Just a heads up. The next four chapters will get a bit Evangelion-esque. Then things will get Gurren Lagann. Then we'll resume our normal reading.
Also, we updated the previous chapter. It's about… 1.75 times better now.
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Griseous Giratina. Find the error. Tear Logic Asunder.
Adamant Dialga. Preserve this state. Save this time.
Lustrous Palkia. Stop the world. Restart the universe.
Error.
Save.
Reset.
And the Missing Number shall come.
Below.
Water.
Red looked up to see the horizon in all directions.
He was dressed in the jeans and the red sleeveless shirt of days gone by.
He even had his old hat and rucksack.
Nor for the important question.
How the hell was Red standing on water.
"Hello there!" a familiar voice shouted. "Glad to meet you!"
Red slowly turned around. "Professor Oak?" he shouted.
"Welcome to the world of POKéMON!" the professor smiled. "My name is OAK. People affectionately refer to me as the POKéMON PROFESSOR!"
"Are you okay?" Red asked him warily as the Professor produced a pokéball from nowhere.
"This world…" Oak said regardless as he released a nidoran female. "…is inhabited far and wide by creatures called POKéMON. For some people, POKéMON are pets. Others use them for battling. As for myself… I study POKéMON as a profession."
He recalled the nidoran and the ball disappeared. "But first, tell me a little about yourself." The Professor told Red. "Are you a boy, or a girl?"
"What the crap?" Red asked, taking a step backwards.
"Let's begin with your name." The professor continued regardless. "What is it?"
"Professor Oak, it's me, Red." The teenage boy told him. "You know me."
The professor smiled.
"Now, we both know that isn't true, is it?" The professor asked as skeletal arms burst from the water to grab at Red's ankles and drag him down.
"Let's try this again, shall we?" The professor asked with a dissonant smile, sparking and flickering before Red's eyes like a bad video recording. "What's your name again?"
Charles Zi Britannia was chained to a hexagonical stone surrounded by green flames.
IS THIS WHAT YOU WANTED
The emperor turned to see a man in a white mask looking at him. "Missing...no..."
MY BROTHER IS ELSEWHERE
Charles raised an eyebrow. "Then... Who...?"
MY NAME IS M
THINK OF ME AS A MEDIATOR
"Mediator..?" Charles asked.
YES
BETWEEN YOU CODED AND US GLITCHES
Charles chuckled. "You... speak as if... this were a machine..."
THE UNIVERSE IS A MACHINE
A BEAUTIFULLY INFINITE MACHINE
MADE OF WHAT WAS CREATED AND WHAT WAS NOT CREATED
"So... you are what was not meant to be?"
NO
WE ARE WHAT GOD DID NOT WANT TO CREATE
WE WERE NOT CREATED
WE ARE
BECAUSE WE ARE NOT
DO YOU UNDERSTAND
"No..." Charles chuckled. "You make no sense."
YOU JUST DO NOT UNDERSTAND
YOUR SON UNDERSTANDS
Charles snapped up as the figure removed his mask. "Lelouch?"
HE IS A FINE CODE
PERHAPS HE CAN BECOME A CODER
"A what?" Charles shouted.
WHAT YOU WANTED TO BE
ONE WHO SEES THE CODE OF THE UNIVERSE AND CAN CHANGE IT
ONE WHO IS LIKE UNTO GOD
"Dammit!" Green Oak shouted, recalling his charmander. "I chose the wrong pokémon!"
The world darkened and froze. "Why?" Professor Oak asked Red. "Why would he order his pokémon to use a Growl attack, when both his charmander and your bulbasaur were barely standing? The logical step would have been to use another scratch attack, like you ordered your bulbasaur to finish him with a tackle."
"So my Geass forced him to lose the battle." Red growled. "So what? I've come to terms with that a long time ago."
"But that's not the only time that's happened, has it?" Oak asked. "You only defeated Lance the first time because he kept ordering his pokémon to use agility against your poliwrath instead of actual attacks. But I digress."
Oak pressed a button on a remote control and the world ran downwards, like a fast-forwarding film reel, until stopping at a scene Red recognised.
The battle on the S.S. Anne.
"Ah, now I remember." Oak chuckled. "This was the day you traded a spearow for a farfetch'd. Dux, its name was, correct?" Oak asked. "Though you persuaded the Name Rater to change its name to Ch'Ding afterwards, despite the fact that it is a crime for anyone but the original trainer to change the nickname of a pokémon."
"Dux was a silly name." Red explained. "Ch'Ding suited it much better."
Oak smiled. "But of course." he said, pressing the button. "It certainly was a violent pokémon, wasn't it?"
The scene played was the first time Red used the farfetch'd in battle. It was against a sailor's machop, and it was brutal. It immediately jabbed at the eyes, and when the brawling pokémon tried to guard the bird used the opening to stab at it's armpits, aiming to sever tendons.
Oak froze the scene. "You knew that a pokémon with a temper like this needed more training." he said. "Pokémon aren't meant to be mortally wounded in battles. It's sport, a contest, not cock-fighting, after all. A pokémon this violent needed to be controlled, not encouraged.
"Yet you used it against Green's raticate." Oak continued. "Yes, you had run out of other pokémon, but it was only a battle. No one needed to get hurt."
Oak pressed the button.
The rat was slammed to the wall by the leek, then jabbed several times in the chest with great fury. Green recalled the pokémon, but the farfetch'd blocked the ball's path.
"Knock it off!" Green shouted. "You win, okay!"
Red let it continue for a few more seconds, recalling the pokémon as the raticate vomited blood.
Green recalled his pokémon "Smell ya later." he growled, running to the closest pokémon centre.
The scene followed Green as he gave his pokémon to be treated.
It followed him pacing around as his raticate was sent for emergency surgery for the internal damage.
It showed him rushing to the nurse as she came out of the surgery room with a somber look on his face.
It showed Green collapsing to his knees.
It showed him clutching a pokéball with dull red and grey sides.
It showed his tears.
"Brendan!"
The World Eater turned around as a girl that was covered in mud, wearing only her underwear and a grass skirt tackled him to the ground. "WH-who are you!" he asked.
The girl laughed as she straddled atop him. "Don't you remember me?" she asked him, stroking the side of his cheek. "All the time we spent together?"
He squinted as his brain hurt. "Wh-no... should I..?"
She grabbed the back of his head and headbutted him. "Damn right you should!"
Green knelt before a grave, but stood up when he heard the footsteps behind him. "Hey, Red!" he waved with a smile. "What brings you here? Is your pokémon dead?"
"Pika!"
"Hey, it's alive!" Green laughed, goading Red into a battle. "At least I can make them faint. Let's go!"
Oak paused the scene. "He wanted to see if you were still using Dux." he explained. "If it was going to hurt any more pokémon. He saw that you'd tamed it, so he forgave you. He forgave his oldest friend for the murder of one of his pokémon."
"I..." Red whispered. "I had no idea..."
"You, wouldn't, would you?"
Red turned around to see Green, glaring at you. "Everything you do, it's all about you. You never say a word, but everything just goes your way, doesn't it? It doesn't matter that I spent all night training my pokémon. It doesn't matter that I actually tried to fill my pokédex for gramps when you just ran around knocking down gyms and taking out the Rockets."
"Was this the time they were trafficking pokémon, or when they took Saffron City hostage?" Red snapped right back at him.
"You see, all about you." Green sighed. "You don't understand what the Rocket's were fighting for. Britannia came in and stole their homes. The soldiers can just waltz into the slums that now serve as their homes, take what they want and who they want. See that guy?" Green asked, pointing to a Rocket that was standing guard inside Pokémon Tower. "Shinichi Kurosawa. His brother died in the invasion. His wife from three and a half separate STD's when she was dragged to the whorehouses and raped over and over and over again while he was in some concentration camp. Don't get me started on what they did to his children. Trafficking pokémon and holding a city hostage is nothing to what Britannia did to him."
"But you see, it's not me." A younger Red told his older self. "It's not my family. In your head..." he shook his head. "In your head they are fighting."
"And that's fine." Green told Red with a shrug. "Because it's always about you. Survival of the fittest. They're only numbers."
Oak laughed. "What!" Red shouted, turning to glare at the professor.
"Oh it's just that you're so much like your father." the professor said. "You never asked for the Rocket's names, did you?" he asked. "With their slanty eyes and angry faces, they're all the same. Rocket Grunt is the only name they need, just like Japan only needed Area Eleven for a name."
"But at least Britannia stopped with the Numbers." Green told him. "You just took people who looked kinda similar, used similar pokémon, and you gave them all the same face." he said. "Unless they were important, it didn't matter who they were, right?"
"But you were creative, I'll give you that." Professor Oak told him. "Everyone was a Hiker, a Youngster, but I'm not quite sure where Pokéfreak came from," he chuckled. "Anyone who didn't fit your little pattern? Well that's easy. They were a Cool Trainer, weren't they?"
"This is hell, isn't it?" Clair asked.
"How so?" Lance asked her.
"Because of all the people I could have been trapped for eternity with, it had to be you." she groaned. "What did I do to deserve this?"
CLAP
The two of them looked at the old man rubbing his hands together with a grin. "Let's find out, shall we?" he asked. "Come along children!"
"Green... I'm disappointed in you." Oak sighed. "I came when I heard that you beat the Elite Four. But when I got here, you'd already lost! Green, do you understand why you lost?"
Without waiting for an answer, Oak turned to the new Champion. "Red, you understand that your victory was not your own doing. You had your Geass to make sure you won every single time, that you got the strongest pokémon, that they grew as fast as you needed them too. You're even making me choose your side over my own grandson. He knew about your Geass, but he never complained. Not once. Because he knew that the Geass was your talent, and he had to overcome that with hard work, because complaining never achieved anything. He was a good friend, but you left him behind as a bitter, petty rival that couldn't keep up."
"Stop it." Red growled.
"Hey, I even helped you half the time." Green pointed out. "Remember Saffron? I kept the pathway clear and held the door open as you went and became the hero of Britannia. After all, it's not like I wanted to be praised as the one who crushed an oppressed people's last hope at freedom."
"But you joined me." Lelouch said. "You joined those you stomped all over simply because that was the side I was on, and it sounds fun."
"That's the only reason you do anything, isn't it?" Green asked, circling around Red. "Fun. You don't care who's right or wrong. When that comes into the equation, you freeze up and lash out at those closest to you. You ditched Misty the second you thought that she was only with you for your Geass. You ditched Lelouch when you found out he killed your mother, second time around, but all was forgotten when he told you what she did to Nunnally." he shook his head. "You're still just a kid, aren't you, Grandmaster Red?"
"Stop it."
But it's true
You cannot deny reality
The world turned into a dark cave, devoid of anything other that Red and Mewtwo.
Mars sat in the darkness of space, alone with her thoughts.
She'd been alone with her thoughts a lot lately.
It wasn't like the isolated prison cell had much in the terms of entertainment or company.
"You're amazing."
Mars turned to the blonde woman sitting on a moon some distance to the right. "Almost all the other Geass users have gone insane already." the woman said. "But not you. You've got it all together, don't you?"
"I live a simple life." Mars replied. "Destructo Ergo Sum. I destroy, therefore I am."
The woman giggled. "What?" Mars asked her.
"Well, how long has it been since you destroyed anything?" she asked. "In fact, the last thing that was broken around you was you."
Mars leered at the woman. "And how was I broken?" she asked. "I was captured, I was beaten, my team annihilated, but I'm still standing." she said.
The woman smiled sweetly.
"Then why are you sitting?" the blonde asked.
You are selfish
"Vengeance." Red said. "Are you against me too?"
Lance. Oak. Mr Pokémon. Bill. All of them told you how pokémon deserve your respect as your partners
"And you are." Red told him. "Did I ever treat any of you with anything less than the respect you deserve?"
Not I. But consider the weak you abandoned
Ash blinked. "What?"
You took us from our homes and dumped the weak, the unwanted, the spares in your computer. Yes, they lived comfortably, but you took them from what the knew and what they loved and abandoned them
"So does everyone." Red replied. "You know that I didn't mean any harm."
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. But you never had any intentions beyond your own greatness. You never even chose a road to walk. You are guilty of the greatest crime of all
"And what would that be?"
Apathy
You just don't care
Ash sat in his bedroom in pallet town.
"Did you ever stop to think about any of us?" a krabby on his desk asked. "Did you ever think about how we felt?"
"I had a family." one ratatta said. "You kept me for a few levels but abandoned my when you got to Mount Moon. You didn't even have the decency to release me back into the wild."
"Do you know?" a gyrados outside his window asked him. "When a pokémon evolves, its personality completely changes? Why do you think so many magikarp refuse to become gyrados in the wild? Do you think we like being angry all the time? Do you think that we're incapable of forgiving those that hurt us? That we don't want a calmer existence?"
"But you took care of me." Vee said. "After Team Rocket did all those experiments on me, you took me in. You helped me control my transformations, to ease the pain, and you made me strong. Because I was interesting." The pokémon said. "I wasn't like the other eevee. I could be anything you needed me to be, and I could change when you needed me to be. It was like having a party of ten pokémon for you, wasn't it?"
"But you're not kind." the Snorlax in the corner told him. "You're practical and pragmatic. You're like one of those children who spends all their times playing those games on their computers. You don't care about good or evil. You don't care about right or wrong. You don't care about feelings."
"All that matters to you," Primape said. "Is what works. And what does not."
"No, that's not true." Poliwrath glared. "What matters most is whether or not it's any FUN."
"But that would be too innocent." Charmander said. "But you see, you want to be the best. So you think that's our goal too."
"And you punish the ones who try to voice their own views." Squirtle said. "Those that disobey get left in their pokéballs. Those that are weak never see the outside of the box again. Those that fight so hard for you, only to be outclassed by a more interesting pokémon you stole, they don't even know what they did wrong to deserve the prison sentence you gave them."
"Your worse than Britannia." Bulbasaur said. "At least Britannia has the decency to declare their truth. You just keep your mouth shut and let everyone shower you with praise, about how all your pokémon love you."
"We don't love you." Pikachu said. "We're scared of you. You think your Geass doesn't affect pokémon? How could we look at everyone in the world bow to you and not be affected?"
"Did you find your heart?" Ashford asked. "I found many hearts. Look at all the hearts that I have!"
"I did not find a heart." Lelouch told his younger brother. "But I found something better. I found that I could be happy without a heart."
"But you need a heart to be happy." Ashford said, holding his pikachu. "Happiness comes from the heart!"
"Love comes from the heart, but happiness is in the mind." Lelouch explained with a smile. "I realised that I could be happy as a heartless monster, and that's what I became."
Ashford's face fell in horror as Lelouch smiled. "I am happy with what I am;" Lelouch said, his Geass flaring to life. "I do not need a heart."
Ashford screamed.
His scream destroyed his brother.
His scream destroyed his room.
His scream destroyed his pokémon.
And that was when Ashford realised.
He was surrounded by pokémon.
But none of them loved him.
He was just a monster to them.
A thief.
A kidnapper.
A slavedriver.
A machine.
A demon.
"But I love you."
Ash raised his head and turned around to see Misty.
"I love you, Ash." she said.
"Brother?" another voice called behind him.
Ash span around.
Nunnally...
"I love you too." she said.
There was another person.
His older brother.
Lellow...
"I pity you." he said.
Lellow..?
"Look at you." Lelouch said with a grin. "You're a brainless idiot. You really think that you're incapable of feeling? You knew exactly what you were doing."
Ash's blood froze.
"How could anything go wrong for you?" Lelouch continued. "How could anyone hate you? Who can you actually say is your enemy?"
Lelouch knelt at his brother. "The Geass of Defiance. You are your own worst enemy. Everything exists for you to wave your middle finger at and smile."
"Remember threesomes in the hot-tub?" Misty asked him. "That was fun, wasn't it? Can't we just be like that forever?"
"We could be a family again Ash." Nunnally told him. "Me, you, Big Brother and Auntie C.C.. Wouldn't that be fun?"
"You could even keep training me as your little sidekick." Lelouch smirked. "Even though you know damn well that you will never be as good as I am."
Lelouch laughed. "Hell, if I left Nunnally behind and abandoned her like you abandoned us, not even your Geass of Defiance could have stopped me from ruling the world with an iron fist by the time I was fifteen."
"I didn't abandon you..." Ash whispered.
"Liar." Lelouch told him. "You stole your Geass and it told you that Cyrus was going to kill mom and hurt Nunnally, so you got our father to wipe your memories so you could come back when it was safe. You're a coward that doesn't care about anything or anyone other than yourself. And ain't it fun?"
Ain't it fun when you're always on the run
Ain't it fun when your friends despise what you've become
Ain't it fun when you get so high,
Well...that you just can't come
Ain't it fun when you know that you're gonna die young
It's such fun.
"Stop it." Red snarled.
"Would you prefer a different song then?" Lelouch laughed. "How did it go? I wanna be, the very best, like no-one ever was?"
WHAM
Red's fist impacted against a barrier that surrounded Lelouch.
He grinned.
"So you're finally defying me." Lelouch pointed out. "Putting that Geass to good work, or are you actually giving a damn?"
Red thought about his journey so far.
How he had defended his pokémon from the worst of attacks.
He had endured fire, ice and lightning for them.
How his pokémon had defended him.
It was unfair to say that he didn't care.
But it would be unfair to say that he didn't treat them like tools.
Red was at fault.
Red knew what he did with faults.
He got rid of them and replaced them with strengths.
Defy weakness.
Defy emotions.
WIN
#000
Red
Steel/Dragon
The Conqueror Pokémon
Red clenched his fist as the world melted into white.
He was dressed in jeans and a white T-shirt, with a red, sleeveless jacket around his shoulders.
Black, fingerless gloves were wrapped around his knuckles as a red and white cap appeared in his hands.
"Are you ready?" a man asked the boy.
Suzaku, C.C. and Lelouch were standing behind him.
Red spun the hat onto his head and walked towards them. "Let's go kick some ass."
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Next three chapters will explain just what the hell is going on. Chapter after that will involve asskicking of epic levels.
And no, I didn't rip off Farla. I ripped off the Cranberries.
Varanus: Rock. Breaking down Red and the world he lives in. So, now you understand. His Geass was a meta way of explaining at the bad AI in the games, and the basis of Red's character was the theme song for the original series of the show. And SamJaz made that idea terrifyingly epic.
Next chapter, I'll be doing Suzaku. And his ability to use pokémon attacks will finally be explained.