This is my first fic, and while it is now finished, there might still be small mistakes in these chapters. I'd be only too happy to fix anything that gets pointed out to me. Enjoy!
You will occasionally see bolded and underlined text, which are Author's notes that I've added since completing the fic.
When Stephen woke up, he didn't remember where he was. However, he soon recognized the opulent walls and blankets of the hotel he was staying at. Normally just content to just stay where he was and lie in a little, Stephen couldn't do that this time, as he was too excited about the day to come.
"The world's tallest building...man, it's going to be so cool!"
He dressed to the tune of Manhattan traffic.
Meanwhile, in Stonycreek Township, Pennsylvania near Shanksville...
After waking up at 9:30, as he generally took Tuesdays off, a farmer settled down to make some breakfast for himself. After frying up some bread, bacon and eggs (he'd heard of nutritional values before, but didn't hold to them) and pouring himself some coffee he picked up his now slightly steaming plate, a newspaper, and settled down on his veranda to enjoy his breakfast. Mentally, he noted to himself that he had to get a gift for his wife's fifteenth anniversary in two days before she got home from business in Canada (he had steadfastly refused to set foot in that country). He thought back to that day, on the 13th of September, 1986...
He was halfway though an article debating the uselessness of the Bush administration when he heard a weird sound...
Stephen walked out of his own bedroom into the living room to meet up with his parents and sister, Shana (who had a knack for being a lot more annoying than you'd expect from a seven year old) and head down to breakfast, which had only opened and proceeded to bolt down cornflakes and milk (the kitchen hadn't started cooking yet) with the rest of his family. Even though he usually ate more than his parents and sister, he was still the first to finish, as he had chosen one of the places that they were planning to visit today.
"Come on Shana! You're eating way too slow! We'll never beat the traffic to the two towers if you eat so slowly! I want to stand on the tallest building in the world!"
"mmph... Not fair! I'm going as fast as I can and anyway, you got us up too early! It's still 7:30!" Shana retorted through mouthfuls of Fruit Loops (she shared the same sentiments as the farmer with regards to nutritional values, although that was mainly because she hadn't understood what they fully meant, and couldn't care less).
"Stephen! Seeing as you're so eager to get out of this place, you can go and check if our taxi is already here. If it is, just tell the driver to wait another 5 minutes, we told him to be here at 7:45 anyway." Stephen's father interrupted. As Stephen dashed out of the Kitchen, his mother turned to his father. "You do realise that the only reason why we booked the Taxi for 7:45 was because we needed to leave at 8?"
"Yeah, but it gave him something to do, and I get to eat my breakfast in peace."
The farmer looked up, and against all logic, saw a plane flying extremely low towards the ground about 3 kilometers from where he was. The wind howled around it as it approached his house.
"Err... crap?"
The farmer gulped down the rest of his bacon, and started hurrying away from his house, assuming that for some extremely perverted reason someone wanted his house leveled. It was an unusual method for demolition though, he mused. Probably the CIA discovered that I knew about their cover ups! Ha! I was right about Area 51..."
However, the plane seemed to be dropping too quickly for it to hit his house. Upon seeing that, the farmer went straight back to his house to grab his mobile. Grabbing it, he fished around for the On button before realising that it was already on, and that he had just turned it off again.
"God dammit!."
The taxi ride to the World Trade Center was quite uneventful, unless the fact that Stephen nearly ranted at the Taxi driver because he turned up 3 minutes late, and had to be shushed up by his father before the driver opened his door counted as an event. Even at 8 o'clock, the streets were already heavy with cars, and as such it took them an hour to even reach Manhattan.
"Why are we going so slow?" Shana asked
"Because there's lots of traffic, and there are too many cars on the roads, and they can't handle them, so they all got stuck or something" Stephen replied, showing enormous insight for a 10 year old
"But that's stupid! Why can't they just make all the lights green?"
"Becaus- Argh! I dunno! Maybe then all the cars would crash?"
"Why would they crash?" Stephen swore that Shana was doing this on purpose.
Luckily, although whether it was more lucky for Stephen or for Shana, Stephen's temper managed to hold itself in check for the last 10 minutes until they got to the World Trade Centre. Once there, they went in and straight up the elevator to the top when...
"Dad, do you have the camera?"
The sound the plane made when it crash-landed was deafening. It started with a high-pitched screech as the plane approached the ground, which built to a cacophony of sound louder than that at an airport landing strip. The farmer dived to the ground with his hands over his ears (or what was left of them).
"Look, there isn't time to get the camera, ok? We'll just have to see if we can get one of those disposable thingies at a souvenir shop when we get to the top." Stephen's father nervously said.
"But what if there isn't one, why can't we go back hom- to the hotel and come back at like 10 o'clock or something!" Stephen whinged.
"We won't have time, son, our flight's scheduled to leave for California at 3, and it's going to be tight for us to get there anyway even after getting up so early. You don't understand how heavy the traffic is here in New York, ok? We'll just have to make do, and you DO want to go to Disneyland, don't you? Also, do you have any idea how expensive a meal up here at the Windows on the World costs?" Stephen's father pointed at the restaurant sign.
"Well...I-" Stephen began,
"I don't care! Let's get this tower done now! I wanna go Disneyland!" Shana cut in.
However, after searching the souvenir shop on the top floor, it soon became evident that there were no photos of Stephen that were going to be taken on the top floor that day. Glumly, Stephen followed his parents to the top floor, which was already quite full, to enjoy dining on the tallest building on the world, but the experience had lost some of its charm for Stephen.
It was 8:40.
"Hello? This is 911 emergency."
The farmer had finally managed to place a call to emergency services. As he waited for the call to connect, he realised that his story sounded like one of the crackpot stories that he'd occasionally read about in the paper...
"Help! A plane's just crash landed in my field! I'm near Stonycreek Township near Shanksville! You probably don't believe me but-
"No I believe you. Haven't you seen the news lately? Can you tell what type of plane it is?" The shocked voice retorted over the phone. Somehow, the fact that the voice on the other end had seemed so believing of his story unsettled the farmer...
"No, I don't own a TV. What happened?" the farmer responded while running towards the fallen aircraft.
As he approached, it was evident that no one could have survived the crash.
It was 10:04.
As Stephen glumly surveyed the sprawling mass of high-rise and yellow cabs that defined Manhattan and New York City so well, he noticed something to his right in his peripheral vision...
"It looks like a passenger plane, one that you can buy tickets for, but I don't think anyone could have survived this... there's metal everywhere and I don't even know which end of this is the front of the plane and which is the back...what's happened?" The farmer, now trembling, sat on the ground.
"If you are correct, then this is the 4th plane crash today. There have already been two planes flown into the World Trade Center, and I've just seen on CNN that another one crashed into the Pentagon! One of the towers at the World Tra-..." The farmer dropped the phone
As the voice rambled on, coming out of the abandoned phone lying on the ground, the farmer approached the wreck. He tried to lift some of the debris off, but the metal was still hot to the touch. However, something glinted, and caught his eye.
It was another mobile phone, and it was ringing.
Stephen turned, and saw a plane. Planes around Manhattan were normal, and he'd gotten used to the sound of the aircraft mingling with the traffic at night.
The plane was flying at him.
"Not good..."
The farmer picked up the phone, and answered it.
"Oh gawd!" The voice on the other end, a woman's one, was crying, "What happened? Where are you? I heard this explosion and you hung up! Please..."
The farmer stood there. After 10 seconds of listening to the woman's rambling, he decided to answer.
"I'm sorry, whoever you are. I don't know who you are, but I found this phone lying in a plane that had just crashed in my fields. I'm so sorry, so very very sorr-" He was cut short by a scream of anguish on the other end.
"Oh my god! Everyone! GET OUT! There's a plane-oof!"
Stephen barrelled into his parents and sister, forcing them to the elevator.
"What the hell are you doing, Stephen? If this is another of your pranks again I'm gonna..." Stephen's mother was cut short as the entire building shook and everyone was knocked to their feet. The light fixtures fell off, and the sound seemed to flip a switch within everyone, who promptly began panicking.
"What h-happened?" Shana asked.
"I saw a plane come flying at us, and then... I-I think it crashed into us..." Stephen mumbled.
"The fire exit! Its our only hope!" Someone yelled, and suddenly, everyone snapped out of their individual panic attacks, and proceeded to attack each other in a vain attempt to get through the fire exit.
However, everyone's actions seemed to slow down to the point where they weren't even moving at all. Everyone except for Stephen.
Bewildered, Stephen walked over to his father, and tapped him on the nose. His father, and another stranger, seemed solid, and after trying to push the stranger over (he didn't really want to try toppling his dad), he realised that nothing, no one, could be moved.
"It's almost like time has frozen..."
"Correct! Give the man a prize!" The sudden exclamation caused Stephen to start, and he tried to turn and back away at the same time. Of course, no matter how good the body may seem at multitasking, two legs cannot multitask, the end result being that Stephen was now sitting on the ground, staring at...
The farmer didn't know what to do. Didn't know what to say. He just went to the road outside his house and waited.
"What the hell are you? You look like one of those game thingys, a-..."
"Pokemon? Yes, I am, indeed, a Pokemon. And I am here to talk to you. About all this." It gestured around itself.
The...Pokemon looked a little like a like a T-Rex, however, its arms were of a much more normal length, and had some kind of gauntlet-like armour on them. Its skin was a light purple, with several stripes and bands on its wrists, tail, torso and neck. However, the most distinguishing feature on it were the two pink pearls set in its shoulder plates.
Stephen was dumbfounded. After the pure shock of seeing something so improbable happen before his eyes began to drain away, questions began to surface to his mind like bubbles from a shaken Coke bottle, the first three of which didn't take long to be asked.
"What? How? Why?" He asked incredulously. The purple dinosaur Pokemon began to answer. As he did, a green glow started rising to his left, further adding to Stephen's worries and already long list of questions.
"Look, I'm Palkia, and one of my abilities is the ability to warp space. So no prizes as to guessing what I am or how I got here. As for the third question, I believe that that might take a little longer to answer. You will have to come with me..."
"Err...Wh-" Stephen started, only to be interrupted by another voice, this time sounding in his head.
"Always with the questions! Palkia, just get him in here where we can talk without me having to concentrate on the time so much!"
As his mind was busy comprehending this, Palkia reached out and touched his head with one claw, whilst reaching the other towards the green glow. As they touched, Stephen felt himself black out.
He also felt himself leaving his body.
By noon, the farmer had gotten the whole story from the authorities. Several police had come and left. Then the FBI and their forensics teams started arriving, and with them came the news.
By 11:00, both of the World Trade Centers had already collapsed. The south tower was safely evacuated before it had collapsed as the plane that had crashed into it had done so after the plane that had crashed into the north tower giving authorities time to issue orders and secure a cordon around the area.
However, everyone above the crash point of the plane on the north tower had died when the north tower collapsed. The plane had cut through all three of the fire stairs, trapping the tourists on the viewing deck until the tower fell, killing everyone inside.
All of America was affected by the incident, and mass demonstrations were held around the country, asking the US government to do something.
In less than a month, the War on Terror had officially begun.
Feeling that some part of him ought to be outraged by being yanked away from his body, but unable to do so for some reason, Stephen 'looked' around at his surroundings. He realised that he was floating in an empty space. Wishing that it would have been better if there was some light, Stephen tried to see if he could see anything in the distance ahead of him when a dim light appeared off in the distance like some kind of faux-sun.
"Now that you've finished with your interior decoration, could we please speak?" The voice, once again in his head, caused him to attempt turning around, but he couldn't, seeing as he didn't know how to move.
"Just imagine yourself spinning around and moving forward. This place is the canvas on which you paint with your imagination, and is what universes are created from, but that's for other beings to do...not you."
Stephen turned, to be confronted by three 'thought-beings'. One looked like Palkia, looking a little more transparent and pinkish than normal. The other looked like a small fairy like creature, antenna on its head and impossibly huge eyes...
The last 'thought-being' looked like himself.
"So this is me? I guess he does look a lot like me... I know what I have to do, so I guess I'll be going now?" With that, Stephen's 'copy' turned and left with the fairy-thing, who immediately reappeared.
"Err... was that me?" Stephen asked, now a little unsure of himself.
"Yes, it was... but at the same time, it wasn't you. See," Palkia continued, noting Stephen's confused expression, "that was the you from our world, the world of Pokemon."
"Indeed, and basically, he's gone to take your place, and you're to take his." Now the fairy-thing joined in.
"What? He, I mean, I became me? And now you expect me to become me? Wait, that didn't sound sane..." Stephen paused, slightly nervous, "What I meant to say was, how come you get to decide when to randomly switch our-... my places?"
"Notice that big plane that flew into the building you were in? I thought you did. Well, your other self was sent back in time by yours truly about 2 hours... and HE will remember the camera." The fairy-thing responded "and by the way, I'm Celebi, and before you ask, yes... I can travel through and manipulate time."
"Oookay...," Stephen started uncertainly "...so you're saying that by remembering the camera, we wouldn't have wasted time looking for a disposable one, and so would have gotten out of the building... before the plane crash!"
"Got it in one, boy" Palkia seemed to smile. "You may be asking, why not just send you back in time? Why get the other you to do it? And why don't we just stop the planes from flying in? In response to your first question, we don't want to interfere with your world at all, really, but Steven, the other you, wasn't going to make the right decisions. This was probably the smallest change we could make. A swap and then having that swapped person remember to bring an object. As for the other questions, well, Celebi can't tell us much about it at the moment, but basically the versions of our world with the other you...don't end that well, and you are just different enough to change the future into something a little better."
"As you'd expect, we'd like our world to keep existing." Celebi continued. "I know that for some reason, placing you in our universe causes it to continue on its proper path, and so we decided that maybe pulling you into our reality would be an excellent idea. That, and the fact that you were about 1 hour away from dying... the building would have collapsed." Celebi continued "Think of the fact that at least your parents and Shana will be saved as a reward for agreeing to come help us. Anyway, Palkia and the other legendaries (Celebi seemed to shift awkwardly at the mention of legendaries) share the same sentiments as I do. Hell, we COULD send you back, but what good would that do for us? And what good would it do for you? Fate has a knack of chasing down it's intended targets..."
"But... doesn't that mean that I would still die here, in this new world?" Stephen, still nervous about the whole dimension thing, asked.
"Well... yes, but we're hoping that the fact that you're in another dimension kinda staves fate off for a bit longer, but who knows? Maybe you might live out a full life, and then die of natural causes..." Palkia replied, although she noticed that Celebi still seemed a little uncomfortable when she said those words.
Even so, Stephen couldn't really pass on this opportunity. He was, if these two 'thought-pokemon' could be believed, about to die, but had now been given a second chance to live his life...
"Okay...I'll do it..."
By noon, the farmer had found out what had happened. Several police had come and left. Then the FBI and their forensics teams started arriving, and with them came the news.
By 11:00, both of the World Trade Centers had already collapsed. The south tower was safely evacuated before it had collapsed as the plane that had crashed into it had done so after the plane that had crashed into the north tower giving authorities time to issue orders and secure a cordon around the area.
However, everyone above the crash point of the plane on the north tower had died when the north tower collapsed. The plane had cut through all three of the fire stairs, trapping the tourists on the viewing deck until the tower fell, killing everyone inside. Only one couple, and their children were lucky to have been in the elevator shaft during the plane crash, near the bottom. The doors were quickly pried open and they were rescued. The pictures on their camera, taken of the Manhattan skyline, would later prove to be the last surviving photographs taken from the World Trade Center.
All of America was affected by the incident, and mass demonstrations were held around the country, asking the US government to do something.
In less than a month, the War on Terror had officially begun.
In the background, a green fairy like creature listened as the news was relayed to the farmer by the FBI. As soon as he had found out that 'Stephen' and his family had survived, her entire body glowed green, and vanished.
Reality had been successfully altered.
As soon as Stephen had agreed to the 'thought-Pokemon's' wishes, they seemed to solidify, and while Palkia pretty much stayed the same colour (that's right, use British spelling!), Celebi had turned bright green, and her eyes had turned baby blue. Stephen blinked at the sudden change of colour.
"Ha! We had to make sure you agreed before we let you fully into our dimension. Note that now, you cannot understand Pokemon, including Palkia, unless they communicate telepathically like I am doing so now. You will gain all the memories that the other you had in this reality, while retaining your own ones. You may discover the difference between you and your other you within those memories... If you have no more questions of us, then we'll beam you down. I have already explained this to the other you, but your name here is spelt with a 'v' instead of a 'ph', so your name is now Steven" Celebi's voice appeared in his head.
"Okay... I guess Steven's pretty much the same as Stephen, but it'll take a little getting used to..." Stephen, now Steven warily said. Suddenly he was filled with a huge wave of confidence, and realised that whatever this new world could throw at him, it couldn't have been as bad as being one hour away from death, couldn't it?
Celebi and Palkia both waved their arms, and the green and purple beams coming from them both hit Steven in the chest at the same time. As the glow faded, it was revealed that Steven had disappeared to the world below.
Celebi turned to Palkia
"So you reckon he was more optimistic than the other him? More headstrong. His thoughts just before leaving seemed to radiate a huge amount of confidence, considering that he doesn't yet know what he's heading into."
"Celebi, you do realise you lied to him about Arceus' agreement on this matter, and about the time he has left to live? You know Arceus dosen't know of him."
"Yes Palkia. I know. I know. But Arceus needs to be ignorant, or he won't kill Steven."
"Huh...if you say so. But promise me if there was another way, you'll find it?"