After Being Blue
Poke-Ball 21: Luciferin
Their journey to Lavender Town was slow but nothing happened. It was like the world had screeched to a halt – or perhaps they simply saw it thus.
Arcanine wasn't even the first pokemon Blue had lost. That had been raticate – also because of Red, funnily enough. That battle on the SS Anne and his medical supplies hadn't been enough to get them all back to Viridian.
But that had been his fault too, because he'd wanted to be the strongest and he'd had to choose between his pokemon – and so he'd chosen the weakest of them.
And then he'd gone to the Pokemon Tower to apologise for a decision he never should have made – and yet couldn't help but make because otherwise he could have lost them all – and battled Red again.
That was their relationship. Always battling. Always trying to surpass one another – and destroying things around them in the process.
Now he wondered why he'd goaded Red into a battle there of all places. It was practically sacrilege – for Raticate, and for the other pokemon that had died in battle and been entombed there. Was fighting against Red that important, that he danced on his partner's grave and let a gym burn? Why did they clash so spectacularly – except in times like this when they could walk side by side without something exploding in the middle.
But this… This was wrong. And he knew why. Guilt was the cloud over them and the peace the silver lining. They were the flint and the wood, but the sparks they created when together were dormant instead of catching light.
They weren't like this. Hadn't been like this since kids, before their pokemon and their words: before they had anything to throw at one another. They were friends, yes, but this was what their friendship masqueraded as.
It felt weird, walking silently, side by side. It felt weird, that even with Umbreon and Pikachu out, there was nothing more than threatening sparks and growls and that was when flocks of Pidgey flew overhead. Wondering if they were Erika's Pidgeys, no doubt. And if it hadn't ended the way it did, Blue might have marvelled how three puny Pidgey had taken down such a large Arcanine.
Erika, who'd seemed like such a weak Gym Leader before, had proven a powerful and dangerous snake – or rose with thorns.
And the Pokemon Tower, the final resting place for all dead pokemon and where she awaited them... What would that turn out to be?