Welcome to a world of the future, a place much so different to the one known now.

Filled with gadjets and machinery the world is ruled as it has never been before, without the help of pokemon.

Forgotten are the days of friendship, kinship, comradiship of beast and man. Pitting themselves against the world together as one.

Now life is devoted to oneself and the technology.

Who wants something that requires feeding, cleaning, care- When one can so easily have a machine do the same job with so much less hassle?

This is the age of the Cybernetics, when machine is more than beast could ever be within the eye of man.

Cybernetic Mythology

by Dawn Allies.


How It Begins


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Cybernetics™ would like to inform you that it does not endorse the following presentation.

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A note by Clarissa K. Clark

I had been watching the tv for three weeks straight since they started the 24hr coverage. (Which I guess was near the end for us, I'll work back in a moment.) It'd already taken a couple of months before it came to that, but then, no one had realised how bad it was until too late. I had to feel sorry for the reporters still out there, watching, taping, telling.. Despite how much I previously despised them. Mostly that came from watching the typical 6:30 news, local, current affairs sort of stuff. Pestering scam artists, testing the same products they tested two months ago with the same results, interviewing celebrities, bothering celebrities, etc. But watching them out there, right up close to it as it was happening, I found a new respect for them that'd never been there before. I wondered at the time if they'd win an award or something after it was all over, once they came home and all.

This isn't really a detailed report or anything, but this is what happened up until that point.

I was - am, like most other people, at least, I like to think I am or was at the very least (I'm not so sure now).. I didn't see the disturbances as a big deal, they'd go away wouldn't they? It's not like anything majorly bad happened anymore, none of those in the living generations had ever even been in a war of any sort (excluding commercial, financial, business, etc). Nothing big had happened in the past hundred or so years since the anthro's were accepted into society as equals. Even the whole cloning thing had been over and done with by the time my parents were born. No one thought or expected anything.

I can't really remember what it was that were the first signs, or warnings or whatever. I think some of the wild pokemon were starting to act weird. But that always happened somewhere at some time, they had reports on it on the 6 o'clock news near the end of the show. It was usually to do with something people had done to the land previously or people were doing now. So it wasn't really unusual. No one in the media even really paid attention, of course at the same time the Cybernetics were just starting to get going.

Then it started happening more often, in different places.. Rattata were raiding farms and stockpiling grains, nincada were appearing in swarms in the middle of cities, Magikarp were disappearing, so were the wild populations of various flying and bug type pokemon. A whole heap of things and pokemon were just acting weird. Still, it hardly got any attention from anyone.. Well, aside from exterminators who probably started making a bundle and greenies worrying why common pokemon were being less common. It got the unused spaces in the back pages of newspapers and magazines, the last story on the news. You'd think in a world where Pokemon are the main resource people would of paid more attention, but noo.. Other things were on people's minds that got all that.

The anthros were next. Not all of them of course, just some. That got more interest, but only from certain parties. The thing was though, the anthros they tested, asked questions and all that.. they didn't understand. No one understood. They were just getting headaches, odd urges and things like that. Most of them could surpress it and continued on with their daily lives with no problems.

Then it all seemed to of stopped, and it went quiet for a long time.

It took just over a year and a half before it started again..

First people started disappearing. The anthros that'd been effected previously and some that hadn't, started acting scared and frantic for no apparent reason. When questioned they couldn't say what it was they were scared of, just that something was about to happen or something was coming or it was just something bad and it scared the shit out of them. More than one anthro was incarcerated and or dragged off to a mental ward.

This stayed in the news for about two and a half weeks as big news before being shuffled back. Nothing new was happening with it, aside from more anthros were coming down with whatever it was that had affected the others. For a while they thought it was a virus or something. But it was happening randomly to the anthros and they couldn't figure out what any of them had in common to make it some sort of viral infection. Aside from being anthros nothing else could be connected with those who got hit with whatever it was that hit them. It wasn't happening to the majority of the population of anthro's either, the scientists were totally at a loss of what was happening.

Then a hoard of Gyarados decimated the populations of four of the islands off of the Orange Archipelago and attacks from wild pokemon were becoming dangerously high. People were warned not to go into any areas heavily populated by wild pokemon. Not that it was a common occurrence much anymore anyway.

Next came the farms, then small villages, then small towns.. All the remote ones no one had ever heard of, or were in those places they just couldn't be bothered to go. It wasn't until the ones closer to the larger towns and the cities that they realised so many of the smaller remote places had been destroyed already. They did a quick survey and found that most of the smaller towns, villages and fishing industries from the south-eastern all the way up the eastern coast had been destroyed. People flooded the larger towns and cities scared for their lives and from what ever this mysterious thing was that was destroying everything.

They never found anything to help them define what was destroying all these places, of course, they didn't know how to properly then, though they did try to the best of their abilities. They brought in the best scientists and everything from EVERYWHERE to examine the sites, but still nothing. Actually, they did find one thing, at least half the pokemon they brought with them to the sites couldn't be released anywhere within the vicinity without acting odd. Much like a lot of the anthros still were. And, also, there were no wild pokemon anywhere near any of the sites. But they waved that away as the pokemon just being frightened off by whatever had destroyed the places like all the people had been.

The whole thing lasted in the news for about three weeks as top story before interested waned. They did give updates for a while during the Cybernetics tournament though. But that gradually stopped as it was continually interrupting at the wrong times for the viewing audience and they complained, so the executives left all that sort of thing for the proper news instead.

Again, nothing else happened for a month and any updates on the pervious situations were shoved to the back of the news. No one seemed to care, there were more interesting things going on than small places no one knew or cared about being destroyed and the updates on what'd happened, it was last month's news. Says something for the general population doesn't it. Unless it's the latest and the greatest no one cares.

When Alto Mare was flattened it took everyone by surprise. There was no warning, no nothing. One day there was a city, the next there wasn't. Everyone and thing that'd been in Alto Mare was killed or destroyed, there was little more than rubble found drowned at the bottom of the now flooded island city. Of course, now I know a little more. There were warnings, just we didn't hear anything about them, -all the frantic pokemon, the increasingly larger settlements being destroyed, the anthro's fleeing, people disappearing- it all happened on another continent, it wasn't anything to do with us except as a holiday place. The public here didn't care, so they didn't get told anything. Just when finally it went over the top and Alto Mare was destroyed. THEN we got the news on the other stuff where everyone would notice.

Of course, no one knew what had happened to the city, it'd been flattened and in most parts were under 12ft of water at the very least. It had been a water street city after all. So really, it had been there one day and gone the next with no warnings. People were somewhat rattled by this, an entire city had been destroyed without any warning's what so ever and no evidence How it had happened.

I have one positive thing to say now. This time the main stories were still on the previous matter when Hell started breaking loose, nothing else was interfering as it took a back seat to watch with the audience what was going on.

The Houen continent was being destroyed, village by village, town by town, city by city. Alto Mare seemed to be the real beginning. It wasn't happening as suddenly as with Alto Mare to the others, but by small explosions and fires that didn't seem to be effected by water. Some sort of disease also started spreading ahead of the destruction, creating a plague as people just ran trying to escape and passing it onto who ever they met. The entire nation was going into hysteria.

The first ones were spotted too. Just black, grey or brown flashes through the air trailing black and red sparks. Reports of them were popping up all over the Houen continent near the destruction from those reporters that had braved the plague and hysteria to report on the progress. No one knew what these were either but people were starting to connect the fact they kept popping up around just before and after places were destroyed. They were loosely named Fire-Bugs at the start, only because they started fires and trailed sparkles like fireflies. It took nearly a week before a picture was developed with one of the 'Fire-Bugs' in it. Little more than a blur on a blurred background, those scientists that could worked on the picture for ages trying to clarify the picture. They seemed to be having a lot of trouble in doing so, everyone was arguing about what parts were what and this could be that and that can't be this etc. They really shouldn't of bothered. Another two days in and one flew right behind one of the reporters in one of the cities as they were doing their story. The poor reporter, camera man and who ever else had been in the party were never heard from again. Thirty seconds or so after the creature flew past the camera and it tried to follow it, everything flashed a blinding white and there was only static (A couple of thousand people were blinded when that was first aired, flash included, for obvious reasons they cut it out before showing the rest of it to anyone else). Less than three hours later we had our first few shots of a 'Fire-Bug', though still blurry in all the shots taken from the video camera you could see at least four limbs, not including the head. These four limbs weren't the four legs you'd think though, it was two legs (one back the other front), a wing and a tail. There was something very familiar with the small sized form that tried to remind you of something that wanted you to smile, but there was also those parts of it you thought you could only just make out but really wished you hadn't thought of it like that. Complete revulsion competed heavily against that happy feeling. Most people weren't looking forwards to a better image. And it wasn't until the next week when it all started happening here that we got one. Not just one, but hundreds. They were flying in giant flocks over the dividing oceans between us and the Houen region like a menacing storm cloud.

They started the 24hr coverage as the networks realised that the things were coming straight for us.

They finally had an idea of what the things were just after they arrived. They had enough images and personal sight seeings (with high casualties) to say they were some sort of Mew. Exceedingly deformed it would seem through the entire species as no single creature had all it's limbs, or all it's fur and as an added extra an added horn or two and crippled wings. Which was not a normal feature to Mew's as they had been previously documented flying purely through their psychic abilities. Now as to where they came from, what they wanted or what they were trying to do exactly was beyond everyone. Of course there were multiple theories and if you listened to a lot of those religious nuts they'd say it was The End due to all our sins or something like that. But nothing they could be sure of.

You know, the most interesting, exciting, amazing, (a million more words, but you get the idea) thing I saw in those three weeks I sat in front of the telly watching, was Mew. It was just before they arrived on our shores and I don't mean those monster creatures that were trying to destroy the world. But a Real Mew. I'm not really sure, but it may of been The Mew. I'm not exactly sure how that could be, it'd have to be thousands of years old. But the power radiating from the small creature as it floated at the front line of a seeming army of wild pokemon as it looked out to the monsters over the sea just seemed and felt so powerful.. and Old. How exactly I felt that through the tv is beyond me as well, but you could see it radiating through the air and through all the other pokemon as they stood stock still. Both sides eyeing each other and watching The Mew to see what it'd do. I'd like to know how they got cameras to that meeting and if they actually have any footage left, it'd be nice to see it again. After that first viewing I never saw it again. The most bitching thing about it though, is that I didn't see what happened, despite being in front of the telly, watching, waiting, I held my breath. The screen flashed and I had to look away and when I looked back again the screen was all staticy for about two minutes before another screen came on with some man sitting behind a desk looking shocked and dumbfounded as he looked off to the side of the screen at his own little viewing screen.

The Mew disappeared after that but the monster things didn't. They kept coming and started devouring Kanto just like they'd done to Houen. There had been no news from anywhere in Houen since a day and a half before the monsters came to get us. The tv people said that most likely all the radio towers and tv stations had been blown up or knocked over, that sort of thing, and that was why. They expected satellites to get them back in no time. Heard about as much news from Houen again as I saw The Mew again sitting there in front of the telly as I watched the world around me being destroyed.

I hope that clears up a little on the events in the past so and so months leading up to the now. It's mostly stuff I've picked up and remembered from different points. If I forgot something, well stuff it, it's stressing in these times as you should know and that's a perfectly good excuse and it'll probably be mentioned at some point down the track later anyways.

Signing off now.

Signed: Clarissa K. Klark.


Previously.


Three weeks of sitting there, watching the tv as it was happening..

A short buzz, crackle then static for five or ten minutes. Slowly voices emerge. Urgent, frightened, scared.. They don't last long, maybe another three or four minutes before being cut out. Then there's the static again. How long.. it doesn't really matter any more, it's just the same now.

Two days ago they'd last at least ten minutes before being cut.

A week ago you could see the picture.

Two weeks and all the stations still worked.

Eighteen days and there was still normal programs now and then.

A month and everything was as it always was.

Now it's just the buzz and crackle, occasionally a voice through the static, but little else. Only two stations even get that, all the rest are dead. But it's something. Better than the radio at least. Much better than just the silence and not knowing at all. Just waiting for them to come.. No, it's better with the tv on. At least then there's something to hope for.

A bang. A crash.

She startles and glances around. Is it them? Have they finally found her?

Then voices, shouts in the distance at first.. Gradually getting closer.

Then whispers in the corridor.

She quickly gets up out of her chair, turning the tv off on her way and rushes to the kitchen to grab something, anything to defend herself with. She's not going without a fight.

More voices, louder again and closer.

Knife in hand she crouches behind the kitchen counter, glaring at the passageway to the front door. They're here.. She takes a deep breath and waits, counting the seconds in the silence between the spoken words.

"Can't be much further."

"Just hurry up, this place is infested with them."

"Nearly got it Sir. It's one of these doors, I'm sure of it."

"You said that about the last four levels.." a grumble from a third female voice.

Silence again as the voices are hushed. She grips her knife harder and reminds herself to breathe. They're just outside the door, she's sure of it. Maybe they'll just pass, they couldn't be looking for her specifically. There's lots of apartments in this building. She tries to reassure herself but in her gut she knows they're coming for her. Why she couldn't answer.

Another crash and now there's footsteps in the passageway.

She doesn't give them long, she runs at the first one just as they exit the passage into the main room. There's no lights on, but the moon's shining through one of the windows at just the right angle to silhouette the figure. She screams, aiming to get the knife into anything she can reach as she lunges. Another scream but this time of surprise. Something's run up beside her and grabbed her, knocking the knife out of her hand.

"ARGH! Goddamnit! She bit me! She God damn well BIT ME!"

"Serves you right Sur', shouldn't of grabbed her like that."

"Oh shut up you." There's a snarl in the voice and she smirks to herself from her new hiding spot. There's shufflings around the room, they're searching for her, surprisingly quite. But she's listening, ignoring the drumming sound of her heart in her ears and counting her breaths. Waiting for the right time to escape, she wont be captured, it's a pity she lost the knife, she would of liked to of fought instead of having to run like this, but she'll do what she has to. She waits for the right moment. Just as one set of feet pass in front of her she quickly presses the button on the remote. "Please, don't just be static.." she whispers.

A shriek fills the room and the intruders drop to the ground. She takes her chance as they're distracted and runs. Shoving one of the people out of her way as she runs out of the lounge and down the passageway to the front door. Once in the corridor of the building she can try for another place to hide in hopefully.

But she doesn't get the chance. A step out of her apartment and she slams into something hard..

"Where'd that wall come from..." and she faints.

A quiet groan and she slowly wakes up.

Eyes blink a few times, ridding themselves of sleep and she finds herself staring at a blank grey ceiling. Head turned and there's a blank grey wall to match the ceiling. The opposite wall isn't much better, just further away.

Taking her time to sit up and awaken as she finds herself with a splitting headache but still manages to look around the room properly, or at least, as best she can in the dim light.

Still not much better than what she first saw. A small room, more a walk in closet than a room in her opinion. There's herself, the uncomfortable bed she awoke on, a tin sink in the corner and a single lonely chair in the corner. All the walls are bare and the same dull grey, as is the floor. The door is a slightly darker grey with a series of slitted fogged windows along it's top half from left to right. The dull glow of light is coming from through those but little else.

Trying the door and finding it locked she mumbles as she moves back to her makeshift bed, "Figures... " Sitting in the corner of the bed she pulls her legs up to her chest, hugging them as she waits.

"Where on earth am I.."

A long time later there's sounds.

Movements coming from outside the door, along whatever passageway may be on the other side.

She quickly moves herself, uncramping her stiff body from so long sitting in the single position.

"Why on earth didn't you tell me you'd found her already. And brought her here for that matter! For god's sake-!" A grumpy male voice.

"Hey, we were busy weren't we-" Something familiar and whiney.

"No excuses!"

"This place was under attack only a short while ago.." A third female voice.

"Yes and who's fault exactly was that?"

"Well..."

"I thought so."

A pause and she glares at the locked door from where she stands next to the bed. Waiting and expecting.. expecting what exactly she's not completely sure.

Tinkle of keys and then a click as the door unlocks. Another click and the room's flooded with light, making her shield her eyes as three figures make their way into the room.

She mumbles as she slowly brings her arms down again and tries to see who exactly it is these people are. There's three of course, one for each of the voices that had been speaking as they came closer to her room. One short, older and balding and in a scientist's suit, she guesses him to be the grumpy one. The woman's obvious. Similar height to the last, tanned and with her hair pulled tightly back into a knot of some kind, with still a large portion of her hair still covering half her face. A white tank top and cargo pants are a surprise next to the scientist suit. Last is a Pokemorph. She blinks as she looks at him. He looks completely out of place, excluding a bandage around his lower left arm he looks like the anthroized equivalent of a designer model, with black fur of course.

"Ah, good you are awake. I hope you are doing ok miss." The older man spoke," I am very sorry for you having been left here all alone for so long. But someone forgot to mention that you had arrived..," he shot a glare at the 'morph. "I do hope we can make up for your inconvenience."

She just stared at him blankly. "What?"

Suddenly an alarm blared and the room was bathed in a red glow momentarily. Becoming normal again for a short instance of silence before the room turned red again as the alarm sounded off once more. Red, grey, red, grey.

She covered her ears as the sound bounced off each of the walls of the small room. It was really not an enjoyable experience. Worse than the stupid car alarms that came with really expensive cars that squealed at the slightest touch. The anthro seemed to be thinking much the same, his ears were pinned back against his head as his face was scrunched up in distaste.

"What on earth is going on now. I thought we got rid of the last of them," The woman shouted over the alarms.

"Maybe it's something else?" the 'morph whined in response.

The older man pulled out a small communicator of some kind and started yelling into it, trying to hear the responses over the loud noise. The conversation didn't last long and she really didn't like the expression that appeared on the man's face as he finished the call. "We must leave now."

The alarms stopped.

The other two looked at him oddly in the sudden silence.

"What's going on?" She just managed to say, but none of them seemed to notice.

"There's been a breach, we have to evacuate this facility, Now." The woman looked scared and the morph didn't look much better.

What did they mean there'd been a breach?

She didn't get much time to speculate. The older man quickly started off back down where he'd come from, the 'morph moving just as quickly after him. If it hadn't of been for the moments pause the older man gave to turn his head and shout back to the lady who was last to leave the room, she doubted that she'd even of been remembered.

"Come on, we aren't losing you now after all the trouble we went through to get you in the first place," and the lady grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room. A corridor, the same lifeless grey as the room she'd been in. Not really that much of a surprise, she wasn't really expecting rainbows. If there had actually been any real features she didn't notice any, she was being pulled so fast she had to use all her attention to keep from tripping over her own feet.

Her legs were burning from the intense strain being put upon them after weeks of minimal use after only a short while and that wasn't much fun. Her breath wasn't any better either. But any attempts of complaint or well, anything in general was ignored as the woman just continued to pull her down one corridor then the next, turning every now and then, down this way or that. She was completely lost within minutes.

The first real stop they had was after they'd moved through two large pairs of white steel doors and into a dining room of some sort. She nearly collapsed on the spot from over exhaustion. Spotting this the lady had quickly moved to grab her around the waist and held her up as she tried to catch her breath. "Come on, you can't be that tired already, we've probably got a while to go yet." She would of replied but for the fact she could barely breath and needed to concentrate on that.

"You took your time. They've already completely taken over three levels and nearly two more. I don't know how you expect us to get out of here."

She looked up to see who the new voice was.

There were three. Again. This time though they were all male. An army guy. A nerd. And a giant of some kind. She just stared. This was all much too confusing, she didn't have the slightest idea what was going on, who these people were or what they wanted with her and she really would of appreciated some answers.

But of course this wasn't the appropriate time.

"Well shit."

"Watch your mouth young lady," the older man glared to the woman holding onto her before looking to the army guy who'd spoken previously, "We'll use the Warp Room."

"What! No!" The black anthro suddenly jumped up as if something had stung his backside. "We can't use that! We don't know what'll happen!"

"We do know what could theoretically happen if we use it.." A slow quiet murmur from the corner was the nerdy guy as he looked up from a hand held computer and pushed his glasses further up his nose.

"Yes! See! That means we could be blown up! Turned into tiny bits of nothing and flung everywhere! Become giant walking, talking, squirting n squeaking and well! I- I dunno... Big giant green blobs of glue! Imagine what it'd do to my complexion!" The morph ranted, waving his arms around to empathise before plastering his hands to his face in horror at the last thought and turning slightly green at the idea.

"Be quite Sulphur!" The army guy snapped at the morph, "If the Doctor believes that we'll be fine, we will be fine."

"Well that wins my vote.." was a sarcastic whisper near her ear. The woman obviously.

"Yes, yes, we'll be perfectly fine. I'm pretty sure we've worked out all the bugs that had been happening when we tried before. There really shouldn't be anything to worry about. We'll be just fine. We just have to get to the third level and to the right wing passageway. It shouldn't be too much trouble. Simple really."

The look on nearly everyone elses face was not encouraging.

A blast from back the way they had come sent the room shaking and most of them to the floor, excluding only the giant and army guy who both stood their ground as the floor shook. "Well come on then, they're getting even closer if that blast is anything to go by." And with that they were out a door on the opposite side of the room. First the army guy and older man, next the frantic black morph, the nerd, then herself and the woman, last to come was the giant who lumbered along behind them seemingly oblivious to everything that was going on.

They were lucky. There was nearly no trouble until they arrived just beyond where they were aiming for. Little more than a couple of detours for caved in walls and rooves, or sudden gaping holes in the floor. But now they were stuck. The entire passageway ahead was little more than a wall of burning flames, impassable. It was also the only passage that allowed them into where they needed to go.

The army guy suddenly appeared next to her, then moved further down the line to the giant at the back. "Come on 'Bur, you can make yourself useful." The giant looked down at the smaller man, head tilted slightly. "O-K." A low gravelly voice, much like stones rubbing against each other and somehow forming sounds enough to make words. The giant followed after the army guy as he made his way back to the front of the line, pushing everyone back against the sides of the passage so that the giant could get past without squashing anyone too badly.

Once they were past she quickly stepped forwards, trying to see what the army guy was going to get the giant to do. She missed it though.

"So you're who we've been looking for are you?"

"Uh. Huh?"

"I'd of thought you'd be older.. or younger maybe. Well, at least different. You don't really look anything special do you?" The nerd of a guy was right up close to her face and she was forced to step backwards.

"Uh, I don't?" She didn't know what to say.

"I guess I really shouldn't be surprised. Conner said I shouldn't assume things so much." He continued to eye her as he pushed his glasses up his nose again. "Oh well. I just hope he isn't assuming too much when it comes to you." Before she could reply he'd turned back around, straightening up and started down the now non-firey, but definitely very black and crushed looking corridor after the rest of them. The giant and army guy had obviously already done what ever it was they needed to to get them past, oh well.

"Come on girl, move your feet, we'll be left behind," and she was suddenly shoved hard from behind by the woman that was still her appointed 'guide'.

Less than ten meters further down there was a large hole in the wall, about the same size as the giant and they stepped through it into a huge room. She would of stopped and paused to look around if it weren't for the fact she was being pulled again by the woman to make sure she moved. "Where are we?" she just managed to say as her arm was tugged harder, forcing her to keep moving after an attempt at pausing to look around. "One of the containment centers, now hush and keep walking, we don't want to be left behind." The woman hissed as she continued to pull her.

They quickly walked along the set steel walkway, then down three flights of stairs to another walk way just above the ground level.

She wasn't feeling all that safe with the process. With each step the giant took he shook the entire structure. The black morph looked about as secure as she felt. Especially if the way he gripped the railings so tightly that she could see his knuckles through his fur was anything to go by.

"Not much longer now.. Just the end of this and we'll be there, all safe and sound, nothing to worry about now."

"He shouldn't of said that, we'll be jinxed now," whined the black morph soon after the older man had spoken.

He wasn't wrong.

They all ducked as there was an unexpected explosion, then a whistle that flew over their heads to crash upon the ground somewhere below them. Within moments the entire free air was raining with whistles that crashed into the ground a good half dozen meters below them. The walkway they were on was shuddering worse than ever now, loud creaks and groans added to show the structure was not happy. For that matter the entire place didn't seem very happy. The walls were starting to crumble as the floor continued to light up with small explosions that filled the air with smoke and as well as the falling whatevers, the roof in general was starting to drop bits of rubble on top of them all.

"Come on hurry up, keep moving. One of the supports are going to fail if it continues on like this and we'll be fucked then." The army guy barked back at them as he tried to urge the giant ahead of them all.

"He's going to jinx us again.."

"Oh shut up Sulphur, if I didn't know any better I'd say it was you who jinxed us all the time."

"Hey!"

The giant, the army guy, the old guy, the whining morph and the nerd had all made it before there was an explosion large enough to rock the entire walkway so hard that it twisted some of the supports. With that first push everything became unstable, it now wasn't taking much to send the whole thing shuddering violently down it's entire length so bad that it was near impossible to stand. The thing was lurching this way and that, groaning as if it were in it's last death throes.

"Come on girl, get up, we've got to keep going, it's just a couple more meters," and she suddenly found an arm around her again after having lost it after that first big lurch. As the arm took a better grip around her she was heaved up onto her feet then leaned closer to one of the side railings as the structure lurched heavily to one side again, trying to slide her feet out from under her once more. "Just keep your footing and hold onto this rail, use your hands and pull yourself along if you have to. But keep moving I'll be right behind you." And the arm was gone again leaving her to grab at the railings and pull herself closer to it to steady herself as the thing lurched yet again. "MOVE GIRL!" Yelping in surprise at the force of the woman's voice she started pulling herself along, ignoring the sickening feeling in her stomach and the near deafening sounds of the distressing groans the walkway was making, the still continuous whistlings of things falling around her ears then the explosions as what ever they were hit the ground below.

Suddenly the entire structure buckled and within moments it was falling down towards the ground below. She screamed and she knew the woman behind her had as well. A jolt to her leg and she stopped the scream with a loud yelp as her knees jarred from the sudden shock. But to her surprise she wasn't rolling down off the walk way, it was flat and unmoving again, only shaking slightly as it continued to groan in complaint. "What the-?" she looked up to see the giant had grabbed hold of the end of the walkway between his large hands, bracing himself with his legs to hold it up and keep it from continuing to fall. The strain wasn't obvious on him, but the urgent tones of voices that found there way to her ears over all the other noises told her to hurry up. Gathering herself together again she ran the rest of the way, letting go her tight grip on the railing as the walkway was still enough that she wasn't so worried she'd fall off. Nearly the moment she'd reached the entrance way to the next area and just got past the giant the woman fell in behind her and with that there was a tremendous crash as the giant let go of the structure and let it fall the rest of the way to the ground. Everyone braced themselves for a moment against the walls before rushing further ahead, scared that the entrance way might collapse after the support of the walkway had been removed.

Finding herself near the front of the group she found herself one of the first within the next room. Tiny compared to the last, but still a good deal larger than the room she'd found herself in at the start. This room had only two features. A desk with a computer console next to it and a black doorway that wasn't the one she'd come through. The wall the black door was in was entirely made of dirt and rock, which was completely different to the usual grey steel that seemed to make up the rest of the complex.

She spun around as the rest of them filed into the room after her, "Where are we now?" she tried to ask anyone. But yet again she was ignored as they all moved to different points in the room, the giant staying closest to the door while the old guy with the nerd and army guy stepped over to the computer console.

"See, just like I said, perfectly fine. There shouldn't be any problems and if you follow these directions exactly you should be all right. Uh, so who would be up to going first?" The older guy didn't seem so sure of himself as he picked up a small stack of papers from the desk and looked around.

"I'll go first, I've been studying this and I'm sure I could remember the directions well enough we wont get lost.." The nerd mumbled as he leaned over the computer console then the older man to look at the papers. "I know how this thing works. Where as these others don't." He waved a hand in everyone else's general direction. "There should be no problems." She didn't like that snobby sort of voice the nerd had, but doubted she could do much about it.

"Fine fine, if you're sure then David. Here take these.. and these too, you might need to use them," and the older man started shuffling through the papers in front of him, picking out one or two every now and then and handing them to the younger man.

Bored, she looked around to everyone else. The morph was obviously panicky, dancing on the spot and bothering the woman where she stood nearby. The woman herself seemed somewhat nervous but attempting to hide it as she snapped at the annoying hyper-activity directed at her from the morph. The giant seemed oblivious again as it watched down the entrance way they'd come from for whatever might come after them. And then there was the three men by the console. The nerd and the scientist were busy with the papers while the army guy was attempting to try and understand some of what was going on between them, but was obviously floundering between all the techno babble. That left her the odd one out. The only one really not understanding what was going on, what they wanted with her, what she was doing there, where she was, where was she going and a whole heap of other things. She sighed and took a step back. "Why'd they have to come and get me.. I was doing just fine where I was."

She had the chance to mull over her thoughts for the next fifteen minutes or so until something else happened. She was too uncertain of herself to go up to any of the others and ask them something. Anyway, they seemed busy, well most. The woman and jittery morph had parted, but the woman looked broody and the morph kept giving her odd looks she didn't appreciate.

The giant was the first to make a noise other than the swapping of thoughts between the three at the console. "Come-Ing.." Everyone had looked up in moments. Shaken out of whatever world they'd been in previously with the word the giant said. "What's coming 'Bur?" The army guy quickly hurried over next to the giant and looked up past him down the entrance way. He quickly turned on his heels and dived to the ground, "Oh Shit! DUCK!" Everyone hit the floor as a burst of flames exploded outwards from the entrance way, frying everything black the flames could reach.

On his feet again in moments he'd gone back to the console and grabbed the two still there and was dragging them towards the black door as quickly as possible, grabbing the black morph by one of his ears on his way. "Come on everyone, it's time to leave. No more time to delay now. They're in the containment center we were in. They'll be in here any moment."

The woman quickly hurried of her own accord towards the black door, all nervousness of previous gone as fear for what was coming over took it. She would of stayed frozen to the spot if it weren't for the fact a very large hand found itself around her waist and picked her up on it's owners way to the black door. Surprisingly warm she looked up at the pure black giant. He hadn't been able to get out of the way of the blast quite quick enough, he was scorched black from the flames that had blasted him. He didn't seem the slightest bit phased though, he just smiled down at her with white teeth and took the last few steps to the doorway and put her down again in front of himself.

"Ok, David first, he knows where we're going. Sue you're next, hold onto Sulpher tight wont you? We don't need him startling and trying to break away. We'll have the girl next," The army guy paused to glare at the black morph as he made to complain after glancing at her to make sure she was nearby, "Then Conner, 'Bur and I'll be last. Any questions?"

No one made a sound for a couple of seconds before the older man spoke up cautiously. "Actually, I'll come last, I have something I'll need to do once everyone's gone to make sure we aren't followed." The army guy glared at him, "You can show me what's to be done and I'll do it, you're not coming last." "No, no. I'm sorry. But I have to do it, you wont remember it all. Don't worry, I'll be fine." He smiled weakly and the black morph shuffled nervously.

Another blast of flames shot up out of the entrance way followed by an echo of child like laughter.

"Shit."

"Come on, we have to leave now."

"They know we're here Sir."

"They're gonna kill us, they're gonna kills us, they're gonna kill us."

"Fine. Everyone move. NOW!"

And suddenly everyone had at least one hand in the palm of anothers and a chain had formed between them all. Next moment they were moving. The nerd disappearing first through the black door, quickly followed next by the woman who held her breath as she passed over the line, then the black morph who's ears were lowered and pinned back as well as his eyes scrunched tightly closed as he follow after. She was next and found herself tugged slightly as she felt the giant's hand around hers and his unmovable resistance to her moving forwards.

"Don't look at me like that. You've got no other way to combat them and they'll know how to follow you through one of these. They helped make this thing!"

An argument had broken out between the army guy and the older man, the giant wasn't willing to move forwards until it knew it was being followed. The tugging on both of her arms was not enjoyable.

"There has to be another way, you wont stand a chance against them!"

"A better one than you will. Anyways, get moving, they're nearly here, you can hear them. And if we can hear them they can hear us. And you know what that means! Move man!"

A burst of laughter froze the four figures as they all looked towards the entrance way. But they didn't have time to wonder. The older man had shoved the army guy towards the giant. "Take him 'Bur, don't let him go whatever he says, he wont live otherwise." The giant didn't seem to move, but he had the army guy tightly within his hold before she even knew what was happening.

"Just remember to tell her! Find the others! But tell her! Don't forget-!"

She didn't hear any more. With a fierce tug and the slack on her other arm she was pulled through the black door that hadn't really been a door at all, but a black part of the wall and into a world of darkness.

"Oh shi-!"


Click.

Cybernetics™ would like to Congratulate you on making your first Cybernetic™ purchase.

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A note from Head administrator of Cybernetics Inc, Gerald De 'Jar the 5th.


Life started out fine for me. Perfect in fact. I'd of had it no other way, despite everything that has happened within it since and what others may think. I have found it perfect and would not remove a moment of it from my existence.

I have always had the best of life, coming from a rich and extensive family I had anything I could possibly ask for when ever I should desire to ask.

People are often unsurprised when I tell them what my parents did for a living, my Mother, January Sa'rule De 'Jar, was an engineer and scientist for Silph Co. working on all the latest technological advancements for our civilisation and my Father, Sean Perry De 'Jar was a Pokemon Researcher, one of the last remaining in our day and age.

My parents loved and cared for each other dearly, that was beyond doubt. But they did have one thing they disputed often about, this was the relevance of Pokemon in the modern day. My Father was of the old beliefs that Pokemon were what made the world go round, that it was because of them that we became what we are now. Where as my Mother believed strongly that humans were the ultimate creation upon this world and it was only because we chose so that Pokemon were even still in abundance, that if it weren't for the human race, Pokemon could never of lasted as long as they have and that now it was the time to go beyond their capabilities, to make a stand alone for our own race, to no longer depend on another. The arguments that raged over this subject would leave the house hold in dishevel for days, even weeks at a time. But my parents loved each other, and, eventually, they'd make up and get on with things. The subject of the relevance of Pokemon was a very tentative one within our household and those who lived there and even those who visited learnt better than to bring it up, least they be brought into the argument.

Of course, nothing remains like it is forever, things change as others happen creating new situations and outcomes.

It was my Mother's fault. She worked long hours away from the house, in her office over the weekends and holidays, away from the family. My Father should of realised something was wrong, that something was going on. But he was blind and held strong his beliefs. He died the day he found out his wife had been having an affair for nearly two years. Not in the literal sense of course, it was my Father who gave me the idea for what I do now, and that wasn't for another ten years or so. No, my Father died inside, he became a living shell devoid of emotions. It was a strange experience as a child. At the time I had no idea, I was barely ten years old and nothing was ever said of what had happened to me. The family unit did not break up, we remained as one. Cold and lifeless for the most, but with that rare occasional glimpse of warmth every now and then.

With my Father's death his job, his life's work began to fall around him. He barely noticed of course, he cared nothing for it any longer. It did make little difference to the house as it was, my Mother was the main bread winner, she brought home the income and money we lived comfortably on. My Father's chosen life style was more a hobby as far as it was financially concerned. No one needed or cared enough about Pokemon anymore to really need his line of work, his professional help with anything. So when it disappeared there was really no one to complain or worry about it.

So we continued life as we had. The only real difference, my Father's increased presence around the house. But I didn't mind, I had more chance to socialise with a man I knew little about and looked up to. Though I soon gave up on that endeavour as he'd more often than not just wave me off, leaving him to sit with his single Pokemon my Mother would allow within the house. A small golden furred electric mouse, a Pikachu.

As I grew and learnt, I found myself more interested in my Mother's taste of work. The synthetic, the human made and created. Technology was all around us and I was learning how it was thought of, created and made. An interesting process to say the least.

Things were changing, people were looking for something new. Pokemon were no longer the entertainment they had once been, the novelty of the anthro's was wearing thin. People wanted new interests, something to spoil themselves with. Gaming and the sort were all good and well for their own purpose, but people wanted something more there, physical, that they could put their hands on.

Twenty-five and my Father's last few traces of life that he'd gradually regained back were disappearing again. His pet, his prized possession, it was dying. There was nothing that could done for it, the creature had lived the full length of life the rodent Pokemon was restricted to. My Father knew this, but would not believe. He went to all the specialists he could find, anyone who he thought might even give the slightest chance of help. But of course there was no one.

Two things happened at once around this time. First I realised my love for my Synthetic. And as I did, I realised something, something I could do to change things. I was too late to help my Father, he died soon after his pet as my first few projects failed. But I had the idea, something new had been borne and I was determined to succeed.

It took time, a lot of patience, but I started getting somewhere. There was one problem though, one thing I just couldn't get past to get it all to work. As hard as I tried as many different solutions as I could think of, they all failed. It was as if I was doomed to fail despite everything.

Then Sin saved me.

Logged: GDeJV


Two Years Previous.


I was one of the first to get a Cybernetic. Not surprising really when you realise where it is I lived.

My mother is one of the servants for one of the richest men in the world, Gerald De 'Jar, the head honcho dude of Cybernetics Incorporated, and with her being one of the head honcho ladies in the manor, we lived on the property. That of course doesn't really mean that I had to have one, like really, why would one of the richest guys in the world care about a servants kid? Well actually you're right, he didn't give a crap about me. It was his son, Sean De'Jar II, he gave me one of his when we were a lot younger. Despite the fact I was two years older than him we were best friends. I was the only young person nearby, so we were kinda friends by default really.

It wasn't that great of course, it was pretty much a prototype of what eventually came out as public merchandise, breaking down all the time and malfunctioning so often you wouldn't believe, but it was a Cybernetic. Very chunky and ungainly like in appearance, it didn't even look much like the Pokemon it was supposed to represent and it didn't have any of the proper features any standard Cybernetic has now, but it was incredible at the time.

Sean had said to his father at some point we were friends and that if he was gonna give him stuff to test out, it'd be better if we both got one so we could play together. I guess his dad thought that was ok, or good research or something like that and so I got one of the next Cybernetics that was released along with Sean.

I was six and he was four at the time and I really wish I'd been able to keep that first one. It'd be an extremely valuable collectors item now. Just imagine it, a genuine prototype Cybernetic, it'd be like, nearly priceless. Oh well.

A couple of years went by and we kept being given the upgraded models as they came out as prototypes, to try them out and all. Every one was a major improvement over the last, something new and utterly cool about it that made it that much better than the previous. Four years on from the first one and we got the first element prototypes, one of the ones that could actually do real fighting. A QUIL487 and SQui443. It was the first time I'd ever even seen something with elements made into it, and well, it totally surprised me the first time mine suddenly burst into flames. Me and Sean had great fun playing with the fire and water elements that had been put into the new Cybernetics. All the previous models had been modelled after Rattata, Sentret and other simple normal type Pokemon.

One more year and the first few Cybernetics were on the market. I was so proud that I already had one and that whenever something new came out (as more and more did), I always had it months before anyone else, excluding of course Sean. I would show off every chance I could get, boast and the such like to any who'd listen. And believe me there were always a lot of them, most of them were rich snobs who couldn't believe a servants child could have things better than them, but that just made it all the better. I loved it and Sean didn't seem to mind it that much either when he got the chances to be there as well.

We had the best matches against each other, me and Sean. Despite the fact he was two years younger than me he was more the able to equal my abilities. It helped we had the same equal equipment of course.

A couple more years still and Cybernetics were cheap enough for the average person to start being able to purchase the older models as bigger and better ones kept coming out at the top of the range. It was around then I found the one Cybernetic for me. The one I fell in love with and became my prized possession. It was one of the later models that me and Sean weren't allowed to be testers for because it was too powerful for us to control if it managed to malfunction or just generally went crazy on us. As some of the prototypes happened to do. An ARC48770.

I didn't actually get to see him until a couple of months after he'd come out. Sitting in one of the major department store windows in central Neon City. Just staring blankly forwards with a dull eye as he waited to be installed and have his programs uploaded to bring him to life. He was the top of the range then. And by top of the range I mean that maybe eight people in the entire world could of afforded him at the time. Waaay out of my price range. I had absolutely no chance of being able to get him. As much as I could of begged and pleaded I new there was no possible way I'd be able to get him. It wasn't just the price, no one believed I was old enough yet to be able to control something as powerful as an ARC.

More years passed and Cybernetics had officially become 'the in thing', everyone who was anyone had one, and even those who weren't did as well. Pretty much everyone had a Cybernetic and the first tournaments started as all the improvements, the add-ons, all the extras started coming out into the market to improve your Cybernetic.

Thirteen, nearly fourteen and I had won out nationally as the Cybernetic champion. No one could beat me, no matter what I was given and who opposed me. But I didn't have my own Cybernetic. Well, I had heaps really by then, but none of them really clicked with me so much that I wanted to keep them over any extended period of time. Most of the time they were traded in for something better, or given to Sean. He seemed to enjoy the company of the things increasingly, despite the fact he'd started to lose the want to battle them against each other.

Finally fourteen and I still hadn't found a Cybernetic I clicked with like I wanted. I celebrated my birthday back in Neon City, my home town. Sean was there as well as all the new friends I'd made travelling around, competing for the National Champion title. It was a ball, one of the best days of my life as I had a party like I'd never had before. So many people and so much extravagance. With my title I'd won a bundle of money as well as some of the newest and best Cybernetics inhancers. My ma thought that since I'd worked so hard for what I'd won and well, I dunno, other stuff I guess, she let me have a real big party in one of the poshest places in Neon City.

I hardly saw Sean at all during the party but I don't think I really noticed until the next day. He didn't seem to mind so much though. He dragged me back to his place, just out of the City on the next day, muttering something about a surprise.

I nearly fainted when I saw what he'd got me. It was an ARC.

I couldn't stop saying my thanks to him for weeks afterwards. I was so damned happy that I'd finally gotten the one thing I'd wanted for so long. Despite all the Cybernetics I'd used and had over the years, I still had never managed to get an ARC unit until that point. There was just something about them that stopped people from giving one to me, or maybe it was just fate that I was supposed to get this certain one. I'm not that sure, but I know I was so damned pleased to get that ARC that I didn't even notice for ages what bad shape he was in until I started trying to add various enhancements I'd been saving up for something special. He needed to be completely revamped, all his hard drives completely wiped then to be re-installed. But after it was all done and worked out I had the best team mate I could ever of possibly dreamed of.

I had my ARC.

Jamie.


Later.


I didn't really know my father. He was a strange man, even to me.

He didn't seem to be able to relate with anyone. Except maybe his creations.. and the woman I called mother. Who couldn't possibly of been as such.

I'm not really worried about this. Not troubled either, despite what numerable therapists and psychiatrists might believe.

I had a friend. One true friend through my life and that was all I needed.

Jamie was a servants son, but I didn't understand that in the beginning, and even after I learnt what that meant, it made no difference to my opinion of him. Jamie was my best friend. My only friend for most of my younger life. Teachers, tutors, educators, well, those sorts of people, (all uppercrust, as is to be expected for a family so well off,) they thought it wrong I associate with someone of a lower class, that I should be friends with the other rich people's children. But they were shallow, with very little substance or anything to them. Like my father in a way. I couldn't relate to them nor them to me. They thought I was weird, odd, strange. I wasn't like them, I didn't act like them.

Jamie never seemed to notice, or care. He was just my friend.

That's why I got him the ARC.

Because he was my friend.


And that's part one. Once I figure out what happens next I'll get that up ;

Bye! wavies

Hope you enjoyed n such.

ps. if Alto Mare isn't the name of the water city for the new movie, can someone say, I'm not really totally sure. Thanks anyways.