Chapter Eight, part I: Destruction
Lavaridge, ca. 2509
Lavaridge was bustling with activity. Hotels were cramped, spas were brimming with people of every demographic, streets were a perpetual traffic jam, the noise level of the thousands of people were matched only by the low rumbling of the volcanoes nearby. Ash, May, Brock, Max, and Molly were staying at the Pokemon Center with Professor Hale, who had recently arrived to coordinate the findings of the archeological team studying strange bubble languages across the countryside. Jesse and James, ever-loyal grunts from Team Rocket, were chilling out in a Lavaridge jail for trying to steal pokemon. They weren't too worried - they came here quite often, and besides, their boss would be here soon to pick them up, they hoped anyway. Jennifer, the original owner of the white cat who became Mew in the "ancient" past, dusted the volcanic ash off her dress as she sat on the balcony of the hotel where she stayed courtesy of the police who were trying to avoid wrongful-arrest charges. She had noticed the sharp increase in tourism as of yesterday, but she couldn't get anything out of the newcomers. Apparently, there was going to be a great event and no outsider was going to steal their chances of competing in it.
Hoenn, ca. 2509
A long black limousine roared across the gravel road just east of Fallarbor Town, kicking up tons of ash that made the axels of the vehicle grind - constantly. Very little identification was available just judging from the vehicle itself, although, if you looked carefully, you could make out tiny spherical red jewels embedded in the hubcaps - like the kind you'd see on Persians.
Inside the limousine, a middle-aged man was having a curt phone conversation with his female assistant. She had arranged the trip, and he was not satisfied.
The somewhat girlish voice on the speakerphone grated with irritation. "Look, sir, take what you can get," she admonished. "That entire region is influenced by volcanic activity. Our helicopter pilots can't fly there."
"THEY ARE SIMPLY INCOMPETENT AND LAZY!" the man interrupted, slamming his fist on the armrest beside him, creating a dent. "I ACCEPT NO EXCUSES! THIS DRIVE IS DRIVING ME INSANE!" He lowered his voice a few decibels to keep the windows from shattering. "Those pilots must be disciplined at once. See to it immediately."
"Yes sir," the young woman on the other end grumbled. "By the way, Agent Scyther has called in. He's awaiting your arrival in Lavaridge at the Lavaridge Volcano Hotel, room 438."
A dark smile illuminated the normally frustrated face of the aging crime boss. "Excellent," he eagerly declared, "tell him that I will arrive shortly - if these drivers can handle driving in this inconvenient terrain."
"Yes, sir," responded the young woman. Click.
The crime boss managed to retain his smile as the car drove south towards destiny.
Lavaridge, ca. 2509
Tracey lay sprawled out on the bed of his hotel room. The entire hotel had a volcanic theme, and his was no different, except that his particular room might depress most people. All of the sparse furniture was black or dark gray, nearly blending in with walls that seemed to be airbrushed in various shades of black, with only a few specks of yellow and red to suggest embers flying from an active volcano. He loved his room. He found the dark colors soothing, especially after all the hooplah he went through to capture Mew, now safely in another custom pokeball created by his father's scientists. This one, like the GS ball, required waving a special Earth badge over the device before inserting it into a hidden slot behind the release button in the center. He stared at the dark ceiling, imagining the night sky, as his thoughts turned to Ash Ketchum. He knew his "friend" was here somewhere, probably in the Pokemon Center only because it was free. He had hated staying in those cramped places in the Orange Islands when he trailed Ash. He loved the resort on Shamuti and the Orange League and this posh hotel and even the resort hotel back when his father owned a pokemon theme park. Ash was always so cheap, Tracey grumbled to himself. If it hadn't been for his mission and the chance to gain his father's loving approval, he'd have quit and gone on a cruise - it would have been much better than riding with that rotting-fish smell on top of Lapras for weeks on end. Fortunately, he and Misty could usually wear Ash down so they could ride in some decent transportation. It was a shame Misty and Ash couldn't get along, because Tracey thought THEY made a much better pair. They were both intelligent, flexible, and used to a certain standard of living. There were rumors in the bowels of Team Rocket that assumed Ash might be Giovanni's kid and that was why he always seemed to beat such an elite team of fighters. Tracey giggled. He couldn't help it. Ash was driven like Giovanni, but Ash had some sort of mental illness or something that wouldn't allow him to plan ahead.
Tracey, however, ALWAYS planned ahead.
Even when he was just five, Tracey had shown smart business sense by keeping himself secret from Team Rocket, eventually with Giovanni's approval. Giovanni and Tracey both knew that there were only a few decent grunts and executives (Domino was hot, too - but his father got kind of territorial when the two first met during an old power plant mission in east Kanto - oh well...), so they agreed that Giovanni's son would be a special secret agent, only known to the highest levels of TR administration. That was maybe, what, five people, so Tracey could happily live his life drawing and studying the powers of different pokemon and one day prove his ability to chair Team Rocket when Giovanni - Tracey frowned momentarily - left this earth. Sometimes, when his stomach was churning from stress, he wondered to himself if he would ever be as clever as his wonderful father, a father who had taken years to build up a comfortable power base.
He'd be here, soon.
He'd be so proud.
Hoenn, ca. 2509
High atop the Sky Pillar in Hoenn, a lone figure watched the skies toward Lavaridge in the north, his purplish-white fur rippling in the breeze, his long sleek tail waving in anticipation. He had arrived about six months ago, discovering this place that allowed one to see every region with a great deal of clarity, even with the naked eye. His "take no prisoners" posture impressed the guardian of the pillar, who allowed him to stay as long as he wished.
He could hear the whoosh of air as Rayquaza, a gigantic green scaly legendary pokemon, who looked like a highly decorated garden hose with a Groudon sneer and four flaring spikes jutting out from his neck, landed with a great THUMP next to the pokemon that had been created.
I have spoken to several dragons in the north, and they are concerned about the arrival of Celebii in Hoenn, announced the long green dragon.
For several minutes there was no reply.
We will do nothing, Mewtwo finally proclaimed.
Rayquaza's growl rumbled the platform atop the sky pillar. However, even in his great irritation, he knew his new companion of late would never lose a battle of wills. Nothing? You are new on this world, and may not understand the significance of combining the Voice of the Forest with the Origin of our species, but not even the Unown can take them down if they begin to battle themselves.
Mewtwo, still despite the jet stream that lashed around them, slowly turned toward his new companion. I have battled Mew before, Rayquaza. I know that ... Mewtwo paused as he continued to stare, just catching sight in the distance of a giant crowd in the streets of Lavaridge, ... that we must do our part to plan for their destruction. No tears will bring them back. The Sacred Fire is sleeping and cannot be awakened. Our world will end if they die, but it will be pointless to get in their way.
Chapter Eight, part 2: Devastation
Lavaridge, ca. 2509
Jennifer, her long red hair twisted up into a bun, sat on the bed of her hotel room, in faded khaki shorts and a green tank top, reading articles on the laptop she found in a drawer. It had taken her an hour or so to figure out the operating system mechanics, but it wasn't too complicated. It was like everything else on this stupid Twilight Zone world - centered around the creatures called pokemon, like the ones that chased her down. She decided to look up the origins of these strange creatures, her sullen expression betraying her disappointment. No one seems to remember what happened in the past too clearly; after about a hundred years or so of data, their records turn into a bunch of mystical silliness. Apparently, a long time ago, many records of their ancient past had been altered in some way, but since they had no originals to go by, no one understood the scope of the loss. She seemed to recognize places like Egypt, Japan, China, the United States, and Antarctica, but everything was just - wrong. Pictures of artifacts she had seen in the newspapers or on the internet were different. Maybe this was like Sliders or something, she mused to herself. Maybe she was in an alternate dimension of Earth.
Jennifer found an article, encrypted into gibberish, hidden in small font as she reviewed this world's history. As she worked to decrypt it, she gasped. There was a knock on the door.
Jennifer walked cautiously to the door and opened it ever so slightly. A young man with black hair that reached below his ears cheerfully stood in the hallway. "I hear you're researching pokemon" he stated warmly. "I like to research them, too. Maybe we could work together?"
Jennifer stood in the doorway, shivers running up her spine. Was there a surveillance system spying on her? Suddenly, the boy gasped and frowned.
"I am SO sorry!" he exaggeratedly announced. "I must be the world's biggest idiot! My name is Tracey and I'm a pokemon artist. You could contact Professor Oak in Kanto. He's the best pokemon scientist in the world and I work for him. It's just that, well..." he moaned, shifting his feet on the hallway carpet patterned to resemble lava, "...I was hacking this article I found on the internet, and I noticed someone else was looking at it, too. So I thought, you know ..."
"... we could work together?" Jennifer interrupted meekly.
Tracey grinned, almost cracking his face, his eyes bulging in happiness. "Oh yes! I was hoping for just that to happen! You wouldn't mind, would you? I mean, it would go faster if there were two people working on it."
Jennifer stood there, stunned. Still, he was a kid. It wasn't like she couldn't take him if he tried anything. "Uhh, okay, sure," she finally agreed, letting Tracey into her room. He went straight for the computer, pressing a few keys, and glancing up at her with beaming eyes.
"I fixed it!" he announced proudly. "Let's go take a look."
Jennifer and Tracey moved to the small desk on the balcony. They set the laptop onto the pale wooden table, which had burn marks etched onto the surface, and read with growing interest.
Godzilla makes a comeback: Take pictures or run?
By Janice Williams and Jacob Running Deer
Whatever happens, monsters are cool - even
when your home is bursting into flames amid
all the screaming.
Massive numbers of fatalities come after the
appearance of creatures large and small,
creatures ravaging the urban landscapes with
fire, electricity, water, ice, and other stuff.
Military forces around the world, stretched
by global political problems, cannot defeat
what some describe as monstrously big dogs.
Some installations around the globe are frozen,
some melted into the dirt, and some are quite
simply in tatters from excessive electrical
activity.
We were in Peru five months ago, investigating
what maybe the beginning of these terrible
monsters. The Nasca lines, ancient drawings
in the surface of the earth, changed as has
many artifacts around the globe. We personally
witnessed the birth of a fiery bird worthy of
any monster movie.
Air traffic has all but been eliminated as
gigantic birds shoot down anything that leaves
the ground.
And it gets worse. Perhaps you've already
read the stories of pets around the globe
mutating horribly and turning on their owners.
PETA seemed to be liking it especially until
one of the monster dogs froze their head-
quarters before drowning it in water. No
one seemed to care too much, though.
Three hundred casualties were reported alone
in the United States this month. Some were
from battles with the monsters, but many
stemmed from children's fascination with
big creatures that hasn't stopped with the
dinosaur craze of the nineties. Who can
forget the images of the children in a
trading card tournament, some fad they loved,
screaming as a giant yellow and black bird
burst through the stadium roof and made off
with ten frightened young ones?
Not only is the surface of the Earth under attack,
but our space program is also having setbacks.
Communication systems are being ripped apart.
Meteors have been punching holes in our
satellite systems. Freakish pink creatures
have been seen creating havoc in Siberia.
One entire Russian village was put in a coma,
supposedly after these creatures appeared.
Little left now of our way of life.
Fear, before a target of political movies,
is very real as humans give up their top
spot on the food chain.
On the other hand, anime is seeing a HUGE
profit as people see new truths in kids'
shows they once dismissed.
Jennifer and Tracey glanced at each other as they finished reading the article. Tracey wondered to himself how in depth he should let her in on Team Rocket's wealth of data about the appearance of Mew. She seemed to be connected, although he hated it when all he had was a mere hunch. Perhaps, he mused, perhaps she came from the time period where Tracey had caught Mew. Tracey glanced toward the crowds below as they gathered for the competition for later that afternoon, just as the winds shifted and swept away the falling ash from the volcanoes. He kind of thought she looked like Jesse, but obviously more intelligent. Maybe, the artist laughingly thought to himself, just maybe he could give an extra-special surprise present to his father - if he could just pull him away from that hot chick Domino.
"What do you make of it?" he asked her innocently.
Jennifer frowned. "Some of the organizations seem familiar. Do you recognize the countries?"
"Peru and Japan," he muttered. "The rest don't seem to make an impression on me as much."
Jennifer sighed. At least the kid knew something. At last, she had a burst of inspiration. She wasn't caught in some Sliders episode; rather, she was trapped in Planet of the Pokemon. She was witnessing her world's future - a future where governments had a small if any role and the entire globe just seemed to go ga-ga over mutant pets. She was beginning to realize that all this "harmony with our pokemon" stuff preached by just about anyone was maybe more of a - warning - than a zen, new age attitude.