Interlude 2
September 30th, 2022.
Mirko
My trainer was a very strange human, but she was a good human too regardless of her strangeness. Whether it came down to her smell, how she acted or even how she… felt, the light of her soul was… so different from that of other humans, strained and weak and so small… but it was growing stronger with each and every sunrise, a wilted flower thriving under a warm blessed sun.
Well that was something mom would have said back at the colony, with… far, far too much innuendo about the kind of things she did with her close friends. I wasn’t a prude, but mom was… odd.
She was one of the few lopunny in the colony, most of our kind had a hard time reaching the emotional heights and clarity needed to trigger our Evolution into our second stage. But her power protected our colony from predators and the more malicious humans, and with the treaties we had made with humans we were both protected and valued as Starter pokémon.
I wanted to evolve, to become stronger and more powerful, but I also wanted to learn more about the world, to see beyond the horizon of a small patch of forest in a world bigger than I could ever imagine.
Brandy had a special aura, not that I could sense it with the same depth and accuracy as a lucario or riolu, they were masters of the living energies of life. She wasn’t like some type of super strong alpha human, but her aura was an untapped resource, eagerly responding to the environment with her every attempt to better understand the world. An eager sponge and student of the World.
Which made sense when her world was so different from ours, no pokémon, no Divines, and even aura as we knew it seemed absent or… unable to express itself. It was almost unnatural, every being in this world had an aura, it was the energy of Life and a world without it sounded empty and silent.
“Motherfucker!” My trainer cursed as she tripped over a tree branch, which was her own fault for using her techy device while walking in the mountain forest, a region she called the Kanran-ishi. The professor wanted her to catch a few stantler for research, and Brandy was the one looking with the most enthusiasm.
I hopped over to my clumsy trainer, who was already getting back up, placing her device back into her pocket. I was fortunate mom was so interested in humans.
“Our trainer is a weirdo,” my ears twitched when I heard my teammate’s deeper voice reverberate. Jericho had certainly not changed much when he had evolved into a nidorino, he was just stronger, fatter, and harder to ignore. “But she's fucking great, isn't she?”
I weighed my options on whether or not violence was the answer or the question.
My ears picked up a high-pitched whistle, a sound I knew was important, so I tugged on Brandy’s pants and gestured in the direction of that sound. She smiled, and waddled over tree roots and uneven ground, stepping into a clearing where a hole in… the universe had been gently tugged open.
She froze, a dozen emotions passing over her face, so fast I couldn't tell what they were. Surrounding the portal was a total of four stantler, all of them wearing stoic faces, their antlers shimmering with mesmerizing light. There was an elder among them, greater and wiser than any of us.
He stepped forward, antlers shimmering and shining with a golden light.
“Oh? A trainer and her companions, the rabbit on the moon, the platonic hare, and the leporine kelpie.” What was with this fancy talk? Poké-Speak, Motherfucker!
He gave me a disapproving gaze like he could read my thoughts, but I kept my composure, I was the leader of our team here, and couldn’t risk Jericho and Llayda getting spooked or things would get ugly.
Brandy kept her head slightly lowered, hands folded in front of her chest with a respectful posture. So she had been reading up on etiquette of our kind, even if it varies from pokémon to pokémon.
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
“Hello there!” She gave a tiny wave, so awkward it almost hurt if I didn’t know she was just… like this. “I’m a uhh… lab trainer who’s been tasked with catching stantler for a study on your abilities!”
Really.
The elder chuffed, standing protectively over the younger stantler. “Is that so?”
She coughed. “Err yeah?” I blinked, had she responded or read his expression? “But I thought it was probably smarter to ask if any of you wanted to go willingly or knew any herds with members who would want to go? Laven’s lab is pretty well stocked, and none of her probing is invasive since she works mostly with scanning bio-energy signatures and Type Energy wavelengths.” Stop bringing in science before we all get killed dumbass!
“Your human is a strange one isn’t she? What is her name?” I held my tongue for the moment, but I glanced at her face and knew I couldn’t.
“Her name is Brandon Red…” I hissed as her true name danced between the words.
Her name is chieftain-prince-king-crow-raven-of-red-blonde-fair-hair.
“What a curious name, a noble name yet it holds the name of your enemy little hare…” I bristled but refused to respond to his jab.
To humans, names were simply names, words with meaning often unknown to them, but our kind… we heard it all, it was shared in the universal language of the wilds, it was why names were so important when given to us, it was a gift bestowed to us, and we gladly took them on.
Mirko.
peaceful-glorious-the-peaceful-one-who-celebrates-the-world
She had given that name to name me after a hero from her dreams, but she had given me something more, something to strive for, something more than anger and rage and loneliness, something that was mine and mine alone.
“She speaks the truth of her intentions, if you don’t want to volunteer, then she’ll leave you alone if you wish. She doesn’t want to take pokémon from their homes if they don’t want to leave.”
The elder stantler sniffed imperiously at Brandy, and his eyes widened in response. “She is an Outsider, born under the light of a different sun. Now I understand how much of a plea for help this is. She needs our abilities, our knowledge of the great energies of creation and yet… she refuses to not ask, to not give us choice.”
“What?” Llayda churred and I shushed her with my paw, rolling my eyes at her antics.
“We will go, an Outsider like this does not bode well for the future. Especially one with an aura so precious.”
I blinked.
What?
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October 1st, 2022.
In a distant lab buried deep beneath the ground, surrounded by armies of beasts infected by the Shadow and the monsters that had bent them to their will was a single pod holding a sleeping God, patrolled by Beast Killers, chimeric beings built in the image of another greater power, control collars keeping them in check and kindness keeping them sane.
That kindness was going to pay off, and it would spark the beginning of a new story, and the ending of another.
A pink haired woman walked up to the pod with no escort, her captors had lured her with promises of great science and wonderful projects rather than the
nightmare and terrors they had in truth created.
I’m so tired, she thought as she made the final adjustments with the help of the porygon she had kept on her person. And I’m out of time, the Umbral Project can’t be completed without their master creation.
There were over a dozen Beast Killers before her, restrained pokémon with great power and potential.
Six months ago, there had been more.
No more. No cost too great, my ass!
She tapped her finger on her keyboard three times and with a sudden flash all twelve control collars failed ‘abruptly’ and the medical coma of the subject was ended gradually, step by step, with no alarms alerting the countless pokémon and people alike.
All twelve Beast Killers released sighs of relief, and together they unleashed numerous attacks against the lab, destroying computers and lab equipment and shattering the glass tube holding that sleeping God.
Violet eyes snapped awake, staring into her soul, as the almost humanoid figure rose from it’s prison with an expression of unimaginable rage.
Reality screamed.
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Daiichi Poké-Gazette
October 1st, 2022
MASSIVE EXPLOSION ROCKS EAST MICHINOKU - EVENT LEAVES 10 DEAD
HALF KILOMETER CRATER LEFT BEHIND! QUESTIONS REMAIN AT THE CAUSE OF THE EXPLOSION.