Yearning for Freedom, take two

Started by Legendarian Mistress November 20th, 2007 4:45 PM
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  • 3 replies
Female
Queensland
Seen January 17th, 2017
Posted January 17th, 2017
716 posts
15.5 Years
I’d like to thank my friend, DP479, for helping me with a description of Giovanni and Houndoom. I’d also like to thank him personally for allowing me to use his Zapdos description and giving me ideas.

Prologue:

Throughout Kanto, there were numerous Team Rocket bases, but on the western side of the region was a brand new Team Rocket headquarters. The team’s evil leader had ordered that a new one be built after Mewtwo destroyed the original in a fit of anger.

Inside, a Team Rocket Admin named Ross stood in a darkened room. The room had steel walls; on the right side of the room was a large cherry wood desk, and behind the desk stood a man. The man standing before Ross was a tall, mysterious individual with neat black hair. Dressed formally in a black suit, he had a triumphant smirk on his clean-cut face. In an intimidating voice with a distinct Italian accent, he proceeded to tell his subordinate about Team Rocket’s latest victory as he pressed a button hidden by the darkness. A small clicking noise was heard, and a bright glare burst forth from the ceiling light, revealing a huge sphere made up of sizzling red energy beams.

A gigantic bird, of a brilliant yellow colour, stood inside the force field. Its sizeable, sharply pointed wings were wrapped around its body, as it was in a confined space. Its body wore many scars and bruises, evidence of the horrible punishment that it received after its capture. The normally regal creature had nowhere to move within its tiny prison. Its head was just as jagged and pointed as its wings, with two thin, black eyes and a long, slender beak. It stood there, hardly moving, as if all of its power had been drained out of it. Those eyes, which would normally have a determined look, instead wore a defeated expression, and it appeared that the avian Pokèmon’s thin legs and talons could give out at any time. On occasion, however, electric sparks could be seen shooting from its body.

A scientist dressed in a white laboratory coat was standing somewhat nervously beside Ross. The scientist cowered under Giovanni’s expectant glare, as the leader of Team Rocket demanded a report on Zapdos’ condition.

“Zapdos is completely neutralized, sir; while caged in the force field it is at twenty percent of its normal power,” the scientist replied, shaking at the same time.

“Excellent,” Giovanni replied. “The plan is being set into motion: phase one is complete, the capture of the titan of lightning has been a success!”

Ross grinned evilly at his leader’s comment, while rubbing his white gloved hands together in glee.

But the old evil that made up Team Rocket would have to deal with a new threat…

*****

Pallet Town was a quaint place. It was small, but filled with luscious green hills with the occasional house dotting the area. The only place that was of any real attraction was Professor Oak’s Pokèmon Lab, but that wasn’t exactly a tourist spot as much as a place where anything Pokèmon related occurred there. But still, its citizens loved the place, and it was apparently due to its non-polluted atmosphere.

The town of Pallet was relatively small in comparison to the other cities and townships in Kanto. Most of the houses were built from wood, with the exception of the brick houses which belonged to the families higher up in the social order. It was sunny quite often in Pallet, and this was good news for the town’s citizens, as for what seemed like an overly long period of time, in the past, it had rained.

Professor Oak: one of the most highly regarded Pokèmon Researchers in the world. He had won the Kanto region’s Indigo League – a tournament held every five years at the furthest point north-west in Kanto – two times and has dedicated his life to the study of Pokèmon, their habitats, lifestyles and interactions with their trainers. Since he was always known as the most renowned Pokèmon expert in the entire world, the citizens of Pallet Town had always considered it an honor that he has continued to work on the town he grew up in.

Pallet Town was hardly ever bustling except for whenever the newest Pokèmon trainers graduated from school – the Pokèmon Trainers’ Academy – usually at the age of twelve. The school taught traditional classes such as maths, science, history, reading, and so on, as well as courses involving studies of Pokèmon, which ranged from raising, training, breeding and battling of Pokèmon. After graduation, the trainers could either go straight out into a journey across the land of Kanto, or else wait two years to finally leave while training and studying more about Pokèmon. Their journeys would usually start by traveling north to Viridian City, as it was the closest city to Pallet, and the only city accessible by going on foot. Nothing but deep forest lay to the west and east, and the south was a large stretch of water where Cinnabar Island resided.

*****

Later that night, Professor Oak was observing the small dome in which the four Pokèballs for the beginning trainers were kept. The Professor was an old, but young-spirited man. His graying hair was trimmed neatly, as it came down just short of his ears. He wore a long white lab coat that fell down to his black boots.

As the researcher sighed, he looked around at his laboratory.

The first thing that could be seen was an array of bookshelves that were stacked against the wall, stretching from one corner of the room to the other. To his right were small computers that blinked with all sorts of dazzling lights, with the monitors scrolling down with data that was the research that he and his assistants had compiled.

In the middle, between the computers, was a rather large door that was used for when they went out to care for and study the Pokèmon that were kept at the lab. To their left was a storage room in which the Pokèballs that contained the Pokèmon were kept. One could only guess how many were amassed there.

At the top of the staircase to the right of the Pokèball storage room, he saw that the upper level was desolate except for three bookshelves that were lined up against the left wall, and finally an enormous computer that took up the entire southern wall.

I wonder who I should give Shinx to?’ he thought to himself. ‘Paul? No, he wants Squirtle. Rachel? Hmm, she’s insisted on the Grass type. Michael? Not him, either, as he wants Charmander. That leaves Josephine. I think she will be perfect to look after the female Shinx.

*****

As the stars were beginning to glitter in the night sky, Aaron Winslow, aged thirty five, would never forget the next few minutes. He recognized the terrifying sounds the instant they cracked through the night. His body went cold all over; he couldn’t believe that someone was shooting a high-powered rifle in this neighborhood.

K-pow! K-pow! K-pow! K-pow! K-pow! K-pow!

The children he was looking after were just leaving the Harrow Street Swimming Pool complex. Twelve young girls streamed past him onto the sidewalk. They had just finished their final swimming lesson before the district competition, and they had been excellent.

Then came the gunfire. Lots of it. Not just a single shot. A strafing. An attack.

K-pow! K-pow! K-pow! K-pow! K-pow! K-pow!

“Get down!” he screamed at the top of his lungs. The black priest was concerned for the safety of the children he was looking after. At the moment, he didn’t care whether or not his robes were dirtied. “Everybody down on the ground! Cover your heads!” He almost couldn’t believe the words as they left his mouth.

At first, no-one seemed to hear him. To the kids, in their white blouses and shirts, the shots must have seemed like firecrackers. Then a volley of shots rained through the building’s frosted glass window and the glass splintered everywhere, some of it falling on the heads of the children.

“Someone’s shooting!” Winslow screamed. Maybe more than one person, he thought. He ran wildly through the children, screaming, waving his arms and pushed as many as he could down onto the ground. Aaron pushed the bifocal glasses he wore back up to the right spot on his nose and hastily looked around.

As the kids finally crouched low or dove for the ground, Winslow spotted two of the girls, Chantal and Tamara, frozen on the lawn as bullets streaked past them.

“Chantal, Tamara! Get down!” he screamed, but they remained there, hugging one another, emitting frantic wails. They were best friends; he had known them since they were little kids, playing hopscotch on the pavement.

There was never any doubt in his mind as he sprinted towards the two girls, grasping their arms firmly, tumbling them to the ground. Then he lay on top of them, pressing their bodies tightly.

Bullets whined over his head, just inches away; his eardrums hurt. His body was trembling and so were those of the girls shielded beneath him. He was nearly sure he was about to die. “It’s alright, you two,” he whispered to comfort the young girls, who were squealing with fear beneath him.

Then, as suddenly as it had begun, the firing stopped and a black blur with curved horns, dull-looking and cracked, sped past, snarling viciously. A hush of silence hung in the air; so strange and eerie, it was as if the whole world had stopped to listen.

As Aaron raised himself, his eyes fell on an incredible sight. Slowly, everywhere, the children struggled to their feet. Some were crying, but he didn’t see any blood; no-one seemed to be hurt.

“Everyone okay?” Winslow called out. He made his way through the crowd. “Is anyone hurt?”

“I’m okay… I’m okay,” came back to him.

He looked around in disbelief, this was a miracle.

Then he heard the sound of a single child whimpering. He turned and spotted Maria Parker, only twelve years old. Maria was standing on the cracked cement steps of the pool’s entrance. She seemed lost. Choking sobs poured from her open mouth.

His eyes came to rest on what had made the girl hysterical and he felt his heart sink. Even in war, even growing up in Pallet’s streets, he had never felt anything so horrible, sad and senseless.

“Oh, God. Please, no. Why did you let this happen?”

Tasha Catchings, just eleven years old, lay in a heap in a flower bed near the base of the swimming pool’s entrance. Her white school dress was soaked with blood and her left hand had been severed.

Finally, Aaron Winslow began to cry himself.

*****

On the edge of town at the exit to Route One, a team of agents stood silently; clad entirely in black except for white “E” initials imprinted on their shirts. Indeed, this was the team that Team Rocket would eventually have to deal with; they were a team that specialized in stealth attacks.

With fur as black as midnight, and curved white horns where its ears would have been, a well trained Houndoom stood beside the team commander, licking the blood from its lips. White strips resembling ribs ran across its body and its pointed tail was swaying rapidly. It opened its orange muzzle to show a mouth full of razor-sharp teeth.

“You did a veddy good job, Houndoom,” the leader said in a German accent.

The canine Pokèmon growled his satisfaction at his master’s comment.

Four of the agents were staring ahead with half twisted, creepy smiles on their faces. The other agents were still holding their weapons, but were in the process of putting them away.

Seeing that the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon, the leader commanded his team to get back to base. They walked over to a silver Mercedes-Benz C180 Kompressor, and piled into the large four door car before it sped off.

*****

In a large brick red city-style house in Pallet, a kind red haired teenage girl was just getting out of her bed, unaware that her upcoming journey would be fraught with more than its fair share of dangerous situations.
Age 35
Seen July 18th, 2009
Posted May 2nd, 2009
216 posts
18 Years
Not much has changed from the original posting of this fic...I can't wait to see how you've changed the plot and Chosen details from before.

I'll be following it this time...I promise.
A mere ten days after the Mending, a young knight of Valeron and a young ranger of Eos made a discovery that would change Alara forever.

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