Streaks of lightning lacerated the skies of Viridian City, and salted the earth with a sea of flames. Gales fanned the inferno in the face of the booming downpour that had enveloped the coastline in a flash flood. Entire ecosystems were drowning in the howling tempest, and temperatures fluctuated wildly, setting on centigrade spikes that dwarfed Mount Silver as they moved from freezing point to heat-wave territory and everywhere in between. Route 1 saw the face of Armageddon, carved out by the divine wrath of wicked black clouds bubbling and bleeding sparks into the earth. It was completely unprecedented.
A lone chopper whipped against the cyclonic winds, tilting dangerously. The doors opened, and a blonde reporter surveyed the hellscape beneath her, signalling her cameraman by hand to start rolling in thirty seconds.
"My god…" she gasped. "This… what is this?"
"Hell on earth, Gabby," He deadpanned while adjusting the camera lens. "Take it in. We're wired to National and rolling in twenty. Don't fall out, though, because I'm not coming to get you."
Gabby took a deep breath. "Yeah… sure, asshat."
She swallowed to moisten her parched throat before burying a shiver. This storm was unlike anything she had seen in her eight years of disaster reporting. The raw carnage it unleashed even on the pokemon most adept at survival was morbid. One could see bodies washed away in rapids. Dead or alive, human or pokemon, checking them was signing your own death warrant.
"Gabby! Get ready, we're rolling in three, two, one…!"
Televisions all over the region now viewing Kanto News would show viewers the hellscape outside Viridian. The camera rolled with a flash of lightning, followed by a sickening CRACK to fade the reporter's voice in.
"Good evening, Kanto! This is Gabby Wilson, coming at you live overlooking the site of disaster from Viridian Airspace. You are now viewing live footage of day three of this mysterious weather phenomenon that decimated Fuchsia coastlines last week. Routes 1, 22 and 17 have officially been branded ground zero for the hurricane that Weather Institutes are now dubbing Kingdra. People in Viridian have been ordered to stay in their homes with windows shut and doors locked, but things are far worse than protocol presents. We're moving in for a closer look now!"
The cameraman nearly jumped out of his skin.
"What're you thinking?" he hollered after muting the audio. "Are you trying to get us killed?"
Gabby frowned and got out of the camera's way. "The people need a closer look, now quit arguing and adjust! We're going in!"
"You can't be serious!"
"Get us in closer, Captain! Over." She spoke into her walkie-talkie to the pilot.
"Copy that, ma'am," he replied through static. "Hold on tight. Over."
"You crazy woman-"
Much to the cameraman's horror, their chopper swerved dangerously, riding the gales to decrease altitude. He cursed under his breath when the turbulence nearly capsized them, and howling winds drenched the interior in water both scalding and freezing. They narrowly avoided a twisting tendril of lightning, and the chopper blades whipped valiantly against relentless rain.
The copter finally stabilised, and Gabby ordered audio re-link before stepping into the spotlight visibly drenched. She surveyed the sight below, taking in the pandemonium brought on by nature.
"As you can see, the devastation runs deep, and while sources confirm that aid from both Unova and Sinnoh has arrived through their embassies, with Kalos on the trail, they're still ninety miles off. Viridian will be forced to hold out until… wait a moment…" She was a professional, but the sight she saw would have baffled anyone into a stammer. "It… it looks like a person! Out in this storm!"
The cameraman, while still fuming, took the cue to focus the lens and zoom in on the scene anyway. With angular perfection through the tempest's deluge, he captured what looked like the back of a young man in a cap and red jacket.
"Ladies and gentlemen, it looks like we have a trainer out here; timed 17:43. Identity unknown. Zooming in for a closer look…"
The camera zoomed in further on the boy – he couldn't have been more than seventeen years old – but alongside a poliwhirl, he braved elements even seasoned veterans trembled at the thought of. Fighting against the rain, he gave an inaudible order, and his poliwhirl sent streaking tendrils of energy that wove ice into helical bridges and formed a frigid platform with a set of bars to maneuver with. He leapt, latching on to the makeshift monkey bars before moving slowly towards a nearby tree.
The reporter and her cameraman were speechless, and the footage just continued in silence. Gabby then caught herself. "Um… uh, we're seeing… uhm… what looks like a rescue by a… a trainer."
Shifting focus, the cameraman zoomed in maximally to show the tree this boy was climbing towards. And there it was, trapped under a splintered fallen branch: a trembling ghost pokemon.
"Citizens of Kanto, there is a drifloon trapped in the tree! This is now a live rescue. We cannot get any closer, but prayer is still an option…" She covered her mic and muttered, "This is suicide…"
=====#=====
The whirring chopper blades were drowned out by the hammering deluge, and a lone trainer vaulted from one icy bar to the next. He soldiered on unfazed through the deafening thunderclaps and visceral thunderbolts, dead set on his objective.
"Keep the ice strong, Poli! I'm almost there!" he hollered over the winds, glancing reassuringly towards the poor, trapped drifloon. "Don't worry! I'm coming to get you!"
With a final swing of his body that shattered the ice bar, the boy launched himself onto a tree branch. He hauled himself up, scraping moist splinters and mold onto his shirt, and balanced on the gale-rocked branch. His jacket fluttered and nearly knocked him over into the flood rapids below.
Yikes, that was almost a life insurance plan cashed out… wait, do I even have one of those? He took slow steps towards the terrified balloon pokemon. An imported pet from Sinnoh; it belonged to one of his neighbours from Pallet Town and had been swept away in a gust. The old lady had been worried sick since, so leave it to him to commit to this cause. Nice going, Red. He grit his teeth. You are in for the lecture of a lifetime when you get out of this.
"Hey, don't worry! Hold still, and I'll get you out of there!" Even at their proximity, he had to yell to be heard. "Ugh… hold on tight."
The drifloon radiated fear, but at the moment, it was smart enough to know its options were limited. It wrapped its free arm around Red's shoulder, and the boy threw caution to the wind to muster the strength to free the pokemon. He cried out as splinters dug into his gloved hands. Horrible day to go fingerless.
Quipping mentally always kept him tuned out of the severity of his situations. He had a knack for getting into bad ones.
The wood creaked and moaned as its bark cracked under the pressure, but he managed to lift it. Red worked fast to sweep out the drifloon's crushed arm before promptly dropping the branch. The entire tree shook, but he held fast, cradling the balloon pokemon in his arms.
"You're gonna be okay… shh, it's over," he reassured it. "I'm taking you home."
Red turned to his poliwhirl in the water and gave it a thumbs-up; then he looked towards the sky, balancing himself against the chopper blades' whiplash. His confident smile made the perfect shot for the camera up close, which finally came into focus through the torrential downpour.
"So, think you can get us a stepladder?" he called over the wind. "Help would be seriously nice right now!"
Then – KRA-KA-KA-KOOM! A ferocious thunderbolt arced straight into the helicopter's tail rotor. It didn't stand a chance, swiveling dangerously off-course in a spinning descent.
Oh god… Red's eyes widened when he saw the vehicle crashing and burning, sending signals of panic through the desolate skies. Smoke billowed from the tail as the interior was rocked to its core. Live transmission worldwide cut off from the amperage overload frying circuits, with the last words from Gabby on air being 'We've been hit!'
Red watched in horror as the chopper descended upon the tree he was squatted on. This was it. The end. He shut his eyes tight, waiting to pass with the drifloon tight and secure in his embrace.
The end did not come. The sickening creak of bending metal overshadowed the downpour. Mighty wingbeats flapped away the rain, twisting winds around the regal form of a gargantuan dragonoid with orange scales glistening in lightning flashes. It handled the chopper like a toy in its massive claws, and its tiny wings easily packed the power to save them all from certain doom. Red could only gawk.
"Southern perimeter secured. The bird's safe and sound; I'm having Dragonite shut their doors," a lean man in a red cape said into his communicator. He radiated power. The power to take command of the most powerful trainers in Kanto. The power to remain calm in this otherworldly cataclysm. The power and strength of character to control mighty beasts like the dragonite he was mounted on. It obeyed promptly, using its claws to force the chopper doors shut. This would prevent the pair inside from falling right out.
"Bruno, status report on the north, stat. Agatha and Lorelei have lockdown on their objective." After a radio pause, he nodded. "Copy that. Reconvene at Indigo Plateau once you ensure the safety of the injured. Disaster Control should take it from here on out."
The communications cut off, leaving a completely awestruck Red squatting on a tree in the rain. His grip on drifloon tightened to the point of making it squirm.
"Ohmygod…" He breathed, "You're- you're Lance! Like one of the Elite Four-"
"And you're out a little late on a school night." Lance scoffed as wrinkles formed on his forehead. "What gave you the bright idea to come out here in the middle of a Cat. 5?"
"W-Well…" He averted his gaze, and his voice lowered to a whisper. "I was just trying to help out."
"Where do you live?"
Red raised his voice over the rain. "Pallet Town, sir, Lance sir!"
"Really now?" He raised a brow, almost unable to swallow that such a brave – or foolish – young man was from a village outback. With a click of his tongue, the Dragon Master extended a hand. "Alright, then, hop on."
Dragonite hoisted the helicopter onto its shoulder, carrying it like a sack of potatoes. It found no strain in flapping those tiny wings to keep itself afloat. Bobbing in the air, it turned around and lowered itself to close distance between its master and the boy. Red could only stare open-mouthed at Lance's extended hand, unable to meet the man's intense gaze.
"We're taking you home."
With a gulp he took his hand and jumped on board with drifloon still holding on to his shoulder. Then, the world whizzed into a blur as they left even the sonic booms behind. Red could not see or hear much, but he could think, and one thought haunted him beyond the adrenaline rush.
I am so grounded…
X===== FIN =====X
A/N: Hello, and welcome to the first project on this page! I don't promise a lot of stories due to the volatility of my schedule, or a lot of updates because life can be a b!tch and I do this as a hobby for now, but I'm going to try and keep things as consistent as possible.
The wallpaper is an amalgam of different images I found on google, and while there was transformative work put into the editing, I don't wanna be a bitch with fair use. The following document contains credit for all the images used in the creation of the fanfic cover.
[https:] / [docs ] . [google ] document / d / 17cjN n8fgI 4T7kt agFuze WXh 666 jzGJtv 3D yqgYqL ohk / e dit ? us p = sha r ing
ADD A DOT COM SLASH AFTER google AND REMOVE ALL THE SPACES AND SQUARE BRACKETS IN THE LINK ^^
With that out of the way, I look forward to seeing the lot of you next time! Reviews are highly appreciated, as I'm always trying to get better at my craft, so drop a few if you're feeling generous. If you like this story, share it with your friends, and maybe consider giving it a follow. Hopefully, I won't disappoint you.
Good day!