Silph Arc - Tragedy and Kidnap:

Chapter 17 – The Mourning After

April and Alex sat in the back of a car as it drove along a bumpy road. Alex rested his head upon his hand and leant his head against the window, watching as the world went past it. April occasionally looked towards him wanting to start a conversation but when she couldn't find the words turned back around.

Houses started to flash by, the sign of nearing civilisation. Some were different colours to others and stood out from the rest, but to Alex they were all the same; dull, lifeless and bland. Only shades of black, white and grey seemed to exist to him now. He had learnt that the world can be a cruel and vicious place, something April had learnt two years ago. April was concerned for him and had been through something similar to him, if not worse, and he knew that, but he couldn't bring himself to speak to her; not yet anyway.

He looked down to the darkened pokeball he clutched in his hand, a searing pain spreading across the right side of his neck as he did so. After a day of being unconscious in the hospital he had woken up to learn that he had been badly burnt from the explosion across the side of his neck and that the pain would last for a while, eventually leaving a scar. It was bandaged now; he was waiting for it to heal and for the pain to eventually go away.

The doctors thought he had been lucky, but as soon as he was discharged he headed for the pokemon center to find out that Sandshrew had had no such luck. Sandshrew's body was withdrawn into his pokeball and sealed permanently, turning the red half darker to almost a jet black colour.

The police offered a ride to Lavender Town, a place to bury fallen pokemon, and they had accepted. People tried speaking to Alex several times before he left Cerulean City; Bill, Robin, Courtney, all wanting to thank him or otherwise but he didn't listen, he didn't want to listen.

The road ahead turned to a dirt road as a landmark came into view, a jagged tower that seemed unfinished, but was too old to be a new build. The scenery became increasingly rocky as the squad car drove up to and under a large piece of doming rock that seemed almost like a tunnel.

Nearing in on the town it was obvious something had happened there. Lavender was barely big enough to be called a town with houses set sparsely apart with the large tower set in the middle. It seemed the top third of the tower had fallen leaving the rest crumbling and damaged with debris all over the small town, bricks, windows, graves everywhere.

Stationary next to the tower however was a large mechanical crane with a wrecking ball attached. It was empty but there were sounds of yelling from many people that got louder and louder as the car neared.

April thanked the driver as the pair got out of the vehicle and into the large crowd of people that were the source of the yelling. There were men in high-vis construction jackets holding people back who tried to enter or get near to the tower. There was an elderly man who seemed to be leading the mob. He was bald with left arm in a sling and a few cuts spread across his head.

"You cannot do this! It's not right, can't you see?" He yelled to the men.

"I'm sorry sir but we have our orders; this building is dangerous and unstable, what was left of the rest of the top of the tower fell yesterday and who knows how much damage was done to the inner structure. It's amazing this building is still standing if I am honest." The worker in the light blue high-vis jacket said, guarding the entrance, obviously the most senior member there.

"But the graves! All of the pokemon laid to rest there – would you demolish a cemetery?!"

"I'm sorry Mr. Fuji, there's just nothing I can do, now can you please all just move back to behind the barricades and we can get this over with!" The man shouted waving his arms as if to say to his colleagues to push the crowd backwards.

As the crowd was being pushed backwards Mr. Fuji grabbed the man in charge's arm tightly with his right arm. "Listen you! All of this happened to me because I tried to protect this tower and I'm willing to go through so much more if it calls for it, but I'm asking you; please don't do this."

The man looked straight at Fuji with compassion at first and then with a stern sense of duty. "This is my job. Now please move away Sir." The man said grabbing Fuji's hand and forcefully removing it from his arm.

It was at this point the crowd had reached April who had been watching the events unfold since she had gotten out of the car. She looked around for Alex for support but he simply wasn't there. She searched through the numerous amounts of heads all around her until she spotted a head bobbing along in front of her, in front of the crowd and in front of the demolition workers, heading for the tower's entrance.

Alex, after using Fuji's plea to the most senior worker to slip through the human wall, stopped just outside the main entrance and turned around and sat, cross-legged on the rocky floor facing everyone else and held his arms out to the side.

Seeing this April dropped to her hands and knees and began crawling through spaces between legs in the crowd and eventually passed the demolition worker to reach Alex. April sat next to him and locked arms, holding out her other one to her side.

Seeing this, the crowd decided to join in as some dropped to their feet whilst others pushed back at the workers and over powered them. Each person sat next to another, locking arms all around the tower, eventually reaching back to Alex's other arm.

Suddenly Alex spoke the first words he had said since being handed Sandshrew's pokeball.

"My name is Alex and I lost my Sandshrew."

The workers began to get back up on their feet as April pondered for a moment before speaking.

"My name is April and I lost a Sandshrew too."

This caused a chain reaction as everyone spoke in turn, carrying on around the circle, each person listening to every single statement of loss.

"My name is Nathan and I lost my Venomoth."

"My name is Jessica and I lost Swirly, my Poliwhirl."

The workers gathered round, unsure of what action to take next. Fuji then walked across to them.

"This is a miniscule portion of how many people are grieving for lost pokemon, this is a tiny portion of the people that care for this place, just like me, and we will not move until those graves are taken care of." Fuji said, standing strong in front of us.

The man in the blue high-vis paused for a moment, assessing the situation.

"…name is Nicole and I lost my Skarmory."

The man then took a sizable radio from his belt and spoke into it. "Sir, we may have a problem, you may need to sort this one yourself."

"Thanks Dan, I'll be right there." The voice on the other end came through.

The men looked to the skies for something as gradually the sound of spinning blades could be heard. Soon after that a white helicopter came into view and began its decent to land many metres away from the trainers all gathered around the tower.

As it came into land, flashes of the Rocket's helicopter flashed through Alex's peripheral vision. Alex concentrated and pushed them aside, wanting to move on, not to dwell on it.

Dan, the senior worker, ran over to the helicopter, crouching through the gusts the blades created and slid the door open. A man in a black suit stepped out and walked over towards them. He had a pale face to match his white shirt and his facial features were very defined. He had spiked up blue hair and a stern gaze.

"Mr Cyrus, Sir. This is the problem."

The man glanced around assessing the situation.

"And who might you be?" Fuji asked, presenting himself in front of the businessman.

"Well Sir, my name is Cyrus and I am the CEO of the country's biggest construction and development firm. I make it my business to personally oversee every demolition I contract… I assume you speak for these people?" Cyrus replied, tightening his tie.

"Yes Sir, I believe I do."

"Very well. Follow me if you would." Cyrus said turning around, not even checking to see if Fuji was following.

Fuji took a moment to look around at the scene, looking at every face individually before moving on reminding him of his cause. April and Alex were the last faces his eyes came to, and as their eyes met his April gave a quick nod of approval, deeply trusting the man she'd only known for a few minutes, whilst Alex simply went back to looking at the ground.

-
"Absolutely not!" Fuji cried out in anger, slamming his fist onto the wooden picnic bench they sat upon.

"I can't stop the demolition, the building is too unstable for public use and a firm in Johto has already bought the rights to the site. There's nothing I can do."

Fuji let out a deep sigh as a crispy brown leaf floated down onto his hand.

Fuji looked around at the park that they were sitting in. It was surrounded by trees with numerous fresh leaves on, ready to take in sunlight.

"Do you see this leaf?" He asked.

Cyrus nodded.

"It fell from the tree much earlier than it should have. This leaf barely got a chance to live and now, just like that; it's gone. Imagine that leaf is a pokemon, and it had its life cut short, you wouldn't just leave it lying around here would you? Now look at all the other leaves still up there, enjoying the sun, enjoying life. Any one of them could fall at any given time and eventually, they're all going to fall. Now if you had a garden you'd gather all of the leaves and put them together somewhere. Pokemon need a place like that too, and people need a place to lay those pokemon to rest; we can't just leave them lying around like a piece of rubbish."

Cyrus looked up to the treetops that surrounded them before looking down to his fists.

After a long moments silence Cyrus eventually began speaking.

"All right. You have made a valid argument. Let us say that I were to commission a memorial building that would house many, many more graves than the tower? Would you call off your protesters?"

Fuji thought on Cyrus' choice of words before making the next move.

"And you'll move all of the graves left inside of the Tower into this new 'memorial building'?"

Cyrus sighed before agreeing.

"So we have reached an agreement then?" The businessman asked, holding out his hand.

"I do believe we have." Fuji said with a smile, extending his good arm to shake hands with Cyrus. "Thank you." He said with sincerity in his voice that Cyrus felt.

"Please come back later tonight, we're holding a candlelight vigil for all those that perished as a result of the attack on the Tower. I would be honoured if you would join us."

"I would be honoured."

-
As night fell, more and more people had gathered in the centre of Lavender Town, each holding a candle or a lighter in their hands. Many people were weeping, some sobbing uncontrollably. The destruction of the tower had not only affected pokemon, but people too.

With the help of a man, Mr Fuji mounted a large piece of debris and stood above everyone, ready to address them.

"Thank you all for coming, and I am sorry you've had to. Pokemon Tower has been, for as long as I remember, one of this country's great landmarks and has served as the final resting place for many, many Pokémon. But tonight we are not here to mourn pokemon or the Tower, but to mourn all those lost in the blast, be it in the explosion or as a result of the falling debris.

This accident was the result of criminals; terrorists out to benefit themselves and cause pain and anguish to others. Now we all feel a sense of loss here, but hopefully, thanks to the generosity of Mr Cyrus and his company, we can have a small part of that loss filled in, as a new building is being created to house graves for departed pokemon and to serve as a memorial to all those who lost their lives.

Now something like this will not happen again, and do you know how I know? Because of all of you. There was a young man whose name escapes me, who tried as hard as he could to stop these people achieving their end, but only just failed, but when this building was threatened yet again a few days later; all of you, led by this young man were adamant not to let anything else happen to it.

So tonight I ask you to remember these people, remember these people so it will never happen again. Thank you."

Fuji looked at the faces in the crowd before he stepped down. Everyone's eyes glistened with tears, reflecting the light of the moon and the stars back at him. April and Alex were in the front row, listening to every word he had spoken and after being helped off of the debris, slowly walked over to them.

"Thank you for coming." Fuji said.

"We wanted to, really. That was a beautiful speech." April said softly.

"Why thank you young lady, but would you both like to come with me? There's something I would like to show you." Fuji asked.

"S-sure…" April said as Fuji directed her in the direction they should walk. Alex followed April, still clutching Sandshrew's pokeball in his hands.

"-Mr Fuji!" Came a voice from within the crowd.

A man gently pushed his way through the crowd of mourners until he appeared in front of them, it was Cyrus the businessman.

"Mr. Cyrus, I'm glad you could make it."

"Thank you for extending me an invite. I'd just like to say I am truly sorry for what happened here. Emotions are… truly a burden one must carry."

"They are indeed, but where would we be without them?" Fuji says, forcing a small smile.

"Indeed…"

"Well if you'll excuse us there was somewhere I was meaning to go."

"O-of course." Cyrus said before parting ways, seemingly deep in thought.

-
After walking down a few dimly lit streets, the trio arrived at a small house with a simple wooden door. Fuji let them inside and led the pair down the hallway to a room at the end. Walking down the corridor they passed a room where a man was lying in a bed. He was pale and looked like he had lost quite a lot of weight. April stopped and looked inside with a concerned look upon her face.

"Please… do not worry about him." Fuji said leaning against the doorframe of the room at the end of the corridor.

"What's wrong with him?" April asked.

"Spinarak poisoning, but he's passed the worst of it."

"That's terrible…"

"It could've been a lot worse so I'm thankful for that. But would you like to come in here?"

April and Alex walked into the seemingly large room at the end of the corridor. There were many shelves crammed with books, bags of wild plants, and small bugs. The room was also littered with many different bags of pokemon food, complete with Poffins, pokeblocks and all mannar of other things. The room was a lot messier than the rest of the nearly spotless house. In the corner was a small playpen meant for children, but had obviously been used to house small pokemon as there were scratches and markings all around it.

A pair of large French doors also took up part of the wall leading outside to where the shapes of numerous animal pens could be made out.

"What is this place?" April asked, looking around at the various photos mounted on the wall.

"A shelter for abandoned or orphaned pokemon. A place for domesticated pokemon who have nowhere else to go."

Fuji paused for a moment to see Alex still standing in the doorway. Fuji walked up to him and placed his hand on his shoulder.

"Alex, I would like, in light of your actions today, for your Sandshrew to be the first pokemon laid to rest in the new House of Memories."

Alex's gaze shifted from the pokeball to Fuji.

"That way everyone will know how much Sandshrew meant to you and will get the rest he deserves. …Is that okay?"

Alex nodded as Fuji moved his hand to the pokeball and gently took it from Alex's loosened grasp. Fuji placed the darkened pokeball onto a small pedestal atop a fireplace before moving to a large cupboard next to it. A shining, warm light appeared from within as the aged man opened its large doors. From inside he took something and closed the doors once more before turning towards Alex.

He was holding a light blue egg, fairly large that seemed to pulse a small light from within it every couple of seconds.

"Here, I want you to have it. It belonged to a trainer who was killed when he was hit with debris falling from the explosion. I'm sure he would've wanted someone to have it who would treat it with the same love and respect he would of."

Alex stared at the egg for a few seconds before reaching out to take it. The egg was warm to his skin and could feel the pulsating light without looking at the egg, it felt almost like a heartbeat.

"Now please, rest here for the night and continue on with your journey tomorrow; you've done more than enough around these parts." Fuji said with a kind smile on his face.

Alex began clearing his throat; it'd been a long time since he had spoken. April looked on, silently stunned at hearing him try to speak after almost a week of silence.

"Thank you… for everything." I said.