"Ugh, why did I decide to do this?" says Julian, to no one in particular. It seemed like such a great idea at the time; he had the day off from school today, so he decides to go wandering in the outskirts of Viridian City. He said he'd be back by 4 o'clock to keep his mother from worrying.
Needless to say, that deadline had passed over three hours ago. Here he was, lost somewhere in Viridian Forest, it was still daylight out, but light won't last him long. He needed to find his way home, and quickly, before the Ekans did their nightly hunting for Pikachu, usually in vain, both at the lack of Pikachu in Viridian Forest, and the fact that the Pikachu store electricity in their cheeks, and like to use it on things that attempt to eat them.
But Julian was not an electrically charged field mouse; he was a boy, around the age of 12, who had nothing but leftovers from lunch and a rope he carries, "just in case", he would say.
"All right." he says, stopping at a clearing to put himself on the right track, instead of continually wandering like usual. "Let's see here... I can see the sun over there... that would be West, and I can see the peak of Mt. Moon in the distance over there, which is around North-Northeast. I should head..." he turns around "...that direction, if I want to leave here."
After a sigh of relief that he has at least a slight sense of direction, he continues on his journey home, calmly humming a tune, likely to distract himself from darkness, that seems to be taking over the sky.
***
Not too long after the sky turned a neon-blue color, however, Julian heard an eerie, low groaning, as if someone was in pain, and it was close by. Julian hid behind a tree and looked around, but he wasn't able to see much in the dark.
However, after a few minutes, a dark figure appeared from the trail. It was a man, and he was limping slowly, holding his chest. Suddenly, he tripped over a tree root, and fell over. He didn't move from the ground. Julian ran from the tree and tried to help the man up.
"Boy... you better just leave me here. I'm a goner; there's nothing you can do."
This isn't something Julian was used to hearing. As the tears swelled in his eyes, he said "Come on... we can get you to a hospital! There's one in Viridian City, which is really-"
"Just hush up, and listen." said the man, cutting Julian off. "In my bag, there's a pokeball. Inside that pokeball is my Electrike, named Sparks. Release it into the wild, give it to someone, keep it, I don't care what you do with it. Just... make sure it's given a home, and that it's safe."
Julian opened the man's bag, and took out his pokeball, just as he said. As if to grant the man's wishes, he opens the pokeball to release Electrike, who seems to be weakened, although significantly less so than his master. Electrike sniffs out his master, and begins to whimper, as the man extends a hand out to his Pokemon.
"Hey buddy... looks like this is the last time we'll ever be together..." his breathing gets more sporadic and rough. The Electrike lowers himself, understanding. "See that boy right there?" said the man, pointing to Julian. "I need you to listen to him now. Do whatever he says, and live a happy life with him." He pats his pokemon on the head, and then he turns his head to me.
"Can you... grant me a last request...?" He asked. Julian could only nod his head, tears continually streaming down his cheeks. "Boy," he said, between breaths, "there's a lantern in my backpack, too. I... I just wanna see Sparks' face, one last time..." Julian opened the bag once again and pulled out the battery-powered lantern out, and turned it on. The man and the Electrike both looked at each other, for the final time. The man smiled, tears streaming down his face, and closed his eyes, never again for them to open.
Using the lantern, Julian took a closer look at the man. He seemed to be in his late 20s. He was of above average height. He also had pieces of his jacket ripped, and punctures where the jacket was torn. "This is an Ekans bite..." Julian said out loud. "He died of poisoning." Julian looked at Sparks, still mourning the death of his original trainer.
Suddenly, faint yelling is heard in the distance, and is getting closer. Julian and Sparks hide once again behind the tree, and turn off the lantern.
The yelling gets louder and louder, and after a few seconds, it becomes close enough to hear what they were yelling.
"Dammit guys, why the hell did you let him get away? He's going to spoil our plan!" says one of them.
"Hey, we're not the ones who couldn't handle just killing the man." says another. "Besides, that poisoning was lethal. He's probably dead by now."
Before long, a beam of light is shown coming from the trail as the people who were yelling pass by. From what Julian can see, there are three of them; two of them were wearing white coats and pants, with a black "R" sewn on their coats. One more looked similar, but different: he had a noticeably better coat on, and his "R" was much smaller than the other two. Plus, he had black stripes going down the sides of his sleeves.
Team Rocket.
"Guys! Look!" yells one of them. Julian's heart begins to race even faster, and he is afraid they have found him in the shadows.
"Look, I found him!" He says, pointing to the man laying on the ground. "It seems the poor fool couldn't stand the poison."
The one with the fancy coat just started at the man, almost like he was analyzing him. Then suddenly, he pulled a pokeball from his belt, and released a Growlithe from it.
"Growlithe," said the man, "use Flamethrower."
Immediately, the Growlithe begins to blow flames from his mouth, and onto the man laying on the ground. Within minutes, what was but a few seconds ago a living, breathing individual, was now just a pile of ash.
The other two Grunts were dumbfounded by this random act. "Boss..." one of them finally stammers, "...was that really necessary? It seemed a bit cruel-"
"You fool!" cried the Boss Rocket, "Don't you realize that he was evidence? Haven't you heard of forensic science? Anyone who finds him would report to the police, and there's a possibility that they could find us! Now, dig a hole underneath those bushes under there, and bury this man's ashes there. Can't leave any evidence behind."
This is all that Sparks could take from them. He jumped out of the bushes where they were hiding, and began to growl at them.
"Uh... boss... what do we do about this... thing?" said one of the Grunts, breathing heavily, and not moving.
"See, this is why you don't have what it takes to be an Executive Rocket. Growlithe, attack that thing."
But before Growlithe could really do anything, Sparks began to charge at the Rockets, with his body emitting electric sparks all around him. Growlithe wasn't quick enough to react in time, and before long the Rockets were driven away.
Julian, after the Rockets had left, stepped away from the tree and turned on the lantern. Sparks was laying on the ground, breathing heavily. As Julian looked at Sparks, he saw that he had claw marks around his body. They were deep, but already seemed to be healing; they were probably from earlier.
"Don't worry, Sparks." said Julian. "We'll get you to the Viridian City Pokemon Center, and get you healed up."
Julian returned his newly obtained pokemon back to it's pokeball, and continued on the trail back to his town. Despite, or perhaps as a result of, recent events, he continued to hum his song.
***