Disclaimer: The Pokemon franchise not mine.

Author's Notes: This is not based on the anime, but the game and the "Pokemon Special" comics. This will also include death at some points, and probably won't be what you expect. But for those of you who continue to read it, I promise a good and fulfilling story. Read on.

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Genre: General/Action/Adventure

Rating: T/PG-13; Suitable for teens, 13 years and older, with some violence, minor coarse language, and minor suggestive adult themes.

Summary: As the world is slowly swept by a strange phenomenon that turns Pokemon into more dangerous, super aggresive monsters, professor Oak comes to a discovery that may yet put a stop to the impending doom of the human race.

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Pokemon: The Tide

-By Shunkuzoku

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Chapter I

The Calm Before the Storm

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A small tongue lapped at a sheet of clear water, the rocky riverbed of the shallow stream visible in the sunlight. The lone Nidorino standing at the streamside had its head bent down to the water as it drank its fill. Suddenly, several pokeballs bounced off its body, and it turned around, agitated.

"Damn! It bounced off!" a small kid with a net in one hand complained amongst his older, bigger friends.

"My turn next!" a girl with her blonde hair in a ponytail shoved him aside and took out a single red and white pokeball. Despite being treated roughly, the kid only smiled sincerely at her. "Think you can do it?"

"Be quiet," she whispered, her tone harsh in her impatience. "I'm gonna catch this Pokemon and make it my pet! Here goes!"

But when she turned to the Nidorino, it had already had its horn pointed at her, its claws pawing angrily against the ground. Intimidated, the girl hesitated a moment too long and the Nidorino charged. Abruptly she realised that her friends were already screaming and running away, and the fact that her own shouts of terror were stifled was more due to overwhelming fear than anything else.

In the split second as she was about to be flattened, a hand gloved in white grabbed her and flung her aside.

-----

Red yawned sleepily as he strolled through the forest, the soothing melody of birds and bugs filling his ears. A short distance away he could hear the soft trickling of flowing water calm his senses.

Smiling lazily to himself, he moved towards its origin - the river where he always used to play with Poli when he was still small. It was also the place where he first met Poli, and since then they had undergone many adventures together. The water Pokemon had even saved his life once when he almost drowned in Vermillion Harbour.

Just as he was clearing the last few trees, several terrified screams echoed from upstream, snapping him out of his daze. Putting on a short burst of speed, he reached the river and hastily flung his only pokeball towards where he could see a lone girl – now he recognized her as Lass, his friend from the town – being terrorised by a fuming Nidorino.

Even as the pokeball released its occupant with a puff of smoke, and even as he hastily followed after its trajectory with his heart pounding rapidly in his chest, Red could not shake off the sick wrenching sensation in his gut. He had a feeling that something bad was about to happen.

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"Ahhh..!" Lass had found her voice by the time that she landed painfully on her butt.

Turning back, her attention was immediately drawn to the poisoned horn of the Nidorino, lodged deep in her savior's belly. As her shock subsided, she noticed with growing horror that the Poliwhirl – was that Red's Poliwhirl? – that had saved her life had a deep diagonal gash stretching wide across its stomach - the horn had not only punctured a hole, it had also torn open a big and deep enough wound to reveal what was behind the muscles of its abdomen.

"Poli..!" the water Pokemon croaked out weakly, purple poison and blood streaming like liquid fire through its fingers as it tried to close its wound and hold the Nidorino in place by its horn at the same time. Then a bluish white light shone from its gloved hands, and the girl was blinded momentarily - but even the bright light did not stop her from catching the cry of anguish behind her as a severe cold enveloped her body.

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Red let out an anguished cry and fell to his knees at the sight of his Poliwhirl before him. The water Pokemon had frozen itself along with the Nidorino's head and front paws, rendering both immobile. Encased in ice, the Poliwhirl was temporarily suspended from death, but Red suspected that once the ice broke, nothing would save the Poliwhirl from certain death. He had never seen such a big wound on a Pokemon before, and even Pokemon centres had failed to mend less serious wounds.

A solid crack sounded from the ice, as if in response to his thoughts, and he watched with trepidation as the Nidorino began to glow white and fissures slowly webbed through the crystalline structure.

As he slowly rose to his feet, Red picked up several large rocks from the ground. Palming them to get a feel of their weight, he gestured for Lass to get back, not taking his eyes off the Pokemon.

"Lass, run back to Pallet and get me some help," his voice cracked with grief, and she knew that his Pokemon could die from its effort to save her, so she dashed off into the forest, sprinting as fast as she could in the direction of the town.

As the Nidorino freed itself from its icy confines, accompanied by the sound of breaking glass, it also stopped glowing white and Red immediately hurled the rocks in his hands with all his might, one after the other. But none of them met their mark and with the rocks no longer in his hand, his attention was called back to the Pokemon in front of him, and his hopes sank as he noticed that what he was facing was no Nidorino.

He was facing a Nidoking.

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When she first exited the forest, Lass immediately encountered a boy she'd never seen before, but beggars couldn't be choosers, and she noticed that the boy had a pokeball strapped to his belt so he could probably help Red.

"Hey!" she panted, bending to put her hands on her knees as she stopped in front of the unknown pokemon trainer, "I need help! My friend's being attacked by a Nidorino! And right now his Poliwhirl is…"

That caught the stranger's attention, and he urged her, "Show me where it is, now!"

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"Take that!" Red exclaimed, throwing a pokeball at the Nidoking. If he couldn't hurt it, perhaps he could try capturing it, but the Nidoking simply batted the pokeball aside.

"Shit!" he cursed. He knew that it was nearly impossible to capture pokemon before they were weakened, but he had hoped against all odds that luck would be on his side. It would seem that that was not the case, and he jumped aside as the Nidoking smashed the ground where he was just a split second ago.

"Yaaaah!" he screamed as he noticed that the rocks near where he was standing had been melted by a purple sludge thicker than the poison that had afflicted Poliwhirl. The Nidoking had more potent poison in its claws than the Nidorino had in its horns – things did not look good for him.

"I've got to weaken it somehow," he thought as he barely dodged slash after slash from the claws of the Nidoking, and the splashes of poison that followed each successive swipe. As he ran, the Nidoking began to gain on him.

"Something so big shouldn't be able to move that fast..!" he cursed, dodging yet another swipe and spurt of poison. Fatigue was beginning to set in and his movements were starting to become more sluggish.

"No good – it's catching up!" he said as he fell into a roll after another dodge. Eyeing a rock with a particularly sharp edge, he picked it up as he regained his footing and launched it at the Nidoking. The corner of the stone by chance pierced the Pokemon's left eye, and it stopped in its assault for a while, hunching in pain as it moved a claw to protect its injured eye from further attacks.

Even tired from the exertion, he noticed the weakness in the Nidoking's posture and took the opportunity to strike while the iron was hot – he launched his second pokeball.

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When Lass and the unknown Pokemon trainer reached the stream, all they found was the frozen form of Red's Poliwhirl, its face an expression of untold agony and its gloved hands still covering the gaping hole in its abdomen. The ice appeared to be of several different shades of colour – it was the boy who noticed the discrepancy first – as if a fresh layer had been added repeatedly.

Worried for her friend, Lass looked around and found a path made of broken branches in the forest, and pointed it out to the boy. He looked at it once and nodded, gesturing for her to follow him as he cautiously made his way deeper into the forest.

As he left the stream, he spared the frozen Poliwhirl one last glance, an unreadable expression in his eyes.

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"Argh!" Red gasped as the tree he was hiding behind fell and an errant splash of poison hit him in the calf. The sludge had worked away at his jeans in an instant and got to the skin where it stung terribly. At this rate his fate was sealed as collateral damage.

Limping, he moved to take cover behind a new tree whilst the sounds of battle raged behind him.

When he had thrown the pokeball, it had missed its mark completely, instead hitting another Nidoking behind the one with the injured eye. Predator and prey had apparently stumbled into the territory of a second Nidoking, and the two monsters were trying to kill each other – the first one because it was too blinded by rage to think clearly and the second one because it thought that the first Nidoking was trespassing into its territory.

All in all, it was a situation that worked in his favour had it not been that the two Pokemon were powerful enough to send the trees he sought cover from tumbling. The newly evolved Nidoking was weaker and smaller, and had an injured eye to boot, so it was faring badly against its bigger counterpart.

When it fell by the claws of the other Nidoking, Red would have a new problem on his hands. He had been about to run when the poison hit his leg, but now he couldn't even walk properly much less flee the scene. He dared not throw another pokeball lest he called attention to himself, and he knew that even if he caught one of the Nidokings it would take some time to get it to obey him, and it was nigh impossible to catch the stronger one.

Suddenly, the leaves rustled and he stiffened, for fear of being the prey of a different wild Pokemon, but the foliage parted to reveal his friend, Lass, with a boy he did not recognise.

"Hey," he forced a bitter smile, "you could've gotten here sooner."

-----

"So who're you?" Red prompted the boy as they began their trek out of the forest, curious as he had never seen him before. As they walked, the boy had Red supported on his shoulder.

The unknown trainer gave him a sideward glance and introduced himself, "My name is Blue."

"Oh, my name's Red, and this is Lass! We live in Pallet town, where are you from?" Red said with as much friendliness as he could muster after Poli and the Nidokings.

"I'm from Pallet town too," Blue muttered.

"Eh?" Lass butted in, "How come I've never seen you around before?"

Red nodded his assent, "Yeah, I don't recognise you either."

Blue glared at the pair, "I went overseas when I was still young to study Pokemon and just got back. Now, will you shut up before any more wild Pokemon come after us?"

"Okay, okay!" Red said, "There's no need to be a jerk about it..."

"Shut up!" Blue cursed, impatient. He had noticed that the Nidokings had almost finished their battle, and if it came to that the winner would chase them next for trespassing on its territory.

Thankfully, both Red and Lass became quiet after that and they exited the forest without further incident.

Once they were out of the forest, Blue allowed a sigh of relief and looked at Red, "You can come to my house where we'll get you treated. I don't want to walk you back deep into the town, and my house is on the outskirts, so it's nearer. You can thank me later."

Red gave him an odd look at that statement, and just nodded silently.

It was only when they were in front of Blue's house that Red noticed the pokeballs strapped to Blue's belt and he asked, "Hey Blue, why didn't you attempt to fight and capture the Nidokings?"

"Yeah, I want to know too," Lass added.

Blue's only response was a condescending look as he released the boy on his shoulder to support himself, so Red continued, "Oh c'mon, I know you're a Pokemon trainer! You could've taken two injured Pokemon!"

Hearing his words, Blue frowned and began to lecture him, "Didn't you see them battle? I only have one Pokemon, and if I failed to capture it, both would attack us. And even if I did manage to capture one of them, I'd only make an enemy out of the other one and it would've attacked us too, making our escape more difficult."

"But we could've caught both of them between the three of us!" Red countered.

"The chances of that are slim. You don't even have a Pokemon to battle with, and you want to fight two Nidokings?" Blue paused before continuing, "Not to mention that there are other wild Pokemon about who would be attracted by the noise. Could you have survived against all of them?"

Red went silent at that as Poli came to mind, and Blue nodded, "That's what I thought. All that I did was for the best chances of our survival."

"Always know what your limitations are, otherwise you'd only be defeating yourself," Blue said sagely as he entered the house, leaving the door open for their entry. "Don't forget that."

Irked, Red now couldn't get how badly Poli had been beaten out of his head, and could only look at Blue's retreating back regretfully. He knew that Blue was right. Lass and her friends had confronted the Nidorino not knowing their limitations, and she almost died because of that. He had been there to make the choice to save Lass, but in exchange, Poli had suffered more than just a losing battle.

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"Wait! Blue is Professor Oak's grandson!?" Red stared incredulously as his attention was drawn to the old professor, "He's your grandson!?"

The professor only laughed at Red's rhetorical question and look of surprise as he finished disinfecting Red's wound and applying the antidote. He then began to rummage in a desk drawer, his back turned to Red.

It was only the two of them left now. Blue had gone to get something from his room before they went back into the forest to check on Poliwhirl, whilst Red was left to be taken care of by his grandfather. Lass, meanwhile, had gone to meet the rest of her friends in case they were worried about her.

The rumours were that the professor was just some mean old nut, so Red had never ventured to talk to the old man and even done his best to stay away from the house. But the guy had just helped to bandage his wound, and when he told him the whole story the old man had even offered to help him diagnose his Poliwhirl, giving him some hope for Poliwhirl's recovery. Now that they were acquaintances, the professor seemed friendly enough.

From the equipment in the house and the array of numerous pokeballs that adorned the tables, he could tell that this place was meant to also serve as a laboratory, so it was probably true that the old man was an expert on Pokemon. This was a place where he could start to get advice on how to be a good trainer. He couldn't let any more of his Pokemon end up like Poliwhirl – he had to become stronger.

"Professor Oak," Red started, thinking back to the water Pokemon's defeat at the horn of the Nidorino, "When we get Poli back, could you teach me to be a better Pokemon trainer?"

"Red," the professor paused and his expression turned into one of contemplation, "do you know what it takes to be a great Pokemon trainer?"

"Huh?" Red asked, blindsided.

"Do you need a bunch of good tricks? Or a team of powerful Pokemon? Is that what you think makes a great trainer?"

"Hmm…" Red rubbed his chin, pondering the question seriously for once, but the professor gave him the answer before he could say anything.

"If that's what you think, you're sadly mistaken. All you need is what's in your heart," the professor turned back to Red and smiled. "That's what you have to learn. When you come to a mutual understanding with your Pokemon… That's the key to strength. That's the key to becoming a great Pokemon trainer."

"Here, Red," the professor said, finally finding the red coloured gadget from the pile of things he was digging in, and handed it to him, "Take this Pokedex. It's an encyclopedia of Pokemon. Whenever you see a Pokemon, its data will be recorded in here."

Red took the Pokedex with some hesitance, his mouth open in awe as the professor continued to talk, "By the time you've completed this Pokedex, you might already be one of the greatest trainers ever."

"Hey gramps," Blue noted as he re-entered the room just in time to see Red accepting the Pokedex, "So you decided to give him the second Pokedex?"

But the professor only laughed and nodded, whilst Red did not even notice Blue's interest at all, focused as he was on the professor's words.

"Me... One of the greatest trainers ever..." He dreamt, gazing at the Pokedex.

But little did he know that the world would soon be struck by a growing plague that would stop him from even wanting to chase that dream anymore. For what use would it be to be one of the greatest trainers, when there were none but a handful left in the world? Soon, just being a trainer would be an accomplishment in itself, and he would see new meaning in the bond between trainer and Pokemon.

Especially in the crisis that was to come.

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To be continued...

In Chapter II: The First Waves