Chapter 2- In the City
"Push em out!" Ash screamed. "ONE, TWO, THREE, FOUR…" His men counted off as they started a set of pushups.
Throughout the entire morning Ash had been running his men through PT drills that consisted of running, pushups, and sit-ups.
The morning heat began to take its toll, as each man became drenched in sweat "TWENTY NINE, THIRTY!" His men shouted finishing a round of pushups.
Ash was doing the exercises with his men sweating alongside them. He glanced up at his men, they were exhausted. Their arms trembled as they struggled to remain in the push up position.
"FEET!" Ash shouted as he jumped up "Feet." His men replied, this time less enthused. Ash looked at his men and felt satisfied when he saw that they were completely spent.
"Alright, return to your barracks and collect your weapons, then meet me down at the range at 1130." Ash said. His men quickly darted back to their barracks to retrieve their weapons.
Ash and Pikachu quickly returned to the barracks so Ash could retrieve his own weapon. An M16A4 rifle, standard issue among Kanto Marines, Ash liked it because it gave the user excellent accuracy and range while also being relatively light.
Ash put his weapon on safe and then turned to Pikachu "Alright, let's go." He said "PIKA!" His Pokémon replied.
Ash arrived at the range first and managed to catch Drew just as he was exiting with his platoon. "It's all yours." Drew said as he walked by Ash "Thanks," Ash replied entering the range.
To his immediate left was the firing line. Nothing more than a concrete pad that extended down about eighty feet and could hold about twenty shooters at once.
To Ash's right was a large fenced off court nicknamed "The Grinder." There, Marines would battle with their Pokémon. The fence that surrounded the court was riddled with scars from previous battles. "Lieutenant Ketchum." Ash turned at the sound of Brocks voice.
Brock stood before Ash; behind him were the men of second platoon dressed in their camouflaged battle dress uniforms, or BDU's. Covering their BDU's were their dark green chest rigs that contained their magazines. Their rifles were slung across their body with a full magazine already loaded.
"Gunny, get twelve of these men on the firing line and eight in the grinder." Brock nodded and turned to the men of second platoon "Tally, Baker, Head, Smith, Oswalt, Gonzo, Mckale, and O'Donnell. You're in the grinder."
"Yes Sir," The right men replied. "Alright the rest of you are on the firing line."
The twelve men assigned to the firing line were to be supervised by Brock and the men in The Grinder were to be supervised by Ash.
The smell of burning gunpowder quickly filled the air as the twelve men on the range began letting loose with their rifles and the combined sound of their rifles firing was nearly deafening.
Back in the grinder Private First Class Jeremy Gonzo was the first to battle. Jeremy was one of the platoon's corpsman. Born in Saffron City, he was raised in household with strict parents who expected much from their son.
As a student Jeremy preformed exceptionally well, and achieved top marks in all of his classes, he had done so well that he had been granted a full ride to a Saffron University, one of the region's most prestigious schools. He attended the university for a couple of years, studying to become a doctor.
Then the war broke out, Jeremy had been hesitant to enlist, but figured he should do his part and opted to become a corpsman in order to put his medical knowledge to good use.
Jeremy had a strong build to him and striking blue eyes. Jeremy tossed his Pokeball into the air releasing his Pokémon. A Wartortle that had been issued to him.
Across from him was a young Corporal named Austin Mckale. Mckale had been a star track student at the same university that Jeremy had attended, though they had never met before enlisting in the Marines. Mckale was sometimes hot headed and quick to anger, but always knew what needed to get done. He was an excellent soldier and leader. His Pokémon was an Ivysaur.
Ash observed as the two Marines drilled their Pokémon through a serious of attacks directed towards their opponent. Ash's eyes drifted from the two marines to the other six who were patiently waiting.
Seated next to Ash was Private Colby Tally, fresh out of boot camp he was one of the last additions to second platoon. He was short and had a boyish look to him. Being from a small farm town he had a different way of talking and acting than the other Marines.
The one thing Ash knew for sure about him was that he was mentally strong for he had to be because of the type of Pokémon he trained. A Kadabra a strong physic Pokémon that, without a strong minded trainer, could become unpredictable in combat.
Seated beside Colby was another private, Danny Baker. Danny kept to himself most of the time rarely did he speak to the other Marines. Ash didn't know much about him other than that he had been in Vermillion City when the Sinnoh region had bombed it.
His eyes already had that lifeless look, similar to that of a veteran who has been through extensive combat. His Pokémon was a Haunter.
Seated next to him was a large heavily muscled Marine named Mark Winters. Born and raised in Cerulean City, Mark was the strongest of all the men in second platoon. So it was only fitting that he also happened to be the heavy weapons expert, and lugged around a large M249 machine gun with him. His Pokémon counterpart also suited him nicely, a large Steelix.
Then there was Jake Alberaz. A young Private First Class, Jake was the second corpsman in second platoon along with Jeremy. Though Jake didn't have a medical background like Jeremy, he was still a very skilled corpsman as well as a very intellectual person. Jake could be found hanging out with Jeremy in the mess hall playing chess, or in his bunk reading books on philosophy. When Jake joined the Marines the Pokémon he had been assigned was a Magmar.
Next to Jake was Michael O'Donnell. He was one of the platoons EOD technician otherwise known as Explosive Ordinance Disposal. He was always upbeat and the jokester of the platoon. He was best known for pulling pranks on his fellow Marines. One prank in particular was when he managed to trick Austin into believing that he had stepped on a land mine while out on a maneuver.
After a tense ten minutes of Michael examining the mine he told Austin his best option would be to jump. The whole platoon watched as Austin jumped off the mine shrieking in terror, followed by a burst of confetti from the ground. Michael and the rest of the platoon laughed their asses off, but at Austin's expense.
And finally there was Sergeant West Smith, also the platoons designated marksmen, he kept to himself mostly, but did have a strong friendship with Danny.
Ash turned his head at the exact moment Jeremy ordered his Wartortle to deliver one last hydro pump at Austin's Ivysaur, effectively finishing it off.
"Return your Pokémon." Ash said. The two marines obeyed returning their Pokémon. Ash glanced over at the six men seated on the bench "Alright, next two."
After range practice Ash had the men of second platoon eat lunch then attend to their afternoon duties around the base. After that their time was their own. Now that he had down time, Ash took the opportunity to walk around the city with Drew.
"How's your platoon doing?" Drew asked as they stepped over a collapsed street light "Good, I think they're eager to see some action." "Yeah same here," Drew said "But I've noticed that the colonel's seem to be getting a little antsy."
"How so?" Ash asked "Well for one they keep pestering me about keeping my men ready and alert, like I'm not doing that already. Secondly they've been constantly in and out of the mission planning room and not to mention they brought over an endless sea of tanks that they placed in the stadium."
"I guess there making it obvious that something big is about to go down." Ash replied. Drew nodded "And we'll be here when it does."
"You know of any place that serves beer? I'm getting sick of drinking the shitty coke's that they have down at the base." Ash said
"Yeah, there's a tavern about a block down the road, although I doubt it's still there." "Well it won't hurt to check." Ash replied.
Ash and Drew made their way down the road when they came across two Privates talking to one another at an intersection. One of them was smoking a cigarette, but when he noticed Drew and Ash he immediately flicked it away, stood at the position of attention, and saluted.
The second Private mimicked the first one and saluted. Ash and Drew approached the two Marines. They stood in the middle of the intersection waiting for Ash or Drew to say, at ease. Just as Ash was about to say at ease, there was a dreadful sound of something passing his ear.
As it passed his ear it sounded like a pissed off hornet trying to sting him. But then what followed was a more familiar sound, one that he had been hearing all day.
"Sniper, get to cover!" Drew screamed. Ash bolted for cover behind an old concrete building. Ash slammed his back up against the wall, and held his rifle tight. Drew was standing next to him panting hard.
As heard another shot ring out and turned to see the one of the young Marines grip his chest before collapsing to the floor.
Before Ash could order the other Marine to stay down, the second Marine made a break for his friend before taking a round to the side of the head. "Fuck!" Ash screamed.
"Did you see him?" Drew asked. Ash shook his head "No, I didn't get a chance."
Ash slowly peaked out from behind the corner. There was a large building in front of him about five stories high, as Ash scanned the building he saw a glint of light coming from the second story on the far left and then heard another gun shot, then felt the impact of the bullet landing right into the corner of the building sending small chunks of concrete into his eyes.
Ash retreated back to cover and rubbed his eyes. "He's on the second floor, the far left window." Ash said as he regained his vision.
"Hey, hey look." Drew said pointing to the Marine. The Marine who had been shot in the chest attempted to crawl for cover.
The sniper let off another shot, but missed the wounded Marine.
Ash and Drew were both armed with their rifles and had their Pokémon with them; Drew had his Absol in its Pokeball.
"You got any smoke grenades?" Ash asked. Drew shook his head. Ash tried to think of something to do, but his mind had frozen.
"Here," Drew said "I'll run across the intersection and try to distract him. Then, when you see him pop up, I want you to pop him, got it?" "Drew are you fucking stupid, you'll get killed." Ash said.
"Well he's fucking dying out there," Drew said pointing to the Marine "And help isn't coming anytime soon, so unless you have a better idea, we use my plan."
Ash turned to the wounded Marine. With one arm the young Marine tried to claw his way to cover. Ash turned back to Drew and nodded reluctantly. "Alright," Drew said "Wait a second or two before popping out."
Ash loaded a round in the chamber of his rifle and said a quick prayer.
"Alright, one, two, three!" Drew bolted out from the cover of the building and into the intersection. Ash counted in his head "One, Two!" Then popped out from around the corner.
Ash saw the flash from the snipers muzzle, followed by a loud bang, and took aim at it. He fired a quick three round burst that seemed to silence the sniper.
Ash didn't want to look over at Drew fearing he might have been hit. "Did you get him?" Ash heard Drew shout "Thank God." Ash thought to himself, relieved to hear Drew's voice.
"Yeah, I think I got him," Ash said keeping his rifle focused on the window "You think!?" Drew exclaimed. "I'll keep watch on the window just in case I missed," Ash replied "You focus on getting him." Ash said referring to the wounded Marine.
Ash heard Drew run out into the open again. He stopped abruptly then began moving towards Ash again, slower. As Drew neared Ash, Ash heard the sound of heavy breathing along with a faint gurgling sound.
Ash waited until he sensed Drew was safely behind him before taking cover once more. "You're going to be all right." Ash heard Drew say. Ash looked down at the Marine. There was a gaping hole in his chest that was about the size of a golf ball, blood rushed out of the wound and colored his entire torso dark red. Drew struggled to keep pressure on the wound with a small bandanna.
"Should we move him?" Ash asked. Drew shook his head. The wounded Marine grabbed Drew by the arm "Water…please…water." The wounded Marine croaked the words out, and each time cringed in pain, a bit of blood squirted out from his chest.
Ash unclipped his canteen from his belt and unscrewed the lid "Here," Ash said as he handed Drew the canteen. "Lift his head up for me." Drew said.
Ash knelt down and raised the Marines head up. Drew pressed the canteen on the Marines lips and slowly lifted it up.
The Marine managed to swallow some of it, but in the end coughed up the majority of it.
Ash gently set his head back down and for moment it seemed as though he'd be ok, his breathing returned to normal and he loosened his grip on Drew's arm.
Then suddenly he began to choke, his breathing came in rapid snorts, and his body began to shake. He gripped onto Drew's arms even tighter digging his nails into his skin "Help…" The wounded Marine said, as he sputtered out more blood from his mouth. Drew looked around frantically before spotting a Humvee approaching.
Ash saw it too and ran for it. He waved the driver down "Sir what's going on?" A young sergeant asked. "I need you to radio base and report a possible sniper on the first building to your right and that we have a critically injured Marine who needs immediate transport."
The sergeant nodded and immediately radioed to base the situation "Roger, we'll send a medevac unit." The duty officer replied. "Supports on the way Lieutenant, we'll wait here until it arrives." Ash nodded and rushed back over to Drew.
When Ash returned, he found Drew with his head buried in his bloodied hands, and the young Marine with his eyes glazed over.
A team of Marines was sent to clear out the building. They searched every room on every floor, but found no trace of the sniper. They sent out a medevac helicopter that picked up the two dead Marines along with Ash and Drew.
Drew didn't say a word on the way back; he just kept focusing on the poncho with the dead marine in it. Ash was visibly shaken, unable to keep either his hands or feet from trembling. When they arrived back at base there were men already waiting to retrieve the bodies.
Ash stood beside Drew as he watched the bodies being wheeled away. They stood there for a moment before Drew spoke up "Blackburn." "Huh?" Ash replied "That was his name, Private First Class Tyler S. Blackburn. I saw it on his dog tags before they put him in the poncho."
"Any idea what platoon he belonged to?" Ash asked Drew shook his head.
Drew turned to Ash with watery eyes "Let's go eat." He said as he walked past Ash.
