Chapter 3
An Outpost of Security
Security, to protect, to help save the weak from the things that would harm, we are the strongest of the society, and it is our responsibility to protect those who can't protect themselves. We strive for power, not to be the strongest or the master of all, but to protect those that follow us. We may be seen as legends, as heroes, but let me tell you this. We are flawed. We may no longer be human anymore, but that doesn't mean we are perfect beings without any faults. Our enemy is similarly flawed. He may be a dragon, a mad man in command of a small army, but we are not lead by a man, nor a pokemon. We are lead by an ideal. We are the strong who protects weak, the parents who protects the children, those who care for the safety of others and the future of everything we have left and we have made. Now, let the battle begin. – High Commander Micah Vash, to his men before the Battle of Char Rock
It happened months ago. Micah lost track of how long. He took the week off for the yearly family reunion. Of course, the only thing his family and relatives know about him is the fact that he's in the military. Anything more is classified information. Before he left the headquarters, he was told of mysterious disappearances happening around the world, and the worrisome rumors about some hidden global conspiracy.
Going down the escalator still in his military uniform, he saw Michael carrying a sign with his name on it. Smiling, he walks to his brother, who's wearing casual attire.
"Micah! Still wearing your uniform." Michael commented.
"I never find the time to change. How's the family?" Micah asked.
"Isaac got his first badge from what his friends told me."
"And Emma?"
"Got her first break at the movie studio."
"I see." Micah said as he looks at the nearby family, a father, a mother, and their smiling young boy.
"You could go back to dating." Michael said as he notices what his brother was looking at.
"You know I'm too busy with work." Micah said as they reach the airport's entrance.
"Yeah, yeah," Michael said as he raises his hand up, "Taxi!" He called.
"What happened to your car?" Micah asked as a taxi stops in front of them.
"It broke down last week." The two then entered the taxi cab. There is an air of awkward silence between the two. Micah was always the more serious of the two, and due to his line of work, notice to strange the driver is, especially how he adjusted the lens to look at him and not the backside of the car. There is a sense of emptiness in his eyes. But his concentration was interrupted by Michael's phone ringing.
"Hello? Ah yes, we're on a taxi. Yeah? Ok." He said as he finished the call, "Wife called, she asked if I can bring Emma home for the reunion."
"You don't need to ask me for permission." Michael simply shrugged.
"Just thinking that you might be in a hurry." He said as he knocks on the glass screen that separates the front seats from the passenger seats. "Change of plans, take us to White Ocean Studios." There was no reply and the driver simply presses a button on the radio, which cause all the doors and windows to lock. "Hello?" He asked the driver as he continues to tap the glass, "Take us to White Ocean Studios." The driver simply ignores them and they see the taxi drive through a warning sign of an under construction highway. Michael begins to pound the glass. "What is the meaning of this!?" Micah, on the other hand, pulls out his pistol and shoots farther glass window, only to realize that its bullet proof. The driver presses another button, opening small holes on the ceiling and giving off strange smoke. It doesn't matter if they held their breath; the smoke would have gone through their skin anyway, and it starts to turn purple, due to the influx of blood in their muscles. The taxi burst through another warning sign as the nearby workers begin shouting and calling their colleagues and police.
Inside the taxi, both Micah and Michael are in pain. Every muscle of their body appears to be growing and straining against itself. Their tongues could burst, their hearts could explode, their tendons could rip themselves off, yet it didn't. They both feel pain. Pure, agonizing pain as their entire physical form alters into something not human. Micah, who can already bear pain in some way, sees his brother having what looks like a seizure. Every muscle of Michael's body is both growing and in a spasm. Tears are falling due to the pain. Michael should have fainted from it, but the pain itself has kept him awake through the whole ordeal. They both see their hair falling off, and the familiar ridges growing. They see blood bleeding from the red marks on their arms as the muscles simply rip open the wounds through their developing strength. They finally feel their faces push forward into muzzles as a sense of numbness, equal in strength to the pain, slowly overwhelms them. The two newly formed Machokes simply close their eyes into unconsciousness. The driver presses another button, which cause what looks like two cup holders to lower themselves from the ceiling with two odd looking pokeballs, both of them have a maroon upper side with a fist symbol above the button, two Fighting Type Balls. The balls shoot out a red beam, capture the two, leaving only bloody clothes behind, and vanish to who-knows-where. The taxi speeds up as it burst through the final warning sign and the driver simply smiles, knowing that his mission is complete and the taxi leaps off the end of the unfinished highway.
"High Commander?" The Gardevoir said which wakes Micah from his thoughts.
"Yes Sonya, any breakthroughs?"
"No, but there is a situation by the medical bay, the catatonic patients are hysterical." She said as they leave the office. Outpost's medical bay looks more like a group of military medical tents than a hospital, due to the fact that there's no technology to heal them and the need for the medical crews to be highly mobile. In one of the more permanent tents, it is where they held anyone who was turned into Natu and Xatu, the fact that they see the entirety of time, from the start of time all the way to its end simultaneously, has practically shattered their minds. There is an ongoing debate on whether or not they should commit euthanasia on them.
"Good bye Lady Sorev." A Natu said as it flies to a nearby Xatu. She is either lucky or unlucky compared to the rest, for she has gone mad, and at such a young age. "Your majesty." She said to Micah with a nod like bow.
"I'm just the commander, nothing more, nothing less."
"Oh, but you might have will be later on, no?."
"Alicia, come back here." A Chansey said as the Natu simply flies to her. Looking around, Micah sees every Natu and Xatu simply shaking with horror on their beds.
"He is here!" A Xatu shouted. "He-Who-Is-The-Nightmare-Of-Existence! He whose name can shatter stars. He whose voice rings with terror. He who returned from the nothingness of beyond existence. He is here!"
"She is coming." A Natu with a voice of a child said. "The Sleepwalker. She is coming. She who glimpsed the truth. She who seen both wonders and terrors. She who is both of this existence and not. She who is both united and divided from herself. She who knows the truth. She is coming."
"What is going on here?" Micah asked the Chansey.
"I, I don't know sir." She replied with fright. "One moment, I was simply taking care of Alicia, the next, every patient went hysterical."
"We can see." Alicia said. "We can, no? Yes? An Atoning Error of Existence is here, the Sleepwalker is coming, the corruption will spread, and reality will change. It will may have been was, no? Yes?" Then there was silence. Everyone return to the catatonic state as quickly as it appeared. "He is here." Alicia said, "She is coming."
It is a simple job. The Tribe's witch needs some missing ingredients for the spell. Fur from an Alpha Mightyena, water on a Lotad's head, silk of a Silcoon. It would be simple, if she didn't make him bring the Stranger along. Looking at the Stranger, Meton can't help but feel how out of place he is. How and why this high class city folk would help the tribe find the Scale is odd.
'Most likely a rich politician.' He thought as he gathers the water from the Lotad's head and pours it into the leather canteen. Meton then stands up and sees the Stranger reading a book written in a strange language. Every time he observes him, the mystery only gets deeper.
"It's been a while since I visited her. She did get married and Andrew is growing up well." The Stranger muttered to himself as the close the book. He then looks at Meton, "We got the water, and the only thing left is the Alpha Mightyena fur." He said as he stands up before turning his head at the direction of the village. "We need to hurry. Come, I know the nearest Mightyena pack."
Another thing that is odd is the impossible knowledge the Stranger seems to have. City folk wouldn't have just known where the nearest Mightyena den is, but they found it. A cave opening with a small group of Mightyena and Poochyena near it, the Mightyena simply growl at the Stranger.
"Now now, don't be rude. We just need some hair from your alpha." The Stranger said. A Mightyena barks. "Yes, I know about that. But this is for something more important." Another Mightyena barks. "Fine fine, I'll help you once this is done." A Poochyena then barks. "Yes, I promise. Now where's the alpha." He said as a threatening growl is heard right behind him. The Stranger turns around and sees an angry Mightyena, looking like it would pounce. "Ah, right. I forgot about that." The alpha Mightyena then jumps at him with its mouth wide open for a bite on his face, only for the Stranger to stop it by grabbing its snout right in the middle of the pounce. The rest of the pack starts to whimper. "I know you're angry. I'll fix it, just not right now." The Stranger then looks at Meton. "You can get the fur now." He said as Meton takes a tribal knife and, ignoring the muffled growls of the alpha, cuts some of the fur and scoops the fur into the bag.
"Who are you?" Meton said as the Stranger lets go of the Alpha Mightyena and it runs off into the den.
"Someone whom you mustn't cross. Now, let's go back to your village." The Stranger said as he walks ahead. That's where Meton notices another odd thing about him. Despite walking in the humid and dirty jungle of Hoenn, the Stranger's clothes are completely clean, without a speck of dirt or grass stains.
"Paul," Samantha said to the hologram, "I want a list of all disappeared, missing, and dead individuals with missing corpses with connection to the organizations that benefitted from the Talbot and Fenrir Foundation's donations." Samantha Jones said as she looks at the appearing photos on the large wall mounted screen.
"Breaking and entering the entirety of the Global Communications Network is a piece of virtual cake." Paul said as he appears with a slice of Black Forest cake, and takes a bite of it with a fork. "Well, almost the entirety."
"Is there any suspicious disappearances not related to the Foundation but with too many similarities with each other?" Samantha asked as she begins to type on the computer.
"You're asking very broad terms here. At this rate, we'll end up having better odds in winning a lottery that solving this case."
"That's just it. The Talbot and Fenrir Foundation is a global organization. I just want to see the webs they make and find out if there's any correlation with any other mysterious and suspicious events."
"You do realize you could be making connections that aren't even there in the first place."
"I just want to make an impartial observation first. Now, organize them in these categories." She said as she types down the keywords in to the computer. "There, how many people in the list?"
"In the tens of thousands, not something you can just go about asking people individually." Paul said as the hologram rubs his head. "There are news reports of missing persons, the most notable being the mysterious disappearances of whole villages, but there's nothing connecting the missing villages with the Foundation." He said as he eats the cake.
"Let's start with this question Paul, in what reason would the Talbot and Fenrir Foundation benefit in the kidnapping? Are they developing a secret army to conquer the world? Ruling from behind the shadows while masquerading as a charity group? Or maybe even sending some sort of spaceship with all the kidnapped people to the nearest star system?" She said as the hologram silently flickers in thought.
"I seriously have no idea." He replied as he continues eating.
"That's the point, an advance AI from the future that can hack every piece of machinery in the world yet can't enter the Foundation's network, I think," She said with worry, "That there is someone or something inhuman going on with this case, even more so that everything else. But we need a lead. What's the latest mysterious disappearance?" She asked as Paul finishes his cake.
"Susan Stronghold, age forty two, no wait, her body was found, the report was literally uploaded right now."
"It seems that we need to wait for the next disappearance then. Contact me at once when that happens." Samantha said as Paul simply nods and disappears. Samantha simply looks at the long list of missing people. She read from some conspiracy websites about the strange increase of missing people but she didn't realize that some of them are true.
Micah is listening to his subordinates' opinion on the recent matter of the press dubbed 'Comatose Prophecy'.
"Great, first we're dealing with the mysterious organization, then the force field, then the mushroom hivemind, then the Wild, and now this." An Excadrill, the Commander of the Subterranean Force, said.
"This will only spread our forces thin. It might not even true." A Pidgeot, the Commander of the Air Force, said.
"We can handle this," A Blastoise, the Commander of the Navy, said, "Remember when we were fighting those warlord states? We can definitely handle this."
"Now don't be too confident." A Houndoom, the Commander of the Special Forces, said, "We don't know who these beings are. I say we'll simply train some soldiers as a contingency team while we continue with our current objectives."
"But can you be certain that this contingency team would suffice?" The Pidgeot asked.
"No, but it is a compromise between not doing anything about it and putting everything on it." The Houndoom replied.
"The idea is sound," Micah said, "We'll use some of our best men and let them train our forces, we'll continue on with our current objectives, and unless there's more mystical revelations, there must be no slacking off in our duties. Any sign of weakness can and will be exploited by the enemy."
"Yes sir." The Commanders said as the meeting ends.
Arnold is busy putting on his new martial arts uniform with glee. It looks like a simple white martial arts gi with black trim and the Dojo's fist logo on its back. As Arnold ties the final bandage on his right hand, his appearance is complete. Looking at himself, he can't help but feel like he can take down the biggest opponents.
"I don't like the look on your face." George said on the nearest tree branch as he comments on Arnold's happiness.
"Oh don't be like a stereotypical brooding ninja George." Arnold said as he enters a stance, grips the ground with his bandaged feet and made a spin high kick.
"That's the problem. You might go Wild faster with that attitude on the condition."
"You know," Arnold said as he looks at George, "I keep hearing that term, Wild, but you didn't really explain it to me." George simply sighs and drops down to the ground, making sure his equipment doesn't fall off.
"Turning Wild, it's the mental, emotional, psychological change." George said as he walks off to a random direction, with Arnold following right behind him.
"Wait, you mean I'll turn into a Machop completely." Arnold said in a mixture of both shock and fear.
"No, your memories, and your personality by the looks of it, will be unchanged. But you'll start to unknowingly distance yourself from your past." George said as they continue walking through the forest. "Imagine, remembering a sad moment of your life, like the memory of your grandparent's funeral. Normally, you would feel sad and reminisce on the times you have with your late grandparent. But if you're turning Wild, it's different. You'll start to see yourself as someone, or something, other than the grieving person. You'll literally start to think and feel like you're a different person. Like the crying human in the funeral is just that, a crying human in the funeral. That person is not you, the thought or sensation might come up. It's obvious that you're not the human but a pokemon." He said as they slowly reach a clearing. "You'll no longer empathize with your past self. You know you were human, you still have your memories, and if your human personality and the pokemon you turned into has some sort of synergy with each other, then the result is the complete abandonment of your human identity and you'll start to be the pokemon." They then the clearing, the sunlight blinded Arnold for a moment while George simply pull off his cowl and bask under the bright light of the sun with his eyes close. He stops himself when he realized at what just happened and place his palm on his face in annoyance. "I submitted to my instincts again! I thought I got full control by now." He said as he puts the cowl back on.
"Oh, hello there." A Haunter wearing a dark purple outfit that consists of a gentleman's short cape, a top hat, and a pair of gloves, the Haunter is also wearing a monocle with a chain that connects to the short cape. "I'm Henry, and welcome to the Graveyard." Both Arnold and George went pale when they realize they're facing an entire clearing filled with tombstones. At the center of the graveyard is a large mausoleum with stairs that heads underground. There are Ghost Type pokemon abound here, with some waving at a Charmeleon goodbye as it leaves.
"My my, what do we have here." Another Haunter wearing the same outfit said as he spots George and Arnold. "The name is Arthur, and what is your purpose to coming here?" He said with the usual creepy grin.
"How do those capes say on you two?" Arnold asked, "I mean, you're both floating heads and hands, I can't think of how does that work."
"You'll ask our tailor. But he doesn't want his competitors from finding out the secret, so we'll not tell as well." Arthur said. "You're surprisingly calm all of a sudden, young Machop."
"Arnold, the Treeko is George, I'm just spooked out by your appearance, that's all."
"You did not just say that." George muttered.
"So is this where all the dead bodies go?"
"Yes," Henry said, "This is also where those who turned into Ghost Types go."
"Um, I know this sounds disrespectful." Arnold said as he scratches the back side of his head. "But how did you turn into Ghost Types?" Both Arthur and Henry look at each other and solemnly nod to each other.
"They transform us." Henry said, "When we were dying."
Silence, that's what they heard when they return to the village, barren and empty, it was like everyone decided to leave the village with everything left behind. Both Meton and the Stranger runs to the witch's home and find the place in a mess, unlike the untouched homes of the other villagers. Meton drops to the floor in tears while the Stranger simply looks at the still bubbling cauldron.
"Meton," The Stranger said, "Put the missing ingredients in the cauldron." Meton simply did what his grandmother would ask him to do and place the Alpha Mightyena fur, Silcoon silk, and Lotad water. The bubbles stop as the liquid begins to glow. Meton takes a step back as a ghostly image of his grandmother appears.
"Meton, if you're hearing this then my vision has come to pass. Something terrible is happening when I start losing contact with our fellow tribes. Listen to me, and listen carefully. Whoever did this is trying to tamper with the natural order. I don't know who or why but go, go to the cities with the Stranger and look for those responsible and stop them. You may save us from the disaster my fellows and I can't seem to foretell." The ghostly image said before it vanishes into the air. After a moment of silent reflection and prayer to the Great Spirits, especially his Guardian Swellow Spirit, for guidance, Meton exits his grandmother's home, and with the Stranger, heads south to Fortree City.
A young man known as Andrew is busy walking towards a café, with two people following right behind him. Noticing them, he walks to an alleyway. The two simply follow him. That is when he begins to run.
"Stop!" The first person shouted.
"We just want to talk to you!" The second person said.
"I'm not falling for that." Andrew yelled back as he sees the end of the alleyway. Closing his eyes, he imagines the wall not being there, and he runs through it like a ghost. The two only hit the wall, thinking that it was some sort of trick. After checking for any possible hidden entryways, and failing, the first person calls their boss.
"Sir, he ran away from us again."
"Don't' worry," The boss said, "You'll catch him eventually." He said as he ends the call. At his headquarters, the boss simply looks at the report on Andrew, next to the reports on famine and disaster relief, education projects, and free medical care for the poor. He then gives a soft smile as he looks at Andrew's photo, and a sense of emptiness appears in his eyes the moment he sees the picture.