Pokemon Urban Black

Prologue

A heavy metal hand descended on the boy's shoulder with a firm clap. He tensed but  forced himself not to startle.

"Congratulations, Jojo. You've made me proud."

The man's words of affirmation unwound the knot in Jojo's stomach, replacing it with a warm pride. "Th-thank you," Jojo managed. When the man, hand still firmly clutching his shoulder, did not respond, Jojo added a faux-confident "I told you I could do it." He tugged on the straps of his backpack more tightly. An anxiety-quelling habit.

It was not easy to impress Godlove Benjamin. The man was as unsettling as an earthquake. Even now, Jojo could not garner even the slightest idea of what he could be thinking behind those dark, scrutinizing eyes. But he'd told him that he was proud, and those words inspired hope.

Godlove smiled, revealing two gold teeth at the top and a silver canine at the bottom, amongst rows of pearly whites. He let the boy go and wandered back towards the card table where he took up one of the sticks of roasted asparagus.

They were in the warehouse— an oversized storage room filled with lockboxes of unused equipment. Around the space were several ominous barred enclosures, some on the ground, others raised— shadow obscuring their contents. "When you came to me... what was it, three... four years ago? I asked you a question." Godlove leaned against the table and pointed the asparagus stick in Jojo's direction. "Do you remember what that question was?"

Jojo took an errant glance towards one of the raised cages and swallowed.

"Jojo." Godlove's voice was a booming echo.

Jojo snapped his gaze back on him, pulled at the bottom of his canary-yellow beanie cap, and cleared his throat. "You uh... you asked me why I wanted to be a trainer... sir."

"Yeah, that's it." Godlove glanced down towards the small golden-scaled creature at Jojo's side. It was a shrewd little critter with attentively perked cat ears. It bore the thick hide of an armadillo but was several times more resilient. Golden-hued skin made its deep obsidian eyes stand out. They were fixed on Godlove, like Jojo's.

"You came to me all excited and shit cuz you caught that lil Sandshrew," Godlove said, chuckling at the memory. "You remember that, Godson?" He nudged a boy next to him, nearly toppling him over with the wrangling motion.

The kid was only a few years Jojo's junior. The dark features and sharp jawline made him the portrait of a prepubescent Godlove.

The boy nodded warily. He was seated in a folding chair with an oversized cragged, gray rock on the floor between his feet. The rock had eyes.

Godlove turned his attention from his son, back to Jojo. "And what was it you told me?"

"I said that I wanted to be a Pokémon Master," Jojo said, trying to keep the tremble out of his voice.

"Why?" Godlove asked before taking a bite of the Asparagus stalk.

Jojo's breath caught before he could answer. He knew where this was going. It was nowhere good. "Because... because it's been my dream since I was a kid." The answer fell from his lips as if it were a guilt admission.

"But you're not a kid anymore, are you?"

"No, sir."

"Sixteen years old... damn near grown. Just whooped Bronx's ass," Godson said, motioning towards a large brute of a man who stood cross-armed on the opposite side of him from his son. "That was good shit. You know, I ain't ever know a Sandshrew could move like that," he said motioning back towards the golden creature again.

The Sandshrew's ear twitched but didn't otherwise seem to take pride in Godlove's words. It had just done battle against one of the broad-shouldered man's creatures and had done an impressive job of defeating an opponent that was easily six times its size. But the Sandshrew, like Jojo, knew that Godlove was never a person one could afford to lose focus around.