Novanto's Notes: Nothing, really.
Several weeks later, Aden pulled up at the Warehouse in his slightly battered car. He looked up at the massive building in front of him."Well, I'm "wow"ed, that's for sure." Aden commented as he walked up to the door and knocked. "Hello? Mrs. Fredric asked me to come here." The young man then felt something press into his back and very slowly turned around to face what looked like a ray gun. "Uh... hi?"
The person holding the gun was a young woman, likely around the same age as Aden himself. What immediately drew his attention was her hair: a deep auburn color with a streak of pink running down along her right eye. Despite the awkwardness of the situation, the expression she wore was one of mirth.
"So you're the 'expert' we were told to expect," she said, raising an eyebrow while shouldering the gun. "My name is Claudia Donovan, follow me please." She opened the door and almost mockingly let him in first. Aden looked around the stark white corridor as Claudia passed him to open the door at the other end. She held her eye to an optical scanner and let Aden into an office.
"Wow, this is gonna cool." Aden remarked. Looking around, the young man wandered over to another door and pulled it open. Walking to a railing and looking out, his jaw dropped as he gazed out at the unimaginably massive space before him.
"It is, very cool. Welcome, to Warehouse 13!" Claudia said with a dramatic sweep of her arm.
"I... don't think I can explain just how amazed I am." The young man commented as he walked downstairs. Upon placing one foot on the ground, Aden felt something make contact with it and looked down to see his PokeBall.
"Aww, again?! That thing hasn't stopped acting up since it got here!" Claudia pulled a pair of purple gloves from her pocket, slipped them on, and reached for the Ball. Before she could even touch it, though, it unleashed a cascade of leaves that blew her back into the nearby shelf... hard.
Aden picked up the Ball and gave it a light smack. "Bad PokeBall! Bad! Did anyone tell you to use Leaf Storm? No they did not," he lectured it as he helped Claudia to her feet. "You should be on your shelf. Now go on." Aden rolled the ball away and followed it, not noticing several semi-active artifacts calming down as he passed. Claudia followed him and did notice the effect his presence had on the shelved items. Aden came to a stop when the red-and-white sphere did and placed it back on the shelf where it belonged. "Now do me a favor," he told the artifact as he patted it gently, "and stay here." Aden turned around and jumped as he hadn't noticed Claudia standing a few feet away with an amused smile on her face. "I'm gonna have to get used to that, aren't I?"
Claudia chuckled lightly. "Most likely. I noticed that you seem to have a calming affect on the other artifacts."
Aden looked around. "I did? Well, I do have a way with animals. They instinctively know I won't try to hurt them. I guess artifacts kinda behave the same way." He walked away and looked at a Japanese katana, whose blade faded from sight as though showing off its power. Aden nodded politely at it as the sword reappeared and walked back to the office, occasionally pausing to watch as others happily showed off a bit, then calmed down as he looked at them. Back in the office, the two found Pete, Myka, and Artie waiting in the office.
"Ah, you must be Mr. Taylor. Arthur Nielson, custodian of Warehouse 13." He extended a hand, which Aden shook. "You should remember Pete Lattimer and Myka Bering, and it would appear you have already met Claudia, our resident tech-wiz."
"Aww, you know just how to make a girl feel important, Artie," Claudia remarked sarcastically, wincing slightly as she leaned against the wall.
"You alright, Claud?" Myka asked, an expression of genuine concern on her face.
Claudia informed the group of the incident down on the Warehouse floor, taking particular note of the odd effect Aden had on some of the artifacts. "It was like they were... happy about his presence. Some of them even displayed their positive effects when he strolled by. He made the comparison to how animals know that he's nice," she added, gesturing to Aden who was stroking Trailer gently, "and by that logic it would also explain why that Ball kept trying to leave: it was trying to get back to its first owner."
"That would also explain the Leaf Storm." Aden commented.
"Wait, so how many... attacks can that thing use?" Pete asked, curious.
"Five hundred fifty-nine, at least," Aden replied almost instantly. Realizing everyone was now staring at him, he added, "That's how many moves there are in the games. Some attacks have minor space and time distortion effects, such as the Roar of Time and Spacial Rend."
Claudia's eyes widened. "Not often we get an artifact with that kind of power that doesn't have a downside."
Aden smiled. "my guess is that only a Pokemon fan with knowledge of a majority of the techniques can use it properly."
About an hour later, Aden was shown to his room at Leena's, who noted his soothing blue and green aura as the two shook hands. Setting a copy of the Warehouse manual on a nightstand, he opened his bags and began to unpack, folding his clothes neatly and setting his Blue Lantern shirt, a blue button-up shirt, and a pair of jeans on a chair for the next day. He then opened the manual and began to read. Aden fell asleep somewhere in the list of M artifacts.
Back in Reno, the unknown young man is finishing up some online assignments when he decides to check on the events at the Warehouse. Putting up his textbook, he pulls out the old notebook, opens it to the bookmark, and begins reading it with his penny in hand.
"Ah, it would appear Aden has finally arrived at the Warehouse. Just in time too, as it appears the first batch of the Pokemon artifacts are about to activate. Let's see who's up first," he said as he turned the page. "And the winners are... ooww. THEM!" He slumped back in his chair in despair. "How the heck will they be prepared for that?"
As he said this, the penny in his hand shimmered brilliantly for a moment. His eyes slid out of focus during this, and when it passed he stared incredulously at the coin.
"Really, that is what I should do? Well, you've never steered me wrong before." Shrugging off his shock, he went to his closet and dug out a leather bag, about the same size as the backpack he carried his books in. After rummaging in it for a moment, he pulled out a leather-bound book and an old feather quill. He then opened the book and began writing in it.
Back in South Dakota, Aden began to dream of a strange creature. It had two dog-like legs, a mane that flowed behind it, and eyes that glowed a bright green. A voice echoed in his mind: "It's no longer just a game, human." Aden could only confirm that it was a Pokemon before waking up. He set the manual, which was lying open on his torso back on the nightstand after marking his page, then pulled another book out of his bag: "The Master Trainer's Pokedex: From Kanto to Unova." Flipping through the book, he identified the parts of the being he had seen and wrote them down in a pad. "Body and arms of Mewtwo, legs of... Lucario, and what appeared to be the head and overall coloration of Arceus himself. Speaks via telepathy, so it is possibly Psychic Primary or incredibly intelligent. Most likely both." Aden read on. "But it's not recorded in the book."
Before he could follow the train of thought much further, he was interrupted by the buzzing of his cellphone. Grabbing it, he saw a text message, apparently sent by Claudia, asking him to come back to the Warehouse. Hoping this meant they were about to get to work, he headed back to the Warehouse, entering the office with a special passkey Claudia had given him. Instead of finding her, however, he instead found a man he hadn't been introduced to yet.
"Oh, hi. You must be the new guy Mrs. Frederic had brought in. Steve Jinks, former ATF" He extended his hand, which Aden warily shook. "Are you alright?"
"What? Oh, yeah, I was just expecting to find Claudia here."
"Ah. Well I'm afraid you just missed her. She left about 15 minutes ago with Myka, Pete, and the others to go eat at the Univille Diner. I was just on my way to go join them."
"Wait, 15 minutes ago?" Aden asked. "I received a text from Claudia that told me to meet her here ASAP 15 minutes ago."
"Well I don't know what to-", started Steve, but he was interrupted by a loud pinging from the computer. Looking over, they saw it was displaying what appeared to be a map of part of the Warehouse with a pulsing red dot over one of the aisles and "Unusual Activity" in large read letters.
"Hold on," said Aden, recognizing the area the map illustrated, "that's where I left the PokeBall after calming it down. Why is it acting up again?"
"I don't know," said Steve, an expression of caution on his face. "But I think we should go check it out."
The pair ran over to the area, where the Ball was rocking back and forth and its button was pulsating a dull red, as though it was containing something. "What's up with you, bud?" Aden asked the sphere as he plucked it from his shelf and stared at it. "These actions normally mean that something was just caught... but that's impossible, the moves exist. Pokemon themselves... don't... exist." Aden thought back to what the mysterious Pokemon had said in his dream: "No longer just a game."
The moment he said this quote, the PokeBall burst open and unleashed a deafening roar of sound in a focused column. Aden dropped the Ball out of pure fright, and in the process the roar became focused on Steve. As the sound rolled through his body, his skin suddenly turned a very dark gray color, a wound appeared on his neck, and he began choking fiercely. Seeing this, Aden kicked the Ball away from the man, and as soon as he was out of the column of sound he returned to normal. Before either of them could make a move, the Ball stopped uttering its roar and instead began releasing several arks of pink energy that raced down the center of the aisle (fortunately missing the two), leaving weird distortions in the air as they passed. Next came what appeared to be a shadow shaped somewhat akin to a dragon, which began vanishing from view and reappearing, smashing into artifacts in the processes. Finally, the PokeBall pointed itself skyward and unleashed a burst of energy that flew up to the Warehouse ceiling before scattering into 16 differently colored meteor-like bursts that dissipated before hitting the floor.
The two simply lay on the floor looking at each other, seemingly unable to comprehend the sudden display of power they just witnessed. They were broken from their stupor by a loud buzzing sound. Steve, realizing it was coming from his Farnsworth, pulled it out and opened it, moving over to Aden in the process.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON THERE?!" came the voice of Artie, his tone the perfect mix of anger and concern.
"Artie, that Ball artifact just went berserk. It just fired off a whole stream of badness that we just barely managed to-" Steve began explaining, then stopped himself. "Hold on, how did you know something had happened?"
"Claudia just doubled over in extreme pain while choking terribly, exactly like she said happened when you first tried to disconnect yourself from the Metronome!" Artie raved at Steve, the image of his face becoming remarkably darker in the black-and-white screen.
"Metronome? What are you talking about?" asked Aden, completely lost.
Steve turned to look at Aden, his face conveying a great deal of discomfort. "Last year, I infiltrated a small organization that was trying to gain access to the Warehouse. They found out and had me killed, but Claudia used a Metronome belonging to Johann Maelzel to revive me and keep me alive. Unfortunately, we soon learned that we had become linked because of the Metronome, and whenever I would get hurt, Claudia would feel my pain. But we broke my connection to the Metronome and destroyed it over a week ago, so I have no idea why its effects would suddenly come back."
"Roar of Time," Aden said to himself, suddenly making the connection. "The first move the Ball unleashed was Roar of Time. That means the others were the signatures of..."
"What are you talking about?" asked Steve, now just as lost as Aden had been before.
"The move you were hit with is called Roar of Time, essentially a roar so powerful that it distorts time. It must have somehow distorted time around you so that you experienced back when Claudia brought you back, and she felt your pain by extension. And I am almost positive the three moves after it were Spacial Rend, Shadow Force, and Judgement, meaning..."
"Meaning what?" came Artie's voice from the Farnsworth, asking the question before Steve could.
Aden shivered, an expression of dark foreboding on his face. "Meaning that the first Pokemon artifacts will be those relating to the Creation Quartet: Dialga, Palkia, Giratina, and Arceus himself!"
Bonus: Oh no! The Creation Trio! How will they manage to contain the four most powerful Pokemon ever created? Read the next chapter to find out. Poor Steve, getting caught in Dialga's Signature Move can NOT feel good!