Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The Explorers had attacked the castle.

Luckily, Liko, Roy, Friede, and Diana had fended them off and the Brave Olivine had arrived.

“Cap, Thunder Punch!” Friede had slammed his fist down as Cap lunged for the Glalie, slamming his tiny fist into it with electric energy. “Liko, Roy, get out of here on Charizard!”

“What?!”

“Just do it!”

Liko and Roy had reluctantly gotten on Charizard, allowing the faux dragon to blast off to the ship.

“Glalie! Use Self Destruct!”

“Wait, Sango–”

The ice ball glowed, exploding into a massive bang, destroying the castle.

Liko’s eyes shook. She was sure Friede was fine. Right?

Diana had Arcanine jump onto the ship from the fractured castle.

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Friede hadn’t shown up again.

They had landed the ship, called his Rotom several times, but nothing.

The next the Explorers attacked…

“Take it.”

Liko shoved Terapagos at the stupid teal haired man. She didn’t care how much the turtle was flailing. She didn’t care anymore.

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The Rising Volt Tacklers disbanded.

Orla had taken Friede’s Charizard, the poor dragon had gotten very…despondent after her Trainer died.

Murdock had taken Dot back to her mother and gone to join his old partner, Mitchell in the bakery.

Liko only watched Nidothing videos now to remember Dot.

Life felt…empty.

Roy had gone back to his island, never finding the black Rayquaza.

Mollie had gone somewhere.

No one was quite sure what had happened to Ludlow.

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The Explorers had succeeded.

There was a brief betrayal from Spinel, but he had run off and disappeared to nowhere.

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The man woke up.

Where was he?

Who was he?

…

There was a Pikachu near him, injured, its cheeks weakly sparking.

Spark.

He liked that.

Chapter Text

Liko–taken to her new identity as the man, Professor Willow–was preparing to welcome two new trainers, normally, professors would welcome Trainers in trios, but there was no third kid excited enough to join.

Roy had visited a few days ago, bringing Orla too.

Skeledirge didn’t sing as much and Kilowattrel was constantly trying to cheer Roy and Skeledirge up.

Charizard…

Liko–those close to her were still allowed to refer to herself as normal, Professor Willow was…meant to retain Friede in some way, she had bleached her hair as white as it would turn.

Liko had tried to get Charizard to know the new Charmander.

Charizard had merely curled up on the floor until Orla put her back in her Pokeball.

“Liko, this isn’t healthy,” Orla said, but didn’t stop her.

“I– just…” Liko wanted to become like the man she idolized so much.

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Ludlow sat on his throne.

Originally, the plan was to get revenge on the Explorers by making an even better organization.

It had…spiralled a bit from there.

“Boss,” Sierra greeted him, holding a tray of tea.

“When the time for retribution comes, all shall burn,” Ludlow accepted the tea.

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“Hey, Blanche!” Spark chirped, seeing his tired friend walk into the kitchen.

“I made us all coffee!” Candela handed Blanche a mug.

“Ah, thank you,” Blanche sipped the hot coffee.

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“Hngg…” Emily yawned and sat up, feeling the Umbreon paw at her face. Her eyes widened as she realized what day it was.

Time to begin her Pokemon adventure! Doing research for Professor Willow!

Emily quickly got dressed, putting glasses over her pink and teal eyes, tying up her fluffy teal hair, and hurried downstairs.

“Dad! It’s the day!” Emily smiled brightly.

“Yup. I’m very proud of you, hun, you know, I researched back in the day, and one of my coworkers killed a professor–” Her father trailed off. His Beheeyem used Psychic powers to float over to her a bag. “Oh, yes, I prepared that for you.”

“Wow!” Emily checked inside the bag, tons of Pokeballs and other supplies for adventure. “Thanks Dad! I’m going now!”

“Yup, okay,” Spinel waved to his daughter. Right, Sango had killed Friede, remembering things was always so weird.

Chapter Text

Liko stretched, waiting for the first trainer to arrive.

“Hello!”

Well, Liko wanted to stab her already. She looked exactly like that stupid, annoying, teal-haired freak from the Explorers.

The Explorers were the reason Friede was dead.

So, when it was time to release Bulbasaur, Charmander, and Squirtle…

Who was to say if Charmander was missing that day?

“It seems there’s some wild Pokemon nearby!”

“Hmm…” The girl, Emily, thought for a moment before approaching Bulbasaur.

Liko grabbed her by the shoulders, Professor Willow was gonna be petty. “IT SEEMS THERE’S SOME WILD POKEMON NEARBY!”

“Uhh…Yes?” Emily was confused, she knew that. It was time for her first catch! She pulled out a Pokeball. “Bulbasaur! I choose you!” She missed.

Professor Willow grabbed her by the shoulders again and shook her. “IT SEEMS THERE’S SOME WILD POKEMON NEARBY!”

This went on…

FOR ALMOST FIVE WHOLE MINUTES. Failing to catch Bulbasaur or just missing, and–

“I KNOW, PROFESSOR WILLOW, I KNO–!”

“IT SEEMS THERE’S SOME WILD POKEMON NEARBY!”

Finally, Emily caught the damn flower frog.

“Ah, good job! Now, you may want to stop by a PokeStop! They can be found all around the world–”

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Emily stamped her way to where her tracker device said the place would be. Weren’t PokeStops supposed to be everywhere?!

Why were all the ones she’d passed ‘down for maintenance’?!

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Spark wasn’t sure why the professor wanted to perform maintenance on all the PokeStops in the area, he hadn’t interacted with the man much. It probably had something to do with Team GO Rocket. Oh well, Blanche and Candela trusted him and did research for the guy, so Spark probably could too!

So Team Instinct had joined in on the whole guarding thing.

Team Valor and Mystic were there too, but Instinct was doing most of the work as all the members of the other team were trying to beat each other up. Not Instinct, Instinct was chill.

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“Hello,” Liko whipped around as she heard a voice.

Arceus, she wanted this one dead too.

He looked like a combination of the two Explorers who had attacked the castle. Screw this.

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“IT SEEMS THERE ARE WILD POKEMON NEARBY!” Levi flinched as Professor Willow chucked a Squirtle at his head.

In a moment of instinct, he threw a Pokeball, almost immediately, the ball whirled once, then caught the turtle.

Huh, he was good at this.

“Cool, whatever, go find a PokeStop or some shit.”

Levi was pretty sure the Professor wasn’t known for…that. Like, a positive personality and love of Pokemon? Not...that.

Chapter Text

Levi had trekked all the way to the PokeStop. All the others were down for maintenance.

He found a girl, clawing at it.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid thing!”

“What is happening?”

“Gah!” The girl flinched. “Who are you?!”

“My name is Levi.”

“Well, I’m Emily, and this damned thing’s button isn’t working! So I’m gonna get up there, and spin the thing myself!”

“...I shall help you, I suppose. Get on my shoulders.”

Levi wasn’t short, having parents of both tallness and shortness, he was a cancellation of the genes. Though the tallness had won, and he had long legs.

Emily clambering onto his back, grabbing his pink and white hair.

“So…” Levi started conversation as Emily screeched. “Do you think the professor was kinda…off for a professor?”

“Oh, hell yes. The guy screamed at me, seemed kinda passive aggressive.”

“He didn’t even give me a choice, just got a Squirtle chucked at my head, and sworn at.”

“Terrible,” She finally spun the thing and Levi put her down as the bottom of the thing opened, dispensing some potions, Pokeballs, and an egg. “You can have the potion and Pokeballs, my dad gave me some. Who gets the egg?”

“Ehh…” Levi stretched his arms. “I don’t care.”

“You can have it! I had the choice of Squirtle or Bulbasaur, you had no choice.”

“I do like my Squirtle, but I accept, thank you.”

“I swore I got there early, why was there no third Pokemon? I do wonder, usually, there’s a Charmander–?”

“Hey!” A lady wearing a black uniform with a red ‘R’ on it appeared, she had mint colored hair. “I’m conquering this PokeStop in the name of Team GO Rocket. Winning is for winners!”

She threw a Pokeball, revealing a Snorlax.

“Oh…crap.”

“Well…” Levi pulled his hair out of his eyes. “Let’s do this, go, Squirtle Who Has Yet to be Named!”

“Squirtle!”

“Bulbasaur?”

“For my boss and his revenge!”

“I feel like that’s gonna be important…”

Chapter Text

“Bubble!”

“Tackle!”

Bulbasaur and Squirtle threw out move after move.

One hit from the Snorlax that collided with Squirtle caused it to bounce back, slipping into his shell.

“Dammit!” Emily yelled. “Sludge Bomb!”

It took a few moments for Bulbasaur to power up, dodging each charge of the Snorlax and whipping around their vines.

Snorlax roared.

“Hahaha!” The Go Rocket lady yelled. “You losers could never win against a winner like me!”

Poison splattered all over to large Pokemon, it kept charging.

Squirtle used another Bubble.

“Dammit! Dammit! Dammit!” Emily hissed.

Levi stared coldly, a bit of fear flickering in his eyes.

“Discharge!” A voice yelled.

A Jolteon leapt from nowhere, slamming into Snorlax and releasing a spark of electricity, frying the bear.

The GO Rocket grunt turned. “Leader of Team Instinct…Spark.”

“Yup! That’s me!” The man had blond hair, it was clearly dyed, as his white roots were showing, one of his eyes was blue, the other was a bright gold, he had a Pikachu clinging to his head. “Don’t attack children! That’s illegal.”

“Rggggg…”

“Please just turn yourself over to Officer Jenn– And she’s running…”

…

“Wow, she’s fast.”

Levi stared at the guy. “What’s with your eyes?”

“Huh? They’re blue, that’s pretty normal.”

“One of them’s gold,” Emily deadpanned.

“Oh!” Spark(?) jolted. “I, uh…I forgot one of my contacts I guess, wow, you are familiar looking.”