues to find him."

The boy thought for a second, trying to recall what his precious pokemon had been like recently. "Swim, l-v five-five, likes mud..." That was all that he could remember.

"Alright, dad will go find him for you now." He closed the door and pulled out his phone as he walked to a place to sit down. He searched the internet for information about the particular creature, and he found plenty. He scrolled through the possible moves again and again. The problem was that there were four different moves that had the word "mud" in them, so he had to take a gamble. There was also a little bit of a problem with the "swim" criteria, but he felt pretty strongly that would be the move "Surf."

His Swampert was a mere level 43 at this point, so he had to train it quite a bit to get it to level "five-five." After almost two hours of hard playing, he managed to get his pokemon to the magic level, and teach it the moves "Surf" and "Muddy Water." He hoped that he had guessed right with the moves, and he made his way to Brian's room.

He knocked on the door, which immediately opened. Brian had apparently been patiently awaiting the return of his virtual friend.

Seth showed him his Swampert. "Is this yours?"

Brian looked at it intensely to find out, and he did notice a significant chance. Right next to the letters "O.T." were the letters "Seth," which he knew was his father's name. He was heartbroken that this wasn't his "Mudkip," because he knew above all else that "BRAN" belonged in that spot, but at the same time he was happy.

"Yeah," Brian lied, gladly accepting his father's present. It was his new favorite pokemon in the game. It was one that his dad had given him.