So, um... hi. First off, a bit of background: I uploaded this chapter first on January 4, 2007. This new version, along with chapter one, is going up on August 31, 2009. It's a big gap, considering that when I released the prologue I intended to have the first chapter up within a week. But anyway, for the few of you who may have read the original version of this, in the time since then the plans for the series have changed dramatically, and this revised chapter comes as the result of a session rewrite over lunch whilst also watching NCIS.
The obligatory story-wide disclaimer: stuff: I do not own any of the rights to Pokemon; as far as I'm concerned the characters own themselves. I also do not own the rights to any of the songs for which I have modified/translated lyrics. This is a work of fiction; any resemblance to real people alive or dead is purely coincidental except where intended.
GENERATIONS
GENESIS
Prologue: Surface Exploration
"GE000"
All stories have to start somewhere. Most of them start somewhere in one of the many known regions, or perhaps those unknown. But at least they all begin.
This story doesn't.
This story didn't start on a stormy night in one of the districts of the metropolis of Jade city, in a bedroom... on a computer monitor...
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
So, how about it?
MEG WRITES:
I've already said no, and you can't change my mind.
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
It's only a little trip. This place isn't exactly open every day of the year.
MEG WRITES:
It's underground.
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
Yeah. So?
MEG WRITES:
The Subterra is about as far down as I've been, any deeper and I'll be worrying really badly.
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
What's to worry?
MEG WRITES:
Mild claustrophobia combined with an incident that happened a few years ago.
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
Elaborate?
MEG WRITES:
No.
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
Come on. It'll be fun. Darrell's coming. Nothing's going to happen.
MEG WRITES:
Still can't convince me.
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
Afterwards I can procure some tickets to go see Temple of the Sea...
MEG WRITES:
...
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
Got you there, eh?
MEG WRITES:
...
MEG WRITES:
...alright. As long as that holds true. I haven't seen that yet.
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
:)
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
Ok, tomorrow at 9. See you at the station.
MEG HAS LEFT THE CONVERSATION (Feel the wind beneath my wings once more)
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
And don't be late!
DAVE THE RAVE WRITES:
Somehow I knew that was going to happen.
DAVE THE RAVE has gone AFK
SERVER WRITES:
All is silent... (Automatic 5 minute silence message, you may turn this feature off)
REACTOR WRITES:
They come.
REACTOR HAS LEFT THE CONVERSATION (Somewhere in the sands of time)
ALL USERS OFFLINE OR AFK
TIMESTAMP NOTED: THURSDAY 14 FEBRUARY 2008 21:43
It was not a very busy morning at Hyrntown Jade Rail and Subterra station. Being a weekend, not many people were traveling in to work. The rain from the previous night left puddles scattered around, dripping off the roof. Various flying Pokemon sat underneath overhangs in attempts to stay dry. It was the sort of morning you'd just like to sit down in front of a warm fire with a mug of something.
It had been some time since the last train, and David, sat on a bench on one of the platforms, watched an agitated businessman who was obviously late on the platform opposite. In the middle distance there was the electric whine of trains arriving and departing on the Subterra lines below. He checked his watch, then looked up at the information board.
"08:53," it proclaimed, "Next train: SPECIAL to Hyrn Hill Mine, 09:00."
"Seven minutes..." he muttered to himself, pushing his glasses back up his nose. "If they don't turn up, I'm going without them."
From the back of the bench to his right, his Butterfree, Viridian, protested loudly. David rubbed her head.
"Calm down, it's not like anything's going to happen."
"Who are you talking to?"
David looked around.
"Oh, just Viridian, Darrell. She doesn't seem to like the idea of going without you and Megan."
Viridian squeaked in confirmation, as Darrell walked past them and sat on Viridian's other side. "Well, you and I both know how much she loves those little treats Megan gets for her Weavile," he pointed out.
Across from them, another train noisily pulled into platform one, and several passengers disembarked, two boys having an extremely loud conversation. David sighed.
"Five minutes."
Standing up, he looked down the track towards central Jade, and squinted. "Train's coming," he reported. Darrell stood up beside him, and Viridian fluttered onto David's head. Sure enough, the train was approaching.
"It's still got a couple minutes before it leaves," said Darrell, looking up at the board. "Megan can still get here in time."
The train rushed into the platform, blowing David's hair about, and a discarded newspaper blew down towards the other end of the platform. Viridian clung on for dear life. Within a matter of moments, though, it had come to a stop, and the doors had opened. A few passengers got out, and as one of them walked past, a snatch of music floated away from her earphone. "...and to a new frontier..." Both of the boys looked down the platform for a few seconds.
"We're going," David said, climbing onto the train. Darrell took one last glance at the station building, then resigned to the fact that Megan wasn't coming with them after all. He followed David to four seats around a table, moved the muddy comic that was sitting on one of the seats, and sat down.
David looked up in annoyance. "Great," he complained, "I think Viridian's tangled in my hair." Viridian gave a worried squeak to confirm this, and started tugging. The PA bonged.
"Please stand clear of the doors."
Abruptly, there was a yell, and someone threw themselves onto the train. The doors stopped and reopened, and the PA bonged again. "To all passengers, this means you on the floor of carriage three, 'Please stand clear of the doors' means 'Stand clear of the doors', not 'Throw yourself onto the train like an idiot on Paras shrooms. Now, let's try again, shall we? Please stand clear of the doors."
The doors closed with a satisfying thunk. David glanced outside and saw someone else run into the now closed doors, curse, and walk back.
"Thank you."
As they leaned out of their seats to look who'd landed roughly, Viridian seemed to already know who it was, and with one final tug freed herself from David's hair and went over to meet her.
"Megan?!" Darrell exclaimed, leaning out further. Megan brushed herself off and sat opposite them, trying to get her breath back. David waited until she caught it, then asked the obvious.
"Why are you late?"
He received a glare for his troubles. "Nice to see you too," Megan replied. "Twix stole my bag and it took me ages to find it."
Twix was Megan's family's hyperactive Furret, infamous for stealing and hiding things where they weren't expected. PokeNavs in lightbulb sockets, books in the toaster, not to mention several writing implements and Megan's keys had been found under the rug in the living room. It was a good enough excuse. But the bag, the boys noticed, was bulging.
"What exactly is in that bag?" Darrell asked. Megan blinked, then started taking things out of it. There was a lot, and pretty quickly the table was buried.
"Pokenav, Pokegear, three flashlights, first aid kit..."
She rambled on for a while.
"...some chocolate, a small cake that mum made me bring, and my gloves."
As she packed everything back in, the others stared, apart from Viridian, who took an interest in the cake.
"Megan, I said nothing was going to happen!" exclaimed David, raising his hands in annoyance. "All of this stuff is just going to weigh you down, not to mention cause havoc with security!"
Megan pried the cake box from Viridian's grip. "No harm in being careful."
"There's such a thing as being too careful."
Zipping up her bag, Megan looked at Darrell.
"It's underground. Anything could happen."
Anything indeed. Back in David's bedroom, the chatroom lay abandoned on his computer monitor, which he'd neglected to turn off. Nothing had happened for about eight minutes, but then a message appeared on the screen, reading 'Switching Channel'. When that message disappeared, there were lines of text appearing in the chatroom, despite it being a private one and the fact there were no other channels to it.
REACTOR WRITES:
I trust everything is ready for the events to come?
MAZE WRITES:
Cable cutters in position.
POWER WRITES:
Tunnel supports weakened.
REACTOR WRITES:
Good. Volcano?
VOLCANO WRITES:
Lava will be rechanneled in three.
REACTOR WRITES:
Excellent. Get ready, Maze, it's going to get very hot in there very soon.
MAZE WRITES:
Oh joy.
MANSION WRITES:
...
REACTOR WRITES:
Oh, for the love of Mew, I thought we'd gone through this!
MANSION WRITES:
...
MANSION HAS LEFT THE CONVERSATION (I only stop at exits)
REACTOR WRITES:
I'm not even going to try.
POWER WRITES:
They should be reaching the mine any moment now.
REACTOR WRITES:
Let's go to work, boys. Maze, you're up.
MAZE has changed name to MAZE (BUSY) (Lost in a labyrinth)
REACTOR WRITES:
And don't screw it up!
REACTOR WRITES:
...damn.
REACTOR WRITES:
Anyone know how to turn those messages off?
REACTOR WRITES:
Those jingles are on my nerves.
As true to Power's statement, at that precise moment the train pulled into the platform at Hyrn Hill Mine. The doors opened and amongst the tourists, David, Darrell and Megan walked out. They followed the throng of people towards the main entrance, got in past the queue thanks to David's foresight and prebought tickets, waited for about ten minutes at security while they checked Megan's bag, and walked towards the elevators.
"According to the guidebook," Darrell explained, "There's a main exhibition on the fifth floor down, then showcases on three and four."
"How deep is that?" asked Megan nervously.
"Oh, a good-" started Darrell, but David interrupted him.
"Megan, how many times do we have to tell you? Nothing's going to happen!" he told her. "We only just got past security because of your bulging bag!"
Megan remained resolute. "You can never be too careful." Viridian squeaked in agreement.
They made it down onto the fifth floor, dragging Megan on the elevator after much protesting.
"This place is huge..." Darrell gaped as they exited the elevator. David grabbed the guidebook off him and flicked past a few pages.
"'The first four lower levels are mostly extraction machines, furnaces, equipment storage rooms and other compartments for various activities such as mess halls and the like,'" he read from it. "The fifth level is where mine cars would return from the network of tunnels loaded with the coal that had been mined.'"
He skipped a few pages.
"'Upon reaching the fifth level, the large chamber you see is the result of increasing need for mine cart sidings as the network of tunnels increased.'"
He looked up, and realized the other two had wandered off and were nowhere to be seen. He sagged momentarily, then decided to take a tour with a guide into one of the remaining mine cart tunnels. Viridian shook her head and followed him.
"I hope the tunnels are structurally sound," he remarked to a kid on the tour. The kid glared at him.
"I mean, we don't want them collapsing on us, do we?" David joked. The kid continued to glare, then broke it off to listen to what the guide was saying about loading carts.
About ten minutes later, he and the rest of the group emerged from the tunnel covered in a fine layer of dust, because somebody had lifted a sack, then dropped it again, throwing dust everywhere. David had done his best to brush it off, but had only succeeded in getting it over his hands. Viridian had laughed, until the person did it again and she got caught in the blast.
"You look like you've been submerged in a pool of grey," somebody commented loudly, and he found it was Megan from some distance away, looking at something on the floor.
"That would about be the thick of it, yeah," David replied, attempting again to brush it off and failing miserably. "Whatcha looking at?"
Megan looked up. "There's this circular symbol on the floor," she pointed out, crouching down to it. "Is there anything about it in the guidebook?
David pulled it out of his pocket and flicked through it. "Nope, nothing."
It was an intriguing symbol, two concentric circles with smaller symbols in between them. Megan gingerly poked one of them. It seemed to glow briefly before going out, and there was a similar result from another, which brought raised eyebrows to both Megan and David.
"Sir," came a loud, insistent voice from across the hall, "please desist immediately."
They both stood up and turned around to find the origin of the voice, and groaned. Darrell was sat inside the control chamber of a piece of drilling equipment on the far side of the hall, with a guide trying to get him off. How he had managed to get on there nobody knew, but everybody knew what happened next when he turned it on. The roar filled the chamber, making everyone cover their ears and those closest to the drill go temporarily deaf, bar Darrell in the sound-proofed control chamber. When he finally turned it off again, Darrell was manhandled off the drill by security.
"He's on tickets bought by me, I'll need to go talk to them," David complained, walking towards them.
The subsequent argument resulted in Darrell being cautioned and forbidden to touch anything else, and David being instructed to keep Darrell in his sight at all times. The next argument, between David and Darrell, passed over after Megan pulled the guidebook out of David's pocket and hit them both with it.
It was a few hours before David finally declared they needed to leave for the movie. They boarded the elevator, David pushed the button for ground (after pushing Darrell's hand away), and turned to Megan.
"See, nothing happened."
As if on cue, the elevator jerked to a stop, throwing them to the floor. The light went out, but was quickly replaced by an emergency blue one.
"You had to open your big mouth," Darrell moaned, ignoring David and punching the emergency door release button. It didn't work.
"It's not as bad as Megan made out though," David persisted. "As far as I can see, it can't get any worse."
The elevator dropped a few feet, and the blue light intensified for some reason. Megan whacked him with her bag.
"You never, ever say that," she accused. David dodged another blow from the bag.
Then there was a loud snap from above, the blue light cut out abruptly, and the elevator plummeted.
"I'm not missing this one."
He looked up at the building. There was the girl, running through the car park and through the door. He gave chase, ignoring the staff telling him not to run, and reached the doors just they closed. The second time! Not again! Not after three long years!
Then he looked down, and blinked.
"Oh, damn."
He didn't know how long he was out, but he knew when he woke up that every bone in his body ached. David rubbed his head, wincing. The last thing he remembered...
Then he realized what he did remember, and tried to stand up. Instead, the pain in his legs forced him back down again. As he sat there, trying to regain use of his legs, something fluttered next to his ear.
"Hi Vir," he whispered. "Any chance of a light?"
"Bu."
There was a flash of light which stung his eyes, but it wasn't Viridian's move. It was one of Megan's torches. She ran over to him and knelt down.
"You okay, David?" she asked, offering him a hand. He took it and she helped him up, wincing as he did so.
"Where are we?"
Megan flashed her torch around, the light revealing shards of metal, plastic, her Weavile and sparking wires before settling on what appeared to be the largest surviving part of the elevator. Then it pointed upwards, revealing a neat shaft that went in only one direction. Up. No other light could be seen anywhere above them. They were a long way down.
Putting his hands on his hips, David looked first up the shaft, then at the elevator. "Isn't it funny how we got thrown clear?" he remarked. "I would have thought we'd have been crushed, or torn apart, or something. Even my glasses are still on."
Megan picked up her bag from a few feet away. "That's not what tends to happen. Trust me, I've done this once before, and what happened then..."
David blinked at her. "You've done it before? When?"
"Not elaborating."
"Ah."
Then he realized what was missing from the picture. "Where's Daz?"
This only brought a shrug from Megan. "He took a torch and wandered off. Said he'd try to find help or something."
"I did find something."
The beam of light swung around the chamber they were in until it settled on Darrell. He squinted. "Don't point that thing straight in my eyes."
"Sorry."
At this point Megan put her bag back down again as David was trying to get the remaining torch out.
"Anyway," Darrell continued, "I didn't find help, but I did find something I think you should see." He gestured towards a tunnel behind him. He added, "It's huge in there."
David stood up and flicked the torch on. "I say we go."
Sometimes it's impressive how the largest of spaces can make the smallest sounds.
"Ek."
Megan clobbered David with her torch.
The tunnel led to a narrow ledge around the top of a huge cavern, half of which was occupied by a curved concrete wall. Two pipes emerged from its side, one with a large section missing out of it, and large letters on the wall proclaimed it to be the wall of 'Silo K'. One of the pipes leaked water, and it had created a lake in the bottom of the cavern. Most prominent, however, was the large metal plus sign somehow attached to the wall. It was pretty obvious why David's mouth had dropped.
"I personally think it's a missile silo," Darrell said, oblivious to what David was doing. "I wonder how many people besides us know about it now?"
"Not very many, I should think," answered Megan, forcing David's jaw shut. "If many people knew about it, wouldn't they repair that pipe?"
"You have a point," Darrell acknowledged, thinking about it some more. "Where would it come up on the surface?"
After a few moments of silence, Megan worked it out. "Under the train station."
"Ah."
More silence. Then-
She squinted. "There's something in the pipe."
"Probably water or something," started Darrell, before Megan had got her binoculars out of her bag. She aimed them at the gap in the pipe.
"Looks like people," she reported, trying to focus on them. "Looks like... damn, they just went back in."
The ledge continued around to another, narrower, tunnel. Fitting through proved possible only by edging along sideways, which proved some discomfort. The three of them were glad when the tunnel widened out enough to walk forwards instead. It switched back to the left, headed downhill, switched back again, and presented another pipe. Darrell hit it with his torch, then grumbled as Megan hit him with hers, and made him pick the bits up off the floor.
"Air Intake Section 008," David read off a stamp at knee level, having recovered from the shock in the cavern. He looked up, trying to picture where this vertical pipe would emerge on the surface, then reached into his pocket and pulled out the battered guidebook. As he flicked through it, Viridian landed on his shoulder and watched him. Once he found what he was looking for, he held the page up into the torchlight.
"'The four stacks above the mine used to stand higher than they do now,'" read Megan, "'Three of them were used for venting smoke from extraction machines and furnaces, but the fourth is a mystery and has no connection to any of these systems. It is possible it leads to a section of the mine that has since collapsed.'"
"It doesn't, though," David confirmed, looking up again.
Darrell, trying unsuccessfully to put the torch back together, had a sudden thought. "Shouldn't we wait back at the elevator in case anyone tries to rescue us?" he asked.
The answer to this came from David, who was starting to walk further along the tunnel. He did an about-face and headed back the way they had come. "Man has a point."
It was after a few more steps that the roof of the tunnel leading back to the cavern gave way, throwing more dust everywhere. All three of them coughed, Megan trying her best to fan the dust away. David, in mid-stride, waited until the dust had cleared, then about-faced again.
"We go on," he declared.
"Duh, genius."
"Free."
The tunnel in the other direction grew progressively wider, until it reached a point where they could seemingly go no further; the tunnel turned sharply upwards, and there was no way they could climb it without specialist equipment. They studied it for a while, as Viridian rubbed the dust off her trademark sunglasses.
"What do we do now?" Darrell asked the obvious. David scratched his head for a minute, then responded.
"Panic?" he suggested, just prior to ducking a swing from Megan's torch.
"Well," decided she, "I'm going to take an inventory." Sitting down, she unzipped her bag and started pulling things out of it. The boys watched her, before checking their pockets. A pile began to grow on the floor, then when everything had been emptied out, they sorted them according to how useful they were likely to be. The fact that Megan's stuff was the most useful wasn't a surprise.
"One last thing," she mentioned, as she stuffed the cake box back into her bag after retrieving it from Viridian's clutches again, "What Pokemon did everyone bring?"
She pointed to the two Pokeballs in one of her bag's pockets.
"I've only got Absol... oh, and Ro- Weavile."
"Hang on," said David automatically, completely oblivious to the word Megan had been about to say before correcting herself. He fumbled with the capsules clipped onto his belt, recognizing the scratches on each one. "Vir, obviously, I got Holly, my Clefable, Mint, my Fearow, Autumn, my Bayleef, my cousin's stupid Meowth, and either Conduit the Magneton or Ruku the Luxray, I can't tell which without calling them out."
"Then why don't you?"
"Unless you hadn't noticed the width of this tunnel..."
"I," interrupted Darrell, "have got Drapion, Mismagius, and Psycho."
"Psycho?" repeated Megan, confused.
David picked up a small stone from near the pile and threw it at the wall. "Psychotic, mad, crazy, insert synonyms here Pachirisu." He sifted through the pile, picked up a biscuit that had been in his pocket, sniffed it, and threw it away in disgust.
Watching it bounce off the wall, Darrell raised an eyebrow. "How long has that thing been in your pocket?"
"Probably the best part of five years," David answered, smushing the pile. "I think it went in there when we went to Sulura High for the day."
He stood up. "Gonna wander over here and stretch my legs," he explained, then wandered over to the vertical tunnel and looked up in thought. Then he looked down, as the floor collapsed under him. He yelled, but it wasn't a long way down; just far enough to stop him from climbing back out again. Darrell and Megan's concerned faces appeared above him.
"Are you alright?" Megan called, dropping him down a torch. It landed on his head.
Rubbing his head and flicking the torch on, David replied, "Mostly... I didn't land on anything painful, at least I don't think I did..."
There was a WHUMP as Darrell landed next to him. "I think Dave's found our way out of here," he commented, pointing the torch all around. "Looks like a pipe to me."
Megan clambered down behind them. "Coming from that place we saw earlier?"
"Apparently." David kicked a pipe divider a short distance away. "The plus symbol's over here, with a bunch of others."
The others walked over to examine it. It looked like a door in the divider. Six circular depressions marked the centre, and there were symbols in each of them. The plus marked the sixth hole.
"I've seen this one before," Megan said, frowning, pointing to the first one, which looked like a Y with the upper two branches dividing into more Ys. "That was graffitied onto the wall outside North Elling station a few years ago."
"Now that you mention it," Darrell continued, looking at the first one closely, "It's on the posters for the Rubywell Art Gallery as well, I was looking forwards to going there tomorrow."
David looked down, and took a couple of steps backwards. "And we're standing on it."
The others stepped back and followed his gaze, both giving a small cry of alarm. Sure enough, the first symbol was cut out of the mud on the floor of the pipe. David shivered.
"Did it just get a lot colder in here?"
Megan gave him an odd look. "No. Let's just get out of here."
They had to run to catch up to Darrell, who'd already started, and then they ran from there (Viridian flying, of course) in the opposite direction.
Unbeknownst to them, as soon as they'd stopped looking up the incline, they were being watched from on top of it, and it was this presence that had piqued David's interest. The worried pair of eyes in the darkness had witnessed everything said there, and when they'd gone down into the pipe, had turned and ran in the opposite direction, saying one phrase over and over again.
"Not good."
A few moments of silence passed.
Then the six depressions in the door in the pipe lit up, one by one, and with a quiet rumble, the door slid open...
Long ago, when I was young, I only had to follow
The map that was spread out wide in my imagination
Always searching, looking for anything to believe in
A trust that would last for good and not get lost in time
My true dream... could never be discouraged or broken, not then
Now... that I've grown up it feels like the dream has turned to dust
But with the help of my friends I can start to remember
Remaining memories snatched from long ago
Help me now along the the way
Memories ~ One Piece Ending 1/Genesis Ending 1
I'll skip whatever I had here before; mainly because it involved the position of the review box in 2007; besides this fact about this chapter. The story never started here. When the later episodes are uploaded, you may want to revisit the earlier ones and see what's changed. But nevermind about that now, just go on to
episode one
Waste Extraction