A/N: Progress! Remi letting the email dwindle away as usual… But yeah, plot advancement this time. That's a plus. XD
After Being Blue
Poke-Ball 12: Derangement
Surge looked like a different man when battling. Many people did. People like his grandfather who looked like a gentle old man most of the time. But Surge didn't have that excuse. He didn't look gentle, period. And yet he managed to look a new level of ferocious in his first gym battle. Blue had almost lost to him, because he'd been so confident his Wartortle's defence would have been able to withstand any physical attack.
His trip to Vermillion taught him that Surge had another level of ferociousness buried away. And this one came out when he was in army mode, fighting to defend the city and the port.
Ordering his pokemon to fry the port too, it sounded like. He was a strategist, but not that deranged. That was Red's job, coming up with harebrained schemes that still managed to work. Frying the port water with electricity sounded like a Red scheme. Particularly when there was no way four electric pokemon would be able to dry up the port when the ocean fed it.
Though he supposed they didn't need to go that far. The boats in question were pretty close. He could make out their silhouettes behind the curtain of yellow. And while it lasted, they'd get next to nothing through. No flying or water pokemon. No earth or ground pokemon that, despite having a resistance, wouldn't last minutes in the water. His Aerodactyl might make it through, though. It was a rare flying rock after all. But he was on this side of the curtain and really had no reason to try.
Until he noticed one of the ships smoking, about to blow.
'What are you doing?' Surge roared, when he called out his Aerodactyl and sent it off.
'There could be people on board,' Blue snapped, 'and pokemon. This isn't a war!'
'A kid's answer,' the man grumbled. 'This is too a war, kid. But let's see what your Aerodactyl can salvage.'
Nothing attacked it in the air. It dipped down, plucked something from one of the decks and rose a safe distance into the sky before all three ships blew in succession.
Blue sincerely hoped there hadn't been anyone on board them.
.
There had been people on board. Rockets had hijacked cargo ships from Olivine Port in Johto. The rockets had come prepared, too, wearing electric proof suits and diving into the water. Once the electric pokemon had stopped feeding the water so the rescuers could go out, they shot away on their water pokemon. The Tentacool pursued, but Blue wondered how far they'd get. And whether those Rockets could really swim all the way back to Johto.
The sailors and their pokemon, then, had taken the heavier toll. And their cargo, but they were poke balls. Strong enough to withstand the force of the explosion, even if the boxes wound up completely waterlogged. Aerodactyl had snatched up a Poliwhirl and two Poliwag – but that was three pokemon across four ships that had been spared damage. The others were seriously injured. Nurse Joy wasn't even sure she could save them all.
And Surge was unrepentant. 'You have to be tough, kid,' he schooled. 'Say those ships were carrying bombs. We let them through. That's our whole city and the caves on either side gone, and we wouldn't even know until we're bits of scrap flying in the breeze.'
'So the end justifies the means.' That sounded like the League, like what Red despised about the League. He's the puppet-head and they do what they want in the background, saying it's best for Kanto in the end and they should all behave and follow it.
'Sounds like you're learning,' Surge recalled his pokemon. 'If you came for a battle, you'll have to wait.'
'I did, actually.' But he didn't think he wanted to wait. He didn't need to fight Surge to learn something from the city. He'd already gained his lesson. 'I think I'll move ahead.'
'Your loss,' he shrugged.
He didn't think he'd lose anything at all.