11 A Dirty Pit

The night felt like a different beast in Noah's eyes, the pokemon were the same, the shore was the same, but somehow everything felt more dangerous, more on edge.

With the moon now big and bright, and shimmering off the surface of the water, he kept moving ever forward.

As Top finished off his opponent, Noah noticed Top's level had changed from nine to ten, "Hey Top, have you learned Bite like Nath?"

Seeing Top nod, Noah fell into thought for a moment, ' I wonder what happens if his exp deteriorates and he falls back to level nine, would he forget how to use bite? And going further, what really are moves anyways? Books describe them as pathways for elemental energy to flow, but why can't those pathways be used at any level? Why do pokemon have no knowledge of the moves until then, is it a genetic thing?'

With Top rubbing his head against his leg he put aside his thoughts, leaning down to pet Top, "Good work, let's battle a few more pokemon on the way back, and then call it for the night."

Top purred in agreement.

.

Fighting all the straggling rattatas that came for a nightly sip, he found a single poliwag on his way back, so he stopped to observe, he found it had 2.5x potential, which surprised him, it was the highest he had seen, and instead of very low potential, it was now graded as low!

He wasn't sure if 2x was the threshold for very low, but it was the highest he had seen, so far! He began to wonder why everything he had seen so far had been so poor, perhaps the stronger ones evolved, and got cleared out by Team Rocket?

Perhaps getting bored of the staring contest, the poliwag gave him one more look, then with a slap of its tail, it leaped into the water, and sped down into its depths.

Noah was left to ponder, 'A poliwag would be a good pokemon to have, when all this is over, I should come back here and catch one.'

Despite the once familiar surroundings brought unfamiliar by the darkness, he managed to find his way back to camp, and once there he found some eyes flash in the dark. When he looked closer, he found the eyes to belong to Sar.

He nodded at the red-eyed Sar silently, slipped into his tent, and with complete exhaustion, he fell asleep after a few minutes.

.

"Noah get up, you need to see this!"

"Hmm?"

With the urging of the voice, a groggy Noah crawled out of his tent, and he was stupified by what he saw, somehow he found himself surrounded by many other tents as well as many confused kids.

When his eyes landed on the large building, he realized he was somehow back to where they had started those three weeks ago.

With his eyes turning back to Mark, he found the boy asking him, "Unbelievable right, how is this possible?"

Noah rubbed his eyes to remove the dregs of sand, " Maybe they used a pokemon to teleport us here individually?...

Suddenly a loud voice boomed in the direction of the large building, "Alright recruits, pack your shit up, within fifteen minutes you will stand before me or else!"

Some panic ensued, and the kids were scrambling to pack their tents and belongings, and before long Noah, along with the others were standing at attention, although Noah noticed there were only thirty kids remaining.

The scarred man smiled, revealing his badly maintained teeth, "I hope you runts had a pleasant three weeks, but now your vacation is over."

Nobody made a sound, it seemed the three weeks in the wild had done a lot to change the children's mentalities.

The man narrowed his eyes, as he drew the crowd over to the arena, "This is where your final test will be conducted, and just to ensure nobody has second thoughts…" He then tossed out a pokeball revealing a large ashey-white maned pokemon, "You can voice your complaints to my Arcanine, gahahaha"

Many flinched back in fear, the pokemon emitted intense pressure, and most didn't dare to look the fierce fire-type powerhouse in the eye.

Clearing his throat, the man then spoke some shocking words as if it were an ordinary day, "This final test is going to be a one versus one deathmatch, meaning, half of you are going to die."

Shocked, the kids began voicing their concerns, and thats when the Arcanines growl silenced them.

Noah's face was similarly ashened as all the others, he knew beforehand that the final test would be extremely dangerous, but he didn't realize this is what was meant.

In a well-lit and brilliantly decorated room, a man was sipping some wine while casually observing a screen. The couch he sat on was similarly luxurious, and an attendant stood by the side.

The man spoke without turning his head, "Only thirty remain huh, the kids these days have grown fat and lazy haven't they?"

"Yes sir."

He continued to sip from his wine glass, "Any notables I should know of?"

"Yes, we think four of the recruits have broken the first milestone."

The screen then changed, displaying pictures and a brief history of one of the recruits, " Miles, his Pidgey has learned gust."

The screen changed again, and in succession, he listed the three owners of the rattata that had learned bite, which were Mark, a tired-looking Nathan, and finally Noah.

The man leaned in when he saw the notable history of Noah was longer than the others, so he read a few lines out of curiosity. His eyes brightened when he read about how Noah had used some simple tactics to defeat five other recruits, and how he continued hunting for almost sixteen hours every day.

Satisfied, he then leaned back with a smile, swirling the glass with his other hand, he laughed, " Good, good, cunning, and hardworking, kids like these embody the principles of Team Rocket "

"Yes sir."

.

Noah listened to the chorus of noises around him, as he watched the same battle, many kids were crying, while others looked shell-shocked as they watched the gruesome scene, Noah didn't like it, but he understood why they were likely doing all this.

He reasoned that if they record the kids killing their friends, they can hold it over their heads later as blackmail. Even if they left Team Rocket, they would be shunned as murderers for the rest of their lives. He didn't have a tv, but the old Noah knew enough, namely, there was never any news of Team Rocket betrayers, and now he knew why.

The winners along with their pokemon would suddenly disappear as if by teleport, along with the defeated, or rather what remained of them, and just like that, another two were called up.

Under the watchful eye of the fierce Arcanine, Noah continued to stoically observe the gruesome display in the arena. The Rockets were having the kids face their former teammates first, and when one refused to order his pokemon to kill, the Arcanine turned the boy into charred meat with a flamethrower.

The man had expressed that defeat was one thing, but disobedience was another.

He then grinned, "Don't worry, the losers that survive due to their opponent's mercy won't get a free pass, they will still face another loser!"

Noah looked into the arena with a frown, and the rest of his face twisting with concern, 'What will I do if I face Ashley or Mark?'

"Noah Whitlock and Ashley Narash, get in the ring."

The words he least wanted to hear were then uttered.

Standing in the charred ring, Noah looked up and saw a terrified and tearful Ashley, "N-Noah…"

Noah only gripped his Pokeball tightly, he then noticed that the arena was somehow quiet, he could see Mark shouting something from the corner of his eye, but no sound reached his ears. It seemed the arena was shut out from the world by some force.

Despite the seclusion, a voice still broke in, "I don't have to explain what will happen if you disobey, release your pokemon within the next fifteen seconds."

Releasing his grip, Noah sent Top out, and he saw Ashley shakily do the same, but he didn't take further action.

"Begin fighting in the next ten seconds"

Noah frowned when he heard Ashley suddenly shout, "S-Sar, use quick attack!"

In turn, Noah commanded Top to quick attack as well.

While Top could use bite, it wouldn't work if he couldn't land the move, and even though Noah had experimented with Top using quick attack and bite at the same time, he found Top wasn't consistent enough to do so properly.

As the two Rattata fiercely collided, it could be seen that Sar was badly disadvantaged despite having more momentum, and was pushed back.

It had been only three weeks, but Top had much more experience and fought many more battles, and it showed.

The rattata collided again, and again, and soon Sar was out of energy and didn't get up.

Leaning over her defeated Rattata she looked up while crying, "P-Please Noah…."

The voice interrupted again, "Finish your opponent."

Noah gritted his teeth but didn't take action.

"You have fourty five seconds!"

'I don't want to do this...'

"Thirty seconds!"

'I died already, is it really fair for me to take her life?'

"Twenty five seconds!"

'But, even if I die in her place, she will still have to face another, what if it's all for nought?"

"Twenty seconds!"

'If she trained harder, she wouldn't be in this situation.'

"Fifteen seconds!"

Noah looked up, his teeth were gritted so hard they hurt, but he didn't feel it, he turned his eyes and looked up at Mark, who met his with widened eyes.

"Ten seconds"

Hearing the ten seconds counter, his eyes moved to the Arcanine, it may have been his imagination, but it seemed the Arcanine was mocking him as flames began to gather in the pokemons mouth.

Feeling death so close, Noah's hands stopped shaking, as he felt a moment of clarity. He wondered how it came to this, this world that was still big enough for all of them, but look what they were doing. Instead of using their strength for something more productive, something greater, they were using it to force children to fight to the death in a dirty pit.

"Five seconds."

"Top, use bite."