Chapter 1: Beginning of the End
The sound of screaming was almost too much to bear. The shrill shrieking of their panic seemed to be a physical force in the air as humans and Pokémon alike swarmed out of the building, literally trampling over each other in their attempts to escape.
Everyone that is, except for one small boy.
He was young, no older than five years old, and he was desperately trying to push his way through the squirming mass of bodies in front of him. Try as he might, though, the mob refused to let him inside, and he was picked up in the flow of the panicking swarm. His shouts and cries of protest were simply ignored, as everyone was screaming.
Why should they pay any extra attention to what was simply a barrier in their escape?
Tears streaming down his face, the boy sniffled and continued to cry out, his tiny fists pounding against the leg of a Machoke that had practically scooped him up in his attempt to get him out of the way. The Pokémon simply tossed him aside, where he landed with a thud on the hard, cold ground.
His body shuttering from his ridiculous tears, he stood up and charged the mob again, only to be pushed rudely out of the way by a burly man with a shaggy brown beard. The boy went tumbling to the ground a ways away, his body bruised and battered from his efforts.
And then it happened. The almost-finished building the people were escaping from shuttered and exploded. The roof shattered and was blasted off the building in a fireball of rubble. Pillars of flames shattered the few windows and openings that the building had, roaring out into the daytime air. The people who were still escaping were simply incinerated, their screams turning to those of agony.
"DAD!" the boy sobbed over the wall of noise. A split second later, the pitch-black smoke enveloped his small form, sending him into a fit of coughing. He couldn't breathe. The smoke was too thick. Every time he inhaled the burning cloud of ash flooded into his lungs, refusing to let any oxygen in at all.
He was going to die.
The smoke was simply too overpowering and his gasps became quiet coughs. He couldn't move. He didn't have any energy left. All he could do was close his eyes as the beeping filled his ears…
Derek shot up in his bed, panting heavily. His body was covered in sweat, and based upon the complete and utter disarray his blankets were in, he had been thrashing around in his sleep. Groaning, he wiped his face with his right hand, trying to get rid of the perspiration that had settled there.
Taking deep breaths in an attempt to calm his racing heart, he began to notice something strange in the air. It was hot and none too refreshing, completely out of the ordinary to the clean and fresh air he was used to from living in New Bark Town. And not only that, it even had an almost smoky taste to it…
Immediately he bolted out of his bed, coughing slightly. The air was heavy, and he could hear the smoke detectors going off. How he had missed those before he had no idea, but now was not the time to think about those things. Flinging open his door, he was greeted with a plume of white smoke, which only made him start coughing even more.
Making his way down through the smoky hallway, he started crying, "Mom," desperately trying to find her.
"Sorry!" Derek herd his mom, Julia, say as she appeared walking out of the smoke, coughing. "I was trying to bake you a cake, but something went wrong, I guess!"
That was one of the things about Julia: she couldn't cook to save her life. How she had ever managed to make such a giant smoke cloud from something as little as a cake was beyond Derek.
Sighing, Derek ran to the kitchen, where the smoke was the worst. Julia had already put the fire out, as there was a charred, black lump of something in a pan sitting in the sink, still steaming slightly. Coughing again, he immediately flung open the two windows that resided in the room, releasing a plume of the contaminated air to the outside world.
"Oh, good idea!" Julia said as she immediately ran off to open up more windows in an attempt to try to air out their house.
About a half an hour later, the house was almost back to normal. A burning smell still lingered in the air, but for the most part, the open windows had done a good job in ridding the building of any sign of the smoke cloud. Of course, the fire department showing up about five minutes after they had opened up all the windows didn't help matters. They'd refused to leave until they were sure that the fire had been put out and there weren't any more potential hazards.
"Goodbye," Julia said as she closed the door behind the firemen after finally convincing them to leave. She sighed quietly before turning back to Derek, a smile now on her face. "Well, not exactly the way I planned on starting your birthday, but hopefully the rest of today will be better, yes?"
Derek sighed. In all the confusion, he had completely forgotten that today was his tenth birthday. The day that he had been dreading had finally arrived.
Most kids usually couldn't wait for their tenth birthday, for that meant that they were finally old enough to start their very own Pokémon journey. In fact, that was pretty much all his classmates had been talking about all year long as one by one they had each left to go on their quest. But Derek was the only person who had not shared in their enthusiasm. In fact, he really didn't like Pokémon at all. Especially after…
No… Derek though, shaking his head. No, don't think about that. The dream was already bad enough as it is…
"So how does cereal sound for breakfast?" Julia asked, digging around in the cupboard for something that they could eat that didn't require any cooking skills.
Derek forced himself a small smile. "Sounds great mom."
Julia nodded, pleased with his response. "Now go upstairs and get dressed. You've got a busy and exciting day ahead of you, after all. Just think, soon you'll be out and about on your very own journey. I bet you can hardly wait."
Derek sighed as he walked down the hallway back to his room. Yeah, I can't wait, he thought sarcastically. I get to go out, sleep on the cold ground, fend off wild things that are most likely trying to kill me, and get hopelessly lost? Sounds like fun!
He still didn't quite understand his mother's reasoning as to why she was making him go on this journey in the first place. She gave some half-baked excuse every time he asked her, like how it was going to make him come out of his shell, or allow him to experience new things, or some other excuse of how he'd be better off because of it. Big whoop. As far as he was concerned, he was simply going to go along with this little fiasco until he reached Cherrygrove, give his Pokémon to some person who wanted the dang thing, and then go home with some story of why he couldn't continue with his mother's plan. He'd think of the specifics later.
Back in his room, he looked down at the pile of new clothes his mother had bought him folded neatly on his desk, and sighed again. Still, he stripped out of his pajamas and slipped the slightly-stiff clothing on, pausing slightly to look at himself in his mirror.
His short blonde hair was in its usual disarray on the top of his head, short enough not to be in his blue eyes but long enough to be a bit messy. His new clothes consisted of a pair of blue jeans that looked just like a few other older pairs he already had, a black t-shirt, and a red, long-sleeved jacked. His mother had also given him a pair of red and white gloves, which he had almost immediately pitched into the garbage can. He wouldn't need them.
Shrugging at his reflection, he made his way back to the kitchen, where Julia had two bowls of cereal and two glasses of Oran juice set out. Looking up from her bowl of food, Derek's mom beamed at him when she noticed his clothing.
"You look nice," she said, motioning for him to sit. Derek shrugged his shoulders in response, before digging into his cereal.
"So have you decided what Pokémon you'll choose from Professor Elm yet?" Julia asked, trying to start up a conversation.
Derek sighed, "Not yet, Mom."
"Look," Derek's mom said with a sigh of her own, "I know that you don't like Pokémon, but trust me, once you get out there and experience what a journey is really like, you're going to love it, regardless of your opinion of Pokémon. And who knows? Maybe you'll begin to like them a bit once you spend some time with them."
Derek didn't respond, choosing instead to eat his food in silence. Shaking her head, Julia simply sighed again. The silence continued to stretch out. One minute passed, then five… pretty soon, both of them had finished their food off, leaving them sitting in silence with nothing to occupy them.
"So…I'll go ahead and clean this up," Julia said, standing up. Grabbing the now-empty dishes from the table, she began to make her way back to the kitchen as the doorbell rang.
"I'll get it," Derek said as he stood up, his chair scraping against the floor as he did so. Walking over to the front door, Derek pulled it open to reveal a disheveled-looking man standing awkwardly on their porch. His short brown hair was uncombed, choosing instead to sit unruly on the top of his head, pointing in every which direction. His light brown pants were horribly wrinkled and dotted with stains, and his blue-collared shirt looked to be in even worse condition if that was possible. The most peculiar thing about his appearance though, was a dirty white lab coat whose pockets were literally bursting with crumpled pieces of paper.
"Oh, it's you, Professor Elm," Derek mumbled, a frown crossing his face as he recognized the visitor.
"Hello…um, Dillon, right?" Elm said as he looked at a piece of crinkled paper in his hand, no doubt from one of his pockets. Nodding, he held out his hand and smiled at Derek. Derek, meanwhile, simply stared at the appendage until Elm finally dropped it. "So, um, are you ready to go?"
Derek opened his mouth to say something, but Julia, who had reappeared from the kitchen, quickly said, "Oh, Professor Elm! Derek has been waiting all morning for you to stop by. He's so excited to get going and head out to see the world, aren't you Derek?"
Derek rolled his eyes and replied sarcastically, "Yeah, I'm so excited." Julia frowned at him in response, but Elm was looking at his paper again and obviously wasn't paying much attention to the conversation.
Nodding again, the Professor mumbled, "Very good, very good. Now then, let's be off to my lab…er…Dalton, yes? I need to be getting back to my research. I'm very busy you know. Very busy…" At that, Elm trailed off, his eyebrows wrinkling suddenly as he stared intensely at his notes or whatever was on the sheet in his hand. Taking advantage of the Professor's distraction, Derek glanced back at his mom, silently mouthing his pleas one last time in a futile attempt to change her mind. Julia, however, simply ignored him, focusing instead on staring at the wall. She did, however, wave her hand towards the door, motioning for him to get going.
Derek sighed. Knowing that any more arguing would pretty much be pointless, he begrudgingly grabbed his bag, and followed Professor Elm out into a windy morning in New Bark Town.
New Bark Town was a small town; so small that it didn't even have a Pokémon Center. It was well known throughout the Johto Region, however, because of the tiny research lab in the middle of town, run by Professor Elm. Elm was famous for his discoveries on Pokémon evolution and, of course, handing out special starter Pokémon to starting trainers in Johto. Besides that, it had a small port on the west side of town where ships, mostly from Kanto, could dock and possibly unload some goods. Most sea-faring travelers simply ignored it, however, as the water was too shallow for larger vessels, being filled with underwater rocks that could do a bit of a number on the bottom of a ship.
The few citizens that lived in the town didn't seem to mind though. In fact, most of them seemed to welcome the laid-back atmosphere of New Bark Town, which was one of the reasons Derek and Julia had moved there in the first place. It had been a nice change of pace for them, especially after the accident…
"Bye, Derek!" Derek heard his mom call, snapping him back to reality. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw Julia standing on the porch of their house, waving goodbye to her son. "Don't forget to call home once in a while, alright?"
"Come along now, Daisy!" Elm said as he began walking away, mumbling to himself with his eyes glued to the crumpled note. Derek sighed, shaking his head. He was supposed to go with this guy who couldn't remember his name even after having it said in front of him multiple times in the last few minutes? Still, he didn't have much of a choice, and grudgingly followed. A few younger kids stared at him in awe as he passed, probably wishing they were old enough to be in his position and receive their own Pokémon.
His thoughts quickly shifted to the problem at hand: how was he going to pull off his ruse of his Pokémon leaving? It wasn't like he could just take it from Professor Elm, walk outside, and release whatever it was that he picked. It would just wander over back to Elm's lab, and he'd have a lot of explaining to do to his mom. But at the same time, he couldn't just walk to, say, Cherrygrove City, release the thing, and then walk home. He'd be a sitting duck for anything that decided to come along and think, Hey look, a little boy. He'd make a yummy snack!
His musings were interrupted, however, when he quite literally ran into Professor Elm, who had abruptly stopped in front of him. Startled, Derek staggered back, his arms flailing as he attempted to keep his balance. He ended up tripping over his own two feet, tumbling backwards onto the ground.
Derek opened his mouth to yell at the inattentive Professor, but his anger trailed off when he saw the look on Elm's face. The Professor was staring straight ahead, his eyes wide open in shock. The crumpled piece of paper, which he had been studying so thoroughly before, had been dropped unceremoniously onto the ground.
Glancing around the Professor, Derek couldn't help but let a small gasp escape his lips at the sight before him. Professor Elm's lab, the symbol of New Bark Town, was aflame. A great black cloud of ash billowed out of the structure, while flames eagerly danced through the remains of windows, reaching eagerly to the sky almost as if it wanted to fly away to the great blue beyond. Down below, a mob of people, both assistants from the lab and residents of the town alike, were battling the blaze, doing everything they could to try to contain the inferno.
No… Derek thought, the scene in front of him flashing back to those from his dream. No, no, no, no, no…
"My lab!" Elm finally whispered, temporarily breaking Derek out of his thoughts. Immediately Elm set off at a mad dash towards his lab, stray papers flying out of the pockets of his coat as he did so. Derek scrambled to his feet and took a few steps forward, not really knowing what he could do to help, when a flicker of movement caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. Pivoting on his feet, he turned and saw two men completely dressed in black dashing off into the forest.
"Hey!" Derek shouted, and before he even knew what he was doing, his legs had started moving by themselves and he was chasing after them. "Stop!"
Hearing the shouting behind them, the two men stalled, turning to see who was shouting. When they saw it was just a kid, they grinned at each other, and calmly slowed down to a stop.
"Well now, what have we here?" the first man asked, sneering at Derek. Now that they had stopped running, Derek could now see that the men were wearing gray boots and gloves along with their black clothing and hats. One of them even had a brown duffle bag strung over his shoulder, which clashed horribly with the rest of his outfit. The weirdest thing about the two men, though, was the fact that they had large red Rs plastered across their chests.
"Get out of here, kid," the man with the duffle bag said gruffly.
"W-who are you?" Derek asked, a sudden feeling of nervousness overtaking him. Maybe this wasn't such a good idea.
"Who are we?" the first man repeated, laughing. "Oh, man, and here I thought that any old moron off the street would be able to recognize who we are. The giant red R on our shirts aren't dead giveaways or anything."
"Still," the second man said, grinning at his comrade, "we might want to make sure it stays that way. Want to do the honors?"
"Sure, why not?" the first man replied, grabbing a red and white sphere from his belt. Still grinning, he tossed the orb into the sky, which split open and released a blinding flash of white light. Derek squinted against the glare, but luckily for him, it faded away to nothing almost as quickly as it came.
Unfortunately for him, he now had a new set of problems: a tiny, purple bat was now fluttering in the air near the area the ball had split open. At the sight of the Pokémon, Derek immediately recoiled. It was a repulsive thing, lacking many main body parts that any normal creature should have, such as legs and eyes. In return, it had a dark, gaping hole of a mouth, complete with a set of razor-sharp fangs, which dominated most of its face.
"Go Zubat, use Supersonic!" the man shouted.
And then the bat screeched. It was an awful, ear-splitting noise that forced Derek to press his hands against his ears in an attempt to try to block it out. A few birdssitting in a nearby tree squawked in surprise and took to the air, flying away as fast as they could from the noise. The two men, meanwhile, simply stood there smirking, unaffected by the attack.
"Now Zubat, how about a Wing Attack?" the man suggested. Zubat chattered happily, flapping his wings a few times to gain some altitude. He then flipped around in the air, wings beginning to glow. With a sudden burst of speed, he darted forward, his glowing wings leaving behind a faint trail of light. Before Derek even knew what was happening, Zubat's right appendage slashed against his shoulder, making him cry out in pain from the sudden and surprisingly powerful attack.
But the Zubat wasn't done. Wheeling around in the air, he attacked Derek from behind, this time hitting the back of his knee and sending him tumbling backwards onto the ground.
"How pathetic," the second man sneered. "He can't even defend himself from a simple attack like that. What the hell was he thinking chasing after us like that?"
"He obviously wasn't," the first man replied. "Let's make this a lesson he won't soon forget then, eh? Zubat, Leech Life. Aim for the neck."
"No!" Derek cried as he tried to scramble to his feet, not really knowing how he was going to stop the Zubat. Already the bat was wheeling around again to face him, his fangs glittering menacingly against the black backdrop of his gaping mouth.
"Eevee, use Tackle!"
Barely registering the foreign voice in his head, Derek had no time to react when a streak of brown suddenly shot out of the bushes, crashing into the purple bat. The Zubat was taken completely off guard by the sudden attack, and both he and the brown ball of fur went tumbling onto the forest floor.
The fur ball recovered first, having been the attacker and not the one on the receiving end. She bounced away from the Zubat, landing in a crouch in front of Derek, her back to him. Now that she wasn't moving, Derek could see that the creature was a fox of some sort with brown and cream-colored fur. She also had a freakishly large pair of ears which stood straight up in the air, apparently listening for something.
"What the…?" the grunt with the duffle bag said, taking a step back in surprise from the random appearance of the Eevee.
"Tackle again!"
Immediately, the brown fox sprang into action, this time charging straight for the man with the bag, head tucked down and ears pressed against the sides of her head.
"I don't think so," the first man growled. "Zubat, Wing Attack!"
The purple bat screeched angrily as he pushed himself off the ground. This was by no means an easy thing to do, as he had to bend his wings in an odd angle before he could take off fully. Still, he managed to get back into the air, and took off for his new target, Derek forgotten for the time being. Eevee saw the attack coming out of the corner of her eye and tried to sidestep the charge. Zubat proved to be a bit too quick, though, and he crashed into Eevee as she attempted to turn, sending them both tumbling away once again.
"Got'cha!"
Behind the two men, the bushes shuttered and parted, and a girl around Derek's age leapt out like some deranged animal and jumped on the second man, her blue and brown gloved hands scrambling at the bag he was wearing.
"Hey!" the man shouted, taken by surprise. Still, he was bigger than the girl, and simply grabbed the bag and pulled, confident that he could simply rip it out of her hands. He succeeded in ripping it, as the strap she was holding snapped from the brown bag, sending it and its contents flying towards Derek. It landed upside-down on the grass near him, spilling papers and various items everywhere, including a single red and white sphere that rolled in his direction, coming to a stop about ten feet away in the grass.
"Why you little…Koffing, get her!" the man growled, tossing another one of the balls at the girl. Once again it split open with a burst of white light; only this time, the creature that was revealed looked different from the Zubat. It wasn't even a bat. Instead, it was a purple floating ball littered with craters, which were releasing puffs of putrid-smelling smoke into the air. It even had two eyes and a mouth that was lit up in a creepy grin. But that wasn't what was unusual about this thing; rather, it was the fact that there was a skull and crossbones etched into its skin, making it look like a miniature purple moon that had been taken over by pirates.
"Tackle that girl," he growled.
"Kof," the levitating orb replied, sounding a bit too happy. Rolling forward through the air, he barreled straight for the brown-haired girl. But instead of running away or trying to dodge the charging Pokémon, she simply stood her ground, a small smile on her face. Then, with surprising speed, she twisted around to the left, swinging her right foot out and connecting with Koffing's body. The roundhouse kick sent the Poison Gas Pokémon bouncing away, not really sure what had hit him.
"That all you got?" she asked cheekily, grinning at the flustered man.
"Vee!"
The girl's attention to shifted back to the fox, who had cried out in pain. While she had been distracted by the bag and Koffing, Eevee and Zubat had continued to fight each other. But without the orders from her trainer to help her through the fight, Eevee was no match for Zubat, who had quickly pinned her to the ground, his fangs clamped down on the back of her neck.
"Eevee!" the girl cried, taking a few steps to her Pokémon. She didn't make it far, however, as the second man and his Koffing blocked her path, the latter having a rapidly growing red spot on the side of his body from where she had kicked him.
"And just where do you think you're going?" the man asked, scowling. "Koffing, teach her a lesson with your Poison Gas."
Inhaling sharply, the Koffing's body expanded as he gathered as much air as he possibly could into it. Then, when he had filled his lungs completely, he smiled slightly, before releasing a cloud of purple gas from all of the holes littered across his body. The gas surrounded the girl, who immediately started coughing as the poison entered her lungs. Meanwhile, her Eevee seemed to be getting weaker and weaker with each passing moment as her energy was literally sucked out of her by the Zubat's fangs.
"No…Eevee…" the girl muttered in between coughing fits, clutching her throat as she was smothered by the Poison Gas.
Derek, meanwhile, seemed to have been forgotten by the two men and their Pokémon as they dealt with the girl. Seeing that she was in trouble, he scanned the area around him, looking for something that he could use that might help her. There was the bag the man had dropped, pieces of paper, another one of those red and white balls… There! Sprinting over to the bushes near where the bag had landed, Derek bent down and grabbed a fallen tree branch off of the ground. Gripping it in both hands, he charged forward, swinging the branch around like a baseball bat at the Koffing.
There was a snapping sound, and the branch splintered and snapped in two as it came down on Koffing. The blow was enough to distract the Koffing from his attack, the toxic gas temporarily coming to a sudden stop. That was pretty much the only thing the blow did though, as the Koffing seemed more pissed off than hurt when he turned around to glare at Derek.
"Er…Hello there," Derek said nervously as he backed away from the Poison Gas Pokémon, hiding the broken end of the stick behind his back.
"Little twerp," the second man growled. "Koffing, Tackle him."
Derek yelped and turned to run, but he didn't have a chance at outrunning the Koffing. A second later the purple ball of gas plowed into his back, sending him stumbling forward into the dirt.
Chuckling at his hit, Koffing turned back to his trainer for further instructions, and was met with a face-full of foot as the brown haired girl snuck up from behind and delivered another roundhouse kick. The blow sent him spinning into Zubat, dislodging the bat from Eevee and sending them both tumbling away. The girl immediately erupted in a fit of coughing as she tried to stumble to her Eevee. The furry Pokémon was lying in the dirt a ways away, almost completely drained of energy.
"I'm getting tired of this," the first man growled as Zubat and Koffing shook off the blows they received and quickly returned to the air. "Zubat, hit that girl with a Wing Attack."
"Tackle her, Koffing," the second man grunted.
Koffing and Zubat grinned at each other, before charging at the girl, who was entirely focused on her barely-conscious Eevee. "No," Derek said as he once again glanced around quickly for something, anything that might help. Stick? No, that didn't work before. Rock? Nope, none that were big enough to do any real damage.
And then he saw it: the red and white sphere that he had noticed before. Almost without thinking about what he was doing, he grabbed the ball and threw it at the charging Poison-types. It split open in another flash of white light, blinding those around it and stopping the charging Zubat and Koffing in their tracks.
As the light died down, Derek couldn't help but groan at what he saw. Standing in front of the girl and the Eevee was a small, mouse-like creature. It was covered from head to foot in fur, most of which was a cream color. The fur on its back, however, was mostly a royal blue, save for four random oval patches of yellow fur. The most unusual part of the Pokémon, though, had to be its head, whose main feature was a long snout. That, and the fact that its eyes seemed to be permanently closed as it looked around gave it a rather odd appearance.
Tilting his head back, the mouse let out a loud, high-pitched yawn. He then blinked a few times, or at least, Derek thought he blinked as his closed eyes seemed to twitch slightly. Then, not recognizing his surroundings, the mouse tilted his head and simply said, "Quil?"
Well, this is just great. Derek thought to himself. I've got two guys who are about ready to kill me for finding out about them stealing something from Professor Elm, and they've got a crazy, blood-sucking bat that doesn't have any eyes but can somehow still see where stuff is and a beach ball that looks like it's been taken over by pirates. And what do I have on my side? A crazy forest girl who's inhaled too much gas, a half-dead fox, and a mouse. Yeah, this isn't going to end well.
Apparently, a somewhat similar thought process was going on inside of the other two men's heads, as they simply looked at each other and grinned. "A Cyndaquil, eh?" the first one said. "No big deal. Zubat, shift your target to that rat."
"Yeah, you too Koffing," the second man said, sounding a bit too nonchalant about the new enemy.
"Er…um…" Derek stammered as the two Poison-types resumed their charge, this time focusing on the thing he had just released. "Uh…attack them?"
The Cyndaquil tilted his head again, and turned to look at Derek in confusion, obviously not understanding what was being asked of him. Derek didn't even have time to say anything else before both of the men's Pokémon rammed into the Cyndaquil, causing him to let out a cry of surprise as he was thrown backwards.
"What the hell…do you think you're doing?" the girl coughed, glancing up at him from her fox.
"I have no idea," Derek grumbled under his breath. "Alright mouse thing…um…why don't you…um…go and hit them?" he suggested. Hearing the command, Cyndaquil simply blinked in confusion, still not understanding what he was supposed to be doing.
The first man snorted. "Arceus, are you stupid or something boy? Zubat, let's make this quick. Use—"
Before the man could finish his order, a beeping sound suddenly filled the air. Cursing, the man pulled out a device from his pocket that looked almost like a watch except with a much larger screen. Glancing at it, he cursed again, looking over at his comrade. "HQ is wondering what's taking so long," he said simply.
The second man grunted. "Who cares? HQ won't mind how long we take as long as we get the job done. 'Sides, I'm having fun."
"Idiot," the first man growled. "Don't you remember who gave us this mission? If we don't get back to the ship soon, Lorvina is going to put us on cleaning duty for the next month. And I really don't want to get stuck cleaning out those damn Rattata cages again."
"Good point," the second man responded, a shiver involuntarily going down his spine. "So what's the plan?"
"Isn't it obvious? Grab the bag and the papers and run. Forget about the Cyndaquil; it's nothing special, and we'd look like idiots bringing in such a weak Pokémon. Now then, why don't you give us some cover?"
The second man shrugged. "Alright. Koffing, you know what to do. Put up a Smokescreen."
"Kof," Koffing said happily, before once again inhaling sharply, his body expanding exponentially as he took in more and more air. Then, just when he reached maximum capacity, the girl and the Eevee, who had been kneeling on the ground a little ways away, suddenly jumped on the Koffing, surprising the Poison Gas Pokémon. The three of them crashed into the ground where Koffing released his Smokescreen, blasting a cloud of black smoke across the battlefield.
Derek coughed as he abruptly found himself trapped in the smoke cloud. Stumbling back, he was forced to cover his eyes with his arm in an attempt to shield them from the smoke. Even with the short amount of time he had spent in the smoke cloud, his eyes already had a few tears streaming out of them. Coughing and spluttering blindly, he stumbled around in the Smokescreen, no idea where he was or which direction he was going in. All he knew was that he needed to get out of the Smokescreen.
Finally, after what seemed like a few hours, Derek stumbled out of the smoke cloud. Coughing and wiping the tears from his eyes, he glanced back at the smoke cloud, which had already begun to dissipate. Within a few minutes, the cloud had faded enough to see through most of it, although Derek couldn't say he liked what he saw.
In the middle of the small clearing was the mouse thing he had released before. The thing was lying on its back, not moving. But the weirdest thing was that his eyes, which had been slits before, were now somehow swirls. If Derek had looked a little closer, he could have seen the outlines of boot prints from where the Cyndaquil had been trampled in the confusion. But he didn't, for his attention was focused on something else, or rather, the things that weren't there.
The two men, the girl, the bat, the floating gas ball, the fox, and the bag with all of its papers were nowhere to be seen.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is Renaissance! A bit different from Johto Journey, no?
I have to say, I'm pretty excited now after finishing this chapter. It's already about ten times better than its predecessor in my opinion, and it's certainly right there with TFP.
Anyway, I hope you liked the first chapter. Big thank you to my new beta, Red on the Mountaintop, for all of his help in getting this chapter hammered out and edited. Going back and trying to scrounge something out of the old JJ is hard work, and I definitely needed sorting through everything and picking out some things that I had missed.
Next chapter should be out in a few weeks, hopefully before the end of June. I've got some free time now thanks to summer vacation, so I should be able to churn out a chapter by then.
So go ahead and click that little review button at the bottom and tell me how I did. Concrit, as always, is welcomed.