Red to Crimson

by The Light's Refrain

Did Red's ultimate victory over the Pokemon League, and his long-time friend/rival Blue, unlock his ultimate downfall and isolation? A series of drabbles on Red and his life between becoming Champion and becoming a silent Trainer in the frozen Mount Silver. Co-story with reminiscent-afterthought's After Being Blue. COMPLETE!

16. Basal

Now for the aftermath of Red and Blue's battle, and some unexpected consequences. Make sure to check out Remi's side of things in After Being Blue to see the conclusion of the battle :)

Btw, basal means "coming from the base/essence". I had to look it up :P

Poke-ball 16: Basal

That…hadn't been part of Red's plan. At all.

It was one thing to battle in a Gym that was on fire. That wasn't even new: lots of Fire-themed Gym had at least some fire or heat around. It wasn't even that big of a deal that the Gym burned down, though that hadn't been his original intention either. The Gym would get scrapped anyway, or at least greatly reworked as a fortress. Even the arrest of several Rockets proved to be a secret advantage. No one could pretend they didn't exist now.

But five people died in that fire. That gnawed at Red incessantly, far more than the expected lectures from Giovanni and Sabrina on his recklessness did. Death shouldn't shock him this much. He knew that there was death in war. That was inevitable. This war hadn't even started yet though, not really, and already there was a death toll. From friendly fire, in both senses of the word.

Part of Red wondered if he should stop this now. Basal instinct told him that not only was this wrong, but it was stupid, like everyone had been telling him from the start. He could never lie down and keep being the League's puppet, but maybe this…

Then something strange happened. While some Team Rocket grunts predictably disappeared (you couldn't exactly quit Team Rocket unless you were powerful), most of them were more riled up than ever. They saw their comrades as martyrs, the Gym fire a deliberate set-up, and Blue, the jealous former Champion, the plotter. Everyone knew of Red and Blue's infamous rivalry, mostly because Red himself wouldn't shut up about it. At the time Red had done that to make himself sound more awesome, but there had been plenty of rants too…Now his denials only seemed to fuel the conspiracies more.

Maybe Red wasn't as good at this controlling people thing as he thought.

…Or maybe he should take advantage of this?

IIIIII

So this'll probably be the last update for a while, since Nano's only a few days away.