Status: Updating on Sundays and Mondays

Uncontained

Fire at Viridian

I never thought I'd ever hold a pokeball, and I didn't know how to feel when Malachi, Laura, and I went plunging down the path to Viridian City. I kept my eyes on the flames ahead.

"What happened?" I asked as we went.

"I don't really know," Malachi said. He was stoic, and the shadows of the tall grass streaked across his face. "A lot of men and women in black outfits broke into Gramps's lab and took a bunch of Pokemon. They also kidnapped our neighbors. That's what woke Laura and I up. We heard their screams."

"Shit," I hissed.

"I took a couple of Pokemon from what was left of the lab," Malachi continued. "That was when we came to get you."

"Are your parents okay?" I asked.

"Yes," Laura said. Her voice was hard. She usually talked in a soft voice. "They don't know we're out, though. But I know we'll be back soon."

Then we saw the buildings of Viridian.

Viridian wasn't too far away from Pallet Town. Everyone always joked that Pallet was just a parasitic arm off of the bigger Viridian City. Viridian was a large business counterpart that Pallet Town occasionally leeched off of when we needed money for schools or buildings. Malachi and I sometimes went to the arcade there since Pallet didn't have any. We weren't here for games now. There was fire everywhere and I saw vans being loaded in an alleyway.

"Is that them?" I asked.

Yes, I answered my own question. People clad in black hauled large sacks into the backs of the trucks, and a crimson "R" streaked across the front of their shirts. Some idiot part of me asked, What are they doing? but the rational part of me knew what it was. Right then I wanted to run.

I wasn't a hero like Malachi was, who caught the class ekans with his bare hands in the fifth grade, I was a pure-blooded coward. Malachi shouldered past me to get a good look at the criminals over the hill, and I was still cold staring at the fire and smoke belching from the distance. This was serious. This was really serious. And then Malachi pulled out his pokeball. He pressed the center button on it and light shot out from it in a red beam. A furry, brown, quadrupedal animal with large ears and eyes came running out. I realized I had to do something and I fumbled with my pokeball as Laura sent out hers. That one was pink, round, and had big blue eyes. I pressed the button on my capsule.

The ball exploded in my hands and I yelped. In the light, a form appeared on the grass and a yellow Pokemon materialized. It had long ears tipped with black, small hands and feet, big red cheeks, and its tail was shaped like a lightning bolt. It fluffed out its fur. That was when I realized I had no idea what to do with it.

Luckily Malachi took the lead. "C'mon eevee!" he yelled. "Let's get them!"

Malachi charged forward and the sound of his voice alerted the thieves. I went as stiff as a board, and the criminals dispersed quicker than I thought possible. One man dashed forward with a pokeball in hand. "Koffing, smoke 'em!" he shouted.

A pokemon like a purple water mine burst out of the pokeball and thick smog blasted out of its body. Suddenly I couldn't see and my lungs revolted. Smoke swamped the area in seconds. I didn't know where Malachi or Laura were, or even the yellow Pokemon, and I couldn't breathe so I dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. There was a layer of fresh air in the grass but my lungs still felt like they were spasming. "Malachi!" I shouted. It sounded like I smoked five packs of cigarettes. "Malachi!"

Something plummeted in front of my face and bounced off the ground. I shrieked and flung myself back once I realized it was the water mine Pokemon. But it was knocked out. Malachi's eevee dove through the smoke next to me and disappeared. "I got it, no worries!" Malachi shouted, and I covered my neck and waited for the smoke to thin. When it did, Malachi made a strangled noise. "Oh fuck! They're gone!"

I scrambled to my feet and Malachi burst into a sprint through the fading smog. But he was right. Malachi tore through the alley and back and he was right. They were all gone. "Mom!" The scream ripped straight out of my chest. The trucks, the men and women in black, they all had vanished. Crippling panic and despair crushed me and I couldn't breathe.

"Mom! Oh my fucking God. Mom..."

It was like my lungs locked up and every single muscle in my body failed. I dropped to my knees like a stone. My heart hammered in my chest. Blood rushed hot into my temples. And something wet ran down my face. I was crying. I knew deep inside me it was all my fault. The yellow Pokemon was a ways in front of me watching me, and it was crying as well. Fat, blobby tears rolled down its cheeks and squeaky hiccups racked its little shoulders. For some reason this almost made me lose it. "Come here, you stupid Pokemon!" I crawled erratically to it, scooped it up in my arms, and I gasped and sobbed and squeezed the dumb thing against me. "You've got no reason to cry! Get over yourself!"

The yellow Pokemon buried its face into my collarbone and sobbed.

I nearly fell over trying to stand and slurred swears into the air. Laura was suddenly at my side. "You can come stay at our house," she whispered.

"Fuck everything," I said, and I stalked down the road into darkness.
♠ ♠ ♠
Obviously this didn't happen in the game, but it made the little trek to Viridian and back to prof. Oak a lot more interesting than it was. I made an artistic change.

This is a more realistic version of Pokemon, I guess. Or at least more intense. If people swore and stuff, ya know? That's why this is rated R.

Also, I figured Laura would have a pokemon like a jigglypuff. Just sayin'.