Journey

Death of Duty

Part 2: Rocket's Rise

Fault

I walk the difficult path, in service to those who cannot. — Unknown headstone

I needed another pokemon. As if the mysterious woman walking off with Curie wasn't enough, the Vermillion gym wouldn't even schedule my challenge without a third team member. Surge's League challenges were different than most gyms.

He was a warrior, a born and bred soldier that had earned his respect through blood. He'd spent years as part of Kanto's Ranger Corps, defending the civilian population from wild pokemon attacks since before I was even born. He was a living legend and demanded to be treated as such. He didn't accept novice challenges, only intermediate and elite. If you came to Surge, you came for war.

His challenges were always a triple battle. The battle format had first taken root in Unova, during the XIVth Pokemon World Tournament. Surge had been the victor of the triples tourney, and taken a liking to the chaos. He'd imported the triple battles to Kanto for his own gym challenges, claiming that it better taught trainers what real battles could be like.

No matter what the reason for the triple battle, I had only two battle-capable pokemon. So I was stuck until I expanded my team. I scowled at the thought. It was a disaster of my own making, a result of my conscious choice to follow the traditional path through Kanto's League circuit. I could have cut west around Saffron and gone towards Celadon, but I'd been stubborn and stuck to tradition.

It would have been the same situation even if Curie hadn't been kidnapped. It was only my own negligence in team building that had led to this point. I'd trained Luna and Pride well, but they were only two. No matter how well I trained them, they were still only two. I'd neglected my team as a whole by not thinking about this sooner. Most trainers would have had three or four pokemon by this point, if not a full team of six already.

That was why I had decided on hunting down a ground type. I knew Pride would eventually gain that typing when he evolved, but I had no clue how to evolve him. It wasn't just with experience and age like most pokemon, there was some kind of external factor. Nidoking and queen weren't exactly common in the league, and trainers tend to be secretive about evolution methods themselves. Until I figured out how to spur that evolution, I was stuck without a ground type.

That was one of the reasons that I had spent the better part of a month travelling up the coast of eastern Kanto. The other was that I was utterly ashamed of myself. I had failed to defend my team and little Curie was in danger now. She was a hostage, ensuring my loyalty for some future event.

I couldn't do anything, couldn't tell anyone. My online searches came up blank, although I had completely expected that. It's not like typing in 'crazy acrobat lady broke into my room and kicked my ass' is gonna spit back any decent results anyway. I found more adult videos than I had expected and abandoned that search plenty quick.

My research into the crimson R that had been on the woman's collar was moderately more successful, but that had only served to confuse me even further. I'd been scrolling through search results for "red R" when I found it. It had the same proportions, same sharp edges. It was out in the open, just looking back at me.

It was a corporate logo, for a Johtan company that was based in Goldenrod. Rocket Industries had been a briefly successful aerospace firm, back when Indigo still had dreams of space exploration. It was apparently defunct now, like the rest of Indigo's space program, but that didn't mean much. It was clearly still in use by this woman and whatever organization she worked for.

Even with that lead, I didn't have anything. I couldn't work that angle or use it as leverage because it ultimately meant nothing. My frustration got the best of me, and after a few more fruitless attempts I gave up my attempts at playing detective.

I'd been avoiding Gemma almost completely, only responding to texts when I came across an area that actually had cell service. She was obviously still bored out of her mind, but saying anything would have likely gotten Curie killed. I didn't know how the woman had even known I was a Silph trainer, but it pointed to Silph being compromised.

I knew Gemma would never betray me intentionally, but the pokegear she had given me was on Silph's network. I didn't know if the messages could be stolen or looked at, and I wasn't going to risk my Pokémon's life for anything. It must have been frustrating for Gemma, but I trusted that she'd forgive me whenever I managed to get Curie back and could explain myself. She'd understand that Curie came first.

I'd left Lavender town and it's creepy atmosphere far behind, stopping only long enough to fill my pack with supplies for at least two weeks underground. Silph had opened me an expense account before I left Vermillion, and I had made sure to stock up on anything and everything I could have needed for a long trip into the wild.

I'd splurged on the best gear that money could buy. A fancy new solar battery pack was sitting atop my bag, feeding a charge to my pokegear inside. It folded back up and fit easily into one of my pack's many pockets when it wasn't in use. I had also replaced my broken bow with a fancy new composite longbow. It wasn't too much different than what I'd grown up using, although the draw weight still threw me off a little bit.

One benefit of travelling further off the league-sanctioned route, was that trainers were few and far between. I came across maybe four or five other trainers after I left Lavender, most of them weary from the long trip through Rock Tunnel. They all passed me without a battle, unlike the gruelling slog that the journey to Lavender had been.

I grimaced as I remembered the many losing battles we had fought. Intermediate challenges were too much for the moment, but it hadn't stopped me from testing my team against the other intermediates anyways. Luna and Pride both received their share of beat downs during those few weeks, but both still found their own small victories that gave me hope.

Luna had practically mastered her new psychic attack, using it to great effect in a desperate win against a clumsy machoke. She couldn't quite communicate telepathically yet, but I could tell that she was beginning to explore her psychic abilities on her own. It was only a matter of time before she figured out how to communicate with me.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect. My quick searches brought only vague esoteric explanations of telepathy. There was only one common link. Telepathy was trippy for the trainer, especially when the trainer possessed no psychic ability of their own.

I let Luna experiment with her abilities while she hunted for us. More and more, she'd bring me pidgey or pidgeotto with no marks on them. Pride refused to adapt to my preferred hunting methods, instead shocking his foes with a thunderbolt from a distance and eating at his own leisure. At the very least, his thunderbolt was getting larger and stronger.

When training, I'd started Luna towards attempting a full stream of fire rather than short jets or embers. She wasn't there yet, but she was starting to hold the flames for longer before she was exhausted.

Pride had been put to work improving his speed and agility. He'd never be as fast as Luna was, but he was almost embarrassingly slow compared to some of his opponents. He was tough and hit hard, but he needed to be faster. I was seeing improvements, but it was very slow going.

Both of them had learned to work as an efficient, if a bit unorthodox team. Luna was a speedy hit and run attacker that goaded opponents into opening up so Pride could gore them with his horn. It worked well enough against wild pokemon, but the first double battle I had been challenged to had ended with Pride and Luna isolated and picked apart by precision teamwork. The trainer had taken pity on me and offered a few training tips. It wasn't anything I didn't already know, but I appreciated the gesture anyways.

It turned out that my extensive training regimen was well worth it when we arrived at the Rock Tunnel. That's where I met him. That's where I met the one and only, Blue Oak.

I was knelt on the ridge overlooking a small depression on the slopes of the mountain. I'd kept as close to the surface as possible, only dipping underground when Luna wasn't able to find me a path overland. There was no official route here, north of Lavender. The league rangers maintained a small outpost at the power plant, but that was mainly for monitoring the wild pokemon in the area. This section of Kanto was well and truly one of the last properly wild places in the region, only rivalled by the safari zone north of Fuchsia.

I looked down the ridge and breathed a sigh of relief. I'd finally found them. After chasing reported sightings for over a week and a half, I had finally stumbled across a cubone colony.

The little ground types were exceedingly rare. Mostly due to their reclusive nature, they stayed far far away from human habitation. Not one of the current elite-rated trainers in Kanto had a marowak on their teams, which was an indication of rarity, not of a lack of power.

It was the perfect addition to my team. Every article I could find extolled their loyalty and dedication to the team. They were intelligent, creatures that lived in small colonies made up of many family units. They had been known to gift worthy trainers with young males that were ready to establish their own family units. My only problem was finding them.

I hefted the sack I'd been carrying since Lavender and crept forward, Luna silently working her way down the hill ahead of me. My hand was cautiously on Pride's ball as I made my descent. I didn't want to send him out. He was a blunt instrument, more likely to set the colony on us than win it to our side. I did not need a dozen angry marowak beating me with their bone clubs.

I caught glimpses of several cubone watching me on my descent. They would creep through the rocks, peeking at the strange creature working his way down to the colony. I spotted what looked like several juveniles and I hoped that there was at least one intrigued by me.

I finally reached the bottom of the hill. The cubone were hiding, peering at me from behind the rocks surrounding the depression. The marowak were still lazing in the sun, regarding me with cold curiosity. I bowed my head in respect and slowly lifted the sack I'd been carrying off my shoulder. I set it down gently and opened the drawstring at the top.

"I bring you an offering, in the hope that you may allow me to take on one of your young for training." I tipped over the bag and spilled the contents out. Poffins, berries and pokeblocks went spilling out, rolling across the uneven ground. "Judge me worthy and I will raise your child up to be a formidable warrior."

One of the marowak rose to her feet, bone club clutched in her hand. I watched her cross the distance between us, sniffing cautiously at the offerings I'd brought with me. She turned away from them and I feared the worst as she raised her club up to inspect me. She circled me cautiously while Luna watched at attention. Her club tapped against Pride's ball and she looked at me through her skull cap.

I nodded. She wanted to know what kind of trainer I was. She was testing me. My hand slowly dropped to Pride's ball. I raised the ball and prayed that Pride was in an accommodating mood.

He appeared before me, pawing at the ground as he appeared. His eyes widened and his ears flattened against his head as he growled at the strange pokemon surrounding us.

"Pride, enough."

He glanced at me, then at the marowak beside me. I watched his rump slowly lower and he sat carefully, muscles still poised to leap into action.

I glanced down at the marowak and nodded. "These are my allies. Luna, and Pride. They are strong, loyal friends."

The marowak nodded, sauntering over to Luna. She looked my starter in the eye and I felt Luna's mind nervously brush up against my own. I caught a flash of fear and nerves before the sensation faded as the marowak slowly inspected my vulpix. The marowak turned to me and gestured at Pride with her bone.

I shook my head. "He will not allow it," I said, knowing that the marowak wanted to inspect him too. "He will think you're challenging him."

The marowak nodded and then pointed at the gathering crowd of cubone and then to me. I understood what the message was. The marowak wanted to test Pride. She could tell that Luna was a loyal friend. Pride's own arrogance shone through despite his allegiance to me. She wanted me to show her that I truly was a worthy trainer.

I nodded. "Pride," I called. "Ready for battle!"

He barked twice and leapt to his feet. He circled the small depression anxiously and came to a stop just in front of me. Luna slunk over to my side, laying down on the sun-covered rock.

The marowak turned, waving her club at the crowd of cubone. The younglings retreated to the other side of the clearing and joined the other marowak.

I bowed my head in respect as Pride pawed at the ground. He was antsy, wanted to fight. Despite his usually soft demeanour with me, he was aggressive towards other pokemon. Luna had escaped his ire for the most part, but I had to guess that was because she could run circles around him without trying.

I had no clue what to expect from this marowak. She seemed to be the one speaking for the group, I had to guess she was the leader. A mother perhaps, likely with a son ready to leave and begin his own family group. She was no doubt a powerful pokemon. I watched her spin the thick bone in her hands and knew that this would be a difficult battle.

She stopped spinning the club abruptly and charged forwards. She whipped the bone like a boomerang at Pride.

"Double kick it away and dodge the follow up!" I shouted.

Pride pivoted on his front feet and kicked just as the bone closed. It sailed off into the air. The marowak leapt up, grabbing the club from mid air. She brought it down in a leaping strike as Pride leapt away.

Pride charged over the rocky ground, his agility training coming in handy. He didn't stumble, nimbly leaping through the rough terrain and keeping away from the chasing marowak. I watched the ground type effortlessly follow and I knew we were outclassed.

"Turn and charge!"

Pride turned on the spot, skidding to a halt and charging back the way he came. The marowak changed direction, but not quite fast enough to get out of the way. Pride slammed into the marowak, leading with his shoulder. I watched the marowak roll away with the momentum. She felt at her side, blood leaking from a patchwork of pinpricks and gashes.

Pride prowled towards her, his horn lowered in anticipation. He wanted to charge. The marowak gave ground, giving Pride what looked like an opening.

He leapt forward intending to seize on the opportunity. The marowak met his horn with a deft swing of her club. Pride's head cracked to the side with a sickening crunch and he stumbled back. She reared back her head and slammed it heavily into Pride's side, leading with the hard bone cap covering her head.

Pride recoiled from the blow, grunting in pain. He attempted to bound away but the marowak was faster. She spun her club and slammed it into Pride's underside, launching him into the air.

He landed hard and rolled to a halt against a rock. I heard him groan with pain and I knew that he was hurt. He struggled back to his feet and glanced back at me.

"You good, Pride?"

He nodded and turned back to the marowak. She was stalking towards him, the bone club spinning like a baton. I couldn't help but marvel at the coordination. She was beautiful.

"Get in close, you have to poison her." I glanced at the marowak, studying the spinning of the bone club. "On my mark."

Pride lowered his horn, watching the marowak carefully. She walked in a slow circle as Pride paced opposite her. Both watched the other carefully, waiting for any opening to appear. I watched the pattern of movement, watching the marowak's hands. Her hands were in an uncomfortable position at one point, the bone resting on the side of her off hand for a half a moment. We could take advantage of that and interrupt the pattern of movement.

I watched her start the pattern over and waited for the perfect moment. "Now!"

Pride lunged and I saw the marowak fumble the response. It wasn't much, but she swung half a moment too late. Pride buried his horn in the marowak's thigh and bowled her over. The two went down in a tangle and I knew the battle was nothing more than a coin toss.

The marowak was smarter and stronger than I had expected though. She bucked Pride off and shoved him away with her club. He scrambled to his feet as the marowak hauled herself back up using the club.

Pride backed up, giving the marowak space. She looked at me and placed the end of her club on the ground. The battle and the test was over.

"That's enough, Pride." I ordered. He sat down as I raised his ball and dismissed him.

I put his ball back on my belt with a satisfied smile. He had done well. His agility training was paying off in spades.

The marowak approached me, her head cocked to the side. She was looking into my eyes. There was sadness in them, but also hope. She waved over her shoulder, beckoning to the group of cubone.

One of the taller cubone stepped out of the crowd. He had a small bone in his hands and was walking slowly. He looked up at me with fear and nerves in his eyes and then back at the marowak. They touched their noses together for a moment, then continued towards me.

I lowered myself to one knee, holding out a hand as mother and son approached. He sniffed at my hand and then looked up at me. He held out his bone cautiously and tapped it against my hand. I smiled as he gently handed his club to me.

I held up an empty pokeball. He pressed his hand into the button and disappeared with a flash of red light. I felt my hand lighten and smiled at the curiosity as the bone club disappeared too.

The marowak met my eyes and nodded gently. She held out a hand to me and I shook it softly. "Thank you," I said quietly. I don't know how she learned a human custom, but I understood that I wasn't the first to have been given a cubone.

I opened my pack and pulled out some of my medical supplies. "I can help heal you." I pointed at the wound on her leg and held up the spray bottles.

She shook her head and pushed them away. She stepped back and lifted her club. She pointed up at the ridge and then at me and back up the ridge. I understood. It was time for me to leave.

I climbed back up the hill with Luna at my side. Three balls sat on my belt now. Three balls with three battle-capable pokemon. I wasn't ready for Surge yet, but by the time I got back to Vermillion I would be.

Unfortunately, fate had worse plans for me.

It wasn't even a week after I captured him when I decided on a name. My new cubone was a tenacious fighter and a voracious student. He was an acolyte in my training, entrusted to me by his family. Acolyte was his name.

He learned fast. He was quick and nimble, but still possessed enough stopping power to handle some of the wild pokemon in the area. If I had to judge, he was probably close to evolution already, just waiting for a chance to push himself over the edge.

Luna tolerated him well enough. She didn't actively fight with him at the least. Pride on the other hand, seemed to strike up a particularly fierce rivalry. He would challenge Acolyte to a battle at the end of every training session, the two of them working in what they'd been training on that day. It did wonders for them.

I adopted the routine into the end of our usual training sessions. Luna seemed to grumble and resist it slightly, but she still participated. It worked wonders to foster the kind of situational awareness that I wanted them to have. At the end of the day, they were the ones fighting. They'd be able to react faster if I could teach them to react to changing situations if they could learn to think on their own.

We were in the middle of one such session when the pidgeotto swooped down on me. Pride and Acolyte were locked in a struggle, Pride desperately trying to break out of the hold that Acolyte had trapped his head in.

The sun had set and Luna had brought me a few pidgey for our evening meal. I was bent over the fire, adjusting the makeshift spit I'd fashioned as I munched on one of the ration bars I'd bought in Lavender.

The bird's talons closed on the ration bar as I went to take a bite and tore it from my hand. It landed deftly on the shoulder of a boy, dropping my ration bar into his hand.

"Thanks," he called, brushing his hand through a mess of jagged brown hair. "I like this kind!" He took a bite and tore off another bite for the raticate at his knee.

I turned as Pride and Acolyte separated and looked over at the newcomer. Luna jumped to her feet, already growling. I raised an arm, whistling once to get my team's attention. Acolyte ran to my side and Pride stalked over to me as he cast wary glances at the boy. Luna laid back down and yawned.

I sighed and looked over at the boy. "Not polite to steal someone else's meal, kid."

"Name's Blue," he replied in a brash tone. He reached up and scratched his pidgeotto under the chin. "Peri was just practicing her aim."

"Control your pokemon," I said calmly as I dismissed Pride and Acolyte to their balls. Luna looked over at the boy, her tails flicking back and forth. "They shouldn't be doing something like that on their own."

The boy smirked at me. "I asked her to though." He yawned and looked around at my makeshift camp. "Wanna battle?" He asked. "I saw you have a cubone. Never battled one of them before. Course, I have my own vulpix and nidorino…" he trailed off, looking up like he was thinking. "Actually, he's a nidoking now."

I couldn't help but roll my eyes at the boast. "Thanks, but I'm good. We've been hard at training all day and none of us are at our best." I cast him a look. He was a braggart. I didn't like that.

He smirked and I caught the look of derision he gave me. "That's fine, you don't look so tough anyway."

I narrowed my eyes. The little shit was testing me. "How old are you?"

Blue's smirk was practically burned into my eyes at this point. "Just turned fourteen," he said. "And I could still kick your butt, mister."

I rolled my eyes. I had an egomaniac on my hands. "Look, like I said earlier, we aren't looking for a fight."

"I was," Blue replied. He shrugged and waltzed over to my small fire, sitting on the ground opposite me. "Guess you're too much of a weakling."

I sat down opposite him and raised an eyebrow. "So you'll be joining us for dinner?" I sighed and shook my head. "Did your parents never teach you to talk to strangers?"

He nodded. "Yeah. That's why Clothos keeps watch over night." He smirked as he glanced down at the raticate. "So I'd keep your hands to yourself, she likes catching pickpockets in the act." He shot me a look and I almost got the sense that he wanted me to try, just so he could see what would happen.

I pulled one of the pidgey roasts I'd been cooking off of the fire and smirked at Blue. "Well, I hope your pidgeotto is fine with hunting something for herself. All we've got is some pidgey cuts left, and I wasn't planning on sharing until you showed up."

Blue just smiled. "My team can hunt for themselves," he said. "I'll be fine, I don't eat meat."

I sighed. I might have instantly disliked the kid but I wasn't gonna let a child starve. "Funny thing," I started. I shot Blue my best smile as I went into my pack. I hoped I didn't look nuts. "I'm not as hungry as I thought and I have some extra rations." I pulled one of my vegetarian emergency rations out, tossing the silver packet over to him.

Blue took it from me without a hint of bullshit on his face. He looked up from the food and I saw sincerity in his eyes. "Thanks, I don't know how to cook."

I widened my eyes as I sat down, pulling my own meal off the fire. "Nobody ever taught you survival skills?"

He shrugged. "Never really had anyone to teach me things like that. Not like it's been a problem so far."

I narrowed my eyes. "Who are you, really?"

"An Oak," he replied.

"Oh," I said. I nodded slowly. "My condolences then." Even I knew what had happened to the Oak family. It had been the largest news story of the decade.

They'd been the reigning dynasty of the pokemon world. Old Samuel Oak was grand champion, having dethroned Unova's Alder Adeku at the Pokemon World Tournament. His son was a rising star in the Indigo league, set to take the position of Viridian Gym Leader once the old leader retired.

It had all come crashing down in blood. A shocking murder mystery gripped all of Indigo when the Oak's were found dead in their Viridian home. No evidence was left and the investigation led nowhere. It was as if the murderer had simply disappeared into the ether. All the Oaks' pokemon were still in their balls and there was no sign of a struggle.

Samuel Oak retired from his champion position shortly after and retreated into his research. He took the kids in, shielding them from the hellish media attention. I hadn't seen or heard anything about the kids since, but clearly little Blue was set on the same path as his father. By the looks of things, he was already well on his way.

"Yeah," he replied curtly. He finished his food and set the plate down beside me. "I'm gonna get an early start tomorrow. I'm heading down to Lavender if you're going that way."

I nodded. "Gotta get back to Vermillion for my battle with Surge."

Blue raised an eyebrow at that. "How many badges do you have?"

"Two," I said. "Needed a third pokemon for Surge's battle."

"So you came all the way out here?" Blue asked. "Why didn't you just catch yourself a diglet? Or evolve your nidorino and catch something else? Wouldn't matter what, Surge was a pushover for any ground types."

I sighed. "I like the view," I said, voice dripping with sarcasm. "Can't get anything quite like this in Vermillion."

He smirked. "I like you," he declared. "You're one of the good ones. You can take a joke." He unfurled his bedroll and laid it out on a flat spot.

I shrugged. "Gotta be able to laugh at yourself once in a while."

Blue settled down into his bedroll, his raticate curling up beside him. Her eyes bored into me as the kid slowly drifted off. I snorted in laughter and rolled over. Luna trotted over to the fire and curled into my side, watching the raticate in return. I didn't mind letting myself drift off to sleep, knowing the two pokemon would be keeping a close watch on each other.

I woke only once, when the droning buzz of a helicopter roared by in the distance. It faded away and I went back to sleep quietly.

We woke with the sun, both of us packing the camp silently. Blue helped me with my things, putting the fire out and washing up the dishes we'd made the night before. I thanked him and we got on our way before the sun began to climb higher into the sky.

I let Acolyte out while we travelled, to at least get him used to travel with me. Luna stayed well ahead of us, keeping an eye out on the trail. We didn't run into many wild pokemon, which I found slightly odd. The size of our party should have attracted some attention, if nothing else.

Blue let out some of his pokemon. They stayed close to him, mistrusting the new human with their trainer. His eevee sat on his shoulder, his raticate prowling the tree line for threats. Peri the pidgeotto kept swooping overhead, keeping an eye on things from above. I had to keep turning to look at the kadabra, as well as keep an eye on the arbok that slithered through the grassy forest floor behind us.

It was about mid-day when Luna pulled back to us. Her ears were perked up, swivelling back and forth. Her tails flicked angrily and I took a moment to calm her before we continued on.

Less than ten minutes later, it happened again. Luna was standing still as a board in the centre of the path we were following. Acolyte stiffened and his grip on his bone club tightened.

"Stop," I ordered, looking at Blue. "Something's wrong."

He looked at me, then back down at my pokemon. "What do they hear?" He glanced around at his pokemon, watching for any signs of discomfort.

I shrugged. "Don't know, but it can't be good if it's got both Luna and Acolyte tense." I looked down the path and rubbed my temples. I could smell something, something burning. It was faint, as though carried on the wind. The wind died and our pokemon fell silent.

A wailing cry of pain echoed across the forest. Blue and I met eyes. The cry repeated as we heard a terrible screech echo, like metal was being torn through sheer strength.

"Sounds bad?" I asked.

Blue listened again, waiting for the cry again. "Could just be a pokemon. Maybe pissed off a fire type."

I shrugged, then we heard the sound. The chopper roared by in the distance, heading towards a plume of smoke we could see rising through the trees.

It was mid-summer. The dry season. The entire forest was dried out as the summer heat baked the forest until the fall storms returned to replenish the plant life. The entire forest was a tinderbox, ready to spark into a fire that would be uncontainable.

I met Blue's eyes again. "We should help," I started. "You have a water type?"

He nodded. "Wartortle," he replied. He lifted a ball off his belt as he looked off at the smoke. "Let's go."

The chopper got to the crash site first. We watched it circle overhead as we jogged through the trees. Blue surprised me with his stamina. I was winded and lagging behind, but the teen just kept running.

Acolyte charged ahead as we closed with the downed chopper. He surged faster than Blue and I poured on the speed to keep up with them both.

I burst through into the small clearing the helicopter had made as it crashed. The second chopper was still hovering overhead. I shielded my face from the heat, fire beginning to spread from the cockpit of the downed chopper. Pokeballs were strewn around the ground, glistening in the flames.

The pilots had been thrown free of the crash. Both of them were clearly dead, their heads caved in by blunt blows. Their uniforms caught my eye. All black, with a stylized red R on the chest. The chopper had a stylized R on the bent wreck of the tail.

I froze. I knew that symbol. It was the same one I had seen on Curie's kidnapper's collar, the one that belonged to a defunct aerospace firm. I looked up at the chopper hovering above and knew we had stepped in deep shit.

A terrible screech of metal tearing from the downed chopped drew my attention back to the ground. The door on the side of the helicopter wrenched ever so slightly open and ground to a halt. Acolyte let out a terrible cry and my heart dropped in my chest.

It was a marowak. It was the marowak. I knew it. She looked at me from across the clearing, then down at acolyte. She looked back up at me and I saw the desperate pleading look in her eyes.

"Get the fire under control!" I shouted at Blue, taking command of the situation. "Now!" I dashed across the clearing, vaulting over fallen trees and crunching the underbrush underfoot. I slammed into the side of the helicopter, grabbing hold of the door handle as Acolyte and his mother struggled against it.

It wouldn't move. It was well and truly stuck. No matter how hard we pulled, the door would not move. The smooth metal was hot to touch, and I felt my skin searing as I pulled desperately to open the door. I fell back, my hands burning.

Blue's wartortle was putting out some of the fires, but there was only so much he could do. The helicopter itself was on fire, and there was only so much we could do to slow the spread. I looked up at the marowak as she stopped struggling. We'd wrenched it open just far enough for Acolyte to squeeze through and he had disappeared through the door.

They embraced and I felt my heart pounding. Then the mother pushed Acolyte away and pressed a pokeball into his hands. She gestured around her, pointing to the rest of the pokeballs. Then it hit me.

The pokeballs were cubone. All of them. There were dozens, enough for the entire colony I had come across. I looked up at the hovering chopper and felt a newfound hatred for that red R. Somehow, they had seen my newest capture. Somehow they had access to the location data through Silph. They had taken the entire colony and it was all because of me.

The marowak tapped the door to get my attention. She held up the ball and nodded at me. I nodded back. We had an understanding. I would save her colony.

"Blue! Get the pokeballs! All of them!"

He looked around at them all and then back at me. "Why?"

"They're pokemon traffickers."

He looked around. Without another word, he began grabbing the balls and stuffing them into his bag.

I turned as Acolyte emerged from the chopper, pushing a half dozen balls towards me. I stuffed them into my bag as the marowak brought a dozen more. All of them went into my pack without hesitation.

A loud crash behind me drew my attention. A man had leapt from the chopper and landed on one knee. He had a bandolier strapped around his chest with a trio of strangely coloured pokeballs on it. He grinned at me from under a half-mask that covered the top half of his head. "Best hand over those pokeballs if you know what's good for you."

"Funny thing," I started as I realized that I recognized him from the motel battle in Cerulean. "I was never much good at that." Luna stepped out in front of me, growling at the man as my hand hovered over Pride's ball.

The man smirked. "We get to do this the fun way then." He pulled one of the balls off his belt and tapped it open.

The flash of light grew, stretching up to the tops of the trees. It's tail elongated and stretched out behind it, thudding heavily onto the ground. The tyranitar tossed its armoured head back and roared, a sound that shook the earth beneath my feet.

I released Pride and all hell broke loose. To call it a battle would have been folly. It was war.

Pride charged the tyranitar as Luna shot off like a rocket. The earth rumbled below us, but my pokemon kept their footing as I turned back to the chopper and frantically filled my bag.

The tyranitar spun, swinging its oversized tail. It connected solidly with Pride, tossing him effortlessly through the trees. An energy ball from Luna connected solidly with the side of the beast's head. It cracked to the side, bellowing in pain as it looked around for Luna.

A stream of water carved into its back as Blue's pokemon began their own assault. His raticate leapt at the tyranitar's leg, scrabbling at the rock-hard scales. Peri circled above, looking for some opportunity to harass the monster from above.

The tyranitar roared as it tore the raticate off its leg and tossed it headlong into the trees. Another energy ball slammed into its head from a different angle as Luna kept out of its range. I lost Clothos' form in the chaos as I rose to my feet and turned back to the chopper for Acolyte.

I felt a powerful grip on my shoulder and cried out in pain as I was wrenched around. The masked man's fist slammed into my face, knocking me flat as pidgey danced in my head. I vaguely felt him haul me to my feet, but the whole world seemed so far away and my ears were ringing from the blow. He was yelling at me, yelling as the tyranitar spun after Luna.

He tossed me back to the ground and I lay there limply. The man stood there, a vicious look of satisfaction worn on his face. He was leaning over me, still talking as if he was oblivious to my stunned condition.

I saw bright light from the corner of my eye, saw Acolyte's limbs lengthen and his body grow in a flash of light. His head grew, the bone cap around his head growing a pair of horns near the back of his head and thickening considerably. He stepped away from the flaming wreck of the helicopter, his mother's club in his hands.

My marowak slammed into the masked man from the side, clubbing him over and over with the bone as they rolled. The man used the momentum to roll Acolyte off of him and came back to his feet. He turned, making for the rope ladder that hung from the underside of the second chopper.

I clumsily climbed back to my feet and steadied myself against a fallen log. My hearing was still ringing and the world spinning, but even I could hear the roars of the tyranitar as it crashed through the trees like they were toothpicks. Luna was on a mad dash, staying barely ahead of the tyranitar as it gave chase.

Blue's pokemon could do nothing to slow it down. I watched Clothos leap from a fallen log and land on the tyranitar's back. She found a purchase and held tight, fangs furiously gnawing on one of the tyranitar's spikes.

I watched Pride bound from the underbrush and slam into the tyranitar's knee just as Blue's arbok wrapped around its other leg. Luna turned and let off an energy ball just as Blue's wartortle clocked the the monster in the jaw with a jet of water that chipped away at its rocky hide. I watched as the tyranitar toppled and came crashing to the ground. It landed on its back. Hard.

I watched the prone tyranitar disappear in a flash of light as the chopper rose into the sky. The man rose up out of the clearing as the ladder retracted and I lifted my pack off the ground. It was heavy, filled to the brim with pokeballs. I didn't dare look inside the burning chopper. Smoke had filled the cabin and I could see flames where the marowak had been standing.

"Blue, we gotta go!" I groggily shouted, my head still ringing. "Gotta go now! Fire's getting worse!" I staggered over the the young trainer and stopped dead in my tracks.

In the dirt, dead centre of the impact crater the tyranitar had made when it fell, was the crushed and broken body of a raticate.

I dropped to my knees as my eyes found Blue. He was sitting there, perfectly still. His eyes didn't waver, or show any ounce of hurt. He just sat there motionless, as though his eyes couldn't process the image they saw in front of him.

I pulled myself up. "Blue," I said. "We have to go."

He looked at me and I saw the tears behind his façade. He was hurting, but he would never show another soul. "Why?" He asked simply.

I didn't know the answer to that. There was no reason why. No reason except me. And that? That was the worst part.

Pokédex entry #105 – Marowak

This mysterious pokemon sports an exoskeletal skull that has inspired all manner of tall tales throughout the ages. From stealing rhydon skulls to wearing the skull of their dead mother, it is difficult to separate fact and fiction when dealing with marowak and their ilk.

What little is known is due to scattered reports from trainers around eastern Kanto. These pokemon seem to live in small tribes, far from human contact. Small colonies have been discovered in the Argent Mountains, as well as Fuchsia's Safari Sone, however most colonies are clustered in the inhospitable terrain north of Lavender.

Some of the colonies near Lavender have gifted young trainers with cubone who are ready to undergo evolution. The cubone traditionally travel with the trainer for a time, before returning to their colony after evolution and forming a new family unit of their own.

Novice Trainer KT# 07996101, Marcus Wright, current team

Luna, Vulpix

Pride, Nidorino

Acolyte, Marowak