Tommy lost track of how long he sat underneath the tree beside his mother. Melanie hadn’t left him by himself but she did respect his anguish and thankfully she busied herself doing other things.
He felt like he had no energy, like he wouldn’t be able to move even a single finger ever again.
Everything had been taken from him by Team Rocket; his family, his home, even the Pokémon that had once lived on the ranch. Tauros’ body lay collapsed in the corral and no other Pokémon had been found by Melanie when she looked around the immediate area. Team Rocket must have stolen them to sell them off.
Tommy absentmindedly watched his weapons teacher walk around the wreckage of his burned down home and he was only stirred from his musings by an updraft of wind from the beating wings of a Salamence. Tommy shielded his eyes and the body of his mother from flying debris as the massive dragon began to slowly lower itself.
Tommy watched Melanie ready her Pokéball at the intruder while Tommy continued to sit unmoving. Hopefully it’s here to eat me, put me out of my misery.
The masked man who had rescued him from Mahogany Town last year lowered himself off the back of the great dragon and removed his mask.
Tommy came to look upon the face of his father.
“By the Mother,” Melanie swore in awe as Tommy’s dad removed his mask. “You’re Sebastian Hartford, aren’t you?”
Clearly Dad hadn’t been expecting anyone because he stopped dead in his tracks and turned to face the woman. “You and I are not acquainted.”
Melanie shook her head from side to side vehemently. “No, but my father spoke of you often. He has a picture of the two of you hanging on our wall. I grew up hearing about all of your battles!”
Tommy perked up for the first time that day.
“You’re the ex-Champion of the Indigo Plateau!” Melanie blathered. “You were crowned the year you graduated and you held the title undefeated for ten consecutive years.”
Dad stood unmoving and watched Melanie gush over his past glories.
“No one knows where you disappeared to or why you relinquished the title in the first place,” Melanie finished as she finally ran out of steam.
“Leave my son and I,” He commanded the woman. She appeared shocked that he would dismiss her so easily but swallowed and nodded, mounting her Pidgeot and gathering herself to leave.
“I’m returning to school Tommy,” she told her student. “I guess I’ll see you there.”
Tommy didn’t bother to respond as she flew away. He turned to his father as the man made his way over to his wife and son. Dad knelt beside mom and gently gripped her hand. Tommy saw his dad’s eyes glaze over, as he looked into his wife’s face. “Did she suffer?”
Tommy nodded and swallowed the lump in his throat, “Probably. I overheard one of the grunts in the base talking about beating her senseless since she tried to defend Tori. He said he tried to force himself on her until Aubrey stopped him. I blacked out at that point and when I came to I was beating the man senseless with my fists.”
Tommy stared down at his split knuckles as Dad sighed. “This all got so out of hand. I should have known it would eventually come to this.”
“What do you mean?” Tommy frowned at his father. “You mean to say that you’ve known about this all along? You knew about Team Rocket before I told you?”
“Yeah,” Dad refused to meet his son’s eyes and Tommy felt rage begin to bubble in his gut all over again. “I mean I didn’t think or know that it would ever go this far. I had some fail safes in place, you know? Abraham must have found a way to—“
“What the fuck are you rambling about?” Tommy was on his feet and he stood over his father who was still kneeling in the dirt. “Are you saying that you could have prevented all of this from happening? That mom should still be alive and Tori shouldn’t be some deranged and possessed animal? That she shouldn’t be chained and made to serve Team Rocket?”
Dad’s eyes widened and he stood to face his son. “What did you just say about Tori? That she’s been possessed by—“
“No, fuck you!” Tommy shouted. He used his one working arm and shoved his father; the man barely budged. “Don’t act like you care now! Where did you disappear off to? You’re our father! You’re supposed to protect us, but instead you abandoned us!”
“Tommy, I had to finish what I started,” Dad said as gently as he could. “Believe me, I would have been here if I could. I’ll carry this with me—“
“As you should,” Tommy seethed. He refused to listen to anything his dad was saying. It was all bullshit excuses. “Everything that has happened is your fault. Carry mom’s death with you until the day you die you useless bastard.”
“If I can just explain myself,” he started again.
Tommy shook his head. “No, I don’t want to hear about how you were off trying to save the world or whatever it is you’re trying to convince yourself of. I hope sacrificing two of the most important people in the entire world was worth it to you.”
“It’s not like that!” Dad protested.
“Make it three people actually,” Tommy said. “As far as I’m concerned you’re fucking dead to me. You lost your entire family, I hope it was worth it.”
Dad stared at him.
“Leave,” Tommy told his father. “I never want to see you again.”
His father hesitated for a second but nodded once, slipping his mask back over his face. He returned to his dragon and flew off into the early morning sky.
When his father was no more than a blip in the sky Tommy unbelted his three Pokéballs and called his team out.
“I need your help.” He told them.
----------------------------------------
Tommy stood and dusted himself off as he carefully looked over his handiwork. His Pokémon had helped him dig a modest grave and he was eternally grateful for their help; he wouldn’t have been able to do it with his still dislocated arm.
“Thank you,” he told Solosis, who had used his psychic powers to help Tommy stack a pile of rocks as a headstone. He bent down and picked up some loose dirt from the top of mom’s grave and rubbed it in between his fingers. “I swear to you that I’ll find her and bring her back so that you two can say your goodbyes. Watch over me, please. Keep me safe.”
He turned to leave, wiping stray tears from his eyes.
This is the last time I’ll cry, he swore. Tori needs me to be strong. I have to get stronger to rescue her.
He couldn’t ever remember a time when he was in a worse mood as he left the place he once called home and began the trek back to Goldenrod. How long would it be before he would return here? Solosis rested on his shoulder, Houndour padded along silently beside him, and Yanma hovered lazily in the air, the light breeze propelling him forward as he walked across the rolling glasslands and sloping hills.
After stopping by the Pokémon Center to have his shoulder set by Nurse Joy, and subsequently taking off the sling she had forced him to wear before he could leave, he walked back onto campus and arrived to an empty and silent dorm.
“I’m in here!” Tommy heard Melanie call from the library as the front door shut behind him. He walked in and spied her in a plush armchair wearing comfortable clothing with her hair in a towel and reading a book.
“You can read?” Tommy blurted out before he realized what he was saying. He exhaled a sigh of relief when she smiled up at him though.
“Yes, I can read Tommy,” she laughed and he managed to crack a small smile. “I’m a veritable jack-of-all trades unlike you helpless lot.”
He nodded vigorously. “Let’s fight.”
Stolen story; please report.
“What, now?” She put her finger in the book she was reading to mark her place and closed it momentarily. “I just got out of the shower.”
“Please, I need to train. I can’t afford to waste anymore time.” He begged her.
She considered him for a moment but ultimately nodded once and produced her ornately carved dragon dagger. “Alright, you don’t have to twist my arm. I’m always down to scrap.”
The two of them headed out into the well manicured backyard and squared off. Tommy’s heart beat in anticipation and he licked his dry lips as Melanie only casually paid him any attention. He charged at her recklessly as she had begun to pick at some dirt under her nails with the tip of her dagger.
She waited until the last moment to make her move, easily stepping out of the way of Tommy’s blind and enraged strike. He swung at nothing but air, and then grunted in pain as she kicked the back of his knee and sent him sprawling into the grass. He almost blacked out from the pain in his bruised and still ailing shoulder.
“Maybe this isn’t such a good idea,” Melanie began. “You’re clearly not in the right headspace to fight right now. Not that I blame you of course. I can’t imagine what you must be feeling right now.”
Images of his mother’s body flashed through his mind and he growled out in anger. He rose to his feet once more and charged at Melanie again. The edges of his vision were tinged red and he lost himself in the repetitive motion of swinging his staff. How long he tried to attack Melanie he didn’t know, but when he finally calmed down and came to his senses, he lay on his back in the grass, staring up into the afternoon sky.
“Feel better?” Melanie asked smugly as she sat down in the grass beside him. Her hair was still in a towel and she hadn’t even broken a sweat.
“Not at all,” Tommy hadn’t come close to touching her with his staff even once. His skin stung all over from being struck by her daggers.
“What was it like?” Melanie asked out of the blue. “To grow up the son of a champion? I can’t imagine how incredible it must have been to hear of your father’s past glories.”
Tommy chuckled to himself. “I can’t imagine it either. He never told me anything. I didn’t even know he was a Pokémon trainer until a few months ago, let alone the champion.”
“You’re joking, right?” He saw that Melanie was looking at him as if he were crazy. “You grew up your entire life and never heard of Sebastian Hartford? One of Johto’s greatest champions?”
“Never,” he sighed in exasperation. “Did you ever get to see him fight? I would love to hear any stories you could tell me.”
“I can do you one better,” Melanie said, getting to her feet and brushing loose grass from the seat of her shorts. She offered Tommy her hand and he gratefully accepted the offer of help.
She told him to wait in the game room while she headed upstairs and a few minutes later she was walking into the room with an old tape player and video tape.
“The picture quality won’t be too great and it’s not the whole fight; dad could only tape the end,” Melanie said as she hooked up the tape player to the television. She flopped onto the couch beside him and settled in to watch the video. “This is your father’s greatest fight, at least in my opinion. Everyone talks about his finals fights and his title defenses, but for me it’s his first semifinals.”
The tape began, projecting a blurry colored image onto the screen, but Tommy didn’t care and stared totally enraptured as he watched his father fight for the first time.
Scizor gleamed in the clear afternoon sun, no marks or blemishes yet marred his perfect coat of red metal. The burly man that his father was up against was fighting with an Ursaring and the two Pokémon were already grappling in the middle of the ring when the tape started playing. Ursaring was being pushed back by Scizor despite the bug’s smaller stature. The great brown bear lost its footing for a moment and despite the words he had exchanged earlier with his dad, Tommy found himself silently cheering on his father. Scizor capitalized on a moment of weakness and grappled the off balance bear to the ground.
The man recalled Ursaring back to its Pokéball and called out a Ninetails next.
“Purposeful,” Melanie said as she watched on beside Tommy. “Your father never wasted a movement, always capitalized on every opportunity and opening.”
Tommy watched as Scizor and all of the clones that the bug had created with Double Team danced around the jet of flame that Ninetails spewed from her mouth. Scizor ripped up a chunk of the arena and hurled it at the fox who was too focused on attacking to dodge. The rock slammed into the fire fox and she wailed in pain, Scizor following up with a powerful headbutt with his steel forehead.
The tape played itself out, the fight came to its conclusion, and Tommy sank back into the couch. He had been leaning forward on the edge of his seat the whole match and only now let out his bated breath.
“Your father was a brilliant trainer,” Melanie said as she eyed him. “His Pokémon didn’t take a single point of damage in the entire fight, a feat previously unheard of at the Indigo Plateau.”
Tommy only half watched the television as his father clasped arms with his opponent. The two men embraced and his father smiled and vigorously clapped the man on his back.
“The challenger was also an up and comer, one of your dad’s friends, I heard my dad say. They were acquainted with one another from school,” Melanie continued to talk. “But the man retired after that fight, never showing his face in an official match again.”
“Give a round of applause for Sebastian Hartford!” Tommy heard the announcer on the television call out. Thunderous applause rained down but Tommy’s father ignored it, choosing instead to speak with and encourage his dejected looking friend. Tommy’s dad quickly slipped his hand into his pocket and then the two men clasped hands again.
“Be sure to also give a round of applause for Abraham Ryker!” The announcer called out again. After relinquishing Sebastian’s grip, Abraham slipped his hand into his own pocket and waved to the crowd once before walking towards the exit under a deluge of cheers.
Something about the interaction struck Tommy as weird and he desperately racked his brain as the tape continued to play onward. The man named Abraham walked out through the exit and the announcer beckoned Tommy’s dad up to the podium.
“Anyway what did you think about—?” Melanie started to ask his opinion.
Tommy cut her off before she could finish her sentence. “Rewind the tape, hurry! Can you rewind it?”
He stood hurriedly from the couch and began to look desperately for a remote or anything to make the tape go backwards.
“There’s a button on the machine to rewind it,” Melanie told him as she sat up on the couch. She made to stand but he raced over to the television and pressed the rewind button before she could get up. “What’s got your panties all in a bunch?”
He ignored her, watching Abraham walk backwards out of the tunnel and shake hands with his dad again. He pressed play and listened to the announcer again. “Be sure to also give a round of applause for Abraham Ryker!”
Tommy slammed the rewind button again.
“…applause for Abraham Ryker.”
Rewind again.
“…Abraham Ryker.”
Tommy paused it and looked over at Melanie who was staring at him with one eyebrow raised. “Okay? The man’s name is clearly Abraham Ryker.”
Tommy nodded his head, “And do you remember the name of my best friend?”
“Aubrey Ryker…” Melanie whispered as her eyes widened in shock. She looked as if she were about to dash out of the room but paused. “It could be a coincidence though. How certain are you about this?”
He shook his head as Melanie spoke. “One hundred percent. My father told me this morning that he was familiar with Team Rocket prior to my telling him of their organization when they attacked the school. As a matter of fact he mentioned the name Abraham this morning… I was too upset at him at the time for it to register, but I’m certain of it now. This is the man that we’re looking for.”
Tommy turned his attention back to the paused television. It was next to impossible to make out details in the fuzzy picture but the two young men stood side by side and Tommy thought they could almost be brothers with the finer details missing from the grainy image.
This man was responsible for every bad thing that had happened to Tommy this past year, he was responsible for the corruption of his daughter, and Tommy tried desperately to strain his eyes for any discernible clue. He burned the image into his head, it would do well for him to have something to focus his hatred on.
“If you’re right about this then this could be a huge break for us Tommy,” Melanie said, drawing him from his thoughts. He returned his gaze to her and saw that she was still standing, lost deep in her own thoughts. She looked up at him and smiled excitedly, “We’ve been running in circles to be honest with you, we haven’t been able to get any new information or leads, this could be just what we need. I should go tell Professor Larkspur.”
“Tell me what?” The man rumbled as Tommy heard the front door to the dormitory close. Larkspur himself walked in, regarding Tommy and Melanie with his calculating gaze.
“We have some new information for you,” Melanie could hardly contain her excitement. “Play the tape again Tommy. Show him.”
Tommy rewound the tape to the beginning once more as Professor Larkspur came around to the front of the couch. He pressed play, then went to sit beside his two teachers, feeling slightly uncomfortable sitting beside his scowling professor.
The tape played on once more and Tommy continually switched his gaze back and forth between the television and Larkspur. But if he hoped to glean any information from his stern teacher he was disappointed; the man sat through the entire video unmoving and staring deeply at the television.
“It seems I was blind to a great many things,” Professor Larkspur said to himself as the tape finally ended. He ruminated for only a moment before standing and heading towards the door. “You’ve both done well finding this information for us. Leave the rest to me.”
“But wait!” Melanie protested as Larkspur headed for the door. Tommy quickly followed his two teachers back into the hallway. “Where are you going? We should be involved in whatever it is that the school is going to do. Or at least I should!”
Tommy frowned and began to protest but Professor Larkspur cut him off. “No. Not yet. Melanie, you stayed on to mentor and that’s what you’ll be doing.”
She frowned but bit back any further retorts.
“And as for you Tommy,” Professor Larkspur trailed off. He flashed a nasty grin and Tommy swallowed nervously. “I’ve got something special in mind for you. I’ll need to pull a few strings but I should be able to make it work.”
“What do you mean?” He asked his Professor warily.
“I just figured that you would be willing to put in some extra work with everything that’s happened to you and your family recently,” the man intoned somberly. “Some supplemental lessons if you will, so that you’ll be ready for your next run in with Team Rocket.”
Tommy felt the rage and bile burn in the back of his throat and he nodded, “Whatever you have in mind. Just let me know.”
“You’ll find out soon enough,” Larkspur said. Then without another word the front door closed and Tommy was left to stew.