I'm getting tired of doing this in my other story so I'm only saying this once:
"Human talk"
'Thinking´
-Pokémon talk-
Pokédex
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.
-x-
Chapter 1
Emergency lights and an alarm was blaring while a computerized voice could be heard, "SAFETY RISK. PLEASE EVACUATE THE FACILITY." The scientists were running around in a panic; checking equipment, putting the smaller, movable experiments into carriers and carting them away, leaving the rest or less important ones to whatever fate awaited them.
Frightened eyes looked at the chaos through the bars of a door marked A-X. As everyone started to leave a bigger cage on wheels was pushed to this door. The being inside the small tried to hide under its bed, but two pairs of hands merely dragged it out and shoved it in the cage anyway. The small being sat huddled in the cage, shuddering in fear of what it believed to be coming. Then it noticed that it didn't recognize the hall they were taking. It looked at its new surroundings, curious even through the fear.
It was bigger and almost the same shiny grey as those horrible cold tables. But what really caught its attention, was the strange light that came from the end. The being had never experienced such brightness before. When they grew closer to the entryway it saw the most beautiful blue and it knew that it never wanted to lose sight of that colour again.
There was a sudden explosion from the wall in front of them, causing a chunk to hit the cage and it fell over. The being inside cried out in surprise and pain from hitting the unforgiving metal bars.
A distinctly animalistic figure stepped from the smoke, looking almost like a giant cat in armor. It looked at the cage before focusing on the men who had pushed/pulled it. "You truly are insignificant humans, using your own kind. Despicable." The being was shocked to hear the words in its head, like they were put there instead of heard. The creature shot two glowing dark-purple balls at the men, sending them flying backwards. It then looked to the cage once more and raised one of its three fingered hands. The being within cringed, thinking the cat was going to give it the same treatment, but instead the bars creaked and bent into an opening wide enough to climb out. "You are now free child. I suggest you find a way to leave this place." With that the creature blasted the roof and took off into that wonderful blue, pieces of the armor breaking of as it flew. The child climbed from the cage, running to the end of the hall.
It was amazed to find that the blue was everywhere above him with the source of the light seemingly flouting high above. Yes, the child was certain now; it was never going to lose sight of its freedom again, no matter what the cost.
-x-
Hours went by with the child first wandering outside the now abandoned building. At one point it realized it was hungry, but was reluctant to leave safety of the walls to search for food. This was, after all, the only place it had ever known, its home if you will. Luckily it came upon the back door to the kitchen. It proceeded to gorge itself in all the different foods. Some of the food tasted better than the rest, not that it really mattered to the child and it made sure to stay away from the stinky food in the big bins.
Right now it was sleeping under some sort of plant close to the kitchen. The thing was big and brown, with lots of leaves at the top, plus the brown surface was rough. The child could only assume that this was what was called a tree. It had heard some of the people in white coats talk about one day and apparently there were supposed to be a lot of them. It decided that it liked trees, they provide shelter from the hot, bright light and it could still see the Blue through all the leaves.
It didn't know how long it slept, but a loud whirring noise had woken it up. Yet, when the child looked around, it found nothing out of the ordinary. Curiosity overtaking it, it decided to go look for the source of this new sound. 'Maybe it's another creature?' was its thoughts as it crept through more plants.
The sound of rustling leaves and footsteps came from its left. It curled itself into a tight ball to make itself as small as possible. A brown haired man stepped from the foliage. He wasn't young anymore, but not very old either, with lines only starting to show on his face. The man seemed to be looking for something or someone. Then his eyes fell on it and they grew wide from shock, then narrowed in anger and, finally, grew soft with sympathy.
"Where's your parents boy?"
"P-parents?" The child asked in confusion. It did not know of parents, "What are they?"
"The people who take care of you."
'He means the people in white coats,' the child realized. "I don't have someone like that and all the people are gone. Everyone left. The big cat chased them away."
The man nodded, "I see, you're an orphan. I am Giovanni. What is your name?"
The child thought back to all the times the scientists spoke about it and remembered the writing on its door, 'A-X…that must be my name.' It looked to the man, "My name is Ax."
"Nice to meet you Ax," he held his hand out for Ax to take, but the child was weary of the stranger and stood up on its own. The man let his hand drop to his side before speaking again, "I have to leave soon. Do you want to come with me? I will take care of you as if you're my own son and teach you how to fight so that no one can hurt you."
"No one will hurt me anymore?" The child took a tentative step forward.
The man nodded, "No one. All you have to do is follow me." He held his hand out once more and this time the child took it.
"Then I'm coming too," it looked to the front as they started walking, completely missing Giovanni's sly smile.
-x-
"Again!"
He called, nodding his head as a signal.
Targets flipped up randomly only to light up and fall down again as various lightning bolts hit them. When the sequence ended, he was panting but another signal was given.
"Again!"
This time he was breathing heavily and had trouble seeing straight for a few seconds. Recomposing himself, he gave the signal again, but a voice on the overhead speakers interrupted him, "THAT'S ENOUGH. COME TO MY OFICE WHEN YOU'RE DONE." He nodded at the two-way mirror to show those beyond it that he heard and then trotted to the exit of his training area.
Entering his room, he caught sight of himself in the full length mirror and walked closer.
He was greeted by the visage of a dog-like Pokémon with a very short tail, surrounded by a fringe of spikes on its rear. He had four slender legs, each with a three-toed. His ears were large and pointed ears with black insides. He was covered in yellow fur, and had a white, spiky collar. It was soft now, but he knew he could make his fur sharp like needles on a whim by charging electricity through it.
'Jolteon, definitely one of my favourite electrics, but I should put more practice in as Pikachu. Once I've mastered volt tackle I'll be able to ask Giovanni for a Thunderstone and evolve to Raichu.'
Remembering that he was supposed to be somewhere, he focused and a warm white light encompassed him. It morphed and stretched, shifting to a new form then broke away as quickly as it came.
A teenage boy now stood in the jolteon's place. He had shortish tawny coloured hair that spiked a bit at the top with a strand or two going down the middle of his forehead to just above his eyebrows. His eyes were golden brown and his pupils were a somewhat animalistic slit. He was wearing a plain black tracksuit that had a red R over the left breast.
Yet, despite his strange eyes, what really drew your attention was a scar running over the teen's right eye. If he closed his eye you could trace its path. The scar started just above the right eyebrow and went down the middle of the eye before making a gentle curve to end two centimetres beneath his right ear.
Satisfied that he was presentable he exited his room and headed for the lift.
Upon reaching his destination, he lifted his hand to knock, but stopped when he heard voices and leaned a little closer to try and catch a few words. He could make out the muffled voice of a woman and then a man, but then Giovanni's voice rang out loud and clear, "Enough excuses! I want that pokémon by the end of the week or I'll be sending a more skilled operative take you're station and send you back to grunt work. That's final!"
Hearing the click of the receiver he schooled his face into one of respect before knocking. The command to enter came instantaneously.
Giovanni was sitting in his leather swivel chair, facing the big windows behind his desk. When he turned around you could see his persian curled up in his lap.
"Ah Ax, I've been meaning to talk to you. How is your training with Pikachu coming? I see you're still favouring Jolteon."
Ax went to stand in front of the desk, "Yes Giovanni, I was working on Jolteon because I feel my reaction time needs improvement. I only managed to hit 82% of the standing targets and 70% of the moving ones while standing still. As for Pikachu; I am now able to reach an acceptable speed for Volt tackle, but experience problems each time I try to maintain the power output of the electricity running through my body while focusing on staying at the correct speed. This causes me to slow down, thus reducing the effectiveness of the attack. Though, once I master Volt tackle I will know every move that a pikachu can do."
"Hmm, I see. Tell me Ax, how would you like to go on a long term mission?"
The teen thought about it, "Well I could do with getting out of here for a while. Goodness knows my Pokémon will appreciate being outside again. How long are we talking about?"
"Undetermined. It stays on-going until you manage to get your target."
"And just what is my target?"
Giovanni pressed a button somewhere on his desk and blinds covered the windows, making it almost seem like night. A screen came into view to Ax's left and he turned to study the displayed information. He was greeted by picture of a pikachu in the middle of performing a massive Thunderbolt.
He raised an eyebrow at Giovanni, "Seriously, a pikachu?"
"Yes. This one has an unusually high power output in its electrical attacks. We wish to see if this is because of a natural mutation only in pikachu and, if not, if it can also occur in other electric species."
"Okay, where can I find this pikachu? After all, there are lots of them out there."
The man pressed another button, "This is the pikachu's trainer."
Ax looked to the screen once more. It now showed a boy with the pikachu perched on his shoulder; he was laughing while scratching the pokémon behind its ears. The pikachu seemed content and very pleased with the attention.
Giovanni spoke again, "Squad Omega has been failing to catch it for months now and my patience with them has finally reached its end. I want you to take their place. You may use any method you see fit. You shall continue your training when possible. You are also allowed to catch more pokémon for yourself should you wish to and send me any rare pokémon you find. I expect a report every two weeks."
Ax nodded, "Yes sir." He was about to leave when Giovanni took something from a drawer and placed it in front of him, "Here."
The tawny haired teen took and examined the object. It was a plain square wooden box, a little bigger than his fist. Opening it up, he found an almost iridescent pokéball nestled in red velvet folds. The top half was like dark tinted glass while the bottom half was clear. The line in the middle was completely black and the button, white, with a capital A and Romanized X engraved in black in its centre.
"Keep this pokéball with you at all times. It's locked onto your DNA signature. In the event that you're beaten as a pokémon it will automatically draw you in and then teleport itself to the closest Team Rocket outpost where you will be treated accordingly. As an extra function it saves the coordinates to the location of your last defeat should you wish to return."
The teen closed the lid while nodding, "I understand. Thank you Giovanni." With that he left the office and went straight to his room to prepare for the trip.
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