Pokemon: Duty or Justice?

Waking up to a dull ache still across her body, Janine opened her eyes and silently observed the area - noting that at some point the Budew and Seedot that had been resting on her had left. Lifting herself up, she quickly glanced around. 'Beautiful…' Pausing to take in the field of gently swaying red and blue roses nestled up against Seedot, Nuzleaf, and Budew Janine stood there for a few seconds - and just observed. 'I don't get why you'd destroy them. None of these Pokemon take up much room, and they don't take any resources Houndoom or Mightyena would care about.' 

Not letting herself spiral into dark thoughts, Janine shook it off and began to stretch, holding back from groaning in relief as pops and crackles could be heard. A few minutes later, she silently walked up to Spinarak, whose eyes had opened at some point, and began to stroke his head and back gently.

Letting a smile spread across her face as his eyes narrowed in joy, Janine just enjoyed the quiet and peaceful moment, particularly after the stressful past couple of days. 'If only the world could be like this always…' 

Of course, as the sun got brighter in the sky and more and more Pokemon began to wake up, that peaceful harmony was broken by sorrow. Sniffles and crying of griefing Pokemon quietly overtook the clearing, and the wails of baby Pokemon as they were forced to deal with what wasn't just a nightmare. Hand pausing her petting for a moment, Janine quickly resumed and quietly took in the mourning.

In truth, she had never really seen or dealt with such a thing. When there was a death in the Kurosawa clan it was a small, quiet, and somber thing. Things such as crying were mostly left to private, and even if they did appear in public places, were mostly restricted to a few people, not the entirety of the clan.

To see close to a hundred Pokemon in mourning, and openly displaying it was… shocking, now that she wasn't exhausted out of her mind, and in the light of day. 'What was the reason for the attack? Greed? Hunger? Hopes that their pack would get stronger through battle and evolution?' She didn't know the exact reasons. Winter wasn't coming, so there should have been no reason to stock up, and the Pokemon she had seen seemed reasonably well-fed. 'While this is certainly a beautiful location, there's truly no reason a pack of Dark-Types would want to take them out. If they wanted a true battle for Evolution waging war on Marill and Surskit lines would have been better..' 

Thinking more about it, it was strange. Why would a Houndoom and Mightyena pack merge? Sure - it could be a similar situation as the Roselia/Nuzleaf tribe with one falling in love with the other… but with how feral and aggressive those Pokemon were acting, it seemed unlikely.

Unless they had a powerful leader, aggressive Pokemon species like that don't truly band together. 'None of those Pokemon were stronger than a Novice Pokemon. They certainly aren't Pokemon I would rely on to gain a sixth badge.' From what Janine knew, 50% of trainers who partook in the League Challenge didn't gain their third badge, with only 10% even challenging the Eighth Badge; so while a roughly 'Fifth-Badge' level Mightyena or Houndoom was powerful; if they even broke into the top 25% of Trained Pokemon was questionable, let alone the fact that the stronger a Trainer was, the more likely they were to have more and more Pokemon.

'Well, that's a thought…' Hoenn suddenly opened up their borders, their 2nd strongest Trainer was holding back massively on top of instantly encountering a pack of Dark and Fire-type Pokemon trying to wipe out generally seen a peaceful, honorable, and dare-she say righteous Pokemon within days of getting here?

'I smell a plot here, but what?' Of course, she didn't think this was some 'Evil Wallace' sending Pokemon to take out the grass types, that was stupid. 'But what if Team Magma had a reason?' Getting a quick angry chitter from Spinarak from her hand freezing at the thought, Janine quickly went back to petting him while thinking. 'Now that's a thought; but why?' If it had just been Mightyena and Poochyena's she would have labeled it a plan by Team Aqua, something which would make sense. After all, they're called Team Aqua, and a lot of their Pokemon was of the Water Typing.

But Team Magma? 'Strange. Could it not be an attack by them and truly just be random? It seems like if anything they'd want to breed them more and more so that more people had counters to Team Aqua and thus weaken their rival.' 

Janine knew something strange was going on, she just couldn't put her finger on what exactly. Sadly, her train of thought was broken up by an approaching presence that caused Spinarak to bump her hand. Focusing on the outside world, Janine turned her head to the side and instantly spotted the duo. That same larger-than-average Nuzleaf, yet now beside him was a Pokemon she hadn't seen in this life, not even depicted in any pictures or pieces of art.

Standing at a dainty three-foot tall and nearly triple the size of a regular Roselia, the Pokemon had quite elegant short-cropped white hair, a small green mask covering the upper part of their face, a cape fluttering behind them, and quite large red and blue roses at the end of their arms.

A Roserade - the formerly crippled partner of the Nuzleaf. 'Impressive.' Janine didn't know if it was because the Shiny Stone had been of particularly high quality, or if this Roserade had just been a potent Roselia, but the Pokemon standing before her was clearly an Intermediate-class Pokemon. It was easy to read - the evolution most likely messing up any fine control over their energy, and so the Roserade was practically broadcasting their newly enhanced power. 

Yet, even so, she would likely still be thrashed by Janine's Spinarak due to sheer skill and move mastery gap, even if Roserade due to her Evolution was truly a Pokemon that at least on a raw statistical basis could stand nearly on par with him. 'Impressive… if she continues to train and gain mastery of her new power, in a few months she might be able to match the current Spinarak even without a trainer.'

Underneath her hand, Spinarak noticed this as well as he pushed himself up, eyes trained on the Roserade, a hint of excitement in his eyes. 

"Rose! Rade! Rose-rade!"

A warmth threatened to spread across Janine's face even as a smile appeared, and she shook her head. "There's no need for thanking me Roserade. Any good person would have done the same." 'It's true… even for wild Pokemon the stronger they are and the greater your connection, the easier it is to understand them.' 

Snapping out of her wandering thoughts, Janine stared in a back of shock as the Roserade rapidly shook her head before bowing, the Nuzleaf doing the same beside her. "Roserade!" Her voice was urgent, firmly stating that thanking Janine and an apology was needed. Janine held back from reacting in any of the ways she instinctively felt like doing.

"Well, if you insist; then you're welcome and I accept your apology." Standing back up a smile spread across the Roserade's face, before her body shifted. 

"Roserade!" 'Eh?!?' Staring truly surprised, Janine blinked before looking down towards her Spinarak, who was practically vibrating in excitement.

"Well, who am I to say no to a battle? But are you sure? You couldn't have adapted yet to your new body!"

"Roserade!" With a determined nod, Roserade took a step back, pushing the Nuzleaf who had been silent this entire time away as she did so. 

'Well… I didn't expect my first real battle in Hoenn would come like this.' Taking a few steps back herself, Janine watched as Spinarak jumped off from the rock he had been staying on, his beady black eyes narrowed onto Roserade. 'It's strange that she would challenge me to a battle like this. Now that she's far stronger and her family has just suffered a grave loss, there's no way she would want to be on my team. Perhaps she just wants to know how much stronger she's gotten?' 

Curious, but not yet asking, Janine noted that more and more of the clan of grass types were surrounding them to watch, and she took note of the looks on their faces. Some were curious, some were very clearly just looking in on the coming battle to focus on something other than grief, but others - particularly the more powerful members? They had very serious looks in their eyes.

'Strange, maybe she is thinking of joining me? But that seems far more irresponsible than the impression I got from the adults of this group.' Pushing it to the side to focus on the upcoming battle, Janine forcibly mellowed out her thoughts and centered herself to regain focus.

Taking a deep breath, as she exhaled her eyes narrowed and sharpened. "Here we come Roserade! Spinarak, Agility!"