Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait what?! Did I just upload TWO chapter in ONE month?! I must be on drugs or something!
Seriously though, I wanted to get this out before Christmas... but seeing as my Christmas was crazy all hell, I made this as an end of the year special instead.
Hope you guys it! And welcome back Mark and Stephanie! We've missed you two!
Humanity's Last Hope
Chapter 01: Just Another Day…
Date: 06/26/2044
10:32 Hours
Subject: Stephanie Anne Evon
Species: Espeon pokémorph
Age: 17
Location: Evon Towers Penthouse, New Morph City (Formerly known as, Long Island City, New York) Republic of Gira (Former known as United States of America)
I groaned as I slammed my head into my notebook. I'm never going to be able to finish this stupid assignment… With school finished and summer beginning, I was hoping me and my friends could go enjoy ourselves at the new spa they opened near the harbor. Sadly, my tutor had other plans.
"Something wrong, Steph?" My younger brother asked as he picked up a book that was sitting on my desk. He opened the book and glanced at the table of context. "…Oh, you have a history report to over the summer? Lucky! All I have are a couple of boring books to read." He said as began to skim through the book.
This is Gregory, the nerdy leafeon. He spends a lot of his free time reading history books and fooling around on his computer. Hell, his favorite topic seems to be the Pokémorph Revolution, seeing as he never shuts up about it… That gives me an idea.
"…Say Gregory, can you do your sweet older sister a small favor?" I politely asked him.
"No." He said as he quickly dropped the book on my desk and left our study.
"What?! W-wait!" I shouted as I quickly chased after him. "I didn't even tell you what the favor was!"
"Doesn't matter! I know you, Steph, and any favor you want requires me to do something I know I'm going to regret." The leafeon responded.
"…I was only going to ask you for a little help." I pouted.
"I doubt that." Greg growled. "Besides, why don't you do your own homework for once?"
"Because I don't need to. I can easily pay a nerd a hundred crowns to do my homework for me." I stated.
Gregory sighed as he began to rub his forehead. "Why do I even both talking to you?"
"…So you will do that report for me after all?" I hopefully asked.
My ears twitched as I heard a faint ding, followed by a groan. My twin brother stumbled into our home followed by a white-furred vulpix. "I'm home…" Richard groaned as he fell to the floor.
"Richie!" The vulpix yelled as she quickly picked him up.
"I thought umbreon were good at taking beatings." I laughed only to be elbowed by Greg.
My twin brother Richard gave me glare as he tried to catch his breath. "…Too tired… can't think… of a good retort…" He huffed as he held his chest. "Ian… is try… to kill me!"
The Vulpix helped my brother walk to the living room and helped him lie down on the couch. "Uncle Ian's been training Richie extra hard lately. I guess he didn't like the way Richie's last battle turned out." The vulpix explained as her ears flatted against her head.
"…Who are you and what are you doing in my house?" I asked the strange fox.
"…Do we have to do this every time I visit?" The fox sighed out a small, blue flame. I gave her a blank look and scratched my head. "I'm Carly Tales, remember? Your babysitter's niece? You've known me since we were kits! Not to mention, I'm your tutor, Stephanie!"
"OH! In that case, can you please write a five page paper on the Pokémorph Revolution for me, please?" I asked as I handed the vixen a pen and paper.
The vulpix scowled as she set the paper on fire, nearly burning my paw! "HEY! You could've just said 'no.'" I cried as I drop the burning paper and watched it quickly go up in flames.
"Just ignore her, Carly. You know she does this just to get under people's fur." Gregory said as he entered the kitchen.
"I already said 'NO!'" Our eldest sister shouted from the conference room as a well dressed houndoom morph was pushed out of the room by a female glaceon. "I don't care what you guys are paying, Evon Enterprises will not be part taking in anymore government contracts."
"Miss Evon, please be reasonable. Your company-"
"Is no longer interested in working the government. Tell Councilor Kadar that our interests no longer align and we will not be conducting anymore business with him or any other government official." The ice-type said while she shoved the canine passed us and into an elevator.
"He and Governor Caniner will be very upset with your decision, Miss Evon."
"Not my problem." My sister said as she pressed the button for the lobby and waved good-bye to the fire-type. "…Jackass." She muttered under her breath as the doors closed.
Poor Kathrin… being the oldest, she was entrusted with our family's business after our parents passed away. Not because she wanted to, but because daddy dearest asked her to. He always wanted to keep this a family business, even after we became successful. But there are days where Kat talks about giving up and just selling the company to someone else. Wouldn't blame her, though, our company hasn't been doing too good these past few years… But we're still filthy rich, so it can't be all that bad.
"He seemed nice." I grinned as Kathrin walked by.
"Not in the mood, Stephanie." My sister growled as she walked back to the conference room. "Miss Tales, can you please call your uncle and tell him I need to see him."
Carly blinked and gave my sister a curious look. "Why? What happened?"
Kathrin stopped and took a deep breath. "…Miss Tales, please… I need your uncle's advice… right now!" She said as she dragged her tail into the conference room and shut the door.
We all stood in silence for a moment before Gregory came back from the kitchen with a bottle of water in his paw. "What do you think happened?" He asked as he handed Richie the bottle.
"You heard what happened?" Carly asked.
"Kinda hard to ignore." Greg chuckled as he pointed to his large, vulpine ears. "But seriously, what happened? I've never heard Kat so angry before."
"She's been like that for weeks." Richard said as he finally found the energy to sit up. "The Councilor been bugging her about those old contracts dad always took when he was still alive. You know, the contracts that made us rich."
It took me a while to realize what those contracts were. During the Revolution, many budding morph companies were contracted to provide a number a different services during the war; from pharmaceutical needs to providing tools and food to works and then some. After the war, those few companies that helped the Gira Empire are now big names in the business world. My family's business, Evon Family Enterprises, is one such business.
Though, Dad never did tell us much about those contracts… he was always very secretive about them, acting almost as if he was ashamed of them. After he died, he stated in his will that wanted Kathrin to take over the business but under the condition that she never takes another contract. It was a strange request, but for the past two years, Kathrin's been fulfilling Dad's final wish.
"Oh… that makes sense, I guess. But if Kat's unwilling to work with them, why can't they just go to another company? Like Stark Enterprises?" Carly asked.
A chill ran up my spine as I heard that name. "Stark… Enterprises…" I growled. "Those stuck losers can bite my tail! The reason why the government isn't knocking on their door is because they don't have the same connections we do!"
Richard sighed as he ignored my outburst. "Who knows why they're so interested in us. Maybe the contracts were about developing some new kind of robot or a self-driving car or something. Either way, they're not leaving us alone."
"…Hey, I just noticed like half the family is missing! Where is everyone?" Carly asked as she looked around the house. "Usually Sophie is here looking to play."
"Oh right… Casey took Sophie to those swimming lessons." I scowled at the thought of our youngest sister being fooled into evolving into a slimy vaporeon like Casey. "She's probably trying to convince her to touch a water stone, or something."
"Stephanie." Greg glared at me. "Like the ice queen said, Sophie's at the Spear Pillar learning how to swim with Casey, Charlie's working all day today, so he won't be home till late."
"Ew… He's also working in Old Town, near the humans…" I cringed at the thought of that infested hellhole. "That reminds me, didn't James decide to play detective and went down there do find the human whose been stealing form out stores?" I asked in genuine interest.
Greg looked at me in surprised before nodding. "Well yes… He said something about going downtown to visit some of our smaller store by Old Town. He thinks he might be able to catch one these guys in the act. Though odds are, he probably won't be able to find the culprit. Whoever is behind this is clearly a master thief."
I rolled my eyes and laughed. "Right…"
Location: Downtown New Morph City
12:23 Hours
"Crap, crap, crap, crap!" A teenage human boy cried as he ran down the alley, being chased by a very angry jolteon morph. "Why does this always happen to me?!"
"Get back here you coward!" James Evon shouted as a jolt of electricity shot out of his paw, narrowly missing the human's hoodie as he quickly turned the corner and raced down the sidewalk.
"Hey aren't you worried about hitting someone?!" The human cried back as he raced down the sidewalk.
"The only one getting hurt here will be you!" The jolteon roared as he unleashed another thunderbolt, missing the human and narrowly hitting a buisel sitting at a bus stop.
The human rushed through the crowded street and attempted to lose the pursing jolteon in the busy streets, figuring the crazy fox would never endanger another person. When that didn't work, he quickly dove into another alley, hoping no one else would join the pursuit. Human thieves aren't exactly an uncommon site in this part of the city and most people tend to ignore them and wait for the police to quickly arrest the human. However, there are some cases where a human is blindsided by some 'heroic' morph looking for a chance to be on the news.
"Get back here! No one steals from an Evon family store and gets away with it!" James roared, running into the dead-end alley, only to stop and stare in confusion.
"…Where the hell did he go?!" He shouted glancing around the empty alleyway. He found nothing but a dumpster and a few black bags full of trash sitting next to it. Puzzled, the electric-type looked at the dumpster before looking up at a nearby fire escape. 'There's no way he'd be able to reach that… he must be hiding in that dumpster.' The jolteon grinned as he slowly turned around and pretended to leave the alley.
He took only a few steps before he heard a crinkling sound, his ears twitched as his body began to spark. "Gotcha!" James shouted as he released a massive thunder attack, illumining the alley in a blinding flash. When the flash died down, he covered his sensitive nose in a vain attempt to protect it from the scent of fried garbage. After a quick glance, he grinned at the site of a torn and charred hoodie, believing that he reduced the human into ash. "Damn… I don't know my own strength… Stephanie better watch out, or she might be next." He grinned as he turned to leave the alley for real this time.
His ears twitched as he suddenly heard the dumpster lid creek open. "Hey there." A voice said from behind him, causing the electric-type to turn around. He was immediately punched in the muzzle by the human who was had just jumped out of hiding. The fox fell to ground with a hard thud as the lone human stood ready to fight. "Didn't think it would be that easy, did ya?" The human smirked, waiting for his purser to respond.
He waited for a few seconds before relaxing his guard approaching the now unconscious morph, "…Really? I only hit you once and I didn't even punch you that hard." The human sighed as he shook his dead in disappointment. "What kind of pokémorph are you?"
"Mark, why must you always tempt fate?" A small voice called from behind the charred dumpster. A small, six tailed fox meekly came out from behind the dumpster he used as protection. "Also, why do you always use me bait? You know how much I hate being used as bait. I nearly got fried!" The feral vulpix whined.
The human chuckled as he knelt down to pat the fox on his head. "I don't always use you as bait, Tricky. Sometimes I use you as a distraction and other times, I use you as cannon fodder." Mark grinned turning his attention to the morph's pockets.
"Oh thanks! That makes me feel so much better!" Tricky angrily shouted. "I still can't believe that stupid plan of yours worked. Hell, it's dumb luck the moron didn't look inside of the dumpster you were hiding in… and we found this thing empty and with the lid open."
"If you think about, that's our lives in a nutshell. We're able to survive out here by pure, dumb luck." Mark remarked while searching for the jolteon's wallet. Didn't take long for him to find it and empty it. "What? Only thirty crowns?" He pouted.
"Don't see why you're complaining. That's still way more money any other human will see in a week." Tricky said as he scratched his ear. "Now come on! Let's go home before anyone else finds us!"
Sighing as he put the crowns in his pocket and tossed the now empty wallet on James face, he gave his partner a small nod before reaching back into the dumpster and grabbing a backpack. "…Alright, but before we head home, we need to stop at Old Town. Ryan wanted me to bring him this crap."
Tricky looked at the bag and blinked for a second. "Oh yeah! Now I remember. Man, that asshole must want us to die, seeing as we're running into more and more trouble on these runs."
Mark shrugged as be donned the backpack and took a peak out of the alley. "Yeah, these past few jobs haven't been easy… but the pay is too good to pass up. Beside, Ryan would never give us a job we couldn't handle."
Tricky rolled his eyes as he stepped out of the alley. "If you say so…" He sighed as the two quickly dashed out of the alley, heading straight for Old Town.
Now here's where see some glaring changes from the original. Such as Carly being Stephanie's tutor and Mark being chased by only one morph. Hope this wasn't too hard to follow and I hope I didn't disappoint anyone.
I know crowns are an actual form of currency in some countries, and I choose it as the name of the Empire's currency here because...
well... I liked the way it sounds... Yeah, I'm lame. I know.
Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and this treat... and don't get used to the whole two chapters a month deal. This was a one time deal... I think
Happy New Year, everyone!
As Always: Love it, Hate it, Just Review it
Gunner out.
