Chapter 12

Jim clutched the pokeball in his hand, rolling it in his palm as he disinterestedly watched the cave entrance. Guard duty. Feh. As if anyone ever came to this out of the way tunnel.

An explosion of rock and dirt sent a stone into the back of his head, knocking him unconscious.

As I stepped over the unconscious body of the rocket grunt, I took a second to confirm our course with the two new-comers.

"This is the right place?"

"Clef!"

"Buff!"

"Alrighty then. Misty, I need you to go find the authorities. Run back to pewter as fast as you can. I'm going to assault the operation here."

"Scott, are you sure about this? You can't seriously expect to be able to take out Team Rocket on your own, can you?"

I favored her with a smile as cold as an avalugs back. "No. But I can dish out quite a lot of pain until the cops get here."

And with that, I left the leggy red-head at the cave entrance.

As I dashed through the caves and tunnels, I was caught off guard by one simple thing: the complete and utter lack of wild Pokémon. In the games, you couldn't take two steps without stumbling over a geodude or a zubat, yet now there was absolutely nothing. Something was clearly wrong here.

Some years ago

Rage-of-the-Heavens had always lived what he considered to be a lucky life. It's not that often that an abandoned egg survives in the wilds. He had barely hatched when the giant green form of the Venusaur had blocked out the sun.

"You poor thing." She had said. And with her words, her voice a deep contralto, the fear had been wiped away.

She had wrapped him up in gentle vines, carefully avoiding the tail, rocking him and singing. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy, when skies are grey."

There was no sun in this place. Rage was hurt, badly. His wings were torn and tattered, his breathing labored and stuttering. He struggled to lift his horned head. He had to. His daughters, his two little loves, needed him. He pushed himself to his feet and the pain came again, humans with metal rods that burned like Raichu, whips that bit his tattered flesh.

When he had evolved, like most of his kind, he had become hotheaded, easy to anger. And with anger came the fire.

His mother was a patient Pokemon, and she met his outbursts with calm and gentility. And at last, when his rage had burned down to cinders, she would hold him and sing to him. "You'll never know dear, how much I love you."

His own love burned in his chest. The girls. Locked in a cage with countless other local Pokémon, crying for him in fear and pain.

His next evolution brought with it incredible power, even flight. But it also brought clarity. Suddenly he was capable of seeing many things he hadn't been able to before. His mother for instance.

Mother had not been a young Venusaur when she had found him. She had had no children of her own, and she was past breeding age when the small crimson egg came into her life.

She was old now. she was slower, achey. She spent most of her days lazing in the sun, photosynthesizing just enough to keep going. It was after his first flight that he had noticed how tired she was. But still, she would sing to him. "So please don't take, my sunshine away."

They had taken them from him. Humans dressed in black had invaded his mountain, ransacked his nest, and taken his girls away. When he returned from a hunt and found them gone, for this first time in a long time, rage rose in his heart, black and burning.

For what it's worth, had they known who the two tiny Squirtles called 'daddy', the rockets would have quickly run the other way. Few people are foolish enough to provoke a Charizard.

Nidorino charged full bore at the grunt, knocking him on his ass and trampling him into unconsciousness.

"That's enough, we gotta keep moving."

"Nido."

We continued running down the cramped tunnels, overwhelming the grunts before they could summon any Pokémon. Ralts was invaluable here, her ability to sense emotional signatures was allowing us to take many of them by surprise, and led us closer to the base of operations.

Here. Cavern.

I skidded to a stop and caught my breath. Indeed, we had come to a wide open cave system, and it was swarming with grunts. Along the back wall were hundreds of cages, packed with helpless Pokémon.

Geodudes crammed in with clefairy, paras and zubat subjected to low level shocks behind reinforced bars. Then I saw something that left me dumbfounded.

Two tiny squirtles kept next to a giant of a Charizard.

I sent out my entire team, before gathering them for a quick huddle.

"Alright team. Here's the plan. We can't all out assault them and expect to win, so the name of the game is misdirection. Ralts, Vulpix, you're going to cover me with illusions and shield me from the grunts' senses. Pidgeotto, Pichu, Cleffa, Igglybuff, you four are going to sneak around to the cages, release the Pokémon, and convince them to help us if they can. Those who are too injured need to be taken somewhere safe. Nidorina, Nidorino, you two are going to sneak around to the opposite side of the cavern and create a distraction. Cause chaos, make a scene, blow shit up. Do what you do. Me, Ralts and Vulpix are going to sneak over to the Charizard. Hopefully he'll listen and help us out. Sound good?"

A chorus of quiet sounds of assent greeted my ears. I smiled.

"Good. Execute!"

My two poison rabbit monsters darted into the shadows, and snuck around to the other side, meanwhile, Pidgeotto carried Pichu, Cleffa and Igglybuff over the top of the cavern to the cages. Vulpix' six tails began to weave in a confusing pattern as ralts horns began to glow. Then we waited.

Then it came. A loud explosion followed by cursing and screams. I smiled darkly. "Alright girls," I whispered. "Let's do this." Quickly but quietly, we sprinted over to the Charizard and he took my breath away.

He was a monster! He had to be at least twenty feet tall, his wings were like bedsheets. He was laid out supine, obviously hurt. I could see scorch marks marring the tough scale-armored hide, the wings were tattered and bloody. I signaled to vulpix and ralts, and the illusion dropped.

A hellfire eye snapped open and darted in my direction, piercing my very soul. Rage and death lived in that one eye. I held my hands open, showing I was no threat.

"Hey big guy, I'm here to help, but I need your help in return. My team is still very young, we can't take on all of the rockets by ourselves. Can you fight?"

The firey gaze landed on the two squirtle, and softened into something almost… gentle.

A year ago

Rage had not been the same since Mother had died. The boisterous fire type had become withdrawn, quiet. Even battling didn't fire him up anymore.

He had been slowly prowling his territory when he tripped over them. Two small blue eggs. They were shaking back and forth, Rage knew they would hatch soon. He backed away, knowing the rage of a mother Pokémon, but no one came.

He looked around, trying to spot her, but found nothing. It was then that two small cracks rang out. The shells broke and crumbled, and two tiny turtles plopped out onto the grass. Squirtles. The instinctive enemy. But as the two tiny girls looked around, fear, worry and sadness evident in their tiny faces, Rage's heart melted.

He stepped forward, leaning down onto all fours as his glorious wings unfolded to shield the two babies. He smiled as he began to sing, his bass rumble echoing through their tiny chests. "Come with me, my little loves, to the sea. The sea of love. I wanna tell you, just how much, I love you."

Two tiny bodies curled into his mighty arms. Two tiny voices sang out to him. "Daddy!"

Now

The human boy followed his gaze to his little girls.

"The squirtle?" He asked. Rage nodded slowly, every movement an agony.

"Are they yours?" Rage nodded again. The boy smiled, an open thing promising trust and kindness. Then the boys face hardened. "I've seen stranger families, but we'll get them to safety. Vulpix, go bust em out, then guard them. Keep them safe."

"Vul!"

Rage watched as the flame-kit torched the bars of the cage, melting them into slag, before deftly scooping the girls out with her tails. Rage grudgingly admired the control of her flame. Critically, he studied the general health of the fox. She trusted the human, adored him even, if the quickness to obey was any indication.

This was good. If the worst should happen….

Well, at least they'd be in good hands.

Rage struggled to his feet, and gave out a roar that shook dust from the ceiling.

"Oh shit! The Charizard got loose!"

The rest was only screams.

Scott's Pokédex:

Caught: Caterpie, Metapod, Butterfree, Weedle, Kakuna, Beedrill, Pidgey, Pidgeotto, Rattata, Raticate, Spearow, Fearow, Nidoran(F), Nidorina, Nidoran(M), Nidorino, Vulpix, Pichu, Ralts