Welcome to the first revision of "Evil Never Rests!"
This is my first story ever published to the public, and I cannot wait to hear what you all think.
For those of you who read my original: I hate to make you re-read it all, but there are some important changes you should take notice of.
This story isn't written in the anime-verse, game-verse, or manga-verse specifically, but there are some things taken from each.
Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon, it belongs to its creators in Japan.
Now, without further ado. Enjoy! ^_^
"That Giovanni! He can't stay out of jail to save his life!" Dr. Namba yelled angrily at the television, which showed Giovanni being arrested again, "Why is it he keeps getting beaten by a bunch of kids anyway?"
"Overconfidence was always his weakness," Domino replied dismissively, her cold, blue eyes still scanning her tabloid magazine. "He'll learn eventually, let's just finish our job."
"Of course. How could I forget?" Dr. Namba said, grinning evilly beneath his red, bushy mustache. "Bring in our first test subject, there is much to do."
Just then, two Team Rocket grunts pushed a concealed cart into the small room. Dr. Namba ripped the cover off to reveal a frightened ralts, shivering in the corner of its cage. The small pokémon was completely white and resembled the shape of a human. The top half of its small head was covered by its green bangs, which were split down the center of its head by a plate-like red spike protruding out the top, and a smaller one on the back of its head. It had small arms, which didn't form into hands at the tips, and thick legs with trailing skin that gave the illusion of dragging the bottom of a nightgown behind it.
"Good, you fools managed to catch one." Dr. Namba stated flatly.
"Why did it HAVE to be a ralts anyway? We had to go all the way to Hoenn just to find one." One of the grunts asked, obviously tired.
"The humanoid form of this Pokémon in particular, and its evolutions, suggests great genetic similarities with humans. This will make our mission much less complicated," Namba responded, as he led the group down the hallway. "We have to know what we're dealing with if we're to alter its DNA."
"Why not use a machop?" One of the grunts asked. "It's in the 'Human Shaped' egg group too."
"True, but we need a psychic pokémon for this test." the doctor responded, "We haven't tried this on fighting types yet."
As the others were fading down the hallway, Domino still sat there with her feet propped up on a table.
Finally, she sighed. I can't believe the boss would come up with something this ridiculous she thought, as she flicked her blonde curls out of her face and laid her magazine on the table. "Oh well," she added aloud, as she stood and exited the room, "time to watch another plan blow up."
After days of experimentation, Dr. Namba was at his wit's end. Already they had come close to completely destroying this poor ralts after attempting to study its DNA, tweak it a bit, then meet a dead-end and reset it. Each iteration caused the ralts to shriek even more intensely, the shock was unbearable.
The laboratory they were using was a large room with multiple computers and data monitors along the outside edge. The middle was occupied by a large machine that resembled a tower with a large glass dome fully consuming the center. Inside it was the ralts, hooked up to the machine in multiple places along its small body. Dr. Namba was sitting at his desk on a raised level of the room, which held a gigantic computer terminal.
"It seems this is more difficult than I thought it would be," Dr. Namba said, pinching the space between his eyes as the monstrous machine reconstructed what was previously altered.
"It would help if you knew what you were doing" Domino retorted, avoiding the doctor's furious gaze.
"Sir, if we do too much more it may destabilize and rip itself apart! We need to let it rest!" Chase, one of the scientists, warned.
"I have one more experiment to try, and then it can rest!" Namba responded.
"But sir-"
"Shut up and let me do my job!" Dr. Namba snapped, frantically typing on his terminal. The computer hummed violently, and the Ralts resumed its shrieking.
"Sir, slow down! You're going to overload the system!" Just then, a huge crash was heard nearby and his computer began sparking.
"What's happening!?" Namba yelled in fear.
"Energy spike, our systems are being fried as we speak!" yelled a researcher from the other side of the room, "We've already lost most of our memory units and a few processors!"
"You just couldn't leave it alone, could you, Einstein!?" Domino screamed over the alarms.
"Shut up! Somebody fix this!" Dr. Namba yelled.
"Easier said than done, sir," Chase replied. "Apparently, a group of onix decided to tunnel through level 4. Everything down there is rubble, including the backup storage units. They tore through most of our power supplies."
"Blast! Domino, take a squad to eliminate those onix before they cause any more damage!" Namba ordered fiercely.
He turned back to see why she hesitated. He was surprised to see her staring in horror straight ahead. He duplicated her expression when he saw what she stared at: inside the machine stood only the deformed body of what used to be the tortured ralts, barely alive.
"Sir, the response team is ready."
"D-Deploy them now, tell them to keep the power on as long as they can." Namba barely got the words out. "Pull up the backup files with the DNA sequences of this ralts, we need to repair it now!"
"Why save it? It's just one ralts?" Domino asked, coldly.
"Although we've had to undo most of what we've attempted, we still made plenty of headway towards our goal; we cannot let this Ralts die without making sure we have a copy of its successfully altered genetic structure." Dr. Namba responded, finally succeeding in plugging an external hard drive to his terminal, "We must rebuild it!"
"Sir, all the data collected during the trials was destroyed!" Chase said, frantically searching for a solution. "We're on our own at this point!"
"Damn it!" Dr. Namba slammed his fists on his desk, then he had an idea, "Maybe we can use human DNA to at least keep it alive…Domino, get in that machine!"
"What!? Why me!?" She yelled in disbelief.
"That ralts is a female, it would probably accept female DNA better than male, and you're the only one here!" He shouted back.
"Not a chance!" she shrieked, "I saw what that ralts went through!"
"It won't take much, you'll be fine! Just do it! There's no time to waste!" He yelled, as he threw her into an analysis chamber placed along the wall. The machine hummed to life once more as the doctor entered multiple commands. When it stopped, the poor ralts had returned to its earlier form.
It stopped…the pain finally…stopped… The ralts was still struggling to comprehend its situation, but was finally able to think clearly, what happened to me? It lied motionless in the machine for a moment, gasping for air. It cringed as it slowly rose to its 'hands' and knees, trying to hold the contents of its stomach.
"Did it work? Has the ralts stabilized?" Dr. Namba asked, anxiously.
"Yes, it is stable," Chase replied. "But it's nearing its limit."
"Put it somewhere safe to recuperate, we can't risk a relapse," the doctor sighed, forcing his head into his palms.
Every inch of ralts was aching, as if someone was ripping it apart. Comprehending what the doctor said, it put that aside for now. I have to find a way out of here! It thought desperately, forcing itself up. Noticing its surroundings, the ralts found many places where it could trigger an explosion. The battered ralts focused all its strength and forced an enormous wave of psychic energy throughout the room.
There were multiple small explosions from the pipes and computers that were already punctured or compromised in some way, and caused the glass around it to shatter into the scientists who were closing in to take it someplace "safe." Ralts fell to the floor. Finally able to move freely, it made a beeline for a wall with a gaping hole from the blast and ran as fast as it could manage through the enormous complex. Ralts was barely able to keep its pursuers at bay, tripping them using the last of its mental power.
After what seemed like hours, the ralts had finally found a way to escape. It made its way into what used to be a hallway, which was now a junction for enormous tunnels. The words "Level 4—Backup Mem-" barely readable on the shattered wall. Ralts saw a faint light at the end of one of these tunnels and ran straight for it, stopping just quickly enough to avoid falling from the cliff it stared down. It looked around the mountainous terrain, bathed in beautiful shades of orange from the rising sun.
"I think it ran this way!" Ralts heard, followed by the footsteps of multiple grunts. It scanned the cliff frantically for any footing. It found a few jutting rocks and managed to climb down just enough to keep from being seen by its pursuers and hid under a small outcropping, panting heavily. After the grunts were no longer heard searching for it, the ralts slowly climbed down and ran. It just ran straight ahead, the hope of survival as its only fuel.
"Sir, we cannot find the ralts anywhere," One grunt reported back to Dr. Namba. "We think it may have escaped on level 4. We have a man monitoring the ASD. It is currently tracking a small pokémon heading east. We believe its destination is the Viridian Forest."
"Then go after it!" the impatient doctor roared, "Tear down that forest limb from limb if you have to, just find that ralts! If that thing figures out how to tell anyone about what happened, we're done for!"
As dawn approached, the quiet Pewter City came alive once again as the streets began to fill with determined businessmen and women, ready to start the day. Others were still half asleep, desperately clinging to their thermoses as they dragged themselves to work while the rest were children, either going to school or just going out to enjoy the morning.
While everyone else ran around to begin their routines, a young man named Jerald Fisher still lay sprawled across his bed, oblivious to his surroundings. He was around 6 feet tall, with brown hair and green eyes. Last week was his birthday and he was finally 16! He had just graduated school and was ready to depart on his journey through the Kanto region. The day after graduation, the entire class took a field trip to Pallet Town to get their first pokémon and a pokédex. Sadly, a few of the starters Professor Oak caught ran away, leaving Jerald and four other students without a pokémon. The professor assured all of them that he would catch more for them, but they were stuck at home until then.
"Jerald," his mother, Madison, said softly, "Time to wake up."
"Mmumph…five more hours mom, I don't want to go to school…" he said sleepily, trying to hold back a mischievous smile as he rolled to his side, turning his back on the slender brunette.
"Well, you said to get you up by ten o' clock," Madison said. "Come on. Dan should be on his way already, right?"
"Alright, alright," Jerald said as he threw off his blanket, but still did not stir.
"I made pancakes!" his mother announced happily.
Jerald suddenly rushed past her and down the stairs, practically jumping into his chair at the table. His mouth watered as he dumped his favorite blueberry syrup on the large stack and cut at it like an animal. Madison soon walked down the stairs and into the living room. She smiled to her son munching on his breakfast, then went to the kitchen to prepare his lunch for the day.
The house was a two-story, three bedroom home (they used the third bedroom for miscellaneous storage). The dining area and the living room were open to each other, sharing a light-brown carpet. The kitchen was located directly beside the dining area at one end of the house, while the living room occupied the rest of that floor.
Separating the kitchen from the rest of the house was an "L" shaped wall, which held extra cabinets and counter space. A staircase was located a few feet from the kitchen, leading straight up to Jerald's small bedroom. Connected to the staircase was a hallway that split into the remaining two bedrooms. There was a door to a small room under the staircase, full of holiday decorations. Across the hall from the staircase was the only bathroom in the house.
The television was loudly announcing a pokémon contest in Cerulean City to an empty living room, which consisted of a couch, a coffee table, and a reclining chair. The walls of both the living room and the dining room were dotted with potted plants.
Jerald was about half-way through his breakfast when there was a knock on the door and Jerald's childhood friend, Dan, walked in. Dan Strange was a young man about Jerald's height, clad in a yellow t-shirt, blue jeans, and a red ball cap, which hid his dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. He was able to get his starter, but he promised that he would not start his journey without his best friend.
"Howdy J, what's up?" Dan said, approaching his friend at the table.
"Hey, what's up?" Jerald said, through a mouthful of pancakes.
"Dude, chew THEN swallow," his friend said with a chuckle. "We don't want you getting sick out in the woods."
"The woods? You mean Viridian Forest?" Jerald replied sardonically, shoving more of his favorite breakfast into his mouth.
"Well, yeah, maybe you'll actually catch something this time." Dan laughed, leaning on the wall closest to his friend.
"You just worry about weakening them for me; your charmander should easily dominate in there." Jerald replied with a smile.
"Professor Oak said he would have a pokémon for you soon," Dan commented. "I don't see why you won't just wait for him."
"Because he said that last week," Jerald responded sourly. "Who knows how much longer I'll have to wait? I can just catch one on my own, if you'll still help me."
Dan sighed. "Sure, why not? But I still think you should wait."
"It's fine, I'll just get my 'starter' later," Jerald said, using air quotes. I'd rather not keep you in Pewter much longer anyway. Now finished with his pancakes, he put away his dish and started upstairs to change clothes, "Be right back."
A few minutes later, he came back down wearing black shorts, a grey t-shirt, and black gloves made without fingers. He was still cramming potions and pokéballs into his brown backpack.
"I still don't get your style, man." Dan said, gazing upon his strange friend.
"What? They're my lucky gloves! I have a good feeling about today!" Jerald said, tightening them proudly.
"Jerald, did you forget something?" His mother called from the kitchen.
Jerald went to her in the kitchen to see what she wanted and she handed him a plastic bowl full of food, mostly light snacks such as crackers, an apple or two, a small sandwich, and cookies with a Ziploc back of pokémon food.
"Thanks, mom," He said, as he gave her a hug and headed for the door.
"Be careful," She called after him, "be home for dinner!"
"What are you even looking for in your first pokémon? You passed up plenty of good ones yesterday." Dan asked as they walked down the streets of Pewter City.
"They went down to easily, didn't even try to put up much of a fight; I'd like one with power and determination." Jerald said, ready to take on the world.
"That's what a trainer teaches it, genius" Dan responded, playfully smacking his friend on the back as they entered the forest.
"I don't know, I guess I just want my first pokémon to be worthwhile," Jerald clarified.
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