Art of War Chapter 1: Fire (and smoke), a pokémon fanfic

This is the story of a Pokémon Platinum nuzlocke run. It contains depictions of violence due to the whole theme of the story, which is, as you can probably tell, war.

I will add warnings at the start of every chapter, but the violence in the first chapter is the heaviest one, at least in the three chapters I have written so far. All the same BE WARNED that there's violence and possible depictions of same-sex couples and transgender characters, depending on how it would fit the story when those characters are reached.

Warnings: Violence

001. Fire (and smoke)

"Pokémon are by our side, always. I hope you will understand the meaning of those words."

Professor Rowan is smiling, soothing.

And then the ceiling comes crashing down.

Will doesn't know how long he's out, can't quite pinpoint if he was even out at all. It's dark, but there's still light, somewhere, when he opens his eyes. To his left maybe. Probably his right. His head throbs to the thundering pulse of his heart and he breathes in to quell his burning lungs. Smoke comes in, unbidden, and Will coughs it out in a suffocating curtain that wraps around his head and gets into his eyes.

He tries to move his arms, then fights to get his knees under him to push himself up. His whole body is stuck, an impossible weight pinning him down to the carpet.

He screams, but hears nothing. The familiar buzz of TV static is gone, as are the happy chirps from the starly that nest outside his window. His mouth tastes like ashes, Will realizes soon, when his body regains feeling. His mouth tastes like ashes, and there's something dripping down the side of his face. It's hard to breathe. There's something over him, but he can't roll over to see what it is.

"Will!" The voice pierces through the high-pitched ringing in his ears, dull, but close.

He tries to yell back, but he's not sure if he does or if he just screams it in his head.

Sound slowly returns to Will's world, as sharp pain races up his side and he cries out in his pain.

"Sorry! I'll… I'll move it away, okay?"

The voice is still unrecognizable from under the—rubble. There's rubble in his room, why is there rubble in his room?—Will panics when he identifies the terror clinging to the voice.

There are other noises. Whirring, then screams and loud, endless popping cracks. Will is suddenly hyper-aware of everything, senses enhanced with fear and urgency.

A plank of wood twists slightly, just enough so Will can free his left hand. Will drags it toward his chest, wincing. Something else moves, and the weight above him pushes him further down. The searing pain on his side startles him into action.

"No, no! Don't move that!" He's sure he says it, this time, and Emery, —it's Emery, of course it's Emery, who else could it be?— curses and lets whatever he was holding fall back down. It hurts, but not as much as it did when it moved.

"Will, I'mna move this thing up. I think you can come out from underneath."

His voice is nasal, like he's being crying. Will's chest clenches painfully, dread washing over him. He wants to ask what happened, but it freaks him out, whatever it might have been.

"I can't breathe."

He doesn't know why he says it, even if it's true. It doesn't make breathing any easier, in fact he's kind of sure he's just made it worse, and Emery's careful movements become faster and clumsier, causing more pain.

A hand grabs him by the shoulder and tugs. Will cries out, but the hand doesn't stop. Then there are two hands, and Emery is pulling him up, grappling an arm under his arms and hauling him away from the mass of wood and concrete he was trapped under.

The light is coming from above them. Will looks over when he realizes the beams pinning him down had once been his own roof. The wall to his left is nowhere to be found.

Emery's shaking hand is covered in blood.

The cracks in the air become louder and Emery's breath hitches.

"They're coming, they're coming." Emery whispers under his breath. He looks around, beyond the inexistent wall, and bounces on the balls of his feet, desperate to move.

His face is grimy, clean only where tear tracks smeared the muck away. Emery shoves something into Will's hands and drags the other boy out of the room.

The hallway is chaos. Sections of the floor are charred. The whole right side of the house is missing. Emery is talking under his breath to the beat of his jittering hands. Something about an explosion. The air is thick with black smoke. Will suddenly realizes something is missing.

"Mom?!" He wrenches his arm out of Emery's grip, starting to the living room. It's on fire. Jumpy, his mom's kangaskhan, is burning, feeding the flames that consume his house, and unmoving. He can see his mom's hand right behind the sofa. "Mom!"

Emery grabs him again, grunting at the force he has to use to keep his friend away. "Will, stop! Come on!" It's only because Emery is taller that the struggle gives him the upper hand. Will wrestles with all his might against him, bellowing to be let go. "Will, we have to go!"

The cracks are growing louder very quickly, and Emery finally pulls Will away.

Will is crying, now, looking around them at the people lying on the ground with blood slathered on their backs and necks. There's a group of people in uniforms next to a pile of bodies that look like half their limbs were blown off. A few paces ahead, the sign announcing "Twinleaf Town-Fresh and Free!" is impossible to see due to the smoke.

If it's even there anymore, that is. When Will looks around, it's clear that half the town is gone.

Emery is shaking, wild eyes shooting from the burnt grass to the snow-covered, burning trees. He pulls Will to the side, sneaking into the forest that surrounds the town. There, they can breathe. It's a shallow, painful action that sears their lungs and makes them cough.

"A bomb went off." Emery provides shakily. He grabs Will's wrist, tugging him until he starts walking again. "I-I have to find my dad. They-They're—"

Will's brain doesn't really register the words. He's too busy looking at the bodies, ears ringing from the gunshots.

"Shh, shh!" Emery twists around, and Will allows him to pull him behind the large pine tree they used as base to play hide-and-seek just last week.

Men and women garbed in the bright red uniform Will can't recognize are standing in a line. About half have shotguns, the others stand behind giant pokémon that barely register as nidokings and scythers. Will and Emery's neighbors are also in a line facing the soldiers, eyes wide open and weaponless. Mr. Royce is crying. A soldier comes over to silence him, but his sniffles only increase until they can reach the boys' ears.

The soldier is angry. He grabs Mr. Royce by the hair and pulls him to the front of the line, then pushes on his head until he's kneeling down. The soldier presses his shotgun to Mr. Royce's head, turns to the line of onlookers and pulls the trigger.

Will cries out. His shoulders tense and he flinches, his legs reeling back until his back hits the bark of another tree. Tears prick at the back on his eyes again, his teeth clatter together, hand flying to his mouth.

(RedRedRedRedRedRedRed).

One of the female soldiers turns in their general direction and visibly barks out an order, one of the men turns too, and Emery's breath hitches.

"Come on, come on, come on." The boy chants, but doesn't move until the third time, legs springing over to grab Will and then running through the pain clawing at their legs and ribs and heads.

A child shrieks behind them and there's a sudden slice of the air. The child doesn't shriek again.

The red beam of a pokémon being retrieves glows at their backs, then there's a gunshot, and a bullet whizzes by Will's head. Emery starts to the other side, then Will changes their direction again when he turns and sees the soldier aiming at Emery's back.

Suddenly there's tall grass in front of them, and Will halts forcefully when he sees a panicked bidoof snarling at them.

"Other side," he manages to bite out. He doesn't make a move to follow through his suggestion, but Emery seems to be in agreement, because he turns them around and runs in the opposite direction.

Will doesn't know if the soldier is still following them, if he freed his scyther again so hunt down their heads, but he doesn't see anyone in red as they sprint to Lake Verity. The smell of death attacks their noses when they pass in front of the town and they visibly pale.

Will wants to stop. It's hard to breathe. His legs feel like lead, his head has long since exploded in relentless pain. He keeps going only because Emery won't let go of his wrist.

The entrance to Lake Verity smells like wet rock and only slightly of singed grass. There's something like a camp ahead of them, a few tents pitched up around a bonfire. At the slightest hint of red peeking from inside the biggest tent, Will and Emery both whimper and pull each other toward the trees to their right.

Emery is still speaking fast under his breath, eyes shooting in every direction while he goes deeper into the woods. There isn't a clear path to follow, but in his fright, Emery seems to know exactly where they need to go, so Will lets himself be guided under the shroud of the trees.

They finally settle under one big tree, right behind an overgrown bush that hides them from sight, even though they can still see a hint of the camp.

"There's—There's blood on your face." Emery says suddenly. He reaches out and Will flinches back.

"There's blood on your hand." His words are slurred, mimicking the way his vision blurs for a second before it clears back up.

Emery locks-on to his hand, turning it and staring, suddenly quiet. Will leans down on the grass, hugging the bag Emery shoved into his arms before they left the house. He can't feel most of the right side of his body, but he thinks maybe that's a good thing because at least it doesn't hurt anymore. The side of his face reeks of raw iron and earth, but now that he's not moving, the pounding in his head is quick to ease until it's only a dull pressure on the back of his brain.

The sky is orange and dark blue. Will can tell from what he can see over the tops of the trees. It must be night then, or nearing it. He can't tell if the orange is from the sun setting or if the fires in Twinleaf as still burning. His eyes sting and he wants to close them but he's scared the next time he opens them this place will be on fire, too.

Will huddles only a little closer to Emery, just enough to get some sense of warmth. The snow pressing against his elbow makes him realize he's not wearing his jacket, only a thin shirt that is supposed to be warm, but isn't.

He shudders, and his eyes close against his will.

He wakes for a few seconds in the middle of the night, when four small paws crawl on his chest and tiny hands hold his cheek, warm fur nuzzling his neck. He breathes in, confused, until he hears Emery's snore next to him, and he falls back into sleep.

{…}

There's a camera there.

A big one, on the shoulder of a man who's sweating through his shirt even in the cold.

Will tries to focus on something other than the man, but it's hard. He's wearing red, bright and distracting.

"—fine." Another man, now, kneeling next to him. He stares into his eyes, looking concerned and stern, which is weird, and then turns to yell something over his shoulder. The man's hair is blue. Will likes blue, because it's not red.

"What?" That's what he means to ask, but he's sure it comes out like an incoherent blather and not an actual word.

The man with blue hair turns back to him. "My name is Cyrus. You and chimchar are fine."

Will has no idea what Cyrus is talking about, but he decides that he sounds comforting enough, so he nods his head and then whimpers because that hurt. A hand touches his face and now he's looking at a woman.

"Can you tell me where you live, honey?"

She looks tired, but she's wearing a lab coat. Will figures that's good. Doctors wear lab coats. So she is obviously a doctor. He looks to the side, and another person with a lab coat is carrying Emery away. Will is okay with that. Doctors are good. They're helping Emery.

Will blinks before he remembers the doctor lady asked him a question and he should probably have an answer. He struggles, hand covered in blood hovering above his head before pointing to the way he and Emery came from. Maybe.

"Over there…?"

The doctor looks at Cyrus and whispers something before turning back to him. Cyrus hooks an arm behind Will's back and another under his knees, then lifts him up. The man with the camera follows everything almost eagerly.

"All right." Says the doctor, standing to keep eye contact with Will. "What's the name of your chimchar?"

She reaches to his chest as they start moving. He looks down because, seriously, why do people think he has a chimchar? A small orange lump is sleeping on his stomach and chest, which would explain why it felt so heavy. The lump looks up, its fur ruffled and clumped with dirt.

Ah. Yes, that would do it.

"Zuzu?" Will doesn't even know, really. He doesn't know a lot of things at the moment.

But the doctor smiles and promises he and Zuzu and his friend are going to be okay. Will looks around and sees all the people in red uniforms lying on the ground. The grass is not on fire, here, but it stinks of poison.

Cyrus steps into a van and places Will on one of the gurneys. Another man is immediately on him, cleaning the muck out of his face. Will flinches and moves his head back, trying to get away.

"Whoa, there, buddy. It's all right. You have a nasty cut there, though, so I need you to stay still." Says the guy without a coat.

Will moves further back when the man tries to push him back into the bed, growling and punching at the man's hand. The van screeches and Will is thrown out of the gurney and against a wall. Coatless Guy hisses in pain and rolls his eyes, kneeling so he can grab at Will again.

A scream from outside, and the van is smashed again, denting the side with Emery's gurney in it. Will whimpers again, hands covering his ears, only leaving them when Coatless Guy makes a third attempt to get a hold of him.

"Really, Jeremy?" the doctor lady asks from somewhere outside Will's field of vision. Coatless Guy blanches and mutters an apology, making some room for her to approach. Will looks over his shoulder to see the other doctor get up from his place between the gurneys to move Emery into his arms and away from the damaged wall of the van.

"See? You can't reason with him, Sarah, he's not listening!" Coatless Guy—Jeremy—insists.

The doctor, Sarah, shushes him, her hands gently reaching for Will's face. "It's okay, sweetie. We're taking you to Sandgem Town. There could be some more trouble, so we're staying down here. Is that all right?"

Will nods. She smiles.

A pink, round pokémon comes up from behind Sarah, smiling down at Will. Zuzu jumps from the pokémon's neck, walking over until he's clinging to Will's chest, where the boy quickly wraps his arms around him.

"My tummy hurts."

Will's head snaps down to look at the pokémon. He regrets it immediately, but the wave of dizziness that washes over him is small compared to his shock.

"Wha—?"

Zuzu also looks up at him, large black eyes wide, head tilted to the side.

"What's wrong, sweetie?" Sarah asks. Will hears his mom's voice echoing the word inside his head and his grip on Zuzu tightens. We wants to tell her his name, so she'll stop calling him that.

"He talked." His mouth is still not up to par, apparently.

Jeremy looks at him like Will just went insane, but Sarah only smiles further. She pats his hair, puts an arm around his shoulders, and pulls him toward her just in time for the van to whirl and halt forcefully again. Jeremy holds both of their shoulders, keeping them from tumbling to the other side of the van.

"Of course he did, honey." Sarah says after a second, wind knocked out of her from the force of the jerk. She looks at chansey, her smile brittle. "Mimi, please sing for our young man, here?"

The chansey opens her mouth, and Will is out like a light.

{…}

The next time Will wakes up, there's a ceiling over his head. Zuzu the chimchar is sitting peacefully next to him, staring blankly somewhere behind Will. Will groans, fingers lightly touching the bandage wrapped around his forehead. The yellow lights above them flicker, but Zuzu seems unaffected. His orange fur is still dirty, but much less so than it was before.

"Will, you're awake!" Will can't sit up, but he doesn't need to. Emery's face comes into view only a second later, bruised and smudged with dirt, but mostly unharmed. One of his arms is bandaged and in a sling, but he's still using it to hold up a small, blue pokémon that is struggling to get out of his grip. "You've been out for days!"

The blue pokémon jumps from Emery's arms, hurrying toward Zuzu and pushing the chimchar's head with a blue fin.

Will has just enough sense to pick up Zuzu and cradle him to his chest and Emery flushes a deep red, pinching his pokémon's cheek.

"Where are we?" Will asks. He looks around. He's in a futon, not an actual bed, so he doesn't have a very good view, but there are people all round them, mostly quiet, their eyes sunken as parents hug their children close. There's a small TV in the corner, and older adults and teenagers huddle around it.

"The pokémon center in Sandgem. They're using them as bunkers or something." Emery hesitates, glancing at the television and back. He opens his mouth, then closes it, uncharacteristically unsure. "I wanna go find my dad."

Will remembers, vaguely. He also remembers that Emery's dad is working on a whole separate island. Will is not very good with geography, but he's sure that's it's nowhere near them.

"Okay," Because what else do you say? Will would want to find his dad, too, if he had one.

"You could come with me—us!" Emery corrects with a glance to the piplup. There are dark bags under his eyes, but Emery's smile slowly begins to build up again. "My dad's strong, he'll help us!"

There's something almost frantic about the way he says it, like he's fighting to believe it himself. His free hand clutches Will's shoulder so hard it hurts, but it's a good kind of pain, a grounding force in the ocean that has become his brain, so Will doesn't pull away.

"Maybe. Can't move, though."

"I can wait!" Emery says, bouncing. Piplup puffs up his chest. Will manages a squint, which he quickly directs at his friend. "Dude, I can totally wait!"

A man clears his throat, and Will startles. Zuzu and Emery's piplup look up and squeal.

"Henry?" Emery finally relaxes his painful hold and follows his pokémon's gaze.

The man is old, early sixties probably, and wearing the tattered remains of an elegant vest. Despite the state of his clothes, the man himself looks mostly unrumpled. It's a nice change from the screams of terror from Twinleaf and the unsettling desolation that clings to this room.

It's so nice Will is almost disturbed by it.

"What'cha want, gramps?"

The man is unaffected my Emery's innate rudeness, but the girl with him snorts into the sleeve of her pink jacket. Zuzu and Henry seem eager to jump them both, but both pokémon take a look at their trainers and stay back.

"First of all, you should be more respectful to your elders." The man says, huffing slightly. Henry puffs his chest out, too, sending a small glare to his trainer.

'Rowan' Zuzu whispers at his friend's reaction. Will's eyes bore into the back of Zuzu's head before the boy sighs and runs a hand through his face. He must be tired. This is ridiculous.

"He's Professor Rowan!" The girl says. She's not bruised, doesn't even have dirt in her hair, and her grin is the brightest thing either of the boys have seen since the attack to Twinleaf. "And I'm Dawn! We were just curious about those pokémon you have."

Will is staring at his chimchar again, confused and scared of what's happening. Next to him, Emery's eyes are wide, shifting between Henry and the professor.

Rowan places a hand on the Dawn's shoulder, which seems to sober her up to some extent. He looks at Will, then back at Emery. "Those pokémon do seem rather familiar, and I don't see any pokéballs on you. Did you perhaps find them around Lake Verity?"

Zuzu turns away from the Professor and instead stares into Will's eyes. The boy cringes slightly at the hidden reprimand in the man's voice, shrinking away from him and the girl. Zuzu grabs Will's sleeve with his paw, almost melting into Will's body as he tries to bury his head into Will's injured side.

'Wanna stay with you'

"Why? Aren't you the Professor's?" It's only a half-hearted whisper, but Zuzu only burrows further into his shirt and Professor Rowan snaps his head toward them. Will flinches, and Emery quickly grabs Will's arm as if he's ready to jump between him and Rowan at the first hint of violence.

Professor Rowan doesn't stop staring, but he visibly tries to look less threatening, loosening his shoulders from their strict stiffness and kneeling down next to Will's futon.

"They were with us when we woke up!" Emery tries to defend, though he falters slightly when Professor Rowan finally tears his eyes away from the other boy to look at him. "But… but they told us they found us at Lake Verity…"

Emery drums his fingers on Will's hip, his right foot already bouncing with the need to move around. Rowan doesn't smile. Instead, he returns to look intently at Will.

"Am I correct to assume you are from Twinleaf Town?" Rowan asks.

Will can only just barely register the question before Emery spits, "Yeah, so?"

The blond gives another sideways glance to the television, but Will still can't see the image, just the people around it. Dawn bites out a gasp, and Professor Rowan shushes her.

"They seem attached to you already, the pokémon." Professor Rowan continues, clearly willing to cut Emery some slack. "How would you feel about keeping them?" Though he's asking both of them, his eyes are readily on Will's.

Zuzu and Henry both squeal while the boys merely stare at the man in disbelief.

"But Professor! Those pokémon are hard to replace and your research involves them specifically!" Dawn cries. Her hand grabs onto the Professor's sleeve, but is forced to release it when the man turns to look mournfully at her.

"The research is gone, child. It would be best to let these young men take them."

"But—!"

"Why don't you go look for your father, Dawn?"

The girl looks put out at being treated like that by the professor, but she obeys, her bright smile gone and replaced by a disappointed pout.

When she leaves, Professor Rowan gets off his knees, instead sitting on the concrete and letting Henry climb up to his shoulder.

"What would your names be, boys?" It feels odd, being called a young man and then merely as a boy, but Will is having a hard time focusing again, so it could be that, instead.

"I'm Emery Black and he's… William Pierce…?" Emery never has never introduced him as William before, but then again, he has never truly had to introduce him to anybody, and certainly nobody as important as Professor Rowan.

"Will," He says quietly. "Just Will."

{E N D - 0 0 1}

Pokémon| 1; Deaths| 0