Pokemon Fan Fiction / Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Ascension ❯ Others ( Chapter 5 )

Dedicated to Amber Skye, who told me to finish this story.

 

Ascension

 

Chapter Five: Others

 

Professor Felina Ivy was often considered to be the most brilliant mind in the world, rivaled only by her contemporary Professor Samuel Oak. While Professor Elm and Professor Birch were quickly gaining popularity, she was still considered one of the foremost experts on Pokémon.

 

Thankfully her genius usually tended to apply to all versions of her, which made it easy for another Ivy to kill the original and take her place without anyone noticing.

 

The only one who saw through her ruse was the squinty eyed assistant that had noticed something was wrong from the start. She was amused by this, as she considered her acting skills to be top notch; there was no way he could have possibly known.

 

But he did know, and because of this he always acted defensively around her, even the times when she invited him to share her bed.

 

He would shake his head at her advances, although she finally broke his resolve during that very special night they shared.

 

Of course, he left the next day, leaving behind everything except his pokémon. She had broken him using her vast knowledge of human psychology and sexuality; it would be a long while before he would even be able to return to a sense of normalcy. With Brock out of the way, she was able to go about her business without him interfering with her affairs.

 

Her hands deftly flew across the keyboard placed in front of her, glancing at the four computer terminals that surrounded her workstation. She sighed, wishing that this reality had been as technologically advanced as her own.

 

Of course, technology always experiences leaps whenever there's a war, she mused. This world is too damn peaceful for my tastes.

 

She was used to the sounds of gunfire or screams of death floating through her window; instead, she was treated to the sound of a particularly sunny day, with pokémon crawling and flying about, making those annoying sounds that always made her want to rip and tear and kill.

 

But she kept her cool demeanor on the surface, as she didn't want anyone to catch on to her just yet. Those assistants of hers were not nearly as bright as the squinty eyed boy, but she didn't want to arouse their suspicions anymore than she already had.

 

She typed in a few commands, causing one of her computer terminals to become a vidphone. She dialed and waited a few moments, thankful that she had muted that damned ring-ring-ring that accompanied most phones of this type.

 

Within moments a figure appeared on the screen. Ivy noted sardonically that the figure was cloaked in shadow, highly unusual even for her.

 

“What's with the cliché?” Ivy asked, smirking.

 

The figure, a woman by the shape of her figure, did not respond to the Professor's barbs or appear amused at all.

 

Ivy sighed, wishing her boss had a sense of humor about things. “You shouldn't be so dark all the time. It'll ruin your girlish figure.”

 

“Spare me. Give me your report, Ivy,” the figure said.

 

“Things are going as planned. Many of the key players have now shown their faces. Everything is going according to your plan.”

 

The figure nodded. “I see. What of his plans? Does he have any idea?”

 

Ivy shook her head, bored with this exchange but obligated to continue. “The fool doesn't have a clue that he's only a pawn in the grand scheme of things.”

 

“That is excellent news, Professor Ivy. Your team has done quite well infiltrating this reality,” the figure said. “Have you made contact with the…Others?”

 

Ivy visibly frowned. “I don't see why we need help from outsiders, ma'am. My team has done fine without such-”

 

The figure interrupted her ramblings with a wave of her hand. “They are important to our plans. You know that as well as I do, Ivy. Tell me the status of them…now.”

 

The shift in the tone of her voice frightened Ivy, as she knew the consequences for disobeying. She felt her throat tighten with fear, as scenarios raced in her head, all of them ending with her dying a terrible, painful death.

 

“The Others,” she said, her voice wavering with fear, “have been found. I have already acquired the girl who had been lost. I need a little more time to capture the rest.”

 

She shifted terminal, to a corner of the room, which held a girl dressed in a blue uniform seen only in the Hoenn region. She had red hair, much like her mother before her, and she looked older despite the fact that she was only twenty The girl was unconscious, held in an energy cage based on pokéball technology, retrofitted for humans. She was effectively in stasis, ready to be released when needed.

 

“I do not see the point in having her. She's a dangerous one. She is completely unlike the Misty of the primary reality,” she noted, her face contorted with disgust. “From what my biological scans have detected she is five years older than the target. She also seems to have unusual brain patterns. My physical examination of the girl shows that she has repeatedly been subjected to physical and sexual abuse.”

 

“What is your point, Ivy,” the figure asked, her tone turning icy.

 

“She is a waste, nothing more than a scarred little girl. Why do we even need her or the Others?”

 

The figure sidestepped the issue. “You will do as you are told, Ivy. Do not forget your place.”

 

Ivy paused, before answering meekly with a nod of her head.

 

“You will find the remaining Others, and use them to find the Chosen. Do what must be done, Ivy. Do not fail like your predecessor did,” said the figure, before the screen turned blank on Ivy.

 

Ivy stared at the screen, all too knowing of what happened to the person who originally held her position. She would kill everyone before she let what happen to him happen to her. No, she would not suffer the same fate. She would not fail.

 

She turned her attention on the girl, wondering what made her special out of the millions and millions of Mistys they had access to. She was a homicidal, depressing, easily led individual…completely the opposite of the original. What was her role in this game?

 

Ivy shook her head, clearing her mind of such thoughts and turning her attention towards the computer terminals. Her fingers flew across the keyboard, bringing up pictures and files. She hummed to herself, the glow of the computer screen reflecting on her face as she typed more information, triangulating the position of the remaining Others.

 

While Ivy did this, the red-haired girl held in the corner of the room dreamt of a boy named Ash, a boy that she had killed before, in another time and another reality.

 

-

 

“The boss will be angry with us,” mumbled one of the grunts, his face beginning to pale. “He's going to kill us.”

 

His companion hissed at him. “You idiot, it's your fault that Melody girl is dead. If you hadn't been so hasty we could've found out the location of Lugia, but now we're even worse off than when we started!”

 

The man flinched at her words, knowing full well that he acted too hastily. He couldn't help being so trigger happy, especially when it came to killing little girls. However, he wasn't about to let that dead girl be the reason why he would be dead in an hour.

 

“Check her again, maybe she has one of the Artifacts on her?” she suggested, pointing her gun towards the now cold body of Melody.

 

He sighed and bent down, unabashed in his probing of the dead girl that he had killed only an hour ago. He felt around until he touched an unusually hard object; he took it and examined it under the light, and for the life of him could not figure out what it was.

 

“That's a traditional flute…they have those all around these islands,” the female grunt noted, eyeing the object carefully.

 

He blinked at it, not finding it at all special. “Could this be it? It was the only thing I could find on her. Bitch hid it real good. Had to search for it…there, and there.”

 

She frowned at him. “You're a goddamn pervert.”

 

“It's all part of the job,” he said with a mock-serious tone.

 

He tossed the flute-object around, juggling it between his hands. “So this is one of the Artifacts. It's so small. Do you think we can use this to summon Lugia?”

 

“With the girl dead it might be a problem, but I'm sure the scientists back in the lab will figure out a way. Let's go before anyone sees us with the body.”

 

He nodded in agreement, and the two of them left the scene hastily, neither noticing a soft blue tinted glow coming from the girl they left behind.

 

-

 

“Norie?” Ash whispered, in disbelief at the sight before him.

 

She walked over to him, as perfectly graceful as one would expect from an angel, and gave him a warm hug. Misty felt something strange clutch at her heart as she watched the two, but she chose to remain quiet until she could hear them speak.

 

“It's been a long time, Ash,” she said. “You've grown up… managed to fill out better than I expected for such a scrawny boy.”

 

He scratched at his face, blushing deeply. “Oh, well you know, I had to survive in the wild - just like you - so it got me all toughened up.”

 

“I can see that,” she smiled knowingly, her hand tracing over his chest. “Nice clothes. Better than the ones I've seen in pictures. You must've changed for once.”

 

Misty put a hand to her own chest, feeling her heart hurt in a way she did not expect. It was as if some pressure was being applied to it, similar to how she felt when she first heard about May. She had never seen Ash talk to someone so candidly, not to her or the other girl, the few times she had seen them together. How come she had never heard of her before?

 

Dragonite and Charizard were eyeing each other warily, neither of them comfortable with the presence of the other. However, neither of their trainers paid much attention to them, as they were focused on each other instead.

 

“Have you changed, Norie?” Ash asked, his tone surprisingly serious and vulnerable.

 

An unusual smile appeared on the girl's face. “You have no idea.”

 

-

 

“…and that's what happened to me on Valencia Island, Professor Oak,” Brock finished, his head hung low, unable to meet the older man's eyes out of shame.

 

Professor Oak remained quiet, closing his eyes and mulling over the information that had been given to him by the squint eyed boy. The idea of a fellow researcher like him doing that to a young man was impossible. She could not have possibly done the things Brock had described in painful detail. He had known the woman for far too long for her to hide something like that from him, yet he also knew that the former gym leader would never lie to him.

 

“I am sorry that all of that happened, Brock,” he said soothingly. “I had an idea that something traumatizing had happened to you, but I thought it was a rejection of sorts. It didn't occur to me that Professor Ivy-”

 

Brock held himself and started to shiver uncontrollably.

 

“Sorry. It didn't occur to me that the Professor was doing those sorts of things to you. But don't worry any longer Brock; I'll get to the bottom of this. She won't do anything like that ever again.”

 

You better have a damn good reason for the things you've done, Ivy, Oak thought to himself, as he watched the boy hold himself, eyes closed and shivering.

 

-

 

Things had gone so horribly wrong. This was not the way she had planned things. No, not at all!

 

She could still influence events, still change things. She needed to fix things before it happened.

 

But there were those that would interfere with her plans. There was her, and him, and them. All of them could potentially impede on her plans, and ruin the years of progress she had made.

 

Then there was her Other. She knew that her Other knew more than she let on to her friends and family, and that she possibly had an idea of what she was doing. She needed to find a way to stop her Other before she had a chance to inform the Chosen of her plans.

 

She would've liked to have her hands on the Artifacts, but certain other factions were already hunting for them. Of the ten Artifacts, six of them had already been retrieved. Her faction only had three of them so far. This did not please her, especially given the power she possessed, as well as the technology her subordinates had been graciously been given.

 

She sighed. If only she could do it herself.

 

All she could do now, was wait until he subordinates reported to her on the remaining Others. The one that had been lost was only recently found; the remaining Others would soon be under her control.

 

Only once all the players were in place would she make her move.

 

To be continued