I wish I owned every search engine on the internet, but I don't.
Tensions at Camp Gateway were high and the kids were getting more and more competitive. They'd started fighting over pretty much everything. In fact, a simple glance could lead to a battle. The counselors were starting to lose their ability to keep up. After all, they had to keep the camper's loyal Pokémon under control as well, and that was no easy task. That's why Miz asked two of her colleagues to inform them more on what they've seen. Within minutes of the small meeting all of them were trying to get their information in, possibly because they'd gotten a bit paranoid with their campers.
"Sir, these kids are getting out of control!" Volke stated as he looked over his reports. "They're ticking time bombs!"
"They won't stop fighting, no matter what I do..."
"They want more challenging tasks!" Hershel said rather loudly, making Vorlke's ears ring.
"Shut up!" The tall man shouted, shoving his co-worker away from him and his half deaf ear. "You don't have to yell!"
"Look who's talking!"
"If you could control your campers this wouldn't be happening!"
"Your campers are the ones attacking mine!"
Before the two can begin to brawl it out, Mizett stepped in. "Fighting won't solve anything!" She said, "What we need is a peaceful solution."
"We've tried every peaceful solution in the book." Carter stated from his desk, lazily putting a large book in his desk drawers. He glanced outside his window to see some of the kids fighting and the rest cheering them on. "Even if we got to a few of them, that influence has long gone."
"Then what are we supposed to do?" Volke asked. The almost mute hitch in his voice made it quite obvious to the others that even he was uneasy with their situation.
Mark sighed for the fiftieth time in the past few days. They got an irrationally rowdy bunch, this year. They looked like such nice kids, too. They could try not giving the campers challenges until they calmed down but they'd already tried that, and they weren't getting paid to waste time. What they needed was a challenge that had no winners but allowed the campers to calm themselves.
Too bad he had no ideas.
"Have you Googled anything?" The office fell silent and his employees looked at him. Since the other two were too taken aback by his question, the Team Mew counselor was the one who spoke up.
"Are you serious?" Mizett practically roared. "We need to calm these kids down and you're telling us Google it?!"
"I don't see you coming up with any ideas, Bellota." Carter countered, slamming his fist on the table. He wasn't the kind of man to admit he was wrong. The young woman had spent the past few days creating solutions to their problem.
Volke resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Here we go again.
"I've been coming up with ideas all week!" And indeed she had, with both threats and peaceful protests, she had tried. Somehow the kids' anger only grew with every passing day, possibly because of the more difficult challenges and partly because they've let jealousy get a hold of them. Especially after that embarrassing incident with the Blue Team… the other two groups wouldn't let them or poor Lucio forget it.
"Clearly they're not any good since none of them worked!" Mizett's cheeks were red with anger and frustration at that point. The two kept firing accusations at each other, getting so loud that the other two were reluctant to stop them. Then Carter started blaming Frodos and Wile, neither of which would have any of that. It seemed that the ill-tempered attitude was contagious. The nurse next door came over and saw the scene. It wasn't something she didn't expect nowadays.
Knowing that getting their attention on her own would be impossible, the nurse put earplugs on and pulled a Whismer out of her office. It made a thunderous noise until everybody shut up. "Please be quiet." She hissed. "As for the campers, just mix them together until they make up." She left without giving them a chance to tell her why that's a bad idea.
Carter was the first to speak after a few minutes of silence. "That might work. It doesn't seem that any of us have any ideas, and if they won't listen after that, I could just take their powers away."
Miz grimaced. "Sir, I'm not sure that's the best idea."
"Why not? We've done it before and it isn't unheard of."
"You do that when they don't listen?!" She exclaimed, her eyes wide. This was the first she'd heard of this. "Need I remind you these are children? They always misbehave!"
"As much as I'd hate to admit it, I'll have to agree with her, Boss." Volke agreed, "It seems like a permanent solution to a temporary problem."
"Uncooperative HTPs are more likely to threaten the public," The man responded, leaning back in his chair. "Especially young ones. They're the most dangerous since they don't know the limits of their powers."
"You don't really expect us to believe that." Hershel snorted a bit at the memories of those who'd believed they could take down him and Magikarp. "They're strong but not that strong."
"I remember when I first came to this camp as a counselor, five years ago…" The counselors sighed and sat down. When Mark started one of his stories there was no way you could stop him. "There was a young boy named Augustus. One of the best campers I've ever had. He was a great battler and his sense of justice was impeccable. Where he fell short was his temper. He was ticking time bomb, and a select string of words could tip him off.
"It was the was the final match of the end of camp tournament. Augustus had fought hard with his Treecko to get to the top. They were against Alison, who had a Panpour with her. Since Augustus was an Absol while she was a Lampent, they had a fairly strong advantage."
It seemed like Augustus and Treecko were about to win when Treecko's Energy Ball missed Panpour and hit her trainer. The opposition jumped at the opportunity. Panpour used its Fury Swipes to separate Treecko from her position next to Augustus. None of the attacks landed, but it did the job. Alison quickly recovered from the grass attack and focused on the defenseless dark type.
It seems like Augustus and Treecko are about to win when Treecko's Energy Ball misses Panpour and hits her trainer. The opposition jump at the opportunity. Panpour uses Fury Swipes and Alison uses Flame Burst, which causes a small explosion in Augustus' face.
"Game over!" Carter shouted and blew the whistle. Alison turned back to her original form and hugged her Panpour. Augustus stopped dead in his tracks and turned to the man with his eyes wide and his mouth agape. Treecko ignored her painful scratches and bruises and congratulated the winning team like the rest of the campers, but her trainer was yelling. "Game over? What do you mean, game over? We're not done! We can still fight!"
Carter glanced at Treecko, who was breathing heavily and had a number of cuts that had drawn blood. The same went for her trainer, albeit a bit worse since he never stopped. "Doesn't seem like it."
Augustus followed his gaze to his Treecko, who gave him a nervous smile. "We did our best." Maybe if they came back next year they'd be more experienced and win. A legal Masterball wasn't something that could be found twice in a lifetime, but a consolation prize was fine.
"No, I did my best. You were in the back twiddling your stubby thumbs." Augustus growled and stomped onto the ground with his fore paws, making her cower away. "I was fighting hard. I was strong, you were weak- it's all your fault!"
His next move was so sudden. His feet seemed to glide over the air, his crinkled running making it hard to tell where his bared fangs would fall. Before anyone could stop him, the trainer took big chomp of the Treecko's right arm and the crunch of bone breaking under pressure was heard. When the counselors pried him away from his screeching Pokemon, the boy had returned to his human state. His beady eyes were glazed over and he seemed to stare blankly at everything around him. He saw the Treecko getting taken to the nurse's office, a trail of blood and tears leading back to the cause of the grass type's misery- his mouth. His cheeks and lips were tinted with the color, and much of the ooze dripped out from the corners of his slightly frowning jaws.
Everyone he looked at - Pokemon or human- looked as if they had seen Giratina himself. "What're you looking at?!" He shouted, making most of them yelp and all of them draw back. Augustus began to struggle to get out of the counselor's grip, and he easily threw a few of them into the crowd. It wasn't until John, the head instructor at the time, and a half the counselors forced him down with vine whips and dumped heavy doses of Sleep and Stun Powders on him that he was finally knocked out. That was the first time Mark had witnessed the damage capable of a slightly upset HTP.
The counselors were stunned into silence. The vivid description and gore their employer gave them made them tremble in their seats. Who would've thought someone could be so cruel to their Pokemon, and over a small tournament, too...
"His powers were taken away immediately and he spent the rest of camp under heavy lock down. Helen saved the Treecko's life, but the Pokemon ran off during the night. We just guessed that it joined the pack of Treecko on the other end of the island. Poor thing probably lost its trust in humanity.
"So, I do think it'd be best to force them into submission rather than risk any casualties." Carter finished. He looked around at his subordinates. "That is, unless one of you have any better ideas?" All three shook their heads.
XXXXX
"You seem worried," Egira commented. She'd found herself in the all too familiar scene. Once more her King stomped into her office while she was in the middle of having Mago berry tea. He'd come so abruptly that she'd dropped her cup. She suppressed a frown at the stain on her carpet. Earth fruit were considered a delicacy, after all, and she didn't particularly appreciate losing a perfectly good cup right after she'd gotten comfortable.
"Have you foreseen anything?" His Highness slammed his fist onto her earth table, causing the material to snap and crumble. That was the third this week. "Did the gods send you any visions of the egg?"
Egira kept her blank gaze on him. He had gotten plenty of sleep himself, but ordered her to read all she could on the bane of the family. Oh yes, she'd foreseen plenty of things. Quite a few of these visions from the heavens considered of ridding herself of an unruly child, as well as an arrogant child. "No, Your Majesty, the gods have yet to send me visions of-"
"It's been days, Egira! How could they not tell you of the most crucial point in the Fisika lineage?" He shouted. "What're they doing in the spirit world- lounging about while the next god is putting an entire race on the line?!"
"Never speak of the gods in such a manner!" Egira snapped. The grey Pokémon held his tongue but kept a scowl on. "And remember, you are not a god yet! The hands of fate are as fickle as Dialga's temper! Know your place!"
"I do know my place, and it is on a throne greater than that of the Arc's! It is a throne greater than my father's, or that of his! My throne resides in the Hall of Origin!"
Egira raised her brows. 'Do you mean to take the throne of Arceus?'- was what she would've asked, but the physic type's glazed eyes were enough of an answer. She suppressed a chuckle when His Royal Highness stepped out of her office. Poor thing. He hadn't even found the Deoxys he needed under his control and yet he was aiming so high. Not to mention those robots of his. Even if they did find the child, the rebels would lay down their lives to protect it. After all, they knew of the curse just as well as she did.
Mewtwo's grandmother, several generations back, had one wish. As a Ditto, she was a common creature. The earliest of breeders and the common farmer would steal those of her family away to breed on farms for the rest of their lives. She didn't want to fall to such a degrading use of her abilities. Unlike her brethren, she would do something about it.
So the young Ditto journeyed to the nearest legendary, who resided on Cinnabar Island at the time, and prayed for many days and nights. The legendary Flame Pokémon, Moltres, took pity on her. With the help of Zaptos and Articuno, the trio used their celestial powers to bless thee young Ditto with powers a mortal could never fathom.
She was given a new, more powerful form, which allowed her to learn and perfect any attack she set her mind to, in addition to her original transformation ability. And with such divine powers she was feared by her kind and humans alike. She escaped into the jungle, where she'd spend years away from human contact. She was eventually captured and her DNA was used to create Mewtwo, and the rest lies in history textbooks.
The first Mewtwo, Mewtwo's sixth grandfather, tried to live a life of peace, but the clones he'd created had other plans. They all wanted to prove themselves to be the strongest, even over him. Mewtwo the First was sucked into these petty fights as well, and fought day in and day out with his fellow clones. When his biological mother visited with Moltres, he challenged them. His mother effused, and he was practically killed by Moltres, who was never one to deny a challenge, but insisted that he was the best nonetheless.
Moltres was enraged with the clone's arrogance. He ordered for Mewtwo to be banished outside of their Solar System to fend for himself. Mew's pleading on Mewtwo's behalf made the bird slacken his sentence. He said that one of Mewtwo's decedents would have an opportunity to prove himself the best. But Mewtwo's unruly tongue caused the whole "or your empire shall crumble" thing to happen.
Mewtwo the First spent his earliest years in the Arc of Infinity creating robots that would tend to his every will and need, just as the indigenous Clefairy who had come to serve under him would. It's said that Mew had retired to Earth's moon now. She doesn't want to stray too far from her family and precious few close friends on earth, but she wanted to be as close to her son as possible.
"The woes of a mother indeed," Egira muttered as she thought of that family curse. She ordered for another cup of tea to be brewed and looked outside her window. The Arc of Infinity was bustling with rumors today. It was obvious with the nervous glances the Pokémon had over their shoulders when they conversed. Probably words of a revolution. She'd expected as much. Mewtwo just didn't seem fit to lead anymore. Messages Palkia had given her were always the same: If Mewtwo XII didn't have that Deoxys under his control by the fifth day of its hatching; his empire would crumble under his feet.
Egira enjoyed that idea quite a bit
XXXXX
"I'm still confused, though." Ellie admitted. She and a few of her friends had gone inside to play a game of UNO and get away from the racket outside. They'd gotten into a conversation on how their time at camp had been going. Everything was fine until all those rumors started springing up all over the place. The atmosphere had gotten tense when they got into that, so she quickly changed the subject. "What does any of this- the challenges and the points- have to do with guarding humanity? I don't think I'd be doing a whole lot of capture the flag to save the world."
The campers murmured a bit, contemplating the concept. Oddly enough, none of them- even those that had come the year before- had wondered what it was that they were doing here, exactly. They were told that they were training, but the place felt like any other summer camp, except with rougher security and kids that can transform at will. "Maybe it's a Jackie Chan kind of thing?" Melcia offered. "You know; wax on, wax off?"
"Things like that only work in movies, last time I checked." Andrew commented.
"Guys, this might sound weird but what if all of this is just a hoax?" Luke said. The others gave him sideways glances; specifically at his forehead, which was bandaged up a bit more than the rest of him. The teen had managed to take on a Tauros and he was better off than most of them would've, but they were a bit worried about what the incident may have done to his mentality. Luke frowned a bit and crossed his arms when he noticed this. "No, I'm serious, this could be a government hoax!"
"I doubt it." Mel scoffed and the other two were quick to state their agreement. Conspiracy theories weren't their thing.
"Hear me out, though. Remember when Carter made us do that pledge? We were supposed to use our powers for keeping the peace and stuff, right?"
"What does that have to do with anything?"
"History shows that one person- or one nation-'s view of liberty and justice can differ from another's. And a lot of wars are caused by these small disagreements."
Andrew deadpanned at the suggestion. It was ridiculous. "Are you seriously saying the government's getting us ready for war."
"That's exactly what I'm saying!" Luke retorted, eyes bright as he remembered everything he'd read late at night. "Let's not forget that these camps were funded and created by governments around the world for humans with slightly different genetic makeup. Let me ask you, have you ever seen a Human Turned Pokémon outside of war textbooks or military TV? Have any of you seen another HTP protecting the public before you came here?"
A hush quickly fell over the cabin; they paused from their game to think, and they found it a bit unsettling that what the boy had said was right. "You remember that crazy mafia- Team Rocket? They threatened to take down both Kanto and Johto's economy. And despite the fact that camps like these are all over the place- if that's even true- there was not a single HTP in sight. You don't see anything suspicious about that?"
Silence once more as the teammates glance nervously at each other. Luke looked pretty proud of himself for putting together the pieces. "Then... what do they do with us?" Flaaffy asked, his voice quivering slightly. He wasn't much of a fan of Elliot's brothers and if the girl was deported to war, he wouldn't be able to take it. They'd spent their entire lives together, after all.
"According to the laws of war, it's illegal to use Pokémon for warfare, so I'm gonna guess you guys are brought back home or released into the wild." The electric type practically pouted. That didn't make his situation any better. He moved a bit closer to his trainer, who in turn did the same. Flaaffy felt a bit safer next to her, stronger too. There was no way the government could separate them- not on his watch!
"Wait... you turn in Pokémon. Wouldn't it be against the laws of war for you to participate?" Gabite asked.
Rane shrugged, "Well, I guess that's a rare possibility..."
"Aren't the counselors living proof that that's not true?" Ivy cut in. the Snivy smirked when he saw his trainer look a bit flustered by the clear flaw in his master conspiracy. But the boy held strong and snapped his fingers when he thought of an answer.
"Of course our counselors have to be HTPs," He said, smiling, "Normal humans couldn't last a day with us!"
"Then what about the champions?" Mel countered, "Take Ethan from Johto, for example, when he visited Unova and challenged Touko. It was five of his Pokémon and him against Rosa's team- and even as a Sizor, Rosa and her Deerling wiped the floor with him."
The group glanced at Luke, waiting for his retort. Mel knew practically everything about the Pokémon Leagues, so that was probably 100% true. All the conspiracy theorist could do was stutter and back off. "I-I don't know, it was just a suggestion..."
"That really fell apart on you, Luke." Andrew smirked.
The deviant boy gave a light hearted laugh. "I had you guys, though!"
Even Sef, who had chosen to listen rather than speak, smiled a bit. His face was well hidden behind his hand of cards, making a good shield from the others eyes as he silently tried to keep the waterworks from fall. All this talk of being taken away had got him wondering where his parents had gone when he'd returned from camp last summer.
Had they been taken... or did they just up and desert him? Was it possible that he wasn't a good enough son for them? Lenon tottered in his place, his stomach constricting at the thought, and leaned on the wall a bit.
He'd brooded over the concept rather extensively, and he'd hoped that maybe his time at camp would distract him from reality long enough to keep his expressionless persona, but the conversation was a bit too much for him.
The group played for a while longer before they heard an announcement over the intercom. They recognized it as Mizett's, and it sounded a bit uneasy. "Boys and girls, please file outside for your next challenge."
XXX
E-71 had barely managed to stay out of Rayquaza's sight during his time in Earth's solar system. He knew that if he was spotted by the god-like Pokémon his circuits would be fried, but luckily it managed to avoid the legendary and study Earth's atmosphere. There were multicolored lights on the northern and southern poles of Earth, which it knew was normal from the data in its Drive.
What the drive said though, was that these "auroras" typically didn't appear on small islands in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. And to add to the strangeness of the situation, those auroras didn't look like those of Earth, or that of the Arc's. According to his data, the faint lights were unidentified.
He went down to the camp , but stayed well out of sight. What he saw were hot-headed warriors who were glaring, insulting, and fighting each other. There were three different groups who were fighting but it seemed that the blue group was attacking one of their members.
He saw mature humans turn into Pokémon before his eyes and separate the brawling combatants. It didn't seem that the soldiers saw the auroras. The light waves were probably out of earthlings' sight range.
Still, the robot took a quick scan of the area. Three of the humans behind one of the cabins, a fair distance from the fighting, were odd. First of all, despite being in different units as their headbands suggested, they weren't fighting. Then, their body heat was unnaturally low for humans. Putting two and two together, the cannon on E-71's back began to charge up to kill, but he stopped himself. The trio must have allied themselves with these warriors- it was the only logical explanation for them to walk in broad daylight.
From what he saw, the campers were a rowdy bunch who fought at any opportunity. If this was the way they trained, he didn't want to fight them alone. Not because he was scared- he's not programmed to fear humans- but because their numbers were simply too much.. He sent out a few calls to his fellow police bots for the time being. They would relay the information within the hour and arrive on Earth in 2-3 days.
Until then he needed a makeshift army of his own; to fight and gather data on these soldiers. Maybe if he played his cards right, the abolitionists would lead him straight to the egg.
XXX
Charlotte steered around another physical fight and tried her best to ignore the verbal abuse that rang through her ears. Who would've thought a few comments like "Team Victini is brutal" or "Team Mew is weak" could blow up into something like this. It'd been going on for a while now, but the second the Lugias said, "Victinis are terrible battlers" the Victinis lost it. Nowadays even Team Mew are getting into the fighting, which is disappointing since she'd hoped that at least they had some common sense left. Even the kids that were friends with others outside their teams didn't dare look at their friends. It was the peer pressure, Charlotte concluded.
The girl quietly got in with her group, pulling Grace away from a potential fight with a Mew. The girl was just looking for fights and using the rivalry as an everyone else had the same train of thought as her cabin mate, but it was putting quite a strain on the counselors. Half of the adults looked like they had to take numerous cups of coffee just to stay up.
It took a few minutes for the counselors to get everyone within their own groups, and they stood in the margins in between to separate the campers and eliminate any form of fighting. Everyone's attention turned to Mark Carter, who was on the stage, looking down at the sight before him with the slightest bit of disdain. "A house divided against itself cannot stand." He muttered. He waited until the murmur died down and said,
"You kids have been getting more and more competitive with every passing day. You fight whenever you get the chance, you've become rude and apparently you've thrown your manners out the window, and you try to one-up each other with every passing second. And frankly, I'm sick of it. So your counselors and I have come to an agreement. You will spend the next few days in mixed groups until you begin to calm down."
Of course his orders were met with an outcry. It took five minutes and one of the counselors to transform into the scariest Pokémon she could think of- Giritina- to quiet the kids down before Mark could talk again. "The penalty for not making up by Thursday is the permanent removal of your powers."
He was thanked with an uproar of protest, which he ignored. He handed the mic over to the counselors, who immediately started to partner up the campers. Mel with Jordan, Erica with Azura, and she... with Will. Of course. The both of them nervously glanced at each other from their opposite groups, each with one thing on their minds.
Just my luck.