Pokemon: Task Force Apostle
Was tooling around on this, trying to make it something, but it floundered. Now, I have a new thing in mind, and am going to use this as a launching point. I have re-used character builds and names from other stories, but all not related to the characters as they appear elsewhere.
Disclaimer: I do Not own Pokemon.
Chapter 1: Thunderstruck
"Last chance. Stand down."
"No, Violet, I will not. We are the future for our nation. Why can you not see that? You are blinded by the antiquated system you cling to. We need all the strongest we can get united in one single push that can shatter any enemy that tries to hurt us. Don't be a fool, stand with us."
The two girls stood on a wide, empty grass plain, shouting to each other at almost exactly textbook contest distance. On the one side was Catherine Chambers, her black hair tied up at the back of her head, held by a pair of silver spikes slanted in an "X" shape, a small wave of bangs falling over her vivid, emerald green eyes. She was dressed in the form fitting black garments, with a white "R" printed over the breast that was standard apparel for an executive of Team Rocket. A snarling, smoking Houndoom sat bristling at her side, tense as a wire, waiting for the command to kill.
Across the space stood Violetta Sanchez, her long, ruby colored hair hanging down her back to her waist, looking at the other girl through rueful, same colored eyes. She wore tight shorts and a t-shirt over a tank top, with a red backpack, the insignia of the Jhoto Pokerangers pinned to a strap. A large Swampert stood at her side, looking uninterested even though it was alert.
"No, Catherine, you are wrong. If the people are threatened, those who can stand, will, even without a unifying force."
"Ha! You think Team Plasma, or Magma, or Auqa will stop once they finish with their own countries? No they will move on us, and we need a force to meet their charge!" Violetta did not reply, but merely sighed, and brought her arm down, knowing there could be no reasoning with her. The Swampert responded to the signal instantly.
It opened its mouth wide and fired its hydro pump directly at the opposite. Catherine dove to the side, getting additional lift as the patch of ground she had been standing on erupted into a volcano of mud. The Houndoom had leapt deftly aside, rolling to its feet several meters away and lobbing a thick sludge bomb at the other girl as Catherine landed in a heap. Swampert moved forward, shoving Violetta back and taking the full force of the poison gunk, staggering under the impact. The Houndoom rushed forward, dodged deftly to one side as the partially blinded frog monster hurled chunks of mud at it. It paused after every volley to wheeze and add a choking haze of Smog to the beast. Finally, after 4 applications of smog, the Swampert fell to its knees, gagging from lack of air, and Houndoom closed to finish it. As it opened its jaws wide for the final crunch to finish it, the Swampert grabbed it with a Strength, slamming it into the ground before landing a terrific body slam atop it. It lay over the hurt dog, wheezing and unable to muster the strength to rise.
Both girls quickly recalled their companions before they could die, and looked at each other, both with great sadness. They both knew it was only going to one way, with one killing the other, and they grabbed their next pokeball and tossed it out. As Violetta's opened, and tornado of snow and ice exploded outward, settling over the field around it in a loose blanket. Catherine's opened with a volley of thick, cracking lightning, creating a vast dome around the awakening beast, burning the ground around it.
Raikou stepped out of the static cloud ready to roar her challenge, but stopped, mouth wide as she saw her opponent. Suicune stood, surveying the area calmly, almost serenely.
"So, the time has come." Raikou sent to her mate. While they could not speak as humans did, they did share the ability to speak with each other, a boon of their peculiar Triarchy.
"It seem so, though we both knew this moment was coming. The cycle repeats itself, as it always has." He replied, as their masters rose and stared each other down. "Although I did so hope these humans would be different, love."
"As did I. They were so close growing up. They were the closest I have ever seen two humans that were not mates in ANY of the cycles in which we have allowed them our loyalties."
"Yes. I assumed, seeing as we came to them when they were both little girls, best friends, that we would not have to worry. Alas, it appears that I was wrong, and we are forever destined to fight each other in the end." As if to add punctuation to this though, the order to engage was given. While he and Raikou were mates, they were still loyal to whatever human they allowed to use them. In each of these cycles, they ended up dueling either with each other, or with their third, Entei. Rather than just living until they expired and regenerated, one would be forced to kill the other, and they would all be joined again when the next cycle started, when the last of them regenerated and they were all born again, together. As such was the case for them, and their counterparts in Kanto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, and Unova, as the Legendary Pokémon of their region, they were reborn, rather than bred. In fact, they lacked true genders, but their personalities took on attitudes that made them think of themselves as either male or female.
Raikou, guessing at the first move, burned her agility and seemed to teleport sideways as Suicune's icebeam slashed across the field, tearing up the ground and leaving a wide swath of jagged ice for several feet to wither side of the blast radius. Raikou had placed herself just to the very outermost range of the spires, and placed a foot on the residual ice. She pulse electricity into it, focusing where she wanted, and detonated a patch of ice where the Suicune stood, peppering him and his master with shrapnel, drawing blood from the human, and merely irritating the dog.
"You are getting predictable, love." She chided him, and he shook the loose crystals from his mane.
"I just tire of this. Every cycle that we bond to humans, it is the same result. They all have this same weakness that leads to need to feel stronger than the others of their race." He made a motion as if he were sneezing, and a mist exploded outward from him, shielding him from view.
"It is not all the same this time." Raikou said, strafing as the mist started to move. "These girls are not trying to gain power, or show off. Mine honestly believes that she is in the right, and she is trying to save her friend. I have known yours long enough to be fairly certain she fights for the same reason, yes?"
Suicune was quiet for a long moment, when suddenly he burst out of the cloud of mist with an Extreme Speed, slamming into his mate and toppling her, before bouncing up and away to continue strafing.
"I cannot deny that, my love. That is a factor that is new to this contest." Raikou rose and sent a thundershock at Suicune, the ground rippling from the force of it, where he summoned a chunk of ice to take the hit.
"More than once, I have seen My little Catherine in tears worrying over what is to happen to Violetta once her people have taken hold." Suicune was quiet as he lobbed anther few attacks that did nothing more than tear up the landscape even more. Raikou gave back as good as she got, remaining in between her human and her mate, keeping Catherine from the line of fire. The male dog sighed heavily.
"It is as you say. But what are we to do? With both stubbornly entrenched with their own beliefs, and refusing to budge, how do we stop them, when we are confined to our roles?" Raikou sent the equivalent of a sad smile to her partner.
"We do our duty, and hope, when the dust settles and one of them stands with their boot to the throat of the other, that they do not have the heartlessness to kill the other, that they have the strength to forgive." She roared, shaking the sky, and charged.
(...)
"I can feel them." The thought sounded in Mewtwo's head and interrupted his calm as he surveyed the heavily forested mountainsides high above the normally ventured caves and hills on the Indigo Plateau. The large glass window he was staring through had been inserted in a artificially hollowed out peak, and coated to reflect the mountain around it. From anywhere but the shallow shelf it sat in, it was invisible to the outside world. Her turned his head slowly to the broadcaster of the mental words. The interior of the room was stark, yet comfortable. A pair of couches faced the window, supported by tubby legs that dug divots into the thick, dark carpeting that spread from wall to wall. Of to the far right of the window was a black wall with a square window cut out of it, a shelf styled tabletop sitting at low chest level. The hole looked into a fully modern kitchen dubbed in shiny black surfaces. To the left of the window was a large, wall mounted television, another pair of couches and armchairs facing this. To the left of the Television, a computer station was built into an angled wall, so the person using it could look across to the Television while operating the station. Other then that, and a few more scattered chairs and lamps, the room was empty.
Mewtwo looked at the large, billowy Entei standing next to him at the window.
"You can? Have they contacted you?" He queried. Mewtwo, while an artificial Legendary Pokémon, had the gift to be able to understand any of the others, due to his immense psychic ability and his composite DNA. While they did not speak, with the exception of himself, in the human language, he could interpret and talk mentally with those who allowed him into their confidence.
"No. They are fighting each other. The disturbance in the elements can be felt, even from here." The Mewtwo turned around to the couch.
"My master." He said softly, his mouth not moving, but the words broadcasting vocally none the less. A blanket laid across one of the couches shifted, and then fell away as a young woman sat up. She had deep red/brown hair that bounced around above the line of her shoulders. Eyes the blue white of ice stared out of a cute, rather than pretty face that conveyed no emotion. Her black tank top had ridden up, revealing her pale white stomach, a long, curving scar twisting away from her navel and around her side, and her hip bones were visible over her white panties.
"What's the matter?" She asked her partner, her voice flat and toneless.
"Entei can feel Suicune and Raikou. But they are fighting." He paused for a second, getting more info from the dog. "He believes that one will kill the other if they are to continue. If he comes into rapport with me, I should be able to teleport us to their location." The girl stood, letting her cover fall to the floor.
"Okay, alert Doctor Baldwin, while I go and fetch Meri." She said, turning and walking out of the room. She heard the small pop as her partner teleported one floor up to the bosses office. Her bare feet slapped on the tiled floor as the carpet ended in a sort hallway and a flight of box stairs, a 90 degree turn every 5 steps. Moving down a floor, she entered a longer hallway, where a number of doors lead into separate rooms, with a co-ed bathroom at the end of the hall, closed off by temperature sealed double doors. She paused at a door, and knocked breifly.
"Come in." A friendly voice called out, and she opened the simple door. The woman poked her head in. In the room was a simple, yet cozy double bed, a night table on either side, a large wooden dresser, a computer at a desk, and a large, stocked bookshelf. Another young woman dressed in a matching outfit, only much more filled out, lay on her back on the bed, her long, emerald hair spread out around her. She smiled up with twinkling amethyst eyes that were filled with friendly calm.
"Hello, Snow." Snow nodded in recognition.
"Meridia, Mewtwo says Entei found his companions, but they are fighting, and we need to hurry. Gear up." Her voice was still flat and emotionless. Meridia nodded, put her book aside, moving to her dresser to get her kit, as Snow turned to do the same, walking to her own room.
3 Minutes later, both girls emerged in their full kit of choice, but the clothing was similar. Black denim pants with a long sleeved button up shirt, Meridia in a shade of dark purple that matched her eyes, and Snow in white. Meridia had a large, flat knife clipped to her waist, while Snow opted for a harness that left her knife hanging hilt down from the left side of her chest. The ran quickly upstairs, where Mewtwo was waiting again.
"The Doctor wishes you luck." He replied stoically.
"Thanks." Snow said. Meridia reached out with her pokeball, recalling the hulking dog, to ease the burden on the Mewtwo's teleport. The catlike creature extended it hands, and the girls each took one. There was the sensation of spinning, and blackness consumed them.
(...)
Catherine was hurt, bad. Raikou and Suicune had traded blows for a long time, never doing more than a glancing hit. Finally, as if it was tired of the battle, the Suicune launched a Blizzard attack, that had all but blinded them. Lost in the haze of snow and stinging ice, she heard the cries and growls and snarls as the two battled. There was an explosion of some kind, and she was tossed into the air, landing hard and getting 3 shards of ice impaling her left arm, and 2 more in he leg. She couldn't move, and when the snow had cleared, she saw Raikou, down and panting, unable to rise, and the weary, frustrated Suicune stalking toward her. Violetta, blood from a gash in her head flowing down her face, followed close behind, resolution tight on her face, her eyes burning.
"Any last requests?" He childhood friend said in a constricted, grim voice. Catherine smiled weakly. She had fought well, and lost, and would have to hope Violetta would take up the fight before it was too late. She used her good arm, and grabbed her two pokeballs.
"Please, take care of Scope and Raikou." She let her heavy head sink to the ground after Violetta nodded tersely, and succumbed to the shock and fainted. Trying to keep her nerve steady, Violetta looked down at the defeated woman.. She knew the kind thing would be to kill Casey now, because she would not want to put her in the interrogation service of the Rangers. They were especially harsh to Team Rocket Executives. She told Suicune to do it. He raised his paw, claws extending and reached down to slice through the girls neck and spine.
"Stop!" Suicune halted momentarily, dazed by the sharp thought and its power. There was a pop, and something tall and white appeared above the girl, twisting, and bringing a heavy, clubbed tail into his face, knocking him away before landing lightly on the grass and throwing up a psychic Barrier around them both. Entei came lopping up behind it, and sat in protection of the broken girl.
"What the hell is this?" Violetta said, her nerve snapping as these two powerful new opponents appeared to protect Catherine.
"We cannot allow you to eliminate this woman." The tall white Pokémon said in a deep, grave voice that startled Violetta. She had never seen a Pokémon talk before. Two women dismounted from astride the massive fire dog, who looked with disappointment at its fellows. With a shaking movement, Suicune cast a water ring on itself and Raikou, the healing waters slowly mending their injuries. One of the women, with long, vibrant green hair and kind eyes took a few steps forward.
"Greetings, Ranger."She said, noting Violetta's outfit. "My Name is Meridia Jones, and Mewtwo is correct. You and this other woman are marked by the Pokémon that follow you, just as myself and my companion bear a similar honor, being bond to our own Pokémon of legend." He words had a slight gravity to them that made Violetta trust her, even though they were strangers. She brought her purple eyes to meet Violetta's. "There is a darkness coming, and we need your help."
End 1
Kind of an action-y opening, but a good intro to Casey, who will likely be one of the main characters, and a brief look at Snow, Mare, and Vee. Will go into the purpose of the group in the next issue, and maybe, unless I want to cut it short and make it into two segments, will introduce another character I will likely follow around a lot. Not sure how much I will go into the Pokémon communication in English to each other from here, at least outside the Triarchy/bonds, but I will have to see where it leads before I can figure out how to use it without disliking it. (I am the type that likes to think of them as super intelligent animals with high levels of empathy rather than fully sentient. Less slave-ish, then.)
Anyway, if you browsed it, thanks, hope to have more soon.