World.
Green first felt the tremors when he was in the middle of a battle, which, you know, probably wasn't the best time because it allowed him to dismiss them as the other trainers and their pokemon in his gym using an Earthquake attack or something of the like. It wasn't an unusual occurence as the move was used quite frequently, so he'd kind of grown used to it. This obviously meant he could ignore it and instead focus on the fight he was having, he couldn't afford a distraction at this point anyway. Every moment was crucial when you were battling, especially if you were a gym leader because your whole reputation was at stake, and considering his reputation was that of one of the toughest gym leaders in Kanto, he really didn't want to lose it.
But the shaking continued, going on a lot longer than a normal Earthquake attack should and getting considerably stronger. Admittedly a concern or two about whether perhaps it wasn't just one of his trainers crossed his mind, but he pushed them away. Everything is fine, maybe one of their pokemon just got stronger? It was becoming harder to concentrate with the ground shaking at such a magnitude beneath his feet, but he did his best to ignore it. His opponent was looking at him in concern though from across the arena, but he just shrugged. Heh, obviously she's not a good trainer. Can't even battle through one Earthquake attack. It was only when these tremors were joined by explosion type noises that Green realised something was wrong.
"We should probably postpone this," He remarked to the girl he'd been battling and she nodded, wasting no time in grabbing her things and bolting out the gym. He waited until she had left before walking out the room himself, but paused (or rather, was stopped) in the doorway upon seeing everyone else in the building running outside. He usually would have told them off for slacking on their jobs, but today he just followed them. The atmosphere outside was manic, everyone was either whispering or shouting. Green just stared up at the smoky sky in horror, feeling his stomach sink - he suddenly knew exactly what had happened.
He closed the gym after that, but no one really cared.
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Green paced around his living room, a total nervous wreck. He'd tried to drive to Pallet (which in hindsight had been a stupid idea) but the roads had been blocked, so he had come home and instead tried to call, but the phone lines were also down. He hated feeling this helpless, it wasn't fair! What if something had happened to them? Pallet was fairly close to Cinnabar, after all. And smoke travelled quickly, especially with the sea breeze.
He took a deep breath and sat down on his lounge, hoping that being still for a moment would help him collect his thoughts, but when that failed, he flicked on the television as another distraction. Every channel was reporting on it though and all he could see was blurry footage of the island from a distance. The news programs said it was still too early to assess the damage, but it wasn't looking good. Green swallowed hard and flicked the screen off. It was not doing anything to remedy the sinking feeling in his stomach or quell his fears at all, in fact, it just further cemented his belief that Daisy and his Grandfather were in danger (and there was nothing he could do).
He picked up the phone again and pressed in his sister's number (no harm in trying, right?). Instead of being greeted with silence, an automatic message played. It informed him that due to the vicinity of Pallet and Fuchsia to Cinnabar, citizens of those places would be evacuated and put up in the Viridian and Celadon Pokemon Centres and other temporary housing respectively until it was safe to return. This was either the most fantastic Green had heard all day, or the worst. It meant that they were in danger but also that very soon they wouldn't be.
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For the first time in about ten years, Green was hugging his sister.
For the first time in an even longer period he was...crying.
And he didn't even care that there were people all around or that he was in public because for the first time he had realised just how lucky he was. He'd been so ungrateful, so self-centered, so unappreciative, yet he hadn't lost his loved ones or his home, it had all worked out for him. Within a few minutes, people's lives had changed so drastically. They had been safe in the knowledge that their brother, sister, husband, wife, son or daughter were happy and well, and then suddenly they weren't and there was nothing anyone could do.
He may not have been the Champion or even the strongest trainer, but at least he was alive. He cursed loudly yet smiled at the same time, pulling Daisy in tighter. They may have had issues and arguments in the past, but he'd never been happier to see her.
LAME SUMMARY BECAUSE I'M TOO LAZY TO THINK UP MY OWN.
So uh, ages ago I read this fic that was in response to the tsunami in Japan. It was amazingly well written and inspired me to write about a natural disaster. I thought about it and realised that between R/B/Y and G/S/C, something similar had happened to Kanto. The games don't really go into detail about it, but considering the volcano destroyed Cinnabar, it was a pretty event, wasn't it? I was originally going to write it from the point of view of someone from Cinnabar, but then I figured Green was a good candidate. He seemed really perturbed about it in gen 2, haha.
Plus, I just really love Green.
And he can drive apparently, what of it? Haha, I always think of Green and Red as older than what they actually are, plus driving seemed to fit with this pretty well.
I hope I accurately depicted a volcanic eruption though, I don't have much experience with them, thankfully. But anyway, thanks for reading!