They say that revenge is a dish best served cold.
Because when someone swears revenge, they often do so in the heat of the moment. When one is enraged or otherwise upset, they make irrational decisions. Yet when revenge is enacted, it is so often weeks, months, or even years later. With so much time in between, the one who swore revenge has enough time to plan and plot.
But there's a much better reason for spending so much time to enact revenge.
While you may desire revenge while angry, you probably won't after you cool down. Like that person who cuts you off on the freeway. You may want to drive them off the road in the heat of the moment, but once you get to your destination you forget about it.
There's also a logical reason to wait until your anger dies before planning revenge. People who are emotional will have their decisions clouded, their logic becomes flawed. This isn't just a matter of opinion; it's fact. Every emotion will cloud your logic, from joy to rage. That's not to say that emotions are bad, far from it, but they are not conducive to perfect logic.
So when you hear someone say that revenge is a dish best served cold, there is a very, very good reason behind it.
"Please?"
"No."
"Please?"
"No."
"Pretty please?"
"No."
"Pretty please with cherries on top?"
"Um, no."
"Tell me or I'll rip you apart?"
"I'd like to see you try."
"Can we please not do this?" Finn groaned, throwing his head back.
"No, I need to know!" Bastion insisted, wrapping his tentacles around Finn's neck in order to maintain his position on Finn's shoulder.
"It's. Not. Important," Athena growled.
"What are you two even arguing about anyways?!" Finn asked, exasperated.
"I wanna know why Belle's antisocial," Bastion explained, "I figured lady bladeface would know."
"Wanna know something special? I don't." Athena tapped Bastion in the back of the head with her sash, nudging him to the side.
"Okay, conversation over. Now stop jostling so that you don't snap my neck. Please," Finn pleaded, "I may have periodic blackouts, but I'd rather not cause them."
"Whoa, whoa, you get blackouts?" Bastion turned his head to look at Finn. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it's not important," Finn answered flatly.
"Uh, you occasionally fall over. That's pretty important to me. What if you fall on me?" Bastion protested.
"Yes, you might wind up killing me," Finn said dryly.
"Why do you get blackouts anyways?" Bastion pointedly ignored Finn's previous statement.
"Genetic condition." Finn's statement held a tone that quite clearly warned off further conversation.
Clearly Bastion didn't get the memo. "What's it called, anyways? What other things does it do? How oft-,"
This was the point at which Athena decided to strangle him. The Mareanie gave a strangled 'Gurk!' and fell off of his shoulder. It was probably fortunate that Athena's sash was cutting off his circulation and preventing him from tightening his grip. Athena quickly let go, however, when she realized that she couldn't lug the poison type around while still levitating.
Bastion had chosen to wrap his tentacles around her sash.
So now Finn was dealing with a pair of quarreling Pokémon, both of which could easily kill him if he made a single wrong move.
He counted himself fortunate that Belle barreled past at this moment, causing Athena to spin out and slam Bastion into a tree. The stunned Mareanie fell to the ground, his head bruised. But Finn's attention was drawn to Belle, as she was usually well behind the others and walking silently. Now she was animated and upset about something, to the point where she blatantly ignored Athena. Athena was probably the one who had gotten closest to the Machoke, even if Belle never told Athena anything about herself.
"Stop fighting. Now. Nyx!" Finn called out this last word to the Gliscor, who was circling overhead. "Keep track of Belle!"
Finn quickly began to run after Belle, doing his best to keep up. She may have been much faster than him, but Finn was fortunate enough to have a guide in the sky to watch. Behind him he could hear Athena slicing through brush and branches, and further back he could hear Bastion groaning and complaining.
Finn wasn't sure how far he had run before he slammed headlong into an immovable object. After a moment to collect his bearings, Finn realized that the object he had run into was the Pokémon he was chasing after, and she was staring angrily at a building in a clearing.
The building in question was large, with concrete walls and tinted windows. For some reason it seemed familiar, but then Finn realized why. This was a Plasma facility, with the high-tech lights lining the roof, and the sliding glass door. The dead giveaway, however, was the fact that there was literally a P/Z shield emblem set above said door.
"Belle, what's going on?" Finn slowly stepped around her, looking up at the Pokémon's face. She was staring at the building with undisguised hatred.
Belle grunted, then started to stomp towards the building. She quickly drew the attention of the Team Plasma patrols, and was surrounded in seconds.
"Alright then, what have we here?" One of the grunts edged closer, raising his shotgun to point it at Belle. "Anyone got a spare Pokéball? Boss might want more subjects for that new test of his."
"Yeah, but what if it's a trainer 'mon?" Another grunt asked, pulling a Pokéball out of his pocket.
"You've got that snag glove from Orre, haven't you? Use that," The first grunt suggested.
"Right, right…" The second grunt reached into his pocket and pulled out a shiny glove, slipping it over his hand and swapping his Pokéball to that gloved hand.
Finn was justifiably nervous now. Belle may have been stronger and smarter than others of her species, but even she couldn't take on this many opponents at once. Several of them had firearms, and all of them had at least one Pokéball on their person.
It was fortunate, then, that Athena arrived at that time. She had carried Jitters the whole way, the Joltik clinging to her pommel to stick with her. Finn immediately grabbed her hilt and sheath, allowing Jitters to make his way to a perch on his head, and ran towards the ring of Plasma grunts.
Out of the corner of his eye, Finn saw the grunt throwing a Pokéball at Belle. Phantasmal fingers emerged from the open sphere, only to fizzle and vanish as they came into contact with Belle's skin.
He readied himself, preparing for combat with multiple foes. Master had taught him much about combat, far more than any other student of his, and Master had the greatest of confidence in him. He had prepared for this scenario multiple times, and his psychic senses had warned him ahead of time for this ambush.
The instant his foes attacked, he launched into action. Muttering to himself the strategies that Master had drilled into his head, he carefully incapacitated each of his human foes.
"Thunder wave, then tap right… there." He executed the move, then landed a precise punch on his foe's temple, knocking his foe unconscious.
Finn blinked, looking at the scene before him. He had bashed the back of one man's head with the sheath, knocking him unconscious, and was holding Athena's blade to the throat of another. Three of the grunts were completely paralyzed from Jitters' thunder wave, Bastion had been dropped from the sky onto the head of another, and was choking the man into unconsciousness. Nyx had her claws to yet another grunt's throat, and Belle had used all of this commotion to bash two heads together and knock both of them unconscious.
And all of this happened within ten seconds.
The tenth and last grunt decided now to raise his gun and fire.
Belle immediately jabbed him in the face, knocking him unconscious. She then grunted and looked around, trying to figure out where the man had fired.
"Oh." Nyx looked down at Bastion, who had a sizable hole in his head. The Mareanie fell over to the side, incapacitated while his head regenerated. "He'll be fine, right?"
"Probably…" Finn muttered, sheathing Athena's blade. "Alright Belle, mind explaining why you rushed headlong into a group of Plasmas?"
The Machoke just grunted, turning towards the Plasma building and grabbing the sliding doors. She shoved them to the sides with as much force as possible, causing the glass to shatter and the metal frames to bend irreparably out of shape. Before the klaxon could go off, Belle then punched the alarm system. Instead of the high-pitched alarm that should have emitted, it let out a low whine. One more jab, and the entire alarm system went silent.
Belle grunted in satisfaction, then proceeded down the hallway.
"Aw crud." Finn looked at Bastion, who was already recovering from the bullet wound, and back at Belle. He glanced at Nyx. "Nyx, take care of Bastion, we'll be back."
Without waiting for a response, Finn grabbed Athena and dragged her with him into the Plasma outpost. There was absolutely no way he was letting Belle get herself into trouble with whatever defense systems this place had, not without backing her up.
Belle eventually slowed to a halt in a hallway not dissimilar to the one that was in the Plasma outpost near Geistom. With white cells lining the walls, and touchscreen interfaces set under the viewing window of each cell. Just like in Geistom, each cell was completely unusable for storage due to incredible damage. Some had holes in the walls, a couple had destroyed doors, but most had disabled locks.
But one, the one Belle stopped in front of, had a notable hole in the floor. It was impossible to tell how far down the hole went, as it descended into darkness, but it was probably safe to assume that it connected to History Caverns at some point. Just about every subterranean area in Toreta was connected to the History Caverns, after all.
In fact, the mines in Vernac Town were connected to the History Cave.
And Vernac wasn't too far from here.
Then it clicked. This was the exact cell that Belle had been in. The one where she had been given her #066 brand. The one where whatever had made her so antisocial had occurred.
Belle stared at the white cell for a few moments, then walked up to the interface and began typing with a dexterity that Finn hadn't seen in her thus far. She seemed to be searching for something specific on the database, but couldn't find it. After a few moments of frantic searching, she gave up, backing away and slumping against the wall opposite the cell in defeat.
"What were you searching for…?" Finn asked, not expecting an answer. He stepped forwards to the touchscreen and started digging through the database, looking for the logbook. After a minute or two, he found it.
Entry #001
The Vernac outpost has been successfully set up, thanks to the assistance of our local agents. We hope to use the local resources to begin work on greater technologies.
Entry #002
We've begun collecting local Pokémon for experimentation. Main base is sending a supervisor to watch my projects.
Entry #003
Cyril's projects have been unnecessarily violent and cruel. Sequencer killed ten people, and irreparably changed four more, the Metamorphize device has proven to cause irreparable trauma in Pokémon, and all of the 'life enhancing' machines she has worked on are weapons. I have taken over the management of this outpost, and such projects are now discontinued.
Entry #004
My employer has ordered me to begin a new project, using dust of the mythical Z crystals from Alola and mega stones. The expected result is something beyond normal. A Pokémon with the appearance of an ordinary creature, but power and intellect comparable to Legendaries.
We are calling this project Talos.
Entry #005
Talos has, thus far, been successful. Every subject has evidenced increased strength and an increase in learning speed. We are adding Shuckle extract to the serum to further accelerate physical and mental growth. My worry is that this may provoke an unhealthy growth in cellular mitosis, but with luck that will be avoided.
Entry #006
My employer came by today to check on my progress with Talos. He was very happy with my progress thus far, except for a single subject. Number sixty-six, the Machop subject, has shown vastly increased independence since the day we started to administer the drug. I will have to investigate this.
Entry #007
Subject number sixty-six is everything I had hoped for in Talos, and more. While I expected the subjects to experience accelerated growth of muscles and intellect, she has not only become stronger and smarter, but also has evolved. The most bizarre effect is that her physiology has grown more like that of a human, without losing any of the durability or strength of a Machoke. After scanning her whole body, I discovered that she had developed vocal cords not dissimilar to those of a human. I very much hope to teach her how to speak.
Entry #008
Three months have passed since the last entry.
Talos is in shambles.
I shall start from the beginning.
It began when my employer visited again. I located him as he was attempting to, shall I say, 'test the reaction times' of subject sixty-six. I quickly steered him away so as to end his assault on the subject, when he told me of further information.
The tests had returned, and almost every single subject had evidenced cancer cells growing within their brains. He informed me that, if I couldn't find a cure to this, Talos was to be terminated.
Disheartened, I returned to my laboratory to do research on this matter. There was naught I could do about the cancer cells, so I informed the scientists under my direction that Talos was to be terminated.
Apparently they believed this meant that the subjects must also be executed. One among them, I believe it to be Cyril, went into the holding cell area and announced this to all of the subjects.
Before this, all of the subjects were calm and docile. They all happily awaited my regular visits, and they were passive and affectionate, at least towards me. After this announcement, all of the subjects, with their increased intellect, attempted to escape. Not a single one remained behind after this commotion, all of them having escaped. Sixty-six was perhaps the most difficult to keep track of, as she dug a tunnel to History Caverns.
I can only hope that the subjects survive.
Entry #009
Colress has been removed from his position as project manager of this outpost. I am now back in charge. The first project we will work on is the H.O.R.U. Mk.1
I expect this to go well.
"Holy crap…" Finn muttered, slowly backing away from the touchscreen. "So that's what it was… an experiment to make legendary Pokémon out of ordinary Pokémon, followed by a misunderstanding and a stampede…"
The screen beeped, and medical scans of a Machoke appeared. Finn immediately recognized it as Belle, due to the unique body structure. Directly contradicting the story told, Belle's medical scans were perfectly healthy.
Finn blinked a couple times, then ran up and down the corridor to pull up more medical scans.
Each and every one was in peak condition.
"So, not just a misunderstanding, a sabotage…" Finn whispered, turning to look at Belle.
Who was gone.
Cursing under his breath, Finn gestured to Athena to follow him, and ran down the hallway again. If they had guns, there was nothing Belle could do to defend herself.
Sure enough, there were clatters and crashes from up ahead in the building. Finn accelerated, dragging Athena with him. He quickly emerged into a room and located Belle.
On the other side of the room, there were three humans. One with a fancy helmet designed with a third eye on the forehead, one with a pair of sparking daggers, and the third with an oversized gauntlet over their left hand.
With a start, Finn realized that he recognized these three figures. On the left was Renard, the Kalosian man who had psychic abilities. A faint pink aura surrounded him, and the pieces of a metal chair were floating around him in a protective barrier. On the right was Dua, the woman with enhanced speed and reflexes. Electricity arced between the daggers she was holding, yet there was no evidence of wires attached to the metal blades.
The woman in the middle, however, was not someone Finn had seen in person. But he recognized her brown hair and purple gaze, and especially the mechanical hand that he had mistaken for an oversized gauntlet. She flexed her fingers experimentally and grinned.
"Well, if it isn't the kid that has befriended subject sixty-six." Cyril laughed. "You were such a success, and here you are, a playmate for a child."
Belle growled angrily, and with a roar of rage hurled a chair at Cyril.
Cyril drew back her left arm, then launched it forwards. The mechanical hand slammed into the seat of the chair, launching it back at Belle and breaking off the back and legs. The dented metal plate hit Belle in the chest, but the impact did nothing.
"I will say though, I'm impressed." Cyril shook her hand and flexed her fingers. "I'd have expected you to die by now, Finnegan. A Honedge, a Mareanie, and a psychopathic Machoke."
"How do you know about me?" Finn asked, dropping into a combat stance and unsheathing Athena again.
"Oh, like we wouldn't keep tabs on the boy who survived a Honedge attack?" Cyril scoffed, "Renard's probably the best intelligence agent in Toreta."
The Kalosian man nervously waved at Finn. "Er, I apologize."
"Don't apologize, idiot," Cyril snapped at Renard, her hand tightening into a fist. "Now crush them. I'm tired of talking to this child and his pet."
"Erm, yes ma'am." Renard raised his hands to his temples, sending out a pulse of psychic energy.
Immediately, Athena teleported Finn behind Renard, her blade trailing purple energy as it slashed through Renard's torso. The man screamed in pain and collapsed, his energy expended.
"Don't kill him!" Finn protested, horrified.
"I didn't! Shadow claw is an intangible attack!" Athena replied frantically. "He's just abnormally weak to it!"
Athena quickly teleported him away again as Cyril launched a punch at him. The mechanical fist slammed into the wall, and the plating lifted away from the machinery and released a cloud of steam. The scientist started cursing under her breath as she pulled her hand out of the wall, trying to start it moving again.
Meanwhile, Belle launched herself at Dua, trying and failing to wrap her hands around the human's neck. Dua ducked around her and jabbed Belle in the sides with her electrified knives. Belle began spasming, not able to control her muscles.
Thinking quickly, Finn scrambled across the room to Belle. He quickly pressed the release for Belle's power-save belt, then ducked away as Dua tried to jab him with a dagger. Dua may have acted somewhat goofy when he met her before, but now she was emotionless and silent. It was incredibly terrifying.
With her power-save belt removed, Belle immediately ceased her spasms. Her whole body was rigid, as if she was forcibly controlling each of her muscles individually. It must have taken in incredible amount of discipline and control to do so, but she was managing to do this and still focus on the combat. Taking a moment to line up a punch, Belle paused, then launched her fist forwards.
Dua tried to dodge, as she always did, but that's when Belle's other hand came in from the side and tapped the human's temples. Dua hit the ground with a thud.
Which left Cyril.
The scientist had removed some of the armor on the back of the hand and was using her right to tap on a touchscreen. After a few moments, the armor realigned itself with the rest, and Cyril began to move her fingers once more. She sighed in relief, then looked at Finn.
"Well, Finnegan, I must admit that you've given me a challenge." Cyril's armored hand clenched into a fist. "But, of course, challenges were made to be overcome."
Cyril lunged across the room, covering an impossible distance in a single leap. She launched her left hand at Finn in a punch that would surely break his skull open.
Then a pulse of electrical energy emitted from a small Pokémon who had been forgotten in the chaos. Jitters paralyzed Cyril with a thunder wave.
Cyril screamed in rage, her attack ruined by a simple move. She landed heavily and staggered past Finn, the paralysis being warded off by something within her own body. "A simple miscalculation, and everything falls apart!"
Finn raised Athena's blade until the tip was to Cyril's throat. "Underestimating an opponent is the greatest mistake."
"Oh, but of course," Cyril snarled. Her eyes lit up with a faint blue light, and a pulse of psychic energy forced Finn backwards. "But not if you're flawless."
Indeed, it did seem like Cyril was flawless in combat. She was warding off paralysis to a degree that most Pokémon couldn't manage, she was strong enough to punch through concrete, and she had some amount of psychic powers. It seemed like there was nothing that Finn could do to her.
But Finn noticed that, even while she was paralyzed, she was always keeping the fingers of her mechanical hand moving. Always keeping them mobile. Always making sure that the servos were running.
He had found a flaw.
"Belle, grab her mechanical hand!" Finn commanded, stepping forwards. "Jitters, spider web! Athena…" He smirked. "Let's show her what we can do."
The next few seconds were filled with action. Jitters spat out a glob of webbing, anchoring Cyril to the ground. The scientist was easily able to pull the webs apart, but Jitters continued to cover her feet in the silk. Belle, seeing what Finn wanted, dashed forwards and clamped Cyril's fingers together. Cyril shrieked in rage, trying to pull her mechanical hand out of Belle's grasp, but was unable to overpower the Machoke.
Finn continued walking forwards, raising Athena's blade in preparation for a shadow claw. "I've figured it out. Renard and Dua said that they were part of a DNA experiment, where they gained DNA of a specific type. But you clearly have psychic abilities, and you're far stronger than a pure psychic type of any form would be. So either you're psychic fighting, or psychic steel." Finn scanned over Cyril's body again. Her hand was smoking and inactive due to the disuse, the servos having locked up. Her entire lower body was covered in spider webs. But it was her eyes that he found most interesting. At the start they were purple.
Now they were an angry red.
"I'm guessing steel." Finn swung Athena's blade as Belle let go of Cyril's arm. The woman raised her mechanical arm in an attempt to block, only for Athena's blade to phase through both her arm and her torso.
And like that, Cyril was unconscious against a wall.
"Specifically Metagross." Finn sheathed Athena, letting go of her blade so she could float on her own. "I saw her eyes darting across the room and locking onto objects of interest. Athena's blade, Belle's power-save belt, and most importantly my scar." He chuckled and walked across the room, picking up Belle's belt. "But the kicker was how she overlooked Jitters so easily. Metagross are calculating creatures, sure, but they're cocky."
"How do you know all this?" Athena asked, floating just behind Finn.
"My mother's the steel type gym leader, remember? Her ace is a Metagross, one that I've seen, touched, and talked to hundreds of times. I know just about everything about Metagross, or at least just about everything that we know." He turned around and walked towards Belle. "Sorry Belle, but you've got to put this back on."
Belle grunted and took the belt, attaching it around her waist. She walked over to Cyril and dug around in her labcoat, eventually producing a vial marked 'Talos'. After looking at it for a moment, she threw it to the ground. The vial shattered into pieces, and the serum flowed across the floor.
"So, is that the last of that?" Finn asked, watching the serum flow into a drain set into the floor. He had no idea why a laboratory had a drain, but he honestly did not want to know.
Belle nodded, then walked across the room to a filing cabinet. She ripped it open and pulled out the papers inside, riffling through them in search of something. After a moment, she found what she was looking for, and pulled the paper out. She slowly walked back to Finn and showed it to him.
To Finn's surprise, it was a letter.
To anyone who may find this,
Talos has failed. Sabotaged. Destroyed. It was a success, but Cyril did not want me to 'infringe on her domain'. She was the Toretan head of operations for years, and all I can say is that I pity those who worked under her.
If one of the subjects locates this letter, by searching under Talos Misc. files, know that you are healthy. Talos was terminated by me, not by my employer or by Cyril. I wanted to set you free, but they would not allow that. I knew full well that Cyril and her lackeys were cruel to you, and I know what my employer has done. I am sorry that you were forced to escape.
If someone else locates this letter, know the truth. Talos was not just using minerals and rare candy to enhance Pokémon, it also used human DNA. Many of the subjects reacted poorly to it, and those I gave a faked serum. One that did nothing more. The project was to make Legendary Pokémon from ordinary Pokémon, but my research on the man-made Legendary Mewtwo showed me that it is the closest thing to a missing link between humans and Pokémon that there is, and this give it strength. I never intended to give human intelligence to Pokémon, but I had no choice.
To Subject sixty-six, the one subject I can consider a complete success, do not let Plasma get their hands on you once more. They will use you for future projects. My employer thinks that I cannot see what he plans, but I can. Unless something else comes up, you are the one thing that can complete his plans.
Please, do not let them know.
Colress.
"What the…?" Finn muttered as he read the letter. "This… this is confusing, but it also explains so much." He looked up at Belle. "But they didn't want to capture you, did they? They wanted you gone. Why would that be…?"
Belle shrugged, taking the letter and gingerly returning it to the cabinet. She hesitated for a moment, then walked back to Finn. She grumbled for a moment, emitting sounds that he couldn't make any sense of, then stopped. She looked at Athena, expecting her to translate.
"She says thank you," Athena quickly supplied.
Finn smiled. "Anything for a member of the family."
Belle just stared at him, stunned.
He pretended to ignore it. "Come on, we need to go make sure Bastion isn't cursing his head off."
So now you all know exactly what the Talos Project is. But that doesn't quite explain everything, does it?
Speaking of the Talos Project, I named it after the divine of the same name from The Elder Scrolls series. In The Elder Scrolls, Talos is the ninth divine, and is a man who has become a god. In Pokémon, Legendaries are the gods of the world. Since the project is to make normal Pokémon into Legendary level creatures, I found the name fitting.
As always, leave a review to let me know what you think!
Now read on!