46 Nightmare

Cinder's feet and legs carried him through the roads of Pallet Town as a few onlookers stopped to observe him. He could have sworn he had heard one of Blue's buddies make a snarky comment at how the Professor Oak chosen Delia's son over him because of how clumsy he was, but Cinder paid it no mind.

His father leaving for work in another region was top priority.

Although Marcia was explicitly the person that Cinder loved the most, it wouldn't be unrealistic to think that his father was second on that list. His father was a man of few words, but really was dotting on him, the young Cinder could feel that.

What his father's job was a mystery, but Cinder couldn't let his father go without a last hug of good bye and a farewell.

As he ran throughout the town, he found himself subconsciously going in a very specific direction, to a very specific place.

He had no thought or input into his movements, simply moving on instinct. As if he already knew for a fact where his father was.

His body carried him down a set path until he arrived at a small field. And there he was, standing with his back facing Cinder, his arms behind it.

He was looking off somewhere as his white hair flowed through the wind's gust.

He called out to him. No response.

"Dad!" He tried again, raising his voice louder this time. But he just kept on staring outwards.

What in the world…?!

Rushing forward, he clasped his hand from behind, and turned his body around to face him. He looked up at the man as their eyes met, his own widened upon seeing his facial expression.

It... Was his father alright, but... His facial expression were wide with what looked like a frozen look of surprise. His facial expression in and of itself was unmoving, and Cinder suddenly found his face growing pale with stress.

"D-dad…?"

"Why are you here, son?" His voice was unchanging in tone as he delivered his words, staying in a perpetual state of surprise.

The boy blinked at him. "I've been looking everywhere for you, dad! Why would you suddenly leave without telling me anything? You promised that you will buy me Ghost Pepper Jalapenos after I finished attending my first day of school! Are you listening, dad?" He looked up towards the trees that his father had been looking out towards. "Is… something there?"

His father gently shook himself out of his grip, body still facing him, but turning his head back towards the trees with a disturbing motion of a robot, his head was the only thing that moved, while his body was still facing Cinder. "You shouldn't be here. It's dangerous."

Cinder blinked again. "Dangerous? How?"

"A lot of things are dangerous." His eyes turned towards him, although his head remained in the same position, facing off towards the trees. "You should have stayed home with your mother. The woman who believed in you, kept you warm on cold nights, fed you delicious food, and never bullied you."

Cinder's face scrunched up in confusion. "Dad?"

"You shouldn't have left the house, son." He turned fully towards him, his expression vacant. This wasn't the father that he knew. Where was the life in his eyes? His stern, yet warming smile? His strict tone of voice? It was all gone. "You never should have left such a safe place to come here. And you never should have come to Mt. Moon. I should have not given you that egg."

Cinder's eyes were wide as saucers. "W-What…"

A small glare on his face, yet still managed to be vacant, an unnatural smile on his face took place. "Why would you go there when you could have stayed with her? When you could have stayed here in town? And you shouldn't have gone to Viridian Forest, either. Maybe you never should have become a pokemon trainer in the first place."

He glared a him. "What are you talking about?!" He demanded harshly, albeit immediately regretting the aggression in his tone of voice. This was his father. Not anyone else, like Blue or Paul.

"Being a trainer brings nothing but dangers, son." His facial expression was blank once again. "You'll just lose your life. The same exact way that you almost did in those caverns." The breeze was picking up. His eyes were soulless. "It's not worth pursuing a dream for. Your heart will stop beating long before you ever reach it." He was feeling cold, the wind picking up even more. All of a sudden the breeze felt like it was from winter, not summer or spring. "Why do you leave the comfort of our home to throw yourself into peril?"

"What are you talking about?!" His face was growing uneasy. "I'm not a Trainer yet-"

"Yes you are. And you've been unwise, my son. You've abandoned your mother, who nurtured you, in favor of the dangers." Above them, it was getting darker. Was he crazy, or were things starting to pelt them from above? "You should have stayed home where it was safe. Your dreams are no good to you dead. Now…"

Suddenly he realized what was above them: The ceilings of a cavern. It had replaced the blue skies and white clouds that had been hanging over their heads just mere moments earlier.

And rocks were falling.

"You're stuck in a world that wants to kill you."

As his father finished hjs sentence, a giant figure appeared behind him. Salamence roared deafeningly as the rocks continued to fall.

Korrina screaming. Hercule and Talon panicking. Alpha also was panicking. The rocks falling much more rapidly, increasingly in size as Cinder covered his head.

"Dad! LOOK OUT!" His arms flung out towards him, and he screamed as Salamence acted before he could reach him.

Blood sprayed Cinder's face as huge, violent claws removed his father's head. A large rock landed on Cinder's own head, knocking him face first to the ground, which was no longer lush, green grass, but cold, stone floors.

As Salamence continued to roar, the stones pelted Cinder's back, crushing his bones as he desperately tried to get up, only to find himself completely immobilized.

"The world will burn." Was that the female Hunter talking? "But you will never see it from the rubble."

The rocks tore his body to shreds. His bones were flattened like Marcia's pancakes.

'This was what happens when you become a Trainer. This was what happens when you left the comfort of your own world, in order to hopelessly pursue your dreams.'

'You were thrust into a world that wanted nothing more than for you to drop dead.'

'And now, that world was about to claim you-'

...

Cinder's eyes shot open wide.

A perfectly normal ceiling was above him. And nothing was falling from it.

With record speed, he rose up into a sitting position.

The caverns were gone.

So were the rocks.

It wasn't dark anymore. The room was lit up. Storm was sleeping soundly on the other end of the bed.

He allowed himself to calm his breathing, but couldn't fully, as he took in the sweat drenching his body.

He looked over to Korrina's bed, which he found did not contain her. Focusing a bit more, he could hear the shower from the bathroom.

A deep sigh escaped from his throat.

'Karen saved you. You're not at Mt. Moon anymore. And Father never went to his work that day, he postponed it so he could give you the thing that he promised, which he kept, like always.'

Not at Mt. Moon anymore…

Not at Mt. Moon anymore…

No longer in the caverns. No more falling rocks.

Because… He wasn't there anymore.

Cimder sank down into a seating position in front of his bed, and felt some white wool brushing against his arm. Turning towards Storm, who was now awake, Cinder smiled down at the young sheep and patted his starter pokemon on the head.

Not in Mt. Moon anymore… Not in Mt. Moon anymore… Not in Mt. Moon anymore…

I... Will have my revenge, Team Rocket.

...

The next day came and went. The routine was nearly identical to the day on their stay at the Pokemon Center located at the foot of Mt. Moon.

Breakfast, group time, lunch, more group time, dinner, bedtime. It was pretty clear cut.

But they were all okay with that nevertheless.

Cinder and Storm put extra time into helping Fafnir with his physical development. The newborn deagon wasn't perfect, but balance was becoming easier for him now. The whole group was quite pleased by his progress.

Fafnir himself seemed to enjoy it.

Mercifully, Cinder's sleep wasn't haunted by traumatic dreams for the next two nights.

He spoke with his mother just before leaving with Korrina, and told a white lie regarding the Rocket raid, simply saying that the raid happened before he and his team could pass through the mountain, and that they just used the teleportation service in order to reach the other side.

He felt disgusted in himself for lying to his mother, but the alternative would be to tell her the truth and inform her that he was very nearly killed by a beauti- vicious woman who was apparently one of the world's most dangerous criminals.

And if he hadn't already been planning on doing it before, he certainly was when he took notice of the sheer look of horror on Marcia's face as she questioned him regarding the mountain incident-which had understandably already made the news-not to mention her terrified tone of voice. Her face was pale and sickly when he had called her, and any relief that she might have felt from seeing that he was okay was completely eclipsed by the horror of what he had went through.

Cinder hated himself for lying to the person in the world that he loved the most, but he didn't feel remotely guilty about it. Anything to ease her consciousness. She was already stressed out about having a professional pokemon trainer for a child as it was. No way he was going to worsen it. He just hoped that he had lied convincingly enough. Marcia seemed to be convinced, but that could just be a facade. Korrina had given him a few comments on occasion, about how he was apparently bad at hiding things. And Marcia had known him for a lot longer than his new, hot-headed friend.

Thinking back to his dream, Cinder wondered if all parents who had trainers for kids felt the kind of stress that Marcia seemed to feel. The ambitious nature of the occupation was romanticized everywhere, but at the end of the day, it was one hell of a dangerous profession. Cinder felt like he was being selfish by going through with it when it was obvious about just what kind of effect that it had on Marcia, but she would always just fire back and talk about how she herself would feel selfish if Cinder were to give up his dream for the sake of her peace of mind.

Cinder had no idea how he would ever pay back his mother, but one day, he would. She was the most selfless person in his life.

Cinder and Korrina had eaten an early breakfast with their teams in order to be on the road as quickly as possible, but not before saying a final goodbye/thank you to Nurse Joy right before their departure. Since they were leaving first thing in the morning, it should only take them about the day to reach the city.

Starly flew overhead with Storm following beside Cinder. Talon was perched on Korrina's shoulder while Hercule, Hero and Fafnir walked at the front of the group, with Alpha and Aiz not too far. The atmosphere between the group frequently alternated between comfortable silence and light conversation.

The air was still moist from the rain, which Korrina seemed to appreciate as much as Cinder did. Cinder wasn't sure if this was just because she just enjoyed the feel of the air the way that he did. Either way, she seemed quite pleased with the walk.

Neither trainer was expecting there to be many trainers on the road to the city, but were pleasantly surprised by the decent amount of people that they ran into. Or, at the very least, for the standards of just one day. The two friends took turns battling the other trainers that they crossed paths with, each claiming victory in every battle. It gave each of them the opportunity to observe each other's teams in a much less stressful situation than the Team Rocket business back in Mt. Moon, which Cinder was almost certain that Korrina would be taking advantage of. After all, had she not already made it clear that she wanted to battle him again for a rematch after her defeat?

Cinder took the opportunity to observe her as well. He took notes in his brain as he watched her go into battle, her Alpha receiving the most action out of everyone on her team. It was fairly versatile, with access to multiple different types of moves, along with a potent Aura Sphere. Most of its moves ranges from close to ranged moves, and occasionally defense as well, like Iron Defense.

Sadly, he hadn't gotten enough out of the rest of her team to develop opinions beyond first impressions. Her Talon's fighting style reminded Cinder of his own Starly, which wasn't too surprising, since they were not only of the same avians, but were also both still beginner stages, and, therefore, they still had not gotten as much time to develop their own personal fighting styles just yet.

It was a bit more difficult to pinpoint how Herk(Hawlucha) and Aiz(Mienfoo) fought just yet. Unlike with Talon, Cinder had no such teammates to compare those two Pokemon to.

Out of everyone on the team, Hercule had benefited from the battles the most. The perfect way to break in his evolution, not to mention showcasing the immense increase in overall power that the Poliwhirl now had. He would tear through his opponent's with powerful blasts that he had never been capable of as a Poliwag.

Fafnir would watch the battles unfold with his usual intrigue. And he would always share in with the victory cheers, if only on instinct.

By the time the day was over, Cinder and Korrina had each earned a fairly decent amount of prize money from their battles, not to mention the effective morale boosts for their respective teams, in the face of multiple consecutive victories.

More money for food and supplies, and extra confidence for their respective teams. Who's to say which one was more important?

According to Cinder, the money.

The gray-haired teenager would go out of his way to celebrate two particular victories where he had totally annihilated her opponents. One trainer's Snubbull had been no match for her Hercule, and his Storm had made equally quick work of another trainer's Growlithe. Whether it be by cartwheeling across the road or pumping his fists in front of Korrina's face, Cinder was fairly… bombastic in his triumphant moments. He himself knew that he was just doing this so that the group's thoughts would be diverted from the, not too long ago experience they stumbled upon.

She supposed that she couldn't totally blame him, however. She had, in fact, felt similar emotions herself when Alpha had easily defeated an Abra, further showcasing the newfound power a pokemon's evolution, or when Talon had dropped a fellow Spearow in just two simple hits. Korrina was just expressing them outwardly.

The stars were high overhead in the pitch black night sky by the time they had reached Cerulean City.

*Top 49, (1/2), early release. Short and Quick Question: Uzumaki, Civilian, or Orphan.*