FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Author's Note: Holy crap! Has it really been that long??? I'm sorry for disappearing like that. I had several things in RL that took most of my time away from my stories. One herniated disk and subsequent treatment, multiple "discussions" with the US Army about my condition, and college life had deemed me "unfit" to write for a long time. I apologize, but I can't promise that it won't happen again. I can promise, however, to do my best to not allow it to happen. BTW I haven't been able to find a map to the anime world of Pokémon, so I'll be using the video game version.

Chapter Four: Reassignment

"I want to say no, Sarah; however, I need all the help I can get," I said with a frown, "As much as I hate to, I'll take you with. However, with this mission in front of us, I'll need you to swear to follow my orders and the orders of those above me. As well as once we gather more support, to be able to issue orders based on the objectives I set before you."

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked.

"If you do go with me, I will eventually have to put you in charge of others. That means you'll be responsible for them, just as I am for you right now," I explain, "Are you still sure that you want to go?"

"Yes, I am," she replied.

"Alright then, if everything's in order, we got a job to do," I said as I looked at Professor Rowan.

"Yes, here is the money that I can spare right now," he said as he handed over a card, "It isn't much compared to what we need you to do, but it's all that I can give at this moment. Do you know how to use it?" I paused, while Sarah snickered softly. I then shook my head. "Alright then, you stick them in here," the Professor explained as he pointed to a small card-reader type slot in the Pokédex. I nodded my head and quickly stuck the card in the reader. A number appeared on the screen: 4,000. I let out a soft whistle. I quickly placed the other card I have in the slot and the number rose again to 4,231.23.

"Thank you, sir. We better get moving," I replied as we left his house. We quickly walked back toward Sandgem town.

"So, feel like grabbing some chow now?" I asked Sarah with a smirk.

"How can you feel so at ease with this?" Sarah asked as she looked at me like I was crazy, again, "I mean, think about it! We have a mission that, if we fail, will doom the entire world!"

"That's why you don't think about it, Sarah," I said, the emotion draining from my face as the soldier part of me takes over, "The more you think about it, the larger and harder it seems. Right now, we need to travel to Snowpoint City. That's all I'm worrying about right now, and that's all you should worry about, too. Once we get to Snowpoint, then we'll worry about the Ice Orb itself."

"All right," Sarah said, obviously still worrying about the whole mission.

"Sarah, where did you grow up?" I asked to try and get her mind off the mission.

"Here and there, my family was always on the move. I didn't know why; in fact, I still don't," she explained, "I was born here in Sinnoh, up towards the northeast part. What about you?"

"Born and raised in a state in the United States of America called Minnesota. Lived in that state my whole life. Moved around a bit, but settled down in a town when I was five; lived there ever since. Joined the US Army only about a year ago, but wanted to be in the military since I was five," I answered, "Never thought anything like this would happen when I joined, but hey, at least the company's good." I smirked slightly as I looked at Sarah out of the corner of my eye. She laughed softly.

"Agreed," she replied. We continued and walked back to the town. I held my rifle loosely and looked around. Now that I was on a mission, I had better remembered what I was taught for the last year and everything I taught myself over the past fourteen years. I checked to see if there was a round in the chamber of my rifle. It was empty.

I decided to just leave it like that; no need to ask for trouble when you have enough on your plate. We found a restaurant that also served Pokémon, and got seated. I got a few strange looks due to the armor and my weapon, but I ignored them. In this situation, ignorance really is bliss. Besides, I was used to the looks that I got back home. Although, sometimes those looks ended up getting me sixty bucks to pay for a ten-dollar lunch, of which I donated the money to a local charity after I paid for my meal (A/N: True story BTW, three people paid me twenty bucks each, at the same time no less). The two of us quickly looked over the menu.

"Well Sarah, I think this will be one of the few times we can splurge until this mission is over, so pick whatever you want," I said as I looked over the menu at Sarah. She looked at me a little confused. "Order anything on the menu. For instance, that steak on page three, if you want that, go right ahead and order it. We have the money, and I don't care what you order. So long as you order what you want," I elaborated. Sarah then nodded her head. I looked at the drinks available and was surprised that Sinnoh had Dr. Pepper. I decided to just get a good ol' burger and fries. No reason to go fancy, even if this is my last civilian meal for a while. This is more for Sarah than me. She's going on what could easily turn into a suicide mission with me. She's earned it.

Eventually the waitress came around to take our order. Sarah decided to go with the steak I pointed out, and I ordered the burger.

"I thought you wanted to splurge?" Sarah asked. I smiled.

"This is more for you, Sarah. When I joined the military, I knew I would be going on missions like this. You volunteered to do this when you didn't need to. My opinion of you wouldn't have changed if you walked away," I said, "You are a civilian, doing a soldier's job. No-one can say that you are not an honorable and courageous person for such an act."

"But you don't need do this either," Sarah pointed out, "This isn't your job either."

"And that's where you are wrong. I live by the seven US Army values: Duty, Honor, Integrity, Loyalty, Respect, Personal Courage, and Selfless Service," I said, "I have lived by those values all of my life, I am living by those values, I will live by those values, and eventually I will die by those values. I am an American soldier. Nothing will ever change that. My Duty is demanding that I place myself in Harm's way so that other people will not have to risk their lives to do this. My Honor demands that I do my Duty or die trying. That's why I can't turn my back when someone asks for my help. To do so would dishonor not only me, but my uniform, all those men and women who have worn this uniform, all of the men and women who have died in this uniform, and my country. I refuse to let that happen, even if that means I have to go knock on the gates of Hell by myself. A saying that we soldiers have is, 'Death before Dishonor,' and we mean it. Most men and women that wear this uniform would rather die than dishonor it." Sarah just sits there as she absorbs the information. A felt a shiver of pride run up my spine as I thought about what I had said. It was true, and from the heart. Even if she doesn't fully understand it, I know that she'll respect me for my conviction.

Our food had chosen that time to arrive. We settled down into a semi-comfortable silence as we ate. Halfway through the meal, Sarah decided to speak up.

"What do those upside-down 'V's mean?" Sarah asked.

"They are my rank. The 'mosquito wings', as us Cadets call them, mean that I'm a Cadet-Enlisted. One mosquito wing means Cadet-Private. One with a flat bar underneath means Cadet-Private First Class. Two means Cadet-Corporal, Three means Cadet-Sergeant, three with one flat bar underneath is Cadet-Staff Sergeant, and the list goes on. Every rank in the US Army has a Cadet equivalent. In the real world, not Cadet-land as we call ROTC, the only thing that matters is the single dot for a rank. That is the official Army symbol for Cadet. In Cadet-land, the same symbol means Cadet-Second Lieutenant," I explain, "Really, the only thing you need to be concerned with is that I am a Cadet. Cadet-Corporal only means I'm in my second year as a Cadet."

"Oh," Sarah said, "Sounds complicated."

"At first, it is. Once you've been around it for a while, it all makes sense and suddenly becomes really simple," I said, "You don't really need to worry about it. Only be concerned about the US military ranking system if we ever run into someone with a similar uniform that has a rank higher than Staff Sergeant, or is an officer." The ended the conversation. Now the atmosphere went south and became uncomfortable. We continued eating as I scrambled to find something to change the subject.

"Sarah, while we travel around, do you want to see if we can find your family? Check in with them, or something?" I asked as I polished off the burger, and went to finish up the fries. She suddenly stopped eating and looked away. 'Oh, come on!' I inwardly yelled at myself, 'Wow, what are the chances that you say the very thing she doesn't want to talk about. Yeah, this is going just perfect...'

"N-no, that won't be necessary..." she said softly.

"I...I'm sorry. If you ever want to talk, about anything, I'm here. I want to listen, alright? What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?" I said softly. I'd hate to lose the friendship we had. Sarah just sat there silently for a while, before she started back on her steak.

"...Thanks, Eric," she replied softly. We both finished off our food and the waiter takes the plates away.

"Hey Sarah, how about I teach you some of the basics of hand-to-hand we get back to our room?" I asked as she took a sip of her water.

"Sure," she replied softly. She had a little far off look to her, almost like the ten thousand yard stare.

"Sarah, you okay?" I asked, slightly concerned.

"Yeah, I'm fine," she said. I could tell that she was lying, but I didn't want to push it; maybe later, but definitely not now. The bill came and went. We then stood up, left the restaurant, and walked to the Pokémon Center. Nurse Joy was busy helping another person when she noticed the two of us walk in. She nodded in greeting before focusing on the trainer she was helping.

We continued to our room and I dump my kit on the bed. After that, we shoved all of the furniture against the walls and cleared out a large enough place to practice.

"First things first, let's start with the basic punch, show me," I said as I recalled all of my hand-to-hand instruction that I had received, which was mostly civilian with very little military. She did a basic punch, and the form looked alright, but it was off enough that I moved in to correct her. "Alright, first keep the punch at shoulder level, unless you are aiming for a specific point. Second, make sure to include the whole upper body when doing a punch, it adds a lot more force than if you just jabbed with the arm," I said as I slowly did a punch, using a Tae Kwon Do stance, "Third, make sure to keep the other arm ready so you can use it for either a follow up offensive strike, or to counter one as a defensive strike by having the arm tucked up like this." She fixed her stance to match mine. "Just to let you know, this isn't military combatives, but a civilian martial arts style called Tae Kwon Do. Combatives are more throws and grappling than kicks, punches, and such. Us Cadets aren't allowed to take Combatives due to how dangerous it is. However, I got a hold of the Combatives FM and did a little studying on my own." We then practiced punching at each other and how to dodge or block them.

"FM?" Sarah asked.

"Field Manual," I replied, "Although most soldiers say it means something else."

"And that would be?"

"Freaking Magic," I replied with a smirk.

After throwing a few more punches, we moved on to kicks. I showed her how to perform a standard front kick, roundhouse kick, axe kick, and side kick. She picked up on these moves quickly and I decided to move onto blocks. After that, I showed her a few of the counterattacks that I knew from the little training I had in Krav Maga. Suffice to say when I showed her how to block a punch to the face, she realized that when I said that these techniques could kill, I meant it, as one of the finishing moves I showed her involved a stomp onto the opponent's throat after throwing the opponent to the ground while blocking his or her attack. We practiced on each other, throwing each other to the ground and walking through the finishing strikes. We even moved on to how to defend against a knife-wielding opponent.

By the time I called it quits for practice, it was already 2228H (10:28 PM). We both were drenched in sweat. I wiped off the sweat that had accumulated on my brow and let out an exhausted sigh.

"That was a good practice. I haven't had that much fun in a while," I said with a grin.

"Same," Sarah replied, "And you were right. Some of those moves are downright vicious. Why would anyone want to know them?"

"I don't think anyone wants to, but it's more of a necessity. No one wants to have to take a life...but some things are worth fighting for, killing for, and dying for," I replied softly. I stood up and grabbed my PT uniform, "I'm gonna grab a quick shower before I get some rack time. I'd recommend the same." I then took a quick shower and got dressed in my PT uniform. When I got out of the bathroom, Sarah stepped in. I moved the furniture back into place and got ready for bed when I heard a call from the bathroom.

"Uh... Eric, can you help me with something?" Sarah called out from the bathroom.

"Sure, what do you need?" I asked, assuming that it had something to do with drying her fur.

"I need some help...mumble," Sarah said, mumbling the end.

"Sorry, did catch that last part. What'd ya say?" I asked with a small smirk.

"I need help drying my fur," Sarah said quickly, embarrassment tinting her voice.

"Sure," I replied as I walked into the bathroom. I grabbed a nearby towel, which was still dry, and proceeded to give Sarah a good rub down. It took us thirty more minutes and five more towels before she was dry. I had to fight the laughter as I looked at the large, poufy Lucario in front of me.

"One word. One snicker! And I'll kill you..." Sarah growled. I couldn't help it as I broke out in laughter. Being threatened by something that looked like a ball of fluff was just too funny. Sarah growled and tried to work her fur back down. Five minutes later and she still looked like an oversized, Lucario-colored and shaped furball. Eventually my laughter died down, with tears in my eyes and my stomach throbbing. After I calmed down, I grabbed a comb from the bathroom and helped comb her fur. It took us ten minutes before we got her fur to stay down and we were set for bed. I offered her a spot by my side on the bed, and she jumped in before I even finished. I couldn't help but smirk as I reached over her and turned off the light, before I quickly succumbed to sleep.