CWCollateral: A Tale of the Resistance
by Manajerkop
Chapter 1: Detourism
June 1998, Viridian Forest, Pallet bus
Kevin leaned back against his seat, shifting uncomfortably as he tried to find a better position to nap in. So far, nothing was working. The bus was slow enough already, but with the Station Square/CWCville highway backed up as far as the eye could see, the driver had wisely taken the first available detour – a choice that was now taking them through the heart of Viridian Forest and over seemingly endless miles of unpaved, bumpy road. Even if he somehow managed to get to sleep, he had no idea how long the drive would take. They'd be lucky to reach Pallet by nightfall.
It wasn't the delay that worried Kevin…it was what might happen to them if they ran into trouble along the way. Even if they'd taken the highway, the bus would still have to pass through a notorious stretch of Team Rocket-controlled territory to get there. By day the roads were usually well-protected, but once the sun went down, even the patrols couldn't protect all of the traffic from nighttime ambushes…or worse. The trainer bus carried a light security team armed with pistols and Machokes as a way of protecting the children if need be. Against an attack by Team Rocket mercenaries, though, the best thing they could do was pray the tires held…and that the attackers hadn't brought Electrodes or RPGs.
Kevin was no stranger to the rumors. Even though attacks seemed to be slacking off over the past few months, Giovanni continued to reign supreme over the Team Rocket terrorist organization. As long as he held power, every mercenary, thief, kidnapper, and murderer under his command had someone to give them hope: a commander, a father figure, and an icon, all at once. Now it seemed that Giovanni's son Naitsirhc was poised to inherit the empire his father had forged from the blood of a thousand innocent Pokémon trainers. He'd been groomed from birth to hate the free world, to become a formidable duelist and soldier, and to follow both his father's commands and philosophy to the letter. Even at fourteen, he was already garnering a fearsome reputation as the bane of Pallet Town and the CWCville area.
Of course, the people who spread those rumors also swore that Naitsirhc owned both a Zapdos and a Raikou, so it was important not to get too worked up about Team Rocket. At the same time, though, no one with any amount of common sense would ever underestimate what the organization was capable of.
Kevin certainly didn't.
There were about twenty-four other prospective trainers in the bus, a fairly equal mix of boys and girls all ranging from twelve to eighteen years old. Kevin felt a bit out of place, but then again, he knew he had the advantages of both education and size. He could probably hold his own against the majority of these kids if they all had to fight to the death, but he seriously doubted that was ever going to happen…
"Hey!" Someone tapped him on the shoulder abruptly. Snapping out of his deathmatch-related thoughts, Kevin sat bolt upright and turned to see a boy and a girl leaning over the seat behind him.
"What do you want?" he grunted sleepily.
"Just wanted to say hi," said the girl, and nodded to the boy beside her. "I'm Julie. That's my brother Max."
"Hi," said Max, flashing a grin at Kevin. Something didn't seem quite right about this kid…maybe it was his eyes or the far-too-innocent smile.
"I'm Kevin. Are you twins?"
"Nah. I'm fifteen and he's thirteen. I bet you couldn't tell us apart if we had the same clothes and hair, though. Do the voice, Max."
Max cleared his throat and began to speak in a ridiculous "girly" voice, which was really just a higher, softer version of his own. "Hi, my name's Julie! I like to wear pretty dresses and go shopping and ride ponies and…"
"I do not! Shut up, you little troll!" laughed Julie, and punched her brother in the arm.
"That…doesn't sound one bit like you," Kevin chuckled. He had to admit it – Max and Julie did look extremely similar…almost identical, in fact. The falsetto voice needed work though…only an idiot wouldn't be able to tell that Max wasn't, in fact, a girl.
"So where are you going?" Julie asked.
Kevin blinked confusedly. "Isn't everyone on the bus for…you know, Pokémon journeys?"
"I think so," Max explained. "We're not. We're on vacation."
"We're from Molvania," said Julie, with an emphasis on the last word.
Kevin didn't even bother asking where this Molvania place was in relation to Kanto. The geographic state of the world seemed to be constantly changing with each passing year, and frankly, he couldn't be bothered to keep up with the times. Wherever these children were from, they seemed all right, if a little annoying. Max, though…Kevin still didn't trust the kid. He was hiding something.
The siblings quickly forgot about their new friend and began chattering back and forth about the nearby city of CWCville and the various antics of Mayor Chandler. Kevin hoped that the bus driver would just hurry up and get them there soon. The sun had almost vanished below the horizon, and he still had no idea where they were or how far it was to Pallet Town.
Viridian Forest, near the road
Hidden by shadows from the trees overhead, three figures lay prone on a small hill overlooking the Viridian-Pallet road. The distant light from the approaching bus cut through the twilight with ease, but the already-conspicuous vehicle might just as well have had a huge bulls-eye painted on to each and every side. Indeed, the watchers had been tracking the bus for a good ten minutes now - ever since the first rays of headlights appeared through the trees.
The man in the middle had a pair of binoculars raised to his eyes, and was observing the vehicle's occupants with interest.
"One driver, four guards, fuckload of kiddies," he growled to his comrades. "'Karps in a thirty-foot steel barrel."
"'Karps with guns," commented the woman to his left. "Probably a few attack mons, too. We should be fine. Ted, your call."
The third man rose to one knee and squinted, holding a hand to his brow to cut down the glare. "Let's do this. Lilac, ring him up."
Lilac unhooked a walkie-talkie from her belt and twisted the knob at the top. "Shockwing, Observer, come back."
"Observer, Shockwing," a teenage boy's voice crackled through the speaker. "Are we good?"
"Ready to blow, Boss. Just waiting for clearance."
"What did Clay see?"
"Light guard, armed, maybe mons."
"Good. Take them down and bring me the kids. Out."
Lilac stowed the walkie-talkie. "We're in business, guys. Prepare for trouble."
"Make it double," Ted and Clay replied simultaneously.
Viridian Forest, Pallet bus
"…and I don't know, I just really like the sound of his voice," Julie sighed wistfully. "I'm so glad he's trying to get into politics. I'd actually want to listen to his speeches!"
"Yeah, lame," snorted Max. "You just want to marry him. Hey, maybe he'll…maybe he'll double the offer. You know, give you two rings for the price of one."
"You're supposed to get two rings, you dumbass. One's for the engagement, one's for the wed-"
"Knock it off," muttered Kevin as the two siblings argued behind him. "We should be there by now. Where the hell are we?"
"Dunno," replied Max. "Hey, I'm gonna go hang out with the guys in the back. All this girl talk's making me sick."
Julie shoved her brother forcefully out of the seat and stretched out. "Oh, YEAH that's better. I thought my legs were going to stick like that forever. So what do you…"
"E…LEC…TRODE!"
BOOM! The front half of the bus lurched into the air, propelled upward by some unseen explosion beneath the forward wheels. Kevin only had a split second to grab the seat ahead of him before he was thrown backward by the shock wave. The bus windows shattered all at once, covering the seats and floor with tiny bits of glass. Julie screamed and covered her face. Through the chaos around him, Kevin could hear a faint whining in his eardrums - a high-pitched eeeeeeeeee like the sound of a TV turning on. The four security officers had their guns drawn now, and were scanning the treeline, paying no attention to all the kids screaming and crying around them.
"STAY DOWN!" one of them shouted as a pair of girls started to rise. "EVERYONE GET DOWN! DON'T MOVE! GET YOUR HEADS DOWN AND STAY AWAY FROM THE WINDOWS!"
"Is anyone hurt? Is everyone okay?" asked a second guard as she hurried down the center aisle, quickly checking each would-be trainer for injuries. One boy had a jagged cut below his eye where a shard of glass had slashed across his skin, but other than that, none of the bus' occupants had been severely wounded. Even the driver was still alive, albeit shaken and terrified.
"Pallet, Pallet, come back," the first officer growled into a speaker on his uniform. "Pallet, I say again…" He tapped the device, checked his watch, and cursed loudly. "Fuck! They knocked us off the grid!"
Kevin glanced at his watch, his heart pounding rapidly. The guard was right; the screen had gone blank.
"The sons of bitches EMP'd us. We're going to have to jump-start the engine," another security officer spoke up. "Ray, you got an Electric?"
"Goddamn it, all I've got is a Pidgeotto!" shouted the driver. "I can do it manually, but I'm gonna need some help!"
"That's exactly what they want," muttered the officer. "Okay, two-yard spread. Watch the treeline and set up your 'chokes as soon as you get out there. Ray, you wait for our signal before you…AAAAAAAAAGH!"
In the confusion, none of the security detail had noticed the single vine creeping in through one of the windows. In the blink of an eye, it had wrapped itself around the unfortunate man and yanked him through the side of the bus, tearing the metal frame apart like tissue paper.
"CONTACT!" screamed the female guard as she rushed to the window, pistol in hand. "Loose the 'Chokes! OPEN FIRE!"
Kevin and Julie covered their ears and instinctively hit the floor as gunfire exploded around them – from beyond the trees as well as from inside the bus. The guard who had been snatched was still screaming as the Victreebel pulled him toward its gaping, dripping maw. Before it could devour him, two bullets from one of the other guards ripped through its swollen body. A gush of green acid quickly spread across the road, some of it splashing onto its victim's arm. The Pokémon shuddered and keeled over, flapping limply.
As the wounded officer leapt to his feet and desperately tried to tear off his dissolving sleeve, two Pokéballs bounced on the ground beside him and burst open, birthing a pair of Machokes in a blaze of white light. One grabbed the man and quickly tore the sleeve off, paying no heed to the acid, while the other set about beating the wounded Victreebel into submission.
On the other side, the battle had only grown worse and worse for the remaining security officers. They were hopelessly outmatched and unable to see, but nevertheless kept pouring a fierce barrage of bullets into the dark Viridian woods. Kevin noticed that one of the two girls who had tried to stand up before was now clawing her way past her seatmate in a desperate bid for freedom, while the other was doing her best to prevent that from happening. She might have succeeded, too, had it not been for the two rifle shells that pierced her lung and neck. The poor girl slumped over, her life trickling out onto the seat.
With a horrified scream, the other girl pushed her dying friend onto the floor and bolted for the emergency exit. Crouched on the floor next to Julie, Kevin could hardly tell what was going on…except that they were losing, badly.
"MAAAAAAA…choke…"
A piteous roar from outside quickly faded to a dry rattle as one of the Machokes took a round to the chest. Hot blood splashed across the side of the bus, and the Pokémon fell dead, its last breath frozen in its throat. The guard outside was firing frenziedly into the trees, oblivious to the Machoke's fate. A bullet zipped past his shoulder and he whirled around, loosing off three quick shots at a shadowed figure beyond the treeline. The shooter dropped without a sound. Distracted by his brief victory, the officer never noticed the semi-conscious and dying Victreebel crawling towards him, its mouth bubbling with acid.
"TREEEEEE…BELLLLLLLL…" it gurgled, spewing the last contents of its bulbous, ruptured cavity all over its unsuspecting victim. By the time the Pokémon finally gave in and died, only a greasy red puddle and a few scraps of dissolving cloth remained on the road.
Something huge and monstrous roared off to the right of the bus. Crawling forward on his hands and knees, Kevin grabbed Julie by the arm and pulled her out into the aisle. The fleeing girl had managed to open the side emergency exit, but before she could make a break for safety, a muscular purple tail coiled around her waist and lifted her screaming out of the bus. With a single hideous crunch, the cries mercifully ceased. A gush of warm liquid sprayed through the shattered windows, spattering onto the children inside. The murderous Arbok wasn't even close to being done with them, though. Hissing ferociously, it began striking at the metal siding with its head.
At the front of the bus, two of the three remaining security officers had nearly expended their entire ammo supply. Taking notice of the assault to her right, the woman ripped her own Pokéball off of her belt and tossed it through the window at the Arbok. A flash of light, and the Machoke had the giant snake in a death grip, pounding away at its head even as two venomous fangs sank deep into the muscles of its upper arm.
Another shot pierced the bus hull and caught the female guard in the side, rupturing her liver. She fell with a strangled yell of pain, kicking and convulsing as a sticky red pool widened beneath her torso. Kevin scrambled to avoid the dying woman and pushed Julie ahead of him down the aisle. Miraculously, Max was still alive and grappling with the emergency exit lever at the back of the bus. If the three of them could just get far enough without their attackers noticing…
"CEASE FIRE!" roared a voice from the woods. The shooting quickly died down. The Arbok and Machoke reluctantly released each other and backed away slowly. For the two remaining guards, this peace couldn't have come at a better time. They were down to a grand total of four bullets.
A group of men and women, all clad in white flak jackets with a red R stitched across the chest, emerged from the darkness, weapons in hand. Kevin could count at least five assault rifles. Small wonder they'd been outgunned so easily. Taking advantage of the distraction, he and Julie crept up to Max and opened the rear door. One by one, he urged the kids out onto the road, then followed suit, crouching to avoid being spotted by the group of terrorists.
"To protect the world from devastation…something something…you know the rest," the foremost man rattled off disinterestedly. His comrades leveled their guns at the two guards and the driver. "The only words you need to hear right now are these. Surrender now or prepare to fight."
"Um, don't you mean, 'prepare to die?'" asked the Team Rocket soldier next to him.
"Look, I didn't invent our motto, you entrance-spoiling shithead," the leader fired back. "Way to ruin my aura of intimidation. Uh…anyway…" he continued, turning back to the bus. "Look, we don't want any more bloodshed. Surrender all of your Pokémon, your weapons, and the kids, and we'll let you go."
The guards glanced at one another, at the Team Rocket mercenaries, and back at the children cowering in the seats. There might have been nine left, not counting Kevin, Max, or Julie.
"Fuck it," they said simultaneously, tossed their guns out the windows, and sprinted out the door and down the road as fast as they could.
The lead terrorist looked surprised. "Well, that was…convenient. Okay, back to work. Stow your mons, round up the survivors, and get 'em out of here. Patrols are gonna be coming down on us from every direction and we want to be anywhere but here when they arrive. Clay, kill him. Jan, sorry about your plant – we'll get you something else for next time. I think Nait might even let you have a Beedr-"
BANG! Julie whimpered as the gunshot cracked and faded into the night. Kevin knew they'd shot the driver. They didn't care about anyone but the young, un-indoctrinated trainers cowering inside the bus. Team Rocket, Naitsirhc in particular, was always on the lookout for new soldiers. There was nothing Kevin or the two Molvanian kids could do for the remaining nine. If they were smart, maybe they'd accept Naitsirhc's offer and keep their lives. If not…well, trainers went missing in Viridian Forest all the time.
"Run…for the woods…when I say to," he whispered through clenched teeth. Julie and Max nodded, too scared to argue. The bus door creaked open and Kevin could hear what sounded like two pairs of boots climbing inside.
"God DAMN it," growled another mercenary. "Why didn't you shoot for the guards instead of perforating the whole fuckin' bus? Way you were firing, you probably killed about six of 'em."
"I did not. That was collateral damage and you know it. Anyway, your snake would've eaten the rest if Nait let it. You told me you trained him."
"I never said I trained him to puss out. Hey! Hey, SIT DOWN! Yeah, you in the front! Anyway, we could've ended this in two minutes if that bitch hadn't tossed out that fucking 'choke. Naggy'll probably be slithering all weird for the next month or so."
"Go!" Kevin pushed Max and Julie ahead of him, then dashed for the tree line as fast as he could. At this point, the only thing he cared about now was getting as far away from the bus as possible.
The three of them somehow managed to reach the safety of the forest without being spotted. As soon as they were safely concealed behind a fallen tree, Max and Julie nearly collapsed, exhausted and panting. Kevin sat down on a mossy rock and rested his head against the tree trunk. He just needed a little rest…they had to keep moving and get to Pallet before Team Rocket decided to go looking for escapees…
"The fuck do I do now?" he whispered to himself.
The three fugitives waited in silence while the shouts in the distance slowly faded away. Kevin spent most of the time gathering a little pile of good-sized stones, just in case he needed to defend himself during the night. Max and Julie stayed put, and seemed to be taking their near-death experience incredibly well…that, or they were both in shock. Kevin's thoughts flashed from the slaughter to his family to the attack on Station Square and back again. Why was he even out here to begin with? A Pokémon journey? He hadn't even been away from home for a full day and already everything had gone to hell. Now he was stuck in the middle of Viridian with no map, no food, water, weapons, or any of the luggage he'd brought from home, and two next-to-useless tourist kids who were, at the moment, probably being eyed by thousands of starving wild Pokémon.
On the bright side, they had managed to avoid a forced indoctrination into Team Rocket. That, at least, was something that had gone right.
But at what cost?
"I think they're gone," Julie spoke up. "We're gonna have to walk there now, aren't we?"
"Not to Pallet," replied Kevin. "I think our best bet is to head back towards the freeway once the sun comes up. We'll stay here tonight. You two try and go to sleep."
"'Kay," said Julie, and dozed off immediately. Max quickly followed suit. Soon the Molvanian kids were snoring off the urge to fall asleep himself, Kevin shook his head and turned his eyes back to the forest surrounding them. Only now did he fully realize what kind of a situation they'd walked into.
Through the trees, shadowy figures leapt and growled in the distance, flashing back and forth between bushes and rocks as they hunted and fought one another. In the treetops overhead, clusters of pod-like cocoons hung motionless from the branches, staring down at the three runaways with hauntingly empty eyes.
They haven't evolved yet, what are you so scared of? Kevin thought to himself as he watched the creatures above. He'd played enough games of Who's That Pokémon? with Lucy to know they could only be Kakunas – and unfortunately, what they grew into was anything but friendly. He had no intention of hanging around long enough to see them hatch. The highway couldn't be very far off, and if they just kept walking north in a straight line…
Thump.
The sound was faint, very faint, but it had unmistakably come from directly above him. Something had landed on top of the fallen tree, and was now making its way down toward the sleeping kids. Kevin felt the hair on his arms prickling up as the intruder approached. It was giving off some sort of faint static electricity field. Slowly, not daring to make any sudden movements, he reached for a jagged, fist-sized rock from the pile beside his leg. If they were lucky, the thing might only be a Pikachu. If not, well…
Thump.
It was right above him now…and definitely larger than a Pikachu.
Gritting his teeth, Kevin braced himself for the attack. Jump down. Come on, jump down and let's see how long you last…
"What'd you find, Rosey?" a girl's voice whispered. Kevin froze. People? Out here? What the fuck's g-
THUMP!
A grotesque pink monster, four feet tall with pointed ears and covered with spiky fur, stood before him. In the dim moonlight, he could barely make out what looked like a pair of boots, gloves, a skirt, and a Raichu-like tail with a lightning bolt tip, but this thing was clearly neither human or Pokémon. Its eyes were a freakish mess – the whites were seemingly fused together as one like some hideous imitation of a cyclops, yet there still remained two separate irises and pupils. It almost reminded him of that blue hedgehog who had defeated the Perfect Chaos monster two days prior.
Sonic might have been strange-looking enough, but this thing looked as though it had just stepped out of a portal to hell.
"FUCK!" he screamed, and hurled the rock straight at the demon's face. It shrieked in terror and raised its hands to block the projective, but to no avail. The jagged lump of stone caught it square on the cheek and sent it reeling to the ground with a cry of pain and surprise. Kevin lunged forward and stood up, grabbing another rock from the pile to finish the job.
"GO! DAVID!"
Kevin never heard the girl's scream, nor did he see the Pokéball land on the ground four feet away. The monstrosity at his feet was crying, holding its bloody face with one hand as it held the other out toward him in a pleading gesture.
It's begging for mercy, he realized. All right then, take it. He raised the rock, readying himself for the killing blow.
BAM! The breath left his lungs with a whoosh as something huge and scaly tackled him from the left, bowling him over and over like a ragdoll hit by a train. The rock fell harmlessly away.
Well, that's it, he thought, trapped helplessly in the creature's grip. We're all fucking dead. Good job.
His head slammed against a tree, and the world went dark.