Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ LIFE without ROCKET ❯ Magma Melt Down? Danger at the Viridian Pokémon Centre! ( Chapter 1 )

AUTHORS NOTES:
Damn! I sometimes wonder how I manage to write such violence LOL Too much violent anime for me I think XD Ah well anyway this took some writing but I'm glad I finished the first chapter…tis better than the original chapter I had written for it when I first though of the fic idea well over a year ago LOL Although the next chapter is gonna be based on an original idea I had ^_^
Anyway enjoy!

*~ LIFE without ROCKET ~*
By Togepi

Chapter One: - Magma Melt Down? Danger at the Viridian Pokémon Centre!

It had been 4 months since the Teams of Aqua and Magma brought down Team Rocket in the most devastating battle ever known to man. The two Teams now seemed to reign supreme in not only their home region of Hoenn but now also in the Kanto and Johto regions and possible a LOT farther than that.

People lived in fear of these teams, back in the Hoenn region they were nothing more than two teams of hoodlums who caused trouble for two very stupid reasons, but reasons they believed strongly in...but now they were more than just troublemakers... they were gangs of pure terror, they lived to kill each other, they lived to kill other people who did not see their way...
...a lot of innocent people had died in their hands.

The handful of members who had escaped the Team Rocket Headquarters that day had begun getting used to being in real life once more, getting real jobs that did not involve stealing powerful Pokémon from their trainers. Although a lot had gone their separate ways, a group of eight had stuck together, but this was only because they all could not afford to live on their own with no jobs, so together they made it through the last four months on nothing more than the money they got from their days at Team Rocket before at least two of them got jobs, but even so, they did not pay very well.

Jesse, who's once stiff hair now flowed freely down her back, worked in a run down cafe at the edge of Viridian, the place was often visited by riff-raff of all sorts and they used Jesse to cover the shifts no body wanted to do as they were troublesome shifts to work, especially with the kind of people you get in there, but Jesse was a tough soul who wasn't afraid to show her feelings towards a difficult customer.

Bashou, the elite Rocket who had helped lead them to safety, had spent a good couple of weeks in the hospital before being released, by then the group had gotten the two bed roomed apartment and after his partner Buson told him it's all they could afford and they'd have to stay there for a while or live on the streets he reluctantly agreed to stay there, despite his dislike of being around so many people.

Some time afterwards he managed to get a job in the local library and museum. The Manageress gave pity to him and agreed to give him the job on the condition that his Team Rocket days were truly over, plus she found he seemed to know a bit on the exhibits at the Museum already.

All the others, besides Domino, hadn't been so lucky; every job had turned them down, not wanting former Team Rocket members working with them. Domino on the other hand had begun attending school much to her dismay, there she isn't a Team Rocket Member going by several code names, there she is just simply...Lucy.

But despite their bad luck one of their group was forever completely optimistic and never showed he was upset or angry at anything life had given him so far. That person was James Morgan, the blue haired, green-eyed young man, with the heart of a giddy 12 year old.

Walking back from yet another failed job interview, he stopped by the Viridian Pokémon Centre to pick up his Cacnea, a plump and round cactus looking Pokémon. He always let Nurse Joy look after it while he was a job interviews as it seemed to like helping out there and being around all the different Pokémon and Nurse Joy was happy for it's help since her centre was one of the busiest.

As he walked through the automatic doors, he was greeted by the site of a number of Pokémon trainers all sat around talking and exchanging stories about their travels. James watched his step as two playful Nidoran ran under his feet, happily chasing each other, before walking over to the counter.

As he got there he spotted a familiar figure stood blushing beside Nurse Joy, talking too her as she stood there looking quite uncomfortable, but smiling never the less.

"Hi Nurse Joy!" he greeted the woman with his typically cheerful voice. Her eyes swung to him but the man who she had been talking too didn't take his gaze off her at all.

"Hey Brock..."

"Oh...hey..." the man replied, not really looking up or paying attention to the other man's voice before it began to sink in that he recognized it. Suddenly breaking out of his trance he lifted his head up quickly and set eyes on the blue haired young man in front of him, who greeted him with a huge warm smile.

"Ja...James...?"

****************************

"When you suddenly stopped attacking us twice in one day we thought you'd finally given up..." Brock began a little while later as the two went to sit down at the comfy seating area of the Pokémon centre lobby, both carrying mugs of hot chocolate, James' Cacnea now following them happily at their feet. "...but...when we heard that Team Aqua and Magma had attacked a building in Kanto and how it was revealed it was the headquarters of Team Rocket we really did fear that you'd gone back there and..."

"...died?" James said finishing off Brock's sentence. The tan skinned youth nodded his head slowly before James turned his head towards the door of the Pokémon Centre to see it was dark outside already. "...we almost did..."

He closed his eyes as he began remembering the harrowing scenes from four months ago before sighing and turning back to Brock.

"The scene in there was so...horrific...there was so many people caught in the panic... people you knew weren't gonna make it out. We only just made it out of there before the whole building crashed down into a fiery mass...Only a handful of us made it out that day, most of which live with me now, we can't afford to live apart..."

Brock listened intently to every word James said, it just went to show how far Team Magma and Aqua were willing to go for power, taking down the one organization strong in the Johto and Kanto regions.

After a while of staring at his mug James just looked up and smiled a little at Brock.

"Ah well, it's been hard but we're making it. Guess you and your twerpy friends are happy we're not after Pikachu anymore, huh?"

"Hehe, yeah true, that did get a little annoying" Brock replied with a smirk on his face.

"Talking of twerps, where are they?" James asked looking puzzled.

"They're around..." Brock told him. "...May and Max are back at home, Misty is back at the Cerulean Gym and Ash is still travelling here and there... in fact he's actually got some induction into a pretty elite Pokémon club that only really let's in the likes of Gym Leaders and Strong Trainers, it's being held in Blu-Blossom City..."

"I've heard of that place..." James replied. "...they say the streets are covered with trees that have the most gorgeous Blue Blossoms on them all year round... but are apparently more spectacular in the winter"

Brock nodded at him.

"That's why his induction is taking place there in about a months time, mid-December, just before Christmas. You can come with your friends if you wish, I can have your names put on the list"

"We don't even have the money to make it to Pewter City never mind a city that's all the way on the other side of kanto" James told him with amusement in his voice. "Guess we'll have to miss out on the little twerps big day"

All of a sudden the lights in the Pokémon Centre went off and everyone in the building was plunged into instant darkness. A couple of scared voices could be heard belonging to the young trainers in the room before the lights suddenly came back on, but now there were extra people in the room.

"HANDS UP NOW!"

Everyone swung around to see a collection of Team Magma agents stood by the Pokémon Centre's entrance, about five in all, with the front one holding up a gun to everyone. All the young trainers screamed and ran to the back of the Pokémon centre, all except Brock, James and a young boy with a Squirtle, who remained standing at the seating area.

"I SAID HANDS UP NOW!"

James and Brock exchanged glances before slowly putting their arms into the air, the boy behind them followed suite, as did everyone else in the Pokémon centre. The Team Magma leader with the gun smirked before he slowly began walking further into the centre, looking at all the people cowering in his presence.

"Good!" he sneered. "Like trained little puppies..."

"What do you want here!?!" Nurse Joy cried out at them from behind the counter. The Team Magma leader just pulled the trigger of his gun quickly and shot a hole in the wall behind her making the Nurse Jump with fear.

"Be quiet!" he snapped. "Next time it'll be your head missy"

Nurse Joy did as she was told and remained quiet. The Magma Leader then turned towards the rest of the people in the room and raised his voice to them.

"I wish for you to release your Pokémon!" He demanded. "ALL OF YOU!"

With quite a bit of hesitation everyone in the room released their Pokémon, Brock watched them, then after a vicious glare from the leader of the Magma team he released his own Pokémon with a sigh. Before him appeared Mudkip and Lombre.

"Excellent..." the Magma leader scoffed as his eyes ran over every Pokémon in the room. "...now, order any water Pokémon you have to come over to me"

"Why should we do that?" Brock snapped but quickly found a gun pointing directly at his face.

"Because Water Pokémon are the opposite of what we stand for!" the Magma Leader replied. "We wish for a world with just land and these Pokémon must be sacrificed for our dream!"

"NO!" came a loud voice from behind James and Brock, they turned to see the small boy, as he grabbed his tiny Squirtle and held it tightly in his arms with tears running down his face. "I only just got my Squirtle from Professor Oak! You're not having it!"

"Is that so..." the Magma Leader grumbled as he held his gun up aiming for the boy's head. "So you don't mind if you die right along with your Squirtle"

The boy just whimpered as he held his Squirtle more tightly in his quivering arms. Both Brock and James moved so they were stood in front of the boy, both staring at the Magma Leader making him lower his gun and step back a few paces.

"Leave him!" Brock warned. "He's just a child..."

"Well then, maybe you've just volunteered to be the first to hand over your pokémon" The Magma Leader snapped back at him, then pointed to his Mudkip. "Tell that ugly beast to come over to me!"

"NEVER!"

With that he raised his gun in pure rage.

"TELL IT NOW!"

Brock frowned as he stared at his Mudkip. The little blue creature looked back at him, then nodded slowly before beginning to walk towards the Team Magma Leader of it's own free will.

"Mudkip...no..."

"Oh wonderful!" he sneered in pure delight, holding up his gun to the Mudkip slowly approaching him. "This is just too perfect!"

"Mudkip...Mudkip....NO!"

With that Brock hurled himself over the top of the sofa and grabbed Mudkip before the Magma leader had time to shoot.

"You really want to die with this ugly beast of yours?"

Brock remained silent as he glared at the Magma Leader holding Mudkip tightly to his chest. The leader just sniggered and shrugged.

"Well...if that's your choice..."

His gun was raised again, this time aiming for Mudkip and Brock. James watched closely as the finger on the trigger became tighter...

*BANG*

"CACNEA! PIN MISSLE!!!"

Cacnea quickly released a barrage of pin like missiles from its body, which just managed to hit the bullet knocking it to the ground. Furious the Magma Leader swung quickly around and fired his gun, the bullet hit Cacnea, who squealed and fell to the ground behind the sofa with a thud.

"Ca...Cacnea!" James cried out as he bent down to inspect his Pokémon. There was a huge hole in its arm, which was bleeding heavily. James quickly ripped the sleeve of his shirt off and wrapped up the wound. He watched the heavy breathing of his Pokémon before noticing a whimpering sound. The small boy with the Squirtle was now cowering behind the sofa, James watched him for a while before deciding to speak to him in a low whisper.

"Hey kid..."

The boy looked up at James with his Tear filled eyes and tried to wipe them clean so he could see who was talking to him clearly.

"What's your name?"

"T....Thomas..."

"Okay, Thomas... you think you could look after my Cacnea for a while?"

Thomas nodded quickly as he crawled over to where James was, still holding his Squirtle in his arms.

"Okay, you stay with it, I'll go and see if I can stop these people from hurting anyone else..." James told him, giving him the best smile he could. Thomas agreed before James looked over the top of the sofa carefully. Nobody had seen him; all the Magma members were concentrating on Brock who had become the centre of attention. He then looked over to where the rest of the trainers were sat huddled with their Pokémon, he narrowed his eyes and realized he had a good chance of getting over there without being seen. He quickly got low to the floor and started crawling his way over there.

Soon he got to the first child in the group nearest to him, a small girl about 12 years old with a small Oddish by her side. He quietly got her attention then whispered a message in her ear.

"I'm going to create a diversion, when you see an opening have your Pokémon attack them with whatever long range attack they have...pass it on..."

The girl looked at him, unsure at first but nodded sharply at him to tell him she understood. James nodded back and began to leave the group as the girl passed on the message to the others.

He soon reached Thomas again, without being detected then asked the youngster if he had a spare Pokéball. The boy nodded and took out a Pokéball from a pocket on his trousers and handed it to James.

Meanwhile the Team Magma Leader now had the gun resting against Brock's forehead as the breeder bravely stood his ground, knelt before him with Mudkip still in his arms.

"Your little friend will pay for that!" he sneered to him, his finger once again resting heavily on the trigger, making Brock swallow hard as he began to quiver a little with fear. "But everyone here will learn that if you protect water Pokémon, then you will die...starting with you...Goodbye..."

"HEY MAGMA!"

The Team Magma Leader looked up only too see James hurl the Pokéball at him. It hit his straight on his head, dazing him and knocking him back a few steps. Brock saw this as his perfect chance and ordered Mudkip to water Gun the Magma Leader. The water Gun hit the man straight on; winding him and making him drop his gun, which Brock quickly knocked away out of the magma leaders reach.

Soon the other four magma members ran in front of their group leader as he tried to wipe the water from his eyes and released a Mightyena each, but did not even get the chance to attack as the group of children stood up and on the young girls command every trained Pokémon in the building let go some powerful attacks at the Magma Leaders, Razor leaf, Water Gun and Thunderbolts filled the building before there was a massive explosion.

When the smoke cleared they saw that the whole front of the Pokémon centre had been blown away, but there were no sign of the Team Magma members. After a long silence everyone began wondering around and talking to each other about the life threatening experience they just had.

Thomas slowly came out of hiding and joined James, looking around the Pokémon Centre with a confused expression on his face.

"Where did they go?"

James looked down at the youngster then looked back at the giant hole in the front of the Pokémon Centre.

"They must have realized they were no match and took off before the smoke cleared..."

Brock listened to what James said then looked at the hole in front of him.

"So that's the inhumane power of Team Magma..." he thought to himself. "...we all could of died today, but our love for Pokémon and our trust in them saved us... for today anyway..."

***************************************

Half an Hour later the place was swarming with police Officers as they investigated the area and took the children to a safe place to stay for the night. As this was going on Nurse Joy was inspecting Cacnea's arm wound.

"It should be okay..." she told James with a smile. "...I can fix it up and after a good amount of rest it'll be fine and running around in no time"

"That's good..." James sighed with relief. He then patted the Cacnea on its head affectionately as the little Pokémon let out a little sound to reassure James that it would be okay.

"James..."

James stopped petting Cacnea and looked up at Nurse Joy with a questioning look.

"...I was wondering if.... perhaps... you'd well...like a job here..."

James fell silent and just stared at Nurse Joy as if the information needed time to sink in.

"A job? Me? Really?"

Nurse Joy nodded.

"I can't promise the pay will be good but the way your Cacnea helps out and the way you seem to care deeply for Pokémon...well...I just thought it would be a good idea... after all I need the help and...well... this place needs a few extra hands helping out after all this..."

A large smile grew on James face as he began shaking Nurse Joy's hand, a bit harder than he had too.

"Thankyou so much!" he said to her. "This means a lot! When do I start?"

"Monday..." she told him. "...gives this place a chance to get sorted out slightly before hand"

"Okay! I promise you will NOT regret this!!"

"I know..."

"Okay I'm taking off now..."

James and Nurse Joy looked up to see Brock stood a few feet from them, still with Mudkip in his arms and Lombre at his feet.

"Officer Jenny interrogated you already?" Nurse Joy asked, Brock nodded.

"Yeah, so I'm free to leave, I'm gonna find a hotel room for the night. After this I think we all could use a good rest"

James and Nurse Joy agreed before saying their byes to Brock. As he walked out of the whole in the front of the Pokémon centre Nurse Joy turned towards James.

"You should go home and get some rest too..." she told him. "I'll look after Cacnea tonight"

James wasn't too sure about leaving his injured Pokémon, but Cacnea called out to James telling him it was okay for him to leave.

"Well...okay..." he agreed. "but I'll be back first thing in the morning"

Nurse Joy nodded and after a final goodnight to both her and Cacnea, James left the Pokémon centre and headed for home.

*****************************

"I wonder where James is..." Jesse wondered out loud as she looked out of the window that was a few feet from the sofa where Bashou was sat reading the newspaper. "...he's awfully late..."

"Says here a pack of wild Houndoom have been roaming Viridian..." Bashou replied in his cold emotionless voice. "...maybe they ate him..."

"BASHOU!"

"I wouldn't blame them..." came Cassidy's voice from the kitchen table where she was sat looking through a list of jobs from the paper. "...if I have to eat Instant Noodles for the seventh night in a row I'LL eat him!"

"CASSIDY!"

Suddenly the door to the apartment opened and James slowly walked through it. Jesse ran quickly up to him as he closed the door but stepped back a little when she saw that the front of his shirt was slightly splattered with blood.

"What in the hell happened to you?" Cassidy sneered, looking up at him from the paper.

"Team Magma attacked the Pokémon centre..." James replied. "...Cacnea got shot but he's gonna be okay..."

"Heh, too bad they couldn't of shot you..." Bashou murmured from the sofa, with a smug look on his face that the others could not see. He then got up and walked towards the door. "...I'm going for a walk"

"Bashou!" Jesse snapped quickly. "You better apologize for what you..."

But before she could finish the sentence Bashou had vanished out of the door, leaving the three looking at it with puzzled frowns.

"I've never met anyone as creepy and as morbid as he is..." Cassidy murmured. The other's stayed quiet for a while before James wearily began making his way to the bathroom.

"I'm gonna catch a shower and go to bed...this hasn't been a good day" he moaned before disappearing into the bathroom. Cassidy and Jesse watched him leave the room then exchanged glances before going back to what they were doing; unaware that this was only just the beginning of something MUCH bigger.

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NEXT CHAPTER: -

The first day of James' new job ends as Domino and Bashou go head on into an argument, causing the young girl to leave the apartment in a fury. All but Bashou go after her as the threat of a storm rolls in. Can the group find her in the depths of Viridian Forest before the dangerous Pokémon of the night get her?
Next Chapter it's: Domino's Fury! Caught in the Storm of the Forest!