A tear escaped both Suicune, and Darin's eyes as the two came across the body of the baby Suicune's mother. The land had changed though, vines had crawled over her body and down into the ground on the other side. The vines where changing swiftly, covering the body. The late-afternoon sun barely breached the forest floor, but it was still enough to see what was happening. The vines where preserving the body; encasing it in vines.
The baby tried to rush to her mother, only stopped because Darin held her back. The creature whined pitifully and Darin strokes her fur lovingly.
"Don't worry, Suicune, it will be ok. You can live with me."
Suicune kept whining, tears streaming down her face. Darin was sent to drastic measures to keep the pokemon from running to her mom. Darin pulled one of the pokeballs from his bele and looked at it for a moment, his grip on Suicune slipping.
"I'm sorry, Suicune, but you can't be free if you're going to do this, not now anyway." Darin pressed the button and the pokeball grew to normal size. He dropped the ball onto the baby Suicune's body, red flashes encasing it, just as the vines were incasing her mother. A tear was the last thing Darin saw before the creature was in the ball, trying to break free. The tear fell, hitting the earth and shattering.
The ball shook, half of Darin wanted her to break free, the other half wanted her to stay in, for her own good. The ball shook from left to right, once. Twice. Three times, each weaker than the next. The final shake came, the fourth. The ball rolled over, the pokemon might actually escape. The ball rolled once more, back to its normal position and stopped. The ball glowed blue for a moment, signalling that Suicune had been caught.
Darin dropped to his knees, he had always thought that the first pokemon caught would make him feel wonderful. But instead it just made him sadder.
He grabbed the ball from the ground, tears in his eyes, and whispered to it, "I'm sorry, Suicune, I promise, one day I'll release you. But that day will be one where you are strong and a majestic pokemon." He clicked the ball and it shrunk. He placed it in his belt.
It was then that Darin notived that the earth was still. He looked up and saw that the vines had stopped, the body was molded. He stepped up to it and bent down, running his hands over the plants, wondering how they got there.
"Sauuuuuuur." came the sound of a pokemon from the right. Darin looked over and saw a Venosaur watching him, vines coming from his back. Darin stared at the creature's bulbous eyes, it didn't attack him. It was mourning a loss.
Darin walked well away from the clearing before releasing Suicune again. She was still sad.
"Suicune, I am sorry I had to capture you. I couldn't have you running for her, though. As the rules now, you are my pokemon, so I think it would be better to name you...Let's see, Suicune, you will be known as Krystal. Do you like it?" Suicune nodded slowly, her stare leaving him.
Darin stepped forward and petted Crystal, he then noticed that a white blotch had started to form in her fur, she was approaching one year of age. He looked into her tear-filled, silver eyes and kissed her head, just below the crystal, but just above the eyes.
Krystal sniffed the air because of the tears, as a human would when they cried, and caught a scent. She sniffed the air, the final tears dropping. She started spinning in circles like a dog and faced behind Darin. He turned and, in the distance of the trees, was a cave that sparkled like the moon and a purified ocean.
He and Krystal walked next to eachother to the cave, the lights enducing them. The two entered the cave cautiously, no sounds reaching their ears. They walked deeper in, the lights still shone. The cave was semi-empty and not very deep.
"Krystal...I'm sorry." Darin returned Krystal to her ball and dropped to his knees, tears once again returning to his eyes. In the cave lay several bodies of Suicune, all dead. They were bruised and broken-boned. "How did this happen?"
Behind Darin came a growl. He spun quickly and, ten feet from him, was an Entei.
The orangish-red dog pokemon stood before him, it's cloud like figure on its back whipped even though there was no wind. It stepped forward, growling. It looked around and sniffed, smelling for the scent of Suicune, its enemy, that it wanted so badly.
Darin whispered to himself, "Oh, man, Entei must must have been the one to kill all these Suicune." Even though it was a whisper, Entei still growled louder when it heard the name.
The pokemon sniffed once more, then turned, bent down, and jumped above the cave, out of sight.
---
Darin sat in Gary's gym, in the back in a kitchen with Gary.
"You saw an Entei!" proclaimed Gary excitedly.
"Yeah." repled Darin, "And I'm sure it killed that lot of Suicunes, it was sniffing for mine!"
"That's horrible, but its a pokemon rivalry."
"Yeah, it's horrible, Krystal is probably crying right now."
"Who?"
"My Suicune, I had to capture it. She saw her dead mother and ran to her, so I had to tear them away...It hurts to do that to such a beautiful creature."
Gary nodded, "I hear ya, I wouldn't have been able to do it."
"I'm just not sure what I'm going to do now."
Gary looked up at Darin, "You could always release her."
Darin looked out of the window and to the moon, which wasn't as bright as normal. "I do not think she would like me then, she would be mad I captured her, and all she would do was run to her mom's body."
"I can't believe that all those Suicune are dead..."
"Me either."
A noise intterupted the conversation. Gary answered his computer-phone.
"Hello?"
A female's voice replied, a person appearing on the screen. "Hello, Gary? This is Professor Ivy."
"Oh, hey, Professor."
"Gary, I need you to do something for me, since I'm not allowed to transfer any pokemon from different regions to another I need you to come get one."
"Come get one? All the way in the Orange Islands? How am I to get there, I only have five pokemon, and none of them know surf!"
"Please, Gary, find a way! This pokemon is extremely rare!"
Gary looked at Darin for a moment before looking back, "I'll come get it, if you tell me what pokemon it is."
Ivy stared at him for a moment before sighing and speaking again, "It's two pokemon actually, a Raikou," Gary's eyebrows rose in surprise, "and, a Lugia, the Lugia was found abandoned on the shore. The Raikou was trying to help it survive."
Gary answered quickly, "Okay, I'm going to be there, but my friend, Darin, is starting his adventure, he's here with me right now. He is going to collect all the badges, and I'm going to travel with him. On our way to Cinnibar cove we'll drop down to the Orange Islands. We have time to compelte Orange Islands, and still finish the Kanto League."
Ivy sighed, "Okay, I'll hold them until then. Ivy out." The screen went blank and Gary looked at Darin.
"Hope you heard me."
Darin nodded, "Yeah, you're coming with me. And, thanks for coming, there's no way I could do it without a friend."
Gary nodded, "Okay then, get some sleep, tomorrow is when Charmander will be healed. Then you can take down Caterpie.
Darin smiled, went to the guest room, and slept.
------
Gary woke Darin, Charmander by his side.
"Hey, Darin, it's 10 A.M. I picked up Charmander, now come on, we need to battle Finn."
Darin nodded tiredly, got up and dressed and the two found Finn at the poke-mart.
"Hey, Finn, come on, I'm ready to fight again!"
Finn and Darin agreed on the same rules as last time, 1 vs. 1.
"I choose you, Caterpie!" He tossed his ball and Caterpie came out, rearing up.
"I choose you, Charmander!" Darin tossed his ball, Charmander was released. Charmander growled and stirred some dust with his tail.
"Caterpie, string shot!" commanded Finn. The bug shot out string, wrapping Charmander up.
"Charmander, burn the string whit your tail." said Darin calmly. Charmander's tail burned the string. "Now, Charmander, ember!" Charmander let a burst of flame from his mouth, enveloping Caterpie.
The bug pokemon slid free, his back half on fire. The Caterpie tried to move forward but fell to his side, fainted.
"Caterpie, return." said Finn calmly, the bug returning to it's ball. "Congratulations, Darin. Here is your Element Stamp." He placed the stamp on the Stamp Pad. The stamp was white and barely showed on the pad, but was still seeable. It wasn't much, just two circles near the upper-center.
"What does Element Stamp mean?"
Finn chuckled, "That Caterpie is a level 20, your Charmander is a level 5, well, 6 now. Using a flame on a bug was using an Element Advantage. And a smart move, I have 6 pokemon, each of different elements. I can beat any element if they are the same or weak against mine. Fire is good against bug, remember that."
Darin nodded and, with Gary, left Veridian City, they were headed to Pewter.