Once the plans were finalized, they were brought into effect almost immediately. It was a simple plan, according to the concept, and the main brains behind it were astounded that none of them had ever thought to try something like this before. The so-called main brains behind this operation were all masterminds, intelligent people who had been defeated by children, many as young as eleven years old.
It was something to be a lot more than embarrassed about.
The masterminds behind this project had been shamed, became laughing stocks, and lost their own grunts, then under the belief that maybe, just maybe, what they were doing wasn't the right thing. In the end, their plans had come to nothing. That was the one element that all of them had in common. Along with the unbearable feelings of shame came the wish for revenge. For many of those in mind, that wish stuck with them, right until they were finally able to execute a plan like this.
After Team Plasma had disbanded, Ghetis was approached by Giovanni. Together, they approached others, such as Pryce, Charon, and Lysandre, who had been taken down by exceptional children, pitching their newly found idea. With Charon working on the technology needed for such a large project, and approximately seven months later, they were ready to put their plan in action.
To start off, they contacted the various Pokedex Holders, and others chosen. Pryce took care of contacting the Hoenn residents, as both potential people who could contact them were deceased by that point.
Contacting them was simple. Ghetis took a slightly original turn, inviting six of the teenagers to a World Tournament, where Black assumed they were invited to take part, and the two newer additions assuming they were brought to spectate. There was a seventh, but offered to take care of that seventh person personally.
Lysandre contacted the five teenagers chosen by Sycamore to explore the region. Anonymously, he invited them to take a tour of Lumiose Tower, also known as the fifth gym. X had been reluctant to accept, briefly worrying Lysandre, but Y quickly convinced him to go. Everything had fallen into place.
As for the four other regions, Giovanni, Pryce and Charon had taken the simple approach of requesting that each of the Pokedex holders to come visit their local labs in an urgent matter, forging their signatures as each of the professors. Given each of the chosen participants' natures, it had been simple to get them to come along. In fact, the only time suspicions were raised was in Kanto.
Green had been the first to arrive at the lab, and waited outside the door for at least one other person to arrive. Soon enough, he spotted Red hurrying along, his Venusaur slowly trudging along behind him. As Red waved animatedly, indicating that he spotted Green, the other teenager raised his hand slightly in a gesture of greeting him, before opening the rusted door to the laboratory. He mentally decided that, with the money he received from his next victory at the gym, he would repair the door, considering his grandfather wouldn't.
"Hey! Wait up!" Red called out, breaking into a run. Saur looked like he was struggling to keep up, but eventually reached the door as well.
Once Red caught up, Green entered the lab, the other boy following quickly behind. The Pokemon struggled to fit through the door, but squeezed through, looking around the lab he had been briefly brought up in.
"Do you have any idea why the Professor called us here?" Red asked, running his finger absentmindedly along the corner of a desk. Green shrugged.
"He must've been as vague with you as he was with me. I just got a message from him to get here as soon as possible. Don't you find it strange that he's not here, since it's so urgent?" he asked.
"Oh, didn't notice that. But still, if it is urgent, he'll probably be here soon anyway."
Green rolled his eyes at Red's lack of concern over the immediate strange situation. He took a seat by one of the tables, and rested his cheek on his palm. Red looked as if he was trying to find something to say to keep their conversation going, but couldn't think of anything. The only sounds in the room were the ticking of a clock and Saur's loud breathing.
The near-silence was broken several minutes later. Blue opened the door to the lab with a bang, and bounded over to the two boys. Yellow silently followed her in, closing the door quietly behind her.
"He's not even here!" Blue immediately exclaimed.
"I didn't think there was any reason to rush", Yellow added, joining the other three.
Green was about to voice his suspicions, when the previously content Venusaur started looking around. Red's attention was immediately focused on him, and he furrowed his brows in confusion when the peaceful Pokemon started letting out his own strange growl.
"What's wrong with him?" Yellow asked, concerned. Red knelt down by Saur, petting the top of his head.
"I have no idea. He never acts like this. What's wrong?" he said worriedly.
Yellow was about to kneel down by Red's side, offering her assistance, when there was a sudden sound of a bang from the table. Red, Yellow and Blue looked over immediately, and saw Green was slumped over on the table, his eyes shut.
"What the hell just happened?" Blue muttered. Saur's growling grew louder, and Red's eyes were darting between the Pokemon and his friend, who seemed to have fallen asleep without a sudden warning.
At that point, Red felt confused, and was trying to make sense of what was going on. The point where he began to panic was when Blue began to sway, mutter something incoherent, and fall to the floor. Her breathing was soft, and sounded as if she was taking a peaceful nap.
Yellow stood between Blue and Red, and after less than a second of deliberation, she reached out to the boy.
"Something's not right! We have to... to..." she began, but couldn't continue. Red watched in alarm as her eyelids lowered, and she crashed to the floor, too, joining the other three.
Everything had happened in less than a minute. Red almost forgot about worrying about Saur, and merely took note of Yellow's last words of advice. She was completely right about something not being right. As he was the only one left, he knew he had to escape, and find some kind of help.
When he attempted to stand up, Red found that his knees felt like jelly, and he fell right back down after attempting to stand up. Whatever got to them is after getting to me, he thought, his eyes briefly falling over his sleeping friends.
"Saur, bring me to the door", he said, and realized it was hard to speak. Red's commands had been lost on Saur, who had fallen asleep several seconds before he did. His eyelids felt heavy, and he couldn't stop himself from leaning against the table. After a few seconds, his eyesight grew blurry, and before he knew it, his eyelids were closing as well, and consciousness was quickly slipping away. Less than a second later, he was asleep too.
Approximately fifteen minutes later, four of Team Rocket's grunts entered the room. They bundled up the quartet, ignoring the Venusaur sleeping on the floor. Carrying the four strong trainers in their arms, they did their best to look inconspicuous. Luckily, it was a quiet day in the area, and nobody could be seen outside.
Docked towards the end of the town was a small boat. Piling the four sleeping into the boat, they untied the rope that was previously keeping the boat docked. Then, the four grunts set out for the chosen island for this experiment. There was hardly any conversation, and none of those sleeping stirred.
Several hours later, Red woke up.
The first thing that he noticed was that his cheek was resting on the cool surface of wood. Opening his eyes slightly, he realized that he was seated at a desk. Even though he did not go there very long, Red recognized it as a type of school desk, and immediately became confused. The last thing he remembered was watching all his friends suddenly become unconscious in Professor Oak's laboratory, and there was no way they were still there.
What's going on? Why am I in a school of all places?, Red wondered, opening his eyes fully. With some effort, he managed to sit up. The first thing he realized was that it was dark. When Red went to the lab, it was still clearly bright outside. He began to worry about how long he had been asleep, but those worries were quickly pushed aside for others as his eyes began to adjust.
Looking to his left and his right, he did not spot the other three. Instead, Red realized that he was surrounded by his juniors. Seated at the desk to his right was Kris, fast asleep. To his right was a boy he did not recognize. The boy had mid-length, straight black hair, and glasses. In front of him, he recognized one of his juniors from Hoenn; Emerald.
Why are they all here?!
He continued to look from side to side, taking in all the new and familiar faces. He spotted Green, Blue and Yellow as he looked, much to his relief. His brief feelings of relief were replaced by dread when he looked at the front of the room, however.
Standing there were various men. There were a few he did not recognize, but two in particular, Red was more than familiar with. One of those men was the Mahogany Gym Leader, Pryce. I thought he was gone for good, he thought, but his attention was focused on one other.
His eyes met Giovanni's, who smirked upon seeing that Red was awake. The two stared at each other for several seconds, before the older man tapped the side of his neck three times. Red raised an eyebrow at his weird gesture, and looked downwards. Absentmindedly, he copied Giovanni's gesture, and immediately froze.
He felt metal.
Quickly feeling what was wrapped around his neck, Red realized that it was some kind of collar. He immediately began to feel for some kind of latch that would release him, but found nothing.
As he was feeling the strange object around his neck, he heard tired groans of others, and saw more people raising their heads off their desks. About five minutes later, everyone was awake. The room was filled with the buzz of quiet conversation, all sounding lost and confused. Some, like Red, had noticed the collars placed around their necks, and were beginning to panic.
"This isn't the Pokemon World Tournament!" one boy exclaimed, standing up. Everyone turned to look at him, dumbfounded he did something so idiotic.
"Black, sit down. You're making a scene", the glasses-clad boy hissed, sounding a little embarrassed. The boy, Black, seemed to take no notice of his friend's comment, and continued glaring at the men at the top of the room.
"Sit down. Everything will be explained", one man snapped, reaching for something hidden in his jacket. Platinum Berlitz, who was seated at the top of the room, identified him immediately as Charon.
Black hesitated for a few seconds, continuing to glare at the men, before sitting back down. He folded his arms across his chest and avoided eye contact with them. Throughout the small exchange, everyone in the room had grown quiet.
"So, I take it you all slept well?" a green-haired man spoke up, clasping his hands together. He had a gentle smile on his face, but something about it had a fake, even sinister, quality to it. An audible gasp could be heard from the back of the room. The man ignored it.
"Forget the small talk. Who are you guys?!" Emerald quizzed impatiently. Everyone, with the exception of Ruby and Sapphire, turned to him, eyebrows raised. They seemed shocked that he had no idea who they were.
Wait. Giovanni targeted the Kanto Dex holders, us. Pryce attacked the Johto Dex holders. I don't know about the others, but the people who targeted our juniors from Hoenn are dead. So that means that the other men there are...?, Red wondered, looking at the juniors he had not yet met.
"I believe everyone else in this room is very familiar with at least one of us, Emerald. Two of us, in some circumstances", the green-haired man explained, "Allow me to introduce ourselves to our three clueless contestants."
Contestants?
"My name is Ghetsis. I can see a few of you recognize me as the leader of Team Plasma. On my right is Lysandre, the leader of Team Flare. To my left are Charon, scientist of Team Galactic; Pryce, a Gym Leader from Johto; and Giovanni, leader of Team Rocket. We're all delighted to see some familiar faces again", the man, Ghetsis, introduced. His sarcastic comment was not met with any particular responses.
"Why are we here? And who are these people, exactly?" Platinum said, her tone hesitant. She glanced around at the unfamiliar faces, intimidated by the fact that she only knew two people, excluding Charon, in the room.
Ghetsis looked over at Giovanni, who nodded. He took a step forward, and placed his hands behind his back. He looked over the teenagers in the room, and for a moment, felt like a teacher watching over his students. Behind him, Pryce grabbed a piece of chalk underneath the board, and began to write in large letters, "THE PROGRAM".
"The majority of you, in this room, know us very well. You all have something in common; you've shamed us. To think, almost every one of us, up here, with the exception of Lysandre, were defeated by children, no older than eleven at the time! Have any of you considered the consequences of that?" Giovanni began.
"We all know you're no longer a Gym Leader", Blue spoke up.
"Yes, but I consider that a minor thing. We've all lost any hope of achieving our goals. In the process of attempting to stop our plans, you all had a tendency to destroy what resources we had."
"Not cheap resources, either", Charon grumbled.
"We can no longer recruit any grunts, and we're basically powerless. It's shameful, from nearly achieving the goals we always wished to, to this. We're all laughing stocks, and there's a pattern we've noticed. It's always because of people like you", Giovanni continued. His eyes locked on Dia's, who seemed to shrink under his harsh glare.
"So, we gathered together and decided to ensure that nothing like that would ever happen again. As you can see, this little punishment is called "The Battle Royale Program". We've gathered you all here today for one purpose."
The man took in a deep breath, as if he was waiting for this moment. The teenagers leant forward, listening intently to what he had to say. A few had turned pale, already assuming the worst.
"You are all going to kill each other, until only one of you is left alive. This is our punishment."
Author's Note: First of all, thank you for reading my story! I hope you're enjoying it so far.
Now, as a warning, considering this is a fight to the death, there will definitely be violence and murder. I haven't sussed out the finer details yet, so I can't say for sure what trigger warnings there'll be. Once it's decided, I'll add them as additional tags!
Secondly, I've bumped up and down some of the ages for the sake of convenience. It won't affect the story too heavily! Also, I've decided to refer to the BW2 protagonists as Rakutsu and Faitsu. I think they flow much more smoothly than Lack-Two and Whi-Two when it comes to writing.
As for pairings, for now, I'm staying quiet about it, but they'll definitely be revealed as time goes on. This isn't a romance story, though, so don't be disappointed at the lack of romantic scenes. They will still be there, though!
I'm really interested in seeing what you think of it so far, so if you could leave a comment below, that would be great!