Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, nor do I own an M4 Sherman

Author's Note: I admit, my biggest fear in writing this fic is offending the very nature of war. I do not want to write something that in real life (with the exception of the pokemon) would not happen. I want to make this story seem real and natural. So, I've recently been diving myself in sources dealing with war such as documentaries, history books, museums, movies, historical fiction and so forth. Hopefully, I have learned enough.

General Flint always enjoyed the mountain air. It was fresh and clean, unlike Saffron City whose dirty factories churned out black as night smoke that polluted the air. He never knew how those city people were able to stand such a notorious smell nor did he ever know how they were able to stand such crowded conditions. However, that didn't stop him from going to the city many times; it was the capital of Kanto after all.

But there was no pollution here. It was one of the reasons why he escaped Pewter to see his army preparing for the surprise attack. He didn't want to be considered by his men as a "desk soldier," one who never picked up a gun in his life much less shoots it. He wanted to be in with the action, in with his men, in with the honor of fighting for your country.

Already, his once glossy boots were soiled over by the terrain, and his neatly creased outfit began to wrinkle, but he didn't mind. Flint, unlike General Tungsten whose constant obsession in having a clean uniform drove Tungsten mad at times, did not worry about such trivial things. In fact, he liked the childish idea of ruining a once cleaned uniform. It showed that you were actually doing something.

Turning to Brigadier General Tungsten, he said, "A right, mighty fine day it is! The air is clean, the mountain flowers are blooming and Operation Gengar has proven to be a success!"

"Yes, sir."

The camouflaged tent they were in flapped softly against the wind and its poles creaked a little. Camping at the base of Mount Silver proved to be easier than expected. With Johto still reeling from the unexpected attack by Kanto, they would not expect a second attack coming right from the mountains.

However, some things still remained challenging.

"Reports of tyranitars attacking our soldiers have been coming in every few days though, sir. Apparently, the soldiers would sometimes dig their way into one of their territories and anger them greatly. Casualties happen as a result and it's hard having to drive them away or kill them. Ursarings and donphans appear as well but they're more of an annoyance than a threat."

"Yes, I heard about them. Nothing we can do about it except bring along grass or water types I suppose. Have we got any of those?"

"No, sir. We do have some fighting types but it's hard for them to get close to the tyranitars to do some real damage on them. One report stated…"

Tungsten flipped through his notes and said, "…a tyranitar used a Hyper Beam attack on a machoke and blew its head clean off."

"What about the ground types?"

"Our ground pokemon could probably take care of them if for the fact they weren't in hastily dug tunnels and eroding caves. Therefore, they can only use weak ground attacks on them which, though effective, takes a while to have passing results."

"And by then the tyranitars would have taken out a squad or two of soldiers…"

"Yes, sir."

Flint sighed and scratched his head. Like all plans, this one had a few problems in it that was unforeseen when it was first designed. However, you had to adjust to such problems to the best of your ability or the outcome would be less than desirable.

"Bring any fighting types who know any fighting special moves to the front lines and have them ready for any tyranitars. See if we can spare some flash grenades too and bring those up to the front as well. Oh, and it might be helpful to check around for pokemon that know any bug, grass or water type moves, but I doubt there will be any."

Tungsten gave a salute and hurried off with the batch of instructions.

With that done, Flint walked out of the dark tent to have a break from the madness of the military. As he lit his Fuchsia grown cigar, he caught sight of his snorlax who was sleeping peacefully underneath a large pine tree.

He blew a smoke ring. He knew Snorlax for half his life now and he had grown fond of it ever since he raised it from a munchlax. He was going to kill it (since it had been digging in his trash for several weeks), but mercy took hold of him and he decided to properly raise and train it to become a strong fighter. Most people can't stand raising snorlaxes since all they do is sleep, but Flint knew that with a little patience and hard work, that didn't matter.

His second pokemon was also nearby. Nidoking prowled the area looking for anything delicious it might snack upon. It was sick and tired of eating tubers and wanted to eat fresh, live meat. Unlike Snorlax who slept most of the time, Nidoking was constantly active and on the move, ready to jump into any battles without question and start any quarrels without a second thought. Few people had ever owned a Nidoking, but since Flint grew up in Pewter and constantly hiked and explored Mt. Moon, that wasn't a problem since moon stones were common there.

He gave a wave to Nidoking, who saw him and returned the wave in an almost salute-like manner. Being near the army constantly, he learned to pick up few of its traits. Nidoking then went back to sniffing the air and twitching his ears, scouting for any potential meal.

The wind changed direction and Nidoking's ears perked up. He then ran towards the south as fast as he could, curiosity getting the better of him, Flint followed.

He chased after the purple creature as fast as his old legs could carry him. He wheezed slightly for the thin mountain air was getting to him and he was having a harder time than usual trying to keep up.

But as he pushed his way through several tall grasses, he stopped and saw what Nidoking smelt in the air. It was a dodrio, and by the looks of it, a male one at that. Nidoking came thrashing out of the grass, hoping to take the dodrio by surprise. But the dodrio with its three heads easily spotted him beforehand and was ready for the attack. It jumped out of the way and screeched loudly at Nidoking.

Nidoking stomped his feet on the ground and then used Earth Power. The ground trembled slightly as chunks of dirt and mud was flown towards the dodrio. The dodrio jumped high in the air and the attack missed. Nidoking looked up but the glare of the sun made his eyes squint and he could barely see his opponent. The dodrio then came crashing down on him landing a strong kick to his head. Nidoking stumbled and hit the ground. A gash was clawed into his face and blood started to slowly seep out.

Flint couldn't see Nidoking very well and had to move closer. Getting down as low as his legs would permit him, he crept up quietly upon the fighting monsters, ready to help his friend out in case he was in dire need.

The dodrio lunged at Nidoking who rolled right out of the way just in time. One of the heads tried to peck at him but with surprisingly quick speed he dodged, grabbed onto the neck, and bit it as hard as he could. The head cried out in pain and the other two heads started pecking him ferociously.

A sudden crack filled the air and the struggling head suddenly laid still. The other two functioning heads screamed so harshly in response that Flint had to cover his ears. The dodrio kicked Nidoking hard in the stomach and Nidoking folded over. Just as the dodrio was about to do a Drill Peck on him, Nidoking lunged forward and stabbed his poison tipped horn into the bird's belly. The horn pierced through the layer of feathers and skin like it wasn't even there and stabbed the vital organs of the bird.

He pulled out and the dodrio looked stunned. It stumbled back a bit before finally succumbing to gravity. Dust rose up as it hit the ground and it quivered about before finally lying still. Nidoking, despite being bruised and bloodied, had a triumphant look upon his face and he roared loudly to proclaim his kill. As the roar echoed off the mountain walls, it sliced open its prey to eat the tender meat.

Flint nodded and knew that was exactly what the Kingdom of Kanto was going to do to Johto.

Katisha sat quietly in her small cage and said to herself, "Teh, figures, just as we arrive in this stupid little town the humans decided its time to play war."

The profit that the circus expected to get from the soldiers proved to be disappointing. Right when the arrived to Cherrygrove Kanto invaded Johto and the laid back soldiers suddenly were issued orders to prepare for deployment. Most of them have already left east towards New Bark though more have been coming in from the north.

Still, the people of Cherrygrove came to the traveling circus despite the recently declared war. Katisha thought those people were fools, did they not have better things to do? Shouldn't they prepare for the war? Or support their country?

If anything, going to a circus was not the way to support their country.

Katisha shrugged. What did she know about countries, war and, especially, people? Let the poor bastards get killed because of their stupidity. It reminded her a lot of her life back at Mount Silver. The stupid ones or the ones who learned too slowly would be killed while the smart and the strong survived.

The summer sun shined brightly upon the land and though her cage gave her some shade, it didn't provide her any protection from the stifling humidity. When it got too hot she felt weak and melancholy, thoughts of suicide or succumbing to depression would enter her mind as she sat at her cell. She scratched herself and pulled out some fine, black hair with it, she was glad that she was shedding otherwise she might have died.

One of the attendants was giving a tour of the circus to a group of the locals and was talking about the creatures and their prisons. He talked animatedly about each of them and had the air like he knew everything.

He didn't, he was just as stupid and ignorant as the people he was "teaching."

"And here we have a sneasel. Notice that feather on its head. Males, such as this one here, use it as a mating display. Only the brightest and biggest feathers get the girls! And notice the claws as well; they're used to kill its favorite prey, the aipom."

Katisha snorted.

"Don't get too close, now. They'll lash out at you if you try to pet them!"

Katisha considered that and nodded mentally to herself. That would be something she'd do.

"And over here we have a scyther…"

Katisha laughed to herself as the group walked on. Setet would get the same treatment that she got. She unconsciously scratched herself and pulled out another tuff of hair as the group walked towards Setet. The attendant stood as tall as his squat body would allow him and started speaking again in his throaty voice. Setet rolled his eyes and looked back at Katisha who couldn't hold back a smile. She waved at him like it was fun and games. Setet snarled and gave back a rude gesture that was considered rude for his species. Katisha returned the compliment.

Boredom was one of her worst enemies when it came to the circus. The humans hadn't figured she was "trained" well enough to let her out of the cage so they just let her be. Sitting in the cage and wildling away the hours was hard enough as it is and the heat just made it all the worse. On some days she was able to clear her mind and look off into the distance both seeing nothing and everything. But on some days, like today, her mind was on the move, ready to do something. When she was like that, she always ended up bored to tears.

As the sun began to set, another of the circus lackeys came by and threw in a slab of tauros meat into her cell. She went at it like her life depended upon it. The meat was slightly rotten and it didn't taste like anything that reminded her of home, but meat was meat. She tore the slab of lean meat into pieces and chewed each piece slowly, savoring the taste.

When she was done, she wiped some of the fat and blood off her cheek and licked it off her dainty claw. A gust of wind came by and blew at her, instantly cooling her and quivering her feather. She sighed in relief. There had not been much savior from the humidity and anything to cool her down felt wonderful.

But as the breezed died down and the heat came back, she looked around in sadness that she has still not been able to escape this hellhole of a place. Her life was awful. And if the rotten meat or the whip holding humans or the stifling heat or the depressing boredom didn't kill her, then she would.