6-7

Vermillion​

Every battle is but a small part of the war. — Lieutenant Colonel Emmett "Surge" Roth ​

I stood at the seawall, a pair of trainers flanking me on each side. I'd arrived at the rally point too late to catch a glimpse of Surge and was folded into the waiting defenses by one of the few Indigo Rangers on site. He had me change the dial on my pokegear radio to the local emergency broadcast and pointed me towards a particularly thin section of the defense, a small beach in central Vermillion.

I found the place easily enough, five trainers and a pair of grizzled old Rangers waiting at the makeshift fortifications on the edges of the beach with a second line of defences further back to pick off any straggling tentacruel.

We were lined up along the seawall, waves serenely lapping at the beach. I'd been placed in the second line along with the other trainers, with the Indigo Rangers taking up the forward positions on the flanks of the beach. I was one of three novices at this particular beach, with one of the trainers intermediate level. There was one elite-level, but he stood alone on the right side of the beach. One of the Rangers stood with him, deep in a rushed conversation.

Harold, the man to my right shifted nervously. He was short and pudgy, a rarity for a trainer. We were usually hardy folk, not prone to pudgy guts or excess weight. Harold had seemingly missed that memo.

"Heard they couldn't find any 'cool when coast guard hit the swarm." He was an intermediate, having defeated Surge in battle the week before. "All 'cruel, took down half the initial strike before they pulled back. It didn't sound good on the radio."

I turned my head. "That doesn't sound possible," I said. "But it does explain the pair of 'cruel that came ashore yesterday evening."

He raised an eyebrow. I explained the kids, and the horror scene I had discovered at the camp. He simply shook his head and looked back at the ocean as he muttered nervously under his breath.

The Ranger turned away from the elite and began jogging back towards the other mound of sandbags while yelling something that was lost in the wind. I followed where he was pointing and my jaw damn near hit the ground.

The sea was alive with movement as far as the eye could see. The swarm stretched across the horizon, churning the choppy sea into a frothy white. I swallowed the lump forming in my throat. It was hard to see how my two novice-level pokemon would be able to make a difference against the endless swarm.

Trainers were obligated to assist Indigo Rangers whenever ordered. It was part of the League contract, part of the original reason for the League's creation. It was the civic duty of every single trainer to defend humankind when called upon. It was a part of life as a trainer, being ready to drop everything and defend our species from wild pokemon.

Despite the knowledge that I was doing my duty to humanity, I felt a growing pit in my stomach. The swarm inched closer by the second and more than ever, I became acutely aware of my own mortality. There was a very real possibility that some of the trainers on this beach would not make it through the day alive.

My hand dropped to my belt, releasing Luna and Pride. They stood at my side, seeming to innately understand the gravity of the situation. They could probably smell the tenta swarm. That, or they just read the situation off of my tense body language.

The Ranger turned to us, cupping his hands over his mouth. "Get ready! Take down any who get through!"

I glanced behind me, at the hasty barricade of cars piled up along the two boulevards into the city centre. They seemed tiny now compared to the swarm. I didn't see how just six trainers and two Rangers could hold even a fraction of the swarm back. We were nothing against a force like that. Barely even specks of sand attempting to stand before the storm.

A pair of helicopters buzzed overhead, heading straight out to sea. I watched them circle around and drop lower, searching for something. Maybe the centre of the storm, maybe their leader, I didn't know. I had larger concerns.

The white water roared closer and I realized that it wasn't the wind that I could hear. It was the roar of the water as thousands upon thousands of tentacruel thrashed towards us. The swarm entered the harbour and I began to hear the sounds of battle break out across the city as the swarm began to come ashore.

The beach began to stir with movement. The elite released his pokemon and the rest did the same. I nervously patted Luna on the head for support. She pressed into my hand, sensing my nerves. Pride barked at my side, whining for some attention of his own. I obliged him with a scratch under his chin. It did nothing to calm my nerves.

Harold had released an electabuzz and a gloom, both of which huddled close to him. The other two trainers were novices, both of them releasing a pikachu.

I glanced down at the rangers and the elite. A rhydon and a nidoking stood shoulder to shoulder in the centre of the beach. A raichu and a jolteon stood at the flanks of the beach. The elite had a scizor at one shoulder. A hulking magmortar stood at the other, careful to stand at a safe distance from the steel bug.

"Ever been a part of civic defense before?" Harold asked.

I shook my head. "Only been registered for two months. Earned my second badge..." I trailed off into thought. "Just under a week ago."

"Damn," he replied. "Two badges in two months? Colour me impressed, kid. What's your name?"

"Marcus."

He looked back down to the beach. "Well, Marcus. This is the third time I've been called on. It's probably not gonna be a walk in the park, but the Rangers will see us through."

I looked down at the beach as the tentacruel began to beach themselves. The rhydon and nidoking were there, dispatching the 'cruel with every blow. Still, they came by the dozens, more and more of the creatures forcing themselves ashore.

The two titans gave way, ceding the beachhead as the ranged attackers began to bombard the tentacruel. Bolts of lightning leapt across the beach, energy balls sliced through thrashing tentacles, a frozen beam of blue light erupted from the nidoking and impaled the centre of the swarm. The front line withered, but more tentacruel pushed through the barrage and slowly but surely began to gain ground.

There was no stopping them, not with how many there were. The cruel were forcing their way through with the sheer force of numbers. The weight of the swarm in the bay pressed them inland and forced countless tentacruel ashore and into the range of our pokemon.

Luna raised her head, another energy ball gathering in her jaws as Pride shocked one of the lead tentacruel. She released the attack and I watched it shear through a tentacruel's beak and into the blubbery mass of its body. The swarm simply swallowed the injured mon, a dozen more of the tentacruel climbing over it to advance inland.

The elite's scizor disappeared in a metallic blur. It carved a path through the swarm, a trail of amputated tentacles and shredded carcasses in its wake. An eruption of flame from the magmortar washed over the swarm, vaporizing the front line of tentacruel completely. A second blast punched a hole clean through the centre of the swarm and left it scattered.

The scizor doubled back, a mirage of death that simply left nothing living in his wake.

My jaw hit the floor. The elite decimated the swarm in moments. It went from an unstoppable wall of death to a scattered few survivors in one exchange. More tentacruel dragged themselves ashore as the , but the scizor was there, cutting through the swarm before it could reestablish a proper beachhead. The magmortar lumbered over to the shore, flame beginning to leak from her hand cannons.

The rhydon and nidoking were there, pushing back on the tentacruel still coming ashore. A few of the swarm managed to push through but found their deaths at the claws of the scizor not ten feet inland.

The magmortar erupted again, fire streaming from both cannons and washing over the swarm. The water erupted into steam on contact with the jets of flame and I couldn't help but marvel at the raw power of the fire-type. I heard a terrible screech of pain and I realized that the swarm was screaming as the magmortar attempted to boil it alive.

Then I saw them. The tentacruel had forced themselves up on a concrete jetty on the right side of the beach. Only a few had managed to pull themselves up the sheer wall and onto land, but even one behind the front line could cost us the entire defence. I saw it all unfold in my mind, envisioning the trio of tentacruel descend on the elite before he could turn and face it.

I knew what we had to do. The second line wasn't being tested, wasn't offering any real support from this distance. All we were doing was wasting our energy. We weren't having any effect on this battle. But we could.

"Harold, the right flank," I started. "It's gonna fall."

He shook his head. "That's an elite. He's fine."

I shook my head and pointed. The tentacruel were hauling themselves ashore, another pair pulling themselves up the wall to escape the boiling water. The swarm below was realizing they had a path ashore and were beginning to push harder up the wall. "We gotta go now!"

Harold followed my arm and swore. He whipped his head around, looking at the other two novices. "Hold the centre," he ordered.

I didn't hear their responses. I was already halfway to the jetty. I couldn't just stand and watch as our defence failed. Not while I could act and do something. Not while I could help.

Luna dashed ahead of me, an energy ball swirling in her jaws. She loosed her attack as Pride bounded past both of us. He lowered his shoulder and slammed into the lead tentacruel just as Luna's energy ball impaled its bulbous crown. It stopped short, falling backwards into the trio of tentacruel that had climbed ashore. The one in the back clumsily slipped off the jetty and knocked the rest of the tentacruel attempting to climb up off back into the water below. I watched four of the pokemon splash back down in the water and felt a small sigh of relief.

Pride crackled with electricity before I even gave the order. I grimaced as I realized that he was too close to effectively hit all the tentacruel. It would hit one, and only one.

"Thunder punch!" Harold roared as he dashed to my side.

His electabuzz was alive with lightning, his fists wreathed in living electricity. He pummeled into the tentacruel, beating back a pair of the wild pokemon before they could roll over Pride and force us back.

Pride erupted with lightning, skewering the first tentacruel as it attempted to rise. The pokemon convulsed rapidly, tentacles writhing as my nidorino electrocuted it relentlessly. He cut off the bolt and I watched him sag with exhaustion.

"Push them back into the water!" I shouted. I turned to Harold. "Get ready to shock the water!"

Pride lowered his shoulder and plowed into the tentacruel. Harold's electabuzz joined him a half a moment later. Luna's eyes flashed as one of the tentacruel attempted to drag itself over it's comatose kin. I watched the tentacruel's form ripple slightly and it went completely slack. It collapsed on top of the first tentacruel, beak agape and tentacles slack.

I stared at that tentacruel while our pokemon shoved them back towards the water. Its proportions were all wrong, it's crown bulbous and misshapen like it had undergone an extreme growth spurt on certain parts of its body. Only two tentacles protruded from the bottom of its crown. I stared harder. The longer I looked the more I noticed. It's beak was misshapen, only half as large on top as it was on the bottom. This was no ordinary tentacruel.

My eyes flitted to another one of the tentacruel, spotting the same kind of deformities as I had on the first one. I looked over at Harold as the pair of conscious tentacruel splashed down into the bay. "Something's wrong with them."

He shot me a look. "With who?"

"The tentacruel," I replied. "They don't look right. Almost like they didn't evolve properly." I strode over to the two tentacruel still on land and pulled the top one off the pile. "Look," I said. "The crown is all messed up and there's not enough tentacles."

Harold shuddered slightly at the sight of the tentacruel. "There's plenty of tentacles for me."

I shook my head. "Put that aside for a moment. The swarm is all tentacruel. That's not something that should be possible in nature." I looked out at the bay, watching the pair of helicopters circling lower. "This wasn't a natural event."

A bolt of lightning erupted from the first helicopter. It forked and split into a dozen points of white hot light that eagerly leapt to the water below. A second bolt from the other helicopter dwarfed it, washing over the swarm and bathing the bay in electricity.

I stepped back as Pride turned and kicked the tentacruel off the pier with his hind legs. "Thunderbolt!" I shouted.

Harold was beside me, ordering his electabuzz to do the same. Our pokemon stepped up to the ledge, electricity sparking and racing along Pride's spines and between the electabuzz's horns. They loosed their attacks together, bathing the swarm in electricity as Surge did the same from the helicopters.

I glanced sideways at the misshapen tentacruel. It stared back at me with dead eyes. I felt a pit grow in my stomach and I knew that the sight of that grotesque mockery of evolution would haunt me in my sleep. I averted my eyes. I still had a city to defend.

Surge had decimated the centre of the swarm from the choppers, leaving us with the remnants of the tentacruel still coming ashore. At least half of the swarm disappeared out to sea. Surge then pressed towards land, trapping the rest of the swarm up against Vermillion's harbour. The choppers were still closing, bolts of lightning wiping out entire swathes of the swarm.

Harold was further down the pier, pushing the swarm back into the water. They'd attempted to come ashore further down to avoid us again. More trainers had come from other positions, spreading ourselves out along the shore of Vermillion. We held the swarm at bay while Surge systematically slaughtered the rest of the swarm. It wasn't until silence fell on the city and the water fell still that I finally let myself relax.

I looked down at the beach. It was covered in dead tentacruel. The elite and the two rangers stood in the centre of the carnage, their pokemon battered and bruised but still standing strong.

I wandered over to the beach, horrified by the scene. Every step brought more death, more terror. The tentacruel were misshapen and hardly half-evolved. Each and every one of them were disfigured in some fresh way, stunted in some horrible new way. Where they weren't misshapen by their failed evolutions, they had been torn apart by our pokemon.

I looked over at the Rangers and elite, deep in a hushed conversation. "What's wrong with them?" I asked as I approached, bluntly forcing myself into the conversation. "It's like they're still half a tentacool."

The elite turned his head and I felt his cold glare on me. His hair was the colour of snow, his eyes piercing grey. I shuddered as he regarded me with that cold, unforgiving stare. "That is what we were just discussing, novice."

I frowned. "My name is Marcu-"

"I know who you are. Just like all the rest." He turned away with a sneer on his face. "Just a prideful fool who thinks himself above orders."

I raised an eyebrow and glanced at the Rangers. Neither of them said anything. This elite-level trainer had them cowed into submission. "Look, you asshole," I started, facing down the trainer. "I don't know who you are and I don't particularly care. But at least show some appreciation when someone watches your back for you."

He cocked his head to the side and gave me a cold smile. "What makes you think I don't already have someone to watch my back?" I felt the temperature drop imperceptibly as a shiver ran down my spine. A shadow shifted behind the elite and my eyes widened as the shadow thickened into a shapeless form clad in a wide brimmed hat and flowing robes. I couldn't see its face under the hat, only two glowing eyes that called to me, chanted my name. They wanted me, wanted me to-

Luna snarled and stepped in front of me, smoke curling out from her jaws. I snapped out of the trance and nearly stumbled over my own feet. I swallowed the lump that had formed in my throat and tried to block out the terrifying urge to throttle the elite where he stood.

He looked down at Luna with an expression of amusement. "Such loyalty," he started as his smirk faded. "Impressive, for a novice." He turned back to the rangers and bowed his head. "It has been an honour, gentlemen." He looked over at me. "Novice," he said, bowing his head. He strode off into the city without another word.

I watched him go, my eyes burning holes into the back of his head. "Who was that prick?" I asked.

Harold walked up to my side. "Elias Greenwin, second runner up at last year's Indigo Conference." He turned to the rangers and bowed his head slightly. "Rangers," he said in a respectful tone.

They nodded back and looked over at me. "You said something about the tentacruel?"

I turned away from Elias' retreating form and looked back at the rangers. "Yeah, there was something wrong with them. It was almost like it hadn't finished evolving."

The Ranger on the left furrowed his brow. "We noticed too," he replied. "Reports from all over the city are saying the same things."

His colleague took over. "If it's any consolation, that's a good thing. A full swarm that size of all tentacruel should have breached the city worse than this."

"How bad?" I asked.

The rangers looked at each other and then back at me. "We're not really supposed to share that information," the one on the left started. "But it wasn't good. At least a dozen trainers still missing, six confirmed deaths so far."

He glanced in the direction that Elias had disappeared in and then back at me. "You know, he may be a prick but the swarm didn't breach our line primarily because of him."

"We pushed them back when they tried to flank him," I protested. "I wasn't expecting a thanks, but he didn't need to degrade me in public."

The ranger on the right shrugged. "Don't take it too harshly, kid. Mr. Greenwin has been a part of over a hundred civic defence operations. He didn't need your help there. He's seen his fair share of novices kill themselves disobeying orders."

He turned and motioned to the carnage surrounding them. "No novice, no matter how competent, could have survived being on this beach during the assault. Our orders were there to protect you as much as they were to protect the city." He smiled softly and met my eyes. I could tell he was trying to be nice. "Despite what the general public might think, we don't want to use trainers as cannon fodder. Our battle plans always take into account the danger to you trainers. You're still civvies at the end of the day, just temporarily conscripted ones."

I paused, looking down at the ground. The Ranger was right, even if it hurt to hear.

He put his hand on my shoulder and I looked up at him. "You did good, kid. Even if you did disobey orders. You took charge of the situation and proved you can think on your feet and adapt to changing situations, which is what the gym challenge is really meant to teach you."

The second Ranger piped up, a smile crossing his face. "Speaking of, you got a date set for Surge yet?"

I turned to look at him. "You know who I am?" I asked incredulously.

He nodded with a knowing smile. "First time getting recognized?" He nodded to himself. "I'm a bit of a battle-nut myself. Saw your battle with Misty. Not a bad show, kid."

My cheeks flushed and I felt a rush of adrenaline. "Thanks," I said. "I actually just got to Vermilion. No date set with Leader Surge yet."

"Word of advice, find yourself something that can take a hit. Until you have three battle-capable pokemon, you aren't a match for Surge."

I frowned. "I have three pokemon."

"That happiny doesn't count," The Ranger scoffed. "You need something that can fight. We both know she'd be killed if you brought her into the battle."

I looked down at my feet. He was right. Curie was just a baby. It had worked against Shale because the Onix was a child herself. Curie couldn't compete in a real gym challenge. That would end in only one way. A pink smear across the battlefield and my heart crushed.

"I'll have to think about that." I replied quietly. He was right, I desperately needed to add to my team.

I turned away as the two novices with the pikachu came down the beach. I returned Luna to her ball and put her next to Pride and Curie's balls.

I slunk away from the beach after that. I passed Harold while he sat against a wall. His eyes were closed and he was talking into his pokegear in a sad, hushed tone. I didn't bother to intrude and figured I would make my way to the nearest motel.

I made it two blocks before I happened across her. The corpse of a tentacruel was draped over a woman's lower half, tentacles wrapped around her legs. She was squirming, trying and failing to get out from under the pokemon. Her shoulder length blonde hair was plastered with jelly and tentacruel guts and more leaked out of the dead pokemon every moment.

"Could you help me?" She asked, waving me over. "Some asshole saved me, but he walked off before helping me out of this thing's grip." She looked off down the street. "Stupid white-haired asshole. Didn't even stop to make sure I was ok."

I frowned. I'm pretty sure I knew who she was talking about. "I'll help you," I said. I grabbed the top of the tentacruel's crown and lifted it slightly.

She squirmed, trying to tear the tentacles off her legs. She pulled herself out from underneath the pokemon and I dropped it to the side.

I held out my hand to help her up. "You ok?" I asked.

She nodded, taking my hand and getting to her feet. She stumbled and almost fell, but I caught her as she went down against me.

"I'm sorry, my ankle hurts." She stood back up and tested it experimentally. She winced and looked at me. "I don't know if I can walk on it."

I smiled. "I'll help you, where do you need me to take you?"

"I have a friend staying at the pokemon centre down near the gym," she said. "If you could help me get there, I'd be so grateful."

I carried her there, supporting her the whole way. She talked my ear off the entire way there, running through a myriad of topics and telling me far more about her friend's life than I felt comfortable with. I lowered her onto one of the benches in front of the centre and nodded a quick goodbye.

I'd have stayed at the pokemon centre, but they were swamped with all the injured trainers and their pokemon. There wasn't room for the patients they did have, let alone any uninjured guests. Luna and Pride hadn't been hurt, just exhausted from the fighting.

I released them as soon as I closed and locked the door. I tossed my belt and pack towards the bed. Curie could wait at least until I was showered. I disappeared into the bathroom and revelled in the glorious sensation of warm water running through my coarse, filthy hair.

I emerged from the bathroom more than an hour later, wrapped in the absurdly fuzzy robe the motel had provided. I collapsed onto the bed and fumbled in my pack. I pulled out Curie's formula and bottle. I mixed her a full bottle and reached over for her ball. I froze. It was gone.

I rummaged through my pack frantically. It wasn't there. I lifted the mattress and tossed it aside, praying that the ball had just fallen off my belt and rolled under the bed. Pride scrambled away, shredding the mattress and sheets with his spines as he fled the flying bed. The ball wasn't there.

I stood there, panic setting in. I'd had her ball before the swarm had attacked, definitely had seen it when releasing Pride and Luna and then again when I had returned them. My heart sank as I realized that I hadn't seen it since then.

My belt was back on, Pride and Luna were returned to their balls and my pack was slung back over my shoulder. I slammed the door behind me, not wasting time to lock the door. I sprinted off headlong towards the beach, towards my precious Curie.

I could only pray that her ball was still there.

Curie was gone. I'd combed every inch of the beach, walked the path that I'd taken helping the woman. The Rangers still on the beach hadn't seen a stray pokeball and I found nothing retracing my steps. I was absolutely shredded inside. My Curie, my precious little soul was simply gone.

I wandered back to where Harold and I had pushed back the tentacruel and stared out into the water. The Rangers had begun cleanup, two small ships dragging trawling nets behind them. I could see more ships further out on the bay, no doubt doing the same as they cleaned up.

I sat down and looked out at the water. My legs dangled off the pier. My hand went to the empty spot on my belt, where Curie's ball had been. I felt the tears flow. There was nothing I could do to stop them. My pokemon was gone. She was gone and I hadn't even noticed.

I stayed there a long time, just staring out at the ships clearing the bay. I felt numb, like I might never feel right again. I don't know when I rose from that pier. I found myself walking slowly in the direction of the motel I'd checked into. I was climbing the stairs to the motel's second floor before I knew it.

I reached out for the door handle and pushed the door open. It swung open and I realized that the door hadn't been closed. I stepped inside and immediately recoiled from the dank smell of cigarette smoke.

Curie bounded off the perfectly made bed. She squealed happily and leapt into my arms. I pulled her close, my heart pounding in my chest. "Where did you just come from?" I asked. I held her at an arm's length. "And how'd you get out of your ball?"

Curie disappeared in a flash of red light. I felt her form evaporate in my arms as she was returned to her ball. I looked up. The room was dark, but I could tell it had been cleaned. The room was pristine, the bed put back together with a new sheets and mattress. The door swung shut and a lithe figure rose from the chair by the window.

"I have your attention, I presume?" she asked. Her voice had a musical, lilting cadence to it and her words were slow and deliberate. "It's disrespectful to leave a woman waiting."

I turned to get a better look at her, my hand dropping to my belt as I went for Luna.

She tutted and whipped her arm towards me. I felt my hair stand on end and tasted ozone for half a moment. Then lightning erupted from the flower in her hand. It hit me in the shoulder, tossing me backwards onto the bed like I was a rag doll.

I scrambled back towards the headboard as she leapt up onto the bed. She whipped her arm out again and the device in her hand extended into a short staff. The stylized tulip on the end crackled and sparked with electricity as she held it out towards me.

I pushed off the headboard as hard as I could, kicking her legs out from under her. She fell forward as I bucked to the side, rolling us both off the bed. I continued the roll, trying to pin her against the floor.

The woman was faster and smarter than I'd hoped though. She used the momentum from our roll and slammed me face down against the floor. She dug one knee into my back and wrenched my arm up behind me in one swift movement. I roared in pain and attempted to buck her off but she slammed me back into the floor.

"Give me my pokemon!" I shouted. "Give her ba-"

She shoved a rolled up sock into my mouth, gagging me. "Look," she started in a bubbly tone. "As much as I'd like to kick the crap out of you for the rest of the day, I do have better things to do." She jabbed me in the ribs with her taser-pole and I stopped squirming. It was the woman from earlier, the one I'd helped to the centre.

"Good," she remarked, a sly grin crossing her face. "I think you get the picture." She leaned in close and I felt her shoulder length hair brush against my neck. "It's time we established how this relationship is going to work. You're Silph's newest prize trainer. My organization has a vested interest in Silph's going ons. You're going to do what we say when we say it. If not?" Her voice trailed off and she let go of my arm as she leaned back. "There are so very many ways to destroy a pokeball."

I reached up and pulled the sock out of my mouth as she got off of me. I rose to my feet, carefully regarding the woman. She was shorter than me by at least a full head, but built like a slim tauros. I knew instantly that I'd never had any realistic chance fighting her. She'd had me at a disadvantage before I'd even known that no advantage could be had. She'd tricked me by pretending to need my help, then used that to steal my Curie and blackmail me.

"She's just a baby," I said carefully, gauging my words. "Please don't hurt her."

The woman shot me a dazzling smile and I almost forgot that she was threatening me and my pokemon for half a heartbeat. "I won't have to, if you do what I say."

"Which is?" I asked impatiently.

She cocked her head to the side, her eyes studying me openly. "Nothing… for now. You're well on track," she said. "Continue your gym challenge. We'll let you know what we need when the time comes."

I stood there in silence. She nodded her head towards me and smoothed her jacket. I noticed the stylized red R on the collar and filed that detail away. She smiled again, a smile so charming that again I found myself disarmed by the woman. "Until next time then, Marcus Wright."

I followed her to the door, watching her go. She walked calmly down the stairwell and disappeared into the night.

I didn't move from my doorway for a long time. I just stood there, staring out at the night until the morning fog began to roll in and the sun began to rise over the bay. Only then did I close the door and cross to my bed. Only then did I finally let sleep take me.

Pokédex Entry #73 – Tentacruel

This large aquatic pokemon gathers large numbers of its unevolved brethren in massive swarms when hunting for prey. While typically not overtly aggressive towards humans, some "Tenta-Swarms" have shown some aggression towards isolated vessels. Caution is advised, as tentacruel are capable of hauling themselves aboard passing vessels when prey is scarce.

Long theorized to possess rudimentary psychic ability, the recent discovery of a powerful paralytic agent secreted by this pokemon's tentacles has put this theory to rest.

Novice trainer KT#07996101 Marcus Wright, current team:

Luna, Vulpix

Pride, Nidorino

7

Fault​

I walk the difficult path, in service to those who cannot. — Unknown headstone​

I needed another pokemon. As if the mysterious woman walking off with Curie wasn't enough, the Vermillion gym wouldn't even schedule my challenge without a third team member. Surge's League challenges were different than most gyms.

He was a warrior, a born and bred soldier that had earned his respect through blood. He'd spent years as part of Kanto's Ranger Corps, defending the civilian population from wild pokemon attacks since before I was even born. He was a living legend and demanded to be treated as such. He didn't accept novice challenges, only intermediate and elite. If you came to Surge, you came for war.

His challenges were always a triple battle. The battle format had first taken root in Unova, during the XIVth Pokemon World Tournament. Surge had been the victor of the triples tourney, and taken a liking to the chaos. He'd imported the triple battles to Kanto for his own gym challenges, claiming that it better taught trainers what real battles could be like.

No matter what the reason for the triple battle, I had only two battle-capable pokemon. So I was stuck until I expanded my team. I scowled at the thought. It was a disaster of my own making, a result of my conscious choice to follow the traditional path through Kanto's League circuit. I could have cut west around Saffron and gone towards Celadon, but I'd been stubborn and stuck to tradition.

It would have been the same situation even if Curie hadn't been kidnapped. It was only my own negligence in team building that had led to this point. I'd trained Luna and Pride well, but they were only two. No matter how well I trained them, they were still only two. I'd neglected my team as a whole by not thinking about this sooner. Most trainers would have had three or four pokemon by this point, if not a full team of six already.

That was why I had decided on hunting down a ground type. I knew Pride would eventually gain that typing when he evolved, but I had no clue how to evolve him. It wasn't just with experience and age like most pokemon, there was some kind of external factor. Nidoking and queen weren't exactly common in the league, and trainers tend to be secretive about evolution methods themselves. Until I figured out how to spur that evolution, I was stuck without a ground type.

That was one of the reasons that I had spent the better part of a month travelling up the coast of eastern Kanto. The other was that I was utterly ashamed of myself. I had failed to defend my team and little Curie was in danger now. She was a hostage, ensuring my loyalty for some future event.

I couldn't do anything, couldn't tell anyone. My online searches came up blank, although I had completely expected that. It's not like typing in 'crazy acrobat lady broke into my room and kicked my ass' is gonna spit back any decent results anyway. I found more adult videos than I had expected and abandoned that search plenty quick.

My research into the crimson R that had been on the woman's collar was moderately more successful, but that had only served to confuse me even further. I'd been scrolling through search results for "red R" when I found it. It had the same proportions, same sharp edges. It was out in the open, just looking back at me.

It was a corporate logo, for a Johtan company that was based in Goldenrod. Rocket Industries had been a briefly successful aerospace firm, back when Indigo still had dreams of space exploration. It was apparently defunct now, like the rest of Indigo's space program, but that didn't mean much. It was clearly still in use by this woman and whatever organization she worked for.

Even with that lead, I didn't have anything. I couldn't work that angle or use it as leverage because it ultimately meant nothing. My frustration got the best of me, and after a few more fruitless attempts I gave up my attempts at playing detective.

I'd been avoiding Gemma almost completely, only responding to texts when I came across an area that actually had cell service. She was obviously still bored out of her mind, but saying anything would have likely gotten Curie killed. I didn't know how the woman had even known I was a Silph trainer, but it pointed to Silph being compromised.

I knew Gemma would never betray me intentionally, but the pokegear she had given me was on Silph's network. I didn't know if the messages could be stolen or looked at, and I wasn't going to risk my Pokémon's life for anything. It must have been frustrating for Gemma, but I trusted that she'd forgive me whenever I managed to get Curie back and could explain myself. She'd understand that Curie came first.

I'd left Lavender town and it's creepy atmosphere far behind, stopping only long enough to fill my pack with supplies for at least two weeks underground. Silph had opened me an expense account before I left Vermillion, and I had made sure to stock up on anything and everything I could have needed for a long trip into the wild.

I'd splurged on the best gear that money could buy. A fancy new solar battery pack was sitting atop my bag, feeding a charge to my pokegear inside. It folded back up and fit easily into one of my pack's many pockets when it wasn't in use. I had also replaced my broken bow with a fancy new composite longbow. It wasn't too much different than what I'd grown up using, although the draw weight still threw me off a little bit.

One benefit of travelling further off the league-sanctioned route, was that trainers were few and far between. I came across maybe four or five other trainers after I left Lavender, most of them weary from the long trip through Rock Tunnel. They all passed me without a battle, unlike the gruelling slog that the journey to Lavender had been.

I grimaced as I remembered the many losing battles we had fought. Intermediate challenges were too much for the moment, but it hadn't stopped me from testing my team against the other intermediates anyways. Luna and Pride both received their share of beat downs during those few weeks, but both still found their own small victories that gave me hope.

Luna had practically mastered her new psychic attack, using it to great effect in a desperate win against a clumsy machoke. She couldn't quite communicate telepathically yet, but I could tell that she was beginning to explore her psychic abilities on her own. It was only a matter of time before she figured out how to communicate with me.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. My quick searches brought only vague esoteric explanations of telepathy. There was only one common link. Telepathy was trippy for the trainer, especially when the trainer possessed no psychic ability of their own.

I let Luna experiment with her abilities while she hunted for us. More and more, she'd bring me pidgey or pidgeotto with no marks on them. Pride refused to adapt to my preferred hunting methods, instead shocking his foes with a thunderbolt from a distance and eating at his own leisure. At the very least, his thunderbolt was getting larger and stronger.

When training, I'd started Luna towards attempting a full stream of fire rather than short jets or embers. She wasn't there yet, but she was starting to hold the flames for longer before she was exhausted.

Pride had been put to work improving his speed and agility. He'd never be as fast as Luna was, but he was almost embarrassingly slow compared to some of his opponents. He was tough and hit hard, but he needed to be faster. I was seeing improvements, but it was very slow going.

Both of them had learned to work as an efficient, if a bit unorthodox team. Luna was a speedy hit and run attacker that goaded opponents into opening up so Pride could gore them with his horn. It worked well enough against wild pokemon, but the first double battle I had been challenged to had ended with Pride and Luna isolated and picked apart by precision teamwork. The trainer had taken pity on me and offered a few training tips. It wasn't anything I didn't already know, but I appreciated the gesture anyways.

It turned out that my extensive training regimen was well worth it when we arrived at the Rock Tunnel. That's where I met him. That's where I met the one and only, Blue Oak.

I was knelt on the ridge overlooking a small depression on the slopes of the mountain. I'd kept as close to the surface as possible, only dipping underground when Luna wasn't able to find me a path overland. There was no official route here, north of Lavender. The league rangers maintained a small outpost at the power plant, but that was mainly for monitoring the wild pokemon in the area. This section of Kanto was well and truly one of the last properly wild places in the region, only rivalled by the safari zone north of Fuchsia.

I looked down the ridge and breathed a sigh of relief. I'd finally found them. After chasing reported sightings for over a week and a half, I had finally stumbled across a cubone colony.

The little ground types were exceedingly rare. Mostly due to their reclusive nature, they stayed far far away from human habitation. Not one of the current elite-rated trainers in Kanto had a marowak on their teams, which was an indication of rarity, not of a lack of power.

It was the perfect addition to my team. Every article I could find extolled their loyalty and dedication to the team. They were intelligent, creatures that lived in small colonies made up of many family units. They had been known to gift worthy trainers with young males that were ready to establish their own family units. My only problem was finding them.

I hefted the sack I'd been carrying since Lavender and crept forward, Luna silently working her way down the hill ahead of me. My hand was cautiously on Pride's ball as I made my descent. I didn't want to send him out. He was a blunt instrument, more likely to set the colony on us than win it to our side. I did not need a dozen angry marowak beating me with their bone clubs.

I caught glimpses of several cubone watching me on my descent. They would creep through the rocks, peeking at the strange creature working his way down to the colony. I spotted what looked like several juveniles and I hoped that there was at least one intrigued by me.

I finally reached the bottom of the hill. The cubone were hiding, peering at me from behind the rocks surrounding the depression. The marowak were still lazing in the sun, regarding me with cold curiosity. I bowed my head in respect and slowly lifted the sack I'd been carrying off my shoulder. I set it down gently and opened the drawstring at the top.

"I bring you an offering, in the hope that you may allow me to take on one of your young for training." I tipped over the bag and spilled the contents out. Poffins, berries and pokeblocks went spilling out, rolling across the uneven ground. "Judge me worthy and I will raise your child up to be a formidable warrior."

One of the marowak rose to her feet, bone club clutched in her hand. I watched her cross the distance between us, sniffing cautiously at the offerings I'd brought with me. She turned away from them and I feared the worst as she raised her club up to inspect me. She circled me cautiously while Luna watched at attention. Her club tapped against Pride's ball and she looked at me through her skull cap.

I nodded. She wanted to know what kind of trainer I was. She was testing me. My hand slowly dropped to Pride's ball. I raised the ball and prayed that Pride was in an accommodating mood.

He appeared before me, pawing at the ground as he appeared. His eyes widened and his ears flattened against his head as he growled at the strange pokemon surrounding us.

"Pride, enough."

He glanced at me, then at the marowak beside me. I watched his rump slowly lower and he sat carefully, muscles still poised to leap into action.

I glanced down at the marowak and nodded. "These are my allies. Luna, and Pride. They are strong, loyal friends."

The marowak nodded, sauntering over to Luna. She looked my starter in the eye and I felt Luna's mind nervously brush up against my own. I caught a flash of fear and nerves before the sensation faded as the marowak slowly inspected my vulpix. The marowak turned to me and gestured at Pride with her bone.

I shook my head. "He will not allow it," I said, knowing that the marowak wanted to inspect him too. "He will think you're challenging him."

The marowak nodded and then pointed at the gathering crowd of cubone and then to me. I understood what the message was. The marowak wanted to test Pride. She could tell that Luna was a loyal friend. Pride's own arrogance shone through despite his allegiance to me. She wanted me to show her that I truly was a worthy trainer.

I nodded. "Pride," I called. "Ready for battle!"

He barked twice and leapt to his feet. He circled the small depression anxiously and came to a stop just in front of me. Luna slunk over to my side, laying down on the sun-covered rock.

The marowak turned, waving her club at the crowd of cubone. The younglings retreated to the other side of the clearing and joined the other marowak.

I bowed my head in respect as Pride pawed at the ground. He was antsy, wanted to fight. Despite his usually soft demeanour with me, he was aggressive towards other pokemon. Luna had escaped his ire for the most part, but I had to guess that was because she could run circles around him without trying.

I had no clue what to expect from this marowak. She seemed to be the one speaking for the group, I had to guess she was the leader. A mother perhaps, likely with a son ready to leave and begin his own family group. She was no doubt a powerful pokemon. I watched her spin the thick bone in her hands and knew that this would be a difficult battle.

She stopped spinning the club abruptly and charged forwards. She whipped the bone like a boomerang at Pride.

"Double kick it away and dodge the follow up!" I shouted.

Pride pivoted on his front feet and kicked just as the bone closed. It sailed off into the air. The marowak leapt up, grabbing the club from mid air. She brought it down in a leaping strike as Pride leapt away.

Pride charged over the rocky ground, his agility training coming in handy. He didn't stumble, nimbly leaping through the rough terrain and keeping away from the chasing marowak. I watched the ground type effortlessly follow and I knew we were outclassed.

"Turn and charge!"

Pride turned on the spot, skidding to a halt and charging back the way he came. The marowak changed direction, but not quite fast enough to get out of the way. Pride slammed into the marowak, leading with his shoulder. I watched the marowak roll away with the momentum. She felt at her side, blood leaking from a patchwork of pinpricks and gashes.

Pride prowled towards her, his horn lowered in anticipation. He wanted to charge. The marowak gave ground, giving Pride what looked like an opening.

He leapt forward intending to seize on the opportunity. The marowak met his horn with a deft swing of her club. Pride's head cracked to the side with a sickening crunch and he stumbled back. She reared back her head and slammed it heavily into Pride's side, leading with the hard bone cap covering her head.

Pride recoiled from the blow, grunting in pain. He attempted to bound away but the marowak was faster. She spun her club and slammed it into Pride's underside, launching him into the air.

He landed hard and rolled to a halt against a rock. I heard him groan with pain and I knew that he was hurt. He struggled back to his feet and glanced back at me.

"You good, Pride?"

He nodded and turned back to the marowak. She was stalking towards him, the bone club spinning like a baton. I couldn't help but marvel at the coordination. She was beautiful.

"Get in close, you have to poison her." I glanced at the marowak, studying the spinning of the bone club. "On my mark."

Pride lowered his horn, watching the marowak carefully. She walked in a slow circle as Pride paced opposite her. Both watched the other carefully, waiting for any opening to appear. I watched the pattern of movement, watching the marowak's hands. Her hands were in an uncomfortable position at one point, the bone resting on the side of her off hand for a half a moment. We could take advantage of that and interrupt the pattern of movement.

I watched her start the pattern over and waited for the perfect moment. "Now!"

Pride lunged and I saw the marowak fumble the response. It wasn't much, but she swung half a moment too late. Pride buried his horn in the marowak's thigh and bowled her over. The two went down in a tangle and I knew the battle was nothing more than a coin toss.

The marowak was smarter and stronger than I had expected though. She bucked Pride off and shoved him away with her club. He scrambled to his feet as the marowak hauled herself back up using the club.

Pride backed up, giving the marowak space. She looked at me and placed the end of her club on the ground. The battle and the test was over.

"That's enough, Pride." I ordered. He sat down as I raised his ball and dismissed him.

I put his ball back on my belt with a satisfied smile. He had done well. His agility training was paying off in spades.

The marowak approached me, her head cocked to the side. She was looking into my eyes. There was sadness in them, but also hope. She waved over her shoulder, beckoning to the group of cubone.

One of the taller cubone stepped out of the crowd. He had a small bone in his hands and was walking slowly. He looked up at me with fear and nerves in his eyes and then back at the marowak. They touched their noses together for a moment, then continued towards me.

I lowered myself to one knee, holding out a hand as mother and son approached. He sniffed at my hand and then looked up at me. He held out his bone cautiously and tapped it against my hand. I smiled as he gently handed his club to me.

I held up an empty pokeball. He pressed his hand into the button and disappeared with a flash of red light. I felt my hand lighten and smiled at the curiosity as the bone club disappeared too.

The marowak met my eyes and nodded gently. She held out a hand to me and I shook it softly. "Thank you," I said quietly. I don't know how she learned a human custom, but I understood that I wasn't the first to have been given a cubone.

I opened my pack and pulled out some of my medical supplies. "I can help heal you." I pointed at the wound on her leg and held up the spray bottles.

She shook her head and pushed them away. She stepped back and lifted her club. She pointed up at the ridge and then at me and back up the ridge. I understood. It was time for me to leave.

I climbed back up the hill with Luna at my side. Three balls sat on my belt now. Three balls with three battle-capable pokemon. I wasn't ready for Surge yet, but by the time I got back to Vermillion I would be.

Unfortunately, fate had worse plans for me.

It wasn't even a week after I captured him when I decided on a name. My new cubone was a tenacious fighter and a voracious student. He was an acolyte in my training, entrusted to me by his family. Acolyte was his name.

He learned fast. He was quick and nimble, but still possessed enough stopping power to handle some of the wild pokemon in the area. If I had to judge, he was probably close to evolution already, just waiting for a chance to push himself over the edge.

Luna tolerated him well enough. She didn't actively fight with him at the least. Pride on the other hand, seemed to strike up a particularly fierce rivalry. He would challenge Acolyte to a battle at the end of every training session, the two of them working in what they'd been training on that day. It did wonders for them.

I adopted the routine into the end of our usual training sessions. Luna seemed to grumble and resist it slightly, but she still participated. It worked wonders to foster the kind of situational awareness that I wanted them to have. At the end of the day, they were the ones fighting. They'd be able to react faster if I could teach them to react to changing situations if they could learn to think on their own.

We were in the middle of one such session when the pidgeotto swooped down on me. Pride and Acolyte were locked in a struggle, Pride desperately trying to break out of the hold that Acolyte had trapped his head in.

The sun had set and Luna had brought me a few pidgey for our evening meal. I was bent over the fire, adjusting the makeshift spit I'd fashioned as I munched on one of the ration bars I'd bought in Lavender.

The bird's talons closed on the ration bar as I went to take a bite and tore it from my hand. It landed deftly on the shoulder of a boy, dropping my ration bar into his hand.

"Thanks," he called, brushing his hand through a mess of jagged brown hair. "I like this kind!" He took a bite and tore off another bite for the raticate at his knee.

I turned as Pride and Acolyte separated and looked over at the newcomer. Luna jumped to her feet, already growling. I raised an arm, whistling once to get my team's attention. Acolyte ran to my side and Pride stalked over to me as he cast wary glances at the boy. Luna laid back down and yawned.

I sighed and looked over at the boy. "Not polite to steal someone else's meal, kid."

"Name's Blue," he replied in a brash tone. He reached up and scratched his pidgeotto under the chin. "Peri was just practicing her aim."

"Control your pokemon," I said calmly as I dismissed Pride and Acolyte to their balls. Luna looked over at the boy, her tails flicking back and forth. "They shouldn't be doing something like that on their own."

The boy smirked at me. "I asked her to though." He yawned and looked around at my makeshift camp. "Wanna battle?" He asked. "I saw you have a cubone. Never battled one of them before. Course, I have my own vulpix and nidorino…" he trailed off, looking up like he was thinking. "Actually, he's a nidoking now."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the boast. "Thanks, but I'm good. We've been hard at training all day and none of us are at our best." I cast him a look. He was a braggart. I didn't like that.

He smirked and I caught the look of derision he gave me. "That's fine, you don't look so tough anyway."

I narrowed my eyes. The little shit was testing me. "How old are you?"

Blue's smirk was practically burned into my eyes at this point. "Just turned fourteen," he said. "And I could still kick your butt, mister."

I rolled my eyes. I had an egomaniac on my hands. "Look, like I said earlier, we aren't looking for a fight."

"I was," Blue replied. He shrugged and waltzed over to my small fire, sitting on the ground opposite me. "Guess you're too much of a weakling."

I sat down opposite him and raised an eyebrow. "So you'll be joining us for dinner?" I sighed and shook my head. "Did your parents never teach you to talk to strangers?"

He nodded. "Yeah. That's why Clothos keeps watch over night." He smirked as he glanced down at the raticate. "So I'd keep your hands to yourself, she likes catching pickpockets in the act." He shot me a look and I almost got the sense that he wanted me to try, just so he could see what would happen.

I pulled one of the pidgey roasts I'd been cooking off of the fire and smirked at Blue. "Well, I hope your pidgeotto is fine with hunting something for herself. All we've got is some pidgey cuts left, and I wasn't planning on sharing until you showed up."

Blue just smiled. "My team can hunt for themselves," he said. "I'll be fine, I don't eat meat."

I sighed. I might have instantly disliked the kid but I wasn't gonna let a child starve. "Funny thing," I started. I shot Blue my best smile as I went into my pack. I hoped I didn't look nuts. "I'm not as hungry as I thought and I have some extra rations." I pulled one of my vegetarian emergency rations out, tossing the silver packet over to him.

Blue took it from me without a hint of bullshit on his face. He looked up from the food and I saw sincerity in his eyes. "Thanks, I don't know how to cook."

I widened my eyes as I sat down, pulling my own meal off the fire. "Nobody ever taught you survival skills?"

He shrugged. "Never really had anyone to teach me things like that. Not like it's been a problem so far."

I narrowed my eyes. "Who are you, really?"

"An Oak," he replied.

"Oh," I said. I nodded slowly. "My condolences then." Even I knew what had happened to the Oak family. It had been the largest news story of the decade.

They'd been the reigning dynasty of the pokemon world. Old Samuel Oak was grand champion, having dethroned Unova's Alder Adeku at the Pokemon World Tournament. His son was a rising star in the Indigo league, set to take the position of Viridian Gym Leader once the old leader retired.

It had all come crashing down in blood. A shocking murder mystery gripped all of Indigo when the Oak's were found dead in their Viridian home. No evidence was left and the investigation led nowhere. It was as if the murderer had simply disappeared into the ether. All the Oaks' pokemon were still in their balls and there was no sign of a struggle.

Samuel Oak retired from his champion position shortly after and retreated into his research. He took the kids in, shielding them from the hellish media attention. I hadn't seen or heard anything about the kids since, but clearly little Blue was set on the same path as his father. By the looks of things, he was already well on his way.

"Yeah," he replied curtly. He finished his food and set the plate down beside me. "I'm gonna get an early start tomorrow. I'm heading down to Lavender if you're going that way."

I nodded. "Gotta get back to Vermillion for my battle with Surge."

Blue raised an eyebrow at that. "How many badges do you have?"

"Two," I said. "Needed a third pokemon for Surge's battle."

"So you came all the way out here?" Blue asked. "Why didn't you just catch yourself a diglet? Or evolve your nidorino and catch something else? Wouldn't matter what, Surge was a pushover for any ground types."

I sighed. "I like the view," I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Can't get anything quite like this in Vermillion."

He smirked. "I like you," he declared. "You're one of the good ones. You can take a joke." He unfurled his bedroll and laid it out on a flat spot.

I shrugged. "Gotta be able to laugh at yourself once in a while."

Blue settled down into his bedroll, his raticate curling up beside him. Her eyes bored into me as the kid slowly drifted off. I snorted in laughter and rolled over. Luna trotted over to the fire and curled into my side, watching the raticate in return. I didn't mind letting myself drift off to sleep, knowing the two pokemon would be keeping a close watch on each other.

I woke only once, when the droning buzz of a helicopter roared by in the distance. It faded away and I went back to sleep quietly.

We woke with the sun, both of us packing the camp silently. Blue helped me with my things, putting the fire out and washing up the dishes we'd made the night before. I thanked him and we got on our way before the sun began to climb higher into the sky.

I let Acolyte out while we travelled, to at least get him used to travel with me. Luna stayed well ahead of us, keeping an eye out on the trail. We didn't run into many wild pokemon, which I found slightly odd. The size of our party should have attracted some attention, if nothing else.

Blue let out some of his pokemon. They stayed close to him, mistrusting the new human with their trainer. His eevee sat on his shoulder, his raticate prowling the tree line for threats. Peri the pidgeotto kept swooping overhead, keeping an eye on things from above. I had to keep turning to look at the kadabra, as well as keep an eye on the arbok that slithered through the grassy forest floor behind us.

It was about mid-day when Luna pulled back to us. Her ears were perked up, swivelling back and forth. Her tails flicked angrily and I took a moment to calm her before we continued on.

Less than ten minutes later, it happened again. Luna was standing still as a board in the centre of the path we were following. Acolyte stiffened and his grip on his bone club tightened.

"Stop," I ordered, looking at Blue. "Something's wrong."

He looked at me, then back down at my pokemon. "What do they hear?" He glanced around at his pokemon, watching for any signs of discomfort.

I shrugged. "Don't know, but it can't be good if it's got both Luna and Acolyte tense." I looked down the path and rubbed my temples. I could smell something, something burning. It was faint, as though carried on the wind. The wind died and our pokemon fell silent.

A wailing cry of pain echoed across the forest. Blue and I met eyes. The cry repeated as we heard a terrible screech echo, like metal was being torn through sheer strength.

"Sounds bad?" I asked.

Blue listened again, waiting for the cry again. "Could just be a pokemon. Maybe pissed off a fire type."

I shrugged, then we heard the sound. The chopper roared by in the distance, heading towards a plume of smoke we could see rising through the trees.

It was mid-summer. The dry season. The entire forest was dried out as the summer heat baked the forest until the fall storms returned to replenish the plant life. The entire forest was a tinderbox, ready to spark into a fire that would be uncontainable.

I met Blue's eyes again. "We should help," I started. "You have a water type?"

He nodded. "Wartortle," he replied. He lifted a ball off his belt as he looked off at the smoke. "Let's go."

The chopper got to the crash site first. We watched it circle overhead as we jogged through the trees. Blue surprised me with his stamina. I was winded and lagging behind, but the teen just kept running.

Acolyte charged ahead as we closed with the downed chopper. He surged faster than Blue and I poured on the speed to keep up with them both.

I burst through into the small clearing the helicopter had made as it crashed. The second chopper was still hovering overhead. I shielded my face from the heat, fire beginning to spread from the cockpit of the downed chopper. Pokeballs were strewn around the ground, glistening in the flames.

The pilots had been thrown free of the crash. Both of them were clearly dead, their heads caved in by blunt blows. Their uniforms caught my eye. All black, with a stylized red R on the chest. The chopper had a stylized R on the bent wreck of the tail.

I froze. I knew that symbol. It was the same one I had seen on Curie's kidnapper's collar, the one that belonged to a defunct aerospace firm. I looked up at the chopper hovering above and knew we had stepped in deep shit.

A terrible screech of metal tearing from the downed chopped drew my attention back to the ground. The door on the side of the helicopter wrenched ever so slightly open and ground to a halt. Acolyte let out a terrible cry and my heart dropped in my chest.

It was a marowak. It was the marowak. I knew it. She looked at me from across the clearing, then down at acolyte. She looked back up at me and I saw the desperate pleading look in her eyes.

"Get the fire under control!" I shouted at Blue, taking command of the situation. "Now!" I dashed across the clearing, vaulting over fallen trees and crunching the underbrush underfoot. I slammed into the side of the helicopter, grabbing hold of the door handle as Acolyte and his mother struggled against it.

It wouldn't move. It was well and truly stuck. No matter how hard we pulled, the door would not move. The smooth metal was hot to touch, and I felt my skin searing as I pulled desperately to open the door. I fell back, my hands burning.

Blue's wartortle was putting out some of the fires, but there was only so much he could do. The helicopter itself was on fire, and there was only so much we could do to slow the spread. I looked up at the marowak as she stopped struggling. We'd wrenched it open just far enough for Acolyte to squeeze through and he had disappeared through the door.

They embraced and I felt my heart pounding. Then the mother pushed Acolyte away and pressed a pokeball into his hands. She gestured around her, pointing to the rest of the pokeballs. Then it hit me.

The pokeballs were cubone. All of them. There were dozens, enough for the entire colony I had come across. I looked up at the hovering chopper and felt a newfound hatred for that red R. Somehow, they had seen my newest capture. Somehow they had access to the location data through Silph. They had taken the entire colony and it was all because of me.

The marowak tapped the door to get my attention. She held up the ball and nodded at me. I nodded back. We had an understanding. I would save her colony.

"Blue! Get the pokeballs! All of them!"

He looked around at them all and then back at me. "Why?"

"They're pokemon traffickers."

He looked around. Without another word, he began grabbing the balls and stuffing them into his bag.

I turned as Acolyte emerged from the chopper, pushing a half dozen balls towards me. I stuffed them into my bag as the marowak brought a dozen more. All of them went into my pack without hesitation.

A loud crash behind me drew my attention. A man had leapt from the chopper and landed on one knee. He had a bandolier strapped around his chest with a trio of strangely coloured pokeballs on it. He grinned at me from under a half-mask that covered the top half of his head. "Best hand over those pokeballs if you know what's good for you."

"Funny thing," I started as I realized that I recognized him from the motel battle in Cerulean. "I was never much good at that." Luna stepped out in front of me, growling at the man as my hand hovered over Pride's ball.

The man smirked. "We get to do this the fun way then." He pulled one of the balls off his belt and tapped it open.

The flash of light grew, stretching up to the tops of the trees. It's tail elongated and stretched out behind it, thudding heavily onto the ground. The tyranitar tossed its armoured head back and roared, a sound that shook the earth beneath my feet.

I released Pride and all hell broke loose. To call it a battle would have been folly. It was war.

Pride charged the tyranitar as Luna shot off like a rocket. The earth rumbled below us, but my pokemon kept their footing as I turned back to the chopper and frantically filled my bag.

The tyranitar spun, swinging its oversized tail. It connected solidly with Pride, tossing him effortlessly through the trees. An energy ball from Luna connected solidly with the side of the beast's head. It cracked to the side, bellowing in pain as it looked around for Luna.

A stream of water carved into its back as Blue's pokemon began their own assault. His raticate leapt at the tyranitar's leg, scrabbling at the rock-hard scales. Peri circled above, looking for some opportunity to harass the monster from above.

The tyranitar roared as it tore the raticate off its leg and tossed it headlong into the trees. Another energy ball slammed into its head from a different angle as Luna kept out of its range. I lost Clothos' form in the chaos as I rose to my feet and turned back to the chopper for Acolyte.

I felt a powerful grip on my shoulder and cried out in pain as I was wrenched around. The masked man's fist slammed into my face, knocking me flat as pidgey danced in my head. I vaguely felt him haul me to my feet, but the whole world seemed so far away and my ears were ringing from the blow. He was yelling at me, yelling as the tyranitar spun after Luna.

He tossed me back to the ground and I lay there limply. The man stood there, a vicious look of satisfaction worn on his face. He was leaning over me, still talking as if he was oblivious to my stunned condition.

I saw bright light from the corner of my eye, saw Acolyte's limbs lengthen and his body grow in a flash of light. His head grew, the bone cap around his head growing a pair of horns near the back of his head and thickening considerably. He stepped away from the flaming wreck of the helicopter, his mother's club in his hands.

My marowak slammed into the masked man from the side, clubbing him over and over with the bone as they rolled. The man used the momentum to roll Acolyte off of him and came back to his feet. He turned, making for the rope ladder that hung from the underside of the second chopper.

I clumsily climbed back to my feet and steadied myself against a fallen log. My hearing was still ringing and the world spinning, but even I could hear the roars of the tyranitar as it crashed through the trees like they were toothpicks. Luna was on a mad dash, staying barely ahead of the tyranitar as it gave chase.

Blue's pokemon could do nothing to slow it down. I watched Clothos leap from a fallen log and land on the tyranitar's back. She found a purchase and held tight, fangs furiously gnawing on one of the tyranitar's spikes.

I watched Pride bound from the underbrush and slam into the tyranitar's knee just as Blue's arbok wrapped around its other leg. Luna turned and let off an energy ball just as Blue's wartortle clocked the the monster in the jaw with a jet of water that chipped away at its rocky hide. I watched as the tyranitar toppled and came crashing to the ground. It landed on its back. Hard.

I watched the prone tyranitar disappear in a flash of light as the chopper rose into the sky. The man rose up out of the clearing as the ladder retracted and I lifted my pack off the ground. It was heavy, filled to the brim with pokeballs. I didn't dare look inside the burning chopper. Smoke had filled the cabin and I could see flames where the marowak had been standing.

"Blue, we gotta go!" I groggily shouted, my head still ringing. "Gotta go now! Fire's getting worse!" I staggered over the the young trainer and stopped dead in my tracks.

In the dirt, dead centre of the impact crater the tyranitar had made when it fell, was the crushed and broken body of a raticate.

I dropped to my knees as my eyes found Blue. He was sitting there, perfectly still. His eyes didn't waver, or show any ounce of hurt. He just sat there motionless, as though his eyes couldn't process the image they saw in front of him.

I pulled myself up. "Blue," I said. "We have to go."

He looked at me and I saw the tears behind his façade. He was hurting, but he would never show another soul. "Why?" He asked simply.

I didn't know the answer to that. There was no reason why. No reason except me. And that? That was the worst part.

Pokédex entry #105 – Marowak

This mysterious pokemon sports an exoskeletal skull that has inspired all manner of tall tales throughout the ages. From stealing rhydon skulls to wearing the skull of their dead mother, it is difficult to separate fact and fiction when dealing with marowak and their ilk.

What little is known is due to scattered reports from trainers around eastern Kanto. These pokemon seem to live in small tribes, far from human contact. Small colonies have been discovered in the Argent Mountains, as well as Fuchsia's Safari Sone, however most colonies are clustered in the inhospitable terrain north of Lavender.

Some of the colonies near Lavender have gifted young trainers with cubone who are ready to undergo evolution. The cubone traditionally travel with the trainer for a time, before returning to their colony after evolution and forming a new family unit of their own.

Novice Trainer KT# 07996101, Marcus Wright, current team

Luna, Vulpix

Pride, Nidorino

Acolyte, Marowak