[Banner by Princess Crow]
“Mass death marks the coming of the twin deceivers… Heroes die, heroes fall… Powers beyond mortal ken… Prepare them, hero who was, heroine to be!”
Five years after Michael saved the Orre region from Cipher, a frantic Fateen burst into the lab where he was working as a researcher and choked out those fateful final words to him and his apprentice before seizing up in agony. Both Michael and his apprentice attempted to resuscitate, but Fateen was dead before they could give her medical care.
Michael, though a scientist, knew he had powerful enemies (including one who specifically swore revenge), so he took Fateen’s words to heart. So for the next 5 years, he began to prepare the lab to take on Cipher again. He drilled his apprentice and everyone else in the lab in all the systems in the lab, trained as many people in battle, even taught hand to hand and as many other forms of combat as possible. Aura readers were mass distributed and the Purify Chamber was greatly refined as information on Shadow Pokemon was made public.
But never did Michael imagine the form that “mass death” would take. For one day, as Jovi walked back from a visit with a friend, as she went to hug her big brother, her backpack exploded. It killed her, Michael, and nearly everyone in the lab as it took it destroyed the structure. And with that, Cipher announced itself.
Michael’s apprentice survived the attack, and, though young, she was also one of the most skilled researchers, and so took over the administration and coordination of the remainder. But, though she was intelligent, she did not anticipate what happened next.
Randomly, inexplicably, and with no known trigger, people started getting powers.
For the next seven years, not only did people struggle to survive against mundane threats, they had to beware of other people shooting fire out of their eyes or building nukes out of vacuum cleaners. And these powerful people, these parahumans, were far from safe, either. Cipher has been attempting to recruit or extort parahumans, trying to make sure that their side has more human weaponry. Cipher has been using these parahumans to dangerous extents, employing them to steal, murder, and all around destroy the infrastructure of Orre. In conjunction with their renewed production and use of the infamous Shadow Pokemon, they have seized a fair amount of territory in the region.
The Lab, meanwhile, has gone all out, recruiting its own parahumans to the lab run Organization, while applying its many scientific minds to figure out the deal with powers as incentive to attract parahumans. They have already made a fair amount of progress, establishing the correlation between having powers and being in certain places at certain times, which they have termed Clusters. They enable parahumans under their employ to train further with their abilities and give them a support network of others like them, in exchange for using them as an army to combat Cipher’s evil.
So where do you stand in this war? Are you aiding the Pokemon HQ lab and the Organization, helping to combat evil? Are you a member of Cipher, attempting to sate your desire for power? Or are you independent, serving your own interests before anyone else’s, not wanting to get caught up in a war everyone else is trying to drag you into?
Sara Sage
The Organization/The Lab
The Deep Laboratory
Being a Tinker, in Sara's opinion, was pretty awesome most of the time. Working on gadgets didn't feel like work, and pulling out some new contraption in a fight to surprise an opponent (or even an ally) was just plain sweet. But then there were rare occasions that it could be downright frustrating.
Like right now.
Sara let out a long stream of words that were by no definition lady-like as a small piece of greenish metal fell to the floor from her Aegislash. Hippolyta gave her a look and said, "You know, turning your Pokemon into cyborgs is not super high priority. Especially when a basic use of phasing makes all modifications just fall out."
The parahuman glared at her companion,"You know this is supposed to help you, right?"
"Yes, I am perfectly aware. However, it is currently noon. We have been locked up in here since 8 in the morning. Yesterday. Certainly there are better things you can be doing with your time. Like, oh, sleeping."
Sara rolled her eyes at the Aegislash,"I don't sleep, Hippolyta. Remember? It's the first thing I took care of."
"And while you have more hours in the day, now, you still have other needs. Like eating. I do not believe I have seen you eat anything for the past day and a half. Or recreation. Take advantage of the lull in the action before it goes away. Haven't you had any fun recently?"
Sara feebly replied,"This is fun."
"Yes, I can tell based off of all the new curse words I learned. But seriously, get some fresh air or something. Eat, go out with a friend, or hell, even get some acti-"
Sara flushed and turned a murderous stare toward her Pokemon,"I am perfectly fine. Thank you."
It would have been a lot more convincing if it did not perfectly coincide with a loud rumble from Sara's stomach, which she promptly ignored as she continued working.
"Molly"
Neutral
Ruined Cipher Laboratory
"The aura of this place disturbs me, Molly. Why are we here?"
The girl turned to her Lucario companion, "We’re here in no small part because of this disturbing aura, Matthew. It is a place where violence and evil and heroism and profit and selflessness all intersect. And it is where we need to be."
Matthew gave his companion a sidelong glance, "You know, I’m a Lucario. We’re supposed to be all over that mystic ‘I know and you don’t’ ****. And being on the receiving end really pisses me off. I don’t like it."
"I never asked you to like it, Matthew. I asked you to assist me. You agreed to do so, in exchange for the service I am providing you."
And Molly sat cross legged in the dirt, clearly ending the conversation.
Benjamin "Benji" Verres
Cipher
Phenac City Cipher HQ
"It’s interesting, the difference in sound when you bounce the baseball in front of a wall versus out in the open."
The young (barely) teenaged woman tied up in the chair glared at the man in the garish pink suit before spitting at him. He wiped his face off before continuing:
"Oh come now, was that really necessary? I was just bouncing a baseball. I’m making it a game, see. I try to figure out if I can hear if there’s a wall in the way. There’s no reason to be so angry."
The young woman almost literally snarled, "I know who you are, Benjamin. I know you use baseballs to attack. I know you’re taunting me."
"Honestly? Really? How do you know? What if I’m trying to just make polite conversation? Name one evil thing I’ve done."
"You tied me up-"
"The grunts, not me."
"You sent a half a guy’s head in the ma-"
"Was he really that good of a person to start with?"
"You’re going to torture m-"
"You don’t know that. After all, how low would I have to be to torture a 13 year old girl? Tell you what. Ill forgive you for your assumptions. As long as you do me a favor."
"I’ll never do anything for-"
Benjamin held up a hand, "Now now, it’s not a costly favor. In fact, it’s one that I think you’d be glad to do. Tell me what you’d do if you were not bound by those ropes and had one of your Pokemon with you. Say, your Milotic."
The girl eyed him warily, "You’re going to kill me if you don’t like the answer."
"It’s more probable that I’ll kill you if I do."
"I’d kill you first thing. Have Adrian completely blast your head off with a Hydro Pump. Afterwards, it would hardly matter to you."
Benjamin let out a high pitched laugh. "Alright, fine. Let’s find out, shall we?"
Benjamin walked over to his desk and pulled out a Pokeball and a knife. He threw the knife and used his power to make sure that it would have enough force to cut through the knot that held the girl in the chair. He handed her the Pokeball and pulled out was appeared to be a parasol. The girl looked at him in disbelief as she shook herself free.
"Really?"
"That’s your Milotic. Now show me what you’ll do."
"You’re tricking me."
"I fancy myself a bit of a trickster. However, I’m genuinely curious as to how you’ll manage this. Show me."
The girl shrugged, then sent out her Milotic, screaming, "Adrian, Hydro Pump!"
The Milotic didn’t even twitch. Not a bit.
“Adrian, come on! It’s me, Alexis! Remember? Hydro Pump that man!”
The Milotic still didn’t move. The girl kept getting more and more flustered, until it slowly dawned on her why her Milotic was not listening to her.
It’s that dawning moment of pure horror that’s so much fun.
Benjamin smiled, "Shadow Sky."
The Milotic finally moved, letting out an orb of pure darkness and shadow up into the air. The girl screamed as the first flares of light hit her bare skin, cutting her open and leaving her bloody. But not killing her. Not for a long time.
As the flashes of light bounced off of Benjamin’s parasol, he hummed to himself in time with the girl’s screams.
Eventually, what was left of the girl’s corpse was wrapped in Shadow Pokemon’s coils. Benjamin grabbed the Pokeball out her flayed hand and returned the Milotic.
To more himself than anyone else, "Well, that was fun. Although I have no need for this Shadow in particular. And I am now boooooooooooooored! Hm. What to do, what to do… Oh! I know!"
Pushing a button for the PA, Benjamin’s voice was heard all over base. "Asty, Cassie! Please come to my office! I have surprises for you!"
Today is going to be a good day.
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