It's back. Joe, Winter and Ralph are back for another adventure. For those of you who haven't read or finished reading The Crobat Chronicles: Kanto I would recommend reading that first so that events mentioned in this story don't confuse. I will try to make them easier to understand for those of you who didn't read the previous story. Hope you like this continuation, parts of it will get darker and, of course, since we're in a new region, there'll be new team members, friends, allies, enemies and threats to face. Overall I'm going to add a lot more to this story to make it more adult and more dark, yet still light and friendly overall.
Hope you all enjoy this first chapter which will introduce the plot, characters and world for you all. Any advice, reviews or friendly comments you have to give are welcomed. Anything anyone can give to help me improve my writing is all for the good. Like I said I hope you enjoy and follow for more chapters soon.
J Out!
Disclaimer: This story is set in a separate universe to the Anime, Manga and Videogame series of pokémon. It is partially based off of the games Gold/Silver/Crystal and the remakes, HeartGold/SoulSilver with various differences. Multiple characters from the games and anime may have altered story lines or completely different ones to the original. These changes have been made to allow the story depth and character, as well as keep it interesting. Unlike the previous book this story is majorly based of events in the games rather then the TV series. Plots and Subplots will get darker as the story goes on. Reader discretion is advised.
The Previous Night...
In the shrouded black of midnight everything is hidden. A man wearing the right colour clothing, standing against the right cloudless background, hiding behind the right area of scenery can become completely invisible. For animals and Pokémon it is usually much easier to stay hidden. The ones born for the night are naturally able to hide in it. They wear purple or black hides and move quick and sneakily within its cloak embrace. Human beings are not naturally designed for this location, if fact they are imperfect towards it. At this time they usually sleep. Yet on this specific day one small town is wide awake, alert and panicking. The date is September the 27th and in the night a figure runs away. They speed on, not hidden in the dark but more blurred by it. They know what they are doing. They know where they are going. They dash on and on, their heels kicking up the track under their feet. Behind them lights turn on in the town. There's shouting, lanterns flickering, slamming of front doors opened. Cries of grief, pain, shock, anger and sadness echo around the land. It had finally happened. Someone had run away. For the last week or so the town had been pestered by word that a gang of criminals from Kanto had moved into the region. It was said they were taking people in the night, not through force but persuasion, never to be heard from again. Some towns had apparently even seen black clothed men outside the walls, luring in thugs and criminals into their illegal ring. But no one had truly believed the rumours here. There hadn't been any proof. But now it was clear that something was indeed happening. A child had run away from home. No one could believe it was true, but sadly it was. First the thefts and now kidnapping. The cries of grief echoed over the hillside and forests, reaching the ears of the figure. They stopped, looking back at their home. In the distance the town lights flickered like fireflies of the earth. In their arms a small, blue, long eared, bauble tailed rabbit creature sat cuddled up. It looked confused and concerned. A slightly worried yelp escaped from its lips. The figure shushed it, quietly. Then she hurried on again, away from home and towards her destination. She was going to meet someone. A very immoral, unkind, sadistic, cruel someone.
The Following Morning...
The next day was innocent. It was midday, around twelve o'clock. Pidgeys tweeted in the scattered trees. Rattata rustled around in the bushes. Butterfree flutter across fields of flowers, gathering pollen into small leg sacks and whipping up petals with gusts from their wings. And down the road of route 27 two people walked. One of them was a young 13 year old teenage boy wearing a black and blue hoodie with a grey t-shirt underneath and a set of blue jeans, red trainers and a black open-top hat. On his shirt was the logo of two crossed bird wings. His name was Joseph Derek Arthur Glende, but he preferred being called Joe for short. He was a Kanto boy in origin and had grown up on his uncle's farm by Pallet Town, but currently he was in Johto because he had already collected all the badges from that region. After defeating the Elite Four and battling his best friend, who had just become the newest region champion, he had taken a month off to rest. Now he was in Johto and he was starting an all new adventure in a completely different region. On his pokeball belt were two pokeballs; one was a simple red and white ball, the other was a unique pure white ball with a red outline. The origin of which was still blurred. While the red one had a Pokémon currently resting in it, the white ball was, as of now, empty, yet not vacant. Beside him walked a young teenage girl of around the same age. She was wearing more suitable autumnal attire, consisting of a warm dark green coat, pale cargo trousers and walking trainers. Her long ginger hair was tied up in a short ponytail at the back of her head, leaving a long wave flowing over both her shoulders. Her name was Winter Kitoshi. Both she and Joe had travelled together in Kanto and had become close friends, though not instantly. Their first meeting was slightly embarrassing. They had run into each other after Joe had tripped on a tree root on his way to Viridian Town and he had rolled into her, knocking her over too. After a quick argument they had ended up heading to the Pokémon centre where they were taken hostage by a couple of criminals and locked in a janitor's closet. After they broke out they called the police and stopped the thieves. They quickly found that they made a great duo together, though Joe did a lot more of the battling and Winter did a lot more of the thinking. He didn't truly know what Winter got out of their friendship. She didn't battle very often, even though she was good at it, and she didn't really research or study Pokémon either. She probably just enjoyed the traveling and company. They glanced at each other, their excited smiles worn down a little but still there. They had been walking for a few hours now and they were still going. Apparently they could still reach New Bark town before the evening was out. That morning the two of them had left Kanto for the first and last time. They had waved goodbye to their family and friends they had met and made during their travels. Joe had said his goodbye to most of his Pokémon and to his Uncle, the only family he had known. There had been one other family member he had met in his travels, but it hasn't been as nice as one might expect. During his finally battle with Team Rocket, Joe had learned who his father was. He wasn't too keen on talking about him. He hadn't even told Winter, his best friend, about him. He didn't know what she'd think off him. Instead he had decided to keep quiet, hushing it up and never letting his friend know the truth. He felt it was better that way. Joe and Winter fell into step, walking right foot over left and pushing along with their souls. They has been silent for the last hour or so now, having run out of things to talk about. There was only so much you could say about the grass or the sky or the weather before it got so boring your rather listen to static. Under their feet small stones kicked along. The crunch of gravel and dirt filled the air for them. And then the natural silence of travel was broken by someone finally speaking.
"So." Said Winter. Her calm, upbeat, slightly high pitch voice was a grateful breaking of the unsocial, not exactly embarrassed but still awkward, ice of silence. Joe looked at her, hopefully. They had been quiet for so long he'd almost forgotten that they both had vocal chords and tongues. She gave a small smile at him, her walking speed slowing a little so they weren't traveling too fast. They wanted to have time to talk with. They didn't want to arrive too quickly to spoil the conversation. "What's the plan for this region then?" She asked finally. The pause in between had felt like a millennium. In fact it had hardly been three seconds long. Joe pointed down the path they headed along.
"Well, to start with, we actually need to reach a city." He explained simply. He was making up his plan now. He had no idea what he would actually do. He had imagined he'd probably do the same things he had done during their travel in Kanto. "New Bark town is at the end of the route, I believe. From there we should be able to head north to Cherrygrove City. From then on we'll be taking on gym leaders and training up to fight."
"That doesn't sound too assertive." Winter said. "Were you considering to catch any new pokemon by any chance?"
"Yes. Were you?"
"Of course."
"Good. Good." There was silence again.
"Do you even know what it is we're dealing with here?" Winter asked. Joe seemed taken aback by this comment.
"What do you mean?" He asked.
"Well, you stopped Team Rocket back in Kanto, but that was over a month ago. Archer escaped, remember. Supposedly he came here. What if he's been preparing over all this time? If he had an army back home, he could already have built one here. Do you think that the two of us could take him and the whole of Team Rocket out by ourselves?" Joe shrugged.
"We did last time." Winter rubbed her forehead.
"Yes, but last time Giovanni dropped in and sorted it out. This time he said he won't. Archer destroyed you when you tried to fight him, so what exactly do you plan to..."
"Winter, I get what you're saying thanks!" Joe interrupted, stopping suddenly and looking at her. It was embarrassing how he'd been defeated. It hadn't been instant but the fact was Archer had been just too strong to stop. His Pokémon were twice the power that his had been at. While he knew Winter wasn't picking on him about it, she didn't truly respect how annoying it was to be reminded of it. She stopped and stared back. "I know I should think about all that, because it is true he could come back. Hell, Mew popped up in my dream just to tell me that. But the problem is we don't know how strong he is or if he even has an army yet. We can't prepare for anything we don't know about. Besides, I only have two Pokémon in my team. I need to catch more." Winter was about to raise a finger and suggest that he begin with that now, but quickly changed her mind. There was a quiet 'Fwoosh' from behind Joe. Four purple wings spread out behind him.
"Ralph's back" Winter said, not concerned in the slightest. Joe turned around and found himself looking into the happy expression of a large, young, purple skinned, four winged bat. He jumped back in surprised. A second later he sighed and smiled at the thing.
"Ralph!" He snapped, trying to hide his smile. "I told you not to do that! You're going to give me a heart attack!" The bat laughed.
Ralph was a Crobat. Crobats weren't very common among Pokémon trainers, let alone in the wild, but Joe and Ralph's relationship was an interesting one. They had first met three months ago to the day outside of Pallet Town in Kanto, when Joe had seen him being attacked by a bunch of beedrill during the night and tried to protect him. Since then they had become inseparable, being the strongest trainer/Pokémon duo the region had seen in years. But that had been back in Kanto. Johto was apparently a much tougher market for trainers. Still, the two of them felt they could deal with whatever came along to face them. Ralph smiled at him, still laughing and chuckling to himself. Joe's smile disappeared a little as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously. Not because he was nervous, but because he'd been taken by surprise.
"He must have done that to you a million times..." Winter chuckled. "Yet still you're surprised every time. It's almost comical." Joe turned his expression towards her, looking quite unsurprising and relatively teased.
"Don't encourage him!" He said. She fell quiet, her smile slowly disappearing but still showing a hint of amusement.
"Sorry." She muttered quietly. Joe turned back to Ralph who was calming down a little.
"You see anything on the path from above?" He asked. Ralph nodded, his smile turning to a simple small grin. He pointed his right wing down the path, bowling it in a wave like motion. "There's water ahead?" Joe tried to translate. Ralph nodded. "How much." Ralph struggled to find a way to say 'A lot'. In the end he went with holding both his top wings up in a lifting stance. Joe hummed in understanding.
"I hope there's a bridge we can cross over it." Winter added. "I'm not exactly in the right mood to swim there." Joe looked at her in relative surprise.
"I never thought I'd hear you say something like that." Winter shrugged.
"Hey, I'm tired. I've been walking for ages. I'm not exactly in the mood to spend the rest of the walk wading through water"
"I thought that, being a water type trainer, swimming was something you considered essential."
"Doesn't mean I have to do it all the time." Ralph coughed, trying to interrupt the conversation before it turned into an argument and got heated. Joe and winter looked at him. He stared back at them, his expression annoyed.
"We should probably get going then…" Joe interrupted himself, feeling slightly embarrassed.
"Yeah, we… we should get… get going." Winter agreed, stuttering a little. Ralph rolled his eyes as his trainer and friend continued walking down the path. Humans. They seemed to really enjoy pointless arguing. It always amazed Ralph just how much Joe and Winter just talked rather than actually get anything done. It was almost ridiculous. He followed after them, flying low and slow, trying to enjoy the scenery around him.
And there was a lot of new scenery to see. So far from what the group had seen, Johto was an amazing looking place. As they walked they saw more forest getting closer from the north and flat open fields to the west and east. Johto in fact didn't look too different from Kanto, but that was to be expected. They were neighbouring regions after all. Even the Pokémon were similar. Pidgeys and spearows nested in the trees, beedrill and butterfree fluttered around within and by the edge of the nearby woods, in the grass rattata, oddish and ekans played, dug and ate and, as they travelled they reached a small river with psyduck and krabby waddling around on the sand and goldeen and magikarp splashing about in the shallow water. But there were also a variety of new and unusual looking Pokémon to be seen on the walk. One that Joe spotted for a second was a long, stripped, furry, weasel like creature which was scurrying through the grass with a happy-go-lucky smile on its face. It jumped out of the long grass, landed on all fours, groomed itself for a seconds, and then jumped back into the long grass, its fluffy tail the last thing to disappear behind the waving sea of green. As Joe and Winter walked and Ralph flew further along the path they eventually reached the water's edge which Ralph had spotted from above. It wasn't much more than a medium sized stream at the point they came across it but as they followed the path west it grew out, turning into a large straight river. The path followed it west, heading further into Johto. From here the trees and fields were replaced with a large Cliffside following the rest of the path. In-between it and the road was about 10 kilometres of long grass which rustled from time to time. Quickly the ground disappeared into the water leaving them confronted with a long area of open water. Fortunately for Winter there was a bridge for them to cross with. She was quite relieved by that small detail. Joe had to admit he was grateful too. His legs and back were already aching a little from the hours of walking.
As they walked Joe's mind drifted back to that morning, when he'd said his goodbyes to his uncle and friends. He had stood in front Walker, his uncle kneeling down and putting a hand on his shoulder. He remembered what he had told him. About staying safe. About taking care of his friends. About being careful of the possible Team Rocket return. But, most vividly, the last words he had told him stuck in his mind. 'Legends are not born'. That had always been a moto of his uncles. He used it as a way to remind himself that any greatness a person achieves is made by themselves, not by fate. Joe assumed it was his way of saying that he was in charge of his own choices. But was he really? As far as he could tell everything that had happened to him within his time as a trainer had all been planned out in some way or another? Most of it by a legendary no less. Did he really have any control over what had happened or would happen? What was certain was that something was definitely going down and, whatever the events of their Kanto adventure would lead to here, it was liable to happen relatively soon and involve him into it somewhere, even if he didn't want a part in it. His attention was suddenly snapped back to the present when Winter stopped and held him back with a hand.
"Look." She said quietly. Joe looked at her.
"What are we…" He tried.
"Shush!" She hissed, looking back at him. She slowly pointed towards the water's edge a few metres ahead of them. In a small area of water a collection of bubbles were rising up to the surface and popping in the wake of new bubbles. At the centre of the bubbles was a small blue ball floating simply and motionlessly in the water. Joe looked at the strange and unusual site.
"What is that?" He asked quietly. Winter shrugged her shoulders.
"I don't know." She told him.
"Is that a Pokémon doing that?"
"Not one I know of or have seen before." Joe turned to her again.
"Well you know of most water Pokémon. Do any of them blow bubbles like that? Maybe goldeen or psyduck?" He continued. Again Winter shook her head.
"No. Some of them blow bubbles but that blue ball in the middle…" Her sentence was cut off suddenly with the disappearance of the bubbles. The blue bauble bobbed up and down slowly. Then it began swaying left and right, the movements growing stronger and stronger. Something small was rising up out of the water. The bauble moved to the left and a long, thin, jagged tail rose out with it. Then two large round ears grew out of the water, twitching in the air with blue fur running down the back. Then the top of a round head followed after it. Then the rest of the circular body, finishing with a pair of small blue feet stepping onto the mud. Joe and Winter's expressions went from confusion and integument to, what can only be described as, adoring. Even Ralph gave an audible 'Aw' at the sight of this new Pokémon. It certainly wasn't a Kanto Pokémon, because if it was then they would have recognised it on sight, it was such a unique looking creature. Its round body was covered in light watery blue fur except for the stomach area which was white. Surprisingly enough it looked completely dry, especially considering it had just stepped out of the river. It patted the fur on its stomach with two short stumpy arms and blinked water out of its small, black dot eyes. Technically it didn't have a head as its face was on the top of its perfectly circular body. It sniffed the air with its small button nose and chewed on a berry it had grabbed from under the water, half of it poking out from the small jaw. Its tail somehow stayed erect behind its back, waving around as its balance moved from left to right. The small blue aquatic mouse walked up the muddy bank, pulled itself onto the bridge and waddled happily across the wooden planks, not even noticing the two trainers and large purple bat standing only a few metres away and watching it keenly. The three of them blinked in surprising synchronisation.
"What Pokémon is that?" Joe asked quietly. Winter shrugged, just as surprised.
"I have no idea." She said simply. They turned to Ralph. He shrugged as best he could while staying airborne. How did they expect him to know what it was? They looked back at the blue mouse thing. Then it caught sight of them. It stared at them with big round eyes and a confused face. Surprisingly it didn't seem scared at all of them, not even of Ralph who was scary enough on his own
"I think we should check the pokédex." Joe told her.
"Good idea." She agreed. Winter reached into her bag and pulled out her own personal pokédex. She switched it on, flicked open the lid covering the front screen and picked an option reading 'Who's that pokémon?' It was a childish title put in so that young children would understand what it did when chosen. As the name suggests, this applications purpose is to display basic information about a seen pokémon that the trainer has just found. In Kanto Joe and Winter hadn't needed to worry about using it because they recognised pretty much all the Kanto registered pokémon beforehand due to stories, documentaries, TV shows and kids almanacs on them. The more scientific name for this app would be 'What am I looking at?' She clicked on the app. It opened up a small screen and a camera shot of what was in front of them. Winter pointed it at the still staring, still motionless aquatic creature on the bridge ahead. The screen flashed and made a buzzing scanning sound. On the screen an image began to disintegrate onto it. It was the creature in front of them, except standing in profile with a smile rather than standing ahead of them with a still thoughtful face. Then words rolled along the top. 'This pokémon is…?'
"Great, our pokedex's don't even know what it is." Joe muttered, a little irritated.
"Well what do you want to do? We could just ignore it and walk by…" Winter told him. Joe scoffed.
"Screw that! This is the first pokémon I've come across from this region. I'm going to catch it!" At the sound of this Ralph jumped into action, flapping his wings frantically and smiling like an excited puppy. Joe stepped forwards and Ralph followed. Ralph went to attack. "Ralph, stop a second." Joe called. Ralph froze in mid-flight, hardly having moved a metre from where he originally had been. "I don't think you should do this one, this time." He explained. Ralph looked upset. He went to ask why when Joe told him. "You're probably too powerful for it. You might not it out before it can be caught, or worse, scare it away. I want Pippy to take this one. You can have a rest for now." Ralph frowned. He understood his trainers reasoning but he could have been nicer about it. He wasn't that scary, was he? Ralph obeyed his friends request and re-joined Joe's side, watching the event as it unfurled. Joe patted him on the head. "Thanks, buddy." Ralph huffed, not terribly happy but he didn't cause a fuss.
"Try not to destroy the bridge while you're at it." Winter called from behind. Joe nodded.
"Sorry. Can't promise anything." He told her. He reached for his normal pokeball and unclipped it from his belt, holding in his hand. With a flick of the wrist he sent the cue ball sized device flying through the air. "Go, Pippy!" He called. The ball snapped open and out came a small, fuzzy, yellow furred, brown striped, energetic, upbeat, static covered, male pikachu. Pippy blinked, looked around, saw the opposing blue mouse, which now looked quite astounded, and grinned. "Alright, Pippy, this is a game of catching. We want that thing to stay standing long enough to be caught." Pippy yapped and nodded, confirming that he understood. "Ok then. Thunderbolt!" Joe called. Pippy charged up static and released, sending a long, sharp bolt of static flying at the new pokémon. Its eyes widened in surprise and it jumped aside, narrowly avoiding getting struck. It rolled along the wooden planks and hid behind a small wooden pole at the edge of the bridge.
"Don't let it get to the water!" Winter told Joe.
"Shock it, Pippy! Stop it moving!" Joe instructed. Pippy charged more static and released it in a much weaker yet more potent, smaller bolt. The bolt hit the wooden post and shattered it, sending wooden splinters flying everywhere. Several landed in the water, causing a couple of golden to bob up and see what was going on. All that was left of the small post was a cracked charred top about half the size of the original and split down the centre, more splinters sticking out of it. The pokémon looked even more surprised as its cover ruptured and disappeared. It looked at Pippy who walked a little closer, looking keen and excited. The pokémon smiled at him awkwardly, trying, Joe assumed, to look unthreatening. Pippy smiled back. Then he fired another bolt of static. The small round mouse jumped aside again. This time it got up much quicker and began to roll forwards, rotating like a spinning ball and heading straight for Pippy. "Look out!" Joe called. Pippy jumped over the rolling ball of blue mouse as it passed under him. He turned to fight it, only to receive a flurry of bubbles in his face upon doing so. The bubbles popped all over him and hurt him. The wild blue water mouse laughed at the caught yellow electric mouse. Pippy growled at it. Without warning he jumped on the creature, landing on its fat stomach and knocking it over. He pinned it down and tackled it, head-butting it several times in the chest. The blue mouse growled and rolled over, now lying on top of Pippy and hitting him in the chest with its head. They rolled about, tackling one another for a while and making progress further and further down the bridge, away from the trainers watching. "Pippy, where are you going?" Joe called as he, Ralph and Winter ran after the two fighting mice.
"Tell him to shock it now!" Winter called after him. Joe saw Pippy being pinned by the pokémon, trying to push back against it but it was proving to strong and too heavy to hold back. It was smiling down at him, an overpowering glint in its eyes. It was on top. It had the advantage. Now was probably the time to cheat.
"Pippy, use thunder wave!" Joe called. Pippy looked at him from where he lay, surprised by his command. He nodded. He pushed up with his small yellow arms, touched the pokémon on the neck… and then there was a flash of white.
"Maaaaarill" The pokémon cried as it suddenly fell very still. All its limbs seized up into place, leaving it paralysed on top of Pippy. Its expression could be best surprised as severe astonishment. Pippy rolled it to the side, finally freeing himself from its weight, where it lay, unmoving yet still conscious. Pippy sighed, whipped his brow and turned to Joe who was walking up to him. Joe lent down, held out his arm and let Pippy climb up it. "Good job, buddy. You still got it!" Pippy yapped and smiled at him. He rubbed his head on Joe's shoulder, creating a few static sparks with the friction. Joe smiled at him. It had been a while since both Pippy and Ralph had been in a battle, let alone caught a pokémon. It was good to see them both getting time out to exercise and simply travel. Joe reached into his bag and pulled out an empty. "Time to end that little scrap." He said. And he threw the pokeball. It fell out of the air, tapped the paralysed mouse on the stomach and sucked it inside with a flash of red light and a snap shut of the lid. The ball hit the ground and shook once, twice, thrice then stopped, ending with a click. Joe smiled, Ralph cheered, Pippy sparked and Winter also smiled.
"Good job." She told him. "I must admit I was a bit worried it might take Pippy out at one point." Joe smiled back at her.
"He was never in any danger." He told her. He looked at the happy yellow mouse on his shoulder. "Where you, buddy?" Pippy yapped and smiled, agreeing. Ralph patted Joe on the shoulder and Pippy on the back, nearly knocking him off by accident. "I just caught myself my first Johto pokémon." Joe reminded himself as he picked up the now full pokeball and held it on his palm. "Now our journey here has really begun. I wander what other pokémon we'll come across here?"
"Does your pokédex say anything more about it?" Winter asked. Joe opened his bag up and pulled out his pokédex to check. He flicked it open and switched it on.
"No." He told her after checking the latest entry. "It made a page for it, but there's no name. Only basic information. Apparently it's a water type."
"I thought it was. It did look like one." Winter agreed. "Also did you hear what it cried when Pippy paralysed? It said something like 'Marill'" Joe looked at her.
"You think that's what pokémon it is?" Joe asked. Winter nodded.
"Pokémon speech sounds like the pokémon saying its own name, so it stands to reason that this one does the same." Joe looked down at the pokeball and smiled.
"So you're a marill then." He said to himself.
"You going to nickname it?" Winter asked. Joe smiled at her.
"Of course." He said. He paused. "What could I nickname a marill?" He wondered. Because this was a new pokémon to him, he hadn't really thought of any names he could give it if he caught it. Instead of basing one on its name he'd have to do so on his type. He thought for a second. 'Marill is a water type. Water comes from rivers, lakes, ponds, streams and the ocean. Winter has two pokémon called River and Stream so they're out, Ocean sounds a bit silly for a mouse and Lake and Pond are just lazy. Hmm' Then he thought a bit harder. 'Maybe we could make ocean work. Another word for ocean is sea. Sea, in French, translates to Mer. No, that doesn't sound good. Ah, but the Spanish word for sea is Mar. That sounds good. I like that. Plus it fits in with the pokémon name. Mar. Marill. Mar-ill. I could just call it Barrel. No, Mar is good.' "What about Mar?" Joe asked finally. Winter woke up from the world she had drifted off to.
"Sorry?" She asked.
"I think I should name him Mar, as in the sea." Joe explained. She seemed to digest the name for a few seconds.
"Why Mar?" She asked.
"I don't know. I just thought it suited it. Mar the Marill." Joe smiled. "I like it." He told her. He turned to Ralph. "What do you think, buddy?" He asked. Ralph shrugged.
"Cro?" He said. Joe and Winter looked at each other.
"O…kay?" Joe said, unsure if he had understood what Ralph's response was or not. "Well, if neither of you oppose, then I guess his name shall be Mar." He held up the pokeball like a beacon to the heavens, as if he was baptising it. Then he attached it to his belt and reached for Pippy's pokeball. "Ok, you've had your fun. Now it's time for you to go back in as well." Pippy moaned sadly. Miserably he nodded and climbed down Joe's arm, touched the pokeball button and was withdrawn back inside. Joe attached the pokeball back to his belt and began to walk again.
"Well, apart from that battle just there, this journey so far has been relatively easy and boring." Winter mused as she followed after him. Joe chuckled, considering this. In comparison to everything he had been through, this was just a walk in the park, quite literally. So far in his less than half a year journey he'd fought of a swarm of beedrill, stopped a couple of criminals stealing from a pokémon centre, rescued his own pokémon from a fearow, stopped a dangerous argument between superheroes, protected a day-care, defeated a gang, stopped the takeover of a cruise ship, survived a cave-in, lost a pokémon, helped appease a vengeful ghost, stopped an attack on Pallet Town, defeated two Team Rocket commanders several times, confronted the leader of Team Rocket on top of Silph Co building and nearly won, defeated eight gym leaders, beaten all members of the elite four and won against the newest champion of the Kanto region. And within all that he had still declined his offer. But all of that had happened exactly one month ago.
"Yeah." He agreed. "I just hope it doesn't stay this way for long. I like a challenge now and then." In the overall world view this comment was a really stupid thing to say. It's basically a cliché. Philosophers, intellectuals, film critics and all-around smart folk will tell you this and they'll always give the same reasoning for not saying it. Wishing for something not to happen will always make it happen! And when it does happen you won't enjoy it as much as you think you will!
Meanwhile...
"Through here." A tall, calm voiced, slightly muscular grunt shoved open the thin metal door into the locker room and walked inside. Crystal followed after him, feeling and looking nervous about where she was standing. So this was her new home. She hadn't expected much from Team Rocket but she'd expected something more than this. The locker room was tatty and unkempt, with rusty red stone walls, a cracked, mossy, dry tiled floor, a roof with rot and timber hanging out from multiple gaping holes in the plaster and row upon row of old, fragile looking metal sports lockers. She gulped. She had run away from home for this? The grunt saw her expression. "Nervous?" he asked. "Don't worry. It's not so bad. You get used to it all. The clutter isn't too bad on most days." She stepped back slightly, still looking at the piles of moss in the corners and the untidy clumps of casual clothing lying on rotting wooden benches.
"It's not actually the room that concerns me. She explained. "Do both men and women change together? Are there no private changing rooms?" The grunt laughed at this.
"Ha. You've nothing to fear. The chances of you being assaulted while changing are only 5:1 now." She looked at him. "I was joking." He added, seeing her shocked expression. She seemed to lighten up a little. She still looked quite unsure, however. Maybe it was the fact she was a fourteen year old girl surrounded by a bunch of young, violent, malicious, angry men who could willingly take advantage of her whenever they liked. It had amazed everyone, even the commander himself, when a young girl turned up in the middle of the night, asking to join up immediately. That was something that was never expected to happen. Maybe if she'd been a boy it wouldn't have been as surprising. But either way she had been taken in. It was too good an opportunity to pass on. Who knew when a teenage girl would come in useful. Besides, they needed all the recruits they could get right now.
"Can I at least get a quota on how much I'll be paid?" She asked after a short pause. The grunt looked at her. She reminded him in a way of his own daughter. He wondered where she was right now.
"Five-hundred pokedollars per week" He said finally. She seemed a little disappointed but said nothing. That was probably wise. Complaining was not something you did in Team Rocket. Anyone who lasted long in Team Rocket saw what happened to the people who complained and quickly learned that it was never a good idea. His leadership could get very angry and sometimes he needed target practice. He also didn't use a gun for the sport. "Well, I'll leave you to yourself then." The grunt said finally, stepping back to the door and holding it open. Crystal turned back to him.
"W-what... W-where do I get my uniform and locker from?" She stumbled. The grunt sighed and pointed around the room.
"Pick one that isn't already taken. You're alone in here right now so if you should get into your uniform quickly. All grunts are to meet up in the announcement hall in twenty minutes exactly. Don't take too long." And he slammed the door shut behind him. Crystal scratched the side of her head, curling a strand of black hair around her finger.
"Rrright." She looked back at the rows of lockers. Most of them seemed to be taken already. She walked down the furthest row to the left, reading all the labels on the locker doors and recoiling at some of the revolting nicknames poorly scrawled on. Finally she found a free locker, tightly squeezed in between 'Big Rick Rollson' and 'Halitosis Harry'. She twisted the key and pulled it open. Inside was a simple Team Rocket Grunt uniform, complete with black boots, gloves, belt and sack bag. She reached for her pocket and pulled out a lone single pokeball. She rolled it over in her hand. She had been grateful that their leader had let her hold on to her pokemon when she joined. It had required some convincing but eventually she had won him over. She wasn't going anywhere without her closest friend. She flicked the ball up into the air and it snapped open with a subtle click. From the red beam of light jumped out a long eared, blue bodied, white bubble patterned, big eyed, big hearted, bauble tailed rabbit pokemon called Azumarill. The small pokemon didn't hop about as a watcher may have expected it to. Instead it just stood at Crystal's feet, looking up at her in concern.
"Zu?" It asked. She smiled at it.
"Morning, Azi." She said to it. Azi nudged her leg, smiling weekly. He was cheering up a little now. His right eye was a slightly lighter then it should have been. From the eyebrow to cheek bone ran a thin yet painful looking old scar scab. She sighed. "Stay calm and stay quiet for now." She explained to him. "I need to get into this uniform and then we're going outside for an announcement. Do you want to come along?" Azi nodded, but he didn't look happy. Yet nor did he look upset. He looked concerned. Crystal looked back into the locker, staring at the uniform. She could still back out. She could still turn away. No one would stop her. She was free to go. The question was did she want to? Her expression narrowed as she stared at the uniform. Slowly she reached in and pulled the thin, black jumpsuit out from its metal holder.
A few minutes later she walked out through the locker room door, wearing her Team Rocker getup, loosely. It felt very uncomfortable. It didn't exactly make her look revealing but it made her feel like what she did have was being made to stand out way too much for someone her age and was also quite tight and it itched like mad. It had hardly been aired at all since its making. Still, she wore it with pride... Well maybe pride wasn't the right word. It was more along the lines of similarity then it was honor. Team Rocket was not honorable. As she walked out she looked down the corridor, glancing down both ends. A couple of grunts walked past her, whispering something about new recruits and an announcement in the announcement hall before walking of towards the right end. Quickly Crystal waved for Azi to follow her and the two of the followed, heading for where they assumed the announcement hall would be. As it turned out she was in luck. She turned a corner a few metres on and found herself standing in the large town hall like building. From the roof hang fake glass chandeliers, their half melted candles glowing damply in the air. Any lower down of the room was tough to make out from behind the huge crowd of grunts in front of her. Their was the echo of multiple chattering from pretty much everyone in the room. Crystal looked down at Azumarill. He looked back up at her. They shared the same expression of surprise and awe. Then she heard someone calling her. She caught sight of a hand waving at her above the crowd, followed by the face of the grunt who'd brought her in earlier.
"Hey, you, freshmen. Over here." He called, waving her over to him. Crystal looked a little unsure but she didn't stay put. She took Azi's hand and pulled him along with her as she tried to reach the grunt by pushing her way through the crowd. There were several angry grumbles from grunts as she pushed her way through. One even swore at her, saying something about 'The bloody kids these days' Finally she reached the grunt who was tall enough to see over the head of the crowd.
"What is it?" She asked. He didn't look at her.
"The leader's going to be giving us our first announcements, today. I think he's planning to set us up with our first jobs." He explained, almost hypnotically. Then his head turned, looking past Crystal and at someone behind her. "Get away there, Baxter. Give the girl space." He snapped. Crystal turned to see a pudgy looking, short, older grunt looming over her, a subtly surprised grin on his face.
"Who's dis, Danning?" he demanded, a creepily sickening toothed smile on his face, revealing two rows of rotten yellow fangs.
"She's one of the new recruits, Bax." The grunt Crystal had met, Danning, told the fat grunt, Baxter, not letting his guard down. He clearly didn't trust this new grunt, Baxter. Crystal felt that she shouldn't do so either. She stepped away.
"I-I'm C-c-crystal." She stuttered. Baxter straightened up.
"Crystal, eh?" He repeated, scratching his stubble coated chin. "Wat a luvly name. Watz a gal like yous doin inna place like dis?" He snarled at her with a worryingly cheeky tone. Danning stepped forward now, standing surprisingly tall and menacing.
"Leave her alone, Baxter." He warned. "Don't you have other people to bother or little children to eat? Where's your other half at?" Baxter stepped back, seeing the warning displace that Danning was making. He spat.
"Gah! Gilbert's down at der front. He wanz a catch everythin' der boss guy sez. I couldn't really care less ta be honest wit ya. Iz all politics an' stuff. Borin', all of it."
"Well maybe you could care about sorting out your grammar." Crystal muttered under her breath. Unfortunately Baxter heard her.
"What'chu sayin'?" He asked, his smile washing off like mud from a windscreen. Crystal gulped, suddenly realizing her own stupidity. Fortunately Danning came in to her rescue.
"Drop it, Bax. We don't need a fight. Let her go. She's only a child. She'll learn." He glanced back at Crystal, looking quite unhappy with her. Baxter grumbled.
"Well, see dat she does. Li'l tyke oughta be taught a less'n. Itz a dum' ideas ta badmouth ol' Baxter, especially ta me face." He turned away and stumbled of through the crowd, muttering about disrespectful children. Crystal smiled up at Danning.
"Thank you" She told him. Danning was looking much less impressed.
"You're not making a good name for yourself, kid. I just saved your neck from Baxter, the most vile guy you're likely to run into here. Think yourself luck I was there to stand up for you." Her smile fell. Azumarill tugged at her uniform. Dannings eyes fell down towards him. "And keep a close eye on him. Some grunts have a kleptomanic tendency to steal any pokemon they see running around alone. Don't let him out of your sight for a second." Crystal grabbed Azi's arm and pulled him closer.
Then there was a sudden silence as a drum was struck. Every head turned towards the far end of the hall. A group of figures were walking onto the raised stage. Two of them wore the recognisable black rocket uniform with one or two added variations, however the other two seemed to be wearing an unusual white version of suit, with no hats and red gloves and boots. The two varied black clothed grunts stood on the left and right side of the stage. The other two walked into its centre. Crystal stood onto her tiptoes, trying to see past the crowd.
"I can't see. What's going on?" She asked. Danning simply tutted quietly. He wasn't about to help her every time she needed him. He may have a soft heart but he wasn't that soft. He looked away and back at the entering figures. One of the white uniformed figures was evidently female, with long red hair and a stubborn, strict expression. The two black figures varied in their look. One had yellow details instead of red, an elderly face and short purple hair in a spike at the top of his head. He did not wear a cap. The other was younger and more pompous looking, with white details instead of red and short grey hair poking slightly out in a knife edge from under the black cap. The last figure was a lot tougher to tell. All detail on him was completely covered up and invisible to crowd from under a white hood and cloak. A wool mask covered his face, marked with small red dots over the eyes. He stood directly up front, the female figure standing next to him, his arms limp by his side. He seemed to stand motionless and silent for several minutes, a microphone raising upwards towards his face. When he did speak his voice echoed like an explosive symphony of dramatic acting, filling a thousand ears with his royalist, commanding accent.
"Brothers!..." He boomed. A small echo of feedback hit the crowd, causing a thousand mouths to wince in slight pain. "And Sisters!..." He continued. The feedback stopped. The leader of Team Rocket raised a clenched fist. "Thank you all for joining us here today. Some of you have recently joined. Others of you have been a part of our team since the beginning. To all of you I welcome. You all answered my call and shall be rewarded when the end comes." There was a cheer from the crowd. Crystal's brow furrowed.
"What does he mean 'when the end comes'?" She asked. Danning didn't answer but neither did he clap. He simply looked down at her, pity in his wise young eyes.
"You'll find out soon enough." He said. This comment seemed to confuse Crystal even further but she had no time to ask more questions as the leader began to speak again.
"No doubt most of you know about what happened in Kanto no more than a month ago." He stated. "How I was betrayed by our old leader and defeated by a puny weakling child." Many members of the crowd nodded. The commander threw his clenched fist aside, whipping his cloak in the air. "I imagine most of you have been unsure, possibly even disbelieving, about how Team Rocket can stay standing after so many defeats and so much trouble."
"He really likes the sound of his own voice doesn't he." Crystal muttered to herself, just loud enough for Danning to hear from beside her. He nodded subtly in agreement.
"Like they say, with great power comes a pointless inspiring monologue." Crystal chuckled a little at this. Danning gave a small but hidden smile.
"Well the main reason is this." The Leader continued "We are still remembered. No one has forgotten us. No one will forget us. Even in the shadows of our shambles hideout we survive, growing in numbers, growing in force, growing in power. And as long as we are around we will never stop till our goals are reached." There was another cheer from the crowd. The leader seemed to be lapping up their appreciation now. "But, of course, we are Team Rocket. We need to be seen. We need to have an aim. We need a goal to reach up for. And I believe I have just the goal that will allow us regional control, the kind we have reached for since the dawn of our beloved family, nearly twenty years ago." He brought his hands together. "What do I plan?" He gave a small inhale of tension. Then he released for suspense. "Well, my original plan was conquest through technology. But as we all know, technology breaks. It can be corrupted and dismantled. But there is one thing that cannot. One thing that we can bend to our will. One thing that cannot let down its user. I am of course talking about natural power. Biological power. The power that lies within gods. Genuine gods. Or rather, the power that lies within our deities." There seemed to be a surprised gasp from the audience. The leader nodded. "Yes. We need a legendary Pokémon. They are the strongest living force available to us on our planet. The only one we can truly control... And I know where we can get one." He stepped back. "So, my brothers and sisters, will you aid me in this new goal? Will you join me upon the seat of godship? Will you move with me and take control of the entire human race?" There was a roar of approval from everyone. Crystal glanced at Danning who showed no emotion. He just stared at the leader, his inner thoughts invisible to her. The leader raised up his arms. "My name is Archer!" He threw his arms outwards, roaring with the crowd, his white cloak flailing in the air behind him as it was flung back. There was the impossible silence that came with a crowds cheer, silencing everything else in the world out long enough for the final words to be heard. "And I will lead Team Rocket to its victory!"
So that's Chapter 1. Hope it got all you newbies interested in the story and all the previous followers wanting to read more. Follow for more chapters. The next one will really start the story rolling. Any reviews I get are helpful, no matter what they say. Hope you all enjoy your time on the site and reading the stories.
J Out.