4 Yankee in Wonderland: Ch4 (end)
I find the idea of Casey to be humorous. He's purpose built to be the single most infuriating rival someone like Mark could have. Mark's this semi jaded ex military vet, with a big scary dragon team, and grand ambitions. Casey is this bubbly, sheltered, frail, "prettyboy" that uses the funny pink type and hard counters him without even really trying.
-The Dragon King-
-Yankee in Wonderland: Ch4-
The sun had risen over the Sinnoh Region, gracing it with another warm morning.
Marcus was in the Pokemon Center. Again. Luckily he had managed to convince the rather irate Nurse Joy that it had been another Pokemon attack (which it technically had been) and so he got free medical care for the injuries he sustained fighting Bagon.
Free Healthcare for Pokemon attacks sounded really generous, until Mark went in for treatment and all they did was put some bandages on him, and then have Chansey use a healing move.
The medical field was dead, who needs years of experience or expensive college degrees when you can just have your convenient pink blob clap its hands and magic away the injuries. Fuck just healing wild attacks, and the Pokemon of licensed trainers, for free! With how little they did there was no fucking reason prices should be even remotely similar to his old world!
No wonder they had been willing to keep him as a patient for a few months until he either finished getting his trainer license, or his memories came back. Their profit margins had to be fucking Bull Shi t. He bet Nurse Joy was sleeping on a bed made of hard cash, and exclusively took shits on a private gold toilet. (or whoever it was that owned the center)
"At least it's not a long recovery time." Marcus grumbled as he took a bite of his cereal. "This world has it so much easier, it's genuinely unfair."
He was down in the lobby of the Pokemon Center, where there were several booths and tables for trainers to sit at and eat while waiting for their Pokemon to be healed.
Bagon, naturally, got his own bowl of cereal, and got to eat at the table. Ain't no Pokémon of Mark's was a chump, they deserved MVP treatment.
"Bag Bagon." The Dragon said as he chowed into his knockoff Cheerios.
"You said it, dude." Mark nodded, not understanding the words, but agreeing completely with the tone. "It's too early to be awake."
Bagon paused, then raised its head and sniffed the air. His eyes narrowed and he growled.
"MAAARK!" Casey cheered as he jogged over. "I'm so glad you're here! I didn't see you at the school this morning, so I thought you might have left town already."
"Why would I go back to that dumbass school? We already passed and got our Trainer Licenses, there's nothing more I need from it. And what are you wearing?" Mark made a face at Casey's outfit. "Why is it so… colorful?"
"Do you like it?" Casey giggled. "I wanted to match my Pokemon's color, and make myself more memorable for sponsors!"
Casey wore a light pink and baby blue jacket with white shorts, and a pair of matching light blue running shoes with mint green laces. When combined with how his strawberry blond hair had been brushed straight, it was clear he was aiming for… something.
"You have Pokemon to match with?" Mark asked with an unimpressed raised eyebrow.
"Yeah! Check it out!" Casey spun around to show off a big pink backpack, which two small Pokemon were sticking their heads out of.
One was a Ralts, and the other was a pink… thing.
Bagon growled at them, causing Ralts to shrink back and the pink blob to puff up in challenge.
"What is that thing?" Marcus asked in bewilderment. "It looks like someone put a wig on a gumball."
"This is Hatenna!" Casey smiled as he lifted his second starter out of the bag. "She's a Psychic type that evolves into a Psychic Fairy, her kind are almost exclusively found in the Galar region."
"The what region?"
"How did you even pass Trainer School?" Casey sighed in second hand embarrassment.
"Because I'm in Sinnoh! Best region in the world, baby! How could the Aluuha or Galdare regions possibly affect me in any way? Seems like an unimportant waste of time."
"It's very important! With how globalized the world is, new species of Pokemon are being introduced to every region, both intentionally and accidentally, at ever increasing rates! It's something of a small global issue that a bunch of eco groups are worried about."
"Bah." Mark scoffed. "You got Sinnoh, with all the plot. Kanto and Jhoto are where it all started. Unova is somewhere vaguely nearby, they have all the big cities, and Pokemon Hollywood. Hell there's even Hoenn, it's personally not my favorite region, half of all its routes are water, but hey it's not too shabby. How could you possibly need any more than that?"
"You can't just ignore parts of the world you don't think you need, that's not how it works!"
"Sure it is." Mark refuted with pure facts and logic. As far as he was concerned, if he hadn't played a game in the region, it didn't matter.
"There's Kalos, Alola, Galar, Paldea, Fiore, Almia, Oblivia, Ransei, Orre-"
Casey began listing off every region there was, causing Mark to groan with the beginning of a headache.
"Tell you what. Let's get a third opinion to settle this. Hey! Bagon!"
Bagon looked up from his meal, several Poke-Os stuck on his snout.
"Have you ever heard any of the words that just came out of this guy's mouth?" Mark asked, leaning on elbow on the table.
Bagon shook his head.
"Look at that, he agreed with me! He's practically an expert already. That's two votes against one, I win."
But rather than admit defeat at the hands of democracy, Casey cooed when he saw Mark's starter.
"Oh my gosh! You really did catch a Dragon! That's awesome!"
Bagon sat up straight and preened at the attention.
"And he's so cute ! Just like Ralts and Hatenna!"
Bagon made a fake gagging sound.
"Casey, Bagon's a badass, not 'cute'. This is the cool guys table." Mark tapped his pen on the cheap black plastic of the tabletop. "If you want to gush over your team being 'cute', then you can do it over there." He pointed his pen over to the next table over and Bagon barked in agreement.
"Bag!"
"Fine! Maybe I will go do that!" Casey puffed up his cheeks in a pout and left, Hatenna sticking her tongue out as they walked away.
Bagon growled at the Fairy types as they left, but Mark ignored that and pushed the cheap notepad he'd bought into the center of the table.
"The first Gym is a Rocky type specialist. So we need to get you leveled up, get you used to fighting other teams, and get you a move that counters Rock Type's natural defensiveness. I looked up the moves that the Pokenet says Bagons can learn, and only three of them are super effective against Rock, all of which are TMs. But Hydropump would be a fortune, and Mud Slap sucks, so that leaves us with just the last option, Brick Break. I'm not sure how we're gonna afford it, but we'll try."
"But that's just our first step, our end goal is to beat Cynthia, and become Champions of the whole region. Now not only is Cynthia a total badass who could take on every Gym leader at once, she's also smoking hot, and I'm pretty sure her Garchomp is a female. If we just win hard enough to impress her during our fight, the two of us may have a way in. Get what I'm saying?"
Bagon nodded, entirely serious, and completely in agreement.
"To do that we need to get strong, very strong. We can't afford to be just any team, we need to be THE team. The officer academy taught me that you should come at these kinds of big long term problems from a top down perspective, so here's the rough idea."
Mark briefly sketched down some long term steps to aim for.
Land. Labor. Capital.
Then, after a moment, he added 'Pokemon Team' to the list.
His college economics professor would strangle him for changing the factors of production, but if he really cared that much he should have tried not dying in the apocalypse.
First off, his Team.
He needed to get an absolute killer team if he was going to stand any hope against the Elite Four, let alone Cynthia. Luckily, he already had a great start with Bagon. A fully grown Salamence would be able to do way more than carry its own weight.
Second, Land.
Easy in theory, hard in practice. He needed a large chunk of land of his own to set up a base, and not have to worry about prying eyes so he could work on some big projects. But to do that he would need to either buy it from someone, which was very expensive, or go to a place so inhospitable and dangerous that no one had bothered to claim it.
Third, Labor.
Another easy one. Pokemon were great labor! Stronger, faster, and more durable than any human!
Need a tunnel dug? Sure you could spend thousands of dollars on heavy digging machinery and then pay for the crew necessary to use it all. Or you could just get a couple Drillburs do it in a day or two.
A mining operation with a dozen or so Pokemon that could dig, had the potential for big money. But when all Pokeballs were smart linked to your trainer ID, and your trainer ID was controlled by the Pokemon League, and the Pokemon League were the ones who required by law that no trainers have more than six Pokemon at any time… Well, it made the idea a bit tougher. Of course there was nothing to say he couldn't employ some random people as his grunts.
There were trainers willing to serve Team Aqua, whose end goal was to flood the world, it couldn't possibly be that hard to get some grunts on board!
Fourth, Capital.
Money. How did a Pokemon Trainer make money? TLDR, they didn't.
He had spent a long while looking it up online, and the long story short was that unless you were sponsored by either a Gym or a regional professor, you were completely on your own. Betting on battles was a common practice, and you could make some cash off that, but nowhere near enough to support a full team. Hence why most of the random trainers you met in the games didn't actually have a full team, and even still the highest cause for trainers dropping back into civilian life was monetary issues.
Pokemon were expensive to train. They required nutrient rich meals, and specialized care tools, and items, and TMs, and so on and so forth. The common strategy was to try to catch the attention of an organization or wealthy schmuck, and then impress them enough that they decided to sponsor you.
If he was going to support a full team he needed a way to make a ton of money, and he needed a way to make it sooner rather than later. Current ideas involved using a Psychic Pokemon to win the lottery, hunting down rare Pokemon to sell on the market, introducing the scam of crypto currency to the world, and getting a ditto to mass pump out Pokemon eggs to auction off cheaply.
Those four things consisted of the very loosely thought out "Phase one" of Mark's master plan.
If he could get all four of those going in tandem, he would be able to easily hold his own against any of the countless evil teams running around the world. Hell, he could even make his own little group to serve his own ends. It wouldn't be called 'team' anything, because that would be just begging for a Main Character to swoop in and cause him a headache.
Phase two was even less planned out, and had some pretty wild goals, that were mostly just taking advantage of meta knowledge he knew from the games. But that needed all of phase one knocked out to even have a chance at happening.
"And then phase three is the simplest of them all!" Mark tossed his pen on the table and leaned back. "It's just us sitting back, chilling, and doing whatever the fuck we want because not a single person could possibly be able to beat us!"
"BAG!"
"Oh, you like that idea of being unbeatable, huh?" He grinned. "Well then let's get started."
-The Dragon King-
The nearby park was nice and open, clear of any flammable trees, and more or less empty at this time of day. So it was a perfect training ground for any broke aspiring trainer.
"Today you begin your training, and take your first step to becoming the most badass Pokemon in the world!"
Marcus paced up and down in a line, mimicking the pose his drill sergeant used to do back in basic training.
"These soda cans that I have stolen from the trash can and lined up, and now your mortal enemy ! They hate you with every fiber of their being, and you hate them just as much back!"
Bagon snarled at the soda cans sitting on the ground.
"Good! Use your anger! You will be demonstrating every move you know on these cans, so that I can build up a list of your abilities. Don't hold back! Remember, you hate these cans! They despise you! They don't think you're good enough!"
"Bagon!"
"Don't tell me that, tell them that!" Mark pointed dramatically at the cans. "Kill them all!"
"BAGON!" The Dragon shouted and glared at the cans with pure hate before charging forward.
"Leer." Mark noted down in his notebook. Personally he wasn't sure how moves like that were supposed to work in an actual fight, but hey, he wasn't going to complain.
Bagon slammed into the first can, sending it flying off into the distant treeline.
"Tackle." Mark wrote down. A nice, basic move, perfect for any situation.
Bagon reared back and slammed his head into the next can, flatting it completely. But he clearly wasn't satisfied because he bit into the compressed metal and ripped it in two, the two largest fangs in his mouth seemed to glint slightly as he did so.
"Headbutt and Bite, that second one is great for some extra type coverage."
Bagon took a deep breath and spewed a shower of sparks onto an Apple-aid can, singing it slightly, but not doing much else.
"Ember." Granted, it was a really shitty Ember, but it was an Ember.
Bagon seemed to get angry at his previous move's performance, if his scowl was any indication.
"BAAAAA!"
A stream of bluish purple flames washed over the remaining cans, melting them into a cheap aluminum mush and setting the area around them on fire.
"And Dragon Breath, which seems to be both our only ranged option, your only Dragon type move, as well as your strongest attack overall." Mark closed the notebook with a snap. "In the games your stats were more geared towards physical damage, rather than ranged. So we need to look into fixing your ember, and trying to use your experience with Dragon Breath as a reference to learn a physical move, like Dragon Claw."
Mark pocketed his notebook and straightened his back with a pop.
"Luckily I already know, first hand, that you can hold your own in a fight, and I know just the place to get you some easy battle experience. So we should get going there, preferably before that park official gets any closer and sees the fire."
-The Dragon King-
It was the last day of the Trainer School, specifically dedicated to bonding with your new starter. It was supposed to be a day of celebration and fun, where you spent the whole day goofing off on the outside gym, and celebrated the first day of your Pokemon journey.
Casey was really wishing he hadn't come.
"You totally cheated!" One student shouted.
"I-I didn't." Casey tried to defend himself. "Ralts and Hatenna both chose to come with me by themselves."
"You're sho bad at lying." Matthew Birch snorted as he pushed up his glasses. "You don't just catch a Raltsh. My father'sh great coushin, the famoush professhor Birtch, shaid the only way he wash able to get a Raltsh to hstudy was to buy it from a breeder."
"You had to have cheated! We were only given one Pokeball, how could you have possibly afforded another on your own!?" Another yelled.
"His parents are rich, I bet they bought him the extra Pokeball."
"I bet they bought him a hundred Pokeballs! All without him earning any of them!"
"No, I bet they just bought the Pokemon for him!"
"No matter how you got it, it doeshent matter. My gradesh were sho good, that I qualified to get a region shtarter from the professhor." Matthew Birch chortled. "Here, let me show you a real shtarter."
The chubby child unhooked a Pokeball from his belt and, with a flash of white light, a Chimchar popped out.
"He got one of the Pokemon from Professor Rowan!" Someone whispered in awe. "That's so cool."
"Shee? That's a real shtarter."
Casey stepped backward, shrinking down in embarrassment.
"Where's that nerd with the Harry Potter looking glasses!? The one with an ego twice the size of his massive football shaped head!"
Before the bullying could continue a loud and brash voice startled everyone. And they all turned as Marcus stomped into the clearing, surprisingly confident for someone covered in so many badges that it looked as though he recently lost a fight with a car.
"I'm ashuming you mean me.'' Matthew stepped forward with an unimpressed look. "But my Glasshesh aren't hairy, and I've never heard of a 'football' before."
"I don't know if you not getting that reference makes you more or less of a nerd, but I don't really care right now." Mark jabbed a finger at him. "You've been acting suck up, and talking shit every day even after I punched your face in. I challenge you to a battle!"
At the word "battle", the Pokeball on his belt clicked open, Bagon having forcibly popped the lid from the inside.
"A Bagon, hm?" Matthew adjusted his glasses thoughtfully as Bagon materialized in front of him. "Very well, thish should be a shuitable firsht victory for Chimchar."
"Ah ah, not so fast. I play for keeps. I say we put down a bet, prove to each other who's really the better trainer. A hundred bucks, what do you say?"
"Bucksh?"
"Dollars." Mark corrected himself with an eyeroll. Stupid localizations. "One hundred Pokedollars, the price of a Pokeball. Come on, you sounded so confident a moment before, don't tell me the nephew of the great Professor Birch is scared ?"
"I am not shcared of anything!" The Birch boy snapped. "Deal. Chimchar, prepare for battle!"
"Char!"
"Bag!"
The two Pokemon stared each other down, and the rest of the new trainers backed up rapidly, to give them a lot of space.
Mark smirked. He had this in the fucking bag.
The Pokemon you got from the Professors were always level five. Bagon (if he remembered correctly) learned Dragon Breath somewhere around level ten. He'd been slightly worried by the fact that the idea of "levels" didn't seem to be a thing in this world, which he kind of expected considering the anime would have made no sense if you tried to apply levels to it. But the logic was still there!
Also, even if that hadn't worked out, he knew the kid's type a mile away. You saw them all the time in the military academies, armchair thinkers who thought they knew everything there was to know about combat. They thought that just because they could list every strategy on a test, and could tell you why the great generals of the past had failed, that they wouldn't wind up making those exact same mistakes.
They didn't realize how hard it was to remember those lessons in the heat of the moment. No one could ever understand how hard it was to come up with the "best possible plan" in the three seconds of time you had to choose what to do, when adrenaline was flooding your system, and you couldn't hear anything over the screams, the explosions, and the blood pumping in your ears.
Matthew crossed his arms and smirked. This was going to be easy.
This idiot really thought he had a chance just because his Dragon types were resistant to the starting types of Grass, Water, Fire, and Electric? Dragon types were some of the worst Pokemon any beginner trainer could have! They were too headstrong and didn't listen to strict orders very well. Just because his 'mon might be resistant to Chimchar's fire, didn't make it a good fight.
Also, with how poorly this man child had done in Trainer School, he clearly had never been in a real Pokemon battle.
"Everybody stand back, I don't want anyone getting caught in the total beatdown I'm about to give this guy." Mark cracked his knuckles. "Bago, open strong with a Dragon Breath!"
"Jump and ushe Ember." Matthew ordered calmly.
The lab starter leaped over the wave of blue flame, and rained a barrage of flaming red pellets at Bagon, which exploded as they impacted the ground. They POP ed loudly on impact, sounding like large firecrackers, and blasting shallow holes into the ground.
Bagon tried to dodge, but was hit by more than a few.
"Shit! Use Leer, and then rush in close for a Headbutt!"
"BAAAA!"
Bagon was on board with this plan, in fact he was so on board with the second part that he decided to skip the first part entirely in favor of rushing Chimchar and slamming into him with a Tackle.
Matthew scoffed. Just as he thought, the newbie couldn't control the Dragon. Now all he had to do was wait for the fool to start panicking about how his Pokemon was acting on its own and-
"YEAH! GET 'EM! GET 'EM! TEAR HIM TO PIECES! RIP HIM APART!"
Matthew gawked at the sheer brazen stupidity he was witnessing. Mark wasn't reprimanding his Pokemon's insubordination, he was actively encouraging it!
"BITE HIS LEG! BITE HIS LEG! DEATH ROLL! BITE HIS LEG AND ROLL! DEATH ROLL, LIKE AN ALLIGATOR!"
"BRRLURLRURLGGGHRLRH" Bagon growled like a dog, with Chimcar's leg in his mouth, as he rolled around on the dirt, twisting the leg painfully.
The chimp cried out in pain and tried to free itself, but that only caused Bagon to lift him up and start slamming him on the ground.
"YEAH! YEAH! FUCK HIM UP! THRASH HIM ON THE GROUND!"
"Chimchar, no!" The brutality snapped Matthew out of his shock. "Chimchar flare your tail to force him to drop you! Then Scratch to cover your retreat! Quickly!"
Chimchar gasped for breath, and its fiery tail ballooned out in every direction, like a burning wave. It didn't last for long but it was more than enough to make Bagon rear back in pain. Chimchar took the opening for revenge, and landed two heavy Scratches that cut into Bagon's belly, before beating a hasty retreat.
"Great job! Now take advantage of your dishtance and ushe Ember!"
"Your voice is so annoying! Bagon shut him up, and blast it away with Dragon Breath!"
Both Pokemon obeyed and a stream of Dragon TE slammed into a onslaught of burning bolts, causing an explosion that covered the whole battlefield with smoke.
"What a predictable counter! Chimchar, use the exploshion as a smoke screen! Rush Bagon down!"
"Don't let him! Use Dragon Breath again, sweep it across the battlefield!" Mark called out, but Bagon ignored him in favor of charging headfirst into the smoke with a warcry.
There was a shriek of surprise from Chimchar (who had been preparing to dodge a Dragon Breath), and an audible thunk of a Headbutt connecting. Then the Fire type was sent flying out of the smoke, landing at Matthew's feet completely out cold.
"Or you could do that. I mean, that works too, I guess." Mark shrugged with a wide grin. "That's still a victory either way!"
"Chimchar!" Matthew cried out and quickly returned his starter to its ball. He glared at Mark as he fished out a wad of cash from his pocket and threw it to the ground, before rushing off in the direction of the Pokemon Center.
Sweet sweet victory. Mark walked over and pocketed his new money. He flipped through the bills, noted that the kid had cut him short, and mentally counted up his new bank account balance.
$112.
What? Did you really think he had the kind of cash to legitimately make that bet? He had spent the last two months checking every vending machine in the city daily! He was flat fucking broke!
"YOU FUCKING DID IT MAN!" Marcus laughed and swooped Bagon up as he ran over, and threw him up into the air. "That's what I'm talking about! You wrecked them! Come on! Give me a victory fistbump!"
Bagon landed on his feet and, lacking the arms necessary to bump Mark's outstretched fist, headbutted it instead.
"AAAHHHH!" Mark screamed in a mix of hype for his first ever win, and pain from his still healing fingers.
"BAAGON!" Bagon shouted with his trainer.
The kid had done well for his first time under pressure, but he'd been doomed to slip up as soon as the battle started and Mark pressed the initiative.
But still, he'd put up a good fight. That move with Chimchar's tail especially… Using a Pokemon's abilities in ways that weren't really moves had a lot of potential. But he'd have to think about that later.
"So then." Mark clapped his palms together, avoiding his finger, and turned to the crowd. "Which one of you is next?"
-The Dragon King-
"Starly get away! Fly up high, where he can't reach you!"
"Don't let that bird get away! Jump after it and clamp on with Bite!"
"Quick, Starly, use Quick Attack to dodge!"
Mark's eyebrows raised as he watched the little bird envelope itself in a white light and blast itself away without any regard for its previous trajectory or momentum.
"Note to self, moves can be used a lot more creatively here." He said and scratched his chin. He'd have to look into that later.
"Great job Starly!" The kid, across the courtyard from him, cheered. "Now swing behind him and use Peck while he's falling!"
The bird dove down and swung around like its trainer said, but the vocal command had given Bagon more than enough forewarning to turn his head and blast the incoming Starly with a point blank Dragon Breath.
"That's what I'm talking about!" Mark shouted and fist-head bumped Bagon as he came running back. "Another win for the dream team!"
The other kids wised up pretty fast after Birch's defeat, and none of them were willing to put any serious cash on the line. But more than a few were willing to do smaller wagers to test their starters against Bagon.
The kid he had beaten returned his Pokemon, and handed over a small handful of cash with a grumble. Mark was more than happy to add it to his slowly growing wallet, totalling up his savings to 185 Pokedollars.
"That's fucking money baby!" Marcus cackled with glee as he slapped Bagon on the back of the head. Bagon laughed and playfully chomped on his thickly gloved hand.
From a distance Casey watched enviously.
He was a trainer now, he had two Pokemon, even. Why couldn't he be that confident?
"No wonder people love this! Holy crap this adrenaline rush is something else!"
"BAG!"
"I have absolutely zero idea what you just said, but I can tell that you agree with me!"
"BAGON!"
"YEAH! BAGON! THAT'S FUCKING RIGHT!"
Casey hesitantly approached the pair. "H-Hey Mark."
"Casey? When did you get here?" Mark asked as he turned around.
"I've been here for a while." Casey nervously scratched his neck. "You, uh, you were pretty good in those fights."
"Well I have to be good if I'm going to take on Oreburgh's Gym soon."
"Oreburgh?" Casey asked, surprised. "Are you sure? Roark is the newest Gymleader, and is the weakest of the bunch, sure, but Gardenia's Gym is in this city. And she's always styled her Gym as beginner friendly! Her entrance fee is the lowest, she doesn't require any number of other badges for entry, like Sunyshore or Pastora do, and she awards her badge to people that impress her even if they don't win."
"Why would I want that? If I get a badge, it's going to be because I deserve it, not because of pity points. It'll be because my team and I beat the Gymleader so completely that they have no choice other than to give me it!"
"I don't know, I still think-"
"Ahp Ahp Ahp!" Marcus raised a hand to silence him. "Which of us just won four battles in a row? That's right, me and Bagon. I'm something of an expert, and Bagon's a badass. We know what we're doing."
"It's 'Bagon and I'." Casey corrected under his breath.
Mark ignored him.
"The rock gym was always first, so we're going there first- that's just how it works, trust me, Bagon can handle it." Marcus grinned and slapped a hand on Bagon's head-shell-thing. "Roarb is total pushover, and only has like three guys."
" Roark got the position because of his dad, and has something to prove. He never takes it easy on anyone, and going in with that attitude will just piss him off more."
"And I have something to prove too, mainly the fact that I'm better than him." Mark clapped a hand on Casey's shoulder with a wide grin. "I think I can handle myself."
Casey stared up at the grizzled Veteran with awe and wonder, wanting nothing more than to be just free of hesitation and self doubt… Had Mark's eyes always had a red tint to them?
"You know, typically, Pokemon trainers who are doing the Gym circuit will travel in small groups. If you're already headed out to Oreburgh, do you think I cou-"
"Nope."
Mark smiled and pushed Casey out of the way before walking off.
This was his adventure. No one was going to spoil it for him.
-The Dragon King-
Mark sighed as he sat down on a hill at the edge of the city and looked out at the skyline, Oreburgh's light glinting in the faint distance, and Bagon snoring slightly as he nodded off next to him.
A strange feeling settled in his soul.
This... this was really happening. A new world. A new chance.
It felt almost as liberating as it was heartrending.
So much of his life, so many tears, so much blood spilt, so much pain, he'd given so much for his country, and now it was gone. In the end all of it had been worthless, and he'd failed every single person who relied on him.
But now he was free. His oath was fulfilled, his duty finally over.
"I served to the very fucking end." Marcus said as he cracked open a beer, his first purchase with his new money. "When everyone else left, jumped ship, or deserted, I stayed until the end, and I fucking survived. There's not really much to come to terms with, I already knew- always knew, deep down that we were just delaying the inevitable."
He raised his beer can up in toast.
"To everything that was lost, and to a new oath."
Marcus tipped the can back, chugging the entire thing in one go, even as drops spilled down his chin. With each gulp he remembered things from a different world. Battles lost, friends gone missing, and cities burning as nuclear sirens blared.
"My new oath that I'm never gonna let it happen again!" Mark declared as he crushed the empty can in his grip. "I'm gonna become the strongest! To the point that no one will be able to even touch me! And no one will ever take anything from me ever again!"
And in the final rays of the setting sun, his eyes gleamed red.
Giratina smirked from his viewing port in the distortion world.
It was all going to plan.
-Chapter End-
-Arc: Yankee in Wonderland: End-
Writing a Pokemon battle is different from writing a normal fight, since you're not just dealing with the people fighting but also the trainers giving orders. It's a bit awkward of a structure, with having to involve four characters at minimum, but I'm getting better.
But with that, the first arc of the story is done! 26k words in almost a week.
The response has been crazy! This is easily the fastest any of my fics have grown out of the gate, which is very surprising considering I have never touched the Pokemon community before.
I hope you all stay with me, and help me grow this fic to completion. Please comment and tell me your impressions, criticism, ideas, or things you think I could do better! I love feedback of all kinds!
See you next time on "Build-a-Warlord: Friendship is (for) Losers". Because surely nothing bad could happen by pushing away the semi-clingy annoying tag along, right?
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
JOIN THE DISCORD! We have shitty memes, and you can give me your direct input/ideas for the future of the story.
https://discord.gg/PkRSmwc6E9
*Sips Hot Chocolate*
A giant thanks to the generous people who help me write these chapters, and get early access to a them obviously so they can suggest changes and give feedback.
The members of the Shadow Government, who funnel taxpayer funds directly into my corrupt wallet! Long may they reign!
MidnightHydro! (The Mighty!), Eternal Guard (The Emboldened!), Helios (The Honored!), thegodfather (The Great!), 0RB! (The 0pulant!), Rom Hack (The Robotic Housekeeper!), Indyk (The Insatiable Imperial!), Wolfwind01010 (The Wonderous!), Nuckles222 (The Nuclear Threat!) and NickPine (The Nefarious!)
The Champions! Leading the fight!
Nvsoulsborne, ShelDrake, Tom Tat, Gage Donaldson, The Brandonator, Thrawn, TheButterButter, Twin the Commissar, PrisonDIctator, Adante, and ShelDrake!
The Dollar Army! Marching with honor and glory!
Phil, Eledu, jordan arrow, Blue_port, WiseKitsune, Jac, Alex Estrugo, Jaydon Adams, Elenium935, Nyte, Max Buckner, Spam2Spam, Gavin, GrimDeathKnight, Hamza Abdallah, Indie, Aswin Suthan, SonicDJM, EngineerLife24, drwinter169, CideredApples, Prince of Ruin, SILENGE, Lord_of_Pola, LukasH, Savage Scorpion, Anima, Summers Mori, Slowchoke, Jacob Roy, Seanfrks, Diavolo, and Brayden!
And a special SPECIAL thanks to :
Eternal Guard and NickPine.
Who have both chosen to help after my Bank got hacked and I lost a lot of money.
Thank you both so much, you are my Heroes.
