A/N:
/-/ indicates a POV change.
Rocket.
For the people of Kanto, this word does not conjure the image of astronauts among the stars. It symbolizes pain, anger, suffering and many untold evils. For the people of Kanto, it symbolizes reality. Enraged by the SWAT Team raid that ended in Giovanni's untimely death, the loyal Rocket goons started a campaign of terror and hatred against Kanto. They started by firebombing and taking over the entirety of Pallet and Viridian. Instead of spreading out past Route 2, they instead focused their attention on Victory Road and the Pokemon League. When the invasion happened, the Pokemon Rangers were dispatched to keep everything under control.
Well, not anymore. Most of them are trying to keep order in cities as the fighting intensifies near the Pokemon League. It's like a warzone.
And I'm up to my neck in it.
My name is Alex. I'm 16, and a Pokemon Ranger. Well, not really, more like a Ranger-in-training, as I haven't got any of my Pokemon yet, but all my colleagues went ahead, just telling me to keep watch for refugees. It's been like that for a few weeks now, I haven't seen anyone and the radio antenna was broken in a storm a few weeks back. I'm on the Mt Moon end of Route 2, which is slightly heartening as the Rockets would have to wade through miles of pissed-off wildlife to get to me.
I mean, it's not the bad weather or the awful MREs or the self-imposed training drills that get to me. It's just that I'm so alone. Some days I don't see as much as a single Pokemon. I haven't seen anything remotely impressive for what seems like forever, just the Pidgey that tend to nest around here.
Of course, there's enough food to last several lifetimes and more than enough guns and ammo here to have several Rangers man this base. The Rangers must have been really stretched thin to send a cadet, a lowly cadet, out here to man this post, which was little more than a wooden shack.
The sun started to rise. Having a routine now, Alex hit the button labelled 'ALARM OFF' on his alarm clock and got out of the bottom layer of a bunk bed. He quickly got dressed into his 'uniform' (he wasn't issued one, this was just what he wore for ease) which consisted of a standard white T-Shirt, a trench coat that was a bit too large vertically for him, denim jeans and boots.
He needed the boots and trench coat, of course, because it got very rainy out there, and he was expected to patrol around the vicinity every day or so to see if there were any refugees.
He picked up his semi-automatic rifle, attached with a sling and used to sling to put it around his shoulder and set off on his morning patrol. The path was quite wooded, now, and nature had taken over a large portion of the Route. It was like people didn't exist anymore – he'd go back to Cerulean if he could, but he was under strict orders to stay here. The mud and the bushes and the trees, all thoroughly memorized to Alex, provided a sort of meditative quality. Satisfied that his patrol was over, He then travelled towards what he liked to call the vantage point. Really, it was just a cliff-like hill that the base was built under, which gives a good view. There wasn't any civilization for miles out here.
A while later, after Alex was almost staring out to the horizon when he heard a crack. More specifically, a twig snapping. He quickly turned around to notice a bush behind him. These areas were often filled with typical Weedle or the occasional dead Pidgey so this was quite unusual for such a heavy footstep to be heard. Assuming it was a Rocket member, he drew the rifle from his sling and aimed it down the iron sights. He entered into the forest area, through a canopy of vines. But what he saw was not an enemy soldier. Or much of anything that stuck out, really. Apart from a conspicuous blue and red tail sticking out from behind a nearby rock. That's a Lucario tail.. Alex thought to himself as he considered going over there.
This was against orders, as he was not supposed to go into the forest, but he disregarded them because this pokemon looked like he needed help. He rounded the rock so he could see the body. It looked quite bad. There were quite deep cuts, scratch wounds and what even looked like a gunshot wound, partially healed, all over his body and a good deal of bruises. This looked quite bad, and Alex could see that the pokemon was in a good deal of visible pain. The rifle that Alex was un-knowingly pointing at his head wasn't helping, so he quickly put it back over his shoulder. The Lucario relaxed somewhat at this.
Alex got onto one knee and saw how bad the wounds for the Lucario truly were. He moved to help the poor creature up but It growled and bit him. The Lucario was still quite weak, but it still hurt and even drew blood. "Ow!" Alex exclaimed. "Look, I'm only going to try and help you. If I leave you here, you'll die. You're going to have to trust me.." At this, the Lucario seemed to calm somewhat and shakily offered his hand to help him get up. He helped him up but then the Lucario's legs faltered and he almost dropped to the floor. Alex then picked the Lucario up, thinking that his legs would be too weak to support him. The Lucario didn't resist at all. After a few minutes' walk he got back to the base. It was a small, wooden shack which consisted of three rooms, a bedroom, the living room-style area and a bathroom. It had a reasonable size, really, not what Alex was used to in Cerulean but you got used to it after a week or two.
He laid down the Lucario on the sofa, and then sat down on the chair next to it. The Lucario was awake now, and he was shivering somewhat. The temperature here is quite low, Alex thought, and with that got up. The Lucario whined gently as he noticed that Alex was leaving but relaxed quickly when he came back with a lighter. A lighter! The Lucario tensed up a lot when he saw the lighter but relaxed when he saw that it was Alex lighting the fire. Seeing this, Alex put away the lighter as soon as possible, not wanting to alarm the poor, destitute Lucario.
The Lucario looked pretty beat up. Now that he's in the light, and lying down as well, Alex could see his injuries. He wasn't actively bleeding but his wounds did look quite bad. "What.. what happened to you?" Alex asked. The lucario started to cry, as this probably reminded of him of what had happened to him. Alex sat down next to the Lucario and placed his hand on the Lucario's shoulder, who was lying on his side with his back to the back of the sofa. Gathering that the Lucario's injuries were pretty vicious. "You're safe now... " he said, to try and calm him down.
Alex remembered that in his education, he read that Lucarios could talk over Aura or Wave Speech or something. "Can, can you talk?" he asked. The Lucario seemed to think for a second or two before shaking his head. Alex didn't know why that was but he just decided to go with it. But he did know something for certain: the Lucario's wounds needed cleaning. "Your wounds are going to get infected if they don't get clean."
The Lucario seemed intelligent enough to allow Alex to clean his wounds and put some bandages on: They seemed a bit dirty but a bit of disinfectant soon solved that. Now that the risk of infection, at least for now, was stayed, Alex could try to talk to the Lucario. Well, he would, but the Lucario can't talk back so he just decided to tell him who he was and why he was there. The fire was starting to heat up the room somewhat, and the Lucario was no longer shivering. "I guess I should tell you about me, huh?" Alex said, while sitting on the chair next to the Lucario. The Lucario nodded. "My name is Alex. I'm a Ranger, or at least a conscripted one, hah." For the Lucario, things made sense now. A Ranger! Rangers were known to be trustworthy, and they were trained to always try and help the wild Pokemon wherever possible. They had quite extensive weapons training and often they were called upon to participate in whatever the war of the moment was.
Most of them came back decorated for 'exemplary bravery and service shown to Kanto'. Very few died.
"About a month ago, I was sent here to watch for refugees from Viridian. The rest of my squad went ahead. Around one or two weeks ago, though, there was a massive storm and the radio antenna broke. I've been trying to fix it ever since. Sort of given up on it, though. I mean, it's exactly as it was before, but there's just nothing! No transmissions! It's weird..." Lucario nodded. "Cario." He said, as if to agree. "I grew up in Viridian City, I was moved away, around 2 years ago over to Cerulean. My parents didn't move with me for... whatever reason, but everything was fine for a while. Living in Pokemon Centers, which, at least back then, provided a place to sleep and food every day for someone who had a licence. I had a Pokemon, yeah. A little Growlithe. But when I ''volunteered'' for the Rangers, and by volunteered I mean my name was pulled from a hat, the poor thing was sent to a rehoming center while I was shipped off to the training corps." Alex explained, looking out of the window opposite the sofa. "When I got here, I was basically the runt of the squad. I was basically always left behind and now I'm here, I guess. Arceus knows what happened to them, back In Viridan.." Alex said. The Lucario was deep in concentration now, obviously listening quite hard to Alex.
"They may be dead. Hell, everyone may be dead. I haven't seen a living thing – apart from you, and some birds – for weeks. What hurt you so much, anyway? Am I in danger?" Alex asked. The Lucario looked away from him as if in shame and not wishing to talk about that. "Oh. Sorry.." Lucario nodded, as if to forgive him.
The sun was setting now, and was starting to rain. "I'm going to go to sleep now; I feel quite tired. There's a double bunk so neither of us has to sleep on the sofa, ok?" Alex said.
He left the room, and climbed onto the top bunk of the bed. He usually slept on the bottom, but considering that the Lucario was injured, he probably wasn't in the best condition to climb.
He quickly fell into sleep. Around a few minutes later, he heard the Lucario going to bed as well. Whimpers were heard throughout the night. Probably nightmares. Alex couldn't blame him, the wounds on him looked pretty grievous and he saw some not-yet-healed bruises on his body that must have came from a few months ago.
/-/
Where is he?
My little slave.. escaped?
The darkened figure takes a hold of his M1911.
This'll be fun.. it's always more fun when they squeal.
The shadowy person gets up, stops looking at the cage of chains that once contained a Lucario.
A/N: Fun times. Shit gon' get real bleak, real fast.