Darkwind Green: The Vigilance Code

Prologue

A/N – Ah, the infamous Author's Note. I started this story about a year ago, but forgot about it when school started. Call me a fool, especially since I know from experience that dual writing is really, really hard sometimes, but I figure the fandoms of this one and the HotU fic-in-progress are different enough that I should be able to keep from confusing them. So I'm uploading this one too. Sue me.

Anyway. I, for one, was rather disappointed at the storyline of Pokemon XD, especially after the immensely more stirring Coliseum. (My spellcheck says I spelled that right but it looks funny...) So this is what I think should have really happened. More or less, throw in/take out a few characters here and there.

Also, as most of this was written quite a while ago, about two chapters might seem a but substandard; pay them no mind and keep in mind that the first real "new" material, excluding lengthy edits to chapters to make this fic post-worthy, begins at the end of Chapter 8.

All in all, hope it's worth reading. : ) - Silvorfithrade

Haxer watched on camera as a dark-haired young woman wearing a dark green bandanna slipped silently and almost unseen through the heavy gates barring the initial headquarters entrance. Though infuriated at being bested by a woman, he couldn't help but watch in fascination as her nimble fingers flew over the keypad and broke the coding as easily as if she had been a part of CIPHER all along.

He continued to stare, enraptured, at the screen as she bypassed almost all of the guards, and when she soundly and mercilessly defeated the admin that had seen her, he had to choke down a scream of pure anger. Oh, he knew full and well who this was; he had seen that same battle style, that same Pokemon team, and even the fighting style she used post-battle to finish the admin off. This was someone who could fight physically almost as well as she handled Pokemon, and now he knew she was no woman, but still a child, a teenage girl, not even sixteen years old.

"Double-crossing wench!" he spat at the security screen. How many hours had he spent training this girl? This child, a mere orphan he had taken in off the streets of some obscure, impoverished town when she was not even a year old? She had been the closest thing he had ever had to a daughter, and now she was throwing it all away, though for what purpose, he feared he would never know. Would he even dare lay hands on his own child?

"Of course I will!" he roared, answering his own question out loud. "I brought her up through the ranks, and when she left CIPHER I swore I would kill her! Now is the time to make good on my call!"

Haxer raised a hand to slam a beefy fist on the off button, but stopped and took a double take at the screen. She had turned a corner, and now she was speaking with someone, presumably her partner. Who on earth was that with her? The tall, lanky frame; the long silver hair; the smooth, even stride…he, too, seemed very familiar…

"No!" he growled as he realized who he was up against. Already, he wasn't sure if he could take her on by herself, but with this man accompanying her? He knew firsthand how formidable an opponent he was. "Damn, this puts a damper on everything!" he grumbled as he wracked his mind for something to do. Finally, he issued a red-alert call into the intercom system. "Outer walls breached!" he yelled into the speaker. "I repeat, outer walls breached! All 'E' rank officers to Section 5-B immediately!"

He fumed as he stared at the door. He wasn't going to lose his position as Commodore of CIPHER. Not after all he had done to earn the position. The girl would die before he gave up his rank.

oOo

"Torian! I'm…I'm glad you made it." Steven Stone held out a hand and greeted the dark-haired girl with a traditional, military-style handshake, but his eyes betrayed the sincerity that his formality hid. "I managed to stall his elite officers for some time. Did you stop the transactions?"

She smiled grimly. "No, but I've slowed them down long enough so that CIPHER won't receive anything explosive for about a month or so. Enough time for us to complete our mission, I think."

He nodded. "That's good. More than Vigilance Network was expecting from you, probably. You know how they scorn women and all that."

Turning, she pointed at an alarm device on the wall that she had just noticed. "It may not help us much now, but I'm going to try and deactivate this."

One thing Steven noticed about fifteen-year-old battle prodigy Torian Mercede was that she had a very distinctive smile, one that belayed a kind heart filled with grim determination, a smile somewhat dampened by a somewhat dark past. Steven glanced at her and murmured under his breath, "So young…she's too young for this."

Torian looked up. "What?"

"Nothing." Steven shook his head lightly, causing his long, tangled silver hair to toss about gently. "Come on, let's go; we have a job to do."

oOo

He could hear footsteps in the hallway. Haxer laid a hand on the pokeball of his precious Mightyena, but he had a sneaking suspicion that Pokemon alone would not help him now. The soft, light tread he had heard for almost six years was once again walking down the hallway, only this time, she wasn't looking for help.

"I've been waiting for you," was all he could think of to say when he saw her; Haxer was breathtaken by what he saw. In the two and a half years she had been gone, she had changed so much he barely recognized her. Her hair, which had once been a frizzy flaming red was now a sleek reddish-brown, waist-length and tied up with a dark green bandanna. She had shot up in height, though she was still not a very tall person, and he didn't recognize the insignia she wore on her vest. The only thing, in fact, that was the same was her eyes; the dark green orbs carried fifteen years of emotion that only she would know.

"Oh, have you really? That's nice of you," she answered sweetly. "So kind of you to care. I see you haven't changed much, but then, in your eyes, you were always perfect. Maybe one day you'll find a mirror that reveals your greedy, power-hungry personality."

Haxer, as the coldhearted, stoic leader of CIPHER, never expected her words to hurt as much as they did, but his child's accusation seared through him like poison on an open wound. He could only stare, openmouthed, as she continued, "You know, all these years and I've believed in your cause. It was only recently that I was set straight." She shook her head. "And you know, I feel really stupid now, because I believed you. All your speeches about how we would make Orre, and the rest of the world a better place…all lies, weren't they? All you did was stockpile more money, further your dream in world domination, and for what?"

Finally, Haxer managed to unglue his jaw. "You listen to me, girl, and you listen good. I raised you. If it weren't for me, you would never have…"

"I don't want to hear your explanations," she said suddenly, cutting him off. "If I hear one more thing about this 'I picked you off the street out of the goodness of my heart' crap, then I swear, I will ram my fist down your throat. I'm not here for negotiations."

Haxer grabbed her by the arm roughly and gripped her shoulder with unyielding fingers, swallowing the guilty feeling he felt in his throat. He had never had a conscience before; why did he pick now to develop one? "I may have raised you, but I can pull you down just as easily. Do you honestly wish for me to demonstrate?"

She shook her head slowly. "Oh, no, what ever will I do? Haxer, you really haven't changed at all since last I saw you. Even the same disregard for women is there. Well, do what you want with me, but I assure you, my part in this is just about over. I didn't come in by myself, you know." Torian wasn't sure if she saw correctly, but she thought she saw a little flicker of fear in her father's eyes at her little charade. "Oh, yes," she continued, giving another attempt to feed that fear. "As we speak, Vigilance Network is sending in troops in groups of twenty to infiltrate every inch of this place. It's too late for you, Haxer; your time is almost up."

She would have said more, but in his anger, Haxer had violently swung his fist into her stomach, causing her to double over in pain. "Nothing would give me more satisfaction than to kill you slowly and painfully right here," he growled through gritted teeth.

Torian clenched her jaw and waited; her job was to wait for Steven to come in while Haxer was distracted and allow her partner to swipe CIPHER's bill of purchase papers on the explosives contract they had just signed. Only then was he to help Torian out, and only if he could do it without public notice. Unfortunately for their plan, things didn't work out that way.

Haxer's fist first slammed into her cheek, then her nose, then her throat. Gasping at the pain, Torian began to wonder why Steven was late in coming. She didn't have much time to think, however, because she was suddenly picked up and slammed against the cement walls of CIPHER's headquarters. That's it, she thought through the agony. I'm going to die here. She could hear something crack, and she began to have difficulty breathing. Each breath of air was bought at the price of a sharp, driving sting in her ribs.

Dimly, she heard Steven call out her name. Finally, we can get on with the mission, she thought as she looked up, expecting him to head straight for Haxer's desk and the papers. Instead, he went for Haxer.

The iron grip on her arms was released suddenly as a blow to the back caused Haxer to drop her in shock. "Steven, the papers!" she could hear herself say. "Don't worry about me! Get the papers!" Everything was in a strange perspective, however, as though she was watching it all through a window.

"I got 'em," she heard Steven say quietly as she felt herself being lifted into the air, though the action brought a fresh wave of pain across her small body. "Now let's get you out of here."

oOo

Red alarm lights blinked on and off as Steven Stone ran through the narrow, twisting hallways of Haxer's main headquarters with the barely-alive Torian in his arms. It wasn't supposed to turn out like this, he thought. I didn't come soon enough. I let myself get held up.

He had accidentally made himself open for attack, and now, he was suffering the consequences. He, as a member of Vigilance Network, shouldn't have worried about Torian; he knew she would only slow him down, and yet, he did not leave her behind. Steven knew he would pay for his actions afterward, but for some reason, the top priority in his agenda at the moment seemed to be to get Torian to safety.

Why did things always go wrong when he tried to be a nice guy? He would never have been able to live with himself had he left the girl behind; she was still a child! At fifteen, she should never have had to worry about bringing down multi-million-dollar crime organizations; most girls her age were freshmen and sophomores in high school, who never had to worry about death and destruction. If she were a normal girl, she would be talking on the phone to her friends about boys, clothes, and when the next test would be at this hour of night; she wouldn't be lying in his arms at the brink of death at the hands of her former boss and father.

Somehow, even though preoccupied with his thoughts, Steven managed to find the way to an obscure back exit, and with a sigh of relief, he drew in a deep breath of night air and radioed for a helicopter. They had succeeded. As close as their mission had come to failure, they had succeeded.

oOo

Even as he heard the panicked shouts of his men, Haxer watched through the window in stoic silence as the red alarm lights flashed in every room of the headquarters. As his anger toward his "daughter" slowly waned, his conscience began to fire rapid questions at his mind, and he wasn't enjoying it at all.

"Damn!" he swore angrily as he paced about his office. "I'm the new commodore of a criminal organization bent on world domination; I'm not supposed to have a conscience!"

This isn't your place, the voice in his head teased him. You know you feel badly for doing what you did to that girl. She's so much younger than you, and so much smaller. How could you even think to…

"Shut up!" he roared, pulling at his hair in a feeble attempt to silence the voice. "I don't need a little voice in my head telling me what to do! Go bother someone else!"

Oh, no, my friend, it said slowly. I'm afraid I've always been here, and I'm here to stay.

A/N:Yes, I combined the prologue with the first chappie. Why? Because I'm extremely OCD about the fact that if you upload a prologue on its own, the little number system that counts the chapters is forever off by one. Like, Prologue chappie 1 and then chappie 1 chappie 2. And that bothered me greatly enough to pull down chapter 1 and the prologue and combine them in a fit of discomfort. Sort of. I'm not completely nuts, I promise. : )
Chapter 1 – Death of a Professor

Three years earlier...

Eleven-year-old Keiran Valdoa knew something was wrong the second he stepped inside the giant, two-story laboratory he called home. After training with his Eevee in the woods behind his home, he returned and found the spirit in the house low, stricken, and forlorn.

"Kamis, what's going on?" he asked the woman at the reception counter. "Is CIPHER back?"

Kamis smiled weakly at his wild guess. "Luckily, no, but…" her smile vanished as quickly as it had come. "Keiran…just…go see your mother. Yes, that would be best."

The boy frowned but did as he was told. As he went up the elevator, across sterile hallways, and into the living quarters of the lab team, he was greeted by his three-year-old sister Jovi, who ran up to him and hugged his leg in her usual, bubbly way. She was the only one who was bouncy.

"Jovi sees sad people," she announced. "Jovi is the only one who is happy. Even Mommy is upset." Her bright blue hair bounced up and down as she jumped, trying to get Keiran to pick her up. "Will Brother hold Jovi? Jovi doesn't want to walk anymore."

Keiran bent down and picked up his little sister as he called for his mother amidst the many rooms of the lab house. He turned a corner and abruptly bumped bodily into Professor Krane, his father's closest friend and colleague. "Professor? What's going on?" he asked.

Allan Krane sighed and nodded down the hall. "Jovi, you can walk; put her down and follow me," he said heavily.

Keiran followed the professor, not really paying attention to where he was going as his thoughts ran wild. What could possibly have happened?

"Dad!" he cried upon entering the room to which Professor Krane had brought him. Keiran's father, the Director of the Orre Laboratory, was lying prone on a cot. "He's not…dead, is he?"

His mother shook her head. "No, but he may as well be. Radiation cancer…may the heavens have mercy on him. At least it's a quick way to go."

"But there's a cure for it, right?"

Lily snorted. "That's what they want you to think. If you pay close attention, you realize that anyone who goes in for treatment never comes out; we may run a famous laboratory, but every penny went into the research for the Purification Chamber." She snorted. "And it's still not finished yet." Keiran could see the lines on his mother's face as she tried valiantly to hold in her tears. "We never knew he had it…until he just keeled over and fainted. Aidan just ran the tests on him…" She bit her lip and said nothing else.

"Dad?" Keiran shook his father's shoulder. "Dad? It's me, Keiran. Can you hear me?"

"Keiran…" Jesse Valdoa groaned. "I don't want to leave you and Jovi…but my time is…almost up…"

"No, Dad," Keiran whispered. "You can't. Everyone in this room…everyone in Orre needs your research. You can't die."

Jesse shook his head and placed a hand on his son's arm. "Relax, kid," he said softly. "You're a tough man. I knew…knew from the…beginning that you…were."

"Only because you're there," Keiran replied quietly. How had things changed so drastically?

"Allan told me…he told me what you were doing before you came in." Jesse smiled weakly. "That's my boy…always with Pokemon."

"Dad…Jovi doesn't…" Keiran felt the tears well up in his eyes, but he didn't even attempt to hold them in. "Jovi doesn't even know what's going on…"

"I'll leave it to you to tell her…she spoke to me earlier. Always happy, that one is." He laughed, an empty, rasping cough wracking his body as it died down. "You two always made me smile."

He coughed again and said, "Promise…promise me one…thing…Keiran. Make sure…make sure they finish the…the Purification Chamber. Don't forget CIPHER! You must…finish the chamber."

By this time, the tears were flowing freely as Keiran realized his father wasn't going to live much longer. He nodded shakily. "I will…Dad."

Jesse smiled. "That's my son. I…always knew…you were your…father's boy…"

He closed his eyes and smiled peacefully. "Stay strong Keiran…" Slowly, his breathing subsided.

"Dad, no…" Keiran whispered. "Please…"

"Daddy?" Jovi walked slowly to her father and shook his shoulders. "Daddy? Wake up, Daddy!" She giggled. "You said you had work to do!"

She shook him some more and grew confused. "Daddy?" Her innocent blue eyes betrayed her confusion as she looked up at her brother's tear-stricken face. "Brother, he's not waking up. Mommy? Why won't he wake up? Daddy!"

"He's…" Lily's voice broke as she scooped the girl up in her arms. "He's not going to wake up, sweetie."

Her eyes grew wide. "He's not? But how will Jovi help him finish his work if he won't wake up?"

A sudden, gripping rage filled Keiran, and he ran. He didn't care where he ended up, or where he would go; he just ran. "Keiran, come back!" Professor Krane called, but the boy didn't answer. He didn't even hear.

A small Eevee bounded after him, but he took no notice. All Keiran knew was the anger, the grief, and the pain he felt in his heart. He just couldn't understand how fast it had happened; he had never even known his father was ill! If he had known, maybe he could have done something…

"Vwee?" the Eevee trilled as it bounded up Keiran's leg. "Ee? Evwee?"

Keiran held his Pokemon closely as he stopped running and sat down on the grass. He didn't even know where he was, but he didn't care. The environment in Orre was, for the most part, too caustic for wild Pokemon to survive anyway, so the chances of him being attacked were very slim. Besides, hadn't CIPHER been wiped out two years ago anyway? Who would even think to come out this far north?

"We think we're safe," he murmured. "We all do now. But we're not. My dad's death is proof of that." He looked into Eevee's knowing eyes and continued, "Why do these things always happen to the Valdoa family? Mom told me that, seventeen years ago, Dad's little brother vanished and was never seen again. Then, his father lost his sight in a battle accident. Now…" Fresh tears dripped down Keiran's cheeks as the loss washed over him again. "Now, he's gone too," he whispered.

Eevee's fur bristled. "Eevee! Vwee!" it chittered angrily.

Keiran knew exactly what his Pokemon was saying, and that he was the one being spoken too, and when he looked back up at the trees, somehow, they looked different. Just like everything else, he thought. Nothing will ever be the same.