Rapture

Pallet

3 years later…

It was a cool spring night, a light breeze wisped through the area of Pallet Town. Lights shown through the windows of the modest homes and several scents of evening supper floated on the wind.

“Have you been sulking here all day?” Blue was lying on the ground on the outskirts of town staring up at the stars as Green approached him. He gave her a stare that read he wasn’t interested in whatever she had to say.

Green however didn’t care if Blue was interested or not and sat down close to him, “Will you at least tell me what’s on your mind?” Blue’s mouth scrunched and Green got the impression that he did want to talk about it but his tough guy exterior forbade it. “You know you can tell me anything, and that I already have my mind made up about you Blue.”

Blue’s eyes closed for a moment thinking about it. Sighing he finally said, “Today’s his birthday.”

Green’s expression immediately fell into a frown as well and she sank onto the ground by Blue’s side, “I… I had forgotten.”

“You’ve moved on… and that’s alright, it’s something we all should do.” Blue sighed again, “It’s almost been three years since he disappeared after all.

Green didn’t want to think like that though; she could still remember vividly what it was like three years ago. She remembered Blue took it pretty rough. It was at the Pokémon League tournament. They were all there. The board with the contestants appeared and no Red was on it. Blue was furious and demanded to know why his rival wasn’t on the board. The League administration only said no one had registered under that name.

It was amazing how many friends Red had made that all seemed to have come expecting to see him in the tournament. Half of the audience could only stare in silence at the lack of a special young boy’s name not appearing on the register.

Blue waited at the exit of Victory Road until the very last moment before he needed to be up for his match. He couldn’t believe Red could be late for something like this. In his anger he held nothing back and wiped the floor with his opponents. The tournament dragged on and the finals approached and still Red had not arrived.

When Blue’s opponent stepped up to the field to begin the final match of the tournament it just didn’t feel right. It was supposed to be Red standing there against him ready for a dramatic clash between the two boys from Pallet Town. This was supposed to be their time for the grand battle to end all Pokémon battles.

The crowd grew silent as Blue’s Charizard tore through the other finalist’s Pokémon with relative ease. Blue didn’t even bother putting on a show to make it look like he was putting forth effort. Blue’s Charizard stomped down on his opponent’s fallen Magmar and let loose a mighty howl which echoed through the arena. Though the man facing Blue was older and thought to be the more experienced, he had quickly fallen in battle to the strength Blue’s Pokémon possessed. Blue shook his head disappointed. Red would have used some kind of inconceivable tactic to make the battle much more interesting…

Blue was crowned the League Champion yet he couldn’t get over how empty the title felt. He swore he was going to kill Red when he found him for not being there. Time passed though and nothing. The good gym leaders of Kanto spread the word and left missing posters in all the Poké Centers in the region.

Green had found one lead during this entire time. Once the tournament had ended she asked several citizens in Viridian City if perhaps a boy of Red’s description had passed through recently. One little girl swore she saw him. She said she was saved from angry Pokémon in the Viridian Forest by Red just before the start of the tournament. She even named his Pokémon.

The girl, Yellow, told Green that once Red saved her he had gone to challenge the Viridian Gym Leader. As far as Green knew, Viridian City had no gym leader. Once she got across the lake she saw Viridian no longer had a gym. The entire building had been demolished, the ground around it horribly scarred from what appeared to be a grand battle.

Green walked through the rubble trying to piece together the battle. There were the heavy footprints of a Snorlax. There was a straight line of burnt soil emanating from a round ditch in the ground. The burns weren’t caused by flames though; she could tell this was Solar Beam’s effect. There were trenches dug all across the field, and what appeared to be a huge gaping crag that looked as if something huge had been dragged through it. There were also shards of still solid ice scattered about, and a few of them contained Gyarados scales.

That was the time it started to sink into Green’s head that something horrible had happened. She needed to find out more. She turned to go back into the city and interrogate more people when she almost collided into Blue who was standing behind her. He grabbed her hand and examined the frozen scale. A shocked look crossed his face which quickly transformed into a scowl. Blue turned and walked back to his Charizard.

“The people here know nothing…” Blue said preparing to leave.

“There has to be someone who knows more!” Green knew she was going to be asking anyway.

A ‘hmph’ sound escaped Blue’s throat, “They were all too scared from the noise of the battle to even come out of their homes. All of them are afraid of the Pokémon monsters inhabiting the forest. So now no one knows what happened to Red once the battle here ended…”

Blue flew off on Charizard to begin his own search as Green returned to town and asked everyone she could if they knew what happened at the gym. She found the little girl Yellow and pleaded for more information from her. The girl was practically in tears.

“I wanted to watch, but my parents wouldn’t let me leave the house…”

Green apologized and continued asking others. Just who exactly was the Gym Leader? Not a single person knew…

Without any other leads to go on, Green continued her search until finally a day came a year later that after an exhaustive search through every forest, field, and cave in Kanto she returned home empty handed.

Green knew Blue continued on, always his eyes open to anything that could lead to his rival’s… his friend’s whereabouts. And now almost three years later they both laid here staring at the sky still not any closer to solving this mystery than they were in the beginning.

A tear fell from Green’s eye, “Happy fourteenth Red…”

Blue turned his head toward the girl next to him, “You OK?”

“Are you?” she replied instantly.

Blue sat up and still looking up at the sky replied, “I’m fine,” his expression returning its usual stoic state.

“What do you see up there?” Green asked.

Blue smirked for a second, “It’s just… I don’t know, but… I look up there and I can still feel him out there. I know he’s still alive.”

Green sat up and scooted closer to Blue, “Yeah… I can feel it too.”

The two sat still and quiet for a while; neither daring to break the silence as they continued to stare at the stars above. A flash of movement caught Blue’s attention; his eyes squinted as he stared at a falling star. “No way…” he whispered standing up.

“What is it?” Green whispered back.

“Is it… the same as that night…?” Blue watched as the streak of light falling from the sky came closer and closer.

“What night?” Green asked confused.

“The night I met him…” The streak of light was almost on top of them, and humming noise could be heard.

Green stared at the light that was beginning to light up the forest, “I don’t understand, what happened that night?”

Blue looked down at her, “We fought Mew…”

The light curved sharply as it sped by only several feet above their heads, a high pitched cry echoed through the trees as it flew by.

“It is… the phantom Pokémon,” Green watched in awe as it just flew by like nothing.

Blue chased after it following it into a clearing deep within the forest. The glow around Mew’s body diminished and it simply floated around the clearing as if it were playing.

Once he was within a good striking distance, Blue threw out a Poké Ball releasing Charizard to tackle the psychic phantom. “The same as before, but we’ve come a long way since back then…” Mew’s reflection shone in Charizard’s fiery eyes as they all seemed to take in the familiarity of it. Charizard took to the air blowing fire blasts at the smaller Pokémon. Charizard attacked ferociously, following Mew through the air as it flew about the clearing. Mew seemed to only laugh playfully as it dodged each of Charizard’s attacks with ease.

Blue shook his head as he watched Mew’s aerial antics, “And yet it still wasn’t enough…” He recalled Charizard to the Poké Ball and began to walk away.

Green stared seemingly awestruck, “That’s it? You just give up?”

Blue turned to face the girl, no real expression apparent on his face, “Did you see the way it dodged all of Charizard’s most powerful attacks? It’s beyond my level still. As a trainer it’s important to know your limits.”

Green turned around to see the Mew watching them carefully. Its head tilted as if confused. “It’s like Mew doesn’t know why you’re just walking away either.”

Not bothering to stop, Blue replied, “Mew’s primary class is psychic; it knows exactly why I’m walking away.”

Green looked back and saw the mew watching them, “So why is it still staring at us for?”

Blue finally stopped and turned to look at the floating Pokémon. Taking a moment to judge the confused expression on Mew’s face Blue looked back to Green, “It’s because Mew also knows there’s something missing here…” With that final comment, Blue turned and walked away.

Green watched the phantom Pokémon for a moment longer until it just waved its paw as in a gesture of goodbye and floated off in the other direction. “Amazing… even Mew misses you Red…”

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