Story Notes:
First wrote it for Furaffinity, but I figured I mind as well post it here too.
Chapter 1
DARK AGGRON'S STORY
CHAPTER I
Another day passed in the prison we lived in, and I spent most of the time lounging on the steel couch in my room. I had furniture and everything, but that didn't change the fact that the walls and door were about a foot thick, and a pair of armed guards were always just outside the door. It was a prison, no matter what they wanted us to think. Sure, it was a comfortable prison, since they did everything they could to keep us happy. They knew that if we weren't happy, we weren't obedient, and I suppose they were afraid of what would happen if we turned on them. If I turned on them.
Let me explain. I am DDP-100. I'm one of the Doomsday Pokémon. At least that's what they call us. We prefer to think of ourselves as Dark Pokémon. I don't know why. I guess it just sounds less...evil that way. The Dark Pokémon are genetically altered Pokémon created to serve those who created us. Each of us has a power of some sort that normal Pokémon do not. We were told that this was to help us on our missions for them. Funny thing is, we were never told who they were. Only that they are the reason we are alive and that we owe our lives to them.
I was the one-hundredth Dark Pokémon created, and also the last. It seems I was all they really needed, so they stopped making more. There were only ninety or so of us left. A grand total of three, 004, 007, and 019, I think were their numbers, were actually killed on missions. Another five, led by DDP-009, a Dusknoir, decided they didn't need to take orders from our creators anymore. The last anyone saw of them, they were being dragged into a chamber across the corridor from my room. Not long after, screams and blood oozed their way through the crack at the bottom of the door. Apart from this last part, I got all of this information from my best friend DDP-083, who we called Spark.
Anyway, back to me. I'm an Aggron, or so I've been told. I wouldn't know. As the youngest of the Dark Pokémon, I'd only been on a few missions, and on none of these have I ever seen a normal Aggron. In fact, almost the only contact I'd had with others was at mealtimes, during briefings, or while on said missions. Anyway, according to Spark, who had a computer in his room, I had different coloring from a normal Aggron, which didn't surprise me. All Dark Pokémon, except for the Jolteon himself, had the same black and blood-red color scheme, which I'd never once assumed was normal. Where a normal Aggron's armor was silver, mine was red, and where it was normally grey, mine was black. My eyes were also a piercing yellow rather than the oddly gentle-looking blue they should be. The color difference wasn't the only difference between my armor and that of a normal Aggron. According to 083, it was apparently forged using "Arceus plates", and has the powers and attributes of all 17 types. This is a great advantage because I am nearly invulnerable to any type of attack.
On the few missions I have been on, somehow I always ended up working with the same group. There was my good friend 099, a Tyranitar we called Spike and the youngest of all of us other than myself. Actually, we were both "born" on the same day, but he was about an hour or so earlier. Apart from a red diamond on his stomach, his entire body was the same black as my own. Despite his massive size, the Tyranitar had the power to not only turn himself invisible, he could also somehow make it so that when he walked, he did so silently and without leaving footprints. I think Spark explained how it worked to me once, but all I remembered was something about light bending, some big scientific words, and a massive headache afterwards.
Speaking of Spark, he was in our little group as well. As I've mentioned, he was a Jolteon. His spiky fur was black like the rest of us, but he had a mane around his neck that was the same green as the leaves on the trees rather than red. His odd coloring was never explained to us, and we never bothered asking. The Jolteon also had the ability to move straight through solid objects. He tried to explain that ability to me, but I quickly stopped him, remembering when he explained Spike's ability. Damn, that little quadruped had more energy in his mouth than he had stored in his fur.
DDP-093, a Salamence known as Zero despite not being number 0, more than made up for 083's talking. The dragon rarely said more than a single sentence over the course of an entire mission, and usually it was to try and shut the Jolteon up. His colors were actually the closest to normal out of any of the Dark Pokémon I'd met, apart from 084 the Luxray, and 036 the Garchomp. 093's body was black, but his wings and underbelly, as well as two crests above his eyes, were red. He also had a gold shell on his stomach, and his lower jaw matched this color. Between his usual silence and the fact that he never used his ability, I had no idea what it was. He was, however, known to get very competitive when he was beaten at anything, and my dear friend Chelsea was the only one who could ever calm him when he got upset.
Chelsea was a Gardevoir, number DDP-062 and the only female Dark Pokémon I'd knew. Apparently, there were more, but I'd never met them, although I had seen a couple around. According to her, all the females were given names upon their "birth", and we'd always wondered why. I figured it was because our creators favored the females, since I'd heard that every night, they'd send for one female or another. None of us males knew for certain why, and the females chose to keep it private, not even speaking of it to each other.
Again, I've gotten off topic. This is about Chelsea. She always wore an elegant dress that was a very dark grey. Her lovely face matched this color, as did the very small portions of her legs that anyone had seen. Most would call it black, but she was very stubborn about this, insisting that "the color black represents evil and death, and we are neither". Personally, I agreed with the others, but since it was her clothing and body that was in question, I called it whatever she did, which she seemed grateful for. The inside of her dress, her hair, and her slender arms were the same blood-red as the rest of us, though, and even she didn't deny that. A strange pin on the front of her dress was the same gold color as the shell on 093's stomach.
Her eyes were always the part of her that I found the most...interesting, however. They were the exact same color as my own. Any time she met my eyes with her own intense gaze, it felt like those piercing eyes were using the color similarity as a passage into my very soul. This frightened me for two reasons. The first was that upon my "birth", I was told that I had no soul, and that I would not think twice about carrying out any order I was given, and yet 062 could stare into that same, "nonexistent" soul. The second reason frightened me even more, though. My armor could protect me from anything. I've walked into burning buildings, had them collapse on me, and walked out without a scratch. I've been hit by the Magnet Train while it was going full speed; not even a dent. Well, not on me, anyway. I've even smothered a bomb with my body to protect my friends, and guess how much damage I took. That's right; none. Nothing in the world scared me; my armor was impenetrable. But not even my armor could protect me from the Dark Gardevoir's eyes, and that terrified me.
It didn't help, of course, that as a Gardevoir, she could sense my emotions. She knew that her eyes were the only thing in existence that could scare me, and her "Dark Power" did nothing but make it worse. You see, while normal Gardevoir can sense emotions, 062 also has the ability to manipulate the emotions of others, Dark Pokémon included.
This power had helped greatly on a past mission in which we were caught by a guard. I remember it clearly, as it was the first time I learned of her power. That was one of the reasons, anyway. The other main reason was that that mission heralded the moment when things started to get interesting in my life, the moment things began to change for us Dark Pokémon.
I walked sleepily into the briefing room, grumbling to myself about how early it was and how I'd barely gotten any sleep. In actuality, it was late afternoon, almost evening, and I'd been asleep all day. I was just trying to annoy the guard escorting me. Our creators had tried to break me of that habit, threatening to do horrible things to me like they'd done to 009 and his followers. I'd just laughed, since I not only knew that they couldn't, thanks to the armor they themselves had given me, I also knew that they knew they couldn't.
Anyway, as I entered the briefing room, I found Chelsea, Zero, Spark, and Spike waiting for me as usual. There was also a strange Pokémon that looked like his kind used to live in water. He had a strange, missile-shaped crest on each side of his head, and two spikes on each thigh. A single claw adorned the end of each arm, and he had a triangular fin on each arm as well as one on his back. A crescent-shaped fin formed the end of his long tail. The majority of his body was black, but his underbelly was red. An upside-down triangle covered the front of his waist in gold. The Garchomp silently nodded his respect to me as I entered.
At the sound of a door opening, the six of us turned to see X entering the room. X was probably the only human I trusted at all, which was good since he was the one who briefed us on missions. For one thing, he was the only one who showed absolutely no fear whatsoever in my presence. For another, he actually seemed interested in socializing with us; whether or not we returned that interest didn't seem to matter, but if we didn't, he wouldn't push it.
"Good evening, guys," he greeted us. "I trust you are ready for another mission?"
Again, the new Pokémon nodded without speaking.
"Of course," Spike grunted. He always tried to seem like nothing mattered when humans were around.
"Sure beats being locked in a room all day with nothing to do," I muttered.
"I told you that you should have gotten a computer," Spark told me. "At least I can play computer games."
"Whatever," I replied. One thing you don't want to do is get into an argument with Spark. Either you give up out of frustration with his stubborn reasoning or you get a headache from his illogical logic.
X waited until he was certain we were finished before continuing. "The Silph Company has long been interested in genetic engineering. They've tried many times to find a way to reach the level of skill it takes to create Pokémon such as yourselves. Our sources indicate that as of late, they've come quite close."
My companions and I looked at each other, unsure what the problem was.
"Is that a bad thing?" I asked X. It was agreed among us long ago, nearly as soon as my Dark Power was revealed, that I would be the one to ask questions. Since I was invulnerable to harm, I couldn't be punished for questioning orders, unlike the others.
"What do you mean?" X asked me. I might have forgotten to mention it earlier, but humans can understand Dark Pokémon.
"Silph Co. can help us," I answered. "If they can create more Dark Pokémon--"
"Doomsday Pokémon," a voice corrected me. I turned to glare at the guard who had accompanied me here. I suspected he was just trying to bother me. I knew he'd never really liked me, but this was just sad.
"Dark Pokémon," I repeated, giving him a look that dared him to correct me again. I caught a glimpse of Spark shaking his head as if trying to warn the guard.
"You're called Doomsd--" He began to take my challenge, but I stopped him. He gave me a startled look, before looking down at my arm, which had gone straight into his chest. I could actually feel his heart and lungs slowing. He coughed once, a bit of blood flying onto my shoulder, before I grabbed something inside of him. I don't know what my claws closed around, it might have been his spine, but I pulled it out. He spat up some more blood before crumpling to the ground, dead.
"Dark Pokémon." I spat at his corpse, dropping whatever was in my claw. Turns out it was his spine. Imagine that. "Get it straight." I looked at the other guards. "Anyone else?"
They all shook their heads, looking like they were about to shit themselves. Obviously none of them were as stupid as my escort, who was now busy forming a crimson pool on the floor.
"Right," X said as if nothing had happened. "Now that that's out of the way, what were you saying?"
"If Silph Co. can create more Dark Pokémon," I continued from before. "that means more missions can be completed at once."
"The problem is," X answered, no more concerned about the guard than I was. "Silph Co. doesn't want to help us. They want to compete with us. They'll threaten our company, and we can't allow that."
"So we're to sabotage their genetics program?" I asked.
"Actually, no. Your mission this time is not one of sabotage. You are to kill the heads of the company, and leave a message informing whoever finds them that Silph Co. now belongs to us."
"Excellent," Spike smiled, one of the only times he'd ever shown emotion in the presence of humans.
"DDP-036 here," X gestured to the Garchomp. "will be joining you on this mission. Make sure you listen to what he has to say; as you've probably figured out from his number, he is far more experienced than any of you."
"It shall be done," We gave our usual "mission accepted" line and headed out.
Finding the Silph Co. building in Saffron City wasn't too difficult. It happened to be the tallest building in the entire Kanto region. Getting inside was even less difficult. Spark just phased through the back door and unlocked it for us. We ascended the stairs to the 8th floor without difficulty, and just as I was beginning to wonder if we were walking into a trap, a guard spotted us.
"Pokémon!?" He exclaimed, obviously taken by surprise. "What are you doing in here? Where's your trainer?"
Obviously, he was new. Everyone at Silph knew the significance of our distinctive coloring, but he obviously thought we were just lost. Spike vanished from beside me.
"H-hey!" the guard exclaimed. "Where'd he go?"
The rest of us began to ascend the stairs toward him. He lowered his gun to point it at us. "S-stay back! I-I'm w-warning you!"
I just gave him a grin. "Don't bother. That gun won't do you any good."
He looked terrified by that. I wasn't sure whether it was because he understood what I said, or because of what I said, although I think it was the latter. Either way, he pulled the trigger. Bullets erupted from the muzzle of his automatic gun, but every one of them hit my armor and dropped to the ground.
The poor guard stopped firing and lowered his weapon. Just then, Spike appeared behind him, raising his arm to finish the man.
"Wait!" Chelsea told him. "I can get him to lead us to our targets."
"Yeah, right," Spike smirked, lowering his arm. "How?"
"My power, idiot," she answered with a scowl. She'd never really liked Spike.
"What, the power of blowjobs?" Spike mocked. "Give it a try; it seems to work on our creators." Obviously he knew something I didn't, not that I cared. I was more intrigued by what Chelsea was going to do. She reached the spot where Spike and the guard stood.
The first thing she did was bitch-slap Spike right across the face.
Spike actually staggered for a moment before his grin returned. "That hurt," he said, still in a mocking tone.
She slapped him again, although this time two things were different. One, her hand glowed red momentarily before she did. And two, Spike actually flew back. He smashed into the wall before hitting the ground and groaning.
"Damn," I smiled in appreciation. "Where'd you learn to use Force Palm?"
Chelsea gave me an innocent smile. "Oh, I get around."
She returned her focus to the terrified guard. Her eyes began to glow yellow, as did the eyes of the guard. The guard suddenly smiled as if we were old friends he hadn't seen in years.
"Take us to the heads of Silph Co.," Chelsea told him.
"Sure thing," the guard answered, still smiling. "What are friends for?"
"Impressive," 036 commented. That was the first thing I'd ever heard him say.
"Quite," I agreed. I approached the Gardevoir. "How'd you do that?"
She just gave me a look like she expected another remark like the ones Spike gave, only this time from me.
"Don't worry," I assured her, smiling slightly. "I'm not like Spike there. For one thing, I don't pry into my teammates' sexual business, and for another, I'm not stupid enough to piss my teammates off."
Chelsea's faint smile returned. "It's my Dark Power. Has Spark, in his incessant knowledge-babble, ever told you what Gardevoir are capable of?"
I shook my head. "Surprising, huh? He almost never stops talking about anything."
She laughed. "So true. Anyway, Gardevoir have the ability to sense the emotions of those around them."
"I see," I said. I didn't bother asking how for a couple reasons. First, I knew that Gardevoir were Psychic-type Pokémon. Second and more importantly, I'd learned not to ask "why" or "how" questions, courtesy of Spark. To do so was like asking for a physics lecture and a headache.
"My Dark Power takes it a little farther than that," Chelsea continued. "I can also manipulate the emotions of others."
"So you made the guard feel like we're old friends of his," I finished for her.
"Exactly."
"That's pretty useful. Can you do that with any emotion?"
062 nodded.
"So you could make a room full of guards hate each other to the point where they turn on one another."
She nodded again.
"Nice."
"Hey guys," the guard called. He'd already ascended another set of steps while we talked. "Did you want to see my bosses or not?"
"Be right there," I called back. "This should be fun," I whispered to Chelsea as we resumed the ascension of the stairs.
We were only stopped once, when a second guard stopped us.
"Hey, Joe," the new guard greeted our "friend" while pointing his gun at us. "What's wrong with you?"
Joe just looked at him funny. "What do you mean?"
"You're giving six Dark Pokémon a tour of our building," the guard answered, shooting a hostile glance at me. Obviously he was more experienced than our friend Joe.
"Don't worry," Joe assured him. "They're with me."
"It's okay." Chelsea spoke up, her eyes beginning to glow again. "We've left our creators, and Joe here is taking us to your boss. We want to negotiate a deal working for them."
The new guard just looked at us for a moment before nodding slowly. "Alright, go on."
"I was wrong earlier about your ability," I told Chelsea as we continued on our way. "It's not 'pretty useful'. It's really damn useful."
Chelsea didn't even look at me, but I saw a smile flicker across her face.
When we reached the top of the stairs, we passed through several hallways before we arrived at a set of very expensive-looking double doors.
"I think they're in a meeting," Joe told us. "but I'll tell them you're here."
"Don't worry," Chelsea told him. "We'll handle it."
"099." The Garchomp who'd remained mostly silent until now spoke. "Use your Dark Power to scout the conference room."
The Tyranitar just looked at him. "Sorry, Aggron's in charge here. I only take orders from him."
036 glanced at me. I just nodded and addressed Spike. "There's a reason X sent 036 with us. He's the oldest and most experienced out of all of us. Listen to what he has to say."
Spike held my stare for a few moments before looking away and nodding. "As you wish." Spike had problems with authority, which stemmed from his power. I was the only one he would willingly listen to, since he knew that I was far stronger than he was, and he hated the fact that there was nothing he could do about it.
"Go ahead," I told 036.
"As I was saying," the veteran Garchomp continued, although talking to me this time. "099 should use his Dark Power to scout the room and find out how many people are inside. Once we know how many guards are in there, 100 and I will deal with the humans."
"Alright," I told the rest of the group. "You heard him. That's our plan."
"What about me?" Zero growled. The Dark Salamence never enjoyed coming on missions if he didn't get to do anything.
"I'd have you join 036 and I," I answered. "but with your power, the whole building would collapse and there would be no one to find the message."
Zero just snarled his frustration.
"I know, it sucks."
"Alright," Spike muttered. I got the feeling he still didn't like listening to 036. "I'm going in."
He vanished again. I watched the door swing open as he passed through it, and I heard someone inside saying something about "that stupid ventilation system." The five of us, plus Joe, waited outside for the Tyranitar's return. About two minutes later, the door opened again, and Spike reappeared once the door had closed.
"There's six humans gathered around a table in the middle of the room," he reported.
"They're our targets," 036 told me. I nodded.
"There are also about fifteen human guards," Spike continued. "They've each got armor and some sort of gun that looks far more dangerous than our friend's does. Each of them is also accompanied by some sort of strange Pokémon."
"What do these Pokémon look like?" 036 asked him.
Spike made a point of ignoring the Garchomp.
"036 asked you a question," I growled.
"I know," he answered, shooting a glare at me.
"Then answer him." I frowned at the stubborn Tyranitar. He wasn't usually this uncooperative towards the Dark Pokémon that accompanied us. Of course, this was the first time anyone other than myself had acted as leader.
Spike sighed and gritted his fangs. "They're red and blue. Their eyes look like little yellow-and-black targets, and they kind of hover above the ground."
036 frowned. "I've never heard of such a Pokémon."
I looked at Spark, who was our usual source of intel. "What are they?"
Surprisingly, the Jolteon shook his head. "I have no idea. Scary, huh?"
"I know what they are," Joe spoke up.
We all looked at him, somewhat surprised.
"Tell us," I ordered him. I was somewhat angry with myself for forgetting about him. Of course he'd know what these mystery Pokémon were. He worked there, after all.
"Well, I'm actually not entirely sure," Joe began, looking thoughtful. "but I have an idea."
"Just tell us," Spike snarled, his infamous impatience taking hold.
"W-well, have you ever heard of a Porygon?" Joe asked us, looking intimidated by Spike.
"Yeah," Spark replied. "It's some sort of digitally created Pokémon, isn't it?"
Joe nodded. "You know about Porygon 2, the upgraded version?"
"Yes, but the eyes are all wrong. Spike said that they had yellow eyes."
"Lately, Silph Co. had been trying to create another upgrade, called Porygon-Z. It matches the description, but we were told that the project was a failure and was aborted."
"Obviously not," I told the guard, silently wondering how humans could be so foolish. "We need more info about the things. What type is it? Attacks? Ability?"
"The last version I know about was a Normal-type, like its predecessors," Joe answered. "If this is the same version, they should have attacks like Psybeam, Discharge, Ice Beam, and Shadow Ball."
"Good to know," I said, nodding.
"One more thing," Joe continued. "Their ability increases their skill in attacks based on what types of attacks you're weaker to."
"I might have to watch out for that Ice Beam, then," 036 murmured thoughtfully.
"Nothing we can't handle," I assured him. "Let's do this."
The two of us burst through the double doors, startling everyone inside.
"Boo," I said as we immediately unleashing various attacks on the guards. I caught a glimpse of a Dragon Pulse flying past me as I swung my tail at the nearest guard. The guard's head was caught between my powerful Iron Tail and the wall, and it gave little more resistance than a Tamato berry. The guard's body crumpled to the ground, blood and bits of skull splattered across the wall. I turned to find a new target, but instead found every one of the guards, human and Porygon alike, engaged in combat with a Garchomp. It looked to me like 036's Dark Power was to duplicate himself, as there were now around ten of him in the room. I focused on dealing with the executives, as 036 didn't seem to be having any more trouble than I'd had in killing the guards.
I began to slaughter the cowering humans one at a time in various manners. Several guards stopped fighting with the several 036 clones, and attempted to stop me once I reached the second executive. The humans were easy prey, as their bullets did nothing but bounce off of my armor as I approached, and their own armor was no more effective at protecting them than paper would be. The Porygon were a different story. Somehow, all fifteen of them were still up, and I soon found out why as I approached one. It fired beam after beam at me, none of which even affected me. As soon as I got close enough to attack back, it burst into a cloud of red and blue particles, which moved away from me, reformed into the Porygon, and resumed its barrage of attacks. Six of the annoying things formed a circle around me, dispersing into particles when I'd attack and reforming when I switched targets.
"Kill the targets!" I called to the Dark Garchomps that were coming to aid me. They nodded and shifted their focus to the remaining executives. Meanwhile, I called to our allies outside the door. "Chelsea! I could use your help in here!"
[i]You? Asking for help?[/i] I heard the Gardevoir's amused voice in my head. [i]What has the world come to?[/i]
She suddenly appeared nearby, taking in the scene. 036 had reduced his army of clones to two and was currently rending two of the executives apart. A lone Porygon-Z was attempting to kill them with Ice Beam, but as soon as it struck its target, the Garchomp vanished before being replaced with a new clone. The other fourteen Porygon had evidently decided that I was a greater threat, and were subjecting me to a barrage of beam attacks while avoiding my own attacks. I tried to break out of the circle a couple of times by using Iron Head in a certain direction, but somehow the Porygon knew what I was doing, and the ring followed my movements exactly. Their attacks weren't doing any damage, but they were certainly doing a good job of keeping me from my targets, as well as annoying the hell out of me.
Two Porygon suddenly shifted their attention to Chelsea, beginning to charge Hyper Beam attacks.
"Oh, no you don't!" I snarled at them, hurling myself into the way of their attacks. Again the Porygon ring moved with me, but the ones in the way of the beams dispersed, allowing the attacks to strike me. "You'd better do something!" I told Chelsea, swiping a Metal Claw at a Porygon-Z.
"Right," she answered, looking somewhat startled that I'd jumped into two Hyper Beams just to protect her. Her eyes began to glow for a third time that day. This time, though, her entire body began to glow as well. The same gold glow surrounded each of the Porygon, and they paused, confused. I tried using another Iron Head on one, but it dispersed just like before.
"A lot of help that did," I growled to the Gardevoir behind me, who simply shrugged.
"They're digital," she replied. "I'm not even sure they have actual emotions for me to manipulate."
Just then, the Porygon I'd just attacked reformed and shot a Shadow Ball at me. It dissipated harmlessly against my armor, and I prepared to strike back. Surprisingly, I was beaten to it.
The other Porygon-Z unleashed their various beams upon the one that had just attacked me. The targeted Porygon dispersed, as I'd predicted, but the others just aimed their beams at the individual particles, destroying them one at a time. The particles attempted to reform, but only the head and main body of the bothersome Pokémon formed. Out of curiosity, I aimed an Iron Tail attack at it, and was pleasantly surprised when it didn't break apart. My tail struck it at full force, and the Porygon seemed to shatter like glass.
"About fucking time," I growled. I turned my attention to the other Porygon, who were just hovering there, looking at me as if awaiting orders.
A very large part of me wanted to order them to destroy each other for being such an annoyance, but my logical side won out. I reasoned that since the things were so damn hard to kill, they would make excellent servants for the Creators, as we began to call them.
I looked back at 036, who was finishing off the remaining two executives. I looked at the carnage we had created. Fifteen guards killed; torn to pieces, disemboweled, or other gory methods. A cluster of red and blue shards lay on the ground where I had managed to destroy the Porygon-Z, and the bodies of the five executives lay around the tables, spreading crimson trails across...wait, five?
A shriek came from beyond the doors, followed by a snarl and then silence. Zero entered the room, chewing on something and holding a human body in a suit. The others followed him in.
He swallowed. "You missed one." He dropped the executive's body onto the table. I noticed that its head was missing.
Spike nudged the dragon, grinning. "Hey, it's a new record! Two whole sentences on a single mission!"
Zero swiped a claw at him. "Shut up."
Spike chuckled. "That's three-ow!" Zero had bitten the Tyranitar's claw when Spike had tried to nudge him again. From the way Spike was yelling, I guessed that Zero had used some sort of attack at the same time.
036 looked around. "Just one thing left to do," he said, approaching the headless body. He stabbed his left claw into the corpse's chest and withdrew the now bloody claw before going to the wall and beginning to write a message in blood.
SILPH CO. IS OURS.
There was no need to sign it; whoever found the bodies would know exactly who the message was from, even if we didn't. We just knew that we were going to get an extra reward for bringing back fourteen specimens of a new type of Pokémon.
We were right, too. The six of us were greatly rewarded for bringing back the Porygon-Z, and the Creators' scientists immediately set to work studying them. "Rewarded", of course, meant that we got first choice at mealtime. Hooray. We'd all agreed not to mention the trouble I had with the digital creatures, just in case something happened. Not one of us ever trusted the Creators. Especially since they seemed to go to great lengths to prevent us from learning anything about them.
The others and I were sent back to our rooms, as we always were, but we also received an added reward, one we weren't told about until we arrived at our rooms. My new guard, who was much less foolish as far as I could tell, informed me that Spark, Spike, Zero, Chelsea, 036, and I were now allowed to visit one another outside of missions, which meant we could get to know each other better. Well, except for 036, who was apparently even more antisocial than Zero, not to mention kind of an outsider amongst us.
I tried visiting Spark a couple of times, but I always left with a headache. I never even bothered to visit Spike, since I knew it would just get awkward, considering the fact that he hated my power. He didn't hate me, he'd told me so himself. It was the fact that I was created to be stronger than him that bothered him. Zero...well, no one visited him, and he didn't visit anyone, either. So it was that I ended up visiting Chelsea the most often.
We talked all the time. She learned more about me; I did the same for her. She told me more about her life completing missions, her feelings about them, and her thoughts on why the Creators truly created us, and I told her mine. We grew closer than anyone else in our group, yet no matter how close we got, those eyes of hers continued to mystify me. Somehow, despite my irrational fear of those golden spheres, I slowly began to feel attracted to them. It may have been that same fear that caused the inexplicable magnetism I felt, or it might have been the fact that her eyes so closely mirrored my own. Either way, I was feeling some strange emotion I'd never felt before. It could have been this "love" I'd heard Spark talking about a few times. Apparently he read stories on his computer about those things. The Creators had told us that Dark Pokémon couldn't feel such emotions, but they'd also told us we didn't have souls. Obviously we did, or we wouldn't have been able to experience any emotions at all. It must have been love, then. I was feeling a love for Chelsea that I now realized had been growing since I'd met her.
And it was that same love that changed the world for us. All of us, not just Chelsea and I. Whether it was for better or for worse remained to be seen.Chapter End Notes:I'd greatly appreciate review on this. I'll probably post the next chapter when I finish it.
PS: HOW THE HELL DO YOU DO ITALICS!
CHAPTER I
Another day passed in the prison we lived in, and I spent most of the time lounging on the steel couch in my room. I had furniture and everything, but that didn't change the fact that the walls and door were about a foot thick, and a pair of armed guards were always just outside the door. It was a prison, no matter what they wanted us to think. Sure, it was a comfortable prison, since they did everything they could to keep us happy. They knew that if we weren't happy, we weren't obedient, and I suppose they were afraid of what would happen if we turned on them. If I turned on them.
Let me explain. I am DDP-100. I'm one of the Doomsday Pokémon. At least that's what they call us. We prefer to think of ourselves as Dark Pokémon. I don't know why. I guess it just sounds less...evil that way. The Dark Pokémon are genetically altered Pokémon created to serve those who created us. Each of us has a power of some sort that normal Pokémon do not. We were told that this was to help us on our missions for them. Funny thing is, we were never told who they were. Only that they are the reason we are alive and that we owe our lives to them.
I was the one-hundredth Dark Pokémon created, and also the last. It seems I was all they really needed, so they stopped making more. There were only ninety or so of us left. A grand total of three, 004, 007, and 019, I think were their numbers, were actually killed on missions. Another five, led by DDP-009, a Dusknoir, decided they didn't need to take orders from our creators anymore. The last anyone saw of them, they were being dragged into a chamber across the corridor from my room. Not long after, screams and blood oozed their way through the crack at the bottom of the door. Apart from this last part, I got all of this information from my best friend DDP-083, who we called Spark.
Anyway, back to me. I'm an Aggron, or so I've been told. I wouldn't know. As the youngest of the Dark Pokémon, I'd only been on a few missions, and on none of these have I ever seen a normal Aggron. In fact, almost the only contact I'd had with others was at mealtimes, during briefings, or while on said missions. Anyway, according to Spark, who had a computer in his room, I had different coloring from a normal Aggron, which didn't surprise me. All Dark Pokémon, except for the Jolteon himself, had the same black and blood-red color scheme, which I'd never once assumed was normal. Where a normal Aggron's armor was silver, mine was red, and where it was normally grey, mine was black. My eyes were also a piercing yellow rather than the oddly gentle-looking blue they should be. The color difference wasn't the only difference between my armor and that of a normal Aggron. According to 083, it was apparently forged using "Arceus plates", and has the powers and attributes of all 17 types. This is a great advantage because I am nearly invulnerable to any type of attack.
On the few missions I have been on, somehow I always ended up working with the same group. There was my good friend 099, a Tyranitar we called Spike and the youngest of all of us other than myself. Actually, we were both "born" on the same day, but he was about an hour or so earlier. Apart from a red diamond on his stomach, his entire body was the same black as my own. Despite his massive size, the Tyranitar had the power to not only turn himself invisible, he could also somehow make it so that when he walked, he did so silently and without leaving footprints. I think Spark explained how it worked to me once, but all I remembered was something about light bending, some big scientific words, and a massive headache afterwards.
Speaking of Spark, he was in our little group as well. As I've mentioned, he was a Jolteon. His spiky fur was black like the rest of us, but he had a mane around his neck that was the same green as the leaves on the trees rather than red. His odd coloring was never explained to us, and we never bothered asking. The Jolteon also had the ability to move straight through solid objects. He tried to explain that ability to me, but I quickly stopped him, remembering when he explained Spike's ability. Damn, that little quadruped had more energy in his mouth than he had stored in his fur.
DDP-093, a Salamence known as Zero despite not being number 0, more than made up for 083's talking. The dragon rarely said more than a single sentence over the course of an entire mission, and usually it was to try and shut the Jolteon up. His colors were actually the closest to normal out of any of the Dark Pokémon I'd met, apart from 084 the Luxray, and 036 the Garchomp. 093's body was black, but his wings and underbelly, as well as two crests above his eyes, were red. He also had a gold shell on his stomach, and his lower jaw matched this color. Between his usual silence and the fact that he never used his ability, I had no idea what it was. He was, however, known to get very competitive when he was beaten at anything, and my dear friend Chelsea was the only one who could ever calm him when he got upset.
Chelsea was a Gardevoir, number DDP-062 and the only female Dark Pokémon I'd knew. Apparently, there were more, but I'd never met them, although I had seen a couple around. According to her, all the females were given names upon their "birth", and we'd always wondered why. I figured it was because our creators favored the females, since I'd heard that every night, they'd send for one female or another. None of us males knew for certain why, and the females chose to keep it private, not even speaking of it to each other.
Again, I've gotten off topic. This is about Chelsea. She always wore an elegant dress that was a very dark grey. Her lovely face matched this color, as did the very small portions of her legs that anyone had seen. Most would call it black, but she was very stubborn about this, insisting that "the color black represents evil and death, and we are neither". Personally, I agreed with the others, but since it was her clothing and body that was in question, I called it whatever she did, which she seemed grateful for. The inside of her dress, her hair, and her slender arms were the same blood-red as the rest of us, though, and even she didn't deny that. A strange pin on the front of her dress was the same gold color as the shell on 093's stomach.
Her eyes were always the part of her that I found the most...interesting, however. They were the exact same color as my own. Any time she met my eyes with her own intense gaze, it felt like those piercing eyes were using the color similarity as a passage into my very soul. This frightened me for two reasons. The first was that upon my "birth", I was told that I had no soul, and that I would not think twice about carrying out any order I was given, and yet 062 could stare into that same, "nonexistent" soul. The second reason frightened me even more, though. My armor could protect me from anything. I've walked into burning buildings, had them collapse on me, and walked out without a scratch. I've been hit by the Magnet Train while it was going full speed; not even a dent. Well, not on me, anyway. I've even smothered a bomb with my body to protect my friends, and guess how much damage I took. That's right; none. Nothing in the world scared me; my armor was impenetrable. But not even my armor could protect me from the Dark Gardevoir's eyes, and that terrified me.
It didn't help, of course, that as a Gardevoir, she could sense my emotions. She knew that her eyes were the only thing in existence that could scare me, and her "Dark Power" did nothing but make it worse. You see, while normal Gardevoir can sense emotions, 062 also has the ability to manipulate the emotions of others, Dark Pokémon included.
This power had helped greatly on a past mission in which we were caught by a guard. I remember it clearly, as it was the first time I learned of her power. That was one of the reasons, anyway. The other main reason was that that mission heralded the moment when things started to get interesting in my life, the moment things began to change for us Dark Pokémon.
I walked sleepily into the briefing room, grumbling to myself about how early it was and how I'd barely gotten any sleep. In actuality, it was late afternoon, almost evening, and I'd been asleep all day. I was just trying to annoy the guard escorting me. Our creators had tried to break me of that habit, threatening to do horrible things to me like they'd done to 009 and his followers. I'd just laughed, since I not only knew that they couldn't, thanks to the armor they themselves had given me, I also knew that they knew they couldn't.
Anyway, as I entered the briefing room, I found Chelsea, Zero, Spark, and Spike waiting for me as usual. There was also a strange Pokémon that looked like his kind used to live in water. He had a strange, missile-shaped crest on each side of his head, and two spikes on each thigh. A single claw adorned the end of each arm, and he had a triangular fin on each arm as well as one on his back. A crescent-shaped fin formed the end of his long tail. The majority of his body was black, but his underbelly was red. An upside-down triangle covered the front of his waist in gold. The Garchomp silently nodded his respect to me as I entered.
At the sound of a door opening, the six of us turned to see X entering the room. X was probably the only human I trusted at all, which was good since he was the one who briefed us on missions. For one thing, he was the only one who showed absolutely no fear whatsoever in my presence. For another, he actually seemed interested in socializing with us; whether or not we returned that interest didn't seem to matter, but if we didn't, he wouldn't push it.
"Good evening, guys," he greeted us. "I trust you are ready for another mission?"
Again, the new Pokémon nodded without speaking.
"Of course," Spike grunted. He always tried to seem like nothing mattered when humans were around.
"Sure beats being locked in a room all day with nothing to do," I muttered.
"I told you that you should have gotten a computer," Spark told me. "At least I can play computer games."
"Whatever," I replied. One thing you don't want to do is get into an argument with Spark. Either you give up out of frustration with his stubborn reasoning or you get a headache from his illogical logic.
X waited until he was certain we were finished before continuing. "The Silph Company has long been interested in genetic engineering. They've tried many times to find a way to reach the level of skill it takes to create Pokémon such as yourselves. Our sources indicate that as of late, they've come quite close."
My companions and I looked at each other, unsure what the problem was.
"Is that a bad thing?" I asked X. It was agreed among us long ago, nearly as soon as my Dark Power was revealed, that I would be the one to ask questions. Since I was invulnerable to harm, I couldn't be punished for questioning orders, unlike the others.
"What do you mean?" X asked me. I might have forgotten to mention it earlier, but humans can understand Dark Pokémon.
"Silph Co. can help us," I answered. "If they can create more Dark Pokémon--"
"Doomsday Pokémon," a voice corrected me. I turned to glare at the guard who had accompanied me here. I suspected he was just trying to bother me. I knew he'd never really liked me, but this was just sad.
"Dark Pokémon," I repeated, giving him a look that dared him to correct me again. I caught a glimpse of Spark shaking his head as if trying to warn the guard.
"You're called Doomsd--" He began to take my challenge, but I stopped him. He gave me a startled look, before looking down at my arm, which had gone straight into his chest. I could actually feel his heart and lungs slowing. He coughed once, a bit of blood flying onto my shoulder, before I grabbed something inside of him. I don't know what my claws closed around, it might have been his spine, but I pulled it out. He spat up some more blood before crumpling to the ground, dead.
"Dark Pokémon." I spat at his corpse, dropping whatever was in my claw. Turns out it was his spine. Imagine that. "Get it straight." I looked at the other guards. "Anyone else?"
They all shook their heads, looking like they were about to shit themselves. Obviously none of them were as stupid as my escort, who was now busy forming a crimson pool on the floor.
"Right," X said as if nothing had happened. "Now that that's out of the way, what were you saying?"
"If Silph Co. can create more Dark Pokémon," I continued from before. "that means more missions can be completed at once."
"The problem is," X answered, no more concerned about the guard than I was. "Silph Co. doesn't want to help us. They want to compete with us. They'll threaten our company, and we can't allow that."
"So we're to sabotage their genetics program?" I asked.
"Actually, no. Your mission this time is not one of sabotage. You are to kill the heads of the company, and leave a message informing whoever finds them that Silph Co. now belongs to us."
"Excellent," Spike smiled, one of the only times he'd ever shown emotion in the presence of humans.
"DDP-036 here," X gestured to the Garchomp. "will be joining you on this mission. Make sure you listen to what he has to say; as you've probably figured out from his number, he is far more experienced than any of you."
"It shall be done," We gave our usual "mission accepted" line and headed out.
Finding the Silph Co. building in Saffron City wasn't too difficult. It happened to be the tallest building in the entire Kanto region. Getting inside was even less difficult. Spark just phased through the back door and unlocked it for us. We ascended the stairs to the 8th floor without difficulty, and just as I was beginning to wonder if we were walking into a trap, a guard spotted us.
"Pokémon!?" He exclaimed, obviously taken by surprise. "What are you doing in here? Where's your trainer?"
Obviously, he was new. Everyone at Silph knew the significance of our distinctive coloring, but he obviously thought we were just lost. Spike vanished from beside me.
"H-hey!" the guard exclaimed. "Where'd he go?"
The rest of us began to ascend the stairs toward him. He lowered his gun to point it at us. "S-stay back! I-I'm w-warning you!"
I just gave him a grin. "Don't bother. That gun won't do you any good."
He looked terrified by that. I wasn't sure whether it was because he understood what I said, or because of what I said, although I think it was the latter. Either way, he pulled the trigger. Bullets erupted from the muzzle of his automatic gun, but every one of them hit my armor and dropped to the ground.
The poor guard stopped firing and lowered his weapon. Just then, Spike appeared behind him, raising his arm to finish the man.
"Wait!" Chelsea told him. "I can get him to lead us to our targets."
"Yeah, right," Spike smirked, lowering his arm. "How?"
"My power, idiot," she answered with a scowl. She'd never really liked Spike.
"What, the power of blowjobs?" Spike mocked. "Give it a try; it seems to work on our creators." Obviously he knew something I didn't, not that I cared. I was more intrigued by what Chelsea was going to do. She reached the spot where Spike and the guard stood.
The first thing she did was bitch-slap Spike right across the face.
Spike actually staggered for a moment before his grin returned. "That hurt," he said, still in a mocking tone.
She slapped him again, although this time two things were different. One, her hand glowed red momentarily before she did. And two, Spike actually flew back. He smashed into the wall before hitting the ground and groaning.
"Damn," I smiled in appreciation. "Where'd you learn to use Force Palm?"
Chelsea gave me an innocent smile. "Oh, I get around."
She returned her focus to the terrified guard. Her eyes began to glow yellow, as did the eyes of the guard. The guard suddenly smiled as if we were old friends he hadn't seen in years.
"Take us to the heads of Silph Co.," Chelsea told him.
"Sure thing," the guard answered, still smiling. "What are friends for?"
"Impressive," 036 commented. That was the first thing I'd ever heard him say.
"Quite," I agreed. I approached the Gardevoir. "How'd you do that?"
She just gave me a look like she expected another remark like the ones Spike gave, only this time from me.
"Don't worry," I assured her, smiling slightly. "I'm not like Spike there. For one thing, I don't pry into my teammates' sexual business, and for another, I'm not stupid enough to piss my teammates off."
Chelsea's faint smile returned. "It's my Dark Power. Has Spark, in his incessant knowledge-babble, ever told you what Gardevoir are capable of?"
I shook my head. "Surprising, huh? He almost never stops talking about anything."
She laughed. "So true. Anyway, Gardevoir have the ability to sense the emotions of those around them."
"I see," I said. I didn't bother asking how for a couple reasons. First, I knew that Gardevoir were Psychic-type Pokémon. Second and more importantly, I'd learned not to ask "why" or "how" questions, courtesy of Spark. To do so was like asking for a physics lecture and a headache.
"My Dark Power takes it a little farther than that," Chelsea continued. "I can also manipulate the emotions of others."
"So you made the guard feel like we're old friends of his," I finished for her.
"Exactly."
"That's pretty useful. Can you do that with any emotion?"
062 nodded.
"So you could make a room full of guards hate each other to the point where they turn on one another."
She nodded again.
"Nice."
"Hey guys," the guard called. He'd already ascended another set of steps while we talked. "Did you want to see my bosses or not?"
"Be right there," I called back. "This should be fun," I whispered to Chelsea as we resumed the ascension of the stairs.
We were only stopped once, when a second guard stopped us.
"Hey, Joe," the new guard greeted our "friend" while pointing his gun at us. "What's wrong with you?"
Joe just looked at him funny. "What do you mean?"
"You're giving six Dark Pokémon a tour of our building," the guard answered, shooting a hostile glance at me. Obviously he was more experienced than our friend Joe.
"Don't worry," Joe assured him. "They're with me."
"It's okay." Chelsea spoke up, her eyes beginning to glow again. "We've left our creators, and Joe here is taking us to your boss. We want to negotiate a deal working for them."
The new guard just looked at us for a moment before nodding slowly. "Alright, go on."
"I was wrong earlier about your ability," I told Chelsea as we continued on our way. "It's not 'pretty useful'. It's really damn useful."
Chelsea didn't even look at me, but I saw a smile flicker across her face.
When we reached the top of the stairs, we passed through several hallways before we arrived at a set of very expensive-looking double doors.
"I think they're in a meeting," Joe told us. "but I'll tell them you're here."
"Don't worry," Chelsea told him. "We'll handle it."
"099." The Garchomp who'd remained mostly silent until now spoke. "Use your Dark Power to scout the conference room."
The Tyranitar just looked at him. "Sorry, Aggron's in charge here. I only take orders from him."
036 glanced at me. I just nodded and addressed Spike. "There's a reason X sent 036 with us. He's the oldest and most experienced out of all of us. Listen to what he has to say."
Spike held my stare for a few moments before looking away and nodding. "As you wish." Spike had problems with authority, which stemmed from his power. I was the only one he would willingly listen to, since he knew that I was far stronger than he was, and he hated the fact that there was nothing he could do about it.
"Go ahead," I told 036.
"As I was saying," the veteran Garchomp continued, although talking to me this time. "099 should use his Dark Power to scout the room and find out how many people are inside. Once we know how many guards are in there, 100 and I will deal with the humans."
"Alright," I told the rest of the group. "You heard him. That's our plan."
"What about me?" Zero growled. The Dark Salamence never enjoyed coming on missions if he didn't get to do anything.
"I'd have you join 036 and I," I answered. "but with your power, the whole building would collapse and there would be no one to find the message."
Zero just snarled his frustration.
"I know, it sucks."
"Alright," Spike muttered. I got the feeling he still didn't like listening to 036. "I'm going in."
He vanished again. I watched the door swing open as he passed through it, and I heard someone inside saying something about "that stupid ventilation system." The five of us, plus Joe, waited outside for the Tyranitar's return. About two minutes later, the door opened again, and Spike reappeared once the door had closed.
"There's six humans gathered around a table in the middle of the room," he reported.
"They're our targets," 036 told me. I nodded.
"There are also about fifteen human guards," Spike continued. "They've each got armor and some sort of gun that looks far more dangerous than our friend's does. Each of them is also accompanied by some sort of strange Pokémon."
"What do these Pokémon look like?" 036 asked him.
Spike made a point of ignoring the Garchomp.
"036 asked you a question," I growled.
"I know," he answered, shooting a glare at me.
"Then answer him." I frowned at the stubborn Tyranitar. He wasn't usually this uncooperative towards the Dark Pokémon that accompanied us. Of course, this was the first time anyone other than myself had acted as leader.
Spike sighed and gritted his fangs. "They're red and blue. Their eyes look like little yellow-and-black targets, and they kind of hover above the ground."
036 frowned. "I've never heard of such a Pokémon."
I looked at Spark, who was our usual source of intel. "What are they?"
Surprisingly, the Jolteon shook his head. "I have no idea. Scary, huh?"
"I know what they are," Joe spoke up.
We all looked at him, somewhat surprised.
"Tell us," I ordered him. I was somewhat angry with myself for forgetting about him. Of course he'd know what these mystery Pokémon were. He worked there, after all.
"Well, I'm actually not entirely sure," Joe began, looking thoughtful. "but I have an idea."
"Just tell us," Spike snarled, his infamous impatience taking hold.
"W-well, have you ever heard of a Porygon?" Joe asked us, looking intimidated by Spike.
"Yeah," Spark replied. "It's some sort of digitally created Pokémon, isn't it?"
Joe nodded. "You know about Porygon 2, the upgraded version?"
"Yes, but the eyes are all wrong. Spike said that they had yellow eyes."
"Lately, Silph Co. had been trying to create another upgrade, called Porygon-Z. It matches the description, but we were told that the project was a failure and was aborted."
"Obviously not," I told the guard, silently wondering how humans could be so foolish. "We need more info about the things. What type is it? Attacks? Ability?"
"The last version I know about was a Normal-type, like its predecessors," Joe answered. "If this is the same version, they should have attacks like Psybeam, Discharge, Ice Beam, and Shadow Ball."
"Good to know," I said, nodding.
"One more thing," Joe continued. "Their ability increases their skill in attacks based on what types of attacks you're weaker to."
"I might have to watch out for that Ice Beam, then," 036 murmured thoughtfully.
"Nothing we can't handle," I assured him. "Let's do this."
The two of us burst through the double doors, startling everyone inside.
"Boo," I said as we immediately unleashing various attacks on the guards. I caught a glimpse of a Dragon Pulse flying past me as I swung my tail at the nearest guard. The guard's head was caught between my powerful Iron Tail and the wall, and it gave little more resistance than a Tamato berry. The guard's body crumpled to the ground, blood and bits of skull splattered across the wall. I turned to find a new target, but instead found every one of the guards, human and Porygon alike, engaged in combat with a Garchomp. It looked to me like 036's Dark Power was to duplicate himself, as there were now around ten of him in the room. I focused on dealing with the executives, as 036 didn't seem to be having any more trouble than I'd had in killing the guards.
I began to slaughter the cowering humans one at a time in various manners. Several guards stopped fighting with the several 036 clones, and attempted to stop me once I reached the second executive. The humans were easy prey, as their bullets did nothing but bounce off of my armor as I approached, and their own armor was no more effective at protecting them than paper would be. The Porygon were a different story. Somehow, all fifteen of them were still up, and I soon found out why as I approached one. It fired beam after beam at me, none of which even affected me. As soon as I got close enough to attack back, it burst into a cloud of red and blue particles, which moved away from me, reformed into the Porygon, and resumed its barrage of attacks. Six of the annoying things formed a circle around me, dispersing into particles when I'd attack and reforming when I switched targets.
"Kill the targets!" I called to the Dark Garchomps that were coming to aid me. They nodded and shifted their focus to the remaining executives. Meanwhile, I called to our allies outside the door. "Chelsea! I could use your help in here!"
[i]You? Asking for help?[/i] I heard the Gardevoir's amused voice in my head. [i]What has the world come to?[/i]
She suddenly appeared nearby, taking in the scene. 036 had reduced his army of clones to two and was currently rending two of the executives apart. A lone Porygon-Z was attempting to kill them with Ice Beam, but as soon as it struck its target, the Garchomp vanished before being replaced with a new clone. The other fourteen Porygon had evidently decided that I was a greater threat, and were subjecting me to a barrage of beam attacks while avoiding my own attacks. I tried to break out of the circle a couple of times by using Iron Head in a certain direction, but somehow the Porygon knew what I was doing, and the ring followed my movements exactly. Their attacks weren't doing any damage, but they were certainly doing a good job of keeping me from my targets, as well as annoying the hell out of me.
Two Porygon suddenly shifted their attention to Chelsea, beginning to charge Hyper Beam attacks.
"Oh, no you don't!" I snarled at them, hurling myself into the way of their attacks. Again the Porygon ring moved with me, but the ones in the way of the beams dispersed, allowing the attacks to strike me. "You'd better do something!" I told Chelsea, swiping a Metal Claw at a Porygon-Z.
"Right," she answered, looking somewhat startled that I'd jumped into two Hyper Beams just to protect her. Her eyes began to glow for a third time that day. This time, though, her entire body began to glow as well. The same gold glow surrounded each of the Porygon, and they paused, confused. I tried using another Iron Head on one, but it dispersed just like before.
"A lot of help that did," I growled to the Gardevoir behind me, who simply shrugged.
"They're digital," she replied. "I'm not even sure they have actual emotions for me to manipulate."
Just then, the Porygon I'd just attacked reformed and shot a Shadow Ball at me. It dissipated harmlessly against my armor, and I prepared to strike back. Surprisingly, I was beaten to it.
The other Porygon-Z unleashed their various beams upon the one that had just attacked me. The targeted Porygon dispersed, as I'd predicted, but the others just aimed their beams at the individual particles, destroying them one at a time. The particles attempted to reform, but only the head and main body of the bothersome Pokémon formed. Out of curiosity, I aimed an Iron Tail attack at it, and was pleasantly surprised when it didn't break apart. My tail struck it at full force, and the Porygon seemed to shatter like glass.
"About fucking time," I growled. I turned my attention to the other Porygon, who were just hovering there, looking at me as if awaiting orders.
A very large part of me wanted to order them to destroy each other for being such an annoyance, but my logical side won out. I reasoned that since the things were so damn hard to kill, they would make excellent servants for the Creators, as we began to call them.
I looked back at 036, who was finishing off the remaining two executives. I looked at the carnage we had created. Fifteen guards killed; torn to pieces, disemboweled, or other gory methods. A cluster of red and blue shards lay on the ground where I had managed to destroy the Porygon-Z, and the bodies of the five executives lay around the tables, spreading crimson trails across...wait, five?
A shriek came from beyond the doors, followed by a snarl and then silence. Zero entered the room, chewing on something and holding a human body in a suit. The others followed him in.
He swallowed. "You missed one." He dropped the executive's body onto the table. I noticed that its head was missing.
Spike nudged the dragon, grinning. "Hey, it's a new record! Two whole sentences on a single mission!"
Zero swiped a claw at him. "Shut up."
Spike chuckled. "That's three-ow!" Zero had bitten the Tyranitar's claw when Spike had tried to nudge him again. From the way Spike was yelling, I guessed that Zero had used some sort of attack at the same time.
036 looked around. "Just one thing left to do," he said, approaching the headless body. He stabbed his left claw into the corpse's chest and withdrew the now bloody claw before going to the wall and beginning to write a message in blood.
SILPH CO. IS OURS.
There was no need to sign it; whoever found the bodies would know exactly who the message was from, even if we didn't. We just knew that we were going to get an extra reward for bringing back fourteen specimens of a new type of Pokémon.
We were right, too. The six of us were greatly rewarded for bringing back the Porygon-Z, and the Creators' scientists immediately set to work studying them. "Rewarded", of course, meant that we got first choice at mealtime. Hooray. We'd all agreed not to mention the trouble I had with the digital creatures, just in case something happened. Not one of us ever trusted the Creators. Especially since they seemed to go to great lengths to prevent us from learning anything about them.
The others and I were sent back to our rooms, as we always were, but we also received an added reward, one we weren't told about until we arrived at our rooms. My new guard, who was much less foolish as far as I could tell, informed me that Spark, Spike, Zero, Chelsea, 036, and I were now allowed to visit one another outside of missions, which meant we could get to know each other better. Well, except for 036, who was apparently even more antisocial than Zero, not to mention kind of an outsider amongst us.
I tried visiting Spark a couple of times, but I always left with a headache. I never even bothered to visit Spike, since I knew it would just get awkward, considering the fact that he hated my power. He didn't hate me, he'd told me so himself. It was the fact that I was created to be stronger than him that bothered him. Zero...well, no one visited him, and he didn't visit anyone, either. So it was that I ended up visiting Chelsea the most often.
We talked all the time. She learned more about me; I did the same for her. She told me more about her life completing missions, her feelings about them, and her thoughts on why the Creators truly created us, and I told her mine. We grew closer than anyone else in our group, yet no matter how close we got, those eyes of hers continued to mystify me. Somehow, despite my irrational fear of those golden spheres, I slowly began to feel attracted to them. It may have been that same fear that caused the inexplicable magnetism I felt, or it might have been the fact that her eyes so closely mirrored my own. Either way, I was feeling some strange emotion I'd never felt before. It could have been this "love" I'd heard Spark talking about a few times. Apparently he read stories on his computer about those things. The Creators had told us that Dark Pokémon couldn't feel such emotions, but they'd also told us we didn't have souls. Obviously we did, or we wouldn't have been able to experience any emotions at all. It must have been love, then. I was feeling a love for Chelsea that I now realized had been growing since I'd met her.
And it was that same love that changed the world for us. All of us, not just Chelsea and I. Whether it was for better or for worse remained to be seen.Chapter End Notes:I'd greatly appreciate review on this. I'll probably post the next chapter when I finish it.
PS: HOW THE HELL DO YOU DO ITALICS!