"This can't be happening!"
The Zorua that was William Huntingdale darted between the miscellaneous debris scattered throughout the ballroom of the run-down mansion, . He had to find a hiding place before his pursuer discovered his location!
Frantically, his eyes glanced around the fallen chuncks of ceiling and broken bits of old furniture for a place to hide, finally deciding on a tiny nook under a crumbling marble staircase, between a large, cracked chunk of concrete and a ruined sofa that could have once been fashionable in medival times.
Dashing as fast as his little legs could carry him, the Zorua scrambled into the crevice just as the massive doors on the other side of the room flew open with a crash, causing small amounts of concrete to fall from the ceiling.
"Where are you, little creature?" a large, biped, cat-like pokemon flew through the opening. "I know you're in here."
"Mewtwo!" the Zorua gasped, peeking his head out from his current hiding place.
Indeed, Mewtwo was there, looking around the room with hate in it's eyes. From a quick glance, the gigantic room was devoid of life. However, the psychic pokemon had a trick up it's sleeve.
"Fool," Mewtwo declared, "I can see into your mind and learn of your location. You are doomed, puny pokemon."
Looking from his position under the stairs, William thought he saw a faint purple glow coming from the floating cat's eyes, then felt the intense pain as he felt Mewtwo attempting to reach into his mind. With a groan, he sccumbed to the psychic pokemon's attacks.
Looking up, he now saw mewtwo's eyes boring into his very essence, the pokemon was now staring at him with pure hatred radiating from it's glare.
"Found you. Now submit and accept your fate, Huntingdale!"
William's hiding spot betrayed him, the debris ensnaring the zorua like a net. All the trapped pokemon could do was watch helplessly as Mewtwo conjured up a ball of psychic energy, the menacing orb growing larger as the cat-like pokemon prepared to finish William off.
"Gaaaa! It can't end like this!" Adrenaline coursed through the Zorua's veins, wanting desperately to be used, but there was nowhere for him to run.
"Oh, it already has."
That was the last thing William heard before the energy orb consumed him, a cold shock pulsing throughout his entire body. a tear went down his face as he vaporized into thin air, a pile of ashes the only sign of his existence.
{GAME OVER!} [ respawn] [title screen] [quit] [menu]
With an angry yell, William (Will for short) Huntingdale took off his vrh (virtual reality helmet) and threw it onto the floor in disgust. His anger flared up even more as the helmet hit the floor, breaking it into thousands of miniscule pieces with a resounding crack.
"COME ON!" He yelled, giving the helmet a kick, causing it and his pants to burst suddenly into flame. Fourtunately, though, he has been through this many times before, and a butler stood there with a fire extingusher who quicky covered the flames (and Will) with a seething white foam. By now, Will was madder than a whole colony of primeape after someone had agiated their entire colony.
"WHY?! WHY CAN I NEVER BEAT THAT LEVEL?!" Will cried to himself in anguish.
Turning to the butler with surprising composure considering his mood seconds before, he ordered sternly, "You! get me a new headpiece immeadiately! I must beat that level!"
"Sir, these headpieces take awhile to manufacture. we won't get another one until tomorrow," the butler stated.
Composure gone. " WHAT?! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE 14 VRH'S WE HAD?!
"Sir, you smashed them. remember yesterday, when you played Grand theft legendary? You destroyed the controllers when you couldn't steal a leaf from Shaymin."
"That's enough babbling, Chauncy."
"ground-form."
"I said, that's ENOUGH!"
Turning with a huff, Will stormed out of the bare, circular virtual reality room onto what looked like would come out of a virtual reality world itself, otherwise known as William's living room. The living room was the exact opposite of the vr room, sunlight streaming through the floor-to-ceiling windows that covered the opposite wall of the 3-floor penthouse suite Will and his dad lived in. Modern furniture that cost more than professor Sycamore, the pokemon professor in the area's annual salary each spanned the two-story behemoth of a room. To the right was a marble/glass staircase leading to a balcony, glass railings lining the edge, giving a slight glimpse of the marvels on the second floor above. On the left was a wall decorated with a giant moasic of Mew worth millions, along with other paintings that cost a fortune.
William strode angrily past the giant tv that took up another half a wall and plopped down on one of the luxurious couches with a huff, the plush, expensive cushions enveloping him and causing most of his anger to evaporate in an instant.
"Would you like anything, sir?" Another butler asked politely.
"No," Will replied with a tone that would get a servant fired immeadiately if he used that same tone.
The billionaire playboy looked up at the marble clock on the left of the tv. Ugh. There were still a few hours left before he had to go to dinner with nothing to do, despite being in a multi-million dollar mansion. The boy sank even deeper into the plush cushions, letting out an unhappy sigh.
Why? Why could he not just get past that level? Sure, that particular level you didn't have much options in the way of cheats, forcing you to rely on skill (something William wasn't very good at), but he'd played that game several hundred times already! He should be able to beat it by now!
Forcing those thoughts out of his head, his mind turned to what to do with his remaining time.
Play something on the 100-inch flatscreen tv? No, he was kinda video-gamed out at the moment.
Watch something on the tv? He didn't have any movies he wanted to watch in particular.
Finally, he decided to take his two pokemon, a shiny poochyena he named Bite and a typhlosion he called Inferno out through the city, battling other trainers.
" Isaac! I'm going pokemon battling! Are you coming?" Will called out.
On his father's orders, (the father was on yet another month-long buisness trip) Will had to go out with Isaac, his bodyguard, anytime he went out of the condo.
Isaac came stumbling out of the door to the servant's break room, still attempting to get his suit on and his tie dangling from his hand.
"But sir, it supposed to be my day offs . . . Whot happen? did you meet shaymin ageein?"
Isaac was lucky he was so strong.
Once the burly, muscular man with a crew cut got finished "suiting up", I finally proceeded to the private elevator of the penthouse suite, Isaac making sure to grab the two pokeballs that held Bite and Inferno off the diamond-studded pokeball holder.
Will's P.O.V.
"I thought this was a high-speed elevator!" I whined. "This feels like we're taking hours!"
"Sir, you've been on for 15 seconds," Nevan, the doorman, sighed, well aware of my impatience to get to the bottom of the building. "With you around, though, It does feel like hours," he mumbled to himself.
I was considering who to fire for the elevator taking so when finally, there was a DING! and the doors opened to the bland, by my tastes anyways, lobby. "Only ruby-studded pillars?" I shook my head in silent dissappointment. " They should at least have diamonds."
The floor of the lobby, although made of somewhat bland marble, was carved in incarnate decorations that spanned the entire surface. The walls were the same, featuring pictures of legendary pokemon made out of different colored jewels, except for the wall facing the street, which consisted of one floor-to-ceiling window wrapping around the building. to the right was the information counter, where the staff person smiled at me.
"I thought you would be in your suite playing video games. get stuck on that shaymin level again?" The female staff asked.
"HOW DOES EVERYBODY KNOW ABOUT THAT?!" I yelled in anguish.
"Umm, don't look on youtube," the staff said, casting nervous glances around the room.
Suddenly, I felt the freezing glares of the other sophisticated people in the lobby and felt my own cheeks turning red in embarrassment (something that only happened once a century). "Uh, gotta go!" I stammered, dashing out the revolving door with Isaac staggering close behind, panting and wheezing. Despite the fact that Isaac could single-handedly defeat 15 men in hand to hand combat, his running muscles are equivlant to that of a 3-year old toddler.
Now outside, I looked around at the people milling about with their pokemon seemingly aimlessly. Perfect targets. "Let's win some battles!" I shouted confidently, jogging down the marble steps, all traces of anger washed from my mind.
"Dis gonna be fun," Isaac said, following behind me with a smile on his face.
1 hour later...
"Fennie! NOO!" a scrawny, brown-haired boy cried as his fennekin hit the grass, it's swirily eyes indicating that it was knocked out.
I smirked. Another easy victory for me! "Good job, Inferno. You did well," I said as I patted his head while spraying him with a recovery potion so he could be ready for the next battle. That is, if there is another battle. The crowd seemed in awe of my skills. It looked like no one would want to challenge me anymore, which was a little dissapointing, but mostly AWESOME!
Isaac nodded in approval. "Gud job, sir."
"Is there anyone else who dares challenge me?" I yelled into the gathering crowd, expecting no one to answer. To my surprise, though, a blond-haired, lanky teenage girl stepped up.
"I will," she said.
"Alright then, two pokemon each, first to knock out the other pokemon wins."
"deal."
We both gathered on opposite sides of the small, grassy pokemon battleground.
My first choise, obviously, was Inferno. The girl pulled out a staryu.
"Too easy," I thought to myself. My pokemon will knock hers out in one move!
And he did. The staryu collapsed with just one move, unconscious. Instead of the usual weeping, however, the female trainer smirked as she recalled the unconscious staryu.
"My turn!" She shouted, tossing a pokeball up into the air. "Waveblast, go!"
There was a white flash as the pokeball opened and out emerged... a blastoise? "Hmm, that's the most powerful pokemon i've seen today...though my typhlosion can still take him down! " Will thought to himself with pleasure.
The she pulled out a mega stone.
The smirk was immeadiately wiped off of his face.
"Oh, crud."
Now he was facing a mega blastoise with a type disadvantage. And it was her turn. "Waveblast, Water gun!" she ordered.
The pokemon happily complied with her order and sent a blast of water from it's main spout straight at Inferno. "Inferno, dodge!" I countered. Inferno attempted to dodge the incoming colloum of water, but only succeeded halfway, part of the water finding it's mark.
Of course, the rest of it headed straight for me. "AAAGGGGHHHH!" I cried as I was drenched with freezing (at least, that's what it felt like) water. "GAA! My $3000 yen polo! It's ruined!" I moaned, trying to wringe out my shirt.
Turning my concentration back onto the battle, I prepared to counterattack. Inferno was in pretty good shape for now, although it was apparent the attack had done some damage. Clearly, fire-type attacks will inflict little or no damage, but fourtunately, those coutless hours training on the pokemon battlefield on the penthouse roof against the best pokemon teachers money could buy had paid off; Inferno was extremely high leveled and had learned other-type moves.
"Ok, time to bring on the heat in this battle!" I cried, full of determination to win this battle!
Isaac's P. O. V.
I was standing by the side of the battlefield, witnessing the ongoing battle between William and the other girl. I was actually curious on who would win this fight, the girl seemed to appear cool and collected, while Will was, well... firey. It was rather amusing watching the two's pokemon dart around the battlefield, trading blows with one another while the trainers shouted miscellanous commands from the sidelines. I paused in my thoughts to take a quick glance around the area, keen eyes searching for any possible threats. That was my job, after all.
I was interrupted in my search by my phone's annoying ring tone, blaring "Will is great! You are not!" over and over again in my ear. I'd change it, but that was one of the drawbacks of getting a free phone with my job. On the bright side, at least it got me to answer as quickly as possible!
Ignoring the cold stares of the people standing around me, I reached into my pocket and pulled out the phone. It was the latest in technology, fancy and far beyond my budget, which was why I accepted the phone as a perk in the first place despite the fact of the ringtone and other "annoyances", like the profile picture of Will and his Bunatti 10,000,000 sports car (named after the price). Well, that and the fact that accepting the phone was required for the job.
After a few attempts to turn the device on, (Good thing the phone was waterproof), I finally managed to get the phone on and peered at the screen. Uh oh. Priority 1 call. That can only be from number #1, Mr. Huntingdale himself. I started sweating nervously (or maybe that was from the flamethrower from William's typhlosion that passed mere inches from my face) and answered the call. "Hello, sir?"
"Hello, Isaac." Yep. The big man himself. There's no denying his specific tone of voice, sophisticated and formal, yet a little menacing and creepy at the same time. "I'm just calling to say I'll be home for dinner and couldn't contact my son. Where's he at?"
"He's battling right now outside the condo," I replied, taking a look at the fray. " Uh oh. looks like his pokemon's gonna-"
"NNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" There was a resounding cry from the side of the battlefield as Will's typhlosion was knocked out by yet another onslaught of water from the mega blastoise. Will was seething with anger. He doesn't lose well on his better days, and he just lost a bunch of times on the vr set before coming out here. Fourtunately, Will was (barely) able to contain himself as he withdrew Inferno into a pokeball and sent out Bite onto the field. "Um, the battle isn't going well," I said into the phone. Along with being William's bodyguard, I was also supposed to keep him out of trouble when his anger got the better of him.
I heard a muffled sigh from the other end of the phone. Mr, Huntingdale also knew of William's anger issues. " Try to restain him this time again if he does lose the match. I don't want a repeat of the last time you failed. That was a legal nightmare!"
I looked once again at the ensuing battle. The girl's blastoise also looked in pretty rough shape but stood firm, resisting an attack from the shiny poochyena. "You know what to do. You have around two hours or so before you need to bring him home," the voice at the other end huffed. "You also know what happens when you fail to meet that objective, right?"
"Yessir," I stammered into the phone. Mr. Huntingdale had a particular mean streak when it came to failure by his employees. Getting fired was the least of your worries.
On the other end of the phone, I heard someone else coming into the room (the high-tech phone was super-sensitive to sound) , a door slamming, and a conversation between Mr. Huntingdale and someone else. "Sir, We're having trouble reassembling the Genesis project. Most of the data were destroyed and are irreplaceable-"
"Silence!" That was Mr. Huntingdale. "Have you forgotton how sensitive to sound these phones are?! You are not to talk about the Genesis project while this device is on!"
"I-I'm very sorry sir, I g-guess I ... f-forgot."
"You forgot?! You designed this thing! Fool! You're lucky you're so badly needed on this project, Dr. Harrison!"
"S-sir, the phone's still on..."
There was a quick scilence, then Mr. Huntingdale whispered, and I had to lean the phone in to hear it.
"You are not to talk about what you just heard on this phone to anybody if you value your life, Mr. Isaac. Not even to William."
"Yes sir." I understood. It was all part of the job of working for the most notorious buisnessman in the Kalos region, after all.
Mr. Huntingdale hung up the phone on the other end and, putting the phone in my pocket, turned around back to the battlefield to cheer on William.
Third person P. O. V.
Suprisingly unknown to Isaac, a man was standing a little down the field, blending in with the crowd. The man was taller and skinny, wearing an unbuttoned, expensive white suit, black collared shirt, and a gold tie. He had long suspected of the connections of the Huntingdales to the genesis project. Now, after listening in to that conversation, here was possible hard evidence of that connection! "Interesting, most interesting," he cooly thought to himself. " I must tell my master about this development."
He turned away from the battlefield, calmly walking away into the crowd watching the pokemon battle. Isaac, finally sensing he was being watched, rapidly turned around, but only managed to catch a glimpse of a white suit before the man dissappeared around a corner.
William's P.O.V.
"VICTORIIIIIEEEEEEE!" I proclaimed in jubilee.
It had been a really narrow competition, but Bite had finally prevaled(barely) over mega blastoise! " Awesome job, Bite! Way to go!" I cried out in pure happiness, speedily dashing over to the shiny pokemon and was about to snorlax-hug him giddily, but fourtunatly I managed to regain my composure, calmly walked over, and hugged him sophisticatedly. "Hyena! Poochyena!" Bite barked, clearly as excited as I am, wagging his tail with triumph, licked me happily in the face...then passed out.
"Uhhh... ISAAC!" I yelled out. The burly man seemed distracted for some reason, but ran over immeadiately when he heard me calling his name. By ran over, I mean ran for three steps before getting tired and crawling the rest of the way. "Whut do you need, sir?" he panted, trying to catch up with me. I was rather amused at his rather lame attempts. Perhaps all that upper body muscle slows him down? Definitely not his brain.
"Good game."
"Huh?" I turned around at the voice behind me, to find the girl whom I had just crushed misreably standing behind me, holding out her hand like some sort of weirdo. "Why do you have your hand pointed out at me like that? Is that some sort of curse you are attempting upon me?!"
She looked at me like I was the weirdo. weird. "It's to shake hands! You know, sign of good sportsmanship? After a game?"
"Whuh?" Ugh. Now I was starting to sound like Isaac.
"Duh! Stupid."
Oh, she did NOT just call me stupid! "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?!" I bellowed.
"An ultra-competitive baby who whines wether he wins or loses?"
"OH, THAT'S IT! PREPARE FOR MY FULL RAGE OF MASCULINE ANGER, PUNY SCU-"
Fortunately for her, Isaac darted between us, grabbing me with one of his muscley trevenant trunk of an arm, and pushing her away with the other. Oh, why did Isaac only have to be fast in trival matters like this, and not in important things like getting me ice cream from that one shop I like 5 blocks away from my house?
"I'm so sorry ma'am," Isaac muttered apologetically, still cluthing me as I rather pathetically swung around with my hands like a fool while dangling in the air. "He gets this way sometimes. By sometimes, I mean every time he competes in any event at all or any time he doesn't get his way."
"Too...much...info!" I coughed, his grip beginning to cut off my air circulation.
"Don't say anything about this," he continued, completely oblivious to my suffering, handing the girl several one-hundred dollar bills.
"Oh wow! Sure, mr. strong and hunky! Thanks!" Like most common rabble, the girl's demeanor immeadiately changed when she saw the bills being handed to her. She grabbed the money then skipped happily over to her waiting pokemon and, putting her mega blastoise into a pokeball, ran off in the direction of the pokecenter.
"Isaac, take Inferno and Bite over to the pokecenter so they can be healed," I ordered, handing him the two pokeballs that contained the duo.
"And what about you, sir?"
"I want some alone time from the person who just humiliated me in public!"
"Sir, You can't just walk off on your own-"
"Look over there! A suspicous-looking guy!" I shouted. Isaac turned rapidly around, eyes scanning the crowd for any sign of disturbance. Taking my chance, I wiggled out of my sport jacket and dashed unnoticed through the crowd. I grinned. He falls for that every time. The advantage of having a dumb bodyguard. "Hey!" Hmm. took him 20 seconds for him to realize I was gone. New record! Of course, by then it was already far too late. I ducked and weaved through the crowd, running randomly past shops, restaraunts, and startled citizens for a few blocks before slowing down. I turned my head around to see if Isaac had followed me. Good. No sign of him anywhere!
Breathing a sigh of relief, I turned around, walked precisely three steps, and ran smack into a large tree. "OW! What the-?!" I cried in anguish. It really wasn't my day. Rubbing the rather huge bump that stuck out of my head like a mutant virus, I looked up and saw a massive wall of trees looming over me. I'd reached the forest surrounding the city. I grinned, then dashed between the trees standing over the outskirts of the city. Isaac'd never find me in here!
Not very many people ventured into the woods other than the main roads these days. There had been people dissappearing once in a while, never to be seen again. I wasn't worried though. I pulled out a pokeball i'd kept under my waist, sending out a stream of white light that formed into a mightyena.
Brutus was my pokemon bodyguard, the best of his class. He could hold off pokemon 3 times his strength and size, at the very least buying me time to escape. Also, if humans were kidnapping those people, They would never touch me! My dad is one of the most powerful people on the planet! I walked with brutus along a thin dirt path through the deep woods, hearing pokemon cries from all around. Strangely, I actually began to feel better as I was travelling. Everything was so quiet and peaceful here...
After another 5 minutes of walking, The path led to what looked like a small road. Nobody had clearly used this road in a long time, as it was covered with weeds and you could barely see the pavement, if you could call it pavement that is.
With Brutus by my side, I decided to head left down the road and see where it lead to. Swimming through the weeds growing amongst the cracks in the road, I was deeply considering turning back when I finally broke through the wall of plants, which had become thicker, into what seemed like a courtyard of some sorts. the road went on in a circle, resembling a circular driveway to an abandoned mansion on the opposite side. I slowly trodded across the patch of slightly taller grass in the middle of the circle, rattata scurrying out of the way of Brutus. Arriving at the crumbling doorway, marked by two cracked, massive pillars on either side like guards, I examined the front enterance. Judging by what looked like scorch marks where the hinges were, plus the fact that I passed the door twenty feet back, It appeared that the door was blown off it's hinges. "Strange," I thought to myself.
"Well, Brutus, what say we go in and explore the place?" I asked the mightyena quizzically.
"Mighty..." Brutus actually seemed intimidated by the creepy-looking mansion, cowering and ducking behind me with a whimper.
Either something was off about this place, or that premier guard pokemon training program was a complete waste of money.
Being the aloof guy I was, I decided on the latter, made a note to sue the training program later, and confidently sauntered up the crumbling marble steps, Brutus slowly creeping up behind me, head darting left and right with anxiety.
"C'mon, Brutus, stop being such a scaredey-rattata! Let's go!" I went back, picked him up, and carried him inside the doors. But as I entered, something was stirring in the depths of my being, something I had never felt before and almost didn't recognize, whispering words into my brain, penetrating every fiber of my body. It lasted for just a second, but It left chills in my spine, causing me to shiver a little.
I felt fear.