Work (mini-fic)

He probably didn’t know, that he was working for the Illuminati. He just gave some of his projects (advanced anti-gravity, AI systems and such) to a customer, who’ve provided him with a valuable artworks, some of which were even not from this world. He’s as much a collector as a scientific genius, after all.

Weird dream is still weird

A week ago I’ve had a weirdest dream so far. This time, it wasn’t so random, so I can somewhat diverge between two plotlines of it - “Deus Ex” line and “Pokemon” line, altough there were some intersections. There is nothing really special about a Deus Ex line (aside from the part that Gunther likes to sleep in a thick socks, what I’ve learned from his computer and which I’ve found in his hightstand), but it left overall impression that it was somehow tied to the Pokemon world through conspiracies and stuff (which was confirmed later).

The real fun begins when we get to the Pokemon line. First of all, there was a moment, when some N/Cilan-like guy was introducing himself to the protagonists somewhere near the ruins with game-trailer like overall feel. The guy himself wasn’t interesting but the place, when he was doing it, was, because this ruins were actually Hikōkyū’s wreck! What is even more interesting, that control tower and main body were mostly left intact, but one of the rings was gone as were the antigravs (though theirs remnants might’ve just got buried under the ground - Flying Palace was lying almost on side).

The second best moment was like an a “fly-around” shot in the movies, but now camera was flying between the rings of an airship, which could be easily called “Hikōkyū 2”. Why 2? Because it had a different sets of a propellers, some of the horizontal-propulsion props were also installed on the rings (unlike original, where all of them were mounted only on a main body of the ship), vertical-propulsion props were installed on the very short spindles and some of the additional propellers were gathered in the tight clusters. During the camera’s passing, all of the props were working hard, so, it left an impression that the Lawrence III (of course) was going to do something special, although not necessary linked to the Legendaries or Pokemon altogether.

The final moment was me (as an Adam Jensen), someone other and a Pokemon Trainer (protagonist from this dream game) inside a huge room, which was pretty similar to the Flying Palace’s (first one) exhibition hall, although far smaller. My impression (and an Adam’s map) confirmed, that this room was, in fact, one of the “Hikōkyū 2” rooms, and it was on one of the lower floors/decks. Our small team started to move out in hope of meeting Lawrence III and asking him some questions (Adam - about Illuminati and such, Trainer - don’t know, but definitely not something like Misty asked - overall, it felt like he wanted to get a few tips from the Collector, third person - no data) and, at this very moment, I awoke.

To the Space Base.

Or even Space Hotel (for 400 inhabitants).

An interesting proposal for a double-decker 74-passenger space shuttle module. Where exactly where all those people going?

Yeah, I’ve totally forgot about the Type:Full project. IIRC, Wicke was intervening with Lusamine’s Ragyo Kiryuin tendencies, but was able to do only so much. She was the one, who’ve helped Gladion and Lillie to escape, by the way.

Second theory about lack of Aether Pikachu - because Aether Foundation was officially registered and considered as, well, Foundation, and not another criminal Team.

Pikachu Villain Figures from the Pokemon Center

Michael Wilson speech transcript.

Source: https://youtu.be/ukRheSjjb34?t=5m26s

My fellow americans, good morning.

As americans, we love freedom.

But true freedom isn’t given, like the air we breathe, or the water we drink.

About 240 years ago, our forefathers fought greatly, giving their blood, sweat and tears, and in the end, they’ve won our freedom, and we must never forget this.

If anything appears, that threatens our believe in this freedom - we will oppose it, we will crush it!

In fighting to gain our freedom, we need no reasons. We require no just cause or flowering words. In order to protect our neighbors who love freedom and this faith in freedom, we continue to believe in our own justice. We won’t abandon any battles!

And the reason is, because we are all citizens of the United States of America.

And as long as you will allow it, I will be a vanguard leading this fight!

And the reason is, because I’m the President of these great United States of America!

Maybe, but my ficwriter side found it’s fuel, so, now I've got some headcanons for this backwards universe.

Official Pokemon Nation Government is corrupt beyond any imagination, up to the point, when Ranger force openly can act like a terrorists and receive no punishment in any form. The Governmental Leader bears some resemblance to the Richard Hawk from the Metal Wolf Chaos.

Mewtwo here’s managed to escape from the New Island, when the so-called Rangers broke into the laboratory and started killing everyone to cover up this project. He’ve also managed to save some of the researchers, though, unfortunately, not the Dr.Fuji who was almost like a father to the Genetic Pokemon, although all of the scientists were knid to him and he was kind to them in the return. Nowadays, Mewtwo is sided with Pokemon Rescuer J because he wants his revenge on the Rangers.

Lawrence III... Honestly, I don’t know how to put him backwards. Maybe he makes some priceless artworks all by himself and he only wanted to awake Lugia to get the greatest source of inspiration he was pursuing through his entire life (somewhat like the Crystal Onyx episode in the anime).

Zero and Graceland are pretty much just role-swapped.

Pokemon Rescuer J is the one who fights with governmental forces and criminal teams as hard as she can. She rescues abused Pokemon from both Government-funded OCG’s and just cruel trainers, then helps to find a worthy trainer for them or, if they want to, just releases them in the wild. She is also kind with her henchmen, because they are of very few humans she can trust. Overall, she will always protect the crew and crew will always protect her.

Jarvis just wanted to overthrow corrupt monarchic government (almost as corrupt as the Pokemon Nation one), so he was forced to do what he did and he was really not happy about it.

Fortunately for Jarvis, Magearna here originally is an almost-soulless war machine, so she did not feel any pain, but the aerial fortress’s cannon malfunctions still were present because of her IFF system. However, she gets somewhat better after the core (Soul Heart), which was reprogrammed by Jarvis, is installed back in the body. Overall, she is like Johnny 5 from the “Short Circuit”, except it was the Jarvis who made her more than just a machine.

Xerneas is a 1000% psychopathic asshole. He's still a bringer of life... sort of, because most of the time, he gives live to a cancerous growths and horrible diseases. Why kill someone in person, if you can give him immortal uncurable cancer and then enjoy watching his/her slow, horrible and painful demise? If there's some epidemy in the Kalos region, 99,9% of the time it'll be Xerneas's doings. Also, he has an army of sorta zombies, much like the fossils from the fifth movie, which were revived by the Defence Mechanism of Alto-Mare. He is nicknamed "Life, that brings suffering and despair".

Yveltal here is still a deathbringer... sort of. She is the one who opposes Xerneas, which already makes Kalos people like her far more than a Life Pokemon, but she also actually cares about the human and pokemon lives. Long ago, when she first saw, just what kind of a psycho Xerneas is, she has started mastering her Oblivion Wing move and, after some time, she has mastered it to such a point, that she became able to selectively drain life from different cells and, therefore, cure Xerneas-created diseases (including even the normally-immortal cancer), sterilize things (making bio-contaminated items and environments usable again), or, if there is no way to save someone, use this move as an euthanasia. She's also kind to both humans and pokemon, because she understands the true value of life. Each time, when she was starting to revert into the Cocoon form, she was trying her best to go as far away from her allies as possible, so, most of times, she did this on the battlefield, bravely attacking Xerneas's forces, putting the "zombie" pokemon out of theirs demise, de-contaminating a previously bio-contaminated areas and allowing her fellow humans and pokemon to mount a strike. Because of her doings, she is referred as a "Destruction, that brings hope" and is widely worshipped as a saviour of the Kalos people.

Zygarde is not a real asshole - he just a sorta, to quote a TVTropes, "Tautological Templar". He thinks, that all the everything he does is right, because he can't do anything wrong. He is pretty much Greenpeace to the max, except with less knowledge (result of the Xerneas’s experiments with new bioweapons, which Yveltal was not able to stop in time) and too much power, so, when he decides that it is his time to shine, entire Kalos is pretty much destinied to turn into a wasteland for a long time, if humans and/or Yveltal don't stop him. Each time he's finished and sees the results of his doings (desolated wasteland), he'll always blame it on someone other, mostly Yveltal or humans (Xerneas know how to stay out of his sight... most of time).

Blackjack, what do you think about this insanity?

APPARENTLY IN ANOTHER WORLD HUNTER J GIVES OUT RARE POKEMON

Originally Kasumi asked Jirarudan, why he keeps birds in capturing frames instead of pokeballs (she thought birds suffer from this), and Jiri replied, that if no one can see them, that’s not a true collection.

im watching pokemon 2000 and misty is berating the collector for trying to catch the legendary 3 (which, fair) but she says “ the way you talk, pokemon are just a thing to collect!” the catchphrase of pokemon is straight up “gotta catch em all” like what message are you going for 4kids???? be consistent at least

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

Chapter 2: Handshake above the skies.

- So, comrades, we are in big clusterheck now, - grimly said captain Vasilyev to the cosmonauts, who gathered in the station's command module. - The ground control, basically, told us "Provide data and do whatever situation calls you to do, until we give you new orders", the whole world has changed, the orbits are crowded now, and we are not alone up there anymore. Any ideas?

- Propulsion is nice now, - started the pilot. - Of course, we've used some propellant for changing orbit, but it wasn't much. If anything, we can pump dry the cargo pods, along with 3-seated return pods, and use them to load propellant on the Lenticular Return Vehicle, so, even after the orbit's change, we will be able to return to Earth. We'll need to modify it first, though, but we have everything for it onboard.

- Orbit change, you say… - wondered the engineer, who also doubled as psychologist. - Can we join the unidentified space station?

-... Well, theoretically, we can - given that we use most of our propellant for maneuvering and will be left with barely enough to deorbit the LRV, but should we?

- Why not? - answered question with question captain of the station. - It's not like we have any better ideas at contacting them. We don't know their frequencies, we don't know their data encoding, we don't know a thing!

- Whatever you say, guys, I'll just hover here and watch over the station's parameters and engines, - mumbled the pilot, floating towards the control console.

- Here goes nothing, - suddenly decided the captain. - Join the unidentified space station and keep the distance between us and them in-between 180 and 210 meters.

-... Aye-aye, comrade captain. I'll activate the propellant pumps now, to redistribute the propellant. The orbital maneuver will take some time, though.

- No problem. We'll prepare the MMUs in the meantime.

-                                                                                                                              -

- The MCC is silent, - said Aneeta Gerst, flying away from the computer console. - Apparently, there's quite a chaos down there.

- I can understand them, - replied Sarah Donnager, who was hovering nearby. - After all, the whole region, which was previously dead and absolutely unwelcome, suddenly becoming inhabited and developed is not something, that happens everyday.

- Most definitely, - mumbled Anthony Falkis, who was monitoring connections. - Wait a second… No, this can't be… or can it?

- What? - asked him two women.

- According to the radar data from Mossdeep, unidentified huge space station has just started orbital maneuvering.

- And?

- … It's going to get near us.

- How? You sure, that they have enough delta-V?

- Of course I am not, but the maneuver is too similar to those, performed by our crew transports and resupply ships.

- And what the Mossdeep says?

- Mossdeep remains silent.

- How long to rendezvous?

- Roughly two days.

- Two days, you say… enough to commence evacuation in pods several times. Should we do so, though?

- Negative, - came sudden reply from the Mossdeep. - Perform survey on the unidentified space station and, if possible, contact them.

- Contact them… - angrily whispered Samuel Franck. - How should we contact them, if we have no idea about their radio frequencies and encryptions? By flying to them on MMUs?

-                                                                                                                              -

- This thing is huge, - commented Sarah, taking another picture of the unidentified space station, which had two contra-rotating centrifugal wheels, a few big parabolic mirrors, aimed at, presumably, some kind of boilers, a big set of heat radiators, an unidentified device, which possessed its own set of heat radiators, a six docked pods and a what looked like a flying half-saucer with steering fins, flaps and, yet again, deployed heat radiators, roughly twelve meters in diameter, docked to the "lowest" part of the station.

- I'm afraid to even imagine, how many resources were spent on building this thing… - said Gerst, flying closer to Sarah. - By the way, is it just me, or… do you see someone going on EVA?

Donnager quickly took a camera again and tried to use zoom on it as an impromptu telescope. Thankfully, Cupola module, in which she was present, was spacious enough for her to aim the camera and see, that someone indeed has exited the unidentified space station and, using some kind of MMU, started to approach the National Space Station. However, roughly on the one-third of trip, the unidentified astronaut performed a deceleration burn and stopped, as if waiting for someone.

- Hey, girls, - started Franck, who drifted to Cupola. - What…

Seeing the looks in the eyes of two women and knowing, that current commander of the NSS will support them, Samuel has greatly regretted the words he whispered two days ago.

-                                                                                                                              -

Samuel exited the airlock, preparing to do something inconceivable before. He put the hand on his MMU's control stick and gently shifted it forward, flying to the unidentified space station, which had appeared less than a day ago. His trusty Reuniclus was in the Pokeball on the suit's belt, ready to be released, should something happen.

From what he could see, there was a similar activity on the side of unidentified space station, which showed in the form of humanoid in advanced space suit flying towards him, propelled by the similar maneuvering unit.

Nearly two minutes after, they were, finally, close enough. For what it looked like, the unidentified humanoid could very well actually be human… but how?

Sam released his Reuniclus to try to establish the telepathic contact, but, right after that, his "opponent" took a huge, rectangular pistol-like device from the belt, threw a small instrument away, shot it with this device - the shot itself was invisible, save for how a part of the instrument instantly turned yellow-hot from it - and then took aim at Samuel.

Reuniclus prepared to attack the unknown individual, but Samuel ordered him not to. The alien astronaut pointed at the Reuniclus with a free hand, made a swiping gesture, pointed at the energy pistol and tapped at the belt.

Samuel, in response, pointed at the Reuniclus, then grabbed the pokeball and tapped at it with his index finger.

Alien astronaut repeated the gesture, so, Samuel decided to withdraw the Reuniclus, despite how the Multiplying Pokémon was objecting against it. Thankfully, the gesture was understood correctly, so unknown individual switched something on its pistol and put it back on the belt, before grabbing a small container.

Samuel was ready for another threat display, but, surprisingly, inside the container lied an sketchbook of some sort and several different pens. The unknown astronaut withdrew the sketchbook, took one of the pens and started drawing some strange symbols, adding lines over each of them.

"So, those are numbers. Nice," - thought Samuel, looking at how many lines correspond to what symbol. - "And they use the base ten system. Even better."

Right after it, alien astronaut stopped drawing and handed the sketchbook and pen to the Samuel. He wasted no time and drew national numbers right under the alien ones, then gave the sketchbook and pen back to the rightful owner.

Alien astronaut made a strange - hopefully, approving - gesture, then turned the page and started making new drawings.

-                                                                                                                              -

- Vasya is doing pretty well, - said commander of the Space Lab 2, looking at the screen, which displayed direct feed from the helmet cam.

- Of course he does. Though, comrade captain, I think you'll have to give him reprimands for threatening unknown cosmonaut with laser multitool.

- I will, but later. Vasiliy, - announced captain into just-activated mic, - don't forget, that you are here to get some basic info and then return to Lab!

- I know, I know, I'm doing it, - replied cosmonaut, who was busy exchanging drawings with cosmonaut from other space station. - It's not like I have a lot of oxygen left. An hour or so - and I'll get back… or not.

- What do you mean?

- Look at my cam.

-                                                                                                                              -

The oxygen meter showed, that it was time to return to the station. Samuel pointed at himself, backpack of the space suit, MMU and the National Space Station in succession. Alien astronaut understood it and extended its hand - probably, for the handshake. Franck, deciding, that here goes nothing, responded to this gesture by grasping the extended hand and actually shaking it. Just before the Nation's astronaut turned away and activated the engines, unknown individual lifted the filter on his helmet, opening the view on the face - an unmistakably human face.

The last one looks for me like some unholy hybrid between insect, Endymion FRS Mk 3 (from Einhander game)

and Vic Viper (frome Gradius game series).

Some of the new Pokemon that have been leaked today

Some worldbuilding for my fic - Azoth Kingdom, Alva, part 2.

In my fic, cabinet minister Alva is a child of the not very famous, but still pretty well-known arcane researchers Ogden and Nancy.

During his childhood, young Alva was a pretty lonely boy, whose main and almost only interest was the arcane science. Because his mom and dad were too much into arcanics to pay enough attention to their son, Alva spent most of the time reading the Ogden’s and Nancy’s books, trying to study the arcane science himself. While Alva’s parents were proud of it, they still paid too little attention to the boy, so Alva had to pretty much fight tooth and nail for his social progress from the position of the simple researchers son to recognized arcane scientist to the (much later) cabinet minister. However, Alva still loved his parents very much and they loved him too, though, again, payed too little attention to him.

Both Ogden and Nancy died in the accident (one of the catwalks above the big city gears, due to metal fatigue, broke and fell down along with people on it right into the working mechanism. The results were far, far from the pretty), when Alva was 19, so, from this moment, lavender-haired boy could only count on himself. Thanks to his parents library and his own skills, he was able to quickly take a position of the arcane science student in the local technological university and earn a degree in just five years. Overall, professors thought of Alva as a very promising student, so he was able to take a position of the junior arcane researcher.

At this point, Alva started to grow dark. Seeing, how Kingdom used pretty much the same technology as in the Nikola’s times with little to no advancement (how else would you explain such hi-tech control systems in the Nikola-built and then unmodified Flying Fortress?), how safety rules were violated from the very founding of the Kingdom (his parents died because of badly-placed and undermaintained catwalk, after all), how not-very-young corporations started to slip in the traditionally Azoth-monopolistic airship market (Tunguska Technologies, SaL-12 “Charizard” Assault Ship Aerodyne, which, thanks to high resilience and durability, low price, great fuel efficiency along with ability to use pretty much any liquid, gaseous or even gelatinous fuel, wide range of modifications and very easy repairs became widely-used platform for different machines, including even the VTOL cargo fliers and passenger transport) and how royalties weren’t doing a thing about it made him angry. After understanding this, Alva chose to become at least cabinet minister to try to, in the best case, influence royalties to take actions, or, if they won’t, take over the Kingdom and do it himself. Considering his genius, it didn’t take a long time.

The true reason why Alva sympathizes Raleigh is because cabinet minister sees himself in the young prince and does not want such a childhood for this young boy. If not for this, his plan wouldn’t even included Raleigh after the Alva takes the control over the Kingdom - he would’ve simply exiled or even executed everyone from the royal family and become the sole dictator, but friendship with the prince made Alva change his plans - in the new version, after the Alva takes control over the Kingdom, current king and Kimia are stripped of their positions, but left alive, Raleigh becomes a new king and, until he reaches the adulthood, former cabinet minister takes control of the Kingdom, while continuing to teach Raleigh arcane science and, as a part of preparation to become the king, politics and economics.

On top of everything above, the reason Alva is doing all of this is because he loves Azoth Kingdom very much and wants it to become mighty and prosperous once more, even if by such a dirty means.

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

Interlude. Different Points.

Soris Region, near Chernoholmsk, Imperial Rocket Factory #2.

Nikolai walked along the assembly line, checking the sounding rockets, before they'll get packed up, loaded into containers and delivered to the Zemlino Space Center.

Three months ago, the Rayquaza has destroyed both of the space stations in orbit, killed twelve cosmonauts and reduced the satellite groups of both Soris Empire and the Pokemon Nation to pretty much nothing. And that's not counting the destruction of anything, that goes higher than troposphere, such as research drones or high-altitude planes.

Since then, the Imperial Space Program took a hit, but, thanks to the personal support of the Empress, stayed strong. Right now, their primary priority was set to the atmospheric research, so, they've commissioned several hundreds of the modified A-100 sounding rockets - the fastest rockets in the world, capable of 100g of acceleration!

Speaking of which...

"... Why are those sounding rockets like this?" the worker thought, doing a check on the hull. "No ablative protection, which is very strange, considering their accelerations and resulting ram heating in the atmosphere, unusual science payload adapter, attitude jets instead of steering fins and, for what it looks like, radio command flight guidance system…"

"Surprised by how those rockets look?" asked him superior, who approached the worker undetected. "I'm also surprised by this order. It'll make sense, if they'll be used in space…"

"But what for?"

"... I don't know. And I think we better keep low and silent about it. They didn't double the payment and order me to increase your salaries for nothing."

Hoenn Region, Sootopolis.

"...And for the ending of the "Zap Rangers", we've planned…" TV fell silent.

"Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. Over and over again," said Valencia, switching the set off via button on the device itself and walking to the kitchen.

Ever since the Rayquaza got crazy and destroyed most of the stuff in orbit, then began a stratospheric blockade, pure chaos ensued.

In a lot of places cults sprung to life, calling, that the end of the world was near. Some of them had committed mass suicides, some - went into riots, allowing the looters of all sorts to flourish, some went into self-constructed shelters… it was true insanity.

And, as a Cheri Berry on top of that cake, many book and comic writers, along with producers of TV shows and so on, decided to tell everyone their plans on ending their works. The newspapers and networks were pretty much flooded with them. Valencia was even afraid to imagine, how much money they were getting from those exclusive interviews.

"Still nothing good?" a question sounded from the kitchen.

"Still nothing good," responded the woman, entering the room. In one of the chairs, a young man sat. If not for a slightly ragged look of his face, it would've been impossible to tell, that he was, actually, a Draconid.

"Damn. Gonna lay low for a few more weeks, I guess?" said Damien. His name was quite unusual for a member of this tribe… but it really helped him to get to his Sootopolian friend for a safe hiding, when the pogroms started. Even though, officially, Hoenn government had nothing against the Draconids, the fact, that those people worshipped Rayquaza, was enough of a trigger to allow humans, driven to hysterical paranoia by the acts of recently-resurfaced Sky High Pokemon and some medias, which were happily exploiting those events, to near-instantly resort to the unprovoked and indiscriminate violence. Even though most of the Draconids had powerful Pokemon with them, it often just made crazed people to switch to the swarming tactics, mixed with dirty fighting. Even great Draconid combatants weren't able to stand against fifty normal trainers and some more non-trainers at once, especially, when those people were specifically targeting the Draconid in question and going for the injuries at least.

"Of course," replied Valencia. She wondered, why the news networks weren't showing anything about Soris now and how they, with their different culture, reacted to what has happened several months ago.

Soris Region, near Zemlino, VAB #3

"Contact zone reached," said the computer system in the cabin of the overhead crane. The slightly aged man threw a quick look at the screen in cabin, at the payload, at the destination, then gently shifted the left control stick, activating the hoist and lowering the turret with railgun, suspended on the crane's hook, to the workers below. Right now, the air conditioning system of the Vertical Assembly Building was being repaired and the clouds started to build up inside. It wasn't raining yet and most of the equipment was water-proofed for this very reason, but the condensation on the glass windows of the cabin was getting annoying for the operator, since it forced him to mostly rely on the instruments.

"Klim, the break is starting about now! Get down here!" sounded from the comm system. Klim Goncharenko, a very experienced crane operator - probably, the best one in the entire Empire, since the Emperor himself called him for participating in this operation - frowned a little.

"Okay, guys, but you know - I'm not into smoking. And know, if you've touched sandwiches, brought here by my wife… well, the unexpected bowel movements should start in roughly a minute or so!"

For a thirty seconds, there was an uneasy silence, soon followed by "Sanyuch, you fraggin' bastard!" and a sound of at least three men sprinting towards the restroom. Klim smiled and started to drive the crane back to the parking position, thinking about his son and sort-of-a-granddaughter, who stayed in the Imperial Science Facility 9.