Part 1
Wally bent over as another coughing fit struck him, one hand covering his mouth and the other braced against the wall for support. Luckily, it was only a medium fit, and was able to breathe again after about twenty seconds. Gasping slightly, he straightened up and realized he wasn't alone.
One of the occupying soldiers stood in the street a few feet away, the light from the flashlight they held between them highlighting the red hair that fell to the soldier's shoulders.
"G-Good evening, s-sir." Wally stammered, dropping his gaze to the cracked pavement. Not showing respect might get him in trouble.
"What are you doing out here?" the soldier snapped, revealing himself to be both male and a few years older than Wally. Although there was no curfew imposed, it was an unwritten rule that citizens didn't venture out after dark.
"Just out for some air, sir." That, and he wanted to let Ralts out for some exercise. It had been nearly a week since she had gotten any meaningful time outside her Pokeball.
"Some air, huh?" the solider repeated, marching up to the teen and grabbing his chin. Sharp grey eyes bore into his face, searching to for any hint of dishonesty. "You sick or something?"
"Sort of, sir. I've been ill nearly all my life." He had gotten better living in the fresh air after being sent to the small town, but the stress and strain of the war arriving on his doorstep had brought everything back. At least Ralts had done her best to help him cope over the six long years of occupation.
The solider didn't respond, simply releasing his chin and doing a slow circuit around the teen. "What's your name, kid?"
"Wally, I.D. Number 96. Dependant of Household 45." he said automatically as the solider circled him again.
"What kind of Pokemon you got there, kid?" the solider asked, apparently ignoring his answer and coming to a halt in front of him. The teen stiffened, fear flooding through him. The other male had noticed Ralt's Pokeball!
"A R-Ralts, sir." he murmured, eyes fixed on the cracked pavement yet again. What would happen now? Would Ralts be taken away from him? Others in the town had been allowed to keep their Pokemon, but Ralts were rare and powerful.
"Hand it over." the solider ordered, and Wally did his best to hold back tears as he removed the miniaturized Pokeball from his pocket and placed it in the waiting hand. He had hidden her for so long from the people occupying his town, and now his worst nightmare had come true.
"Take care of her, please? Please, sir?" He was begging and he hated it, but he didn't want to see his beloved Ralts shipped off to the front lines and treated like just another tool of war.
"Hmph, so you're the sentimental type." the solider muttered, and Wally raised his eyes to stare at him in growing horror. Noticing his gaze, the older teen snapped, "Oh, don't look so scared! A Ralts will make a good addition to my team - I won't treat it too badly." Adjusting his cap, the solider added with a sigh, "Now go home, kid. You're holding up my patrol."
Nodding silently, Wally shuffled off in the direction of home, coughing weakly as tears streamed down his face. Even with Ralts being taken, he didn't hate the solider, since the older teen was just doing his job and following orders. But knowing that didn't lessen the pain.
"Hey." Wally looked up from the book he was pretending to read to see the solider who had taken Ralts standing over him. Several weeks had passed since that incident, and this was one of the few times he had gone outside the house. Even the bright spring sunshine seemed dimmer without his friend.
"What is it, sir?" he asked dully, flipping the book closed.
The solider looked uncomfortable for a moment, then unclipped a Pokeball from his belt and tossed it into Wally's lap. "Take it."
The teen looked between the Pokeball and the solider, confusion mingling with hope. "Is…is this…?" he asked breathlessly, picking the ball up and cupping it gently in his hands. It couldn't be possible, could it? Was he actually getting Ralts back?
The soldier remained stubbornly silent with a cross look on his face, so Wally gently released the Pokemon inside.
"La~ Kirlia!" The Pokemon exclaimed as it materialized, its one visible eye sparkling with happiness.
"R-Ralts? Is that you?" Wally asked shakily, feeling the familiar tug on his mind from the Psychic-type. Kirlia nodded and quickly embraced him, emotions flowing across the re-established link between them.
Wiping tears from his eyes, the teen turned to the solider still standing beside him, noticing that he was pointedly ignoring the reunion. "Thank you, sir. But why?" Ralts - Kirlia - certainly wasn't useless, and it was clear that she had gone through some form of training.
"That Pokemon wouldn't listen to a word I said. Completely disobedient. Disobedience equals weakness, and I hate weak Pokemon." the solider said stiffly, staring towards the other end of the town.
Following his gaze, Wally saw several covered trucks moving slowly into the settlement, a ragged line of soldiers follow them. Some were letting their Pokemon carry them or hitching rides in battered Jeeps, but most were on foot. He frowned and looked away, knowing what they signified - a battle had been fought recently near Mauville. The city had been under siege for five years now, and his town was being used as secondary base as well as a safe place for wounded soldiers to recover. Although the occupying army seemed to have taken heavy casualties, it was impossible to tell which side had won. Verdanturf got little outside information aside from propaganda and a little news from underground resistance, and it would be foolish to ask.
"T-Thanks again, sir." he muttered quietly in an effort to break the silence that had descended on them.
"What? Oh. Whatever, kid." the solider said dismissively. Risking another look, Wally saw his attention was focused on another solider running towards them.
"Captain! You're needed at HQ." the woman called, slowing to a walk as she neared the tree. A blue bandana was worn in place of the cap most of the other soldiers sported, signifying she was a former Team Aqua member. More interesting to the teen was the fact that the solider with him was a captain - his uniform was just the basic one and bore no medals or signs of his rank.
Realizing the female solider was eying Kirlia greedily, Wally quickly recalled her, dropping his eyes to the grass. He didn't want to lose his friend a second time, not when he had so recently gotten her back.
"That Pokemon is useless to us, so get lost! I'll be back in a minute." the captain growled at his subordinate.
"Yes, sir!" she responded, and the teen watched her boots as she turned and strode briskly off towards the centre of town.
"Kid." The sharp word made Wally freeze, but he stopped himself from looking up into those hard grey eyes. "Keep yourself out of trouble." the captain said curtly before following the other solider, not even waiting for a response. The teen slowly lifted his eyes to stare uneasily after them. Was the older teen protecting him? It sounded like that might be the case, but why? He was just a regular citizen with an apparently un-trainable Kirlia. Had he done something to attract attention? That was bad, if it meant more midnight searches of his uncle's house and suspicion from their neighbours. Raising a fist to his mouth to cover a cough, Wally hoped the captain would ignore him from now on. He didn't want any trouble. He just wanted to survive this war and live his own life.
"Out for more air, kid?" the sarcastic voice of the red-headed captain made him freeze in the alleyway, cursing his luck. Well, there was no point in lying, so Wally turned slowly to face the older teen and spoke as calmly as he could.
"No, Capt- er, sir. I…I was hoping to get some training in." Such activity by the resident trainers of the town wasn't illegal, but it was frowned upon as a sign of possible resistance activity.
"At this time of night?"
"Kirlia is a rare Pokemon, sir. If I do it during the day, someone might see me." he explained, staring at the ground. It was stressful enough to walk around in the daylight with the miniaturized Pokeball in his pocket. Training in the open was impossible.
"So you're willing to risk getting arrested as a resistance member? Others might call that bravery, but I call it stupidity. Right?" the captain said with a snort.
"Snee." Surprised by the unexpected answer, Wally looked up to see a Sneasel crouched on the older teen's shoulder. The Pokemon stared back at him, then sniffed derisively and looked away. Clearly, it agreed with its master about the state of his intelligence.
"Come on." the captain said, turning away and starting to walk down the alley. When the teen didn't move, he looked back and sighed. "Listen kid, I'm not going to force you to come with me. But it's either come with me or risk getting caught by another patrol."
Seeing he didn't have much choice in the matter, Wally reluctantly nodded and fell into place a few steps behind the older teen. They walked in silence, and he slowly realized that he wasn't getting an escort back to his uncle's home - he was being taken on a patrol of the town. "Um…" he started, then stopped. Would it be wise to ask a question?
"You can go home once we get near your place. Or…" the captain hesitated, then finished stiffly, "Or you can keep on with me. I don't mind if you do."
Wally mulled over the situation. He kind of liked being with this solider - he wasn't overly mean to the younger male, and while the sudden interest was worrying, it was sort of nice. Mostly the soldiers either ignored the townsfolk or ordered them around like they were Pokemon.
"I'll stay, sir." he said quietly, seeing the Sneasel glance back and glower at him before facing forwards again. The captain simply nodded and kept walking.
Somehow, joining the captain for his patrol became just another habit. They were almost always at night, and the rounds never lasted much past midnight, but Wally quickly adjusted to the schedule. His uncle caught him sneaking back in one night and demanded to be told what was going on, but once informed, hesitantly agreed to allow his nephew to keep going out. The neighbours probably knew, but no one said anything. As long as it didn't result in extra favours for Wally's family or trouble for themselves, they saw no need to interfere.
"What's your name, kid?" the captain asked one night as they sought shelter under a tree from a sudden summer shower. They were both getting dripped on, but it was better than nothing.
"Wally, sir." He didn't mind introducing himself again, since he sensed the question was asked with the intention to actually remember his name this time.
"Wally, huh…? You can't be much younger than me, then." the older teen mused softly, adding as an afterthought, "I'm nineteen, by the way."
"I'm sixteen." Wally hesitated for a moment, then ventured, "What about you, sir? You must have a name."
"Yeah. I'm Silver. Call me that, would you? You're not with us, so you using 'sir' sees a bit dumb." he answered after a few moments of watching the rain fall.
"Alright then…Silver." Wally had been mentally calling Silver 'sir' for so long that using anything else to refer to him by felt very weird. They stood in silence after that, both leaning against the tree trunk and waiting for the rain to pass.
It happened one moonless night. Wally was walking with Silver as usual when the few streetlights allowed to be lit sputtered and went out. "A blackout? But there was none scheduled…" the younger teen muttered in confusion. Control of New Mauville had been in the hands of the occupying army for several years, and while the lights generally remained on, there were times when blackouts were required.
The both stopped to see if it was just a temporary problem at the plant, but the electricity didn't return. "Must have been an attack." Silver said, glancing in the direction of the power plant. "They happen from time to time. You guys normally don't hear about them." he added by way of explanation, then said hurriedly, "But you didn't hear that from me."
"Of course not." Wally replied, the darkness hiding the faint smile that tugged at his lips. He had grown to like walking with Silver, especially now that the captain saw him as someone worthy to talk to. They didn't discuss the war much, sticking to safer topics like Pokemon training.
"Hmph. We'll have to wait and see what happens, I guess." Silver muttered, moving forward again. Wally fell in step beside him, but had hardly gone more than a few steps before a small figure appeared on the ground in front of them.
"Where's the trouble?" the captain asked sharply as Sneasel bounded to his shoulder. The Pokemon didn't reply, merely pointing towards northwest. Rusturf Tunnel was in that direction, in use by the occupation army and under constant guard at both ends.
"What? An attack at the tunnel?" Silver demanded, staring off in that direction, searching for signs of battle.
"Sneasel, Snee." the Pokemon responded with a shake of its head, adjusting the angle of its claw.
"Up? An air raid from Rustboro?" the captain asked, getting a nod in return. "Makes sense." he admitted after a moment of reflection. Wally just nodded. Rustboro had been captured during the opening months of the Hoenn invasion just over seven years ago, and it had been that act combined with the boy's deteriorating health that had finalized his parent's decision to send him to Verdanturf Town in hopes that he would be safe there in case the war spread. Ultimately, they had been wrong, and he hadn't had contact with his family for six years.
"There they are." Silver murmured after a moment, eyes fixed on the nearby mountains and the starry sky above them. Wally strained his eyes to see what the older teen was look again, and eventually noticed black specks moving against the night sky.
"Are those…?" he asked as Silver removed a pair of night binoculars from an inner pocket. Looking through them, the captain regarded to approaching Pokemon in silence. "How many are there? Are you sure they're on your side? What-" Wally cut himself off, blushing furiously. What was he doing, asking a captain for information? It wasn't his place to know any of this, and he had forgotten that. Forgotten that Silver was an enemy, not a friend.
"There's lots. Way more than I expected. And yeah, they're our troops." Silver responded quietly, putting the binoculars away. He didn't seem angry at all with Wally's out-of-line questioning, but the teen remained silent all the same.
The captain sighed, then raised the radio clipped to his belt. "Captain Silver to Base, do you copy?"
'Base here. What is it, Captain?'
"Air raid sighted from Rustboro. Repeat, air raid from Rustboro."
'Copy that. Do you know the destination?'
Silver paused, looking to the northwest. Wally looked that way as well, noticing that the black specks had formed into almost-visible Pokemon, and that there were a lot more of them than before. "Destination is unknown, possibly Mauville. Repeat, destination unknown, possibly Mauville." The older teen lowered the radio and muttered absently, "I guess they're serious this time…"
'Copy that, Captain Silver. Resume your patrol and standby for further orders. Base out.'
Silver put the radio away, then removed several Pokeballs from his belt and opened them. When the blinding flash faded, a Gengar stood in front of them, a Crobat hovering next to it. "Sneasel, patrol the north side of town. Gengar, take the south, and Crobat the west. Report back if you see anything suspicious." he ordered tensely. Sneasel saluted and bounded away while Gengar just grinned and vanished in the opposite direction. Crobat lingered for a moment, eyes fixed on Wally, then nodded and flew off.
"S-Should I go home?" Wally asked nervously, glancing between the approaching horde of Pokemon and the captain.
"You probably should, but…I'd like it if you'd stay." Silver replied slowly, not looking at him. The teen hesitated, torn. It was safer to leave, but he wanted to stay with the captain for some reason. The faint beating of wings distracted him, however, and he looked up to see a whole bunch of Pokemon flying towards him. It was hard to tell because of the darkness, but Wally thought he could see Pokemon from the Kanto and Johto regions mixed in with native ones. It was a sign of just how powerful the occupying army really was.
At some unknown signal, the large group split into three parts: one flying to the north, one swinging south, and the remainder altering position slightly so they were coming directly from the west. "It's a pincer move," Silver explained. "Attack from three different sides at different times to catch the enemy off-guard and inflict as much damage as possible. It's a basic move, I'm surprised they're going with something so simple."
"I see." was all Wally could come up with as a response. He didn't really want to know about the details of warfare, but he wasn't about to tell the captain to stop.
The sound of wingbeats grew louder as the group from the west started to fly directly over Verdanturf. All Wally could do was stare silently upwards as Pokemon streamed past, both amazed and horrified at the power lurking within those beasts of war. If the army hadn't taken over the town, would those Pokemon be attacking his home right now? It was a question he was glad he didn't know the answer to.
Suddenly, a hand slipped into his, squeezing a bit too hard for his liking but comforting nonetheless. Wally didn't do anything except blush. Didn't look down, didn't pull away, didn't protest. For some reason, he didn't mind this. It helped to ground him from the destruction flying overhead.
They seemed to stand like that for hours, watching the Pokemon fly over. It wasn't long after the last creature had passed overhead that they heard the fighting start, could see the eastern horizon flicker and flash as the battles became more intense. Silver walked him home when he couldn't take it any longer.