A/N: Nothing to say here but shit goes down. Also, fastest I've ever gotten a chapter done and uploaded. That is all.
"Sir! The relic you were searching for... Giratina's found it." I opened my eyes, staring straight at the grunt framed in the light of the hall outside. 'In the other world? … Interesting.' I had only had the Distortion Pokémon sent there to cause havoc, but if I could have that much power so early...
"Have it brought to me. Now." I didn't need to raise my voice above a whisper - if these morons paid attention to nothing else, they listened to me. As I expected, the grunt was nearly falling over himself to respond.
"Y-yes sir! It won't be l-long!" He was gone as quickly as he had arrived - good riddance. They were a means to an end, nothing more. And when I met that end... they would no longer be necessary.
******************************Real World******************************
You know, there are people who say there's no such thing as luck, good or bad. Some say that everything is determined by fate, or the machinations of some god or another.
"Are you fucking KIDDING me!?"
Either Fate is hell-bent on screwing me over in every way possible, or those people are flat-out wrong and I have horrible luck. Like I was the hero of a Pokémon Movie, here I stood; a Lucario by my side, a Pokéball in my hand, and the big bad Giratina glaring right down at me. The problem was, I wasn't hero material - I was a 19-year old nerd living what a few seconds ago was a dream, now turned nightmare.
But I was the 'good guy'. And when I saw the wreckage that was a house - which said Legendary was standing on, by the way - and the 10-ish year old girl freaking out near a clawed foot bigger than she was, my 'moral-moron' side took over. "Aurora, we're not backing out of this one - Aura Sphere! Hit 'im with everything you've got!"
Before I even finished speaking, the blue orb was flying. In the blink of an eye, it slammed into the huge dragon-like Legendary... and flew right through it. 'Damnet! That's right, Ghost-type... guess that hasn't changed.' I racked my brains in a panic, trying to think of something that would work, when Giratina apparently decided we were worth fighting. Wisps of shadowy energy swirled between the 'jaws' of its gold mask, and formed a ball that flew straight at Aurora - and hit like a train.
She went skidding back a few feet, but I saw something change in her eyes - she was scared, yeah, but now she was focused. Before I could say anything, she'd formed her Aura Staff and was just gone. Reminding me of a fight scene out of a TV show, I saw her 'teleporting' around Giratina, giving it one hell of a homerun swing, and vanishing just before it could react. But if the thing's stance was any judge, she wasn't doing anything - it looked more annoyed than anything.
Then I saw sparks jumping across Giratina's gold 'ribcage' bands. "Aurora, watch out!" Too late - just as she was about to land another hit, the sparks changed into a six bolts of lightning and arced right into her, sending the Lucario crashing to the ground with a sidewalk-cracking impact. "Oh, shit... Aurora?!" The Pokéball in my hand burst open, and the red beam morphed into the Scyther. He chattered something in whatever language they spoke in, but his motions made it clear - 'I'll handle this.'
But the guy didn't get the chance. Almost like it decided that this wasn't worth its time, Giratina seemed to fade into a shadowy outline of itself, and then it was just gone. Where it was now, I didn't care; I rushed over to Aurora. "C'mon, you've taken harder hits. Get up, now…" After a few moments of shaking her shoulder, she opened her eyes.
"That was painful. Where did Giratina go?" Of course – she gets thrown nearly through a sidewalk, and she wants to know where the bugger who did it went. In response, I just shrugged and held out my hand to pull her up. With minimal effort, I had her standing again, and she didn't even wobble. "What is the Distortion Lord doing here of all places?"
Again, I shrugged. "Hell if I know. But I do know that it's way out of our league right now. Probably best to just stay the hell out of its way-" I got interrupted by a weird shiver shooting right down my spine. Well, that and another shriek of terror. But when I looked up, I saw that it was just the little girl running away from us as fast as she could. "At least she's alright, I guess."
Then I got knocked flat on my ass by a shockwave. The ground shook, and all three of us were sent sprawling on the concrete. Suddenly everything was cast in a bright orange light- oh hell. "What just exploded?" It took me a second to realize what I just asked, and what just happened. "Wait a second – what just exploded!?"
"David…" When I saw her face, I knew it was bad news. 'Oh, don't tell me…' I looked back warily, and started running. Normally you want to run away from something trailing smoke and fire that just exploded, but it's a whole 'nother story when that thing happens to be in the direction of your house.
"I told you, I'm not crazy. This isn't just some new species – we're seeing Pokémon." Go figure, my boss wouldn't believe me; it was kinda crazy sounding, to be fair, but I never lied. "Yes… yes, I know how it sounds, but look at this." I took a moment to send him the least corrupted security file I could recover – that… thing tore the lab apart.
"Yeah, that's what I said, sir. But… sir, listen to me: this isn't something we should mess with." I let out a sigh – this wasn't going to go over well. "These things are beyond anything we've ever dealt with before. They have abilities surpassing the greatest technology we've created… the military wouldn't stand a chance."
The entire call went on like that for roughly twenty minutes. It boiled down to my boss being a blind moron who couldn't take a hint that these things were too powerful to use 'standard procedure'. In the end, I flipped my cell shut with a profound sense of irritation… and a bit of fear. I saw what a 'harmless' one could do… what happened when a naturally aggressive Pokémon decided it had enough?
I looked back at the wreckage of the PharmaCure lab and shook my head. "To think, something so small could cause so much destruction…" Of course, the moment I put my phone away somebody calls. Pulling out of my pocket, I flipped it back open. "What is it?" As I spoke, I realized the number was one I didn't recognize, and the voice that replied to me was new as well.
"Your leader is making a grave mistake." The voice was odd – filtered, almost. What I could make out was a deep static-filled voice that left a weird… echo in my head. It almost seemed familiar, but I couldn't place it. "I would advise against following him further."
"… Who the hell are you? And how do you know what my boss is up to?"
"My name is unimportant as of now. You may refer to me as… Psy, if you must. And I know what your leader is doing because I am intelligent enough to watch your world's leaders closely." Wait a tick – my world's leaders? This was looking like it was going way over my head. But the guy had a point… if things kept on like they were headed, this was going to go south real damn quick.
"Alright then, 'Psy'… what should I do?"
"Survive, researcher. Survive." With that, the call ended in an abrupt click. This was getting out of hand... Pokémon appearing in our world, someone calling to tell me not to go along with my boss thanks to some future knowledge... it's ridiculous! 'And I'm still gonna listen to him.' Well, first thing's first - if I want to survive, I need to know exactly what I'm up against. '… I need a computer.'
"Oh, hell no..." I'd seen this coming, really. Anyone with common sense and a bit of experience watching anime would have. I find a mysterious tablet, then giant monster shows up in town. What's the next step? Wreck the hero's house, like any good show. Usually it's a clean wipe - maybe a pile of rubble or ash, with bonus skeletons if anyone was inside at the time. Maybe even a scorched item the hero liked.
Like a lot of things lately, it's a whole lot different in real life. Yes, my house was a ruin - several tunnels blown right through the walls, floors and ceiling, probably from a Hyper Beam. Most of what was left was collapsed in on itself, wiring exposed and still sparking, water pipes leaking in what was probably the kitchen.
With Aurora and the Scyther's help, I started clearing out the rubble. Aurora threw pieces to the side, Scyther slashed the larger ones into a manageable size, and I did what I could. "Mom? Dad! Somebody say somethin'!" I was starting to lose it - minutes went by, and nobody said anything back, nobody found anything. Then I heard the Scyther's distinctive chattering - easy, considering it kept saying its name over and over.
When I looked over, I saw him pointing almost franticly at a huge chunk of ceiling. "Aurora! Some help with that?" Instantly, she ran up to the chunk and just punched it, shattering it into shards. I felt a few of them hit me, but I didn't care. Compared to my dad being alive, if looking like he was put through the grinder, that was nothing. "Dad! Dad, you alright?" We all say stupid things when we're scared as hell, alright?
He coughed loudly for a second before talking, spitting up some red as well as a lot of dust. "David... the hell... was that?" I had to fight the urge to let out a bitter laugh - I was sensing a pattern, here.
"Doesn't matter right now - can ya move?" He answered my question by trying to pull himself up with his weak arm. It was only then that how hurt he was registered: his... everything was scorched bad enough to make an arsonist cringe, and his left arm looked like he had a brawl with a living razor... his right arm just wasn't there. His face wasn't as bad - it just looked like he was at the edge of a grenade's blast. Needless to say, he fell right back to the rubble-covered ground.
"David, he will not move for a while... if he survives. His Aura is fading fast." I shot her a glare - I didn't want to hear any of that!
"He's gonna be fine. You're gonna be alright, aren't ya?" I put on a fake smile, looking back to my dad. I knew he wasn't going to be alright. Nobody in this condition would ever be alright. I could tell he knew it too, from how he didn't try to get up again.
"Yeah, Dave. I'll be just fine. Your mother... is she alright?" With a glance, I silently asked Aurora the same thing. For several tense seconds, she closed her eyes and 'looked' around. Then she opened them again, and managed to look even sadder as she shook her head.
"… no, dad... she's not alright." I was fighting to keep from breaking down at this point. Instead of looking any more upset, he looked... accepting. He didn't expect anything else.
"In that case... David." His tone changed, became the serious one I was so used to. "I want you to gear up. I want you to keep your friends alive. And I want you to find that thing... and give it hell." He coughed again, bringing up more blood and dust before smiling. "Or you're grounded." He reached weakly for a small pile of rubble nearby. "Check that... take what's under it..."
I moved the pile apart, and saw a blue hilt sticking out of it. Pulling it out, I saw that my Master Sword was in almost perfect condition - even the dust was just falling off of it. "… You got it, dad." When I looked back at him, his eyes were closed. I knelt down next to him, and put my free hand on his head. Even scorched as he was, he was too cold... gone. I think I just lost it then, broke down and cried.
"Damnet, why... why did this shit have to happen to us!?" I slammed my fist into the ground uselessly, leaning on the sword. I heard rubble shifting, and felt a paw on my shoulder... and metal on my other side. Looking back, I saw Aurora looking at me sadly from one side, and the Scyther on the other with the flat side of one scythe resting on my shoulder.
I turned around at the same level and put my arms around them both, careful of Aurora's spike and the Scyther's wings. I don't know how long I was there, kneeling on the ground just letting myself cry, but eventually I wiped my eyes and stood up. I grabbed the Master Sword, and my face settled into a furious expression. "First off, Scyther. If you're with me, you get a name. How does Ghost sound? You're fast enough to disappear like one."
The Pokémon nodded after a moment, obviously happy with the name. "Alright then. Aurora, Ghost..." I slid the sword into my belt, leaving it hanging there like... well, like a swordsman. I was no hero, no great-destined prodigy from the middle of nowhere. No, I was just your average 19 year-old guy with two Pokémon. But one thing I was sure about... "Giratina's gonna pay."