Disclaimer: This one owns not the rights to Poke`mon, nor does he own Poke`wars. He laughs at those who imply such.

An:This chapter's a bit sad. At least, I thought so.

Line break

August 18

Line break

Scruffy weakly comes to a stop at the edge of the charred earth before us. My feet hit the ground even before he's fully come to a stop pulling a pair of poke`ball from my belt as I dismount. the ugly purple wound spreading from a group of spines embedded in Scruffy's left flank, draws my eyes but I quickly look away with a grimace.

"Return." Is all I can grit out. As I toss the other poke`ball to the ground Lu' burst forth in a fountain of red light even as Scruffy is recalled into his own, his sharp eyes scan the smoking husk that was once Ecruteak city, a cacophony of screeches draws my eyes to the smoke billowing up from the forest maybe a half mile behind us.

There isn't much time the Swarm will have put out the fires started by Arcanine soon. "We need cover." I breath out in a weary tone, voice barely above a whisper but he snaps to attention as if I'd yelled the command. Sprinting into the ruins of the once beautiful town, I can almost see it whole again in my head.

The smell of the forest sweeping through the town with every breeze, the weight of the years, of so many having come before and weathered time with dignity as one takes in the more traditional style of housing relatively common in Johto but especially so in this city, children playing in the streets running under the feet of monks on their way to the tower, trainers showing off their Poke`mon and preparing for gym challenges.

All gone. The burned tower the only thing resembling the original peaceful place, it now matched almost exactly by the Bell tower. It's previous majesty gone replaced by a pile of ash and broken memories. The homes of the kind elderly, the gym where many a challenger had been crushed by Morty and his ghost allies, where I faced him twice finally claiming victory on the second try all reduced to fire gutted ruins half covered in a dusting of webbing. About the only thing still whole is the archway leading into the southern section of the forest path and route 37.

"Damn." I mumble through gritted teeth voice nearly a whisper, fist clenched even as one moves to ease the tension in my ribs, the ground crunches as I step forward several feet, stopping only after I'm a ways into town the original burned tower just off to my left, the blackened earth breaking apart beneath my boots with every step the ash clings to my feet, four Poke`balls hit the ground a second after I stop releasing their occupants. My breath hitches slightly as I force air into my lungs stretching the bruised area around my ribs.

Something akin to a sneer draws across my face as the wind shifts in my direction whipping ash and the smell of burned meat into my nose. Whatever did this can't be long gone but the remains of the once proud city are already unsurprisingly covered in a light dusting of webbing. The local arachnid wasted little time.

Bic surveys the scenery his sight fixed on the trees surrounding us on all sides, a wary glint making it's way into his eyes, back unusually straight, his nostrils flaring as he scents the ruined town and the ash that now make up the majority of it. His tail whips back and forth once in obvious discomfort, the air heating only slightly. With nary a glance at the destroyed town and a final glance towards the forest his gaze settles on me.

Gibson's body is ram-rod straight. He crouches on all fours tail extended straight out, the fur on his back standing up and not quite sparking, a low growl rumbles from his throat. I stare at him intently for a second, and reevaluate the situation, a quick look around reveals no obvious threat and after a moment the Ampharos relaxes enough to stand upright, eyes focused towards the dying smoke in the distance.

Fax my ever happy Haunter circles the air around Tauros' head, emitting soft cackles his eyes drifting all around taking in the scenery, he unlike my other Poke`mon at least doesn't seem overly worried about anything. I absently wonder if that has something to do with it already being dead. Tauros, on the other hand is unfazed as well. His three tails whipping rhythmically against his side as he eyes the ground, either for somewhere to rest or something to eat.

Regardless of their odd behavior I have a job that I need done. As soon as they've all surveyed the surrounding and turn their attention to me I speak.

"Be ready." A chorus of nods the only acknowledgement of my words. I turn my gaze back to the town waiting on Lu`.

Line break.

I didn't have to wait long. The jackal came running up only moments later.

proceeding to grab the arm of my coat and pull me east. The sights I saw on the way were not reassuring.

I suppose the Kimono sisters are dead as well. The building where a tea ceremony was performed for me on several occasions is little more than a memory now, I take a few steps into the sooty remnants of one of the few places I was able to relax ignoring the protesting of Lucario and the huff from Bic, the bridge of a shamisen is bound in a small amount of web off in what's left of a corner, this is where Lucario and I came to relax after he pestered me into teaching him close combat. The physically intensive training for the technique making me wish for little more than a hot bath and tea.

There was an old married couple who frequented the place. They came to watch us train sometimes. The old woman brought us chilled tea, and snacks for Lucario. The old man a trainer in his youth gave us pointers, I didn't ever even learn their names. They were always sir, and ma'am. Dammit. My fist clench uselessly in my pockets, why did this have to happen? Who the hell would want this much pain for anyone? I can't dwell on this, I grit my teeth and force myself into an awkward bow and turn away from the painful memories.

A shadow moves in my peripheral vision, my head jerk to follow it, adrenalin races through my body accelerating my heart, I just barely catch sight of a several legged green thing at the edge of the trees, when a tug on my jacket sleeve nearly makes me jump out of my skin.

Lucario looks up at me his head tilted to the left a hand scratching at his chest, I look quickly back trying to catch sight of what startled me before, but it's gone.

"Sorry." I say while shaking the ghost' from my mind. "Lead on."

I don't make it very far before I'm forced to stop again. This time out of necessity, and not ghost from a past not so long gone. The building is gone but Lu' draws up in front of the large pile of rubble, he crosses his arms and gets a proud almost smug look on his face. I raise an eyebrow, but he keeps staring at a large piece of masonry the black appendages at the side of his head swaying silently.

"Beneath this?" That's all I can think of. He wouldn't have lead us out here for nothing, he nods exaggeratedly once, I can't help but sigh, grabbing hold of the rubble Bic, and Lu' to either side of me we heave I squeeze my jaw against the pain in my ribs, the stone is heavy. But we manage to lift it off of Lucario's find.

"Stairs." a statement not a question, stairs wide enough for two full grown men to walk shoulder to shoulder down them, and tall enough I won't have to duck my head. I pull three poke`balls and with a sigh turn to my poke`mon.

"Bic, Lu', with me. Everyone else return." Bic, shrugs with a snort and follows, Lu' seems eager to explore the place he found the rest are drawn back into their ball. I'm guessing this is someones basement, hopefully it'll be safe enough to heal Scruffy and hold over for a while.

"Bic, give us some light." At the bottom of the staircase the darkness stretches on forever and without a flashlight in my possession I'm glad Bic is with me. He snorts, and flicks his tail, however unlike usual the air doesn't just heat up. With every flick of his tail a bluish white flame is shed, they circle all around our heads, casting shadows weirdly with every flame added, until five are circling in the air above us. Charmeleon's Will-O-Wisp is useful for more than just burning things.

"Good work." I mumble out as the light from Charmeleon's ethereal flame chases away the shadows revealing a large-ish square room maybe twenty foot by twenty foot a large portion of the space taken by boxes.

There's no webbing here luckily, I'd avoid touching it even if there was any. I'd learned the hard way how dangerous that stuff was halfway between Ecruteak and Olivine. I shake my head again, breaking into action.

"Cover the entrance as best you can." I want no bugs knowing were here, I turn away from those two without waiting on a response immediately throw two more poke`balls to the floor.

I ignore everything but Ampharos and Arcanine, the sheep evolution being pulled with me towards scruffy quickly. The wound on the puppies side has worsened but everything will be okay now.

"I'm sorry." I say, as I, in one smooth motion take hold of all the poison needles in his side and wrench them loose letting them scatter onto the floor. "Heal bell." Two word is all it takes to save Arcanine.

Ampharos waddles forward his tail vibrating almost imperceptibly a soothing chime like melody filling the room as the poison recedes from Scruffy's wound, his whimpering stops and he settles to sleep.

A sigh escapes my mouth before I can stop it, and I sag slightly as tension I wasn't even aware was there leaves my body. I look to Ampharos grateful, but he shrugs like it was nothing. I make my way to check on Bic and Lu's handiwork releasing he rest of my family as I do so.

Line break

Sometime later I find myself sitting against the wall opposite the stairs, the newly covered entrance just barely visible in the light cast by Bic's tail flame. My poke`mon family sprawled on the basement floor around me in various states of sleep, it would seem I'm the only one still awake. They'd done a good job covering the hole now all we can do is wait. They're all to tired to move yet, not to mention hungry. And even if they could Scruffy is still to fatigued for the ride out of here.

Another soft sigh escapes my mouth, I seem to be doing that a lot these past two days, only two days and everything has gone to hell. What could have gone wrong, what could have caused things like...

Images burst into my mind unbidden, of mangled corpses being set upon by ravenous beast, the ocean turning red to their savagery. I shake my head to rid it of the images. None of that matters now, and it won't as long as I make it back to Pallet town. I just need rest, It will all be better in the morning.

I let my head settle against the wall, eyes closing allowing the rhythmic breathing of my poke'mon to carry me into a fitful sleep.

Line break

Later, I'm not sure how much my Poke`gear had stopped working on the trip here, I awake I'm not quite sure why. Tauros is curled up on the floor still sleeping, haunter floating in the air above him cackling softly even in what passes for his sleep, Bic is standing head cocked to the side like he's listening to or for something, Gibson doing the same, Scruffy whines off to the side, Lu' seems agitated as well the black appendages on the side of his head swaying at a slow rate.

In the next instant my whole world is changed. With a thunderous crash the floor drops out from beneath Tauros, I barely have time to register his startled bellow before his screams start, screams of agony and the sound.

Clack, clack, clack. Like a hundred different set of jaw clicking together, accompanying more screams from the bull Poke`mon. I freeze, I don't, I can't. Fax charges into the tunnel after his companion, angry yells coming from his mouth, dark flashes issuing forth as he exercises his powers in earnest.

A purple light flashes from the hole, and Haunter goes silent. In five seconds one of my poke`mon was taken and the other was killed. My brain seizes up, the screams of Tauros still echoing through the small room, my other poke`mon all look to me.

"What? I don't." Know what to do. Another horrifying cry from Tauros snaps me into action, an image of my mother safe an unharmed comes to mind nothing else matters. Not the dead.

I order Charmeleon to send a blast of his hottest flame down the hole, he hesitates for a second before complying. Everything goes silent for an instant, and in the next moment bugs spill over the rim of the hole only to be rebuffed by my poke`mon. I clinically survey the battlefield, in a detached almost lethargic state.

"Open the stairs." I mumble, at first I thought I hadn't been heard until an orange blur burst forth blasting the debris aside in a flame wheel.

"Come." I say, rushing up the stairs behind my Arcanine I'm vaguely aware of the rest of my Poke`mon coming up behind me. Of Bic barely waiting for Gibson and Lu' to clear the stairs before unleashing a jet of scalding blue flame, no dragon breath down the stairs.

"Seal it." I breath to Ampharos without looking, I don't need to look to know a lightscreen was now blocking the stairs. I don't look away as Lucario comes to stand next to me assuming the first stance of close combat, looking in the same direction as me and as Arcanine.

In front of us barely thirty yards away is a veritable army of Spinarak and Ariados, their mandibles clack, clack, clacking away, drool and venom dripping sizzling to the dirt, I will never forget this sight or that terrible sound. It will haunt me to my dying day.

Nor the living. "Destroy them." My poke`mon don't need to be told twice, Bic roars, the assembled poke`mon flinch away from him as his tail flame doubles in size he rushes into the fray, ripping, cutting smashing, biting and eating his enemies, flame spews forth from his maw like water from a hose, his roars for our fallen reverberate though this world.

His roar is the signal for the breaking of the dam, the Arachnid not set upon by Bic unleash a wall of poison spikes in our direction, Scruffy looks at me in the instant before and I nod, he dissapears in a burst of extreme speed a group of Spinarak fly in all direction at the back of their group.

Lucario cries out in alarm as the wall of death approaches, I sigh. So this is it. Just as I think I'm going to die, Gibson proves me wrong, standing strong before the tide is Ampharos lightscreen in place blocking Lucario and I from being skewered.

I look at Lucario. "Go." I simply state he hesitates, but rushes forth none the less flinging the bugs left and right as the steel types fist smash apart the fragile bug poke`mon's carapace as he goes through the stances for close combat.

A part of me revels in the carnage, the part of me still grieving over two lost family members. In my rage I singly focus on the scenario wrought by my poke`mon, all well trained despite my own lack of care for it, tearing through the bugs like they were nothing, they are nothing. In my anger I never noticed the Ariados pounce for me.

Line break

Even maintaining the lightscreen Gibson manages to turn aside Ariados' blow enough that a decapitating blow only cuts a deep gash in my forehead, blood splatters to the ground as I'm pulled down under the beast' weight, I expect a bolt of electricity to blast it away but one never comes. That sound echoes right next to my ear. The Ariados snaps at me, a screech issues forth from it as I barely hold it back. I can't rely on my poke`mon for this.

I turn it's momentum against it, letting it's upper body come forward, even as I push up on it's hind quarters throwing it away from me. I stand in the next moment, blood runs badly into my right eye making it hard to see. Clack, clack, clack. I turn, sweeping the bugs leap aside and come down on top of it, letting it's momentum carry me. It snaps at me, I punch it in the underside of it's head. Again. Again. Again. Again, again, again!

Line break

Again and again, 'till there's nothing left, small but strong arms pull me away, gently at first then firmly as I resist the pull. I have to smash it, have to. A small hand slaps me gently in the face my gaze snaps to Lucario his body is riddled with small wounds and he is covered in gore but he seems relieved, my gaze strays out towards the town, a red form is ripping apart the gradually thinning number of bugs even from here I can make out his blood soaked form among a mound of thoroughly desecrated corpses strewn all around Bic the rage has taken him, he continues to roar and bask in the slaughter, most of the bugs now retreating into a flaming tree line. Probably to stop the flames I absently note.

"Wha-?" I look back to where I was before, A body it's head smashed clear through to the ground, I look at my arm the sleeve is covered in gore and my brain finally register the pain from my abused hand. With a heave I vomit, violently.

I'm mostly dragged onto Scruffy's back after that, I can barely think let alone move. I call back Lu` when I finally get settled, a projectile impacts against Gibson's lightshield, I note his ragged appearance, wounds litter his body. A large group of Ariados have given up on Bic and are attacking him. I pull Bic's poke`ball and call him back, going so far as to lock his poke`ball.

Ampharos' cry draws my attention, my eyes widen the group is right on top of him, his screen has fallen. My hand grasp his poke`ball, I aim but a Spinarak blocks the beam. Gibson is swamped bugs cover him. I order Scruffy around, but a cry from the sheep evolution stops him, he tenses then starts to run. I scream no, the most noise I can remember making but Arcanine wont stop.

My last sight before we crest a hill is Ampharos smiling at me, the town, no longer just smoking but outright blazing in flames, smoke dancing in the wind, he seems content, before the bugs drag him down beneath there weight

I will never forgive and I will never forget. Not until my dying day.

Line break

I said it was sad didn't I? A nod to JanTanner and his story Poke Wars: Start of Chaos. Where the idea that Ariados/Spinarak will stop to put out the fires. If you haven't already check it out, it's awesome.