Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Desert Hurts ❯ Descent ( Chapter 7 )

Growlithe was his first Pokémon. Ever since he got it for his tenth birthday, he had caught a Dratini. After raising the Dratini a few levels, he had caught a Staryu with the help of a few wraps and a thunder wave.

He trained Growlithe carefully, by letting it kill types that it was strong against. He disposed of toasted Beedrills by tossing their mangled corpses over the fence into the next garden; his parents didn't appear to scold him if he did that.

Rob was now in his mid-teens, yet he was still doing this. By this time, most people his age were far more withdrawn with their Pokémon, but Rob kept his desire for more power and more training. Despite what kind of "loner" that may have made him, and how "dangerous" it was to keep making his Pokémon more and more powerful.

Rob had not managed to beat Erika of Celadon Gym yet, because he had not even bothered to face her. He would do so when he felt good and ready; the worst thing for him to have to go through was losing to someone would didn't even bother to round out her Pokémon squad.

One day, though, Rob felt a bit less complacent. A visitor had come to the house, apparently looking for something from his father. He watched intently through the screen door to the back garden as Growlithe blasted a few Sunkerns into immediate oblivion, and Staryu hurriedly extinguished the flame that threatened to spread through the garden with each time a blast hit.

The screen door opened; promptly the carnage halted, and Rob looked back at a broad stranger wearing a long red coat. He seemed somewhat withdrawn, yet later on Rob would find that this was as outgoing as Giovanni got (excusing the exceptional temper that he sometimes had).

So you're the latest, Rob thought as he remembered how his mother always brought a new guy into the house every couple weeks or so.

Everyone in Celadon City knew what Giovanni looked like; they just wouldn't say it to his face. Not even Rob, at least until he felt confident that Staryu knew powerful enough water-attacks to take down his mostly ground-type squad.

Rob quickly withdrew his Pokémon from the chaos in the garden before looking back up at this guest he had. He brought out his hand for shaking. "My name is Rob. And yours?" He had nearly forgotten to forget to say hello.

"...Gio." Rob dismissed that as pathetic; there was even the trademark hesitation.

"I see. What do you do for a living?"

"I study Pokémon." Giovanni wasn't lying - Rob could tell - so he just assumed that he was just not telling enough.

Rob cleared his throat. "What else?"

Giovanni shrugged. "I dabble in land ownership every once in a while." He looked like he wanted to go somewhere else; maybe Rob's mother had just asked Gio to meet him.

"I've heard of you," Rob began, "how are you doing with that game corner, then?" He had known about the game corner for a long time; it was the (whispered) word on the street.

Gio didn't appear to like Rob's questioning, but ignorance was a luxury that he would have to dismiss. "I have... A few friends," Gio admitted. "You'd be surprised at just how much people value a few friends and a good Pokémon above money."

To the contrary, Rob thought with glee, I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Rob grinned devilishly. "Can I be your friend?"

"I'll see what I can do," Gio answered with surprisingly little hesitation.

"That's all I ask for." Rob crossed his arms, content with what his advances had got out of a man who was back then twice his age.

When that happened, Rob suddenly forgot about his "ultimate ambition" to toast Erika's ass (and Pokémon). Team Rocket would give him more than a crummy little badge.

That was what his mother had wanted out of him, anyway.

Desert Hurts
By Hector Gilbert

Chapter Seven
"Descent"

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

Rob smiled. Team Rocket had betrayed him, but he almost felt the better for it now that he had won his Pokémon back. He had all five now; all that was left was obvious to him now.

From the top of the building that dominated the "City" that was not, there emerged a being that few knew about. Its intent was escape; leaving no kind of trail of destruction in its wake, it sped off into the skies.

Its departure was visible to the Human eye for approximately one second, appearing to be a glaring white flash of light. Rob knew what it was. Will didn't - until it was too late.

This was the aspect of Rob's plan that he didn't let on to Will. It was hard to keep a secret from a psychic for so long, but the feeling of spiting someone after working with them for so long was too good for Rob to deny himself. Will should have asked why he should have kept the four Team Rocket captured where they couldn't have been reprogrammed; he didn't.

Rob couldn't sense Will anymore. But then again, he didn't need Will anymore.

It would be done. Team Rocket would be no more. Rob smiled on looking at the bright flash, while in the meantime his Pokémon alone made mince meat of the defending Grunts and Executives.

By this stage, the black suits that were once supporting Rob in their droves - once unusually quiet Team Rocket Grunts - were all gone. Maybe they didn't even exist in the first place.

***

Butch grabbed whatever strong Pokémon he could from the other areas of the top floor stash. He also managed to acquire a "pokésash" - to be slung across the shoulder - which could hold up to eight pokéballs at a time. One of them held Mantine; the other seven held the minimal use Team Rocket Pokémon that he had chosen at the top floor.

With the alarm annoyingly persisting with its loud klaxon noises, Butch decided quickly enough to leave the premises. He was surprised by what little resistance he met on the way out; it was as if everyone else had left by this stage...

***

For a long time, Misty and Tracey had found themselves waiting for the encouraging signal from Ash that never came. All the while, Misty seemed to look more convinced than worried that Ash's confidence had just led him to his death.

That was until the floor shimmered below Tracey's feet, at which point the two were apparently in a hurry to jump off. It was a clear matter of impulse; a matter of life-and-death.

Misty landed calmly on the one-floor jump from the balcony. She looked to her left; Tracey - though clearly in shock - seemed alright.

They both looked back to see what was no longer the building that was the City, but a ruin dotted with concrete stumps that were once buildings, burnt-out cars, heaps of unrecognizable debris, and ancient skeletal remains. It looked to have once been a town.

By this stage, the huge Team Rocket Headquarters building - that supposedly survived the destruction of the war - was all gone. Maybe it didn't even exist in the first place.

"...I think this is where we leave," Tracey observed.

"Right."

***

One by one, the human stragglers had left the vicinity - surprisingly enough, usually with their lives rather than without. But the Pokémon that they had left behind remained fighting, hoping in vain to satisfy their bloodlust.

Many of the Pokémon under Rob's men were independently trained, while Team Rocket's were almost entirely made up of those kept with minimal use protocol in mind. The latter had little sympathy for life and simply kept the pandemonium going, taking advantage of the brutal edge that they knew they had.

Pokémon kept under minimal use were on the long-term inherently dangerous; that much Butch knew.

And indeed, Butch found himself caught up in the middle of this fray. His pokésash reminded him of the power he know had - but past that he was just another weak human, just as mortal as the rest.

Before long an Ariados emerged, clearly hoping to embrace this mortality that Butch had. Butch chucked down a pokéball once he noticed it moving towards him.

"Muk, pound it."

A huge mound of foul-smelling sludge materialized from the pokéball, but this sludge had eyes. It - Muk - gathered up a pile and smacked Ariados across the side.

Ariados swiped persistently at the huge mound, however its fury swipes attack failed to have much effect against the well-protected poison type. Not only that, but the fury swipes were driving itself into Muk, letting it slip deeper and deeper into the semi-liquid sludge.

An idea came over Butch. "Muk, acid armour."

Muk solidified instantly, making the Ariados inside it split roughly in half. The other Pokémon fighting around it immediately backed off, apparently quite threatened.

Butch looked ahead of him, and found Rob wandering past. Upon seeing him, Butch whipped out another pokéball.

***

Rob's favorite Pokémon were those that he had caught with the help of Team Rocket's corporate fronts. All he had to do was kill a few people. Kill a few people; Team Rocket bought out the Safari Park in Fuchsia City, and he caught himself a Chansey. Kill a few more; Team Rocket leased some land on Mt. Silver, and he caught himself a Larvitar.

Of course they had only got suspicious of Rob's unusual demands long afterwards - during the war - when it was high time to kick people out left and right anyway. Rob had only managed to sneak away his Starmie; the rest were taken away from him, with a cutting irony that made Rob ache for revenge.

Butch had also been thrown out of Team Rocket out of unnecessary suspicion, but to Rob he was a different case. As Butch appeared to him among the carnage that surrounded them both, Rob remembered what had happened between them. Butch was assigned the task of throwing him out. Now that Rob's plan had come to a close, there was nothing to prevent him from remembering.

Instantly all four of Rob's recalled Pokémon (the one he had brought with him to the scene still safe in his pokéball) stopped what they were doing and looked right at Butch. They remembered him too.

Butch called out six minimal use Pokémon of his in a squad that Rob found himself laughing at: Cloyster, Vaporeon, Charizard, Machamp, Hitmontop, and Misdreavus. But his Pokémon weren't laughing; in fact, they began fighting with much haste.

The first to meet were Charizard and Dragonite, and the battle was quick. Dragonite's agile flight was quite impressive considering its stubby wings; when Charizard tried to slash it, it missed by quite a substantial margin. Dragonite snuck behind it, and fired a hyper beam which certainly did not miss.

The white beam blew right through Charizard's chest; with countless vital organs suddenly gone from its possession, the fire-breather collapsed lifeless to the ground with a thump. Dragonite then began to recharge, but then all Hell just decided to break lose.

The Pokémon that were surrounding them were excited by the hyper beam. Within moments the scene had changed from a battle to a struggle for Rob to slip away in order to stay alive; already many of the minimal use Pokémon Butch held were already getting excited and turning against him for the purpose of creating more chaos.

In fact, all except for the calm and collected Misdreavus appeared to be going wild. It headed straight for the dark-type Tyranitar as Rob's Pokémon dared it to come closer. In fact, Rob recognized that it was Misdreavus' mean look rather than their taunting that was causing this effect.

Misdreavus suddenly wailed with an edge that got to Butch's heart and nearly made it feel like it was bleeding. It sustained itself for tortuous seconds, past Tyranitar's expectations.

But after that Tyranitar went back to pinning the ghost Pokémon, and began to crunch it with its gigantic mouth. The dark attack was super-effective, apparently making short work of the lower-level ghost.

Misdreavus' energies seemed to fade away as it was held in Tyranitar's crunch. But unexpectedly, once it fizzled out into nothing Tyranitar collapsed and died instantly.

Rob screamed in realization as he kicked the remains of his Tyranitar, which by this stage were already turning into a solid and dark block of rock. "Perish song; it was a fucking perish song!"

Arcanine was quite occupied as it found itself fighting several of those minimal use Rocket Pokémon at once by this stage. He had also lost all contact with his psychic-trained Blissey; not a reassuring sign, as the thing was usually annoyingly obsessive.

He looked back towards the exit. Butch was on the retreat, and with some success too; somehow managing to evade the many Pokémon that surrounded him, he was by this stage quite close.

He looked the other direction, to find the ground being crunched apart by the treading movements of a Steelix. It was half-submerged in an effort to make it move quickly in a straight line. On top of it was its trainer: Tanya, Rob's second-in-command.

Rob almost felt reassured, but the Steelix was not his. He would have to be lead on by those whom he commanded, which wasn't going to suit his image very well. But he had no other choice.

"Get on!" Tanya yelled; Rob hastily mounted the Steelix, looking back at the others that he had under his own command.

Rob noted that the other five remaining troops all watched him get on with a sort of wonder, stunned at the look mercy on their commander's face. Tanya didn't care - Rob knew that - but he also knew that others were much humored by Rob's descent.

Rob hastily recalled the only Pokémon of his that he could see (alive, unlike a certain Dragonite that Rob noticed just had an ice beam through its head), and this Pokémon was Arcanine. And with no further hesitation Steelix took off, past Butch and towards the Tohjo Falls base.

***

Tracey didn't get the same kind of resistance that Ash did to approaching the end; with the end very much in sight, Tracey thought it prudent to start moving quickly rather than with any kind of stealth. There were so many rare Pokémon here - no doubt owned by Rockets - that he couldn't get to look at in his rush, but now he was concerned with his life.

Tracey really wanted to somehow blow away everything in his way with his hasty exit, but he knew that if it was a Pokémon he couldn't. And especially not the Pokémon that blocked him and his Electabuzz from escaping.

Tracey couldn't tell exactly what it was; it looked sort of like Xatu. Misty also knew (to put it bluntly) that he couldn't tell, so she didn't even bother to ask even when she finally caught up with him and his Pokémon.

He didn't get to look at it long, anyway; promptly it vanished, disappearing into a small black hole.

Tracey was immediately concerned by how the other Pokémon fighting behind him began to grow wary in its presence, so he too began to step back along with Misty and Electabuzz. Soon he found a reason to react the same way as the other Pokémon did too; the hole soon began to pull everything around it into its own void.

It was an attack he didn't know from a Pokémon he didn't know. All Tracey could do was run with Misty. At first, he didn't realize that Electabuzz was simply staying put.

Electabuzz began to crouch on the ground, a sort of aura forming around it. It resonated with electric energy at first, but gradually it focused more and more into its fist. It would be a thunder punch; it would also be its last.

All the while, the force drawing Electabuzz, Misty, and Tracey towards the void was growing. Misty and Tracey were now past the point where they could stand, instead clawing on the ground in a desperate attempt to keep precious traction. In contrast, Electabuzz let itself get drawn in.

Following a blinding flash accompanied by a sickening and dull "pop", the force that relentlessly pulled Misty and Tracey in ceased. When Misty and Tracey stood up, they found that both the mysterious psychic Pokémon and Electabuzz were gone. Other Pokémon that had found themselves being sucked in simply shook their anxiety away and looked back towards the humans.

Misty looked to the grass, curious at first. But as a Jolteon began to walk towards them both - obviously looking for a spar - Tracey hastily shown other interests. Tracey pulled Misty away by her left arm, annoyed at the resistance she shown.

They were so close to the exit. Tracey didn't want to be struck down at this stage; he nearly was, as a bolt from a thunder attack grazed his hair. But apparently Misty was beginning to get the message too; she ran off with him until they were past the walls.

The two young humans had escaped; their Electabuzz was dead.

***

Butch had noticed a Steelix with Rob and those whom he commanded shooting forward into the horizon, undoubtedly heading for the Johto Falls base. It wouldn't take too long for them to get there; the speed of the Steelix was roughly the same as Mantine when riding the sand outside the walls.

Butch called out Mantine (now once again the only Pokémon that he had left) and whipped out his pistol. "Mantine, we're getting out of here."

Mantine treaded the sand and gathered up momentum; Butch leapt on top of it before it could pick up enough speed to prevent him from keeping up with it. Steelix was apparently not treating this like a race, for despite its head start Mantine soon overtook its speed.

Butch wasn't going to fall behind Rob. That would have left him completely "used" yet again - used like Cassidy had used him - guilty as charged. He had taken down Rob before; with everything and everyone else behind him, he felt as if he could do it again.

Instead, to slow Steelix down further Butch prompted Mantine to fire more of its bubblebeam attack. Shots of bubbles at an incredible speed soared through the air at a rapid rate towards the back of the unsuspecting Steelix.

Immediately the back sections of the steel Pokémon rotted away, taking a few of Rob's troops with it. This also exposed Rob's back to Butch's line of sight, and hence firing range for his pistol.

But it wasn't as if Rob didn't notice; he crouched just in time for Butch's shots to miss the intended target. It was only a few seconds more before Rob sat back up again, but by this time he had released a rather angry-looking Arcanine to face Butch and his Mantine.

It let out a blast of its flamethrower - aiming for Butch's face - however, Butch had managed to swerve himself away from the blast just in time. Instead, his Mantine's belly had taken the fire, but a high special defense and a water-type made it almost virtually immune to Arcanine's otherwise deadly flame attacks.

Butch kept moving closer towards Rob, but as he did he was continuing to approach the Arcanine. With its fire-type elemental attacks obviously not working to any good, Arcanine instead opted to leap right on top of Mantine as long as they were close.

Of course the take down maneuver didn't work as it had planned; its front paws had managed to cling onto Mantine's slippery hide, but it remained dangling from Mantine's front having mistimed its own jump. Its body skidded against the sand as it too began to dig into the ground like Mantine was.

In an effort to shake it off, Mantine wing attacked its opponent as it clinged on. It turned into a flip which nearly threw Butch into a panic, as soon he found himself eating the sand he was once riding above.

Mantine was still moving, but Butch was riding it the wrong way around. He had closed his eyes shut from the sand, but the friction nearly managed to tear his eyelids off before Mantine managed to right itself.

When Butch opened his eyes again he looked behind him to see an Arcanine rolling limply into the distance with its neck broken, and he looked to his front to find Rob and his female lieutenant. Now he could so much as notice Rob talking to her, but the noise of Steelix rumbling through the sand prevented Butch from hearing what he had said.

This was it. Butch aimed his pistol at Rob's head to at least interrupt him. Grinding his teeth, Butch pulled the trigger.

Click. Out of ammo.

Rob soon noticed Butch approaching him again, and promptly chucked his last pokéball towards his face. Arcanine had not been as successful as the spherical object that Rob had chucked, which alone knocked Butch clear off his Mantine.

Butch flinched and fell to the sand, tumbling aimlessly to a stop. His head weighed his body down, at first keeping him from moving. Once he halted - and Rob's Steelix was truly gone - he opened up his eyes again.

The pokéball opened to reveal a Starmie, Rob's last Pokémon. This was the one that he had managed to keep safe and away from him and the other Rockets; otherwise, it would have been the Team Rocket Five.

Mantine didn't leave Butch behind for Rob; he didn't know whether to be angry or thankful of that. Either way, it saved his life as he was sure that without its return Starmie would have simply killed Butch on the spot and danced back to Steelix and its master.

Despite its apparent pursuit of honor shown in its attacking the other Pokémon before the human, Butch could tell that Starmie was itching to finish Mantine off quickly and hence get back to Butch. For the next few seconds, it sure looked to be the case.

Starmie danced along the sand, and Butch could see its rapid spin attack hit Mantine hard. The motion of the attack had gathered up a lot of momentum from cleaving into the sand with its many sharp ends; that didn't surprise Butch.

What did surprise Butch was that a wing attack-like maneuver from Mantine suddenly blasted Starmie away, sending it skidding on a painful path towards oblivion.

Starmie sank into the ground, apparently more dead than fainted. Its core jewel had broken apart into several pieces from the retaliation. With little hesitation Butch recognized the move as "counter", but he didn't think that a Mantine could even be taught such a technique.

"Gary really sneaked that one past, didn't he?" Butch managed from where he lay in the sand, still doped down from the pokéball that hit the side of his head.

Butch didn't think it possible, but he could have sworn that Mantine had winked back.

***

Rob suddenly lost telepathic contact with Starmie. What had happened to Blissey had now happened to Starmie; Rob knew what had happened. All five of his Pokémon were gone now. He had destroyed Team Rocket and the illusion of power of all human psychics for his Pokémon, and yet now the Pokémon he went over in the first place to take back were gone.

He remembered why Starmie would succumb anyway, but by then it was too late. Back in the days when he had respected Gary, he had told him about his own dream Mantine. He didn't think a Mantine could learn counter, so he went on one of his "if only"s with the young scientist.

Of course he was talking to the one guy he shouldn't have been having that sort of conversation with. And of course he was wishing that Gary Oak could be killed more than once.

***

Butch had only realized when they had both reached the Tohjo Falls themselves that Mantine looked seriously injured, as if it was about to faint. The encounter with Starmie that it was forced to deal with had probably done it in; counter's said nothing about the state of a Pokémon's health.

The Tohjo Falls wasn't so much representing the great waterfalls separating Johto and Kanto as it was a dried-up hill. It used to be a cave, before most of the ceiling had caved in. The water had long since dried up and gone to a better place, making there be no particular border between Johto and Kanto.

Butch could see what was left of Rob's forces at the top, apparently distracted by the persistent gunfire from below. From his angle, Butch could also just notice that those people firing at Rob's men and women were in fact Rockets with reprisal on their minds - and these Rockets certainly outnumbered them.

Trying to use the stealth that he knew he didn't possess, Butch decided to approach those at the top from behind as the Rockets were attacking them from their front. His Mantine slowed itself down as they approached the side of the hill that was the Tohjo Falls and turned to face the back section.

This place clearly used to be where the water fell from and where many a Johto trainer had to give their special water Pokémon the waterfall HM to pass. But now that it had dried up the way up was simpler yet more dangerous.

One end of the back edge had a slope that didn't look that steep but did seem rather suspect to collapse. The rest shown the general appearance of a sea cliff, with short steel hooks to let humans climb on the end opposite the slope.

Butch would have recalled his weakened Mantine, but now it seemed determined to take the inevitable. Reluctantly he let it take the slope on its own, while he climbed up the other end. Surrounding Rob's troops from both ends would make for a deadly surprise.

Gradually Butch ascended the face of the steep end, trying his best to forget that suspiciously flimsy steel handles were all that kept him from falling to his death on the hard stone floor below. Gradually the steel began to wear away his hands, and he could have sworn that there were a few with quite sharp ends.

Butch had found that his Mantine had reached the top before he did, but it had arrived to a bad situation. All of the non-Rockets had by this stage vanished off to another location except for one, who took down Mantine between the eyes with a pipe.

It was in trouble, and probably by this stage unconscious. As Butch ran towards his Mantine, the assailant either didn't seem to notice or perhaps didn't bother to acknowledge Butch's presence.

A Pokémon of above-average caliber would seldom be defeated in any melee combat with a human. Butch immediately regretted not withdrawing his Mantine immediately; he already had all of his other Pokémon killed, so it wasn't helpful letting this one go down too.

Butch quickly recalled Mantine with his pokéball. He let out the breath he held when he felt a bit of warmth inside the ball once it was brought in. Mantine was alive - if only just. Butch - having now dismissed his pokésash - slipped the single pokéball into his pant pocket.

The man holding the pipe slowly raised his head up from the floor to just catch a glimpse of Butch's face from the corner of his eye. Rob's eyes gleamed such that Butch at first didn't recognize the man he had known for years.

"Well," Rob remarked, "apparently I have company."