Thank You.

To quote a TV Tropes : “Emperor Neo's demand that England surrender itself and place a white flag on top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris seems absurd - why make the demand with the Red Noah in Paris instead of in London, especially when there's no way the English would be able to put the flag up on the Eiffel Tower in time (this being the 19th century)? The demand was meant to be unfulfillable, so that Red Noah would have an excuse to lay waste to London, Paris and other human cities.”

Ummm… I think Emperor Neo failed Geography.

Weird dream is weird

I’ve had a pretty weird dream today. It was mostly composed of random events, but the one thing I remember for sure was the event with Flying Palace. I’ve saw it slowly descending from the night sky, at first looking normal and even blinking lights like any aircraft, but on closer look it was horribly devastated. It’s lower ring was deformed and torn, like if someone forcefully stretched it from inside of the Palace, cannon tower wasn’t present like after the crash landing, lower bulb was covered in very deep breeches, but Palace was still online, afloat and even could launch those capturing devices. In the dream, for some strange reason, I thought that Palace survived Lugia’s attack and came for the Ash, not for capturing him in the collection, but for taking him for the very angry conversation with Lawrence III, probably, about Ash’s reason for freeing Moltres and Zapdos. And I was Ash here.

What will he think of cabinet minister Alva?

I wonder how well Jirarudan would get along with some of the other bad guys. I think he’d take a shine to Molly but since he has only the vaguest concept of interpersonal skills I wager Spencer would ask him to leave. He’d also get along wonderfully with Lysandre because art and beauty and technology and holograms, but talk of politics and the world would bore him greatly and thus he’d avoid falling in with Flare because he just doesn’t give two shits about those things (and also he looks horrid in red). He’d get about five seconds into a conversation with Cyrus before realizing that the man has no artistic appreciation. The thieves from the fifth movie would probably just scare him (especially since they seem to have been reading up on him).

Past of the future, future of the past...

Chapter 9. A strange beginning

25.06.2000, 20 years after the Shift Neighborly Town, Sinnoh

Gentle ringing sound filled the room. With a sigh, a boy with long blue hair has removed the blanket and got up, doing morning stretches. After he was done, he took a shower, changed from his favorite dark pajamas to something more suitable and left his room, going down to kitchen for breakfast.

As always, his mom Deborah has made something amazingly-smelling and his dad Yakob was trying to start himself up with a cup of some horrifying caffeine mix, as dark as…

"Oh, and there you are, just in time!" said Deborah, as a figure has arisen from the shadows in the far end of the room.

"Suppose so. Morning, everyone," replied the Pitch-Black Pokemon, crossing the room.

"Morning, Darkrai," sighed Tobias, taking a seat. Yakob mumbled something welcoming too, then returned to drinking his crime against coffee. Darkrai visibly shifted away from Yakob, still having highly unpleasant memories about that one time he tried whatever infernal substance Tobias' dad was brewing for himself. There was a good reason it was once nearly classified as a chemical weapon, as a wide-awake Komala in Yakob's lab, who also made a mistake of trying this liquid insanity, could attest to.

After a wonderful breakfast (with Latios joining them soon after the beginning), the entire group started to pack up for today's trip in Unova. Thankfully, whatever unholy mixture Yakob was taking was sufficient to finally wake him up, so, he took the wheel, leaving Deborah, Tobias and Darkrai free to take seats, while Latios has cloaked and clung to the car's roof, loving the thrill of "riding" like that.

With a silent hiss, hydrogen started flowing into the fuel cells. Seconds later, with a quiet whine, wheel hub motors kicked in, driving the car away from the home and towards the Sunyshore City - specifically, the Theta Spaceport.

----

The not-so-young-anymore dragon silently flew underneath the forest's canopy, using the flexibility of its serpentine body to maneuver between trees. Something in the back of its mind screamed, that it shouldn't be going like this, that it should be soaring free in the sky, but immediate concerns continued to override it for many years.

Jet-black Legendary knew, that here, it was in relative safety. Humans would have massive troubles searching for it there. They won't risk using their horrific weapons there… or, at least, so it hoped.

Right now, it was nearing the edge of the forest, near the road from place, known to humans as "Pallet Town". It has decided to stay here for a bit, until the night comes… which should happen relatively soon, in fact.

Rayquaza took a rest on a tree, monitoring the situation around. Thankfully, the road wasn't used this often and Rayquaza knew, how to hide, so, even with its jet-black scales, it didn't have much trouble hiding.

Some time later, it has noticed a single young human, who was traversing down the road with two Pokemon at his side - a Pikachu and a Solosis.

Sky High Pokemon knew this human - quite a few years ago, this young human got lost in the forest and ended up taking shelter from rain under the roots of a large tree, together with a lot of Pokemon. Rayquaza knew this moment very well, especially since it also took a shelter there, coiling around others… and, despite worries of the Legendary, it all went pretty nice.

Sensing no one else of note around, the not-so-young dragon decided to take a risk and lit up the bioluminescent stripes, then flew almost right in front of the young human, even showing off a bit. While human did end up taking some device and pointing it at Rayquaza, evidently, it has malfunctioned and produced no result of worth… although Sky High Pokemon decided to stop doing the risky things now, darkened the bioluminescent stripes again and disappeared under the canopy of the forest, barely noticing Ho-oh flying above it, to which none of the participants paid much attention.

----

"Good afternoon passengers," sounded from the speakers. "This is the pre-boarding announcement for flight P-52-4 to Nuvema, Unova. Please have your boarding pass, Pokeballs and identification ready. Boarding will begin in approximately ten minutes time on Tower 12. Thank you."

Tobias, Deborah and Yakob nodded to each other and headed towards the appropriate access terminal. Two elevator and one travelator rides later, they were walking through the access arm to their vehicle, which was just finishing getting refueled with slush hydrogen and liquid oxygen. Seemingly short and stout (but only seemingly so), it, nonetheless, was capable of easily carrying up to 1000 people between any two points of Earth.

Family took their designated places, with Latios being confined to a Pokeball and Darkrai managing to secretly leave it and sneak into the shadow under Tobias' bunk.

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. The vessel will take off in ten minutes. Walkway is now retracting," sounded from speakers, as the doors to the outside world got closed and walkway got retracted. Passengers were still chatting, as they were taking their places and preparing for takeoff, some of them checking safety cards and/or watching the safety videos, some sharing their experiences, some merely talking… all was as usual.

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. The vessel will take off in five minutes. Make sure you're on your designated acceleration couch, safely strapped and with your Pokeballs put into the safe underneath it," sounded from the speakers again. Tobias, after a small check, found out Darkrai's small machination, but decided to stay quiet, knowing his oldest Pokemon partner all too well.

"Ten, nine, ignition sequence start, six, five, engine running fully... Liftoff! We have a liftoff on ballistic liner P-52-4! Tower cleared!"

As those words were being said, the plug-cluster aerospike engine has ignited and reached the nominal power. The launch clamps have opened too, letting the huge rocket soar into the sky and set the trajectory to suborbitals, while also making passengers experience moderate G-force. People, however, seem to take it just fine, some of them even joking about the flight being "Smooth, quiet and, in altogether, delightful experience".

Finally, all external fuel tanks ran dry and, with quiet dull clangs, separated from the rocket, starting their own flyback sequence to allow for easier recovery. In the meantime, ballistic liner finished the boost phase and entered the microgravity coast, with captain making another announcement:

"Good afternoon passengers. This is your captain speaking. First I'd like to welcome everyone on Talonflame Aerospace flight P-52-4. We are currently cruising at an altitude of 185 km at an speed of just under 7 km/s. The time is 1:25 pm. The weather under us looks good and with the lack of wind at the arrival point we are expecting to land in Nuvema with some fuel to spare. The weather in Nuvema is clear and sunny, with a high of 25 degrees for this afternoon. If the weather cooperates we should get a great view of the city as we descend. Right now, you will be able to unstrap yourself and to get some awesome views in the illuminators. I'll talk to you again before we reach our destination. Until then, relax and enjoy the rest of the flight."

Indeed, soon enough, people liberated themselves from the safety straps and started gathering around illuminators, with Darkrai managing to slip out of the shadows and get near Tobias too. While it did prompt some uneasiness, authority of Yakob and Deborah was sufficient to prevent it from escalating further, allowing a blue-haired boy and a white-haired Mythical to enjoy views of Earth from the space for a bit longer… until another announcement came through:

"Attention, passengers, this is your captain speaking. In five minutes, we will begin the flip maneuver. Please, return to your couches and strap yourselves back."

Grumbling, people have complied, returning back to their acceleration couches and strapping themselves in order to prevent flying away, when rocket fires maneuvering thrusters. In exactly five minutes from announcement, RCS engines rumbled and the rocket flipped around, pointing the main plug-cluster aerospike engine in the direction of travel. Soon, the main engine woke up again, decelerating the rocket a bit and correcting its trajectory.

The rocket plunged through the atmosphere, decelerating even further as it goes, with liquid hydrogen circulating through the truncated spike of main engine and cooling it down, allowing it to work as a heat shield. Soon, it ended its flight by a gentle hover landing, with exactly right position and heading to allow one of the access arms on the service tower to reach it. After the connection of access arm and opening of doors, Tobias and his family packed up and left the rocket, reaching their rented car two elevator and two travelator rides later.

As usual, human part of the family took their places in the vehicle, Latios cloaked and clung to the outside, while Darkrai stayed in shadows near the backseat.

"So…" started Tobias. "What's this conference's going to be about?"

"As always, yearly conference between researchers of Legendary and Mythical Pokemon," replied Yakob, driving the car to the hotel. "Thanks to your help, we've got some nice results."

"Yakob, if they ever try this again…" said Darkrai from the shadows in a pretty grim voice.

"I know, crouch, get to the nearest cover and wait for the Dark Void attacks to stop flying, then use the replicas of Lunar Wing over the victims, once you've cleared the area."

"Exactly. The fact of me deciding to follow Tobias and you two on my own volition does not mean me welcoming invasive experimentation."

"I sure remember the last time…" muttered Deborah in a strange voice.

"I didn't kill anyone back then, though," quickly replied the Pitch-Black Pokemon, as if slightly afraid, prompting Tobias to enter the conversation again:

"Mostly because of Latios with his Heal Pulse being capable of stabilizing their condition, until I was there to break the Lunar Wing replicas from my personal stash out."

"Yep. Exactly what I've counted on," said Darkrai, even leaving the shadow a bit and nodding.

"Not the best strategy… but, I guess, we'll have to let it slip for now." mumbled Tobias' mother, then sighed. "I hate the rocket lag, to be honest."

"We all do!" agreed everyone inside the car with her.

----

"Now arriving to the Space Colony Core-Middleway," sounded in the cabin of "Drapion" Galarian deep space transporter, as it was slowing down and preparing to dock to the still-unfinished Bernal Sphere - a greatest testament to the insane race of the Space Fever, alongside with automated factories on the Moon, as well as mass driver, which was used to deliver parts of the colony into space, where they were assembled.

"Finally…" mumbled a remarkably unremarkable human, cradling some strange case in his hands. Soon, a quiet, dull "clang" announced, that the ship has docked to the gigantic space installation. Man, blending in with the rest of passengers of the Earth-L5 express, left it through the docking tube and went through a route few people knew, heading straight to the biolabs block on the equator of the sphere.

Inside the Lab 14, another man was already waiting for him.

"So?.."

"Recovered," said the newcomer, opening his case and extracting a strange, tubular device with a faint glow inside the transparent middle section. "You have no idea, how hard it was, though. But old Fuji built some stuff real sturdy."

"Heh… brother was sure like this… was."

The colonial sighed, knowing too well, what's happened back on the planet, then went for another question:

"What about the second specimen?"

"Was unable to recover."

"Well… I guess we'll have to do with only her for now."

"I guess."

The newcomer gave the device to the colonial scientist, who, gently cradling it, took it to the adjacent room and placed it on the table, starting to connect it to the equipment.

"Lessons were learned, mistakes will not be repeated," mumbled the scientist, working on the device and, from time to time, looking at a huge empty biogrowth tube behind him. "I just hope you'll understand me, when the time comes…"

----

"Your Majesty?" sounded a message from the comm app.

"Yes?" replied the Empress.

"Project SAS is going almost as planned. Phase 2 is at 70%, industrial automation is progressing surely, second level networks are almost established."

"ISFs 3, 5 and 9?"

"Gave us all-clear on the technical side."

"And… what about possibility of Scenario 5?"

"Non-zero, but not too great. Roughly 3.6% possible."

"3.6% - not great, not terrible," concluded the Empress, before the call has ended and she relaxed in the chair, remembering, how has it all started fifteen years ago...

----

The Empress was sitting in her chair, listening to the group of scientists, who were standing before her and telling about a plan - a very audacious one, but, given, what has happened a week ago, worthy of consideration. When they've finished giving the explanation, she stood up a bit, walked to the window and, looking at the city outside of the Palace, asked:

"Automation of the economy, huh?"

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"And… what does it promise for the Empire?"

"Well… an economic solvency that will eclipse that of the rest of the world, no corruption, once it's fully implemented, highly-reactive planning, allowance…"

"Enough. Tell me one thing… Does it mean, that, should it be fully and completely implemented, I will lose my power and be, in fact, left without ability to rule the Empire, remaining merely a face of the new, automatic government system?"

"... Yes."

"And… will this system bring more prosperity to the Empire, than I and the rest of the current rulers can?"

"... Yes."

"... Then you have my full approval."

"... Huh?"

"You are to begin the implementation process as soon as you can. If sacrifice of my position and power will mean the best for the Empire - I am ready to do that."

"... As you wish."

The group of scientists left the room, leaving Empress looking in the window and thinking, whether this decision was right or not and should she cancel this project, while there's still some time left.

Author's notes: The ballistic liner Tobias and his family rides is based on ITHACUS global transportation rocket; The "Drapion" is based on a real project of a "Scorpion" general-purpose space transportation system; Space Fever will be explained more, as the time goes; Can you guess, what was the device the newcomer gave to the scientist on the space colony? The hint is in the only name mentioned in this section...

I specificially wrote protagonist in such a way so he can be viewed as backgroundless as possible, because I want to develop his personality without his origins restricting me. Yes, it seems strange, but I don’t want to go into the “And now our hero, Vladimir Sorokin / John Bush / %insert_accidental_traveller’s_original_name_here/% is going to change the world according to his looks, because they are the only right looks in the entire universe” - I’ve got enough of this, even if I never wrote anything in such a way. I never put up his original name, home country, city and such - I don’t want to characterise his background further than his hobbies and his thoughts about canon events. He just does what he wants to do - develops a vectored gravity control system, which allows reactionless movement (like “Tantalus” core on “Normandy” from Mass Effect or Megarig’s engine system from Pokemon movie #11), helps with deploying “Shining Star” strategical satellite (somewhat like “Icarus” from “Die another day”), that can both project reflected solar light on surface to act as the second sun and attack with superconcentrated beam of sunlight (dozens of times more powerful than “Icarus”’s beam, because “Shining Star” here isn’t the only reflector satellite in orbit - it can recieve reflected sunlight from many satellites in this complex, which have a lot of square kilometres of reflecting surfaces in total, and then concentrate it into a single beam less than a meter in diameter) and such. It’s also thought about by protagonist, that’s possible, that Jiri travelled into the our world and found himself in the protagonist’s original body, along with shards of protagonist’s personality and his memory, so, basically, Jiri here may be the reversal accidental traveller, but I, probably, won’t develop further story on this subject, because I don’t feel that I want to do it. I also don’t want to go along with artifact / Legendary / some out-of-universe being as reason for an accidental travel, because I’ve read enough of this and I’m sick of it. I just want to put it the way “It’ve happened for no reason at all, probability of your return is infinetely close to zero or is zero” to prevent it from interfering with me developing the story the way I want to. Also, protagonist here enjoys butterfly (Gokigen na chou ni natte kirameku kaze ni notte... Wait, not this “Butterfly”) effect very much, but understands, that his knowledge of canonical events is becoming less and less useful with each change in the flow of events, which are going like the chain reaction.

By the way, two megacorps (General Industries and TungusTech), which produce anything, except for Pokemon-special products (that branch of market is occupied by Silph Co and Devon Corporation, which are collaborating with both TungusTech and General Industries by purchasing their products) here compete only on the world market, because if they start war against eachother, they will both fatally lose their nearly-monopolistic positions on regional markets and become very vulnerable for the newborn market competitors, which will be created and sponsored by criminal syndicates such as Team Rocket, Team Plasma and Team Galactic. No CEO wants to destroy his megacorp in such a way, so they are allies in military, especially, when it comes to operations against criminals. Also, excuse me for typo - TungusTech carrier is named “Scimitar”.

@mgrgfan let’s talk ships. So, we both seem to be in agreement that the Hikoukyuu is for the most part fully automated. Though how it would land…you do propose an interesting idea, but that would suggest either that all landing pads are specifically built for that one ship or that there are other nearly identical ship out there.

Sounds like a Guzzlord to me. Guzzlord - Real Space form?

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Missouri, April 25, 1897

Dunno, everything is pretty much perfect, at least for me. I’ll think about it, but no guarantees.

@mgrgfan you say you’re almost done with Obsession? What do you think so far? Please reply as a reblog so I can respond to it directly.

Well, there’s a Hunter J with her laser-armed ship and hand-mounted energy gun, Lawrence III with his artillery-armed Flying Palace, Zero’s Megarig have some sort of energy beam cannon (used to paralyse Giratina so he can be easily put in the scanner), Team Rocket have battle tanks and combat helicopters (tanks - “It’s Mr. Mime Time!”, helicopters can be seen in the first movie) and even Rocket Trio used rocket launcher with HE rockets several times. You can read more about this here : http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Weaponry_in_the_Pok%C3%A9mon_world .

Why don’t any bad guys in pokemon carry guns. This one guy is okay with glassing the entire earth but he won’t shoot a child.

*Walks through a door to a new dimension using Midichlorify*

You’ve been sent into an alternate dimension where music is magic: choirs can change the weather and orchestras can topple castle walls. With your digital music device (iPhone, MP3 player, whichever), you’ve just become the most powerful wizard in the world.

ISF 9 Chronicles, part 3

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Accessing “NB-CHRN-2″ datafile...

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Biganskiy Sergey, personal log.

13.06.419 AFE

Was working in the Bioscience Sector, Underground Complex, Cryogenic Specimen and Sample Storage (quite a name, BTW). Heard by the edge of my ear, that today, they’ve got several cryo-preserved eggs of Lati dragons, which, if I’ve heard correctly, were frozen right after laying. Considering, how elusive and protective of their offspring Lati are, I don’t even want to think of the exact methods of getting a hold of those eggs.

EDIT: Apparently, that involved tranq dart carbine, shotgun, loaded with Yadper Berry extract, Nega-Dark Stones and some other things. Considering, just what kind of an infernal substance Yadper Berry extract is (to compare this stuff to standard tear spray is like comparing a kiloton-grade nuclear device to a papirosa lighter), and how Nega-Dark Stone is capable of completely suppressing any psychic abilities in a small radius, this may not involve death of a parent Latis. Well, that’s a relief. Still, the Yadper extract is something, that may sometimes make you wish for death, especially if it gets into eyes, nose or mouth. Heck, this things burns even on the skin, and if it gets into open wound - say hello to many years of PAIN! I wonder, if Houndoom’s fire works through the same means...

EDIT2: Yes, it does. Thank the Director for making this internal info access network! Also, finally got an answer, why they don’t always suffer from it - apparently, their “chemtox injection” (basically, adding the pain chemicals into fuel for their fire attacks) is optional, since the Houndoom’s chemtox substance takes longer to synthesize, than fuel. Also, it allows them to fight for dominance in pack without crippling opponents for a long time and, basically, rendering them useless for the future hunts. Pretty interesting.

15.06.419 AFE

Was in Physics Sector. Found them designing something, called “ion driver cannon”. They say those guns are for hunting. Huge, liquid nitrogen-cooled particle accelerator guns, which require pretty much small nuclear reactor to just be powered. Yeah, totally for hunting. A hunter with a gun, followed by a truck with a reactor and cooling system. Do they plan to hunt adult Lugias or something with it? If so, Bioscience from all Facilities will rip their throats out.

20.06.419 AFE

Worked in Surface Complex, helping installing automatic cargo monorail control systems and debugging it for past 4 days. Tried to overcome my fear and get close to Flygons. Actually, they are rather adorable... as soon, as you get used to it. Thankfully, they are more Dragons, than Bugs, and their temper is good. Also, apparently, they can adapt to almost any kind of weather conditions (their secondary typing changes from Bug to Fire/Water/Ice/Ground, depending on what they need at the current moment), and Bioscience speaks of enhanching it, allowing them to adapt to pretty much anything (poisonous surroundings, high levels of radiation, biological contaminations and so on). Looks like they’ve heard, that our colonists in Alola call those dragons “Spirit of Change”, and decided “We can make it even better”! Are they trying to create world’s most adaptable Pokemon? I’m not sure, will they succeed in this or not, and what to expect from it...

24.06.419 AFE

It gets weirder and weirder. While, usually, most Mega Stone (the anomalous material, which can induce drastic temporary metamorphosis in specific Pokemon) creation attempts end in failures, the attempt to create Flygonite ended up in disaster. The damn boulder EXPLODED INTO DUST after getting irradiated with enough arcane energy to raise army of undead, heavily damaging the expensive-as-flak focusing lenses in process (thankfully, emitters had survived). Why do I know this? I was a part of team, who investigated the control automatics of this irradiation chamber - just in case, if they were the reason for it. They weren’t. I wonder, if the adaptational abilities of the Flygons have something to do with it...

27.06.419 AFE

Yesterday, I’ve tried the moonshine from the “United Divisions’ Apparatus”. Interestingly enough, today, there’s no hangover. Looks like I shall thank arcanists, chemicists and bioscientists for it. Especially the last ones - whatever drug they’ve given me, it worked like charm. The only bad thing is that I can barely remember, what was happening at this party. Looks like those experimental mixes were too much.

EDIT: Apparently, I was hanging out with Director and tear-jerkingly telling him, how hard our work is. Instead of firing us, he raised our salaries by 5%. Well, better not to upset him!

30.06.419 AFE

I never thought I’d see something like this. Basically, in Surface Complex, Bioscience Division, one Machamp has escaped and started wrecking shit. When he got to the Crematory, he was met by MTU-2 multipurpose quadruped robotic unit. I kid you not, this robot (square-like quadrupedal platform with turret, on which two manipulators and counterweight to them are installed. They are also resilient and durable as flak, capable of operating in the middle of corrosive agent spill or inside the working nuclear reactor) slowly approached this four-armed shit, then, somehow, managed to clench the lower arms with manipulators, quickly twisting and breaking them, while non-chalantly ignoring Pokemon’s Dynamic Punches (what the flak the robot’s covering is made of?), then it just... started to squeeze Pokemon’s body with enough force to nearly cut it apart, then it, when the Machamp tried to grip and break the manipulators, shifted the counterweight and started to spin the turret and walk, eventually driving Machamp into wall at high speed. When the Pokemon finally fainted, MTU-2 just carried the unconcious (and horribly damaged) body into the open high-temperature cremation chamber, then closed and activated it. I’m not sure, whether this Machamp was normal, or this robot was modified, but I’m sure this picture will give me many nightmares from now on...

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