A Champion in Disguise [PKMN Wattys 2015 2nd Place Miscellaneous Category]

Chapter 20

Chapter 20

Sneaking out was the hardest thing ever. Firstly, I acquired my Pokemon which was hard enough. I had had to sneak around and literally steal them from Nurse Joy's desk because I didn't want to be caught in a war zone completely unarmed in case something went south. Secondly, I had to figure out a way to cover for me being absent in the room. That one came to me after a bit, as I decided to fake a shower and turned on the water so it sounded like it. After that, I did the third step, which was to actually figure a way out. That was hard as I thought of how to fly out, surf out, and maybe even swim out. Then I realized I could just teleport out. Well then, how was that for an epiphany.

So, I teleported to the outskirts of Pallet, not really sure what to expect when I got there. What suprised me was how the usually luscious green grass was dried out into shades of a hideous vomit yellow. The trees were also brittle looking, as if they would catch fire any second.

With caution, I proceeded into the town. Well, more like ghost town. Everything but the Pokemon lab was burned. It looked like a literal graveyard. Only the rubble and fragments of buildings were left. Glass shards shined in the glass, the black tint resembling a sinister dark presence that haunted the area in an almost palpable sense. Lingering in the air, there was a smell to the place, one that I had never come across before, as if I could smell the terrible things that had happened here. Crunching the glass shards, my feet neared me to Red's house where a layer of cement dust and soot blanketed the remains of everything. Although it was sad, it seemed almost peaceful in a sense. Until I saw the grave.

"It was a rather tragic night," suddenly started a voice from the opposite side of the wall, "I would explain it to you Mrs. Sharp, but I would rather request you sit down first, not only for the fact you are not ready to meet me yet, but also because it is rather unsafe for you here."

"It's you," I gasped while sitting down as the man instructed, "the man from the telephone."

"Of course, that much is clear, I appreciate that you are paying attention Mrs. Sharp, there is hope for Kanto yet," clarified the telephone man.

"So what exactly happened here?" I asked while shielding myself from a light breeze.

He laughed a little, "I thought you'd never ask..."

"It was the first night," he explained, his husky voice seeming to round around the corners of the remains, "Proton had already taken Viridian. That much was easy for him and team rocket. Then he came here. The first night. I didn't see or hear much, it was a rather quiet event. However, it was a bright one. See, something you don't know about him is a thirst for revenge he has."

"Revenge against whom? Blue?" I continued.

"No," sighed the stranger, "he has it in for Red. I find it funny how Red making so many enemies came back to haunt us all. You know, I too was once an enemy of his. However, what has been done here is wrong."

"There's a reason Kanto hasn't been fighting, and that's because Red can't get his head out of the clouds to stop grieving," decided the man.

"Alas," he continued, "Proton came here on the first night nonetheless. He wasn't allowed to burn the lab, hence why it's still standing. However, Lance let him burn everything else. So he went to all of the other houses first. Then he went to Blue's house. Shot Blue's parents and burned it down. By this time, Red had heard about it and had come to save his own house."

"He came he opened the door to his house, and there was Proton, standing there with a knife, stabbing his mom in the chest, perforating the lung. Just so Red could watch her die slowly. Proton was smart about it though, and set fire to the house, so Red couldn't save her. He could only watch her bleed out. Proton had stayed too only so he could witness Red's reaction. He just barely made it out alive though because Red almost broke his neck in a fight before the Rocket grunts restrained him. Though Proton escaped, Red killed a bunch of people that night, snapping their necks from sheer rage. The next day he came back and buried the remains of his mother. We'll never know if he got his personal items back," concluded the man from the phone.