The license test was in a week and my birthday was also just last week, meaning I just turned 13. (August 25)
Oh and I only know that's my birthday cause I looked through Tatsumi's memories and found it by accident. I also found that he had actually lost both his parents at the age of 5 in a Team rocket attack. More reason to hate Team Rockets—Yay.
My birthday wasn't really what you would call grand as it was just Nya and Kai celebrating by just buying cupcakes and soft drinks from a nearby store. Overall if was actually pretty fun and a nice change as I didn't really have friends in my past life.
Moving on,we had been studying for around a year now and it's time to test whether it had all been for nothing.
We had just finished our battle royale(which I won like usual but that's not important) when we heard an insanely loud siren coming from around the heart of Viridian city.
We all looked at each other with the same though racing through our minds.
It's a Pokemon TIDE.
In case you don't know what a Pokemon tide is—it's a natural phenomenon where wild Pokemon group up together to usually reduce the population of the increasing Pokemon due to lack of resources and they do this by trying to destroy a human settlement or if the human settlement pissed them of or something like destroying their habitat or stealing their resources.
So yeah it's basically war declared on the humans by the Pokemon.
Tide rankings:
D,C,B,A,S,Ragnorak
Each Tide from C onwards has 3 subdivisions except S and Ragnorak.
The subdivisions consist of:-High,Medium and Low
D:1,000-5,000 Pokemon can contain (ranks: few rare ranks)
C:-Low: 5,000-10,000 Pokemon can contain (ranks: can have 10-100 rare ranks)
Mid: 10,000-20,000 Pokemon can contain (ranks: can have a few hundred rare ranks)
High: 20,000-40,000 Pokemon can contain (ranks: several hundred rare ranks and a few veteran ranks)
B:-Low: 40,000-80,000 Pokemon can contain (ranks: can have 10-100 veteran ranks)
Mid: 80,000-160,000 Pokemon can contain (ranks: can have several hundred veteran
ranks and one king rank)
High: 160,000-320,000 Pokemon can contain (ranks: can have 10-50 king ranks)
A: Low: 320,000-600,000 Pokemon can contain (ranks: can have a few hundred king ranks and a few heavenly ranks)
Mid: 600,000-1,000,000 Pokemon can contain (ranks: can have 10-100 ranks)
High: 1 million-10 million Pokemon can contain (ranks: can have several hundred heavenly and a few champion)
S: 10 million to 50 million Pokemon can contain (ranks: can have 10-500 champion and none to several master ranks)
Rangnorak: Anywhere between 50 million to 1 billion Pokemon can contain (ranks: can have 10-100 master to a few legendaries and mythical Pokemon.
So far there has never been a Ragnorak level tide in history, but this what researchers and ancient scholars have predicted to be the end of the world.
When we reached the orphanage—we were being evacuated to a nearby bunker just in case something like this ever happened.
For reference there are around 1000 bunkers around the city—it's really that big.
Viridian City was a pretty big city and one of the most prosperous in the entire Kanto region, so a tide wasn't anything new but when they did come—they brought a LOT of destruction and most importantly deaths.
Even a low level tide like Rank C's can't help but having deaths. Any active trainer currently in city and above the age of 16 would have to help in a tide. Of course they are not the only force as there are mercenary squads deployed by the league to help clear out tides and are stationed in all major cities.
When we were all hunkered down some of the orphanage kids asked us were we were and we replied the same as always.
"None of your business." we replied at the same time
They looked at us wierdly but left us alone afterwards and then a few hundred thousand civilians along with us turned our heads towards the massive screen located at the center of it.
Just then it turned on and the familiar face of the Viridian City gym leader came up.
Sakaki Giovanni
(AN: I think that that's his full name)
In the games he was the leader of Team Rocket, whose primary goal involved the exploitation of Pokémon. He was depicted as a calm, calculated, and ruthless individual, often commanding respect and fear among his subordinates.
But most important of all he was Ruthless when it came to failures.
I don't know if he is the leader of TR in here too but since most of this world has coincided with the games and anime I'm not gonna take any risks.
If he finds out that my friends and I were the ones responsible for ruining his smuggling operations—we most likely would be erased off the surface of the earth(name's still the same) without a trace.
Now I wasn't sure if he would have caught wind of us being there but there were some pretty rare and strong looking Pokemon in the warehouse and probably caused huge loses for them.
That's the main reason why I'm gonna do my best keep a lay low profile and hope to Arceus that they don't know what any of our faces look like and come after us.
Then he started to talk,"People of Viridian City—we are currently facing a Pokemon tide. We have identified it to be a A rank low level tide."
Suddenly everyone staterted whispering amongst themselves and a few people were openly crying. This was the highest level tide that Viridian has faced in decades and Giovanni looked around us probably to see our emotions.
"SILENCE. Let me remind you, we are not a city that bends to misfortune. No, Viridian stands strong even through hard times. A little tide isn't going to destroy a city which has been thriving for nearly a century.
We have immensely capable trainers and mercenary squads at our disposal. This city shall not fall to this threat—instead we will persevere through this like we always have and become stronger than ever before.
All I ask is for all you to stay calm and say your goodbyes to any family members that will be participating in this tide.
"Shall the odds every be in our favor."
Everyone repeated the last line after him and then the screen promptly turned off .
It looked like everyone seemed calmer as the speech had resonated with them and they set about to do what the their leader said—which was saying goodbye to their families.
Luckily to not keep us in the dark they installed cameras around the tide and made a few rooms in the bunker where we could see the footage so we could know what was going on outside.
Though most people generally did not want to look as most of the time it's just humans killing Pokemon and vice versa.
What I was most worried about was if I would get on the test site in Saffron city or not, as the test was in a week and Pokemon tides could last up to a weeks if not months.
I was doubtful if the league was going to postpone the license test until the tide in Viridian was over despite it was one of the main cities in the Kanto region.
Nevertheless I steeled myself for it and got ready to watch everything as knew I could have a encounter like this again in the future and I need to be prepared for the horrors of this world anyway. Only that time I may be fighting in them.
It took me a few minutes to make the decision as I was not sure if seeing bodies lying everywhere and risk being traumatized for maybe the rest of my life for sake of being of being prepared for what the future may hold.
I obviously didn't ask Kai and Nya to come with me as they may be mentally scarred and I doubt anything is going to prepare their minds to for the massacre that was about to ensue as they were mentally younger compared to me and even with my mental age I wasn't exactly sure if I was going to be able to handle the experience.
There were quite a few rooms scattered around the bunker for various requirements like for food supply and other necessities. The rooms were pretty spacious and there were dorms capable of facilitating everyone…..which is an impressive feat considering there were a few hundred THOUSAND people in here, though I was starting to prepare for the possibility of having to sleep through hundreds of people snoring and trust me—having Kai snoring a few meters away from me at the orphanage was bad enough but now I have to deal with potentially more people and the beds were also placed close to each other.
Great…just Great.
Unfortunately while I was heading towards the one of the rooms which would broadcast what would happen outside—I was quickly halted by the figures of Kai and Nya.
"Where are you going." They questioned in unison while having surprising stern faces…..well as much of a stern face a 12 year old could make anyway.
Though their facial expressions did change as they looked at each other in shock as they repeated the exact same thing and gave more proof that twins can read each others minds.
"I'm going to see the live footage of the tide. It's best if you guys don't come with as you may get traumatized with all the bloodshed." I replied with conviction.
Nya was not impressed with my reply or my confidence, "Oh really…..what's stopping you from getting traumatized. We're literally the same age and besides what could you possibly gain out of watching that. "
Kai on the other hand disagreed with his sister, "Let's go together…..there would be a lot of cool strategies and moves we could see."
"Are you both out of your minds? This could ruin your mental state . You might not even see the world in the same way anymore." Nya argued.
"We're gonna have to face this sooner or later….this way we also get to see things we normally would not know about." Kai retaliated.
At this point I had enough,"Could you guys please shut UP. Look Nya I understand your concern but as Kai said this is something I want to face sooner rather than later and Kai—I have had to prepare myself to watch this knowing fully well how bad it could get. I won't stop you if you come with me but I'm suggesting you to turn back now."
Both of them stopped and thought over my words and Nya was the first to respond,"Alright…you make a fair point just please be the same afterwards—both of you."
We promised her at least that much and she went back to the dorm though not before hugging us both.
"So, I take it there's no changing your mind huh?" I questioned him one final time after Nya disappeared from my vision.
"Nope" the damn idiot was sporting a toothy smile while doing so.
I sighed heavily,"Alright, let's go."