Mark wandered through the woods, looking for wild pokemon. Spore was still resting in his pokeball from the battle with Giovanni, but Bruin was walking behind Mark. They'd slept on the forest floor last night, and now it was just after dawn.
Then, Mark heard a thump, and turned around to see somebody punching a tree. It's that Rocket from before! One of the enforcers, Mark realized. He wasn't in his uniform, though.
"Stop right there, or my pokemon will hurt you, Rocket." Mark told the criminal, who just turned to look at him.
"I'm not a Rocket. Not anymore."
"I saw you at the Centre!" Mark yelled.
"Yeah, but Julian needed someone to blame for messing up the job, and he blamed me."
"You mean he kicked you out?"
"Yeah." He paused. "Why am I telling you this anyway? You'll probably just rat me out."
"No I won't. You're not a Rocket anymore, and you never actually stole anything, you just tried to is all. So you're not doing anything wrong! Right?"
"Y'know, you're all right, kid. Name's Cody." The former Rocket told him, holding out his hand. Mark shook it.
"Where're you headed now?" Mark asked him.
"I don't actually know. Say, do you think maybe I could go with you?"
"Aren't you kind of, well, old for pokemon training?" Mark questioned.
"Nah. I'm only fifteen. What're you, ten?"
"Eleven. I only got my pokemon now though cause where I used to live you had to be twelve. So now that I moved to Viridian, I got my pokemon the first starting day."
"Where did you used to live?" Cody questioned back.
"Cyan City. It's on an island off of Hoenn."
"Oh."
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Mark was still wary about travelling with a former Rocket, so Spore and Bruin walked outside of their pokeballs in case Cody decided to make any sudden moves.
Mark and Cody saw a Pinsir emerge from the bushes behind them, but before Mark could battle it Cody threw out a pokeball of his own. It contained a large, black and grey dog-like pokemon.
"Shredder, use Take-Down!" Cody yelled, and his pokemon dove at the Pinsir, knocking it over. Then it began to bite it with its large jaws, and green blood began to pour out of the Pinsir's wounds.
Cody tooled a Greatball at the Pinsir, which encased it perfectly. The battle was over.
"What pokemon was that?" Mark asked his new companion.
"Mightyena. Or did you mean the Pinsir?"
"No, I meant the dog. Mightyena?" Mark repeated to see if he'd gotten it right.
"Yeah. I finally caught a pokemon! I know it's not that hard or anything, but working for Team Rocket doesn't leave much time to be a trainer."
Cody pulled a Full Restore from his backpack and sprayed it through the treatment hole in the pokeball, healing his new Pinsir.
"Do you mind if I ask you a question?" Mark asked.
"Sure, why not?" Cody replied.
"How did you end up in Team Rocket? I mean, it's just that you don't act like Rockets usually do."
"Not everything in this world is in plain black and white. Bad people can do good things, or bad things for good reasons. And good people can do bad things, or good things for bad reasons. I did bad things for good reasons, and that's all I'm going to say for now. Maybe when I know you better, I'll say more. But not now."
"Listen, I don't think I want to travel with someone who keeps secrets from me. Especially someone who used to be a criminal." Mark told him, angrily.
Cody just glared at him. "Then maybe I should leave."
"No, no, it's fine, I guess." Mark sighed.
"Good."
As the sun set over the tops of the trees, Cody and Mark began to set up camp. Mark's blonde hair was greasy and wet with sweat from the long jog that day, so after setting up a place to sleep he went to bathe in the river.
As he was getting back out after a long bath, he saw a boy and a girl battling on the riverside. He quickly got dressed and went to watch. He loved to battle, but watching was almost as good. And maybe they'd even let him battle winner.
"Charmander, Smokescreen." The boy told his orange pokemon. The Charmander shot a stream of black smoke at its opponent, a white bird like pokemon with a long beak and blue stripes on its wings. Then, the bird shot an arc of water at the boy's Charmander, and just narrowly missed putting out its tail fire.
"Charmander, return." The boy said, and a flash of energy absorbed it into its pokeball. Then he threw out a second ball, this one containing a orange fish with yellow hairs on it.
"Wingull, use Water Gun on that Magikarp!" The girl commanded her pokemon.
"Magikarp, get under the water, now!" The boy yelled, and his pokemon dove into the river. The Supersonic waves couldn't penetrate the water and had no effect. Then, the Magikarp resurfaced and slammed into the Wingull, knocking it to the ground.
"Good job! Now, finish it off by pushing it into the river!" The boy told his Magikarp, and soon the Wingull was flapping around in the water. The girl was forced to call it back, and the battle was over.
"Good battle." They said to each other. Then the girl handed over some money and walked away.
"Hey! Wanna battle?" The boy asked Mark, spotting him for the first time. "My Charmander's still in good condition, he was just outmatched by that water-type."
"Sure!" Mark replied. He knew that the Charmander would scorch Spore in battle, so he threw out Bruin's pokeball.
"Alright Bruin, I realize you've never fought a trainer before, but try hard, okay?" Mark told his pokemon. Then, as Charmander was about to shoot an Ember attack, Bruin scratched it with his long claws.
"Good job. Now, Fury Swipes." Mark instructed. Bruin threw himself at Charmander with fervour and cut it up good.
"Charmander, use Flamethrower!" The boy commanded, and a large blast of fire shot out from its tail. Bruin was knocked out, and the battle was over.
"Why don't you use your second pokemon?" the boy questioned as he received Mark's money.
"He's a Bulbasaur, and your Charmander would've massacred him."
"Okay, fine. My name's Joseph by the way." The boy told him, and held out his hand to shake.
The two boys talked for a while, and then Mark invited Joseph to come to his camp.
When they reached it though, they were terribly surprised.
"I'm sorry, Mark. I didn't have a choice." Cody told him, and then Mark and Joseph both felt a severe pain in their stomachs before falling to the ground. The last thing they saw was Julian, the leader of the Rockets back in Viridian.
