I made a few things up about Pokemon evolution in this chapter, but most of the things I made up were based on Team Galactic from Platinum.
The end of the chapter is a few very short snippets of characters that are going to be given their own chapters later, so stay tuned.
R+R!
"A strange occurrence has taken place in South Capitol today, as I take you to the scene of the mystical disappearance of an evolving Pokémon, you should notice the red markings all over the ground… this has been confirmed to be the blood of many dismembered Pokémon, thrown from a plastic bag from the rooftop here…"
Earl lowered the volume on the TV and rolled his eyes.
"…And the strange man, apparently from 'Team Em', a new Rocket-esque team, attacked an evolving Azurill, and it disappeared. Most think it was some sort of trick, and the man had simply captured the now Marill, but it did appear as if the evolving Pokémon was erased from existence. If anyone has knowledge on these two criminals, please call…"
Earl turned the TV off now and sat in silence for a while, listening to nothing but the running water in the shower.
To tell the truth, he wasn't sure what would happen when he sliced the Azurill as it evolved. He had only figured it would stop evolving and revert back to an Azurill, but that didn't happen. The glowing form had diffused into the air, and nothing was left.
Earl had done little research on the evolution of Pokémon, but he had been oddly curious about it. He wondered how Pokémon were able to evolve so quickly, yet humans needed generations and generations to even make the slightest of changes.
Others had figured out that Pokémon gave off a powerful energy when evolving, and that energy could be channeled to create things beyond your imagination. However, that attempt had failed.
Earl wondered what happened to the Azurill though. He didn't particularly care whether it simply died or was erased from existence, but his curiosity did get the best of him.
Energy can't be destroyed, right? Energy is given off when a Pokémon evolves, but what happened to the Azurill?
He sat in deep thought until Margot walked out of the shower wearing only her towel.
"Whatcha thinking about, hun?" Margot leaned over and put her arms around Earl's head.
"Nothing anymore, thanks to you." Earl grumbled, and his girlfriend playfully flicked at his head.
"I reckon we're pretty well-known now, huh? What should we do?" Margot asked, moving one of her hands to her wet hair and twirling it around her pointer finger.
"I don't know… I guess we could spread the word a bit more, make people understand so they don't have to get hurt." Earl suggested, shifting on his mattress. Margot sat down next to him. The ragged mattress was lying on the floor, there was no bed frame.
"I'm gonna go get dressed, and then let's go out to dinner."
"Not such a good idea, Margot. We shouldn't leave the warehouse."
"But you always insist that the cops are moronic!" The redhead complained, crossing her arms under her chest.
"Just in case. There could be more competent people out there than Officer Jenny." Earl scoffed, and stifled a yawn. He seemed to be sleepy every minute of being awake now.
"Would you like it if we fell asleep?" Margot teased, noticing his almost-yawn. She adjusted her towel unconsciously. Earl just eyed her lamely.
"Not now, we still have stuff to do. I think I should research that evolution energy thing…"
"Oh, fine. I'll help you out with that, but let me get dressed first." Margot sighed in defeat, but Earl leaned over and gave her a kiss.
"Thanks." He mumbled, and then leaned back on the bed. Margot smiled with glee and went to change.
"…If anyone has knowledge on these two criminals, please call…"
Stella zoned out, blankly staring at the wall instead of the TV. Machamp was sitting on the couch next to her, looking stressed. Pachi was on Stella's lap. After a while, Stella spoke.
"We can't just sit here and do nothing, can we? We have knowledge on the two criminals, but everyone knows the police are rather bad at their job around here." She said, and Machamp nodded in agreement.
"But what can we do about it? All those Pokémon, senselessly killed…" Stella hissed, tightening her fist. She figured the only thing that could be done was to bring Earl and Margot to justice. She looked over at Machamp. He could probably easily fight Earl one on one and win. Her mother kept a tight reign over her Pokémon though, and probably wouldn't lend Machamp out to Stella that easily. Machamp would be happy to go with Stella to beat up the crooks, but he'd be afraid of her mother if he went without permission.
The rest of Stella's mother's stellar team wouldn't even think of joining Stella. Stella didn't even know some of the Pokémon her mother had. She had asked Machamp, but he refused to tell her.
Her mother was out today anyway. Stella decided she'd laze around for a while. She shooed Pachi off of her lap and walked up to her room. Pachi stayed behind to watch TV with Machamp, who looked uncomfortable.
Stella logged on her computer and used Pokésearch to look up a few things.
She too was intrigued by what had happened to Azurill, and today would be the time to get some research done.
'Evolution', she typed in, and pressed enter. Stella clicked on the first result, bringing up a scientific site on the concepts of Pokémon evolution. She found an interesting blurb on it.
"Many Pokémon evolve when they are in either dire need of strength, or have outgrown their current strength limitations of their form. Pokémon grow stronger even without evolving, so when they reach the maximum point, they evolve. Some Pokémon simply do not evolve, but is unknown whether some have a 'limitless strength' or just do not have the ability to change their form. Legendary Pokémon are Pokémon that have this 'limitless strength' and do not have the ability to change their forms. This is what makes a legendary Pokémon legendary."
Stella read on a bit more.
"For the Pokémon that do not have 'limitless strength' and just do not have the ability to change their forms, it is unlikely that they will be able to evolve in the near future. Humans evolve as well, but the human evolution takes many generations to make small changes, while Pokémon evolve rapidly. When these non-evolution Pokémon have to evolve, they will. Evolution is mainly about adapting to change, such as when a Pokémon needs to evolve to become stronger."
"As a Pokémon evolves, it gives off a form of energy that scientists are now calling Loose Evolution Energy, or 'LEE'. LEE is a powerful source of energy that is given off when a Pokémon raises the limits of its strength. LEE is also given off when a Pokémon levels up, but in much smaller amounts, so small that it is insignificant to anyone who wishes to harness it, in a form called LLE (acronym pronounced as 'yey'), Loose Leveling Energy. Once, there were people that attempted to harvest mass amounts of LEE for sinister purposes, and to read more on that, look up 'Team Galactic' in our search bar, and you will get more info on Team Galactic of the Sinnoh region."
And then Stella found what she was looking for.
"LEE is a generally unstable matter, so when a Pokémon is interrupted in its evolution, the Pokémon wills itself to stop evolving so nothing goes wrong in the process. No one is sure what would happen if a disaster would befall a Pokémon while evolving, but scientists speculate that the unstable LEE would disappear, disabling the Pokémon's ability to evolve, or worse."
"Or worse? Death!" Stella shouted at the unmoving monitor. She turned off the computer and went back downstairs, where Pachi and Machamp were chatting in Pokémon language.
They looked up at the young girl's return, and watched expectantly.
"Come on, we're going to see mother." Stella announced with certainty, hiding any fear she may have had in the back of her head.
Machamp gave her a death glare, and Pachi turned pale. Neither was very fond of disturbing Stella's mother at work. Her mother seemed innocent enough at first, thinking everything was cute and lovely, but she was a bitch to please. And at work, she would rip someone's head off.
Machamp had been left out of today's work session, but he was used to that. Stella's mother had a lot of different trainers to deal with every day, and Machamp usually wasn't helpful.
Stella's father liked Machamp though, before her parents got a divorce. Stella was little when they got a divorce, but her feelings about it were nonchalant anyway. It was all her mother's fault for cheating, but somehow she got custody rights.
Stella saw her father on the weekends sometimes, but she wasn't very fond of his new wife or her obsession with girly Pokémon.
"Why shouldn't we? She could be a great asset in this." Stella offered, but Machamp shook his head rapidly.
"Well… okay. I guess we shouldn't disturb her at work. She'd rip my head off." Stella chuckled, but then thought about seeing her dad.
"How about Dad?" She offered to the Pokémon, and they shrugged. Pachi didn't know Stella's father too well, and Machamp was a Machop when he left.
"Well… even though they're annoying, his wife's Pokémon are pretty strong. They could help?" Stella posed her thoughts as a question, unsure herself. They sat in silence for a while before she gave up. "I guess I'll just keep my promise for today… I'll do nothing." She huffed and made room on the couch for herself, then turned on the TV and zoned out.
Meanwhile, Earl had just read the same Internet blurbs.
"LEE… Team Galactic tried to harvest it, and failed. I won't repeat their folly. However, I'll use this information to my advantage…" Earl mumbled to himself, as Margot fiddled with her own laptop.
"Earl, I just got a great idea! We should recruit Team Em followers over the Internet! If we post our ideas online, some people are bound to join us." Margot piped up, already creating a website on her laptop.
"Yeah, sure, do whatever you want. That could help." Earl replied dryly, still browsing for information on evolution.
He reread the paragraph about interrupting evolution and put his hands on his forehead.
Azurill must have disappeared along with the LEE. The energy was probably spread into the air, and Azurill's conscious went with it.
Earl mulled it over as Margot set up Team Em's first recruitment center.
Kia sat at the window in her grandfather's store, refusing to leave.
She only stared out the window at the sunshine and happy people walking.
Why are they happy?! Why can't it rain?! What's wrong with this twisted world?
"Damn, I got beat again!" The man cursed, stomping the ground, ignoring his fainted Pokémon. The woman trainer he had faced just laughed, putting a hand over her mouth innocently.
"You snooze you lose, sucker. Now pay up." She removed her hand from her mouth and held it out, palm towards the distressed man. With a groan, he slapped an expensive looking bill onto her hand. The woman handed the bill to a Pokémon looming over her shoulder. The tall ghost Pokémon gave a goofy grin as it stashed the bill in an oversized wallet, and then swallowed it. The woman rolled her eyes.
"No need for the show, Dusky-poo. Round up the others, we gotta get back to work." She cooed, kissing the ghost on the cheek. The Dusknoir giggled eerily and disappeared into the air.
The woman walked off, shaking her hips, leaving the poor man all alone.