Pokemon Kanto: The Endless Journey

Part One- Cinder and Smoke
A man, his hat pulled down and over his face, took a step closer. Allen winced at the Garchomp beside the figure. The Garchomp let out a low growl as Bolt took a step forward. As the growl pierced the foggy air of Lavender Town, Bolt, Allen's Jolteon, stepped back again, though the glint in his eyes warned Allen that he very much wanted to attack Garchomp. However, a small twitch of Allen's hand, a hand signal that warned him to relax, made the glint fade immediately. The man opened his mouth to speak.

"The child, Acacia. You know of the child. Where. IS. HE?!" Allen could feel his heart racing, but tried to keep his cool on the outside.

"I- I don't know what you mean. I'm just the new professor here, I- I don't know anything."

"Sure you don't," the man sneered. "...and I'm a Pidgey, aren't I?

"I am getting rather impatient, Allen. You don't want to see me when I'm impatient. First your Rhyhorn, now this pitiful excuse for a Jolteon..."

Allen closed his eyes and a tear slowly trickled down his face as he remembered Rhyhorn. For a moment he was able to escape from the reality that held him prisoner, and instead fall into his memories, never to come out. That was his wish, but the memory was bitter. It began at Oak's office in Pallet Town.

Allen had been hired around that time for Interijento Labratories. He was only sixteen, and his Pokemon roster included a Bellsprout, Bolt, and a Rhyhorn called Headstrong. He was working on a new kind of Pokeball- the P.R.A (Pokemon Rights Agency) called Interijento Labs out for having poorly designed Pokeballs that did not have anything for Pokemon to do. So he was designing a Pokeball called an "Ideal Environment Ball" that kept track of a Pokemon's type and created a world for them to enjoy. Water-types got the ocean (and beach balls), Flying-types got an open sky and some peaks to land on (with hoops and targets to play with). However, he did the one thing that he most regretted- leaving a water-type ball, open, next to the PC that kept the whole laboratory working. So, now that Allen thought about it, it wasn't surprising that he saw a small flame peeking out of the open door to the break room.

"Fire!"

Bellsprout was still in the experiment chamber, where there was the most smoke!

"Bellsprout!" Allen screamed, but he couldn't reach the place in time.

Before the cinder and smoke filled his nostrils, before fire overtook his gaze, he saw a figure in the room. He could not make out what it was. Then he heard a loud, "Boom!"

Then there was darkness.

Later...

The squeak of the wheels forced his eyes to open. A man with a nurse's cap and a blue cross shone a bright light in his eye. The veins of his eyes, red as blood from the irritation of the dust and ash that had fallen on him from the explosion, showed at the corner of his vision. He squinted quickly and looked away. He thought about the accident. It was strange. It made sense, but there seemed to be a cloud of doubt that hovered over his mind, raining down other possible explanations. Sure, it was an open Water-Type Pokemon ball that may cause damage to a machine, but the water in the Pokeball was ''digital. ''It wasn't real water.

"Nurse?"

The man shut off the flashlight, that looked back at him.

"Yes?"

"I- I want to see my Bellsprout. Is he OK?"

"I don't know. But you're not in a position to be moving. Maybe in a few hours. As you know, Joy Pokemon Center does not have human healing stations, but Pokemon stations work just as well, if not better. No, scratch that. Definitely better. A normal hospital will have you moving in a few days. Heck, we'll heal you in just an hour!

"Just take this pill, and when you wake up, you can go see your buddy."

"Thanks, nurse." Allen reached shakily towards the bottle of pills, and took a white-and-gray one, shaped like a Rattata. He popped it in his mouth, and immediately started to feel drowsy. He didn't know exactly when he fell asleep, but he remembered waking up.

Later...

"You may go." The nurse said to Allen with a gruff voice. When he woke up, the nurse, Nurse Nelson, drove him towards Oak's old lab. The one to be shut down next week. As he opened the door with an anxious hand, and shuffled down the hall, he thought about the chance that Bellsprout was alive.

Almost 0 without help, he realized. Uh-oh.

He had reached the place where he'd seen the short and bulky figure directly in the fire. Smoke still lingered around the hall, and saw the figure again. Farther down the hall.

Gray scales, almost rock. Foggy amber eyes.

"Headstrong!"

He ran to Headstrong. At first he was still. Both Allen and Headstrong. But then the Pokemon's gaze flickered and his chest rose and fell. Rose and fell.

Tears streamed down Allen's cheeks, and dripped like rain onto Rhyhorn. Headstrong shifted.

"Rhy... Rhyhorn..." His stomach rose again, slowly, then shuddered. It fell and never rose again.

Allen saw a strange shape under Rhyhorn. It was Bellsprout! He was alive and only slightly burnt. Bellsprout used Vine Whip to latch on to Allen's arm, like a grappling hook, and made his way out from under Headstrong's body. Allen fell over on top of Rhyhorn.

(This is what played in the background. Read the lyrics here, or click the link to hear someone sing it)

Cinder And Smoke

Originally by Iron & Wine

''Give me your hand The dog in the garden row is covered in mud And dragging your mother's clothes Cinder and smoke The snake in the basement Found the juniper shade The farmhouse is burning down Give me your hand And take what you will tonight, I'll give it as fast And high as the flame will rise Cinder and smoke Some whispers around the trees The juniper bends As if you were listening Give me your hand Your mother is drunk as all the firemen shake A photo from father's arms Cinder and smoke You'll ask me to pray for rain With ash in your mouth You'll ask it to burn again