-Prologue-
"What have you… What is this?" Doctor Moro looked up from the microscope's eyepiece and turned to Ariana, his bushy eyebrows peaked.
"It's your process at work, doctor."
Ariana kept a neutral face. She wasn't sure how her advisor would react to her success. He'd spent years on the theory of it before she joined his team, but his progress had stalled only a few months into their Rocket Labs residency.
He sat still, forehead furrowed and mouth contorted. Only his eyes moved, unfocused and watering.
Impatient for real feedback, she pressed him. "Did you see it? The heterokarya? They're multiplying. Look again!"
"Ariana…" Dr. Moro shook his head slowly. "Where did you procure the…the genetic material?"
The question made her chuckle. "That was hardly the most difficult part."
"You're laughing?" His voice was airy with incredulity. "You…" A shadow darkened his face, down-turned under the fluorescent ceiling lights. "...what a waste you are. Mind like a sports car without brakes. Incredible performance, but no sense of when to stop!"
Ariana's temper roared alive at the provocation. "What did you say, old man?! No brakes… When did you become so afraid of scientific progress? This is YOUR process."
"That is NOT my process!" he shouted, thrusting an open hand toward the microscope and the monitor beside it. Its screen showed a wall of tightly-packed, wobbling balloons in greyscale. "I don't claim it!"
"But, Doctor Moro, it is! The ablation. And the fusion. It's working! Moreover, some of the reprogrammed cells in the earlier embryonic samples show unique-"
"Earlier samp- You put- But you…Ariana, you SAW what happened to the cell cultures. You would-"
"There could be a thousand reasons for what happened in those trials! You want to just give up!? This is working! The subject failed to, but several of the tissue samples are thriving!"
"All your education and all your curiosity and all your efforts… All that time spent sharpening your mind, only for you to blunt it banging down doors best left shut. What you've done here… No one outside these walls will tolerate it! The rumor alone would make pariahs of us. Of YOU," he snarled, jabbing a rubber-gloved finger in her direction. He pushed off the lab bench to stand and, from his full height, looked down his nose at her. "I am recusing myself."
The old man was in a snit like she'd never seen. Not elated, or jealous of her breakthrough, like she had guessed. He turned his back to her, casting about their shared station and gathering his possessions.
Ariana closed in on him from the side, trying to catch his eye. "You're recusing yourself?! What does that mean?"
"It means I am separating myself from this. Not all of us are so susceptible to the overmastering spell of research." Turning his head each time she neared, Dr. Moro evaded her gaze. With a sidestep, he slipped around her and towards the exit. Only once he reached the doorway did he dare look up. "If you had half the sense you think you do, young lady, you'd walk away too."
"So, ...what? You're quitting?" She cocked her head confidently, sensing opportunity in his cowardice. "It's all mine, then?"
"This is not the victory you think it is. It's a tragedy, Ariana. Put it to ground before your arrogance turns to ash in your hands." Dr. Moro yanked the door shut behind him as punctuation, rattling the glass walls of the small workroom, but not the scientist remaining within.
-Chapter 1-
The Final Days at Pokémon Tech
As would occasionally happen during outdoor classes at Pokémon Tech, there came a visitor from the surrounding wilds.
On its campus nestled in a wooded valley far north of Celadon, the meticulously-landscaped grounds, like most of the students' brains during first period, were thick with a morning fog. Behind the towering U-shape of academic, training, and boarding buildings, the open grounds were checkered with stables, stalls, greenhouses, and raised garden beds. Birdsong and the chittering of insect-types throbbed through the late spring humidity – until they abruptly ceased.
Amidst friendly chatter, the two dozen students of Plants: Tending and Training were slow to notice the distant splintering of branches and crunching of leaves, but one by one, their conversations quieted until they were as still as all the other creatures, attuned to the sounds of approach. When the instructor looked up, ready to begin his demonstration, he realized the silence was not a sign of his students' passion for the day's lesson. He followed their eyes across the field to the treeline.
Crashing footfalls reached the boundary, pausing for a beat before colossal, blue arms split the foliage, tearing aside tangled branches to make way for a bulging, beige stomach and a spittle-dripping mouth.
The breach was met with a chorus of screams. 8th-year students, as well as some of the 12th-years, scattered in a panic, upending a table of gardening projects in the process. Their young professor animatedly groped up and down his coat for a Pokéball containing one of his own Pokémon, but he was either too flustered or too unequipped to produce one.
Alerted by the noise, a scaly, scythe-clawed creature on four short legs came charging across the lawn from the front courtyard. A young man with dark hair and a high-visibility vest followed on its heels. The pair swerved through the flow of fleeing students, dodging the stragglers. By the time they reached the Pokémon, the surrounding area was clear.
"Sandy, get in there! Subdue tha'Snorlax!"
The ponderous creature didn't advance further onto the campus lawn, but rather seemed to be sampling the edibility of any potted plants within arms reach. That is, until it caught the scent of packed lunches left behind by students in a hurry. Snorlax groaned possessively, lurching towards the food - and directly into a cloud of dust kicked up by Sandslash. Blinded, it howled in rage and stopped to paw at its face.
"Dig un'erneath it, back and forth 'til the ground gives!"
Sandslash was out of sight before the young man finished speaking, but it was evident a few moments later that the creature had heard every word.
Confused and blinded by the sand cloud, the massive Pokémon wobbled about. Beneath its feet, the ground was weakening from Sandslash's tunneling. With one last unsteady step, Snorlax broke though. Dirt exploded upwards from the collapse, raining back down on abandoned textbooks and potted sprouts.
The dust cleared with the next breeze. Snorlax, stuck waist-deep in the ground, took a moment to reckon with its predicament. When it spotted Sandslash standing smugly beside its trainer just beyond its reach, the intruder wailed and thrashed its arms, but it quickly tired. Within seconds, the massive Pokémon was fast asleep and snoring.
"I can't believe a Snorlax crashed your plants class! I'm so jealous!"
Hisoka looked up at his friend Tori standing beside his seat, her face full of genuine excitement, and grimaced. "Nah, it scared the shit outta me."
"Arc's disks, dude, you would be scared." She slipped off her backpack and settled into the desk next to his.
"I like little Pokémon. Not the ones that can swallow me whole."
"Snorlax aren't predators...they're scavengers. They have forward eye placement to see through foliage." Tori placed two fingers on her nose and crossed her eyes to look at them.
"Sure, maybe it wasn't gonna to eat us, but it could have caused some damage. Luckily the guardian was right there."
Hisoka squirmed in his seat. He'd sprouted up several centimeters over the last year and outgrown any comfortable way to sit in the hard, wooden school chairs. Fortunately, Hisoka could count the days until graduation on one hand.
A backpack crashed down on the desk behind him.
"Did you guys hear? Arden had to fight a Snorlax first period!"
Aiden was beaming, with pride mostly likely, considering the quick-thinking guardian was his older brother.
As his best friends, Tori and Hisoka knew Aiden's goal was to be a guardian just like Arden, but to avoid teasing comparisons, he didn't talk about it much to their upper-crust classmates. Hisoka wasn't sure he would get teased much though; both Aiden and the romanticizing of a career as a guardian were very popular among their classmates.
In a world where wild, powerful creatures, generally referred to as Pokémon, could cross anyone's path at any time of day, the local organization of guardians provide safety and comfort to a community. The program was one of many like it across the region. Nearly everywhere, citizens relied on teams of trained Pokémon and their human partners to defend the edges of society against the encroaching wilds.
Another level of protection was to have your own Pokémon partner who was capable of fighting. Most families in town kept one or two tame Pokémon in the house, as pets, helpers, and companions, but few were trained for serious battle. Hisoka, who lived with his mother and aunt on the other end of town, grew up sharing his room with a Kadabra who took care of everything from cooking and cleaning to household accounting. By contrast, Tori's family lived on a large estate on the edge of town where they employed Pokémon trainers among their security and staff, but forbid the creatures free roam of the property.
When Aiden first moved to Mint Vale with his brother and his brother's partner Mabel, he imagined he'd immediately start his guardian training. Instead, Arden enrolled Aiden at Pokémon Tech. It was part of his compensation, Arden had explained, for his own guardian services. He would spend weekdays on-site at the school in exchange for Aiden's tuition. Now, graduation was approaching and guardian training was once again a possibility in Aiden's future.
"Yeah, man, that was my class," Hisoka confirmed to Aiden. "It was HUGE. What did they end up doing with it?"
Aiden's eyes sparkled. "Arden CAUGHT it."
"Whaat!"
"Ahh, that's so CO~OL!" Tori affirmed wistfully, dramatically slumping her shoulders and lolling her head. "Once you have a Pokémon, you can just keep getting more and more!"
"How many Pokémon are we talking about here?" Aiden teased.
Tori threw her fists in the air. "ALL of them!"
Aiden laughed.
"Of course..." Hisoka made an exaggerated show of exhasperation. "I can't wait to see what your parents say when you bring 'em all home."
She scoffed at his joke, just the right amout of indignant over it. "Yeah, you're right, let's work on the first one for now."
Graduation held one more exciting prospect for the three friends and their classmates: a Pokémon part ner for each of them.
Starting as early as 10, any citizen in Kanto could apply for a Pokémon Trainer permit. The permit carried certain responsibilities, like registering Pokémon with the local municipalities and reporting for militia duty when summoned. Rarely did things get that serious, but now and then, local Pokémon trainers were called upon to rescue a lost person or chase off a menace, usually when a guardian wasn't available.
Tori, Aiden, and Hisoka had gone 'round the Voltorb plenty of times on which Pokémon were best, who wished for what, and how any option could actually be the worst. Students in their final year completed classroom assessments to help professors pair them with proper Pokémon. Outside of school, the three had also done a worrying number of magazine quizzes on the same topic.
By now, Tori felt prepared for any possible reality. Aiden was more concerned about his Pokémon liking him, whatever it was. Hisoka was terrified: Pokémon, for the most part, were frighteningly powerful and often unpredictable.
"...but I'll start with just the one and see where that takes me." Tori shared a smile with her friends, then turned to face forward. The classroom door was opening.
Their professor entered in her wheelchair, pushed from behind by a wide, egg-shaped Pokémon. An older woman with steel grey hair in a neat, fluffy bob, she leaned casually to one side of the chair, and with her aloof air, made it feel as much a style choice as a necessity.
"Good afternoon, class."
"Chansey!" the egg chirped and waved a stubby arm at the assembled students.
"Good afternoon, Professor Larch!" the students replied in chorus.
"I hope you're all feeling prepared for the exam. Before I distribute them, I'll allow time for any questions you may have uncovered during your no doubt frantic studying last night. "
"ChaanSE."
"Ah, thank you, Chansey. And any students with completed applications to the summer graduate lab, please place them in a stack on my desk."
Tori pulled her backpack off her desk and into her lap. She lifted the flap and rummaged inside for a moment, then pulled out a several-page essay, stapled together in the top corner. When she placed her backpack on the ground and stood, she noticed no one else had moved. Suddenly self-conscious, Tori marched stiffly to Prof. Larch's desk and placed the paper, then slipped back to her seat.
The professor let the awkwardness hang in the air a few moments longer, seeming surprised herself that more students hadn't applied. "Anyone else?"
Fifteen faces stared blankly ahead. Prof. Larch and Chansey both sighed.
"Well if you're all so ready to be done with academic pursuits, then let us begin."
"What was that novel you handed in to Prof. Larch about?" Hisoka waited next to a vending machine while Tori pressed the buttons for a drink.
A bottle popped out at the bottom. Tori bent to grab it, then stood and twisted it open.
"It's for a study trip with the local university. I told you about it weeks ago."
"What? What study trip?" His friend's interest in academics and research projects seemed to intensify the closer they got to graduation instead of easing up, and it was a train of thought Hisoka had trouble getting on board with.
"I don't know all the details, but it's a two-week trip to Mt. Moon, and student researchers with Pokémon are invited. Something to do with fossils. Or the moon."
Hisoka gave Tori a suspicious look as she closed her eyes and took a long pull from the bottle. A question occurred to him. "You sure put a lot of effort into applying for a study you don't know much about."
Tori hiccuped on her drink. She wiped her mouth on her sleeve. "I know it's two weeks long."
Hisoka rolled his eyes at her and offered her a napkin from his pocket.
"Hey guys!" Aiden trotted up the group. When he stopped, he shifted his backpack onto one shoulder, then swung it around in front of him. He slipped out of his school jacket, then balled it up and stuffed it into the bag. "Ready to go?" he asked, re-shouldering the pack.
For the last six years, barring sick days and school holidays, Aiden, Hisoka, and Tori had walked home from school together. Their route ran through the woods, then through the southwestern part of their small town, up to Tori's front gate. She would reluctantly peel off, then boys would then make their way back to the center of town to part ways; Hisoka heading east to his family home and Aiden to the north end house he shared with his brother and Mabel.
In the late afternoon, after classes let out, the path under the trees was dappled with golden sunlight. A breeze rustled the leaves and made the light dance. Packs of students walked ahead and behind. Somewhere up ahead at the halfway point towards town, Aiden's brother was posted up on a high chair with binoculars, a distance-hearing horn, and his Sandslash at the ready.
"Do you two have any homework?" Aiden cuffed up the sleeves of his pale yellow uniform shirt as he walked. Two girls walking past eyed his bare forearms approvingly and giggled, then hurried ahead. Hisoka watched them go and Tori shook her head, but Aiden was oblivious.
"Nothin'. We've been watching movies in Mr. Hornbeam's class for the last week," Hisoka said, "Seems like the teachers are as ready to wrap this up as we are."
"Wrap this up? Aren't you guys even a little sad about graduating? It's, like, the end of an era!" Tori threw up her arms, gesturing broadly, caught in the flow of her own talking. "Who knows….some of the kids in our classes, we might never see again after next week... Doesn't that make you sad?" Even in a sulky mood, Tori spoke passionately, looking into Aiden's face and then Hisoka's.
"Nope," Hisoka answered flatly.
"A little…" Aiden conceded, giving Tori a sheepish smile.
"What's that?" Hisoka was suddenly alert, focused on a rising cloud of dust on the path ahead. A moment later, two girls screamed, the ones who had just bustled past them.
The trio of friends broke out in a run towards the scene. As they drew nearer, they found themselves pressing into the midst of the expanding dust storm.
Tori grabbed one of the girls and put her arm around her shoulders. Aiden did the same for the other, quickly pulling his jacket from his backpack to offer as a face covering. All five of the students were coughing and covering their eyes. Hisoka flapped the lapel of his own jacket to clear the air in front of him and looked around, but couldn't make out the source of the disturbance.
"Let's go back!" Tori yelled, and the group steered back down the path they'd come, moving slowly as they felt out the road with their feet.
Something whipped by their heads, circling the group once, then disappearing into the dust. From behind them came a roar and an inhuman scream. An explosive force tossed the students forward and off their feet just beyond the edge of the sandstorm.
"What are you doing!? That's not allowed here!" a familiar voice bellowed from up the path, amplified by the same cone that allowed a guardian to hear over long distances. The screaming tapered off into heart-rending squeals. "You are exposing defenseless students to danger! Stop now!"
The breeze kicked up, sending the thick dust cloud in the friends' direction. Aiden, Tori, Hisoka, and the two girls covered their faces, coughing on the sand that caught in their noses anyway. When the air cleared, they could see what had caused the commotion.
Arden and his Sandslash squared off at the opposite end of the path. Between him and the students was a frightening sight: a grizzled man holding a long pneumatic rifle astride a wide grey Pokémon covered in bony, armored plates. All of them recognized the mount as a Rhyhorn; the beasts were a common sight on the southern plains of Kanto. Less common, but just as easy for the Pokémon Tech-educated students to identify, was the Kangaskhan writhing in the dirt beneath its heavy foot. It wasn't a full-sized adult, and much to Hisoka's relief, he noticed it did not carry a baby in its pouch.
"This is my Pokémon now. Mind your business, scout." The man hopped down from his saddle, but the Rhyhorn stood fast with a foot on the throat of the keening Kangaskhan.
Arden approached him, trying to look his most intimidating, his vest reflecting dutifully with each step. "This is a no-conflict zone. Antagonizing Pokémon within three kilometers of a school is-"
The man's fist connected with Arden's stomach and any other words Arden wanted to say came out in a deflated huff. Immediately in response, Sandslash launched itself at the man, head tucked for a Headbutt. The Rhyhorn had a choice to make: protect its trainer or hold its prisoner. It watched with disinterest as Sandslash's attack connected.
"Damn you, Rhyhorn, get this thing off me! Tackle it!" the man wheezed. Both trainers were holding their stomachs and looking furious.
At its master's order, Rhyhorn pivoted into the fight. The Kangaskhan scrabbled to its feet and, with one last plaintive honk, took off for the treeline.
"Faaaaakkkkk!" The Rhyhorn rider watched it go with his mouth hanging open. He turned back to the fight with renewed fury.
Arden was recovering from the gut punch. He sucked in a breath and, through gritted teeth, instructed Sandslash. "Use Fissure!"
The smaller, sandy-colored Pokémon was wicked fast on its feet. It avoided the Rhyhorn's clumsy Tackle, dodged to the side, and leapt straight up into the air off powerful haunches. It didn't jump very high; just enough to wind up for a blow straight down.
When Sandslash struck the ground claw-first, the dirt shook beneath everyone's feet. A crack formed at the point of contact beneath Sandslash and spread, quickly, towards Rhyhorn.
Thinking fast, the man grabbed Rhyhorn's saddle and, still doubled over from Sandslash's Headbutt, threw his leg up and over it. "GYAH!" he yelled and gave a kick that, hard as it looked, could barely have tickled the Pokémon's hide. Nevertheless, Rhyhorn reacted swiftly, straightening all four legs in a hop to the side that looked more appropriate for a feline-type Pokémon. The Fissure split the ground, leaving Arden and the students on one side and the rider on the other. "GYAH!" he urged again, and they took off in the direction the Kangaskhan had gone, kicking up smaller dust clouds behind them.
"Are you okay!?" Tori released the shoulders of her classmate and ran to Arden's side. Arden, unconcerned for himself, was already focused on inspecting Sandslash for wounds.
The girl Aiden was protecting seemed reluctant to leave the shelter of his arms. He gave her an appraising look. "Are you alright?" She nodded. "I'm glad." Aiden smiled down at her and she swooned up at him. He gave her two firm pats on the arm and left to tend to his brother.
"Do you want us to walk you home?" Hisoka extended a hand in the girls' direction. They drew towards each other, shaking their heads, and started off down the path again, skirting the edge of the Fissure. "Okaaaay. Be safe!" he called after them and waved. They giggled and walked faster.
Hisoka joined his friends crowding around Arden. Twice today, he'd seen the guardian in action. It wasn't uncommon for Arden to shoo wild Pokémon like Snorlax off public property, but none of them had ever seen Arden confront another person.
"I need to get in touch with the town watch," Arden said. He stood fully upright and rubbed his stomach where he'd been punched.
"Ssssslash."
"We can let them know in town," Aiden volunteered. Tori and Hisoka bobbed their heads in agreeance.
"Thank you. Tell them I'll stop by myself once my shift is over."
Arden was resting his hand on top of Sandslash's head. He gave it two quick pats and pointed to the Fissure. Sandslash went to work rearranging the dirt, filling the crack that ran across the forest path.
Aiden and his friends waved at the guardian team and hurried onward.
Further down the path, the trio passed Arden's empty guardian rest. Beyond that, the trees started to thin out along the path until they gave way entirely to a wide, green field. Through the field and up a small rise finally brought their hometown of Mint Vale into view.
Huffing and damp with perspiration, the trio pulled up in front of a two-story wood tavern close to the center of town. Aiden looked between Tori and Hisoka, then yanked the door open.
Inside was a huge, open room with several long tables, long split-log benches on either side. A massive cork board hung on the right wall, pinned with tasks, advertisements, and other requests for labor around town. Food and drink were served at a polished wood bar in the back of the room, and a set of stairs led up to lodgings or down to a storage cellar. A couple people sat scattered across the tables, eating or reading, their Pokémon relaxing nearby. They looked up at the three visitors in curiosity but didn't say anything. The air was stuffy with the scent of warm yeast.
"Hey there," came a friendly voice from behind the bar. An older man with a gruff, bearded face and a round belly stepped around it to greet them.
"Hello!" Tori chirped reflexively.
"Hi, it's Arden's brother." Aiden waved.
"Well hey there, Aiden. Friends of." The man nodded at each of them in turn. "What brings you to the guardian hall?"
"Arden sent us. He's at his post now, on the forest route, but he wanted to let you know that someone was wrangling wild Pokémon near the school." Aiden related the story of the Rhyhorn rider and the scuffle to an increasingly stern-looking tavern master.
"He wasn't being very sporting with the Kangaskhan he was chasing," Tori volunteered, "He could've hurt some other students too."
The tavern master was interested, and so too were the trainers seated around the room who were clearly listening in.
"Do you have a description?"
Hisoka described the man's dirty face and ranger styling and menacing air rifle. Tori told him about the saddled Rhyhorn and its indifference towards its rider. Aiden pointed out that he'd continued his chase of the adolescent Kangaskhan east.
"Well," the bar owner turned to look at his patrons, "You heard them. Get out there."
