Sticking close behind Dixie as they ascended the stairs of the Pokemon Tower, Arden asked, "So, uh, how long have you been with Team Rocket?"
"Oh, a year, there abouts," responded the grunt. "Watch your step—some of the stairs are missing."
Arden stepped over a missing stair as Dixie reached the floor above them and paused, briefly, for Arden to come abreast of him. A thick fog hung across all the graves, and made it hard to see the opposing wall. In his arms, Gentry shook. Dixie and Nathair, however, did not seem at all to be bothered by it.
"Why'd you join the Rockets?" Arden asked to take his mind off the creepiness of the tower as they started through the winding maze of grave markers.
"Well, I left home when I was fourteen," Dixie said, rubbing Nathair's head as they walked. "I didn't have anywhere to go, and I had a hard time making it on my own… Not that I'd say it was a stupid idea to leave home, just that I wasn't prepared for the reality of being completely alone. I caught Bruno, and that made things a little easier, but I still had trouble getting along. And then I met a recruiter for Team Rocket and…" He shrugged.
They walked on in silence for a couple minutes before the lack of sound began to feel suffocating to Arden. Quickly, he asked, "So, do you like working for Team Rocket?"
"There are worse things," Dixie said, nonchalantly.
"So," Arden said. "Why'd you leave home in the first place?"
Dixie turned around to face him. "You're getting rather personal," he said.
"Sorry."
Gentry quivered violently against Arden's chest, burying his face in the boy's jacket. Dixie held out one arm to stop Arden. "They're coming," he whispered as Nathair drew himself up to his full height.
"Who—?"
A ring of dark balls of gas appeared around them, accompanied by laughter. Arden yelped in fear and tried to run away, but Dixie caught him by the arm. Eyes appeared within the dark balls floating around them, followed by grotesquely grinning mouths with sharp fangs. The laughter was getting louder and louder.
"There are ghosts here? Real ghosts?" said Arden, shaking violently as Gentry huddled against his chest. "I thought that was just folklore!"
"Ghost pokemon—ghastly," said Dixie. "Nathair—bite!"
The arbok drew back briefly, before propelling himself forward, using his long body like a spring. He clamped his jaws down on one of the ghastly and, with a cry, it disappeared. "If you've got pokemon with some dark types moves, send them out," said Dixie. "Ghost pokemon are weak to dark attacks."
"Okay," said Arden, tossing a pokeball. "G-go, Fang! Bite!"
Fang screeched as the ball released him and wheeled about over their heads. He swooped down, fiercely snapping at one of the ghastlies. The pokemon quickly evaporated under the attack. Nathair and Fang attacked the ghost pokemon with their bite attacks, until all were gone.
"Good job, Nat," said Dixie, rubbing Nathair's head. Arden returned Fang to his pokeball.
"So, those were ghost pokemon?" he asked.
"Yeah. We should keep moving," said Dixie, walking.
"So, are they, like, the ghosts of dead pokemon?"
Dixie and Nathair reached the next flight of stairs and began to ascend them to the next floor. "No one's really sure. They might be."
Arden followed close behind Dixie, Gentry huddling under the breast of his jacket. "So, pokemon can die?"
"We're in a pokemon graveyard, Arden," said the grunt. "I thought that pokemon mortality was a given. Besides, how old are you? Twelve? Certainly you should be aware of death by now…"
"Well, I know people die," said Arden, frowning. "I just… didn't think pokemon died, too. I mean, after all, they endure all sorts of things that would kill you or me. I've never known any dead pokemon."
"People die, pokemon die," was all Dixie said as he reached the top of the stairs.
"But how?" asked Arden.
"Dixie! Hey, man—where'd you rush off to?" said another grunt on the landing above them. "I turned around for one minute and you were just gone."
"I thought the ghosts had gotten you," said yet another grunt.
"I'm fine," said Dixie. "I just went to get reinforcements. This is Arden—Arden, this is Tony and Dante."
"Pleasure to meet you," said Dante, holding out his hand to Arden. Hesitantly Arden shook it.
"This is just a kid, Dick," said Tony, putting his hands on his hips. "What is he, ten?"
"Twelve," Arden said. "And I have two gym badges."
"Yeah, so does Dante, but it doesn't mean I trust him to do anything right," Tony replied.
Dante frowned. "I do things right sometimes," he mumbled, turning his face toward Dixie. "Don't I?"
Dixie put his arm over his fellow grunt's shoulders. "Of course," he reassured him. "I figured since we three couldn't handle it on our own, Tony, it could only help to have a fourth man."
Tony gritted his teeth. "Yeah, fine. Whatever," he said, turning and walking away. Dante followed him, and Dixie motioned that he and Arden ought to as well.
"So, what are we doing exactly?" Arden asked Dixie.
Dixie smiled. "We're capturing a marrowak."
"Marrowak?"
Dixie nodded and said, "It's the evolved form of cubone. A rare pokemon—you hardly ever see them. This one's turning out to be craftier and all together more powerful than we expected."
"There it is!" shouted Tony, pointing at a orange-bodied pokemon cornered between two tombstones. "Go, Raticate!"
"Go, Meowth," said Dante throwing out a pokeball.
"Nathair, get her!" said Dixie, pointing. The arbok darted forward.
Arden threw a pokeball from his belt. "Cruelty!"
"Arden—Cruelty's an electric type," said Dixie. "The marrowak's a ground pokemon—his attacks won't work on her."
"Oh, you'd be surprised what a brawler he is," mumbled Arden.
The marrowak hunched her back and held up her bone club as the four pokemon advanced on her. She threw the bone, knocking Dante's meowth down with it. Nathair reached her and wrapped himself around her midsection, while Tony's raticate bite down on her skull helmet. Cruelty was there a split second after them, cheeks sparking, blood lust in his eyes. He dug his teeth into her exposed throat and threw one hand through the eye hole of her mask. The meowth recovered from taking the hit, and leapt into the fray.
A vicious fight ensued which was, at times, hard to watch. The first casualty of the fight was Tony's raticate, who fainted and was recalled. Next, Dante had to return his meowth after it was too injured to continue. Cruelty and Nathair kept at it, but the marrowak—injured as she was—kept her own for a while. Finally, however, she was weak.
"Ha—return, Nathair! That was good," said Dixie. "Time to capture it!"
He threw his pokeball, but it was intercepted by Cruelty, who knocked it away. He leapt on the weakened marrowak, and began pummeling her with all the viciousness of a rabid dog.
"What's he doing?" asked Dixie. "That marrowak's too weak to fight back!"
"Cruelty, return!" shouted Arden, but the pokemon wouldn't obey.
The marrowak's skull was breaking under Cruelty's fists and every punch he made caused damage to her internal apparatus. Dante ran toward the fighting pokemon, but before he could get close, Cruelty let out a burst of electricity which forced him to stay back. The pikachu continued his assault.
And then, the marrowak's eyes went dull. It lay, lifeless, beneath him, as he continued to smack it.
A silence settled over Arden and the Rocket grunts as they watched. Dixie turned away, and silent tears streamed down Dante's face. There was blood all over Cruelty's fur, and it was puddling and clotting on the ground around him. Arden watched, his stomach turning over inside him. Cruelty wore himself out, at length, and Arden quietly returned him to his pokeball.
Beyond the marrowak's corpse, two cubone huddled together.
Dixie's eyes moistened. "Her children," he said, approaching them. He knelt down, in a patch of ground that was not blood-stained, and held out his hand to the cubone. One looked at him very earnestly, and took his hand with its little paw. He lifted it to his chest. The other, cry, swiped at him, before turning and fleeing over the corpse of its bludgeoned mother.
"Should… we go after it?" asked Tony.
"No, no," said Dixie quietly. "Let's just… get on with our job. Arden, you can go."
Without a word, Arden started down the stairs, his entire body numb with guilt.
A/N: Kind of a dark chapter, not a lot of laughs. Sorry. Anyway, picture of Gaius--Arden's brother--is up on DA. Link on profile, as usual.