POKÉ WORLD WAR
Monday
The following has been transcribed by the Pokémon Channel Radio Station crew in order to archive the World War Week Special.
VENETIA: Welcome to Poké History Radio Show! I'm your host DJ Venetia and it's a sunny Monday here in Goldenrod City! I don't know about you guys, but I couldn't be more excited! This is the first episode of our special series World War Week! Every day we will hear a different story from someone who lived through that period. Today's guest is Leopold Darrell, the author of Leopold: Between Berries and Smoke, a man from Kanto who witnessed the incidents that started the conflict. Hi, Leopold!
LEOPOLD: Hi, Venetia.
VENETIA: How are you?
LEOPOLD: Good. And you?
VENETIA: Me too! Leopold, your book, Between Berries and Smoke, is coming out next week, right? Can you tell us a little bit about it?
LEOPOLD: It covers all the important parts of my life. My childhood in the country with my dad, the time I worked for Team Smoke and a lot of war stories.
VENETIA: Well, the station got me a copy of it, even though it's not out yet, and I got to say: your life is really impressive! I wish we could talk about everything in detail, but this is World War Week, so we'll focus on the war, ok?
LEOPOLD: Ok.
VENETIA: So, can you tell us how a country boy wound up on Team Smoke, the organization that triggered the war?
LEOPOLD: Hm... When I was seventeen my father died, leaving me alone in the world.
VENETIA: Seventeen? So young!
LEOPOLD: Yeah. I learned to take care of myself. We used to live in a house with a small berry plantation, so I survived off of that for some time. In that region, near Route 5, in Kanto, there are a lot of farms, so I occasionally worked in other people's fields for food. Can't eat only berries, right? Then, one day, rushing trucks filled the road. The drivers were screaming: "They're coming! They're coming!". They told everyone to flee from there as fast as they could. One even offered me a ride, but I refused it.
VENETIA: Did they tell you what was going on?
LEOPOLD: Yeah! A swarm of scythers had left the region that today is Kanto Safari Zone and had been eating every crop they could find. This used to happen sometimes. Never before in my lifetime, though.
VENETIA: Safari Zone is far away from Route 5, right?
LEOPOLD: It is. Scythers can fly long distances. And very fast. There was a chance they would pass through my area, but I decided to stay anyway.
VENETIA: Why?
LEOPOLD: Hm... I was telling myself I couldn't leave because I had nowhere else to go. I was young and dumb. Do you know how dangerous a swarm of scythers is?
VENETIA: I can only imagine.
LEOPOLD: They will kill anyone that stands in their way. I locked myself at home with Coal, my old growlithe. Very loyal dog. My father tamed him with a staff, so I could make him do a lot of things with just a swing of that piece of wood.
VENETIA: Some of our younger audience might be getting a little confused, now. This was before the invention of pokéballs, right?
LEOPOLD: Yeah! Hm... But Coal was as loyal as any pokémon you can find today. Maybe even more. You know, hm... pokéballs tame them for you, but don't make them like you. Or respect you.
VENETIA: They may not even obey you.
LEOPOLD: That's right.
VENETIA: So, the swarm ended up passing through your home, right?
LEOPOLD: Yeah. The bugs came. Anyone could tell they were arriving by the noise. That buzz. But I only left the field and ran for shelter when they covered the sky. Stubborn, right? I grabbed the taming staff and locked myself with the dog in the main house. We almost didn't make it on time. After eating all our crops they surrounded the building, trying to enter. Looking for the food I had in there, I would guess. The worst part is that in the farm I had a lot of things I could use to protect myself, like hoes and axes, but in my hurry it was impossible to bring them inside.
VENETIA: Oh! What happened then?
LEOPOLD: Finally one broke the door. Four or five entered the house. Inside they flew in a messy way, hitting the walls and the furniture. Following my orders Coal fire attacked the doorway to burn it and keep the rest of them out. I used the staff to protect myself and command the dog at the same time.
VENETIA: Now that's something you don't hear everyday. A guy that fought scythers with a wooden stick!
LEOPOLD: (Laughs). No, I wasn't using the staff like it was a sword! Scythers are quick. They would have cut through the wood like butter! I was trying to scare them, swinging that thing, keeping them away while Coal did all the hard job.
VENETIA: And it worked!
LEOPOLD: It did for me, but... hm... Coal died right after the fight was over.
VENETIA: Oh! I'm so sorry! Poor thing.
LEOPOLD: Yeah. Hm... He would probably be alive if all of this had happened some years later. He could have been healed if he were in a pokéball, I guess.
VENETIA: He never got to be an actual pokémon, then?
LEOPOLD: He didn't. He died before all of this.
VENETIA: So, what happened after the attack?
LEOPOLD: Hm... I had nothing left. Not even Coal anymore. So I picked up most of the things I had and went to the big city to try to sell them.
VENETIA: What kind of things?
LEOPOLD: Tools, knives... I also carried some toys to the city. They were once my father's. Looked like relics but they ended up not having much value. They were actually called pokéballs. Maybe that's where the name of the device came.
VENETIA: Sure! I still have some from an uncle of mine! They were very popular here in Johto! And yes, the device is called pokéball because of that toy.
LEOPOLD: Yeah. I guess they were not common back home because there aren't any apricorns in Kanto.
VENETIA: I'll explain for our listeners what we're talking about. People used to cut apricorns in two and take out all the pulp to keep toys inside. Mostly small pokédolls. They used to close it with a little clasp made out of wood or metal. It was basically a pokéball, right? It was a ball with a pokémon inside, after all.
LEOPOLD: Yeah. My dad had five or six of those. He made them himself. One ball had a clefairy, one had a rattata... He also carved the dolls out of wood.
VENETIA: I heard there's a guy in Azalea Town that still makes pokéballs out of apricorns. He makes this same toy but adds in the mechanism used in the real ones. So it's a pokéball with the shell of an apricorn. Like an old school pokéball. I want to get my hands on one.
LEOPOLD: Seems fine.
VENETIA: Professor Oak told me about him once, after recording his show.
LEOPOLD: Professor Oak's show is recorded in here?
VENETIA: Yes! He comes all the way from Pallet Town because he doesn't want to record it alone. I used to work on that show until recently, not as a DJ, of course.
LEOPOLD: Hm.
VENETIA: So, Leopold, you left your home... But, if I remember your book well, you found something precious before leaving...
LEOPOLD: Oh! Sure! Hm... There was a young scyther in a corner of my living room. He was small and looked scared. If there were pokédexes at that time, he would probably be under level five. Few people had tamed scythers. It's a pokémon known for its aggressiveness. I tamed him with that same staff.
VENETIA: A pokéball and some TMs would have been great, right? (Laughs).
LEOPOLD: It would have been easier. But I don't know... Of course pokéballs are great, I mean, Coal would still be alive, but I used to like the old ways. At least to catch and train them. It was more thrilling. Hm... You know, most bug catchers I know still use a net.
VENETIA: I know! That's so stupid!
LEOPOLD: Why?
VENETIA: Because it's irresponsible! So dangerous!
LEOPOLD: That's part of the fun.
VENETIA: But you have a pokémon by your side! Use it! (Laughs).
LEOPOLD: Well, I used to fish a lot when I was young. Today I have a level 30 poliwrath that knows Surf and Dive, but you know what? I don't use him to catch my water pokémon. I still fish with a rod! I like fishing!
VENETIA: Ok, I just don't think it's a safe practice.
LEOPOLD: It's not that dangerous. You can use a rod but have a pokémon by your side. So you're prepared for the moment when you hook one and it attacks. It's the same with the net.
VENETIA: Hm, ok. I understand. So, where were we? Oh! The scyther! What was his name?
LEOPOLD: Leif.
VENETIA: Do you still have him?
LEOPOLD: Yeah. I eventually put him into a pokéball. This happened before the Four Moves thing, but later I registered and updated his pokéball. Now he's completely legal and follows all the League's standards. He could even be in a championship someday. Would you believe it if I told you he's higher than level 50 now?
VENETIA: Wow! That's awesome!
LEOPOLD: He's a great partner.
VENETIA: So, after all this you went to Saffron City, right?
LEOPOLD: Yeah, I went there to try out a new life.
VENETIA: I love all those golden buildings! It reminds me of Goldenrod!
LEOPOLD: The city really impressed me at the time. Everything was new to me.
VENETIA: How old were you when you got there?
LEOPOLD: Around twenty-one.
VENETIA: So, how did you end up on Team Smoke?
LEOPOLD: Well, hm... [Brief silence]. It's easy to get drawn to crime if you walk with the wrong crowd. Especially when you're a poor country boy who's got nothing to lose in a fancy city. They took me to eat at a lot of refined restaurants. Sushi, and other stuff. Expensive taurus barbecues. Can you believe I had never tried beef? I remember eating at a place that served Kalos food. They all shared a slowpoke tail. I was so disgusted! I, that had almost starved in the past... Hm... And the night life in the big city...
VENETIA: But how it happened, exactly? Did they approached you, or the opposite?
LEOPOLD: Hm... I'm sorry, Venetia. If some listeners would like to know this story they'll have to buy the book. (Laughs)
VENETIA: Ok! I imagine it's not easy for you to talk about this. So, you worked for Team Smoke for years, right?
LEOPOLD: Yeah, five years.
VENETIA: And what about... "The" job? The one that was responsible for starting the war.
LEOPOLD: Hm... The Big Boss himself summoned hundreds of employees to a hall bellow the headquarters. We all had a part to play in the plan. I had done some favors for them, and earned a little bit of money, but this was a whole new level!
VENETIA: Can you tell our audience what the plan was?
LEOPOLD: To steal the first pokéball. It was a just a prototype, but, according to someone, it worked. Hm... And then we would try to make copies. You know, we had a lot of great scientists among us.
VENETIA: Why was Team Smoke interested in the prototype of the pokéball?
LEOPOLD: If that thing did what our sources said it did, it was the most powerful weapon to ever exist. We had to own one before anyone else did.
VENETIA: What was your part in the plan?
LEOPOLD: Nothing special. I was on the passenger seat of one of the trucks, covering the driver. One of the decoy trucks. I didn't even go inside Silph Co. In the book I went into details about the whole plan. It was very complex.
VENETIA: But you succeeded, right?
LEOPOLD: Yeah. Well, we all know the story. We stole the pokéball. We made copies. A lot of them.
VENETIA: Just so our listeners can have a glimpse of what this means: the day before, few people had companion monsters, right?
LEOPOLD: Yeah. Hm... and when they did have them, they only had one or two.
VENETIA: And on the next day, every employee of this crime organization could catch dozens in a day! One single criminal could have hundreds of powerful, deadly, pokémon.
LEOPOLD: And carry them all at once. There was no Six+ bullshit at the time. Can I say bullshit at this show?
VENETIA: You shouldn't.
LEOPOLD: Sorry.
VENETIA: It's ok.
LEOPOLD: Hm... In one month, Team Smoke had more than twenty times the number of monsters it had before. It felt like entering a new era. One in which whoever had more pokémon would control the world. We went into a spree to capture them as fast as we could so nobody would ever catch up. With pokéballs, the more pokémon you have, the easier it is to capture more.
VENETIA: Yes, it's geometrical progression.
LEOPOLD: I have no idea what that means, but I agree.
VENETIA: (Laughs).
LEOPOLD: That's how the war started. Of course Silph Co. made pokéballs again and the army got their hands on them.
VENETIA: And eventually they had more power than the criminals.
LEOPOLD: Hm... Our army never did. What really won the war, in my opinion, was the foreign intervention.
VENETIA: So, all the bombing, you think it was a good thing?
LEOPOLD: Not a good thing, but it was a price to pay. It could have been done in a better way, of course. Hm... If the United States and other armies had helped our government stop Team Smoke from the beginning, instead of seeing the whole country as a threat, maybe things would have been better. Or if Silph Co. had provided pokéballs to the other armies sooner... I don't know, I'm just a farmer!
VENETIA: I guess we'll never know if things could have worked out any other way, right?
LEOPOLD: Yeah, we'll never know.
VENETIA: Leopold, thank you so much for the interview!
LEOPOLD: You're welcome, Venetia! Thank you for the opportunity.
VENETIA: You'll be back on Wednesday, right?
LEOPOLD: Yeah, Wednesday.
VENETIA: Nice talking to you. Bye-bye!
LEOPOLD: Bye!
VENETIA: Wow! That guy has lived to see it! I couldn't recommend his book more: "Leopold: Between Berries and Smoke". Tomorrow we will be hosting Gentleman Henry Tucker, a soldier who fought the war side-by-side with Lt. Surge. That's right, The American Lightning! I'll be waiting for you in this same time. Now, stay with Ben to listen to some Pokémon Music! Goodbye!