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Unearthing truths part 2

Max looked down at the ball, He had just captured a new partner which was a Larvitar. And from what he'd already seen from it, it was very stubborn but powerful. He didn't get a chance to call it out though before he heard a voice from the opposite direction, It wasn't Scav and it wasn't Fang's but he knew he'd heard the voice before. "Max! Is that you?! Man you've grown!"

Coming out of the bushes he could see the strikingly similar hair color of Jesse's but the human was definantly older, and kept his hair cut short and just above his eyes, he had a certain gentleness to him and right away Max recalled who he was. "Johnathan! Is that you? I thought you left five years ago so you came all the way to the mainlands?"

"Please...Call me John." He could not help but smile at Max and pat him on the head, treating him as if he were a child. "Besides...Shouldn't you be calling me sir? Afterall I'm more than twice your age!" with that he started ruffling Max's hair as a Manectric stood at the new trainer's side. "But to answer your question I came to visit my brother but obviously he's not to keen on talking to me."

Fang was just rushing to the scene when he spotted John and his electric companion before turning his attention to Max. "Uhm...I never saw this guy on the island before so how to you know him?"

"What?" Max took a second to regain his thoughts before laughing "Oh right! Well ya see...You already know I'm on this trip to find my friend Jesse, Well this guy here is his brother! Though Jesse believes he's his father." Max already knew that would lead to more questions, not just from Fang but from Scavenger as well so he turned his attention to John. "I think it might be best if you tell the story...because well...I wasn't even alive back then so I'd probably just warp it."

John took a deep breath before starting on the tale that was nearly 10 years in the past. "Keep in mind this is before Max was born...and Jesse was still an infant...but it started like this..."

---

"Comeon now...You know the boat is about to head out...we need to get you on board now before it's too late!" Growled a gruff voice of a guilmon which oddly enough it did not have it's cute squeaky voice. It was talking to an obviously pregnant human woman who was just standing right at the bridge between the dock and the ship. "Listen to me love...if you don't get out of here our son's going to be at risk! And I don't want my child to be born in the middle of a battlefield!"

The city that had once been occupied by many hundreds of residents was now a burning husk, nobody exactly knew how or WHY it had been targetted for an attack but in the small window of time it took from dawn to sunrise the entire city had been engulfed in raging flames, some buildings just collapsed out of nowhere. But to the guilmon worrying for his beloved it was all too clear why they'd been targetted and it was because of him. Humans didn't exactly accept digital monsters, the children did but the more 'mature' humans considered him a threat, one that needed to be erased and it wasn't just a coincidence that this happened to THIS particular city while he was residing in it.

Johnathan, a teenager about 15 years old at the time ran toward the guilmon and the pregnant woman. "Sir...My mom is still locked up in our house I can't get to her the fire's too thick!" He gave a small bow to the wife.

"Hmmph...your father should have saved her first. what about your little brother? Is Jesse with your mother as well?" When the human failed to answer his question he grabbed him roughly by the arm and placed him by his wife. "Watch Sam...I'll go help your Mother!" He grumbled and started running from the peir back toward the flame consumed city. He knew exactly where Johnathan had lived and bust the door open with a simple rock breaker, the flames did nothing to harm the fire dinosaur. "Is anybody in here?!" The digimon roared out, waiting for a response but what he came to hear was that of a crying infant. With all of his might he started pushing through crashing debris, a few support beams coming down and nearly hitting him but he pushed through all that to see a unconcious woman laying over a crying baby. It wasn't until he checked the pulse of the mother that he realized it was too late for her...She'd protected the baby from the heat and smoke but ended up dying of suffocation herself. "It's a loss in life..." He mumbled to himself and sadly picked up the infant before rushing his way out of the fire. He couldn't save the mother but he at least managed to save Johnathan's little brother...he just didn't know how he was going to tell him."

Johnathan waited with Samantha, or 'Sam' as her husband called her. Keeping gaurd and making sure the boat remained in place until the last of the evacuee's could get on board. That was when the Guilmon approached the boat, and placed little Jesse in the boy's arms. When he'd recieved the bad news all John wanted to do was cry for the death of his mother until the guil spoke again. "Listen to me...Your mother protected your brother with all of her strength. Your father might very well still be alive in the town. He is a soldier afterall...a super soldier so he could still have survived. I want you to tell the captain of the ship to head toward the island right away. That's an order you get me?! I'll meet you all there as soon as I've searched the town for your father." He didn't even give Johnathan a chance to speak his mind, he just vanished right back into the flaming town.

The young teenager closed his eyes but gently cradled his little brother while getting Sam into the boat. He promptly started telling the captain to get the ship moving. It was a slow start but the ship they had all evacuated into was slowly getting itself away from the burning city. After half an hour on the ship the city had dissapeared from view replaced by a fiery sky that burned in that area. "I promise you...Jesse you won't live without a father no matter what...we'll just...Move in with our grandparants on the island."

---

Once John was finished retelling the story he noticed that both his Manectric and Max's Bulbasaur were staring intently at him then at Max, as if dumbfounded by the whole thing. "I was fifteen years old when it happened...Jesse was 10 months and Max you were just two months away from coming into the world yourself. Your dad DID return like he promised...but he came with news that our father died rescuing the downtown civilians and getting them to the next town. After that I spent about seven years raising Jesse as my own son even knowing that he was my little brother."

Fang kept his peace for a few more seconds before bopping Max on the head. "Why is this the first time I'm hearing about this! Wait...you said...seven...Max is 10 and Jesse's 11..."

This time it was Max's turn to explain a few things but he kept it relatively short. "He had his own dreams...and he couldn't let them escape him. After about 7 years of taking care of Jesse he left him in the care of their grandparents."

John chuckled as he petted his Manectric and handed Max an envelope. "And it's a good thing I did! Take a look at this letter. Just a few days ago I was offered to become the new gym leader in Mauville City! I was just about to go to the port when I heard your voice and watched you capture that Larvitar."

It was then that Max opened the envelope and his eyes lit up. "Woah you got offered to become a gym leader?! Wait...that means you'll have to go all the way to Hoenn...Shouldn't you be staying here to help Jesse?"

Johnathan placed a hand on Max's shoulder and shook his head. "I already tried a few months back...He wouldn't let me get close to him for some reason...I'm terribly sorry that I wasn't there to help you guys during the bandits raid...but you're the closest friend Jesse has. If anyone can get through to him it will be YOU." He looked deeply into Max's eyes before letting go and standing up. "I should be going...You're heading to Violet city yourself aren't you? If that's the case you're only about a five minute walk to the city gates. Earn your first badge and show me what you're made of. Because I want you to show up at the Mauvile city gym after your little journey here."

"Hold on...If you're about to become a gym leader why not give me a practice match...I could use some practicing before I take on the Violet city gym afterall don't you think?" He stared up at John with a defiant look in his eyes. before he started walking to a clear spot in the forest that they could use as a battlefield.

John himself hadn't even accepted the challenge but walked over anyways, Manectric pacing infront of him. "You're same as always never take no for an answer...But I guess you could use some real world experience when it comes to the gym leaders! I hope that you don't end up regretting this!" Manectric roared and got itself ready, with Max choosing Bulbasaur or rather it made the decision for him.

Fang gasped, realizing this was happening and scampered over to the two trainers and smiled. "I'll be the referee for this match! Alright so a one on one match against Max the challenger and John the soon to be Gym leader. The challenger may begin when ready!"

Max didn't waste any time and was quick to call out the first order. "Alright Bulbasaur this is our first albiet unofficial gym battle so let's start it off by ensnaring his Manectric in a vine whip!" Hearing Max's first command for the battle, Bulbasaur started extending the vines from his bulb and moved in to wrap them around the Manectric. The only thing the two failed to realize was neither the trainer or the pokemon seemed to show any signs of communication yet Manectric managed to dodge and charge at Bulbasaur, it's fangs burning a bright red as it bit down on Bulbasaur's left leg, sending it staggering back to avoid any further injury. "But you didn't even give it a command! Why are you just letting it make it's own choices?"

Manectric barked at it's trainer before John would smirk. "I don't need to give him verbal commands. We've been training together long enough that I don't really need to tell him what needs to be done. Falkner might do the same thing so you can't expect to hear what your opponants next moves going to be. Eventually you will learn but for now I'll let you try and avoid this attack Max. Manectric go ahead and use Thunder wave!"

Just as Max was about to tell Bulbasaur to avoid the attack it seemed that the Manectric had already been charging the attack and aimed in the direction of the Bulbasaur's wounded leg. "He already knows what you're going to say..." He said mostly to himself as Bulbasaur started straining to move itself. but it was soon knocked out of comission by another ruthless fire fang to the remaining foreleg. Once Max knew Bulbasaur was out cold he picked up his partner and started treating the wounds with first aid in his backpack. "Your Manectric...he knows what you're going to tell him to do. But how? Is he reading your mind?!"

John didn't say anything for a moment, he called Manectric out of the battle though already he'd proven he never really needed to say anything. "No...but we trust each others judgements. We've won battles...lost them...and because of that we already know how to battle most pokemon only change is the trainers and how they're trained individually. You need to start training that Bulba before he gets too soft. And go to the pokemon center right away." He called Manectric into his pokeball before sighing. "Max...I'm sorry for not giving you a fair chance or battling you like most trainers will. But I will do this for you at least! Falkner is a flying type gym leader so try to win over that Larvitar you caught. It'll be your best chance at winning." He gave Max one last wave of the hand before walking in the direction Max and the group had been coming from.

With Bulbasaur out cold Max wrapped a blanket around him and looked like he was about to cry, but that was what pokemon training was about. He had to train, get stronger for both him and his pokemon so that this wouldn't happen as often. "Fang...we're going right now. I'm not going to stop either till I'm at the center so if you can't keep up I'm sorry!" With that Max started going at a full sprint.

Fang was about to speak up and bowed to Scavenger. "You take care sir. I'll let Astral know of your improvement!" With that he was the next one to run off, Making the hunter smirk in amusement. 'for kids...they are pretty decent' were his last thoughts before he let himself drift off to sleep. It would be a long day for Max and Fang tomarrow morning. Because they would not only have to wait for Bulbasaur to heal, they'd be challenging the pokemon gym leader falkner.

(Chapter 2 end)