The writer known as Shng Lotn breathed slowly and calmly outside the exam hall, ignoring his blathering colleagues.
Slowly, from memory he recited a poem to help himself in the oncoming test. It had been ripped off from fate/stay night but worked all the same.
I am the graphite of my pencil.
Paper is my body and ink is my blood.
I have taken over a hundred tests.
Unknown to pass
Nor known to life
Withstood boredom to do lots of revision
Yet these brain cells will (most likely) never achieve anything
It was his aria, the incantation that kick-started the academic parts of his mind and imposed a more studious reality upon him.
So as I pray,
Unlimited Marked Works
Uncannily silent, the students entered the exam hall.
Shng glared at the finished French paper with most piercing gaze he could muster, trying to discover any possible spelling mistakes.
Number and Gender agreement (His mother had come up with the acronym NAGA for that after one revision session.)? Check.
Made the accent in après a graphing one? Check.
Done all the accents in general? Check.
Included conditional? Check.
Used qui s'appellait (that/which was called) at one point? Check.
Qui…
There was something else about that word, something that he'd forgotten. What was it?
Qui Sum Ego.
Sorry this chapter took so long. Anyway, from here on Danny is officially from a slightly AU. Sorry if this disappoints you.
I made a distinction between legendary and LEGENDARY Pokémon here.
Legendary Pokémon are things like Moltres, Articuno, Zapdos, Raikou, Suicune, Entei, Latios, Latias, Tornadus, Cobalion, Virizion and a few others. They're pretty much strong Pokémon species with a few legends to their name, except for Raikou, Suicune and Entei, who are mutated immortal eveelutions, but that isn't going to be a plot point (probably).
Then there are the Mirage Pokémon, which includes Mew, Celebi, Jirachi (Who definitely Will be a plot point.), Shaymin, Azelf, Mesprit, Uxie, Victini and whatever other small and cute legendary Pokémon that will be released in the future. They're all unique, having no family and the intelligence of a clever dolphin (Except Mew and Celebi, who are at human level.) and have everything from rumours to confirmed sightings to their name. Technically Genesect, Deoxys and Mewtwo count for this category but Genesect's project has only just started and… almost no one knows anything about Mewtwo. Deoxys is an alien and hasn't arrived on Earth yet…
The last category is mythical Pokémon. Which Mew (and perhaps one day Mewtwo…), Jirachi and Celebie also qualify for. They're ridiculously powerful Pokémon that feature in the Pokémon world's mythology and are either as intelligent as a dinosaur or bug (Groudon and Kyogre, Lugia, Normal forme Kyurem and Giratina) or have the intelligence of an ancient Greek god (Arceus, Dialga, Palkia, Ho-Oh, Reshiram and Zekrom.)
The Jirachi Hunt was conceived after marathoning Fate/Zero, which I'm actually very proud of.
This is the third rewrite of this chapter, so I hope you enjoy.
Sorry for the long Author's note,
Shng Lotn
(Skinning Hippos Never Graduated Lest Oscillating Tiger Ninjas)
"…"
Canicus paused in his ramblings, "Listen, that burned up joke was funny; why aren't you laughing?"
The magma admin ducked just in time for the fighting type projectile to sail past his head harmlessly.
The machop made a leap at his head again so he hurled the body of one of the downed grunts in the fighting type's path.
Crunch.
"Flame burst!" Canicus ordered.
Despite its best efforts the superpower Pokémon failed to dodge the blast completely: the bursting flame scorching it on the side. Alone it would have done very little damage, but against a weaker opponent that possessed only the advantage of speed it was fatal.
"Flamethrower," Canicus commanded.
Just before fire struck the machop a crimson beam of light impacted on its body, returning it to its pokéball.
For the first time in the battle Canicus turned to face his human opponent. What he saw sent a tremor down his spine.
Many individuals from all corners of the world had tried to determine what made some ten to fifteen-year-olds such good trainers but no one knew the true reason. Some theorised that children possessed stronger psychic powers than any other age group while others believed that their youth appealed to their slave's… protective instincts which inspired them to fight all the much harder.
After years of study the experts had resigned them to ignorance and shoved the mystery in the same pile as the reason why an alarmingly high percentage of twins became deadly enemies, developed powerful psychic powers or turned out to be extremely talented double battlers.
While Canicus didn't care about the why, he knew that any attempts to win this battle would result in a loss for him so it would be a lot easier for him to just surrender now and…
"I've come to far to give up now," he told the girl, "I'm not gonna give up just because you're a ten year old child."
The young trainer grimaced. "I was afraid of that. Go Lancer."
"Flamethrower!"
A blinding jet of blue flame engulfed the flying pokéball, incinerating whatever Pokémon that had been contained in the sphere within seconds.
Or any item, for that matter.
Canicus leapt to the side to avoid the projectile that erupted from the sphere.
The molten bicycle bent easily upon impact with the floor, spraying globlets of liquid metal that splashed harmlessly on the magma admin's fireproof trouser legs.
Slipping a pair of sunglasses on protected his eyes from the glare of the flash that the girl's gastly let off, but did nothing to impede its sucker punch.
That was what repel was for.
Ducking easily under the speeding gaseous bullet Canicus produced an aerosol can of repel from his waistcoat pocket and sprayed liberal amounts on the gastly.
"Ember."
The gastly's screams were a little too human to be normal, and the young trainer shook slightly as she returned it.
"Well done," Canicus complimented, clapping sarcastically with each syllable, "you managed to lose in… 20 seconds, that's quite a feat, you should be proud of yourself. I'm afraid that I forgot to bring a celebration cake, and we'll have to improvise with the candles, but congratulations." He grinned. "Remember to make a wish."
"Can…"
Canicus blinked in surprise, before kicking the miniskirt wearing teen on the stomach. "Quiet. I'll deal with you later."
Shakily, the teenage cross dresser climbed to his feet. His eyes had an unfocused look to them that spoke of uncomprehending malice. "Caaaaaannnnnniiiiiiicccccuuu uuussssssss!" he screeched.
The magma admin bit back a laugh and punched the teen in the head, downing him.
The teen's eyes flashed a brilliant green. "CCCCCCCCCCCAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN IIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCCCUUUU UUUUUUUSSSSSSSSS!"
Canicus's world exploded in green light.
"But I don't remember that!" Danny protested. "The professor said I was practically brain dead!"
"Tea?" Ethan asked.
"Thanks."
After fleeing from the scene of the crime, they had all gone to the police officer's place to calm down and talk.
"So what about you, Danny?" Ethan asked cautiously, "What's your story?"
The teen in question tensed, his body shifting into a more combat-ready stance before relaxing. The difference was minute but being a trained police officer helped you to spot it, in Ethan's opinion.
Danny busied himself by gulping down the tea, which he instantly regretted. "I thought you said this was tea!"
"I did. Whatever Unovan brew you had before must've been for sissies."
The halfa considered the tea again, then sighed and decided to get it over with quickly. "I'm-not-from-around-here."
"Obviously." Lyra scoffed. "You're Unovan, right?"
"No, I'm- ."
"From the orange islands?"
"Actually, I'm from-."
"Orre?"
"No, I'm really-."
"Almia?"
"Listen to me when-."
"India?"
"I'M FROM ANOTHER WORLD OR UNIVERSE!" Danny shouted, the soundwaves actually bowling over all the inhabitants of the room. "Wait, you have India?"
"Seriously?" Lyra gaped, her exercise of trolling Danny completely forgotten. "How does that work?"
"I figured it was something like that." Ethan admitted, taking a swig from his teacup. He stopped when he noticed everyone was looking at him oddly. "You get all sorts when you've been working in traffic as long as I have."
"So does everyone have your powers on your home world?" Lyra asked.
"No, I got them in a lab accident."
"I figured it was something like that." Ethan admitted, taking a swig from his teacup. He stopped when he noticed everyone was looking at him oddly. "You get all sorts when you've been working in traffic as long as I have."
"And then I knew what I had to do," Danny continued, "I had to stop all the ghosts that were coming through."
Lancer raised an (invisible) eyebrow. "What do you mean 'coming through'?
"Well," the halfa started, "the first thing you need to understand about my world is that we don't have any Pokémon."
"I figured it was something like that." Ethan admitted, taking a swig from his teacup. He stopped when he noticed everyone was looking at him oddly. "You get all sorts when you've been working in traffic as long as I have."
"What does working in traffic have to with parallel universes having Pokémon?" Lyra asked in confusion.
"It's a running gag," Lancer explained, "pay it no heed."
The first thing you need to understand about my world is that we don't have Pokémon like you guys do: instead we have ghosts.
No, I don't mean like the 'type', well sort of. It's complicated.
They live in this other world that's parallel to the human one called the Ghost Zone. It's made of ectoplasm, which is also what the ghosts are made up of.
Most ghosts can do lots of really crazy stuff like what I did earlier, and usually I'd be even better, but my powers seem to be weaker here for some reason, and not just the brain damage.
Yes that's what the 'porygon''s for, though hopefully not for long.
The thing is, most people didn't used to believe in ghosts, though there were a few exceptions.
One of the major ones being my parents.
I don't know the how or even the why, but they built and designed a ghost portal.
…Let's say one thing led to another, but in the end there was a great big flash and everything just changed.
When I first woke up I realised I had snowy white hair and glowy green eyes, hell, I could even walk through walls disappear and FLY!
You could say I was unique compared to any other guy, and it was then that I knew what I had to do: I had to stop all the ghosts that were coming through.
That portal must have sent a signal through the Ghost Zone sending every one of the things a written invitation, because pretty soon my hometown was crawling with the things.
First it started small, with ghostly lunch ladies raging at the menu being changed and bully haters seeking revenge from beyond the grave, but it escalated fast once I started making a name for myself.
I even had a hunter trying to get my skin for Christ's sake!
Christ? He's a religious figure from my world. No, I don't know who Arceus is.
Fortunately my friends kept me sane, and even helped on some occasions, though I had to keep my identity as a ghost a secret from my parents, otherwise they'd 'tear me apart molecule by molecule'.
Yes I know I'm probably being too harsh on them.
After about a year me and my parents met with my teacher at the Nasty Burger to talk about one of my tests. There was another flash and I woke up in the woods all burned up.
Is there any way for me to get home?
"I figured it was something like that." Ethan admitted, taking a swig from Danny's teacup as his own was now empty. He stopped when he noticed everyone was looking at him oddly. "You get all sorts when you've been working in traffic as long as I have."
"Wow." Lyra had thought it would be an odd story, but she hadn't expected Danny to sound so… bitter. "There are two."
"Really?" Danny asked eagerly.
"Well, first you could catch a Celebi, but they're almost impossible to find. The second thing to do would be to go to Mount Coronet and challenge one of the mythicals."
"How strong are they?" The halfa asked.
"It figures that you'd say that." Ethan chuckled, taking a swig from his teacup, having refilled it from the kettle. "But trust me when I say this kid, you don't want to fight one of our gods."
"But if you do I'll help you." Lancer announced from inside his teacup. "It's the least I can do."
"No one's fighting any mythicals." The police officer interjected firmly, "you just aren't strong enough."
"And you can't go to Sinnoh because you're staying with me." Lyra added.
Danny smirked dangerously. "You think so?"
"Yes, I do."
The halfa's posture sagged. "What can I do then?"
"You could enter the Jirachi Hunt." Birch's voice announced, his voice emanating from the porygon's pokéball.
Danny started. "You were listening?"
"I heard every word. The Jirachi Hunt is a region wide competition, with hundreds of trainers all competing for a single prize: the right to have three wishes granted by the mythical slash legendary Pokémon Jirachi."
"How do you win?" Danny asked.
"Don't listen to the old man." Ethan told him, eyes narrowed at the porygon pokéball dangerously, "this was probably his plan all along."
"I don't know what you mean," Birch denied. "To win you have to be the last trainer standing with all eight Hoenn League gym badges. To make it more interesting if you lose in a battle against another Jirachi Hunt trainer you must hand over all the badges you possess, and will have to defeat other Jirachi Hunt trainers to get at least one badge within a day, or challenge a Pokémon gym, but you can only win a single badge from each gym, so tough luck if you've already challenged it."
"Can anyone enter?" Lancer asked.
"Only humans, I'm afraid, so unless Lyra wants to enter-."
"I'll do it." Lyra said.
"…Okay then, come by to my lab later to get registered, but remember, registry ends tomorrow!"
After a few seconds of silence Ethan sighed. "Good luck."
"Are we gonna be enemies then?" Danny asked Lyra, a slight edge to his voice that did not go unnoticed.
"No! Of course not!" Lyra shook her head frantically, "I was thinking we could instead team up!"
"…Team up?"
"Yes." Lyra nodded. "I only have one wish I want granted, so which ever one of us wins can make a wish for the other person as well!"
"Sounds good to me." The halfa relaxed, stress that he did not even know he had vanishing from his body. "What about you, Lancer?"
"I would gladly help you back home," the gastly assured him, "but if you don't want it, could you please leave me the third wish?"
"I think we can do that, can't we Danny?"
"Sure"
They shook on it.
