Du Sundavar Freohr
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A Rekindled Flame
It was a time when trainers and pokemon grew apart, when the government stopped sending trainers, when the pokemon became to feral. A time when the towns closed their doors to the pokemon and let the beasts grow larger and larger, and more wild until the only ones kept were experimented on, kept locked up and under constant guard. It was also a time when one young boy and his four friends lose something dear, and they leave Lilycove forever. They slip past their parents and embark together, to rekindle the flame that had once been pokemon. Slowly, people begin to emerge, trickles of humans who have heard the stories, and want to live it. Soon the trickles become streams and the streams open up the floodgates and-. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. This is the story of the first four, and how they changed the world, for better or for worse.
Happiness had never been a big part of my life, and neither had hastiness. All of Lilycove city was much like a hive of giant combee, buzzing and busy, productive as hell but never with any zeal, any substance. The walls were thick and tall, with men patrolling and armed, eyes constantly trained on the encroaching forest. The buildings were huge and colorful, reaching up to the sky, and the city itself was beautiful, full of gardens and fountains. One could lose themselves staring at the people bustling around, pushing past and mumbling excuses under their breath as they rushed to work, school or another day at the beach. Sometimes I felt as though I was the only person in all of Lilycove that took the time to stop, stare and listen.
Of course, my parents seemed to blame this on each other, saying that one time, back in each other's lineage there was a dreamer, a starer, a watcher. My father was a corporate manager, and always seemed to think this kept him exempt from more mundane things, like family dinners, movies and talks. My father's name was Henry and he was never there.
My mother was the perfect mom, beautiful, immaculate and caring. Each lunch she packed for me or another day at high school was so cute and loving that it made him want to throw up. She was always there when I came home, with trays full of snacks for my friends and I as we threw down our bags and slumped into chairs and couches, weary after a long day. Everything she did she did for no reason but that she loved me, and I loved her for it. Her name was Alexandra, and she was there.
Today was a school day, and of course, I just had to be there.
"But Mom, pleeeease? I'm sick, really!" I coughed weakly and moaned when she shook her head. "C'mon, look at me here, I am dying!"
"No honey, you're not. Now go catch up to your friends, and get going."
I groaned and hoisted up my backpack, trudged out the door and made a big show of stumbling around before I ran to catch up to my friends. Now I'm not going to lie, I have a great life. I have great friends, a great mom and my dad is rich, so he matters too. My school is awesome, I get good grades and I get rewarded. I've never wanted anything but this.
Unfortunately, sometimes life has a different plan.
I caught up to my friends and we walked and talked, shoving each other around as we joined the flood pouring into Lilycove Highschool. We have the best high school in all of Hoenn here, and my mom and dad always say that's why we moved here, but I know that's not the case.
My mom was originally from the city of Rustboro, but she had left the city when she was only sixteen because of a disagreement with her mother and sister. She boarded a train to Lilycove and rode out of their lives forever. She met dad in a coffee shop here and married him quickly. She never left Lilycove and hardly ever spoke of her family.
One night, during a dinner she received a phone call. She had left the dining room and talked quietly, exchanging pleasantries and laughing weakly for a little. When she got off the phone and sat back down, I had asked her what was up.
"Nothing Honey, don't worry. Eat your starly and be quiet." She had never talked to me like that before, so I left it alone, not knowing how to answer that. Only later that night when I woke up to go to the bathroom and found my mother, with an industrial sized box of tissues, a featherbed and old pictures silently crying did I know what had happened.
From behind me my dad came up and pulled me away by my hand, sat me down and said to me seriously, "Son, it's time we had a talk, okay?"
"Does this have anything to do with Mama right now?" I had been only eight, and didn't really understand what was happening.
He sighed, running his hand down his face and said quietly, "Your grandma is dead, son."
I looked at him, confused. "How is she dead, we saw her yesterday! Why aren't you sad? I thought you told me that mom didn't even-"
He cut me off sharply. "Your mother's mother. Not mine. She lived in Rustboro and your mother hadn't seen her in a very long time. She misses her, and she's going to visit your sister for a few days. So, I'm going to be in charge of you."
So began the father son week that never ended. It was that week that I really learned how much I appreciated my mother. She gave me warm meals that didn't come from boxes, loving kisses and not brusque farewells and late hours. When she got home I wrapped her in such a big hug that she burst out crying all over again. My dad yelled at me for that one so much I thought he'd never stop.
It was a sad time, my mom had had a long flight and apparently the pokémon had been stirring up again, and she had seen something she had never mentioned, and scared her deeply. Since she was a baby, she had always been afraid of them, after her father, my great grandfather had been killed by a trained charizard whose trainer had thought it was under control. Her oldest brother had died even later, when he left the city to see his girlfriend and had been literally torn apart by the wild pokemon. They found his body, or what remained of it, in eight different places. Even after the reclusion she never quite got over it, she was always casting fearful glances to the foreboding forest. She was always on guard, always ready.
The day was great outside, but of course, it was going to be wasted. My friends and I were all walking in one group, side by side, forcing pedestrians to move out of the way.
Each one that stepped off the street glared at us and usually mumbled, "Damn teenagers," or anything remotely like that. Of course, we didn't care. We were fifteen and sixteen, almost adults and practically above the law.
Lilycove, while being a huge city, was relatively closed in. Well, every city was closed in, but Lilycove more so. Every kid I knew I had known for years, watching them grow up (or not) and finally become who we were today. My friends were the best example of that. We had all known each other forever, and were practically brothers and sisters in all but blood. There were five of us, three boys and two girls, but everyone treated each other the same.
There was Darell, huge and glowering. The kid was almost six and a half feet tall, and built like the tauros that the biology teachers kept mentioning. He had huge, meaty hands and two bushy eyebrows that covered his small, beady eyes. He was the youngest of our group though, only fourteen but smart enough to be two grades ahead. Any person that met him was surprised of his smarts and his personality. He was as playful as a skitty, well, before they showed their six inch long claws and scratched your eyes out. Of course, when he played he was liable to knock someone out, or break a limb or two. I had met him first in kindergarten, when an older kid was bullying me. He was always pushing me around, and I was new to the school, so I didn't have anyone to stick up for me. He cornered me one day, and I had called out, and all of a sudden the silent kid I had never known existed lifted him up and tossed him bodily into the wall. Darell had been my protector and friend ever since. He spoke with a slight stutter, but not because he was slow. He had trouble saying what he was thinking, probably due to the fact he has a lot going on up there.
The first girl to join our little group was Mindy, a bubbly blonde that seemed to never stop talking. She was a dreamer, like me, but dreamed of dangerous, stupid things like the time before the reclusions and the trainers that used to roam around, catching and training. She hadn't ever formally joined us, just walked in one day and started babbling, and gradually, we accepted her. She was smart, but she could never seem to focus, always trailing off in those daydreams of hers. She never seemed to notice Darell staring at her wistfully. It was almost enough to make me feel like the third wheel, but eventually someone new came along.
Blake, well he was always the cool one, handsome and easily smart. He did pretty much everything easily, and it was almost enough to make me throw up when he showed up one day at my house, knocked on the door and somehow walked into our lives. He had bruises on his face and cuts on his arms, but didn't mention how or when he got them. We eventually figured it out, but he didn't have to tell us. The shouts coming from his apartment and his father and mothers absence from every single sports game, play and award ceremony was noted. Of course, this was not talked about (at least, not to him).He was tall and thin, with black curly hair framing his thin face. He had the body of a runner and the arms of a football player, yet somehow he talked to us. Underneath his cool, screw it all demeanor was a little boy, always trying to grow up but continuously beat down by his dad. He was childish yet somehow seemed to be more mature than us all. He fit in perfectly.
The last girl was still a mystery to me. Beautiful, dark haired, slim, kind, caring, funny, Kara was perfect in every single way, but still wild and uncontrollable. She was the one that always organized everything, all in one way to show us that she wasn't a kid, that she was a grown up and damnit, she can do whatever she wants. She pulled pranks, messed around, got in trouble with teachers, drank, talked back and yet at the end of the day, she acted like a child, exactly what she pretended not to be. And today, she would start everything just to prove that she wasn't a kid anymore.
"Guys, let's do something crazy today," Kara suggested, a gleam in her eyes we all knew was best to avoid.
"What?" Blake asked, yawning widely, his white teeth showing.
"How about we skip?" she asked, voice dropping to a low whisper.
"I dunno guys, I don't want to break my perfect attendance record…" Darell said in his slow, halting speech, a cautious eye on Kara.
"C'mon Darell, live life, go out, kiss a girl, have some fun." Kara was pleading now.
He turned a deep red and stammered out, "I-I've kissed a g-girl. Y-you just d-don't know her."
Kara rolled her eyes but knew better than to press him. Then she turned to me.
"Ralph, don't you want to go? It'll be fun. You know." She sidled up to me and I flinched away. "Please? For me?"
Of course, I didn't have much in the way of that. I couldn't really say no, could I?
Of course, because of me, everything went to hell.
Of course, it was all my fault.
Cutting was so much fun, well, at least it was when you weren't worrying about being caught and throwing terrified glances behind your shoulder. Okay, so maybe cutting wasn't all that great.
We went to the town square, keeping our heads down and giggling like we were little kids again. The fountain was blowing high today, and we sat in the shade, sipping lemonade and licking ice cream as we laughed and glanced around, not entirely at ease.
Of course, about twelve minutes and forty two seconds into our day off we were caught. A hand suddenly caught the scruff of my t-shirt and pulled me up as if I weighed no more than a piece of paper. I struggled against the grip but saw my friends in likewise positions, except of course for Darell. None of these police officers were going to even touch the big guy. I expected them to bring us to school, which went down Steel Street and was at the end of Ember Avenue, but they turned the opposite direction. They were taking us directly towards the center of the city, where the police station was.
Oh. Crap.
Kara was the only one that fought, shaking her arms and legs and growling as the man hauled her up and dragged her down the street by her ear. The people gave curious looks directed at the odd pair but didn't think much else of it. The street was smooth and paved in cobblestone, but that didn't stop Darell from tripping over his own feet.
The buildings were taller towards the center, where the big department store was. The department store was six floors of unneeded glorified stuff, video games, clothes lavish things no one would ever buy. Right next to it was the small, squat police station and the lab, pride and joy of all of Hoenn.
Darell moaned and began struggling when he saw where his father, the leading scientist at the lab, worked. He labored there day and nighton the study of pokemon, the feral beasts that had once been our friends and companions on long journeys. They now inhabit the forests along cities and roads. They lived in deserts, the ocean and even the sky. They were our greatest pride, our greatest fear, our greatest shame and our greatest failure.
The men pulled us through the revolving double doors and led us up a flight of sleek chrome stairs before throwing the five of us to the feet before the professor, Darell's father.
He had been expecting us and obviously was not happy to have five teenagers interrupting his important work.
"Kids, I think you know why you're here," he said, glaring down at them. The doctor was a weedy man, with receding hair and thin, weak arms. He had thick-framed glasses and a small nose. He looked absolutely nothing like his son, but his personality was too much like him. Sometimes I felt like I was looking at a second Darell despite his stature.
"You wanted our company?" Kara suggested weakly.
"Unfortunately, no. We know you were cutting, but that's not the point. We're here because of this." At his words the lights dimmed and he swept his arm out, illuminating the series of light up boards that covered an entire side of the lab.
On each board was a complicated chart, with small, cramped handwriting and colorful pictures. He led us over to the first one, which was tallying the amount of pokemon related deaths.
"Kids, I trust that you all know about the reclusion almost one hundred years ago, right?"
We all nodded. Learning this was required in the Hoenn school system. It was common knowledge why and how it had happened.
"Then you all know that the reclusion was because the pokemon got to dangerous. They were threatening the lives of the children adventuring out, looking to carve a niche for themselves in the wall of fame. The wild tore these kids apart, children. The ones tat survived had seen their pokemon ripped to shreds, attacked, maimed. The ones that didn't, well, when we got lucky and found their bodies, well, it wasn't a pretty sight. The young trainer death rate was seventy four percent! Seventy-four! We couldn't afford these losses any more. We had to stop."
"How do you know so much about this? Were you even born then?" Blake challenged, as he always did. He seemed to have a talent for arguing with teachers and the like.
Fortunately for Dr. Nieves, he was a tad bit smarter than your average teacher. "No Blake, see I do a little thing called read. It helps in life. Maybe you should try it and stop whining about everything in your life."
Blake's eyes flashed in anger and he said in a voice with barely controlled anger, "You do not want to know what goes on in my life, Dr. Nieves."
Dr. Nieves changed the subject and said, "Now look at this chart kids. This one details the amount of deaths in people due to pokemon after the reclusion. If you can tell, the amount of deaths has gone down significantly to only about two hundred a year. However, we have a problem. There has been word that the pokemon have… adapted. In the hundred years since we cut off contact, they changed themselves to new types of species. They are still the same, but due to breeding between different species, many pokemon have adapted to take a new type, and therefore made themselves even more powerful. Naturally, we scientists are very confused and excited about this new development."
"Dad I really enjoyed the science lesson," Darell said, and you could tell he was serious. "But what does this have to do with us?"
"I want you to catch me some."
Silence greeted his proclamation for a few seconds before Kara burst out laughing.
"You can't be serious, Dr. N," she said incredulously when she saw the look on his face. "Oh, God help us. You are."
"Here, this is what's going to happen." The usually amiable doctor's voice had an edge in it as he continued. "If you guys collect the pokemon I want you to, there will be no punishment. If you capture any extra, you will be paid, got it?"
Darell looked afraid and said, "D-dad? What about m-me? Y-you don't m-mean me to, do you?"
"Of course I do, Darell. You broke the law, and you must be punished, son or no. In Lilycove, this is how we treat lawbreakers. Some might say it's a death sentence, but really, it's a chance for life."
"Anyway," the doctor continued, "Your assignment is this. Recently there have been herds of tauros -roaming the countryside because of some grass there. They do this every season but there is something new for this year. Due to this herd breeding with many arcanine and other fire types, they have developed some…interesting aspects." He pulled up a picture of a strange pokemon that we hadn't seen in biology and definitely not anywhere else.
It was muscular and large, with huge horns on either side of its head. Its four legs ended in hooves, but around the hooves were fires blazing, and smoke came out of the pokemon's fiery nostrils. Its foot was frozen in pawing at the ground and its coat was a ruddy complexion. It was obviously a tauros but not one like we had ever seen before. I sidled up for a closer look.
"This is a picture captured by a photographer of said tauros. You will be armed with three ultra balls each. Catch as many as possible, but DO NOT be seen. They will kill on sight. This is not some story book where the prince and princess will ride off in the sunset on the back of their shiny tauros, this is real life damnit and you had all better treat this like you life depends on it, because it does. These things are able to know flare blitz, flame charge, and even flamethrower as well as giga impact. You need to be careful."
He pressed into each of our hands those old archaic devices that were once used to catch our best friends, our worst enemies, our families and partners.
"This is a pokeball. As soon as you see a tauros, chuck it at it, scoop it up and run. Do not miss, or you will all die. Now get out, I don't want to see your faces anymore."
As he shooed us off, it seemed to me that Dr. N was crying. Of course, he couldn't possibly know that the entire venture would end in tragedy. He couldn't know that his idea would set into action the events that would completely change his life, his son's, his friends and all of Hoenn.
He couldn't possible know that everything was going to hell.
It was a time when trainers and pokemon grew apart, when the government stopped sending trainers, when the pokemon became to feral. A time when the towns closed their doors to the pokemon and let the beasts grow larger and larger, and more wild until the only ones kept were experimented on, kept locked up and under constant guard. It was also a time when one young boy and his four friends lose something dear, and they leave Lilycove forever. They slip past their parents and embark together, to rekindle the flame that had once been pokemon. Slowly, people begin to emerge, trickles of humans who have heard the stories, and want to live it. Soon the trickles become streams and the streams open up the floodgates and-. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here. This is the story of the first four, and how they changed the world, for better or for worse.
Happiness had never been a big part of my life, and neither had hastiness. All of Lilycove city was much like a hive of giant combee, buzzing and busy, productive as hell but never with any zeal, any substance. The walls were thick and tall, with men patrolling and armed, eyes constantly trained on the encroaching forest. The buildings were huge and colorful, reaching up to the sky, and the city itself was beautiful, full of gardens and fountains. One could lose themselves staring at the people bustling around, pushing past and mumbling excuses under their breath as they rushed to work, school or another day at the beach. Sometimes I felt as though I was the only person in all of Lilycove that took the time to stop, stare and listen.
Of course, my parents seemed to blame this on each other, saying that one time, back in each other's lineage there was a dreamer, a starer, a watcher. My father was a corporate manager, and always seemed to think this kept him exempt from more mundane things, like family dinners, movies and talks. My father's name was Henry and he was never there.
My mother was the perfect mom, beautiful, immaculate and caring. Each lunch she packed for me or another day at high school was so cute and loving that it made him want to throw up. She was always there when I came home, with trays full of snacks for my friends and I as we threw down our bags and slumped into chairs and couches, weary after a long day. Everything she did she did for no reason but that she loved me, and I loved her for it. Her name was Alexandra, and she was there.
Today was a school day, and of course, I just had to be there.
"But Mom, pleeeease? I'm sick, really!" I coughed weakly and moaned when she shook her head. "C'mon, look at me here, I am dying!"
"No honey, you're not. Now go catch up to your friends, and get going."
I groaned and hoisted up my backpack, trudged out the door and made a big show of stumbling around before I ran to catch up to my friends. Now I'm not going to lie, I have a great life. I have great friends, a great mom and my dad is rich, so he matters too. My school is awesome, I get good grades and I get rewarded. I've never wanted anything but this.
Unfortunately, sometimes life has a different plan.
I caught up to my friends and we walked and talked, shoving each other around as we joined the flood pouring into Lilycove Highschool. We have the best high school in all of Hoenn here, and my mom and dad always say that's why we moved here, but I know that's not the case.
My mom was originally from the city of Rustboro, but she had left the city when she was only sixteen because of a disagreement with her mother and sister. She boarded a train to Lilycove and rode out of their lives forever. She met dad in a coffee shop here and married him quickly. She never left Lilycove and hardly ever spoke of her family.
One night, during a dinner she received a phone call. She had left the dining room and talked quietly, exchanging pleasantries and laughing weakly for a little. When she got off the phone and sat back down, I had asked her what was up.
"Nothing Honey, don't worry. Eat your starly and be quiet." She had never talked to me like that before, so I left it alone, not knowing how to answer that. Only later that night when I woke up to go to the bathroom and found my mother, with an industrial sized box of tissues, a featherbed and old pictures silently crying did I know what had happened.
From behind me my dad came up and pulled me away by my hand, sat me down and said to me seriously, "Son, it's time we had a talk, okay?"
"Does this have anything to do with Mama right now?" I had been only eight, and didn't really understand what was happening.
He sighed, running his hand down his face and said quietly, "Your grandma is dead, son."
I looked at him, confused. "How is she dead, we saw her yesterday! Why aren't you sad? I thought you told me that mom didn't even-"
He cut me off sharply. "Your mother's mother. Not mine. She lived in Rustboro and your mother hadn't seen her in a very long time. She misses her, and she's going to visit your sister for a few days. So, I'm going to be in charge of you."
So began the father son week that never ended. It was that week that I really learned how much I appreciated my mother. She gave me warm meals that didn't come from boxes, loving kisses and not brusque farewells and late hours. When she got home I wrapped her in such a big hug that she burst out crying all over again. My dad yelled at me for that one so much I thought he'd never stop.
It was a sad time, my mom had had a long flight and apparently the pokémon had been stirring up again, and she had seen something she had never mentioned, and scared her deeply. Since she was a baby, she had always been afraid of them, after her father, my great grandfather had been killed by a trained charizard whose trainer had thought it was under control. Her oldest brother had died even later, when he left the city to see his girlfriend and had been literally torn apart by the wild pokemon. They found his body, or what remained of it, in eight different places. Even after the reclusion she never quite got over it, she was always casting fearful glances to the foreboding forest. She was always on guard, always ready.
The day was great outside, but of course, it was going to be wasted. My friends and I were all walking in one group, side by side, forcing pedestrians to move out of the way.
Each one that stepped off the street glared at us and usually mumbled, "Damn teenagers," or anything remotely like that. Of course, we didn't care. We were fifteen and sixteen, almost adults and practically above the law.
Lilycove, while being a huge city, was relatively closed in. Well, every city was closed in, but Lilycove more so. Every kid I knew I had known for years, watching them grow up (or not) and finally become who we were today. My friends were the best example of that. We had all known each other forever, and were practically brothers and sisters in all but blood. There were five of us, three boys and two girls, but everyone treated each other the same.
There was Darell, huge and glowering. The kid was almost six and a half feet tall, and built like the tauros that the biology teachers kept mentioning. He had huge, meaty hands and two bushy eyebrows that covered his small, beady eyes. He was the youngest of our group though, only fourteen but smart enough to be two grades ahead. Any person that met him was surprised of his smarts and his personality. He was as playful as a skitty, well, before they showed their six inch long claws and scratched your eyes out. Of course, when he played he was liable to knock someone out, or break a limb or two. I had met him first in kindergarten, when an older kid was bullying me. He was always pushing me around, and I was new to the school, so I didn't have anyone to stick up for me. He cornered me one day, and I had called out, and all of a sudden the silent kid I had never known existed lifted him up and tossed him bodily into the wall. Darell had been my protector and friend ever since. He spoke with a slight stutter, but not because he was slow. He had trouble saying what he was thinking, probably due to the fact he has a lot going on up there.
The first girl to join our little group was Mindy, a bubbly blonde that seemed to never stop talking. She was a dreamer, like me, but dreamed of dangerous, stupid things like the time before the reclusions and the trainers that used to roam around, catching and training. She hadn't ever formally joined us, just walked in one day and started babbling, and gradually, we accepted her. She was smart, but she could never seem to focus, always trailing off in those daydreams of hers. She never seemed to notice Darell staring at her wistfully. It was almost enough to make me feel like the third wheel, but eventually someone new came along.
Blake, well he was always the cool one, handsome and easily smart. He did pretty much everything easily, and it was almost enough to make me throw up when he showed up one day at my house, knocked on the door and somehow walked into our lives. He had bruises on his face and cuts on his arms, but didn't mention how or when he got them. We eventually figured it out, but he didn't have to tell us. The shouts coming from his apartment and his father and mothers absence from every single sports game, play and award ceremony was noted. Of course, this was not talked about (at least, not to him).He was tall and thin, with black curly hair framing his thin face. He had the body of a runner and the arms of a football player, yet somehow he talked to us. Underneath his cool, screw it all demeanor was a little boy, always trying to grow up but continuously beat down by his dad. He was childish yet somehow seemed to be more mature than us all. He fit in perfectly.
The last girl was still a mystery to me. Beautiful, dark haired, slim, kind, caring, funny, Kara was perfect in every single way, but still wild and uncontrollable. She was the one that always organized everything, all in one way to show us that she wasn't a kid, that she was a grown up and damnit, she can do whatever she wants. She pulled pranks, messed around, got in trouble with teachers, drank, talked back and yet at the end of the day, she acted like a child, exactly what she pretended not to be. And today, she would start everything just to prove that she wasn't a kid anymore.
"Guys, let's do something crazy today," Kara suggested, a gleam in her eyes we all knew was best to avoid.
"What?" Blake asked, yawning widely, his white teeth showing.
"How about we skip?" she asked, voice dropping to a low whisper.
"I dunno guys, I don't want to break my perfect attendance record…" Darell said in his slow, halting speech, a cautious eye on Kara.
"C'mon Darell, live life, go out, kiss a girl, have some fun." Kara was pleading now.
He turned a deep red and stammered out, "I-I've kissed a g-girl. Y-you just d-don't know her."
Kara rolled her eyes but knew better than to press him. Then she turned to me.
"Ralph, don't you want to go? It'll be fun. You know." She sidled up to me and I flinched away. "Please? For me?"
Of course, I didn't have much in the way of that. I couldn't really say no, could I?
Of course, because of me, everything went to hell.
Of course, it was all my fault.
Cutting was so much fun, well, at least it was when you weren't worrying about being caught and throwing terrified glances behind your shoulder. Okay, so maybe cutting wasn't all that great.
We went to the town square, keeping our heads down and giggling like we were little kids again. The fountain was blowing high today, and we sat in the shade, sipping lemonade and licking ice cream as we laughed and glanced around, not entirely at ease.
Of course, about twelve minutes and forty two seconds into our day off we were caught. A hand suddenly caught the scruff of my t-shirt and pulled me up as if I weighed no more than a piece of paper. I struggled against the grip but saw my friends in likewise positions, except of course for Darell. None of these police officers were going to even touch the big guy. I expected them to bring us to school, which went down Steel Street and was at the end of Ember Avenue, but they turned the opposite direction. They were taking us directly towards the center of the city, where the police station was.
Oh. Crap.
Kara was the only one that fought, shaking her arms and legs and growling as the man hauled her up and dragged her down the street by her ear. The people gave curious looks directed at the odd pair but didn't think much else of it. The street was smooth and paved in cobblestone, but that didn't stop Darell from tripping over his own feet.
The buildings were taller towards the center, where the big department store was. The department store was six floors of unneeded glorified stuff, video games, clothes lavish things no one would ever buy. Right next to it was the small, squat police station and the lab, pride and joy of all of Hoenn.
Darell moaned and began struggling when he saw where his father, the leading scientist at the lab, worked. He labored there day and nighton the study of pokemon, the feral beasts that had once been our friends and companions on long journeys. They now inhabit the forests along cities and roads. They lived in deserts, the ocean and even the sky. They were our greatest pride, our greatest fear, our greatest shame and our greatest failure.
The men pulled us through the revolving double doors and led us up a flight of sleek chrome stairs before throwing the five of us to the feet before the professor, Darell's father.
He had been expecting us and obviously was not happy to have five teenagers interrupting his important work.
"Kids, I think you know why you're here," he said, glaring down at them. The doctor was a weedy man, with receding hair and thin, weak arms. He had thick-framed glasses and a small nose. He looked absolutely nothing like his son, but his personality was too much like him. Sometimes I felt like I was looking at a second Darell despite his stature.
"You wanted our company?" Kara suggested weakly.
"Unfortunately, no. We know you were cutting, but that's not the point. We're here because of this." At his words the lights dimmed and he swept his arm out, illuminating the series of light up boards that covered an entire side of the lab.
On each board was a complicated chart, with small, cramped handwriting and colorful pictures. He led us over to the first one, which was tallying the amount of pokemon related deaths.
"Kids, I trust that you all know about the reclusion almost one hundred years ago, right?"
We all nodded. Learning this was required in the Hoenn school system. It was common knowledge why and how it had happened.
"Then you all know that the reclusion was because the pokemon got to dangerous. They were threatening the lives of the children adventuring out, looking to carve a niche for themselves in the wall of fame. The wild tore these kids apart, children. The ones tat survived had seen their pokemon ripped to shreds, attacked, maimed. The ones that didn't, well, when we got lucky and found their bodies, well, it wasn't a pretty sight. The young trainer death rate was seventy four percent! Seventy-four! We couldn't afford these losses any more. We had to stop."
"How do you know so much about this? Were you even born then?" Blake challenged, as he always did. He seemed to have a talent for arguing with teachers and the like.
Fortunately for Dr. Nieves, he was a tad bit smarter than your average teacher. "No Blake, see I do a little thing called read. It helps in life. Maybe you should try it and stop whining about everything in your life."
Blake's eyes flashed in anger and he said in a voice with barely controlled anger, "You do not want to know what goes on in my life, Dr. Nieves."
Dr. Nieves changed the subject and said, "Now look at this chart kids. This one details the amount of deaths in people due to pokemon after the reclusion. If you can tell, the amount of deaths has gone down significantly to only about two hundred a year. However, we have a problem. There has been word that the pokemon have… adapted. In the hundred years since we cut off contact, they changed themselves to new types of species. They are still the same, but due to breeding between different species, many pokemon have adapted to take a new type, and therefore made themselves even more powerful. Naturally, we scientists are very confused and excited about this new development."
"Dad I really enjoyed the science lesson," Darell said, and you could tell he was serious. "But what does this have to do with us?"
"I want you to catch me some."
Silence greeted his proclamation for a few seconds before Kara burst out laughing.
"You can't be serious, Dr. N," she said incredulously when she saw the look on his face. "Oh, God help us. You are."
"Here, this is what's going to happen." The usually amiable doctor's voice had an edge in it as he continued. "If you guys collect the pokemon I want you to, there will be no punishment. If you capture any extra, you will be paid, got it?"
Darell looked afraid and said, "D-dad? What about m-me? Y-you don't m-mean me to, do you?"
"Of course I do, Darell. You broke the law, and you must be punished, son or no. In Lilycove, this is how we treat lawbreakers. Some might say it's a death sentence, but really, it's a chance for life."
"Anyway," the doctor continued, "Your assignment is this. Recently there have been herds of tauros -roaming the countryside because of some grass there. They do this every season but there is something new for this year. Due to this herd breeding with many arcanine and other fire types, they have developed some…interesting aspects." He pulled up a picture of a strange pokemon that we hadn't seen in biology and definitely not anywhere else.
It was muscular and large, with huge horns on either side of its head. Its four legs ended in hooves, but around the hooves were fires blazing, and smoke came out of the pokemon's fiery nostrils. Its foot was frozen in pawing at the ground and its coat was a ruddy complexion. It was obviously a tauros but not one like we had ever seen before. I sidled up for a closer look.
"This is a picture captured by a photographer of said tauros. You will be armed with three ultra balls each. Catch as many as possible, but DO NOT be seen. They will kill on sight. This is not some story book where the prince and princess will ride off in the sunset on the back of their shiny tauros, this is real life damnit and you had all better treat this like you life depends on it, because it does. These things are able to know flare blitz, flame charge, and even flamethrower as well as giga impact. You need to be careful."
He pressed into each of our hands those old archaic devices that were once used to catch our best friends, our worst enemies, our families and partners.
"This is a pokeball. As soon as you see a tauros, chuck it at it, scoop it up and run. Do not miss, or you will all die. Now get out, I don't want to see your faces anymore."
As he shooed us off, it seemed to me that Dr. N was crying. Of course, he couldn't possibly know that the entire venture would end in tragedy. He couldn't know that his idea would set into action the events that would completely change his life, his son's, his friends and all of Hoenn.
He couldn't possible know that everything was going to hell.
I'm really happy that you liked it 
