This chapter turned out to be a lot harder to write than I thought, so it's late.

Pika-Zukin – You thought that girl had a suicune??? No, definitely not. A pre-teen girl does not get to have one of the coolest legendary pokemon. Maybe in some OT stories, but not here. Elliot didn't know it, so it's a normal, doglike pokemon that's either from Johto or Hoenn. (And since it attacked physically, probably something that doesn't have a type advantage)

And don't worry, I do know where this is going, and there is an explanation.

Gen Trainer

-

The rocket looked furious. With his other arm he threw two pokeballs, which opened to release a zubat and raticate. The man yelled an order, then swayed slightly, holding onto the wall for support. The raticate tackled the charmeleon, and the zubat shrieked. The charmeleon cringed, stopping its attack, and the flying pokemon swooped at the boy.

Prowler ran and jumped, knocking the zubat to the ground and pinning it. Without the noise, the charmeleon recovered, slashing and biting at the raticate until it collapsed.

The man cursed and pulled off three more pokeballs, releasing a drowzee, grimer, and another raticate.

Prowler snarled, pouncing on the drowzee and raking it with her claws, while the charmeleon flamed the others. The man ran off clumsily, looking almost drunk. The pokemon were swiftly beaten. In Prowler's case, the drowzee was unmoving, and she gave the body a parting bite before jumping off and padding back to Elliot.

"Thank you," the boy said formally, doing a partial bow toward the charmeleon. He turned to Elliot. "And thank you for your help." He thanked Prowler as well, bowing to each of them in turn.

"What are you doing here?" Elliot asked.

The boy looked somewhat guilty. "I overheard some rockets talking by accident about this place, so I came here." The charmeleon snorted, creating a bright flash of flame.

"And that guy – shouldn't we get out of here? He'll get more, won't he?"

"Nah," the boy said. "Sis said they'll get in trouble if they say they lost." He turned to the charmeleon, who looked a bit surly. "He won't get anyone, right?"

The charmeleon nodded curtly.

"Well, we've both gotten here," the boy said. "Might as well continue. My name's Miguel. Yours?"

"I'm Elliot."

The boy nodded. "This is Inferno-who-chooses-to-be-charmeleon. He likes that to be clear." The charmeleon snorted again.

"This is Prowler, and this is Din, and this is Sono," Elliot said, feeling like the participant in some sort of ritual. The boy bowed slightly to each of them.

The charmeleon looked around. Somewhat grudgingly, he started forward. The boys began walking deeper in.

"It's probably stupid of me to do this," the boy said. "But I figure, it might as well be me. I should do something good. Why are you here?"

"I don't know," Elliot said honestly. "I heard a rumor they were in Lavender, and I was intending to try to find them, but I came to the Tower to catch a ghost type for my friend."

"Ghost – but they're – your family doesn't know? – well, I guess lots of people don't. Ghosts can get really dangerous. Not because they're especially strong, exactly, but they can be tricky and vicious. That's why it's not a good idea to be around a bunch. The ones here are supposed to be asleep, but there's no telling what one might do if it's still awake. Those ones are the worst." Inferno grumbled. "My sister'll be mad when she finds out I came here."

Prowler was muttering inaudibly with the charmeleon up ahead. The two were walking well in front of the others.

"So how many badges have you gotten?" Miguel asked.

"Six," Elliot said. "I was just in Saffron."

"Pretty lucky," Miguel said. "I've gotten two. I'm supposed to get the full eight, but I don't know if I will." His voice was subdued. "I'm really…I didn't really want to go, but I have to. It's not fair to my sister otherwise."

"What do you mean?"

"She's the oldest, and I'm the next oldest, because my older brother died. So if I'm not able to do anything, it all falls on her. And she's got enough to worry about." The boy sighed. "I'm not a trainer, not really."

The boy fell silent. Elliot was spared having to figure out what to say by the appearance of a solid dozen of raticate and rattata.

Inferno took a quick breath and exhaled a wall of fire, the heat and flames pausing them momentarily. Miguel tossed three more of the five pokeballs on his belt and threw them.

Inferno ran out of breath and the flames faded. The ground and walls had a thick blackened line on them, but it hadn't been an attack, just a delay, and the enemy pokemon were unharmed.

"Tammi! Sammi! Take down! Sting, fury attack!"

Somewhat belatedly, Elliot threw out his own pokeballs as he ordered Sono and Din to attack. Together, they had ten pokemon, an almost equal number.

The fight was swift and jumbled, with Inferno using his flames to attack the most possible. Miguel's beedrill stabbed them rapidly, and the two eevee worked together to beat raticate one by one. Elliot's pokemon fought less skillfully, with only Prowler and Din seeming able to deal with a chaotic, multi-opponent battle.

Once around half of the raticate had been taken out, Inferno ran past and bit one of the two rockets commanding the pokemon on the leg. The man screamed, and his partner took off. The charmeleon released the man, who began to stagger away, and chased the second, fleeing rocket.

The raticate's fighting didn't seem affected by the loss of their trainers. When it was finally over, Elliot recalled Discord, who had a nasty puncture wound that was turning purplish around the edges, and Sono, who had fainted. Din and Howler had come out of it in moderate condition, with only a few bites and fatigue, and Prowler seemed fine. Caw was also unharmed, although he hadn't done much in the actual battle.

Miguel's pokemon seemed better off. The two eevee looked exhausted but not that injured. Elliot wasn't familiar with beedrill, but it seemed fine. Inferno didn't look like he'd even fought.

It seemed, Elliot thought, like it was easier than it had been. He thought maybe it was because he was a stronger trainer. That was how it could be sometimes, in stories, that the hero was weak at first but then won. Now that he'd gotten better, what had – being attacked like that, it wouldn't happen again.

Inferno returned, his white claws red in places. ((Moving,)) he said brusquely, and moved ahead. The boys and pokemon followed

"Weird they'd be here," Elliot said after a minute. "I mean, it must have taken a lot to add another level, and why bother?"

"You didn't hear anything about why?"

"Nope, just that they were here."

"I didn't hear much either, but there's something going on with the cubone here. It's really shady. Seems there are a lot of cubone skulls showing up on the market, especially right around here, where they've in high demand. I think Team Rocket's involved."

"Cubone skulls?" Elliot repeated.

"Yeah. There are a few cubone in the area, although they're really rare. In all of Kanto, this is the only place you can find them. And it matches the proposed habitat by Professor Willow, so…they say the ancient marowak graveyard might be near here."

Elliot had heard stories about that. "So you think someone found the graveyard?"

"Well, maybe – people have been looking for it for a long time. But they also might be catching cubone."

"Stealing their skulls? But the Jennies wouldn't let that happen."

The boy gave him an odd look. "You don't…" he trailed off. "Well, it doesn't matter. Anyway, it's just a thought. I ho – it's not true. They wouldn't…it's really hard to catch enough cubone, so it wouldn't make sense."

They came upon one of the rockets. The man was sitting slumped against the wall, breathing raggedly. The carpet around him looked wet. His eyes were shut and his skin was pasty and covered in sweat. The boys started to pause.

((Moving!)) the charmeleon reminded them.

"Will he be okay?" Elliot said.

Miguel looked at Inferno. "Is he going to bleed to death?"

((Blood has already stopped,)) said Inferno, gesturing sharply with one arm. ((Has plenty left. Not your concern.))

"Okay," Elliot said uncertainly, walking past. Some of the pokemon stopped to sniff, but they seemed uneasy at what they smelled and hurried on. Din whined uncertainly, and the two eevee barked, the sound piercing.

Inferno paused. ((Less noise. Put back noisy ones.))

"Huh?"

"The pokemon are making too much noise," Miguel said, pulling two pokeballs off his belt and recalling Tammi and Sammi. He replaced those and then recalled the beedrill, leaving only Inferno out.

Elliot followed his example, recalling all his pokemon except Prowler, who was up ahead talking inaudibly with Inferno.

"So where do you live?" asked Miguel.

"In Russet. It's near Cerulean."

"What's it like?"

"Nothing much. It's really boring there. Just a bunch of families and some stores. There were a couple of other kids I used to play with, but I haven't seen them since I left to be a pokemon trainer. My mom would call it 'sleepy' and said it was a great place to raise kids, but that's just how parents say boring and nothing to do."

"It sounds nice."

"You're just as weird as her. Where did you live?"

"I-"

Inferno snarled suddenly, turning away from Prowler and facing them. ((He's not gen! She's caught!)) he yelled. Flames gathered in his mouth. Prowler tackled him, making the attack hit the ceiling.

"It's okay, Inferno, I figured it out already," Miguel said.

((You're talking to him!))

"Come on Inferno, we're not in danger. He'd probably be more dangerous if he was gen."

((He's not part of this! Do you know what–))

"He's not going to do anything." Miguel turned to Elliot. "Right?"

"Do what? What's a gen?"

"Someone whose family raises pokemon."

"Like a breeder."

"Not exactly. We just always have pokemon. We're not really part of the rest of Kanto. My family lives –"

Inferno's growl drowned him out. The charmeleon's tail was lashing from side to side, the flame burning bluish white.

"- well, it's not really important," Miguel said. "Besides, we're probably going to leave. That's why my sister said."

"Why? Are your parents-"

"They're dead." At Elliot's expression, Miguel added, "It's okay. They weren't really around much. It was a while ago, anyway. One of my cousins was taking care of us, so she just kept doing that. My sister's the head of the family now. She wants us to go to Johto, where the rest of the family is."

"Why didn't you go there to start, when your parents died?"

"It's hard for people like us to leave Kanto. And…we really don't want to leave. We've lived there forever. But my sister says it's too dangerous to stay anymore. She's probably right."

They continued down the labyrinthine corridors. No one attacked them, and Elliot started to feel uneasy. There were occasional doors, but they were always locked or else opened into empty rooms.

They turned what seemed like the hundredth corner and found another door. Miguel went up to it first and turned the knob. The door opened partway, and Elliot felt a gust of freezing air. Miguel slammed the door shut, his face white.

"What is it?"

"Nothing," Miguel said. He was breathing in great gulps, like a diver who'd just surfaced. "It's nothing." Elliot started toward the door. "It's nothing," Miguel repeated. "Come on, we've got to keep going." He grabbed Elliot's arm and started walking, pulling him past the door.

"What? What do you mean?"

"Nobody's shown up for a while, so probably…" Miguel trailed off. "The guys we've met weren't really trainers. There's gotta be at least one trainer here. If we're lucky, he won't know we're here yet."

"Not trainers?" Elliot repeated. "Why not? What else were they?"

"Just guys with pokemon," Miguel said. "Look, you've – just trust me. Rocket trainers, they're…we beat those guys even though they outnumbered us. Those weren't trainers."

((Noise,)) Inferno said suddenly. ((People this way.)) He started to run. The boys followed. There was a large door. Elliot didn't recognize what that meant, but Miguel did. Storeroom. He shoved the doors open.

The inside was huge. Black-uniformed men and burly machoke were hurriedly moving a few boxes out the doors behind. They didn't even pause to look up at the intruders. The room was mostly empty, as if they'd already moved out most of whatever was there.

One man was standing there, not doing anything, as the others filed out. He tossed out a pokeball. A haunter appeared. Inferno slashed it instantly, cutting the vapor to bits. It dissipated.

"W-what?" the man said.

"He's a Spiritkiller," Miguel said. Elliot looked at him. Miguel looked confident, fearless. Adult. "Or do you call them Exorcists now?"

The man looked scared, disbelieving. "Liar," he said. "Those don't exist anymore – they never existed!" He threw out five more pokeballs. A gastly, three more haunter, and a gengar appeared. It took Inferno only seconds to tear them apart. He jumped onto the man, the huge claws on his back legs sinking into the rocket's midsection, then they jerked down, and Elliot screamed.

"Stop him!" Elliot yelled, grabbing Miguel. Miguel shoved him off.

"He's a Ghost trainer," Miguel said harshly.

Inferno's head came up from the body. He looked around, blood dripping slowly off his muzzle. ((Follow,)) the charmeleon said.

Elliot didn't move. Miguel pulled him along, past the disemboweled corpse, following the charmeleon. They came to a staircase, the same kind of metal grill Elliot had seen on the last staircase up.

"Come on," Miguel said. He hurried down, dragging Elliot behind him. "They might not have gotten away yet. We might be able to catch them."

"So you can kill them too?" Elliot yelled. "He hadn't killed anyone!"

Miguel turned and yelled back, "They killed all the-" Miguel bit back the rest of the sentence. "I'm sorry," he said instead, continuing down the steps.

"No you're not!"

"He was a Ghost trainer. My enemy. You're not gen, you can't understand. You're lucky." They had reached the bottom of the stairs. Miguel started to push open the door. "It's how things are."

Outside, the last of the black trucks were driving away. Inferno growled angrily.

There was a deafening explosion, followed seconds later by the pattering of tiny fragments hitting the ground. Elliot looked up and saw black smoke billowing out of the top of the tower.

"Destroying the evidence. And probably hoping to get us too," Miguel said, seeing his expression. He shoved a pokeball into Elliot's hands. "Here."

"What is it?"

"My failure. The first one I fought, when Sting wasn't strong enough. For your friend." Miguel looked around. There was the sound of sirens in the distance. "I've got to get going. You'd better leave too. Listen, if you meet anyone like me again…it'd probably be a good idea to stay away from them."

Next chapter: Rock Tunnel. Discord should be able to use that move, right? Wait, Howler shouldn't be able to do that. What's Prowler talking about? And hey, didn't Caw just…?