//------------------------------// // the humans of the story // Story: Building a Better World: Origins // by Cookie_Girl //------------------------------// In the dead of night on a lonely stretch of road that cuts through a forest stands a man. The man wears a long black trench coat, and dark sunglasses. Everything else about the man looked very normal. He was caucasian, kept his hair cut short military style, and generally looked like he could blend in to a crowd if he tried. He knew he had a few scars that would stand out as signs of his job, but they were few and far between. Thankfully none of those scars were on his face, unless you count a small cut in his left ear. Normally he would curse the sunglasses which, despite how cool they made him look, always restricted his vision at night. Given his current situation however he was glad to have them. They were keeping the other people present from seeing how his eyes had gone wide with fear. In his line of work you got used to odd, stressful, and dangerous situations. The last time he had felt any kind of real fear was a couple of years ago when he got eaten by a Gyaradose. This was something else entirely, and it was ridiculously overkill. He had been contacted to meet a new client in this location. He had expected an eccentric millionaire or some shady business man. Not this. Gym Leaders, Frontier Brains, Elite Four members, and Champions. They had him surrounded. Their pokemon were out and ready. His team as usual when on the job were already out of their pokeballs. Shredder was with him on the road while the rest were positioning themselves around the area. Okay time to strategize. Weiss thought. Xavier, what do we got, what do they want, and how did they get past you? I can answer that. a female voice responded to his thoughts. ...Okay not the time to strategize. Weiss looked around at the many faces around him, recognising about half of them, but not seeing the one he really did not want to see. Who are you, and why isn't Xavier blocking you? In order of the questions asked, the telepathic voice was starting to sound familiar. What you have is what you see. Gym Leaders, Frontier Brains, Elite Fours, and Champions. What we want is to talk, and maybe hire you. Weiss relaxed at that, but signaled for the others to stay on guard. We got past Xavier because even a Metagross must yield to a group of high level Psychic types working together. A woman was suddenly standing in front of him. She had a pale complexion, dark green hair, and pink eyes. She was thin, and stood almost straight like a model holding a slight pose. Her clothes were simple, a pinkish red top that showed off her shoulders and flat belly, a wide black belt with a light gray diamond shaped buckle white pants, and shoes that matched her top. It was her bracelets that threw off the look. They were thick wide black block like things with glowing green panels. Shredder the Bisharp had her sword at the woman's throat in as much time as it took to blink. The woman glanced calmly at the Dark type. "Hello Shredder, it has been a few years." she spoke with her voice. Looking back to Weiss she asked "Your last two questions should have their answers by now, seeing as I do not remember erasing your memories of our last encounter." Weiss would like to think he chose his next words carefully, but he could not help the little bit of attitude that slipped through. "Yes, I remember the Psychic witch of Safron City." She wouldn't turn him into a doll for that right? "Hello Sabrina." *flashback* Checkmate has infiltrated the Safron City Gym. They have been contracted to spy on the Gym's Leader, Sabrina. It was the worst mistake of their careers. Rouge, Titiania, and Simon were stopped almost immediately by a Delfox, Bronzong, and to the Driller's embarrassment a Psyduck. Roll was occupied by a Meticham. Char, Pancha, and Edge had not even made it into the building, and were being forcibly entertained by a trio of (to the Dragon's extreme displeasure) Mr. Mime. Pancha whistled and clapped for the entertainment, ignoring the death glares from her teammates. Edge was blind, but still managed to glare more intensely, but still she was ignored. Turning her head away from the bird Edge spoke to Char. "How are you locked up? Don't you have a double advantage against them?" "Indeed a Bug/Steel type does beat a Psychic/Fairy type." at this the Red Comet tapped a claw on the invisible box around them. "Unfortunately that advantage does not extend to Mr Mime's special ability." "At least tell me the performance is as bad as I think it is." Edge growled. "Oh, yes absolutely horrid." Char yawned. "And boring." The two mimes that had been acting stopped and looked at him. The one on top of their box that was keeping them contained jumped down. All three advanced on his corner of the box. Elsewhere inside the Gym Weiss had given up on actually spying, and was now just trying to navigate the labyrinth like compound. He looked over his shoulder at the three members of his team that had talked him into taking this job. "You fucking people." Shredder, and Frogadier had the decency to drop their heads in shame. Weiss looked ahead of him at the approaching four way stop in the darkened hall. He continued on into a rant. "I'm a Dark type Psychics can't touch me. Apparently they don't have to touch you Shredder. They just have to magnetize the walls and floor because your made of metal!" The Bisharp did not respond so he moved on to his next target. "Some ninja." Frogadier sweat dropped. "You somehow managed to set off over half a dozen booby traps. You haven't fallen for a booby trap since before you evolved!" Stepping onto the large square tile at the crossway the human mercenary turned around, and waited. Shredder and Frogadier kept their heads down and stood to the side allowing Weiss to zero in on the third pokemon. The Metagross known as Xavier had made the final argument that had convinced Weiss to take the job. "So what's your excuse Mr 'I want to test this human's Psychic abilities, and I can most assuredly handle her' ?" Weiss said his quote of Xavier's words in a purposely poor imitation of the pokemon's voice. To which Xavier responded flatly "I was wrong." Weiss facepalmbed. Coming to a stop over the same large tile that they were standing on Xavier decided to return to the floor. The moment his four feet touched down the floor lit up with a blue light. They all looked at the floor. "Why is the floor glowing?" Shredder asked wearily drawing her long sword. "Best estimation is that we are about to be teleported via technology similar to that found in a pokeball transporter." Xavier informed them. "I advise that we... ...never mind." they had already been teleported before he could finish speaking. Looking around they found themselves on one end of the Gym's battlefield. They looked to the other end, and saw her. Sitting in an elegantly carved wooden chair fit for a queen's throne. Wearing a red and black suit with gold buttons along the lapel, and sleeves that hung very wide and low over her hands like on a kimono. She just sat there, her unusual pink eyes not blinking as she stared at them. The mercenaries were at a loss for words, so they just stood there, and waited. They continued waiting. After what felt like half an hour to Weiss she finally spoke. "I wonder how much longer you are to continue being so rude. Introduce yourselves." "Ah, haha, yes, sorry about that." Weiss rubbed a hand on the back of his head, and put on his best I'm a dope face. He looked back, saw that Frogadier was gone, and introduced the others. "This is Xavier, and this is Shredder." he pointed to them in turn and Shredder bowed. Turning back around Weiss held a hand to his chest and smiled. "So tell me Mr Weiss, " she paused to let it sink in that he had not said his name yet. "Why are you here?" Are we supposed to be surprised that you know his name? Xavier thought to her. How many times have we communicated with each other, and you most assuredly have surveillance devices hidden throughout the Gym. "Your team is good enough at what they do that they need very little direction for planning or adapting to changes to the plan." Sabrina stood and started walking towards them. "Total verbal communications since your telepathic link was shut down, twenty-six, not counting the mole. Total number of telepathic communications since you got on the grounds, three, apparently to avoid attracting my attention. Before that you stopped ten yards outside my property, and spent fifteen minutes thirty two seconds making last minute plans." She stopped ten feet from them. "Not once in all of that did anyone refer to him by name." She looked at Xavier and said "Do I really need to explain how useless cameras and microphones would be?" ... No that will not be necessary. The shiny Metagross gave no visible reaction only because his face was not capable of many expressions. However that does not prove that you truly possess the Psychic abilities that you are rumored to. Weiss facepalmbed. "You did not just challenge her to prove herself." He looked at Shredder. "Tell me he didn't." "He did." the female Bisharp replied. My point is that with the abundance of strong Psychic type pokemon at your Gym they could easily have spied on us for you. Xavier squinted his eyes at Sabrina as if daring her to dispute him. Her response was an amused chuckle as she found herself genuinely intrigued by this Metagross who had just about thrown away his team's mission in favor of satisfying his' curiosity about her. "Perhaps I'll show off later." Sabrina said, then raised an eyebrow at Xavier. "If I'm in the proper mood." Xavier blinked twice, and stayed silent. Sabrina looked back to the other human. "So Mr Weiss, as long as your still here why don't you tell me why you decided to break into my home in the middle of the night." Her voice was perfectly calm and her face was a mask of simple curiosity. But the Psychic energy rolling off of her was like cold fury. Weiss slumped his shoulders, and sighed. "Ahh,crap." The mercenary rubbed his forehead with his left hand, letting the movement distract Sabrina while he palmed an exploding smoke bomb in his right. "Okay, here's the thing, I can't tell you that not because it's classified but because Xavier put a memory block on us that actually prevents us from thinking about why we're here." "Clever." she deadpanned. "Yes, it was, and I think we can leave now." Shredder kept her sword ready and stepped forward with the blade low enough to keep it from? Being a threat but angled just right to let her make a quick upward slice. "The door?" "You can either remove the mental block now, or we can battle to decide wether or not you walk out of my Gym with it intact." The Psychic woman still looked and sounded perfectly calm, but the energy coming from her was now causing the air around her to wave and vibrate ever so slightly. Shredder smirked. "You know I'm a Dark type right?" she whipped the sword up leveling the blade with the human woman's face, her arms pulled back and ready to thrust. "I can leave whenever I want." The tip of the blade was only an inch or two from Sabrina's face. A full extension of Shredder's arms would push the weapon clean through her head. Sabrina continued to ignore the Sword Blade Pokemon. "I wish you would reconsider the coarse of action you are about to take as it is unnecessary, however I have already foreseen it, and no matter what I do your choice will be the same." She closed her eyes. "Well considering that we are a guild of mercenaries for hire with a reputation for getting the job done right the first time or your money back, we tend to be a bit stubborn."with that he threw the smoke bomb, aiming at her face. Sabrina caught the projectile with her Psychic power. She opened her eyes, and looked at Weiss incredulously. "A smoke bomb?" she asked. "Seriously that may have caught me off guard but... Shredder swiped her sword, cutting the small orb. A brief flash proceeded the smoke which, despite the explosive's size, blacked out enough space to blind all of them. Shredder then whipped her sword around, and smacked the flat of the blade against the woman's head. Frogadier had been keeping out of sight off to one side of the battle field. The ninja had to wait for just the right moment to strike. When the woman was blind, and struck senseless it was time. She was distracted, and disoriented. A Water Pulse to the back finished the job and sent her to the floor. The block on Xavier's mental links vanished, allowing him to reconnect with the others. Time to go. Right you are. Weiss thought to everyone. Wrap it up people. About time! Char snapped at him. These mimes have been slapping me like it's their favorite pass time! Giga Drill!" Simon's mental shout transferred to a verbal one that could be heard through the walls followed by a tremor in the walls and floor. Roll the Lopunny suddenly lashed out with her ears, bell clapping the sides of her opponent's head. She then attacked with a flurry of blows, alternating from Fire Punch to Ice Punch to Thunder Punch, and repeating again and again until she drove the Meticham through a wall. The wall behind Weiss exploded in a shower of debris, and one unconscious Meticham. Weiss managed to not be hit by any of the rubble, only to be knocked down by the beaten pokemon. "You fucking people." he muttered before standing up. The smoke screen finally cleared away revealing that Roll had somehow found her way to Shredder, and was hugging the other female. Shredder's face was red from embarrassment. "Damb it woman we're on the job!" she told the Lopunny who was hugging her very closely. "Alright girls, save it for later." Weiss teased them. "Xavier, take that block off so we can remember why we're here." Xavier said nothing as he worked his craft. He could have sworn that there was something still buzzing on the psychic level, but he chalked it up to just the mere proximity of so many Psychic pokemon. He reestablished their standard translation link and spoke with his deep voice "Mental block removed." he announced monotonously. "And there it is." Weiss went over his memories, and the plans involved. "Alright people, we verify if she has powers." Xavier gave an affirmative. "We gather intel on her team, though I think most of the ones we encountered were here just for the occasion..." a pokemon teleported in front of him "...crap." The Alakazam standing before him was not happy. Fool! it said. Weiss found himself the target of a Psychic attack as he was flung through the hole that Roll made in the wall. Alakazam spun and delivered a Focus Punch to Shredder's face, the Dark/Steel type taking quadruple damage from the Fighting attack. Roll combined a powerful jump with a double Fire Punch to become a blazing spear. Her target, the Alakazam deflected her with its power, and sent her on a collision coarse with Xavier. The Steel type had to focus on stopping her or his weakness to fire would put him out of the fight. Alakazam found his feet stuck to the floor by some of Frogadier's Frubbles. The ninja jumped at the Psychic from behind with a blade of compressed water raised for a Cut. Alakazam teleported out of the way, and used another Psychic to slam the ninja frog into his own trap. His own Frubbles were not as effective against Frogadier so he broke free. Only to hear the enemy say "Thunder Wave." and Frogadier felt the electricity zap through his body paralyzing him. The Psi Pokemon turned his gaze on Roll, and Xavier. The mercenary Lopunny was crouched on her teammate's head. Her ears arched up as power surged through them. Each of them formed an energy orb, Roll's between her ears, Xavier's on the X on his face. "Hyper Beam!" they yelled together. As the powerful twin attacks got closer, Alakazam didn't move. The Hyper Beams were within a foot of hitting their target when they were moved by a blue energy field. Alakazam was using a Psychic to send the beams flying off harmlessly behind him. The explosion of the two Hyper Beams was ignored. Alakazam was about to speak when he was alerted by a sudden swift noise. He teleported out of the way just as Shredder brought her sword down. Reappearing behind her, Alakazam already had a Focus Punch ready. His glowing fist connected with the back of her head, and down she went. Roll watched as her mate fell to the ground. Shredder's body was limp, her eyes glazed over, and there was a significant dent where the blow struck her helm. The Bisharp landed with a dull hollow thud that rang like an old church bell, and did not move. Having seen what could very well be the death of her love the Lopunny known as Roll, Bishop of Checkmate started to weep. Still on top of Xavier she dropped to her knees, her ears drooped, and her body shook with emotion. Alakazam looked on in shock at the fallen Bisharp. He hadn't thought he had hit her that hard. He took a step forward with the intention of at least trying to heal her. A tan rocket suddenly impacted with the hard packed earth that made up the battlefield floor in front of him. The dust hung in the air for only a moment before it cleared away to reveal Roll. She stood in a crater wide enough to span her ears from tip to tip. Her eyes transformed into two balls of fire with sparks of electricity in them. Taking a peek in her head was the only warning Alakazam would get as before she stopped thinking entirely the only thought in her mind was Die now. Alakazam attempted to put her down with some telepathic manipulation, but her mindscape erupted in a blazing inferno of two of the most powerful emotions that touch the hearts of mortals. Love, and anger. The shock of having a non-psychic project their emotions like that, and so strongly distracted him long enough for him to suddenly find her ears wrapped around his head. Xavier, watching from a safe distance, decided to record the effects of combining Retaliate with Uproar. Roll whipped her body back then foreword and down, creating a recoil effect that drove the Psychic's skull into the floor. Releasing his head her ears reflexively reached up to snare one of his legs as he was now upside down. Roll whipped her ears around in a circle, then slammed him down hard enough to make him bounce. With him already in the air she continued the combo slamming him into the ground again and again and again and again and again. She then released him, letting him fly up high into the air. Roll jumped after him, and nailed him in the gut with a High Jump Kicked. She landed on the ground in a crouch, followed shortly by her victim. He did not move. Roll quickly dashed over to her still unmoving mate, slowing down almost to a near stop as she got closer. Kneeling down beside Shredder, Roll gently rolled her over face up. Lopunny prodded Bisharp with a gentle paw. There was no response. Roll trembled, pulled her lover's head into her lap, and cried. Someone, she didn't know who, spoke to her. "Roll." She did not respond. "Roll." someone tried again. Still she just quietly sobbed. "Roll, I'm not dead." "Yes you are!" Roll yelled and then broke down into the most obnoxious sad sounding tear shooting ear cringing crying imaginable. "Woman, think about what you just said." Roll did as she was told. Then she stopped crying, and looked down to see a bruised and slightly dented Shredder smiling at her. "Hey." she greeted her Lopunny lover. Roll's immediate reaction was to clamp her body to Shredder's and cover her face in kisses. "Gah! Okay I'm happy too but get off before someone sees us!" One round of applause later, and Shredder was standing, her face blazing red from embarrassment as Weiss and the rest of Checkmate had seen the entire display. Pancha the Hawlucha, and Rouge the Roserade walked over to the defeated Alakazam. "Poor mon, he was just trying to protect his human." Rouge took pity on him, and gave him a dose of Aromatherapy. "It won't do much, but he'll feel better when he wakes up." Pancha poked him with a claw and gave a low whistle. "Hey Xavier what the hell happened to make you go loco on this hombre?" His answer was to replay what had happened in their heads. "According to how the League calculates damage, the Alakazam took a total of 1740 damage." The others all sweat dropped. "Though I suspect he was using a defensive move to lessen that. Even so he should be out for some time." Alakazam suddenly grabbed Pancha's hand. She let out a string of what the others could only assume were swear words. "You must leave!" he struggled to stay conscious. "Leave now before she gets you!" he passed out. Pancha was creeped out and yanked her hand away. Rouge looked around slightly worried. "Um, dears? Who was he talking about?" ME Everyone turned to see Sabrina rise from the floor. She did not stand, she levitated off the ground, her limbs slack, her hair flowing around freely. When she was vertical and a full foot off the ground she rotated to face Weiss. Sabrina was grinning like a Gengar, and her eyes were solid luminous blue. Hello play things, I'm in your heads Nothing grabbed Weiss, and pulled him forward, at least it felt like nothing, but there he was having his face dragged across the Gym floor. Nothing slammed him into the wall. Nothing used him as a human shield. Nothing swung him like a bat, and sent several of his teammates flying. "Shadow Punch!" Shredder ran full on, counting on her Dark typing to protect her. The Queen of Checkmate was very surprised to find herself lifted off the ground by nothing. She did not like being lifted off the ground by nothing. She did not like being thrown across the Gym, and slammed into a wall by nothing. "Leave her alone!" Roll ran full speed at the Psychic woman with an Ice Punch. You would make a lovely doll with that thought reality began to warp. Weiss, Xavier, Simon, Frogadier, and Edge all watched in horror as Roll was transmutated into a six inch doll. All my dollies a young girl's voice exclaimed joyously. One after another the pokemon were all transmutated into miniature stuffed versions of themselves. Only Weiss was spared the same fate. Weiss was dragged on his knees in front of Sabrina. She put her fingers to his forehead like she was going to pull his head open. "Lets see what there is to read." she spoke for real. Then she made a motion with her hands like she was in fact pulling his head in two. And that is exactly what it felt like to him. As Weiss screamed in pain, Sabrina looked through the book that his memories had manifested as. She saw something. "Latias?" Something large, and invisible crashed through the roof and rammed into Sabrina. She had only enough time to raise her arms in defense. A sharp crack was heard as she flew back from the momentum of the blow. Everyone was normal. No one was a doll, and his head was not split open. Weiss looked at the invisible being that had saved him and greeted her. "Th-thanks." He held a hand to his head. "That was not fun." Turning visible, the Legendary Latias revealed herself. Her red and white body, streamlined and jet like hovered above the ground as she flew close to him. "I could feel everything through our connection." she told him. Weiss cursed himself for causing her pain. He looked away from her. His eyes eventually found Sabrina. When she levitated back to a vertical position he and everyone else stopped moving. Sabrina brought her hands up to her face, letting her sleeves fall away from her hands. Underneath were two big black cuffs with broken green panels that looked like they should be glowing. "You broke my power restraint cuffs. They keep my power under control." She revealed her eyes that were now glowing red. Weiss forcibly brought his flashback to a screeching halt. None of them had enjoyed that day. It had been embarrassing, humiliating, and damb scary. They were able to leave on fairly civil terms. Weiss left immediately for his employer and told the man everything, and that Sabrina now knew who he was. As he left Weiss saw Giovanni pour a drink with a shaking hand. Still in the middle of the road Weiss gave the order to stand down. Shredder backed off and put her sword away. "You know what?" Sabrina smirked "your cute when you're being smart." "... Thanks." he found it quite intimidating that someone who could turn him into a hand sized doll found him attractive. Then he thought about it. "Hey! I'm not ugly! " She just laughed. "Well this has been fun, I think I'll go teas Xavier now." She teleported away. "She seems happy...for once." Shredder said, more creeped out that the woman had actually smiled than anything else. "Yeah," a man said as he stepped forward. He was younger than Weiss by a few years, but he carried with him an air of experience like no other human. "She's been getting out more lately, and I think she's making up for lost time." Weiss smiled at the Kanto champion. Very few people could be called a friend of the mercenary, but this was one of them. Weiss would never degrade the man's reputation by claiming so in public. That's how you could tell that the Checkmate mercenaries truly liked you. They stayed far away. "Good to see you Red." The two men shook hands. "Back at you Weiss." A Pikachu leaped out from behind Red, and landed on Shredder's shoulder. The electric mouse gave a happy chirp in hello, and got a scratch behind the ears. Weiss took off his stupid sunglasses. "So, I'm here for a job?"he asked. Red exhaled slowly, and pulled out an envelope. "Yeah, I wish it wasn't necessary, but until the world gets fixed, or finds a new balance you will always have a job." He gave Weiss the envelope. "Protection for this trainer. We got wind that this new Team that's popping up has an open contract on his life." "The reason for the show of force." Weiss guessed. "We couldn't be sure you hadn't taken the job already." Red answered and shrugged. Weiss looked over the information. He smiled, and passed the papers to Shredder who in turn smiled as well. "We almost took a contract to kill this guy." Weiss told them. "Would have been a real life Romeo and Juliet death scene, except in this version the loving couple continue to live on after death without anyone knowing." "Glad to hear it." the Champion smiled. "All you have to do is keep him alive, and deliver him to the Kanto League Tournament." "Ha!" Weiss knew it was easier said than done. "He gets the badges, and you have my work that he'll get there, or your money back!" "Payment awaits you at the tournament." As they all parted ways Weiss looked at the young man in the photo and smirked. "You've got a lot of friends in high places Gene Phillips."