"Twenty years ago, Pokemon worldwide were overcome by an unstoppable rage, resulting in the deaths of tens upon thousands of unsuspecting humans. Suddenly, once faithful pets turned on their owners. Best friends were pitted against each other."

A young woman seated in the front row of the makeshift conference hall - the space had once served as the lobby of a bank at one point in its history - listened to the lecture intently.

She looked nothing like your stereotypical soldier being that, at a glance, she was far too young, far too pretty, and her hair far too bright a shade of orange to fit with the loose-fitting JDA uniform she wore.

Nevertheless, whereas many of her classmates were struggling to stay awake, her eyes glimmered in full attention to the special guest lecturer. He was a famous professor that actually hailed from overseas, who was unfortunate enough to have been visiting the Johto region when the Days of Rage struck, thus stranding him.

"Nobody knows why or how it happened, but the cost in human lives has been immense and world-changing. All attempts to escape the region by sea or by air have proven disasterous, as violent Pokemon still lurk above the clouds and beneath the ocean waves, and receiving outside help from other regions is, for similar reasons, a hopeless idea."

Ethel rose her hand.

"What is it this time, Ethel?" The instructor asked robotically.

"Professor Oak, I was wondering if all Pokemon are afflicted with the rage, or just the ones that were alive to experience the incident twenty years ago?"

At this, Professor Gary Oak's eyes widened in surprise.

The same girl had interrupted his lecture several times already but, to her credit, she was a fountain of excellent questions, and this one was no exception.

"It is believed that all Pokemon are afflicted with the Rage," he answered after some thought, "although definitive evidence regarding what the Rage is or how Pokemon contract it has yet to come to light."

"I see. Well, let me rephrase my question," Ethel went on, not content with such an open answer, "what is your personal opinion on the matter of all Pokemon being unstoppable killing machines?"

The Professor froze and looked at her sharply. He clicked the button on the artificial voice box jutting out of his neck with deliberate slowness, then droned on, "it is my personal opinion that a newly hatched Eevee wouldn't hesitate to tear out your trachea if you were to come too close."

...

Ethel Magnus opens her eyes.

The trailer carrying her and a handful of other JDA soldiers has abruptly stopped. Until now she has been reflecting on her first day at the academy, but as the automatic door started to reel open the claustrophobic space is basked in the glow of a full moon, and the intimidating presence of someone standing, hand-on-hip, on the other side.

"We've arrived," the woman greeting them says stiffly once the door is fully open.

Ethel locks eyes with the captain of her platoon.

"Magnus! Is there something in your eye?" The Captain asks sarcastically.

"No, sir."

"Well then, are you feeling sick or something? Because if so, you might as well stay in that trailer and let it take you back home. One weak link is all it takes to bring a unit down."

"I'm fit for battle, ma'am," Ethel growled as she hopped out of the trailer.

"Good. You wouldn't want to end up like your boyfriend now, would you?"

Ethel winces.

Anger wells up within her, for she knows that the Captain was referring to Gray, who had been killed while on duty two weeks ago. They had been close friends and neighbors from a young age, like brother and sister almost, but since then he had been reduced to nothing more than an occasional punchline occasionally uttered by the same Captain present for his brutal demise.

To this day she does not fully understand why he joined the JDA in the first place, but when news of his death reached her she knew there was only one way to avenge him.

"You're asking me if I'm ready for this," she trails off, taking up the rifle that once belonged to Gray and his father, then loads it with a definitive click. "Just show me a target and you'll find out."

The Captain grins.

What follows is the kind of perfectly coordinated chaos the JDA specializes in. At the crux of it all are two guys brandishing flamethrowers, situated at either side of a squad of eight soldiers decked out in heavy fireproof, shockproof and freezeproof cutting edge defensive gear.

"Zimmer! Take to the left. Ray, you take the right," the Captain orders, and the men with flamethrowers disperse. "Everyone else follow me and shoot on sight."

So it is that the JDA descend upon the overgrown ruins of Ecruteak City - just one of many human settlements forsaken in the aftermath of the Days of Rage - as the pyro crew goes from building to building setting each one alight with the intention of scaring out any Pokemon cloistered within.

For some inexplicable reason, though, as the night sky is painted in flickering tongues of orange, and the heavy scent of smoke clings to the lower atmosphere, there is not a single Pokemon to be seen. Not a one predictably scurries into the line of fire of the proceeding squadron.

Needless to say, this is a cause of concern for everyone.

Zimmer scowls as he rejoins the unit. "Where could those sneaky runts have run off to?"

"Keep the flames going and your eyes peeled, because they may be up to something," the Captain says. "But we're here to take back Ecruteak and damn it all if we leave here tonight without it."

It is at that moment Ethel notes the shape of the Burned Tower, onetime symbol of Ecruteak's pride, now just a pitiful husk as unremarkable as any of the other abandoned structures, peeking out from beneath the masking cover of rising smoke.

Hey, let's check the tower.

There used to be two of them, but ironically the other one - despite being fully intact and meticulously well looked after - did not survive into the new age like its handicapped twin.

At the Captain's behest Ethel goes with Ray, one of the pyro guys, to investigate.

The first thing that strikes her as odd is the stench, which prompts her to equip her gas mask.

"It's...foul. Like garbage, but that can only mean-"

Right on cue a Koffing floats forth from the shadows, unleashing a vague smokescreen from the craters marking its rotund purple body as it veers toward them.

"Go, Ethel," the famously quiet Ray says simply. They both know that Koffing gas is highly explosive, so using a flamethrower against it is out of the question.

Ethel moves without hesitation.

She crouches on one knee to duck beneath the gas, and aims her rifle while in a prone position.

"One shot," she mutters, and pulls the trigger.

The bullet lands squarely in the center of the skull and crossbones symbol on the Koffing's chest, and the impact sends it spiralling across the room until it hits a charred black wooden column, where it slinks to the ground in a cloud of displaced dust and its own toxic smog.

"Is that it?" Ethel says, brushing the sweat off her forehead with one hand. "There might be more hiding in the basement."

The 'basement' being the area at the bottom of the deep hole in the middle of the room. It's been there since the floor collapsed during the original fire, from which the tower earned its name.

Ray holds out one of his giant arms to block her before she can go to look.

She leers at him. "What's wrong, Ray?"

"Stay back. This is too easy, and I have a bad feeling."

Ethel would protest, but she had the same feeling since they found out that there were no Pokemon in any of the other buildings. Besides, getting more than five words out of Ray at a time gave her pause.

"Wait, what's that?" She points to the fallen Koffing, its body consumed by a slowly intensifying white glow.

Ray seizes her by the shoulder and throws her out of the way, just before he is swallowed up the catastrophic surge of Koffing's Selfdestruct attack.