Chapter 2
Capture
--- XXX --- XXX ---
"All right Hera, he's weak, but don't underestimate him!" the blond trainer, who couldn't be older than thirteen, told his female eevee as she stood, panting and lightly bruised, on the middle of the forest clearing, the light emitted by the setting sun making the match more dramatic than most would have thought it was.
Her opponent, a spoink, kept bouncing up and down with the help of his coil-like tail, even though he probably wouldn't stand another few seconds without fainting. His trainer, a girl of shiny red hair, older than the boy though still in her teens, had a hard face as she watched her pokemon being beat up.
"Porky, use confusion, now!" she ordered the pig pokemon.
Her battler's face started to grow more determined, as the pearl-like gem on the top of his head glowed brightly, charging what power he had left for a last attack.
"Hera, don't let him! Quick attack!"
The eevee yipped as she thrust herself at an impossible speed against her opponent, effectively taking him out of the match before he could do anything more. He still bounced up and down even in unconsciousness, which was quite a funny sight for those not used to watching spoinks battle.
The female trainer reluctantly called her fighter back, while the blond commemorated and hugged his eevee, who also seemed incredibly happy. She approached them, her face still showing signs of anger. It soon softened, though, and she thrust her hand for a shake.
"That was one great battle kid," she congratulated him. "You sure train this cutie well. What's your name, by the way?"
He took her hand and shook it with all the pleasure. "My name is Joshua, and this is Hera." he said, pointing at the eevee in his arm.
"Eeeep!" she exclaimed in response. The teenage girl could actually feel a smug sound to that statement, whatever it was.
"Hera, huh? It suits the little devil." She proceeded to pet it. "You know, I've always had a thing for strong female pokemon."
"So do I," Joshua told her.
She took her hand back and turned around to resume her path. "Well, then, see ya later, kid. Hope we see each other another time." she told him, walking away.
"So do I," he whispered, and Hera had a grin on her lips as she noticed the small blush on his cheeks.
--- XXX --- XXX ---
Hera had always been a trained pokemon. She had been born and raised in a reserve, though she could never tell you the name of it, or where it was. Living within pokeballs for most of your life did that to a pokemon. She was then more than glad that Joshua almost always kept her outside her ball. She figured he liked the company.
Joshua was a kid like most other trainers. Young, determined and overall a maker of foolish mistakes every once in a while. But, unlike the unfortunate ones, he learned with them, and grew. One of the main reasons that humans let their ten-year-olds, which wouldn't compare to three years of an eevee's life, out by themselves in a journey was that sole fact; hardships made a person mature, and traveling alone in wild territory was one hell of a hardship, most would say. When returned from a long journey, a trainer was often different, more aware of what the world is all about, but without having lost his faith in it. The ones who didn't learn, well, these either returned home ashamed, or joined the Teams.
The two companions walked through the dirt path cutting the forest, Hera, as usual, sniffing and inspecting everything around her, without letting her guard down, though. They could very well be unknowingly invading some other pokemon's territory, and there were some hell of some territorial pokemon out there, Hera would tell you. She was never scared of them, of course, even though sometimes this courage clouded her good sense, and Joshua had to knock it into her with a "Return!" call. She hated it when he did that.
The dirt was soft beneath her maybe even softer paws, and Hera could smell the generations of pokemon who had passed and lived through those parts, as well as hear the cacophony of the living in the deep jungle. She often pitied the humans for their lack of scent and hearing, but, at least, they knew how to get along. They had to, or else how did they survive thousands of years around the pokemon and became the 'dominant' species? But, even though she did not really believe they were that superior, some of them were nice to live with, like Joshua.
Being trained has never been an issue for her. Though many wild pokemon she had met had often called her 'human-lover' or 'traitor' or much worse things, she never cared, letting it all enter through one ear and out the other. Being trained was an easy life. You had food every day, a pokeball was far comfier than most would believe, and the battles were a lot of fun. Plus, with a trainer you got far stronger far faster than you would in the wild, and Hera particularly liked that fact.
"Well, here we are," Joshua said, as they reached an arch looming over them at the reddish road. It was of gray, painted metal and something was written on it, probably the name of the city they were entering, though Hera couldn't tell jack. She often mused asking Joshua to teach her to read. But the kid could barely understand her, and even she had trouble with his words, especially the large and complicated ones, every once in a while. But they got along more than well, plus they ended up learning with each other. It was almost osmosis.
"Great!" she said, in her own tongue. "I could really use a rest." All that was spoken with just a few sounds. Pokemon speech was far quicker than human, and that was one of the things that made it so hard for the bipedal beings.
"It's getting late," he said while looking at the stars, that where now spotting one by one in the twilight skies. That was one moment of the day that Hera was particularly fond of. She had always felt a strange attraction to the stars, since she was a newborn cub, and that was something she'd often ponder about as she gazed at them every night, waiting for sleep to come. "The best thing would be to go to the center and get ourselves a room."
She agreed, and they made their way towards the outskirts of the town.
--- XXX --- XXX ---
Your average pokemon center, was what Hera thought as she entered the all too familiar building through the automatic glass doors. How did the humans create those things, she thought she'd never understand. For her, it was a mystery as great as why there was always a nurse Joy in every single one of those facilities.
The building was rather large, for a pokemon center. The tiled linoleum floor was shinning, clearly having been recently cleaned, and Hera made faces at her reflection while Joshua laughed softly at her antics. The eevee ignored the blinding fluorescent lights and the disinfectant smell that plagued every single corner of that place, already long used to such things.
There were many other trainers around there, Hera noted, all either inspecting their pokeballs, pokemon or doing who-knows-what. Some times, a trainer would come rushing with a rather more injured one to the counter, so they could be urgently attended. She couldn't remember the last time she had left a battle that much hurt. It was usually the other way around.
She leapt at one of the seats and made herself comfortable as Joshua made their reservations. She laid there, no more than a cute fur crescent to any passerby, as her eyelids became heavier and heavier, sleep threatening to steal her from the waking world, even in the bright light. She was already half-asleep when it happened.
It was so fast that Hera only became aware of it when the black smoke was already filling her lungs, making her cough violently. She heard the screams of fear and confusion, human and pokemon alike, and desperately tried to find Joshua. She could see or smell nothing in the bleak gas, so she blindly tumbled through the place, trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to avoid the trampling legs running around her.
She ended up on the videophone benches, beneath where she, unable to go anywhere else, hid, accompanied by two other pokemon. The pichu was wailing loudly right beside her, while the sandslash tried to comfort it, or at least make it shut up.
"What's going on?" Hera asked the hedgehog pokemon, raising her voice above the screaming.
"I don't know!" he answered. "But I'd bet all my spikes that it's those bloody Rockets making another theft!" The pichu in his arms, probably little more than a baby, eventually stopped crying his lungs out and, to Hera's ears' relief, contended with a low and scared whimpering.
At that moment Hera became curious to know if those two were friends of some kind, or if they had just met. The pichu was really cute, and she wanted to ask him so many things. What was his name? How old was he? Did he have a trainer? She asked nothing, though, the situation given and the worry for her own trainer overruling those desires.
The sound of many booted footsteps. Hera kept herself unmoving as the smoke started to clear and the screams subsided to sobs, hushed whispers and growling. Then she saw that the sandslash couldn't be more right. The whole center was simply crawling with grunts, all wearing the characteristic black outfit with the famous and hated red 'R' on the front of the shirt. They were all wielding either automatic rifles or pokeballs, and some of them had their pokemon drawn out.
As the grunts huddled the trainers and the few pokemon they had released, hardly enough to counter so many weapons, in small groups, one stood over the others. He was taller and had a very muscular fit, his short red hair coming out in spikes, his eyes a blue like ice. He wore a different outfit, a gray jacket with matching clothes, and Hera could only tell that he was probably the leader of the band.
"All right, everybody shut the fuck up!" he ordered the assembled people, his voice raspy, growl-like and not at all pleasant. It was like hearing an arcanine with throat infection barking. "My name is Reden, in case you assholes are wondering, and all pokemon in this center are now property of Team Rocket!"
Hera finally spotted Joshua on the group closest to the counter, with the nurse Joy also in it. He kept looking frantically to the sides, probably looking for her. Hera wanted to tell him that she was okay, but she didn't want to expose her hideout, as well as the sandslash and the pichu. She had to find another way.
Reden looked satisfied as his grunts took the pokemon and pokeballs from the assembled children, as well as take those who were at the inner rooms, and Hera noted with disgust that he seemed to be particularly pleased when a trainer fell to tears as his or her friends were taken away. She really hated him right then.
"Hey, you!" he called to a group of grunts dangerously close to where Hera hid. "Take a look around and make sure there ain't anyone hiding around, ya hear me?"
"Yes, sir!" they saluted, and proceeded to look under the benches, seats and counters, as well as in bathrooms and other less flashing rooms. They did find some pokemon, as well as a person, and all were either put in the sacs of thrown with the other hostages.
Hera's heart hammered in her chest as one of them went towards the videophones. She looked around, desperately trying to find a way out, and all she found was the sandslash and the pichu, both getting really scared of the prospect of being victims themselves. She couldn't let them be taken like that. Then, an idea flared in her mind. It was way too risk, but it could give some of them the time to escape.
"Hey, buddy." she whispered to the sandslash, turning him to her. "I'm gonna get their attention, and you try to get to the doors, you got me?"
He looked at her like she was insane. "Are you fuckin' crazy?" he whispered. "Those are guns they are holding there!"
But she still looked determined. "Look, I'll do it anyway, so feel free to take the chance or not."
As she got herself ready, he said, "Good luck."
"Thanks, I'll need it." She tensed her muscles as the grunt was already standing in front of the bench beneath where they were. He was about to kneel at them when...
"Now!" she screamed as she tackled the man down silly. She then started using agility, becoming a brown-and-cream-colored rocket, knocking down every grunt she could find.
"Get that fucking thing, you morons!" Reden hollered at his underlings, who looked like they were slipping in soap as they uselessly tried to catch the furry whirlwind.
"Everybody!" Hera called out as she ran in circles through the lobby, knowing fully well that the Rockets wouldn't be able to understand her. "Get out if you can, now!" She knocked down a grunt with a sac filled with pokeballs, and then ripped the bag open with a slash. The balls scattered through the floor, and the Rockets who weren't ice-skating before, were now.
"Forget about catching it! Just shoot the damn thing!"
That was what Hera heard before she became the machineguns' primary target. The bullets whipped and zipped around her, often grazing her fur, as she tried not to get herself killed. She noted with satisfaction that in the confusion some pokemon and even trainers had made it out of there, the grunts too busy about her to care.
She felt something ram her side, hard, and, thanks to the attack's strength combined with her inertia, she ended up crashing on the other side of the room, her head spinning. Before she could get up, though, she was pinned to the ground, and when she looked up she saw that it was a houndoom, his brown eyes staring amusedly at her and his muzzle formed into a grin.
"Where do you think you're going, cutie?" the fire dog sneered at her, and she felt her blood boil, the growl that escaped her throat a perfect indication of that. "Oh, you won't be giving anyone any more trouble, gal."
He crunched her left hind-paw with a sickening sound, and her cry was loud and long as the fiery pain surged through her system. The dark poison didn't help any.
Knowing that she wasn't going anywhere, the houndoom left her. The eevee looked at her leg, bent on an unnatural way, and thought with a humorless grin of what a great job the damned dog had done to stop her. She felt like giving him some of his own treatment, if she got out of that shit alive, that is.
"Oh, what do we have here?" Reden came to her, his voice taunting like that of a school bully. A coward, was what Hera thought of him. No more than a big fat coward. He'd only act like that when he knew his opponent couldn't strike back, instead of fighting like a real man. It disgusted her. "You caused us a lot of trouble, bitch."
Her eyes widened considerably as he got a pistol from his jacket and took the safety off.
"And do you know how we Rockets deal with little bitches like you?" he asked her, as the barrel was pointing to the middle of her eyes. She started shacking slightly, but she didn't cower or cry. She wouldn't give him that satisfaction.
"NO!" a voice came to her ears, and Hera looked to see Joshua tackle the grunt guarding him, who was distracted at the scene, and run to her.
"Joshua, no, stop!" she tried to warn him, but he didn't hear, didn't understand or didn't care. He just kept running.
Soon, he was on her, covering her with his body.
And then she heard the snap.
He jerked once, his eyes wide, his body tensing immediately. A single second in the clock, that seemed to stretch endlessly for Hera, as she helplessly watched her trainer starting to shake. He looked at her, and she looked at him, and, at that moment, they both realized that each other had the deepest and most beautiful blue eyes, and neither of them had ever noticed that before.
Another shot, and another, and a third, all the while Joshua's body jerking violently, until it collapsed in front of her, his eyes never leaving her face. She looked at his back. All of the shots were at the stomach area, and one seemed to have gotten through his spine. Red bloody splashes covered the wounds, dark pools that increased consistently.
At that moment, Hera could do nothing, say nothing, her mind numb with shock and finality. She could only stare at her trainer's face, as he did the same. Then, his lips moved, and sounds were uttered, whispers so low and weak that she, with her sensitive ears, was probably the only one who heard, who even noticed. And his words where like a bullet itself in her heart.
"Be brave."
And the last one came, ripping through his skull, ending the last spark of life. And his eyes were no longer looking at anything, or anyone anymore. Empty pools of sea blue, with no more purpose, no more use. His last words replayed in Hera's mind like a mantra, as she watched his cold carcass, motionless, expressionless.
Be brave, the litany whispered.
Everything seemed to dim around her, a moment becoming eternity, light vanishing, swallowed by shadow. The cold, the emptiness she felt, deep in her soul, had no comparison.
Be brave, the litany repeated.
"Stupid asshole." Reden said as he lowered his gun. The sickening sound of his voice brought Hera to reality, and she looked at him, her face contorted unlike anything anyone there had ever seen. She eyed him, her look beyond fury, beyond hate, beyond kill-lust. Her body shook with the burning desire to do nothing more than to let his filthy blood shower the floor where they stood.
Be brave, the litany taunted.
She let out a war cry, so filled with hate, so filled with hurt, that even the houndoom and the rockets took a step back, aghast. She used all the strength she had on her three good legs, and even more, and sprung at Reden, her teeth aiming at his wretched throat.
But he was prepared and, with his pistol, knocked her with all the force in the face, sending her sprawling to the counter. She landed with a thud, hitting her skull on the floor.
Be brave, the litany told her one more time, before the darkness of her soul took her to the bliss of unconsciousness.
--- XXX --- XXX ---
The rockets loaded the stolen pokemon in the large truck they had placed strategically behind the center. They were careful with the pokeball filled sacs, and much less with the large cages holding the released ones. They soon took off, the other grunts leaving in jeeps parked in hidden places in the forest nearby.
The police arrived at the scene two minutes later to find tied, crying and scared people, as well as the nurse Joy and the body of one trainer, identified later as Joshua Anderson, thirteen years old, from the city of Viridian. His body was shipped for examination.
Later, the witnesses would speak of how the trainer sacrificed his life to protect that of a small and brave eevee, thanks to who almost twenty pokemon were capable of escaping the Rockets' clutches.
Driving at a fast speed through a hole filled road, which seemed like no more than a hidden trail in the forest created by the not-so-constant passing of vehicles, the grunt at the wheel of the truck smoked as he watched with half-interest the dark path ahead of him.
At one point, during the travel, he thought he saw an eevee standing at the side of the trail, watching the passing truck with a strange expression. He soon dismissed it as his own tiredness, though, and continued his way through the empty road.
--- XXX --- XXX ---
Author's Notes: Whoa, that's the most reviews I've got on the first chapter of any of my fics! Thank you guys, I truly appreciate it. Now, to answer them...
Eevee: I actually prefer Sakura and her sisters than Mikey and his brothers, but they're all really cool.
Q5: No.
MistyMew: Mist, I'm glad you like my reviews on your stories. Oh, and make sure you give them some thought. I've been dying to know what'll happen to Pikachu in 'Darkness Doesn't Cast a Shadow'. Now, I finally put in my big head that pokemon in plural doesn't have a 's', so I changed that in the first chapter as well. Please, keep telling me what you think about this and my other fics (I'll be fixing that in those as well).
--- XXX --- XXX ---