A/N: Hiya, it's Heats, welcome to Revolution, my new pet project.
As some may know, I'm from Romania, and we also had a violent revolution overthrowing a brutal communist dictator. In fact, some of my family died in the struggle. As a result, I've always been interested in combining the 1989 Romanian Revolution and Pokemon. So, here it is! There'll be some Romanian words sprinkled throughout, but 99.9% of the fic is English. I wanted to keep the story under 2,000 words for a breezy introduction, and then expand greatly in chapter 2. Expect the second chapter to be long.
I'll be working on this, and my other fic, Frozen Hearts. How often will I update? Who knows.
Enjoy chapter one, Follow/Fav/Review, as always :)
"DOWN WITH THE TYRANT! DOWN WITH CEASVLEY!"
"DOWN WITH THE TYRANT! DOWN WITH CEASVLEY!"
"DOWN WITH THE TYRANT! DOWN WITH CEASVLEY!"
Gardevoir peered out to the agitated crowd, seemingly increasing in volume with each shout. Thousands of people and Pokemon alike packed into the square, flying flags and setting off bright red flares, waving the flag of the Sinnoh People's Republic with the insignia cut out. The sky cast a dreary grey clouded cover, a perfect macabre fit for the events of the day. Jubilife City was nicknamed the "City of Joy" for its energy and sheer size, a laughable designation as of present day. In the background, grey and black smoke plumes rose from distant reaches of the city. Gardevoir glanced to the east. The Global Terminal Building, the largest in Jubilife City, was ablaze. This situation had gotten completely out of hand. Where was the Securitate, weren't they formed for this sort of situation? The crowd continued to chant.
"DOWN WITH THE TYRANT! DOWN WITH CEASVLEY!"
"DOWN WITH THE TYRANT! DOWN WITH CEASVLEY!"
"DOWN WITH THE TYRANT! DOWN WITH CEASVLEY!"
Their ire was directed towards a particular building at the very north end of the square, a neoclassical type palace adorned with columns, baroque design, and a large rotunda on the roof. This was the "Palace of the Republic." On the south wing of the palace hung a large stone carved balcony overlooking the square, which was where Gardveoir was located, hiding behind a marble slabbed column so the crowd wouldn't be alerted to his presence. A revolution was brewing right before his eyes. They only seemed to get more and more agitated, as some chants contained Juba, the native language of the Sinnohian West Coast.
"DOWN WITH THE TYRANT! DOWN WITH CEASVLEY!"
"NOI SUNTEM POPORUL!"
"DOWN WITH THE TYRANT! DOWN WITH CEASVLEY!"
"JOS DICTATORUL!"
"Garvy, get in here, right away!" urgently beckoned a voice from within the palace. The faint sounds of explosions could be heard in the distance. Without thinking twice, Gardevoir, keeping his head down, zoomed from his pillar and slipped through the glass door leading into the palace, taking one last glance at the massive congregation of humanity and Pokemon that had gathered in the open square. The inside of the building was just as grand as the outside, intricate gold plated walls, marble floors, it was a palace built for royalty. Slipping back inside through the glass doors, Gardevoir groaned in frustration, slumping to the ground and running his hand over his face.
"Mihai, there's thousands of them. Tens of thousands of them. What the hell set them off? What are we gonna do here?" inquired the Gardevoir, glancing up at his counterpart. Standing a metre or so away stood a white, bipedal Pokemon with sharpened arms and a gladiator like helmet.
"I… I don't know, Garvy. Master Katharina has been in her room for hours now. Maybe she can get the army out here… if the army is even still loyal…" meekly muttered the Gallade, staring down at the white marble floors. Gardevoir, who was commonly addressed by the nickname of Garvy, sighed once more. He knew this thing would happen eventually. No matter how many times he tried to urge Katharina to hold back on her egregious schemes, no matter how strongly he spoke up against her austerity programs, no matter how badly he knew the Pokemon ID system she championed would be received, she continued on. Now they had a rebelling populace, calling for her head. His thoughts were interrupted by a muffled chat coming from the square, divided up in different languages.
"KATHARINA CEASVLEY, CINE EŞTI? SHE'S A CRIMINAL, DIN HEARTHOME!" Intonated the crowd, followed by more muffled sounds of explosions from the yonder. This chanting snapped Garvy back to reality, as he floated and grabbed his best friend's shoulder, urgency dripping from his voice.
"Mihai, we have to find Kathy, find everyone else, and we need to flee. We need to get out of the region." Mihai's eyes widened.
"What? That can't be an option, right? Can Master call in the 1st Army or something? They have elite Rhyperior units, they could totally flatten this uprising, right? Right?" Desperately reasoned Mihai, his voice stumbling and cracking under the stress. Gallade were usually noble and brave Pokemon, but Mihai was seemingly the exception. He was quick to panic, racked with nervousness, and strongly disliked combat. Considering his upbringing, pampered in the golden halls of the palace, it made some semblance of sense. Nature versus nurture, that sort of thing. Garvy bit his lip.
"Maybe. But what if they deserted, joined the insurgency? Is that something we're willing to gamble on? Plus… we can't bring in the 1st and sic them on the crowd… that's just… not right…"
Before Mihai could respond, they were interrupted by the zooming form of a Pokemon pacing towards them as fast as possible. The Pokemon was an oddity, a blue and fuschia coloured bird like creature that floated above the ground. It sped right towards the pair before coming to a quick halt, urgency lit up in it's artificially created eyes.
"Garvy, Master wants to meet you in the amber room. She also urges Mihai to stay back and keep watch on the crowd." The Porygon2 sputtered. Garvy and Mihai both nodded before turning to face each other. Garvy could see his Gallade counterpart begin to hyperventilate.
"Just… deep breaths, Mihai. We can deal with this." Mihai slowly breathed in and out, fighting back tears.
"I…. I just don't… know… why are they so m-m-mad? Why do they wanna hurt Katharina so bad?" he sniffed, letting a few tears slowly drop to the floor. Garvy gulped. He wasn't totally aware of what was happening here. It wasn't like he could tell him. Giving him a supportive squeeze on the shoulder, he sighed. Giving him a look of sympathy, Garvy turned around and began speeding towards the amber room, Porygon2 in tow.
(Two years ago)
"That picture is NOT very flattering, Kathy…" mumbled Garvy, glancing at the poster he was levitating in front of his face with psychic ability. The human in question, Katharina, scoffed.
"It's propaganda, Garvy. It's meant to signify strength, confidence, power. If I wanted to be flattering, I could dress up in a frilly little pink garment and go become a coordinator or something." Garvy glanced back down at the poster. It showcased Katharina in a full military outfit, a striking olive green base colour adorned with multiple medals above the upper left breast. She was glaring directly at the viewer of the poster, her eyes exhibiting an intimidating aura. The top of her long flowing black hair being covered with a side cap, the insignia of the Sinnoh People's Republic embroidered in the middle. The insignia itself contained a hammer and the clenched fist of a Lucario, crossing and creating a shape much like the letter X. The background of the poster behind Katharina imposed a large factory with a smokestack. The bolded letters on the bottom remarked: "LONG LIVE SINNOH, LONG LIVE THE PARTY, LONG LIVE CONDUCĂTOR CEASVLEY!"
"Well… it certainly sends a message…" Garvy commented, before placing the poster down and floating over to Katharina, the Supreme Chairwoman of Sinnoh, the unquestioned leader with a vast cult of personality, and his trainer.
"Can you refresh me on what you're planning, please?" inquired Garvy. Katharina, who was staring at herself in a mirror, wearing the same military outfit as the one in the poster, groaned.
"I need to meet with the Central Committee regarding the protest in Solaceon Town, figure out whether we execute the leaders or just send them to the north. I'm more partial on the execution, we have to send a message." Responded Katharina, turning away from the mirror and striding towards a walnut coloured table in the middle of the room. Garvy cringed.
"Could you… not kill them, please? They were just students…" He meekly muttered, awkwardly fiddling with his flowing gown.
"The last thing we need is instability, especially since we need to roll out the Pokemon ID program soon." Katharina bluntly replied, grabbing a golden pistol that was resting on the table and placing inside a holster in her pants. Garvy gulped. He loved his trainer. All Gardevoir loved their trainers, it was just in their nature. She cared for him, she saved his life when he was a Ralts. But… her actions were increasingly brutal. She had been Supreme Chairwoman for eight years so far, and every passing year, a new political rival "disappeared," a new austerity program was rolled out, a new protest was brutally suppressed by the secret police, the Securitate. A civil war of sorts battled in his brain, his morals almost always under stress and questioning. How could he continue to support someone who had disposed of the democratic practices of Sinnoh, repressed freedom of speech? But then again, she truly thought she was helping people… that her communist revolution of eight years ago had destroyed the greedy billionaires of Sinnoh and given new power to the proletariat. It's not like she accepted any contradictory reports from advisors, lest they wished to be sent to prison camps up north.
Garvy really wished her trainer listened to her advisors, since this newest program she wished to implement seemed like the most foolhardy of them all. A Pokemon ID system, forcing all Sinnoh citizens with Pokemon in their possession to register them with the state police to be entered into a database. The system would have a variety of regulations, limiting the amount of Pokemon a citizen could possess to two, banning all third stage evolutions, that sort of thing. Failure to adhere would lead to… consequences. The nefarious plot of this scheme was obvious. Despite the state run media claiming it was for "stability," it would obviously be for population control, power consolidation, and sending any trainers a bit "too" powerful to work camps up in Snowpoint. It would obviously be a poorly received initiative, but it's not like Katharina would consider any alternative opinions, maybe the cult of personality she's crafted for herself has gotten to her brain a bit. But there was one individual Katharina would even slightly entertain, her first Pokemon…
"Kathy, I really want you to reconsider the ID thing. It would piss so many people off, and they won't fork over their Pokemon without a serious fight. Please, just give it a second thought…" Desperately reasoned Garvy, as she began to stroll out of the room. Katharina paused at the door, before sighing.
"Garvy, there are thousands of trainers in Sinnoh right now with Garchomps, Rhyperiors, Mamoswines, Magmortars. At any time, they could band together and fight against our government, breathe new life into the SDL, and throw the region into chaos. Just like that, our revolution will end, and the bourgeois would recapture the state. The fact that they haven't risen up yet is incredible, a true testament to the Securitate. I want to make sure I have all my bases covered."
Garvy processed the response he was given. On a surface level, it made sense. The SDL, short for the Sinnoh Democratic League, had been a powerful anti-government movement that had just recently been squashed, it would be very detrimental for it to rise again. Also, this sort of thing had somewhat been done before, when Katharina took power, the Elite Four and Champion of Sinnoh being classified as "enemies of the revolution" and… disposed of. Still, it was brutal, and plus, who cares if the "revolution" ended? In Garvy's privately held opinion, it had been a failure. Centrally planned economies seemed great until it got bogged down in bureaucratic nonsense…
Unsatisfied with his lack of answer, Katharina scoffed and stepped through the door into the palace's halls, before turning around.
"Power is a finicky thing, Garvy. Let's try to preserve it."
