Trigger warnings that apply for basically the entire series: Blood and Gore, death, violence, child abuse, adult language, attempted suicide, suicide, suggestive themes, alcohol, abandonment, theft, outright terrorism, and trauma of pretty much every variety I can think of. THIS STORY IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, AND IF YOU HAVE ANY KNOWLEDGE OF THE POKEMON REBORN FAN GAME THAT THIS STORY IS BASED OFF OF, YOU KNOW HOW BAD IT GETS. I REPEAT, THIS STORY IS NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART, AND CAUTION IS ADVISED. IF AT ANY POINT THIS STORY STARTS TO MAKE YOU FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE OR UPSET, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT KEEP READING.
This story is based off of a fantastic Pokemon Fan game created by Amethyst and Chasing Selene. All credit for the idea of Pokemon Reborn goes to them, and of course the credit for Pokemon itself goes to Game Freak and Nintendo. If you have not played Pokemon Reborn for yourself, I cannot recommend it enough, however it is also not your normal Butterfrees and rainbows children's game. It can get very dark, very quickly, and before you know it one of your favorite characters may end up dead. As in, DEAD dead. "Claw of a Garchomp in their face" and "Death by way of a Hydreigon's mouth" kind of dead. So yeah, prepare yourself, because just like the game, this is going to be one WILD ride.
With all of that out of the way, here are the necessary trigger warnings for this specific chapter: Death, violence, and outright terrorism.
Chapter 1: Welcome to Reborn City
Vero Espenson stared out the train window into the vast, barren desert on the other side of the glass. His fingers twitched on his pants leg as he watched a rock streak out of sight as quickly as it had appeared.
"The Tourmaline Desert, huh? I can't think of anywhere back home that was this devoid of life…" he thought to himself.
Another rock flashed past the window as the white haired lady shook hands with another one of the Pokemon-less trainers and started walking towards him. Sitting down on the bench across from him, the lady nodded to him. "Sorry for the wait. My name is Amethyst, but you can just call me Ame. I'm the manager of the Reborn League in this city. Who are you?"
Vero distractedly looked out the window, but nodded. "Vero," he replied simply, and Ame looked at a clipboard in her hand. After a moment, she mumbled something as she saw his name and checked it off of a list of people who had signed up to take the Reborn League challenge.
"Vero Espenson?" she asked, and the black haired boy nodded. "Gotcha… and it says here that you're from Kanto, right? You're certainly a long way from home."
Vero's mind flashed back to when he'd said goodbye to his grandmother and little sister at the docks in Vermillion city, on a boat bound for Castelia city in Unova. From there, he rode a bus to Nimbasa city, and then finally got on the train to Reborn city. "Yeah, I guess I am," he mused.
Vero had grown up mostly without parents. His mother had died giving birth to his sister five years earlier, his dad hadn't been around them much after the funeral. He still tried to support them as much as he could, but with how much Adaline and Vero looked like their late mother, Vero could understand where he was coming from whenever he'd told them how hard it was to look at them. Almost.
Vero's grandmother had tried her best to raise her two grandchildren, but at her age, that was something much more easily said than done, and her absentee son in law hadn't made things any easier by choosing to distance himself from the family. Ultimately, it seemed that Vero had had more interactions with his father during the few weeks when they had worked to acquire his ticket to Reborn City than he had during the rest of his life.
"...after the incident a few years ago, the Reborn region was almost abandoned, even by the Pokemon there," Ame was saying, seemingly unaware that Vero had zoned out. "But don't let that worry you. There are still plenty living in the city. And our gym leaders aren't like any you've ever seen anywhere else."
At that moment, Vero watched another rock flash by, and suddenly, an Absol leapt off of it and started to run with the train. The horned creature howled once, its eyes gazing directly at Vero's, and then it broke off and ran out into the desert. "What was that?" Vero wondered, before turning to look back at Ame, who had stopped talking and was staring over Vero's shoulder. Turning around to look at whatever she was staring at, Vero could see nothing but the trainer calling themselves Decibel, another teenager like Vero that was sitting on his train car. But what he thought he saw was something completely different, as for a split second, a faint shadow hovered over him before disappearing.
Ame looked out the window. By now the massive walls of Reborn City had come into view. "Something's wrong…" she muttered. "We should be decelerating by now."
As the car screamed past the massive gates, a distinct beeping sound resonated through the floor. Ame's face suddenly transformed into one of panic. "Oh no! Move!" she exclaimed, dashing around the table and pushing herself and Vero through the window seconds before everything went white, and massive fireballs erupted from underneath each of the train cars right in the middle of the train station.
Vero laid on the stone cold tiles of a sidewalk, the sun barely reaching his face through the dense clouds of polluted air. A harsh ringing echoed in his ears as someone called out to him from a distance. "Grandma…? Adaline?" he thought to himself.
The same voice called out again, this time louder. "Hey! Wake up, are you all right?!" they exclaimed.
Vero groaned, his head still pounding from something hitting it, and hard. The voice sighed. "We don't have time for this. Invidia!" they said, and then Vero heard a strange cry that sounded like a Pokemon. "Use heal bell!"
Immediately, the ringing and pounding stopped. Opening his eyes, Vero saw the almost pitch black clouds and began to cough, the putrid scent of the brown colored lake and the thick, heavy air overwhelming him. "Thank goodness you're okay. I think that train exploded as it pulled into the station after we jumped out of it."
"Urgh…" he groaned. "Wh-" he started to say, only to be cut off by another hacking cough. "What happened? And where am I?" he asked.
"Let's get you up off the ground first," Ame said, extending a hand with a smile. Grasping her hand, Vero stood up and looked around, taking in the sights, of which many were quite similar. For the most part, everything was a dark, almost apocalyptic gray, with the exception of the bright red roof of a Pokemon Center behind them, a stark contrast to the rest of the bleak looking buildings around them. Aside from that, the only bright color was the orange-yellow flames licking up rubble in the train station in front of them, while police officers attempted to douse the flames with various small water type Pokemon.
"I can't answer your first question right now. I know as much as you," Ame said to the boy as she recalled her Sylveon. "But as for your other question, this is Reborn city, specifically the Peridot Ward."
"Tch, wow. That stationmaster wasn't kidding when he said this place had seen better days," Vero mused. Ame simply nodded in agreement.
"Yeah, it has, unfortunately. A couple of years ago, everything started to take a turn for the worst. Earthquakes destroyed Yureyu, the economic powerhouse of the region, which also turned off the power stations. Then, the water treatment plants fell offline one by one, and well, the region never fully recovered," Ame explained, leading them towards the rubble of a large station.
They had just reached the remains of the station when two police officers suddenly ran up to them with a Growlithe at each of their sides. "Ms. Liddel! Thank goodness you made it out!" one of them exclaimed, saluting to her while the other had his Growlithe sniff at Vero.
Ame giggled slightly. "No, don't worry Officer Jacob. We're shaken, and a bit rattled, but otherwise unharmed…" she trailed off, looking at the smoking rubble of the train station. "I'm just glad I could get us out of there in time, but everyone else… Why did this have to happen? Who would even-" she started to wonder.
"Hi! Hi!" a high pitched voice suddenly interrupted.
Ame rolled her eyes and looked in the direction the voice came from. "Julia… What did you do?" she asked a green haired girl with a large ponytail who was running towards them. The girl jumped into the air and did a series of flips with precision athleticism, before landing on the ground and letting out a gasp as she saw the destruction up close.
The newcomer let out a shocked gasp as she stared at Ame. "Whaaaat? I didn't do anything! I was over at my gym trying out some new explosives some guy dropped by the front door of my gym, when suddenly there was ANOTHER explosion, and one that somehow I didn't know was going to happen! That's when I came running over here!" she said with a silly smile, either uncaring or oblivious to the destruction around her.
Ame turned back to Vero. "Don't worry about her, I didn't think she'd do something like this. Julia just has a flair for pyrotechnics and explosions, so I had to ask, even though she's one of Reborn's Gym leaders," she explained, to which Vero nodded. Turning back around, Ame smiled at Julia. "So then, why are you here, Julia?"
"Well, duh!" she answered quickly. "Things were exploding, so you know I've got to be there to see it! Honestly Ame! I thought you knew me better than that!"
Ame rolled her eyes again, and Julia ignored it. "Uh huh… Well, based on the timing, this must have been a deliberate attack. Somebody rigged the train to destroy Grandview station… Or maybe… I wonder if it was… no, it couldn't have been," she said, staring off into space.
"Well, if they wanted to destroy it, they could've tried a little harder!" Julia exclaimed in a mock pouting voice. "I mean, come on! The structure is still standing! What's up with that?" she said, muttering something about it being a six out of ten job at the best under her breath.
Ame suddenly stopped spacing out. "Well, at any rate. Whoever was behind this attack could still be monitoring it from nearby. Julia, get this perimeter locked down, and try not to blow anything else up, okay?" she said, and the gym leader nodded. "Officer Jacob, I appreciate you coming out here to help, but I need you back in Jasper Ward to figure out what's going on with the vegetation there."
"Got it. Daniel, let's get moving," he said to his partner, before bending down and rubbing his Growlithe behind her ears. "Come on, Trooper!" With that, the two officers ran off down the tracks behind them.
Ame turned to Vero again. "As for us, Let's get your adventure here started, and hopefully without anything else spiraling horribly out of control today. Follow me, because we're getting you a pokemon."
Vero grinned, finally perking up. A starter pokemon was something he'd wanted his entire life, but between taking care of his elderly grandmother, his schoolwork, and entertaining Adaline, he'd never gotten the chance. Now, he had an opportunity, and he did not intend to waste it. As Ame walked ahead, her eyes alert for any danger, Vero followed close behind her, wondering what pokemon he'd be able to pick from.
Walking down the street, Vero and Ame came to a large section of stairs, with a massive dome in the middle. Ame walked up the second set of stairs towards the dome, when a girl with long, black hair, and wearing a long, gray kimono sprinted towards them through a set of large double doors in the dome. On her belt was a single pokeball.
"Ah, Victoria. Good to see you. You've got your starter, then?" Ame said, shaking the girl's hand.
"Yes, thanks to the assistants, I've gotten myself a Litten," she said, before shaking her head. "But more importantly, are you okay? The explosion went off right as I was finding his pokeball. You could see the smoke and flames all the way from here!"
Ame nodded. "Thank you. Fortunately, Shade was able to warn me about the bomb just in time to get myself and Vero out of the train before it detonated. I wish I could say the same about the others though."
Victoria shook her head. "Don't beat yourself up about it. Kiki would say that you did everything you could, and since none of us knew about the bomb ahead of time, there wasn't anything more you could do. You saved one of the trainers at least, so that amounts to something, doesn't it?" she replied, and after a moment, Ame nodded.
"Yes, you're right. And your sensei has taught you well. Why don't you both follow me, and we'll get Vero his starter pokemon," she agreed, leading the two of them inside the Grand Hall.
Inside, a man with long, pointed purple hair waited for them just beside the door. "Ame," he said, startling Victoria.
"Woah!" she exclaimed. "Where did you come from? You weren't there a second ago!" she said.
"I heard about what happened, and presently I am able to assist," the man said, ignoring Victoria's comment.
Ame nodded, and then turned back to Vero and Victoria. "Victoria, I'll deal with this. Would you mind showing Vero to the starter pokemon?"
Victoria nodded. "Sure thing. Come on, Vero, let's get you all set up and ready to go!" she said, leading Vero past the counters at the back of the hall. "Right this way! This is the most exciting part of a pokemon journey!"
Stepping onto the second floor, Vero saw three rows of tables, each colored in green, red, and blue. One pokeball was missing from the end of the red table, and Victoria kneeled down against the wall and released her starter pokemon, a small black and red kitten. "This is the starter I chose, Litten. You can choose from any of the pokemon on those tables."
Vero walked over to the tables, when suddenly Victoria called out from behind him. "Oh, right! Ame told me there were more trainers coming today, so she asked me to give each of you one of these!" she said, tossing him a small device. "It's called a scanner. I know right? Original," she said, rolling her eyes. "Anyway, it's a nifty piece of equipment. It functions as a map, a pokegear, your pokedex, and more. Try it on!"
Vero nodded, and slipped the device onto his head. It had a small semicircle ring on one side, which fit nicely over his right ear. A translucent green screen stuck out in front of his right eye, lighting up with all sorts of information as soon as he put the device on.
Out of nowhere, a massive explosion rocked the building and collapsed the floor underneath them. The pokeballs tumbled through the floor, scattering all over the place as Vero and Victoria both screamed in surprise, sliding down the floor and hitting the ground with a thud.
The building was in chaos. Strange men in black suits and hoods were all over the place, not trying to steal anything, but simply causing as much damage as possible with their pokemon, or with grenades and other weaponry. Victoria narrowed her eyes, and commanded her Litten to use scratch on a man approaching two cornered children. At the same time, a purple haired boy was commanding a Nidoran to use poison sting on another hooded man's Rattata.
Vero looked around in shock, seeing no sign of Ame or the other man she was talking to the last time he'd seen her. Suddenly, there was a shout of terror as a piece of rubble came plummeting down towards a small boy. Without even thinking, Vero instinctively rushed over to him, but he was too late as the rebar and cement reached the child first.
Shock turned to rage as he saw a hooded man cackle at the sight, before sending out a voltorb and pointing at Vero. "Go Voltorb! Use spark on that boy!"
Vero gasped, and frantically dived out of the way before seeing a stray pokeball lying on the ground. Grabbing it, he threw the ball, not caring what pokemon was inside, only hoping that he'd be able to use it to defend himself. Out of the flash of light came a green, quadrupedal beast.
"A Bulbasaur? I'll take it," Vero muttered. The scanner flared to life as it recognized that the battle had begun properly, and showed him all manner of images and statistics, from Bulbasaur's moves, stats, and his Grass and Poison typing, to the known moves of his assailant's voltorb, being just spark.
"All right then, Bulbasaur! Use tackle!" he exclaimed, and the small pokemon answered with a battle cry, before leaping forward and slamming his whole body into the Voltorb. The small, pokeball-like creature rolled backward towards its trainer, it's eyes shut.
The man took a startled step back, before snarling at Vero. "Why you little…" he muttered, before picking up the Voltorb and throwing it at Vero. "Self Destruct!" he shouted as the Voltorb flew through the air and towards Vero, glowing with the stored energy it was about to release in a dangerous explosion.
"Freeze it!"
From nowhere, a powerful gust of ice cold wind rushed towards the Voltorb and sent it flying off to the side in a ball of ice. In the doorway stood Ame, her Alolan Ninetales whipping its flowing, rainbow colored tails around as it froze the other hooded men and women attacking the people in the Grand Hall. Knowing he was beat, the man Vero had been fighting grunted, and then shoved his way past Ame and her Ninetales to escape. However, he hadn't even gotten down the stairs when the Ninetales turned her Blizzard on him, freezing him in place long enough for two police officers to run over and handcuff him.
"Sorry I took so long, I was in the process of getting that man set up to help distribute medical aid in Peridot ward when the bomb went off," Ame explained.
"It's all right. Well, I am, anyway. Wish I could say the same about some of the people in the Grand Hall though," Vero admitted, his mind flashing back to the child's scream moments before being crushed. He shuddered, and Ame put one arm around his back.
"Hey, remember what Victoria said? As long as you do your best every day, you've done good. That's all any of us can really hope for with people running around bombing us like this. And don't worry about these lunatics. I'll get them into custody and figure out what their game is," Ame promised, and Vero nodded.
"Good," he said, and Ame began to walk away towards the downstairs portion of the building. "Oh, Ame?" he called out, and the white haired league manager turned around. "Thanks… for saving my life, twice now."
Ame giggled. "It's no problem! I'm glad I could save at least one of the trainers on that train, so you're welcome."
Vero nodded, and then turned around. Victoria was over by the pokemon center built into the Grand Hall, helping move supplies around with Nurse Joy.
"What do you think, Bulbasaur?" Vero asked his pokemon, which rubbed his head against Vero's leg affectionately. "Yeah, I agree. Time to get to work."
A/N: Yeah, I can already tell this is going to be a very, VERY big change of pace from my other fanfics. Oh, right, elephant in the room. I'm back. Yeah, sorry for the hiatus y'all, but college was kicking my butt (well, it still is to be totally fair, but just not so much that my daily activities are eat, sleep, practice music, and study), but yeah, I'm back and boy have I got some ideas to throw at you.
Like I said and like you can clearly see, this is not your normal pokemon game. I'm taking a couple liberties with the game, mainly toning down the cursing for some characters, and also adding some of my own ideas and events to it, but for the vast majority of this fanfic, it's going to roughly be a a retelling of Pokemon Reborn.