Chapter 1
Saying good-bye to his home was one of the most traumatizing things Irving Eisenherz ever had to do. For fourteen years, He had lived with his younger sister, Sophia, in a moderately-sized house in one of the nicer parts of Vermilion City. He had fond memories of when he lived peacefully in this busy port city. Just yesterday, he'd visited one of the parks off of route 11 with his family. Irving regularly visited the various parks surrounding the city. The lack of other people calmed him and let him read in peace, so long as Sophia didn't bother him. Not that she usually did, as Sophia often went searching for Pokémon to observe and play with. These outings weren't exactly unusual, but Irving nevertheless cherished them. It broke his heart to know that the previous days excursion had been his last.
Irving had bigger things to worry about at the moment, though. Namely getting Sophia and himself to the next boat leaving the city. He'd already missed the previous two ships (the two of them were beaten out by more desperate, forceful passengers), and he intended to not to miss the third.
Soon enough, a large white luxury ship arrived. On the side was engraved "S.S. Maria", in big bold letters. Just like the previous two ships, the Maria was a converted passenger ship. While it was designed to take a large number of people over a long distance, the Maria was modified to cram as many people as possible into its hold. All superfluous parts were gutted to make room for extra living space. The indoor cinema and main halls were effectively turned into refugee camps. These numerous open halls could hold many hundreds of people since passenger comfort was an afterthought.
Just getting on the boat itself was unpleasant; Irving, gripping his sister's hand tight, fought his way through the boarding crowd. It was rough, but Irving used he and his sister's relative smallness to navigate onto the ship. Irving expected the passengers to be cutthroat; desperate people often were. No one was more desperate than these civilians trying to flee the rapidly increasing violence in Vermillion city. Many of these people had lost their homes or parts of their family as a side effect of the violence.
Irving was one of those unfortunate persons who had lost both their home and family. What used to be his house was now bits of wood and metal in and around a smoldering crater; his parents were just charred remains plastering this "house". Irving and Sophia both learned this the hard way. Neither of them got to say a proper good bye; they just returned home from school to find that their house had been annihilated, along with their parents. They couldn't salvage anything from their home, so they had to make do with the clothes on their backs. The only reminders of home were their Pokémon, Sophia's Psyduck and Irving's Togepi and Mudkip.
Irving lead Sophia into the bowels of the ship. His objective: secure somewhere to sleep and some food for the two of them. However, as he reached the ship's hold, Irving realized the first objective would be next to impossible. Not because there was no room; the hold was incredibly spacious. No, Irving could not "secure" a place to sleep because the sleeping arrangements were "sleep where ever you want on this empty floor". Nixing the first goal, the Eisenherz siblings made their way to the cafeteria where people were lining up for their inevitable food allotments for themselves and their Pokémon.
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Both Irving and Sophia received Pokémon for their tenth birthdays, which their parents, and society as a whole, deemed to be the correct time to learn the responsibility of Pokémon care. Everyone else got a live Pokémon from their parents, or if they were really lucky, from a local Pokémon professor. Irving, on the other hand, received a Togepi egg from his father, who was a researcher at Vermillion University. Irving remembered the disappointment the disappointment that he felt upon seeing this egg. He felt cheated; everyone else in his class got a cool creature to show off. All Irving had to show was a white egg with some colored spots on it; hardly interesting for a ten-year-old. He tried to bargain with his father, hoping for a different Pokémon. "You're ten, Irving. It's time for you to learn some responsibility; this egg is yours now and it's your responsibility to take care of it. Not everyone gets a rare Pokémon like Togepi, you know. I had to pull some strings in the university to get you one of our research Pokémon to raise. You should be more appreciative; you're very lucky, after all."
Irving's eyes lit up when he heard his father say "rare Pokémon". After all, a boring Pokémon egg was nothing, but a rare one had value. Excited, Irving ran up into his room and looked up Togepi in the Pokémon Encyclopedia. He hastily flipped through the pages, covering whole chucks of the book...A...C...F...L...Q... wondering what sort of creature Togepi would become. Irving hoped Togepi would turn into something big and powerful, something that would really impress all of the new trainers and give him a competitive edge. Reaching the "T" section of the Encyclopedia, Irving prepared to be amazed...
...and was disappointed a second time. Instead of some exotic type, like dragon or steel or psychic, Togepi would be a normal type. Lovely.
Oh, but it might have lots of good attacks; lots of normal types have big movepools to compensate...
Nope, Togepi had mostly support moves, and what few attacking moves it learns are held back by its terrible strength and speed.
It still could have an awesome evolution; after all, Magikarp does...
Nope, Togetic is just a flying Togepi, and Togekiss just sounds weak.
But father was correct; Togepis are practically impossible to find in most regions. They were almost endangered as a species. Of course they were, They couldn't fight their way out of a wet paper bag.
Irving considered complaining to dad, but he knew deep down that he'd never replace Togepi with something else. So instead, downtrodden, Irving accepted Togepi half-heartedly.
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After a short wait in the queue, Irving received his and Sophia's dole of Pokémon food. Hard and brown, the cheap food wasn't particularly delicious, but Irving had no other options to feed his Pokémon with. Setting the food on the floor in the disposable bowls it came in, Irving released Togepi and Mudkip.
"Toge-priiiii!" Togepi chirped, happy to see his owner, overpowering Mudkip's Sleepier cry. Irving wasn't in the mood to interact with his companions at the moment, so he put on the biggest smile he could conjure up and directed the two them to their food. As they began to eat, Sophia released Psyduck from its pokeball.
"psyyyy." the yellow water-bird said in his usual nasal manner. Unlike Irving, Sophia retained the disturbed look on her face that she wore all day. Psyduck didn't notice, however, because he smelled the food and also started to eat. In contrast to Togepi's small nibbles, psyduck chowed down the pokefood, shoving as much food into his mouth as possible.
Leaving their Pokémon be for now, Irving instead looked around floor at the people and Pokémon inhabiting it. The line to the food dole was the obvious attraction, as pretty much everyone on the boat had lined up to get their allotment. Despite the variety of people who were on the ship, Irving could have mistook the cafeteria for an inner city soup kitchen. Even the better off civilians were only carrying a few possessions with them, and most people were only carrying what was on their backs. But what everyone had in common was "the look", even if they didn't have the thousand-yard stare, most people just looked haggard and browbeaten. Not a single happy expression dotted the innumerable faces of the Vermillion city folk, and the tentative peace was kept by the watchful eye of the strict guard.
Irving couldn't blame people for their more violent outbursts. Everyone here had gone through hell just to get on this miserable boat, and the sheer number of people was overwhelming to say the least.
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Irving was given full responsibility of the Togepi egg the morning after his tenth birthday. He'd have to carry it for most of the day and sleep with it at night; eggs require constant warmth from the parent to develop correctly, and Irving didn't want his Togepi to be worse than it already was.
Carrying such a bulky object everywhere was a huge drag at first; Togepis weigh quite a few pounds and the egg itself was sizeable. Unlike professional Pokémon hatchers, who used special egg carriers, ergonomically designed for easy transport and efficient heat management, Irving could only immerse the egg in a warm blanket received from his parents and hug it against his chest. Whenever he went to school, Irving would constantly have his hands full. The Togepi Egg didn't leave nearly enough space on Irving's desk for comfortable writing and, as Irving learned in on nearly catastrophic incident, he couldn't leave Togepi on the floor either. Togepi came with him whenever he went to the bathroom, which meant finding a space to place to put him, maybe on the big toilet paper dispenser or maybe on the counter by the sinks, even though he could risk someone snatching togepi when he wasn't looking, and it was such a pain.
And as he'd unfortunately predicted, no one in the class gave two shits, and in most cases, not even one, about a Pokémon egg, even a supposedly rare one. Togepi could not battle, and therefore, was not of value to any of the kids, who were itching to battle with all of the other. While everyone else battled during recess, Irving sat on the sidelines, watching, holding his Togepi tight, and hoping that someone would lend him a Pokémon to join in.
Still, Irving couldn't bring himself to hate the Togepi egg. The Togepi egg radiated copious amounts of body heat, making the egg easy to sleep with during the colder months. Even when it wasn't cold, Togepi's constant presence soothed Irving. Despite being left out of most battles at school, Irving never felt lonely; unlike most of the students, who still kept their Pokémon in Pokeballs during most of the day, Irving was always with Togepi, he gradually grew attached to Togepi. He even began to talk to it like a friend when they were alone.
Forcing Irving to hatch his first Pokémon also made the reward all the sweeter. As soon as he hatched, Togepi thought of Irving as it's mother because of all the time Irving spent holding and talking to the egg (Irving being the first person Togepi saw also helped). Not only did Togepi unconditionally love Irving, Togepi also happened to be Irving's kind of Pokémon. He turned out to be calm by nature, so he fit with Irving's usually low key personality. Togepi was the kind of Pokémon who Irving could have sit on his lap, completely still, while he was reading or doing homework. Togepi wasn't much of a hassle to take care, either, requiring little food or exercise. Because of these positive traits, Irving regarded Togepi as his best friend, someone who Irving could rely on consistently providing company.
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As the three Pokémon finished eating their food, a voice came over the ship's speaker system.
"Attention all passengers. We are now departing for Canalave city."
The announcement came too soon for Irving's liking. Not that Irving thought he could stay, but deep down, he hoped that they wouldn't have to leave. He felt a poke in his sides and turned his head to Sophia.
"Irving, can we go outside?" she said, choking up a little. "Please."
"Of course, we can. Let's go take a look."
This was going to be painful.
Irving followed Sophia to railing on the side facing Vermillion city. The two of them took one last look at their hometown. It was from a different angle than they were used to, but Irving still recognized all of the landmarks: the dockyards where Irving watched many a ship come and go on a slow day, the flat construction site which Irving hoped would get turned into something but knew would never amount to anything, and the Vermillion Gym right on the water's edge. Their neighborhood to the north of the city was also visible, though their former house invisible behind the foliage and other houses.
Sophia tugged at Irving's shirt.
"Irving..."
Before Irving could respond, Sophia embraced him and buried her head in his chest. Irving returned the hug and Sophia began sobbing. Irving knew that Sophia would be a mess because of this; she never could deal with loss very well. Hell, even Irving couldn't keep the tears in. His checks got progressively wetter as he watched from the moving boat as the city disappeared into the distance.
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The two off them stayed on the deck for a while, neither really in the mood to stay inside in the hustle and bustle of the inner hold. Vermillion had long since disappeared into the sea. In spite of the somber mood, Togepi, Psyduck, and Mudkip happily ran around the deck, tagging and playing with each other. Sophia didn't have the energy to play with them and instead was sleeping on one of the deck chairs. The Pokémon seemed to be fine by themselves, so Irving had been sitting on the deck chair next to Sophia, watching the sea. Needing some engagement after staring into the distance for so long, Irving picked up a newspaper that someone had left on one of the nearby chairs.
It was a copy of The Vermillion Standard, the city's main newspaper. While not terribly exceptional as a news source, this newspaper was the only thing Irving had to read at the moment, so he didn't care. On the front page was a headline similar to the ones he'd seen in previous installments.
"Death Toll Rises as Fighting in Vermillion City Escalates"
As if Irving needed more reminders. Irving lived in the Northern Vermillion City suburbs, where the fighting was violently escalating. He'd even seen some the fighting himself, although not for long. Still, Irving's boredom compelled him to read on.
Yesterday, clashes in the suburb of Napierville resulted in the deaths of 8 police officers and an unknown number of civilians and Rebels. The Hoenn-based Pokémon World Observatory reported that the fighting in Vermillion city intensified over the last week, resulting in a series of deadly clashes similar to the one that happened yesterday.
Vermillion city Police commissioner Nick Ramsey had this to say:
"It is regrettable that these 8 officers died in the line of duty, and my heart goes out to their families. Arceus willing, we will see an end to this fighting soon, and these Team ROCKET Rebels will receive their due punishment. Until then, expect the Vermillion City Police Department to fight with every ounce of our strength."
These clashes coincide with a recent Rebel offensive in the east of Vermillion city. National Guard Brigade leader Colonel Ray Osborne stated that these attacks were carried out with the intent to gain control of the Diglett Tunnel, a vital supply line from Pewter city. Although these attacks have been vicious, Osborne predicts that the Kanto National Army (KNA) will put up stiff resistance and prevail.
Enough of that. Irving wasn't terribly in the mood to read more about how the whole country was going to shit. Besides, it was getting late; the ship's staff were in the process of rounding everyone up for dinner. Irving wasn't hungry at the moment, but thought it prudent to follow orders.
"Sophia. Hey, Sis." Irving whispered to Sophia, while mildly shaking her. "Wake up."
"Huh." Sophia said groggily, still half-asleep.
"It's time for dinner. Everyone's going inside."
"Oh, okay." Sophia replied as she got out of her deck chair.
Irving and Sophia returned their Pokémon to their Pokéballs and made their way inside. Once again, the line was way too long for comfort, but Irving & Sophia waited on it anyway, getting their bowls full of indiscernible slop. They sat down in the least populated area of the ship they could find and ate in silence for a little while. Neither of them had the energy to continue eating, so they discarded their food and went to the general hall to stake a claim on some area of the ship to stay at.
As luck would have it there was an empty space against one of the walls in a smaller room that hadn't been claimed yet. It wasn't exactly a soft fancy mattress, but given the relative quietness of the whole area, Irving didn't care. The two of them sat down, Irving laying against the wall and Sophia resting her head in his lap, and promptly collapsed from exhaustion.
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AN: Hey, Everyone (All one of you reading this)! Spah here.
You may be thinking to yourself, "Hey, Spah. Didn't I read a shorter version of this a while ago."
Why yes you did. This here is a remake of the my previous story Peace of Mind/Vengeance/Whatever.
I realized that the writing wasn't up to snuff, and more importantly, It didn't have any real overall planning to it, which would hurt it in the long run.
So anyway, Rate & Review please. I'll make sure to cherish each message, so long as it isn't flaming (negative constructive criticism is always welcome.)
Seeya!