Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon, not the Manga or the anime. Definitely not the games.
A/N: Chapter 6 is up - enjoy, read and leave a review to let me know what you think.
Make a Thief Out of Me
Power is not measured in the strength of your body.
It's measured in the strength of your heart, Ash.
-Oak
I was running – and it felt great.
I was ducking – without the need to, really. Nothing could hurt me in this thing.
I was slashing – with powers of Old and make-believe, man.
I was Legend!
"You said it wouldn't be that far out," I spat into the mike, feeling more than a little displeased with the situation I'd been put in. "I've been running through this damn forest for two hours straight now!"
And I was ranting – like a teenager getting sent to his room.
"Ash," Oak sighed, his considerable patience was being tested by my adolescent annoyance. "If you'd been dropped off too close Lance would've noticed."
"Yeah, but did Charizard have to drop me off over two hundred klicks away from the target?" I ducked quickly as a branch appeared out of nowhere, more of a reflex than any fear of it actually hurting me. Of course, I saw it coming long before I was even close to it. Old habits just die hard, man.
"Does it really matter with the speed you're performing?"
I guess it didn't. As I said before, I was running, but when I hit full speed it's not really called running anymore, is it?
I was blurring, my body leaving a flimsy blue imprint in the air behind me, an Aura-shadow it would later be called.
Trees and fields of grass zoomed by my vision like I was speeding up time itself. I was slashing the trees aside if I couldn't avoid them; I was slashing them aside with my bare hands. It was dark, and the creatures of the night were waking up around me now. Normally that was something to be scared about, but tonight I said give it your best shot, fucker.
You're wondering where I'm heading, right, Drew? Well, I was heading for the Indigo Plateau, crossing the Victory Road faster than any trainer ever had, faster than any man had any right to. I remembered this Road vividly. The Last Test of Will the Gym Leaders called it when I competed in the League – false sweet words meant to frighten those not worthy of the League Challenge.
Back then it had been a nightmare crossing this road, a nightmare that took weeks to get through. Weeks I spent fearing wild, hungry Pokémon and freezing cold nights like this one. But today even the cold didn't affect me, the suit kept my body warm and in top condition, ready for the challenges ahead.
And I needed to be in top condition if I were to have any chance of pulling off what I was about to do. Oak and I had gone over the plan last night, him trying all night to talk me out of it and I dead set on going through with it.
This felt important somehow, I couldn't really explain it – not even to myself. But I knew, as did Oak, that the ability to identify every person in Kanto could come in handy. Who was on the watch-list, who was with Team Rocket, who was against? All questions the database could help answering.
It could provide me with some targets in this goddamn war to come – and some much needed allies. Those allies still seems far away, though, we are still fighting each other. You are still fighting me.
I sliced through the landscape, jumped over cliffs like they were only dumps in the road. I was the reaper prowling the moonlit wastelands of the Victory Road, man. I wasn't avoiding the Pokémon and their awesome powers of Mother-fucking-nature.
They were avoiding me.
"This feels awesome!" I howled to the sky, as I made a blurring jump from a cliff to another, the racing river over hundreds of meters below me looked amicable and welcoming to me. I landed in a crouch on the other side and took off running full speed without missing a beat. "You should try this, Professor. It's amazing – there's so beautiful out here."
"Ah, I feel fine from here, thank you very much," Oak said from the other side of the link. It hadn't been difficult installing a comm-link into the Suit of Aura's systems. All we really did was putting an earpiece in my ear and when I took it on the suit absorbed the thing just like the Pokédex. Easy as pie, too fucking easy, but who was I to complain, right?
The mountains hugging me from all sides were all part of the same line of mountains I had journeyed through with Riley – all of them lining up to Mt. Silver. I could see Mt. Silver in the distance, most of it covered in ice, snow and an alluring sense of mystery that kept attracting travelers to test their strength. This was the mountains that cut through Kanto, splitting the Region in two. Of course, Lance and the League had begun carving tunnels and roads through the stones to make the journey through easier.
They should be done by now, I had to check up on that. It would make import and export a lot easier if trucks and other vehicles could cross over.
I had always wanted to test myself against the harsh winds and biting colds of Mt. Silver, but I had a feeling it wouldn't really be a test of my strength anymore – I am that awesome, Drew.
Sorry, every time I think back on that day I can't help feeling the same excitement and sense of invincibility. I mean, think about it, how would you react if you could suddenly do the feats I can do?
You'd be just as crazy as I was – the rush, man; the rush takes you beyond even the skies…
But still as I ran there, breaking every record set by man and Pokémon alike, I couldn't help but notice that something seemed… missing. The suit was – of another world, but it was still not as much as I knew it could be. I could be faster, I could be stronger. I remembered flying with nothing but my Aura as wings.
But I've never flown with my Aura, I thought, mid-step. The step turned into a jump as I had to avoid a group of Deerlings seeking shelter for the night. So how do I remember flying?
Sir Aaron used to fly with this thing – and therefore I remembered flying it. You could say I flew it in a past life, man. A life not really my own, but integrated upon my memory like fire upon grass…
I was still me, though. For all the insanity and memory the crazy being poured into me when I took on the suit, I was still myself, Drew. Just myself.
And so much more, like normal fire turned into everlasting Fire – take note of the way I say Fire, shrink. It's with a capital F, man.
Immortal? No, I'm not immortal; at least I don't think I am. Why did you suddenly get that idea? Turned to everlasting Fire. Why – oh, I see your point. Well, it was just figuratively speaking.
Oak was overseeing this… operation, mission; call it whatever you want. He was getting live feeds from the suit's visor output. Again, we barely did anything to establish the connection, the suit just connected with Oak's systems in the lab by itself, and then Oak's screen showed what I was seeing.
Easy as pie, man. Live and learn, bitches. I learned the hard way – I'm still learning the fucking hard way, man. Always and forever one step behind the Monsters and Legends trying to bury the world in fire and insanity. But that's for later, and you already know how some of it goes down, or at least you should.
At the time I thought it was freaking awesome, Drew. The suit did exactly what I wanted it to, without me having to really guide it or anything. It just seemed like an extension of me, really. So what if I changed a little here and there? My power and brain was growing beyond what I could possible train it to – even if given lifetimes to do it.
I was truly beyond human perception. I was willing to sacrifice a little of myself if it meant saving the world. Victory costs, remember? I said that before.
Truer words have never left my mouth, man…
"Ah, you always held yourself back from all the fun," I finally answered him, wondering when I was supposed to be left breathless by all this inhuman running. When was my limps supposed to begin tiring? I had been running for over two hours straight and my body didn't even show signs of the strain it had to take on me. "How long is there till I should see the damn thing?"
"You should be there any minute now…"
I broke through the tree-line and saw the fucking light of the night, man. The Indigo Plateau. Standing among the mountains and snow, the castle of the Pokémon League towered up, casting a shadow of hope and endless possibilities. This was the base of the true power in the Kanto Region – or so they would like you all to think. This was the place where only the truly strong individuals succeed.
And the fucking corrupt bastards without a conscience.
Blocked by a twenty-meter wall of interlocked blast-hardened concrete, flat and featureless except for an occasional reinforced hatch or door to let in workers and guest and Pokémon trainers was the Pokémon League. Towers and skyscrapers arched up, twisting up between each other. Crystal-blue globes tipped the towers, and I knew from experience that those globes could split open and reveal canons with so much firepower that the very world would shake if they unloaded.
Harsh protection methods, but fucking necessary protection methods. You never knew when an army of batshit insane Pokémon came knocking on the door, right? Right? Right…
The center of the base was peeking out from behind the towers and the concrete wall. A white, square, average-looking building that looked both ugly and so fucking impenetrable that I seriously considered just dropping it all and go home again. No can do, of course, the fate of the world counted on me. I had to take the chance, man. There was a serious upgrade waiting for me on the other side of the fence.
A double door made out of reinforced steel was a couple of hundred meters in front of me, the normal entrance to this majestic place. I could probably break the doors down. Yeah, no problem, but that would eliminate the element of surprise, and that was kinda the only thing I had going for me this night.
If I broke through that door, if I went in fucking hot with palms blazing hellfire, I would have a fucking regimen of opponents on my back within two seconds. I felt like I could take them if it came to that, but I had kinda promised Oak not to kill anyone.
Besides, this was my allies to be in the war to come, right? What kind of example would I set if I started killing my own pals, hmm?
I really, really regret not taking the cheap shots when I had the chance, Drew. I wasn't the one that started it, at least; I still hold the moral high ground over you fuckers. If such a thing exists in this world…
By now you must realize what I was about to attempt, right? What is going to happen next? Lance certainly is – the man is palling by the second – yes, idiot, it's that day. I did it and it felt good. Heh…
No, Drew – it wasn't a training exercise or whatever shit they stuffed down your throats. It was me, I had to make a distraction, you see, and it was the only option I had. No, nobody died – it was abandoned. That was the reason I picked it out, I'm not completely inhuman.
Getting into the base is ridiculously easy, and with the suit's power boost they might as well have put a welcome inside sign up for me. Guards took turns patrolling the twenty-meter high concrete wall, going on top of it and keeping an eye on the world outside – it reminded me of all those medieval movies you see about a kingdom that needs defending. Ah, if you replace the swords and arrows with guns and pocket monsters, of course.
But as I said, getting inside was easy. The guards moved in groups of four. Taking them out, even with their guns and rifles were easy, they never saw me coming, man. I covered in the shadows, jumped between stone and trees, I circled closer and closer to the wall, and then I jumped like a fucking frog.
I landed right in their midst. For a second we stare at each other. Their eyes are filled with disbelief and fear. But I'm just standing there, looks back at them and do nothing. I'm not even sure if I am reveling in their shock or just shocked that I had actually made the jump. Twenty meter is… pretty high, Drew.
Of course, the shock wouldn't immobilize them completely. This is some of the best trained men in the world, men who have sworn to protect Kanto against all threats and enemies, men who have sworn their very lives to a cause greater than themselves. These men are badasses who have trained for years to put down punks like me.
These were G-men, Drew. G-men. Have you seen the kind of training they go through? If someone dies while in training, they bury him doing lunch and continue the rest of the day as if nothing had happened. Well-trained sociopaths with guns and Pokémon – and a cause they believe in. These were Lance's men when he went to war.
I mowed them down, I was the cat playing with the mouse; I was the man playing with my food. Two of them grunted in shock and raised their guns at me. The other two was already going for the Poké Balls strapped to their belts.
The suit is working for me, scanning their faces – no dice obviously. That's why I'm here, man. The suit keeps scanning, though. Suddenly, I'm getting the make and model of the guns in their hands; I'm getting the species, gender and fucking stats of the Pokémon inside the Balls they're going for.
It's blinking warning and danger and threat detected in front of my eyes, and if I'm a complete and utter idiot the suit also points them out for me, points their weaknesses and strengths. But I don't need it to tell me what to do. I'm already moving, doing what the suit shows me to do a moment later.
I whistle appreciatively as I grip the first man, clenching the hand that was holding the gun. It cracks beneath my fingers, man. I don't even stop to consider before spinning my body around, holding on to the arm and making it crack at the elbow. The man goes down screaming, but I don't care – this is fun. I'm enjoying myself. I'm into this. I spin around myself, my hand extending towards the screaming man and putting him out of his misery with a well placed and severely underpowered Aura Sphere to his abdomen.
I'd promised not to kill anyone – the man was only unconscious, but he wouldn't really feel all that well the next many months to come.
They stop when they see my Aura Sphere leave my palm, Drew. This time their shock literally immobilizes them. And I'm moving, man, fucking them up so bad their mothers wouldn't even recognize them. It feels good. I'm beating the crap out of guys that could make Gym Leaders look like a fucking kindergarten.
I am good. I'm reveling in it like a drug addict revels in his next fix, man. Just as sinful – just as fucking addictive.
You understand now, right? How this feels? What power can do to a man? It changes you, makes you something you didn't use to be. As I said, the true measure of a man is what you do with power once you receive it. Does the power control you, or do you control the power?
Back then I definitely wasn't in control. I mean, sure, I could stop myself from killing these morons, but was it me that stopped us or was it the suit that just didn't care? You tell me?
I'll tell you later what I mean.
Now you're really scared, though, right? DON'T LIE – sorry, don't lie to me. I can see right through that kind of thing. Every sane man would be running the fuck away from me by now. Why are you here, Drew? You accepted this job because you thought you'd be protected, right? You thought that those chickenshit bosses of yours would have your back when you confronted the Devil.
You realize now that they left you with a man out of control. A man more machine than human.
Any sane man would be scared – and you're a coward just like those men behind the mirror. You just thought you had something to gain going in here. Is that why you are here? A promotion?
Fuck that shit; I'm not helping you get a promotion, man.
Oh well, moving on with the story.
I stashed them behind the corner of the building, my partner and I had figured out when they turned shifts. I knew I had a thirty minute window to perform miracles and break into Lance's office and steal his database.
You didn't know he had a database like that, did you? Only four persons beside Lance did. Professor Oak, the man who incorporated the data into the system, Clemont, the man who build the damn thing, and Michael and James, the two men who gathered the information to complete the database. Two of those four works for me – or did work for me. Damn it all to Hell, man…
Moving on, I stashed the G-men behind a building and set out for the square building in the center. The same building we're in now – yeah, Lance, that's how I could make my way through this building this morning when I turned myself in for this… questioning.
I went up to the front door and… adapted.
I pushed my way through the door, suppressed a cringe when the door hinges creaked into the room, echoing all around me like a stereo sound. The room was a big storeroom, boxes and shelves filled with all kinds of junk were scattered across the cold steel floor. A staircase was twisting its way up to a door on the wall in front of me, the only way out of this room beyond the door I had just opened.
All this was exactly as Oak had said, but all this was also really only taken in by the suit and fed to my brain, my own eyes and focus were caught by the man leaning against the wall to my right.
He stared at me. I stared at him. I wondered what must have been going through his mind in that moment. Oh, there's something you don't see every day, or maybe it was more like, what the fuck is that?
Probably the latter.
"What the fuck?" the man gasped, jumping back from me and confirming my hunch. Suddenly, there was a gun in his hand, and my suit was providing me with useful information about the make and model all over again. How the fuck do it even know the make and model? From what little I had gathered from Sir Aaron's memories, guns and other firearms wasn't exactly common back then.
"Hey," I said cheerily, for some reason the gun pointed at my head didn't make any alarms go off in my head. "You wouldn't happen to know the way to Lance's office, would you?"
He gasped in fright again, gunshot echoing in the storeroom as he shot me directly between the eyes, man. I was dead meat, I was seeing my maker again, I was going up to fucking Arceus – one last challenge coming your way, buddy.
I opened my eyes, seeing my vision split by a crack in my visor where the bullet had hit. I was alive? What the fuck? I was alive. I was still fucking breathing, man! My heartbeat was pumping pure adrenalin through my body, as if defying the fact that I should be dead. I gulped a vast amount of air down my lungs just to make sure that I wasn't imagining things.
BANG!
BANG!
BANG!
Now that's just excessive, man.
Gunshots echoed in the room, cracks appeared in my visor, my pulse jumped a little more every time the man shot me. I reveled in that sudden jump of my pulse, that telltale sign of my continuing existence. I reveled in my power as I grabbed the gun out of the man's fist and clenched it to dust in my hand; I reveled in my power as I reared my fist back and brought it into the fucker's face.
He smashed into the wall and crumbled to the floor, looking just as flaccid as a Goldeen out of water. He was still breathing, though; my suit told me, ragged breaths and weird wheezing sounds leaving his heaving form. I must have broken something inside that body because the sounds leaving him definitely didn't sound right.
I wasn't a trained doctor, and my limited experience was usually when I'd to strap myself together after an accident in the field. You learn to survive when you traveled in a world where the next animal you could meet might burn you with a breath before eating you. But this was well and truly beyond me, I contemplated for a moment just leaving him there. I had a mission to complete, and I was already lagging behind the schedule. But back then I still had a conscience.
And I wasn't the only one on this mission, I had a man smarter than he had any right to be and a thing smarter than anything had any right to be with me. My suit beeped and images ran down the sight of my vision as my visor slowly started healing, the four cracks disappearing from my sight. I heard Oak suck in a breath on the other side of the comm. "My god," he whispered. "Ash, are you alive?"
"Yeah… I'm fine, didn't feel a thing," I said, trying to hide how shaken I'd been. The suit must have disguised my fear because I sounded far calmer than I felt.
"Thank Arceus," Oak said hurriedly, I got the feeling he really wanted to talk about something else. "Just what is that suit?"
"A doctor apparently," I replied, watching as it showed the skeleton of a man – the unconscious man's skeleton to be exact. Some of the bones were blinking red, not much trouble figuring out what that was supposed to indicate. "Do you understand any of this?"
"Yes, he's fine – well, relatively speaking, of course. He'll live."
"All I need to know," I said, already turning and heading towards the staircase. "Okay, where from here, where from here?"
"Ash! We can't just ignore this. He shot you! You should be dead!" I reached the staircase without any trouble, hoping that nobody had heard the gunshots, hoping that I wouldn't have to fight my way through a regimen behind that door that stood in front of me now. I, of course, knew that there was nothing behind the door. I knew where all my enemies were and I knew how many they were. Knowing was my greatest gift and my biggest pain in the ass. "That suit is not normal."
"What makes you say that?" I asked, voice laced with barely disguised sarcasm.
"Did you know the bullet wouldn't penetrate your helmet?" Oak asked.
"What will I find beyond this door?"
Oak sighed. "A long and dark hallway, it should be abandoned, but then again there shouldn't have been any in this warehouse either."
This time I sighed. "So… expect the worst, huh?"
I opened the door. It didn't make a sound, thank the masters above for small mercies, and I could make my way through the room. Barely any light, just as Oak had said, but I could see just fine anyway. The corridor was long and narrow, walls made out of the same cold, reinforced steel as the storeroom. There were no side doors leading into other rooms or offices, just a door at each end of the hallway. Whoever designed these rooms clearly lacked any kind of imagination, or maybe it was just supposed to make the men who worked here feel less welcomed. Lance was known for appreciating his solitary lifestyle.
So here I was, creeping as quiet as possible and as fast as possible, thinking dark and terrible thoughts. Had I known the suit would be that strong, that it could hold of bullets like they were nothing? Had I known it would regenerate its cracks?
No, I hadn't, but somehow the suit had told me without me really realizing it.
Not an easy task, Drew, let me tell you that. But I didn't have time to dwell on the subject; I could see enemies beyond the walls around me, circling me on all sides like bugs. They didn't know I was there, of course, but they would soon. And then the fucking regiment would be here, pissing on my parade, man.
I made it through the corridor without another incident, opening the door at the end of the road and seeing a whole new world. Oak was filling my earpiece with waypoints, objectives and obstacles, and I hugged the wall hurriedly, trying to avoid detection of the fuck ton of League workers, guards and G-men milling about on the platform below me. Luckily, the door didn't creak this time, huh?
"You should see another abandoned warehouse now," Oak was saying into my earpiece. I wanted so badly to tell him to fuck off with that bullshit, but I feared the men would hear me if I got going too much. "Make you way down the stairs and into the Sector South."
I took shelter behind the railing, poking my head out every now and then, looked for the blasted Sector South – I know I didn't need my eyes to see, but old habits just dies hard, man. The room was just as square as the rest of the building's rooms and was divided in two floors with the upper floor being a narrow floor path hugging around the walls with a view to the floor below. There was two staircases to the floor beneath me on the other side of the room. I could see four tables stacked along each other, men and women sitting there and chatting benignly among them. An aroma of fresh baked bread and what smelled like Milktank and Tauros reached my nostrils even beyond the helmet.
My mouth watered, and it was then that it occurred to me that I hadn't eaten since I returned to Oak three days ago. I wasn't even hungry. And that made me more than a little wary. I've always had a healthy appetite. Was that the suit's work, too? Didn't I need to eat anymore? But I liked eating, man. It was one of my favorite things in life – after sex and sleeping, of course. Did I mention I overslept the day I got Pikachu? And had sex with the stunning and just plain hot May Hutton? I think I mentioned May.
Men were coming through a door with plates filled with meat, and all I could think about was what kind of workplace servers dinner to their employees at fucking 2200? Not anywhere I've ever worked that's for damn sure. I felt a little violated for having to sneak by the buffet.
But I'd a job to do, I looked for Sector South, seeing signs flash in neon-blue colors over each door. There was Sector North below me – I had to use my Aura to see through the floor – along with Sector West to my right and Sector East to my left. Oh, and look and behold, my jolly good fellow, Sector South right across from me.
I just had to cross a room full of starved jarheads – no biggie, right? Sir, yes sir.
"The door should be directly across the room," Oak said, probably wondering why I hadn't moved from my position. Wasn't he getting my feed? "You can't miss it; it has signs and everything."
"Can't you see what I'm seeing?" I whispered.
"No, the walls are blocking the feed. It should clear up when you get to the next room."
"Explains a lot."
Oak either ignored my comment or didn't hear it. "Just make you way to the next room and I'll see what you're seeing again."
Thank you, Oak, much appreciated. You wouldn't happen to know another way – otherwise, I'm afraid I'll have to start drawing blood. But I was saved by the bell this time, because suddenly the speakers started to crack to life, and the room became deadly quiet as the men and women waited for the announcement.
"All security personal, please report to Sector East, all security personal, please report to Sector East," A cool, female voice told us in that typical monotone, businesslike voice. "Please, do not be alarmed," it said further and followed with the standard, "this is not a drill, repeat, this is not a drill." Just so even the slowest John of the bunch below could get the fucking point.
The boogeyman was amongst them, man. I was staring at them from the shadows and someone had found out by now.
"But you should have at least ten minutes more before they changed shifts," Oak exclaimed, sounding quite frantic. "They must have changed the timetables…"
"You think," I whispered, looking down at the chaos. Men and women were scrambling over each other to get to their posts, going in and out of the Sectors like ants. Not ten seconds after that infuriating voice started speaking was I alone in the room – and with all the delicious and, apparently, much unneeded food.
"All other personal are to report in Sector North, please." That voice was driving me nuts faster than everlasting fire scorched the motherfucking Earth, man. "Do not be alarmed. Do not be alarmed."
I'm sorry, but can you repeat that last bit? Don't think I quite got it right, I thought, as I stood up from my hiding spot. I reached the stairs in five long steps and went down, noting the food just standing there. I spent a moment drooling over the delicious-looking meal, feeling more human than I'd in goddamn lifetimes. It irritated me that I didn't feel any hunger at the sight of the feast, but I did feel desire, man, fucking glorious desire…
I moved on, no sense in dwelling on something that can't be changed. The door to Sector South opened when I stepped up to it; another hallway was revealed to me on the other side. It was all clean and sparkly walls and floor, grayish-black doors lining along the corridor.
I had reached the office sector.
"Lance's office should be on the other end of the Sector," Oak said. "We might just have caught a lucky break with this."
"Yeah. No – not really. I still need to get out after getting the database."
Oak hummed on the other end. "Shouldn't really be a problem for you, should it?"
"The clock's tickin', I just count the seconds, man," I said, descending stairs and goddamn stars twinkling almighty. Or something like that, I was alone in the universe. I am alone in this goddamn mess of mine… "Roll with the flow, professor, you taught me that," I trailed off, whispering nonsense to myself.
"The clock's ticking," Oak agreed, though he sounded confused. He ignored my strange babbling for now. "Take a right here."
I did, scanning the room beyond – empty – and opening the door. Way, way behind me, the security people were checking the rooms and halls surrounding the place where I had stashed my earlier victims. I had this… urge, an itch that needed scratching so fucking badly; I was tripping for a fight, man. I wanted something to test my strength on, something to show off at. If I took my time, if I drew out this operation and mission and whatever else you'd call it, maybe, just maybe they'd reach me before I was done stealing from Lance.
Me against an army of G-men, Rangers and their Pokémon: I know who I'd bet on that's for damn sure.
I ascended stairs and descended others, I breached security sectors that was abandoned by the people looking for me, and all the while I felt like I was walking into the lion's cage, man, I felt like I was walking into a trap. This seemed too easy and, of course, it was too goddamn easy. Ahead of me, beyond two steel walls and three hallways was Lance's office, my enhanced Aura-sight seeing it clearly like I was in the office.
Lance was sitting over his desk, back hunch over and exterior deeply worried and passive. On the desk in front of him was a request from something called Team Rocket Safe and Care Department, the paper was requesting more money to a new scientific discovery. What kind of discovery the paper wouldn't say, I had a guess, though. I could see the inner battle play out over Lance's face; he didn't want to donate any money to the organization, but he knew the kind of shitstorm he would face if he didn't would be massive and possibly fatal.
Outside his office were three guards that kept watch. I had no doubt that if given a second or two; I would tear them apart silently and without trouble. Lance would be just as easy, smashing the door inwards, take a running jump and I would be in his face before he knew I was there. Quick and efficient, and nobody would get hurt. Well, nobody would die, at least.
That was the only thing I had promised, after all.
I planned to do just that, my mind already setting off to the office, only problem was that my body was moving in another direction. Taking the door to my left, I found myself ascending a stairwell up to where I knew the roof would be. What the hell, man? I felt as if I knew what I was doing even though I definitely wasn't aware of any higher plan or order.
Something – one guess what – must have taken pity on me, because suddenly I was seeing what I was about to do as if it was my own goddamn plan, my next cause of action streaming through my mind like I was just making it all up on the spot. I could see the purpose behind it, the higher meaning. The sheer brilliance in the simplicity of it – it was smart this crafty fucker, but also just so fucking scary. I wasn't in any kind of control, I wanted off, man. I wanted out of it. But it wouldn't let me; I was going with the flow for now.
I reached the roof now, feeling some of the control slip back into my brain. It snuck up from behind and settled back into my unconscious and instinct driven awareness. I walked up to the edge of the roof, seeing darkness never-ending on the night sky, moon and stars twinkling down at me. I felt like they were reveling in some secret that I was slowly becoming all too aware of. I drew my gaze down to the base I had breached, seeing with my eyes and Aura the men and women looking for me, their flashlights scanning the darkest corners of every square.
They would never find me now; my next plan was bulletproof and all too perfect, created by an ingenious AI that was slowly assimilating with my brain. Sounds fun and cool, right, Drew? With fear of sounding like an ungrateful sonuvabitch, I would say that it's the best thing that could've happen for you chickenshit men and the worst thing that could've happen to me…
I lifted my hand, gathering so much potent, all-destructing power so easily it made me feel kinda terrified of myself. Flashing crystal-blue, my hand was bathed in an otherworldly glow of Aura as I slowly pointed my palm at the abandoned warehouse directly besides the building I was standing upon now. My suit and Aura was scanning through the walls of the building, making sure that I wasn't gonna kill some random bastard. I got the feeling the suit didn't care one bit, but I had won enough control back to make it care.
Or maybe it just didn't give a flying fuck as long as I went with the plan. As I said, scary stuff some of this, and not all that happy most of it.
One almighty blow of my Godly Fist of Justice – yeah, I'm gonna call it that – and all the men in the building beneath my feet was gonna run like all fucking hell to get out, to see the chaos unfold. Lance would give me all the time in the world to step inside and steal the database, and it was all without anyone seeing me steal it or anything. I wasn't even stealing it, only copying it.
Yeah, I know it's still stealing, but Lance wouldn't know anything about it. He didn't until I just told him here today.
I released an Aura Sphere so gigantic that it almost looked like a second sun; I was strongly reminded of my battle with Sir Aaron in my mind when I first put on the damn suit. The Sphere was released directly into the building, making it blow up and setting the night on fire. The windows burst to pieces by the sheer pressure of my power, and the ground and mountains around the Pokémon League shock like I had created a goddamn earthquake. Fissures tore through the concrete ground and the building was being torn apart, a burning wreckage was all I left behind – but no body count.
Ah, okay, I was must definitely scared of myself. That wasn't even full power and I had almost destroyed the place.
"Oops," I said halfheartedly, not really feeling all that remorseful, which wasn't such a good thing, I know. I was kinda proud to be honest with you; I must have looked like such a fucking cool asshole standing on the top of the building with a burning fist and the burning house at my feet.
It was first there I heard that someone was screaming into my earpiece. "ASH! What the hell have you done?" Oak? Oak! I had completely forgotten about the poor man. Why hadn't I heard him before? Ah, the suit blocked him out because he would have tried to talk me out of this plan, right, sweet little software of mine? "You just killed all the people inside that building, Ash!"
"It was empty," I said, searching for Lance and finding him easily. He was already making his way outside. I could see men and women coming this way, too. The plan had its drawbacks, but still it was the only way if Lance wasn't to know about the real purpose behind all this. If he knew someone was after the database the list of suspects would be very short indeed – another thing the suit had reminded me about that I hadn't even thought of.
"You hope," Oak sneered through the link; I could almost feel the scorn in his voice.
"I know," I said calmly, so calmly my voice sounded hollow and devoid of any emotions. "I checked before shooting it up." I didn't wanna tell him that it was actually the suit that had seized control of me and made me do it. I had a feeling Oak wouldn't take it so well, which was kinda understandable, I guess.
"We'll discuss this when you return," he said, sounding like a father telling his son off. Hell, if anyone could do that with me it would be him. Arceus knew I would just tell my own father to piss off.
"Yes, sir," I said, opening the door and descending the stairs when the coast was clear of Lance. I was in complete control again, software and man becoming one with each other for a time again… until next time the man needed another push in the right direction, of course.
Goddamn human emotions – and fucking machinery of perfection, they just didn't mesh that well at times.
I went down to the right floor and turned left when I came upon the same hallway I had been in before, seeing Lance's office, all abandoned and free for the taking two steel walls and three hallways further ahead.
I set off in a light jog – if such a thing exists in this thing – and crept through the hallways and rooms with steel walls, noting that the inventor stayed the same through all the rooms. People were assembling outside now; Lance was giving out orders and preceding the investigation of the sight. I had to admit he was doing an efficient job, no sign of the indecision and fearful restraint I had come to known him for.
He was being a leader and a good one at that.
Too bad he couldn't be like that when it really matters, Drew. Then this fucking mess might never have happened.
By now I had reached his office door, I just needed the password to access the room. Good thing I had a suit for that kind of hacking, right? My visor screen was filled with numbers and equations, letters and words before I even thought of how to get passed the door; it was filing and searching away at the endless possibilities.
Twenty seconds later and I was inside the office. The password Claire was not really that much of a surprise; humans tend to be very simple creatures when it came right down to it. Claire is Lance's protégée, and from what I can understand he became more attached to her than strictly professional, but eh, I digress, it's not any of my business anyway.
Psst, Drew, I just made Lance uncomfortable. He's sweating buckets right now. Ah, gotta love the power of love, right? It can make even the most hardass guys like Lance blushing like a little girl.
"Okay, I'm in," I said into the empty room. "Where is the database?"
"It should be in the second drawer on the right side of his desk," Oak whispered, probably living himself into this too much because of the link to what I was seeing. He sounded nervous. He sounded bloody excited. "It's a little black box, not bigger than your hand."
I went around his desk and opened the instructed drawer. And there it was, a black little box no bigger than my hand, just as he had said. I had a hard time imagining that little box to hold that much power, but maybe that was what the world had evolved into. Maybe I was just becoming part of that evolution now. With monster killing machines hiding all over the world we humans had to have something to fight back with, right?
I took the thing out of the drawer, keeping all my senses on the search going on outside, and put it on the table. "What now?" I asked Oak. "Do I do something specific to open it?" The box didn't seem to have any openings or fabrication marks as these things usually had. Usually they came from Hoenn these days…
"I've no idea," Oak said. "I just incorporated all the data Lance gave me into a – eh, you could call it a memory card and that was all. I only see the data on a computer once every year to make sure it's still working probably." Oak paused; I could almost see him thinking on the other side of our link. "He must have had someone else designing it for him."
"He couldn't have done it himself?"
"No, Lance isn't exactly the technical type of man – he's kinda like you in that regard."
I grunted, getting an idea I was a hundred percent certain wasn't my own. "I've a feeling that's slowly being… altered."
"What do you mean?" Oak asked, sounding quite confused. I had a feeling Oak didn't really like the new me. "What are you doing?"
"Watch this." I lifted my hand up and touched the black device, working through a memory that was both fresh and new and over a millennium years old, a memory that was not really all that mine and yet was a part of me like everything else that was coursing through this fucking suit.
I was storing the database within my suit's software.
"Ash? Ash! Please, don't do it again. We don't know what it will do to you."
"Stop trippin', I'm trippin' off the power," I said, almost sang – I felt all kinds of terrified and elated at the same time. This was just coming to me like lighting on a cloudless sky. "This is not nearly as hard as it looks. Heh…"
It was not nearly as hard as it looked because I wasn't doing anything; my suit was, though, working through data and encrypted calculations faster than a supercomputer. I was seeing names flash over my visor like ending credits on fast forward. The little black box was getting drained by the connection my suit established the moment I touched it, copying and imprinting and fucking stealing the data so efficient nobody would be able to trace it after I was done.
Three days ago, I wouldn't have understood shit of what was going on, but now it was clear as day and right as rain. The process was understandable, whereas before my… upgrade it would have been a bunch of encrypted gibberish that wouldn't make any kind of sense what so ever. Not to a human mind, at least.
You're beyond human perception now, Ash, start acting like it.
Okay, Riley. We'd do it like you wanted, straight up and to the fucking point, goddammit! The names stopped coming and my suit beeped, my vision filled with a deep blue color. And then writing appeared, and if I was dyslexic the thing read it aloud for me, too:
Initialize systemize sequence.
Upgrading…
Assimilating new data into Core Functions…
Assimilating…
Sequence completed. Suit of Aura activated.
First when it actually told me did I realize that I hadn't been able to move, the suit had taken control again to upgrade its systems. I had been so engrossed in its downloading I hadn't tried to move.
"It worked!" Oak breathed into my earpiece, as my vision returned to normal. I moved towards the only window in the room, knowing that it had a view over the square below and the burning building on the other side. I removed the black curtains and searched for a face to scan among the men and women, my faceplate zooming in on the ground. "I didn't know you could do that," Oak wondered aloud.
Me neither, I thought, focusing on a woman walking by at the edge of the burning building. My suit responded to my focus instantly, a picture of a DNA profile flared to life in the left lower corner of my screen. But instead of the word unknown, a picture of a woman appeared, light-skinned with high cheekbones and smoky green eyes. Had it been any other time, I would have been going all in for that girl. Below the image, her name blinked:
Identity: Patricia Todd
Probationary Agent of the G-men corps
Began training March 12. 2010
End of first training period set for March 15. 2014
Todd grew up with her mother in Saffron city…
The text about Todd life kept scrolling by my eye as I read, I filled the profile away for later use – the girl was fucking hot, Drew. Don't judge me. It worked… it fucking worked. "Did you see that?" I asked. "It worked, man."
"Good, now get out before they find you," Oak replied.
I nodded, moving away from the window and letting the darkness of the room consume me, already feeling ideas and suggestions of my escape plan seeping into my brain. I couldn't help but laugh, this was gonna be easy – and fun.
I must admit I felt more than a little hostile of the suit when I got home. I mean, losing control of my body and getting ideas that I knew I would never have thought about was a little… frightening. Ask yourself how you'd feel when some motherfucker chose to mess with your brain and freewill.
Thought so.
But maybe it was a necessary step, maybe it was needed for mankind as a race to survive. You can't say it hasn't saved our asses more than a few times these past few weeks. Have you never wondered how we survived before the technological revolution? Haven't you ever caught yourself wondering just how mankind has been able to survive for millenniums with creatures like Aerodactyl and Charizard among them? We should have been fried and gone extinct centuries ago.
Yes, yes, I know how we survive today. We have weapons big enough to leave fucking planets waste. Pokémon might not have an intelligence on par with humans, but they're not completely retarded. When they see a plasma canon the size of a skyscraper they usually turn around and fly away. And Poké Balls is every man's thing today – I get how we get by today.
But think about it – almost ten years ago, when I started as a trainer, you got six Poké Balls after getting your license and that was that. You didn't get any more until you earned 'em. Today trainers are lazy because Poké Balls can be bought for a low price at the nearest fucking supermarket. And that's one of our other current problems, but I will get to that later, man.
But just think back thirty years – or perhaps even twenty. How did we survive then? Without Poké Balls or excessive, but fucking necessary safety installments? I don't know, but I've a theory, care to listen? Of course you do, of course you do. That's why you're here, isn't it?
Let me give you an example: A Tyrantrum, fierce, proud and strong as a bitch in heat. Put a man in a cage with it and it will with absolute certainty eat him, then you put another man in, and after that another one and another and another…
The first time it eats him – with relish. It will probably eat the next five men, too, because it just eats that much. But after the sixth or seventh man the creature becomes satisfied, its hunger becomes satisfied. And then you put another man into the cage. What do you think it will do, Drew?
It leaves the man alone – because why the fuck should it care. It got what it wanted. Now it's just a satisfied monster waiting for its nap. And that's why we survived back then because unlike humans, Pokémon has very, very few needs and dreams and thoughts of tomorrow.
We humans adapted over time, it took us centauries to get to this point, but we have envisioned this age for centauries – no, that's not just something I make up. I've memories from the past, remember? I know this shit.
We have dreamed of Poké Balls long before anyone ever created them, we have dreamed of cities with skyscrapers long before we ever dared to make them. Pokémon evolves in a flash of brilliant light, humans evolved with time. Humans survived through the indomitable strength of the human spirit. We weren't the strongest, biggest or fastest, but we were the smartest and the most driven specie. So we became the biggest and fastest and goddamn strongest.
But, eh, I digress, that's just my opinion. But wild Pokémon aren't really the problem anymore, right? We both know that what attacks us now aren't wild Pokémon, but Pokémon controlled by something much, much more dangerous: a human.
You humans have gotten to the stage in your evolution where you're the coolest kids on the block, where the neighbors are nothing more than what you want them to be. And because of that, organizations like Team Rocket are rising from the ashes. War between the Regions has become the norm rather than the exception – we have to have our daily dose of conflict somewhere, of course.
Kanto used to be the Region nobody dared to fuck with. We had the strongest trainers, we had the newest technology, the smartest scientists, we had everything – we were the alpha and the omega, and when others had a problem they came crawling and begging for our help.
That is changing; I see a pattern slowly reverting back on us. Kanto became filled with lazy and arrogant people who only saw what the Region could do for them. Because of that, we're getting overtaken by Hoenn who are expanding and evolving as fast as we did ten years ago. They just didn't stop where we did.
I told you about Giovanni's lab in Hoenn, right? Yes, I did. He probably has more of them there because he saw the way the tide was turning. We are on the edge of another invasion, man. I'm afraid that even if we manage to stop this shitstorm we are currently in, the next will be upon us with a painful, excruciating vengeance. Hoenn is building an army for that purpose.
And, of course, Giovanni is prepared to sell out his home Region if necessary. He doesn't care shit that this was the place that made everything possible for him, that this was the place he was born and grew up in. The only thing he sees is possibilities, and Hoenn is filled with them.
Giovanni is a survivor and a good one at that.
But maybe I'm overreacting… maybe the problem isn't nearly as bad as I think it is. And maybe I can have a foursome with Sabrina, May and Serena. Not-fucking-likely but man's gotta have dreams, right?
So we need to step up, up our game, turn the tide, do fucking something. And that's why I didn't kill Lance today because no matter what I feel about the man personally, I know he is the strongest trainer in the Kanto Region and if an invasion comes we'll need him to be there.
Well, he's the second strongest trainer – after moi, of course, capiche?
But no matter what, Drew, I'll be there, fighting and defending our Region – I made a promise…
"The party after the announcement is gonna be held at Silph Co. Industries, and is rumored to be hosted by Sabrina, the Gym Leader of Saffron City and James Smith, the Director of Silph Cooperation." I was slouching in Oak's lounge, listening halfheartedly to the news reporter in the television. My body arched after the workout I'd sustained with Charizard the last couple of hours. Getting used to the suit took hard work and lots of practice, but I was slowly getting the hang of it. "What the announcement will reveal has been speculated about ever since the press conference was announced – rumor has it that a new and improved Poké Ball is being launched, but so far we have no evidence to support the claim…"
I grunted, turning my attention to the only other person in the room – not counting Pikachu on my shoulder, of course. "So… what do you think?"
"Hmm?" Oak said absentmindedly, staring at the screen speculative. He snapped his attention back to me a second later when the program ended. "Sorry, what did you say?"
"What do you think?" I repeated, gesturing to the now turned off screen. "About this new Poké Ball. Think it's true?"
Oak nodded. "It is. I was a part of the early development of the Ball, but I quit before it really got going."
I frowned, seeing the dark shadow pass over Oak's face easily. "Why?"
"It's called a Master Ball, Ash," Oak said, the name didn't leave much to the imagination, but it kinda served its purpose. You were damn sure what it did, at least. "It was created for one purpose, catching Pokémon of extraordinary powers – without fail."
"Is a Poké Ball like that – a… Master Ball – even possible?"
"In theory, yes," Oak said. "If you can create enough storing space for the Pokémon's DNA particles to be rewritten and stored into the Ball then theoretically it's quite possible, simple and brilliant, really."
"But wouldn't too much uncoiled energy make the Ball implode in on itself?" I asked, the ring on my finger throbbed with eager, egging my curiosity on. I had a half mind just letting the subject go and tell Oak I wasn't interested just to spite the little fucker. Of course, the ring didn't want to let me do that. Or maybe I really wanted to know about this – let's just go with that, Drew. "I mean, the power of, let's say, a Charizard is enough to make a Poké Ball unstable if it's caught as a Charizard because of all the raw, unrefined energy coursing through the Balls systems. But if it's caught as a Charmander and slowly tamed with time, then the normal Poké Ball wouldn't have a problem controlling the energy levels when it finally does evolve."
Oak frowned at my words, knowing that I didn't use to be this smart. He chose not to comment on it – again. "Yeah, well, there is a long way from theory to practice, but it can be done," he said.
I nodded, if Oak said it could be done; then it probably could. "But why did you leave the project, then?"
"It's a Master Ball, Ash. Think about what that kind of power can do in the wrong hands. The power to control any Pokémon is literally in your hand with that Ball. I didn't want to create something that could upset the established orders and laws so easily. It was… unethical, I thought."
We became silent after that. Oak was kinda hitting a good point; humans with too much power could do terrible things. Sir Aaron and the suit was proof of that. I had seen what the power of a normal Poké Ball could do to a normal man's psyche, what couldn't a Master Ball do?
You'd think that was something Silph Co. had thought about, right? Hell, maybe they did and just didn't care. There was profit to gain by creating a Poké Ball with zero percent failure. It was a fucking gold mind just waiting to be dug out.
"I'm invited to the party, you know," Oak said, gaining my wandering attention again. "Honorable guest of the house the invitation says."
Yeah, I know you're well-liked fucking everywhere, you don't have to rub it in my face, I thought of saying to him, but I didn't. It probably wasn't meant as bragging even though it came of like that. "Of course you're, you're the great and wise Professor Oak," I said instead, not sure I quite managed to hide the envy in my voice. Dammit, I wanted recognition just as anyone else – beyond getting shot at by my enemies.
"Ah, don't say it like that," Oak said amiably. "What I meant to say was that I don't really care for the party and wondered if you'd go instead. That way, you could show people you're back from the dead. You still have quite a lot of fans left."
"Ah, I don't really think suit and tie is my kind of thing."
"I've heard that May will be there," Oak said, looking like he had found the winning hand at the Poker table. "She's covering the party as a journalist."
"Even more reason to stay away, then," I said with a pleasant and well-practiced fake smile. "She doesn't need to get involved in my life."
"Well, maybe it will be good for you."
"Not for her."
Oak sighed, a fight with himself crossing his features. "Giovanni is gonna be there."
I blinked, a sadistic pleasure peaking up in the back of my mind. "When is the party starting?"
Heh, now Oak looked like he didn't want me to go. "Eh, eight PM, I think."
"Awesome, but I don't have anything to wear."
"I'll get them to pick you up a little earlier so you can buy some clothes before the event," Oak assured me.
"Great, thanks," I said, before frowning. "But can I borrow some money – for the clothes, I mean."
Oak blinked, looking at me with obvious confusion. "Ash, you already have more money than I've ever had in my life," he said. "You won the League, remember? You should have enough money to last a lifetime."
Oh. Heh. I forgot about that – not really, I just hated the way I got the money. Didn't want anything to do with it. But maybe it was time to make peace with the past. Or some of it, at least.
I had a bank account! Little Ashy-boy, all grown up now…
A/N: Well, that's that. Ash broke into Lance's office and got what he came for, and furthered his war against Team Rocket. Next chapter will hopefully be up by next Sunday. But no promises.