Ilex Forest was thick, nothing but trees surrounding us and occasionally the path would even disappear as we were walking on it. Jackal barked at every pokémon that got to close, flashing his fangs at all of the offending creatures. I thought it was completely warranted, one puff of oddish poison and I'd be knocked out on the ground.

Jackal had a habit of get very aggressive at the slightest irritation; he would viciously pounce on any pokémon he deemed worthy of a shit-stomp. I contemplated catching one of the abundant psyduck in the area, but decided against after some thought. Once I fully tamed Jack and got him to completely follow my orders; then I would catch another pokémon. It also wouldn't have been a great idea to catch a psychic type; I wouldn't want all of my appendages pulled from my body and shoved up my ass.

Ilex could be short or long trek depending on how you took it. If you took the right directions, you would be in there for no more than a day. You took the wrong ones; you could be lost for a week. I was pretty lucky, even though I hadn't even known the proper directions through the forest, I still only clocked in at about a 12 hour walk.

The trees had started to thin out, and I was nearing the exit. Eventually we broke through the thick brush all together. There were a few trainers on the route 34, I swiftly managed to avoid them all by explaining that I just got out of Ilex, and I took the long route. That was a lie, of course, but I didn't feel like slipping up and having Jack kill someone's pokémon.

XxXxXxX

Goldenrod City's pokémon center was huge, colossal even. It had ceilings taller than 40 feet, and enough couches to seat hundreds of people. And hundreds there were. The line was huge, and due to this I had to sit my ass down in the waiting area.

Jack was out and about, chatting with various other pokémon in the center. He spoke in grunts and hisses, until his telepathic abilities were fully developed, he would be limited to this method of communication.

A taller, slimmer version of Jackal stood on its back legs next to its trainer. The dog pokémon was a few inches taller than me; it had a tuft of cream colored fur on its torso and a large metal spike protruding from its chest. It was a male as far as I knew. The rear side of his paws had steel barbs extending from them; a backhand from that thing would chop your head off.

Jackal followed my eyes to see what I was looking at, and immediately after finding out it was a lucario, ran over to the older pokémon. The lucario stayed stoic, not even sparing a glance at Jackal.

"Is that your riolu?" The older pokémon's trainer asked. The trainer had red hair in a sloppy braid, and his face was tattered with scars. He wore beige colored cargo pants and black sneakers. His shirt had one large tear on the front, revealing his muscular chest beneath.

"It sure is, sorry if he is bothering you guys." I apologized, the trainer simply waved a hand at me.

"It's fine; do you have any other pokémon? I take it you must be a pretty good trainer if you've got such a rare pokémon." He complimented, looking down on the little dog fighter. Jackal flexed his arms and smirked.

"Ha, I wish. I don't even have a badge yet." I sighed, the man looked surprised, but his face evened out a second later.

"Oh, well good thing I didn't challenge you to a battle or anything. You probably would've been obliterated." The red headed trainer grinned, his hazel eyes burned.

"Is that how you hype yourself up? By insulting young trainers?" I told him sarcastically.

"No, but sometimes I do need the ego boost." He bragged.

"I bet you aren't even that good. How many badges do you have?" I asked curiously.

"Well…I just came to Goldenrod for my second time around to get my Superior Badge. But so far I have 10 badges." Superior Badge? I thought there were only 8 badges in Johto?

"The hell is that?" I asked, cocking my head to the side.

"You don't know about superior badges? Wow, you must be really new. Well, after you complete the gym circuit, you have the option of competing in the Pokémon League. But what some people don't know is that there is another set of badges you must obtain from the region once you get the first eight, these are called the Superior Set. Once you challenge the leaders a second time around it will be twice as hard as the first time. The leaders use their strongest team for the battle, and will not hold back. And after that you still won't have completed the league." He clarified. So, after I was done with the first eight I would try and get the Superior Set. This training thing was a bigger hassle than I thought.

"What do you mean I still won't have completed the league?" I wondered out loud. The man smirked.

"I'll let you decide that for yourself." He spoke cryptically.

The line shortened in the center, and I stared blankly at the various trainers as they went in and out of the center. I only woke up when a herd of men; about 30 of them, poured into the center. They all wore black uniforms with red 'R's on the chest. One of the men ran up to the counter of the center and struck the nurse in the face with a crowbar, sprinkling everyone around her with blood.

The younger trainers in the center panicked, screaming for their mothers and then being senselessly beaten to death by the Team Rocket grunts. The majority were armed with firearms, buckshot's peppered people and pokémon alike. The older trainers automatically let out their own, more expert pokémon. But even they were overwhelmed. It seemed as if the men just kept flocking in, for every guy that died another one replaced him.

The red headed trainer yelled past the violence. "Take this! You need more protection than just your pokémon!" He reached out a hand that contained a snub nosed revolver. It was only missing one bullet, making me wonder what that bullet was used on.

Before I could say thanks a blaziken shot past me, he jump kicked a Rocket's head off of his shoulders. Like, literally his head rolled away. The pokémon's trainer swapped the flaming rooster out for an oily purple bat. The bat flew up in the air, and sprayed liquid poison at the Rockets like a sprinkler. When the poison hit the grunts it dissolved into their skin, leaving them screaming for mercy. Eventually the crobat was shot in the wing, causing it to fall to the ground. Before hitting the floor it disappeared in a red light, to be switched out for a large bipedal orange dragon with a flaming tail.

The charizard controlled its flames so acutely that it didn't even singe the floor. It only burned whatever it was aiming at, nothing more. The redheaded trainer threw an ultra-ball at a grunt's' face. His nose bursted and the ball exploded from the impact. The man was crushed to death by a two ton turtle with cannons on its shell. The cannons blasted high pressurized water at a grunt, sending him flying.

The blastoise had a partner in the form of the lucario we say earlier. He beat the shit out of Rocket's in super speed. He blocked bullets with his arm spikes, and dodged hits from crowbars like they were going in slow motion.

Jackal was doing a bit worse than everyone else; he struggled to even knock one person out, let alone the dozens that were ganging up on him at once. I ran into the fight, I grabbed a crowbar from the ground and used it as my weapon to break faces with. I smashed someone in the gut, and while he was hunched over I kicked him as hard as I could in the teeth.

I swung my crowbar around and hit another person in the temple, knocking him out instantly. I remembered the revolver in my pocket, and pulled it out. I had a crowbar in one hand, and a gun in the other. I shot into the crowd, and heard a scream. Lucky shot.

The mobs of people cleared out, as we killed more and more of them. The female trainer with the blaziken had all of her pokémon withdrawn. She took a look at me, but stayed silent. She released a tall black creature with bones poking out of it's stomach. The bones looked particularly like ribbons, and it's ears looked like giant accordions. It was nothing I had even seen before. It looked at the woman, and placed a hand on the woman's soldier. They both seemed to be disappeared in a black void. Leaving nothing in their wake.

"Come on, we need to get going before they start suspecting something. Goldenrod doesn't treat murderers like us with much hospitality." He withdrew his blastoise and lucario, then released a large, blue and red draconic creature.

"Climb aboard, I'll take you off the grid until this cools down." He walked up to the beast, and extended me a hand as he sat on a large saddle made for it. I accepted his offer, and strapped myself in. Goldenrod had a notoriously incompetent police force. I would be taken into questioning, dismissed due to lack of sufficient evidence, then the public would protest for me to go to prison for cruelly murdering a bunch of people. People were soft, even though those Rocket's were killers, they still pitied them. As if they didn't choose to slaughter hundreds of trainers a day. I would much rather take my chances with this mystery trainer then leave my fate up to a bunch of retarded people that I didn't know.

The beast took a deep breath, and blasted a hole in the ceiling with a flurry of colorful flames. It flapped its wings a few times and began to achieve liftoff. Cops began entering the building by the dozens, and shot at the salamence using their assault rifles. It shrugged off the damage and roared loud enough to shake the opened his jaws and showered the men in pressurized water that knocked them off of their feet. He took of through the hole he made, and continued flying west into the sunset. It was really anything but romantic.