Dark Ambitions
By: David Koch
I sit my sleeping bag, not sleeping, the cool night breeze brushing against me. I should be sleeping though, but I can't. Something feels different tonight. Dark, Alexis, and I are all camped outside of Canalave City. That's where we'll find Serena, along with the others.
Suddenly, I hear a noise. It's sudden, and cracking, like a branch outside on the ground was stepped on.
Alexis, did you hear anything? I think, hoping my friend on watch is paying close attention. She never goes against her word, and she said she would keep watch tonight. Being hunted isn't a safe situation to be in.
Nothing, Raizu.
I heard something, are you positive?
Very much so. Go back to sleep.
I decide to take her word for it. I'm tired, and I haven't gotten much rest lately. Yeah, that's it, I'm just jumpy. Being chased makes for a very insecure feeling no matter where you are.
--
I wake up, a little tired still. First thing I do is check the sleeping bag next to me. I keep the egg in there, in hopes that what Dark has told me really is true, that when it hatches, the Riolu will be Markus' reincarnation…
The egg is still there. With that in mind, I pack up everything, and get out of the clearing and head to the main path that leads to Canalave. When I arrive, Dark is standing, ready to leave, with Alexis sleeping on the ground next to him. When I come out from the trees, she wakes up instantly and tries to stand to attention, but she's a bit too tired to even stay on her feet. I should stop making her do night watch, I can do fine…
"You can sleep Alexis, you did well last night."
She nods. I looked around camp early this morning, and found nothing. You sure you heard something?
"I heard it too." Says Dark. We both look at him and he shrugs innocently. "You didn't mask your thoughts, and I heard something about the same time... like a crack."
I nod. "Well, I still have all my stuff, so let's just head into town. You mind going into the ball, Alexis?
Please, I'm damn tired… She falls over, almost asleep. I return her, the red flash shooting out to catch her and pull her back in, safe and ready to sleep.
Dark and I start walking toward the front gate to the city, which is more of a guardhouse. There are precautions inside to keep out criminals, since if the one of two huge port cities of the continent has port trouble, the whole continent has trouble.
"How will we get in if the guards know we're criminals?" I ask.
"Do they? How long did it take of news from Kanto to reach Sinnoh that we were wanted, despite it being world news? Only one city even knew we were wanted." Dark explains. "I saw we just waltz on in."
"Sure, whatever." I head in ahead of him, and he follows closely behind me. The guards are sitting around, and one waves at us as we walk on by. Their uniforms are matching, but they don't seem to be matching in activity. One seems to be doing work on the computer, feverishly typing and glancing at documents on the desk next to him, oblivious of all outside distractions; two are playing card games, and the fourth is watching the door, and is the one who waved. We wave back, somewhat nervous, but we're sure we aren't suspected of anything by the time we get outside the building.
The city has simple, paved sidewalks and paved streets, and houses along side the streets. There are yards behind the houses closer to the edge of the city, but the houses on the inside lack any lawn. It's completely paved everywhere.
"This feels weird… Hey, that must be the bridge!" I point past some houses at a huge structure, and past that are commercial-style buildings. "She lives in an apartment right?"
"That's what the source said…" reaffirms Dark.
"How can we trust this source? First you tell me that you just hacked around, then you say a few days after arriving here, that you have a contact?"
"I've probably already told you too much, just know that we can trust the person more than you can trust me. They're very secretive."
"That's very discomforting, since you won't even disclose a gender… wait, there's more than one person?"
"No, I used third person plural for unknown gender."
"Why?"
"Just shut up and lets go look for Serena. You need to rescue Veera you know."
I don't respond, and we keep walking. I'm still only wearing black shorts, and a now a simple black T-shirt, with my blue hair cut so it only goes to my neck. Dark is wearing his black robe, lined a dark red on the inside, and keeps his clawed glove, his dark red hair going far down his back. Abby said we looked the same, but silly generalizing ninetales, we look similar. Any person could easily see why we'd be brothers, but saying we're twins is too far. We both have the same eyes, and hair is the same except for color. I've never seen the resemblance, but then, what kids to see the similarities among themselves?
After a few minutes, we reach the bridge, and just before crossing, I hear a voice. "Oh, yes, I'm saved…"
I look around quickly. It wasn't a mental voice; I definitely heard it from someone nearby. "Dark, did you just hear something?"
"Well, some pokémon just made a sound from that side road over there." He points behind me at a brick road, one that looks older than other parts of the city. I run there with no explanation and look around.
"Hey, is someone here?" I call out. "Hello?"
"Over here, dumb fuck."
I turn my head toward a garage, and a jolteon starts crawling out from behind it. Oh lord… "T-tempest!?"
"Oh hi. How have you been?" He says. He's bleeding significantly from his side, a small hole releasing a lot of blood.
"God, what happened?"
"Oh, don't flatter me. Anyway, Serena was out walking around, and I never really…" he coughs and tries to stand, but he falls promptly.
"Okay, just shut up and I'll get you to a center." I run over pick him up, and run back down the street, away from the bridge and toward the center.
"Thanks… Raizu. I thought you might have hated me or something for what I did to Veera… but… you are kind…"
"Don't you start flattering me." I run in, the doors opening by themselves. Joy isn't around but the chancey are, taking Tempest away on a stretcher. I start walking around, pacing, wondering how Tempest is going to be. That wound… it was a small hole that was bleeding. No attack does that… it was a bullet wound.
Dark comes in moments later, walking calmly, and I run up to him so close that he almost falls back. "Are there Rocket members in Sinnoh?!"
"We haven't stationed any here. Team Galactic causes enough trouble."
"What do they do exactly?"
"They seek to recreate the world their own way, through science and manipulation and understanding of pokémon powers, but not necessarily the creatures themselves. They've tried to awaken Arceus, but not everyone can just talk to god. They're religious, but understand the potential of understanding the world and how we came to be, the laws. Science plus religion… is quite the force."
"Sound's bad."
"Well, they are. They do kill relentlessly anyone who gets in their way, so Rocket stays out of their way. We have no reason to get involved anyway. Galactic hates the imperfect world, and their leader claims to be perfect."
"Of course…"
"Cyrus isn't one you'd want to get involved with. He's totally emotionless and believes he's better than anyone else for this lack of emotion, as he believes that anger, grief, and emotions in general limit living beings."
"Okay, enough of the current events lesson." I sigh and sit down. "I just hope Tempest'll be all right."
"Oh, he'll be fine. He's Tempest!"
"So reassuring!" I say, sarcastic beyond belief. "I guess they have guns. Fucking great." I look down and away from Dark, and he just sits down on the bench, next to me.
After a few minutes, Nurse Joy walks out from behind a door to where the wounded pokémon are kept. "You brought in that Jolteon right?" She says, looking in my general direction.
"Oh, yes I did. Tempest. His wound…" I get up, my eyes looking tired, "It's a gun shot. I'm sure you even recognized that."
"Why wouldn't I recognize that?"
I look at her weirdly. "What?"
"Are guns rare or something where you come from?" She looks at me straight, like she's angry.
"Um… Yeah. Nobody knows about guns."
"You're weird. Well, he's going to be fine in a day or so, he just has to get that side sewn up. He had some impressive will-power, it's amazing he didn't die of blood loss." She walks back into the emergency room area.
"Tempest… is amazing?" I look at Dark. He only shakes his head at me. I sigh. I get out a small device from my back pack, an MP3 player. Time to listen to some classical music…