Introduction
Sliver takes place in the world of Maistral, dominated by a single continent of Solumus. No humans exist in the world, and Pokemon take their place as civilized peoples. The story focuses on a conflict between two warring factions, the Archotis Republic and the Redeemers of Nokteroth, and a species of creature known as Slivers.
First, a little history to help put the story into context.
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In the Great Unification five hundred years ago, when the Nine Kingdoms of Solumus were unified by Emperor Terxes the Third, the world-spanning Nokteroth Empire was born. For four centuries it prospered, spreading its culture and the will of the Emperor across mountains and rivers, successfully defending against the barbaric tribes from regions uninhabitable to most Pokemon types. But as with all great empires, complacency and corruption eventually brought the nation down from within. When the Emperor himself was assassinated by unknown elements and left the throne heirless, the empire descended into civil war...
It was during this time that the Archotis Republic, a former colony that had declared its independence from the Empire some years prior, struck. Technologically superior to its bloated former master, Archotis managed to subdue the warring provinces and lay claim to all the land formerly under possession of the now-deceased Nokteroth Empire.
Of course, not everyone accepted their new government. Rebellious warlords on the fringes of the newly-enlarged republic were brought under the banner of a single enigmatic Alakazam, by the name of Eleducis Animum. Forty years after the fall of Nokteroth, these "Redeemers" struck back at Archotis, starting the Archotis Civil War.
After ten long years of fighting, the rebels were finally subdued. Eleducis was missing, presumed dead. But to the surprise of all, Nokteroth's AI, PorygonQ, that they had been using as a command-and-control system, suddenly went rogue. Seemingly from nowhere, PorygonQ raised an army of drones and cyborgs. Only with the combined strength of Archotis and the knowledge of what remained of Nokteroth did the living Pokemon triumph in what would become known as the "Q Crisis".
Since that time, fifty years have passed again. Archotis has grown bloated and complacent. And Nokteroth is ready to strike again.
Prologue
Koron looked down into the black abyss and felt genuine terror clutching at his heart.
The air rising from the chasm was cold and stale. It smelled of water and limestone. A world lay underneath his feet, a world that had been untouched for at least thousands of years. The recent earthquake had changed that. Now this world was venting its atmosphere into the skies above through that gaping crack in the earth.
The frigid wind chewed at his skin, whistling through the flashlight-carrying helmet. He shifted his weight from one leg to the other, feeling the snow crunch beneath him as he did. He looked out towards the distance. Around him, the land fell away in all directions, revealing a magnificent white carpet that extended as far as the eye could see. From the vantage point on the top of the mountain, he could see all the way to the crescent of glistening sapphire blue ocean just below the horizon.
Looking back at the rift, Koron tried to work up his courage. "Cmon, Koron," he muttered quietly to himself. "You came two thousand miles for this. You going to let a little cliff stop you?"
"I thought Gallade were supposed to be brave." A large Flygon, wearing several layers of blue clothing, blew past Koron and landed on the other side of the chasm, smirking happily. "Fear of heights doesn't become you, Koron."
Koron growled and made a rude hand gesture towards the green insect-dragon. "You wouldn't understand, Aerea," he snarled. "You can fly."
Aerea titled her head forward in acknowledgement. "Still, it's fun to see you squirm whenever put on something taller than you." Koron stuck out his tongue at her. "Haven't we grown past these childish actions yet?"
Rolling his eyes, Koron grabbed his belt and shook it a little, making sure it was snug and secure, then, gave the anchor around which the rope was tied one last check. Though an extremely athletic Pokemon by nature, years of having no more exercise than walking from one desk to another had left him unsure of his physical abilities. Better safe than sorry. Or so he told himself.
"You know, I could just carry you down," Aerea suggested for the umpteenth time.
Koron responded the way as he had those umpteenth times before. "I still need to keep some dignity."
And with that, he looked down into the darkness of the chasm one more time, then took the plunge.
Almost instantly the rope caught his weight, and he swung forward until his feet impacted the side of the chasm. Tugging at the rope, he slowly began his descent, rappelling down into the abyss. Darkness quickly enveloped him, with the crack above him the only symbol that the world still existed. Soon even that faded away into nothing more than an insignificant line. Koron soon decided to turn on the flashlight built into his helmet. The nothingness of the bare walls seemed to swallow up the circle of light it projected. The air gradually grew ever so slightly warmer as he descended into the depths of the earth. This deep down in the ground, the temperature never changed, and that constant temperature was warmer than the frozen air above.
A beam of light crossed Koron's path from above, blazing its way downwards, accompanied by the steady thrum of beating insect wings. Though he couldn't see her, Koron knew Aerea had just passed him. He felt a twinge of annoyance at her showing off. Aerea knew her ability to fly irked him greatly.
Finally Koron reached the bottom of the chasm. A tiny flare of orange beneath him let him know that Aerea was lighting the dark with some fire ability. He disconnected the rope from his belt and let go, falling several feet to land gracefully next to her.
"There's light ahead," Aerea murmured. In the silence of the cavern, her voice seemed unnaturally loud. The two archaeologists walked forward, each soft footstep seeming to echo endlessly off the black walls. A tiny golden shade seemed to be gracing the walls of the cavern. As they proceeded down through the tunnel, the light got brighter and brighter, until…
"Ow!" Koron exclaimed, using his hands to shield his eyes from the sudden explosion of light.
Aerea's eyes adjusted first. "Oh… my…"
Koron dropped his hands and opened his eyes. The light wasn't as strong as he had first thought—his eyes had simply been adjusted for near total darkness. But what he saw stole his breath away.
He stood on the shore of a massive underground lake. The water, smooth as silk, glittered like a massive black diamond. He looked up to the source of light—golden beams of sunlight were streaming through a series of small holes and cracks in the roof of the cave, swaying back and forth, tracing paths across the water's plane. They reflected off the surface, transforming it into shimmering sheets that seemed to dance in patterns beyond the three dimensions Koron was familiar with. It scarcely looked like water; more like some kind of drink for the gods.
But what caught his attention the most was in the center of the lake.
"… Arceus…"
A great structure stood in the water, an ancient relic of some long-forgotten civilization. Two arches enshrined a massive cylinder capped with a dark hemisphere, giving a vague resemblance to an insect's mandibles. The sunlight reflected off the water's surface played against the dark bluish-gray material of which the building was created, making it seem to ripple and move, as though the edifice were no mere built thing, but alive in its own right, dancing and playing with only the lake as its partner.
For what seemed like an eternity the two archaeologists stood there, gazing out at what they had discovered. Koron glanced at Aerea. Even through the red eye covers, the sparkling of wonder in those glassy orbs was apparent. She noticed his gaze, and ended the moment with a thought.
"The seismics weren't wrong," she murmured.
Koron nodded dumbly, then seemed to exit a hypnotic daze. "It's beautiful." Suddenly, his left brain kicked back in, the side that had determined his career as an archaeologist. "How deep is this lake? We know the tower descends past our scanner's range, but is the entire bottom of the tower submerged?"
Aerea cocked her head to one side in an "I don't know" expression. She stepped forward and brushed the water with a claw. The ripple traveled across the surface and quickly vanished from view.
"It's very cold," she said, turning around to face Koron. "I don't think it would be a good idea for you to swim across." She looked out at the temple again. "Especially as it's so far away."
Koron looked down at his feet and sighed. "Guess my attempt at dignity preservation was fruitless after all."
A light smile graced Aerea's face. "Oh, don't worry. We can keep this between the two of us."
Grumbling nonetheless, Koron mounted his best friend's back. Lifted by the steady thrumming of the Flygon's wings, the two sped out over the water. He looked down and saw their reflections in the water. To Koron's eyes, it seemed they weren't mere images of reflected light, but themselves from a parallel universe, viewed from a kind of veil.
Aerea closed in on the structure and alighted on the top of the hemisphere. Koron hopped off and stared off into the direction from which they had come. There was not sign of the shoreline there. From here, it seemed that the underground lake extended into infinity in all directions. The temple was a little universe all its own, suspended in a sea of infinity.
He sensed his partner was thinking much the same thing. "Come on," he murmured to her, and turned around to examine the hemisphere. "Let's find a way in."
They spent a good twenty minutes trying to find an entrance into the edifice, with Aerea zooming around, examining the structure at every angle. The building was constructed out of a material that seemed both stone and metal. It was cold to the touch and shone softly in a way that suggested metal, but possessed a heavy dexterous quality that felt like stone. Finally, Koron discovered a tiny crack in the top of the hemisphere that expanded when pushed.
"Aerea! Get up here and help me!"
Together, the two of them pushed the crack into an opening three meters wide and two across, shaped like an eye. The opening was a marvel; the material did not pop out as a large slab or slide away to any visible location, but it simply melted away into nowhere.
"How's it doing that?" Aerea wondered.
Koron ground his teeth in thought. "It must be compressible," he finally conjectured. "Like a sponge… you can squeeze it."
Yet it still seemed so strange for what appeared to be a heavy, solid material to compress. This curiosity aroused his interest even more, and he resolved to bring some rock-sampling equipment next time, and take a sample of it back. For now, however, it was time to descend into the structure.
Aerea went first, crawling through the eye-shaped hole with hands and feet, flattening her wings against her body in order to fit through the opening. After she was through, Koron peeked through the hole. Aerea was standing on the bottom of whatever room she had descended into, and looking back up at him. "I think you can make the jump," she called.
Alright, Koron thought to himself, and with an acrobat's precision, jumped feet-first through the hole. The drop down was two seconds of terror before he hit the ground, bending both knees to absorb the impact and rolling several feet forwards before finally coming to a stop.
"Ah," he said after getting back up and dusting himself off. "Haven't done that in a long time."
Aerea smiled. "It would be quite pathetic if you couldn't." She always loved making fun of Koron's propensity for sedentary life.
Examining the room they had descended into, their head flashlights cast dull yellow circles onto the walls. The room was simply the interior of the dome, about the size of a large cafeteria, completely empty, the walls plain and unadorned. There was another hole in the center of the room. A single ray of sunshine descended down through a tiny hole in the side of the wall…
"Wait," Koron said. "What's that over there?"
The two archaeologists approached the spot where the sunbeam touched the floor. Except it wasn't touching the floor. There was something in the way.
It was a corpse, a desecrated shell of an animal that had long since passed away eons ago, slumped against the wall. The creature, slightly smaller than the green insect-dragon at his side, resembled no Pokemon Koron had ever heard of before. A thin tail, curled around itself, leading up to a sickle-like head that pointed downwards towards the creature's chest. Two scythe-like arms opened to either side, resting against the floor. A pair of slit-like eyes were the only facial features. Spiny protrusions erupted from the back, and little branch-like structures covered the body. But there was something even more incredible about the creature…
"Am I imagining it, or is that a sliver…" Koron didn't finish the sentence, but instead pointed to a tiny slice of green at the base of the tail. From that shard of green, a little bud grew upwards, and ended in a miniscule leaf, glistening in the solitary sunbeam.
"It's alive," Aerea exclaimed, peering down so close at the leaf that her eye cover was mere millimeters from touching it.
Koron looked on in amazement. "What are we going to call it?" he finally asked, gesturing towards the creature's body.
"I thought you had already named it," Aerea replied, shifting her weight back to a normal standing position.
"Huh?" Koron raised an eyebrow at her.
Aerea pressed her lips together and drew her mouth back into a tiny smile.
"Sliver."