Chapter 2: Danger Surrounds
The tension was high no matter which room this lady travelled within. Men and women alike would often clench their right fist and salute her, even before she could get one foot within the doorway. She was authority, pure authority that concreted itself into the shape of a human. It was in the way that she stood, the way her bangs swayed within this stiff breeze, and in the way her face remained in this hardcore expression as she marched down the hallway. Lt. Colonel Haley Clemons was her name and she alone controlled the Kantonian Defence Forces.
“Report, Colonel Wagner,” Clemons spoke, expecting a clipboard to flop within her hands.
“Here, Ma’am,” the colonel answered, fulfilling her expectations.
Clemons cleanly observed the papers one by one, quickly at first and then reviewed it slowly. The sound of her boots hardly lightened. In fact, one would believe that they had gotten louder as though she was upset about something. She was indeed upset about something. That something was Team Rocket and she hated every moment that she had to deal with this nonsense.
Lt. Colonel Clemons brushed the bangs of brown hair from her face as her dark coloured eyes focused on the door of her office. She wasn’t pleased with the current report. Her forces hadn’t advanced at all with their fight against Team Rocket. The main officers, including Wagner, had been nothing but optimistic regarding the next reports. This was a disgrace to call this progress. Clemons tossed the clipboard aside aimlessly causing the papers attached to spew upon the ground.
“You honestly think,” she spoke smoothly, “that this is acceptable?”
“I presume that it isn’t by the way you are acting, Lt. Colonel,” Wagner spoke almost playfully.
“At least Colonel Wagner has a sense of humour,” muttered one of the officers.
Almost like she was wielding a knife, she held out a sphere. Recognizing this action as an indirect threat, the soldier looked down hastily and mumbled an apology.
“You will never mutter anything in my presence!” Clemons barked as she returned the Poké Ball to her belt. “It’s already foolish enough that I have to deal with incompetence from him.”
She shot this gaze at Wagner, whom seemed to be the only person in the world immune to its deadly powers. That smile on his face was constant, even with his very intimidating build and shaven red hair — he was nothing more than a teddy bear filled to the brim with plush. As much as Clemons wanted to think that he wasn’t meant to be a top commander, she couldn’t deny that he was definitely strong on the tactical front, as well as the battle one. Her eyebrows narrowed almost angrily as she continued.
“Six months and we haven’t made the slightest damage in their forces! You cannot tell me that we are making progress when there is no progress to be seen, Colonel!” Clemons soothing voice was now in an upsetting shout. Wagner’s face finally fell to a serious expression — which looked just as intimidating as Clemons especially with his cave-man like eyebrows.
“Lt. Colonel Clemons, we are doing the best that we can with the resources that we have. As much as you want us to crush them with our power, it is simply impossible in the way that they are spread at the time. Thinning our forces would be nothing more than playing into their hands and you know that,” Wagner explained, folding his massive arms.
There was a bit of silence followed by the prompt sigh of tension from Clemons. She brushed the bangs from her eyes again before continuing to her office. Even with that said, it still wasn’t appropriate that an elite defence force could not handle a simple crime organization.
*****
It was a dark, blustery mid-morning in autumn and subsequent to traipsing along for about ten minutes, Josephine arrived at the location of the building. The lab was on top of a hill that was reachable by a time-consuming set of steps, which took one to the entrance hall of the lab. It was a two-story ivory structure that had a burgundy roof which, from the top of, allowed one to view the scenery as far as the eye could see.
The overcast weather had the red-haired teen on edge, and she kept looking up at the oppressive cloud formation irately as she trekked up the steps leading to Professor Oak’s front door.
Josephine pressed the doorbell and waited, because she knew that Professor Oak’s aide wouldn’t be able to respond straight away. The timber entranceway opened a few minutes later.
“Ah, Miss Harris! Come to collect your Poké Balls, have you?” the aide, known as Mike, questioned.
“Yes, sir,” she replied.
“Right this way, then. You’re very late, I might add,” he answered, as he turned and led the girl into the lab. The first thing that was seen when coming inside was an arrangement of bookshelves that were aligned with the wall, spread out from one corner of the room to the other.
To the right were small workstations that flashed with all sorts of stunning lights, with the screens scrolling down with information that she could only presume was the research that Professor Oak and his associates had accumulated.
In the centre, between the computers, was a fairly large door. It was used to go out to care for or to examine the Pokémon that were kept at the lab.
To the left was a very large storage room in which the Poké Balls that contained the Pokémon were kept. One could only deduce how many were amassed there.
At the top of the staircase to the right of the Poké Ball storage room, the upper level was desolate except for three bookshelves that were stacked up against the left wall; a gigantic mainframe that took up the entire southern wall and finally, a small dome which was the place where the Poké Balls were kept.
“So when did Rachel and Paul leave?” the redhead asked.
“About an hour and a half ago. What were you doing? Professor Oak was surprised that you weren’t with your friends.”
“I’d been awake at the time, but I was just lying on my bed, wishing I didn’t have to leave.” Josephine answered.
“Yes, I fully understand. Now, Josephine, I have something important to give you. They are your Poké Balls.”
Then, the aide handed her five small balls. He allowed Josephine the time to register her partner’s data into her Pokédex, as she hadn’t yet done so.
“Shinx, the Flash Pokémon — a Pokémon of the Electric type. Shinx’s forelegs have a muscle-based system of generating electricity. Their bodies shine if endangered,” the device reported in a flat feminine-toned voice.
“Let me explain what I handed to you before,” the aide began, just as the newbie trainer recalled her starter.
He pointed to the five small balls.
“These are critical to catching Pokémon, so please pay particular interest. If you do not succeed in acquiring a Pokémon with the same ball five times, it will shatter. Also, note that you can carry around no more than six Pokémon at any given time.”
“How much do these items cost?” Josephine asked.
“Two hundred Pokédollars for each sphere… and the Potions are a little dearer, coming in at three hundred,” the aide answered.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” the girl responded. “I won’t let the Professor down. I’ve never been more ready for anything else.”
“Very good…” Mike replied.
She sauntered back all the way through the edifice and out the front door, waving goodbye to Mike as she did so. Josephine’s Pokémon adventure was just beginning. The teen had her first Pokémon, and knew where she was to go next — Viridian City. Now with resolve in her hazel eyes, she persisted in looking at the sky. As an authorized trainer, she then glanced down at the orb which held her partner.
“Shinx, you are my key to becoming one of the best,” the teen muttered, smiling proudly.
As the red-haired teenager unrelentingly walked the path to Viridian City, she did not see this coming. A pigeon swarmed in out of nowhere on the Route and pecked her repeatedly on the head. Next thing she knew, she was surrounded by jabbing beaks and talons. "What the hell?!"
The single Poké Ball on her belt wiggled and burst open. A red light settled on the ground to come into view as Josephine’s first ever Pokémon. “I require your support, Shinx,” the teen whispered, whilst patting the lion-cub’s soft fur.
All the while, the small Pidgey flock continued to aggravate the redhead by diving down and pecking at her. Losing her patience, she released an annoyed scream and pointed at the brown and cream birds while attempting to shoo them away with her other hand. “Do something, Riley! Please?!”
Shinx could see Josephine's desperation, which threw her stifled laughing out the window. The Pokémon even recognized that the trainer had given her a nickname. Riley hesitated briefly, before leaping up and bringing down one of the tiny birds. With her paws planted firmly on the Pidgey’s wings, as the ‘pest’ was lying on its back, the feline shoved her face at the pigeon and growled: <You’re obviously the leader behind the dive-bombing of my trainer. I would suggest that you call off your fellow Pidgey, otherwise I will do something that is totally against my nature.>
<Ha!> squawked the Pidgey, appearing to sound very confident. <What’re ya gonna do?>
<I happen to know an elemental fang attack; it’s one that will leave you chirping for mercy,> Riley replied, as she bared her teeth. She licked her lips before electricity began crackling on her fangs.
The wild Pidgey’s feathered eyebrows rose quickly, as his eyes widened in horror. Immediately, a frightened screech was issued: <Fall back! I am pinned down!> Following their leader’s order, the four other Pidgey ceased annoying the hell out of Josephine and settled quietly in a nearby oak tree’s branch.
Closing her mouth, Riley moved away from the brown and cream bird. <At least they listen to whatever you tell them.>
<Why wouldn’t they?!> The pigeon snapped, clearly still shaken. <I’m their older brother.>
The redhead opened her mouth to address her partner, but cut short her thoughts after observing a Pokémon stagger into her line of vision. It was a small yellow and white shrew, which was noticeably shaky. The Ground type had black eyes, a short inward curving tail and short, pointed ears. As it uttered squeaky cries of “Shrew!” Josephine became aware that the weak creature was troubled and had no idea its path had brought it to a trainer.
“That’s a Sandshrew!” Josephine spoke quietly while referring to her Pokédex. “According to the Pokédex, they’re not even meant to be on Route 1.” She flipped the apparatus closed and glanced at the Sandshrew, prior to turning to her Pokémon with a resolute expression on her excited face. “We can’t just abandon it. We must make an effort to acquire it and take it to the Pokémon Centre in Viridian City for a health check.”
The Sandshrew took notice of Josephine. Glowering at Riley apathetically as if to say <You aren’t worth my time.>, he all the same straightened his stance and held up his claws, ahead of springing at the Shinx.
“Riley, evade and then use Tackle!”
<I can’t let them have died for nothing. I must remain unbound,> the shrew thought.
Riley swiftly eluded the emotion-spurred assault. The Electric type ran forward, with her claws extended. She then delivered a single strike to Sandshrew’s chest. Dismissing the Tackle attack, as if it hadn’t struck him at all, the clearly distressed shrew advanced once more. It was at this instant that Josephine understood that it was more than just emotion that had motivated the Ground type into battle. She knew that he would exchange blows to the end to defend more than just his honour.
<Take that, rat!> Riley’s vocalization was yet again out of nature for the mischievous, Kantonian-born Sinnoh Pokémon. The Electric type’s speech had accomplished its premeditated objective, though. His anger intensifying, the morose Sandshrew leaped up and fell onto Riley, forcing her to use her claws to protect herself.
Jeez, that’s gotta hurt, Josephine shook her head a little and grimaced at the scene of her Pokémon crashing into a nearby tree.
<Ow!> Riley thought, breathless, before recuperating adequately to rise to her clawed paws. Sandshrew had endured the ‘crash landing’ as he had curled up into a ball before contact. Uncurling himself, he strode over to where Riley was and shoved a paw at the Electric feline’s throat, the cat of whom stiffened at the action.
Comparatively unforthcoming as he was, his lone sentence that day would be what stood out in the Shinx’s mind for many a day to come. <Don’t… insult… shrews.> Sandshrew’s breathing was strenuous and raspy, as if just saying those three words hurt that seriously.
Oh-kay, I think it’s time I kicked it up a notch, Josephine believed it was time to rack up a capture and be on her way to Viridian. “All right, Riley! Let’s go! Give it all you’ve got!” the girl yelled, before Sandshrew could organize a counter-attack.
<What did you think I was doing?> the female Shinx looked sideways at her trainer, before determinedly replying: <Here we go!> Riley let out an irritated cry and used a fierce lunge attack that in every respect caught the Ground type by surprise. She barrelled into the sandy coloured shrew and secured her minute fangs on his throat. Clamping down, a bit of blood squirted out.
Wha-? Whoa! I didn’t think Riley had it in her! Josephine looked stunned.
<You’ll pay for that,> the shrew declared mentally, as he looked himself over after shoving the cat Pokémon away. One paw rebelliously wiped away a small quantity of blood and he was beginning to decline, thanks to the throat wound. He stiffened, his arms raising his sharp claws as he prepared for another attack.
Bugger, what now? The red-haired trainer thought, panicking slightly. That Sandshrew is still going strong, he’s not slowing down at all! I suppose I could make use of Scratch, but still…
“Riley! Here’s what we’re gonna do! Sidestep Sandshrew’s present attack and respond with a Tackle and Leer combination!” Josephine shouted.
<The will of the mistress will be done,> Riley answered, even though Josephine couldn’t understand her.
For what she expected was the last time today, Riley took a step forward and enlarged her yellow eyes. The Sandshrew opened his mouth in a silent gasp as the effects of the Leer attack seized him and he quivered involuntarily. Then, as the shrew made a great effort to salvage his poise, Riley hurried in and, with a few well-placed physical heaves, was able to decrease his liveliness even more.
<I’ve failed them,> was the shrew’s final thought before collapsing to the grassy ground. One paw was all that was held him up as he inhaled with difficulty.
Josephine threw an empty Poké Ball at the yellow and white being that was doubled over on the ground. After a number of seconds of resisting, Sandshrew irrevocably submitted himself to capture.
“YEAH! WE CAUGHT SANDSHREW!” Josephine cheered, grabbing her newest Pokémon’s containment device and smiling widely.
At that precise instant, as if it had deferred reacting on purpose, Josephine’s Pokédex turned itself on and recorded Sandshrew’s information. “Sandshrew, the Mouse Pokémon – a Pokémon of the Ground type. To protect itself from attackers, Sandshrew curls up into a ball. They live in arid regions with minimal rainfall.”
<Huh?> Riley queried, while the redhead face-palmed.
“HONESTLY, PEOPLE!” the teen screamed in exasperation. “Why the hell didn’t my Pokédex tell me that before I tried to catch Sandshrew?!”
As the trainer and partner Pokémon continued on down the path towards Viridian, neither of them noticed the motionless, bloodied bodies of two Sandslash.
Behind a particularly wide cedar tree, a yellow-haired woman wearing black sunglasses monitored the teen’s progress. She looked powerful, despite the meagre clothing. Her stance, which was her hands on her hips, indicated a dominant personality. The woman’s expression was unreadable as she continued to stare at Josephine with a shrewd look. On the right side of her shirt were the letters ‘BM’ and the number five. Standing next to her was an Electric humanoid Pokémon called Electabuzz wearing a strange collar around its neck.
Concluding that the teenager wasn’t a threat at the moment, the woman turned around, only to bump into a black-clad man. She had heard his obvious footsteps on the ground, but ignored them until now.
“Who are you?!” the man demanded, quickly recovering.
Equally as fast, the woman answered: “I am a member of Blood Mavericks. You are obviously a Team Rocket grunt.”
“Am I?” the man questioned, appearing to lack intelligence.
“You can’t trick me,” the woman replied. “That there says it all.” She pointed to the large crimson ‘R’ imprinted on the man’s otherwise completely black shirt. “Who is your leader? I’m going to report your interference to my boss.”
“Uh... my boss...? His name starts with R, but that’s all I can remember,” the grunt half whined.
R, hmm? Interesting, I will make sure to look that up when I get back to headquarters, the woman thought.
Apparently remembering his mission, the grunt yelled “I’m off!” before high-tailing after Josephine.
What was that Rocket grunt doing before I turned and bumped into him? The woman wondered. Watching him follow the girl as quietly as possible alerted her to the fact that the grunt’s leader had obviously given him orders to tail the teenager, but the incident in itself still had her stumped as to why that command had been given.
Pressing a button on the head-set fixed over her ear, she spoke into the mouthpiece. “Number five to headquarters.”
“Headquarters to number five, go ahead,” a voice on the other end replied.
“A Rocket has already started interfering. Permission to take him out?”
“Permission denied. Your job is to trail the trio, no matter how annoying the Rockets become. Headquarters, out.”
“Understood, sir. Five, out.”
*****
Temporarily, the red-haired teen had at this time stopped. Josephine didn’t even pause to consider how Professor Oak had acquired her Shinx.
Crouching down, the teen tenderly rubbed the feline on her head; in response, the female Shinx purred contentedly and cuddled in closer alongside the girl’s soft touch. This moment of happy friendship continued for some time, until Josephine glanced at her digital watch and exclaimed in surprise: “Look at the time! I believe we better keep heading towards Viridian City. I don’t wanna keep Rachel and Paul waiting too long.”
In holding up the red and white ball in front of her partner’s face, the unsaid query of ‘did she want to go back inside?’ was brought up. Shinx shook her head, signifying that she didn’t want to return to its confines at the moment.
An hour later, Josephine was mercifully approaching Viridian City — her already-meagre provisions were diminishing. She heaved a sigh when she saw the city and its lights. Josephine came to a decision to spend the hours of darkness at the Pokémon Centre and buy her supplies in the morning. The red-haired girl caught a glimpse of a building with a scarlet roof and quickly ducked inside, before halting briefly to catch her breath.
It was at that point that she flipped open her Pokédex, switched it to video-call mode and rang her parents.
Her father answered. “Hello, Harris residence. Charles speaking.”
“Dad, it’s just me,” the girl replied, giggling slightly. “There’s no need to be formal. I made it to Viridian City.”
“Josephine? How are you, honey?”
“Aside from being tired, I’m good. A small flock of Pidgey decided to annoy the hell out of me, but Riley, my Shinx, sorted them out. I then went on to capture a Sandshrew; I don’t know what it is, but something’s wrong with him.”
Charles laughed. “Yeah, Pidgey can be annoying, can’t they? You say something’s wrong with your Sandshrew? May I see him?”
“Sure, Dad,” came the reply. Pausing to retrieve the sphere of the first Pokémon she caught, she released the shrew and picked him up, holding him up to the inbuilt camera all Pokédexes have.
“Hmm,” her father deliberated. “By looking at him, and judging his expression, it seems that you’ve broken his spirit unintentionally. Was he distracted when you caught him, upset about something?”
“Yeah, he was distracted, but I didn’t know what from.”
“Turn him around so you can have a look. You’ll see what I mean,” her father spoke firmly.
Doing as her father instructed, the redhead turned the Sandshrew around in her arm with difficulty. Glancing down into his black eyes, she felt like she’d hit a brick wall. His ears almost lay flat, as if he was in pain, and his eyes were expressionless.
“I’m no expert on the Sandshrew evolutionary line, but I’d hazard a guess as to say something happened to his family members and he was grieving for them when he ran into you.”
There was silence for a few moments, as the revelation left Josephine blinking in surprise. “Oh,” she muttered. “Should I release him then?”
“No, the damage has been done. You’ll just have to work on trying to get him to snap out of the state he’s in.”
“I see, thanks Dad. I’ll go now; I have to think about this.”
“Alright... oh, by the way,” Charles hastily added.
“Yes, Dad?”
“Natalie graduated today, so she’ll be following in your footsteps as a trainer.”
“But, there aren’t any starters left!” the red-haired teen exclaimed mildly.
“She won’t be travelling in Kanto, silly,” her father laughed. “She wanted to try her luck in Hoenn.”
“Hoenn? Is she mad? That place is nowhere near Kanto!”
“Nevertheless, that’s where she wants to go.”
Josephine snorted dismissively. “I’m still concerned by her decision,” she stated, looking very worried. “Haven’t you heard the reports that an evil organization is over there?”
“Don’t worry, she’ll be fine. Anyway, Natalie wants to leave in the morning... and I’m sure Sorrel will be able to protect her once he’s strong enough.”
“Sorrel? What Pokémon’s that?”
“Professor Birch sent over a Treecko via the Transport System; he said something about having been in touch with Professor Oak and Birch had said that the other two starters were unavailable.”
“Wow,” was all Josephine could really say. The sound of a wooden door closing caught the teen’s attention.
“Your mother’s just arrived back; no doubt she won’t be pleased that dinner’s not prepared. Talk to you when you get to Pewter?” her father questioned.
“Sure thing, Dad. Thanks for the advice with Sandshrew before, bye now.”
With that, the call was terminated.
Gazing around, her gaze fell upon Rachel who was stretched out on one of the burgundy sofas, with Paul on the Internet. Who knows what he’s looking up, Josephine reflected.
A nurse behind the counter spoke up. She had cerise hair and wore a white nurses’ uniform with pink lacing. “This is the Viridian City Pokémon Centre. How may I help you?”
Walking speedily over to the desk, she passed the two occupied spheres to the pink-haired lady who was Nurse Joy. “I’m Josephine and I’m a beginning Pokémon trainer. Could you please look at my Pokémon? My Sandshrew needs some additional attention,” the teen clarified, and Joy indicated agreement, before taking the two orbs out to the back room.
Perceiving Josephine’s voice made Rachel get a fright to some extent. “Huh? Oh hey, it’s Josephine!” She got off the sofa and hurried over to her friend. The tall girl walked forward, her long lavender-coloured hair flowing behind her. She looked relaxed and comfortable in her outfit — a zip-up skin-tight jumper and shorts.
“What took so long?” the lavender-haired girl asked.
“Ah, I got caught up,” Josephine answered.
“Caught up how?” Paul questioned, coming over from getting off the Internet. The boy was of an average height and had spiky, auburn-coloured hair. He wore a shirt and baggy pants. On each of his wrists was a sweatband and cupped in his right hand were two red and white spheres.
“I captured a Sandshrew,” the teen responded, not going into too much detail.
Paul raised an eyebrow, but said nothing further.
Nurse Joy then spoke up in her trademark quiet voice. “Your Pokémon are ready, Josephine.”
“Thanks,” she replied, taking her Poké Balls and attaching them to her belt. Yawning wearily, Josephine turned to Nurse Joy and enquired if there were any extra rooms vacant. At this, Paul and Rachel went to their own rooms. Upon receiving a confirmatory response, Josephine struggled upstairs to room B625. She unlocked the door and the worn out trainer simply clambered into the bed, falling asleep almost straight away.
Josephine’s Pokémon:
Riley (female Shinx, level 6): Tackle, Leer and Thunder Fang
Sandshrew (male, unnamed, level 5): Abilities unknown
Credit goes to Sgt Shock for my signature and avatar