Red's Dead by Jettsam
Chapter 1: Prologue.
In a moment the once-dead screen was washed with light. The picture coughed and sputtered and the smears distinguished themselves—suddenly there were moving shapes, a thin woman and someone barely taller milling before a cream-painted backdrop. The corner of a hanging painting peeked into the frame.
The boy raised an arm to scratch the back of his neck, a stream of slow pixels whipping after the motion. The dark patches that must've been his eyes found the camera, and he held it in his own gaze, for a moment. You could make out the shape of his nose. His hair was a swath of dark ginger.
The woman made a vague gesture in his direction and sat in a chair on one side, wrapping her dark coat tighter around her body. The boy caught the motion and slumped on the leathery sofa behind him, pushed up against the wall. Most of his body slipped from view. For a moment the two were rather still and the picture took a moment to sharpen itself.
"So…" the boy said. The sound, a burst of soft static, trailed off.
The woman had been shuffling in her chair, sifting through a small notebook in her lap for what she'd scribbled there. "I hope this goes without saying," she began, letting a tiny chuckle creep into her voice, "but I'm so grateful for your time. I know these past months haven't been so calm for you, and it really is such a pleasure to be able to meet with a member of the Indigo League's Hall of Fame."
The boy gave a tired shrug. "Ah, no worries."
"But I figure you know we're not here to talk about your successes."
For a moment, quiet. The interviewer glanced down at her lap, where her hands curled together like white flowers. "Tell me about Red. The rumors go that you two were close childhood friends."
The boy let his head lean back just a bit and a short sigh followed. "Red? Oh, yeah. We were the best of friends." His stiff laugh sounded artificial, shot through with static. "You could say I knew him well. We were neighbors, y'know? Did almost everything together." He paused. "We even got our first pokémon side by side—and that reminds me. He was a sentimental kid. The only reason he went for the charmander was because of his name. Get it?"
"I get it."
"But, you know. We've both changed."
The interviewer leaned forward. "How so, would you say?"
He crossed his arms and a breath of air puffed from his mouth. "I mean…a lot happened, on our journey. He was a real good kid back home, total mama's boy—kind of a loser, growing up. He loved pokémon though, so there was the one thing we had in common."
"But…you two were good friends?"
He shrugged. "Sure. Pallet Town's small, y'know? What can I say. Not a lot of options for either of us, but it was alright when we were kids. Growing up just made us realize how different we were, I guess. He was always kind of easy to pick on, so I'd started shoving him around a little bit over the years, but it was all good natured." He grinned. "I mean, mostly."
The interviewer hummed to herself.
"Yeah. That was right around the time he knew I'd be starting my journey, so…he kind of begged my grandad to let him go too."
"Really? Why do you think that is?"
He tilted his head. "I guess I made him think he had something to prove."
"Ah." The interviewer gave a knowing nod. "So there was a bit of a rivalry."
He snorted. "Yeah, call it that. I won't lie, though—I was always a few steps ahead, right till the end. It took him about that long to catch up, but…Red was always a pretty tough kid. I'll give him that."
"Mhmm," she murmured. "I believe it. But I want you to go into more detail—you mentioned a lot had happened on your journey."
The boy ran a hand through his hair. "Yeah, yeah. I, um… We were like most green trainers. Started out so full of hope, him especially. And you could see it in everything he did. He was never a chatty kid—got even quieter as he got older, actually—but he didn't need to speak; it was obvious. He and that charmander wore each other out."
"And did he lose that…optimism?"
He gave a sigh, crossed his arms a bit tighter over his chest. "Right, he did. He lost it. But I guess I can't pinpoint when that was."
It was quiet, just for a moment.
"Could've been Team Rocket. They were pretty fuckin' annoying. I… I know Giovanni especially got to him, but they were never something we couldn't handle…"
More quiet.
"I know people have all these bullshit theories about how he saw ghosts in Lavender Town and went mad or something, but I mean, come on. Yeah, those just piss me off."
She leaned in. "But it does sound like you both had a stressful pokémon journey."
He chuckled. "Nah, don't get the wrong idea—he just…wasn't the type to get stressed. I hadn't known it for the longest time, but he had so much hidden… confidence, in himself. He never had any faith in luck, just his own talents and skills. And his pokémon."
"That's interesting," she murmured. "I want to know if you think was there anything specific that may have changed him, or maybe disillusioned him a bit."
"Well, I…" He let out a breath. "I mean, I didn't think he was the type to just disappear, either. I don't know, maybe it was the, ah, accident, with my raticate, but I didn't think he knew…"
The interviewer tilted her head, curiously.
"No, I can't really speak for what went wrong. Like I said, he was always quiet. But I think I knew he changed when…"
"When what?"
"When he entered the Champion's Room after I'd stormed the Indigo Plateau and taken the title. He was there just hours after I'd won, right on my tail like I knew he'd be. Yeah, that's when I knew."
He was shaking his head.
"He looked…angry."
"At you?"
His laugh was mirthless. "Funny, that's what you'd think. No, that wasn't it. I don't think he was even seeing me, you know? He just had this hunger, this desperate need to be the best. The anger was that he wasn't yet." The boy shrugged. "Of course I ignored it at the time. Gave a little speech about how I was gonna wipe the floor with him. How I was the strongest trainer in the world. And he was just…himself. Silent. Maybe the old Red would've congratulated me, defended his own strength before the battle, but he didn't say anything. He didn't even move till I was done talking."
"And then?"
He leaned up against the sofa, tossing his head to the side. "He wiped the floor with me."
Neither moved, for a moment. "Don't get me wrong, it was a hard-fought battle, but…that's the only way I can describe how he won. The way he fought was…ha, dangerous, I guess. Gave me chills." He let out a gentle laugh, but it died. "I watched him, though. I saw it, in his eyes. Something was different there. Something was." The boy trailed off.
"I see," she said. "Was he silent even after the battle?"
"Yeah, well. Even I was pretty much speechless. I'll never know if he would've said anything; my grandad showed up about then."
The woman gave an enthusiastic nod. "Ah, Kanto's pokémon professor?"
He grinned. "The one and only. I wasn't so glad to see him, though—I mean, I'd just lost hard. I knew he'd come to congratulate me or something, but he came a couple minutes late." Shook his head. "No worries though, he just…congratulated Red instead. Look, I'd always known it was happening. Red had been getting all his praise. It's like he was stealing my own grandad's interest away from me, bit by bit. I didn't understand it then."
"And now?"
"I thought I'd only made one mistake: losing to Red that day. But I knew Red had lost before. Hell, sometimes it was even to me. But…none of that was about me. It was clear who the old guy favored."
He clasped his hands in his lap. "I'll admit, it stung."
She gave a sympathetic hum. "Do you resent Red for that?"
"Used to. Don't anymore. Guess I should clear that up before we get a bunch of conspiracy theories about how I'm responsible for him going missing."
She laughed.
"Yeah," he said. "After that, anyway, I just went home. Red stayed back with the professor."
"And did you see him again after that?"
"Yeah, yeah. I did, but I don't know. I guess by then, at least to me, he was already gone."
The interviewer opened her mouth to speak, but didn't quite make it.
"After that he was just in and out of Pallet Town, gone for longer and longer every time he left. The professor told me he was just dedicated."
"To what, do you think?"
He shrugged. "Catching them all, of course."
"Of course. But when did he really go missing? When was the last time he left?"
The boy gave a nervous smile. "Yeah, there's a bit of a story. I, ah, went to explore this particular place. Ran into something scary powerful. Could have been a pokémon, but maybe not. Not sure I'll ever know." He took a breath, kept talking. "I was hurt pretty bad, to say the least. I still walk with a limp. Needless to say, that thing was dangerous. Wiped out me and all my pokémon. Next thing I know, I'm back home in some casts, hopped up on all these painkillers. My sister told me my blastoise had managed to get me back."
"Faithful pokémon you must have."
He nodded. "Most trainers have 'em. If they're good, anyway."
This time there was no laugh.
"I always wonder. If I had never told my grandad, if he had never told Red about what I found out there, maybe he wouldn't have disappeared. I knew he was gonna look for the thing that tried to kill me—yeah, we all did." He swallowed. "I've got this memory. It must've been before he left, if it wasn't the meds just messing with my head, but I swear he stood in the doorway of my room for a minute or two. Silent as ever, just watching."
He looked aside. "Yeah. That was the last time I saw him."
The woman was tentative, her voice soft. "Do you think something happened, when he left for that place?"
He gave a slow sigh, leaned to rest his forearms on his knees. "Yeah, that's…that's what I've always worried about. The professor says differently."
"And what does he say?"
He snorted. "He says Red came back, and he met with him. Told me the idiot was unscathed, his pokémon mostly fine, but…but now he had another one."
"Oh," she whispered. "Could that be—"
"Ha, I don't know. I…I can't imagine that."
"Did…your grandfather say anything else about that encounter?"
"Yeah, he said it was short and sweet. Red didn't stay long, didn't say much. He left." The boy was rubbing his temples. "I guess some small part of me's always believed that whole thing didn't even happen, that even though that place was searched so many times by the police, he still died in there."
The woman seemed, for a moment, like she had nothing to say.
"But most of me doesn't think so."
"And…why is that?"
"Because my grandad was the most shaken I'd ever seen him, telling me that story. He was confused, conflicted. Spent a lot of time talking to Red's mother. I don't know how real it was, what he told me, but I think he finally understood that something had been wrong with Red."
"I see." She glanced again at her lap, shuffled with the pages of her notebook. "There are some pretty popular rumors in circulation these days, that he's wandering Kanto alone. What are your thoughts on those?"
"Oh, those. Yeah, I used to think they were stupid. The guy's got no reason to 'wander Kanto'… he'd completed the Pokédex. There's nothing left out there for him. I don't know, maybe he realized that and just couldn't accept it."
Her mouth opened to speak but he beat her to it. "And yeah, before you ask like the rest of them, I've heard all the stories about his "ghost" in the Johtan mountains. Sitting at a peak, still and silent like he was before that last battle. Yeah, he'd do that."
"Do what, exactly?"
He sighed, sat back again. "Well. Knowing him, anything. If he's been seen up there, that's no ghost. It's just Red."
"What do you mean by that?"
"I mean at this point, I'll believe anything. I saw those…those eyes he had."
He looked down.
"You know, I bet he's out there somewhere, with his pokémon, way beyond his limit…Look, I may have dedicated my life to pokémon; that's the only reason I ever made it so far, but Red…"
It was quiet.
"Red sold his soul for it."
There was a click. The screen froze and died to black.
I don't like long ANs but y'know.
I'm in school and all so finding writing time can be tough. I think most of this was done at like 11-2 am - prime writing hours. Anyway, I'll be working on an outline and the first couple chapters when I can, and if a fair number of people are interested in seeing more it'll be a bit higher on my priority list. Just a warning, this story won't be short, but I hope you think that's a good thing.
Anyway, reviews are a hassle but I enjoy them so leave one maybe. Either way, thanks for clickin'.
-Sam