I should have been expecting it, but it was still a gutpunch to see Flint of all people as a child.
He was…
Precisely like Forrest.
Young, naive, and more than a little brash.
Seeing him in army fatigues at all was just plain horrifying. I'd known he'd taken part in the war, and intellectually I knew that meant he would have been young… but seeing it made it so much more… understandable.
No wonder Flint was a mess.
"You! Let go of me!" he growled.
Rather than simply letting go, I released him like I'd been burnt. This caused him to stagger backwards.
"Urgh! What gives?" he growled.
"Nothing, just a…" For once, my mouth didn't dig me a hole as it stopped talking, allowing my mind to restart and catch up. "Trick of the light. I thought for a moment a shadow fell over us, but I was mistaken."
That had Flint tensing and looking above us. "I don't see any flying types, but… they can be tricky like that."
"Indeed, what duty were you assigned to?" I asked.
"Kitchens for the moment," he replied, searching my form only to get less than nothing thanks to the armor I was wearing.
"I didn't know Pewter had knights?" he asked, and his body shifted slightly. It was then that I noticed that, despite his army fatigues, he had small markings of the Crusher Tribe all over him.
Like the leather bracelet with beads, which were supposed to indicate whose family he was born into, along with how he had a belt of Mightyena fur around his pants rather than the clean leather one you normally wore.
Oh, this was Flint pre-injury then.
"Might want to see if you can trade," I suggested. "The Captain is going off on someone in there."
"Urgh, yeah, he can get in a mood after a raid," Flint replied, only to cough. "Or so I've heard."
His eyes flicked up and down. "Think you could get me out of it? Where do Knights stand in the chain of command?" he probed.
Turning back, I gave him a long look. It was an innocent enough question, and it was only because I knew what Crusher Tribe Scouts did that I knew it was more than it seemed.
Flint was fishing for information.
Heh, kid had no idea he was addressing the Overlord though. It was an amusing thought, but not one I could act on.
So, I decided to bullshit him. "Seperate command, more mobile and free. Something that we adopted when we saw Rota's success with their own," I offered.
Flint sneered for half a second, only for the expression to vanish. "Hmmm, I suppose," he muttered.
A pair of young boys marched up with slightly cocky attitudes, and I hummed. Could I… I decided to try my hand.
Adopting my 'Gym Leader' tone of voice, I snapped my fingers, channeling some aura into it to make it really crack.
"You two! Congratulations, you've just been assigned to help out in the kitchens report to Captain Nate! Now!" I barked.
They saluted me and started jogging.
"Oh, I see," whispered Flint, eying me with more respect now.
"You and I can see too the rubble. It'll give us a good chance to walk around and see how everyone is holding up after the raid."
"Eh?" Flint stopped, staring at me with a tense expression. When I didn't react beyond giving him a mild look over my shoulder, he hurried after me.
Heh, it was kind of fun to mess with him like this.
Urgh, no. I shouldn't, I thought to myself. I inhaled and exhaled carefully, making sure not to huff and puff within the armor, cause that would just sound weird, like I was trying to pull off a Darth Vader impression.
Instead, I controlled my breathing and mentally worked to separate the Flint before me from the Flint I knew, or would know… damn, this was getting messy. I already had so many ideas of what 'Flint' should be.
Gonna have to kick this back… or forwards to Future Brock, depending on whatever the hell was going on with Celebi.
"Shall we?" I asked.
"Yeah!" grunted Flint, jogging to follow up with my longer stride as Rhyhorn stomped along next to us. More than a few times Rhyhorn sniffed Flint and shot him confused looks.
"Rhyhorn?" he muttered aloud, clearing able to catch the smell of Flint as familiar but not understanding.
Amusingly enough, Flint stiffened up. "Ahahaha, that's a cool pokemon you got there! Why's he sniffing me?"
"Hmmm?" I tilted my head and considered all the ways I could play this. I deliberately held my silence for a long moment before speaking up, "Oh, he just thinks you smell nice. Must be a dab hand at rock types if they respond to you like this!" I pretended to gush.
"Ahaha, yeah, yeah, I guess you could say that," he said while licking his lips nervously.
Walking through the destroyed streets of Pewter, I suddenly understood what it was like to be a man truly out of time. I knew things would get better, but it was still heartbreaking to see so much of what I took for granted lying in ruins.
The main thoroughfare leading into Pewter had bricks, wires, and wood strewn all over it. Rather than cleaning it up entirely, people had swept it back enough to allow small wagons, jeeps and other such vehicles to pass.
More than once, I spotted Rapidash setting off for Cerulean or Viridian, typically with another rider departing a few minutes later.
It was strange to see the redundancy system in place, knowing that for every ten messages sent out, only seven would make it to their destination.
Rhyhorn and I quickly became rather popular with our ability to load up more than we should have been. Without meaning to, My eyes started searching for the destroyed houses.
"These houses got swept yeah?" I asked.
The others nearby shot me confused looks. "Not our jobs. It would have been handled right after the raid," someone remarked.
That was the first red flag shooting up in my mind.
"Yeeeeah, that's not good enough. There should be markers so that we know they've been cleared of people, pokemon, and danger," I pointed out.
Again, I drew blank stares.
I groaned. "Listen, hear me out. See that house over there?" I said pointing towards a house on the corner, which made me blink.
In the future, this would be Granny Haridan—
"Help me!" whispered a voice that was just barely audible.
"Rhyhorn, careful! We've got someone buried down there!" I called, adrenaline surging as I realised we had a trapped person in the building.
I began picking up slabs of building, carrying and loading them onto Rhyhorn who ferried them clear. When nothing appeared straight away, I began dusting the floor, clearing rugs and other fallen bits of furniture.
Flint stared at me in shock, only to jolt as Rhyhorn deposited another load of debris. "Sir Knight! Stop! The raid happened two days ago! We've got everyone that we co—"
My hands caught on a rug, and I ripped the rug away, revealing a trap door.
I tossed it open to find a middle-aged woman at the bottom of the stairs with her leg badly twisted.
"Mrs Haridan?" I asked, recognising the face, despite the lack of wrinkles.
"Heh, you make me feel older than I am," replied the woman who, in future years, would babysit my siblings and bring meals around to my house when I never asked for them.
Despite her last name, she was a kindly woman.
Seeing her at the bottom of the stairs, young, pale and… relieved, made something click in my mind.
I didn't need to be fighting against some horrible organisation with overpowered pokemon or a wild Legendary to save the world.
I just needed to save these people, cause in a way… they were my world.
Stepping into the basement, I didn't mind the crumbling walls or shaking ceiling. I marched down, scooped up Mrs Haridan and marched back out.
"I need a medevac for the Lady!" I ordered.
Instantly, I had people sprinting over to me. Before long I had them handling Mrs Haridan and carting her off. I turned to the other people who were with me, as I was going through the rubble.
"Who was in charge of search and rescue?" I demanded.
The group shuffled nervously and I sighed. This wasn't a good start. "Did anyone perform that duty?" I asked.
The group shifted again, not meeting my gaze.
"Right, here's what we're going to do," I began. My hand snapped to the side and I found myself pointing right down Twitter's lane… There would be a nice cafe at the end where…
That wasn't important right now. "We're zoning the areas and going in with a house by house search! If you've got rock or ground type pokemon, have them keep their hands to the ground, as they have great seismic senses for movement or sounds!" I said.
Everyone fell into their roles as I assigned them.
Without meaning to, I started catching people who were idling about or resting. I quickly had a workforce moving about me with me marching back and forth, stirring or correcting things as they needed to be done.
After the initial rescue, no one questioned me as we began searching each destroyed area.
Mrs Haridan had been first.
Then I found a growlithe with broken legs still trying to call for help as a little girl lay still under a beam.
"Careful! If her blood supply has been pinched for too long, releasing any pressure on the limbs will see poisonous blood reenter her heart and kill her!" I called as I made a tourniquet that went around her leg.
Only then did we lift the rubble off her and have her carted off.
A happy yip made me glance back to the Growlithe who was watching the girl depart happily. It was laying its head down now like it was going to take a long nap…
I scooped the dog up and deposited it next to the girl causing it to chuff in confusion.
"Little girl is going to need someone familiar to wake up to," I remarked, causing some light to reenter the tired pokemon's eyes.
I smeared some salve on the injuries to give it a little more of a boost.
"Good work boy," I muttered, patting the faithful dog. "Keep the pup with the girl! They both need treatment!" With that done, the pair were carted off.
"They going to be alright?" Flint asked me.
I gave the pair another look. Had I seen them around Pewter?
…
Yeah… I just probably hadn't noticed them.
"Yeah, they're going to be just fine," I replied, clapping him on the shoulder and noting how he exhaled in relief. "Come on, we got more people to save."
He perked up at that and I found myself smiling at him. Young Flint, even as a Crusher infiltrator… he was a good kid.
We found eight trapped people, some barely clinging to life while others were sitting idly in basements waiting for a rescue that they'd thought might never come. There had also been about a dozen pokemon, and no less than forty houses that still had gas running to them.
Suddenly, the Rapidash running all about didn't seem such a wise idea, and I had to wonder if the messenger losses started before they even left the city.
The system I set up was laughable compared to what a true Rescue team would have created.
It was like comparing a first responder's actions to that of a trained doctor.
But it was something, and it helped keep people safe more often than not.
It was as the day was winding down that I spotted something that made my blood turn cold.
Buried in the rubble was a small, innocuous pokeball-like shape. Only it had eyes, and was far too big to be a simple pokeball.
Walking up to the ball was Flint.
"Flint! Don't mov—"
Flint turned to look at me, but thankfully, he stopped moving. "Huh?" he asked.
Then he cupped his hands. "What's the matt—" was as far as he got as the slumbering Voltorb sparked up and exploded.
Flint was hurled into a nearby wall, where he smacked into it sickeningly.
"Medic!" I shouted, sprinting towards Flint's downed form. I slid next to him and began assessing his injuries. Thankfully, nothing looked broken but the way he'd hit that wall… That hadn't been good.
His eyes fluttered and tried to focus on me only to fail. One eye's pupil was significantly larger than the other. Damn, he had a concussion.
"Flint? Are you alright?"
"Is that… my name?" he asked with a slow slur.
"It is, and you've been helping rescue people around Pewter. You've been doing a hell of a job!" I praised quickly.
"That sounds good," he murmured. "I'm gonna go to sleep."
I pinched him, only for it to draw no reaction. The medics were quick to arrive and quick to cart him off.
Before I could follow him, Captain Nate arrived.
"What the hell's going on? I heard an explosion!"
I grit my teeth and turned to report the situation to him. "Captain Nate! Unexploded pokemon were lying in wait in the rubble! It was spotted but still accidentally set off. We have a casualty."
"Shit. Cunning fuckers must have planned for that. Sweep the ruins with some Thunder Waves where it's safe! I don't want any more surprises!"
"Actually, I'd recommend moves like Water Gun to irritate them out. There are some severed gas lines!" I pointed out.
That drew a scowl from the Captain, but he quickly nodded, accepting the correction. "Get me some water types then!"
With that somewhat handled I turned over control of the situation to a sergeant and headed off. I had no idea what shifts I was supposed to be running, but having cleared an entire block and taught people what to do I was confident I could leave them to it.
I couldn't save Pewter on my own.
Instead I headed for the hospitals where I encountered rows and rows of people and pokemon stacked up as nurses, doctors, and pokemon bustled back and forth.
An orderly approached me. "You're going to have to return your pokemon sir!" he asked politely.
Blanching, I did so, realising that I'd been holding up lanes of traffic merely standing on the threshold. Instantly, the congestion that had built up vanished with people darting here and there.
"This is all from the raid?" I asked.
The orderly shot me a look like I was particularly dim, and I coughed. "Sorry, been a long… few days," I muttered, which earned me a considerate nod.
"Yeah. Someone you were looking for?"
"Young kid. Private Flint. He was helping out with clearing houses when he triggered a slumbering Voltorb."
"Ah, yeah, hang on a moment," the man grunted as he flipped through some sheets of paper. "Over there," he eventually said.
"Thanks," I replied, only to notice that the man was already ignoring me, busy with other tasks. Sweeping through the rows upon rows of beds, I couldn't help but look at the injured, the bleeding, coughing, rasping masses that had been dumped here.
This was what passed for the best care possible in the situation until they got them off the front lines. Which was easier said than done.
Teleport relays wouldn't become established for a few more years yet, and there wasn't any Sabrina around with multiple powerhouse psychics to transport everyone to other facilities.
If I'd been allowed to come with my bag… I had entire shelves worth of medical goods that I held onto thanks to the bag's preservation abilities.
None of it was helpful now, but it didn't assuage my guilt, knowing that some of these injuries would be easy for me to deal with.
More than a few times, I passed by nurses applying a salve to pokemon and people alike.
"Here dear, this will help with the pain and the wound. Should have you up and about in no time!" one woman said.
A quick glance showed that it was… remarkably… no, it was exactly the same as the sable I'd created with Sam during our trip to Cerulean and back.
Huh, I had shown him how to make that, hadn't I?
And he'd shared it around.
Good.
When I spotted Flint's bed, I swallowed tightly. Flint… was much smaller laying down in it.
Numerous times in the past I'd had to tuck Forrest into bed, and he'd never looked this… still before.
I knelt and brushed his hair back gently. It was oddly easier to approach him like this than when he was an adult.
His eyes fluttered for a moment, only to remain shut. "Poor dear, the men that brought him in said he'd been saving people," remarked a kindly voice.
I turned to find an old woman bundled up in blankets in the bed next to him.
"He was. I was too slow in spotting a threat, and he walked right into it," I remarked.
"Hmmm you're a good CO then, but this," she waved her hand at the mass of injured. "Isn't anyone but those bastard Johtans fault," she said, suddenly losing her kindly visage as hate filled her eyes.
"War is worse than hell," I replied idly.
She tilted her head in thought before nodding. "Hmmm, you look tired deary. Perhaps go find a bunkhouse to rest up in? You won't save anyone else if you collapse."
"Hmmm, alright. If he wakes up, remind him that he was doing good, and that I'll try to check in with him," I offered.
"I can do that," she murmured, adjusting her blankets and revealing that she was missing a leg. "It's not like I'm going anywhere quickly," she remarked.
"Not until you get a rider pokemon, and maybe even a Machoke to help you around," I replied easily.
"Eh?"
I shot her a look. "A rider pokemon? Something you can ride around town with? Or a Machoke? For all that they're a bit more disposed to fighting, Machoke can be some of the kindest pokemon around. Great for lifting, carrying, or helping people. They share a lot of our physiology after all."
I glanced around, expecting to see a few only to blink when I saw a pair of Chansey. That was it. No Machoke carrying people or supplies. No grass types performing aromatherapy, and certainly no fire types warming people up.
"Huh, weird they haven't employed them… with the mountains to the west, I would have thought it would be easy to see a few Machop or Machoke around…" I shook my head. "Maybe I'm just tired," I demurred even as the old woman gained a thoughtful look.
"I'll have to remember that," she muttered.
Taking her advice, I sought out a bunkhouse, which I happily lay down in after stripping off my armor.
Then I lay down and caught up with some sleep.
When I woke up in the early evening, there was a rather loud bustle of people going about their business, even with little to no light.
Ah, of course, they wouldn't be able to use lit for fear of night bominb runs.
At first, I thought they were preparing for another raid only to spot smiles on most people's faces.
Approaching one group made a wide gesture. "What's got everyone's spirits up?"
"The Captain sent out a foraging party and found a bunch of berry groves in the forest! They found so many that rationing got lifted!"
"I heard a sage of the forest came through!"
"Thought it was a samurai?" suggested another man.
"Nah, some guy stationed in the forest told the captain. Weirdo wearing armor is the rumor."
I was suddenly both offended and glad I wasn't wearing my armour. Giving the group a nod, I moved back to the bunkhouse only to find Celebi sitting atop my armour.
"Cele?" it asked.
"You're asking me… if I'm ready to leave?" I suggested, uncertain.
Celebi nodded and I stared. "You're not going to trick me or suddenly sweep my legs out from under me?" I probed, not trusting this little sneak at the least.
Celebi rolled its eyes and shook its head. "Cele, cele, celebi!" it squawked, holding a hand to its chest like it was wounded.
"Well, maybe don't be such a prick," I replied, not caring if I was even close to right with my guess for what it had just said.
It glared at me, then huffed.
Before it could do anything, I jerked a thumb over my shoulder. "Was I really needed for those people? To help Pewter? It seems… kind of trivial for a pokemon like you to help out like that," I suggested.
Celebi rose into the air and glowed. Suddenly, it didn't look so small and mischievous. There was a palpable aura of power and agelessness to it.
"Celebi," it intoned, and despite having only the barest idea of what it said, I got a taste of time and space and small moments building into nothing or something through branches of time that spread or collapsed or…
The glow surrounding Celebi vanished a moment later, and I blinked in shock. Then I felt something wet running from my nose. Oh, a glimpse of time and space had caused my brain to start melting.
That was terrifying.
"R-right," I muttered, surprised by the show of power.
Celebi smirked and patted the armour.
Right, it obviously wanted me suited up once more.
"Alright," I replied, quickly donning the armour. When I'd done that, I turned back to the Legendary pokemon. "Time for home?" I asked hopefully.
Celebi shook its head once and darted forward to push me.
I braced, but in doing so I took a small step backwards.
In the blink of an eye, I went from standing in a small room to being outside in a small town. The tang of salt on the wind and the dull roar of waves let me know I was close to the coast.
I glanced around, uncertain of where…
No, those mountain ranges to the north-east could possibly be the Silver Ranges… or they could be something else entirely.
I glanced around and hummed only to spot a trio of large oak trees standing in the middle of the square with a sign in front of them.
"Welcome to Bark Town," I read aloud.
Huh, alright that was the where, but what about the when? Another look around showed me nothing significant, only for a flash of light at the top of the Silver Ranges to alert me to what looked like… was that a Moltres and a Zapdos fighting?
A rumble through the ground had me staggering as the earth shook.
Then from outside the town, smoke began to filter in and I stiffened as ahead of me on the road a shape appeared. It was spewing a long stream of smoke that could only be Smokescreen.
Instead of dissipating, it caused a roiling fog that swept over the ground before rising like a mist.
The Flareon hadn't seen me and Rhyhorn yet, but I had a sneaking suspicion now of what was going on. A glance in the other four directions revealed that there was more smoke billowing in.
This was an entrapment method.
Whoever was commanding these pokemon was having them entire the town from the cardinal points to fill it with choking smoke.
That… that was diabolical.
Then I saw smoke starting to drop down from above and I realised it wasn't just from the four compass points. It was also from above.
People cried out, and from various homes, people staggered out, clutching loved ones or precious items, only to stagger as the smoke truly hit them. It rushed into their homes like a mass of hungering Ekans and from the cries I knew more people were being impacted now.
More than a few of the cries were that of children, sparking something within me.
"Rhyhorn! Dig and catch that Flareon in your mouth! Then push it into the ground with another Dig!" I ordered. Take out that Flareon!" I ordered, knowing that giving that pokemon any chance of an actual fight would be a mistake.
I clenched my fists even as Rhyhorn dove into the ground. Through the forming bond I felt something crystalise. In this action, we were in sync and from that every drop of aura meant more as I fed Rhyhorn what I had.
A soft yelp was the only sound Flareon got off before being dragged into the ground.
I felt the ground heat up a moment later as the fire type responded with a Flamethrower. Thankfully, under the ground it was restrained. It allowed Rhyhorn to bully Flareon into the tunnel wall and smash it over and over rather than bringing it back up.
If Flareon had known it was part of a fight before this it might have been able to escape, but a cheap shot could make a lot of difference.
As it was, Flareon still escaped the tunnel in a burst of speed.
I had a moment's warning with Rhyhorn flashing a warning to me.
I twisted, hand still clenched as I threw a blind punch.
My fist slammed into the fluffy, fire type in the face and sent it skipping into a nearby tree that quickly ignited. I began cursing as the momentary contact registered.
Shit that pokemon was hot! The pokedex entry didn't feel like a fucking hyperbole after punching it! Shit! Shit! Shit!
I shoved my hand right into the earth and sighed in relief as Rhyhorn, his body steaming, marched out of the hole, gaze locked in as he looked around for the Flareon only to blink in surprise when he saw Flareon was knocked out.
"I got him bud, thanks for the warning. I said as I flexed my hand in the soil. Ahhhhh, that felt good." A quick glance around had me humming. We'd gotten one of the pokemon but with at least four others covering the town in smoke there was going to be a lot of problems.
Fighting another pokemon like that however… I drew my hand out and began smearing salve all over Rhyhorn's form. I even drew out some Cheri berries that we'd found on our trip. I began rubbing them all over Rhyhorn.
"This might help stave off the fires a bit. Eat one now," I ordered, knowing that there was a risk of being burned with all the heat. "We need to take out the others, alright?"
"Rhy!" he barked once and we moved to the nearest pokemon spewing smoke.
This one, rather than advancing into the town, was hiding among the trees.
I was surprised to find that it was a Torkoal of all things. A Hoenn pokemon?
Thankfully we were able to catch the pokemon by surprise and once more beat it up before it could muster a true resistance.
An itch in the back of my neck still had us diving into the ground once we'd finished knocking the pokemon out.
A wave of fire washing over our position made Rhyhorn and I swallow fearfully.
Then a voice called out. "Torkoal? Where are you? Did a wild pokemon truly knock you out like that? Urgh! Useless foreign pokemon! I should have just brought my reserve pokemon!" scoffed a familiar, if much younger voice.
I sat in the tunnel, my heart beating loudly.
"Charizard, burn the forest just in case there are any lurking threats, it will also close the noose around Bark Town."
A rumble from one of Kanto's signature pokemon was followed by another wave of heat washing over us.
I swallowed, this trip in time suddenly became a lot more worrying.
This was the calamity of Bark Town that caused it to burn down. It was the final event in the war, only, instead of being a natural disaster as most assumed…
It was Blaine.
Shit, why couldn't is just be a natural disaster?" I muttered.
That would have been so much easier to handle.
"Fuck you Celebi," I growled, knowing that I had to find a way to save what would become New Bark Town from under Blaine's nose of all people.
Rhyhorn and I shared a look, and rather than back down, we both nodded.
Time to be big stupid heroes.
_________________
A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support!
Sorry for leaving it here! I originally had this chapter being the end of the Time Arc with the fight playing out rather quickly but I felt that didn't do Blaine justice.
So instead I drew a few significant moments out during the chapter and also made blaine a bit more sinister in his methods of murdering an twins single handedly.
So instead of having the arc finished next chapter is going to be Brock attempting to save Bark Town!
Thanks go to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!