Big-name-startoff time. Yes, it's good old Wise Professor Tree(tm) in his natural habitat. This chapter's also spethul in that it contains a short crossover scene with Aron's Odyssey by which his Professor Link does stuff. Sadly I couldn't make him a major character, but eh, read it anyways. The real shounen-ai starts in this chapter folks. Don't read it if you're offended by it.
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The air in his lab was rather stale, he thought. Perhaps it was his uneasiness as he had received the news, he had no way of being sure. It wasn’t often you heard of ex-Rocket, ex-rogue, currently listed as deceased Professors suddenly resurfacing. He guessed it had something to do with the exposed project of Team Rocket’s, Orthan. The news media had been all over it, and while he knew Orthan’s value as a scientific breakthrough, he thoroughly disagreed with the methods used by Team Rocket.
“Sir?” Officer Jenny’s voice came through the phone.
Professor Oak hadn’t realised he had been lost in thought. “Oh, sorry, Officer.”
“No problem, sir,” Jenny replied. “I was able to find a willing Orthan Pokémon for your study.”
The problem with Oak procuring an Orthan Pokémon lied in the fact that many were simply afraid of their current state of being and thus shied away from any form of scrutiny. Many seemed afraid to return to their former trainers, although the ones that were originally wild had much less apparent feelings of depression.
“When will it be over here?” Oak asked. The world’s foremost Professor of Evolution, Oak knew much more about Pokémon genetics than did even the average geneticist. Unlike what the scientists working for Team Rocket were used to, Oak preferred non-invasive and generally humane methods of study.
“Roughly two days,” Jenny replied. “We’ve had some problem with transportation, I think you’ll understand why.”
“Yes, I do. Thank you, Jenny, that’ll be all,” Oak said, hanging up. He stretched in his chair, looking leftwards to the large table on the other side of the room. On it was a pokéball containing the last descendant of the Pokémon he had in his training days, a Bulbasaur. He let it out regularly for exercise but sadly was unable to train it.
The momentary distraction aside, Oak’s thoughts turned to the Professor whom Jenny had warned him about. Professor Link was a very dangerous geneticist, his skill rivalling that of the head of Orthan.
Oak found himself staring at the ceiling for a very long time. While Link was operating solo, he had access to nearly limitless money and resources. The only thing keeping him in line was the mass of Team Rocket’s influence, but even Oak was able to see that Rocket had more pressing concerns.
“Careless,” Professor Link muttered, looking at the DNA strand of the Orthan Pokémon. “Just ruddy careless. I thought I knew Sebastian better than that.”
Link’s laboratory was a complete mess to the outside observer. It did, however, contain a certain organisation, which he found comforting.
A smile crossed his face as he zoomed his microscope in further. Well, well, he thought. Orthan’s little secret, nay, the very reason it even worked was right in front of him. Not since his work with Project Mewtwo had he seen such craftsmanship in a living being.
While solo, Link had accumulated a great deal of information about Team Rocket’s new and unique Pokémon project. They weren’t making any new über Pokémon like Mewtwo—they’d learned their lesson already. They were now modifying existing Pokémon.
He had his own projects, of course, but this new one took priority. Orthan was a very unique piece of bioengineering, much beyond engineering an über. He’d found one of the Orthan Pokémon easily enough—an enhanced Porygon—and was now dissecting it for study in his lab.
Link focused more on the microscope and idly tapped some buttons on the keyboard beside him.
Kenneth smirked and looked at the data on the screen in front of Stein. “Got him.”
Stein’s face betrayed no emotions. Seated at his desk, with the head of Counter-Intelligence—what an apt name given Kenneth’s demeanor, mused Stein—standing behind him. He himself the head of External Affairs, the news was both startling and reassuring at the same time.
The rogue professor, Link, had been confirmed alive again. Stein didn’t like that.
While the news was flooded with reports, Sam knew Team Rocket better than to trust the media’s reaction to them. I worked for them, Sam thought to herself, I think I know them better than these reporters. She had been duped into a onetime affair with their Project Tribo, helping to repair faulty genetic coding. Oddly enough, despite the fact that she was a fourteen-year old girl, she was more skilled than many of their scientists.
She had the information to go public with information about Tribo much like the media had with Orthan, but she knew better than that. A combination of a lack of evidence and some rather nasty letters from one of their operatives was keeping her silent about the genetic Pokémon.
David was off winning another round in the Battle Tower, so Sam was alone for some time. She was taking this time to train her newfound Beldum, Mercury. She knew it wouldn’t evolve if it couldn’t find another Beldum to fuse with and become a Metang, and even then it would require another Metang to become a Metagross, but Beldum was an interesting Pokémon and she enjoyed training it.
Unlike when Gilgamesh was a Dragonair, Beldum actually listened to Sam’s orders.
Sam tried to quiet her mind of all the furious and fast-paced thoughts about Orthan as she trained Mercury. The fields outside the Battle Tower had a few wild Pokémon, which she was training against. Mostly simple Raticates and Pidgeottos, they were enough.
“Mercury, use Take Down!” Sam shouted.
The blue magnetic Pokémon flew at the very rare Pidgeot and tackled it hard. The Pidgeot offered a feeble resistance, winded.
“Again!”
Mercury again hit Pidgeot, knocking it to the ground, staggering.
“Once more!”
Pidgeot collapsed, fainted. Sam didn’t like randomly assaulting wild Pokémon, but she knew the Pidgeot would be fine in a few days’ time. A rustling behind her drew her attention from trying to clear her thoughts. A Pidgeotto.
Training the Beldum was a mind-numbingly easy task, which Sam found herself using—guiltily—as a time to immerse herself in thought.
Pidgeotto was easy enough to defeat, but the painful recoil from using Take Down so much was having a visible effect on Mercury.
“Good job, Mercury,” Sam said, recalling it. “You deserve a good night’s rest.”
She checked her watch. It had been forty minutes since David’s match started, and she would have been very surprised if it had still been going. Only one way to find out, she figured.
Sam wasn’t sure why she was smiling so much upon seeing David’s name in the semifinals list.
No, she thought, David might be clingy and a bit annoying, but at least he’s honest. Friendlier than certain big brothers I know of.
Alex was at that moment trying very hard to get over Marril’s loss. He’d known the small mouse for about six years—oh Goddish was it really that long?, Alex thought to himself when he realised it—and it was very difficult to simply let go. Worse, though, was that he didn’t like angsting as much as he’d been doing.
Tschel, noticing that words weren’t going to work as well as just being there, had his arms around Alex comfortingly. Alex was at that moment looking out of the bullet train’s windows into the dark night around them. Alex was running from his feelings, Tschel knew, but he also knew that it would be better for Alex to work things out on his own.
The fact that it was a nighttime train drew considerably fewer stares from people upon seeing the two boys together for the simple reason that they’d been the only ones in that specific car for four stops. Darkwood City was too many stops away, Tschel thought sourly. He wasn’t keeping track, he was just listening idly to the announcements every few stops.
Tschel heard Alex’s breathing become slightly deeper and heavier and saw him asleep in his arms. He couldn’t help but smile at that. Running his fingers through Alex’s hair, he realised for the first time just how much he loved him.
A gentle nudging followed by a quiet “we’re here” woke Alex.
Not fair, thought Alex as he stretched a little. Waking up a bit more, he realised he’d been asleep in Tschel’s arms. His face felt quite hot, but Tschel simply smiled.
“You look cute when you blush,” he said offhandedly. “Come on, we’re here.”
Tschel leading him out of the train station, Alex just followed without saying anything.
No need to be embarrassed, Alex thought futilely. He wasn’t quite able to convince himself. It had felt odd to wake up like that, but for the first time, and Alex thought to himself just how corny it sounded, he’d actually been willing to accept Marril’s disappearance.
“Uh, is this place…?” Alex asked, looking around. The city wasn’t unlike Fortree in that it was full of trees and tree houses. While Fortree was a bit less advanced as far as technology integration was concerned, Darkwood seemed a lot darker at night due to the complete absence of streetlights.
“You just noticed?” Tschel asked, chuckling a little.
“Y-yeah,” Alex said. They’d find a place to stay easily enough—as trainers you just acquired a degree of skill at finding lodgings for a night or three—so he wasn’t worried about that. He was, however, a bit embarrassed that he’d been walking with Tschel for about ten minutes and he just noticed was the city was like.
“Thinking about Marril again?” Tschel asked.
“N-no,” Alex replied, nervous that Tschel would see him blushing again.
“It’s okay, you know,” Tschel’s voice was a bit softer now. “I acted pretty much the same when the Eevee mother died. I’m here for you though. Don’t want to see you have to be an adult so early like I did.
“No, it’s really not that,” Alex said quickly.
Tschel shrugged as they kept on walking. “Okay.”
They’d found a place for the night and were just about to fall asleep when Alex finally mustered up the courage to say something that had been pressing him for a while.
“Tschel?”
“Yeah?”
“I… I…”
“You?”
“I… I love you, Tschel.”
Tschel didn’t say anything immediately, which filled Alex with dread. What seemed like a hundred thoughts flooded into his head, wondering what Tschel would say, what he’d do if Tschel didn’t return his feelings, and mentally kicking himself for being an idiot.
“I love you too, Alex,” Tschel’s voice cut through the cacophony of thoughts.
Silent tears of happiness and relief followed Alex into sleep.
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Three... two... one... now! *sound of a hundred fangirls going "awwwwwwwwww"* Fangirls love the whole shounen-ai thing.
Oh yeah you might not have figured it out from the part with him in it but Link doesn't know about Tribo. Uh, yeah, that's about it for this week folks. Next chapter goes up when it goes up.
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The air in his lab was rather stale, he thought. Perhaps it was his uneasiness as he had received the news, he had no way of being sure. It wasn’t often you heard of ex-Rocket, ex-rogue, currently listed as deceased Professors suddenly resurfacing. He guessed it had something to do with the exposed project of Team Rocket’s, Orthan. The news media had been all over it, and while he knew Orthan’s value as a scientific breakthrough, he thoroughly disagreed with the methods used by Team Rocket.
“Sir?” Officer Jenny’s voice came through the phone.
Professor Oak hadn’t realised he had been lost in thought. “Oh, sorry, Officer.”
“No problem, sir,” Jenny replied. “I was able to find a willing Orthan Pokémon for your study.”
The problem with Oak procuring an Orthan Pokémon lied in the fact that many were simply afraid of their current state of being and thus shied away from any form of scrutiny. Many seemed afraid to return to their former trainers, although the ones that were originally wild had much less apparent feelings of depression.
“When will it be over here?” Oak asked. The world’s foremost Professor of Evolution, Oak knew much more about Pokémon genetics than did even the average geneticist. Unlike what the scientists working for Team Rocket were used to, Oak preferred non-invasive and generally humane methods of study.
“Roughly two days,” Jenny replied. “We’ve had some problem with transportation, I think you’ll understand why.”
“Yes, I do. Thank you, Jenny, that’ll be all,” Oak said, hanging up. He stretched in his chair, looking leftwards to the large table on the other side of the room. On it was a pokéball containing the last descendant of the Pokémon he had in his training days, a Bulbasaur. He let it out regularly for exercise but sadly was unable to train it.
The momentary distraction aside, Oak’s thoughts turned to the Professor whom Jenny had warned him about. Professor Link was a very dangerous geneticist, his skill rivalling that of the head of Orthan.
Oak found himself staring at the ceiling for a very long time. While Link was operating solo, he had access to nearly limitless money and resources. The only thing keeping him in line was the mass of Team Rocket’s influence, but even Oak was able to see that Rocket had more pressing concerns.
“Careless,” Professor Link muttered, looking at the DNA strand of the Orthan Pokémon. “Just ruddy careless. I thought I knew Sebastian better than that.”
Link’s laboratory was a complete mess to the outside observer. It did, however, contain a certain organisation, which he found comforting.
A smile crossed his face as he zoomed his microscope in further. Well, well, he thought. Orthan’s little secret, nay, the very reason it even worked was right in front of him. Not since his work with Project Mewtwo had he seen such craftsmanship in a living being.
While solo, Link had accumulated a great deal of information about Team Rocket’s new and unique Pokémon project. They weren’t making any new über Pokémon like Mewtwo—they’d learned their lesson already. They were now modifying existing Pokémon.
He had his own projects, of course, but this new one took priority. Orthan was a very unique piece of bioengineering, much beyond engineering an über. He’d found one of the Orthan Pokémon easily enough—an enhanced Porygon—and was now dissecting it for study in his lab.
Link focused more on the microscope and idly tapped some buttons on the keyboard beside him.
Kenneth smirked and looked at the data on the screen in front of Stein. “Got him.”
Stein’s face betrayed no emotions. Seated at his desk, with the head of Counter-Intelligence—what an apt name given Kenneth’s demeanor, mused Stein—standing behind him. He himself the head of External Affairs, the news was both startling and reassuring at the same time.
The rogue professor, Link, had been confirmed alive again. Stein didn’t like that.
While the news was flooded with reports, Sam knew Team Rocket better than to trust the media’s reaction to them. I worked for them, Sam thought to herself, I think I know them better than these reporters. She had been duped into a onetime affair with their Project Tribo, helping to repair faulty genetic coding. Oddly enough, despite the fact that she was a fourteen-year old girl, she was more skilled than many of their scientists.
She had the information to go public with information about Tribo much like the media had with Orthan, but she knew better than that. A combination of a lack of evidence and some rather nasty letters from one of their operatives was keeping her silent about the genetic Pokémon.
David was off winning another round in the Battle Tower, so Sam was alone for some time. She was taking this time to train her newfound Beldum, Mercury. She knew it wouldn’t evolve if it couldn’t find another Beldum to fuse with and become a Metang, and even then it would require another Metang to become a Metagross, but Beldum was an interesting Pokémon and she enjoyed training it.
Unlike when Gilgamesh was a Dragonair, Beldum actually listened to Sam’s orders.
Sam tried to quiet her mind of all the furious and fast-paced thoughts about Orthan as she trained Mercury. The fields outside the Battle Tower had a few wild Pokémon, which she was training against. Mostly simple Raticates and Pidgeottos, they were enough.
“Mercury, use Take Down!” Sam shouted.
The blue magnetic Pokémon flew at the very rare Pidgeot and tackled it hard. The Pidgeot offered a feeble resistance, winded.
“Again!”
Mercury again hit Pidgeot, knocking it to the ground, staggering.
“Once more!”
Pidgeot collapsed, fainted. Sam didn’t like randomly assaulting wild Pokémon, but she knew the Pidgeot would be fine in a few days’ time. A rustling behind her drew her attention from trying to clear her thoughts. A Pidgeotto.
Training the Beldum was a mind-numbingly easy task, which Sam found herself using—guiltily—as a time to immerse herself in thought.
Pidgeotto was easy enough to defeat, but the painful recoil from using Take Down so much was having a visible effect on Mercury.
“Good job, Mercury,” Sam said, recalling it. “You deserve a good night’s rest.”
She checked her watch. It had been forty minutes since David’s match started, and she would have been very surprised if it had still been going. Only one way to find out, she figured.
Sam wasn’t sure why she was smiling so much upon seeing David’s name in the semifinals list.
No, she thought, David might be clingy and a bit annoying, but at least he’s honest. Friendlier than certain big brothers I know of.
Alex was at that moment trying very hard to get over Marril’s loss. He’d known the small mouse for about six years—oh Goddish was it really that long?, Alex thought to himself when he realised it—and it was very difficult to simply let go. Worse, though, was that he didn’t like angsting as much as he’d been doing.
Tschel, noticing that words weren’t going to work as well as just being there, had his arms around Alex comfortingly. Alex was at that moment looking out of the bullet train’s windows into the dark night around them. Alex was running from his feelings, Tschel knew, but he also knew that it would be better for Alex to work things out on his own.
The fact that it was a nighttime train drew considerably fewer stares from people upon seeing the two boys together for the simple reason that they’d been the only ones in that specific car for four stops. Darkwood City was too many stops away, Tschel thought sourly. He wasn’t keeping track, he was just listening idly to the announcements every few stops.
Tschel heard Alex’s breathing become slightly deeper and heavier and saw him asleep in his arms. He couldn’t help but smile at that. Running his fingers through Alex’s hair, he realised for the first time just how much he loved him.
A gentle nudging followed by a quiet “we’re here” woke Alex.
Not fair, thought Alex as he stretched a little. Waking up a bit more, he realised he’d been asleep in Tschel’s arms. His face felt quite hot, but Tschel simply smiled.
“You look cute when you blush,” he said offhandedly. “Come on, we’re here.”
Tschel leading him out of the train station, Alex just followed without saying anything.
No need to be embarrassed, Alex thought futilely. He wasn’t quite able to convince himself. It had felt odd to wake up like that, but for the first time, and Alex thought to himself just how corny it sounded, he’d actually been willing to accept Marril’s disappearance.
“Uh, is this place…?” Alex asked, looking around. The city wasn’t unlike Fortree in that it was full of trees and tree houses. While Fortree was a bit less advanced as far as technology integration was concerned, Darkwood seemed a lot darker at night due to the complete absence of streetlights.
“You just noticed?” Tschel asked, chuckling a little.
“Y-yeah,” Alex said. They’d find a place to stay easily enough—as trainers you just acquired a degree of skill at finding lodgings for a night or three—so he wasn’t worried about that. He was, however, a bit embarrassed that he’d been walking with Tschel for about ten minutes and he just noticed was the city was like.
“Thinking about Marril again?” Tschel asked.
“N-no,” Alex replied, nervous that Tschel would see him blushing again.
“It’s okay, you know,” Tschel’s voice was a bit softer now. “I acted pretty much the same when the Eevee mother died. I’m here for you though. Don’t want to see you have to be an adult so early like I did.
“No, it’s really not that,” Alex said quickly.
Tschel shrugged as they kept on walking. “Okay.”
They’d found a place for the night and were just about to fall asleep when Alex finally mustered up the courage to say something that had been pressing him for a while.
“Tschel?”
“Yeah?”
“I… I…”
“You?”
“I… I love you, Tschel.”
Tschel didn’t say anything immediately, which filled Alex with dread. What seemed like a hundred thoughts flooded into his head, wondering what Tschel would say, what he’d do if Tschel didn’t return his feelings, and mentally kicking himself for being an idiot.
“I love you too, Alex,” Tschel’s voice cut through the cacophony of thoughts.
Silent tears of happiness and relief followed Alex into sleep.
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Three... two... one... now! *sound of a hundred fangirls going "awwwwwwwwww"* Fangirls love the whole shounen-ai thing.
Oh yeah you might not have figured it out from the part with him in it but Link doesn't know about Tribo. Uh, yeah, that's about it for this week folks. Next chapter goes up when it goes up.