Author's Note

Hello! It's been awhile since I've written a fanfic, but I got this idea, and I can't let it go!

Now, this is a Pokemon fic. However, there will be much mature content, such as language, violence, etc. I warn you, this is not going to be a happy story. It's my idea of the Pokemon world's underbelly, how I think our world would be if Pokemon were real. Terrible things will be presented in this story, and I apologise in advance if events upset, disgust, or insult people.

So, you've been warned now! This is going to be a dark, dark tale, but probably a short one. I only plan on writing a couple of chapters.

Let's proceed with the story!


Jen crouched down, her hands tightly wrapped around her gun. Beside her Tiger Lily growled lowly, her orange fur bristling. Jen shook her head at the Growlithe to silence her, and Lil licked her chops in reply.

Across the street, other officers were moving into position, their own partner pokemon close behind them. Jen watched them closely, making sure her men were following orders. They had been working on this bust for months now, and she would be damned if someone screwed up now.

Two of her men in blue moved towards the building's door, one with a Machop and the other with a Koffing. The two waited for the others officers to get into place and pull on their gas masks. Once everything was ready and her own mask was in place, Jen raised up a fist, the signal to go.

Quickly the Machop used Dynamic Punch on the steel door. The metal nearly exploded, and Jen's men ducked away to avoid flying pieces, but the Koffing was already through the opening and filling the building with its Smokescreen.

"Move!" Jen yelled. She ran to the door, Tiger Lily at her heels, and plunged into the gas filled room. Though she couldn't see them, she knew her men were following as well.

Even though the Smokescreen smelled like something foul, Tiger Lily caught the scent of a man and was on him in moments. The poor bastard let out a scream as Lil knocked him over and bit down on his arm, making sure he stayed down. Jen could hear similar struggles happening all over the hazy room. There was another loud crack as her men busted down another unseen door, and more shouts as other criminals were caught. Within a few minutes, it was all over, and the other officers were calling out "Clear" over the radios.

Jen brought her own radio to her mouth. "Benny, do it."

"Roger that," came the reply.

A strong wind pulled at her hair and clothes, and moments later the Smokescreen was blown away. Benny's Noctowl continued to use Gust until no traces of the fowl gas remained, then perched on its trainer's shoulder and folded its wings.

With the smog cleared, Jen counted five perps on the ground, held down by either police officer or pokemon. Only one was a dealer she had been looking for, the other four just junkies in to get their fix. Josh and his Chikorita brought two more from the back room, Chikorita's vines tightly wrapped around them. Another dealer, and what Jen figured was a technician. She wasn't sure which man was which position, however, because they both looked equally shifty.

"Get them out of here," Jen ordered, and her men began cuffing the perps and hauling them to the cars waiting outside. The ones she had pegged for dealers kept their mouths shut tightly and glared, while a junkie swore at the cops and struggled a bit. The others, however, looked too stoned out of their minds to put up much of a fight, and they laughed loudly, enjoying some kind of drug trip. She watched them all get shoved out the busted door, feeling sympathy for none of them.

"Look at this place," Benny said. He pulled off his gas mask and looked around. "It's a complete dive."

He was right. It was a disgusting place, even for a "Herb House." There were two tables up against one wall, one was littered with used needles. There was a couch on one side of the room, and a couple dirty mattresses on the floor for customers to pass out on after they shot up. Dirty clothes, or what looked like clothes, were all over the place.

Lil was sniffing around in the rags and let out a whimper, and turned to fix her warm brown eyes on Jen. She found something, Jen knew, and the woman made her way over to the Growlithe. Tiger Lily nudged a long piece of leather towards Jen when she crouched down beside her pokemon. She picked it up, and saw five shiny red and white Pokeballs attached to it. The poor pokemon had been dropped and forgotten while their trainer got high.

"Take these to a PokeShelter," Jen said, handing the belt to one of the other officers. "Hopefully they won't be too screwed up from their pathetic excuse for a trainer." The young man nodded, and quickly left with the Pokeballs.

"Captain," a voice called. Jen and Lil both looked up to see a one of the newer officers, a young man named Royce, standing in the doorway of the back room. "You need to come see this," Royce said. He looked incredibly pale, like he was going to be sick. Jen nodded and rose.

The back room was obviously the drug lab. It was crudely made at that, with items one could buy at the super market. Jen had expected to find a drug lab here, but it was what Royce had found further back that made a knot of disgust and anger tighten in her belly.

All along the back wall were cages filled with pokemon. There was a young Bulbasaur, two Brelooms clinging to each other through the bars of their cages, several Cherubi with their nutrient balls hacked off, a Gloom that shied away when Jen stepped closer to its cage, a Bayleef in a cage too small for its body, and a few Parises that seemed to have slivers of their mushrooms cut off. All of the caged pokemon looked weak and malnourished, some close to death even.

"Get Henry in here with his Meowth, fast," Jen ordered. Royce was gone and came back Officer Henry. Henry's Meowth went to work quickly, using its claws to pick the cage locks. While that happened, Jen sent Royce to get an ambulance and a Nurse Joy to see that the pokemon were taking to a PokeCenter quickly.

Jen called for two other officers from her squad. One of them had a Skitty that knew Heal Bell, and the other had a Roselia that could use Aromatherapy. She set the officers' partners to work on the captured pokemon, healing their wounds enough so they would last until the ambulance arrived.

Within fifteen minutes a Nurse Joy arrived with Chansey following. Jen, Royce, and her other two men assisted in moving the grass types into two ambulances. The officer with the Skitty climbed into one and went with Nurse Joy to the PokeCenter.

By then the Crime Lab had arrived and already set up shop. They worked swiftly, taking pictures of the Herb House, collecting evidence, and whatever else they did. Jen didn't stay inside to watch them work. She got her bad guys, what she had come here to do, but she wasn't happy.

Royce found her leaning against her car, scratching Tiger Lily behind the ears as the Growlithe chewed on a poffin. Royce's partner pokemon, a smaller-than-average Electrike nicknamed Jupi, trotted up to Lil and sniffed at her snack. Ever protective of her food, Lil growled and snapped at him, and Jupi scurried back to Royce.

"Don't do that," Jen said to Lil.

Her Growlithe looked up at her trainer with huge brown eyes, her expression innocent and a little hurt. But when she smelt Jupi sneaking up again, Tiger Lily's head snapped around quickly enough, eyes dark and hard when looking at the younger pokemon, and teeth bared. A quick, slightly hard tap on the muzzle from Jen put an end to that behaviour, however.

Royce didn't say anything as he rested his back on Jen's car beside her. He was younger than her, early twenties and fresh from the academy. Jen wondered if this was the first time he had seen a Herb Garden, since the dark expression on his round face made it seem like it was. Royce was well built, a few inches taller than Jen herself, though he still had some chub that his teachers at the academy had failed to burn off. His thin lips were pressed together to make a solemn line, and light orange hair shaded his blue eyes, eyes that looked like they could cry.

The two of them faced towards the Herb House and watched the other officers move in and out, following their instructions. The place was noisy, more noisy than Jen would have liked, and civilians were starting to gather at the ends of the alley way to see what was happening, as well as in the windows of the surrounding building. Jen couldn't help but wonder how many of them knew that this drug house had been here, and how many had visited it a time or two.

It was after almost an hour, and after Jen had been called back to the building a few more times by her men, that Royce finally said something. "What was that in there?"

"It was a Herb House," Jen explained. "A place where people bought, sold, and used drugs made from grass pokemon. You know that, they teach about it in the academy. They're all over the damn country."

"I know that," Royce said. "I meant the... what was in... what was up with those..." He couldn't finish his statement, and Jen felt that he was going to cry, or throw up. Maybe even both.

"You've heard of a Herb Garden?"

"Yeah," he admitted, but he still looked utterly confused. "I just didn't think..."

"That it would look like that?" she finished for him.

He nodded quickly and covered his mouth. Jupi whimpered and rubbed up against his leg.

Jen patted him on the shoulder. It was the most comfort she could give. "It's hard the first time," she admitted. "Hell, it's hard every time. Herb Gardens are despicable places, and any man or woman who participates in the making or usage of one should have the same horrors inflicted on them as they do to the pokemon they capture."

For a moment Jen thought he was done, but then Royce said, "Those Cherubi... their nutrient balls were gone."

"Cut off, to be used to make the drugs used there. Along with the seeds taken from the Bulbasaur, the spores from the Breloom, the leaves from the Bayleef, the nectar from the Gloom, and the mushrooms from the Paris."

"But without those balls, the Cherubi will never be able to mature, never be able to evolve."

"They might even die," Jen added. "If they're still very young."

The look Royce gave her was one of complete horror. It was clear he was still an innocent boy at heart, deaf and blind to the terrible ways of the world. She pitied him a little, because in this line of business all one ever got to see was the disgusting underbelly of the world. There were no adventures across the great wide nowhere, epic battles against members of the Elite Four, or hunts for legendary pokemon. What she and her men dealt with were crooked gym leaders, pokemon poachers, and all manners of pokemon/trainer abuse. Royce would either have to learn to toughen up, or find another way to make a living.

Jen gave him a tight squeeze on the shoulder and walked away to let him think. She only turned back once to make sure Tiger Lily was following. She found Lil right behind her, while Royce was slouched on the ground beside her car, his arms wrapped tightly around Jupi and face buried into the Electrike's neck.

At the doorway into the Herb House, Benny met her, along with Davy the Noctowl. He updated Jen on how things were being processed, and assured her as her second in command that things were going as she had ordered.

"Is he going to be okay?" Benny asked. He nodded his head towards her car and Royce.

"He'll be fine," Jen told him. "He just needs come to terms with his career choice."

"First Herb Garden?"

"First Herb Garden."

Benny let out a low whistle. "Tough break. This is only his fourth week into the job, isn't it?"

"Third, I think. I didn't see my first Garden until I had been working half a year on the force." Jen was examining the outside of the Herb House when her eyes came to rest on the small, almost unnoticeable, painting of an Oddish above the doorway's left corner.

She looked over for one of her men with a water pokemon and saw Alex and his Wooper. With a whistle and a nod, she had officer and pokemon rushing over to her.

"Yes, Captain?" Alex asked.

"That," Jen said, her tone low. She pointed to the painting of the Oddish. "I want that washed away. Now."

"Wait Jenny, have the Crime Lab taken pictures of the outside yet?" Benny asked. He looked at Alex for an answer.

The other officer shrugged. "Not that I know of."

"Well, find out," Jen ordered. "If they have, get rid of that thing. If not, try to get them to take pictures as quickly as possible, then Water Gun it the hell out of here. I don't want that Herb House symbol anywhere in my city, you got that?"

Alex and Wooper both looked frightened, and it was then that Jen realised she had raised her voice. She added a quiet, "please," and sent them on their way. Before Benny could start in on her about loosing her temper, she turned stiffly and returned to her car. Royce and Jupi were gone, off to who-knows-where, so Jen took his sitting position on the cement. Lil trotted up to her and laid her furry head on Jen's knee. Without really thinking, Jen ruffled her pokemon's ears.

Herb Houses. She despised them. It was one thing to use a pokemon for battle, for labour, and even as food. But drugs? It was disgusting. As Jen saw it, the world of pokemon and people should be equally balanced. A trainer can use a pokemon to battle, but in return the pokemon becomes stronger, and is cared for by its trainer. Many people ate pokemon, as burgers, steaks, some even in salads, but it was no lie that many wild pokemon ate humans as well. But people using pokemon to get high was too far. You never heard of a pokemon injecting itself with parts of a human, so why should humans do it with bits of pokemon? And most of the time, the pokemon used in places like Herb Gardens were harvested until they died. It was terrible, and she refused to let it happen within Garnet, her city to protect.

Jen continued to scratch Tiger Lily behind the ears as she waited for Alex to wash away that damned Oddish symbol.