Freighter Hulbury - 30 kilometers from Gateon Port, Orre - 0756 hours local time - Day 131 of Ash Ketchum's Pokemon Journey
It was a line of brown and yellow. Ash was used to more… green. Even in regions like Unova, there was always some green on the horizon. He still wanted to sic one of his ground-types (Gible, Krookodile, Gligar, even Phanpy) on that flying dragon dynamo.
NO ONE screwed with his friend like that and got away with it. Legendaries were nothing but trouble and Ash would be VERY happy not to see one for at least a year.
"Pika." 'You're brooding.' Pikachu said as he half-dragged Gligar back to their trainer, the bat still trying to hide in some dark corner. Then again, Staff Sergeant Pikachu (Surge gave him a proper military commission, for Arceus' sake) was worth trying to avoid.
"Swaddle." 'He always has a lot to think about nowadays.' said Ash's Unovan bug, having transferred in to allow Charizard a chance to rest back home. At least the transmitters still worked.
"Hey, Swaddle." Ash said, rubbing the bug's head, getting a happy sound from him. "I got a question for you, if you don't mind me asking."
"Swad." 'If it's about me evolving, I can give it to you in a nutshell. Unova is basically the land of laziness.' the bug said. "Addle." 'Life was in the slow lane. Taking its' time. Evolution's the same.'
Ash didn't think about that. Then again, all of his Unovan Pokemon took a while to evolve. Tepig only evolved after a couple of months in his care, Unfrezent evolved during his sixth gym battle, which was almost seven months after he caught her...wonder why that was?
A question for Professor Oak. Or the Junipers. …Did he REALLY have to deal with her again? She left her charges' Pokemon in their balls, on a SHELF. Ash was pretty sure that his premature losses in the Unova League were a combination of Cyrus' bullshit, Zekrom zapping half his brains out and Juniper leaving his Pokemon in stasis instead of letting them out for air at this point!
"Swad." 'Don't worry. I'll try not to be a caterpillar.' Swaddle reassured. Ash sighed. Always this subject.
"I don't want you to worry about that." he said. "Take your time. Rushing it always ends badly."
"Fuckin' tell me about it." came a gruff voice from behind him, making Ash jump off the deck and to his feet at the sound of Surge's voice. "Evolution talk? I ain't an expert in anything that doesn't zap, but don't bugs evolve fast?"
"Unovan ones don't, apparently." Ash replied as aforementioned bug went off to train with Fletchhinder and Riolu. "I mean… I don't know everything about Pokemon. First to admit."
"Don't think anyone does." the old lieutenant replied. "Still finding out new shit every day. I din't even know Rotom changed types doing the thing until last year."
Rotom changed types? When Ash met them for the first time, they stayed as Ghost/Electric. "Like…?" he posed.
"Mower Rotom's a fucking Grass/Electric." the Lightning American replied. "Nuts."
Well, Anabel would be interested to know that. So would Erika.
"Try that." Rin said as she finished adjusting a servo for the Shadowbuster's left leg.
Kyril shifted his leg, the leg moving faster then normal. "Better." he admitted. "Should give me an easier time against anything faster."
Rin sighed as she continued working on the servo units before taking a look at the artificial muscle bundles. "There's going to be a limit to what we can do with this. You know that." she said.
"No. I refuse to bow to that 'only Pokemon can handle Pokemon' nonsense." Kyril said, scowling. "Anything they can do-"
"There's only so much our technology can copy, Kyril." Rin interrupted. "And there IS a level where we can't match them. Unless you've already forgotten the Battle of Ecruteak?"
Ah, yes. The Battle of Ecruteak, where ten legendaries tried to turn the tide and save what was left of civilization in Johto. A chaotic fight where someone accidentally dropped a massive bomb onto a Suicune...and the only thing the Beast had was a massive headache. The arms of man were useless against gods. Only Pokemon, the direct descendants of Arceus via Mew, could hurt them.
And only gods could kill other gods. For a certain definition of 'kill', of course. Arceus always bought them back after a while and new Legendaries could be born at any time. Of course, there hadn't been any born in almost a century.
Too much risk of being born into Shadow.
"I haven't forgotten. But I am not being useless," Kyril all but snapped. "You heard Ash."
"I seriously doubt he's really from the future." the redhead retorted as she turned her back to her employer/boyfriend/too-damn-complicated-to-put-into-word-relationship-person. "I think he's just got a few too many delusions of grandeur. I mean, the Chosen of Arceus and a time traveller? I call bullshit."
Kyril gave her a look. "You were testing your suit when he told us." he said in a deadpan. "Did his heartrate change or give any signs that he was lying?" She relented. Ash stuttered when he lied. And the audio sensors in the suit didn't pick up any of that. Or the scanner that picked up the health status of a person. Ash's heartrate never went any higher then 50 bpm, rising to 70 when Kyril… made the mistake of pissing him off.
It involved Altomere is all Rin wanted to remember as to how it happened. It ended with the CEO suffering a cracked jaw. Ash had a nasty right hook from those baseball games he played and all the balls he had to throw.
"No. So either he's insane or he's telling the truth," she admitted, sighing. "I don't know what's worse. Insane because he's leading us into the jaws of death or the truth because it means something WORSE is on the horizon."
Kyril didn't answer. Because he didn't know.
Aft of the ship - 0806 hours local time
A steel cable trailed behind the ship, leading to a somewhat… leaky submarine.
"We haven't had the chance to patch it up!" James said as he got out of the Magisub and bailed it out.
There's a hole in your bucket and there ain't no painting it over.
"Not while we're at sea." Jessie groused. "Not like we had time to fix it."
Lucky for you we're one scene from Orre proper. Hope you're ready for a hive of scum and villainy.
"What is it, Gateon Port or Mos Eisley?" Meowth demanded of the authors.
Does it matter?
James and Jessie shrugged. Orre WAS a shithole.
Gateon Port Docks - Orre Region - 0835 hours local time
Ash looked over his red short-sleeved jacket, much like his older one. He was missing his hat, but there was a difference between wanting to keep his second favorite thing (Pikachu being first) on him at all times (or safe; there was a reason he left it in Pallet after his journey in Johto) but it made him easier to recognize. And the last thing he wanted was to make it easy for Cipher to find him.
So he left the hat at home. Hopefully when Misty and the others came with the cavalry, they'd have the hat with them. He kinda felt naked without it on his head.
"Pika." 'Ok, Ash, let's take a look around. Surge is too easy to pick out of a crowd, so it's up to us.' Pikachu said, reminding his trainer of their current goal. "Pi." 'At least I won't look out of place here.'
Ash looked at the docks. All he could see were sailors wheeling what looked like the unholy bastard child of a vent and a conveyor belt (he was sure there was a name for those things, but he didn't know it) over the cargo hatches, which opened and began receiving red pellets. Ash didn't have to be an expert to know what it was. After all, the region was named after it.
"So, find a place to hunker down while we plan our next move. Got it." Ash said as he stepped off the gangway, putting his feet on Orrean soil for the first time.
And the moment he did, something exploded in the distance, smoke going into the air.
"Never a dull moment, huh, Arceus?" Ash muttered. He really hated this timeline.
The old Pokemon Center was a shadow of itself, long abandoned when Cipher took over the region. None of the equipment worked, the computers were long ransacked for parts and the doors were bricked over decades ago.
But the basement was opened and was home to the only people that continued their long fight against Cipher: the resistance.
It wasn't the first. They were aware it probably wouldn't be the last. But no matter how long it took, they WOULD liberate their region from these madmen.
"Nicely done." said a young woman, hair as white as that of her Glaceon, only barely shorter then one of those dummies in those clothing shops in the 'better' part of Gateon Port.
"Glace." said her ice-type, a brief chill covering her legs as the icy Eeveelution rubbed up against them, frost forming on her skirt before she brushed it off.
She put her hands in the pockets of her flak jacket and made her way to the basement and the secret way out, Glaceon on her heels. Her brother and sisters were waiting below, enjoying the time out of those godforsaken balls.
"Fla." called the so-called Booster Pokemon as he made his way over to his trainer. The fire-type defrosted the ice on his trainer before the twins, an Umbreon and Espeon, walked over.
Gifts from the family she never knew. Cipher had been wanting them too, but could never find them.
She had reasons beyond loathing despots to fight. Her great-grandparents on both sides of the family were murdered the days they returned, 15 years to the day her grandfather defeated Greevil.
"Another day, another target." Robin Ryuto said as she returned all but Flareon to their Pokeballs. One Eeveelution wouldn't draw attention. Five would.
A few minutes later, she was on the streets, like a concerned citizen would if something exploded. Of course, the only concern she had was how many of those bastards died.
They murdered her great-grandparents and made her grandfather watch before letting him go to spread terror. They shot her paternal grandfather in the head before hacking his body apart and feeding it to her great-grandfather's most valuable Pokemon. Ho-Oh. 'Wes' Great Failure', they called it. She heard some pissed off Kantoan killed the damn thing.
Good. One less problem for the world. One act of revenge against Cipher. It still wouldn't bring back Agate Village, which her great-grandmother was forced to watch get nuked, murdering her own grandparents before they killed her, too.
Cipher was as petty as they were evil.
Her guardian once said she was almost the spitting image of her great-grandmother, if not for her white hair. That was her great-grandfather's legacy.
Speaking of legacies…
"What do you know." she muttered as she saw a man in a suit disembark from the ore freighter. "The murderer shows his face."
Kyril Pernon, CEO of the Pernon Group. One of the largest corporate entities on the planet.
And secret supporter of Cipher.
Well, cut off the head of the snake… and the body dies.
"Terrorists? This seems familiar." Rin said over the radio. "Kyril, I think we should just let Ash deal with this. The last time you and terrorists were within 20 miles of one another outside that suit, you got kidnapped."
Kyril chuckled at his assistant/lover/whatever-she-was (their relationship was complicated) being worried. "These guys are with the resistance, Rin." he said, half to reassure her, half to reassure himself. He wasn't sure there WAS a resistance movement in Orre.
"There's a resistance movement in this shithole?" Rin snarked.
"Probably." he said. He wasn't sure himself, but even Cipher wouldn't terror bomb their people if they had control of the region. They were stupid and evil, but not counterproductively stupid evil.
Besides, there was a problem. Gateon Port was an utter shithole. Buildings were in disrepair, but many of them looked newer than a century. And while Orre was rich in metallic ores (hence the name) like iron, tin, copper, even comparatively rare titanium and even more rare uranium, it wasn't rich in areas like woods. And Cipher didn't have the resources to build those two airships.
So it came down to two things. One, they held onto a set of ancient airships from the War and retrofit them for an ill-fated attack on Kanto or… they were getting help. And Kyril would bet his fortune on the latter. Because those were Type-36 Aerial Support Craft from nearby Ferrum.
"That's him?" asked a member of the insurgency, staring at Pernon from a nearby derelict shop, once home to a Poke Mart 90 years ago.
"That's him." Robin said, glaring at the man who made Cipher's resurgence happen. There had been a LOT of Pernon Group tech showing up in Orre's deserts. One of their cells reported seeing their stuff going into the ruins of Agate Village.
Thanks to him, they were disturbing the rest of her entire family. Cipher murdered them and now they were using the one place that would have ended this before it started as a base.
All thanks to him.
"Once he's in town, drag him to the old scrap shop." she ordered. "I want him to know what he's done before we put a bullet in his head."
"Yes, ma'am." replied one of her cell's members, leaving the building.
Kyril felt quite safe, given two facts.
One, legitimate business. Orre was, indeed, a shithole, Gateon Port, its' largest port city, looking like a mix of something from the Middle Ages with modern additions, mostly to the port itself. And once he found his way to whatever counted as the local administration center, he would try to do the usual deal that would not only aid his global conglomerate, but aid Orre as a bonus. And let him set up a base or five so he could teach Cipher a lesson in STAYING DEAD.
...Well, that was more hateful then he'd like. He supposed he owed them a favor, as he made his way deeper into the city. Without Cipher, his father could've never made the Pernon Group as dominant as it was. Maybe he'd thank them before shooting the admins and boss, whoever it was. Repeatedly. With rockets. And maybe fire. Fire was always an option.
The businessman turned a corner, before getting tackled by someone wearing what could only be called ratty biker clothing. Not that he'd be able to tell, given after he was tackled to a building, his head was hit with something very heavy and metallic.
Needless to say, he wasn't doing any thinking for a bit.
Robin could not deny she enjoyed the look on Pernon's face when he got hit with a pipe. Then again, the only thing she really knew was fighting. Ever since she was five, it was CQC drills, stealth training, Pokemon training, which was the only thing she actually enjoyed, and lessons on why the region was so fucked up.
She never had a childhood. And it was all thanks to men like Pernon. "Take him to the smith," she said, glaring at the man in the suit. "He might enjoy talking to this murderer before feeding him to the garden."
"That's cruel, even for him," one of her cell members said, shuddering at the mention of the garden.
"He's Cipher. Whether he's an admin or a peon or even just a supporter, he deserves it." she said before they began dragging him towards the building in question, which used to be the town scrap shop before Cipher purged almost everyone in Gateon Port for helping her grandfather end their reign of terror almost a century ago. While it was close to the port, they had their way of getting in unseen.
Tunnels dug by the resistances long past. Cipher couldn't find out everything about them, no matter how hard they tried. It was always the goal to beat Cipher, but they laid plans for their successors to continue the fight. No matter what, someone would win. Even if it took another century.
Pernon groaned as he awoke and was tossed on the ground, his head aching as he tried to find out where he was, finding something covering his head.
A bag. How cliche. Effective, yes, but VERY cliche.
"Robin, how many times do I have to tell you not to use my shop as your personal body dumping ground?" demanded a man that didn't have the typical Orrean accent, which was something of a drall, but more… earthy, mixed in with the usual drall.
"You know who this is," a girl - Robin? - answered, testily. "You should know what we've found."
The man scoffed before the sound of metal hitting metal was heard, Pernon waking up more with the smell of charcoal and the heat of a forge blasting his chest.
"I am aware what you found, Robin. But I'm getting tired of hiding your dead in my home." he retorted. "And get that bag off his head already!" With that, the burlap sack was removed from his head, revealing his captors. The man was dark skinned, but that could just be soot and a forge tan, with a balding head and wearing torn jeans and a once-white but now dirty tanktop, covered by a leather apron, operating a power hammer.
"Well." said a white-haired young woman, who looked just a bit older then Ash, maybe by a year, as she glared at him. "Cipher's money whore. I hope you're ready to face justice for the suffering you've caused."