Authors pre-note

"Project X.Y.Z." is my first attempt at writing a "fan fiction" story as I wanted to test out my writing skills and comprehension. I was planning to name the title "X.Y.Z." instead, but since I'm experimenting with the story I added "Project" to the title as well (in which I will keep in future fan stories related to Pokémon). Without regard, any criticism/feedback is definitely appreciated. The updates will not be frequently since I'm typing, editing, and revising the content (or outlining and planning for short). Another reason is that I also study at university for finance & control, but I'll do my best to keep up with the story.

I want to give a clear warning that this story contains violence with some of it may found very disturbing. It's not that the story is intolerable, but the idea behind it is still disturbing or even considered cruel. It also includes social and political themes (referring to corruption, espionage, warfare, et cetera), and a bit of lemon explicit content (only at specific moments, not as a whole as this is not the focus. I might ask a different author who is experienced with this for advice). To keep it short, it's M-rated due to reasons stated above. Don't say that I didn't warn you about it.

I'd also like to point out a few disclaimers. I do not own the 'Pokémon' franchise, nor do I own any of the weapons, cars, etc. mentioned in the story. 'Pokémon' is owned by Game Freak, Creatures Inc. and Nintendo, while the weapons, cars, etc. are owned by their respective companies. The front cover was made in MikuMikuDance (a 3D program used to make animations or rendered images). The models that have been used in the cover, belong to their respective owners. This fan fiction is meant for entertainment purposes only, not for commercial use like making a profit out of it.

And at last, the side notes. I wanted to write this realistically as I can. For example with currency, since Kalos is based on France. In the past, they made use of the franc before it was replaced by the euro (€) in 2002. So a max repel spray cost around 7.- K₣ (Kalosian franc). For the story, however, it takes place in an alternate universe and timeline of the game and manga (referring to Pokémon Adventures), which means that there are some changes from the core series. It also means that the characters will feel slightly different from their normal perspectives (out of character in other words), but that's because of the setting and theme during the progression of this story.

As for the Pokémons… I'm sorry to state this, but they're all getting nerfed in this story. That doesn't mean that they're completely powerless or weak. Pokémons are still stronger than humans and some moves can still destroy things like buildings, cars, etc., but they don't have the power to completely destroy the whole planet (including legendaries). The last thing I would state is that the characters will speak in their native languages (Japanese, French, etc. at some points mentioned by the narrator. It's most often long conversations which are put in between these brackets "「…」", except with shorter ones like greetings or basic phrases in which the translation is put in the author's post-note.

Well, that concludes everything. I hope you enjoy yourself reading this story, as I enjoyed writing it.

CHAPTER 0: Prologue

10 December 2012, 08:15 A.M.

As the sun rose in the sky, a group of six men wearing cloaks and masks went inside a cave along with two mightyenas, a mawile, and two noctowls. Upon entering, they see their shadows dissolve into the surrounding chilling darkness. They turned their headlights on, and it revealed a mid-distance where they saw stalagmites, holes, and a small waterfall.

"Here it is. This is the place where the cores and cells are."

Small, loose pieces of stones fell from the ceiling and littered the floor, "Watch your step everyone, and don't make too much noise."

One of the six grabbed a max repel out of his pocket and started spraying himself.

"I've got some repel over here, anyone else?" he whispered.

The other five shook their head and one replied, "No, we've already coated ourselves before. Just move on. You three walk up on the front and scout the area."

"What about you guys?"

"Don't worry. We may be slow since we carry our pickaxes, but we got you covered. Now move."

They proceeded to go deeper inside. Their surroundings became darker as well as the area became narrower, only revealing the crumbled walls like walking in a tunnel. The pokémons felt a chill through their bodies as the other felt moist due to the damp. However, one of them saw something shining from a distance, "Hey, I think I see something glowing over there!"

As they walked further, a pupitar suddenly jumped in front of the group. It stared at them as it squinted its eyes. The six and their pokémon began to tremble as they feel their hearts beating faster.

"What the-? I thought the repel would've lasted longer!"

"The scent probably wore off after a while."

"Well, don't just stand there, do something! Noctowl, tackle that shell!" Noctowl flew with a rapid speed against pupitar's shell hitting it with his shoulder. Tiny bits of shell pieces fell on the ground from the hit.

"You two, crunch that shell!" The two mightyenas leapt at the pupitar and attempted to bite through its shell, to no avail. All of a sudden, the group felt the ground shaking. The tremors grew more and more violent as pupitar locked its gaze on the interlopers, its expression savage.

"Wa-watch out!"

Before anyone could react, the ceiling began to cave in. Large chunks of rock were dislodged and dropped onto three of the members of the group, along with the pair of mightyenas and the noctowl. There was no mistaking as the damage had killed them instantly.

"Shit!" shouted one of the group. "C' mon, we gotta get the hell outta here!"

"No, we have to go on!" another yelled. "Mawile, use your flash cannon!"

The pokémon obliged and fired a beam of massive energy in the direction of the pupitar. When the burst of light from the attack faded, the pupitar was left with a gaping hole in its shell, and it suddenly collapsed. "He's down…" said one of the group's members, breathing heavily. "Move up and check your surroundings. If there's any more, exterminate it."

"What about our pickaxes?"

"It's no use, it got crushed under along with them."

The three who remained looked everywhere but found nothing, pokémon or otherwise.

"Nothing here. Let's move on."

"Hold it… Spray yourself with the remaining repels you have. Otherwise, we'll be doing this over again."

The three and their pokémon went further in. Lights from above shine down on the rocky ground and walls as the area became wider. Suddenly, they heard a weird noise.

"Hey! Did you hear that?"

"Yeah, it came from that chamber over there. Let's take a closer look."

Upon entering the chamber, their eyes widened, and they were stunned nearly into silence.

"Get a hold of this…" one of them murmured. "Jeez... It's unbelievable."

"Well, I suppose these are the remaining ones," said another. "I don't see any more cells or cores. I'm going to call a chopper." He pulled out his phone and a pair of poké balls, then turned to face mawile and the remaining noctowl. "You two, back to your poké balls."

After the pokémon were returned to their poké balls, two of the group's members grabbed some pickaxes from a broken mine cart and started to carve in the glowing cells and cores while the third called for a helicopter. In no time, they had mined out the whole sector. Finished with their task, the three pushed the mine cart they'd filled with their quarry towards the hole in the ceiling, where the light of day shined through from above.

A helicopter waited above the sky. Several hooks attached to the sturdy cable were released into the gap, and the men worked to securely attach them to the mine cart. When it was done, one of them jumped on the cart and shouted to the other two.

"C' mon, hop on up!" The other two jumped on the cart while being escalated to the helicopter at the same time.

"Cargo secured, return to base…" And the helicopter flew away.

17 December 2012, 08:53 P.M.

The atmosphere became darkened and the sloshing water dropping on the rotor blades while Lila and Looker flew to Kalos by helicopter. Looker was sleeping during the trip while Lila was awake, constantly fighting her yawning and keeping her drowsy eyes open. At some point, when Lila looked out the window, she saw the airfield lights of an airstrip. She then decided to wake Looker up.

「"Looker, wake up. We're almost there,"」 said Lila, speaking in Japanese.

Looker cracked open one eye and snapped irritably, 「"Hey, stop bothering me! I'm trying to sleep!"」

Lila glared at him, clenching her fists. 「"Come on, cut it out!" 」 she insisted, her tone harsh. 「"We're going to meet the inspector general soon, so at least show some respect! Do you understand!"」

Looker turned his head away from her, yawning. 「"Yeah, whatever,"」 he grumbled, sitting up and rubbing at his eyes.

When the helicopter had landed on the airstrip, the two took out their luggage, opened the doors, and stepped out of the aircraft. The rain was coming down heavily, so they opened their umbrellas and walked over to a nearby van where a man was waiting. He came to them with a smile on his face.

"Bonjour, welcome to Kalos!" he greeted. "The name's Axel, pleased to meet you!" He extended a hand and exchanged a firm handshake with each of them.

"Nice to meet you too," Looker replied, switching to French. "I'm Looker, and this is Lila."

Axel giggled and joked, "I hope the long trip didn't result in any casualties. It's raining out here like crazy!"

Looker chuckled a bit, responding, "Well…it was a long flight from Hoenn, but at least we arrived in one piece, right Lila?"

Lila nodded, but merely stayed silent, just keeping an eye on Looker. As the two put their luggage in the back of the van, they stepped in and Axel began to drive away from the airport.

"Were you two awake the whole time?" asked Axel. "You look kinda pale."

Looker yawned and answered, "Well, it's because we thought that we would arrive here much sooner. Even my superior was constantly looking outside for land. But don't worry. We'll recover from that." He paused, frowning. "Hey, wait… Don't we have to go through customs first?"

"There's no need for it," Axel replied. "We've already registered your data in our system back when I asked you two to send a copy of your trainer IDs and passports by email. We've even provided the money by leaving two filled suitcases on the desk at your new bureau." He looked back at them through the rear-view mirror and his expression became stern. "But back to business… You've probably heard about the incident from a week ago? At the cave in the east?"

"Yeah. We heard it from our commissioner general," Lila said. "That mine cave, right?" Axel nodded. "Indeed. Since the incident, the mountain area has been closed off. Our intelligence team is still there investigating the area."

Looker tapped his index finger on his chin. "I wonder…what do you want us to do about it?"

"I want you to investigate the coastal part. People were saying that they saw trucks with glowing cargo passing by between Route 12 and 13. Start in Coumarine city, and work your way down to Cyllage city. You'll be travelling back and forth, but I want you two to secure every single truck with the glowing stuff inside."

Once they arrived in the northern part of Lumiose City, the van stopped in an alleyway.

"Here we are," said Axel. "I'll open the door for you." He stepped out of the van and approached one of the doors in the alley. Once it was unlocked, he walked to the back of the van. "I'll grab the luggage; you two go inside." He proceeded to get the luggage as the other two went in.

The lights went on as she entered the room, revealing their offices with one at the back and one at the left of Lila with the suitcases on them. They heard a static noise, as it was a television hanging on the wall. Looker walked to it and turned it off. "Wow, It feels like an office and a living room at the same time," said Lila surprisingly. "What'd you think, Looker?"

They walked to their office desks and took a closer look, "I guess. We have the same thing in our region, but this feels more classical. I do have to say that the furniture feels comfortable. Heh, there's even a kitchen!"

Axel came in with their luggage, as he noticed the two we're examining the place. "I see you two are impressed by the looks of it" he giggled. "I'll put your luggage here right in front of me." He peeked at his watch and saw that It was half-past eleven, "Well, I have to go now. Otherwise, it'll be too late for me."

Lila looked back at Axel and gave him a smile. "Thank you so much for the drive and carrying our things. Take care and good night!"

"You're welcome!" Axel grinned at her. "I'll keep in touch with you guys. Until then, get some rest. You'll want to have the energy for tomorrow. Good night!" He waved, then returned to his van and drove off.

With Axel gone, Lila and Looker headed upstairs. Lila took a shower while Looker changed his clothes and went to bed. After Lila was finished and changed, she came to the bedroom and walked to her own bed. She untied her ponytail and let her hair come down. She laid in her bed and wrapped the surrounding blankets.

Looker was quiet for a moment, but eventually, he tried to talk to her in Japanese. 「"Ms Lila, I'm really sorry for my bad behaviour back then. I was just very tired from the trip."」

Lila switched back to Japanese to reply, 「"I understand. I was pretty tired, too."」She offered him a smile. 「"Well, I'm off to sleep. Tomorrow is going to be an important day. We'll be leaving here at half past five in the morning, so you better set your alarm. Good night, Looker."」

Looker sluggishly set an alarm on his phone, then yawned and turned off the lights. 「"Good night, Lila."」

TO BE CONTINUED

Author's post-note

That concludes the prologue as I try to keep it as short as possible. That also goes for the upcoming chapters keeping it at an average amount of at least 3.5k to 4.5k words. Some chapters may go overboard due to the events happening. You may have noticed that I republished this chapter, as I discovered a few errors which are corrected.

Please feel free to leave a response or suggestion in the review, as I will try to reply to each of them. I also want to thank those who left a review for their time and thoughts.

Translations

Bonjour (Hello)