Chapter Text
Every kid wanted to be a Pokemon trainer.
Kalen grimaced when she saw them. Down the snaking, damp dirt road dotted children, ages five to ten, standing still and staring at her.
You would’ve thought they were waiting along the path for a local traveling vendor to come by, so they could be passed small treats. That was a normal kid thing to do. But that isn’t what they wanted.
They were waiting for her.
And it hurt. She didn’t want to hurt children like this. She didn’t want to kill their pets.
But kids didn’t back down from a challenge. They didn’t think of the consequences either. Tey all believed in themselves so much. Too much.
She averted her eyes to the left as she apprehensively crept down the trail, avoiding meeting the gaze of the antsy kid to her right.
“Hah!” She could barely process the yelp as a burst of leaves gave way to a shape in front of her, Determined brown eyes locked with hers. “Gotcha! Now you have to fight me, scaredy-skitty!”
It was true. It was a simple enough rule that the kids could all understand it.
And it was a trap.
The kid flashed Kalen a smug grin with missing teeth, and tossed a small pokeball on the ground. “Okay, Flower! Let’s kill em!”
The device burst in a flash of pale light, and out popped an Eevie kit. The thing looked barely three months old –probably a Christmas present– and stumbled for balance on floppy paws. It shivered in the early late winter weather.
Kalen fished numbly for a pokeball in her pocket. Her cold fingers brushed against the heat of one of the machines. She pulled it out, producing a grey ball. Not her starter. He’d died long ago.
She tossed the ball onto the ground, depositing a Pikachu.
“Mia,” Kalen’s throat was dry as she said it. “Thundershock.”
She exchanged a hard look with Mia, and made a hand gesture.
They both knew what the hand gesture meant.
‘Make it quick.’