Pokémon Journey

Joshthewriter · Feb 28, 2022

Journey

Death of Duty

Part 5: War on the Water

Found

The League can't be everywhere. Some places… are just too remote to civilize completely. — Tracey Sketchit, Pokemon Research Aide

Artemis rose from the tunnel, flapping hard to gain altitude over the waves. The ocean slammed shut behind us, closing and cutting off Articuno's sanctuary for good with an tremendous roar. I watched the waves crash together in reverent awe and felt myself smiling innocently.

Artemis mutedly roared to announce her presence back on the surface, rising over the island. Her chest was heaving and her breaths ragged, but she was ever the alpha predator. She looked down, scanning the ocean along with me and growling as she saw the Fang.

"Take us down," I said, pointing down at the sleek ship anchored at the small dock.

Artemis swung down, cutting down through the air in a shallow dive. She flared her wings over the deck as a trio of deck workers waved me in. We hit the deck heavily, Artemis finally letting herself rest and slumping exhausted to the deck. I slid off her back, thanking her with a scratch on the back of her head. She wasn't built for sustained flight and the long flight up the tunnel had taken everything out of her.

"Where is Janine?" I asked.

One of the dockworkers pointed downwards. "Medical bay," he replied.

I raised my ball, returning Artemis and sliding her ball onto my belt. I dashed into the ship, ignoring the rancid sweat and oil that invaded my nostrils. I hadn't spent a large amount of time aboard the Fang, but it was not a very large vessel. It didn't take me long to find the ship's medical bay.

The medical bay was near the rear of the ship, just past the bunks. Three beds were filled by shinobi, Janine sitting wearily in the chair beside Leopold's bed.

"Janine," I said. "Is Leopold ok?"

She looked up at me in surprise. Her gaze flitted down to my ruined uniform, lingering on the bloody tatters of the shoulder where I'd torn it open to get at my bullet wound. "He's fine," she said in an exhausted voice. "His sense of humour is intact, and the ship's doctor says his sight will return with time and treatment."

"Bah," Leopold spat. "I don't need my eyes to kill Rockets. Let me out of here, Lady Anzu."

Janine turned to glare at him. "I already told you not to call me that," she retorted coldly. "I am not quite so old as to take my mother's address from her."

She turned back to look at me, stepping away from Leopold. "You're alright, thank Mew." She looked me up and down, shaking her head softly as she contemplated my blood soaked outfit. "So Archer escaped?"

I nodded solemnly. "He had a submarine waiting down that passage. I tried to stop him…" I trailed off, the end of my confrontation with Archer still slightly fuzzy. "I took a bullet for my trouble and got washed into the caverns under the islands."

Her fingers brushed against my chest, feeling cautiously at the bloody hole in my uniform. "And this?" she asked.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "The bullet," I said. "Shattered my collarbone and punched straight out the back."

Her hand dropped to her side. She inhaled sharply and couldn't tear her eyes away from my shoulder. She pulled me forward, looking at the exit hole on the back of my shoulder. "Doesn't look like it," she said. "How much potion did you drink?"

I frowned. "Some, but not enough to heal something like this," I said. My mind went back to the sanctuary, wishing that my pokegear had been working to take a picture. I pulled my sleeve down, showing her the thin blue line that wrapped around my wrist. "I found something down there. A place untouched by humans."

She yanked my wrist towards her, studying the mark intently. I saw recognition in her eyes and realized that she knew. She glanced up at me. "You found a god's sanctuary and lived to tell the tale."

I frowned. "It thanked me, healed me for my efforts. I think the Rockets were trying to capture it."

She pulled my sleeve down over the mark and looked up at me. "I would keep that quiet," she said in a hushed tone. "Seafoam will be crawling with glory seeking trainers if the news of Articuno's location gets out."

I nodded. "Best to keep that secret to myself then," I said. I crossed my arms and remembered the real reason for our mission. "Did we find anything useful in there?"

She beckoned for me to follow her, walking up a staircase that led back up to the deck. "So much of it burnt up in the fire, or was shredded before we got there…" she trailed off, a troubled look on her face as we stepped onto the deck. "A lot of the surviving documents vaguely refer to a pair of projects working in tandem. There aren't many surviving details, but we do have one solid lead on the evolution machines. Project Catalyst was seemingly run out of a location in the the Sevii Isles. We aren't entirely sure which island yet, but we'll survey them in detail once we arrive. We now know that Archer seems to be the lead on this project, making his escape particularly frustrating."

I frowned, looking out at the sea. "So we go to the Isles now?" I asked. I needed to stop Archer. I needed to end this game of Rocket's, needed to put a stop to their sick attempts to play god.

She nodded. "As soon as my mother returns from the caverns. She was searching for you."

I blushed as I turned to face her. "You sent your mother to save me?" I asked. "How long was I down there?"

"This is the third day since you disappeared."

I couldn't help my jaw from dropping. "I was gone three days…" I shook my head. "Archer is probably gone to ground by now. He's probably tearing the Sevii Isles cell down as we speak."

She frowned and I saw the tension in her eyes. "I wasn't just going to leave you down there," she started in a frustrated tone. "Somebody has to care about your life, even if you don't."

I raised an eyebrow. "I'm not-"

"Shut up," she said, cutting me off. "You're reckless. You almost got yourself killed." She paused for a moment, practically seething at me. "You are incredibly lucky to be standing here, do you understand that? You could have been killed! You could have been trapped in one of those caverns and starved!" She rounded on me, and I could see the hurt in her eyes. She had thought me dead. "You should be dead."

"Janine, I-"

"No!" she said again, interrupting me. "What would you have me say to Surge? That I got his protégée killed?"

I stopped for a moment, a smile coming to my face. "Surge called me his protégée?"

Janine shook her head, though I saw her scowl soften. "I shouldn't have said that," she said.

"Nah," I started as my smile widened into a goofy grin. "You shouldn't have."

Eight days went past as the Fang sailed southeast towards the Sevii Isles. The island chain was significantly smaller and less populated than the Orange Archipelago, sitting nearly twice as far from Kan-Jo as the furthest island in Orange. It lay nearly halfway between Kanto's southeast shores and Hoenn's waters. Most of the islands were relatively undeveloped, but there were some independent settlements on islands One, Two and Three, with a small pokemon breeding centre on Four owned by Elite Lorelei Kanna. Islands Five through Seven were supposedly uninhabited, but Janine did confess that there was no completely accurate intelligence as Sevii operated outside the administration of any Pokemon Leagues.

We chased a small radar signature most of the way out of the shallows around Fuchsia, only losing it when it dropped off completely as we hit the open ocean. Janine steered us towards Sevii after that, trusting in what little intelligence we had. There was something in Sevii that Rocket didn't want us to find and we had the scent.

Training was an intense, every day affair. I went to sleep exhausted at the end of each night, woken again at dawn with Janine for more training. I ran myself ragged, pushing to keep up with the shinobi training regimen. I was decidedly lagging behind Janine, but I surprised both of us by only just keeping pace. I was still pathetically weak compared to her, even with my relatively physical upbringing.

My pokemon surged ahead of me, shaming me into pouring even more into my own training. Acolyte had made great strides with his balance and footwork, learning how to avoid and deflect incoming blows with minimal effort. Vector improved his own agility similarly, further reducing his reliance on his wings for movement. Both of them were learning and improving so much under Janine's and Brutus' tutelage that I was beginning to think that they might be close to surpassing Luna by the time we returned to Fucshia.

My few waking moments not training were spent in planning, going over scouting routes and detailing variables that I could expect to deal with. The Sevii residents weren't expected to be hostile, but Rocket had proved surprisingly popular among general populations before. We simply had to be ready for anything.

Artemis caught the warm updraft, rising above the miniscule island and gliding in a leisurely circle. Four Island was the smallest of the Sevii Isles, barely even half the size of either Seafoam island. It was a single spot of green in the vast blue sea, a miniscule speck in the grand scheme of the world.

I could see a single clearing near the southern shore. Several buildings rose between the treetops and I could see a helicopter atop the pad near the beach. A small boat was at the single jetty, a half dozen people unloading crates and carrying them inland. I grinned, knowing what the helicopter had to have meant. Lorelei was home.

We slid down through the sky as I surveyed the small island, marking buildings and the few other points of interest on the map Janine had given me. There wasn't much to mark, so I was done in less than a few minutes. I folded the map back up and slipped it back into my pack.

"Down," I ordered.

Artemis let out a deafening roar to announce ourselves and dove towards the island. She flared her wings, catching on the air and killing our momentum as she kicked up a spray of sand. I slid off her side as she landed on the beach.

A regal dewgong, practically identical to the one that I had seen beneath Seafoam, rose from the water. I could see a few other pokemon that were clearly Lorelei's in the water, but the Elite was nowhere to be seen.

A portly man waved me down, walking towards me with a clipboard in hand. "I'm sorry," he started. "This island is private property. I'll have to ask you to leave."

Artemis started a growl, but I silenced her with a glare. "I'm here to speak with Elite Kanna," I said, ignoring Clipboard's terrified outburst. "Urgent League business, I'm sure you understand."

He swallowed the lump in his throat, keeping well back of Artemis' murderous gaze. "She is currently indisposed," he replied. "I don't know when she will be available to speak with you. May I take a message?"

I shook my head and I saw the sinking look in his eyes. "I'll wait," I said, studying his reaction. "As I said, this is an urgent matter."

He nodded deeply and I saw panic in his eyes. He didn't want me sticking around on the island. I didn't know why, but Clipboard clearly was terrified by the idea of a Ranger snooping around. "I'll be sure to notify Lady Lorelei of your arrival," he said. "In the mean time, I must ask you to remain at the compound. The Elite uses this island as a breeding ground for her championship team. Some of the pokemon are particularly sensitive to strangers and may attack if they feel threatened."

I smiled innocently. They wanted me to leave and failing that to remain at Lorelei's compound. Something was up, but I couldn't tell what. "I'll wait here for the Elite," I said. They wanted to hide something on this island from me. I would play along for now, at least until I had something solid to go on.

Clipboard nodded. "Feel free to stop by the dining hall if you're hungry. We have plenty of food for your pokemon as well," he said. "Lady Lorelei is currently occupied, but she should return by nightfall."

"Thank you sir," I said. I glanced around. It was barely even noon. I had time to kill. I looked back at Clipboard with an innocent grin. "Do you have anywhere I could train?"

Acolyte pivoted on his toes, tracking my heracross as he buzzed across the field. Vector cut his flight, skidding to a halt and changing direction quickly with a buzz of his wings. Acolyte planted his feet, raising his club as Vector bore down on him. He deflected Vector's horn to the left as he sidestepped right, completely avoiding the heracross' attack.

Vector spun with a punch that Acolyte guided wide. The follow punch up met with a jab of Acolyte's club, parrying the blow as my marowak's counter found empty air.

Vector's wings buzzed out again as he threw himself into a desperate all-out attack. Acolyte backpedalled calmly, his club swinging up and parrying each blow with practiced efficiency. I watched on proudly as Vector's relentless assault was stymied so completely by my marowak.

Vector came in low with his horn and Acolyte seized the moment. He jabbed his club into the base of Vector's horn, trapping the bug against the ground. Vector shrieked and flailed, but Acolyte had the advantage and my heracross was utterly trapped.

I clapped, stepping onto the field. "Great job, you two."

They separated, Acolyte reaching down and offering his hand to Vector. My heracross hesitated for a moment, but reached up to pull himself up.

"Get something to eat," I ordered. "You two have more than earned a good rest."

Acolyte growled, raising his club. I heard Artemis stir behind me and turned to see what had drawn her attention.

She looked like she had just stepped out of an office, suit dress cut just below her knees. Her bright red hair was tied back in a long ponytail that was draped back over her right shoulder.

Lorelei looked up at Artemis and then back to me. "You asked to speak with me, Ranger?"

I waved Acolyte and Vector off to the bowls of food the island staff had provided me. Artemis laid her head back down after a sharp glare, keeping a wary eye on the newcomer. "Elite Kanna," I started. "I'm here with Leader Janine Anzu of Fuchsia. We have a credible lead that Team Rocket is using Sevii for something big."

She nodded and folded her arms behind her back. "Straight to business, is it?"

I nodded back. "Apologies, but I would have exchanged pleasantries hours ago. It has been a rather long and uneventful day training here."

She waved for me to follow her, turning around and ignoring my barb. "Walk with me," she ordered. "Your pokemon will be fine here."

I went to follow her. Curie squeaked nervously, bounding after me from the weights she had been working with. I turned and waved her back. "I'll be fine," I said. "Stay here with the others. Keep training."

She looked at me with those huge soft eyes and nodded slowly. She stepped back, keeping her eyes locked on me.

I turned away, following Lorelei away from the training field. She led me away from the camp, along a small trail carved out through the dense foliage. We walked in silence, Lorelei promising to speak with me candidly once we reached our destination.

She led me to a small crag on the northern side of the island. The temperature dropped the closer we got to it and I was reminded of the cavern beneath Seafoam. Lorelei beckoned for me to follow her and disappeared through a crevice in the side of the cliff wall.

I followed her, descending down a narrow staircase that wound around itself as the temperature dropped even lower. We emerged into a small blue cave, faint light reflecting off the ice. There was a wooden door blocking the path to the left, with another tunnel leading further down on the right. Lorelei walked up to the door, unlocking it with a small key.

"This place is very special," she started. "I use it as my sanctuary, away from the rest of the world. I find it helpful to have a place that I can use to just get away." She swung the door open and turned to face me as warm air billowed out. "We can talk privately here. The only ears here are my own."

I stepped through the door. Lorelei had a fairly large room carved into the cave, a small loft containing a kitchen and bedroom constructed beside a pool of water. The cavern was strangely warm compared to the rest of the cave.

She closed the door behind us and took a seat at her kitchenette. She looked up at me with weary eyes and gestured for me to sit opposite her.

I sat. "I like it," I said. "Very secret lair-like,"

She smirked. "I thought the same," she replied. Her smirk faded and I felt the mood change slightly. "What brings you to my islands?" she asked.

"Your islands?" I asked.

She shrugged. "I was born here," she said. "My mother washed ashore when my parents' ship was sunk off the coast. This islands saved her, these islanders took her in. They took me in." She smiled softly. "I grew up to be a powerful trainer, someone that the elders of the islands could rely on." She shrugged again. "They do," she said. "They rely on me to keep the islands safe and I would do anything for them." A small smile came to her face.

I leaned back. "So you're the person to speak with about finding Team Rocket. We've discovered a lead that indicates Sevii plays host to at least one major facility, likely to do with evolution-related research. We will be conducting an extensive search of the islands."

She nodded. "I am well aware of the Indigo League's manhunt. I assure you, there is no Team Rocket activity in Sevii. I would know if my islands had any Rocket presence."

"I assumed as much, else you would have informed Leader Surge."

She narrowed her eyes slightly, catching the slight accusation in my tone. "Careful how you speak to me," she said. "You are outside Indigo League jurisdiction here. Sevii is and independent region. I am the only authority to speak of on these islands."

I bowed my head. "I meant no disrespect," I said quickly. "We believe our intelligence is solid. They may be operating outside of your knowledge."

"What would you have me do?" She asked in a frustrated tone. "You have come here looking for something. I would like to kno-" A large lapras rose from the pool, gazing pensively at Lorelei. She stopped rn speaking and calmed her breath. "I apologize, it has been a taxing day. How can I help you?"

I shook my head. "We ask for nothing," I said. "Leader Janine simply thought to make contact with you, knowing of your esteemed position in the community here. We will be conducting our own investigation, with our own resources." I got to my feet. "We would just ask that you notify us if you do discover something."

Her smile returned, but I doubted it's authenticity. "I will be sure to do so," she said. "Is there anything else I can help you with?"

I shook my head. "No, Elite Kanna."

She got to her feet, pushing in her chair as I did the same. "Then our business here is concluded." Lorelei looked at me, shifting her attention away from her lapras. "Thank you for coming to speak with me."

I nodded in reply, making sure not to break eye contact with her. I could see her mind working, could see that her thoughts were elsewhere. "We will be in touch," I said. "I must return to our operations now. It has been a pleasure speaking with you, Elite Kanna."

She bowed her head towards me with a smile that I doubted. "The pleasure was all mine, Ranger."

I gazed at her duplicitous smile, hearing the insincerity in her voice. I didn't say anything until Artemis had carried me high above listening ears. Even then, I didn't speak except to confirm my return to the Fang. Something strange was happening in Sevii. And I had a terrible feeling that I was going to find out.

"We lost contact with Janine somewhere along Kindle Road," Lady Anzu said. "She had made contact with a man named Celio at the Pokemon Network Centre. Her last report had him reporting some stolen equipment. She was going to look into it for him."

I nodded, looking down over Artemis' side as I raised the radio in my hand. "I copy," I said. "I have eyes on the centre, I'm heading down now."

Lady Anzu's voice crackled out of the tinny speakers. "Find her," she said. "Keep her safe."

"I will," I replied. I flipped the radio to the short-range mode, eyes peeled for any signs of a response. "Janine, it's Marcus. Come in, over."

The radio remained stubbornly silent and no movement from the island drew my attention. I repeated the call twice, with no answer each time and slid the radio back into my pocket as I squeezed my heels into Artemis' side.

She dove hard, speeding towards the earth. She flared her wings at what seemed like the last possible moment, carrying us just over the sandy beaches on the eastern shore. She flapped twice, gaining the altitude to clear the trees as we sped inland over the rough jungle terrain.

Artemis banked hard, speeding over the two-story building and looping back around over the small dock on the south shore. The roof was a bright yellow and a large communications tower rose high into the air.

We put down in the small courtyards in front of the building, realizing that several more low huts sat against the walls. Walls nearly twenty feet high were ringed with foliage, thick leaves and branches casting shade on the small courtyard.

A small, thin man emerged from the building, watching as I dismounted Artemis and returned her to her ball.

"Celio, I presume?"

He nodded slowly. "And who might I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

I walked towards him, holding out a hand. "Ranger Marcus Wright. I'm working with Leader Janine, I believe you have already met her."

He nodded as he took and shook my hand. "She was heading up to Mount Ember," he replied. "Some strange men had stolen some equipment of mine." He turned, waving for me to follow him.

I stepped through the door after him. "Could you tell me anything else about these men? Any names or aliases?"

"They were led by a man named Gideon," he sighed and turned back to face me. "He was an assistant here for some time, though I believe that was a cover." He sat heavily in his desk. "One of the island residents saw these same men on the slopes of the volcano not two days past, setting up some sort of camp."

I nodded. "And Janine headed off after these men?"

He nodded in reply. "She promised to retrieve my stolen equipment. Our project will fail unless it is returned and-"

There was a knock on the door, and Celio waved the person in.

Another man, one whose face I vaguely recognized stepped into the room. "Celio," he started. "Lanette and Bebe are back onli-" He stopped dead, looking at me as I turned around. "I'm sorry," he said. "Am I interrupting something?"

"No," I replied. "I think I have everything I need." I looked back down at Celio. "Is there anything else I should know?"

He pondered for a moment, before looking back at me. "There are some hot springs along the path up to the volcano that serve as a way-station of sorts. It is possible that Leader Anzu is there. As I said, the route to volcano can be quite inhospitable at times. She could have stopped to rest."

I bowed my head slightly. "Thank you, Celio. Is there anything else you need?"

He nodded profusely and his eyes seemed to light up. "I apologize if it is not my place, but the people of One Island are struggling. There is little food except what we pull from the sea and these thugs led by Gideon have made off with what little we do have. We used to receive monthly shipments from the farms on Three Island, but the last two have not arrived. I have sent for aid from Lady Lorelei, but she has not responded." He got to his feet, folding his arms across his chest. "If there is anything you could do, the people of One Island would undoubtedly be grateful. I have enough stores to feed my staff for some time, but the island residents are not so lucky and I do not have enough to share for longer than a week or two."

I nodded and followed him as he led me back out to the courtyard. "I will speak with Leader Janine when I find her. I'm sure that there is something we can do to help, however I cannot promise that we will resolve the situation."

He bowed his head and the other man did the same. "Thank you, Ranger."

I released Artemis and swung myself onto her back. I bowed my head and squeezed her sides with my heels. We shot into the sky with rhythmic wing beats, heading high over the small island.

One Island itself was rather small. The small rock, overgrown with jungle was maybe a mile or two across at its widest and under a mile long. Kindle Road itself was no more than a few atolls rising from the waves, shallow water and spits of coral stretching across a ten mile trail towards the smoking volcano to the north.

Artemis carried me over Kindle road, sparing me the long and arduous journey it would have been on foot. We saw few signs of civilization, most of the wooden huts clustered around the eastern beaches of the island itself. A smattering of small vessels drifted through the atolls, paddle boats and canoes all fishing for a meal.

The Fang sat further out in deep water, lazily curling northwards to sweep around the volcano. I could see movement on the deck from Artemis' back and my mind drifted to Leopold for a moment.

I passed them all without concern, repeating the same call on the radio that I had been making since I arrived. Janine would have signalled for me if she had been on any of the vessels and I spotted no signs of her presence on Kindle Road. There was nowhere to rest to speak of. The atolls were all exposed, boiling hot specks of rock and coral in the centre of a raging ocean. There was no shelter from the elements, so I kept moving north as I kept my eyes peeled.

It took us almost a whole hour as we approached Mount Ember. We combed along the coast of One Island, only departing the shore once I was sure Janine was not camped out somewhere on the overgrown north shore. We cut straight across the water, making directly for the small building housing the hot springs at the base of the volcano.

Artemis touched down on the black rock of the volcano's base, looking longingly up at the peak. I slipped off her back, caressing her at the base of her neck.

"Looks like home," I started. "Doesn't it?"

The breeder Erika had acquired her from was based on a volcanic island off the coast of Cinnabar. It was one of the few prehistoric pokemon centres in the world, restoring kabuto and omanyte populations from fossils as well as raising the world's only publicly known colony of aerodactyl. It was the brainchild of Cinnabar's Leader Blaine Katsura, the culmination of his life's work in bioengineering.

"I promise we'll visit soon," I said softly. I felt Artemis purring under my hand as she turned her head to look at me. "We can show everyone how strong you've gotten!"

She nodded slowly, looking longingly up the cliff at the peak. Smoke billowed into the sky, a black tower rising above the volcano.

"You know, it's supposed to be dormant." A frail, bald man appeared at the door of the building, looking down at me through bespectacled eyes. "Dead for ages!"

Artemis growled, but I calmed her with a hand. I stepped in front of my pokemon. "Then why is it belching smoke like that?" I asked. "Volcanoes aren't supposed to do that if they're dormant."

The elderly man at the door of the building smirked knowingly. "That'd be old moltres. Legends say he lives up there, just bathing in the lava all day." The old man shrugged. "Or it could just be a vent down to the earth's core. Who's to say for certain? Nobody has climbed old Ember in ages, so nobody knows."

I stood there impassively. "I am a Ranger, from Kanto," I said, hoping he would understand what that meant. "I am-"

He shrugged and turned around. "Come with me," he said, more an order than a suggestion. "I know why you came here."

I glanced at Artemis. She was still looking up at the volcano, practically aching to take flight. "Go," I ordered, watching her eyes light up. "I still have Acolyte and Vector if I need them, I'll be fine."

She took off in a hurry of mad flapping, disappearing around the side of the volcano and leaving me alone with the old man.

"You are the second outsider to visit us today," he said. "Has something happened?"

"I am searching for my companion," I said. "A young woman not much older than myself. She has purple hair and she may be dressed in strange clothes."

He shrugged. "All you mainlanders are strange to us simple folk," he replied as he led me into the building. "But there is a young woman here who fits your description." He gestured to the wall of hangers and cubbies. "You must change your clothing. We do not allow outside items into the spring. I will wait for you below."

I nodded, turning to the wall as he disappeared into a cloud of steam that billowed from the open door. I saw Janine's purple scarf and armour tucked away in a cubby and suppressed a shiver as I contemplated that thought. I quickly removed my uniform, folding it and stuffing it away into one of the waiting cubbies. I took one of the robes hanging off the wall, wrapping it around my naked body.

The structure was filling with steam, all of it escaping from the doorway the man had disappeared through. I could see a staircase descending into the darkness and swallowed the lump in my throat.

"What is it with these islands and caves?" I asked, muttering the question under my breath. "First Seafoam, then Lorelei, now this?"

The air was thick with the heat. The sweet, smoky scent of incense rolled through the steam and I could hear the faint sound of water splashing into a pool. I followed the man's figure by the dim light of the lamps burning on the wall of the cave. There was water on my left, gently lapping against the floor.

"You must remove your garb to enter the spring," he said. "No outside items may enter the spring."

I looked at him, a frown on my face. He was really going to make me go find a naked Janine while also naked myself. I could see the wry grin on his face and watched him turn and depart.

"Goddamn pervert," I muttered under my breath. I slipped the robe off, stepping into the blissfully warm water.

I sucked in a breath, surprised by the comforting heat. I waded into the water up to my waist, moving away from the dim lamps burning on the wall. It was almost pitch black away from the lamps, something that I'm sure was intentional.

"Janine?" I half whispered.

There was no answer.

I cupped my hands over my mouth, looking around for movement as I waded further into the spring. "Janine?" I whisper-shouted.

I heard a splash to my left and turned to face the noise. "Marcus?" I heard her surprised voice ask. "The hell are you doing here?"

"Looking for you," I said, wading towards her but being sure to maintain a distance for modesty's sake. "Your mother was worried after the welcome Lorelei gave me."

I saw her through the steam, leaning back against the wall of the spring. Only her arms and shoulders were sticking out of the water. I could barely make out her figure in the dark, something I was secretly grateful for. It made it easier to ignore the nudity.

She leaned back, looking at me curiously. "Was the frigid bitch as cold as usual?"

"She was suspiciously resistant to the idea of Rockets in Sevii," I said, folding my arms across my chest. "And her staff clearly did not want me poking around Four Island."

"Do you think she could be Rocket?" Janine asked. "My father was. What if there are more corrupt league members?"

I shrugged. "I'm sure I just put us onto her radar then." I glanced around, taking in the hot spring as my eyes adjusted to the faint light. "What're you doing down here?"

She shrugged, creating waves that rose and fell on her chest dangerously. "Stopped for some rest after I took care of Celio's thieves." She looked up at me, moving slightly closer with a coy grin. "What are you doing down here?" she asked, stopping a few feet away from me. The water line sloshed precariously on her chest, threatening to expose more skin as she moved. "You knew I'd come out eventually. Why take your clothes off and come after me?"

"Janine," I started. "Could you please not move quite so much?" I asked. "The water… it almost…"

She stood up, dispelling any notion of privacy between us. Water streamed down her body, hugging curves and lines that I couldn't ignore. It beaded up on her chest, drops of water rolling down tanned skin. "What's wrong?" she asked innocently.

I tried to say anything, tried to think about anything else. Janine pushed closer to me, eyes locked on mine as I fought to keep eye contact. She knew I wanted her, had probably known since before I even set foot on the Fang. All I could see were her eyes, soft purple glinting in the low light.

Then she kissed me. She was wrapping her arms around my neck, skin pressing against mine. I stopped thinking, stopped fighting the moment as she kissed me with reckless abandon. We went down in a splash of warm water and I didn't argue as we let the rhythm take control.

Pokédex Entry #131 – Lapras

This gentle, peaceful giant has been driven to near extinction in the once pristine Kan-Jo Sea. Human pollution and seaborne shipping have devastated these pokemon's traditional breeding grounds in the Sevii and Orange Islands. Only a handful remain, and while there is hope with recent conservation efforts, populations remain stubbornly low.

Lapras are large, empathetic creatures who live in small herds that migrate vast distances. They have been sighted off the shore of almost every region, often in search of schools of fish pokemon to feed upon.

Lapras have proven capable of telepathy and basic psychic ability, sparking questions about their typing. However, experts insist that this pokemon does not possess the psychic subtype.

Intermediate Trainer KT#07996101

Indigo Ranger Corps, Special Task Group, "Zapdos" Squad,

Corporal SN# 109-512-6591, Marcus Wright, current team:

Luna, Ninetales

Acolyte, Marowak

Vector, Heracross

Curie, Chansey

Artemis, Aerodactyl

Aaaaand thats as explicit as this story will get. Don't ask, you horny bastards because I won't.

Joshthewriter · Feb 28, 2022

Journey

Death of Duty

Part 5: War on the Water

Complications

No plan survives contact with the enemy. — KNA General Becker

Janine pulled a small red gem from her pack, handing it over to Celio. "They got away," she started. "Broke and ran the moment I landed. Abandoned whatever they were trying to do on the volcano's slopes."

Celio took the gem carefully, handing it off to the man who had interrupted us before. "I could scarcely imagine what they might be doing," he replied. "Then again, I could hardly have imagined Gideon stealing our Ruby and Sapphire. He seemed like he really believed in the project." He shrugged. "Guess you never really know someone."

"Tell me about Gideon," Janine said. "Anything you can remember that might be useful, anything at all."

Celio frowned. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know much. He was a specialist recommended to us by the League. I had thought him to be properly vetted, but clearly he was not." He shrugged. "Apologies, but I'm not sure what was truth and what was lie anymore in regards to him. I'll send over his League personnel file, perhaps there's something there that could help you."

"Will you be able to resume the project?" I asked. "With only one of the gems?"

He held up the gem, admiring it with a far-off smile. "This gem is practically priceless. I designed it myself, did you know that? A shame you couldn't retrieve the sapphire as well. I shudder to think of what the technology could be applied to if it is replicated."

I looked closer. "I didn't know it was a fake," I said. I could see thin lines running through the inside of the gem, faint lights pulsating along the veins. "I thought it was real."

Celio beamed, clearly proud of his work. "It's a part of a set, designed to communicate instantaneously with the other using quantum entangled parti-"

"What Celio means to say is that it lets our computers talk to each other from across the world with no delay at all." The other man took the gem, folding it away in a protective cloth. He looked at Celio with an amused smirk. "He sometimes forgets that not everyone is a genius like him."

Celio shrugged, a sheepish grin on his face. "Leader Anzu, Ranger Wright, this is William Sonezaki. He invented the Pokemon Storage System." He turned back to us. "Our project is attempting to take the PSS worldwide, something that would revolutionize worldwide trading and travel."

I looked over at the nondescript man in the purple shirt. "I knew you looked familiar," I said. "You built the PC system?"

He nodded. "Yes," he started. "But please, call me Bill." He glanced over at Celio. "He's the only one that calls me William nowadays."

"So," Janine started. "Where do we go from here?" she asked.

"We have many more tests to run," he said. "But it shouldn't be long before we are operational. We were almost done when Gideon stole the gems. We can made do with just this one, at least until I can synthesize another. Bebe won't be happy, but Sinnoh can wait for now." Celio wrung his hands nervously. "Though, there is the matter of dwindling food that I discussed with Ranger Wright."

Janine nodded. "We can spare some food, though not enough to completely solve the island's problems. I'll have my ship drop off what we can spare before we leave."

Celio bowed his head. "Thank you, Leader Anzu. The people of this island are in your debt." He turned as Bill opened the door to the Network Centre. "We must return to our work now, I hope to see you again sometime."

She bowed in return. "If there's anything else about this Gideon that you can remember, don't hesitate to contact us."

He nodded profusely. "I will be sure to do so. Thank you both."

We glided down towards the bustling market, combing over the island from above. Two island was more than twice the size of One Island, with a relatively large trading port constructed on the southwest coast of the island. A shantytown sprung up from the jungle around the port, people shouting over each other and hawking their wares at passers by.

I landed beside Janine, dismissing Artemis to her ball as Janine did the same with her venomoth. Neither of us had brought our weapons, preferring to keep the Islanders at ease with our presence. Even if we had arrived in a warship, we didn't need to be outwardly belligerent.

"Stay with me," she said. She smirked coyly. "And keep your eyes on the crowds, not on my ass. We're looking for any clue of Rocket presence."

I chuckled. "It is a very nice ass," I said.

She glanced at me and I saw a happy twinkle in her eyes. "I know," she replied. She stuck her butt out at me, wiggling it at me. "I work for it."

I held out my arm for her. "May I?" I asked, trying to stifle a laugh. "I believe that a man is supposed to treat his lady to a shopping trip?" I gestured around. "In lieu of Celadon's department stores, we do have this nice market."

She giggled, hooking an her arm through mine. Her eyes were happy, none of the constant worry and tension I'd become accustomed to in them. "I have some very expensive tastes, Ranger. Think you can afford me?"

"Nah," I said. I reached into my pack with my free hand, pulling out my Silph expense card as a joke. "Silph's got it though."

We walked through the market, stopping only to peruse a few of the shacks selling local knickknacks. It was nice to act like I was normal, to pretend that we weren't on a mission for a few minutes. My mind went back to the regional fairs put on near Yucca Village and I had the absurd vision of me walking Janine through fields of growing berries. The vision faded, but I refused to let thoughts of my family drag me down today.

Janine stopped in front of a small shack, looking down at the little stall of goods. She lifted a loose necklace of what looked like bones. "What do you think?"

"I think you'd look good in just about anything," I said. A dumb smirk crossed my face and I looked her up and down. "Even nothing," I joked.

She punched me in the shoulder as she exclaimed in protest. "Are you gonna be corny your whole life?"

I nodded, the same cheesy grin plastered on my face. "Always," I said. "I'm afraid that's not going away."

She shook her head, a small grin on her face. "Good," she said under her breath.

I turned over to the shopkeeper. "What would you like for the necklace?" I asked. I opened my bag, pulling out several pokeballs and a pair of potions.

Sevii was far away from any of the regional Pokemon Leagues. Most modern currencies weren't accepted on the islands, they used a barter system instead. Things from the mainland were very valuable out here.

The man pointed at the pokeballs. "There aren't many of these out here," he said. "They'd be worth a fortune."

"Take them," I replied. "I have many more."

His eyes went wide. "I-I-I-I…" he trailed off. "It is far too much for a simple necklace." He looked through his merchandise, eyes racing from item to item. "Take this as well," he said. He lifted a short pole that thickened into a curved club on one end. The other end tapered into a point, making a crude spear. "We have few trainers here. These are what we use to defend ourselves. I made this one myself."

He forced the staff into my hands. I admired the point on the bottom, testing the weight experimentally. "You're too kind," I said. I held it out back to him. "I can't take your weapon. Pokemon are still dangerous, even with a ball to capture them. You still have to tame them, and that can be difficult."

He took the weapon back and bowed his head in respect. "You are kind and generous for outsiders. We heard what you did for One Island, I could hardly believe it when I heard." He leaned closer and I saw desperation in his eyes. "Perhaps you could help us as well? I fear that something is amiss in Sevii and our Lady Lorelei does not hear our calls."

I waved Janine over, keeping my attention on the man. "Something about these islands doesn't add up," I said. "Is something happening here that we should know about?"

He leaned closer as Janine joined us. His voice lowered to barely more than a whisper. "Something is wrong on Three Island. People are going missing there, in the forests."

"Could it be a wild pokemon?" Janine asked. "A predator that got a taste for human?"

The shopkeep shrugged. "Perhaps," he replied. "But Sevii has always had wild pokemon. Islanders are smart so as to not disturb them." He leaned back. "Families are whispering, rumours spreading. Something dark lives in the forest, something brought by the last group of outsiders."

That piqued my interest. My eyebrow raised. "What other outsiders?" I asked. "Describe them for us."

"They wear black, some of them have a red letter on their clothing." He wrinkled his nose in disgust. "They do not respect our islands. They build things on our Mountain Ember, take things into the forest. And our Lady does nothing."

I looked at Janine. "Rocket," I said. "They're here."

"Everywhere by the sound of it," she replied. She looked back at the shopkeep. "Do they have somewhere they are gathering? Somewhere they're using as a base?"

He shrugged. "I do not know. Nowhere on Two Island or Three Island, and likely not on One Island either. There are too many people for such a place to remain hidden."

"Leaving Four and Five as the likely suspects," I said. "I knew Lorelei didn't want me looking around Four Island."

"I'd bet that she's got plenty of incriminating evidence somewhere on that island." Janine turned back to the man excitedly. "You don't know how much you have helped us," she said.

"No more than you have already helped the islanders," he replied. "I am happy to be of service."

Janine and I strode away from the market stall. "Where to then?" I asked. "Back to one island, or into a dark forest?"

"Wouldn't you like to go back," she said with a coy grin. "But I destroyed whatever Rocket was building on Mount Ember. Looked like lightning rods or something. Whatever it was, it's inoperable now." She raised her ball, releasing her venomoth into the market square. "Missing people sounds fun."

"Does it now?" I asked sarcastically. I released Artemis beside me. "Didn't know that could be fun."

I swung my leg over my aerodactyl's back as Janine shot off into the sky. Her venomoth slid through the air effortlessly, ethereally floating on an invisible wind. Artemis tensed up and flung herself after them, wings flapping madly as we rose into the sky.

The Fang slid into port, dropping anchor out where the water was still deep enough for her. Janine, Lady Anzu and I piled into one of the speedboats and took that the rest of the way in. We weren't expecting a lavish greeting, but we were surprised by the empty docks as we pulled into shore.

"Where is everyone?" Janine asked.

We hit the sandy shore and I splashed into surf. I grabbed the rope from the front of the ship and lashed it to the dock.

"Perhaps our intelligence is outdated," Lady Anzu said cautiously. "This darkness in the forest could have taken far more than what the shopkeep knew."

"Or they're hiding," I suggested. "I got the sense that outsiders are not welcome in Sevii." I gestured out at the Fang. "We did come here in a warship after all."

Lady Anzu looked at Janine. "The Ranger is right. It would be foolish to assume that we are welcome."

"Take a look," Janine ordered. "But stay out of sight. We're gonna walk down main street and see who comes out to say hello."

Her mother nodded, then slunk off into the thick brush bordering the village. Janine and I trudged up the sand, heading straight for the centre of the port village.

Silence greeted us. There was no movement save for the wind in the foliage. No pokemon came out to investigate, nor did any people. It was as if the villagers were simply gone. I felt eyes on us and a strange presence, but nobody made themselves known.

Lady Anzu appeared from the dirt road leading north. "I found a struggle," she said. "Looked like someone tried to defend the town at a barricade on the road. I did find tracks of something big leading north, I didn't recognize them."

Janine looked around, regarding the empty town with a sad look. "We need to figure out what happened here," she started. "I'd bet you anything that Rocket was involved."

"There's also the gold mine to the east," I said, remembering the briefings. "It's possible that someone may have taken refuge there. If there was an attack, the civilians could have fled."

Janine looked at me and nodded. "Then we split up," she said. "Search all three at once. Keep radio silence, we don't know who could be listening in."

I nodded. "I'll check out the mine," I said.

"I will follow the tracks," said Lady Anzu.

Janine nodded again. "That leaves me with the forest." She folded her arms across her chest and frowned. "Be careful, both of you. Something is very wrong here." She raised her venomoth's ball and released the bug beside her. "Meet back here as soon as you are able."

She disappeared into the sky atop the bug. I watched her go, silently hoping that she would be ok.

Lady Anzu turned to me. Her face was soft and concerned, rather than her usually critical gaze. "My daughter cares deeply for you. More than she has cared for someone in a long time," she said. "She does not have many people close to her, something we have her father to thank for. The pressure she is under as Fuchsia's new Leader is immense."

I smiled awkwardly. "I care about Janine as well. I understand that she is under a lot of pressure, I'm trying to help the best I can."

Lady Anzu frowned and I could see the torment on her face. "That is why I speak to you alone," she said. "Janine cannot afford to lose any more clout amongst the Families, not if she wishes to remain Leader. She refuses to listen, but I have heard whispers from the Clans that she is not fit to be Fucshia's Leader."

"Why are you telling me this?" I asked. "I am an outsider-"

"And that is precisely the problem," she replied, interrupting me. "She cannot afford to be seen consorting with an outsider."

I frowned. "I'm sorry, but what are you suggesting?"

She shook her head sadly. "I am not a fool. I know that the two of you have been… close." Her frown deepened. "You must leave Fucshia when we return to Kanto. Janine must not become closely associated with you, else the Families will find a new Leader."

I stood there silent for a long moment. "You would ask me to leave her," I said bluntly.

Lady Anzu nodded slowly.

I turned, releasing Artemis. I didn't want to show her my face, give her any clue to the emotions racing through me. "I… I cannot give you an answer," I said. "I need to…"

She nodded. "I understand," she said. "I am not heartless. I know what I am doing to her, what I am doing to you. The heart should be free to choose what it wishes…" She put her hand on my shoulder, trying to offer some measure of comfort. "It is what is best for Fuchsia. It is what is best for her. It would not be right to deprive her of her birthright so soon after seizing it."

I swung my leg over Artemis' back and squeezed my heels into her sides, leaving her behind without a word. We rose into the sky, turning to the east as the sun dipped towards the horizon behind us. The clouds were died pink and gold, the island below bathed in the warm light. It was paradise for a moment.

I let go of my worries, let go of what Lady Anzu had said to me. It was just me and my pokemon, above a strange island far away from home. The sun was warm on my skin and the salty ocean breeze rustled in my hair. I was going to savour the moment and I would make sure of it.

It didn't take long to reach the mine. I could see it in the distance, a gaping hole in the densely forested island. A small dirt road ran the from the small port we had landed at, hugging the coast and cutting inland as it approached the mine.

I could see the bodies on the road leading from the coast, pokemon with their limbs separated from their bodies and laying strewn around. A few humans lay among the dead, all of them cut down as they had tried to flee. Blood painted parts of the road and I had to suppress a gag as the stench reached me.

I silently lamented that I hadn't brought a proper weapon with me, just a sidearm I'd taken from the Fang's armoury. Something told me that I'd found the islanders and that my little pistol was woefully inadequate.

"Artemis, faster."

She redoubled her efforts, surging past the massacre and rising up above the treetops. She flapped hard, soaring over the road and cutting hard to the left.

Something whizzed past us, a terrible loud buzz droning over the sound of Artemis' laboured breathing.

"I don't see it!" I shouted. "Get low!"

Artemis dove towards the earth, tucking her wings against her sides. The buzzing returned and I swivelled in my seat as I looked for the source.

It hit us from below, slamming into the base of Artemis' left wing. We spun, tumbling from the impact as Artemis shrieked in pain. I felt myself separate from Artemis and flailed wildly in the air.

My hand went to my belt, releasing Vector as I spun through the sky. I saw a flash of red and heard his familiar buzzing wings. "Catch me!" I roared.

I plummeted towards the earth, flipping end over end. The sea and sky flipped back and forth over and over, a blurry bug chasing after me. I felt something hit me and arms wrap around my waist as the buzzing grew louder. I bent at the waist, the arm of an excavator whizzing dangerously close to my face.

We plowed into the ground, bouncing apart and rolling to a halt. I groaned in pain, rolling onto my chest and rising to one knee.

Vector was laid out on his back, chest heaving and eyes frantic.

"Good job, bug," I said between breaths. "You're amazing."

I dragged myself up, flipping Vector over and helping him back up.

Artemis hit the ground in front of me, wings flailing in a vain attempt to remain aloft. She skidded towards me, claws digging into the earth and carving deep furrows as her momentum carried her past me.

The angry buzzing was back, closing rapidly. My hand dropped to my belt, but I didn't have the time. Vector hit me from the side, shoving me away at the last moment.

A bloody-red blur hit Vector in the side, tearing him away from me as he tried to turn and brace himself. I felt chunks of sticky chitin hit me and the hot spray of my heracross' blue-green ichor splatter across my face.

I rolled with the momentum, popping back up with my sidearm drawn and Acolyte growing from a beam of light. But it was too late for my pokemon. Vector was in pieces, torn apart from the sheer violence of the impact. Pieces of chitin littered the field, the largest of them still connected to my heracross' horn. The horn itself was snapped, the top half simply gone.

I stared dumbstruck for a long moment. Then it hit me with the force of a machamp's fist. Vector was gone in an instant. He'd given himself for me without even a second thought. I felt tears streaking down my face, my mind racing as I turned to face the creature.

I needed to focus. I needed clear thinking. I needed to be strong. I needed to be smart. I forced the hole where Vector had been down and told myself that I could mourn later.

It was crimson red, though I couldn't tell through my tears if that was its real colour or if it was just covered in bloody viscera. It had a metallic torso and the head of a scizor, its body all hard angles that would serve to deflect any blows away. Two large curved scythes of bone were grafted onto the monstrosity's forearms, metal wrapping around thick bone. Its bottom half was a writhing mass of tentacles that held the creature up.

My marowak looked back at me, terror on his face. He was asking me exactly what I was thinking. I had no answer. That thing before us was an abomination of nature. I didn't know what it was or even what it had once been.

"Acolyte," I said coldly. This thing was Rocket, some monstrosity that they'd created. It had to die. Even more so after what it had done to my heracross. "Kill that thing."

He turned back, raising his club. The creature hissed a shrill cry at me and raised the blades on its arms. The wings on the back of its torso buzzed out, droning loudly as the malformed bug lifted off the ground.

Acolyte barely managed to get his club up, blocking both scythes as they plunged towards him from above. The creature hissed again, trying to force Acolyte's club back on himself.

Artemis hit it from behind, closing her jaws over the creature's head and tearing with as much force as she could muster. Her hind talons dug deeply into the mass of vines, ripping them out by the root.

It shrieked, vines wrapping around Acolyte's torso as the creature pivoted in place, swiping a scythe at a retreating Artemis. My marowak's club hit the ground as a pair of vines trapped his arms against his sides.

"Careful!" I barked, circling around my trapped pokemon. I couldn't get a clear shot, but I held my sidearm at the ready. "Watch those scythes!"

Artemis growled an affirmation, muscles tensed and ready to pounce. She didn't spare me a glance, she couldn't. Not if we wanted to make it out of this fight alive.

I watched another trio of vines wind tightly around Acolyte's throat and clenched my fists. I needed to do something. My hand dropped to my belt, resting on the last ball there. I had a plan, something half-cocked and rushed, but it was something.

Curie appeared in a flash of light, squealing in terror as she saw Acolyte holding back the creature's scythes as it choked the life from him. I'd never deployed her against anything particularly threatening. I cursed myself for forcing her into this baptism by fire, but I had no other options. I wasn't a good enough shot to trust that I could take the abomination down quickly without hitting my marowak.

"Take down!" I shouted.

Now, I'd never actually seen Curie attack with every ounce of strength she possessed. I knew she was almost impossibly strong, but I suspected that it had something to do with a chansey's engrained nature. They were peaceful creatures, not prone to violence. They'd been domesticated for almost all of known human history, working as our parters in medicine and healing. There hadn't been a battle-trained chansey in almost seventy years either, so I hadn't known exactly what to expect when I gave the attack order.

She screeched violently, the piercing noise forcing me to shy back and cover my ears. I could hear it echoing in the distance, felt the sheer force of the sound.

Curie hit the thing harder than I'd ever seen any of my pokemon hit anything. It separated from Acolyte, vines shearing clear off of its body rather than letting go of my marowak. The creature crashed into the side of the excavator and shore through the metal digging arm with speed, plowing deep into the dirt. The excavator spun, flipping onto its side from the sheer force of the impact.

Acolyte rose from the ground, his club in his hands. Curie stepped up beside him, Artemis leering over both of them. I stood to the side, my fist clenching the pistol grip tighter. This thing had killed Vector, had slaughtered the islanders and their pokemon. More and more bodies were piling up at Rocket's feet. Someone had to stop this.

"Let's kill this thing," I said, my heracross' broken horn freshly engrained on my mind. "For Vector."

I glanced over at my pokemon. "Stay together and fight as one. Don't let it pick us off."

Artemis growled as Curie and Acolyte snarled their answers. The monstrosity was up again, climbing atop the toppled excavator and chittering furiously as it brandished the scythes.

I grimaced, locking eyes on the creature. It was clear of my pokemon. It saw me and knew what I was doing.

Its wings buzzed out and it launched forward as I raised my sidearm and fired, scythes swinging for my head as my shots missed wildly. Acolyte was there, intercepting both scythes as they plunged towards me. Artemis hit the creature from the side, talons planting firmly onto its metal chest.

Acolyte twisted both scythes to the side as Artemis pushed down with all the force she had. They slammed the creature into the ground, pinning both scythes to the ground. Curie was there, pounding violently on the creature's head with all her strength as it thrashed madly.

There was a terrible screech of metal rending and the creature shrieked in pain. One of the scythes had torn free, bolts ripping cleanly out of their fastenings. Sparking electricity leapt from some kind of machinery on the end of the bone. The creature thrashed harder, waving the stump uselessly at Acolyte.

Artemis shifted, gripping tightly to the bone scythe with her powerful hung claws. She ripped it off, sending the creature into convulsing fits as sparks of electricity erupted from the contraption.

Acolyte raised his club, slamming it down onto the head of what had once been a scizor. The dented and crushed carapace finally gave way, green ichor and sparking wires sticking out of the metal exoskeleton.

The creature stopped thrashing, its chest heaving slowly. It was staring up at the sky now, laying almost perfectly still. It's breaths were ragged and wet and I knew what I needed to do. I lifted my pistol and fired three times. The creature fell silent and I couldn't help but feel some measure of sadness for the victim of Rocket's experimentation.

I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding and looked warily around the clearing. It had been a staging area for the mine, equipment and carts of material parked all around. Bodies were strewn across the clearing, all of them in varying states of dismemberment. Vector was just the latest casualty in this slaughter.

The thought of my heracross brought me back. The weight of that loss hit me completely in that moment, as the adrenaline of the battle faded. I looked down, picking out the largest of the chitin pieces at my feet.

Acolyte was there beside me. He put out a hand and took the piece of Vector's carapace from me. He shook his head and held my gaze for a long moment.

"We need to bury him," I croaked.

Acolyte nodded and I felt Curie drawing closer to me from behind. I felt the tears coming, felt my knees shaking and my heart racing. I dropped to my knees, trying to find a breath as Vector's absence was well and truly felt.

Curie hugged me first, wrapping her stubby arms around my ahoulders. Acolyte dropped his bone and embraced me from the front.

Artemis was there a moment later, nuzzling her snout into my face and rumbling in confusion. She had never lost a team member before and glanced around at the three of us rapidly. I pulled her in, steadying myself and finding my breath for my newest pokemon.

Movement drew me out of my melancholy. A hatch on the side of one of the excavators cracking open. A couple practically fell out, both of them shaking as they climbed down the side of the vehicle. More movement across the clearing, a door opening on the small building. A dozen or so people were emerging, all of them looking at me with a mix of awe and fear.

I got to my feet, calming Artemis' warning growl with a hand on her neck. I was a Ranger. Loss or not, I had to act like it.

The couple started picking their way towards me, both of them staring around at the slaughter in shock.

"You're safe now," I said, my voice wavering for a word or two. "I'm with the Indigo Rangers. We have a ship off-shore that can provide assistance."

The man looked up at me, trying to ignore the dead monstrosity on the ground. "You killed it?" He asked fearfully. "It slaughtered half the town. We tried to run but it cut us down."

"You're safe now," I repeated. "It can't hurt you anymore."

"There were more of them," said the woman in a panicked tone. "Two more of those abominations."

"Where," I asked, a frown coming to my face. Janine and her mother could be in serious danger. "My allies are searching the island right now."

"They came from the north," said the man. "Three of them, walked right into town. Galen and the other trainers tried to stop them…"

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "They saved your lives," I said. "They gave you time. Thank them for it."

The other group was approaching, huddling close together. "Trainer," said a man at the front. "We have wounded."

I raised my radio, clicking over to the Fang's frequency. "Ranger Wright, calling Poison Fang, copy."

The droll voice of the Fang's radio operator crackled back. "We read you, Ranger."

"I've got wounded civilians at the gold mine east of town. They need assistance immediately."

"We copy," he replied. "We'll get a landing team together for some emergency care."

"Be warned, I've encountered a modified pokemon of some kind. They are extremely dangerous and there may be more."

"Noted," replied the operator. "ETA fifteen minutes."

I lowered the radio. "They'll be here soon," I said. "Try to get ready to move."

He nodded. "Thank you, outsider."

I raised my radio, flipping it back to Janine's and her mother's channel. "Janine, Lady Anzu do you copy?"

There was a short pause of static. "Janine here," she said.

Static followed, droning on for an uncomfortable time.

"Lady Anzu, do you copy?"

There was no answer. The creatures had come from the north. She had gone to investigate the trail. I knew what that meant.

"Janine, meet me back at the town. I found injured civilians and our apparent attacker. It seems to be some kind of modified pokemon. This one is dead, but I have reason to believe there are more on the island."

"Where?" she asked.

I scowled. "The north shore."

She swore and I couldn't blame her.

Artemis swooped low over the treetops, keeping as low to the ground as she could as the island fell darker by the moment. Janine was behind and above me, scanning the shore for any sign of her mother as the sun disappeared. We'd seen no trace of her and the trail simply disappeared at the bank of the small river that trickled towards the ocean.

"There," she shouted over the radio. I glanced up, watching her point as her venomoth surged past me and Artemis. "Small ship, burning hard to sea."

I saw it. It was sharp and sleek, all hard angles cutting through the waves. There was no way that was a local's ship. I squeezed Artemis' sides and she rocketed after the craft.

"Unknown vessel," Janine started. "cut your engines and drop your anchor. You are about to be boarded."

It didn't respond, or even change its course. I raised my radio. Then I heard the shout. I glanced down, finding Lady Anzu waving her arms madly on the beach.

A bolt of fire shot into the sky, splashing violently against the night's sky. Janine and her venomoth surged past the psychic barrier that sprung into place, clearing the firestorm with a wave of psychic power.

I tucked against Artemis' back, hauling her back towards Lady Anzu. We hit the beach, skidding to a halt in a spray of wet sand.

"You must stop her, it is a tra-"

Thunderous violence erupted from the trees, a thousand razor sharp leaves peppering the beach. My aerodactyl flung her wings over me, shrieking as the leaves tore into the thin membrane. She turned, putting her body between the leaves and myself.

The barrage ended, Artemis groaning as she tested her range of movement. She turned and I saw half a hundred tiny leaves embedded in her scaly hide. Then she moved and I saw Lady Anzu laying splayed out on her back, a half dozen leaves buried deep in her chest. Blood was pooling in the sand under her, staining the beach red.

I pointed up at the trees as our assailant bellowed a deafening cry. Acolyte was out, club held at the ready. "Cover us!" I roared as I released Curie at my side.

Curie had an egg in my hand before I even gave the order. I cracked it open deftly, slopping the healing liquid heavily onto Lady Anzu's mangled chest. She didn't move, staring blankly up at the sky as her chest tried and failed to draw a breath.

I glanced up, trunks splintering to pieces as our assailant thundered through the tree line. It was misshapen in the same terrible way that the mutated scizor had been. Massive bone cannons protruded from the blastoise's shell, a humongous flower growing from a jagged hole torn in the shell.

"Take it down!" I shouted, getting to my feet. "Divide its attention!"

I stepped in front of Curie, keeping her and the wounded woman behind me. The creature thudded towards me, lowering the cannons on its shoulder.

A bone smacked the side of its head, arcing deftly back to Acolyte's hand. My aerodactyl descended on the flower as it turned, azure fire leaking from her jaws. She hit the creature from above, hind claws ripping and tearing into the flower.

A blast of pressurized water went wild, kicking up a geyser of muddy sand that I shielded Lady Anzu from. The creature bucked wildly, trying to grab a hold of Artemis as she shredded the bulb. Blue dragonfire ripped through the modified blastoise's shell, cooking its insides and drawing a shriek of utter pain.

Vines erupted from the base of the bulb, wrapping around Artemis' throat and pitching my aerodactyl into the sandy earth. Acolyte leapt close, getting inside the range of the creature's cannons and hammering his club into its knee.

It went down on its belly, Artemis leaping back atop its back with dragonfire roaring from her maw. Her claws dug in down to the root, blue flame eating through the base of the vegetation. Artemis clamped her jaws over the base of the bulb and tore it free, roots and all.

The creature convulsed wildly, thrashing in pain. Acolyte brought his club down as a mercy, ending its suffering with a powerful blow. I saw sparks behind its eyes and then the light died and the creature fell still.

I turned back to Lady Anzu, falling to my knees beside her. She was still breathing, but only just. "I'm here," I said. "I've got potions," I said, digging into my pack.

Her hand rested heavily on mine. I looked up from my pack, watching her shake her head solemnly. "Promise me," she croaked. Her eyes were locked with mine, begging me, pleading with me to agree.

"I will," I said without so much as a thought to a dying woman. "I promise."

She let out a breath and it seemed as if a weight lifted off of her. She nodded at me in thanks and let her head fall back as her breaths slowed.

I stayed with her while she died, holding her hand as she drifted away. I was still sitting over her when Janine finally arrived, her mother's body still as stone.

Pokédex Entry #113 – Chansey

Chansey are one of the few pokemon in to world to have been completely domesticated by humanity. There were some small pockets of wild specimens reported in the Fuchsian Safari Zone, but most members of this species are bred from eggs.

Their peaceful, gentle nature lends itself naturally to hospitality and medical settings. As well, their eggs possess minor restorative effects and are the basis of potion technology (although this technology remains imperfect).

Despite their peaceful demeanour, these pokemon possess prodigious strength. It is suggested that these pokemon hold themselves back in battle, as they do not enjoy causing pain to others. However, an enraged chansey can be extremely dangerous, especially when defending members of the specimen's family unit.

Intermediate Trainer KT#07996101

Indigo Ranger Corps, Special Task Group, "Zapdos" Squad,

Corporal SN# 109-512-6591, Marcus Wright, current team:

Luna, Ninetales

Acolyte, Marowak

Curie, Chansey

Artemis, Aerodactyl

Joshthewriter · Mar 1, 2022

Eternal War

Every day, Farmer Dan started his day by taking his customary stroll through his berry patch. He checked on those precious little moneymakers every single morning, watching for any early ripening and checking for any impurities that might affect the value of his crop. His other products all sold well enough, but none of them could even put a dent into the profit margins of his berry patch.

Battle-crazed trainers were positively starved for high-quality berries and would pay through the nose for competition quality items. It had been the latest business boom, taking his old family farm from a local produce farm to an international business recognized across the world. He'd had visitors from Kanto and Sinnoh in the last week, to go along with his usual local buyers from Hoenn's League. Business was absolutely booming and he couldn't be happier.

He wiped the sweat from his balding head and moved on to the next patch of berries, satisfied by the progress his lum berries were making. Already, the morning sun was beaming down and scorching him with its gaze. It wouldn't be long before he'd be able to start the harvest, plucking the sitrus berries before they ripened too much. He dropped to one knee as he reached the first sitrus plant and lifted up the leafy foliage. His jaw dropped, and the stream of obscenities erupting from his lips would have made his mother blush brighter than even the brightest razz berry.

He lifted the mangled corpse of the sitrus berry, mourning it and lamenting the loss of profit. The sour little fruit had been half-eaten and left to rot on the ground. Small paw prints surrounded the plant and led off towards the fence line. Dan rose to his feet, scanning the rest of the sitrus patch with a keen eye. More berries littered the ground under the leaves, their profits leaking into the dirt along with Dan's untarnished reputation.

He swore under his breath, following the trail to the fence line. It wound its way through several other berry patches, circling the pecha patch multiple times. He followed it up to the fence and scowled at the discovery. Something had dug a hole under the fence and pilfered a significant portion of his stock. Something, not someone.

"Ave some troubles now, boy?"

Dan rose to his feet. His hand dropped to his belt, to the one ball that still sat there. He looked up the small hill at the two figures standing in the trees. "Clear off now, Wilkersons."

Jeb and Donny Wilkerson sauntered from the tree line. Dan couldn't see their blasted swampert, but he knew it was out there watching the two brothers. Jeb began to jog down the slight hill. "Somethin' get into yer berries, Danny boy?"

He relaxed slightly, but kept his hand on Lena's ball. The old linoone wouldn't be much help in an all out brawl, but she was an effective deterrent if nothing else. "None of your business, Wilkersons." He looked up at Donny, watching the pudgy man struggle down the hill "Best clear off. Before one of you has an accident."

Jeb wheeled around, spinning back to his brother. "City boy has attitude, Donny."

"Ought'ta teach 'im a lesson," Donny replied, his voice far higher and softer than a man his size would be expected to have. "Maybe the 'vipers in them woods ought'ta pay him a visit."

He froze, his hand clenching Lena's ball tighter. "Seviper?" He asked in a low tone. Just the thought of the serpentine pokemon brought back memories that Dan wanted to leave buried. Memories of a war that his family had barely survived the first time. "Thought they cleared off years ago."

"Ah they're back every so often. Got a few o' dens round our property this year. They don't bother us too much," Jeb replied, clearly enjoying Dan's discomfort. "Course, you ought'ta know that seein' as yer Pa bought it last time they came round these parts." Jeb leaned on the fence, his stupid smirk burning into Daniel's mind. "Ain't that why yer just a farmer like us instead of yer fancy trainin' job? Ain't that why you came on back?"

Dan clenched his fists and remained silent. The Wilkersons were a threat to his business, but only like a magikarp was a threat to a dragon. They were little more than a petty nuisance, jealous at his success while their farming business lagged behind in a changing world. Dan had poured almost everything he'd made in his training career into the family farm, leaving less successful neighbours like the Wilkersons far behind. The seviper were the real threat. Just like last time. Just like when dad died.

"Shame yer not back in the city no more-"

"I said buzz off now, Wilkersons."

Jeb nodded and stopped leaning on the fence. "A'right, don' say we nev'r warned ya." He turned, pausing only to spit a large glob of snot and hork into the dirt.

The two Wilkersons slunk off, back to the swampy hellhole they called home. Dan watched them go until they disappeared in the trees. He stayed there for another half hour, watching the trees for any sign of movement. None came. Satisfied that the two yokels were gone, he turned back and headed for the farmhouse up on the hill.

Dan pulled the battered old rifle from the display case above the fireplace. He hadn't needed to use it since his Pa had died fifteen years back, not since the seviper in the hills had come down to the forest and overrun their farm in search of food. His mind flashed back to the day he had helped his father drive the serpents away. He gripped the rifle just a little tighter and tested the sights cautiously, praying he still had the strength to defend his family.

He closed his eyes and he was back at the edge of the farm, a scared little boy calling out for his father. A chorus of hissing sang at him from the woods, mocking him for his fear. Then he heard the screams. His father was crying out for him, screaming in pain as the seviper found him.

He moved through the forest like a ghost, losing all sense of direction in the woods. Their old linoone stood faithfully at his side. It had the same striped pattern as Lena, but was faded and grey. The pokemon barked and bounded into the darkness, leaving Dan behind in its hurry. He dashed after it, following the eruption of noise deeper in the woods. Lena ran with him, just a zigzagoon back in this memory.

Dan burst into a clearing, tripping over an upturned root and smashing his face off the ground. He groaned and forced himself up to a scene straight from a horror movie. Dan lifted the rifle and sighted the target, shaking uncontrollably. He closed one eye and squeezed the trigger.

"Hun?"

The memory came crashing down on him. He'd shot the seviper just in time. His father had nearly died that day. He had nearly died that day. He hadn't been there when the Seviper had returned, off on his trainer's journey like a selfish fool, and his father had paid the price.

Joanne's voice brought him back to the present day. She must have come in through the back, where he couldn't hear. He picked up the gun cleaning kit and frowned. "Sorry darlin'. Just a bad memory." He turned and slung the rifle over his shoulder. "Wilkersons came round this morning. Threatened me with Seviper again."

She dropped the load of groceries on the floor by the fridge and crossed into the living room. "Jeb again?" She asked. She knew the answer by the scowl on Dan's face. "I'll call Riley,"

"No," Dan replied harshly. He crossed his arms and his scowl seemed to deepen. "Lena and I can handle it."

Joanne brushed her auburn hair out of her face and smiled softly. Dan looked into her warm brown eyes and felt his frustration start to fade. She kissed him gently on the cheek and whispered into his ear. "I love you, Farmer Murphy. And it's because I love you that I'm calling my brother anyways." She pulled back and smiled at him. "You aren't a trainer anymore, Dan. Your team... they aren't around anymore. Riley finished top ten in the last conference, let him help you."

Dan sighed. "I know, I know." He turned away and shook his head slowly. "Getting old now, aren't I? I haven't been a young man for a long while."

Joanne smirked mischievously and kissed him on the cheek. She grabbed him by the beard and pulled him in close. "I prefer you with the experience," she said with a wink. She glanced over at the stairs and then back at her husband.

"And the groceries?" he asked knowingly. Try as he might, he couldn't hide the grin spreading across his face.

"They'll still be there when we're done."

Dan woke the next morning to more carnage in the berry fields. He'd still make a decent profit from his other berries, but the sitrus and pecha fields had been almost completely wiped out at night. The scarecrows hadn't worked evidently, and Lena hadn't woken to any intruders. They'd bypassed his expensive electric fence like it hadn't even been there

He'd spent the entire day reinforcing the fence and building a small bunker of soil to hide behind. He didn't know if the thief would be back again, but he wasn't taking any chances. He needed some profit on the crop, at least enough to tide them over for the winter. He could probably afford a loan if necessary, but he was loathe to do so. He'd lived that life when he was younger.

Joanne had appeared around dusk, carrying a plate of dinner for him. She told him Riley would likely arrive around dusk the next day and asked him to come inside for the night. Dan simply refused. He had a thief to catch. He would not leave his post tonight. Not for anything.

She prowled through the forest, her nose low to the ground as she followed the same path she had the night before. The pack was dwindling, losing more and more of their number each day. There were less than a dozen left, and half of those were gravely injured themselves. She'd even taken a seviper's tail blade to her shoulder that day, a cut that ran down to the bone and ached horribly even after the last of the berries.

The berries she'd managed to find at the new patch had stemmed some of their losses, but only for a night. She needed more, more even than the strange fenced patch she found had possessed. Still, it was the only source for eons around that was not guarded by the serpents.

She peeked out from the tree line, looking down at the fields. No movement caught her eye. She scampered down the hill, nose raised and ears perked for any sign of danger. A glorious smell greeted her, vegetable and berry scents mixing together in a heavenly aroma. It was faint, but evidently there. She put it out of her mind as her stomach protested with a growl. The pack needed her more than she needed to eat. She'd take whatever berry scraps were left after the pack was done.

She found her hole easily enough. Or rather, the loosely packed dirt where she had filled the hole. She shovelled aside the dirt effortlessly, remembering skills that her trainer had taught her a lifetime ago. It took mere minutes, the dirt still loosely packed from her last heist. She emerged on the other side of the fence and sniffed the air cautiously.

Something felt different tonight. The hole had been patched, hard dirt packed down at the end. A strange pile of soil blocked the path deeper into the berry fields. She sniffed again and caught the same savoury scent as before. Cautiously, she crept forward as her ears strained for any sign of danger. She froze as a human rose from the wall. She'd seen the strange device in its hands before. She knew what would happen to her if it went off. The hair on her back began to raise and she growled a deep warning.

Dan shouldered the rifle as silently as possible. He pulled back the bolt and chambered a round as a vague shape illuminated only by the light of the moon excavated the hole he had spent the entire day filling with rocks and dirt. The pokemon disappeared into the hole and Dan readied himself to pull the trigger.

Its head poked out from the hole and Dan felt his heart skip a beat. The thief was back. He rose from his makeshift barricade, lined up the shot and froze. The thing was looking right at him.

It was a sorry mess, blood matting its fur and staining it a mottled red-brown. One eye was gone, an empty patch of skin looking at him from where the eye should have been. A fresh gash on its shoulder was still leaking blood and every movement seemed to bring fresh pain in its step. It growled deeply, but even the growl seemed to be through gritted teeth.

Dan lowered the rifle. He glanced down at Lena and gently woke the aging linoone. "Go up to the house. Get the potions." He glanced back at the beaten and bloodied pokemon. "Quietly."

Lena disappeared into the night, casting a wayward glance at the intruder. She listened to her old trainer and disappeared up the hill towards the house.

Dan clambered over his barricade slowly. He moved carefully, taking great care not to spook the injured pokemon. He gently laid his rifle down against the barricade and slowly crossed to one of the sitrus plants. He picked a pair of berries and glanced over at the thief. "You know," he started. "I was a trainer once. Do you know what a trainer is?"

The pokemon made no move. She looked at him warily, teeth bared.

Dan inched closer. "I can tell you're in a lot of pain. I can help you, but you have to let me." He stepped closer, holding out the first sitrus berry.

The pokemon raised its head, sniffing cautiously at the tantalizing berry. It took a step closer and Dan saw truly how injured it was. It was a zangoose, her usually sparkling white fur matted with dark splotches of bloody brown. She approached the berry cautiously and took the fruit with a single paw.

Dan smiled. He crept closer, dropping down to one knee. He carefully reached out one hand, showing the zangoose he was no threat.

She looked away from the berry as Lena emerged from the darkness with a small sack clutched in her mouth. Her teeth bared and she growled a warning as her paw covered her berry.

Dan took the bag and dismissed Lena to her ball. He pulled out one of the potions and shook the small spray bottle. "This might sting a little bit, but your shoulder needs something a little stronger than some berry juice."

The zangoose lowered her shoulder and turned slightly as Dan dropped the second sitrus berry in front of her. She braced herself unconsciously as Dan began to spray the wound with the healing liquid.

The wound began to harden and seal before his eyes, skin knitting itself back together as the potion began its work. Dan slowly worked his way down the zangoose. Every scratch got a spray, every patch of bloodied fur was soaked thoroughly in the healing spray.

He leaned back, cocking his head to the side with a smile. "That feel better?"

The zangoose met his gaze with her good eye. They held there, man and mon studying the intentions in the other's eyes. The moment passed. The zangoose lowered her head and gently nudged her nose against his hand.

Dan smiled and rose to his feet slowly. "Look, I can't have you stealing my whole crop. I understand that you're hurt, but this is my livelihood." He leaned back against his barricade as his smile faded. "You gotta stop coming round here now."

The zangoose lowered her head. She glanced from side to side, looking at the waiting sitrus plants. She turned around and slunk back to the hole without a backwards glance.

Dan watched her go, waiting until the zangoose's shadow disappeared into the trees. He reached down and lifted his rifle. He slung it over his shoulder and began the hike back up to the old farmhouse.

The sun was barely up before Dan rose from the bed. He departed from the house with Lena at his side, shovel already slung over his shoulder. After a quick inspection of his crop, he made his way over to the hole. Lena lounged happily in the sun while he set to work filling in the hole and shoring up the base of the fence. It might not keep out a determined zangoose, but it might slow one down. He mentally kicked himself for not upgrading the fencing last season, resolving to fortify the earth beneath the fence however he could.

Joanne appeared from the house, two absurd oversized drinks in her hands. Slices of berries filled the glass of cold ice water, glistening in the afternoon sun. "Finished up with the pecha jelly and the last of the lum cream. Think there'll be enough of this crop left over for another batch each?"

Dan wiped away the sweat and shook his head. "Doubt it. We barely have enough to cover the existing contracts, let alone any local customers." He grunted in thanks and took the oversized drink. "I met our thief last night. Looks like a zangoose has been using the patch as an infirmary."

"Any idea how to stop it?" She asked.

Dan shrugged. "Figure I'd ask nicely. I'll keep the barricade up another night and stay out here just in case." His smile returned and he took the drink from his wife. "Maybe I should catch her. I was a trainer back in my day."

She shook her head, the ghost of a smile on her face. "It's not back in the day anymore, Dan. You think you can handle something like that?"

Again, he shrugged. "No way to know until it happens." He turned and looked off at the cloud front moving inland. "Storm's coming. Better call Riley and have him get his butt here before the road floods."

"He won't be coming by road," Joanne replied. "Was coming from Kanto, Saffron, I think." She looked off at the clouds. "He can handle a storm. Told me Oberon once flew him through a hurricane. A little rain won't stop that flygon if Riley asks him."

Movement from the trees drew their gaze. They came in twos and threes, most of them injured, most of them barely limping into view before collapsing. Then he saw her. Dan met her eye with his own. Then the one-eyed zangoose collapsed into the dirt.

Dan had considered half a hundred careers when he'd retired from training. None of them held the same lustre that training had held, but he liked the simplicity of berry farming. Even if it was forced, he enjoyed the calm retirement into farming. The memories of his training career and the twin tragedies that had ended it were never far from his mind. They came rushing back now, the deaths of his old team rushing back to the forefront of his mind as he patched each wound and injected each of the injured zangoose with antidotes.

They were ancient enemies of the seviper, foes locked in some terrible eternal war. They were losing. The zangoose were losing. Half the zangoose that had managed to crawl to the farm would likely never battle again, the other half was covered in more wounds that Dan had ever thought possible.

The one-eyed zangoose had been the worst. Dozens of fresh wounds covered her body and two deep punctures on one of her legs told him all he needed to know. She'd led her pack here, to him, hoping beyond reason that he would harbour them. He didn't refuse. He couldn't.

He picked the last of his spare sitrus berries and burned through his potions like he was an elite trainer. Each and every wound found at least some treatment, whether it be a natural poultice Joanne had made or one of his dwindling supply of potions. The sun was beginning to set by the time they finished with the pack.

"When's Riley getting here," Dan asked. "Could use his help with all this." He dunked his arms in the wash bucket, scrubbing at the bloody viscera. "Makes me nervous, darlin. Zangoose aren't usually scared of nothing. They're the type to fight to the end, especially against a seviper."

She shrugged. "Riley said he'd be here today," she said. "Nothin' we can do but help them. Seeing as you're too soft to drive them away and I've got a bleeding heart, this is what we're doing."

Dan nodded and dried his hands off on the towel beside them. He'd still need to shower later, but he was no longer covered in bloody fur. He sat heavily on the stool he had been sitting on, groaning in exhaustion.

She cast her eyes over to the one-eyed zangoose. "I think she's the mama," she started. "She's been protective of each of these zangoose, she led them here. It's like she's in charge."

"The pack mother?" Dan replied. "She seems too comfortable with us, too quick to respond to my questions. It's like she's used to humans."

"Think she was trained?" Joanne asked. "It would make sense."

He paused for a moment, deep in thought. "I think she was. She dug through the ground like it was nothing. Zangoose don't typically learn to do that in the wild."

"What do you think happened to them?" Joanne asked.

Dan shrugged. "Battle, most likely. I'd bet anything that it was the seviper that the Wilkersons were threatening me with." He got to his feet, looking up at the storm. "They're going to come here," he said. "The seviper."

Joanne nodded. "I figured as much."

Dan looked over at her. "I have to do something. These zangoose… they're practically half-dead already. The Wilkersons will be back and they'll bring the Seviper to do what they won't. They'll kill both of us and the zangoose and be done with it."

Joanne nodded again. "You know what you have to do," she said. She looked away, fighting tears. "But I don't want you to do it."

He saw the tears at the edges of her eyes and brushed them away. "I'll be alright, love. I've got Lena."

She nodded. "I know, I know," she said slowly. She looked at him reluctantly, the air heavy with tension. "Don't die," she said, her eyes pleading. "Don't make me a widow."

Dan pulled her in close. "I'm always gonna be here, darlin'. Don't you doubt that." He held her close for a long moment. "I'll be back before sundown, I promise. I'm going to end this stupid feud."

They embraced for a long moment. Then the moment ended and the rain began to fall.

"I'll be back," said Dan. "Stay in the house."

She left, her arms up to shield herself from the rain. Dan looked down at Lena. He still had one pokemon left, still had his loyal starter. He lifted her ball, returning her. He pocketed the ball, slinging his father's old rifle over his shoulder and marched to meet an ancient enemy, a trainer once more.

The Wilkersons and the Murphys had feuded for centuries. Generations of farmers had warred over their speck of northern Hoenn, uncounted lives lost over decades of petty squabbles. He didn't know when it had begun, he didn't know what started it, all he knew was that it had to stop.

Dan had only been to the Wilkersons farm once, when his grandfather had made a trip over as a peace offering. The Wilkersons had accused him of poisoning the pie he had brought as an offering and thrown them off the farm. Two weeks later, his grandfather had disappeared from the fields. They'd found him after two nights, beaten to death in the woods.

He stepped through the dilapidated gates, avoiding the muddy swamp on either side of the road. The Wilkersons farm was not much better than he remembered it. The barn was still leaning dangerously and the swamp encroached on the little spit of arable land on each side.

"Hello?" He called. "Wilkersons?"

His voice trailed off and he turned his head. The trees were alive. The air was filled with the sound of hissing. The seviper were here. They were here, watching his every step.

The door of the small house swung open. "City-boy?" asked a surprised Jeb. "Whatcha doin out here?"

Dan clenched his fists, standing as proud as he could with the rifle slung over his shoulder. The seviper were coming, but he stood tall. He wouldn't give the Wilkersons the satisfaction of seeing his fear, wouldn't let them see what they'd done to him. "I want this feud over," he said. "It's gone on far too long."

The door swung open, Donny Wilkerson's muscled frame squeezing through. "Wot is it, Jeb?"

"Danny-boy wants a truce," Jeb said. "Wants our feud over."

"It's been long enough," Dan said loudly, interrupting the brothers. He kept his eyes on them, ignoring the serpents creeping closer. "Do you even remember why we're fighting? I don't!"

Jeb grinned coldly. "Wilkersons and Murphys always fight. Our Pa killed your grandpa. Your Pa killed our Pa, we killed your Pa for it. Now we're gon' kill you," he said. "It's in the blood, city boy. You can't change it no more than the 'viper can change." He leaned over the porch railing, the savage grin on his face widening. "It's our own war, just like the 'goose and the 'viper. 'Cept this time, the 'viper are gonna win."

"It doesn't have to be this way," Dan said. His hand lowered to Lena's ball, eying the seviper creeping towards him. He could see the Wilkersons swampert, watching from the water and even more serpents cutting lithely forwards. "We don't have to be like our fathers, not anymore."

Jeb stepped off the porch, regarding the seviper advancing on me curiously. "The 'viper don't like you, city boy. They really don't like you." He cracked his knuckles, looking up at me with a knowing smirk.

Dan's eyes widened and he realized that he was in mortal danger. "We don't have to like each other," he said. He unslung the rifle, holding it at his shoulder. "We don't need to kill each other, either. But I'll do what I have to to protect my family."

Jeb stopped in his tracks, curiously regarding the old farmer and his rifle. "You think you got the balls to shoot me?" Jeb asked. "You ain't never shot-"

Dan swivelled, sighting one of the encroaching serpents through the sights. He squeezed the trigger, painting the ground around the seviper with bits of brain and bone. Dan set the sights back on Jeb as the horde of serpents hissed furiously. "Try me," he said. "I've got plenty of practice killing seviper from the last time."

Jeb stepped back, raising his hands as Dan pointed the rifle in his face. "We'll leave you be," he said quickly. "No more shootin'."

Dan stepped backwards slowly, keeping his rifle trained on Jeb. "Good," he said, relief creeping into his voice. "Don't make me come back here." He kept moving backwards, feet carefully tracing the steps he had taken on the way in. He didn't turn away or lower the rifle until long after he had retreated through the gate and left the swamp far behind.

He trudged out of the forest, rifle slung heavily over his shoulder. His boots were covered in mud and his shoulders sagged with exhaustion. The zangoose looked up the hill at him, tired heads turning and pointing up at him. He stepped down that hill, tired feet tracing the steps back through the gate and up the hill towards the house.

Dan stopped in front of the pack of zangoose, looking down at the pack mother. "I don't know what happened out there, but you're safe here." He dropped down to one knee, putting himself level with the pokemon. "We been on the same side of a war that we didn't know about. We been fighting alone for too long." He smiled softly, thinking about his team. It'd be good for them to have some pokemon around. "We could stay together," he said with a calm smile. "One big pack." He looked up at the house, Joanne smiling at him though the window. "One big family, like I used to have."

Mama looked up at him, remaining eye searching his face for some hint that he was lying. She couldn't find one. The zangoose reached up at him, extending her claws and holding her paw out.

Dan reached down, gently brushing his hand against the zangoose's outstretched paw. She closed her paw and looked up at him, blinking slowly.

"Dan?"

The old farmer got to his feet, turning towards his wife as she came down the steps of the porch. "It's done, darlin. Wilkersons won't bother us no more."

She ran to him, wrapping herself around him in a fierce embrace. They were together, just like they should be. They were together and all was right with the world.

He rose at dawn, like he always did. Riley had arrived at some point in the night, half ragged atop his heaving flygon. They were exhausted after flying through the rainstorm. Dan crept past the door, sure to keep quiet.

He stepped outside, smiling at the morning sun. Movement from the fields drew his gaze, zangoose cubs frolicking through his remaining crops. Mama rose from where she had curled herself on the porch of the house, regarding him curiously.

"Sleep well?" Dan asked. "You certainly look like you're feeling better."

The zangoose growled, pointing down at her mottled brown-red fur. She pointed at the zangoose club closest to them, growling again and combing her claws through the cub's hair.

"You'd like to wash?" Dan asked. "I can fill the tub again."

He trudged over to the washtub he'd dragged out for the zangoose the night before. He filled it with fresh water from the well and stepped back.

The zangoose dipped a paw into the water, splashing it over herself. Dan turned, smiling happily as a trio of zangoose cubs bounded through his legs to play with the tub of water.

Joanne appeared in the doorway, a coffee mug clutched in her hands. "You missed this," she said with a smile. "having pokemon around. You're a trainer again, Farmer Murphy."

Dan grinned, climbing the stairs up the porch. "I did miss it," he said. He looked down at the zangoose. "We've got that big happy family that we always wanted."

Her cheeks went a bright red. "Yeah…" she started, trailing off. "About that…" Joanne's hand went into her robe, pulling out a small plastic rectangle. "I had to pee really bad, so I got up. And I remembered reading that these were more accurate if you used them first thing in the morning…"

Dan looked down, his eyes fixating on the little red plus sign. He glanced back up at his wife before a dumbfounded grin crossed his face. "You're pregnant," he said dumbly. "You're actually…"

She nodded, wrapping her arms around him. "Now it's the family I always wanted," she said.

He hugged her back, holding back the sobs of joy as he held her close. The tears fell freely, joyous emotion overwhelming him. He would be a father. He would not be the last of his line.

A week passed, a week of blissful happiness. His profit was practically a write-off this season, but they'd survive the loss of a single harvest with little difficulty. Dan found that even the prospect of financial hardship couldn't get him down.

Riley lifted the buckets of mulch, picking up the last of the fertilizer.

"Put that up by the tractor," Dan said, wiping sweat from his brow. "I still gotta fertilize the cheri fields, but we're just about done for the day."

Riley perked up, his shaggy black hair drenched in sweat. "Does that mean I finally get to try some of Joanne's farm fresh iced berry juice?"

Dan smirked. "I think I could go for that right about now."

Riley dropped the buckets beside the tractor and turned back to Dan. "I'm gonna wash up then, if you don't mind?"

The old farmer nodded, waving his brother in law away absentmindedly. He traipsed down to the fence, chuckling under his breath. A pair of the zangoose cubs were feinting at the electric fence, trying to see who could be the last one to move out of the way.

"That ain't too safe," Dan said with a grin. He knelt down beside them, scratching one of the cubs under his waiting chin. "Could get real hurt out here."

"Dan?"

He turned his head, smiling as he waved up at the house. "Yes, darlin'?"

"Riley says you sent him for juice?"

Dan couldn't help rolling his eyes as he chuckled. "Yes," he replied. "I sent him up there."

Joanne shook her head, a grin clear on her face. It died as she raised her arm, a look of utter horror on her face.

Dan heard the hiss as the world seemed to fall silent. All the other noise just seemed to fade away, leaving just the angry, hateful hissing.

He felt the blood drain from his face and followed his wife's finger. The hill leading down from the trees was alive, hundreds of serpents slowly advancing on his farm. The Wilkersons had arrived.

"Call Riley out here." He turned back to the trees as Joanne dashed off towards the house. He glanced back over his shoulder. "Get the rifle and cover me!"

Dan turned, two zangoose cubs and himself the only thing between the swarm and his family.

A man sauntered from the tree line, a malevolent grin plastered on his face. "Sounds like the 'vipers are angry," Jeb Wilkerson said, malevolence dripping from every word. "They been looking for those 'goose all day. Looks like they found 'em now and they found me a prize to go with 'em."

Dan's hands closed into fists. The rifle was up at the house. Lena was in her ball, also up at the house. Joanne was gone to get Riley, again up at the house. It was him against an army. Him and two little cubs.

The one eyed zangoose stepped out beside him, growling and glaring up the hill. Her eyes were fixated on Jeb, on the man who seemed to command the seviper. The rest of the pack fanned out behind him, all eight of the remaining fighters prowling back and forth in anticipation of the coming battle. The cubs retreated behind them, a few more of the young retreating towards the house with them.

"Well, they found 'em, Jebediah." Dan called. He crossed his arms, glancing over at the zangoose. He looked back up at Jeb. "We had words. You best leave them be now."

Jeb continued down the hill, larger serpents beginning to follow him out from the trees. "That ain't how this works, city boy. The 'vipers ain't gonna rest 'till all those 'goose are dead." He cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders. "You stand with them and the 'vipers look at you like one of them."

Dan locked eyes with Jeb, scowling deeply. "The 'vipers or you?"

Jeb's smile seemed to deepen. He shrugged. "Ain't no difference no more, city boy." He smirked, cracking his knuckles. "I told you. Feud has to end in blood. It always ends in blood."

The hill was alive, dozens of serpents slithering down towards the farm. There were dozens, from small hatchlings to the pair of massive seviper as thick around as some of the tree trunks.

Dan glanced back, eying his makeshift army. The one-eyed zangoose met his eyes. He had been a trainer once. She'd had a trainer once. Dan wasn't much for fate, but he couldn't help but feel like their meeting had been the work of something greater. She nodded and turned back to face the horde.

"Alright," Dan roared, his voice coming to life as adrenaline pumped through his body. He grabbed a flat spade, holding it up as a makeshift weapon. "Keep an eye on the ground! They're gonna burrow through and come up at us from beneath."

He looked at Jeb as the Wilkerson lifted a ball from his belt. "Mama," he started.

She glanced at him, vengeful fire in her eyes.

"You're with me."

Then the world seemed to end. The seviper surged forward as Dan walked out to meet Jeb. The sea of serpents disappeared into the earth, burrowing their way under his newly reinforced fence. The fence toppled as the horde of seviper passed underneath. They burst from the ground and battle began.

Serpent and beast clashed with finality, both sides seeming to sense that the end of an eternal war was close at hand. Mama forged a path through for her new trainer, claws flashing as she cut her way through the serpents.

He heard the crack of rifle fire and watched a seviper that had been leaping for him shrink back.

Dan charged through the gap, ducking under the fangs of a lunging seviper as he swung his spade at another. Even a single bite from those fangs and he would be dead. One of the zangoose pack leapt from the fray to intercept the seviper, rolling away as he tangled with the serpent. Dan forged on, following the trail of carnage that Mama had carved. Jeb was the target, Jeb was the one controlling all of this.

He came to an abrupt halt. Mama was still, the shredded length of a seviper laying at her feet. Her chest was heaving and there were half a dozen new wounds marring her fur.

Jeb was staring at them with near glee. "City boy finally grew a pair. Took you long enough. I had to rile up every damn 'viper in the forest to get a rise outta you." He smirked and shook his head. "This is gonna be real fun, city boy." He lifted his ball, releasing the swampert inside.

Dan cracked his knuckles. Mama looked at him with a confident nod. It might have been years since he was a trainer, but the instincts never really left. A grin spread across his face. "Yeah, it is gonna be fun, Jeb."

He glanced down at Mama. "Taunt him. Keep that swampert on the offensive and stay out of its way until I say."

He looked back up at Jeb. "What say we settle this little feud once and for all?"

The Wilkerson's smirk faded and a scowl crossed his face. "Aro, take down!"

Mama bounded forward as the swampert lowered its shoulder. She ducked to the side, raking the swampert with her claws as it barrelled past. It skidded to a halt, trying to compensate and turn on a dime. Mama darted in and raked the swampert's rough hide with her claws again, barely drawing blood.

"Hammer arm!"

Dan glanced up, reading Jeb's body language in an instant. Not yet, it wasn't time yet. "Detect!" He shouted. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew that Mama knew what he wanted.

Mama looked impossibly small as Aro rose up on his hind legs. Her eyes flashed with anticipation. Then the hammer fell. Two fists slammed into the dirt where the zangoose had been standing an instant before. She moved in a flash, always a hair away from being crushed by the hammer arms. She ducked away one last time, the swampert overextending in frustration.

"Now, close combat!" Dan roared, seizing on the opening.

Mama struck back with all the pent up force and fury of a trapped animal. Aro withered under the assault, shrinking back as Mama pounded him into submission.

"Hydro pump!" Jeb spat, panicking.

His swampert reeled around, swinging wildly to clear himself some room. He opened his mouth, blasting a jet of water harmlessly into the side of the hill. Mud and water splashed high, splattering the field of battle in brown water.

Mama leapt away as a second hydro pump sailed into the sky over the farm. He didn't see it land, didn't care so long as it didn't hit the house.

The two pokemon glared at each other, both of them exhausted and battered though Aro had taken the worst of the exchange.

Dan stepped forward, ready to give the order to end the battle. He felt something prick his thigh and felt the instant seizure as his muscles contracted in shock.

"Dan!" Joanne called, her voice seeming to be far off in the distance. "Lena, go!"

The linoone was at his side, tearing the infant seviper off his leg in an instant. Dan felt his leg give out, felt himself crash to the ground as he toppled over. Lena crouched over him, growling at Jeb and protecting her old trainer.

"Dan!" Joanne shouted desperately. "Dan!"

Her voice seemed further and further away. He laid his head back as a strange floating sensation seemed to take over his body.

Mama was there, standing over him protectively as well. She growled a warning at Jeb and the swampert, joining Lena in protecting her new trainer.

A wave of earth rolled across the field. Berry plants went soaring through the air, fence pieces thrown into the air by the earthen attack. Riley's flygon swooped down, tearing a triumphant seviper away from a prone zangoose.

Dan closed his eyes. His leg seemed to stop burning. He let go of the pain and felt nothing at all. "Mama," he croaked, his voice failing. "Take care of 'em for me. Take care of her." He felt something nudge his hand. He knew she accepted. He felt himself slipping away. He heard the last rifle shot and saw Jeb fall to the ground. He didn't fight the end.

She looked up at the sky, watching the sun pass behind a cloud. The cold was coming soon, but there would be enough time for the man-cubs to finish the harvest. She turned back to the house, a pair of her own cubs prowling along the fence line.

It had been near ten winters since she had found the patch. Ten winters since she had found and lost her last trainer. Her pack was strong now, stronger than it had been when they had called the forest their home.

The woman emerged from the house, calling for the two man-cubs. They ignored her, as they usually did. They were brazen, reckless cubs much like her own. These humans and her young were more alike than they had ever realized.

The pack mother turned and trotted off into the berry fields in search of the man-cubs. She'd made a promise to a trainer once. She'd promised a dying man that his pack would be hers. She'd promised that she would keep them safe. She would keep that promise, no matter what.

Joshthewriter · Mar 2, 2022

Fate's Design

Sootopolis City, Hoenn

The city was gone. The crater it had been housed in was shattered, one of the walls obliterated by the primordial Sea God's escape. Kyogre itself was gone, but Steven knew where it was heading. Mount Chimney had exploded the day before, wiping out Lavaridge in an explosion that had been clearly visible from the lip of Sootopolis' crater. Groudon was slowly working his way towards the coast, Flannery harassing the God every step of the way. It would never be enough to stop it. The two ancient Gods were fated to meet in battle, humanity be damned.

The angular crest of a gyarados breached the waves above the sunken city. A pair of waterlogged kids clung desperately to the ferocious pokemon, fear and despair etched on their faces. Their world was gone, erased by the fury of a caged god and the rush of cold seawater.

Delicate feelers broke the surface beside the gyarados, Wallace and his milotic appearing from the deep. Wallace's chest was heaving and blood was slowly leaking down the side of his head. He pulled himself onto the lip of the crater beside the waiting champion.

"Kyogre goes to meet Groudon," Steven started breathlessly. His skarmory stood on the lip of the crater, breaths sharp and ragged. "They appear to be moving towards Lilycove. We have to stop this madness."

Wallace looked longingly back down at the water. "There are still people trapped down there. I can't leave my city like this."

"Sootopolis is gone," Steven retorted. "All of Hoenn will be next if we don't stop this madness." He put a hand on his friend's shoulder. "The league will do what they can for those still buried, but we are needed right now."

Wallace finally turned and looked back at the champion. "What can we do against that thing? It destroyed my home without even trying. Groudon wiped out Lavaridge with a yawn. With all due respect, we're dealing with something beyond even you."

Steven raised a pair of pokeballs and showed them to his friend. "I may have something," he replied. "Titans from a long dead age. But I'll need your help to raise them. I have the relicanth. I have the wailord." He opened his hand, showing Wallace the pale scar carved into his palm. "I have the anchor."

"The Regi trio?" Wallace gasped. "They're a myth. They aren't actually real, are they?" He had learned much since he had met Steven three years prior. He had learned of Kyogre's slumber under the city and of the ancient myths of Hoenn's people. Still, knowing of a God's existence was much different than watching it destroy your home.

Steven sighed. He gestured over his shoulder at the drowned city. "Neither was Kyogre before today. Groudon was but a myth before it levelled Lavaridge. The Gods are real and they are here." He sighed and massaged his temples. "I have nothing left but this. Nothing I can do, but this."

"What about Rayquaza? The legends say that it stopped the fighting before." He folded his arms across his chest. "You can't possibly hope to control all three Golems alone."

A sad frown crossed his face. "I have tried, Wallace. I am no draconid. The Sky God does not answer my pleas. I am out of options and we are out of time." He looked back at the raging storm as it followed Kyogre out to sea. "If Hoenn has any chance, we must go now."

Wallace looked back at his gyarados, at the half-drowned children on her back. "My pokemon will stay here to help the rescue efforts."

Steven raised a strange flute to his lips. He blew into the flute, a long and haunting note echoing clearly out over the choppy water. Though the storm was still roaring in the distance, the wind seemed to calm ever so slightly.

Steven pulled the flute away, a far off look on his face. Wallace stepped back, perturbed by the distant stare in his friend's eyes. "Steven, what are you doing?"

The silver haired champion sagged on his feet, slumping against Wallace before he could catch himself. "They will aid us," he started hopefully. "They have to." Though his voice threatened to crack with exhaustion, he maintained the hopeful tone as best he could.

"Hoenn's guardians will aid us," Steven continued, forcing himself to his feet as the glowing scar on his pal throbbed with pain. He needed to be strong. His home was counting on him. "The Lati twins will help us."

Wallace gasped as a flash of blue in the distance drew his gaze. A second flash of pink light confirmed his suspicions. Wallace turned back to his friend as a pair of stars burned their way through the sky towards them. "Let's go save our home, then."

Lilycove City, Hoenn

They were losing. That much was clear. Humanity was losing a war that they weren't even a part of. Lilycove was practically gone, just a few grievously damaged skyscrapers the only reminder that this had once been the largest city in Hoenn.

Sidney and Phoebe were gone, lost in the chaos of the dying city. Glacia had been with him at some point, but the ice trainer had been swept away by the storm. The remaining gym leaders had been there to help evacuate the city, but Drake hadn't seen a single one since Kyogre had arrived and flooded the city. He was, as far as he could tell, the only one left.

Steven had asked him to buy time, contain the battle as much as he could. The champion had promised that he would arrive with aid, but the old sailor didn't know how much more time he had left. He didn't see how Steven could stop this either, but Drake kept that doubt to himself. He'd learned long ago to discount Steven Stone at his own peril.

Groudon roared as a colossal wave bowled over it. The ancient God of the Earth crushed through one of the few remaining skyscrapers, sending the remains of the steel superstructure crashing down on the city.

Drake roared alongside his salamance as a hyper beam glanced off Groudon's shoulder. The God slipped under Drake's assault as another hyper beam from his altaria carved a burning furrow into its leg. One of his flygon darted in, glowing with draconic energy as he charged the falling God.

A spear of rock shot from the earth, impaling a building as Groudon willed it forth. Drake's flygon was swatted from the sky with barely an afterthought, tumbling lifelessly away from the stone spear.

The Sea God pressed its advantage, seizing on Groudon's weakness. What seemed like half the ocean seemed to empty from Lilycove's harbour as Kyogre swept out to sea. Drake had been a sailor nearly his whole life. He had practically lived on the water. He could see water types thrashing on the dry ocean floor and he knew what was coming.

"Climb," he growled to his salamance. He turned his head. "Climb!" he roared to the rest of his dragons.

His altaria shrieked an answer through the storm, and he heard the telltale hum of his remaining flygon's wings. His salamance roared and beat his wings, carrying them higher into the sky.

They had to get higher, he'd seen tsunamis in his day. He had no doubt that a tsunami summoned by the ocean god would dwarf anything he'd ever seen.

Then he saw it. He gasped in terror, looking out at what seemed like half the ocean rising up to meet him. It was two, maybe three-hundred meters tall, a wave that would wash across Hoenn's mainland and leave nothing behind it but death. Kyogre itself rode the wave, bellowing a cry that shook Drake's weary old bones.

"Climb!" He roared, straining to be heard over the deafening wave.

His salamance redoubled his efforts, wings beating madly in a desperate effort to gain height. But they were going too slowly, they would never be able to get above the Ocean God's vengeance.

"Brace!" He roared as he held fast to his dragon's back. There was nothing he could do, nothing anyone could do.

A rush of cold air cut Drake down to the bone, but the crushing power of the wave never hit him. He opened his eyes as the titanic wall of water froze solid in moments. He could hear the ice cracking, rumbling as Kyogre's momentum ground to an icy halt.

Kyogre crashed through the frozen tsunami, a pair of steel fists battering it through the wave. A metal Titan followed, hammering into the fallen God with wordless fury. A stone Golem was already there, hammering the deity with a spear of stone that thrusted from the earth.

"Drake!" shouted a familiar voice. "Rally to me!"

Drake spun on the air, his salamance expertly pivoting on blood-red wings. The champion was here, silver hair streaming astride a bolt of blue light. A maelstrom of green power swirled around his outstretched fist, linking each of the legendary golems back to the Champion. The blue dragon beneath him roared their arrival, his pink-hued sister echoing him a half-moment later.

"The Lati twins," Drake muttered as the Champion and his friend soared past him. "And the Regi trio… Hoenn's guardians come to save us all." He bowed his head with instinctive respect, watching atop his dragon as Registeel pounded Kyogre across the face.

He locked eyes on Kyogre, watching the Sea God crash to the earth and plow through half of Lilycove. One of the few remaining skyscrapers toppled over, crashing heavily into the frozen surf. Drake cursed for all he was worth, mourning the lives of those who had still been trapped in the building.

"For Hoenn!" he roared. He was the last Elite, one of Hoenn's greatest defenders. So long as the champion still stood, so did he. His remaining dragons followed his lead, altaria and flygon taking their places at his side and echoing a deafening roar.

The stone Titan leapt up and landed on Kyogre's back, crushing a grunt of pain out of the god. It wailed mournfully, willing the ocean to aid it. The tide stormed forward, but a blizzard that stretched further than Drake dared to imagine roared to life as Regice landed at its side. The ocean froze solid in moments, adding to the ice wall that Kyogre's tsunami had formed.

"Hyper beam!" Drake roared over the titanic snap-crack of the ice breaking up. They had an opening now, one glorious opportunity to rip the damned Ocean God from the sea and trap it inland. Hoenn was not especially densely populated west of Lilycove, mostly just disparate wilderness pockmarked by stretches of farmland. They could force it westward, keep it away from what was left of the city. Maybe they could isolate Kyogre inland and kill the beast.

His salamance opened his maw, a brilliant ball of swirling energy gathering in the dragon's razor-toothed jaws. It erupted with violent screaming light, another hyper beam joining him from each side. Steven and Wallace were there with him, psychic light surging from their mounts.

They smote Kyogre from above, driving it back into the earth. A chasm opened up beneath the Ocean God, the bedrock literally tearing itself apart as Groudon reshaped the earth at will. Drake could see the hellish glow of molten rock bubbling in the deep and could not help the reverent awe that he felt. Their plans meant nothing, less than nothing to these primal beings.

They were battling Gods, creatures with enough immense power to literally reshape the planet. The chasm slammed shut as Regirock leapt away, swallowing the Ocean God whole as it shrieked in godly panic.

Drake warily glanced back at Groudon. The God of the Earth was unconcerned with an old man and his dragons. It turned towards the Regis, massive footfalls leaving puddles of liquid fire in the God's wake. Steven sat tall atop Latios, his silver hair shining brightly as harsh sunlight began to clear the storm clouds.

"Get over there!" Drake shouted.

His salamance roared, crimson wings pumping desperately for speed. He could hear his flygon's wings buzzing behind him, could see his altaria effortlessly keeping pace alongside him.

The earth shook below him. Drake glance down, worried that Groudon was bringing some fresh hell up to the surface. The ocean surged forward, putting that idea to rest as the ruined city was washed away by a swell of water. Storm clouds began to gather once again, swirling around one spot in particular.

He sucked in a breath. The fissure had sealed, leaving a gargantuan scar through the earth. Drake watched in abject horror as the earth bucked violently and the fissure widened ever so slightly. Water rushed down through the crack and his eyes widened in terror.

Drake looked up, shouting across the ruined city with all the strength he had left. "GET AWAY! GET AWA-"

The earth simply exploded. Thousands upon thousands of tons of molten rock were thrown into the air, steam exploding out of the fissure and flattening what little of Lilycove was still standing. The last remaining skyscraper twisted and toppled down onto Groudon's shoulder, the God shrugging it off effortlessly. Wallace held desperately to Latias as the wall of ash and steam slammed into them, knowing that losing his grip meant certain death.

Drake was gone, lost in the violent plume of steam and ash as the ocean boiled on contact with the molten earth. Kyogre rose from the maelstrom like a demon from the deep, letting out a long and furious cry as its eternal foe turned to face it.

"Steven!" he shouted, straining to be heard over the eruption. Latias drew closer to her brother, nervously letting out a whimper. "What do we do?"

The silver haired champion turned atop the blue dragon, his expression grim. He looked like he had aged a decade since the start of the battle. His eyes were ragged and sunken. Dark circles had appeared under his eyes and his cheeks had none of their usual meat to them. "Protect Hoenn," he said calmly. Steven stone met his eyes and Wallace saw the pain in them. He knew what he was doing. "Promise me you'll carry on when it's done. Someone has to rebuild after this all."

Wallace shook his head. "There's got to be another way!" He couldn't allow the Champion to do this, couldn't allow his closest friend to die.

"There isn't," Steven replied. He pointed at the kaiju as Groudon raised a sheer wall of earth that blunted a titanic wave of water. "Their battle will consume the whole world unless they are stopped. Someone has to do something."

"You'll die," Wallace said simply.

A strange calm seemed to come over Steven. He nodded slowly. "Then I die in service to Hoenn," he replied. "There is no greater cause than service to others. I want you to remember that, Wallace." He smiled and Wallace thought for a moment that he saw tears starting to form in Steven's eyes. "You'll need to remember that when you're Champion."

Wallace opened his mouth, whether to protest or demand that he stay and help Steven, he couldn't tell. Steven reached across the distance between them, touching his friend's hand as Kyogre raised another wave of titanic proportion. Green light shone from Steven's palm, sucking the life from him to fuel the Regis covenant with humanity.

"It's ok, Wallace. I want this," Steven looked away, down at the three Titans awaiting his command. He closed his hand, doing nothing to dim the anchor's light. "I need to do this."

Wallace found himself nodding. "You wouldn't be you if you didn't." He grabbed hold of Steven's hand. "Go then," he said weakly. "Go save the world."

Steven looked back at him, stormy grey eyes churning with conflict. His cheeks we thin and sallow, and the colour seemed to drain from his face. "I… I never told you," he stammered. "Now I'm out of time."

"It's ok," Wallace replied, trying to hold in a sob. "I already know. I love you too."

They sat there for a long moment, hands clasped in a desperate vision of what might have been. Ancient gods reshaped what had once been a thriving city before them, but nothing could break their embrace.

Steven pulled his hand away, a stern expression crossing his face. "Latias," he started, looking down at the pink dragon. "Take him somewhere safe."

Wallace opened his mouth to protest, but the dragon rocketed away. He twisted around, trying to get one last look at the man he loved. He caught a glimpse as he soared away, green power swirling around the grey-haired trainer atop a bolt of blue light.

Latias swung low over the ruined slope of Mount Chimney, slowing only long enough for Wallace to slip gracefully off her back. He looked back up at the sky as she rocketed away, watching the streak of pink light tear across the sky.

Then the earth shook with fury and Wallace watched armageddon come to Hoenn.

He was as close to a God as any human could ever claim to be. The legendary Golems were his. The Lati twins were his. He had more raw power at his disposal than even Grand Champion Shirona could have dreamed of. And yet, it still was not enough. He could feel his strength flowing through the anchor on his hand, keeping the legendary Titans tethered to him. He was growing weaker by the moment, his life fading away to fuel the terrible power in his hands.

Regirock led with its fists, but Kyogre's ire brought the wrath of the ocean down upon it. Its frozen kin was there, encasing the Ocean God in a frozen casket before it could end the stone Golem. Regirock burst from the ice as its frozen kin sealed the Sea God away, charging towards Groudon at Steven's urging.

Groudon batted aside Registeel like it was nothing more than a nuisance. The steel Titan skidded to a halt in the frozen muck, carving deep furrows as it tried to stop itself. Deep dents covered its armoured shell, green light leaking haphazardly from inside the Golem.

Regirock was there, leaping atop a spear of stone spear aimed at Groudon's heart. Steven felt his strength flagging as yet more of his life flew through the anchor, and he knew that he didn't have long left. He had to end this now.

Latios surged forward, a blast of psychic fire carving into the earth God's jaw. A pink bubble streaked through the battlefield as Regirock impaled the earth god with its final act, painting Groudon's throat with psychic fire.

The stone Titan buried itself deep in Groudon's chest, spearing it through with a suicidal stone edge. Groudon shrieked as it doubled over the stone spear, white-hot fury rolling off the wounded God in waves.

The ocean flash froze as Regice whipped a howling blizzard into existence. Groudon toppled backwards, snow and ice piling up as the Earth God roared in frustration. Registeel landed atop Groudon's chest, pounding metal fists into the toppled God.

The snow began to melt, sloughing off the earth God's body in great streams. Steven's eyes widened as Groudon's baleful golden eyes seemed to settle on him. Fire danced in the God's gaze and Steven knew that he had lost.

The earth opened beneath Groudon, a geyser of molten lava spewing into the sky. Regice simply ceased to be, boiling into steam as the lava engulfed it. Registeel stumbled backwards, legs bending under its weight as the heat began to melt them. Groudon righted itself on the lava floe, swinging around to face the melting Titan.

Steven reached out, tossing out a ball. A shining silver shell appeared, four limbs stretching out from his metagross. The steel-type shone with psychic light, powerful barriers springing into place around it.

"Meteor mash!" Steven roared as the anchor went dark, Registeel melting into nothing as the lava overtook it. He felt the strength returning to him and knew that the Golems had failed. It was down to him.

His metagross fell like a stone, fist outstretched and wreathed in power. He followed it down, Latios wreathing itself in a psychic aura. The dragon's sister surged ahead of him, encased in her protective psychic bubble.

His metagross landed a blow on Groudon's jaw. Latias slammed into the Earth God's chest, forcing it back off balance. Steven and Latios drove directly into Groudon's chest, sending it tumbling back into the lava.

A thunderous crash tore through the air as Kyogre burst through the weakened ice, a vengeful cry erupting across the ruined city.

Steven's eyes widened as a wave larger than either of the other ones that Regice had frozen swelled to life behind the massive Sea God. He had nothing to stop this.

His metagross leapt up, fists glowing as it rocketed towards Kyogre. It defended him without thought, his starter's loyalty bringing a tear to his eyes.

Kyogre opened its maw, spewing a torrent of water that blasted his metagross into the earth. The levitating tank bounced through the ruined city and Steven lost his starter in the rubble.

He held tightly to Latios, praying for a miracle.

His eyes shut as he heard Groudon rise to its feet behind him. He'd failed. Both Gods would tear the world apart in their endless war. Then the wave crashed over him as Kyogre smote Hoenn's stubborn Champion under an ocean's worth of water.

Steven held on for dear life, the wave smashing Latios off the ground. A shimmering barrier held strong over them, though Latios could do nothing to stop them from being tossed upon the wave along with half of Lilycove.

They broke the surface of the water for a single moment and it was all that the dragon needed. He soared into the air, Steven throwing up an arm to shield himself from the salty spray beneath them. A pink stream of light tore through the spray, splashing harmlessly against Kyogre's side.

Latias spun off a clumsy attempt at retaliation, almost effortlessly avoiding Kyogre's hydro pump. She carved a bloody path along the God's side, a roaring pulse of purple energy piercing into blubber.

Latios swooped low to aid her sister, Steven still clutching desperately to his back. He saw it too late to do anything, watched Groudon open its maw and the fire boiling in its throat.

Latios pulled a psychic barrier up at the last moment, throwing everything he had into a last ditch effort. Steven felt the air grow thin and the searing heat seeping through the barrier as Latios whined in effort.

Then the flames ended and Groudon's tail was hurtling up to meet him. He sucked in sharply and the earth god made contact. He heard a high pitched psychic pop, and his world spun to pieces.

Latios desperately tried to right himself, but the dragon was wounded now and Steven was far too heavy a burden. They hit the ground, bouncing twice before Latios lost consciousness and Steven was thrown hurtling from the dragon's back.

He skidded to a halt, rolling uncontrollably and smashing violently off of rubble strewn across the field. Steven Stone came to a halt in the frozen muck, trying and failing to draw a breath.

He lay there in awe of the duelling Gods, limbs stubbornly refusing to move. He could see Latias still harassing the primordial foes, but knew that she was doomed like everyone else had been. She couldn't defeat these two alone, not where their best efforts had fallen short.

A spear of golden light tore through the storm, driving Kyogre into the earth with practiced ease. A twisting, writhing dragon rose from the crumpled body of the Sea God and Steven felt his heartbeat quicken in his chest. Rayquaza was here.

Groudon roared fearfully, scrambling backwards as the Sky God slowly advanced upon it. Then the flying dragon began to glow with golden light. Steven's eyes widened as he watched Hoenn's saviour drive relentlessly into Groudon's heart.

He felt the rumble of the earth as Groudon smashed off the ground. The earth rumbled and protested, but Rayquaza was stronger than the Earth God could ever hope to be. Hoenn's ancient protector reared back and Steven knew that it was over.

His vision began to fade, dark shadows starting to creep in at the edges of his sight. He felt a solemn presence touch his mind and realized that his metag was still alive.

Tears streamed freely down his face. He had known that he was sending his starter into an impossible situation. Knowing that his stubborn old metagross had survived anyways was all the peace that his body needed.

He felt something lumber over him, and blankly watched his Metagross lift him off the ground with its mind. He tried to turn his head to watch Rayquaza savage the rising Kyogre, but found that his head refused to turn.

Calm acceptance washed over him as his metagross confirmed his suspicions. He was broken. There would be no miracles for him. Not even Jirachi's wish would have been able to save him now. He felt himself fall to the ground and looked helplessly up at the sky.

Steven Stone faded away. He didn't fight the end. Hoenn was safe. The world was safe. Wallace was safe. That was all that mattered to him.

Joshthewriter · Mar 3, 2022

The Champions

Part 1

A Shade of Myself

We were already broken. Each of us messed up in our own special way. I had my PTSD. Alder was a drunk. Benga, a bloodthirsry savage. Liza was lost and alone. But that fucking war? It tore our broken souls into a thousand pieces and dared us to stitch ourselves back together so we could be broken a hundred more times. To say it was hell would be a disservice to hell.

- Jason Rykker, 'The Shade'

I leaned forward in the seat, straightening my spine. The lights flared behind my guest and I breathed in sharply, acutely aware of myself. Even during my League days, I'd never been particularly happy in the spotlight. I was content to live a humble life in the middle of nowhere with the last few members of my team. Of course, recent events made that an impossibility now.

"Relax, Mr. Rykker. Forget about the camera. It's just the two of us having a drink in your study."

I shot her a look that probably made her regret ever coming out for the interview. Or not, I could never tell with reporters. "I just don't like the lights is all," I replied, managing to keep a civil tone. "I spent too much time in them during my younger days."

She didn't answer immediately, still fiddling with her voice recorder. She was young, probably only a year or two older than I'd been when I made Champion. Just another example of the League's stunning efforts to influence public perception.

They'd never wanted the interviews to go ahead in the first place, preferring to steer the narrative with coordinated leaks to friendly media members. They said that it would be safer for any survivors that way, to minimize the spotlight on our horrific actions during those nine months of hell. So they'd worked their magic and had the youngest and most inexperienced reporter in UNN's docket assigned to my interview.

She looked up at me, voice recorder finally ready. "So, shall we begin?" She asked. She lifted her notepad and glanced down at the clipboard containing the League provided talking points.

I nodded, ready to steer the script away from those approved talking points as aggressively as I could. We went through hell for this country. I wasn't about to hide the real war from it. "Ready as I'll ever be."

"Then let's start at the beginning. Tell me about how the Champions came together. Tell me what happened that fateful night two years ago."

I nodded. "You're expecting some grand show of comraderie. Some great heroic speech that rallied the rest of the Champions behind me." I smirked, knowing that I'd grab her attention with the story of that fateful night. "But the truth is that we weren't even 'The Champions' until the war was over. We were just a bunch of scared trainers who refused to give up our friends to Ghetsis." I tipped back the drink I had poured for myself and steeled myself for the memories. "I was just making dinner when it happened."

The news had been blaring all day. A breaking news chevron ticked across the screen as a half-dozen talking heads offered useless opinion and banter in a confusing mess. Opelucid was still buried in ice, and chaos ruled the streets. I was in the kitchen, scrambling together a quick meal before I missed something important. As hectic as the night had been, we were hungry. We still had to eat, and like hell I was trusting Sherys in the kitchen.

"Jason?" Sherys called from the couch. Her voice sounded scared, worse than it had been when I run into the kitchen. "You better come see this."

I dashed back down the hallway and into the living room, eyes gravitating immediately towards the TV. The breaking news chevron was back and the scene cut to the anchorman with a solemn look on his face. "Ladies and gentlemen, I regret that I bring some terrible news. The Opelucid City Gym Leader, Drayden Shaga has been confirmed to have been killed in the attack. No word yet on the official casualty numbers, but Unova has suffered a terrible tragedy today."

I didn't say anything, still staring at the screen mutely as the anchor continued droning on. Drayden gone... It just didn't seem possible. He was so indomitable, so indestructible. He was the media's darling, the heir apparent to Alder's throne until he revealed that he'd been grooming young Iris for the role. Rumour had it that the only reason he hadn't taken the Champion's mantle was his respect for Alder.

Sherys broke the silence with a nervous cough. She picked up the remote and turned off the TV. She was trembling, looking at me for any clue as to my thoughts. I'd seen her cry a thousand times in her movies, but now that there were streams of very real tears running down her beautifully sculpted face I was lost.

"Tell me about her," the reporter asked. She looked up at me when I didn't reply. "What was your marriage to Sherys like?"

I paused, knowing that there was no going back from the things I was about to say. I'd be dragging the name of a dead woman through the mud for my own political purpose. I'd say that the decision took me time, but my mind had been decided months ago.

"It was a private hell of our own making," I replied after a half a beat. "Sherys was a nice enough woman, but it was never a marriage of love. I was a status symbol to her, just a way for her to climb the social ranks just a little bit higher. She used the prestige that our marriage gave her to land starring roles in damn nearly every training drama worth mentioning..." I trailed off, my empty gaze dropping to the floor. "Did you know that she was the League Chairman's granddaughter? I didn't. Not until a few weeks ago actually." My heartbeat quickened and I shook the ice around my drink. "Explains a lot about how things were to be honest."

"And you met her through your contacts with Elesa Kamitsure?"

I nodded. "Yeah, Elesa introduced me to one of her modelling friends, set us up on the first date. I actually thought it went well..." I downed the rest of my drink and finally looked back at my guest. "Everything seemed so right at first. Maybe it was real at first. Maybe it was all fake, or maybe just some of it was…" I picked up the bottle I had brought to the study and poured myself another glass. "What the hell do I know? I'm just a stubborn old man who preferred the company of his pokemon to a young woman after my heart."

The reporter continued scrawling at her notes for another moment before looking up at me. "And what made you realize that it wasn't, as you called it, a marriage of love?"

I shrugged.

She smiled at me, a smile that took me off guard. She did look a little like Sherys did at her age, and I think she knew that. She was smarter than I had taken her for, this reporter. She'd done her research. "Now now, Mr Rykker, you did promise to answer my questions. All of them."

I sighed and looked down at the floor. "There was just this endless tension between us. Probably because she was the Chairman's grandchild. She was a pawn as much as I was. It hung over both of us, even though I didn't understand why at the time. I was kept under close watch by the League and allowed to resume casual training, and the Chairman put his prized grandchild into a marriage that flung her into the upper echelons of society."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "You were allowed to continue training?" She asked. "Was there a reason you had to stop? If I remember correctly, you retired without losing your mantle as Champion. What could possibly stop someone like that from continuing casual training at the least?"

I smiled. She had taken the bait. I knew she would. She reminded me of myself a bit, with her attitude. She resented this assignment too, even if I was likely to advance her career significantly. Nobody wanted to interview the broken old man with anger issues so they'd sent the youngest and most inexperienced member of their reporting team. They would probably regret that soon enough. Someone a little more experienced might have been able to stop me, steer me toward what the network wanted.

I sat forward in my chair, a devious grin on my face. "The League really doesn't like its dirty laundry aired out in public. I've signed a half-dozen contracts that mean I can't say anything regarding this issue in particular, but there are those who are not similarly bound by that thorny issue. Others who may be able to answer a tough question like that."

She leaned in closer to me, brushing her curly blonde locks out of her face. "I've never been the type to shy away from tough questions."

I smiled. "Good," I said softly. "That'll make this a whole lot easier." I leaned back and sipped on my drink again. "Ask me another question. We should really get on with our interview."

She flipped through her notes and then looked up at me with a satisfied grin. "What made you call Alder that night? Records show that you called him twelve times after UNN went live with the attack on Opelucid."

I leaned back with a smug knowing grin that the camera would just eat up. "That was a good question, Ms Hall."

I picked up the phone again. He hadn't answered the last six times, but I had to try anyways. Nobody knew what was going on, and my League handler wouldn't answer his phone either. Sherys had begged me not to bother calling, crying that getting myself killed being a hero wouldn't help anyone. As if I had playing hero on my mind at all. Most of my friends either worked or lived at the League campus north of Opelucid. I was just trying to figure out what was going on. Whether we were really under attack or the situation was under control.

Alder answered on the third ring. "Rykker?" He asked, panting loudly over the phone. "You got a lot of nerve calling now."

An explosion rang across the line and I pulled the phone away from my ear. "The hell you doing?" I asked.

More scuffling and shouts echoed across the line. "I'm a bit busy at the moment," Alder half shouted, his voice muffled as if he wasn't speaking into the phone. "What do you want?"

"To pass the fucking time, what the fuck do you think?" I turned back to look at the TV and caught Sherys crying into her phone. She'd pulled her platinum blonde hair into a tight ponytail and was half-dressed. I ignored her, watching the UNN feed crackle and die in the middle of the broadcast. "What the hell is happening Alder?"

The scuffling on the other end slowly abated and died. I heard the phone lift off the dock and somebody breathing heavily. "The same thing that happened two years ago," he said. "Except this time we don't have a hero to save us. Plasma is back. They have some new weapon. It just… It freezes everything..." He trailed off and I felt the hurt in his voice. "Iris is gone." He said suddenly. "They hit the league HQ first. All the elites, the executives, Iris…" He trailed off again. Alder had lost his family in a terrible accident at sea a few years back. Only him and his grandson had survived, and he had turned to the drink for it. Iris had been close to Alder since she'd defeated him and become Champion. He'd looked at her like another member of his family and she'd saved him from the bottle. Her loss was sure to send my old friend off the deep end again.

I took a second to breathe. "What do we do?" I asked. As much as Alder was grieving, he'd have a plan for this. He always did.

"Get out of the country. They'll shut off the teleporters within the day. Our best shot is the Mistralton airport, as long as we get there before Plasma does."

I nodded and turned to look at Sherys. She was peering out the window, rapid-fire panicking into her cell. At least she'd finished dressing. We'd have to leave immediately. "Meet you there?" I asked.

"I'll try, but I just had a member of the Shadow Tri-"

The line died in a sudden burst of static. I pulled the phone away from my ear and looked at it suspiciously. That hadn't been a normal disconnection. One of the lines had been cut. I put the phone down and hung up on the call. I picked it back up cautiously, praying that I would hear a normal dial tone. Angry static answered me.

"Sherys," I called, turning away from the phone. Our line had been cut. Somebody was here. "Get away from the window."

She turned to look at me, still panicking into her phone. She lowered it and opened her mouth to say something.

I never heard what she said. The window exploded, peppering the living room with a thousand shards of glass. A dagger of glass impaled my right shoulder, but I was saved from the brunt of the blast by virtue of standing in the hallway between our kitchen and living room.

Sherys hadn't been so lucky. She'd been at the window. She fell back and hit the floor hard. I could hear her desperately gasping for air. I tore out the shard of glass in my shoulder, probably doing permanent damage in the process. I didn't care. I crawled over to my wife, cussing under my breath with every agonizing movement as I painted the chic carpet she'd picked out with my blood.

It was too late for me to do anything for her. She was dead by the time I'd crawled across the room. My gorgeous, innocent wife was dead and I couldn't do a damn thing to save her.

She sat back, stretching her arms. "You said that it wasn't a marriage of love. But at the same time, you've previously mentioned the death of your wife as one of the hardest hitting deaths of the war. Why do you think that Sherys' death has weighed on you so heavily?"

I sighed and shrugged again. "I couldn't say. We were never overly close, except for at the beginning. But you don't just live with someone for almost ten years without coming to care for them."

She looked up at me. "There's more to it than that though. You gave a completely different answer to your League handlers during your debrief."

"You aren't supposed to have access to that," I growled. I'd been downright hostile to the League spooks when they brought me in. As little as I cared about my public image, that recording was not one that painted me in a good light.

She smiled. "I'm a good reporter, Mr. Rykker, despite my age. It wouldn't be the first time I got a hold of something the League didn't want released."

I stayed silent for a moment, just studying her. I wasn't sure whether to open up or kick her out of my house. She was smarter than I'd given her credit for

"Look," she started. "I can tell that you've got a whole little blood feud going on between you and the League. It's plain enough to anyone with a brain. I know that you're planning on hijacking this interview to paint the League in the worst light you can. But I'm here to tell your story. This interview? It's not for the league. It's for the people of Unova. They want to meet their heroes. They want to know that they're people just like the rest of us." She sat back and glanced down at my drink, brushing her hair away from her face again.

I nodded slowly. I reached down for my bottle and picked it up. I slowly and methodically topped off my glass and produced another one from my side table. I poured a generous amount and held it out to her. She took it in silence, still watching me as I put the bottle back beside my chair. "I told you already that I'm not a hero. A real hero would have saved the people they cared about."

"Instead, you just saved hundreds of innocent trainers and directly contributed to the downfall of a dangerous madman. Not all heroes are straight from legend."

I smirked. She really was good at using words to her advantage. Probably why she was a reporter. I raised my glass and clinked it against hers. "To heroes then," I said solemnly.

She raised her glass and we drank together.

Sherys just looked up at me with that stiff, terrified expression. I didn't know what was happening, or what to do. I felt like anything but a hero in that moment.

Fortunately, my pokemon weren't so lackadaisical in their own responses. Demeter, my trevenant was bellowing a ghastly warning out in the yard. Phantom roots and vines had risen from the dirt and wrapped themselves around the assailant. My phantom tree had always felt more at home standing guard outside the house, and now she had turned my front yard into a nightmare of haunted foliage. I couldn't tell where Soulfire was, but the chandelure had to be close by. I could feel his careful gaze on me, watching for any further disturbance.

I left Sherys there, something that haunts me to this day. She was just a pawn like me, used by the League for their twisted version of control. She was an innocent woman, married to someone she didn't love. She didn't deserve to die for the fact that she lived with me. The fact remained that I didn't have the time to spare a proper burial. Demeter may have stopped the attacker, but I doubted that he'd be the last. Plasma had planned on wiping all Champion level trainers off the board during their first attempt at bringing down the League, and if this really was them I could be sure that they still had that plan.

So we ran. I returned Soulfire and Demeter to their balls. As much as their presence would have comforted me, they were far too conspicuous for easy travel. They were the only two remaining members of my championship team. They were celebrities in their own right, with Soulfire's league highlight page eclipsing my own in viewership.

I released Mandagar, my mandibuzz outside. She was a relatively recent capture, having only recently wandered onto the property and found herself captured by a pair of obscenely powerful ghosts. Still, I needed to fly halfway across Unova in the dead of night. She'd taken to my orders relatively well, but I still had my reservations about the bird. Mandibuzz are vengeful, patient creatures. If she'd wanted to he could have gutted me and flown off, or simply just bucked me off mid-flight. Thankfully though, she had no such plans for the moment.

"We made it to Mistralton just before morning," I said. I tipped back my drink again, downing the rest of it. "I bought myself a one-way ticket to Kanto. I thought we were home free."

"So you never planned on gathering in Mistralton?" She asked. "It was just all a coincidence?"

"Coincidence, fate, call it whatever you want. Just because that's where we fought together for the first time, doesn't mean anything."

She scrawled madly at her notes before looking back up at me. "So, what happened next?"

I sighed and lifted the bottle again. This was the part that I'd been dreading. The part that I had never wanted to tell another living soul again. "I found her alone, crying to herself."

"Would you be referring to Ms. Mayweather?"

I winced audibly at the mention of her name. "Yeah," I replied in a cold tone. "That's where I met Liza."

She sipped at her own drink and then looked back at me. "So, what actually happened next?"

I frowned, thinking back to that god-forsaken airport. "We survived. Despite all of fate's best efforts, we survived."

Joshthewriter · Mar 4, 2022

The Champions

Part 2

A Fragile Soul

I trudged through the Mistralton airport with a wide-brimmed hat that I'd swiped off the rack at the airport's duty-free shop pulled down to hide my face. I wasn't the only trainer here, there were more hiding in every corner, but I was likely the most famous by far. Former Champions aren't exactly a common sight in public, even during moments of crisis like this. I'd caught a few lingering glances and I knew that I'd been made by at least one of the other trainers here. There was nothing I could have done about it though. My flight didn't leave for another three hours.

I passed by the desk at the gate and stole a glance at the woman manning the desk. She was deep in argument with a young woman who was growing increasingly agitated. I caught a few lightly accented words and swore under my breath as I realized that she was a foreign trainer, just trying to get out of the country before she lost her friends. I ducked off to the side of the gate and sat myself in the corner of the seating area, as far away from any prying eyes as I could get. As much as I'd have loved to help, I was in no position to do much more than offer empty words.

I flipped open my Xtranceiver and stared blankly at the screen. Alder still hadn't answered any of my hundred or so texts, making me worried. He was strong, but he was not invincible. None of us were, as we had clearly been shown. Drayden and Iris were examples enough of that. I slammed the Xtranceiver shut and looked out at the rest of the terminal from under my hat.

The face of Unova's most infamous trainer stared back at me from across the terminal. His messy green hair was tucked under a wide-brimmed hat much like my own, tufts of hair sticking out from the sides of the hat undermining his effort to hide himself. His companion sat down beside him, a girl probably still in the midst of her league challenge. She was sleeping as far as I could tell, her arms folded and her eyes shut. He held a single finger up to his lips, shushing me.

"So, that's where you met N as well?" She asked as she pushed her glass toward me for a refill.

We'd moved into my kitchen after I'd complained about needing a snack. She hadn't protested, so I'd put together a platter of snacks for the both of us. Meats, cheeses, veggies, berries, everything you could want was piled up high and served with an oversized jar of vegetable dip. It wasn't much of a meal, but I hadn't really been expecting her to stay for dinner. My fridge wasn't usually stocked for two. It was this or a frozen entree, and I didn't think the entree was appropriate.

I poured her another generous glass of liquor and pushed it back towards her. "Technically, we'd already briefly met, but yes that is where we spoke for the first time."

She sipped at her drink, washing down her food. "What was he like?"

I looked down at my food, my feeling conflicted. On one hand, he had been a pawn of Ghetsis during the first Plasma crisis. He'd been used and discarded the moment his usefulness ran its course, just like I had been. On the other hand, he was still the same man who led a rebellion against the League that resulted in dozens of deaths. He was complicit in that as much as the League had been in creating the conditions that lead to it.

"He was a dreamer," I said cryptically. "He still saw the world in the same light, still saw the injustice in the League's system. He was still just as ready to fight for a better world." I shrugged, not knowing exactly how to articulate myself. "At least this time he was on our side."

"That's all great, but I was looking for a more personal take." She put down her notepad and raised an eyebrow at me. "Something real, personal to you."

I looked up at her and she saw the conflict worn clear on my face. "I hated him for what he was. He was a living symbol of the League's failings. His very existence sparked questions about the League's system, just because he dared to ask if things could be different. Don't get me wrong, I have my issues with the way the League works, but it is fundamentally a good thing." I smiled, lost in thoughts of a happier world. "The idea of a team of people dedicated to the safety of the people? A team to defend us against the monsters of the wild? Its an optimistic idea to be sure. As if that team, that Champion would be above political motives and bullshit of the day..."

She looked at me with an intriguing smile. "I take it that its not quite as pure as you expected?"

I frowned. "I never asked for that kind of responsibility. Hell, I didn't know anything about responsibility when I made Champion. I was fifteen for fuck's sake." I shook my head. "I'm sorry, I really can't explain any further. I've already probably said too much."

She raised an eyebrow at me. "In the privacy of your own home?"

I smiled innocently at her. "As if I would be allowed such privacy. Do you really think that I'm afforded that? That the League would allow that?"

She looked down at her notes and frowned. "We were talking about N," she said. She was smart. I could see her putting the clues together in her head. "What did you think of him personally?"

I nodded and sat back in my chair. I'd given her the clues, hammered her over the head with some of them. All that was left was for me to finish up our interview. "He was nothing like the news reports made him out to be, all soft concern and compassion for those who had been wronged. He was no fiery revolutionary, despite what I'd seen on the news. Just a lost soul looking for someone to help him."

She looked straight into my eyes and I felt her gaze working through the layers of emotionless exterior that I kept around myself. "But you still hated him?" she asked quietly.

I nodded. "Yes," I said coldly. "He still thought himself above us, like he was better than the rest of us because he didn't call himself a trainer." I shook my head. "He still had a team of pokemon fit to rival any Champion. He still called them into battle, even when they had no hope of winning. He was a trainer, whether he liked that or not."

She nodded and jotted down a note on her pad. "Where did you meet Ms. Mayweather?" She asked, pivoting away from N. I think she could tell that she wasn't going to get anything useful out of me with that subject. "Records show she was a part of 'The Champions' from the very beginning. How did she come into play?"

My expression froze. I fought the urge to pitch my drink at the mention of her name. She hadn't deserved that cold fate, even less so than the rest of us. "Eliza Mayweather was perhaps the greatest hero out of the six. She was trapped in a foreign country, with enemies at every turn. Through it all, she held onto hope that she would see her home again… Hope that I tried to give her."

"What happened, Mr. Rykker?"

I hung my head in shame. "She died."

It had been two and a half agonizing hours. Alder still hadn't shown, something that was beginning to give me pause. I wasn't entirely sure whether I should get on the plane or not.

Another outburst from the desk drew my attention, along with every other person in the terminal. The woman who had been at desk when I arrived was back at the desk, pleading with the attendant in an increasingly desperate tone.

I glanced around, watching a half dozen of the other travellers at the gate begin discreetly filming her. She was drawing attention to us all, too much for my liking. Plasma could arrive at any second, and she'd given them the equivalent of a blinking sign in the sky. I stood up, catching a knowing wink from N in the process. The smug bastard probably already knew what I was doing.

I crossed the gate quickly and sidled up behind the woman. She was sobbing, loud and hard into her phone. "Excuse me?" I said. "Is there a problem?"

"Oh!" the desk attendant said. "Mr. Rykker, my apologies. We had no clue that you were among us today. I was just-"

"Stop," I said, hushing her before she could continue. She'd recognized me instantly, something I'd been afraid of. At least I could use that to my advantage. Being a celebrity does have its uses at times. "What is the issue here?" I continued. "It's probably not very good for business for Air Unova to have a former Champion as a disgruntled passenger." I turned to the young woman and smiled. "What seems to be the problem with my companion here?"

"Well, as I was just explaining to Ms. Mayweather, we cannot change the departure time for any reason. These things are determined far in advan-"

I turned away, half hauling the desperate young woman away from the desk. She wasn't going to get anywhere like this, and I needed her to calm down. It drew every pair of eyes in the terminal, something that I'd feared. There was nothing I could do. I had to calm her down before someone from Plasma caught wind of the dozen or so trainers impatiently waiting for escape. Or else we were all dead anyways.

I sat her down in the seat and knelt in front of her. She met my gaze with her own and I could tell she was angry. "Look," I started. "I want to get out of here just as much as you do." My mind drifted back to Sherys and I suppressed tears that I couldn't spare. "Making a scene is just gonna bring them down on us that much faster. You understand?"

She looked down at her phone, slowly calming the massive sobs wracking her body. "We should have left already," she said between sobs. "We can't be here when they get here. They'll separate us from our pokemon, take them away from us."

"No," I said. "They won't. They're killing any who resist. The fact that you're here, with me? It means that you resisted."

"I didn't-"

I cut her off with an angry glare. "Look, I didn't make the rules. But we have to stay calm. That's the only thing that's gonna get us through this." My eyes didn't leave hers, and I felt her slowly relax as she slowed her breathing. "We aren't the only trainers here, so let's stay calm until we have a reason to panic. We're all here for the same thing so let's just relax and wait for the plane." I smiled as best I could, hoping that my words would get through to her.

She nodded slowly. "Thank you," she mumbled.

I smiled in a thinly veiled attempt to raise her mood. "Don't mention it," I said. I stood up slowly and sat down in the seat beside her. "What's your name, kid?" She couldn't have been older than fifteen or sixteen. Probably came over to try her hand at the Unova circuit when she stalled out in her home country. It was pretty common back then.

"My name is Liza. I'm from Hoenn."

I nodded, scanning the crowd for any inquisitive faces. I caught N's gaze for a moment and the condescending bastard just smirked at me. "Well, Miss Liza, welcome to Unova. As you can see, we're in the middle of something at the moment. Please try not to judge us too harshly for it."

She looked at me blankly, shoulder length brown hair perfectly framing her pretty, young face. She had a red bow tied in her hair and I noticed that her travel gear was relatively new. "Was that supposed to be funny?" She asked.

I grimaced. I was really only used to speaking with Sherys and my League handler on a regular basis and it was showing. Even my sarcasm wasn't funny, possessing none of the with that I'd had in my youth. "Yes," I said blankly. I looked down at her outfit, eager to change the subject. "New to Unova? I asked?"

She nodded. "Got here less than a month ago. I was planning on running the League circuit, but that isn't happening now."

I smiled at her. She was just a kid, travelling and seeing the world before she challenged the League most likely. She was still optimistic about the way the world worked, a lot like I had been before I made Champion. I pitied her. "You probably dodged a bullet there," I said.

She turned to look at me, confused. "How so?"

I smiled, my best facsimile of an innocent smile. "The League isn't what you think it is, kid. Take it from me, you're better off finding yourself a nice cushy private sector job and settling down. Better that than trap yourself in responsibility that you never asked for."

She studied my face. I knew I wasn't making a good first impression, but I didn't really care. I'd calmed her down and gotten her away from the desk. That was all that I really cared about. "You're just a ray a sunshine, aren't you?"

I smirked. "I'm positively golden," I replied. "Jason Rykker, former Champion of the Unova League."

She frowned and looked down at her phone. "I know," she started, before she fell silent.

I traced her view to her phone screen. It was open on a message. I looked away, not trying to intrude. It was already too late for that though. There are some things that aren't for other people to see. That was one of them.

"If you don't mind my intrusion, what was the message?" She asked.

I frowned. I hadn't been trying to intrude myself. It still hurt to think about what that kid was trying to say. That she never would get an answer. "I didn't catch it," I said curtly. "It wasn't for my eyes to see."

She frowned. "But your eyes did see it. I can see that on your face."

I met her gaze and I think she felt that pushing on this wasn't going to get her an answer. So she changed her tack. "Moving on," she continued. "Your plane was leaving in half an hour. What happened that made you miss it?"

My grip tightened on my drink almost imperceptibly. I never liked showing my emotions to others, even less so when they'd share them with even more. This interview was practically my worst nightmare. "We actually made it to boarding. N and his companion somehow had been a part of the priority boarding and were already on board. Eliza and I were in line, just a few spots away from the desk."

I relaxed my grip on my drink ever so slightly. Perhaps my therapist had been right by telling me to talk about all this. Should have listened to her before I fired her.

"Then, the goddamn ceiling exploded. Chunks of concrete, steel, rebar, wood, everything that had been above us just collapsed. I felt a chill down to my bones, and I could barely feel my hands anymore."

"Was that the arrival of the weapon?" she asked.

I nodded. "It came from the south, after visiting Castelia and burying Burgh in a casket of ice. Driftveil and Mistralton apparently surrendered right then and there, upon seeing what had happened to Castelia. We had no idea what was happening. With UNN down, the only news we could find were scattered social media posts. All our windows were facing north, so we couldn't even see that damned airship bearing down on us. It hit the airport with that damned weapon and damn-near trapped us all inside."

She nodded, taking down notes furiously. "How did you escape?" she asked. "It seems like an impossible situation. Kind of makes you see why the public looks at you all like heroes. You did the impossible."

I snorted with a rude laugh. "Impossible?" I asked incredulously."We were lucky, and smart, and still that wasn't enough! Look who's left of us! Just me and Benga, and Benga ain't gonna tell anyone what really happened, what we really had to do. Little cocky bastard did enough to be considered a fucking war criminal if he'd lost."

"We're getting sidetracked," she said. "How did you get out of the airport?"

I smiled, thinking back to that beautiful bastard's entrance. "Alder," I said. "And a metric fucking ton of luck."

I groaned, lifting with all the strength I had. Demeter was at my side, helping me lift the steel girder off Liza's leg. The poor girl had been trapped under the ceiling as it fell, sheer luck sparing me from being crushed alongside her. She wriggled out, cursing and spitting in an accent that had noticeably thickened.

"Thanks," she said quietly as she dusted herself off. "What now?"

I found it odd that she so immediately trusted me, but I guess being a Champion does lend you that kind of trust in dire situations. "We gotta move, before..."

She followed my gaze, finding the reason my voice had just died in my throat. The massive airship floating above Mistralton was a monstrosity, hundreds of slits peeking open at us from the bottom of the ship. My heart skipped a beat as I realized that they were cannons of some kind. A larger weapon was slung below the ship, venting snow in massive plumes that already blanketed the ship's path.

The cannon groaned and shifted as the ship hovered in place. I turned to look at Eliza, fear in my eyes. "Do you have any fire types?" I asked.

She shook her head. I could see movement from the remnants of the airport terminal, but I had no time to call for more assistance. I had no way of knowing if any of those still alive were even trainers.

I swore. Soulfire was out in a flash of light, his ghostly flames doing nothing to ward off the cold. Ghost fire did not offer heat, not for the living. "Find us a tunnel!" I shouted, looking back at Liza. It was a ghost of a chance, a thin hope at best, but there had to be some way out. I turned back to face the ship, my courage drying up as I watched the massive cannon level itself with me. I glanced up at my chandelure, watching the flame in his central lantern rage against cruel fate. "Overheat!"

Soulfire erupted like a volcano. For a brief, fleeting moment, the full force of a champion level fire type ignited the morning sky.

The ship fired again, painting the sky white with ice and snow. An avalance met the force of the sun, clashing with an eruption of steam.

I covered my face with my arm, praying that Eliza had survived the blast. Demeter was at my side, and I knew that we had precious little time. "HYPER BEAM!"

Demeter opened her maw, a brilliant ball of iridescent energy swirling in the dead tree's open mouth. She spat the beam into the sky, directly at the ship that had buried us in snow. I felt the shockwave hit us and stumbled when it washed over me. I looked back up into the sky, praying that I'd just saved us all.

The steam cleared after a few moments, leaving us with a horrifying sight. The ship hung there motionless, not a scratch on the hull. I couldn't even see an impact crater on the bottom of the ship, giving me fear that Demeter had missed.

The ship's cannon began venting snow again, and I resigned myself to my fate. My pokemon were spent, Demeter barely even able to move after using a move like that. Soulfire wouldn't be able to use overheat at that power again, not so soon after the last time. We were dead.

Flames and lightning erupted from the ruined terminal. They hit some kind of invisible barrier around the ship. The bubble of energy flared and I realized that fighting would be futile. We were all so dead.

A charizard lifted off the ground, carrying a young trainer into the sky. They were trying to hit the ship from a different angle or something. The kid was brave. He was the son of a former Kantoan Champion, on vacation with some of his friends. They were the ones fighting now, taking after my example. They were the real heroes. Not one of them were over thirteen, and yet they rushed into battle regardless.

I never saw the ship fire. I only saw the result. A couple idealistic kids dead, their pokemon gored by a hundred spears of ice. The charizard and her rider hit the ground off to my side, plowing through the frozen remnants of a plane's fuselage. I wasn't watching anymore, I'd turned away to look for Liza. She waved me over and I ran for my life. I returned my pokemon to my ball, doing my best impression of a civilian just running for their lives. It would never have worked. I was too far away and I'd already given myself away as a trainer.

Alder and Benga chose their moment perfectly. A pair of volcarona swept over the battlefield, bathing the airship in flames that would have melted any of my pokemon on their best day. I covered my eyes as a pair of stars hit the ship's shield with all the force that the flaming bugs could muster. A firestorm erupted overhead and I no longer spared any thought for the battle overhead. My only thought was of survival.

I found myself in the tunnel that Liza had been waving from. N was sitting against the wall of the tunnel panting heavily. His companion was gone. I didn't bother to ask what had happened. I didn't have to.

I set down my drink and glanced back at the clock. "It's getting late, Ms Hall. Perhaps we should continue this in the morning?"

She looked up from her notepad. "Agreed," she said. She glanced at the time and grimaced at the realization of how late it was. Or perhaps it was early at this point, I could never tell. "It seems that I should have booked a hotel room."

I raised an eyebrow. I wasn't surprised by that. There weren't many hotels around my remote home north of Aspertia, and the interview had only been supposed to last an hour or so. "I do have a spare room, if you wouldn't mind staying the night."

She nodded and closed her notebook. "I wouldn't," she said. "We can continue the rest of the interview tomorrow."

I rose to my feet and dropped our shared plate into the sink. "Follow me, then," I said. "But stay close. I've heard that this place can be very haunted at night."

She drew closer to me and I couldn't help but chuckle. The ghosts that haunted me weren't pokemon, but she didn't need to know that. She didn't need to know that I still see their faces in my dreams at night. The house wasn't any more haunted than my last house had been. I was the one who was haunted by the past, by the memories of those I couldn't save.

I might not be a hero, but maybe I can give those memories the justice they deserve. Just maybe. All it'll take is a little push in the right direction.

Joshthewriter · Mar 5, 2022

The Champions

Part 3

What it Means to Lose

Demeter was in her usual place in the yard, feigning innocence as a normal tree. As if the misshapen hollow trunk could be anything other than haunted. There was a rustle of movement on the fence line and I watched Demeter's eyes light up.

Phantom roots tore free of the dirt, wrapping around the intruders eagerly. A pair of lillipup writhed in Demeter's grasp, howling and yelping madly as my ghost lifted them into the air. Demeter scuttled over to them and her trunk cracked open to reveal rows of jagged, razor sharp teeth.

A deafening bark interrupted her meal. A pair of stoutland leapt over the fence, landing between Demeter and her morsels. They growled as the lean forms of nearly a dozen herdier slunk through the underbrush to join their pack leaders.

Demeter looked back at me with one baleful eye. She had the strength to tear the entire pack to pieces if she decided to do so, but she looked to me for guidance first.

I shook my head. We did not need to make enemies of the wild pokemon out here. This was their home as much as ours.

Demeter closed her maw and slowly lowered the two pups, reluctant to let her catch go. I would have to let her hunt soon, she was getting restless.

The pack departed a moment later, one of the stoutland glancing up at the human watching from his study. The pokemon's eyes lingered on me for a long moment, and then they were gone.

"Enjoying the show?"

I turned. She was standing in the door, haggard and half asleep. Her hair was up in a messy bun, loose strands poking in every direction. The stoutland must have woken her. It was easy to forget that normal people slept for more than an hour or two each night.

"Demeter is restless," I said. "She misses battling."

"Don't you?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Save the questions for your interview, miss Hall."

She smiled softly and I couldn't help the flutter of life that I felt in my chest. She really did look like Sherys. It almost wasn't fair. "It's a fair question. People don't just disappear into the woods." She shrugged. "I don't know, you just got me thinking. What are you really out here for? What made you move to the middle of the damn wilderness?"

I sighed. She was insistent, so we might as well start. "Shower is down the hall from your room." I stood up, draining the rest of my coffee. "I'll get another pot brewing."

We fought like madmen, like demons had possessed us. There was no option for mercy, no truly safe place we could retreat to. Each battle was simple. Kill or be killed. Win or die. There was no middle ground. If we lost just once, it was all over. With travel in and out of Unova locked down, we had no other choice but to keep fighting.

Liza lost her delcatty, Beauty, when we hit the rail yards in Nimbasa. Elesa had been feeding us information on a new staging ground being built just outside the city. Our best chance was taking out the rail yards and lines that led to Plasma's new base.

It had been a bloodbath, with civilians caught in the crossfire on both sides. Plasma didn't care about the civilians and we couldn't afford to spare our attention for them. More than once I came across the body of someone who'd gotten too close to one of my ghosts, to say nothing of the carnage Benga's dragons caused. Not one of us was innocent that night, save for Liza herself as usual.

We rescued a pair of trainers from the fledgling base before Alder's volcarona laid waste to the construction site. Brothers, from Undella town. They thanked us and disappeared into the night. I never saw them again.

A week later, we stopped Plasma as they raided the store that had been feeding us supplies. We weren't fast enough to save the store owner or his family though. Plasma had left them outside as bait, still bound to draw us in. That was the last time we had any willing help from the civilian population. Too many people were cowed into silence by the threat that came with aiding the resistance.

Those opening months of the war burned through the last of my tattered morality. I fought like a Champion once more. I killed. I had no other choice. None of us did.

There was one time where I'd been knocked out by an explosion. Something hit the gas tanks of the fuel refinery we were attempting to sabotage. I was thrown like a rag doll, woke up half an hour later with the rest of the poor bastard that had been beside me plastered across my body. I still smell that damn stench every night when I think that I might sleep.

Liza lost her innocence and half of her team in the first few months. Years of work raising them, and in three months Plasma took half of her progress away as if it meant nothing.

Alder retreated into the drink again. It was rare a moment that he did not have a bottle or a flask in his hands. His mood turned sour, much like it had done after his family's accident.

Benga was the only one who didn't lose himself. Mostly because the savage little shit lived for battle. He fought with a ferocity that surprised even Alder, if you could get him to admit it. His dragons left more bodies behind than any of ours, more than Plasma ever dared to.

N was changed more than any of us by the war. The compassionate hero of ideals that stole the hearts of half of Unova was a wreck of his former self. He just didn't have the same spark, that same heart that he used to. Watching your father commit genocide and being forced to commit atrocities of your own would break even the strongest person. It broke N utterly. Well, that or the deaths of half his team in the Black City rebellion did.

She flipped open her notepad and leaned back in her seat. "The League paints the resistance as a tragic effort, doomed from the very start. In their portrayal, you barely held on until the Hero of Truth saved Unova for a second time."

I couldn't help but to snort in laughter. "That's an understatement if I've ever heard one. We were hopelessly outmatched by Plasma's new weapon. Even with the two inferno bugs, we couldn't do more than scratch the paint on the fucking thing."

"So what was your plan?"

I shrugged and looked down at my coffee noncommittally. "Hit them wherever it wasn't. Oftentimes, we'd have Alder or Benga draw that damn war machine away so we could strike at a holding facility or hit whatever infrastructure they were setting up."

"But it did work, at least for a time?"

I nodded. "We barely slowed them down, but we made a difference. We saved less than five hundred trainers. Out of tens of thousands, less than five hundred. So many cocky young kids just starting their journey, retired trainers like myself…" My voice dropped to a whisper and I fought the urge to seize up. "It's the things like this that still haunt me, miss Hall. The unimaginable horror that we witnessed on a daily basis. Not a day went by where the spectre of death did not hang over us all. I forget sometimes, for an hour or two. I let myself rest. Their faces always come back in my dreams."

She lowered her note pad and I saw the concern etched on her face. "We don't have to do this," she said softly. "We can sto-"

I slammed my fist on the table. "No, we can't! Those people deserve better than to be swept under the rug like they never existed, like they didn't lose their lives because of us!" I slowed my breathing. I couldn't come off as unhinged in the interview. I needed people to see the hurt in me, to see the pain of knowledge that I carried. "Sixty-two thousand trainers were registered in Unova at the time. There were less than a thousand at the end of the Second Plasma Crisis." I scowled. "I don't have to tell you the math for you to understand that."

"When I was Champion, the League was already crumbling under the weight of rank corruption among our officials. I did what I could, but who listens to a kid? I couldn't make a difference then, and by the time I was old enough to be taken seriously I'd had enough of fighting the system." I sighed heavily and met her piercing eyes. "I failed Unova as a Champion. She deserved better than a jaded fool like me. I let the system create the monster that was Plasma. I let our country be overtaken by extremism and ran when the task was too much for me."

She was quiet for a moment while she studied the notes she had made. "In your opinion, did the League react sufficiently to the first Plasma insurrection?"

I met her eyes with a sad, knowing smile. "Not at all. They let the rank and file walk with some community service for the most part. The leaders were forced to pay a fine and pledge never to participate in politics again." I snorted at the thought. "They wanted N, and Ghetsis, but how were they planning on finding them? They'd both disappeared after the Hero saved all our asses."

"Mr. Blake did go after them though."

I shook my head. "No, he went after N. Poor bastard was a misguided fool, but Ghetsis was the real threat. N had always just been a pawn, even if he was the figurehead on Plasma's throne." I paused for a long moment and drained the rest of my coffee. "Nobody went after Ghetsis."

She frowned. "But the League-"

"Assigned a task force to hunt him down," I replied curtly. "Which was never funded and never began field operations. Almost as if someone didn't want Ghetsis found."

She frowned. "Who would have wanted that?" She asked.

I shrugged. "Like I said, the danger of not punishing insurrection leads to more insurrection. Someone at League HQ was on Ghetsis' side. Not like anyone who knows who is still alive. Why do you think Ghetsis had his flying fortress ice League HQ first?"

"Covering his tracks," she commented. "He destroyed all the evidence of League involvement."

I nodded. "What makes you think Benga's new League is any different?"

N had us a plan to end the war. It was madness, absolutely insane bullshit, but we had nothing else. There was no other play. Just the mother of all Hail Mary plays.

We were to stage a two-pronged assault on Plasma's main base, a facility that they constructed over the Great Chasm. Benga and Alder would lead the trainers we'd managed to recruit against the fortress while Eliza, N and I snuck past the outer defences and blew the generators powering its weapons.

We had help from a few other regional Leagues, notably the Indigo and Hoenn leagues. They had their own Plasma sympathizer movements brewing and wanted to uproot the entire source. I wasn't going to complain, especially when nearly two-hundred elite level trainers appeared on our doorstep. Even had a few Elites that came in real handy.

Ghetsis was struggling for control by this point. He couldn't be everywhere at once and we knew it. The general population seemed to know it too. People weren't offering help anymore, but the tone of conversation grew in volume. People had seen Plasma struggle to stamp us out and it gave them hope.

We put out feelers into the civilian population for aid. I didn't expect much, but N put out the call. He denounced what Plasma had become and called on any former members to join the final fight against true evil. Plasma would catch wind of the plan, but we wanted that. We wanted them to meet us with everything they had. We would be meeting them with everything we had and more. It was only fair.

When we finally met at the ruins of Humilau City. The tropical waters had been frozen solid when Ghetsis had first gotten wind of Resistance activity. Six months later, the entire lagoon the city was built over was still on ice.

We had the our people bunk up in the city. Nearly two-thousand trainers and armed civilians, all hardened by half a year of brutal war. To my knowledge, it was the largest force of trainers ever gathered in Unova. We were a bunch of scared kids and exhausted retirees, but we were an army.

We'd gotten word that Plasma was pulling back, drawing down their numbers in the occupied cities nationwide. They must have realized what was going on. Alder and I made the call. There was no more waiting. We marched for war. Unova had been spared true war during the first Plasma Crisis. This time, she would not be so lucky.

I leaned back in my chair. My drink was heavy in my hand. I looked down at the glass and drained it. "I've never repeated this story to another person," I started. "That day… that battle… it was the closest thing to hell on earth, except it was frozen." I shuddered and closed my eyes. "The main thrust of the army charged the fortress, braving the fire of those frigid cannons with the help of the foreign Elites.

I led N and Eliza ahead, using Soulfire to keep the fire off of us. We cut our way through Plasma's lines and kept going, catching them off guard with the suddenness of our attack."

"All reports of the battle itself are muddled at best. Owing to both the scarce number of survivors and the lack of transparent public documentation, we have no clue what really happened there." She looked up from her pad. "So tell me," she continued. "What did happen? Plasma fell, but Champion Benga was uncooperative to say the least."

I looked at my empty drink and scowled. "We were saved yet again, when we didn't deserve it. The Hero of Truth and the Hero of Ideals came to our rescue. And they paid for our victory dearly." I rose to my feet, a stoic mask hiding my brooding mind. Just thinking about that day was bringing back the horrors, like I was reliving the events with every word. "I am sorry, miss Hall. I seem to have run out of whiskey." The face of the young Plasma guard as Soulfire immolated him roared to the front of my mind. "If you'll excuse me," I mumbled. I turned and walked away, leaving my interviewer sitting quietly in my study.

I wandered for a few minutes, mindlessly pacing the kitchen before disappearing into my liquor cellar. Down there I could hide. Down there I was alone. Down there, the faces couldn't find me.

Joshthewriter · Mar 6, 2022

The Champions

Part 4

Truth Laid Bare

We were under fire from the moment we broke cover. A few of the Indigo Elites were drawing most of it, but Plasma had fortified the hell out of that base. There were at least half a dozen gun emplacements, all of them raining steel down onto the field. One of the foreign Elites went up on his aerodactyl, burning away the big guns as he went. It wasn't much, but it was enough at least to give us an opening.

He made for the airship docked to the roof of the base, Alder and Benga going with him as more of our trainers swarmed the walls of the compound. We were taking losses, but we had a chance with the airship still docked and her cannon silent.

Soulfire melted us a hole in the wall. There'd been a pair of guards on the other side. They were charred beyond recognition and I stepped over their corpses like they meant nothing. More trainers charged through behind us, an entrance finally made into the base itself.

N, Liza and I moved deeper into the base, cutting our way through the mooks Neo-Plasma had hired as our forces moved into the compound. Plasma been an army of dreamers and idealists before. Now, Ghetsis had hired an army of criminals and malcontents. He still had the shadow triad on his side, but most of his troops were little more than armed thugs with a scant few mercenary trainers thrown in. We'd cut through these men our entire war, and that didn't change now.

N led the way, I cut us a path and Liza covered my ass. It all made for a well oiled machine. We even cut our way through Ghetsis' precious shadow triad, leaving the foreign shinobi dead in the dirt. It seemed like we might even win… Until it arrived. Until he arrived on the field. Then we were dead, and nothing could save us but a miracle.

I tightened my grip on the glass. "Alder and Benga had gone to confront Ghetsis. A mistake, perhaps the one that I think of most."

She leaned over her notepad. "Why would you say that?" She asked.

"Ghetsis really really wanted Alder dead. I think the preceding Champion's continued survival was a personal insult to a guy like that. He had to put Alder down, had to crush our spirits and end the battle decisively."

"You are a former Unova League Champion yourself. Was this same reaction not extended to you?"

I shook my head. "I was hardly a celebrity by the beginning of the war. Alder was our public face, Alder was the one the public believed in, who our hastily recruited army fell behind." I met her eyes again. "Why do you think Ghetsis did what he did?"

"So that is when he released the creature?"

I nodded, glancing over at the fire I'd built in the small fireplace off my study. It got cold out here sometimes, especially as Unova's climate recovered from the final atrocity of Ghetsis' war. "Kyurem should have been left at the bottom of that fucking chasm," I said. "Instead, Ghetsis found it and corrupted it. He turned a noble creature into a weapon of war." I looked back at her. "Then we got our fucking miracle."

Demeter shrieked in panic, pointing up at the deafening thrum of power. The airship was opening, the chamber around her ventral cannon splitting apart. The temperature plummeted, like something had sucked all the warmth straight from the world.

I ducked back behind cover, bellowing desperately at Soulfire. My chandelure lit up like a supernova, a storm of ghostfire rising to meet our icy doom. A second firestorm joined ours, N and his darmanitan having the same idea.

It wasn't enough. It was never going to be enough. We managed to clear part of the incoming attack, but you can't truly stop something like that. Eliza was down, clutching at the frozen spear that had impaled her through the chest.

I got to my feet, taking a nervous step towards the girl who never lost hope that she'd get home. I didn't make another. I just stood there a long moment. She was just gone, like she'd never been there at all.

Pain and panic erupted from the compound, Plasma and our forces all struck by Kyurem's terrible power. Ghetsis fired on his own people's positions, just to hit us. It was just cruelty at this point. This wasn't a war anymore, only death for the sake of death. At least half our forces were down, more of Neo-Plasma. One of the foreign Elites was dead, his pokemon's psychic barriers falling away uselessly.

Ghetsis waved something forward. We saw the terrible shape of his hydreigon looming over his shoulder. We saw the body of our beloved Champion raised high over the side of the ship. Then he fell. Alder fell and there was nothing any of us could do.

"Alder's death has been said to have been the rallying cry that saved the allied forces." She looked up from her notepad, a look of exhaustion on her face. I'd been recounting the battle for at least an hour, poring over ever detail I could recall. If I was tired, I could imagine how she felt. "Champion Benga referred to it as the turning point."

I scowled, shaking my head. "It was the turning point, but not because of anything we did. Alder's death broke our forces. I saw trainers just staring defeated up at the ship, pokemon waiting for Kyurem to kill the rest of us. Benga wants to act like we rallied behind him as he avenged his grandfather…"

She raised an eyebrow as my voice trailed off. "Did you not?"

I shook my head. "I don't know where Benga was. I thought he had gone to help Alder and the surviving foreign Elite, but there was no sign of him." I looked directly at her, letting her see the truth in my eyes. "We did not rally. We hid and cowered and let Unova's real heroes win the day."

"Who would that have been?"

"Truth and Ideals themselves," I replied. "People who were better than 'The Champions' could ever have claimed to be."

"N and Hilbert?" She asked.

I nodded slamming back the last of my drink. "Like I said, real heroes."

I'd only ever seen N unleash Zekrom once before. When his team had been caught out of position and outnumbered in Black City, he'd loosed a storm that had melted several city blocks to a sea of molten glass. It had won us the day and allowed our escape that day, at a heavy cost.

He loosed Zekrom now, bathing the airship's open cannon cavity with living light. Another deafening roar echoed from above and living flame joined the fray. Reshiram was here, the Hero of Truth mounted astride the dragon.

Both dragons hit Kyurem, taking it down to the chasm along with a large portion of the airship. We could hear the terrible struggle, could feel the walls of the chasm aching with the stress. I'd seen the aftermath of the terrible war between gods in Hoenn the year before. I knew that we had to go, lest all of us be swallowed by the chasm.

I ordered our remaining forces to retreat from the base, supporting any injured that they could. I didn't discriminate between Neo-Plasma members or allied trainers and neither did they. We were one species for a brief moment, all working to stay alive.

Then Benga appeared, Ghetsis' corpse in tow. The chasm behind him began to collapse and we could hear the terrible sounds of battle threatening to rise from the deep again. I didn't stop to ask questions. I didn't stop to think. I should have. Maybe I could have stopped him then.

Miss Hall leaned forward, looking at me expectantly. "What are you implying, Mister Rykker? That Champion Benga allowed Alder to be killed?"

I shrugged. "I'm just connecting the dots, Miss Hall. Benga didn't require medical attention, neither did any of his pokemon. How did he take down a trainer like Ghetsis without a single injury?" She didn't answer, so I continued my rant. "Just look at the testimony of the surviving Indigo Elite. He testified that Benga was conspicuously absent from the final battle. Both Alder and the Elite were both under the impression that they had Benga's support."

She sat back, a disbelieving look on her face. "I don't believe that Champion Benga would have killed his own grandfather."

"I never said that he did," I replied. "Just that his own pokemon were uninjured. The foreign Elite corroborates this story, having berated our new Champion after the battle…" I trailed off, letting her mind work through the clues. "Benga stood aside and let them battle alone, only to swoop in at the last moment to steal the glory. He ensured that he would become the next League Champion, that he and not Alder would stand as Unova's new hero."

She shook her head, sighing. "I just don't believe it," she said. "He may not be what the League presents him as, but Champion Benga is not suspected of causing Alder's death.

I shrugged. "You can tell yourself that as many times as you like. I prefer to believe that he is who he is who he showed himself to be."

It was silent for a long, painful moment. She stared down at her notepad, wrinkling her nose. "Nobody's going to believe your story," she said. "It'll get buried and you'll be painted as a hermit driven crazy by the war."

"Maybe I am," I said, looking down at an empty glass. "Maybe I'm just a crazy old man who doesn't remember the most horrific events of my life. Maybe I've forgotten things that could never be forgotten." I smirked, knowing that I'd done enough. "But you're wrong that nobody's going to believe me."

She raised her eyebrow. "Who'd believe you?" She asked. "I don't even really believe you."

"Benga will," I replied. "And he'll show you the truth that I couldn't." I stood up, walking over to the large window over my yard. "Go back to UNN. File your story. Then wait. Soon you'll all see just what kind of monster you've anointed."

Joshthewriter · Mar 7, 2022

You already know why I chose to cut everything before the first gym battle. I may write a one-shot or a short of Marcus leaving home, but I’m not sure yet.

The battles in this story are honestly a heavy focus. There’s no pointless fights, and heavy stakes are present throughout. Outside one or two chaotic messes, the battles are a personal highlight as well.

Luna gets by far the most characterization, followed probably by his first capture (chapter 3). Curie is admittedly adorable to the extreme.

Brock as an Elite-level trainer is the first hint of the trainer classification system. It gets expanded on as the fic continues. Basically, Elite-level means has that the trainer has beaten 8 gyms and competed in a league conference.

The Elite Four are less of a challenge for trainers and more regional defenders coordinated by the Champion (although the winner of the league conference is afforded an opportunity to challenge the Elite Four and Champion).

Confuse-Wisp is a combo move! I thought I had explicitly mentioned this, but apparently not. (I checked again, I do mention that he’s using a combo move. I wanted to show that Marcus was slightly more capable than a complete novice)

The its issues is my autocorrect. Thought I’d found them all, apparently not lol.

Defense/Defence… I’m Canadian and we use proper English up here. It’s defence and it always will be.

I slip back into “they did the thing, doing the thing” too often. I know, sorry.

Thanks for reading!

Joshthewriter · Mar 8, 2022

The Champions

Part 5

Guilt and Conviction

I sat back in front of the television, tall glass of whisky in my hand. Soulfire was above the kitchen table, glowing faintly and casting the entire room in pale, cold light. The UNN special was set to begin, and I knew we would be receiving visitors before it was over.

I kicked back, my recliner's stool flipping out as I leaned back. The screen went dark, ominous music kicking in. I lifted my remote, flipping on the surround sound and cranking the volume.

'Two years ago, they saved the region from true tyranny. They stopped Ghetsis, stopped the second Plasma Crisis, but so much of their war is shrouded in mystery. So much has been a secret, until now. Join us tonight as we unravel the story behind The Champions.'

I smirked. This was gonna be good.

'Miss Eliza Mayweather was the simplest of the team.'

Liza's face flashed up on the screen. It morphed, shifting to highlights of her Hoenn League Gym matches.

'She was a young girl, joining Unova's League after a disappointing loss in her home region of Hoenn.'

I appeared on the screen, sitting in my study with a drink. My expression was cold and frozen. "Eliza Mayweather was perhaps the greatest hero out of the six. She was trapped in a foreign country, with enemies at every turn. Through it all, she held onto hope that she would see her home again…" my voice trailed off and I saw the pain and hurt on my face. "Hope that I tried to give her."

Miss Hall leaned forward. "What happened, Mr. Rykker?"

I hung my head and all of Unova got to see the pain. "She died."

The screen cut back to Eliza, back to a picture of her smiling with her sylveon. She looked so young.

'Miss Mayweather joined The Champions right at the beginning, when a chance encounter at Mistralton International Airport brought her into contact with former League Champion Jason Rykker…

Elesa's perky smile appeared on the screen. Her hair was up in some weird style that involved hoops and her stunning dress cut a lithe figure.

I cracked a grin. "Always the show off," I said. "Could never resist it, could you?"

"He was always a bit grim, but the war really took a toll on him. Jason was always more at home with his ghosts. After Opelucid was hit, after Sherys' death… I think he lost himself a bit. He let the ghosts take control… it was scary."

"You didn't see Jason Rykker until the battle at the Nimbasa railyards, correct?"

Elesa nodded. "I'd released my pokemon and stayed in Nimbasa, escaping Neo-Plasma's retribution. I was feeding them supplies and intel and… they came at night. Jason was haggard and gaunt, his eyes seemed to be just empty. It was like he was hardly even a person anymore, just a shade of who he used to be…"

Elesa had a far-off look in her eye, a sad frown etched on her face. "The sky was burning and I could see the shape of the two volcarona dancing through the smoke. He was covered in blood, none of it his…" She trailed off and looked away from the camera. "He told me that he missed his house, he missed his wife… I just wanted to tell him it was all going to be ok, but I couldn't."

The interviewer leaned into frame, holding a tissue out to her. "What would you tell him now, if he were listening?"

She looked back up at the camera. "That he should really call me back," she said, attempting a weak grin.

I held back a chuckle and drained the rest of my drink. I got to my feet, content to ignore the rest of my profile. It didn't matter. Nothing did until the end of my interview aired.

I walked into the kitchen, flipping my X-transceiver open and dialling Elesa. It rang twice.

"That was quick," Elesa's remarked. "You really missed me, eh?"

I grunted in response.

She shifted and I could hear voices in the background. "I'm surprised you actually went through with the interview," she said. "Surprised they could even find you."

I opened my mouth, looking for words. I didn't even remember seeing her that night, didn't remember half of anything after I'd woken up covered in someone else's blood. "I miss her," I said, settling on something I knew.

"I know," she replied. "You can say that it wasn't love all you want, Jason. I know you, I know the truth."

I looked up at my chandelure, fighting back the tears. "It wasn't real," I said. "But I miss her all the same."

"It was real," she said. "Sherys was my friend. Maybe it didn't start out as real, but it grew into something to be proud of."

The mention of her name broke my façade. I bit back a sob, but the tears were freely falling. "I miss everything about her, the laughing, the smiling… even the terrible burnt grilled cheese…"

There was a long pause. "You want me to fly out?" She asked. "I can probably be in Aspertia by tomorrow night."

"No," I replied forcefully. "There won't be a point, darling."

She paused again. "Jason… what do you mean by that?"

I lowered the phone. "Just keep watching," I said. "I couldn't just let it sit. I couldn't just let him get away with it…"

"Jason, what did you-"

I ended the call and lifted the bottle of whiskey. My nerves were flaring up and they needed calmed. I turned back to my living room, taking the bottle with me. I wasn't going to need the glass.

"He was a dreamer," I said with a cryptic frown. "He still saw the world in the same light, still saw the injustice in the League's system. He was still just as ready to fight for a better world." I shrugged, not knowing exactly how to articulate myself. "At least this time he was on our side."

"That's all great, but I was looking for a more personal take." She put down her notepad and her head cocked to the side. "Something real, personal to you."

I looked up at her and the camera perfectly framed the conflict worn clear on my face. "I hated him for what he was. He was a living symbol of the League's failings. His very existence sparked questions about the League's system, just because he dared to ask if things could be different."

The screen cut to N, his green hair blowing in the wind. A raging fire was literally behind him, framing him in destructive light.

"He was dangerous," Benga said, his grinning face appearing on the screen. "And after everything he did, could we really trust him?" Benga shrugged. "I know I definitely didn't-"

I reached up, muting my entertainment centre while Benga droned on about N's incompetence. I tipped back my bottle and drained the rest of the whisky.

The narrator shifted towards introducing Benga as I got to my feet. I needed another drink and now was as good a time as any. I didn't need to know any more about that little monster. I knew enough.

I flipped open my X-Transceiver with my free hand as I grabbed a second bottle out of the cupboard, tapping out a short message to our dear champion.

'Hope you're watching.'

"But despite Champion Benga Adeku's continued insistence, rumours of war crimes committed on both sides of the conflict persist."

The screen cut back to me, sitting morose in my study. My gaze didn't meet the camera and I spoke slowly, searching for the right words. "He just enjoyed it a little too much," I said. "The war was his crucible, his bloody evolution."

"I know that I lost control. I know that people are dead because of me, no matter how much restraint I showed." I shook my head. "But Benga? Restraint was reserved for none."

"What are you saying, mister Rykker?"

I scowled. "That we're all monsters, miss Hall. And Benga's just the monster at the top of the food chain."

My phone buzzed angrily. I flipped it open, smirking at the furious reply.

'YOU ARE DEAD.'

I grinned. I was already dead inside. It was time I dragged the real monster down with me. It wouldn't be long now. All I had to do was wait.

It was near the end of the program. They'd been covering the final battle, dancing around what I'd accused Benga of. I was still waiting, still watching for the last little bit of weight that would tip the scales away from that monster.

I was back on the screen, righteous anger on my face as I directed the trainers out of Plasma's crumbling base. "Alder was the one we believed in, the one we fell behind."

The scene cut to a grainy photo of Alder being thrown from the ship by Ghetsis' hydreigon. "Alder and Benga had gone to confront Ghetsis…"

The screen cut again, back to the two newscasters sitting at the desk. "Indigo League representatives have made Elite Lance Wataru aware of the following testimony. While the Elite refused to be interviewed, he did corroborate the following interview."

We were back in my study. My face was gaunt , I'd been speaking for the better part of the day. I was tired. I was exhausted from the years of carrying the war in my head.

Miss Hall leaned forward, looking at me expectantly. "What are you implying, Mister Rykker? That Champion Benga allowed Alder to be killed?"

I shrugged. "I'm just connecting the dots, Miss Hall. Benga didn't require medical attention, neither did any of his pokemon. How did he take down a trainer like Ghetsis without a single injury?" She didn't answer, so I continued my rant. "Just look at the testimony of the surviving Indigo Elite. He testified that Benga was conspicuously absent from the final battle. Both Alder and the Elite were both under the impression that they had Benga's support."

She sat back, a disbelieving look on her face. "I don't believe that Champion Benga would have killed his own grandfather."

"I never said that he did," I replied. "Just that his own pokemon were uninjured. The foreign Elite corroborates this story, having berated our new Champion after the battle…" I trailed off, letting her mind work through the clues. "Benga stood aside and let them battle alone, only to swoop in at the last moment to steal the glory. He ensured that he would become the next League Champion, that he and not Alder would stand as Unova's new hero."

She shook her head, sighing. "I just don't believe it," she said. "He may not be what the League presents him as, but Champion Benga is not suspected of causing Alder's death.

I shrugged. "You can tell yourself that as many times as you like. I prefer to believe that he is who he is who he showed himself to be."

My study faded and we slowly cut back to the UNN news desk. The blonde woman on the left straightened the stack of papers in front of her as the man nervously cleared his throat.

"There you have it," he started. "The truth laid-"

An explosion of violent light interrupted his words. The feed died in a scream of pain and static. I lifted my remote, flipping over to one of Unova's other news channels.

"We are getting unconfirmed reports of an explosion at UNN headquarters in Castelia City."

The man put a finger to his ear, looking off camera. "We've got some footage apparently, posted online from a trainer flying into Castelia."

The screen cut to a shaky view of the fireball, engulfing several floors worth of Castelia skyline. The building groaned and bent as the supports on one side of the building gave way to the flames.

Then it emerged. Wreathed in flame and burning with furious light, the volcarona tore itself free of the building. It twisted away, the upper floors smashing into the building beside it. Glass and debris showered down from the collapsing buildings, no doubt raining death on the busy streets below.

My phone buzzed and I looked down. I knew who it would be from before I even read it.

'You're next.'

I was waiting on my porch, half-drank bottle of whiskey in my hand. Soulfire was hanging from the roof of the veranda, Demeter waiting in the garden. I'd even dragged Malvus, my old cofragius, out of the basement. We had a champion to greet.

My phone rang again, the same number that had been calling since the attack on UNN. I ignored it. Whoever it was, it didn't matter anymore. I'd be dead before the night was out. I'd be free to see Sherys and Liza, free to be with those I'd loved and lost.

It rang again, this time Elesa's ringtone. I let it ring once, then answered with a grunt.

"He's coming for you," she said. "And he's gonna kill you."

"I know," I said with a shrug. I couldn't help the peace that the idea brought me. "It was worth it. Everyone sees him for what he is now."

She sighed in frustration. "I've got an Indigo League Elite here, breathing down my neck. They're intervening, pulling anyone they can before Benga really starts purging Unova's ranks." She paused for a moment. "The Champion is on his way to you, just a few minutes out."

I sighed as the incandescent form of a volcano bug appeared over the darkening horizon. "He is already here," I said. "I'm sorry, Elesa. I had to expose him for what he did… it was the only way."

I lowered the phone. She was still yelling through the phone, but I lost the words. I looked up at Soulfire. "Be ready. We'll only get the one chance."

My chandelure nodded at me and I turned my attention to the approaching fire.

He swept across the wilderness north of Aspertia, his volcarona trailing a plume of flame. The forest beneath them burned, a wide path laying charred and smoking behind him. I'd worried about sharing the forest with the pokemon who inhabited it. I no longer had that worry.

He hung in the air as he approached, looking down on me. The malevolent glow of his volcano bug cast sadistic shadows across his face. "I heard what you had to say," he half-shouted down to me. "I wasn't a fan."

"All of Unova saw you for who you are today. Not just me."

He descended, slipping off his pokemon's back as he fluttered to the ground. "They'll see what I-"

We sprung the trap. Demeter was there, her haunted stump springing to life. A dozen spectral vines wrapped around the volcarona's wings as Malvus' sarcophagus swung open. Wrapping sprung from the ancient casket as infernal chanting grew louder.

Benga swivelled about, turning to face me as Soulfire dropped down beside me. He reached for his belt as I gave my order.

Soulfire erupted like a sun, bringing day back to the smouldering forest. Benga disappeared under the fire and I stepped back and flung an arm up to shield my face.

I felt the earth rumble beneath me and knew that I had failed.

The very ground underneath my home opened. I felt it tip backwards and leapt from the porch as the earth swallowed my house whole.

Soulfire's angle of fire was cut off and the stream of flame died as well. He levitated from the pit that had swallowed my home, but it was too late. Benga stood unharmed, a dragonite and a garchomp towering over us both.

"Well?" he asked. "Was that all?"

Demeter was shrieking, fleeing as the volcarona laid waste to her garden. Malvus was gone, back into his casket. I'd never see him again, not unless I got my miracle. Only Soulfire was still here, hovering over my shoulder.

"It was," I said. "You'll never win now. Unova knows what you did."

"They know nothing," he hissed. "They will know what I-"

"You showed them exactly what they needed to know. You are no Champion. You are nothing like what he was."

He scowled, his face contorting in anger. "I told you I'd kill you," he said slowly. "I told you what that little act of insolence would get you. You did it anyways." He glanced back at his dragons. "Kill this-"

A bolt of psychic light ripped over the treetops, driving Benga's garchomp into the earth. The dragonite bellowed and turned, but a fist wreathed in godly power pummelled the dragon into submission. The volcarona shrieked as fire surrounded it, but a flick of Mewtwo's wrist quenched the fire with a cold gust of psychic wind.

A true Champion hovered over the treetops, Mewtwo's power holding the young man aloft. He floated down to the ground, his hand over the belt of balls on his waist. "It's over, Benga."

Benga turned, scowling at the Indigo Champion. "Red," he said. "You've given Mewtwo some upgrades, it seems."

Mewtwo flexed an arm built with powerful muscle. It was more monstrous than Rykker remembered the news reports from Indigo, like it had been hitting the gym relentlessly.

"Surrender now, and I'll allow you to live." Red clenched his fist, preparing for a real fight. "Or fight, and I let Mewtwo do what he was created for."

Benga looked cautiously between Red and Rykker. "You would risk open war? For him?"

Red nodded. "Would war really be what you wanted?" He asked. "Your region lies in ruin, partly by your hand. Think about your people! Think about-"

Benga shot forward, howling an order in a vain attempt to surprise Red. Mewtwo raised an arm and Benga sailed off over the forest. His screams echoed for a short moment, before the dragons launched themselves from the earth after their master.

Red looked over at the former Champion, walking across the ruined garden. "We should go," he said. "He'll be back."

"You should have killed him," I said. "He'll use this to draw up more support."

The young man shot me a pained look. "I will not cause any more death," he said. "Benga has caused enough pain. It would not do to leave him as a martyr."

He dropped his hand to his belt, releasing a large pidgeot that cawed to the sky. "We must hurry," he said. "We should get back to Kanto before he can launch a counterattack."

"We?" I asked.

Red shot me an impatient glare. "Indigo has no desire to watch Unova burn, not when she could stand strong…" he trailed off and I sensed that there was more. "We need to stand together, not tear each other down."

I sighed. "Well you've bought yourself a war," I said. "Benga won't take this lying down."

He shrugged. "If it comes down to it, he'll lose." He mounted his pidgeot and reached down toward me. "It's time to go," he said as the deafening roar of a pair of dragons echoed over the forest. "Before he comes back."

I looked around at the ruins. I'd built the house as an escape from civilization. Now it was nothing but a monument to Unova's pain. I returned my pokemon to their balls and took his hand. "Why are you doing this?" I asked as I swung myself onto the bird's back behind him. "Why do you care?"

Red turned his head and smiled at me. "Because something bigger than all of this is coming. And just maybe we'll need Unova to have a proper Champion before all is said and done."

He dug his heels in and his pidgeot threw itself into the air. My gaze lingered on the sinkhole as we ascended into the sky. "Maybe," I said. "Maybe."

Joshthewriter · Mar 8, 2022

Indigo Plateau, Kan-Jo Citizen's Congress, Six Months Later

I stood proudly, puffing my chest out. Benga could bluster and threaten all he wanted, but Indigo had my back.

"Introducing, hailing from Unova, Jason Rykker!"

The Congress erupted in cheers, lawmakers and press cheering on Red's pronouncement. I stepped forward, a cheesy grin plastered on my face. I'd forgotten what actual applause was like. I raised a fist, joining Red at the podium.

"Jason Rykker will be taking the place of our fallen Elite, William Itzuki." He turned and took my hand, raising it in his own. "Give a warm welcome to Elite Jason Rykker!"

I waved, taking my place at the podium as Red stepped back. Perhaps they had intended for me to take Benga's place as Unova's Champion once more. I didn't want that, not anymore. Indigo had taken me in. Indigo had welcomed me with open arms. I didn't need to go home. I was already there.

Joshthewriter · Mar 9, 2022

A Second Chance

Ilex forest was old when I was young. She was a proud beauty, unbroken despite man's attempts to tame her. Here among the trees, amidst the wild call of nature, was a different kind of life. It's simpler place, a more peaceful place. It was my home, the place of my people. It was the only home I had ever known.

Ilex forest was strong, her pious trunks standing strong and tall. Her canopy was thick, defying attempts to map her from above. Of course, that hadn't stopped the logging companies from trying anyways.

They came as they always do, bearing fancy contracts full of words that simpler folks could never hope to fully understand. When we didn't leave, they came back with money. Most folks took that offer, selling the homes and land that our families had lived on as far back as we can remember. A few stayed, mostly old bats like myself. We're stubborn, and we remember what this forest means to the land.

Without Ilex, Johto dies. Without Ilex, we all die. The forest protects our people, just as it protects our planet. I just wish that somebody else would help me protect it. Either way, I will do what I must. I am the last storyteller of my people, the last person who holds onto hundreds of years in oral history. I will protect my home.

I woke before dawn on the day they came. I could hear them, driving along the worn dirt path that led into Arborville. Their mechanical monstrosities shook the earth as they closed, flattening and widening the winding forest path as they came.

The trees along that path were old when I was a boy. I silently raged at the injustice as I sat on my balcony, watching and waiting while I boiled the kettle. I finished my last journal entry. I'd make my move when I got that chance.

It wasn't long before they came into view, bright yellow machinery trawling through the forest on great tracks. Men in bright reflective vests rushed forward, the sounds of chainsaws roaring over the forest's quiet voice. A hulking machamp walked ahead of the great machine, clearing away the logs that had fallen in its path.

I grimaced. The machamp was a problem. Terra could destroy the machines easily enough, but my aging meganium would have trouble with a machamp. I didn't have the rest of my pokemon anymore. They were all lost to time. I'd have to be clever to take out the massive fighting type.

Towa appeared from the walkway deeper into Arborville. Every house in our village was connected, just like the forest itself. Towa was one of the few who remained, one of the few who still cared about the forest. There were so few of us left.

"They're here to stay this time," she started. She sat down in the seat beside me, in Natasha's seat and not the guest seat. "Diana read me the last letter they sent. It said it was the final notice. We can't fight this one and win."

"I don't care," I replied, letting my scowl fade. Towa meant no disrespect and I couldn't stay cross with one of the few remaining residents. "The forest is our home, it is my home. It has been for generations. I will not leave this place." I clenched my fists. She was wrong. Someone had to fight them.

Towa sighed heavily as she leaned back in the chair. She sipped on her tea and looked at me pensively. "Y'know, you've been in a bad way since Tasha pass-"

"Don't you dare. She loved this place more than any of us." I turned away and scowled back at the encroaching loggers. "Don't go putting words into a dead woman's mouth."

"I wouldn't dare, old friend. I know she'd be fighting these bastards tooth and nail, right at your side." She sipped cautiously on her tea again. "My words are my own. Tasha's passing hurt you. More than you've ever been hurt before." She smiled softly. "Even more than when the boys disappeared."

I stared at the machine, stonewalling her. "And your point?" I asked. I knew I was being rude. I was too wrapped up in myself and my defiance to care. "This place is all I have left of her. They… they can't… they're gonna take it away."

"I lost Don almost fifteen years ago," she continued, unperturbed. Towa was good like that. It didn't matter that I was in a bad place. She was there for me all the same. "It was hell for a long time. I threw myself into my work."

"Our harvest was never better," I remarked. "We sold the surplus and-"

"You're doing the same damn thing," she said. "Arborville is dead. Stop clinging to old memories. Go enjoy what time you have left with your family. Your sister perhaps…"

I clenched my fists, desperately trying not to lose my cool with Towa. "They moved on. They left this place behind. They don't care-"

Towa cut me off with a stern glare and a heavy hand on my shoulder. "They don't help you because you won't let them. You cut them off for daring to leave home. Your brothers, your sister, everyone. They never stopped trying to help you." She rose from her seat and sighed heavily. "Diana is almost done packing up our things. I'll have her come by once she's done. I'm sure she'd love to help you pack."

I sighed heavily and hung my head. "No," I said quietly. "I have something I have to do."

She disappeared without another word. I glanced down the walkway, eyes painfully lingering on each of the hasty repairs I'd made over the years. She was right. Arborville was dying. The trees were struggling under the weight of the village, and even the hundreds of repairs I had made couldn't hide that.

"Hello up there!" shouted a voice. "Is a Mister Jameson home?"

I rose and leaned up against my balcony. "Leave my home," I started, summoning up the strength to project my voice. "This forest is not yours."

A younger man slipped down off the massive machine, pokeballs worn on a bandolier that wrapped over one shoulder. He was a trainer, probably employed by the logging company to deal with stubborn old Arborville.

He smiled up at me, a genuine smile that took me off-guard. "Would you mind if I came up there to speak with you?" He gestured around at the loggers. "It's quite loud out here, as you can see."

I nodded slowly. Without another word, I returned to my seat. I heard the roar of machinery grind to a halt as the engine died. A small smirk came to my face. One last warning before they tried to drive me from my home. I would show them who they were dealing with.

It was maybe another twenty minutes before Diana appeared with the trainer. He was tall, powerfully built. Broad across at the shoulders. He had a strong beard, flecked with grey hairs in the dark brown mane. More than a match for frail old me. I knew I'd need surprise on my side to take him down.

"Mister Jameson, I presume?" He asked politely as Diana slipped away. "My name is Byram, I represent the Johtan Interior Resource Commission."

He stepped through the doorway into my home, not bothering to knock. I looked up at him, sipping gently at my tea. "So the League is getting involved?" I asked calmly.

"We were from the beginning, Mister Jameson. The League takes the stewardship of our natural resources very seriously." Byram looked down at Tasha's chair. "Do you mind if I sit?"

"I do." I growled.

He sighed, studying my stoic old gaze. "Very well." He crossed his arms. "You have to leave, Mister Jameson. This place isn't safe anymore."

I sipped my tea. "I keep it standing," I said. "Arborville ain't moving. And neither am I."

"That's going to be a problem," he replied. "Because this area has been designated as a prime logging area. Plenty of perfect trees to use as lumber." He lowered his gaze to me. "I'm sure you understand the current lumber shortage has made our need dire."

I rolled my eyes. "You mean, you think the old trees in this area will fetch a pretty price right now."

He shrugged. "Ilex Forest is massive," he started. "We've been stonewalled around Azalea and Johto National Park. We need wood, Mister Jameson. I'm sorry that it includes your village, but to be honest it's falling apart anyways. This place isn't fit for human habitation anymore."

"I keep her standing," I spat. I placed my tea safely on the table beside me and rose to my feet. "You need to leave my home."

He sighed and shook his head. "Everyone else has agreed to leave. It's only you left."

I closed my eyes, trying to control my breathing. "You need to leave my home."

He turned to leave and sighed. "You have until the end of the day," he said calmly. "After that, the loggers have to keep going." He stepped out of my home and pulled a cigarette from his pocket. "For now, they'll get started around here." He lit the cigarette and walked away.

I let him go without following. I had something else I needed to do. More than ever, I needed help. I needed the voice of the forest. I needed Ilex's guardian spirit. I was out of time. I needed a Celebi.

My tired old feet trudged the weathered stone path, finding the well-worn footprints that I had worn into the stones over the years. Not once had I fallen. Not once had I so much as faltered on my way up to the old shrine at the lake.

But I was not the young man I had once been. Time had ravaged my life, reduced my once young and powerful physique to a frail shell. Most of my friends had passed or left Arborville years ago, joined almost a year ago by my dearly beloved. Even my pokemon had begun to succumb to father time's inevitable pull. Only Terra was left, and the aging meganium was not what she had once been.

Still, I climbed. I had made the climb up to the old lake for decades, leaving Arborville's offerings to the guardian at the shrine that stood on the small islet on the lake. I would not fail to make the climb one last time for one last offering. The guardian was my last hope, and my last offering would hopefully be enough to gain its attention.

The sharp, piercing sound of laughter echoed through the trees, breaking nature's reverie. I heard voices clamouring over each other and then the distant roar of a chainsaw. I scanned the forest carefully. I did not trust that the loggers hadn't followed me out here to dispose of me far from any prying eyes. It would not have been the first time that loggers had tried.

I heard the laugh again and hunkered down on the side of the trail when the chainsaw roared again, abandoning my sack of offerings. My hand hovered over Terra's ball, waiting for any sign of danger. I waited a long time, but none came. The voices faded and the chainsaws moved further and further away. I carefully got to my feet, watching for any signs of movement through the forest.

I decided that I could wait no longer. I scooped up my sack and slung it back over my shoulder. I didn't look back. I was out of time, but that could be fixed if she was willing.

I ran as far as I could, my old bones aching with every footfall. I ran until my lungs might burst and my back might break. I ran until my feet could carry me no further and then continued further.

Finally, when my feet were sore and blistered and my lungs could heave no more, I broke through the dense forest and splashed into the shallows of the lake. The guardian's shrine stood benevolent, watching over me like a statue.

I fell to my knees, the sores on my feet knitting shut and my burning lungs breathing deep with relief. This was the secret that Arborville had been founded to protect, the treasure that our ancestors had sworn to defend. I bathed myself in the healing waters of the lake, letting the pure water wash my bloody feet clean of sores.

Goldeen went flashing deeper into the lake, scattered by my splashing. An ursaring and a pair of teddiursa cubs watched me carefully from the far shore of the lake. I rose, my strength returned. I had only bathed in the lake like this once before, and my wounds had been far worse then.

I turned to the berry bush growing at the shore. I picked a handful of the small red berries and popped several into my mouth. The sweet fruit of the lake practically melted in my mouth, and the memories of sweet evening walks with my Natasha came back to my mind.

I hefted the sack and waded the rest of the way to the small island in the shallows of the lake. The small wooden hut sat silently, the doors shut as they always were. I pulled them open, smiling at the simple wooden carving as I always did. The little fey smiled back at me, huge oval eyes gazing into my soul.

"Greetings, guardian. I bring you the last offering my people can muster." I hung my head in shame, letting the forest's protector see my true feelings.. "I only ask that you stop these loggers before they go too far. They threaten the lake itself. The lake gives this forest life, it gives Ilex her strength. Ilex must stand else Johto will wither on the vine. It must be protected." I looked at the carving of the fey, unsure of what more to say.

I got to my feet and spilled my sack of offerings into the shrine. Vegetables from Towa's garden went rolling, spoils from Darrick's last hunt landed in the shrine, an embroidered blanket that Towa and Diana had made landed on top. My last few cans of preserved food landed among the offerings and I slung the empty sack over my shoulder.

I closed the doors of the shrine and closed my eyes. "Please, spirit. This is all we have left. Please save our forest. Please save this lake." I placed a hand on the shrine, praying that the forest spirit would hear me. "Please, Ilex needs you…"

I paused, wrestling with my faith in a guardian that had not once made itself known to me. I'd believed on blind faith, on old stories that my father had told me. It was a long time until I found the strength to move. I looked up at the shrine and cleared my throat. "Please, Celebi…" my voice trailed off and died for a moment. "I need you," I said with desperate reverence. "My story is about to end. My people's story will end with it. I am alone… I cannot protect this place without your help."

I turned and waded back to shore, leaving the shrine behind. I picked another handful of the sweet berries as I left, ready to begin my long walk home.

True to Byram's word, Arborville was still standing. But the trees around her were gone. Arborville had been located on the side of a small slope that led down towards the river that emptied from the sacred lake. The small hill was bare, stumps the only clue that the hill had been deep forest. Arborville stood implacably, the rickety old village standing strong on the few remaining trees.

I slipped up the ladder into the village. All was quiet save for the creaking of wood straining under my weight. Towa's hut was cold and dark and I knew that she and Diana had gone. I was alone now. Alone in a cold, dead village.

I crept through Arborville, careful with every step. The removal of most of the trees on the hill had robbed the trees our village was built upon of precious support. She was dead, creaking to a collapse upon aging bones. I couldn't help but chuckle at the similarity to myself.

I stepped into my home, looking out my grand window at what had once been lush forest. The trees were gone, reduced to stumps, and the yellow light of the evening sun painted the scene in a harsher red light than I had ever seen.

"Mister Jameson, it's not safe up there!" Byram shouted. He jogged up through the stumps, his hands cupped over his mouth. "It's not stable anymore!"

Arborville shifted precariously as if on cue and groaned as the trees strained desperately. I knew that the old village had reached her end. She was stumbling to her death now. Falling down under her own weight, or rather mine.

"What have you done?" I roared. I braced myself against the wall, leaning out at him and shaking my fist in anger. "You have destroyed my home!"

A loud crack ripped through the village and splinters of wood spun through the air as support beams snapped. My house dropped several feet, catching upon the large branch beneath it and lurching dangerously. The tree groaned and my house tilted to the side as the branch bowed.

I stumbled and fell back, my home tipping dangerously to the side. I hit the thin wall of my home and grabbed tight to the support beam. My home dropped again and more of Arborville slipped from its supports. Half the village crashed down, crashing through the roof of my home. Towa's hut crushed mine and Tasha's chairs, before Darrick's hut crashed through on top of it.

Another earthshaking crack jolted my house as the branch supporting me finally snapped. It pitched backward and I saw the whole of Arborville shaking free of her aging bones through the destroyed ceiling.

I watched my village strain to hold, my makeshift repairs holding the rickety walkways and creaking shacks up for a half a moment. Then they broke with a terrible groan and pop of snapping wood. I felt my stomach drop as my home fell from the tree, the ground rushing up to meet me.

Time ground to a halt. I fell slower and slower, nearly suspended in the air. Arborville slowed down, until the village hung almost motionless in the air above me.

'Bowen,' said a calm voice. I strained my ears, but I knew that the voice had not been spoken. 'The forest speaks for you. It has called me here in your time of need.'

I felt a gentle touch on the back of my calf. Time grabbed hold of me again and I suddenly slammed down onto the motionless wall of my home. I rolled onto my back, looking down my old hooked nose at the little fey staring at me.

It was uncannily similar to the wooden carving in the shrine, pale, oval eyes meeting mine. 'I have come, as you have asked. What do you request of me?'

"Stop these loggers," I said, reverence deep in my mind. I bowed my head in awestruck respect. "They threaten the sacred lake. They devour the forest with their machines. My home and my people are gone, and they will soon find your shrine."

The little fey stared into my eyes. I felt an overwhelming calmness overcome me and an odd sensation that my mind was no longer alone. A musical presence surrounded me, pushing against my thoughts and brushing them away with ease. It pressed and confined me, trapping me in a small corner of my mind.

I felt strange, my ability to concentrate all but gone. Arborville righted herself, my home simply returning to existence as we floated back up into the tree. I looked closer as the village seemed to age backwards before my eyes. Cracked, rotten wood became strong again, support beams disappeared as the trees became younger again and could support Arborville once more.

My home was remade, returned to her glory days by some awesome power. The little fey levitated off the floor, glowing with psychic energy. Something seized me, lifting me off the ground. I felt a strange sensation as the strength began to flow in my limbs once more.

My creaking bones stiffened, sagging skin became tight over finely toned muscles. My hair grew back, braiding long and thick down my back like it had been in my youth. I was young again, moved through time by the awesome power of the forest spirit. It was amazing and terrifying at the same time.

'Come with me,' the fey said. 'We must fix this. Your stewardship of the lake has put it at risk. Loggers cannot be allowed to desecrate my home.' It lifted off the ground and moved towards the door. 'You cannot do this alone.'

I tightened my fists. "Do you not think I tried? I lost my sons, and none of the others care to remain. I am the last of our tribe, the last protector of the lake. Do not disrespect my devotion, spirit. The world was not kind to me."

The little fey turned back to me. Its gaze was cold and calculating, like its was studying my entire life in a flash. 'I have seen your whole life. Every moment, every decision is but a glance through time.' It narrowed its large oval eyes and floated closer to me ominously. 'We must fix your error.'

I relaxed my fists. I was struck with shame. The creature knew something, some terrible truth about my life that I could not even fathom. "What have I done wrong, spirit?"

Impossibly familiar laughter filled the air. The joyous exclamations of happy children sprinted past my home. I could hear the happy grunting of Terra as the bayleef bounded after my twins, a squealing baby Diana strapped to her back. The chorus of laughs chilled me to the bone. I knew what day it was. I knew what would happen later in the day.

"Why have you brought me here?" I growled. I did not want to relive this day, this terrible of all terrible days.

'To fix your mistake. You are alone because of your failure.' the fey intoned, overt annoyance creeping into its voice. 'You would do well to hurry. You do not have much time.'

I stared at the Celebi, intently studying the mystical pokemon. It was fickle, as all the stories said they were. "Can I change it?" I asked. "Can I save them?"

The stories were never clear. Sometimes the forest spirit allowed changes to be made, small differences that did not disrupt the proper flow of time. Others, the fey held firm, demanding that great tragedies remain and only small changes around the edges be made.

The fey did not answer. It just gazed at me, awful oval eyes staring deeply into my own. I turned and ran, determined to change what had happened to my children. I had to stop their disappearance. That had to be the reason I had been brought back.

I stepped out of my home, holding up an arm to shield my eyes from the sun. I thought I saw Terra's leaf disappear down one of the walkways and I dashed after the young bayleef.

Arborville was young again, full of life and movement. Towa and Donald walked arm in arm, joined in happy bliss. Their home, carved freshly from a tree the season before, stood proud and happy behind them.

"Boys!" I shouted as I ran. "Daniel, Thomas!"

The twins did not come. I came to a halt in the middle of the walkway, wracking my brain for any clues from that terrible day. They'd disappeared into the forest around mid-day. Tasha had been at home the whole day, and I had been out foraging until almost sunset.

I stopped as a stunning realization came over me. Tasha was at home. My Tasha was dead, passed on from old age. But Tasha was here and I could see her once more. I could hear her voice again, smell the sweet scent of flower petals soft in her hair.

I turned back towards home. I could see her in the window, smiling at the summer breeze. Her silky brown hair flew in the wind, obscuring her face for a half-moment. She spotted me and her face lit up with joy and life.

I was drawn back to my home, tracing the path I had run through the walkways. Every step felt wrong, like something was in my mind, screaming for me to go. I could not tear myself from my path, could not turn away from my beloved.

I stepped through the door, caution in my heart. "Natasha?"

"Bowen," she said as she rose from her chair. Her hand was draped over her bulging belly and she strained to rise with a smile. "I thought you wouldn't be back until dark?" She shuffled toward me, a happy smile on her face. "The baby's been so active today. She won't stop kicking!"

I stepped closer, putting my hand over her pregnant belly. All the worry in my mind faded and all I could think about was the future my family had been robbed of. "I've had a vision," I started. "A terrible omen. Our children are in danger."

The baby kicked and I saw my dear wife beam at the little outburst. The stress of losing our twins had wasted my Tasha away until she had lost the baby. I pulled my hand away and a flicker of hope grew in my chest. This was what I had been taken back for, the mistake I had made. My family had crumbled under the loss we suffered on this day.

I clenched my fists. "The boys are not here," I said calmly. I knew that I had to find them, that had been my mistake. "The spirit must have brought me back for them." I looked up at her. "Where are the boys?"

"They were off running with Terra. I think Towa had trusted them with the baby." She paused for a moment. "Should I be worried?" She asked. I could hear the nerves creeping into her voice, the same nerves that I wrestled with myself. She should be worried, as our lived had forever dimmed because of this terrible day, but she didn't have to know that. She didn't have to experience any of that.

I relaxed again. I was scaring Tasha now. "Diana will be fine," I started. "Terra will be fine," I recounted, remembering how we'd found the bayleef trapped under some branches less than a half mile from the village. "The boys will be fine." I refused to let my voice waver. I would find them and keep them safe.

I turned to leave but found myself rooted to the spot. Tasha's beautiful brown eyes were flecked with lines of red and gold that shone in the afternoon sunlight. "Tasha…" I started, but my voice died in my throat. There was so much I wanted to say, so much that I had never said to her when she was still with me.

She held my gaze, concern and fear etched into her soft features. "I know you'll find them," she said, her voice wobbly. "I love you, Bowen."

I nearly broke at my name, my chest constricting as I tried and failed to breathe in. I had not heard her say my name in nearly an entire year. It was intoxicating, intolerably holding me on the spot. This day had weighed heavily on my dear Tasha. "I will find them. By my love for you, I swear that I will find them." I turned away, forcing away the tears that threatened at the edges of my eyes. "If it is the last thing I do, I will find them."

"You're scaring me, darling."

I clenched my fists, my heart dying at those words. I wanted to take that pain, cut it out at the source. "Don't be afraid," I replied, choking out the words. They hurt, like they were a desperate lie to the last person I wanted to lie to. But she didn't deserve the pain of the truth. "I'll keep them safe."

We never found the boys when they disappeared. Not even bones or any signs of struggle. It was as if they'd simply disappeared. Once, near the sacred lake, I had happened across a scrap of bloody leather that might have belonged to one of their attire, but I had no way to know for sure.

So I went to the only place I could. The only place where I knew the trail might still be warm. The only clue of the direction they might have gone.

The thicket of trees was far less ominous than it had appeared to me at night. With warm sunlight beaming down through the trees, I breathed a sigh of relief. Terra was here, trapped inside the thicket with Diana still strapped to her back.

I tore a section of tangled branches away and forced my way into the small space that Terra had been trapped in. Without a word, I pulled Diana off my bayleef and held her close to my chest. "You're safe now, little one. Uncle Bowen is here."

She squealed adorably and tugged sharply on my beard. My eyes watered, but I couldn't help the goofy grin on my face. Diana had been wailing miserably when I'd found her the last time and she'd caught a terrible fever that refused to break for nearly an entire week. As far as I could tell, things were already better than they had been the first time.

I slipped Diana's harness off of Terra and pulled it over my arms. It wasn't meant for a human, but I could tie it tight enough at least to support Diana's weight. With the baby safely secured to my chest, I cleared a large enough space for my bayleef to crawl through. Terra wormed her way through the opening behind me, cooing and grunting excitedly at me.

Terra nuzzled her nose against me. I smiled and patted her happily on the back of her head.

"Lead the way," I said. "Find me the boys."

Terra put her nose to the ground, sniffing intently. She looked up at me and I saw the determination in her face. She had the scent. She would lead me to my boys.

We forged through the forest and along a familiar footpath. I knew where we were going, I had been down this path more times than I cared to count. The lake lay at the end of the path, shrouded in a late evening mist.

I had always suspected that they had gone to the lake, exploring in places where I had forbidden them go alone. I hadn't trusted them with knowledge of the lake yet. Ilex was dangerous, and I knew that they had never truly believed me.

I ran on legs that throbbed with every step. My back ached with each impact and my chest burned with every breath. I was hot on a trail that must have been washed away by the torrential rains that had started to fall at sunset. However, I was running out of time.

The sun was dipping closer towards the horizon, and the ominous clouds were gathering as the storm pushed inland from the sea. I ran faster, my every fibre of my being begging me to stop running and rest. My weak willed self nearly gave in, but the fading memory of my my sons' faces lent me resolve.

Then I heard it. The deep, throaty bellow of an angry ursaring. It was loud and clear, maybe twenty feet ahead of me. A terrified shriek followed a half-moment later, accompanied by a thunderous crack of lightning as the rain started to fall.

My heart leapt into my throat. I poured on what speed I had left and burst down the path. I broke through the tree line and onto the small beach in full sprint, covering the distance between myself and the ursaring in only a few powerful strides.

I didn't stop to think about my suicidal charge, nor the baby strapped to my chest. I didn't stop to formulate a plan. I caught a glance of my boys, half shrouded in the shadow of the massive pokemon. I had to save them. The ursaring reared back on its hind legs and I saw a flash of claws as it raised a paw.

I leapt with everything I had, vaulting myself onto the slick back of the furious ursaring as Diana shrieked. My lead arm hooked around the pokemon's head and my momentum dragged the unsuspecting pokemon down to the ground with me.

I rolled away with my arms wrapped tightly around Diana before the ursaring could gut me with his claws, putting myself in between my boys and the pokemon. I spread my stance, standing wide and tall in an effort to make myself as large as possible. With slow, deliberate movements, I unstrapped Diana and carefully handed the baby off to my twins without so much as a word.

There were stories among our tribe, stories of boastful warriors bragging that they could wrestle with an ursaring. They were usually little more than cautionary tales that ended in tragedy as the boastful warrior fell to the ursaring, but there was one that resonated in my racing mind.

A brave wood carver, a father whose name is lost to time, had stood between an ursaring and his children when they ventured too far from the village. He stood against the pokemon with nothing but his wits and the strength of his own body. He protected his family with sheer force of will. He fell in battle with the beast, but the tribe survived thanks to his bravery.

I had a lot more than just my will behind me. I had Terra. I had the strength of my youth. And I had the hand of a powerful forest spirit on my side. I would not lose. I would save my family.

The ursaring lumbered back to her feet as she shook the rain from her face, growling in primal fury. The guttural growl of the beast sent a shiver down my spine, but I stood tall. I grabbed up a fallen branch from the muddy ground and held it like a club. I saw the terrified teddiursa cub retreating behind his mother and prayed that the ursaring would be satisfied for both of us to escape with our families intact.

I had no such luck. In a split second, the mother ursaring was on me. I swung the branch as she swiped at me with a massive paw, snapping the branch in half on the side of the pokemon's head. She stared at me dumbstruck for a moment, as if in disbelief that I had actually fought back.

Terra was there before the ursaring could regain her senses. My brave bayleef, loyal to a fault, slammed into the ursaring's side. She thrashed at the larger pokemon with furious vines, battering it and forcing it off balance. The advantage lasted only a moment though, and Terra's momentum ground to a halt as the ursaring planted her hind feet in the mud and stood firm.

I threw myself into the pokemon's left leg, driving a heel into the back of the ursaring's knee and buckling the joint. Terra shoved again with all her might, even as the ursaring dug five inch long claws into her bloody flanks.

The ursaring bellowed in frustration and surprise as Terra toppled her over backwards. She tipped over her buckled knee, trapping and crushing my ankle in a vice grip. I swore in agony as I went down, beating on the ursaring's side with my fists as I felt my bones splinter and snap.

I heard my boys screaming in terror and caught Terra's whimper of fear. Diana shrieked madly, and the rain poured down in torrents. I screamed and shouted desperately as the ursaring moved and released the pressure on my ankle. I dropped back, panting in quick ragged breaths. I felt my chest aching as blood steadily leaked down my bare chest.

She loomed over me, looking down at me as I hauled myself up, managing to balance all my weight on my good leg. I hobbled in front of the boys, standing as tall as I could manage while the rain drenched me down to my core. I felt cold and weak, but Terra was there to prop me up while she growled protectively at the ursaring.

The mother ursaring reared back on her hind legs again, but this time there was no hostile urgency of movement. She sniffed cautiously at me, looking back behind me at the boys and sniffing in the air.

We stood there, Terra and I practically daring the ursaring to try again. She mirrored us, her cub stealing peeks at us from the tree line. We looked at each other for a long time, matriarch to patriarch. I felt an acknowledgment from the beast, her black eyes met mine and I felt an intelligence behind them. She bowed her head slightly in respect, and I did the same.

Without so much as a backwards glance, the ursaring turned and lumbered off, her cub playfully jumping onto his mother's back as if he were pouncing on prey.

I watched them go, standing still and silent as I respectfully waited for the matriarch to take her leave. Only when she had disappeared into the trees and the sounds of her making her way through the soaked forest faded away did I dare to relax.

It took me a moment, but the next breath brought burning, searing pain to my chest. I gingerly poked at the ragged strips of bloody flesh hanging from my chest, struggling desperately to draw in a breath.

I turned and looked at the boys, my heart in my throat. I had no clue what to say, what to tell them. It would be a disservice to lie, and pretend that I was their true father, so I would do the only thing I could. I would tell them the story. My story. A future that would no longer exist because of what I had done today. I might die, but my story would live on through them. Perhaps this time's version of me could learn something.

I hobbled into the shallows of the lake, my ankle burning as it attempted to heal. The shards of bone inside my ankle were too far gone though, and they refused to do much more than ache something fierce. I sat unceremoniously in the shallows, my boys taking up spots on each side of me. The water lapped at my chest, barely even dulling the pain. The skin refused to knit shut, and I knew that my time was up.

I looked up at the clouds, holding a hand up to feel the rain. The storm was loud, almost overpoweringly so, but I spoke loud enough to be heard. "Something terrible could have happened today." I paused for a long moment as I caught my breath and the boys stayed silent. "And once upon a time it did." I smiled softly and looked over at the small shrine on the island. I had been a poor teacher, a poor storyteller indeed. "Help me over to the shrine boys," I started. "It's time that you learned something."

Thomas took my left side, supporting my mangled ankle with Terra's help. Daniel held my right arm while he carried Diana, leading me clear of any underwater branches or rocks. Both of them were ragged messes, their hair tangled with dirt and twigs and matted down against their heads by the rain. I smiled despite the pain, my heart fluttering in my chest. They were safe. I was dying, but they were safe.

Terra helped me out of the water, Daniel maneuvering her so that I could easily lean against the side of the shrine. They helped me against the side of the shrine and then sat close at my sides.

Daniel on my left studied my face, with bright and inquisitive eyes. He eyed the shrine warily and I could see the questions dancing on the top of his tongue.

"This shrine is a holy place for our people," I started. I had to start somewhere, and the beginning of our people's story was as good a place as any. "Here, we met with the Voice of the Forest, and entered into a compact."

My eyes met curious, inquisitive eyes and I knew that I had them hooked. They knew the stories, knew the legends that I had imparted upon them. To live them yourself, was something else entirely. They could tell that something strange was happening, some strange power was afoot.

I felt the twins draw closer to me and smirked softly despite the pain. It was peaceful, some small measure of happiness here at the end of my life. "I did not understand what this covenant entailed until I had failed it utterly."

Daniel looked up at me, huddling Diana close to me for warmth. "Father, is something wrong? You seem different."

I met his eyes and felt my own begin to water. "I was not a good father," I began. "I pushed away my responsibility to the next generation, to my own children and in doing so lost you. I did not prepare you for the world, just lamented a world that changed around me." I wiped away my forming tears, trying to pass them off as the rain on my face. "Don't let me shirk my duty to you boys. Demand that I be better," I said with solemn duty. "Our family faltered and crumbled once before because I didn't save you on this terrible night. It will not happen again, but it's up to you two to carry on once I have passed." I hung my head in shame. "I cannot say that I have been a good father to this point. Know though, that I love you boys both. Take care of each other, and your mother too."

Thomas looked at me with eyes that threatened to fill with tears. His gaze fell to my shredded chest and the tears fell freely. "I don't understand," he half-cried.

I lifted his chin, strength fading. The lake could work miracles, but even its power had limits. I had precious little time left. "Let me tell you a story, my sons." I looked over at Daniel, pulling my other son closer to me. "About a future that could have been, but will not be. About a man who failed in his duty to his family, but was gifted one last chance to set things right."

"Father?" Daniel asked, his voice wavering. He inches closer to me, Diana cooing happily in his arms. "What is happening?"

I reached out to him. My arm was frail, weak in old age. My long braided hair was gone, lost to the ravages of time. I was old again. The Celebi's power was fading. "I am dying, child. Now hush, and let an old man tell you one last story."

I ran harder and faster than I had ever run before. My legs were aching, my lungs burning. My arms and legs were covered with scratches and cuts, but I could not stop. I ran along the muddy footpath, body pushed long past the point of utter exhaustion. I couldn't stop, I had to find the boys.

The clouds were beginning to clear now, and I could see the moonlight reflecting off the still surface of the lake. I splashed into the shallows, letting the sacred water wash me clean of a multitude of miniscule wounds.

I rose, a stirring motion from a figure leaning against the shrine drawing my eye. I removed the bow from my back and tied the string taut. I carefully nocked a single arrow and crept across the shallows of the lake as quietly as I could.

Twin figures rose from the side of the shrine, letting a third lean back against the wall of the shrine. I swore and abandoned my bow as my boys came splashing into the shallows at me. I caught Thomas in a crushing mid-air hug as the boy leapt up into my arms. Daniel hit me in the midsection, sending me toppling over into the water with my boys.

I broke the surface of the water, tears running freely down my face. I sat up, pulling my twins closer and ruffling the now soaked mops of dark brown hair on their heads.

"I found you," I started, my voice breaking as I forced words out of my ragged throat. "I found you," I repeated.

Daniel pulled back, smiling up at me. "Yes, you did." He let go of me and looked back at the shrine. "He wants to talk to you," he said quietly. My son looked as though he might cry, the words nervously dying on his tongue.

"Who wants to speak to me?" I asked cautiously.

Thomas looked up at me, a knowing look on his face. "You do," he replied cryptically.

I looked over at the figure slumped against the shrine. "Stay here," I ordered.

The boys stood side by side, knee deep in the waters of the sacred lake. I stepped onto the islet, cautiously looking down at the figure slumped in the dirt.

Terra raised her head, blinking sleepily at me. A bundle of blankets shifted and I breathed a second sigh of relief as Diana whined at the interruption of her peaceful slumber.

"You got here faster than I did the first time," growled a hoarse voice. The figure on the ground grunted and forced himself up against the shrine. "Still wouldn't have been fast enough."

"Excuse me?" I asked in strained confusion.

"And what were you doing?" he continued, unperturbed. "Sitting around watching some forestry workers prune dead branches?"

I crossed my arms. "I was doing no such thing!" I spat indignantly. "I was-"

He cut me off with a withering glare. "I would know," he said with open derision. "I was there after all."

I stepped back, studying his weathered face. "You are me," I said, realization dawning on me. I looked down at the old man and saw the gaping wound in his chest. "What happened?" I asked cautiously. "Are you real?"

"I am," he coughed. "Or I was." He shrugged, coughing up a glob of blood that dribbled down into his grey beard. "That hardly matters anymore. Nothing that happened matters anymore." He looked up at me with a satisfied grin. "That's the point, I think."

I glanced over at my boys. They were standing dutifully in the shallows, not an inch from where I had left them. "You made a mistake?" I asked cautiously.

He forced himself up higher, grunting in pain. "We both did. And I lived the consequences."

I studied him carefully. "What do I do?" I asked. He was me, a future me. A possible future me that had averted his own future to save mine. "How do I do better?"

The older me seemed to be seized with a sudden fit of coughing. He leaned precariously to the side, clutching at his chest. He hacked and coughed, but no more words were coming. Only blood.

I knelt down in front of him, solemn respect filling my mind. I reached out and took a wrinkled and sagging hand in my own. The coughing subsided for a moment, and he looked at me with tired resignation. "I know that we never wanted the responsibility of children. I know that we saw it as a duty to be fulfilled while we toiled away to preserve the future of the tribe."

He tightened his grip and his hard stare seemed to bore down into the very essence of my being. "Never have I regretted anything more. Your father treated you like a duty, not a child. I did the same." He pulled me in with a sharp jerk of his arm, bringing my face mere inches from his. "Don't become your father," he whispered. "Be theirs."

He looked at me for a long moment, his breaths growing more shallow and ragged by the moment. He held my gaze like that, forcing me to watch as his breathing finally slowed and stopped.

I let go of the dead man's hand as the sun finally rose. Dawn hit us and the sunlight glittered on the surface of the lake.

I turned away from the old man, looking back at my boys. Daniel had picked up Diana and was cradling her in the crook of his elbow. Thomas was sitting patiently in the shallow water, stacking small rocks in a pyramid.

"Boys," I said, my voice hoarse. I had been running most of the night. I had no clue how I was even awake, let alone filled with determined purpose. "Walk with me. We have a lot to talk about."

Joshthewriter · Mar 10, 2022

"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." - Arthur C. Clarke

Mount Hokulani Observatory, Ula'ula Island, Alola

The observatory had always held such unimaginable wonder for him. Ever since the first day his cousin had brought him into the facility, Sophocles had hardly gone a day without visiting. There were even nights where he'd lost track of time and had to ask Big Mo to call his parents for him so he could stay over. Those were his favourite, nights where he would stay up all night charting the constellations with his big cousin. But not once had he seen quite so many people stuffed into the observatory at the same time.

They were all packed into the main observation room, poring over the screens. Every single one of them showed the same thing, a looping video of the green streak that had lit up the night's sky and the shining green aurora it had left behind. The adults kept using big words that he didn't understand yet, but the worried look on Big Mo's face told him that something terribly exciting had happened.

Sophocles elbowed his way through the crowd, a trick that he'd learned to get through big crowds at father's big tourist conferences. A few of the adults yelped and looked down in shock, but none of them said anything when they realized he was just a kid. He shoved his way through, finding Big Mo's blue jacket and tugging on the hem.

"Not now, Soffy," his cousin said in an annoyed tone. He turned, brushing Sophocles off of his jacket with his free arm. "I'm on the phone with professor Cosmo in Hoenn." He looked back up at the screen, lifting the phone back up to his face. "The meteorite looks like it came down near the antarctic after it passed right over us. I'll contact Mossdeep and see if we can't get one of their orbital spectrometers over the-"

Molayne's expression of wonder died and Sophocles watched a spiteful frown replace it. "What do you mean, you'll be appropriating my work?"

There was a long pause, where the only noise came from the other onlookers in the room. Sophocles looked back up at the screen, studying the short video as Big Mo's expression soured. There was something there, a small shape visible in the flash of green for a fraction of a moment.

"Might I remind you, professor Cosmo, that our partnership is exactly that." Molayne's voice was rising, something that Sophocles had only heard when he nearly smashed his cousin's homemade telescope when he was only five. "You are not entitled to exclusive possession of our data, no matter how much money you offer."

Sophocles reached up for the screen controls. He paused it, inching forward frame by frame. A few of the adults were shouting about the shape now, yelling for the screen to show a better look.

Molayne swore loudly, pitching his phone across the room. He looked down at his cousin, raising an eyebrow as the boy pointed excitedly up at the screen. He followed his cousin's finger up the the screen, his jaw dropping as his heart skipped several beats.

There on the screen, outlined clearly by the flash of pale green light, was the unmistakable outline of a humanoid figure.

The room was dead silent. Molayne couldn't help but stare in awe at living proof of an extraterrestrial. He glanced down at his cousin, a wide grin of wonder spreading across his face. "Soffy," he started gently. "I think you just made the discovery of a lifetime."

Sophocles looked up at the screen, cracking a grin wide enough to be seen from space. "You mean I'm a scientist like you?" the boy asked.

Big Mo shook his head, dropping down onto one knee. "No," he replied. "Even better than me." He beamed down at his cousin, proud of the discovery he had made.

Camp Russell, LaRousse Science Expedition, Antarctica

"Professor Lund!" shouted a snowsuit clad man. He trampled through the blowing snow, one arm held aloft to shield his face. "We've found the visitor." He sighed angrily. "It keeps burning out our equipment with its presence. I'm not sure how long we can keep up before we need to resupply."

Professor Rondo Lund turned, grimacing as a particularly strong gust of wind whipped a million tiny pellets of ice up into a vicious spray. "Get it into containment as soon as the truck gets here. That would be the EM radiation killing our equipment," he shouted over the wind. "I want the specimen intact and ready for analysis by the end of the week." He threw up an arm to shield his face from the blowing ice. "The world is watching us. Ever since that damn picture leaked out of Alola, we've had no end of uproar. It is up to us to learn whether that furor is earned or not."

"Yes sir!" replied the worker "Nanite construction should be done by the end of the day. You sure they'll hold up on the cold?"

Doctor Lund nodded. "I designed these particular nanites myself. They'll hold up to the cold. I'm more worried about the radiation, but I've shielded them as well as I can."

The worker nodded. "We'll get it done, professor." He turned to leave, nearly bowling over the bundled up child excitedly bounding through the snow.

"Daddy, daddy, daddy!" blabbered the boy. "I found a buncha pokemon! Come see with me!"

The professor got down on one knee, grunting with the awkwardness of his bulky snowsuit. "Daddy's busy right now, Tory. Where's Yuko?"

The boy pulled his oversized toque back, looking up at his father with bright blue eyes. "She's somewhere else," Tory said. "I was with all the pokemon."

Professor Lund sighed heavily. "I'll help you find her, but daddy can't play right now. I'm busy working on something very important. The whole world is watching me, Tory." He stood up, holding his hand out for his boy.

"I wish I had a pokemon, daddy," Tory said with innocent happiness in his voice. "Then I could change the world!" He took his father's hand, wading back through the snow towards the snow drift that he'd clambered over.

"You will," said his father. "I'll buy you any pokemon you'd like once you earn your trainer's license." He smirked. "Maybe even that rare one you were looking at, if you're good."

"You'll buy me a munchlax?" Tory burst out.

They crested the top of the snow drift and looked down at an endless sea of pokemon. The ice shelf was alive with movement, the cries of the wild pokemon echoing loudly over the flats. The blowing snow served to dampen the sound somewhat, but nothing could drown it out completely. Herds of titanic walrein watched over the younger sealeo and baby spheal. The large pokemon watched dutifully from the edge of the ice, huddling together from the wind.

"There's Yuko!" Tory shouted, pointing at the snowsuit clad figure picking her way through the herd. "She found all my pokemon!"

Professor Lund sighed heavily, leading Tory back towards his assistant. "Why did you wander away from her?" he asked. "She's looking after you while daddy is busy."

Tory looked up at him again with those bright blue eyes. "I wanted you to see the pokemon. Aren't they amazing?"

"They are," he replied. "But they aren't why we're down here in the snow. Daddy is here for something very important and I don't have time to play."

Tory nodded, looking away from his father. His expression hardened and he put on his serious voice. "I know, I know."

Yuko tramped towards them, holding up one arm. She waved to Tory, smiling widely as she approached. "There you are, Tory! Did you go find your daddy?"

Professor Lund's expression soured as he handed his child off to his assistant. "Please try to be more vigilant, miss Yuko. We can't have Tory wandering off alone. It could be dangerous out here."

She bowed her head apologetically. "Sorry, doctor Lund. It won't happen again."

"I know it won't," he said. "I'll be in the camp if there's anything urgent. Try not to bother me unless it's an emergency." He turned away, trampling through the blowing snow and fighting every step.

Tory slipped his hand into miss Yuko's. His disappointment was written clear as day on his face. "I wish daddy could come play with us. He never gets to have fun anymore."

Miss Yuko dropped down to one knee. "You know he loves you very much. He's just busy. This is an important expedition. This is the way things are, Tory.m."

"I wish they could be different," Tory said quietly.

Miss Yuko smiled. "Me too, kid. Me too." She held out her hand again, taking Tory's hand in her own. "Wanna go make some snowballs and pretend we're famous pokemon trainers?"

Tory's eyes lit up with excitement. "I'll be Champion Stone!"

"And I'll be the gorgeous Miss Phoebe, challenging you for your throne!"

Tory knelt down, packing a handful of snow down into a lumpy ball. He stood back up and his jaw dropped. The sky was lit a brilliant green, wavy auroras of emerald light stretching as far as the eye could see. He was vaguely aware of miss Yuko gaping up at the sky beside him, but couldn't bring himself to look away. All he could look at were the lights and try as he might, he couldn't tear himself away from their undulating patterns.

Mossdeep Space Centre, Mossdeep City, Hoenn

Whatever the visitor was, it had ceased to be when it had crashed into the ice. The expedition had only managed to locate what was left of it by the powerful waves of EM radiation streaming off the thing. The crater it had made when it crashed was already completely covered in snow and it had taken the expedition's pair of machoke nearly two whole weeks to dig it free. In the end, all they'd managed to extract was a block of ice with a glowing green gem in the middle. There were signs of organic material encased in the ice around the gem, but it evidently hadn't survived the entry into atmosphere.

Whatever it was, it wasn't from this world. It was clear to Commander Jackson that they were dealing with something beyond any of their understanding, and they had half the department heads of Hoenn's space program on the call. There were more experts that he didn't recognize, but doctor Parker from the xenobiology department assured him that they were well qualified.

Doctor Lund had his researchers gathered around the makeshift containment room. They'd erected a research facility at the South Pole remarkably fast, surprising everyone with the speed and efficiency of their efforts. Jackson supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised. LaRousse City was a technological marvel, with doctor Lund's innovative nanobots enabling things that the rest of the world could only dream of.

The visitor was still encased in ice, though the research team had begun to chip away at the block. They'd sampled the organic material around the gem, finding that the cellular structure didn't resemble anything found on earth. There were significant amounts of silicon and ammonia found during their preliminary analysis, leading some of the experts to theorize that the visitor was the first known silicon-ammonia based life form.

Doctor Lund waved at the camera. "If everyone could give me their full attention, we are about to begin."

He turned, gesturing to the machine behind him. "Our preliminary scans seem to indicate significant amounts of activity inside the gem. This activity is not unlike that of a human brain." He rapped his knuckles on the gem twice. "It is my theory that this gem serves as a neural centre of some sort. As well, it appears to be attempting communication of some kind."

He waved an arm, bringing up a screen of shifting nanites. A visual representation of the signal they had found appeared, overlaid on an image of the strange auroras in the sky. "It's emitting a repeating pattern of EM radiation, one that seems to correlate to the movements of the aurora currently covering the majority of the Southern Hemisphere."

He waved away the screen, dissolving it into a floating swarm. "I have designed a device that should replicate this signal and project it back into the containment room. Hopefully this will open some sort of dialogue with the visitor." He finished speaking and stepped out of view as an array of nanites buzzed past him.

The swarm of minuscule machines lifted doctor Lund's devices into place. Four projectors locked into position, pointing up at the ceiling. The nanites locked into place, snapping together in clusters large enough to be visible.

Doctor Lund stepped into frame again, a large pair of shaded goggles on his face. "Beginning initial test. Twenty percent power, just enough to produce a miniaturized aurora."

The contraption that doctor Lund had built lit up, a prism of laser light crisscrossing the room. The feed crackled for a moment, before clearing and revealing the spectacular swirling patterns of light.

"No response in activity. Nothing at all."

Doctor Lund frowned. "Raise the intensity to thirty percent. Continue raising it in small increments if there is no response."

They repeated the experiment three more times, pushing the light intensity up to eighty percent.

"Cut it," doctor Lund ordered. "Perhaps we should attempt a more direct contact." He waved his hand and the nanites shifted. The devices pointed down towards the gem as the nanites rearranged themselves.

"Commencing secondary test."

A plume of static erupted from the gem as pale green light lit the screen. Jackson shielded his eyes as his screen flared to a blinding white. Then the screen cut to black and the feed died.

Commander Jackson leaned back in his seat, looking across mission control at the rest of the support staff. There were only five or six other people in the room, all of them monitoring the Clef-7's transit to Luna station. It was the middle of the night and they weren't expecting anything until the Clef-7 had to insert itself into lunar orbit in the morning. They were all looking at him now, nervously tapping at their consoles and whispering to each other.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

One of the aides, a young woman fresh out of Lilycove University glanced over at him fearfully. "We just lost contact with the entire Lunar expedition. We're getting nothing from the station and Clef-7 just went dark."

His eyes widened and he couldn't help the torrent of obscenity that poured out of his mouth. He was across mission control in moments, doctor Lund and the visitor at the forefront of his mind. Something was wrong and he had a sinking suspicion that they were related.

"Get me the wide-band. Maybe we can raise them that way."

Clef-7 Transorbital Command Module, Lunar trajectory, Final approach to Luna Station

He woke slowly, the blaring alarm punching through the haze and echoing in his skull. His brain throbbed with each klaxon, seeming to drive spikes through his ears. The ship was uncomfortably still, telling him that the main generator was offline.

He opened his eyes, still in a confused daze. The command module was small, cramped even by the standards of modern spacecraft. There was room for him and his copilot, whose seat lay mysteriously empty behind him.

He craned his neck, looking down at the minuscule airlock on his left. One of the two EVA suits was missing. He breathed a silent sigh of relief and leaned back in his command seat. He was groggy and in pain, but he was fine for the moment.

He reached for the headset as it floated by, grabbing it out of the air. He slipped the local communicator over his head and flicked the switch on the side.

"Greaves, you ugly bastard. Where did you go?"

Quiet static was the answer. The man reached up for the screen in front of him, fiddling with the dials on the side of his display. The screen stayed stubbornly black and the power indicator remained dark.

He tapped on the old analog display beside the screen. They remained dead and silent.

He unbuckled his harness, slipping out and pulling himself up towards the capsule's lone viewport. They had been facing towards home, a small blue marble shining in the vast darkness. Endless blackness greeted him, only a strange purple-blue light shining on the edge of the viewport catching his eyes.

The screens roared to life, a cacophony of alerts and alarms screaming to life. He swung himself back into his command seat, silencing the alarms and dismissing all but the most urgent of the alerts. He felt the vessel jerk and grunt as her electrical systems stuttered to life. Something ground along the outside of the ship, maybe the solar panels, or the antenna extending.

A bolt of living lightning crackled around the edge of the screen. A pair of disembodied eyes floated above the screen, blinking sleepily.

"R-7, what happened?"

The rotom blinked in confusion. The strange little creature must have been inside the computer when it had shut down. They didn't take too kindly to that. He'd seen malfunctioning rotom go berserk and possess machinery, massacring the poor humans that just happened to be in the vicinity. He much preferred the safer porygon series, but even the latest models were not capable of what a rotom could do.

A garbled string of static warbled through the speakers. The disembodied eyes blinked one last time and the last few blinking alerts fell silent. "Hello, Commander Pritchard. I apologize for the d-d-delay. I was damaged in the event."

"What event?" He replied. Something had happened. Something terrible had happened. "Give me a full report."

"We lost tight-beam connection-n-n-n with Luna Station-n-n-n at 23:52. Exterior cameras show structural breakup of Luna Station at 23:56-6-6-6. We lost power at 23:58, when some kind-d-d-d of radiation-n-n-n burst hit us." There was a long pause. "I'm still analyzing the d-d-d-data, but it's like nothing I've ever seen-n-n-n before."

Pritchard sighed. "How's the ship?" he asked. "Is she seaworthy?"

R-7 paused again and he knew that something was wrong. "Our e-e-electrical systems have taken severe damages-s-s. It appears as though someone manually-y-y repaired some of the exterior connections."

"Greaves probably did," he said. "One of the EVA suits is gone."

R-7's disembodied eyes disappeared through the screen. He heard a loud spark and the muffled thump of an impact on the hull of the command pod.

The Clef-7 Orbital Command Module was a powerful machine. She roared to life now, groaning and whining under the stress of a cold start. The familiar hum of the ship's generator returned, offering some small amount of solace.

"Oh d-d-dear," R-7 spluttered. "It appears that we have been n-n-noticed."

"Noticed?" Pritchard asked cautiously. "By what?"

R-7's eyes were full of fear. The tinny speakers did nothing to calm the utter terror that Pritchard could hear in the rotom's voice. "By it."

Unknown/Undefined

Alone.

Scarce whispers in the endless dark.

Lost.

Tumbling, tumbling down through fire and light.

Cold.

Frigid impact, freezing wastelands.

Lonely.

Unanswered calls in cold darkness.

Found.

Rough hands, unfeeling steel. Not friends.

Trapped.

Lost the sky. Endless darkness. Confusion.

Quiet.

Terror, fear of silence, calls cannot reach the sky.

Hope.

Hear something. Distant friend calling me.

Closer.

Friend is coming. Must call for help.

Silent.

Help Jade-Self! Help Me!

Help Jade-Self! Help Me!

Help Jade-Self! Help Me!

HELP JADE-SELF! HELP ME!

Pain.

Camp Russell, LaRousse Science Expedition, Antarctica

He looked up at the ceiling, blinking the blinding lights away. Try as he might, the undulating lines of that strange green aurora stubbornly refused to disappear.

"Doctor Lund!" shouted a woman's voice. He felt hands grabbing at him, hauling him back up to his feet. It was Mari, blue hair let down from the tight bun she'd had it in. "Are you-"

"The visitor," he interrupted. His vision cleared slightly and he saw the distinct blue of his research assistant's hair, a young thing fresh from LaRousse Academy, supporting his weight. "What happened?"

"I don't know," Mari replied. "I can barely see."

An unintelligible shriek ripped across the room. Doctor Lund felt himself hit the floor as he clamped his hands over his ears. The scream was not audible though, and his efforts did nothing to stymie the scream.

There were more voices now, angry and surprised shouts of pain joining his and Mari's. He had to do something, had to stop the screaming before it drove them all mad or worse.

"Double the containment shell!" he roared, unsure if he could even hear his own voice anymore.

The his nanites heard him though. They didn't rely on fallible things like human frailty. The command chip was implanted in his brain, removing the need for verbal command. Still, he often found himself slipping back into the old habit of shouting orders.

He felt the rush of cold air as parts of the structure streamed towards the gleaming gem. He felt entire swathes of the swarm simply flicker off and die, vast amounts of EM radiation burning out the unshielded nanites before they could even reach the visitor.

Doctor Lund swore even as a twisting and shifting shell wrapped around the gem. The screaming pressure in his mind faded slightly and his vision cleared as the swimming aurora faded from view.

"We have to get to my fabricator," started the doctor. "My regular nanites can't take the radiation."

One of his assistants, a burly young man from Unova, stepped forward. Lund had never bothered to learn the young man's name, something he now regretted. "Sir, the containment shell is collapsing."

Doctor Lund looked down in fear and awe. "Then we have even less time than I had thought." He pointed at a pair of assistants, the burly man and Mari. "You two, carry it between you. I can swap in nanites from the facility construction as we go. We should have more than enough to reach the fabricator."

Mari looked up at him, her eyes shifting from the decaying shell of nanites and the good doctor. "Sir, are you sure that's safe?"

Doctor Lund shrugged. "At this point, leaving it here exposed could be more dangerous. We don't know what happened and allowing the visitor to break containment could prove apocalyptic." He glanced back and forth between the two assistants. "I'll have the nanites fashion some sort of sling to make it easier."

The burly man nodded. "Then let's hurry."

Doctor Lund closed his eyes for a moment. A swarm of nanites flowed down from the ceiling, slinging under the crumbling containment shell. Great patches of the facility exterior were missing, more nanites streaming down every moment to replace the dead and dying ones. A gust of frozen wind ripped through the disheveled lab, chilling the five humans down to the bone.

Mari looked over at the man as they looped their arms through the sling. She couldn't suppress the shiver of cold running down her spine. They shuffled through the blowing snow, nanites swirling around them to replace the ones that were falling dead to the ground.

It was cold.

Her hands were numb.

Her eyes frozen shut.

She couldn't hold on any longer.

The nanites tried to compensate, grabbing to her hand even as it let go. The screaming radiation was too much, killing the nanites before they could even grab hold.

The sling gave way, smashing the shell down onto the ground and killing yet more nanites. A silent scream forced them all to their knees, exposing the gleaming gem as more nanites swirled around them.

Doctor Lund was shouting order to the nanites that he couldn't hear. He could barely think, hands clamped over his ears to block out the screaming.

It suddenly went quiet. The scream died and Doctor Lund looked down. The shell was intact again, more and more nanites steadily replacing dead ones.

"We have to move," the doctor said. "Mari, get out of the way." He looped his hand through the sling, lifting it as the burly assistant did so.

They shuffled another few feet and the sling shifted as part of the bottom dropped out. The assistant grabbed the bottom of the shell, his hand crushing through layers and layers of dying nanites.

Doctor Lund saw, too late to do anything. He shouted incoherently as the psychic scream returned. He dropped to his knees as the mental pressure took over, removing all spare thoughts.

The assistant struggled as his hand crushed through the last of the nanites and directly touched the gem.

Doctor Lund felt a wave of power hit him, felt himself sailing through the blowing snow. He hit the ice, sliding to a halt in the freezing cold.

The screaming was gone, but the sky was alive. The aurora was on fire, flecks of light and power sparking between wavy lines. A beam of vibrant green light shot into the sky, painting new lines that stretched past the horizon and far into the atmosphere. He stared up in horror, realizing that they'd unleashed something terrible.

He got to his feet, watching as the assistant turned to face him. He couldn't see the gem anymore. Then the man, coat shifted and he saw the faint green glow under his shirt. He saw the man's face, or rather a vague facsimile of it replicated as if crudely drawn by a child. Then the man shifted and he saw the second body being absorbed into it, Mari's distinct blue hair flecked with snow and ice.

Doctor Lund ran. He ran and didn't look back.

Something that had once been human stumbled after him, groaning in tongues that were not it's own.

Clef-7 Transorbital Command Module, Lunar trajectory, Final approach to Luna Station

Pritchard furiously keyed in a series of commands, feeling the vessel respond under him. "Get me a course back to earth," he ordered." "something that'll slingshot us past the moon."

R-7's terrified eyes blinked dumbly.

Pritchard swore, tapping in a series of commands and hoping that he'd made the correct calculations. He slipped his harness back on, barely managing to get the buckle shut before the thrusters fired and jerked him to the side.

The local communicator sprung to life, tiny speakers crackling out a string of static. "—~**¥—"

Commander Pritchard lifted the communicator as the thrusters fired again to arrest their spin. "Say again?"

"-riT-~arD!"

"Greaves, is that you?"

R-7 shook off whatever was freezing him in place and disappeared through the screen.

"Pritchard, its fucking looking at me!"

Commander Pritchard pounded on the outer airlock release. "Get back in here," he ordered. "We're getting out of here."

"It's already coming," Greaves said ominously. "Close the hatch. Get yourself home, it's going to take me."

"What the hell are you talking about? What's noticed you?"

Something hit the ship, forcing it into a desperate spin. Static screamed out of the communicator and he could feel the scream of metal rending apart. He could hear atmosphere venting, could feel the air getting thinner with every breath. A brilliant purple shone through the viewport, blocking out the earth with its glow.

R-7 was shrieking, bouncing about the cabin and sparking in terror. Pritchard shrunk back in his chair, praying that the rotom didn't accidentally kill him.

The Clef-7 was the pinnacle of human ingenuity. It was designed to function as the command point for humanity's first permanent lunar outpost, and possessed the space for twelve adults to live in the habitation module. It was designed to withstand micrometeor impacts, the hard ride up through atmosphere and withstand the constant bombardment of cosmic radiation. It opened like a tin can.

Commander Pritchard didn't fight it. He let his breath rush from his lungs, knowing that fighting it would only kill him faster. He felt his skin begin to freeze, felt his vision swim as he started to pass out.

Red tendrils reached past him, rooting through the Clef-7's interior as if it was looking for something. He felt a presence touch his mind, watched R-7 drift away unconscious. The purple glow was all he could see.

It was gone as quickly as it had come, tossing the Clef-7 away like garbage. Pritchard felt the same screech in his mind, watching the strange spindly tendrils tear open the habitation module and rip out the humans struggling inside.

Then he turned, the remains of his vessel turning back to face the earth. He would have gasped if he had any air left to do so.

The earth was lit up a vibrant green, twisting auroras of unnatural light wrapping around the southern pole.

Pritchard felt a scream like no other and watched the purple glow rocket towards the earth. Then he felt nothing at all. Nothing but the cold darkness of the void as he drifted over the moon.

Mount Hokulani Observatory, Ula'ula Island, Alola

Big Mo had let him stay. Even after everyone else went home, Big Mo stayed with him. They stayed up all night, watching the different constellations and looking at the night's sky.

They'd spent half the night trying to get some good pictures of the fancy new aurora that was billiowing into space over the South Pole. Big Mo was a genius, but even he couldn't get a good picture. He said that we'd have a good picture in the morning, once one of the satellites orbiting the earth got close enough to get a good one.

"Here," said Big Moc in a hopeful voice. "You want to see our new moon base? It's not quite there yet, but…" his voice trailed off.

The sun was already starting to peek from beyond the horizon. Soon he'd have to go home, back to boring old school. But he had time for one peek at a new moon base.

But Big Mo was staring through the telescope intently, like something big had happened.

"What's wrong?" Sophocles asked.

Big Mo seemed to shake to life. "Go get my book," he ordered suddenly. "The big one with all my phone numbers in it."

Sophocles dashed off, running up to his big cousin's office. He grabbed the big book off his desk, grunting as he lifted it and ran back down the steps.

"Got it," he huffed proudly. "What next?"

Big Mo tossed his phone to Sophocles, diving back over to the telescope. "Start calling everyone on the 'Really Big Emergency' page. Start at the top and call until someone picks up."

Sophocles nodded and proudly saluted his cousin. He flung book open and flipped until he found the page labelled 'Really Big Emergency'.

C. Shirona

S. Oak

J. Rykker

W. Mikuri

He looked up. Beside each name was a phone number. "Who are they?"

Big Mo looked back, worry etched on his face. "People who can help us."

Sophocles nodded, picking up his cousin's phone while he furiously took notes and stole glances through the telescope. He'd phone someone and help Big Mo, like a good cousin.

Mossdeep Space Centre, Mossdeep City, Hoenn

"Something just lit up over the South Pole," called one of the aides. "Bigger than before."

"Putting it on-screen now," said a different aide.

The big screen changed, cutting to a feed from one of Unova's new orbital imaging arrays. The aurora was billowing into space, vibrant green lights twisting and folding back upon themselves.

"What's going on," Commander Jackson shouted across the room. "Somebody get a hold of Doctor Lund, and for Rayquaza's sake get me comms with the lunar expedition back!"

"Sir, I've got something coming from Alola. Guy says he's the one who first saw the space-man."

"The ones who leaked the pictures?" Jackson asked.

The aide nodded, passing over a cell-phone.

"Look here," Jackson started. "This is-"

"Hi!" shouted a kid out the phone. "I'm with Big Mo and we just found something really bad."

Jackson looked at the phone like it was growing arms and legs. "What did you find?" he asked cautiously.

"I dunno," he replied. "He won't tell me." There was a small pause. "Here, one second."

Jackson heard him put the phone down for a moment, trying to get someone's attention.

The phone picked up a moment later. "Hello, who is this?" asked a different voice.

"Commander Roger Jackson of Mossdeep Mission Control." He rolled his eyes at the unprofessional conduct that these two had displayed, trying not to sigh audibly. "Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"

"Molayne from Alola University, I'm preeety sure we met at the last Hoenn space expo."

Jackson thought back, recalling an awkward and lanky blonde that was more at home among orbital charts and thrust calculations than other people. "I remember you," he said. "Why are you calling me right now?"

"Something destroyed the Luna mission," he said quickly. "I'm sending the image over now."

There was a long pause as the shock of his words set it. "I'm sorry," Jackson started. "What did you just say?"

"I said I'm sending you the evidence now. It doesn't look good."

Jackson looked up, signalling for one of the aides. "We're getting something from Alola, something I want up on the screen the moment it's here."

The aide nodded, taking the phone away and running back to his station. Jackson sat heavily in his seat, looking up at the screen in dumbfounded terror.

Then it changed. The screen flicked to the photo that Molayne had sent, a crystal clear image of the expedition's fate.

The Clef-7 was in pieces, the orbital module spinning away into space. The habitation module was torn open, debris leaking out slowly and bodies still clearly strapped into their seats.

Behind them, the Lunar station was a ruin. It no longer resembled a structure of any kind and was just a debris field floating in front of the Clef-7.

The room was silent, not a breath in or out. Nobody dared to say a word, not with the images of utter failure still on the screen.

The aide passed him back the phone. "Is this a trick?" he asked numbly.

The answer on the other side was simple. "No," he replied.

"I have to call the champion," Jackson said. "He must be notified."

"I've already done so," the voice replied.

Jackson sighed heavily. "Then that's all there is to it," he said bitterly. "We're all out of a jo-"

"Sir!" shouted another aide. "We've got movement from Sky Tower! Rayquaza is mobile!"

Commander Jackson rose from his seat, trying to keep his breathing calm. "He hasn't moved since he quelled Groudon and Kyogre…"

"We've got something else entering our atmosphere as well, Southern Hemisphere."

Jackson's eyes widened. "Then he flies to save us once again." He lifted the phone up to his face. "I'm sorry, I have to make a call." He hung up, slowly and methodically dialling the number for home.

Rayquaza had only risen last time to stop Hoenn's deities from destroying her completely. For it to stir again, so soon after expending so much strength… Jackson couldn't fathom the danger that they all must have been in.

The phone answered on the third ring. His wife's happy voice greeted his. It was good to talk one last time, just in case.

Camp Russell, LaRousse Science Expedition, Antarctica

It was still following him. He could see it sometimes, a bright green glow through the blowing snow. He could see shadows, what looked like a thousand fingers reaching out towards him.

The truck was gone, along with the workers. The tracks led off into the snow. He didn't know when they'd fled, perhaps when the building had started falling to pieces around them, perhaps when the aurora in the sky had bathed them all in winding green light.

"Tori!" he shouted.

He climbed the hill of snow overlooking the ice shelf. He had no idea where his son might be, no idea what had even happened. For all his intelligence, all his knowledge, he had made a terrible mistake.

"Tori!" he shouted again.

A purple-blue star cut through the green light. The streams of winding green contracted around it, entwining with the beams of purple and blue shining off the newcomer.

Doctor Lund fell back, gazing up at the Visitor in awe.

It stumbled past him, a dozen tendrils of remade flesh stretching out where arms should have been. The torso was triangular in shape, twisted and contorted from its former human form.

He gazed up at the purple star and watched a thousand tendrils of waxy red descend from the purple star. It looked closer and realized that the star was no star, but a symmetrical triangle.

"It remade them…" Doctor Lund said slowly. "In its own image. This creature is unlike anything I've ever seen before."

The green gem turned to face him as the purple star descended towards them. He caught a glimpse of Mari's face atop the triangle and shuddered. Then it turned back and looked at its kind.

Waxy red tendrils wrapped around the green gem, prying it from the chest of its stolen body. The misshapen corpse crashed to the ground, a puppet who's strings had just been cut.

The lights in the sky retracted, retreating back into their respective gems. Both pulsed together in unison, casting the ice shelf in a green and purple hue. The tendrils of red wrapped tighter around the gem, melding together and forming another triangle around the green gem.

A burning beam of white hot light engulfed the Visitors. It carried on, plunging into the ice from above and superheating the frigid water below.

A plume of steam erupted from the ice shelf, the ocean below violently boiling in an instant. The entire ice shelf bucked and cracked, splintering in a thousand places. A geyser of boiling water exploded, huge chunks of ice catapulting into the sky.

Doctor Lund fell back as the ice below him buckled, sliding down towards the impact centre. He rolled uncontrollably, sliding on the ice as sealo and walrein plummeted into the ice all around him.

He rolled onto his back, opening his eyes to the white-gold fire burning in the sky. He saw the green scales, marvelled at the golden light shining from the sky god. Rayquaza had taken notice of the Visitors.

He saw the sheet of solid ice falling towards him. He saw his death rushing up to meet him. He didn't feel the end.

The Ice, Antarctica

The truck engine roared over the sound of the storm. It revved higher, the driver gunning it towards the coast. The ship that had brought them here was still anchored off the ice shelf, waiting for the return journey.

Tori Lund peered out the back window, clutching to Miss Yuko's hand. He watched the green dragon come from the sky. He watched the explosion of steam that cracked the ice beneath the truck. He watched the shining monsters emerge from the plume of steam unharmed, twisting and writhing arms reaching out for the sky god.

He watched the terrible creatures do battle with Hoenn's saviour, casting it down into the ocean with flashes of vibrant light. But the sky god was stronger than both, and burned with furious golden light. Rayquaza grew stronger, angrier. It laid waste to the frozen wasteland, carving burning furrows into the rocky land and melting great glaciers that had stood for millennia.

The Visitors fought back valiantly, conjuring shields of strange light to defend themselves. But it was for naught. The sky god was not to be defied. It cast them down, burying the shining gems in the shifting ice. There they stayed, trapped as the ice refroze around them.

Tori sat there in shock and fear even after Rayquaza announced its victory over the broken ice shelf. He didn't move until they got back to the boat, only shuffling quietly to the waiting helicopter.

Tori gazed silently out the window at the ruined landscape as they flew away. He didn't stir, didn't speak even when asked a question. He was silent.

Just like the ice.

Unknown/Undefined

Alone.

Scarce whispers in the endless dark.

Lost.

No answer, no friends.

Weak.

Punished by golden fire.

Alone

No answer. No friend.

All alone.

Silence.

Joshthewriter · Mar 18, 2022

Journey

Death of Duty

Part 5: War on the Water

Storm

Hate is emotion at its purest. — Indigo Elite Lorelei Kanna

"Where is it?" Janine shouted, storming onto the bridge with me in tow. We'd only just stepped aboard the Fang and she was like I'd never seen her. She could get angry, but right now she was murderous.

One of the bridge crew turned, his eyes glued to the display in front of him. "Still heading southeast," he said. "Current estimates put its course for Four or Five Island."

"Put us on an intercept course," Janine ordered. "full speed."

He nodded. "Yes, ma'am. We may not be close enough to intercept them before they reach their destination."

She rounded on him, fire in her eyes. "Then follow them to their destination!" She paced back and forth, looking nervously around as the ship lurched to life on a rocking wave.

I took Janine by the arm, pulling her out of the bridge and out onto the deck as we pulled out to sea. The ship cut through the swells easily, angling after the radar signature. "We need to talk," I said. "Your mothe-"

"No," she said coldly. "What I need is to find the bastard on that ship that got away. What I need is for you to be your fearless Ranger self and stand at my side for this. What I need is to find that ship and kill them for what they did."

My eyes met hers. I didn't see hurt, I saw fire. I saw vengeance and fury, not a hint of sadness. She needed the focus that the fire gave her, needed the fury right now. I couldn't take that from her right now. Lady Anzu's final request could stay hidden for just a little longer. For Janine's sake.

"I… I'm… I need to be alone right now."

I reached out to her for a moment's hug, but she pulled back and I knew she needed the space. "It's alright. I understand, Janine."

She stepped back, shaking her head. "I'll be in the med-bay if anyone needs me. Come get me when we're closing on that ship."

I nodded, understanding. I stepped back. I knew I needed to tell her about what her mother had asked, but I couldn't bring myself to at the moment. She deserved her time to grieve and she still needed to focus. She didn't need the distraction.

I watched her go, furiously storming along the deck. She didn't say a word as she left and I stayed silent.

"Ranger, we have an incoming sat-call for you."

I turned back to the crew member. "Surge?" I asked.

He nodded.

I followed him to the phone picking up the thick handset. "Wright here," I said. "It's been a while, sir."

"It's been a hell of a week, kid. Hope you're enjoying the vacation."

I scowled. "Hasn't been quite the trip I hoped it would," I said sarcastically. "Lost Vector a couple hours ago to some crazy modified pokemon. Rocket has a significant presence out here, looks like Elite Lorelei could be involved." I sighed heavily. "With all due respect, the mission is fubar at this point."

He chuckled over the line. "So is the world lately," he replied. "Rocket's gone dark on the mainland. It seems we've found all the cells we know about, but none of the known leaders. Your friends also took out some kind of ghost summoning operation in Lavender. We had nothing on Rocket in Lavender, so who knows what else they've got hiding."

"Some crazy shit," I replied. "something dangerous."

Surge paused for a moment. "Look, kid. I don't know how else to say this. Something dangerous already happened. Something big, in Hoenn."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Groudon and Kyogre have appeared. They're apparently heading towards each other…" he trailed off and I could hear more panicked shouting behind him. "they've already destroyed Sootopolis and Lavaridge. Pacifidog is gone and we're expecting massive waves crashing against Kanto's eastern shores."

"We haven't seen much yet," I said as we cut through a particularly large wave. "But it might be starting."

"Expect it soon," he replied. "You're a hell of a lot closer to Hoenn than we are. Stay safe, Ranger."

"I'll do what I can," I replied. "Rocket isn't making it easy on us."

"They never do," he said. "Keep in touch when you can. Surge out."

The call died and I watched as we broke through the crest of another large wave. "Do we still have the Sat-line?" I asked, glancing over at the comm tech.

He nodded and I lifted the phone once more. I had a few calls to make. A certain Fuchsian hospital had an update to give me, and Celio's project gave me an idea.

We were in the air again, the Fang sheltering in the small cove on the western side of Five Island. The radar signature had ignored Four Island, blowing past it on course to its real destination. The waves were getting more and more vicious, rocking the ship the the point that the helmsman was nervous. He brought us into the cove and we dropped anchor in the relatively calm shallows.

Artemis' chest was heaving, running on fumes at this point. We'd done so much aerial recon lately that she was struggling. She'd done wonders to improve her endurance but she had limits. She wasn't going to be much help in a fight in this state, something I was acutely aware of.

Janine was above me, almost a mile behind us atop her venomoth. She hadn't said a word to me since she had joined Leopold in the med-bay, silently following me into the air once was had arrived in the cove.

Our ground team was already in position, waiting just outside the compound. They would distract the main Rocket forces while Janine and I slipped into the base itself.

The Rocket base was clearly visible from above. I could see people rushing around, lashing down crates and securing large slats of cargo that sat on the jetty. They were preparing for the storm.

I raised my radio as a pair of the dockworkers pointed up at me. "Janine, we gotta move in now. No way they haven't seen us up here."

"Leader Anzu to the Fang." I glanced up. She'd told me not to call her that, that Lady Anzu was reserved for her mother. "Begin bombardment of the Rocket facility. Full salvo, rain fire for Fuchsia."

The radio crackled eagerly in response. "Roger that. Beginning bombardment."

A dozen soft thumps in the distance drew Artemis' gaze. She glanced backwards, hissing at the mechanical whine of the rockets as they wizzed beneath us. Another pair of louder thuds echoed over the island as the Fang fired her main cannons.

Brilliant explosions ripples across the facility as the rockets landed. Cargo went flying as the jetty disintegrated, bodies were tossed by the force of the explosions. The main cannons' shells impacted the facility itself, blasting huge holes into the side of the building. Slowly, a droning siren began to blare as the Rockets realized they were under attack.

A second salvo fired, another dozen rockets sailing from the cove. The cannons fired again as explosions carpeted the facility. Two massive blasts tore large holes in the main building and sent a hail of debris raining down on the courtyard.

"Team two, move in!"

The western edge of the compound erupted with light as a half dozen pokemon were released at once. Shinobi moved with them, all of them tearing into the few moving Rocket workers. There were a few flashes as some of the Rockets released pokemon of their own, but I paid them no mind. They were few and far between.

I leaned closer to Artemis. "Take us in!" I roared. "Drop us right on top of the building."

She tucked her wings against her side as we flew into a steep dive. I held tight to my pokemon, a cacophony of light and fire erupting from the ground. The bombardment hadn't taken out the anti-air cannons and our people were too close to risk another salvo. We were committed to the assault, for better or worse.

I swore and tugged Artemis to the side as a shell found the perfect trajectory. She rolled and the shell exploded in open air as we soared past. I felt the shockwave rock my aerodactyl, but we plunged past it without harm.

"AA fire!" I roared into my radio. "Take out those guns!"

I saw a muk envelop one of the cannons firing up at us, another one disintegrating under the burning light of a hyper beam. The fire continued though, with more Rockets and their pokemon rushing from the burning building as the battle began in full.

Janine surged past me on her venomoth. The AA fire redirected towards her, splashing harmlessly against a psychic barrier as her venomoth glowed with power. She swooped low over the battlefield and bathed another emplacement in psychic fire.

Artemis flared her wings, straining to kill our speed. She groaned in effort, landing heavily on a pair of Rocket grunts that had taken up firing positions in the bombed out building. I heard their screams of pain die under her as she crushed them with the impact.

I leapt off her back, releasing Acolyte before the third grunt could turn his rifle on me. My marowak dispatched him with a quick blow to the side of the head.

Artemis leapt atop the last Rocket as he fired a round that went wild. I ducked for cover and shied back behind Acolyte as my aerodactyl bathed the poor Rocket grunt with dragon flame.

I lifted my radio as I peered into the chaotic battle taking place. "Janine, I'm in!"

I saw her drop to the ground, her venomoth lifting another gun emplacement with psychic power. She glanced up at the building as her pokemon smashed the AA gun through the ranks of Rocket grunts. Men and mon were screaming, utter chaos filling the air.

"Go! Find Archer!" she shouted through the radio. "They need me out here!"

A large hissing arbok leapt from its coils and tangled around the venomoth's wings. I heard Janine curse over the sounds of battle and turn back to face her opponent. Brutus was out, roaring in anger as her venomoth tore the arbok off with psychic light.

Movement behind me drew my attention. The door had been blocked by debris, but a pair of Rockets were forcing their way through.

Acolyte was there, pinning the first of the grunts against the wall. The second grunt pushed past them as he raised his rifle for a clear shot at Acolyte. It would have taken too long to ready my own weapon and sight the target. I didn't think, I just moved.

I grabbed the barrel of his weapon and forced it upwards. A shower of wood splinters rained down on us as the grunt held the trigger down and fired wildly. We swung around, both my hands working around the rifle as we struggled. I fought to keep the barrel pointed at the ceiling, my hand burning as the metal heated rapidly.

I jerked forward, trying to throw the grunt off balance as I twisted the rifle away from him. Artemis closed her jaws around the upper half of the man and tore him away as Acolyte slammed the other grunt heavily to the floor.

I stepped back, holding the rifle at an arms length as my pokemon dropped the man. I felt sick to my stomach as I watched the man's blood pool where he lay. My aerodactyl panted heavily, looking at me for approval.

"Good girl," I said hesitantly. The grunt could have easily killed me, but now he was dead himself. The finality of it stuck in my mind. "Thank you," I said.

I dismissed Artemis to her ball and turned to Acolyte. My aerodactyl was too large to fit down the hallway and I didn't want to expose Curie to a battle like this. That meant it was just me and my marowak.

He looked at me, hefting his club. He'd evolved in the crucible of a battle against Rocket. He had just as much reason to hate them as me, even more when I gave it thought. He would be more than enough.

"You ready?" I asked. I dropped the rifle onto the floor, leaving it behind. Acolyte wouldn't be able to battle as effectively with me firing over his shoulder, but I lifted my own rifle and flipped the safety off nonetheless. "This won't be easy."

He nodded and turned towards the door. I fell in step behind him. Archer was somewhere in this base. The people that had killed Lady Anzu were somewhere in this base. All of this was because of Rocket. All of it had to end.

Three times we came across fire teams of Rocket grunts rushing to take up positions on the second level. Three times, Acolyte and I dispatched them without a problem. We broke our way into a stairwell that had been blocked by debris and dropped down to a lower level.

No trainers rushed to greet us as we entered the base proper, no Rocket grunts bottled us up in hallways. It was as if the base was empty, though with most of their men engaged with our assault it may as well have been.

I felt uneasy though. Something was wrong the ease of my infiltration. It was too simple, too foolproof. The opening bombardment hadn't done more than knock down a few walls. Doors that seemed to have been security doors were left mysteriously open while others with sounds of fighting behind them remained locked. I theorized that perhaps the security systems had been damaged, but it still seemed odd to me.

Acolyte was creeping along the opposite side of the corridor, his bone held up at the ready. There was a glass door at the end of the hallway with a stairwell leading down. More doors lined each side of the corridor.

I pointed at the glass door. "Looks important," I whispered. I crept up to the door, trying to pry it open. It stubbornly refused to budge. I glance back up at Acolyte and stepped away. "Break the glass."

Acolyte stepped up beside me, raising his club. The glass shattered at the touch. I looked around warily, but nobody came to investigate the noise. We stepped over the broken glass and I led Acolyte down the stairs.

I could hear voices shouting as we descended to a basement level. The shouts were echoing, the words mostly unintelligible. I waved Acolyte forward, stepping into line behind him.

The voices grew louder and were joined by the sounds of dozens more as we hurried down the spartan corridor. There were no lights save for the few bare bulbs mounted on the walls every dozen meters or so, but there was only one path.

We followed the corridor, coming to a T intersection. I glanced left and gasped as I pulled Acolyte back. The passage to the left opened to a vast cavern, water lapping at the hull of the submarine that Archer had escaped on.

I peered around the corner, looking for Archer. I didn't see him anywhere but the sub confirmed that he was here somewhere. I ducked back behind the wall and lifted my radio. "Ranger to Fuchsia leader," I started. "Do you copy?"

There was no answer. Not even static. I cursed under my breath, retreating back along the corridor I'd come down. I couldn't take that room alone and my radio wasn't working in the base's sub levels. I dashed back down the way I'd come, skidding to a halt at the bottom of the stairs. Acolyte growled, raising his club.

"Could've just been the bombardment," said a nondescript voice. "Most of the upper labs are completely destroyed. The shockwave could have blown the glass."

"No," said a voice that I knew well. "The Ranger is here. He landed in the upper labs ten minutes ago." I heard the sound of glass crunching under someone's boots. "Prepare the sub. We must leave at once. They are here for me."

"Yes, Archer."

I swore silently, backing down the corridor. This was not a place to stage an ambush. There was one other passage. I needed a place to hide or I was dead. I turned and ran, returning Acolyte to his ball. I dashed around the corner and sprinted hard to the right. I opened the door as quietly as I could and slipped through.

I stopped dead in my tracks as the abominable stench reached me. A flygon was strapped down to an operating table in the centre of the room. It was motionless. A doctor was standing over the table with a buzzing hacksaw held aloft. I immediately shouldered my rifle and levelled it with him, waiting for him to make a move.

The man clicked off his saw and lifted the protective mask covering his face. He cocked his head to the side and looked at me with an amused grin that sent a chill down my spine. "Curious," he started in a happy tone, almost as if he had been expecting me. "The Ranger, just like Archer said."

"You know me?" I asked, my weapon lowering slightly in surprise. My every instinct was screaming at me to run, to fight, to do anything other than remain in this man's presence. "Should I know you?"

He slowly shook his head. "We haven't been formally introduced yet, Marcus Wright. But I have read a great deal about you." He placed the saw down on the table and stepped back carefully and bowed deeply. "I'm afraid introductions are in order. My name is Gideon."

My eyes widened and my forehand dropped to Acolyte's ball. "You're Celio's traitor. You're Rocke-"

A door slid open behind me, interrupting my answer. I felt the words die on my tongue as hot breath blew down on my neck. It smelled like rotting meat and sewage and I bit back a gag.

"I wouldn't be so quick to lift that ball," he said with a musical smirk. "It could be detrimental to your health." He lifted a strange device from his pocket and fiddled with it. The gem atop the device shone and I felt something large move behind me as he tucked the device away.

I glanced behind me and it took everything I had not to empty my stomach. The thing had been a machamp once, before Rocket had taken it apart and put it back together. One pair of arms had been amputated at the elbow, replaced by cannons reminiscent of a magmortar's. Tubing and wiring wrapped around the mutilated pokemon's arms and ran down into a glowing chamber where its stomach should have been. The other two arms had been reinforced, metal struts and armour plating covering meaty fists.

"The pokemon hybrids…" I trailed off as I turned back to face him in horror. This was the man who had killed Lady Anzu. This was the man responsible for Vector. "Those were you."

"Bah," he spat forcefully. "Rocket wanted miracles. They spat on my work and gave me scraps! I ask for Articuno and they gave me chattel." He gestured up at the creation as it plodded around the operating table and took its place behind him. "I cannot create a god. Not with these… these vermin!"

I glanced down at the flygon. "More chattel for your experiments?" I asked, gesturing to the unconscious pokemon. He hadn't cut into it yet, maybe I could still save it. Maybe I could get him distracted and talking.

He shrugged. "I never said that they were useless. Just… unsuitable for my project." He shook his head. "But you're stalling. Trying to sidetrack me. It's a good idea. I do so love the sound of my own voice. Archer was right, you are smart."

He turned, rummaging through the papers strewn across the table behind him. "I'll indulge you, since I'm such a gracious host." The machamp leered down at me, watching carefully as its master turned his back. "I know I have it around here somewhere."

I glanced at movement to my right. A man was locked in a holding cell, discreetly trying to get my attention. He pointed furiously at something across the room, mouthing something through the bars of the cage.

I followed the man's arm, my eyes falling on the ball belt strewn over the side of the table. I nodded curtly and tightened my fists as the man turned back, a crude sketch in his hands.

"This was my dream," he said proudly as he thrust the picture towards me. "A new god to replace Rocket's clumsy failure. Something to supplant Fuji and his incompetent attempt at creation. I called it Project Triplet."

I peered closer at the sketch. I could see cold blue blending into crimson fire, golden lightning crackling around the gargantuan raptor's wings. "That's not possible. It's insanity. Not even Rocket would-"

"Rocket would and they did," he said nonchalantly. "You would be surprised by the lengths that man will go when pressed with extinction." He shrugged, still at ease. "Or perhaps you would not. It is of no concern." He kept that same wild grin the entire time he spoke, unnerving me. "Genius is often seen as insanity by those deficient of imagination. I am not concerned with what lesser minds may think. Fuji stretched the bounds of known science with cloning to fit Giovanni's needs. I will change it entirely with my creations."

I pointed at the sketch. "That is not genius. That is a perversion of nature." I pointed up at the machamp. "That isn't progress. It's suffering masked as knowledge." My hand dropped to Acolyte's ball and I swung the barrel of the gun towards Gideon. This was the man behind the fusions. This was Gideon in his element, Rocket's mad scientist playing god with the secrecy that Sevii's remoteness gave him. "Someone has to stop this."

His amused smirk twisted into a cruel scowl and I saw demented fury flash in his eyes. I felt the tension in the room thicken as he let the sketch fall from his hands. "Do you think that's going to be you?" He asked, his voice growing louder with every word. "A lone Ranger, only one truly battle-capable pokemon with you? You're a pathetic excuse for a trainer. It's a miracle that you haven't washed out of the League yet, or gotten yourself killed. What a truly magnificent hero you are."

I clenched Acolyte's ball tightly. "I never said I was a hero," I said forcefully. The faces of the nameless grunts that my team and I had killed to get here flashed in my mind. Reyes and Wertz, Pride and Vector, Lady Anzu, everyone Rocket had killed on the way here stood with me now. "Too many people are dead to sail that ship and bear that title." I shook my head. I didn't know a lot about my place in the world, but my next steps were clear as day. "I'm just the guy that's gonna kick your ass."

Acolyte and Curie appeared at my sides, glaring at the monstrosity before us. The man in the cell was screaming and I felt the machamp's bellow shake me to my bones.

Acolyte moved first, charging as Gideon disappeared through the door behind him. I held the trigger down, peppering the heavy metal door with lead. It remained stubbornly shut as the machamp raised an arm cannon in response.

Curie leapt in front of my marowak as fire erupted from the machamp's arm cannon. I couldn't help the scream of utter terror that came out of my mouth, watching my precious Curie roast alive.

Acolyte was there, hammering his club into the device embedded in the machamp's stomach. Smoke and flame belched from the machinery. One hand clamped down over the bone club as the abomination struck back with an armoured arm. Acolyte catapulted across the room and slammed headlong into the bars of the holding cell.

"My belt! Get my belt!" The trainer in the cell was shouting.

I ducked under the stream of fire, tearing my attention away from Curie with willpower I didn't know I had. I slid past the machamp and grabbed the belt as I turned to face it.

There were four balls on the belt. I hit the release button on all of them. Three spears of red light ignited, releasing a trio of pokemon around us as the flames withered and died.

The machamp looked around and seemingly weighed its chances as a mightyena, manectric and growlithe growled threateningly. The trainer in the cage was shouting orders, desperately issuing commands as I returned to Curie's side.

I pulled a potion from my pack, hovering over Curie nervously. "Hang back, I don't want you getting hurt."

Curie shook her head, ignoring the burns covering her little pink body. She pulled an egg from the pouch on her belly and shook it vigorously. She looked at me then pointedly back at the machamp.

Then the three canines leapt into attack and Curie went with them. The machamp roared in pain, fire fangs and thunder fangs tearing plates of armour off of the machamp's arms. Curie bounded over the prone flygon and pitched her egg into the machamp's exposed belly.

The egg exploded violently, throwing the machamp bodily into the wall. The trainer's pokemon didn't miss a beat. Each of them launched across the room, pinning an arm as Curie bounded after them an pinned the creature's fourth arm to the wall.

Acolyte rose to his feet, groggily lifting his club and trying to shake off his dizziness.

"Help them!" I shouted, rifling through the clutter on the desk. There had to be keys somewhere around here.

The machamp roared as it struggled. It thrashed, smashing the mightyena down on the table beside me. My ears rang heavily with the deafening sound as I finally lifted the keys and dashed over to the cell.

Acolyte hammered his club into the device as I fumbled for a key. There were dozens of keys. The first one didn't even fit the hole and I moved to the next one.

A heavy impact slammed me face first into the cage bars. I swore as the trainer's growlithe clambered off of me and leapt back towards the raging machamp.

"Go!" the trainer shouted. "Wake up my flygon, I'll get the lock."

I tossed the key ring to his waiting hand and turned back as the machamp tore the mightyena off its left arm cannon.

It levelled the cannon at Acolyte and I saw flame stir inside the nozzle. Smoke and steam vented from the contraption in its stomach and the fire died as soon as it began. It roared in frustration and swung wildly, abandoning its fire in favour of its armoured fists.

I leapt atop the flygon, shaking it violently as I shouted. The manectric screamed in pain as it soared over me. Curie was shrieking and Acolyte retreating. My hand dug through my bag, searching for the pair of full heals I kept on me at all times.

Curie hit me from the side and we both went sprawling on the floor. The machamp bellowed, batting Acolyte's defensive blows away in annoyance. I popped back up only to watch my marowak be lifted into the air by the throat. A second arm deftly blocked his clumsy retaliation, dropping the bone club to the floor.

My precious Chansey wailed in fear and bounded back over the table. She beat on the machamp's arm ineffectually, a desperate attempt to free Acolyte. The machamp brushed her off with one of its cannons as it wrapped a second hand around Acolyte's throat and slammed him headlong into the wall.

She was back, grabbing hold of one of the arm cannons. She grunted in effort and tore the cannon off the machamp's arm with a spray of blood and sparks.

The reaction was immediate. It dropped Acolyte and swung both fists into Curie. She hit the wall behind me and slumped to the floor as the abomination roared in pain and fury. Acolyte grabbed his club, sweeping the creature's legs out from beneath it.

The trainer's mightyena was back, pinning the creature's arm before it could knock Acolyte away. The manectric and growlithe followed the mightyena's lead, pinning the machamp's two remaining arms to the floor.

Acolyte planted a foot on the mutilated machamp's chest and raised his club. He brought it down onto the pokemon's face in a vicious blow.

"Again," I ordered sombrely. The machamp was not in control of itself. It was a tool that Rocket had discarded in my direction, a vain attempt to slow me down. I took no pleasure in a battle like this. Again, I only felt sorry for the pokemon that had been stitched together in suffering. "Put it out of its misery."

My marowak pounded down, over and over. He hammered away at the Pokémon's skull until it finally stopped struggling and lay still. I slowly raised my rifle and fired once to make sure.

The cell swung open and the trainer collapsed under his pokemon. He rolled back, laughing and smiling. "I'm ok, ladies. I'm ok." He got to his feet and stepped out of the cell, looking down at the machamp.

"You… you killed it," he said. He looked away from the corpse and back up at me as I lowered my weapon. "I think it was Darcy's machamp… before they took her."

"Are there any other prisoners?" I asked quickly as I returned Curie. We had to move quickly now, or Archer was lost.

He shook his head solemnly. "No," he said quietly. "Not anymore at least."

I understood the implication. I didn't press. I tossed him his belt and he returned his pokemon. He strapped the belt back on and turned back to me.

"I can't let them leave," I said. "You can come with me if you want, but I can't lead you outside."

He shook his head. "You can't take them all by yourself, not unless you've got one hell of a secret weapon."

I shook my head. "Just an exhausted aerodactyl."

He frowned. "Then I'm going with you," he said and I heard the slight accent. "It's like you said. Someone has to stop him."

I looked at him closely. He had a Hoennic accent and several pokemon from Hoenn. My mind immediately went to what Surge had told me earlier, about the events taking place in Hoenn. "What's your name, stranger?"

"Riley Walsh," he replied. "I was visiting Sevii with Darcy… we were from Hoenn."

I faltered, offering a weak smile. I knew what was happening in Hoenn. He likely didn't. This was not going to be a pleasant conversation. I opened my mouth to speak and felt the words die on my tongue.

"What's wrong?" He asked, catching my troubled expression. "Did somethi-"

"Something's happened," I said quietly. There was no way to keep it from him. "Groudon and Kyogre have woken."

He went pale and I saw his eyes widen. He was deathly still. "Then Hoenn's end times have begun. Gods walk the earth once more." He looked down at the floor and closed his eyes. "Rayquaza protect us."

I nodded, unsure of what to say. I was not religious myself, Kanto had largely abandoned her religious roots before I had been born and my father had instilled a distrust in the idea of an all powerful being. But I couldn't help but see the appeal in praying for a higher power's assistance. I looked down at the scattered mess of papers and immediately set upon the crude sketch Gideon had brandished at me.

I lifted the paper and stared at it. "Rocket means to create their own god. They mean to chain deities to their will." I looked up at him. "They're going back to One Island." I folded the paper and stashed it back into my pack. "They're going after Moltres."

He stretched experimentally, seemingly favouring his left shoulder. "Then we'd better stop them."

I went into my pack, pulling out the few healing supplies I had left. The assault through the base had severely depleted my supplies but I had enough left to heal Acolyte and get Riley's team back in fighting shape.

Our pokemon finally ready, we stepped out of the trashed lab. We burst into the underground dock and my worst fears were realized. Rocket was already gone.

The docks were empty of workers and the sub was gone. The entire assault, the destruction we had wrought was for nothing. We were too late. Rocket was gone and we had failed.

Pokédex Entry Addendum – Pokemon Fusions/Hybrids

Recent intelligence obtained by Ranger operatives have unveiled a new effort by the Rocket Organization to create pokemon fusions. These 'creations' should be treated with extreme caution. They are irregular, unstable creations that are extremely dangerous. Oftentimes they are slaved to their creator's will using illegal mind-control technology. Trainers are advised to report any and all sightings to their nearest Ranger post.

Early research in the field was pioneered by Samuel Oak, before abandoning it as "the work of crackpots and madmen". Some additional exploratory research was done by Dr. B. Katsura and Dr. I. Fuji, but abandoned soon after beginning over ethical concerns.

It is currently unknown how widespread their existence is or how many of these creations are in circulation. Ranger Command will update this entry with any relevant information.

Intermediate Trainer KT#07996101

Indigo Ranger Corps, Special Task Group, "Zapdos" Squad,

Corporal SN# 109-512-6591, Marcus Wright, current team:

Luna, Ninetales

Acolyte, Marowak

Curie, Chansey

Artemis, Aerodactyl

Sonic Ramon · Apr 6, 2022

Joshthewriter said:
Boulder

The hallway was dank and dark. It smelled like sweat and blood, crude reminders of what it would take to actually accomplish my goal. There was no noise of the crowd, no searing lights for the cameras, just an old loudspeaker that crackled and fizzed as it spat out its call.

"Challenger to the field!"

I stepped forward, my hand dropping to the belt on my side. I only had two balls there, only two pokemon for this battle, but I hoped to all hell that they'd be enough.

I didn't have the luxury of time. There would be no second challenge if I failed here. I'd blown through every scrap of my savings and then half a starter training loan in pursuit of this dream. Failure meant crawling back to the smallest speck on the map and staying there for the rest of my life. I'd marry a suitable girl, probably Sarah Walker or Jenny Mathers if my Pa had his way, and take over the farm once he got too old to do so.

I hardened my expression. Like hell I was going back there as anything other than champion. Yucca village was a small farming community, not even on most maps unless you bought a local regional map from the northern gate of Saffron City and managed to find the smallest dot on it. Our proudest moment was when the hamlet of a half dozen families got mentioned on the evening news one time nearly twelve years back for naming our village after the cash crop we were most known for.

I stepped onto my platform, heart pounding in my chest. I knew that nobody would be watching this match live. I was a nobody, a bumpkin from a tiny stinking backwater that didn't even rate a mention on any local travel guides. I'd be lucky if I even rated a slot in the evening league recaps for my first attempt at a gym challenge.

I hoped that it was recorded. I wanted at least some record of this, for my own sense of selfish pride. I wanted some record of the validation that I was looking for. Maybe I could even pay Brock for a copy of the tape, to send back to my Pa so he could see I wasn't completely full of shit.

The platform jolted and rose towards the hole in the ceiling. I blocked out the stadium lights as my eyes adjusted to the sudden light. I nervously tapped my fingers against the pair of balls on my belt. The battlefield was a mess of rocks and sandy dunes, with a single massive rock that had been hollowed out serving as the arena's centrepiece. Many a challenger had attempted to use the hollow network of tunnels and chambers to their advantage and found themselves outclassed by an enemy that knew every corner of the arena as if it were their homes.

Brock was already waiting, standing implacably atop his command platform. He had forgone a shirt, his arms crossed over his chest and clearly flexing to show off his impressive muscles. I wasn't afraid, I knew it was for show. He wanted me off balance, fretting over appearances while he picked away at at my team. I was a novice, but that didn't mean I was an idiot.

Brock was an elite-level trainer, one of Kanto's Gym Leaders. He'd been Pewter's Leader for almost fifteen years, after his father before him. He was a powerful trainer, placing in the top ten in last year's Pokemon World Tournament. He was also the traditional first gym of the circuit, a bar that every serious trainer had to clear.

The referee's voice boomed out through the loudspeakers and I flinched visibly. It was louder than I'd expected. "This will be a novice challenge to the Pewter City Gym leader. Leader Brock will use two novice-ranked pokemon, with no substitutions. The challenger may use as many pokemon as he is able to, with two substitutions."

I nodded, remaining silent. I wasn't giving Brock a damn thing, not false confidence, no boasting bravado. I was a novice, a beginner who hadn't even gained a single badge let alone challenged a gym yet. I hadn't earned any confidence yet.

Brock smirked and raised his first ball. I knew it was a geodude before he even reached for the ball. His novice teams were pretty consistent, usually just a geodude and an onix. Sometimes he replaced the geodude with a graveller, but that was usually reserved for higher level novices. Beginners like me weren't worth that kind of effort, something that I was counting on. He tossed the ball into the air. Sure enough, the little floating rock appeared from the flash of red light.

I smirked, lifting my first ball. I would start strong, and give Brock a taste of what I was made of. I may have been a novice, but I was absolutely not a pushover. It was important to show that, something Pa taught me on the farm. You couldn't let people push you around. I may not have agreed with my Pa about many things, but he had a point.

I tossed my first ball into the sky with a firm expression. My starter appeared in a flash of red light. A little vulpine pokemon growled menacingly at the rock opposite it, flaring her tails aggressively. Her opponent had the type advantage, but I had learned the hard way never to count Luna out of the fight. My vulpix was a tenacious little monster, well used to fighting unorthodox battles in environments that favoured our opponent. Our month spent making agonizingly slow progress westward over Mount Moon had paid impressive dividends.

"Your move!" Brock shouted. "Challengers first!"

I nodded. I knew that, of course. I'd been studying training almost my whole life. No need for Brock to know how capable I really was. Not yet at least. "Alright Luna, lets get started. Confuse-wisp!"

I saw Brock's eyebrow raise from across the field. He hadn't expected a combo move, not from a novice like me. "Don't let it set up!"

Luna hacked and coughed, a burning ball of eerie blue flame dripping out of her mouth. With a flash of her eyes, the flame soared into the air. Wisps of supernatural light followed the flame, dancing across the battlefield towards our opponent.

The geodude wasn't idle, for its part. But there wasn't much it could do. Luna was quick. It was very definitely the exact opposite of quick. It tucked its arms into its body and threw itself into a rollout, a vain attempt to dodge the attack.

The wispy flame slammed into the geodude mid-roll, doing nothing to affect its momentum. That hadn't been the intent though. Luna would never be able to outright stop a geodude mid-roll, not even once she evolved into a ninetales. Creative evasion and distruption were our only real hopes at breaking through its defence. "Now, quick attack!"

Luna shot off like a rocket, darting out of the geodude's path with practiced ease. The rock type attempted to compensate and follow, but careened off course. It plowed into one of the hundred boulders dotting the arena and cracked the gigantic stone in half as easily as I could crack an egg. I grimaced internally. That would hurt if it landed. Luna needed to be perfect, and the geodude only had to land one solid blow. It was a recipe for disaster.

However, reality proved far less pessimistic than I was. Luna kept up the assault, barraging the geodude with eerie wisps of flame and forcing it to fight an uneven battle. It wasn't the boldest strategy, or the flashiest. Hell, it wasn't even a particularly brave tactic. That didn't matter to me. It limited how much damage Luna would take. My entire gym challenge hinged on her doing the heavy lifting in this battle, at least until I could train up my other team member to a respectable degree. I needed to take the geodude down with minimal damage in return.

The geodude changed tactics, slamming into another boulder and smashing it into pebbles. It didn't look like it had taken much damage at all, but rocks were like that sometimes. Something to do with their heavy outer carapace or something makes them more resistant to physical damage. Resistant however, did not mean immune. It had plowed through at least half a dozen of those boulders chasing after Luna, and it had to at least be feeling it at this point.

I spotted the opening I had been hoping for. The geodude wobbled slightly and shook the confusion from its eyes. It dug both hands into the ground, tearing loose a slab of rock that had been hidden under the sand. "Another confuse ray!"

Another spinning helix of eerie lights erupted from my vulpix. They sank into the geodude's eyes and I smirked knowingly as a simple expression crossed the rock type's face. It's arms wavered and bent as the slab of rock dipped dangerously back towards it.

"Toss it away! Now!" Brock was shouting, realizing the threat. It was too late though.

His geodude pitched the slab as hard as it could. But it's dizzied confusion had already taken a toll. The stone slab slipped free of the geodude's hands as it fumbled the throw. It crashed down on top of the little rock, utterly crushing it beneath.

My shit-eating grin probably burned into Brock's mind permanently. I smirked and pointed forward with a simple, decisive order. "Incinerate!"

Luna leapt atop the cracked stone slab, hunting for a suitable crack. She found one within seconds, all while we could hear the geodude angrily struggling to break free. She puffed her chest out and inhaled deeply. A torrent of flame poured from my little vulpix, superheating the slab of rock and melting the sand beneath.

Now, I knew that the fire itself wouldn't do much to the geodude. But that wasn't the point of the attack. I didn't have anything that could hit them effectively. My only choice was to trap it, so that Brock would be forced to concede his geodude.

As the sand beneath the slab melted further, I looked over at Brock. His arms were held calmly at his side. His hands were clenched into tight fists, betraying his outwardly calm expression. He had seconds before the molten sand hardened into a tomb of glass, seconds before his geodude was trapped and I won this round. "Rollout!"

I grimaced. It could work. "Get clear of it!" I shouted, too late to make a difference.

The geodude rocketed through the molten sand, emerging from the ground several meters away. It was bright red, dripping with molten sand and glowing with heat. We had it on the ropes, but now the little ball of rock was gonna try to turn the tables on us.

Luna leapt away from the geodude's attack, barely rolling out of the way as the glowing rock barrelled past. It crashed through another boulder and barely slowed down as pebbles showered down on the battlefield.

"Get inside the big rock!" I ordered, hoping that Luna had enough left to keep the speed up until the geodude ran out of steam.

She turned on her tail and bolted, sand kicking up in her wake. The geodude was coming around, still gaining speed as it looked around the arena.

I saw it coming. Luna wouldn't be quick enough to avoid the geodude. It would smash into her side and the battle would be over.

"Incinerate!" I shouted again. "Melt the sand in its path!"

Luna, bless her little soul, knew exactly what to do. She planted her feet as the geodude rounded the arena and bore down on her. She puffed her chest out and sucked in a quick breath. It wasn't as powerful as the last one, but the jet of flame that she spat was still enough to melt a patch of sand several feet wide into a pool of liquid glass.

The geodude plowed into the puddle, spewing molten glass in its wake. Luna dove for the side, too slowly to avoid the geodude. They collided and Luna yelped something fierce as the scorching hot ball of rock tossed her like a flailing rag doll and crashed face-first into the central boulder.

I raised her ball and returned her immediately. She'd done enough, and I needed her for Brock's second pokemon. The geodude had to be-.

"Leader Brock's first pokemon has been defeated. The challenger has taken the first round and used one of his substitutes."

I leapt nearly a foot in the air, not expecting the referee's voice to come so soon. I forced down the feeling of elation, knowing that the easy part of the battle was done. What came next would be immeasurably harder.

Brock smirked and nodded to himself. "You're good, better than I expected for a novice." Now it was Brock's turn to wear the shit-eating grin and he knew it. "Still, this isn't over and we both know that." He lifted another ball off the pedestal on his platform and tossed it into the air. "Let's see how you handle Shale!"

Brock's prized onix appeared with and earthshaking roar. She tossed back her pale green tinted head and screeched a defiant challenge. I knew what to expect. Shale was Brock's pride and joy, bred from the titanic onix that fought on Brock's championship team. She was a pale green, flecks of silver metal running through the boulders that made up her serpentine body. It was a side effect of her parentage, something to do with being the offspring of Brock's first onix and Galar's Raihan's prized duraludon. He would be a monster in a few years, but right now he was just a baby.

It made for a damn impressive showing. I knew my second pokemon would look downright feeble compared to it, but that's what I expected at this point. It was common practice for Gym Leaders to use at least one pokemon that outclassed anything you could throw at it. Helped you think on your feet and formulate strategies that played to the strengths of your pokemon.

Unfortunately, my second pokemon didn't have many strengths for me to play to. She was nearly useless in battle, even when she did decide to listen to me. It was absolutely hopeless. She just didn't have a violent bone in her body. Even if she could have lifted things fifty times her size, she would never use that strength in a violent way.

I raised my second pokeball and grinned in a way that betrayed the lack of confidence I had.

"Play time, Curie!"

My two-foot tall, ball of pink joy materialized on the field and I felt our momentum come to a crashing halt as my precious happiny goo-gooed adorably at the terrifying onix.

Brock couldn't help the burst of laughter that came forth. His rock snake mirrored him, shaking the entire arena with deep rumbling laughter.

Now, Curie might not be a violent soul but she can stall a battle somewhat effectively if she's coaxed into it the right way. She was a baby. All she really wanted to do was play, and if I could present the battle as a game then she'd cooperate for the most part. At least as long as her attention span held out.

So I did the only thing I could. I blatantly lied to my little baby. I got down on one knee, looking down at Curie with a happy smile on my face. "Hey, Curie!" I shouted.

She looked up at the sound of my voice and started hopping happily at the sight of me. It melted my damn heart.

I pointed over at Shale, putting on my playful voice. "See that big mean onix?" I asked. "She wants to play!"

Curie hopped up and down on the spot, looking back and forth between Shale and I. She squealed happily and bounded towards the onix without waiting for my command.

Brock stopped his laughing and raised an eyebrow. "Defence curl!" He ordered. Shale rumbled a response and coiled herself around a boulder. My little happiny wouldn't be able to do a single thing to hurt the onix, which was fine by me. That wasn't the plan anyways.

Curie bounded over to the coiled onix, giggling madly. She bounded up Shale's coils and made her way towards the massive serpent's head. She puckered her lips and planted a sopping wet kiss on Shale's nose.

Now it was time for Brock to learn the hard way why I still had confidence that I could pull off a win. Curie might not have had a hope in hell at actually beating Shale, but she was a charming little shit. Once she sunk her adorable little claws into you, you were completely at her mercy.

Shale raised her head, studying the little ball of joy on her coils. Curie cooed at the terrifying rock monster, melting that stone heart as easily as she did mine. Shale rumbled softly and nudged her opponent with her nose.

"Shale! Crush that weakling!"

The onix looked back at her trainer and whined, something I had never heard from an onix before or since. She shook her head and looked back down at my gibbering happiny with a fond rumble.

Curie pulled the small, smooth stone from her pouch and held it up towards Shale. The onix rumbled again, low and slow. Shale lowered her head and nuzzled my Curie affectionately.

Brock was absolutely livid. He was practically hopping in place, his face bright red. Shale was completely ignoring his frantic commands, enamoured with Curie's adorable antics. She was nuzzling Curie with her nose and laughing deeply when the little happiny planted another kiss on her nose.

I didn't have to do anything. Curie could entertain that onix for the rest of the round, keeping her attention off the fact that this was a gym battle. Nothing and nobody could resist Curie's adorable attitude if she wanted your attention.

Then, disaster struck. Shale must have shifted as she laughed, because Curie stumbled and flopped onto her back. Hard. I winced, knowing that we were all in very deep shit.

Curie's little rock, the one she had offered to Shale, bounced off the onix's coils and rolled into the sand as Curie watched on in abject horror. I plugged my ears with two fingers, waiting for the inevitable.

Curie absolutely exploded with sound, wailing at the top of her infantile lungs. Shale recoiled from the noise, wincing and shutting her eyes. They were across the arena from me, still at Shale's starting position. Curie's agonized wail was still ear-piercing at this distance. I could scarcely imagine the discomfort that Brock was feeling, let alone the punishment Shale's eardrums were enduring.

Shale lashed out, flinging Curie across the arena with a flick of her tail. Curie bounced twice and came to a crashing halt against the hollow boulder in the centre of the arena.

"Curie! Hide and seek!" I shouted, hoping desperately that she would forget the little round stone she had dropped and stop wailing long enough to hear me.

I had no such luck. She just wailed harder, mourning her lost rock with all the fury of a confused infant. With a satisfied grin, I lifted her ball off my belt and returned my happiny to her ball. I couldn't be more proud of my baby girl. She had done her job and eaten up all but two minutes of the round just by being an adorable baby. She'd get her chance to shine in battle eventually, but for now she could be the best damn stalling tactic a guy could ask for.

That had been the crux of my whole strategy. Neither Curie nor Luna had anywhere near the strength to bring down Shale. Our only hope at victory was a wing and a prayer, stuffed with one hell of a bullshit technicality. If I could outlast Brock, run the clock out without Luna going down, then I would win the match. I still had two conscious pokemon to Brock's one. I would win by virtue of outlasting a titanic onix that I couldn't even scratch.

I lifted Luna's ball and mouthed a silent prayer. There were no more substitutions. It was just me against Brock, Luna against Shale, raging fire against stoic stone. I tossed Luna's ball and smirked as my confidence came flooding back. We could do this.

"Alright Luna, remember the plan. Be fast, be smart, be strong."

My vulpix looked up at me, eerie light already flickering behind her eyes. She knew exactly what she had to do, what I expected of her. She snorted a puff of smoke at me, as if outrunning a 400 pound rock serpent was beneath her.

Brock took the first move, ordering Shale into pursuit of Luna. His onix didn't even wait for him to finish, lunging forward in an attempt to end the battle quickly.

Luna was gone in a flash, bounding out of Shale's path faster than the onix could turn. A barrage of levitating blue flames slammed into Shale's side, superheating the stones and drawing a rumble of annoyance from the onix. It wouldn't do much, but there was a chance it would show Shale down.

"Quick attack!" I shouted as Shale pivoted on the centre of her body. She swung a bladed tail through the sand, wiping away a pair of small boulders that had the misfortune of standing in the wrong spot. Luna was a rust-coloured blur, dashing out of the way of Shale's tail in a spray of sand.

She was quick, but Shale was faster than I had anticipated. Fortunately, we had a way to slow the massive onix down. We just had to land it.

"Confuse ray!" I shouted.

Luna skidded to a halt, eerie wisps of ghostly light conjuring from nothingness. They spun off towards Shale as Luna dashed away from the Onix's descending tail. It slammed into the ground, throwing sand into the air with the impact.

I swore under my breath. Shale was fast. Faster than a gigantic rock monster had any right to be. Brock had covered his ass well. Luna was faster, but not by enough for me to get comfortable. The battle was going to come right down to the wire.

"Get clear!" I shouted. "Long range barrage now, confuse wisp!"

Luna scrambled away from the thrashing serpent, kicking up a spray of sand behind her as she went. She skidded to a halt halfway across the arena and spun.

Before she could cough out a single wisp a boulder slammed into the ground not three feet away from her. Luna yelped in surprise and dashed away, barely avoiding the second boulder that crashed down where she had been standing mere moments before.

"Top speed!" I shouted, knowing that Shale held damn near every advantage without confusion muddying her mind. "Find cover!"

Luna turned in a blur, weaving through the barrage of rocks that Shale was pitching at her with ease. She ducked and weaved, cutting and turning just in time to avoid each incoming rock. I felt my pride swell in my chest as my precious little vulpix motored at speeds that would have even impressed a pikachu.

Shale roared in frustration as her last boulder sailed just wide and crashed harmlessly into the sand. She surged forwards as the clock ticked down to the last twenty seconds.

Luna turned as the onix gave chase, cutting close to the massive hollow structure in the centre of the arena. It was a gambit, banking on Shale moving to quickly to turn easily. Luna led the massive rock serpent on a desperate chase, dashing into the hollow rock as Shale slammed into the base of the rock when she cut too closely.

Luna was gone, disappeared into the rock. Less than fifteen seconds was left on the clock, but our greatest advantage was nullified in close quarters. All Shale had to do was twitch the wrong way and Luna would be nothing more than a smear on the wall.

Ten seconds left as Shale disappeared into the rock.

Seven seconds left and the arena shook as Shale found her prey inside the rock.

Five seconds left and the rock shook violently with a titanic impact.

Three seconds left and Luna peeked out of the top of the rock.

Two seconds and Shale was following her onto the top of the rock.

One second left and Luna was out of space. There was nowhere to go. Shale was raising herself to her full height. My precious starter would be nothing more than a smear of blood and hair.

The horn blared and I exhaled the breath that I hadn't realized I was holding. I unclenched my fists, realizing that my nails had been digging into my palms so tightly that they drew blood.

The referee's voice crackled over the loudspeakers, sounding sweeter than I had ever imagined a bored teen sounding. "After expiry of the final round, the challenger has two pokemon left to Leader Brock's one. The challenger has been declared the winner!"

I didn't hear the small smattering of cheers from the stands. I didn't hear the referee continue to drone on about my victory. I had won, I had beaten Brock. My eyes found Luna and I didn't care to hide the tears that fell freely. I was a trainer now. For real. And there wasn't a damn thing anybody could do to change that.

Pokédex Entry #95: Onix

Onix are large, serpentine pokemon that are native to nearly all mountain ranges in the Kan-Jo supercontinent. They serve as the region's supreme apex predator, capable of going toe to toe against any landlocked opponent.

Nearly fifty feet long when fully grown, most onix resemble titanic serpents made from a series of connecting boulders. A few specimens have been comprised of darker, harder boulders. This is possibly a result of the aging process.

Unfortunately, study opportunities are exceedingly limited due to the species' aggressive nature. Most specimens succumb to battle wounds long before they age to maturity, and even fewer survive to old age. Legends persist of an ancient onix comprised of solid diamond, but few credible sources can confirm this with any reliability.

Novice Trainer, KT#07966101

Luna, Vulpix

Curie, Happiny

Done reading the first chapter, and it was pretty neat! I found the part with Happiny to be the most adorable and hilarious scene of this chapter. And the way the MC thinks is interesting thus far. Looking forward to reading more, possibly latter on today or at some point in time. <3

Spiteful Murkrow · Apr 11, 2022

Heya, popping in for that Catnip Review. You requested a review specifically for one of your Special Episodes, so I decided to just pick up the first one from release order. Just in case if there’s some things better appreciated about the later ones after reading earlier content first.

Anyhow, let’s get right into things:

Eternal War

Every day, Farmer Dan started his day by taking his customary stroll through his berry patch. He checked on those precious little moneymakers every single morning, watching for any early ripening and checking for any impurities that might affect the value of his crop. His other products all sold well enough, but none of them could even put a dent into the profit margins of his berry patch.

Sounds like the story of the life of agriculture in California. It’s resource and water-intensive, but garden crops are very much where your profits are made in reality, and it only figures that the same would track in Pokéworld, especially when it’s not exactly hard to lay waste to an entire crop in the right (or I suppose wrong from a certain perspective) circumstances.

Battle-crazed trainers were positively starved for high-quality berries and would pay through the nose for competition quality items. It had been the latest business boom, taking his old family farm from a local produce farm to an international business recognized across the world. He'd had visitors from Kanto and Sinnoh in the last week, to go along with his usual local buyers from Hoenn's League. Business was absolutely booming and he couldn't be happier.

How inspiring. What could possibly go wrong with this tale of pulling yourself up by the bootstraps-

-checks title-

… Right, that’s a thing.

He wiped the sweat from his balding head and moved on to the next patch of berries, satisfied by the progress his lum berries were making. Already, the morning sun was beaming down and scorching him with its gaze. It wouldn't be long before he'd be able to start the harvest, plucking the sitrus berries before they ripened too much. He dropped to one knee as he reached the first sitrus plant and lifted up the leafy foliage. His jaw dropped, and the stream of obscenities erupting from his lips would have made his mother blush brighter than even the brightest razz berry.

He lifted the mangled corpse of the sitrus berry, mourning it and lamenting the loss of profit. The sour little fruit had been half-eaten and left to rot on the ground. Small paw prints surrounded the plant and led off towards the fence line. Dan rose to his feet, scanning the rest of the sitrus patch with a keen eye. More berries littered the ground under the leaves, their profits leaking into the dirt along with Dan's untarnished reputation.

… Unless if every Sitrus Berry goes for their equivalent of like $1000, that feels like a bit of an overreaction from Farmer Dan there. Like losing some of your crops to weather or pest damage is just part of agriculture. And with the scale that was implied by him getting into international business, one would think that a few berries being lost would be a drop in the bucket.

I think that the overall idea you were going for here would’ve worked better if the scale of the damage Dan saw was a bit further up there on the totem pole. Like having that entire row being visibly stripped bare by Pokémon helping themselves or seeing multiple bushes killed or something like that.

He swore under his breath, following the trail to the fence line. It wound its way through several other berry patches, circling the pecha patch multiple times. He followed it up to the fence and scowled at the discovery. Something had dug a hole under the fence and pilfered a significant portion of his stock. Something, not someone.

I… think that that could’ve played up more in description. Since I didn’t get a sense that this was a nontrivial portion of Dan’s crop that got mangled just from that walkthrough that he did. I think that had you described the damage and its scope a bit more (or else Dan’s relative scope of his operation), it’d have sold the idea of this being largely damaging a bit better.

Like if Dan’s farm is now an “international business recognized across the world”, I’d have expected more than one messed-up row of berries to be this damaging unless he’s just meant to be Scrooge-tier and hate losing so much as a spare Pen to the likes of pests.

"Ave some troubles now, boy?"

Dan rose to his feet. His hand dropped to his belt, to the one ball that still sat there. He looked up the small hill at the two figures standing in the trees. "Clear off now, Wilkersons."

Jeb and Donny Wilkerson sauntered from the tree line. Dan couldn't see their blasted swampert, but he knew it was out there watching the two brothers. Jeb began to jog down the slight hill. "Somethin' get into yer berries, Danny boy?"

… Those two totally set their Swampert loose in this guy’s farm, didn’t they? Since their interactions with each other just screams “neighbors with a long-standing feud”.

He relaxed slightly, but kept his hand on Lena's ball. The old linoone wouldn't be much help in an all out brawl, but she was an effective deterrent if nothing else. "None of your business, Wilkersons." He looked up at Donny, watching the pudgy man struggle down the hill "Best clear off. Before one of you has an accident."

Jeb wheeled around, spinning back to his brother. "City boy has attitude, Donny."

Wow, rude. From both sides, really. Though I see that frosty feeling’s mutual between these guys.

"Ought'ta teach 'im a lesson," Donny replied, his voice far higher and softer than a man his size would be expected to have. "Maybe the 'vipers in them woods ought'ta pay him a visit."

He froze, his hand clenching Lena's ball tighter. "Seviper?" He asked in a low tone. Just the thought of the serpentine pokemon brought back memories that Dan wanted to leave buried. Memories of a war that his family had barely survived the first time. "Thought they cleared off years ago."

… I can already tell that this Special Episode is going to go places given that this guy has apparently been in conflict with Seviper in the past and they’re now back. I wonder if Lena is a Zangoose in that case, since it feels like it’d be thematically fitting with the premise, buuuut…

"Ah they're back every so often. Got a few o' dens round our property this year. They don't bother us too much," Jeb replied, clearly enjoying Dan's discomfort. "Course, you ought'ta know that seein' as yer Pa bought it last time they came round these parts." Jeb leaned on the fence, his stupid smirk burning into Daniel's mind. "Ain't that why yer just a farmer like us instead of yer fancy trainin' job? Ain't that why you came on back?"

Dan clenched his fists and remained silent. The Wilkersons were a threat to his business, but only like a magikarp was a threat to a dragon. They were little more than a petty nuisance, jealous at his success while their farming business lagged behind in a changing world. Dan had poured almost everything he'd made in his training career into the family farm, leaving less successful neighbours like the Wilkersons far behind. The seviper were the real threat. Just like last time. Just like when dad died.

I’m guessing that that’s not unrelated to the aforementioned Seviper, since Dan Sr. biting it right around the time when the Seviper last came and Dan’s raging hate-on for them doesn’t feel like a coincidence. I’m starting to suspect that I know why you named this special ‘Eternal War’.

"Shame yer not back in the city no more-"

"I said buzz off now, Wilkersons."

Jeb nodded and stopped leaning on the fence. "A'right, don' say we nev'r warned ya." He turned, pausing only to spit a large glob of snot and hork into the dirt.

The two Wilkersons slunk off, back to the swampy hellhole they called home. Dan watched them go until they disappeared in the trees. He stayed there for another half hour, watching the trees for any sign of movement. None came. Satisfied that the two yokels were gone, he turned back and headed for the farmhouse up on the hill.

Boy it sure is a good thing that you’re blowing off two people used to living in this area who could potentially help you with whatever crazy idea like attempting to mount a one-man war against a bunch of giant poisonous snakes, huh?

I mean, sure. They’re gigantic asshats, but I’m getting some bad vibes from Dan and his thought process right about now. ^^;

Dan pulled the battered old rifle from the display case above the fireplace. He hadn't needed to use it since his Pa had died fifteen years back, not since the seviper in the hills had come down to the forest and overrun their farm in search of food. His mind flashed back to the day he had helped his father drive the serpents away. He gripped the rifle just a little tighter and tested the sights cautiously, praying he still had the strength to defend his family.

… You know, this would be a really good time to train multiple Pokémon that know the likes of Earthquake if you’re this paranoid of Seviper problems instead of trusting your fate to an old bolt-action rifle. Like considering how big Seviper are, this is something that I’d feel dicey about facing down without a strong AOE spammer even with the likes of a military battle rifle.

He closed his eyes and he was back at the edge of the farm, a scared little boy calling out for his father. A chorus of hissing sang at him from the woods, mocking him for his fear. Then he heard the screams. His father was crying out for him, screaming in pain as the seviper found him.

Boy it sure is a great thing Dan Sr. didn’t have a Pokémon who could spam AOE moves. Since you’d think those would be popular among farmers precisely to avoid situations like these when trying to run off large numbers of pests off your property in one go.

He moved through the forest like a ghost, losing all sense of direction in the woods. Their old linoone stood faithfully at his side. It had the same striped pattern as Lena, but was faded and grey. The pokemon barked and bounded into the darkness, leaving Dan behind in its hurry. He dashed after it, following the eruption of noise deeper in the woods. Lena ran with him, just a zigzagoon back in this memory.

Dan burst into a clearing, tripping over an upturned root and smashing his face off the ground. He groaned and forced himself up to a scene straight from a horror movie. Dan lifted the rifle and sighted the target, shaking uncontrollably. He closed one eye and squeezed the trigger.

"Hun?"

I think that it might make sense to make it clearer that these first two paragraphs are in the relatively distant past, since I got thrown in a bit of a loop by the ‘He moved through the forest like a ghost’ thinking that he was out in the woods again already trying to stalk the Seviper.

The memory came crashing down on him. He'd shot the seviper just in time. His father had nearly died that day. He had nearly died that day. He hadn't been there when the Seviper had returned, off on his trainer's journey like a selfish fool, and his father had paid the price.

Joanne's voice brought him back to the present day. She must have come in through the back, where he couldn't hear. He picked up the gun cleaning kit and frowned. "Sorry darlin'. Just a bad memory." He turned and slung the rifle over his shoulder. "Wilkersons came round this morning. Threatened me with Seviper again."

Wait a minute, those Seviper are the Wilkersons’ Pokémon? How on earth have they never been able to get put into a situation where they had command responsibility over their actions? Since owners of animals don’t exactly get off scot-free legally if their animals injure other people.

She dropped the load of groceries on the floor by the fridge and crossed into the living room. "Jeb again?" She asked. She knew the answer by the scowl on Dan's face. "I'll call Riley,"

"No," Dan replied harshly. He crossed his arms and his scowl seemed to deepen. "Lena and I can handle it."

Uh. No. Dan, you want more help with this. Not less. As dangerous as this task is, going into it solo is literally more likely to result in things going seriously sideways if you hit a bump in the road than going with backup.

Joanne brushed her auburn hair out of her face and smiled softly. Dan looked into her warm brown eyes and felt his frustration start to fade. She kissed him gently on the cheek and whispered into his ear. "I love you, Farmer Murphy. And it's because I love you that I'm calling my brother anyways." She pulled back and smiled at him. "You aren't a trainer anymore, Dan. Your team... they aren't around anymore. Riley finished top ten in the last conference, let him help you."

Dan sighed. "I know, I know." He turned away and shook his head slowly. "Getting old now, aren't I? I haven't been a young man for a long while."

… I don’t suppose that Riley happens to train 6 ‘mons that can use Earthquake, huh? Since everything about this scenario right now just screams ‘BAD END inbound’.

Joanne smirked mischievously and kissed him on the cheek. She grabbed him by the beard and pulled him in close. "I prefer you with the experience," she said with a wink. She glanced over at the stairs and then back at her husband.

"And the groceries?" he asked knowingly. Try as he might, he couldn't hide the grin spreading across his face.

"They'll still be there when we're done."

Well that sure got steamy quickly. I wonder if it would’ve made sense to build up to this a bit more, since something about Joanne getting onto the implied topic of “hey, let’s have sex now” felt really sudden.

Dan woke the next morning to more carnage in the berry fields. He'd still make a decent profit from his other berries, but the sitrus and pecha fields had been almost completely wiped out at night. The scarecrows hadn't worked evidently, and Lena hadn't woken to any intruders. They'd bypassed his expensive electric fence like it hadn't even been there.

Boy is it a good thing that you’re about to go and pick a fight with a bunch of poisonous snakes when you just got your convenient store of antivenom berries wrecked overnight.

He'd spent the entire day reinforcing the fence and building a small bunker of soil to hide behind. He didn't know if the thief would be back again, but he wasn't taking any chances. He needed some profit on the crop, at least enough to tide them over for the winter. He could probably afford a loan if necessary, but he was loath to do so. He'd lived that life when he was younger. [ ]

Joanne had appeared around dusk, carrying a plate of dinner for him. She told him Riley would likely arrive around dusk the next day and asked him to come inside for the night. Dan simply refused. He had a thief to catch. He would not leave his post tonight. Not for anything.

Not for anything, huh? Though I wonder if it’d have made more sense to emphasize what that “life in debt” entailed and why Dan doesn’t want to go back to that. I would presume because he’s now an old man and he simply doesn’t have the years to bounce back from a dumb decision like he could in the past.

She prowled through the forest, her nose low to the ground as she followed the same path she had the night before. The pack was dwindling, losing more and more of their number each day. There were less than a dozen left, and half of those were gravely injured themselves. She'd even taken a seviper's tail blade to her shoulder that day, a cut that ran down to the bone and ached horribly even after the last of the berries.

… How is that not a grave injury in and of itself? Like how has this (presumably a) ‘mon not bled out from a wound like that?

The berries she'd managed to find at the new patch had stemmed some of their losses, but only for a night. She needed more, more even than the strange fenced patch she found had possessed. Still, it was the only source for eons around that was not guarded by the serpents.

Ah yes, get driven to plunder and conflict with a third party that presents an opportunity. Getting strong “barbarian migration” vibes there.

She peeked out from the tree line, looking down at the fields. No movement caught her eye. She scampered down the hill, nose raised and ears perked for any sign of danger. A glorious smell greeted her, vegetable and berry scents mixing together in a heavenly aroma. It was faint, but evidently there. She put it out of her mind as her stomach protested with a growl. The pack needed her more than she needed to eat. She'd take whatever berry scraps were left after the pack was done.

She found her hole easily enough. Or rather, the loosely packed dirt where she had filled the hole. She shovelled aside the dirt effortlessly, remembering skills that her trainer had taught her a lifetime ago. It took mere minutes, the dirt still loosely packed from her last heist. She emerged on the other side of the fence and sniffed the air cautiously.

Wait, is that supposed to be a hint that this ‘mon was taught Dig when with a trainer? Or that said trainer was an active thief? Not sure if I understand the intended implication there.

Something felt different tonight. The hole had been patched, hard dirt packed down at the end. A strange pile of soil blocked the path deeper into the berry fields. She sniffed again and caught the same savoury scent as before. Cautiously, she crept forward as her ears strained for any sign of danger. She froze as a human rose from the wall. She'd seen the strange device in its hands before. She knew what would happen to her if it went off. The hair on her back began to raise and she growled a deep warning.

Dan shouldered the rifle as silently as possible. He pulled back the bolt and chambered a round as a vague shape illuminated only by the light of the moon excavated the hole he had spent the entire day filling with rocks and dirt. The pokemon disappeared into the hole and Dan readied himself to pull the trigger.

Boy is mysterious POV Pokémon lucky that whatever region Dan lives in doesn’t allow for semiautomatic weapons ownership. Since most of the people that I know who happen to have backgrounds like Dan’s wouldn’t be bringing a bolt-action rifle for an encounter like this. Too much risk for the shooter of things going sideways with a large animal if the first shot doesn’t put it down.

Its head poked out from the hole and Dan felt his heart skip a beat. The thief was back. He rose from his makeshift barricade, lined up the shot and froze. The thing was looking right at him.

It was a sorry mess, blood matting its fur and staining it a mottled red-brown. One eye was gone, an empty patch of skin looking at him from where the eye should have been. A fresh gash on its shoulder was still leaking blood and every movement seemed to bring fresh pain in its step. It growled deeply, but even the growl seemed to be through gritted teeth.

Yeesh, what a mess. Though I can’t really tell what this Pokémon is supposed to be since there’s not a lot of explicit description beyond these wounds. Like I don’t even know if POV Pokémon is bipedal or not. Given that we’re seeing things from Dan’s perspective, it feels that if you’re not going to outright state this Pokémon’s species/identity, that you should give a few more hints as to what we’re dealing with here.

Dan lowered the rifle. He glanced down at Lena and gently woke the aging linoone. "Go up to the house. Get the potions." He glanced back at the beaten and bloodied pokemon. "Quietly."

Lena disappeared into the night, casting a wayward glance at the intruder. She listened to her old trainer and disappeared up the hill towards the house.

Dan clambered over his barricade slowly. He moved carefully, taking great care not to spook the injured pokemon. He gently laid his rifle down against the barricade and slowly crossed to one of the sitrus plants. He picked a pair of berries and glanced over at the thief. "You know," he started. "I was a trainer once. Do you know what a trainer is?"

>imagine setting down your rifle when you just got growled at by large creature in a setting where housecats can torch porches

You know Dan, there’s a reason why gun slings are manufactured. Since if mystery Pokémon had just opted to charge you as soon as you set that rifle of yours down, you’d be kinda up a creek without a paddle since Lena isn’t there with you.

Like I get the need to not spook the Pokémon he’s approaching, but in-setting, this feels like an absolutely massive risk that Dan is taking when assuming that he’s not fresh out of the city, he ought to logically be warier than this.

The pokemon made no move. She looked at him warily, teeth bared.

Dan inched closer. "I can tell you're in a lot of pain. I can help you, but you have to let me." He stepped closer, holding out the first sitrus berry.

>inching closer to a wounded, wild Pokémon
>while you’re unarmed and don’t have a Pokémon of your own to watch your back
>before Lena has come back both with healing materials, to act as a potential translator, and muscle for if things go sideways

Boy is Dan really trusting on his ability to not have his intentions accidentally get lost in translation on this Pokémon right about now. o3o;;

The pokemon raised its head, sniffing cautiously at the tantalizing berry. It took a step closer and Dan saw truly how injured it was. It was a zangoose, her usually sparkling white fur matted with dark splotches of bloody brown. She approached the berry cautiously and took the fruit with a single paw.

Ah yes, you can’t say it’s not thematically fitting for a story building up to a conflict with Seviper. Though I still think it would’ve made sense to give a few passing mentions of stuff like this Pokémon having white fur or a single red eye remaining in the paragraph where Dan gets a good initial view of her.

Dan smiled. He crept closer, dropping down to one knee. He carefully reached out one hand, showing the zangoose he was no threat.

She looked away from the berry as Lena emerged from the darkness with a small sack clutched in her mouth. Her teeth bared and she growled a warning as her paw covered her berry.

… So much for Lena being able to help as a translator. ^^;

Dan took the bag and dismissed Lena to her ball. He pulled out one of the potions and shook the small spray bottle. "This might sting a little bit, but your shoulder needs something a little stronger than some berry juice."

You’d think that keeping Lena out would at a minimum be a net wash, since… yeah, if potions behave like they do in the anime where they sting and cause physical pain when initially applied, this sounds like a terrible idea since Dan is unarmed right now, so he’s placing a lot of faith in this one Zangoose not turning on him from getting spooked or else just sensing an opportunity to deal with the one human standing between her and berry heaven.

The zangoose lowered her shoulder and turned slightly as Dan dropped the second sitrus berry in front of her. She braced herself unconsciously as Dan began to spray the wound with the healing liquid.

The wound began to harden and seal before his eyes, skin knitting itself back together as the potion began its work. Dan slowly worked his way down the zangoose. Every scratch got a spray, every patch of bloodied fur was soaked thoroughly in the healing spray.

He leaned back, cocking his head to the side with a smile. "That feel better?"

Zangoose: “*Dude, I’m matted in dried blood and missing an eye right now. At the most, this is a marginal improvement.*” >_>;

The zangoose met his gaze with her good eye. They held there, man and mon studying the intentions in the other's eyes. The moment passed. The zangoose lowered her head and gently nudged her nose against his hand.

Fortunately for Dan, his gamble to trust the Zangoose paid off there. It’d have been a really short Special Episode otherwise. ^^;

Dan smiled and rose to his feet slowly. "Look, I can't have you stealing my whole crop. I understand that you're hurt, but this is my livelihood." He leaned back against his barricade as his smile faded. "You gotta stop coming round here now."

The zangoose lowered her head. She glanced from side to side, looking at the waiting sitrus plants. She turned around and slunk back to the hole without a backwards glance.

Dan watched her go, waiting until the zangoose's shadow disappeared into the trees. He reached down and lifted his rifle. He slung it over his shoulder and began the hike back up to the old farmhouse.

Zangoose: “*... Oh well this is gonna be fun to explain to the rest of the pack. Wasn’t planning on having dinner tonight anyways.*”

The sun was barely up before Dan rose from the bed. He departed from the house with Lena at his side, shovel already slung over his shoulder. After a quick inspection of his crop, he made his way over to the hole. Lena lounged happily in the sun while he set to work filling in the hole and shoring up the base of the fence. It might not keep out a determined zangoose, but it might slow one down. He mentally kicked himself for not upgrading the fencing last season, resolving to fortify the earth beneath the fence however he could.

Ah yes, that’ll totally stop those Zangoose when they’re facing down the destruction of their pack. Totally.

Joanne appeared from the house, two absurd oversized drinks in her hands. Slices of berries filled the glass of cold ice water, glistening in the afternoon sun. "Finished up with the pecha jelly and the last of the lum cream. Think there'll be enough of this crop left over for another batch each?"

Dan wiped away the sweat and shook his head. "Doubt it. We barely have enough to cover the existing contracts, let alone any local customers." He grunted in thanks and took the oversized drink. "I met our thief last night. Looks like a zangoose has been using the patch as an infirmary."

… This guy is lucky that it’s been one Zangoose thus far and that she hasn’t just tipped off the rest of her packmates to hit up the field en masse since if one Zangoose can wreck multiple fields over the course of a few nights, a small group acting in concert probably would’ve put Dan into the poor house.

"Any idea how to stop it?" She asked.

Dan shrugged. "Figure I'd ask nicely. I'll keep the barricade up another night and stay out here just in case." His smile returned and he took the drink from his wife. "Maybe I should catch her. I was a trainer back in my day."

She shook her head, the ghost of a smile on her face. "It's not back in the day anymore, Dan. You think you can handle something like that?"

Dan: “Maybe, maybe not. But it’s definitely a less depressing solution to take than just plugging that ‘mon full of lead the next time we meet. ^^;

Again, he shrugged. "No way to know until it happens." He turned and looked off at the cloud front moving inland. "Storm's coming. Better call Riley and have him get his butt here before the road floods."

"He won't be coming by road," Joanne replied. "Was coming from Kanto, Saffron, I think." She looked off at the clouds. "He can handle a storm. Told me Oberon once flew him through a hurricane. A little rain won't stop that flygon if Riley asks him."

Oh, so Riley is rocking something that can use Earthquake. Maybe. Probably. Though the premise of a trainer casually flying in on their own Pokémon feels like a nice detail to work in. It helps lean into the idea that we’re dealing with a Pokémon setting since it’s a pretty big divergence from reality that gets brought up here like it’s the most normal things in the world.

Movement from the trees drew their gaze. They came in twos and threes, most of them injured, most of them barely limping into view before collapsing. Then he saw her. Dan met her eye with his own. Then the one-eyed zangoose collapsed into the dirt.

Whelp, hope Dan enjoys training a dozen Zangoose now. Since those guys don’t exactly have many other places to turn to if they’re limping towards an electrified fence for refuge.

Dan had considered half a hundred careers when he'd retired from training. None of them held the same lustre that training had held, but he liked the simplicity of berry farming. Even if it was forced, he enjoyed the calm retirement into farming. The memories of his training career and the twin tragedies that had ended it were never far from his mind. They came rushing back now, the deaths of his old team rushing back to the forefront of his mind as he patched each wound and injected each of the injured zangoose with antidotes.

Waaaaaaait a minute, but Zangoose’s default ability in-game is Immunity, which prevents poisoning under normal circumstances. Do abilities just not exist in any capacity in your setting? Or else what’s the story of what’s going on here.

They were ancient enemies of the seviper, foes locked in some terrible eternal war,.T and they were losing. The zangoose were losing. Half the zangoose that had managed to crawl to the farm would likely never battle again, the other half ~~was~~ were covered in more wounds that Dan had ever thought possible.

Ah yes, title drop there. Though I personally feel the “they were losing” line works better taped to one or the other of the surrounding sentences, since it makes things feel less choppy. In this case, I opted for the one beforehand.

The one-eyed zangoose had been the worst. Dozens of fresh wounds covered her body and two deep punctures on one of her legs told him all he needed to know. She'd led her pack here, to him, hoping beyond reason that he would harbour them. He didn't refuse. He couldn't.

Dan: “I mean, I suppose that I could, but I would really prefer to be able to sleep well at night, so taking in the baker’s dozen of chewed-up cat ferrets it is.” ^^;

He picked the last of his spare sitrus berries and burned through his potions like he was an elite trainer. Each and every wound found at least some treatment, whether it be a natural poultice Joanne had made or one of his dwindling supply of potions. The sun was beginning to set by the time they finished with the pack.

… You’d think that this guy would call a ranger or something after like the third Zangoose since they would presumably be equipped to deal with situations like these and not force normies to choose between watching Pokémon in situations like these suffer or else torch their bank accounts trying to care for them.

"When's Riley getting here?" Dan asked. "Could use his help with all this." He dunked his arms in the wash bucket, scrubbing at the bloody viscera. "Makes me nervous, darlin’. Zangoose aren't usually scared of nothing. They're the type to fight to the end, especially against a seviper."

That… is a really, really terrible omen for how many Seviper are out there, and sounds like a good argument for getting the rangers or whatever analogue to them exists in this setting involved. Or at least upgrading your weapon to something that can cycle shots faster than a bolt action, since attempting to take on a large swarm of giant, sword-tailed snakes with one of those just sounds like an incredibly cursed idea.

She shrugged. "Riley said he'd be here today," she said. "Nothin' we can do but help them. Seeing as you're too soft to drive them away and I've got a bleeding heart, this is what we're doing."

Dan: “... Couldn’t we have called a ranger or something?”

Joanne: “Got a dial tone from ‘em, hon. Besides, would you really want to just sit here and listen to all these guys wincin’ and groanin’ from their wounds?”

Dan nodded and dried his hands off on the towel beside them. He'd still need to shower later, but he was no longer covered in bloody fur. He sat heavily on the stool he had been sitting on, groaning in exhaustion.

She cast her eyes over to the one-eyed zangoose. "I think she's the mama," she started. "She's been protective of each of these zangoose, she led them here. It's like she's in charge."

That’s a bold assumption to be making there. Though I didn’t exactly get that vibe from her in her introduction. My initial impression was that she was a scout of some sort.

"The pack mother?" Dan replied. "She seems too comfortable with us, too quick to respond to my questions. It's like she's used to humans."

"Think she was trained?" Joanne asked. "It would make sense."

He paused for a moment, deep in thought. "I think she was. She dug through the ground like it was nothing. Zangoose don't typically learn to do that in the wild."

Oh, so she did learn Dig from her old trainer.

"What do you think happened to them?" Joanne asked.

Dan shrugged. "Battle, most likely. I'd bet anything that it was the seviper that the Wilkersons were threatening me with," He got to his feet, looking up at the storm. "They're going to come here," he said. "The seviper."

Joanne nodded. "I figured as much."

… How has this guy never been able to demonstrate to the local authorities that the Wilkersons either outright own those Seviper, or else are manipulating them all these years? .-.

Dan looked over at her. "I have to do something. These zangoose… they're practically half-dead already. The Wilkersons will be back and they'll bring the Seviper to do what they won't. They'll kill both of us and the zangoose and be done with it."

Joanne nodded again. "You know what you have to do," she said. She looked away, fighting tears. "But I don't want you to do it."

… Report them to the police and invite some buddies to come and camp out with some guns that are more impressive than antique rifles? Call the rangers/Pokémon Control?

I mean, I’m pretty sure that the answer is going to turn out to be one of either “stay and fight the Seviper” or “murder the Wilkersons”, but you’d think that there’d be more explicit acknowledgement of why “call a cop” is not a viable option for Dan and Joanne here.

He saw the tears at the edges of her eyes and brushed them away. "I'll be alright, love. I've got Lena."

Ah yes. One aged Linoone and like 6 chewed-up Zangoose against god-knows-how-many Seviper. That’ll totally end well.

She nodded. "I know, I know," she said slowly. She looked at him reluctantly, the air heavy with tension. "Don't die," she said, her eyes pleading. "Don't make me a widow."

Dan pulled her in close. "I'm always gonna be here, darlin'. Don't you doubt that." He held her close for a long moment. "I'll be back before sundown, I promise. I'm going to end this stupid feud."

Oh, so Dan really is just going to go over and murder the Wilkersons, huh?

They embraced for a long moment. Then the moment ended and the rain began to fall.

"I'll be back," said Dan. "Stay in the house."

That sounds like a really terrible idea when you’re about to do something that is very likely not going to be terribly legal or peaceful given that Joanne has given exactly zero indication that she’d fare well if the Seviper came for the farm while Dan was out.

Like you’d think that this would be the point where you’d ask her to drive off into town with the Zangoose unable to fight and wait until Dan’s either settled his business or is dead.

She left, her arms up to shield herself from the rain. Dan looked down at Lena. He still had one pokemon left, still had his loyal starter. He lifted her ball, returning her. He pocketed the ball, slinging his father's old rifle over his shoulder and marched to meet an ancient enemy, a trainer once more.

I am wholly unconvinced that this isn’t going to end in tears and probably buckets of blood, but okay there, Dan.

The Wilkersons and the Murphys had feuded for centuries. Generations of farmers had warred over their speck of northern Hoenn, uncounted lives lost over decades of petty squabbles. He didn't know when it had begun, he didn't know what started it, all he knew was that it had to stop.

I kinda wonder if this ought to have been alluded to more throughout the special episode up to this point. Like little subtle things like an offhand mention of “why don’t you go to the police?” being met with “lol, like they’d bother with things being this bad with the Wilkersons”. Since there being a long intergenerational feud would explain a lot of what we saw earlier in the story, but something about this reveal feels kinda more sudden than it ought to have been.

I also wonder if it would’ve made sense to beat it over the readers’ heads a bit more aggressively that this story was set in Hoenn, since somehow, I overlooked the initial mention that Dan had business selling to trainers from the Hoenn League locally, and there’s just zero further mention of that for people who missed that up until this point.

Dan had only been to the Wilkersons farm once, when his grandfather had made a trip over as a peace offering. The Wilkersons had accused him of poisoning the pie he had brought as an offering and thrown them off the farm. Two weeks later, his grandfather had disappeared from the fields. They'd found him after two nights, beaten to death in the woods.

What lovely neighbors. Not. Though I still say that an explicit acknowledgement of “... Why aren’t we calling the police again?” ought to have come up sometime earlier.

He stepped through the dilapidated gates, avoiding the muddy swamp on either side of the road. The Wilkersons farm was not much better than he remembered it. The barn was still leaning dangerously and the swamp encroached on the little spit of arable land on each side.

"Hello?" He called. "Wilkersons?"

Pretty sure that this counts as criminal trespass right about now and that you should’ve just waited on the public road for them, but you do you, Dan.

His voice trailed off and he turned his head. The trees were alive. The air was filled with the sound of hissing. The seviper were here. They were here, watching his every step.

Yeah, that would be another reason to stay on the public road right about now. Having a metal cage around you kinda helps absorb bites and slashes from the giant, venomous snakes.

The door of the small house swung open. "City-boy?" asked a surprised Jeb. "Whatcha doin out here?"

Dan clenched his fists, standing as proud as he could with the rifle slung over his shoulder. The seviper were coming, but he stood tall. He wouldn't give the Wilkersons the satisfaction of seeing his fear, wouldn't let them see what they'd done to him. "I want this feud over," he said. "It's gone on far too long."

… Wait, why is this a good idea again when you can audibly hear all the Seviper in the forest, and the text has stated that the Wilkersons have somehow been using them to mess with your family, Dan?”

The door swung open, Donny Wilkerson's muscled frame squeezing through. "Wot is it, Jeb?"

"Danny-boy wants a truce," Jeb said. "Wants our feud over."

"It's been long enough," Dan said loudly, interrupting the brothers. He kept his eyes on them, ignoring the serpents creeping closer. "Do you even remember why we're fighting? I don't!"

I’m… pretty sure that you should’ve tried to arrange for this at a diner or something to serve as a neutral ground and not on the property of the family that has it out for your blood. Since just saying, Donny literally could just grab a rifle and blow your head off right about now, and then tell the police if they ever bothered to actually show up that you were trying to break into their house.

Jeb grinned coldly. "Wilkersons and Murphys always fight. Our Pa killed your grandpa. Your Pa killed our Pa, we killed your Pa for it. Now we're gon' kill you," he said. "It's in the blood, city boy. You can't change it no more than the 'viper can change." He leaned over the porch railing, the savage grin on his face widening. "It's our own war, just like the 'goose and the 'viper. 'Cept this time, the 'viper are gonna win."

Boy it sure is a good thing that Jeb is bothering to stop to gloat here instead of just pulling a gun and pumping Dan full of lead if he was already intending to kill him. Since if Donny had done something as simple as come out the front door cradling a shotgun, Dan wouldn’t exactly have many options to work with right now and it’d be a short end to this Special Episode. ^^;

"It doesn't have to be this way," Dan said. His hand lowered to Lena's ball, eying the seviper creeping towards him. He could see the Wilkersons swampert, watching from the water and even more serpents cutting lithely forwards. "We don't have to be like our fathers, not anymore."

Dan: “I… am starting to get the feeling that I should’ve done this from my truck right about now.”

Jeb stepped off the porch, regarding the seviper advancing on me curiously. "The 'viper don't like you, city boy. They really don't like you." He cracked his knuckles, looking up at me with a knowing smirk.

Waaaaaait a minute, why are we switching to first-person perspective here again? Since I could’ve sworn the entirety of this special episode was written from a third-person narrator up until this point.

Dan's eyes widened and he realized that he was in mortal danger. "We don't have to like each other," he said. He unslung the rifle, holding it at his shoulder. "We don't need to kill each other, either. But I'll do what I have to to protect my family."

Boy it sure is a good thing that you’re standing out on your own with just a bolt-action rifle with Lena still in her Pokéball when there’s two guys that just openly stated their intent to kill you, their Swampert creeping up on you, and god-knows-how-many Seviper coming your way.

Like I hope that you secretly turned out to have coordinated things with Riley before this, since this sounds like a recipe to die horribly. Especially considering how given how the local law enforcement has given up on attempting to wade into your family feud with your neighbors, they could probably kill you, say you were waving the rifle around and making threats, and the police would just accept it as an explanation to not get sucked into this mess.

Jeb stopped in his tracks, curiously regarding the old farmer and his rifle. "You think you got the balls to shoot me?" Jeb asked. "You ain't never shot-"

That’s a bold assumption to make given that there’s very much shooting ranges in urban areas and I sincerely doubt you were keeping tabs on Dan while he was off the farm. Like I get that gun culture is more reserved outside of rural areas in most countries, but you know what they say about assuming, Jeb…

Dan swivelled, sighting one of the encroaching serpents through the sights. He squeezed the trigger, painting the ground around the seviper with bits of brain and bone. Dan set the sights back on Jeb as the horde of serpents hissed furiously. "Try me," he said. "I've got plenty of practice killing seviper from the last time."

Boy it sure is a good thing that the rest of the Seviper didn’t just instantly rush him right then and there to avenge their fallen comrade. It might make sense to describe the other Seviper falling back or recoiling from the sound of the gunshot and the sight of one of their own becoming an ex-Seviper, otherwise… yeah, not sure how Dan isn’t really, really dead right about now.

Though from the way Dan is reflexively moving that gun around, I guess that museum piece is a semi-auto after all. Since he’d be really screwed right about now if it weren’t.

Jeb stepped back, raising his hands as Dan pointed the rifle in his face. "We'll leave you be," he said quickly. "No more shootin'."

Dan stepped backwards slowly, keeping his rifle trained on Jeb. "Good," he said, relief creeping into his voice. "Don't make me come back here." He kept moving backwards, feet carefully tracing the steps he had taken on the way in. He didn't turn away or lower the rifle until long after he had retreated through the gate and left the swamp far behind.

I don’t believe that that is over for a second. Especially since if Jeb and Donny were smart, they could get you into legal trouble over killing a Pokémon that they could pass off as one of their own and shoving a gun in their faces in short order. Assuming that the police just flatly don’t bother to pick up calls from your two farms anymore.

He trudged out of the forest, rifle slung heavily over his shoulder. His boots were covered in mud and his shoulders sagged with exhaustion. The zangoose looked up the hill at him, tired heads turning and pointing up at him. He stepped down that hill, tired feet tracing the steps back through the gate and up the hill towards the house.

Dan stopped in front of the pack of zangoose, looking down at the pack mother. "I don't know what happened out there, but you're safe here." He dropped down to one knee, putting himself level with the pokemon.

"We been on the same side of a war that we didn't know about. We been fighting alone for too long." He smiled softly, thinking about his team. It'd be good for them to have some pokemon around. "We could stay together," he said with a calm smile. "One big pack." He looked up at the house, Joanne smiling at him though the window. "One big family, like I used to have."

I’d personally recommend breaking up the second paragraph into two, since it’s pretty long and idea-dense at the moment. Also, regarding the underlined bit:

Yeah, I’m not convinced at all that this isn’t going to end with a ton of people and Pokémon on at least one of those farms dead by the end of this story. And I’m pretty sure the Murphys’ will be one of them.

Mama looked up at him, remaining eye searching his face for some hint that he was lying. She couldn't find one. The zangoose reached up at him, extending her claws and holding her paw out.

Dan reached down, gently brushing his hand against the zangoose's outstretched paw. She closed her paw and looked up at him, blinking slowly.

"Dan?"

Well, that’s ominous as hell there.

The old farmer got to his feet, turning towards his wife as she came down the steps of the porch. "It's done, darlin. Wilkersons won't bother us no more."

She ran to him, wrapping herself around him in a fierce embrace. They were together, just like they should be. They were together and all was right with the world.

There is exactly no way that it is a safe assumption that the Wilkersons are just going to let things go after the stunt you pulled.

He rose at dawn, like he always did. Riley had arrived at some point in the night, half ragged atop his heaving flygon. They were exhausted after flying through the rainstorm. Dan crept past the door, sure to keep quiet.

… How did one or the other of those two not get hypothermia from that ride over?

He stepped outside, smiling at the morning sun. Movement from the fields drew his gaze, zangoose cubs frolicking through his remaining crops. Mama rose from where she had curled herself on the porch of the house, regarding him curiously.

… Wait, cubs? Just when is this set relative to the last scene? Since I wasn’t under the impression the pack had cubs in their prior descriptions.

"Sleep well?" Dan asked. "You certainly look like you're feeling better."

The zangoose growled, pointing down at her mottled brown-red fur. She pointed at the zangoose cub closest to them, growling again and combing her claws through the cub's hair.

"You'd like to wash?" Dan asked. "I can fill the tub again."

That actually makes me wonder what the level of sapience of the Pokémon in your setting is, since that Zangoose sure seemed to do a decent job of communicating her desires in spite of a hard intelligibility barrier.

He trudged over to the washtub he'd dragged out for the zangoose the night before. He filled it with fresh water from the well and stepped back.

The zangoose dipped a paw into the water, splashing it over herself. Dan turned, smiling happily as a trio of zangoose cubs bounded through his legs to play with the tub of water.

D’aww, how cute. I mean, I’m wholly unconvinced that these three aren’t going to die horribly in like a scene or two, but it’s still cute.

Joanne appeared in the doorway, a coffee mug clutched in her hands. "You missed this," she said with a smile. "having pokemon around. You're a trainer again, Farmer Murphy."

Dan grinned, climbing the stairs up the porch. "I did miss it," he said. He looked down at the zangoose. "We've got that big happy family that we always wanted."

Dan, could you tempt fate any harder right now?

Her cheeks went a bright red. "Yeah…" she started, trailing off. "About that…" Joanne's hand went into her robe, pulling out a small plastic rectangle. "I had to pee really bad, so I got up. And I remembered reading that these were more accurate if you used them first thing in the morning…"

Dan looked down, his eyes fixating on the little red plus sign. He glanced back up at his wife before a dumbfounded grin crossed his face. "You're pregnant," he said dumbly. "You're actually…"

Ah yes, so them being implied to get it on in that one scene did have a purpose.

She nodded, wrapping her arms around him. "Now it's the family I always wanted," she said.

He hugged her back, holding back the sobs of joy as he held her close. The tears fell freely, joyous emotion overwhelming him. He would be a father. He would not be the last of his line.

… Assuming that Joanne doesn’t get run through by a Seviper in a couple scene, but hey! Minor details there! ^^

A week passed, a week of blissful happiness. His profit was practically a write-off this season, but they'd survive the loss of a single harvest with little difficulty. Dan found that even the prospect of financial hardship couldn't get him down.

Well, at first anyways. I am not convinced that Dan would not get ground down after enduring prolonged hardship.

Riley lifted the buckets of mulch, picking up the last of the fertilizer.

"Put that up by the tractor," Dan said, wiping sweat from his brow. "I still gotta fertilize the cheri fields, but we're just about done for the day."

… Wait, but I thought that the berries were about ready to be harvested based off the description of the Pecha and Sitrus Berries. Isn’t that really late to be applying fertilizer onto plants since those ideally ought to be applied very early on into their growth cycles? Or are things just different for Pokémon berries?

Riley perked up, his shaggy black hair drenched in sweat. "Does that mean I finally get to try some of Joanne's farm fresh iced berry juice?"

Dan smirked. "I think I could go for that right about now."

Riley dropped the buckets beside the tractor and turned back to Dan. "I'm gonna wash up then, if you don't mind?"

The old farmer nodded, waving his brother in law away absentmindedly. He traipsed down to the fence, chuckling under his breath. A pair of the zangoose cubs were feinting at the electric fence, trying to see who could be the last one to move out of the way.

Again:

"That ain't too safe," Dan said with a grin. He knelt down beside them, scratching one of the cubs under his waiting chin. "Could get real hurt out here."

Uh… yeah, at this rate, I give it like a month before one of those cubs fries from the fence. ^^;

"Dan?"

He turned his head, smiling as he waved up at the house. "Yes, darlin'?"

"Riley says you sent him for juice?"

Dan couldn't help rolling his eyes as he chuckled. "Yes," he replied. "I sent him up there."

Joanne shook her head, a grin clear on her face. It died as she raised her arm, a look of utter horror on her face.

Well that ain’t good.

Dan heard the hiss as the world seemed to fall silent. All the other noise just seemed to fade away, leaving just the angry, hateful hissing.

Boy it sure is a good time that you sent away the Flygon trainer who would presumably be rocking Earthquake right about now.

He felt the blood drain from his face and followed his wife's finger. The hill leading down from the trees was alive, hundreds of serpents slowly advancing on his farm. The Wilkersons had arrived.

"Call Riley out here." He turned back to the trees as Joanne dashed off towards the house. He glanced back over his shoulder. "Get the rifle and cover me!"

Uh… yeah, with hundreds of Seviper in play, I’m not sure if a proper machine gun nest would hold out against them, let alone a solitary semi-auto rifle that’s described as being a bit dog-eared and probably a museum piece that still uses en bloc clips.

Like this is the point where you pack up everyone in the truck, get the hell out of dodge, then show up after the farm’s burned down to go and blow Jeb and Donny’s brains out the next time they show their faces outside their front door.

Dan turned, two zangoose cubs and himself the only thing between the swarm and his family.

A man sauntered from the tree line, a malevolent grin plastered on his face. "Sounds like the 'vipers are angry," Jeb Wilkerson said, malevolence dripping from every word. "They been looking for those 'goose all day. Looks like they found 'em now and they found me a prize to go with 'em."

Dan's hands closed into fists. The rifle was up at the house. Lena was in her ball, also up at the house. Joanne was gone to get Riley, again up at the house. It was him against an army. Him and two little cubs.

Holy crap, Dan. Just hurry up and cap this guy already. Like your farm’s obviously toast against an onslaught like this, just make sure that the Jeb and Donny go along with it for this stunt. Since I’m pretty sure that “baiting 100+ Seviper to attack my property” is as good of grounds for justifiable homicide as Jeb having waved a loaded gun around in your face.

The one eyed zangoose stepped out beside him, growling and glaring up the hill. Her eyes were fixated on Jeb, on the man who seemed to command the seviper. The rest of the pack fanned out behind him, all eight of the remaining fighters prowling back and forth in anticipation of the coming battle. The cubs retreated behind them, a few more of the young retreating towards the house with them.

"Well, they found 'em, Jebediah." Dan called. He crossed his arms, glancing over at the zangoose. He looked back up at Jeb. "We had words. You best leave them be now."

Oh yeah, that’ll totally stop them. This is the part where you raise that rifle of yours, tell Jeb to call off his snakes, or you’ll send him to hell and deal with any potential legal troubles afterwards if you’re still standing.

Jeb continued down the hill, larger serpents beginning to follow him out from the trees. "That ain't how this works, city boy. The 'vipers ain't gonna rest 'till all those 'goose are dead." He cracked his knuckles and rolled his shoulders. "You stand with them and the 'vipers look at you like one of them."

Dan locked eyes with Jeb, scowling deeply. "The 'vipers or you?"

Jeb's smile seemed to deepen. He shrugged. "Ain't no difference no more, city boy." He smirked, cracking his knuckles. "I told you. Feud has to end in blood. It always ends in blood."

Yeah, I kinda figured that things were going to go this direction. Sure is a wonderful time not to have that rifle on you, huh, Dan?

The hill was alive, dozens of serpents slithering down towards the farm. There were dozens, from small hatchlings to the pair of massive seviper as thick ~~around~~ as some of the tree trunks.

Dan glanced back, eying his makeshift army. The one-eyed zangoose met his eyes. He had been a trainer once. She'd had a trainer once. Dan wasn't much for fate, but he couldn't help but feel like their meeting had been the work of something greater. She nodded and turned back to face the horde.

Uh… yeah. No. You want Riley and his Flygon to lead with EQ for this to soften up the horde, since 8 Zangoose aren’t going to do crap against all of that in close quarters combat. They’re just going to get mobbed.

"Alright," Dan roared, his voice coming to life as adrenaline pumped through his body. He grabbed a flat spade, holding it up as a makeshift weapon. "Keep an eye on the ground! They're gonna burrow through and come up at us from beneath."

He looked at Jeb as the Wilkerson lifted a ball from his belt. "Mama," he started.

She glanced at him, vengeful fire in her eyes.

"You're with me."

A little surprised that a family that’s in an active blood feud with the one right next door wouldn’t keep handguns on them for moments exactly like this, but you can’t say that it’s not climactic.

Then the world seemed to end. The seviper surged forward as Dan walked out to meet Jeb. The sea of serpents disappeared into the earth, burrowing their way under his newly reinforced fence. The fence toppled as the horde of seviper passed underneath. They burst from the ground and battle began.

Serpent and beast clashed with finality, both sides seeming to sense that the end of an eternal war was close at hand. Mama forged a path through for her new trainer, claws flashing as she cut her way through the serpents.

Well, it’s certainly a good thing that those Seviper seem to be failing hard at conservation of ninjutsu, since you’d think that Team Murphy would just be screwed beyond belief with numbers this lopsided.

He heard the crack of rifle fire and watched a seviper that had been leaping for him shrink back.

Dan charged through the gap, ducking under the fangs of a lunging seviper as he swung his spade at another. Even a single bite from those fangs and he would be dead. One of the zangoose pack leapt from the fray to intercept the seviper, rolling away as he tangled with the serpent. Dan forged on, following the trail of carnage that Mama had carved. Jeb was the target, Jeb was the one controlling all of this.

… Sure hope that Jeb didn’t think of bringing something like a revolver for this fight, since otherwise, there’s exactly no way that this is going to end well even if you make a valiant stand here.

He came to an abrupt halt. Mama was still, the shredded length of a seviper laying at her feet. Her chest was heaving and there were half a dozen new wounds marring her fur.

Jeb was staring at them with near glee. "City boy finally grew a pair. Took you long enough. I had to rile up every damn 'viper in the forest to get a rise outta you." He smirked and shook his head. "This is gonna be real fun, city boy." He lifted his ball, releasing the swampert inside.

Boy it’s sure a good thing that you didn’t shoot him and his brother a week ago when you had them dead to rights and they were very obviously ready to kill you on their own property. Especially since the police apparently just don’t give a crap about anything that happens on your or the Wilkersons’ farm.

Dan cracked his knuckles. Mama looked at him with a confident nod. It might have been years since he was a trainer, but the instincts never really left. A grin spread across his face. "Yeah, it is gonna be fun, Jeb."

He glanced down at Mama. "Taunt him. Keep that swampert on the offensive and stay out of its way until I say otherwise."

Would recommend dropping in a word after “say” there, since it feels like something is missing there.

He looked back up at Jeb. "What say we settle this little feud once and for all?"

Be careful what you wish for there, Dan. Since I’m not convinced that a guy that fights this dirty isn’t just going to pull a gun on you if it looks like he’s losing this 1v1.

The Wilkerson's smirk faded and a scowl crossed his face. "Aro, take down!"

Mama bounded forward as the swampert lowered its shoulder. She ducked to the side, raking the swampert with her claws as it barrelled past. It skidded to a halt, trying to compensate and turn on a dime. Mama darted in and raked the swampert's rough hide with her claws again, barely drawing blood.

"Hammer arm!"

Whelp, that’s totally going to end well for Mama there.

Dan glanced up, reading Jeb's body language in an instant. Not yet, it wasn't time yet. "Detect!" He shouted. He didn't know how he knew, but he knew that Mama knew what he wanted.

Mama looked impossibly small as Aro rose up on his hind legs. Her eyes flashed with anticipation. Then the hammer fell. Two fists slammed into the dirt where the zangoose had been standing an instant before. She moved in a flash, always a hair away from being crushed by the hammer arms. She ducked away one last time, the swampert overextending in frustration.

"Now, close combat!" Dan roared, seizing on the opening.

Well that’s a risky-as-hell strategy there. Since if Aro hits Mama after this, she’s probably going to crumple like a wet paper bag. Though I suppose such is life when you don’t have Grass moves to work with.

Mama struck back with all the pent up force and fury of a trapped animal. Aro withered under the assault, shrinking back as Mama pounded him into submission.

"Hydro pump!" Jeb spat, panicking.

Given how this guy reacts from things going even slightly sideways, I really am surprised he hasn’t just drawn a gun and shot Dan at this point.

His swampert reeled around, swinging wildly to clear himself some room. He opened his mouth, blasting a jet of water harmlessly into the side of the hill. Mud and water splashed high, splattering the field of battle in brown water.

Mama leapt away as a second hydro pump sailed into the sky over the farm. He didn't see it land, didn't care so long as it didn't hit the house.

… Jeb’s totally gonna deliberately target the house, isn’t he?

The two pokemon glared at each other, both of them exhausted and battered though Aro had taken the worst of the exchange.

Dan stepped forward, ready to give the order to end the battle. He felt something prick his thigh and felt the instant seizure as his muscles contracted in shock.

Whelp. Sure is a good thing that you weren’t paying attention to your surroundings while there were hundreds of Seviper overrunning your property, huh?

"Dan!" Joanne called, her voice seeming to be far off in the distance. "Lena, go!"

The linoone was at his side, tearing the infant seviper off his leg in an instant. Dan felt his leg give out, felt himself crash to the ground as he toppled over. Lena crouched over him, growling at Jeb and protecting her old trainer.

"Dan!" Joanne shouted desperately. "Dan!"

Wait, where the hell is Riley in all of this? Since this would sure be a good time for him to show up with his Flygon right about now.

Her voice seemed further and further away. He laid his head back as a strange floating sensation seemed to take over his body.

Mama was there, standing over him protectively as well. She growled a warning at Jeb and the swampert, joining Lena in protecting her new trainer.

A wave of earth rolled across the field. Berry plants went soaring through the air, fence pieces thrown into the air by the earthen attack. Riley's flygon swooped down, tearing a triumphant seviper away from a prone zangoose.

Oh, so now Riley shows up. Better late than never, I suppose. But you really should’ve led with him before all of this happened.

Dan closed his eyes. His leg seemed to stop burning. He let go of the pain and felt nothing at all. "Mama," he croaked, his voice failing. "Take care of 'em for me. Take care of her." He felt something nudge his hand. He knew she accepted. He felt himself slipping away. He heard the last rifle shot and saw Jeb fall to the ground. He didn't fight the end.

Surprised it took Joanne that long to wait until capping Jeb. Though I suppose “watching your husband keel over to a poisonous snake” will certainly do that.

She looked up at the sky, watching the sun pass behind a cloud. The cold was coming soon, but there would be enough time for the man-cubs to finish the harvest. She turned back to the house, a pair of her own cubs prowling along the fence line.

It had been near ten winters since she had found the patch. Ten winters since she had found and lost her last trainer. Her pack was strong now, stronger than it had been when they had called the forest their home.

Oh. So Dan did die there.

Sure hope that Joanne rolled up to the Wilkersons and capped Donny over this right after the last scene, since I seriously doubt that he had nothing to do with that Zerg Rush of Seviper.

The woman emerged from the house, calling for the two man-cubs. They ignored her, as they usually did. They were brazen, reckless cubs much like her own. These humans and her young were more alike than they had ever realized.

The pack mother turned and trotted off into the berry fields in search of the man-cubs. She'd made a promise to a trainer once. She'd promised a dying man that his pack would be hers. She'd promised that she would keep them safe. She would keep that promise, no matter what.

Well that’s certainly a bittersweet ending. I mean, I’m pretty sure that Donny’s still alive to be a nuisance, but hopefully after 10 years and seeing his brother bite it, hopefully the guy’s too much of an old fart to be able to do anything other than wait to die.

… Unless they happened to have kids who could move back onto their farm. Since I mean the title is “Eternal War”, and them rolling up in a moving truck right after this scene would be extremely on brand for the premise of this one-shot even if it’d suck much of the hopeful tone out of that last scene.

Alright, time for that customary postmortem that I usually do for these things:

For things that I liked about this story, I found that the prose was very well done. There was very, very little in the way of mechanical bones that I had to pick with things. I thought that the special chapter also did a good job of leaning into the thematic parallel between the feud between Dan’s family with his neighbors, and the Seviper and Zangoose that live on their respective properties. It also felt like a very self-contained story. I don’t really know anything about what Journey entails, but I didn’t feel like I needed to in order to understand this special episode. If Journey’s SEs are all written in this style, it makes me understand why you asked for a review specifically directed at it.

As for things that I wasn’t as hot on. I feel that the overall backdrop of the feud between the Murphys and Wilkersons could’ve been built up more, since it would also be a vehicle by which to also establish why some other things in the special chapter don’t happen. Since there were a number of points where I was basically wondering to myself “bruh, why are you not calling the police right now?” with regard to the Wilkersons’ antics. Some passing indication of “the police can’t/won’t get involved in this” would’ve gone a long way both at hinting at something more systemic going on, as well as to shoo out that nagging fairy that kept getting in the way of suspension of disbelief. There are also a few bits where a little extra description / context would’ve helped sell the idea of stakes or the like better, in particular the bits where Dan is discovering his fields mysteriously getting trashed towards the beginning.

I also wonder if it’d have made more sense to play up Dan’s emotional attachment to his farm more, particularly towards the end of the story. Since with the horde that Dan was facing down, the rational playbook would’ve been “notice that you’re outnumbered at least 10-1, mount a tactical retreat, settle your score with Donny and Jeb afterwards” since the farm was going to get trashed one way or another regardless of if Dan stayed and fought or not. I feel that either playing up Dan being unwilling to just sit back and watch Jeb trash the fruit of years of his labor, or else giving some sort of explicit reasoning for why Dan doesn’t have that option (e.x. his farm being completely ruined would been a financial hole too big to dig out of). Since without it, it feels a bit like Dan picked an ill-advised fight and paid the price for it.

That’s not to say that I didn’t have fun with your piece. Quite to the contrary, it’s piqued my interest quite a bit for how your setting and world works. Like it’s a fairly dark and violent piece, but it showed a lot of attention to detail for how to put together a believable-feeling world from its little details and characterization (minus the nonexistent cops, but that’s honestly not that hard of a thing to fix via some additive editing).

Good luck with your writing @Joshthewriter , since I doubt this is the last time I’ll cross paths with your writing, and if it’s written like Eternal War, I’m sure that I’ll have a blast with it.

DeliriousAbsol · May 17, 2022

Eternal War

Catnip review!

This was a sad and bittersweet story. I didn't know what to expect going into it, especially since I've not read your main story.

It was a good read, and I liked the seviper/zangoose feud echoing the feud between the two farmers.

I apologise that this will be a short review. I'm recovering from a flare-up of carpal tunnel and don't want to stress my hand too much. Please bare with me.

Joshthewriter said:
His jaw dropped, and the stream of obscenities erupting from his lips would have made his mother blush brighter than even the brightest razz berry.

This was a nice description. Moments like this really add personality to your writing.

Joshthewriter said:
He turned, pausing only to spit a large glob of snot and hork into the dirt.

Ew. I'm no stranger to this behavior, and it's always gross XD

Joshthewriter said:
Joanne smirked mischievously and kissed him on the cheek.

Since she's already done this once shortly before, I feel adding 'again' to the end might make it less jarring and repetitive.

You can really feel the love between these two characters, and it's sweet.

Joshthewriter said:
He stepped closer

Joshthewriter said:
It took a step closer

Joshthewriter said:
He crept closer

This feels really repetitive. You might want to try and find an alternative way of saying this, or perhaps re-word this section altogether to make it a bit easier to read?

Joshthewriter said:
The wound began to harden and seal before his eyes, skin knitting itself back together as the potion began its work.

This was really nice imagery! I like how powerful these man-made potions are, keeping in canon with the games' instant recovery.

Joshthewriter said:
Movement from the trees drew their gaze. They came in twos and threes, most of them injured, most of them barely limping into view before collapsing. Then he saw her. Dan met her eye with his own. Then the one-eyed zangoose collapsed into the dirt.

Oh no! D=

Joshthewriter said:
The barn was still leaning dangerously and the swamp encroached on the little spit of arable land on each side.

More nice descriptions. This decrepit little barn and the likely seviper-infested swamps. It feels dingy and hostile, and as the story proves, it really is.

Joshthewriter said:
Jeb stepped off the porch, regarding the seviper advancing on me curiously. "

Joshthewriter said:
looking up at me with a knowing smirk.

You've changed to first-person here.

Joshthewriter said:
"Now, close combat!" Dan roared, seizing on the opening.

Mama struck back with all the pent up force and fury of a trapped animal.

This was fantastically done! I really like what you've done here.

Joshthewriter said:
The pack mother turned and trotted off into the berry fields in search of the man-cubs. She'd made a promise to a trainer once. She'd promised a dying man that his pack would be hers. She'd promised that she would keep them safe. She would keep that promise, no matter what.

A really sad, bittersweet ending ='(

Overall I enjoyed reading this. I like the zangoose mama's loyalty and the characters were nicely portrayed. I didn't get much of a feel for the linoone's personality as she didn't really do much, but the rest were just great. The hostile war and struggles of this farmer will probably stick with me for a while.

Joshthewriter · May 18, 2022

DeliriousAbsol said:
Eternal War

Catnip review!

This was a sad and bittersweet story. I didn't know what to expect going into it, especially since I've not read your main story.

It was a good read, and I liked the seviper/zangoose feud echoing the feud between the two farmers.

I apologise that this will be a short review. I'm recovering from a flare-up of carpal tunnel and don't want to stress my hand too much. Please bare with me.

This was a nice description. Moments like this really add personality to your writing.

Ew. I'm no stranger to this behavior, and it's always gross XD

Since she's already done this once shortly before, I feel adding 'again' to the end might make it less jarring and repetitive.

You can really feel the love between these two characters, and it's sweet.

This feels really repetitive. You might want to try and find an alternative way of saying this, or perhaps re-word this section altogether to make it a bit easier to read?

This was really nice imagery! I like how powerful these man-made potions are, keeping in canon with the games' instant recovery.

Oh no! D=

More nice descriptions. This decrepit little barn and the likely seviper-infested swamps. It feels dingy and hostile, and as the story proves, it really is.

You've changed to first-person here.

This was fantastically done! I really like what you've done here.

A really sad, bittersweet ending ='(

Overall I enjoyed reading this. I like the zangoose mama's loyalty and the characters were nicely portrayed. I didn't get much of a feel for the linoone's personality as she didn't really do much, but the rest were just great. The hostile war and struggles of this farmer will probably stick with me for a while.

Thanks for the review so much! Im glad you liked it, and so happy that Dan’s story will stick with you!!!!

I‘ll be writing your review over the next day or so, so don’t fret if you don’t see it up tonight!

Joshthewriter · May 27, 2022

Journey

Death of Duty

Part 5: War on the Water

Fire

When war comes, it brings death. — Unknown Soldier

The Poison Fang was rocking dangerously on the waves. The vessel was mostly shielded from the wrath of the sea by Five Island itself, but I could tell that the bridge crew was still nervous. Especially with Janine still trying to order them under way.

"Look, m'lady," replied the Captain for what had to be the twentieth time. "We cannot embark while the waves are this large. We would be sunk before we even got halfway to One Island."

Janine scowled. "I didn't ask why not. I told you to make it happen."

The Captain's eyes flitted to me, then to the pair of shinobi flanking Janine before settling back on her. "Lady Anzu, we cannot risk the Fang. This vessel is the most advanced in our possession. The rest of Fuchsia's navy is old, slow and fragile. While the Fang is very capable, we can ill-afford a replacement and I will not order her needless destruction."

"Then give me a solution," she spat. "Give me a way to fight this battle."

"We could fly," I said suddenly. "How many flyers do we have?"

"Twelve," Janine replied, swivelling and looking at me. "Ten who are capable of reaching One Island. Maybe one or two of them could carry an extra person that far."

"Artemis can't," I said. "Not that far at least."

Riley raised his hand. "Eleven if you count me. My flygon can carry at least two people," he said. "If you'll have me, of course."

Janine nodded and looked between the newcomer and myself. "Even with you, that's not enough," she said. "Fifteen trainers against an army? Plus whatever monstrosities that madman has cooked up?"

I shrugged, it didn't matter the odds. We had to stop Gideon. "Better than allowing Rocket to capture Moltres without a fight. We'll have some help from the lab, Bill and Celio have pledged their help as well." I looked out at the sea. "We need to do something."

Janine snapped over towards a member of the bridge crew. "Are we in missile range?"

The crewman turned in his seat, going over the specs on his screen. "Our long range missiles should be in range, depending on air currents. Strike would arrive ten minutes after launch."

She turned away, contemplating the options. "Marcus," she said as she glanced up at me. "You seem to come out of impossible situations more than most. What would you do?"

I grimaced at the question. Maybe that was true, but I'd lost both Pride and Vector in supposed victories. I didn't feel like I was qualified to give any advice at all. "I'd send us ahead of the strike, have us guide in the missile launch." I shrugged, wracking my brain for a better idea. "It might work, maybe level the odds enough to give us a fighting chance."

She frowned and I knew she didn't like it. I offered her nothing but a gamble, one with even worse odds than the one she had taken to seize Fucshia. "Then we move now," she ordered. She walked over to the comm station and keyed on the ship's intercom. "All shinobi flight capable should make ready for battle. We launch in fifteen."

She dropped the microphone and glanced around at the bridge crew. "Blow the labs and bring everyone back to the ship. Remain in radio contact and prepare to disembark if the sea calms."

The Captain nodded. "We'll be ready."

Janine turned to Riley and I. "You two, with me to the infirmary. We need everyone ready to fight the moment we get there."

I nodded as I felt a sense of calm come over me. Yet again, I was rushing towards battles beyond my wildest imagination. The threat of death was becoming normal. I let my mind clear, let all the needless worries drop away. I couldn't afford them. I couldn't afford distractions. Vector's broken body swam to the forefront of my mind, providing one all the same.

Riley and I silently followed Janine through the ship. We reached the infirmary in two minutes. My pokemon were sprayed down with a few of the Fang's full restores, Riley's pokemon treated similarly. I glanced over at Janine as her pokemon were given the same treatment.

She was crouched over Leopold's bed, a potion in hand and he voice low. I couldn't catch her words but I knew what she was asking him. He reached out, taking the potion as Janine gently undid the bandages wrapped around his head.

I turned away and strode over to the supply cabinets. Janine may have chosen to be with me, but she needed her people. She needed Fuchsians at her side, not foreign Rangers. I clenched my fists. Lady Anzu's final words rang in my mind as my promise hung heavily on my heart.

I grabbed a pair of full restores, tossing one of them to Riley. "For Oberon," I said. "We'll need that flygon when we arrive.

He caught it, stuffing the bottle into his pack. "Do we have a chance?" He asked. "The odds aren't great."

I smirked, showing off a false confidence. "We've gotten out of worse jams," I said. "Fight hard and fight smart. Rocket might have us outnumbered, but each of us is worth at least two of them. We can do this."

Riley nodded grimly as Janine got to her feet. There were six or seven of us still in the infirmary. She didn't say anything. She didn't have to. We had followed her this far. There was no backing out now.

The flight was far simpler than I had been expecting. The waves were massive, fifty foot swells that reached hungrily up towards our aerial formation. But the skies were clear and nothing bothered us on our trip back to One Island. We could see our destination almost from the moment we departed.

Mount Ember rose from the water, a steady stream of black smoke billowing from its peak. A steel grey tube was lodged halfway up the volcano, the bottom of the sub broken on the volcanic rock.

Riley's massive flygon veered towards Janine and I. He cupped a hand around his mouth and shouted over the roar of the ocean. "They beached the sub!" he shouted.

"Probably got caught on a wave!" Janine replied. "Means this is it!"

"No escape this time," I said with finality.

We swung south after spotting the Rocket forces constructing some sort of metal array on the volcano's peak. Janine took us in low, landing near the base of the mountain on the west side. The waves were breaking on the far side of Mount Ember, giving some small refuge for the few dozen wooden skiffs and schooners sitting in the shallows.

Bill and Celio were waiting for us, along with a few of the lab staff and one of the islanders. More men and women were assembling on the small volcanic beach, a few small boats ferrying people ashore.

Bill pressed a pair of pokeballs into my hands as I approached. "I haven't let them out, but the Fuchian staff said she was in perfect health."

I tapped the button on the familiar, dented pokeball. "Luna," I said with a breathless grin. "You're alright!"

She planted her feet as she materialized and I felt her mind touch mine. A joyous laugh echoed out of my mouth as she exclaimed a happy reply. She pressed into me and enveloped me in several of her warm, furry tails.

"I'm happy to see you too, girl." I said, scratching her affectionately on the neck. I stood up, still beaming down at her. "But we've got a job to do."

Bill pointed at the second ball, his expression smug and proud. He'd clearly succeeded in the task I'd put before him. "I've reprogrammed the porygon that Surge had in containment for you. It looked like Rocket had added some bootleg code to Silph's original porygon and made some crude changes."

I tapped the ball and the murderous porygon that had tried to kill me in Celadon appeared. It wasn't like I remembered it though. The hard, sharp angles were replaced by sleek, smooth curves. It wasn't glitching or spasming, just sitting there regarding me with curiosity.

"When I designed the original porygon for Silph, it was rushed out the door to meet investor deadlines. I wasn't done." He looked over at the digital pokemon and smiled knowingly. "They wanted a living computer, one that would blindly follow any directive coded into it. I protested that it was the stuff of every bad sci-fi trope, but the company forced me to drop it and put out the product the investors had paid for."

I looked over the porygon, admiring the changes. "I'm guessing that you gave it and upgrade of sorts?"

He nodded. "The original blindly followed orders. This 'porygon2' has its own moral code that is constantly learning and growing." He stood back smugly. "Two, say hello."

The porygon bowed its head towards me, chirping and whistling.

Bill handed me a headset fashioned from an old phone. A haphazard antenna was wired to the speaker, an aging power pack strapped to the other ear. "It's a little unwieldy, but it was the best I could do on such short notice."

I took the contraption and slipped it on, flicking the switch on the battery. "It's amazing, Bill."

I pointed at the headset as I turned my head to face the digital pokemon.

"Greetings, Marcus-trainer. I am Two, a sentient computer program built at Silph Company." The porygon seemed to hang its head. "I apologize for attacking you, though my actions were not my own."

"That's alright, Two," I replied. "Glad to have you on our side now."

Janine stepped between Bill and I, a look of annoyed impatience on her face. "If you two are done, we have an army to fight."

"Right," Bill said mareepishly. He pulled the elder islander forward. "The waves were threatening to swamp the entire island. We were taking shelter from the waves when their sub arrived."

"It rode along a wave. It shook the mountain with its impact," said the elder. "It defiles our Ember with its presence, their foul abominations prowling her slopes."

"More fusions?" I asked cautiously, glancing at Bill.

He nodded solemnly. "And an army of Rockets."

"My people are not fighters, but we have a few who wish to help." The elder gestured to a scant few trainers among them gathering on the beach. I saw a few others with no pokemon of their own gathering among the group. "We will help you drive off these outlanders."

Janine nodded "We appreciate it," she said. "Looks like we're going to need the help."

"After what your Ranger did to help with our food, it's the least our people can do." He looked over at me, a grateful smile on his face. "We repay our debts."

"Either way, we're in tough." Janine scowled. She turned away, looking up the mountain at the billowing smoke above. "Rocket got here first. They've had a chance to dig in and establish defensive positions." She shook her head and turned back to the rest of us. "This won't be an easy fight."

Nobody answered, a silent chill coming over our group.

"Then we'd best get started," I said, breaking the silence. "Before Gideon finishes whatever it is that he's trying to do with Moltres."

Quiet murmurs spread through the group of islanders. Moltres was practically a god to them. Gideon's plan would make a mockery of it.

"Agreed," said Janine. She glanced around at the group of fighters, shinobi and islanders alike. Maybe twenty-five to thirty combatants in all. It wasn't much, but it would have to be enough. "Let's move!"

I had never climbed a mountain before, much less a volcano that was being battered by tidal waves the entire time. It was a hard climb as the mountain sloped upwards at a steep angle. There were a few places that went almost straight vertical for a few feet. I could feel Mount Ember rumbling underfoot at times as she protested the ocean's wrath. It was a hard climb up the steep slopes of the volcano, but not one of us faltered. We had no choice.

I kept putting hand over foot, climbing towards the smoke rising above us. My hand found a flat, open ledge and I hauled myself up onto the outcropping with a surge of strength.

A crushing bewear hug wrapped around me, the Rocket grunt pushing me off balance. I thrashed with everything I had in a desperate attempt to land on the ledge. We went down in a tangle of limbs, my arms still trapped at my sides.

I bucked violently and smashed the Rocket face first into the cliff face. He only redoubled his efforts to throttle the life from me, blood spurting from his now broken nose. His hands wound their way around my throat as the man shifted, trapping my arms under his knees.

I bucked again, freeing my left arm and reaching for my sidearm. He adjusted and slammed my hand into the ground, sending the pistol clattering away off the cliff. I tore my other arm free and swung my fist, striking a glancing blow off the man's shoulder. He lifted me off the ground slightly, intent on slamming my head back down on the rock. I saw the cold, unfeeling look in his eyes and I knew that I had lost.

Janine's blade impaled the Rocket from above. He went slack, fear welling up behind his eyes. He opened his mouth to say something but failed, only a foamy bubble of blood spluttering out. Then he slumped over me as his strength failed and I felt Janine pull the grunt off of me.

"More of them!" she shouted. "Coming down the path."

I rolled onto my stomach and forced myself up to a knee. "Something's wrong," I coughed through my aching throat. "Janine, something is wrong."

A group of three Rocket grunts were slouching towards us, incoherent groans filling the air.

"They're not-"

Brutus was out in a flash of red, surging up the narrow footpath. The three Rockets went tumbling over the ledge with hardly a sound. They just flailed awkwardly as they fell, dashing against the rocks below.

"Janine, there's something wrong."

She pulled me to my feet. "Doesn't matter," she said. Leopold was pulling himself up, Riley a few feet behind him. "We keep moving."

I knelt over the grunt that Janine had impaled, watching as he tapped desperately at his temple. His eyes were racing and I could see strange light burning behind his eyes. The light died as soon as it had started, the Rocket grunt simply laying still as his breaths slowed.

Bill appeared a few moments later, studying the man. He pulled back an eyelid, pointing at a twitching metal tendril that protruded slightly. "The hell is that?" A spark from the man's earpiece drew both our attention.

I looked at him in horror. I'd seen enough of the sparking machinery to recognize Gideon's work when I saw it. "I don't think I want to know."

Bill planted one hand on the side of the man's head, grabbing hold of the earpiece hanging slightly loose. He pulled and I had to hold back the contents of my stomach. A long, spindly, tangle of writhing tendrils tore straight out of the man's ear. Blood and viscous clear discharge came pouring out along with it.

The device spasmed one last time as it tore free, before falling still and laying limply on the ground.

He bucked in pain as a scream of pure agony ripped out of the grunt's bloody lips. His eyes found Bill and he forced himself closer with the last vestiges of strength he had. "Th-th-tha-nk you," he uttered. "The voice.. it's… it's finally gone." He slumped back as his voice trailed off. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he drew a last, rattling breath and lay still.

Bill looked up at me in horror. He glanced between the grunt and myself, as if to confirm what we had both just watched.

"Janine," I said, my voice hushed as I tried to process what I had just seen. "Something is very, very wrong."

She turned to face us and stopped dead as Bill handed me the thing that had been inside the Rocket's head. "What is that?"

"That," I said, lifting the mass of tendrils. "Is our problem. It looks like something I pulled out of one of Gideon's fusions."

I raised my new porygon's ball and released it in front of me. The strange pokemon formed more smoothly out of the red light than any other pokemon I'd ever seen, like it was designed for it.

Two looked at me and bowed its head in respect. "Marcus-trainer, how may I assist you?" Its voice was stilted and robotic through the headset, a blatant reminder of how different my newest team member really was.

I lifted the device. "Can you tell me what this is?"

Two's eyes lit up with white light as it's head pointed down at the contraption in my hand. "The device bears significant similarities to prototype telepathic communications devices developed by Professor Samuel Oak." My porygon's eyes faded back to normal as it looked up at me proudly. "However, this device contains significantly more advanced electrostatic appendages. It is likely capable of crude body manipulation and mental suppression."

"Mind control?" Bill suggested, taking it back and holding the device up to the light. "Why would they need that for the grunts?"

Janine scowled, a familiar expression at this point. "Does it matter?" she asked. Frustration was clear in her voice. "We still have to stop them all."

I glanced up at her. "It matters if these people are being forced into this. If this… if it's mind control… these people at nothing more than slaves to Gideon's will."

"Gideon?" Janine asked. "Or Rocket?"

"He thinks himself above them," Riley interjected. "Above everyone, really. He was adamant that he was using them to push science further than it had ever gone before, that they were the pawns and he was the player."

I got to my feet. "And he made them into his pawns."

Janine looked back over at Bill. "Can we disable this control?" she asked. She glanced over at Two, unsure of whether to ask my new pokemon how it could help.

He shrugged. "It's possible," he replied. "But I would need an active unit, and to know the exact frequency they're using to broadcast commands. It would be far easier to simply shut down the command broadcast."

"Gideon still had your other gem. He had attached it to some kind of control device that he was using to direct the fusions." I glanced over at Janine. "We stop Gideon, we stop all of this."

She met my eyes. She knew what I was saying. We could stop this, her and I. We could end it with one death instead of dozens. We could kill Gideon together. Archer didn't matter anymore. Rocket didn't matter. We had to stop the beast that Rocket had created.

She glanced around as the last of the islanders hauled their kin up to the ledge our group was standing on. "Alright!" she started, putting on her authoritative voice. "We've got a change of plans. Rocket may have been co-opted by their mad scientist. We're gonna split into three teams." She pointed at me. "Ranger Wright and I will be the Alpha strike. We will continue up the mountain and keep looking for Gideon. When we find him, we'll order the missile strike and make sure he's down for the count."

She pointed at the rest of the group. "Leopold will split the rest of you into two groups. You'll each take the long way around the mountain, drawing the Rockets towards you and giving us a clear shot at Gideon."

Leopold stepped forward, his voice booming. "Alright you lot!"

Riley emerged from the crowd, ignoring Leopold's orders. He stared directly at Janine and I. "I'm going with you," he said coldly. "I'm going after him with you."

"That's not-"

He cut her off with a cold glare. "I wasn't asking," he said firmly. "He killed Darcy, did god knows what to her and her pokemon…" Riley trailed off as he looked down at his feet in shame. "She was only in Sevii because I wanted to go on vacation. She was only here because of me." He looked back up, meeting mine and Janine's gaze. "I have to make it right."

"It doesn't," Janine said. She swallowed the lump forming in her throat and I saw her fighting back the tears. "I killed my father a few months ago. I killed him for everything he'd done to me and mine." She shook her head. "I didn't make it right. I avenged a thousand wrongs and it still didn't make it right."

Riley's expression softened, but I saw the determination on his face. "He… he needs to die for what he did."

"He will," I said coldly, stepping in front of Janine. "I promise you that. Gideon will die for what he's done." My expression softened and I let some emotion back into my voice. "He will die, for Darcy, for Vector, for everyone else." I put my hand on his shoulder and he met my eyes.

I saw a mirror image of myself. He was close to the same age as me, but on a different path that I was. He was a trainer. I was a soldier. He was a competitor. I was a killer. I hadn't known Riley long, but I knew he was no killer. I wasn't about to let someone else go down the same terrible path I'd been started on, not if I could help it.

"I'm still going with you," he replied after a long moment. I think he saw the concern on my face. "You'll need my help."

I cracked a grin and felt the mood lighten somewhat. "That flygon should come in handy." I glanced up at the footpath leading up towards Mount Ember's peak, then looked back at the other two. "Shall we, then?"

Janine nodded grimly. "Let's end this," she said.

Riley and I both nodded in agreement. This mad scheme of Gideon's had to be stopped. He was playing with forces capable of reshaping the very face of our planet, toying with the natural world in dangerous ways.

We would stop him. This much I knew. We had to. There was no other option. I didn't dwell on the alternatives as we started our climb to the peak.

"Contact!" Leopold's voice crackled out of our radios. "More Rockets! They're all over the north slopes! They've got fusions!"

Janine raised her radio. "Fall back!" she ordered as she wiped sweat from her face. It was getting hotter the closer we got to the peak, the stench of sulphur hanging heavy in the air.

"Negative," came the reply. "They've got us surrounded. We have to stand and-"

"Mayday! Mayday!" shouted a panicked voice. "Fusions are attacking the southern slopes! There's to many of them!"

Janine swore loudly again. "Everyone, fall back and regroup. Focus down the fusions. They might be strong, but they're fragile. Hit them hard and they'll fall apart."

The radio crackled as an incoherent grunt echoed through the connection. The voice died and all we had was static.

"Janine," I said as I stepped up to her side. Our forces were few. There was a good chance that we'd lost them all in one fell swoop. We'd known the risks going in. So had they. "Order the missile strike."

She met my gaze and nodded. It was time. She handed me one of our laser guidance systems and held my gaze. "I'll draw as many of the fusions to one place as possible," she said. "Don't hesitate. Not for anything, not for anyone."

I frowned. I knew what she was saying. "I'm not going to-"

She cut me off with a cold glare. "Don't hesitate," she repeated. "Or I'm sending you to kite these bastards and I'll guide in the strike." She kept eye contact, practically begging me to listen without saying another word.

I reached out and took her hand. I'd barely seen her since her mother's death, barely even spoken to her outside of the missions. "Just be careful," I said. "Fuchsia needs you… Kanto needs you…"

She stared into my eyes, looking intently for something. "What about you?" she asked carefully. "What do you need?"

I let my expression fall. I didn't want to answer that question. "What I need…" I shook my head. "That doesn't matter right now." I grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in close, looking into her eyes with every scrap of emotion I could draw on. "Come back safe," I said with finality. "That's what I need. I need for you to be safe."

She glanced around and a smirk came to her face. "Bit late for that, isn't it?" She gestured at the smoke rising above us and the waves crashing relentlessly against the base of the mountain. "Should've picked a better vacation spot, Ranger."

I pulled her in for a sudden, breathless kiss. She let out an unintentional moan for a half a moment before the moment was gone and the danger we were in sank back in. "Vacation," I said suddenly. "I'm taking you on vacation after this. Cinnabar sound nice?"

She glanced up at the smoke above us. "I've had enough of volcanoes for a while."

I let the tension fall away while it could, the easy smile returning. It was easy around her, easy to let myself be happy. "Somewhere cold, then? I hear Sinnoh has some beautiful ski resorts."

She leaned back in and kissed me again and I didn't fight the moment. It wasn't right to act like I hadn't promised her mother I would leave her, but I couldn't help it. She was reckless and dangerous and sexy and the perfect complement to a Ranger like myself.

The kiss ended and both of us pulled back to look at each other. She was smiling like a teenager and I couldn't help the infectious grin from spreading.

"I've gotta call that missile strike," she said. "But once we're done here…" she trailed off, leaving me with the implication as she winked at me seductively. "I think you know what we can do."

I gave her my cheesiest grin. "I've got some idea," I said coyly. We separated and she turned, a pokeball in hand. "Go save the world, babe."

Her venomoth was out, a shrill, trilling cry announcing the bug's presence. Janine looked up at her pokemon, then back at Riley and I. "We'll save it together."

She mounted her massive, ethereal bug. We shared one last longing glance and then she was gone. I watched the shape shrink until Janine threw her pokemon into a steep dive.

"She's impressive," Riley remarked as we resumed our hike towards the peak. "Intimidating, even."

I shrugged. "She's perfect," I said quietly. I felt my mood sour. I didn't know whether Janine and I were really a thing, or if this was all just a stress induced fling. But, I did know one thing. "She's brave and smart and gorgeous all rolled into one. And it can never last."

Riley turned and raised an eyebrow as we continued up the slope. "Why is that?" he asked.

I gave him a solemn look. "I made a promise," I said. "To her mother as she died."

He closed his eyes and sighed. "Family, huh?"

I nodded. "Family," I confirmed. "And she has fourteen families to please. None of them seem all too happy that Janine seemed to take a liking to someone like me." I glanced down at myself. "I can't blame them. I'm not much to get excited about. Just some kid off a farm that couldn't deal with his family anymore."

"You kidding me?" Riley asked, an indignant tone creeping into his voice. "You're a goddamn Indigo Ranger, part of your region's first line of defence against pokemon threats." He stopped, forcing me to turn and look at him. "You aren't just some kid off the farm. You're a goddamn certifiable badass. I watched you take on that freaky machamp without even a second thought. Janine and her 'families' would be lucky to have you."

I smiled despite myself. Maybe Riley was right. I wasn't the scared little trainer fighting to save his kidnapped happiny anymore. I was a Ranger, one of Kanto's finest warriors. I'd stood with Janine against Koga. I'd stood with Red and Blue against Giovanni. I had fought in some of the largest battles against Rocket that Kanto had seen. "Maybe you're right," I said. "Maybe they'd have me. But it's a moot point. I made a promise."

Riley shook his head. "Ask her what she wants," he said. "Don't make the choice for her. You just might find that she wants the same things you do." He smiled, but I could see that sadness in his eyes. "Don't leave it to the world to make your choice. You might find that you don't like the choice it makes for you."

I fell silent. My word meant everything, more so since Lady Anzu had made me promise as she breathed her last. I had to speak with Janine about this. My mind drifted towards the idea of vacationing with her, and the thought crossed my mind of telling her then.

We stepped up to the peak and I felt the heat wash over me. All the worries and troubles weighing on my mind faded away as I looked across the volcanic crater between us. Gideon was smirking at Riley and I, his arms folded behind his back. The pool of lava bubbled and simmered, the heat haze clouding the air between us and our foe.

Metal spires rose above the peak, static electricity buzzing heavily in the air. Sparks leapt down one of the spires, jumping from one to another as the electrostatic hum grew in volume.

"I'm gonna kill him," Riley muttered. "With my bare hands."

"Janine," I said, raising my radio and ignoring Riley. He'd get his chance. "we're up at the peak. Gideon is here."

"Strike is on the way," she replied. "I've got the attention of some of the fusions. Paint Gideon with the laser guidance and keep him occupied."

I looked down at the radio. "Janine, that wasn't the plan. The missiles are for the fusions, not Gideon."

"Shut up, Ranger," came her reply. "The fusions are all over our distraction teams. They aren't letting up and I'll be damned if I let them all die." I heard her sigh audibly through the radio. "Kill that madman. Kill him and end this insanity."

I looked across at Gideon, my hand falling to my ball belt. He had no pokemon clearly with him, but I didn't put any stock on that. I raised the radio, my eyes locked with Gideon. "We got this," I replied. "Stay safe, Janine."

Static crackled out of the radio. I thought I heard garbled words, but they were lost in the white noise.

"Did you get a heartfelt goodbye, Ranger?" Gideon asked sardonically. "I hope the Lady Anzu does not mind losing another loved one. Not so close after watching her mother die in your arms..."

My hands balled into fists. "This is over now, Gideon. This is where your mad quest ends."

"Come now, Ranger. You sound like dear old Archer. Always questioning my sanity and thinking yourself above me." He unfolded his arms and I saw the control device in his hands. "He saw the truth of it in the end, the same as you will."

"What did you do?" I asked. We needed Archer alive, needed the intelligence he could provide.

Gideon grinned maliciously and I saw the flicker of amusement in his eyes. "I simply opened his mind," he said. "Showed him the error of his ways and gave him a little glimpse of the future."

I saw movement in the sky behind him. I could see the missiles streaking towards us, closing fast. "So you enslaved him?" I half-shouted. I needed to keep the attention on me. "You locked him in his head and put one of your tentacle devices in there with him?"

He shrugged. "Progress requires sacrifice. Archer could not see that. He tried to stop me…" his voice trailed off and I saw another flicker of amusement behind his eyes. "I didn't let him. Just like I won't let you!"

"You're a monster," I said. "Little more than a wild beast gone mad with bloodlust." I tightened my fists. I knew that not all Rockets were willing members of the organization, that many were coerced into compromising situations and given no other options. "Archer at least had morals. Archer at least cared for his men." I lifted Luna's ball off my belt, itching to let her out.

"And he tried to stop me when I gave him what he wanted. He tried to shut down my life's work!" Gideon turned, looking up at the missiles with a knowing grin. He raised the control device and I knew that he had outplayed us the entire time. He'd been a step ahead of us, a step ahead of Archer. He'd orchestrated all of this. "I won't let you stop me either."

He pressed a command on the device as Riley and I released our starters. Luna was out in a flash, already bounding around the lake of lava towards Gideon as Oberon announced his presence with a roar.

A twisted houndoom that crackled with electricity running down the creature's horns leapt from the lip of the volcano, slamming into Luna. They went tumbling, both of them snapping and snarling at the other as Riley's flygon took flight over them. The earth dragon bellowed down at our opponent, ignoring the blast of white lightning that harmlessly washed against his scales.

The missiles screamed down towards us as I flicked on the laser guidance system and pointed it at Gideon. Gideon turned and smirked at us, unperturbed by the ordnance sailing down towards him. He tapped another command on his device and met my hateful gaze with a knowing smile.

The missiles screamed past us all, whizzing down the eastern slopes of the mountain. I felt a half dozen explosions rock the mountain, felt the volcano's protest rumble beneath my feet.

"Marcus!" crackled the radio. "The fusions are all retreating! They're running for the peak!"

"Gideon diverted the strike!" I shouted back. "Get the hell up here, now!"

I didn't wait for her answer. Acolyte was out in a flash, Two and Artemis appearing half a heartbeat later. Riley's manectric and mightyena padded over to our sides, his growlithe and houndour behind his larger pokemon.

Luna separated from the abominable houndoom as Oberon swooped down. Riley's flygon hit the fusion with a hammer blow from his tail as it exploded with lightning, ignoring the white-hot electricity washing over him. The houndoom bounced twice and skidded helplessly into the pit of lava, silently sinking into the molten rock.

Oberon landed in front of Riley, bellowing a fearsome cry of victory. Artemis echoed the larger dragon, her roar higher pitched than the flygon.

Then they came. Dozens of them, swarming over the walls of the crater, each of them a new bloody fantasy. I saw twisted dragons mauling Artemis, a monstrous hydra of onix heads slamming Acolyte back into the rock face, we were losing to a storm of creatures we couldn't possibly hope to fight.

Electricity streamed off of Two and bathed Luna's burning opponent in white light. The flaming creature shrugged it off and belched a stream of pressurized water that catapulted my starter into Riley's.

Oberon shrieked in sudden surprise, going down under Luna's impact. A half dozen fusions that I couldn't even begin to fathom swarmed them both. Riley's manectric and mightyena bounded over to help, but sheer numbers forced the two back.

Luna leapt out of the horde as Oberon launched himself skyward. Artemis fled for the skies as well, but I felt the sudden rise in pressure and the coppery taste of metal in my mouth.

The spires around the peak lit up with a thousand bolts of lightning. Luna, Artemis and Oberon shrieked as the cage of light flung them back to the ground, each of them skidding to a halt. Acolyte leapt from his battle with the hydra, beating back an opportunistic creature that had once been a rattata.

I rushed over to my starter as Riley did the same. Neither were moving, either was Artemis. I turned, facing Gideon as the fusions finally halted their advance. Our pokemon were arrayed in a small circle around us, though I doubted they could take much more of this.

Gideon smirked knowingly. "I'm glad you're here to see this," he started. "it felt wrong to do this alone. History deserves an audience, don't you think?"

Movement stirred on the lip of the crater. I took an involuntary step backwards as I turned and followed the lip of the crater all the way around. Dozens more of abominations were sliding into view, all of them glaring directly down at Riley and I. I spun, putting my back to his as I fought back the feelings of despair. We had lost and we never had a chance.

"You were never going to be able to stop this," he said happily. "You struggle against destiny, Ranger! You cannot possibly triumph, cannot defeat fate itself!" He raised the control device, a victorious grin spreading across his face. "I have already won! You look upon your saviour!"

He pressed a button on the device and the world seemed to go quiet for a moment. Then the volcano shook violently, a tremendous shockwave washing over the peak and knocking me to the ground. Dirt and dust billowed into the sky, blotting out the sun as molten rock and lava spewed into view.

The mountain groaned in protest as a thunderous storm of rock slammed back down to earth. I looked up in terror as half the mountain arced back down towards us. This was the end.

A wall of hard light sprung into existence above us. It curved into a smooth arch at the last moment, diverting the storm of stone safely around us.

"Marcus-Trainer, you are safe." The voice in my improvised headset was proud, happy even.

I glanced at my new porygon. "You magnificent machine," I started. "How did you do that?"

"This construct possesses hard light projection capability." It turned a head to look at me. "Along with energy refraction and manipulation."

I blinked numbly. "I don't speak scientist," I said.

My porygon's voice seemed almost smug in my ear. "I can project force fields capable of blunting most physical and energy based attacks."

I smirked as a torrent of falling rock and lava washed against the barrier. It bent and twisted, but my porygon did not falter.

Two hummed with power, the barrier pulsing with energy. It surged with light, the barrier pushing outwards as the last of the falling stones harmlessly impacted the hard light. The avalanche of stone finally abated, a thunderous roar still echoing around the mountain as the stones crashed down the slopes.

The volcanic crater at the peak was littered with glowing stones and puddles of molten rock. Pieces of the fusions that had been on the eastern side of the peak were strewn about, most of them little more than chunks of burnt, bloody flesh. Most of the fusions around us had been crushed by the debris, leaving us safe for the moment.

The sun laboured through the dust and smoke, casting the hellscape in a rusty red light. The heat was oppressive and i sucked back a stale breath of fire and brimstone.

"What the hell was that?" Riley asked.

I looked over to Gideon, who was looking down at the slowly emptying pool of lava with barely restrained glee. He hadn't been knocked over, or harmed in any way. "That," I started with a knowing scowl. "was a doorbell."

"Marcus," Janine's voice crackled. "The sub just exploded! Half the mountain is gone. You gotta get out of there!"

I raised the radio. "He's waking up Moltres. We can't let him-"

Then I felt it and I lost the words. An angry, furiously hot presence reached into my head and blotted out any spare thoughts. All I could see was fire and I knew that Gideon had written our doom.

The lava was draining from the pool, exposing a dancing mane of fire. Burning wings spread and I felt incandescent heat wash over me. Then they flapped and death went before it.

Moltres rose into the air, divine flames streaming from its wings. A few of the fusions fought back, their captive minds immune to the fire god's overwhelming presence. Moltres devastated them all the same, holy fire wiping the altar that had once been the mountain clean.

Then lightning wrapped around the holy raptor, halting its majestic revenge with a sudden snap of electricity. Most of the spires had been damaged or destroyed in the blast, but a few of them were still online.

I felt the mental pressure lift, and felt my mind return to my own. I dropped to my knees, my eyes snapping up to Gideon.

"The hell was that, now?"

I glanced over at Riley. I'd felt something similar when in Articuno's presence, though it had not been so intense. "That is a god's mind," I said. I looked back at Moltres, at the cage of lightning wrapping around it. "And it is angry."

Riley got to his feet, surveying his team. "How do we stop him?" he asked. "We can't fight those fusions, not without help."

I returned most of my team and then dug into my pack, pulling out the full restore. "We've got to try," I said. I stepped over Artemis, looking down at her battered and convulsing wings. She'd taken a beating and been bathed in lightning but I needed her more than ever. "Heal your flygon. Take out those lightning towers. I'll keep Gideon and the fusions off of you."

He raised his full restore, returning his team in the process. "It hurt him too," he said. "We can't get close to them."

"Then do it from afar," I replied. "Free Moltres and we win." I looked back at Gideon. "Free Moltres and Gideon dies."

He turned and treated his flygon as I sprayed the full restore over my aerodactyl. She perked up immediately, nuzzling her nose into my hand.

I pulled back, guilt wracking me at what I was about to ask. I knew she would never refuse. "Artemis," I said with a proud smile. "You think we got him?" I asked, gesturing over my shoulder at Gideon.

She looked up at the mad scientist and growled, curls of faintly blue smoke curling from her jaws. My aerodactyl nodded, her eyes never leaving Gideon.

I mounted my pokemon and gritted my teeth. "Then let's go get his attention."

I didn't wait for Riley to move. We launched into the sky, Artemis roaring a furious challenge to the twisting mass of onix heads. She hung at the top of her arc for a moment, holding us up as Gideon turned and looked up in surprise.

"Give him hell, girl," I ordered.

She threw us into a steep dive, cutting under a flying boulder launched by one of the onix tails. I held fast, waiting for the moment as she spun wildly around a second boulder. She flared her wings as she extended her hind claws and landed atop the fearsome fusion of onix heads.

I jumped free, releasing Luna as I sailed desperately leapt away from the creature. I hit the ground hard, rolling away from the thrashing stone serpent before it could crush me.

"Keep it occupied!" I roared as I pounded my way towards the mad scientist in front of me. "Stay alive!"

I ignored the deafening shrieks of fury and shattering cacophony of stones slamming into stone. Fire and psychic light erupted behind me as Luna opened up with all she had. I could hear Artemis roaring and felt the rumbling bellow of the fusion shake the mountain beneath my feet. My pokemon could give me time, enough to maybe stop Gideon myself.

Gideon was panicking, keying in a command on the control device as I closed with him. The flaming creature rose, looking down at me with a blank expression. I could see now that it was a twisted magmortar, one that burned brighter than any natural pokemon had a right to be.

I ran hard, hand on my belt. Two was out in a flash, a hard light barrier springing into place just in time to deflect a burst of white-hot flame skyward. It swung a long tail with a heavy red ball on the end of it as I dashed past, trying desperately to stop me from reaching its master. I scrambled under the swing and released Acolyte as electricity sparked along the length of the creature's tail.

Acolyte's club intercepted and absorbed the bolt of lightning as Two summoned a swirling ball of chaotic light. I tore my gaze away, intently focused on the man responsible for the chaos behind me. I could hear Two's monotone babbling in my headset, the titanic struggle of the hydra, panicked screaming through the radio. All of it, all the chaos caused by one man.

My sidearm was gone, knocked halfway down the volcano. I'd left my rifle back on the Fang to lighten the load for our flight over. As I pounded towards the mad scientist, I knew I wasn't going to need either of them.

I leapt into the punch, throwing all my weight behind the blow. Gideon ducked to the side as my fist glanced off his ear. I hit Gideon at full speed, my shoulder slamming into his chest and throwing us both to the ground in a tangle of flying limbs.

The control device went bouncing, landing several feet away. Gideon bucked and tried desperately to get out from underneath me but I was heavier and stronger than he was. I clambered atop him as he reached for the device and drove a fist into his jaw.

I rose my fist again as Gideon threw his arms up in a weak defence. He got an arm in front of my hammer blow, stopping me from breaking his nose. Vector's fate replayed in my mind again and again, the killing blow echoing repeatedly in my mind with every blow I landed.

"You killed him!" I shrieked wildly, punctuating each word with another blow. Gideon's ineffectual defence fell away beneath me, but all I could see was red. "You're going to pay for what you did."

Another crushing blow found its way past Gideon's guard. His head lolled back and his arms fell uselessly to the ground.

I felt my heart grow heavy as I looked down at him. His face was a bloody mess, nose bent to the side and blood painting the both of us. "You killed him and he… he didn't even want to be a trained pokemon."

Gideon mumbled something through bloodied lips. I didn't catch it. I didn't care. my hands found their way around his throat and I squeezed with all the strength I had. "This is better than you deserve," I said coldly. "but this has to end."

He coughed and bucked wildly beneath me, but I held tight. His eyes darted around wildly, his hands scrabbling desperately for any purchase. I lifted him slightly off the rock, intending to smash his head back down until he finally stopped fighting.

Something warm and wet wrapped tightly around my waist and flung me backwards. The world flipped end over end before something caught me a few inches off the ground.

"Marcus-Trainer," said two. "Retrieve the control device and I can stop them."

Two let me go as I got to my feet. "Keep helping Acolyte. We have to hold them until Riley gets Moltres free!"

I glanced up at the new attacker as Two darted back around the magmortar and didn't even bother to make sense of it. It had maybe been a grass type at one point, but it defied any attempts at mental explanation. It was vaguely humanoid, its splotchy green body covered in small black spikes. It laughed staccato over the carnage of battle and then broke open at the neck. A long, prehensile tongue lolled out and reached for me as my hand dropped to the last ball on my belt.

It snapped up, wrapping around my wrist before I could release Curie. I felt my entire arm go numb, felt it fall like dead weight and stumbled backwards. The creature's tongue wrapped around my chest again and wound tightly around my neck.

I went completely slack. There was nothing I could do to stop this. I couldn't move, couldn't feel a thing aside from the numb tingling across my body. Gideon was stirring and I couldn't move a muscle.

He was laughing. Gideon was laughing through the blood and pain. The creature turned me to face him as he rose and I saw the twisted enjoyment on his bruised and broken face.

"You almost had me," he spat through the blood. He bent down and lifted the control device from the rocks. "I won though, just like I-"

I saw Janine's venomoth surge over the lip of the crater on a psychic wind, a beam of shimmering iridescent light carving down through the smoke. It hit Gideon in the back and carved clean through him mid-word.

He came apart in front of me, simply ceasing to be. The control unit fell against the rocks again and smashed to a half dozen pieces, the precious sapphire shattering upon impact. Gideon's halves fell forward and landed unceremonious on the volcanic rock.

The fusion holding me shrieked in surprise, throwing up a wall of murky black shadow that blunted the psybeam. Its tongue dropped me unceremoniously and snapped up to entangle Janine and her venomoth.

A kaleidoscope of alien light erupted from the poison moth's compound eyes, smashing through the barrier like it wasn't even there. The fusion screeched as the signal beam sliced through the creature's tongue and carved through the base of the neck. Its screech of pain died suddenly as Janine's venomoth swooped down, bisecting the fusion and dropping it to the ground.

Janine leapt from her bug's back as it took flight over the raging battle. She was at my side, shaking me as she desperately checked on me.

"I'm… okay…" I said, fighting to get the words out through a mouth that refused to move. My eyes looked over at Riley, at the bolt of lightning that flung his flygon harmlessly away from the device. "Help… him…"

She followed my gaze to the method of Moltres' imprisonment. The fusions were still fighting, and without the control device to order them off they'd kill us all.

"Stay here," she ordered, the barest traces of a laugh on her face at her joke. I couldn't have moved even if I had tried.

Then she was gone, sprinting headlong through the battle like a suicidal maniac. I watched her go with fear and awe, my heart jumping into my throat as the two overwhelmingly powerful fusions turned their attention to the newcomer in the battle.

She slid under the magmortar's legs, not waiting for Two to create her a path. My porygon leapt into action regardless, summoning a barrier that sprung into place just behind her. The magmortar's attack rebounded back on itself, blinding it for a brief moment as Janine sprinted away.

The twisting and endless ouroboros of onix heads plunged towards her, shaking off Artemis' harassment from above. Brutus appeared just in the nick of time, his thick pillar-like arms catching the falling onix heads. Janine sprinted by as Luna dashed along the length of the hydra, pelting the bleeding joints between serpents with glowing balls of green light.

I lost her behind the hydra as the battle turned away from our favour. Another onix head slammed into Brutus from behind, finally finding an opponent that they could actually catch. Luna and Artemis descended on the onix hydra but it was too little too late. Brutus was already trapped.

Then I felt it. The mountain below me jumped like it had just been struck by a meteor. I felt it rumble beneath me, saw and heard the spray of flying rock tumble down the far side of the mountain. The peak tipped and I felt wind rushing over me as I fought desperately to move.

Then my mind was lost to fire and hate. The world shook and burned and I let myself be taken by the storm.

My first breath was hot and sooty. I hacked a cough, spitting out dry puffs of ash and smoke. The second breath wasn't much better, but I caught the faint salty taste of seawater.

I forced myself up, noticing that my body seemed to respond to my commands once more. It still felt unnatural, like I was forcing movement, but at least I could move. I looked up and out of the small tent in awe and tried not to crap my pants in terror.

What was left of Mount Ember was burning above us. Great cavities had been opened up in the mountain, irreparably reshaping the peak of the volcano into something new. I could still feel the oppressive anger of Moltres' presence, but it was quiet and muted compared to before.

I felt something stir on my lap and looked down as Luna enveloped me completely. I coughed madly and wrapped my heavy arms around her as my ninetales fussed over my ragged appearance. I could hear Artemis grunting and shoving and Acolyte's frustrated groan as the tent collapsed on top of us.

Artemis shrieked as the tent landed on her back, twisting back and snapping at the fabric with her jaws. She tore a large hole and then looked back at me, satisfied with my safety after defeating the terrible tent monster.

Movement outside my cocoon of protective pokemon drew my attention. Janine was there, smiling widely and doing a terrible job of hiding her bleary red eyes. Riley and Bill were flanking her but I only had eyes for Janine. I could hear more voices, happy and victorious voices all celebrating a hard won victory.

"You've been crying," I said weakly as I struggled to look at her. I sat up a little straighter, forcing Luna to let me up. "Did something happen?"

She punched me in the shoulder and I saw her break into a wide grin. "You happened, you big dumb idiot. You got yourself paralyzed and then disappeared." She threw her arms around me and pulled me into a crushing hug. "I thought we lost you when the mountain broke. Moltres burned away the fusions but you were just gone." She gestured around at my pokemon. "Two and Luna caught you," she said with a waver in her voice. "Caught you and kept you safe."

I looked around. Two and Luna, Artemis and Acolyte, even Curie was sitting with me. "Did we win?" I asked cautiously. I remembered Gideon dying, but everything after that was a blur.

Riley nodded and stepped forward, shoving his sleeve up to his elbow. "Damn right we did," he said. He bared his wrist towards me and I saw the band of fiery red wrapping around it. "Moltres even thought I was worthy of its special mark."

I rolled my sleeve back and extended my wrist. "Just like Articuno gave me this."

His eyes widened and he looked between me and my mark excitedly. "That's gotta mean something," he said. "It's also cool as shit!"

"Yeah," I said as a grin came to my face. "I guess it is."

"Janine!" Bill shouted from outside the remnants of the tent. "We've got company. Lapras, riding the waves. Someone's on its back."

Janine and I locked eyes. We both knew who it was. We both knew the danger that meant. Especially if our suspicions were correct and Lorelei was in Rocket's pocket.

"Get me up," I said. "Now." I reached up, squirming towards the side of the bed.

She grabbed my hand, hauling my clumsy and stubborn legs off the makeshift bed. I stumbled, my knees buckling under my own weight. Janine caught me though, wrapping my left arm around her and supporting me with her shoulder.

"I got you," she said under her breath. "We got her together. We can take her if we surprise her."

I looked at her, silent for a moment as my mind worked. With Rocket defeated, we had an opportunity to feign ignorance. "Let me talk to her," I said. "I have an idea. Just go with it and don't contradict me unless she attacks first."

I saw her eyes flicker with inspiration. "You're gonna let her think that you don't know she's involved."

I nodded. "It's worth a shot." I took a weak step and didn't fall, most of my weight supported by Janine. "Could trick her into thinking we're dumber than we look."

She propped me up as we walked, making sure that my stubbornly clumsy feet didn't trip me up. We stepped out onto the beach, the waves peacefully lapping at the beach compared to the raging storm from before.

Rockets were sitting around the camp, hands bound and guarded by one of Janine or Leopold's pokemon. The sardonic shinobi nodded at me in respect as I passed and then turned back to the groups of Rockets we had captured.

Lorelei was atop her majestic lapras, one hand grasping the creature's long neck. She coasted in from the sea and slowed to a halt in the shallows.

One of the islanders waved at her from another boat. The Elite waved back, exchanging words for a moment. The islander pointed over at the beach and Lorelei turned to follow it. Her eyes raked over prisoners gathered on the beach. They found me and I saw the tension ratchet up as her curious expression hardened.

Her lapras approached shore, slowing to a halt as the water grew too shallow for it. The Elite slipped off her pokemon's back and into the water. She stood there for a moment, patting her lapras before it turned back to sea and departed to loiter in deeper waters.

"Elite Kanna," I said, projecting my voice over the water. "Glad you could finally join us." I smirked knowingly. "I hate to say I told you so, but I did tell you our intel was good."

She nodded, her eyes still scanning the captured Rocket grunts. "That you did, Ranger." She settled her gaze back on me and I felt the accusation in her eyes. "Congratulations on your victory. Surge will be pleased."

"As will Lance," Janine replied. "He seemed most interested in speaking with the Rocket captives himself."

"I do not doubt that," Lorelei said coldly. "He wants to get to the bottom of this Rocket business as much as anyone." She looked around, regarding the small encampment as if she was analyzing how much effort it would take to wipe us all away and pretend that Moltres did it. "Do you have transportation back to Kanto? That storm destroyed most of the vessels I have moored around the islands, but I still have a few that could make the trip."

Janine stepped forward, letting me stand on my own. "My ship is strong. The Poison Fang is already underway. She should arrive within the hour and is well capable of carrying us and our captives back to Kanto."

Lorelei narrowed her gaze. "That won't be necessary," she said. "I'll bring these captives directly to the Champion. I'm sure you understand, he wishes for this to be resolved without having to go through a lengthy prisoner transfer."

"I'm afraid I can't do that," Janine replied. "Fuchsian tradition states that captured opponents must be cared for by their captors. I will not shirk my duty and dishonour my clan." She nodded, setting her jaw. "I will ensure that Lance is given all the access to the captives he requires. I imagine many League higher ups will be interested in what the captives have to say."

Lorelei's expression hardly faltered, but for half a moment I saw the panic and fear on her face. She flashed back to her grim countenance a moment later, but I knew that she was afraid of that. No doubt, the Rockets could easily implicate her if given a chance to testify.

"I'm afraid I must insist," she replied. "I cannot allow these Rockets to escape justice, as have many other operatives in the past." She cocked her head to the side, staring straight at Janine. "I'm sure that you understand. League security takes precedence over supposed honour."

I saw Janine tense up and felt her mood shift towards aggression. "I'm afraid that Ranger Command is waiting for them," I said. "Fuchsia is preparing already." I took a shaky step forwards and planted my feet beside Janine, trying my best to smile happily. "I suspect that Surge and Lance will be waiting. Perhaps you could escort us to ensure the Fang arrives in a timely fashion."

Her gaze shifted to my innocent smile. I saw her studying me, and could see the gears turning in her mind. "That won't be necessary," she said. "If Lance will meet you in Fuchsia, then there is no need for me to leave Sevii." She glanced back at the gathered ships still moored in the small harbour. "They'll need me."

I nodded. "Yes they will." I offered her the most genuine smile I could. Maybe she was in Rocket's pocket, maybe she was working with them willingly. It wasn't much, but there was a chance I could appeal to her humanity. "I have a feeling we all will."

She lifted an arm, waving back to her lapras. The large aquatic pokemon lazily curled into the shallows again. "Then I hope we shall meet again, Ranger. Perhaps it will be under better circumstances."

I nodded back. "I hope it will be."

She nodded in reply, saying nothing but mounting her lapras. She left, only after pausing amongst the ships moored in the harbour to coordinate recovery efforts after the storm.

Janine and I didn't move until she left, standing in resolute silence until we were absolutely sure the danger was gone.

She turned to me and I saw the solemn frown. "My men retrieved Vector's body for you," she started. "so you could give him a proper burial."

I slung an arm around her. "Thank you," I said quietly. I'd wanted to do so myself, but there hadn't been time while we were chasing Gideon. "I… I failed him. He didn't even really want to be a part of my team at first. I bribed him with honey. I dragged him into this and he saved me without hesitation." I looked out mournfully at the ocean. "He'd still be alive if I hadn't caught him."

"He was a good bug," Janine remarked.

"The best bug," I confirmed. We fell into silence, Janine resting her head against me while she supported my weight. It was nice, peaceful even, just watching the waves roll in. I just wished that it hadn't come at such a heavy cost.

Leopold was the one to break the silence. He stepped up to the shore, trudging heavily through the sand. I couldn't blame him. We were all tired. He stood there, toes touching the warm ocean water, and glanced at the two of us. "He's awake," he said. "Says he needs to speak with the Ranger."

I raised an eyebrow. "Who?" I asked.

Janine grinned widely and I knew we had made a huge breakthrough. "Archer," she said. "And he's got some explaining to do."

"So," said the tall man. "Sevii has fallen. Just as you said it would."

"Yes," replied the shorter man. "But Project Catalyst survived and is ready to deploy. Our diversion worked, even if it did cost us Archer and Gideon."

The tall man scowled. "Gideon was never among our true plans." The Persian behind his chair shifted and stepped into the light. "He was a tool blinded by his own usefulness. The fusions are powerful, but they are hardly a countermeasure for our real problem." He waved his hand. "I am not concerned with these minor losses. Let the Ranger and the Shinobi think they have won a victory. It will hardly matter when we move on Silph."

"Is that soon?" the short man asked. "The men are getting restless."

"Patience," he replied. "We move too early and our chance at ending this debacle early is lost. Perhaps it is a fool's hope, but I still believe that the ball could work. Maybe not in my hands, but there are alternatives."

"Still?" the short man asked again. "Even after everything that he has done?"

"It," the tall man corrected. "It is not a he, it is a creation. An abomination of nature." He shook his head slightly. "I was careless once and we unleashed something beyond our control. I will not allow this mistake to fulfill its dream."

There was a long silence. "I meant one of the boys," the short man replied. "You still believe that they will prove their worth? They have defied us at every turn."

The tall man nodded solemnly. "I do." He got up, turning away from the desk and looking out over the city. Saffron was still sleepy in the early hour, the Rangers' lockdown stifling the city nightlife. "They'll do what's right. Because it's what we would do."

The shorter man made no move to reply. He departed through the double doors that led to his secret elevator. He would be back. He always came back.

Pokédex Entry # 146 – Moltres

Moltres is a being that is well tracked and revered throughout human history. Cinnabarean tribesmen worshipped the firebird until recent years, and the Sevii Islanders continue this practice to this day. Its true sanctuary is unknown, however Ranger intel has tracked it to multiple volcanoes in the seas south of Kanto.

Moltres commands an eternal flame that never burns out. It is said that the League's flame is a preserved Moltres flame.

All attempts to approach this creature have been met with extreme hostility. Ranger command urges all trainers to keep their distance and report sightings to your nearest Ranger post.

Intermediate Trainer KT#07996101

Indigo Ranger Corps, Special Task Group, "Zapdos" Squad,

Corporal SN# 109-512-6591, Marcus Wright, current team:

Luna, Ninetales

Artemis, Aerodactyl

Acolyte, Marowak

Two, Porygon-2

Curie, Chansey

Joshthewriter · Jul 8, 2022

Journey

Death of Duty

Part 6: Secrets and Lies

Conservation

History walks the earth once more. — Alexander Vargas

The phone rang aggressively, rousing me from the half-drunk slumber. I sat up, fumbling with my pokegear and dropping a stray glass to the floor. It shattered, and Janine shot up in the bed beside me.

"Rockets?!" she half yelled, still slurring the word.

I finally grabbed my pokegear and silenced the call. "It's just the phone," I said numbly. "Go back to sleep."

Janine rolled over as I swung my legs off the bed and answered the phone.

"Wrigh-" My foot went into the shards of glass and I swore loudly as I sliced the side of my foot open. I hobbled to the hotel suite's bathroom, taking care to avoid bleeding on the white carpet that Janine had already ruined with a drink the night before.

I sat down on the toilet and hung my foot into the tub, turning on the tap and rinsing the blood from my foot. "Wright here," I said finally.

"How's the vacation, kid?" Surge asked jovially. "Sounds like it's been eventful."

I rubbed my bleary eyes as I turned off the tap. "Ask me after I've woken up. I need coffee."

I could hear him chuckling. "Janine running you ragged, is she?"

I couldn't help but agree. I'd found that while I could hold my liquor, Janine pounded back drinks like she'd been wandering in a desert. The night was a blur of drunken revelry and chaotic action, blurry scenes coming back to me as I sat on the toilet and pulled out the hotel room's first aid kit.

"Well, I just wanted to tell you that Leader Katsura finally approved your request for audience. He'll have an appointment for you this evening, over dinner."

I smiled. Janine had been trying to get in proper contact with Blaine Katsura since we had arrived. Archer had given us an endless amount of leads to chase around Kanto, as well as sporadic contact between himself and high ranking League members. Nothing solid or concrete, but enough to draw at least some cursory attention. Blaine was one such lead.

Blaine was one of the few that Surge was worried about. The man was a recluse, living high on the volcano that dominated Cinnabar's landscape. He'd worked with Surge, back when both men were members of the Indigo Aces Surge had called him a scientific genius, above the gritty day to day grind of the Aces.

"Janine will be happy," I said. "She's been trying to coordinate naval operations to choke off the last bit of Rocket smuggling and this will-"

"She was not invited," Surge replied. "Blaine asked for you alone."

I frowned as I wrapped my foot in a large bandage. "I'm not the one that wanted the audience, even if he is a person of interest to Archer."

"I know," Surge said. "But Blaine insisted. He's a strange one. Be careful with him."

I nodded, my head clearing slightly as I woke up. "When do you need me back in Vermillion?" I asked. "We were still planning on visiting Sawtooth Island."

"Not for a week or so," he replied. "Rocket's still dark since those kids shut down the Lavender operation. With Harding and McCulloch chasing down Archer's leads at the moment, it's just a waiting game until we have something solid." I could practically hear the smile in his voice. "Enjoy the vacation, kid. You sure as hell earned it in Sevii."

I smiled despite my splitting headache. "Thank you sir." A noise from the room drew my attention and I tested my bandaged foot. "I'll report back once we depart for Fuchsia."

He ended the call as I struggled to my feet and exited the bathroom. Janine was stirring, but the covers were still pulled up over her head. I limped across to the window and threw open the heavy red blackout curtains. The massive volcano that dominated Cinnabar sat with some wispy clouds pressing up against the far side, with the beach glistening in the morning sunlight.

"Let's go," I said, turning to face Janine. I pulled down the blanket, exposing her shirtless back and shoulders. "The ferry is in an hour."

She stretched and yawned, cracking open an eye and looking up at me. "Do we have to?" she croaked. Her eye closed and she moaned in obvious pain. "How much did we drink?"

I shrugged, the night before still a little hazy behind the mind numbing headache. "I doubt we emptied the bar."

She grabbed the blanket and pulled it back up over her. "We'll try again later."

I smirked despite the pain. "I'll get the coffee. Get in the shower." I pulled on my swim shorts and grabbed the unbuttoned shirt with garish red charmander print. "I'll be back in ten minutes, we have the ferry to Sawtooth in two hours."

She nodded as she buried her face in the covers.

I pulled the shirt on and slipped the sandals by the door onto my feet. I opened the door and stepped out, closing it as quietly as I could behind me. I smiled and weakly waved at the room staff as they stepped out of the villa next door.

The room staff would not be happy with the mess we had made for them today, but Janine had apologized in advance the first night of our stay and given the most generous tip that I had ever seen. If they had complaints, we were definitely not going to hear them.

I walked down the steps to our villa, smiling in the direction of the pristine white sandy beach. The seaside resort was already alive with movement, guests and staff alike enjoying the sunny morning. I made my way away from the beach and towards the complex of small buildings laying further inland.

Artemis swooped down from above, landing on the sandy beach beside the path. She trilled happily and shook herself off in the morning sun.

"Morning girl," I said, stepping off the path. I scratched my aerodactyl under her chin, eliciting a happy growl. "you ready to go back to Sawtooth?"

Artemis reared back on her hind legs and announced her cheer with a loud roar. She spread her wings and took off, flying back in the general direction of the resort's pokemon kennels.

I grinned as she left. My aerodactyl was giddy at the thought of going home. I'd no doubt hear it from the hotel staff that my pokemon were not supposed to leave the kennels, but it's not like there was anything they could do to stop Artemis from flying wherever she wanted.

"Good morning, mister Marcus," called the squat olive skinned man as I approached the coffee bar sitting in front of the main resort building. "I didn't expect to see you so soon!" He smirked knowingly. "Did miss Janine survive the attempt at history?"

I chuckled despite the headache that came with a night of binge drinking. "That remains to be decided, Marcel," I replied. "I've come to see if some coffee might rouse her."

He nodded and turned back to the large coffee maker that sat behind the bar. "Maurice told me the damage," Marcel said, an ever present smile worn across his face. "Would you like to know how close you came?"

I raised an eyebrow. "We were close?" I asked.

Janine's bright idea yesterday had been to attempt to drink Marcel's and Maurice's bar dry overnight. I hadn't expected to come close, let alone succeed, but Janine had a way of being very persuasive. Crazy plans seemed a little less crazy with her. Or maybe I just didn't mind because she was around.

Marcel pulled a pair of coffee cups from behind the bar and set them down in front of me. "Almost halfway there," he said. "I don't think I've ever seen two people drink quite so much."

I nodded, my head throbbing with the movement. "We'll be back tonight," I said as my stomach protested the idea. "Janine was insistent that we empty your bar."

Marcel lifted the carafe of coffee off the machine and poured a generous amount into our cups. He knelt down, lifting a bottle of amber cream liqueur. "Shall we start the day strong, mister Marcus?"

I glanced down at the cream liqueur. "Why not?" I said with a shrug and a grin. The sun was shining and the day was new. Plus, it might actually get Janine out of bed.

She was up. It had taken both the coffees and promise of more spiked drinks, but Janine was up and mobile. She emerged from the shower maybe half an hour later as I returned from the second coffee run, pulling a short purple sun dress over her head.

I set down the coffees and pulled the camo Ranger cap off my head, fanning myself in the tropical heat. "I'm still not used to it," I said as I stared in awe. "You should wear dresses more."

Janine's eyes flashed with happiness and she smirked. "Can't exactly fight well in a dress," she said.

"I wasn't thinking about fighting," I said. "I was thinking about—"

"I know what you were thinking about," she said with a mischievous grin. "You'll just have to wait until we get back."

I pulled her in, my hands on her waist. "Well what if I just—"

She interrupted me with a kiss, silencing me before I could even finish my sentence. "Just nothing," she said as she pulled back. "Ferry's waiting, right?"

I nodded in reply. "Right," I confirmed. I smiled happily, content with just about every part of the moment. The sun was shining, Janine was as gorgeous as ever, and my aerodactyl was getting a chance to go back home.

I took her by the hand and led Janine out of our room. The sun was high in the sky and not a thing in the world could ruin my day. Our only stop was the pokemon ranch, where I picked up Artemis for her trip back to her home. The rest of my pokemon could stay and get pampered for the day. They'd earned the rest.

It turned out that I had been hopelessly optimistic. I'd been mildly nauseous aboard the Poison Fang,but aboard the small and cramped ferry that crossed the hundred or so miles to Sawtooth Island I was turning a sickly shade of green. We were the only tourists however, most of the other passengers being potential buyers or prehistoric researchers.

Janine rubbed gently between my shoulder blades, smiling up at the volcano above. We could see winged shadows circling near the peak, with the unmistakeable profile of aerodactyl higher up above.

"Artemis will be happy to see her own kind," Janine said as the ship slowly pulled into the dock, "and you haven't shut up about the breeder since we got to Cinnabar."

I looked up as the ship finally ground to a halt. The ship's crewmen were already tossing lines to the dock workers, who tied them down with expert efficiency.

"Erika had apparently bought a patch of lileep off of him," I said, for a hundredth time.

"And he had just happened to hatch his first clutch of naturally lain aerodactyl eggs a month before," Janine finished. "It's almost like you've told me this story before."

I grinned, ear to ear. "I just really like the idea of bringing these creatures back to life. They've been gone so long and Sawtooth is a perfect isolated place to rebuild these species."

Janine smirked. "You read that off the tour guide."

"Word for word," I replied.

We stepped off the ship and onto the dock. The footpath led inland, winding through dense jungle that loomed oppressively over the beach. I could see a helipad through the trees

The rest of the researchers piled into a waiting truck that sped off down the beach, leaving just Janine and myself with a waiting island staffer and a pair of trainers that had to be prospective customers. More staffers were emerging from the squat building against the trees, a pair of forklifts with them to help unload the ship.

I glanced over at the other trainers, offering a smile as the staffer led us through the trees to the helipad. "You here to buy?" I asked.

They nodded in unison.

"Kabutops," said one. His sandy blonde hair was cropped short, the ghost of stubble flecking his chiselled chin. He was effortlessly handsome in the rugged sort of way.

"Aerodactyl," said the other. She was taller than the other, her brown hair cut short at the shoulders. "How about you?"

I held up Artemis' ball. "Bringing my aerodactyl back to show off how she's grown."

The woman's eyes lit up. "You already have an aerodactyl?" she asked, excitement slipping into her voice. "What's she like?"

I smiled, happy to relay the information I'd been forced to learn the hard way. "She's a handful at times, has a bit of a tendency to slip into some sort of primal rage if she's been hurt." I glanced down at the woman's ball belt. "Make sure your team can handle one before you add it to the team."

She looked at the ball, then studied me for a brief moment. "You're a league challenger, aren't you?" she asked.

I smiled as my cheeks blushed slightly. I hadn't been recognized in public since Celadon and hadn't even been used to it then. "I was, but that's sort of on hold at the moment. I kinda joined the Rangers after that huge mess in Celadon a couple months back."

"I thought I recognized you. Marcus Wright," she replied, remembering my name. She glanced over at Janine. "And I knew I recognized Janine Anzu."

Janine slipped an arm around me. "In the flesh," she said with surprise in her voice. "I'm sorry, you have us at a disadvantage."

She pulled her companion forward, a tall blonde man with a gaunt smile. "This is my brother Chris," she said cheerfully.

Chris grunted and waved noncommittally. He clearly was not enthused by the prospect of conversation.

"I'm Tanya!" she said with no small amount of enthusiasm, more than making up for her brother. "We're on our own League challenges, hoping to hit up Blaine for badge number seven." She scowled as she fell silent. "He won't respond to our requests for a League battle though, so we thought to hit up Sawtooth Island before we left and maybe head over to Johto for our last two badges."

"Not a bad plan," I said, keeping my own meeting with Blaine quiet. Tanya and Chris seemed nice, but I didn't need people prying into Blaine when he was possibly a member of Rocket. "Johto's gyms are supposedly easier from what I gathered online." I shrugged. "Not that I'd know. Furthest I've been from home was Sevii."

"Never left Kanto yet?" Tanya asked cheerfully. "You really ought to explore the world. There's so much out there to see!"

I rubbed the back of my neck in embarrassment. "I could never really afford it until Silph sponsored me. Now, I've just been too busy to do much travelling. So much training to do and the world has a way of not letting you take time away."

Chris grunted, nodding in agreement. "Always something coming up," he said dryly. "Some asshole who needs to be stopped or some kind of upstart gang making waves."

I couldn't help but nod in agreement myself. "There's always an asshole that needs put in their place."

Tanya shot Chris and I a sideways glance before shaking her head. "Boys…" she said, trailing off.

"Don't let him fool you," Janine said with a grin. "He's really just a big teddiursa under the grim, Ranger exterior."

"Chris too," Tanya replied. "But he'll never let you see it." She smirked as she glanced at her brother. "He prefers playing the stoic warrior."

"Boys…" Janine echoed, chuckling at Tanya.

Chris and I turned to look at the women. Before either of us could say a word, the roar of a helicopter drowned out the thoughts.

It swept over the side of the dormant volcano, coming in low over the jungle. It dropped to the treetops and came in for an abrupt landing on the helipad.

"There's our ride," I said, glancing to Janine.

He stepped out of the helicopter, looking like he was more at home digging through rock and dirt than a lab. He swept the wide brimmed hat off his head and dusted off the vest of a thousand pockets. "Welcome to my island!" he shouted over the roar of the helicopter.

He waved us over, ushering us into the chopper and passing around the headsets before we could even strap ourselves in.

He disappeared back into the cockpit for a moment, shouting for the pilot and pointing up at the peak. He returned, pulling a headset on as he grinned wildly. "As I said, welcome to Sawtooth!"

The helicopter lifted off the ground moments later, the man holding to a support bar latched to the ceiling. "I'm Alejandro Vargas, owner and head researcher of the Sawtooth Isle Paleo-Breeding Facility." He grinned wildly, casting his gaze around at the four of us. "I've got a hell of a treat for you four today."

I locked eyes with him. "Mr. Vargas, good to finally meet you."

"Likewise, Ranger Wright," he responded. "I hope Artemis has treated you well."

I beamed proudly. "She'll do you proud," I said. "practically a model competitive battler."

Vargas grinned and sat his wide brimmed hat back on his head. "Good to hear," he said. "I'll have to get a full demonstration later." He turned, looking out the window and down into the valley below. "For now, I would advise you all take a look out your windows and—"

"OHMYGODCHRISLOOK!"

Vargas leaned back, grinning at the reaction. He'd clearly been waiting for something of the sort.

I followed Tanya's frantically pointing finger and I felt my jaw drop. I tried to form words, but my dumbfounded mind could hardly process what I was looking at. Janine's stunned silence told me she saw it too.

The icy blue-yellow of an aurorus' sails rose from the water, an aura of frozen crystals falling into the small lake. It looked warily up at the helicopter roaring overhead as a pair of young amaura followed it out of the shallows and onto shore.

A small herd of bastiodon clustered around several young shieldon on the opposite end of the lake, watching the large rampardos that lumbered towards the water for a drink.

I could see movement from deep within the lake itself, a massive patterned shell shifting towards one of the deeper portions of the lake. It sank below the surface and I lost the pattern in the murky water.

I glanced over at Vargas, who was watching our reactions eagerly. "How many species?" I asked.

"Eleven evolutionary lines at the moment," he replied. "However, we are currently working on a batch of fossils from Galar that would bring us up to fifteen different species." He looked out the window, scanning the tree line as he looked for something. "Most of the species are capable of cohabitation in this paddock, but some have proven to require more… private enclosures."

He turned, pointing to a building rising from the western shore of the island. "We have a large aquatic enclosure, holding four or five species. We do let them roam the rivers that cross the island and we created the lake you see below. Best we can do to let them stretch and swim."

"You can't let them swim in the ocean?" Tanya asked, turning away from the window.

Vargas shook his head. "Unfortunately, we cannot risk the species here escaping into the wild. The risks of ecological disaster are simply too high. These species have been gone for a millennia. Best to study them here, learn all we can from them before anyone makes any rash decisions like that."

Chris turned to look at him. "Isn't that unethical? To keep these creatures here like this?"

"I'd rather not get into ethical debates right now," Vargas replied with a frown. "Especially with a pokemon trainer."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Chris replied. I could feel the indignation in his words.

Janine's attention shifted away from the windows and Vargas seemed to sense that he had offended his visitors.

Vargas leaned back, thinking carefully. "Neither of us have a leg to stand on if that's the argument you wish to make. Pokemon capture and training is inherently unethical if you want to get into the specifics." He shrugged. "We overlook that because it's often a symbiotic relationship that helps both trainer and pokemon learn and grow, but at its core the entire practice is inherently unethical." He shrugged and looked back out the window. "You have your teams, I have my island. Not much of a difference in my mind, except my pokemon are slightly more likely to chew your arm off if you mistreat them."

Chris sat back, seemingly mollified for the moment. I stared out the window, watching a large bird with colourful plumage land on the edge of the tree line. Vargas' words hung heavy in my mind. I'd had thoughts of my pokemon being smarter than I'd originally thought and the idea of training and capturing them being unethical? It ate away at me. I pushed the thoughts away, trying to ignore the weight on my conscience.

The helicopter jerked, carrying us up towards the peak. Silence fell on the helicopter and none of us spoke a word as the vehicle set down on a small helipad hanging off the mountain.

Four gondolas were waiting above, each of them leading down towards a different corner of the island. Three of them had clearly seen their fair share of use, with the paint fading and sun bleaching the colour away. The fourth was pristine, not a scuff or scratch marring the bright red paint.

Vargas was out of the helicopter first, with Tanya and Chris following close behind. I pushed the conversation in the helicopter from my mind as Vargas led us towards the small building set into the mountain itself.

He turned, a wide grin worn on his face. "So," he started. "Let's get down to business. You're here to buy?" he asked, looking over at Tanya and Chris.

They nodded in unison.

"Kabutops," said Chris.

"Aerodactyl," added Tanya.

Vargas' grin seemed to widen if that was even possible. "I have several specimens of each species that are a suitable age."

"We were hoping for something battle-ready," Chris said. "We're going for our seventh badges. We don't have time to raise a baby."

Vargas shrugged. "I'm afraid that I can't hand out any of the juveniles in good conscience. They're simply too old to reliably bond with a human, too entrenched in their primal mindset." He shook his head. "A child will have to do. They should be ready to fly by the time that payment and the required paperwork clears."

Tanya looked over at me, as if she was looking for my assistance.

"Artemis nearly killed one of my pokemon before I really had her under control." I gestured over at Vargas. I didn't really like the man all that much, but he was the foremost expert on prehistoric pokemon. "If he says something about these pokemon, I'd be inclined to listen."

Vargas turned back to Tanya as she seemed to deflate somewhat. "Would you like to see the specimens before you make a decision?"

Tanya's eyes lit up at the suggestion.

We emerged from the tunnel on the other side of the mountain and stepped into a large cave enclosed by a cage jutting from the mountainside.

Small piles of bones and scat lined the cage. A series of dim lights offered some small amount of comfort to the small ledge we stood upon. I could see an opening to the sky and could hear rustling from the darkness.

Vargas raised one hand to his mouth and whistled a loud, sharp blast.

I heard her move first, heavy footfalls drawing closer as her claws dragged closer to us. Two large, razor sharp claws appeared over the ledge, followed by a familiar pair of powerful forelimbs.

She was larger than Artemis, probably more than twice the size if the length of her claws and forelimbs were any indication. Then the aerodactyl's head poked above the ledge, at least a half dozen scaly hatchlings hanging off her crest.

The mother aerodactyl bowed her head towards Vargas. Three hatchlings dropped onto him, coiling around his arms and shoulders as they curiously regarded us.

"This is Mother," Vargas said, gesturing up at the massive aerodactyl. "She's the first and only specimen of the first gen fossil resurrection project to successfully reproduce on her own." He turned to face us. "She is the mother of this brood, as well as the previous hatchling brood that Ranger Wright purchased a hatchling from."

"She's magnificent," Tanya said.

Vargas beamed as Mother nuzzled her snout into the side of his face. I was reminded of Artemis' shows of affection and couldn't help the grin that came to my face. "Would you like to meet one of the hatchlings?" Vargas asked. "These three are beginning to grasp flight on their own. They should be ready for sale by the end of the month."

Tanya reached out to the closest of the young, holding out a hand gently. One of the younglings stretched out and sniffed at her hand.

"How quickly do they grow?" Tanya asked. "I do need a competent battler before the Indigo Conference three months from now."

"They grow relatively quickly," Vargas replied. He glanced over at me. "How large is Artemis?"

"Maybe nine feet long at this point."

He shifted his gaze back to Tanya. "More than doubled in size in the past four months. She was between three and four feet when Ranger Wright took ownership of her."

Tanya nodded to herself. "Putting any potential hatchlings at eight or nine feet long by the Conference."

I grinned. "Large enough to give you a fighting chance in any battle."

"I'll have to hit you up for battle tips," Tanya said, smirking at me. "I'm sold, Mr. Vargas."

"Excellent," he replied, slipping the hatchlings back into Mother's waiting grasp. "I'll have the necessary paperwork sent over to your sponsor as soon as possible. If all goes well, you'll have an aerodactyl before the month is out."

Vargas turned to face Chris. "You were looking for a kabuto, right?"

Chris shrugged. "Was hoping for a kabutops by the conference. From what you've already said today and the research I did, that doesn't seem possible."

Vargas crossed his arms across his chest. "True enough, you likely wouldn't have your kabuto long enough to evolve it by then. Not impossible, but it's not likely."

"I still want to see them," Chris continued.

Vargas nodded. "My staff can escort you to the aquatic nursery. Straight back along the path we came down and they'll direct you towards the gondola."

"You aren't coming?" Tanya asked.

Vargas shook his head. "I have a private proposal for Ranger Wright." He looked back at me, smirking when he saw my confusion. "I'll catch up with you to answer any questions my staff cannot later."

They both thanked him and disappeared back down the tunnel we'd come down. Vargas turned back to me, wearing the same grin from before. "So," he started. "How about you show me what Artemis can do?"

Vargas led Janine and I to another platform built into the peak of the mountain. I held up an arm, blocking out the afternoon sun.

Artemis was out with a flash of light. She raised a nose, sniffing at the salty air. A familiar light lit up in her eyes and my pokemon tossed her head back with a deafening roar. She glanced back at me as a half dozen familiar roars echoed in the distance.

I nodded to her. "I'll whistle when I need you," I said. "Go find your family."

My aerodactyl stepped over to the ledge. She dropped into a crouch, her muscles tensing as she looked to the open skies. A winged shadow swept out from the mountainside and my prehistoric pokemon launched herself off the platform as three grey blurs gave chase.

"She's larger than I expected," Vargas said. "she was one of the smaller females when we sold her to Silph for you."

Artemis banked expertly and cut under a pursuing claw. She rolled to her left, a jet of blue dragonflame forcing her against the mountainside. The third pursuer struck home, knocking Artemis to the ground.

I felt fear for a moment, but Artemis rolled with the momentum and ground to a halt with her claws buried in the earth. All three pursuers leapt atop her, rolling and snarling playfully.

"Like she never left," Vargas said. "Those three were her siblings." He looked back down at the frolicking pokemon. "She remembers her family and they remember her, even after months of separation." He glanced over at Janine and I. "It's been a hell of a trip to get to this point."

"I started out with just Mother, nearly fifteen years ago." Vargas walked out onto the platform, looking out at the island laid out before us. "I built this place off of a shoestring budget, scraping by with outdated and neglected equipment. I found some interested investors that I've managed to stretch across the better part of a decade, but funding was running low before I started selling off some of the young to trainers."

He turned back to face me. "That bought me even less time than I had hoped. I am months, maybe weeks away from defaulting on my debt payments and my investors are not the kind to take lightly to something like that." He sighed heavily. "All my work, thousands upon thousands of hours of research, would be appropriated and sold off to the highest bidder. I do have another meeting with my investors this week, but I am not hopeful on that front."

His voice was hard, but it shifted to something colder. "To top all of this off, I've had clear signs of sabotage spreading across the island. Nothing dangerous yet, but it's clear enough that I've got someone unsavoury on this island trying to make sure I fail." He met my eyes and I saw the frustration behind them. "I'd appreciate if you could track down our saboteur and stop the unnecessary drain on my dwindling resources."

I raised an eyebrow. "It sounds like you have a problem that you want me to solve for you."

Vargas shrugged. "That's not an incorrect assessment. I require the help of a trainer that I know can handle themselves around these pokemon. Trainers of such a nature are in exceedingly short supply."

I folded my arms across my chest. "Given what you've told me, I doubt you have the money to pay me anything substantial. Not that I'd need it with Silph bankrolling me at the moment. I'm skeptical that you have much of anything to offer me."

"You're right to say that I don't have much to offer," he replied. "But I do have one thing that I know entices a trainer like yourself."

"What might that be?"

He smiled honestly. "History, Mr Wright," he replied. "Living history."

I tried to hide the grin of anticipation that crossed my face.

"If we hurry, we may be able to catch feeding time." He glanced down at his watch and looked over his shoulder. "If you're still interested, of course."

I couldn't nod fast enough.

The enclosure was built over a pit, maybe twenty five feet deep. The fence around the enclosure added another fifteen feet and even from a distance I could hear the static hum of electricity running through the fence.

"We started with nine," Vargas said, stepping onto the stairs that led up to the observation platform. "The largest of them killed all but two of the others and established himself as the alpha. Which is a problem if we want to introduce this group to the big boy enclosure. We already have an alpha and she won't take kindly to sharing that title."

He reached the observation deck and looked down into the enclosure. "I think I understand what I did wrong, but I need to remove the problem specimen before I can correct the errors within the resurrection process. I can't have him killing a new batch of hatchlings the moment I introduce them to the enclosure."

I looked up as a small crane began extending over the paddock. The miltank screeched and thrashed, but the chains holding it in place were stronger than it could hope to break.

Then I heard it over the shaking chains and squealing miltank. It wasn't a roar like I had expected, more a barking squawk mixed with a sinister growl. I saw flashes of movement and tried and failed to follow the blurs of dashing scales.

Movement burst from the bushes, mottled brown and beige scales leaping the fifteen feet up to the dangling miltank. A second theropod joined it, sharp claws digging in and tearing at the screaming miltank. The crane dropped them to the ground and sent both predators scrambling to their feet.

Janine squeaked nervously and drew closer to me. I instinctively wrapped an arm around her as I watched the two prehistoric predators pace around the fallen miltank.

The third predator emerged from the underbrush, looming high over the immobilized cattle. The tyrunt was taller than the other two by at least half again and rippled with corded muscles toned by constant exercise. He opened his jaws and clamped them over the base of the miltank's neck. With one quick jerk of the tyrunt's head, the miltank fell silent.

"You see the big one?" Vargas asked rhetorically. There was no way I could miss the way that ancient Kalos' premier apex predator established its presence. "I was supposed to hand off the entire clutch to my investors before he killed most of them. He's yours if you solve my sabotage problem."

I extricated myself from Janine and took Vargas' waiting hand. I didn't even need to think. I knew I couldn't say no.

Pokedex Entry # 696 - Tyrunt

This medium sized theropod can grow up to two meters tall before evolution, and appears to have filled several ecological niches as specimens aged to adulthood. They possess powerful jaws and vicious claws on their feet that allowed them to thrive as one of the prehistoric world's premier predators.

Only a few specimens are known to be in existence on Kanto's Sawtooth Island. It is unclear how much can be learned from these specimens, as rumours of genetic tampering persist. The Sawtooth Tyrunt are aggressive, violent, and wildly intelligent. As well, they possess what appears to be white feathers around their neck. As there are no natural born tyrunt to compare, Sawtooth's tyrunt have yet to be confirmed as true tyrunt.

Intermediate Trainer KT#07996101

Indigo Ranger Corps, Special Task Group, "Zapdos" Squad,

Corporal SN# 109-512-6591, Marcus Wright, current team:

Luna, Ninetales

Artemis, Aerodactyl

Acolyte, Marowak

Two, Porygon-2

Curie, Chansey

Pokémon Journey

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Pokémon Trainer

Busy Writing Stories I Want to Read

*Crazy Absol Noises*

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Crazy Absol Noises