The World is Still a Dangerous Place

by Birdboy

It was a great enough tragedy to make some people seriously question their oldest and most cherished custom, or at least to call to delay it like in Unova; for the rest, the young man was just too stupid for his own good.

It was a great enough tragedy to make some people seriously question their oldest and most cherished custom, or at least to call to delay it like in Unova; for the rest, the young man was just too stupid for his own good. And stupid young men like Jack, in every world, under every custom, had always got themselves killed.

There is, admittedly, a reason why children are told not to play in the tall grass and to stay away from wild pokemon. But Jack was no longer a child – he was a young man of age ten, with four pokemon in hand, eager to prove himself against anything that would come to stand in his way.

There are young men in the world who know their limits and grasp that they are mortal; these are the ones who become old men. And then there are young men like Jack, raised on stories of heroes, for whom Team Rocket is just a problem to win glory in solving, and a legendary pokemon just the next addition to his team.

Team Rocket did not harm him. Giovanni was a parent himself, and his lost son would be turning ten this year; he understood more than anyone the anxiety of a parent as their child first starts out in the world. And whenever bodies turned up, uncomfortable questions and expensive bribes followed. The Rockets had strict orders not to use deadly force, even if absolutely necessary to maintain the secrecy of their mission; threats and trainers' honor would have to be enough.

The ease with which his Charmeleon, Pidgeotto, Raticate, and Zubat fell in battle ought to have humbled Jack, and the kindness of the Rocket Grunt who escorted him to the pokemon center ought to have made him think twice about sniffing around the power plant again. Instead, the challenge only inspired him to try harder.

The god of the power plant was neither as gentle nor as weak as other electric pokemon. It was this power which Jack sought to make his own, and this power which zapped him and burnt him to a crisp. Young men can survive the shocks of a force field, a rival Electabuzz, or their own disobedient Pikachu, but men who challenge Zapdos and fail must always perish.

Even with pokemon by your side, the world is still a dangerous place.