Pokemon: Storm Clouds Ch. 23

"Gerald, I want you to listen closely to me.  You can wander off, but don't leave sight of the house.  And stay close to Tuber at all times!"

"Aw Mom, I'm big now--I can handle it!  Stop worrying!"

Tuber never stopped thinking those were happy times.  They lived on the outskirts of a tiny town, skirting the edge of the nearby forest.  He'd been born in that forest, found and caught by the happy young couple when he was still small.  The happy couple who were his trainers were parents also, of an infant son named Gerald.  They raised them together: pokemon and boy, side by side.

Tuber's current friends would not recognize him if they saw him then.  He was happy and energetic, and always smiling.  He and Gerald would frolic and play together in those glad times; through the grass, under the clouds, laughing all the way.

Gerald's parents made it clear to Tuber, however, that when the two were together Gerald's safety was up to the little pokemon.  Tuber hadn't thought it unfair.  It seemed right.  He regarded Gerald like a little brother, and nothing was more important to him than the boy's safety.

When the two were especially young, they could not leave the yard.  As they grew older, however, the boundaries were stretched, loosened.  The first jump was when Gerald was still quite young.  "You can get to the edge of Daddy's garden, but don't you dare step past that fence!"  The boundaries of Gerald's and Tuber's adventures were expanded further and further as time went by.

"Keep the house in sight, Gerald!"

"You can go to the stream, but don't cross it!"

"Only to the dirt road on the other side of the woods, do you hear me?"

And, finally, "You can go wherever you'd like, son, but be back by nightfall, alright?"

Always, however, was the eternal tradeoff:  "Stay close to Tuber at all times!"  How many times had the duo heard that?  More times than the little pokemon could remember.  And each time he secretly puffed up with self-worth, confident in the knowledge that as long as Gerald was with him, nothing bad could ever happen.

Nothing.

When Gerald turned ten, the traditional age for trainers to begin their journeys, the boy's choice of a first pokemon was clear.  Gerald had known Tuber would be his partner since before he was old enough to form full sentences.  On his birthday the happy young child stepped out the door, a smile on his face and a spring in his step, with Tuber--his pokemon, his friend, his brother--at his side.  The two smiling, proud parents waved goodbye to their son, and just before they dropped out of sight, the wind carried their final advice:


"Stay close to Tuber at all times!"

Before the first week was out, Gerald and Tuber had their first real adventure of their own.  A strange pokemon was stalking them through the woods--but poorly, noisily.  Tuber and his companion were wary at first, but soon rationalized their pursuer meant them no harm.  That evening, as they slept, the creature slipped into their camp and stole some food.

The second day passed the same--Gerald and his pokemon were pursued by a pokemon moving louder than a herd of Donphan, and that night more food went missing.  The third day, the duo plotted excitedly as they walked along, the mysterious pokemon crashing behind them, and that evening they set a trap and caught the thief.

It was an Electabuzz.  Tuber was at first overjoyed to know that the thief had been caught, but saw that she was emaciated and bony, no doubt starving.  Gerald was similarly moved and, after freeing his captive, sent the pokemon food to speed her along her way.

The Electabuzz instead did an astonishing thing: upon recognizing Gerald's gift, she bounded forward and caught the trainer in a hug, then quickly did the same to Tuber as well.  The energetic pokemon eventually joined Gerald's team as his second pokemon; she was named Glimmer.

As time went on and Gerald's journey continued; the group picked up additional pokemon and traveled to the great cities of Kanto.  Today, Cerulean; next month, Saffron; their travels eventually led them to Celadon.

It began simply enough, the end of those happy times.  Gerald took part in battles amongst other trainers his age, as he always did in a new town.  His pokemon easily swept the competition.  The other trainers took notice.

So did Team Rocket.

The night before Gerald meant to leave the city, thugs snuck in.  They only meant to steal the pokemon, but when the boy woke up and raised a ruckus, he too was dragged away.

The base was like hell.  One by one Tuber's compatriots were led away, spirited to a mysterious room where an eerily grinning man with a mask waited; the pokemon always came back a little quieter.  Eventually, they stopped coming back.

Deep down, Tuber knew what was happening.  The masked one had strange powers and was making pokemon into the slaves of Team Rocket.  He worried about his teammates, but ultimately as long as Gerald was sitting tight in the cell next to his, still safe, Tuber could stay calm.  Gerald was his responsibility.  As long as Gerald was all right, Tuber would be also.

When Tuber and Glimmer were the only ones of the group still themselves, Gerald had had enough.  He tried to break out of his cell, and when the guards came, he fought them. They underestimated the boy, not expecting such desperation from a first-year trainer.  Gerald managed to actually hurt some of them.  Angrily, they led him away--and he never came back.

That was the beginning of Tuber's downfall.  He broke.  Nothing that happened after that mattered.  His visits with the masked man, whom he had previously managed to more or less ignore, became progressively sinister.  The masked man got inside his head, whispered insidious things.  Tuber's despair and cynicism grew with each visit.  Eventually, strange things began happening during Tuber's visits with the masked man.  When the vicious human whispered those terrible words and smiled his poisonous smile, Tuber was at his bleakest--and sometimes, when he was at his bleakest, he felt…different.  Sometimes, strange thoughts crossed his head.  Thoughts about serving Team Rocket.

Tuber pondered this foreign feeling back in his cell, and realized that soon he too would be nothing more than a puppet for murderers.  He didn't care.  Gerald was dead.  He had failed.  The smiling, waving parents would never see their son again.  Gerald would never smile again.  He would never frolic and gambol in the woods and gardens.

"Stay close to Tuber at all times!"  What good advice that had seemed.

However, something else slowly grew in place of Tuber's despair.  Resolve.  He swore to himself that to atone for his eternal failure, he would protect as many people as he could.  Especially children.

And so when another youth occupied Gerald's old cell, Tuber and Glimmer joined themselves to his crew, determined to live out their lives as protectors and guardians.

With a new trainer came new names.  Glimmer became Artemis…and Tuber received a title fitting his new cynicism.  Nightshade.

---

The schoolyard was an arena.  Artemis spun through the grass of the school's playing field.  The lightning in the sky above was like a mirror to the fight below; electricity sparked from her claws and the nodes on her head, and she shot burst after burst at her opponents.

They numbered four: a Raticate, a Mankey, a Weepinbell, and their Aerodactyl leader.  The great stone beast circled in the sky above, out of reach of Nightshade's plants and shielded by the rain and the dark clouds.  Only the occasional flash of lightning betrayed his silhouette against the sky.  Every now and then he let out a roar--not to encourage his lackeys, or discourage into his opponents.  Rather, the Aerodactyl's shrieks were meant to draw screams from the assembled children inside of the besieged school.

Artemis knew what the Aerodactyl was doing.  For all his big talk, he was nothing more than a particularly vicious bully, and bullies were cowards: they preferred to hang back, and not enter the fray until they were assured to come out on top.  The Aerodactyl was hiding in the sky, not willing to join the battle until his lackeys weakened the two opposing pokemon.

Don't think so, Artemis thought.  The Raticate lunged for her, wide incisors seeking to rip into her flesh.  She caught it with a punch and followed up with a burst of electricity; when she heard Nightshade yell from behind her, the Electabuzz turned and ran to help her partner.

"Hang-on-Nightshade-I'm-coming!" Artemis cried.  Her boundless energy served her well in battle; she rarely got exhausted, and she was quite fast.  On the downside she also talked very quickly, a habit which did not always endear her to other pokemon.

Nightshade was making use of his small size as he leapt through the structures of the school's playground.  The Oddish wove through the metal bars of the jungle gym and ducked under slides and seesaws.  However, his pursuers were also small pokemon, and they were gaining on him.  Just as the Mankey lunged forward, ready to deliver a blow to his prey, one of Artemis' electrical blasts caught him and threw him aside.  The Weepinbell turned just in time to take a blow from Artemis.  She laced her attack with electricity, but the Weepinbell shrugged it off; Grass-types resisted Electric-types.

Thunder boomed above them, and as it died down, Artemis became aware of a sudden scuffling behind her; she instinctively jumped to the side, but the Raticate still caught her.  Artemis and her opponent rolled across the ground, grappling with one another.  Artemis began gathering energy between the nodes on her head, but it dissipated as she lost concentration--the Raticate's fangs had torn into her arm.

The sounds of battle registered in her ears--Nightshade was engaging the other two pokemon.   Artemis yanked her arm free, gritting her teeth to ignore the sharp tearing pain, and headbutted the Raticate's skull.  As the rodent-like pokemon reeled back, she grabbed it with both claws and sent surge after surge of electricity into its body before flinging it away.  The Raticate made an arc into the air, slamming into the entwined metal constructs of the jungle gym.  It hung limply on the metal bars for a few moments before slumping to the ground, unconscious.

Artemis turned to rejoin her partner in battle.  Vegetation was quickly overrunning the playground; briars erupted from the soil, flowers bloomed randomly, and deceptively toxic pollen floated in the breeze.  Nightshade and the Weepinbell were engaged in a battle of plants.  The Mankey lay unconscious on the ground; it looked as though it had been caught in the crossfire of the dueling Grass-types.

As Artemis neared the two pokemon, a new sound registered amidst the tumult of the storm.  It was like a regular dull beat, and growing louder.  She realized what it was when the children of the school began to scream in unison; Artemis spun just in time to see the Aerodactyl headed straight for her.

One of the creature's massive claws slammed into her; it was like being hit by a train.  She flew through the air, winded, and struck painfully against the school's wall.  She collapsed to the ground but only had a few moments to touch the earth before the vise-like grip of the Aerodactyl's claw gripped her body.  She weakly shocked it but it seemed unfazed even with a type disadvantage; it lifted her high into the air before letting go.

Artemis spun through the sky, a million things spiraling past her line of sight: stormy clouds so dark gray they might be black, arcs of lightning, tall trees whipped about by the wind.  She crashed into the school's roof, and immediately fought to stay conscious.

I--can't give up, she thought, struggling to right herself.  Nightshade can't handle this guy alone, and the kids…we have to protect them…

The Aerodactyl circled the school before alighting on the edge of the roof.  It gazed down at her with a smug smile on its face.

"You're actually still moving?  Hah!  You've got spunk."  He stretched his wings and beat them slowly, ominously; the sound was so great it overpowered even the noise of the storm.  "You'll be the first to go.  Then your little friend down there.  And then all the children in this building.  And there is nothing you can do to stop it."

That last taunt lit a fire beneath Artemis' resolve.  Her mind cleared; she straightened and stood properly, her prior weariness banished by her hatred of the enemy.  "There's plenty I can do," she said, and her normally quick-fire voice was cut down to a foreboding calm.  "You just watch."

---

Forever.  I'm an Eevee forever.  And the only way back is death.

Missy wandered through the drenched streets of her hometown, rain soaking her fur through.  She tried desperately to move away from the subject, to return to the matters at hand, but that was proving difficult thanks to the spectacle Masque's Hypno had put her through.  The endless visions paraded through her train of thought.

The desperation she had banished earlier that day, when she had awoken to find herself still in an Eevee's body, threatened to return again.  The despair of the visions was like a beckoning light for it.

I can't tell anyone.  I'll never be able to let them know.  Dan, my whole family--I'll be next to them the whole time, my whole entire life, and they'll never know.  She wandered beneath trees, past houses, slowly moving towards the city proper--the rain-soaked river had carried her far from the main part of town.

The sounds of pokemon and humans reached her ears.  Wait.  I can't lose myself now.  There's a job I have to do.  I--

A sudden whirring sound met her ears.  Missy knew that sound.  She turned her head in the direction of the noise; squinting, her keen Eevee eyes barely made out a fast-approaching green shape through the rain.  The fact that she had known deep down that this confrontation was inevitable did not stop her heart from filling with dread.  The Scyther.

He perched on a street light, leering down at her.  "Well, there you are, little prey.  I've been looking for you."  He raised the notched blade against the sky; lightning flashed as if on cue, illuminating the chink Missy had put there.  "I just want to tell you, this didn't ruin me like I thought it would.  I'm still quite deadly, and this little flaw actually gives me a--how to put this?--sense of menace, I think.  It sets me apart from common-grade Scyther.  Makes me memorable."

He lowered the blade and assumed a threatening position.  "You might as well start running, though; I'm a pokemon who keeps his promises, and I told you back in that arena that you'd pay for this."  He smirked.  "This time, you don't have an entire cell filled with pokemon to help you overcome me.  This time, there's not dozens of humans for you to cower behind.  This time, you die."

"You don't have to be this way," Missy said quickly.  "Why are you doing this?"  She knew that there was no way she would be able to talk the Scyther out of the violence he wanted.  She was simply grasping at straws--trying desperately to stall him in a conversation while she thought of a plan.

"I already told you," he responded.  "This is revenge for what you did to me back in Saffron."

"No, I mean--why are you like this?!  Pokemon aren't supposed to be like this!  They were thought up, created by someone in this world, as entertainment for children!  Things like you weren't supposed to be part of the deal!"

The Scyther gave a low chuckle.  "You really think that I was created by a bored game designer here in your world?  I have trouble swallowing that idea.  But even if I was--it was remarkably short-sighted to make a world filled with intelligent creatures and then give some of us powerful, dangerous abilities.  Who would honestly make a species of super-fast sentient insects with blades for arms and then act surprised when one of them decided to turn his natural gifts to destruction?  I say if there is a creator, then he shares in the guilt of whatever evil his creations do."

He lunged off the streetlight, blades poised.  Missy ducked and slid underneath her assailant on the rain-slick ground, and as he shot past her she ran straight ahead, putting as much distance between herself and the psychotic Bug-type as she could.  She did not look back, even when his voice rang after her.

"Keep running if you think it'll help, weakling!  I'm faster than you, I'm stronger than you, and you can only hide for so long!"

The whirring sound of his wings reached her through the rain once more, and though she ran with as much speed as an Eevee could muster, Missy could tell from the sound that the Scyther was slowly getting closer.

As she raced through the streets, the still-despairing recesses of her mind threatened to renew her gloom.  I should just let him catch me, moaned a small yet enticing part of her brain.  Then all this can be over and I'll be back to normal.  I can be human again…

Stop it! Missy argued against herself.  She ran past an abandoned house, in flames.  As she neared the center of town, the destruction became more pronounced.  The shrieks of pokemon and their human targets became louder and louder.  This isn't about me!  Lots of people are suffering--are dying! The Scyther's not the only enemy here.  It's Masque!  If I want to help, if I want to save everyone, I need to do something about him! I need to--

Something clicked inside her head.  The coexisting thoughts about stopping Masque and allowing the Scyther to kill her merged, forming a new idea--a new plan.  If she played her cards right, she could stop Masque and hopefully save her town as well.

It would be dangerous to Missy herself.  Possibly fatal.  But at that moment, Missy didn't care all that much.

---
The Dragonite roared, swinging its fist at Ruby; she leapt back, barely dodging the blow.  Her hooves skidded dangerously against the rain-coated plaza, and she struggled to maintain her balance.  Since Nemo had been removed from the fight by being flung into the fountain, she had been fighting a downhill battle.  However well-trained she was, she couldn't effectively deal with a creature with the sort of power the Dragonite had, especially since it resisted her flames.

Ruby shot another fireball at the Dragonite, who shrugged off her flames and counterattacked with an energy blast.  Ruby dodged the attack, but the ensuing explosion knocked her off her hooves; she skidded painfully against the ground.  Before she could rise, the Dragonite was there, and with a mindless grunt it struck Ruby's body with a powerful kick.  The Ponyta was flung even further back, where she cringed against the ground; pain wracked her body.  There was a series of thudding sounds as the Dragonite took heavy steps towards her; it picked her up by the face, much as it had Nemo, and then flung her through the rainy air.

She landed against the plaza again, and the sound of the Dragonite roaring triumphantly reached her ears.  Ruby's mind was nearly in a haze, but even then her pride still reeled against this apparent assumption of victory.

He thinks he's won?  she thought.  No.  He hasn't won.  I refuse to be beaten!  Not like this!  She forced herself to stand upright, and turned to face her opponent.  The Dragon-type was standing in the plaza, massive and seemingly invincible, with its face to the stormy sky; it roared to the clouds.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the great beast's body.  Ruby saw numerous wounds: bruises, burns, even skewering from Nemo's physical attacks.  The creature was more battered than it was letting on.  It's not unstoppable, Ruby thought.  Not by a long shot.  If I can just wear it down some more…

Ruby charged towards her enemy, her hooves making clipped sounds against the plaza; as she raced, she focused her mind, and her fiery mane expanded, wreathing her entire body.  As she lit up, she caught the Dragonite's eye; it ceased its victory roar moments before Ruby slammed into its belly.  The Dragonite was pushed backwards by the force of the blow, forced to give ground.

Ruby's skull barreled into its torso, knocking the wind from her opponent; she raised her head, still covered--as was the rest of her body--with powerful flames, and gave the Dragon-type a powerful headbutt.  It reeled back, pressing against the fountain it had previously flung Nemo into.  Ruby lunged forward again, this time intending to rake her opponent with her hooves; however, the Dragonite was not going to accept defeat so readily.  As Ruby flew towards it, the Dragonite brought its fist forward, ringed with fire of its own.

The two pokemon's attacks connected, and Ruby collapsed as the Dragonite's blow hit her.  The fire dissipated from her body.  She struggled to get up, but before she could muster enough energy the Dragonite caught her in a choking grip with both arms.  Ruby thrashed uselessly as her opponent squeezed tighter and tighter.  It was trying to crush her.

Just as Ruby was about to give up hope, the fountain's water suddenly began to churn and bubble; it steamed from the structure in long feelers, binding the Dragonite.  Ruby's foe released her as it grappled with this new threat.  Ruby watched in amazement as Nemo revealed himself from the waters of the fountain.

"Don't count me out yet!" the Seadra said between panting breaths.  He was clearly battered even if he was still conscious, and exhausting himself with this new effort.  He shot water at the Dragonite while continuing to direct the feelers to grapple with it; however, the Dragonite was fighting against the liquid.

Ruby was up to her feet at this point; she rushed and slammed into her foe's back.  As the Dragonite staggered, the water from the fountain rose into the air, solidifying into ice, and then battered the titanic pokemon.  This was too much for the massive enemy to handle; it buckled to the plaza with a powerful thud.

Nemo collapsed as well, the panting breaths increasing.  "S--sorry I took so long to get back into the fight," he apologized, obviously fighting to stay awake.  "I had to force myself to stay conscious…"

"No problem," Ruby said tenderly, bending down to nuzzle the Seadra.  "I would have lost if it wasn't for you.  You were amazing."

"You really…think…?"  Nemo said weakly.

"Yeah, I do.  Why don't you get some rest?"

The Seadra acquiesced, letting loose his last strenuous holds of consciousness.

Ruby straightened.  Their job was done; they had stopped the Dragonite from rampaging across the shopping district.  Now what?

Now, she thought, I go for the source.  If she knew anything about Masque, he'd be in the most grand, luxurious building in town.  She vaguely remembered seeing one on their way over to the shopping district; that would be her first stop.

Watch out, Masque, she thought.  There will be a reckoning.

TO BE CONTINUED...