Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, nor do I own an M4 Sherman
Author's Note: I had always wanted to do a pokemon war. The pokemon world seemed ripe to me for writing a war story. Nations of various landscapes, pokemon of unique attributes, and a history that has been left very empty in the pokemon RPGs. I'll have a more full explanation why I'm writing one on my profile. I should note that this story will consist of several viewpoint characters as it would create a more diverse story.
Oh, and if you're reading this, Merry Christmas Farla.
Private Jerry Wilson adjusted his helmet and looked over the newly installed barb wire fencing, or rather, he looked through the fencing. There, almost a mile away was the grand sea that separated the Sevii Islands from its imposing northern neighbor, the nation of Kanto. The Strait of Sevii was formidable, as the current was quick and relentless through that area, small time fishermen rarely went far from the ports as they would be swept away by the current.
Jerry wiped off the sweat from his forehead, it was a warm July afternoon after all, and sat down on the freshly dug trench and looked at his friend, Nathan Hekman.
"You think the Krabbies will invade the Sevii Islands?"
Krabbies was a slang term used by Johtoans in reference to people from Kanto.
Nathan, who was half-sleeping at the time, lazily opened his eyes and gave Jerry a stare of annoyance. He closed them again and said, "Not think, I know they will."
A screech from overhead made Jerry look up into the sky to see a pidgeot flying high above the soldiers. He squinted though he couldn't quite tell if the pidgeot was from Johto's army or Kanto's army. Far away it was hard to tell, but up close you could tell very quickly. Johto's pidgeots had golden color display feathers while Kanto's pidgeots had a dark red and brown display.
"Oh…" he said with a worry tone in his voice, "and why do you say that?"
Nathan could tell that his time for sleeping would not begin until Jerry's questions were answered. Stretching his long and lanky arms, he said in a gravely voice, "Boy, you're a stupid wooper aren't you? Well…the islands have a rich source of minerals and resources that would surely be of use to the nation controlling it. These islands are ripe for mining for they have been untouched by man. Haha, I'd like to see those Krabbies come and take these islands away from us! We got a great mountain behind us with a town south of that supplied with well rested troops. Knot Island to the west of us has Mt. Ember to give them a good lookout and Kin Island to the east of us is supplied with the most troops. Nobody's going to get through us…"
Nathan took out a cigarette and lit it. After a few puffs of smoke he looked at Jerry and said, "Does that answer your question?"
Jerry dimly nodded and looked back out at the sea. He could hear the waves crash out upon the shoreline and even more faintly, the cries of wingull.
He suddenly felt ashamed for himself at being so much of a coward. Here he was worrying about an invasion that could or could not happen and he couldn't do a damned, single thing. He felt helpless as he twiddled his thumbs.
His feeling of helplessness was probably shown on his face for Nathan said, "Oi! What's eaten you, eh?"
Jerry shrugged and said, "I don't know…I just wish that I wasn't in this mess right now. Here I am, in this balmy beach out in the middle of nowhere when I could be back home enjoying the quiet and humble life of tailor and enjoying sweet conversations with dear Stephanie…"
He sighed and remembered those faint but charming memories.
Nathan took another drag from his cigarette and said, "You've never been laid, haven't you?"
Perhaps when it was said earlier that they were friends was a bit of an overstatement.
Jerry ignored Nathan's comment and instead of responding, looked out to the sea to see if any ships were coming.
Nathan looked at Jerry thoughtfully and said, "So why are you here, then?"
Jerry looked back at Nathan and said, "Well…my father thought I was a bit of a coward, you see. And so, he forced me to sign up for the army to help "give me a backbone," you see. I couldn't say no to him now can I? He was my father, and Lugia knows what would have happened if I had disobeyed him. But what about you then?"
Nathan lowered his cigarette and let the smoke rise up to the salty air. Holding up two fingers he said, "Two reasons, one: so I can see the world and not be stuck in my dreary town and two: so I can make easy money, just by killing a couple of blokes. That's all there is to it."
Jerry didn't know what to think of that response. But nonetheless, he gave Nathan a polite nod and took out his rifle and started cleaning it. If the Kantoans did come, he wanted to be ready for them so in the end, he can see darling Stephanie again.
The cold and fierce wind blew hard against Vance Falkner but he didn't mind. His thick and warm coat, made from the hide and fur of a piloswine, kept him warm and his immense goggles kept his eyes clear. He looked down and saw that he was hundreds of feet off the ground. Any normal person would probably have fainted but Vance didn't mind, he had flown many times before and he always have kept a clear head.
His skarmory screeched and he knocked on its back gently with his gloved knuckles. Skarmory had been with him for a long time, and the two were inseparable as friends. There were few trainers in this world that could bond with a Skarmory, much less even ride one but that just made the bond between them stronger. Most people thought he was crazy riding on a skarmory but time and time again he said to them that it was all about spending time and energy to them to show that you care for them deeply.
A gust of wind came by and jolted the flying pair. Vance however kept a steady arm and the belt buckles held firm to his thin body.
He unfolded a pouch and took out a pair of binoculars to give a good look at the area. He looked down upon the Silver Mountains and scanned the area. He looked this way and that but couldn't find any traces of a Kantoan army. After looking around for thirty minutes, he put away his binoculars and said, "I'm not finding anything up here. I don't know why they keep sending me on these runs anyways!"
Skarmory screeched in agreement.
Vance paused to savor the humor that when he originally came to the village of Blackthorn, he did so as a scout to warn the people if any wild pokemon were coming. But then a week ago, Captain Korosi offered him the job in the army for a (slightly) higher pay. Now instead of scouting for ursarings and donphans, he was looking for soldiers.
Vance tapped his knuckles on Skarmory again and said, "We're not finding anything here, let's head back and give them the report."
Skarmory screeched again and did a wide u-turn around back to Blackthorn. Vance was glad he was heading back. As he was heading back, he could see the sun setting in the west. The sun's flickering rays made him squint and reminded him that once the sun set, it would be even colder, something he wasn't looking forward to.
At last, he saw in the fading light Blackthorn up ahead. Skarmory went towards it in a soft dive and the two touched softly upon the firm ground. Vance unbuckled himself and jumped off Skarmory. As the caretakers were coming up, Vance turned to his companion and said, "You follow the nice men and let them feed you. I don't want to hear any complaints about you trying to snap at their fingers!"
Skarmory made an indignant sound like he would never do such a thing.
Vance gave a sly smirk and then marched briskly off to give his reports to the Captain. As he was walking, he unzipped his coat, took off his gloves, and pulled off his goggles. Though it was cold as winter up in the air, it was still very much summer down here.
He walked into the local station and gave a salute at Captain Korosi's secretary.
"Is the good captain in?" he said.
The secretary returned the salute and replied, "Ay, sir, he's in. You can go in and see him."
Vance nodded and walked in to see Captain Korosi at his desk. When he entered, Korosi looked up and beamed making his immense jowls wobble.
"Vance, my boy! Come in, come in! What's the report, you say? Are those damn Krabbies up to anything unusual?"
He motioned for a chair to sit down but Vance politely declined.
"No, sir. Nothing out of the ordinary as far as I could tell. It's been like that ever since I first started this job."
Korosi nodded with thoughtfulness and said, "In any case, it's a good thing we have scouts like you to keep a lookout for us. You're our ears you know."
"Eyes, sir?" he corrected.
"Err…right, eyes. Here, have a drink. I know it can get cold up there and any spirits would do to warm one's self up."
He then took out a bottle of such and offered it to Vance. Though Vance wasn't a drinking man, he too knew the power of alcohol and how it can make a flier feel better after a cold journey.
"Thank you, sir," he said.
Korosi poured himself a glass and then poured Vance a glass. The two held their glasses up in the air and Korosi said, "To the Johtoan Empire!"
They clinked glasses, and Vance drunk his down slowly.
After a brief moment of silence, Vance decided to ask a question that had been egging him for awhile now.
"Sir, when do you suppose the Kantoans will attack?"
Korosi set his glass down carefully and said, "Who knows. Emperor Alastar IV thinks the Kantoans don't have the heart to attack us. He seems to think that if we all keep in good terms, then the Kantoans won't declare war on us."
"Yes, I figured as much. I thought we'd even gotten out of it when we gave Cinnabar Island to them anyways."
Korosi poured himself another drink and said, "Well, it made sense to all the higher ups and the people, didn't it? Cinnabar Island was much closer to Kanto than to Johto and more than half of the population spoke Kantonese or some variation of it and so it would be better off in the hands of King Maximilian and his unsavory Kantoans."
"Yeah, I remember that Maximilian was going on and on about how Cinnabar Island belonged to them and how we were treating them like crap or some stupid shit like that. Emperor Alastar gave him the damn island in hopes that he would shut up. Now, though he wants the Sevii Islands. Thank Lugia that the Emperor is standing up to him now."
"Which got Maximilian even more pissed off at the likes of us and is threatening combat," he drank from his glass again and looked at Vance with a sly eye, he then said, "…you want to hear my opinion about it though?"
Vance got the feeling that if he had said no he would be peeling potatoes for a week. But he didn't feel like saying no since the Captain was a good man even though he could lose some weight.
"What, sir?"
"I think," at this point he leaned in towards Vance and lowered his voice to a whisper, as if what he was saying was a deadly secret, "…that good-ole Max wants revenge."
Vance raised an eyebrow.
"The Twelve Years War was just plain brutal. If you believed half of the stories that were told, then any sane person would thank themselves that they're living in today's world. And that was for our side. Think of the Kantoans! They got the bad of the stick, they did. Lost a chunk of their country, countryside was burned, army in shambles. What a mess. Hadn't fought a war since, but I think they'd been gathering up strength these past few decades. Ready to strike while the going is good. And it seems…that now is the best chance for them to strike."
He had such conviction behind the word that it brought about a deafening silence in the room. Vance decided to actually take a seat and have another drink as well.
After barely 10 seconds, he said, "Sir? Why is it that I have to keep on the lookout for any Kantoan soldiers? Wouldn't the best bet to find them be down south?"
Korosi gave a shrug and said, "Intelligence has told me that there is something going on in Pewter that may be of malice activity. If the Kantoans are daft enough to try to invade through the mountains, we'll be ready for them."
Vance scratched his head and said, "No mean to be disrespectful, sir, but aren't we a little…unprepared for an attack?"
Captain Korosi laughed and said, "My boy!" Vance didn't know why Korosi said that to him at times when he was only 15 years older than he, "Don't you think we don't know that? That's what's H.Q. been telling me this past month. They don't think the Kantoans will dare attack us through this passage and so most of the weaponry has gone south! Haha, to tell you the truth, even I don't think they'll attack, and if they did…we have an ace up our sleeve!"
Vance raised both eyebrows now and said, "And that is…?"
Korosi grinned viscously and said, "We have dragon trainers…"
Vance laughed and nodded his head. The two raised there glasses again and drank. This time, for a good life.