A/N: Hey everyone who reads this! Here comes chapter two of Outcasts Rising. I decided to leave chapter one the way it is, but I did make a few minor edits that you might want to check out.
In other news, I have a very interesting announcement. For those of you wondering where this story takes place, I have answered that question! Sort of! It takes place in the region of Voer, a region that I made up myself. Pronunciation - Vo as in vote and er as in error. Anyway, if any of you are interested, I actually made a map of the region and posted it here - http://www .flickr .com /photos /35222844N08 /3258843313/ If anyone wants to see it, just copy and paste it into your browser, delete the spaces between the punctuation marks, add an at symbol (y'know, the little a with the circle around it) between the 4 and the N, and it should pop up. I know that it's a lot to do just to see the picture, but please check it out anyway. If it doesn't work, don't be shy in PMing me and telling me. I'll do my best to fix it if that happens.
Also, thanks to Nanashi Chimera, PKMN Breeder Melody K., and ReLeeS for your reviews!
Now, enough with my bunch of blabbering and on to what you all came here to see: Chapter 2!!!!!!!
Chapter Two - History
The bell finally rung, signaling the end of lunch. I had finished eating about ten or so minutes ago and my tray was already put away. I stood up, grabbed my backpack, and slung it over my shoulder. Picking up my binder, I said goodbye to Lizzy as she headed off the other way. I walked down the hallway that led to the main set of stairs.
Pushing through the crowd of talkers, I came out right next to the stairwell. I quickly climbed down them, taking them two at a time, like I always did. Reaching the bottom of the first flight, I quickly looked out the door to see that it was not snowing like they had predicted. Oh well, that was fine with me.
I turned the corner and went down the second, much smaller flight of stairs. Emerging in the hallway, I turned down the left side and walked until I came across the fourth room on the right. Room 1066, to be exact. I walked into the near empty classroom and sat down in my seat in the second column and the back row. I figured that everyone else was still upstairs talking with their friends.
Anyway, I sat there for a few minutes and eventually, the rest of the students and the teacher showed up. The teacher, Mr. Unruh, wasn't one to waste much time, and he immediately jumped into the notes.
"Alright, everyone, time for some notes," he said, turning on the overhead projector. It remained blank for a second or two, and then began to slowly reveal an image: the first slide of one of his note slideshows.
My notebook was already out and ready, but everyone else had yet to do so, and Mr. Unruh took this chance to shut the door and turn off the lights. He left his desk lamp on, and it was just enough light to write by.
I twisted my pencil around in my hands, waiting for everyone to be ready. Finally, it seemed that it was so, and Mr. Unruh began.
"So, if I remember correctly, we left off at right before The Grand Revolution began," he said, clicking a few slides forward, stopping when he reached the slide we stopped at yesterday. "Now the question is why did it start?"
He clicked onto the next slide. "During this time of blind peace and happiness with Pokemon," he said, nearly spitting the last word. I cringed at how he said it; it was so full of hatred. "A man named Trenton Fielder, who was just a little kid at the time and was living in the lap of luxury, had a run in with the true side of Pokemon. He was walking through the forest when a Glaceon walked out of the bushes."
He pointed to the picture on the slide, which showed a picture of a Glaceon. "It was supposedly covered in scratches as if it were in a recent battle, with what and why, we still don't know. Anyway, feeling bad for it, Fielder reached out a hand as an offer of help. That's when the Glaceon bit him and nearly ripped off his hand."
He paused a moment to let us finish writing the notes. I truly hated every minute of this. Any time he mentioned Pokemon Mr. Unruh seemed to hiss it out, as if trying to make it sound evil. Everyone else finally finished, and Mr. Unruh changed the slide.
"Fielder somehow got it off of his hand and was able to run back to his mansion. He was treated for mild blood loss and nearly lost his left hand in the treatment that had to be performed to stop the bleeding. When asked about what attacked him, he told them that it was a wild Glaceon. Apparently blubbering the entire time. He said that the only feature that stood out was a dark patch on its shoulder that was shaped like two overlapping triangles. He made a drawing of the mark once he composed himself, and it looked like this." He motioned at the second picture on the bottom of the page, the first being that of the state of Fielder's hand. It almost reminded me of something that my granddad told me about (the shape, not Fielder's hand, it just reminded me of a bloody ripped hand). Something about a Gym Badge from a place called Sinnoh. I think he called it the Icicle Badge or something like that.
Anyway, Mr. Unruh had again stopped to let students finish writing. Ugh. I hated how some people can't just paraphrase the notes and get done quicker. It really annoyed me.
Back on topic, Mr. Unruh continued to speak. "Well, the years after rolled by, and the Glaceon was never found. During those years, Fielder developed a great fear of Pokemon, fearing that another one would attack him, which slowly developed into hatred, knowing that they were evil creatures. When he finally took over his father's large business, which built computers, he used his influence and money to convince people of the company that Pokemon were indeed evil. He used numerous spies to track Pokemon and take pictures of them doing horrid deeds, like theft, property damage, and even murder in one case."
There were some of these pictures on the slide, accompanying the text. To the untrained eye, they looked genuine. But my eye was trained in spotting a doctored picture when I saw one, and my eye was currently telling me that these were doctored. I could see the faint lines where things were put together and fused. Namely, the Pokemon to the background.
The next slide came and the pictures were yanked away, so I could not tell anything else about them. And since the slide changed, Mr. Unruh started talking again. "Well, using the pictures, Fielder convinced his employees that Pokemon were evil. It didn't take long for them to spread across the Internet, alerting the entire planet to the situation. And out of this, the Gym Revolt came."
A few seconds later, we were done writing, and Unruh went to the next slide. "Basically," he explained, "the Gym Revolt was a group of armed people getting together at the various Gyms across the world, demanding them to be shut down and the Pokemon of the Gym Leader and Gym trainers to be either killed or locked away. In many cities, the Gym leaders put up a fight, but they were swiftly killed along with their Pokemon." I heard a classmate near me mumble "Serves them right." I scowled.
"Some, however just gave up without a fight, preferring that they not see their Pokemon killed," Unruh finished. And on to the next slide we went.
"There's actually a very interesting story about the Gym Leader of this town. He was supposedly just a little older than you at the time of the revolt, maybe just under 20. I believe his name was Vince Rodric."
I recognized the name instantly, seeing as it was my great-granddad's name. I never actually met him, but my granddad told me about him once. However, he never actually said anything about him being a Gym Leader.
I immediately interrupted and blurted out, "Hey, that's my great-granddad's name!"
"How's that, we have the descendant of the man right here in class, learning about his heritage!" Mr. Unruh said, and numerous students stared at me, either in disbelief or hatred. I'm not sure why some hated me, but I figured that it had to do with the fact that I'm the great-grandson of someone who loved Pokemon.
"Back to the story. Well, Vince gave up without a fight, too, but he did show his Pokemon briefly to talk with them. He had some of the scariest looking Pokemon that we have on record." At this, he pressed the next button, and a picture of three Pokemon showed up on the screen. There were a few shrieks from the girls. I had to admit; they were somewhat frightening looking.
"The first one," Mr. Unruh said, pointing at the one that was white and green in color, with strange protrusions from its elbows, "is known as a Gallade. They were supposedly fierce fighters, using the extensions on its elbows as blades, and using its psychic powers to detect enemy attacks. It was said that it often killed many beings just for the joy of it."
Unruh pointed at the next one, which was a strange mix between a scorpion and a bat, and was blue and yellow in color. "This one was called a Gliscor. It is the only 'shiny' that has been recorded in existence. It was said to attack its prey in the face before sucking out all of its blood and leaving the body to rot."
One student raised his hand, and Unruh called on him. "What's a shiny?"
"A shiny is supposedly a very rare version of a certain Pokemon that has a different coloring than that of the normal Pokemon," Mr. Unruh answered.
Then he pointed at the last one, and he stared at it for a second. It was a tall, green, insect-like Pokemon that had a pair of wings on its back and blades for hands. "This one is called Scyther. And it even creeps me out to no end. It used to use its deadly blades to slice its victim multiple times, but not killing it directly, preferring to let the victim die a slow, painful death, while the it would watch in a sick pleasure."
An audible noise was heard as many of the students shivered as their blood ran cold. I, however, did not shiver, mainly because I didn't believe a word he just said. Especially since I remembered a side story in the book about how a Scyther had saved a young boy from falling off of a cliff only a few years before The Grand Revolution. Normally, I'd just let it pass, but since one, it was my great-granddad's Pokemon that he was talking about here, and two, I felt strangely attracted to these Pokemon for reasons unknown even though I didn't even know them, I couldn't let it pass. So, I brought up the story.
I raised my hand and Mr. Unruh pointed to me and said, "Yes, what is your question… um…" Yep, even some of the teachers ignore me to the point where they just flat out don't know my name.
"Kyle. My name is Kyle," I said, disappointed that he didn't know. "Anyway, if Scyther are like that, then why didn't that Scyther that saved that kid from falling off of a cliff just kill him instead?"
"Um…" Mr. Unruh said, caught off guard with the question. He truly had no idea what to say. All of the students were looking at me and Mr. Unruh. They wanted to hear the answer.
"And while we're talking about this, I have another question," I said before Mr. Unruh could answer. All eyes were instantaneously back on me. "If Scyther really do act like that, then why didn't the one that my great-grandfather owned just kill him and run off?"
There were a few murmurs throughout the classroom, and I figured that either they were discussing the possibilities that I was implying or just wondering what the hell I was talking about.
Mr. Unruh finally found his voice and said, "Well, Kyle, there were many mysteries about Pokemon back then, and there are still just as many today…"
"So basically you're telling me that you have no idea why," I said flatly.
"Yes, it's still one of the many unsolved mysteries," Mr. Unruh said with a note of finality. I, however, wasn't done.
"I think that I may know why," I said as he started to turn back to the screen.
"And what do you believe is the answer?" he asked, turning back to face me. Once again, everyone's eyes were on me.
"Alright, this is pretty complex and may be hard to understand, but here goes," I said, letting a little bit of sarcasm show. "I think that the reason that none of these events happened is because Pokemon aren't evil."
Silence. Utter, absolute silence. It was kind of creepy having all of those eyes looking at you while there is no other noise or movement to distract them. Then, finally, Mr. Unruh broke the silence.
And what did he do? He laughed his merry little ass off.
Soon, the rest of the class joined him, figuring that what I said was just a joke. I started to grow angry. I hated it when people laughed at me. It brought up painful memories about life at my old school back in Ebony City.
Finally, the laughter died down and Mr. Unruh was able to compose himself enough to catch a glimpse of my expression. His smile instantly vanished.
"Wait, you were serious?" he asked, and all I did was nod.
More silence. Then he spoke again. "So that's your explanation?"
Another simple nod from me, and another period of silence as I awaited the question that I knew was coming next.
"Well, then, where's your proof?"
I smiled slightly. I was right. That made things so much easier for me since I already had this planned out.
"Well, first off, the fact that if Pokemon really were evil, I'm pretty sure that someone would have figured it out sooner, since we had been living with them for around 300 years before the Grand Revolution."
I paused for a second to let the students discuss it a little. When I continued, they all stopped.
"Second, there were so many trainers that traveled across the entire region, and all of them came back from every trip alive, even though they were traveling with Pokemon."
Another short pause for more assorted mumbling.
"And lastly, just looking at all of the pictures that the book shows of Pokemon doing evil things, I can tell that all of them were edited and digitally tampered with to make it look like Pokemon are stealing things when really it's just a picture of a Pokemon carrying something overlaid onto a picture of a house."
More silence followed, and Mr. Unruh finally came up with a question. "Well then, if Pokemon aren't evil, then why did that Glaceon attack Fielder?"
"You said that the Glaceon looked extremely beaten up, correct?" I asked.
"Yes, that's right."
"Well, then, there's your answer. The Glaceon was probably beaten up by something, most likely human, and when Fielder reached out his hand to comfort her, she thought that he was going to beat her again. So she decided to not let that happen by attacking first by biting."
"Wait, she?" Mr. Unruh asked.
"Yeah, she. Before you ask, I don't know why or how I know, I just do."
Mr. Unruh stood there for a while, contemplating everything. Then it seemed as if he came to a conclusion, because he stood up a little straighter and opened his mouth to speak.
"Well… um… what was your name again?"
I slapped myself in the forehead, and that earned quite a few chuckles around the room. I removed my hand from my face slowly, and then I said, "Kyle."
"Right," Mr. Unruh said. "Well, Kyle, I've studied everything that you've said and I finally understand."
"Really?" I said, glad that he realized what I knew to be the truth.
"Yes, I understand that you are out of your mind."
My happy mood fell and hit the ground, shattering like a vase. I couldn't believe it. I provided all of that evidence and he still didn't believe me!
"What?" I managed to stammer out.
"You heard me. I think that you're crazy," he said.
"But what about all of the evidence I gave you?"
"Made up. Pokemon weren't discovered to be evil until the start of the Grand Revolution because they were good at hiding it. The trainers were able to travel with Pokemon and remain alive because even if they were evil, Pokemon still developed one special link with the one that captured them. And as for the edited pictures, you have no proof there."
"But… But what about the Glaceon?" I desperately added, hoping that I'd be able to stump him.
"It attacked him most likely because it was hurt and not thinking straight, so it forgot that it was supposed to act kind around humans," Mr. Unruh deftly explained, making sure to stress the word it whenever he said it.
"But… But…" I stammered, trying to think of something to say, but I came up with nothing. Then the bell decided that now was the best time to ring, and the students all got up and left. I stood there for a second, and then Mr. Unruh shocked me back to reality by saying, "If I were you, I'd seek some mental help."
He then walked back to his desk, and I gathered my things, still in a daze, and exited the classroom.