Prologue

	The year is 2006.  February.  Team Rocket's expansion has dramatically 
increased in most of Japan, reaching out into Shinjuku, even to the small 
outlying country towns.  As their influence spreads, the terrorist attack for 
Pokemon raids increase, and on one cool, cloudy day, disaster reaches the small 
village of Kuriyama.  The Rockets have located a Pokemon Center in this town, 
its PC's packed with unique Pokemon.  They raided it, and then killed everyone 
inside.  The police are powerless.  The citizens are shocked and frightened.  
Terror roams free in Japan, going unchecked.  News of the tragedy reaches Kazuma 
Aramaki, a young man living in Kuriyama, and the news he hears destroys his very 
livelihood.

Chapter 1
The Travesty

	She ruffled his hair as she spoke to him. His mother was going out on an 
errand to the Pokemon Center in the middle of the quaint, uneventful town.  Each 
house was about an eighth of a mile apart, and not incredibly big.  People kept 
to themselves, and the only center of activity in Kuriyama was the unusually and 
uncharacteristically large Pokemon Center that often held meetings for Trainers 
and whatnot.  

	"Take care of the house while I'm gone Kazuma!"  

He looked back at her half heartedly as he watched the television in the living 
room.  

"See yuh, mom."  She was in her late thirties; tall, and beautiful, with long 
back hair that reached the small of her back.  As she left, dressed in her long 
skirt and soft black leather coat, Kazuma looked over to her, and felt suddenly 
ill at ease.  

"It's probably just my imagination," he said to himself as he shrugged off the 
feeling.  

Not long after his mother left, a rapping came at his front door.  Unwillingly, 
Kazuma got up form his spot in front of the TV and opened the door.  Standing 
there in his grey hoodie and jeans was Kazuma's friend from his High School, 
Shinji Maeda.  He and Kazuma both graduated last year, and were making their 
plans for college by skipping a year before actually attending.  

"Oi!  Kazuma!  How are you, buddy?"  Kazuma greeted him in his loose fitting 
blue tee shirt and baggy jeans with a half hearted smile.  

“What's up, Shinji?" questioned Kazuma.  It's not uncommon to see Shinji rapping 
at Kazuma's door, but this time, there was something wrong.  Kazuma could sense 
some vibes that he didn't like.  Shinji took him by the shoulder, walked inside, 
and shut the door behind him.

"I saw them, Kazuma.  Team Rocket.  They're here."  Shinji's long, stubbly face 
grew solemn and upset as he plopped down on the couch in the living room.  
Kazuma's eyes widened as he stood next to Shinji.

"What!?  What are they doing here?" Kazuma demanded.  Shinji looked back at him.

"I don't know, but it can't be anything good.  They were headed towards the 
Pokemon Center."  Kazuma suddenly felt a chill run down his spine.  

"No... My mother's in there!"  Shinji leaned back and folded his arms.  "I doubt 
they'd hurt her.  There's no profit in killing off small town civilians like 
us."  Kazuma boiled with rage.  He fumed at his friend's words.

"How can you be so calm!?  These murderers are in our hometown!  You're just 
gonna standby and watch?"  Shinji leaned forward, and stared at Kazuma.  
"Kazuma, there's nothing we can do, dammit!  Even the National Guard is too 
afraid of them.  We should just let them take what they want, and we'll be 
alright."  Kazuma sat down on his couch next to Shinji.  His head started to 
pound as he held his face in his hands, desperately trying to come up with a 
solution to his problems.

Suddenly, gunfire could be heard in the distance.  Not the sound of pistols, but 
of the more violent and evil sounds of machine guns.  Kazuma stood at attention, 
grimacing at the door.  Sweat dripped down his head, and tears welled up in his 
eyes.  

"No...."  Shinji just looked at Kazuma, and then hung his head.  He was certain 
of what had happened, and his friend was not going to like hearing the news of 
the events that have transpired.  That much was for certain.

	It was only a few minutes of dead silence in the household, which felt 
like a millennia, before the inevitable knocking on the door resonated 
throughout the building.  Kazuma's heart sank, and a knot formed in the pit of 
his stomach.  As he slowly opened the door, Shinji looked over from the couch to 
whoever was disturbing the somber moment.  It was a police officer.  A man, 
dressed in a police hat, blue suit, white shirt and black tie.  Very neat and 
tall, the man looked at Kazuma with a solemn frown.  


"Are you Kazuma Aramaki?" he said with incredible sadness in his voice.  Kazuma 
nodded slowly, and Shinji looked away despondently.

"I am officer Takahashi, of the Shinjuku Police Force."  The officer took out a 
dossier and read it aloud.

"I regretfully inform you that today, at 3:06 PM, in the Kuriyama Pokemon 
Center, Yukiko Aramaki, as well as everyone else inside, were killed in the line 
of fire in a terrorist attack by Team Rocket. There were no survivors."  He put 
the dossier away.

Kazuma stood rigid as a bored, as tears welled up in his eyes, and even though 
the feeling of this calamity has penetrated him down to his core, he remained 
firm and stoic, showing little to no emotion for quite some time as he stared 
down the police officer with the epitome of melancholy distress while his palms 
sweat and his legs began to feel weak, like wet noodles while pondering the turn 
of events and how he would go about handling the current situation like an 
adult.  

All the while, Shinji just gaped with sheer disbelief after watching the events 
unfold before his very eyes, feeling the utter solitude and loneliness that his 
friend must surely be experiencing.  At that particular moment in time, Kazuma 
felt like the last and only person on the face of the planet, as the separation 
anxiety from the only member of his family began to set in, forcing him to 
finally open up and display his feelings outright and without shame or second 
thought.  

He took off into his room across the hall from the bathroom, and slammed the 
door, with an unrestrained feeling of sadness, confusion, remorse, and most 
interesting of all, sheer anger, and soon, all he could think of was destroying 
the terrorists who took the life of his maternal influence away.  Shinji looked 
up to the officer, and walked over to him.  Shaking his hand heartily, Shinji 
nodded.  

"Thank you, officer."  The policeman looked into Shinji's eyes, and could tell 
that he and Kazuma were friends right away.  

"The boy needs a friend about now.  Go and cheer him up.  We'll take care of all 
the legal matters."  Shinji nodded, and wiped a stray tear from his face, and 
closed the door as the officer left the home.

In his bed, Kazuma remembered the face of his mother; the woman he saw, not a 
half hour ago. He couldn't come to grips with it, and in his rage, he punched 
the wall as hard as he could, breaking the sheetrock and bloodying his hands. 

"Mom... I'll avenge you... If it's the last thing I do..." he sobbed. Revenge 
was the only thing on his mind as he made his threat... No... His promise to 
Team Rocket.


Chapter 2
The Decision 

Six months have past, and the scars of the holocaust that struck the town have 
not yet faded from the annals of its history.  All the legal matters have 
finally settled with Kazuma and his mother’s death.  He was given possession of 
the house, and any payments on it or mortgages have been fully compensated.

Kazuma has changed.  Though he could remember his past, he could never relive 
it, for the life he had became a shattered mirror, which he could no longer look 
into and see one person.  Faces stared back, laughing, mocking, without guilt or 
sorrow, taunting Kazuma each night he slept, tormenting him in his sleep.  The 
solitude was unbearable.

“So this is how Shinji must feel…”  Kazuma said to himself as he lie in his bed 
one moonlit night.  Shinji’s parents divorced, and he decided to move out on his 
own when he was but 16.  Using what little money he had, he rented a place in 
Kuriyama, and made plenty of friends.  Kazuma was the most notable of them all.

Kazuma was a tall, handsome man, with long features, and long silver hair which 
reached his shoulders.  It flopped messily over his eyes, and he never bothered 
to comb it back.  He felt it gave him a sense of individuality, so he always 
left it unkempt, but strangely, it looked rather good on him.  He was athletic, 
but never played sports actively.  He could always be seen in a black hoodie and 
jeans, as it was the most expedient way to dress without getting too casual, he 
always thought.  He did relatively well in Shinjuku High School, getting rather 
high marks, so many see him as a better than average student.  He’s not one to 
slack off; Kazuma always finishes every job he starts.  His ordeal with Team 
Rocket will be no different.

As the sun rose in the morning after another sleepless night, Kazuma awoke with 
an unnatural decisiveness in his heart.  Without even eating breakfast, he began 
packing a single backpack with clothes, bottles of water, a first aid kit, and 
several other supplies that would come in handy for a long hike.

He left his house, breathing in the warm August air, and seeing the orangey 
yellow of the sunrise.  As he lifted the old garage door of his home, he 
happened to see Shinji across the street, with his arms folded.

“Oi.  Kazuma.”  He waved at his friend, and Kazuma stood up and looked back to 
his friend, who was leaning against one tree in a forest on the edge of the 
country road.  The wind blew from the south, and Kazuma, who was facing the sun 
and his friend, squinted from the blowing and the solar body in his eyes.

“Shinji-chan…”  Kazuma knew full well what Shinji wanted to tell him, and Kazuma 
wasn’t about to shut him out any longer.  Shinji’s head was hung, so you 
couldn’t see his eyes under his mid length straight hair.

He held up a Pokeball, and Kazuma could clearly see it, even against the 
shadows.  Finally looking up, Shinji smiled and looked at Kazuma.  His eyes were 
bloodshot and had dark circles under them from lack of sleep.

“I stayed up all night long trying to catch this little bastard for you, 
Kazuma.”  Kazuma smiled, realizing the deed his friend had done for him.  “If 
you’re going to take on Team Rocket, you might as well have something to fight 
them with.”  He tossed the red and white ball to Kazuma, who caught it deftly in 
one hand.

He examined it, and finally said to Shinji while crossing the road to him, 
“What’s inside?”  Shinji grinned.  

“Toss it on the ground and find out, bro!”  He nodded and complied, lightly 
throwing the ball to the grass.

The chemical reaction occurred, and in a small explosion of light and sound, the 
form of a creature took place, and after the light had subsided, the Pokemon was 
able to be seen completely.  It was a lizard, resembling an Iguana, only much 
smaller; only about two feet long.  Its chin and underbelly was red; possibly 
warning marks or mating signs.

“It’s a Treecko, Kazuma.  A grass Pokemon.  Take good care of it, man” Kazuma 
smiled as he looked into the sunrise, then back to Shinji.  “Thank you, Shinji.”  
Shinji looked back to his friend.  “So I guess this is the part where you ride 
off into the sunrise?”  Kazuma chuckled a bit.

“I guess so, my friend.”  Shinji pushed off the tree, and sauntered up to 
Kazuma.

“Then I’m going with you, ya crazy bastard.”  Kazuma stood in a bit of shock, as 
he was half turned around to go back across the road to his home.

“…What?”

Chapter 3
The Battle

Kazuma gazed at Shinji in confusion.  He was certain he didn’t hear that right.  
Shinji smiled, and walked over to him, then lowered his head.

“You know…. If I let you go to your mother, maybe you could have made a 
difference.  Maybe…  She wouldn’t be dead now.”  Shinji was devastated, and the 
guilt that beleaguered his mind has been torturing him for a while now, and if 
there was even the most remote chance of getting that monkey off his back, he 
would take it.

“Shinji, this is my fight.  There’s no need for you to risk your life over me.”  
Shinji just laughed a bit.

“God, Kazuma.  You’re always so serious.  Accept a little help.  You can’t go it 
alone; I won’t let you.  You’re almost like a brother to me.”  Kazuma smiled, 
and considered the idea of taking his good friend along with him.

“You don’t have a Pokemon though… Do you?”  Shinji smirked at the remark.

“As a matter of fact, I do.  I never told you, mainly because it’s a Dark type, 
and most people look at Dark types, thinking they’re evil, or something retarded 
like that.”  Kazuma was a little shocked.  He was taken aback at the thought 
that his best friend would think that he would judge him based on his Pokemon.

“Well, what is it, then?  Let me see.”  Shinji sighed, and pulled out a blue and 
white Great Ball, and tossed it upon the ground.  After the dazzling display of 
electrical energy being reformed into solid matter, the Pokemon stood on its two 
clawed feet.

It was completely black, and had a short, thin body and a large, ovoid head, 
with large green eyes.  Its face resembled that of a cat’s, but retained a 
strange sense of humanity in it.  There was a single red feather jutting from 
its left ear, and an odd, elliptical yellow mark on its forehead, and a similar 
one on its chest.   The most notable of all its features were its razor sharp 
claws; two of them on each hand of its short, thin arms.  Shinji looked down at 
it, and scratched its head, while it purred in exuberance.

“This is my Sneasel.  I caught him about a year ago in a cave not far from here.  
I was getting lonely living alone, so I found this little guy, and he’s been by 
my side ever since.”  Kazuma eyed his suspiciously.

“Are you… a Trainer?”  Shinji scoffed to himself at the idea, and rolled his 
eyes.

“Oh, God, no.  I never battle unless there happens to be a wild Pokemon in my 
way.  And even then; those occurrences are pretty uncommon around here.”  With 
that remark, Kazuma smirked.

“Well, then; how ‘bout a Pokemon Battle?  Might as well get used to it of we’re 
going to be fighting the Rockets.”  Shinji was amazed at Kazuma; he was the last 
person he thought would ever want to spearhead a battle right off the bat.  
Shinji was hesitant, but gave in to the challenge, and accepted it.  He took 
Kazuma by the shoulder, and walked with him onto Kazuma’s driveway, with the 
Sneasel toddling along.

“Alright then.  Show me what you got!”  Kazuma grinned.

“You asked for it!”  With that, he took out his Pokeball and tossed it upon the 
ground, releasing his Treecko for the impending battle.  The Sneasel noticed his 
contender, and readied himself.   

“Treecko!  Charge at it, and then dodge!  Flank him from the side!”  The small 
lizard dashed out right into the Sneasel’s line of sight, which attempted to cut 
the lizard apart with a slash from its claws.  Instead, the only thing its claws 
struck was the asphalt of the driveway.  The Treecko was out of its sight, and 
the next moment, the Sneasel was Tackled in the side, and was propelled several 
inches.  It gripped its side in a bit of pain, as the lizard cautiously eyed its 
foe in anticipation of its next move.  Without hesitation, the Sneasel launched 
at the Treecko, jumping a foot into the air, and planting one of its claws 
firmly into its tail.

“Treecko!”  Kazuma exclaimed, but his worry quickly faded once the lizard’s tail 
snapped off in its defense, and it escaped to the Sneasel’s back, and landed a 
forceful Quick Attack upon the back of the Sneasel’s head, knocking it 
unconscious.

Kazuma and his Treecko were triumphant, and a gleam appeared in his Pokemon’s 
eye.  It too was evidently happy from the outcome of the fight.  Shinji seemed 
to shrink in disappointment, as he despondently activated the lens on the Great 
Ball, returning his Sneasel its home.

“Dammit…” he cursed to himself, wallowing in his defeat.  The beam of red light 
reacted with the genetic makeup of the Pokemon, and it was transformed into pure 
energy, as it was called back into the orb. 

“Nicely done, for a new Trainer, Kazuma.  You keep it up; I still got a lot to 
learn, I guess” He rubbed the back of his head as he smiled.

“Hey, Shinji.”  Kazuma looked right at his friend, as he too retrieved his 
Pokemon into its ball.  “Thanks, man.”  He smiled.  “Come on; get your things.  
Let’s go Rocket hunting.” He said with a decisive tone to his voice.  Shinji 
grinned, and after he thanked him with a hearty handshake, he dashed off back to 
his house to get his belongings together.  This was going to be one hell of a 
road trip, he thought to himself.