~Prologue: Fractured Lives~
My name....my name is Eifi. I have been almost everywhere that my paws could take me. I could make any person's mind spin with all the things that I could say I've seen and done. Especially done. I'm not proud of what it is that I have done, but there is nothing that I can do to atone for my past. Sometimes, I feel as if I do what is necessary to achieve the outcome I desire, but that's called greed and selfishness. There are people out in the world that don't understand what true greed and selfishness truly is. They call putting yourself first a capital crime of the heart and then try to crucify anyone that cannot or will not agree.
I do not find it my mission in life to kill others that do not agree with me. I honestly have lost track of what the purpose of my life was to be a long time ago. I never had a proper life, if you want to call it that. From a young age, I was tormented by the pleasures of others and only the pain, the constant pain that was slated as mine and mine alone to receive. I look towards the sky and wonder if I could draw another hand, and maybe get a better deal next time. There seems to be nothing more in the world that I can do except wander around and bring chaos and misery where I am.
However, I do not always wander alone like this. Through my voice alone, whenever I am able to find it within me, I can command and persuade people to stay with me, to achieve my goals with me, to share in the goodness that I so desperately seek. It is out there, waiting for me, and I want it to be all mine. I will not take no as a suitable answer for this forsaken life that has been doled to me. I will attain my goodness at whatever cost necessary.
I may sound like I am going in circles, but it is only those that have betrayed me time and time again that have driven me near the point of madness again and again. It is my addled self that consistently pines and aggravates itself. I drew the line when my own family turned on me and scarred my face and my body for life. At that moment, I felt myself split into two, and one part of me was shoved away into a part of my heart and locked in forever. That was the feeling part of me, the loving part of me, the weaker part of me. Sometimes I feel as if I'm not in control of what I want, but I tell myself it's my weakness trying to overtake me once again, to drag me back down into the pits of despair.
I don't believe that I was born with weakness. I, on the contrary, believe that weakness crept into my heart when I was least expecting of it. There were many times where weakness could have crawled in and made me the weak feline that I incarcerated, but the earliest would have to be my period of slavery. Even in this world, which others regard as full, good, and plentiful, there exists a constant fear. A fear of slavery. It is almost like a game of tag, except that when you're it you can't tag anyone else again. For the most part, I loathe and despise humans and wish to see them all die. I have not encountered one good, benevolent human that treats me nice. All I am to them is a trophy that they can display on their wall. It sickens me.
This all started when I was a young Eevee. I believed myself to be attached to a human, however foolish that it seems now. I loved that human, loved him to the point that I was willing to change myself to please him. I thought that he would be with me forever. I thought he would love me forever. I thought he was the human that every Pokemon longed to be caught and trained by. Then one day, he placed me in a dank box, and I was crushed physically and emotionally. I was in the box for what seemed an agonizing eternity before white light ensued. I thought he came back to get me but all it was was my Pokeball opening up to the outside world. The ugly orb had spit me out and it wouldn't take me back. I saw my trainer; he now had a stronger Gallade. He no longer wanted me. He kicked me out, and there was no way for me to be welcome back. I was on my own, as I always longed to be, but now I didn't want to be alone. It must have been the love for the trainer, or all that I sacrificed for him. But all I knew is that I had been betrayed, and that I had to find my own way from now on.
I wandered long and far and I made my way into a forest far away from where I was abandoned. It was there that I found the vestiges of love that only others of my kind could provide. I was an outsider, the one that knew nobody, but they accepted me in a way that I never thought possible. They exhibited true kindness and love, and healed my broken heart the most that anyone could. It was there, in the forest, that I was truly an Espeon.
We often had competitions to see who was the strongest, and I longed to show my skills to the others. I was ignorant back then, and believed that I always had to prove myself in order to be of use. On one particular day, I woke up to a stormy day, the clouds gray, ready to burst open their package of water, the grass, drowning under the continuous water, the trees, trying fruitlessly to shield themselves........it wasn't always like this, but now it is. I slunk back inside my hole in the tree to sleep. I could not sleep, as the continuous thought of the Pokemon PokeTournament came closer. "Later, later, later I'll train. " I assured myself. " I'll train later. "
I was about to sleep, too, when a shriek pierced through the air. It hit me. Very hard. I jumped up and slinked into the corner of the tree. I heard another shriek, closer this time, louder, more pained. I backed into the wall in fear. A third shriek pierced the night air as Pokemon - from the small like Caterpie to the Stantlers - ran past my tree. One Caterpie in particular, who was limping, was behind. The Caterpie limped on by and the sight made me feel guilty, so I came out of the corner and out into the rain to ask if the Caterpie wanted to hide inside.
As the Caterpie limped into the tree, I saw with his eyes that something was rustling inside the trees. I got curious, seeing as what could make a bush rustle so much. I was about to go inside to see what was there, when the Caterpie warned me not to go check it out. This made me all the more curious, and I went to check it out. As I got closer, I heard noises. Disturbing noises. I backed off and ran back into the tree, curious but scared.
The next morning, the Caterpie left and bidded me a good day, when out of the blue, he evolved. I was glad for him, as the night before, he had told me about how he wished to become a Butterfree. But the downside was that now the Metapod could not move, so I slowly nudged it back into the tree. When I got in, I fell asleep again. As I napped, the Metapod just stared and stared. And it stared some more. It was staring for a while before it yelled. He woke me up, and I was in a grumpy mood so I fell back asleep, too tired to care. He was in my house so I was going to do whatever I pleased.
Out in the field the next day, I was training hard for the preliminaries. I had to be strong to get past the judges, and that's all I thought about as I switched from physical training to mental training. Sometimes, I wondered if my type were suited to physical training. I twirled the stick that I was controlling around a tree, almost losing control of it twice. It was utter cruelty to us, but we had our work cut out for us, as all but the Ralts line were speed demons. I felt blessed to be an Espeon at that moment. I had personal experience from many battles that would give me a personal edge. The stick that I was controlling dropped from a very high altitude because I, once again, lost my concentration.
I mentally caught the stick with my mind and twirled it around. I did not feel right. I knew that someone was watching me but I could not find who and returned to twirling the stick around like a baton. Once again, I became lost in thought, and the stick rocketed right into a tree. The shriek of a Pokemon and the rustling of the leaves signaled that I had hit someone or something.
I sprinted towards the crash zone. When I got there, the leaves looked perfectly preserved, like nothing at all had happened. I mentally picked up a stick and returned to twirling it around. To me, this was easy stuff, but passing Pokemon stared at him like I was not one of them. But it didn't bother me, as they had the same thoughts when they saw a different Pokemon.
Metapod was staring at me, the ground, the sky, the jealous Spearow, the neighbors down the block, the Furret crossing the meadow, and so on. The only thing on his mind was the Pokechallenge competition. He was working on his Harden technique when he stopped. He relaxed his muscles, yawned, and then fell over. He could not see anything but white as he shook in his cocoon.
Down where he could not scratch, he felt a rustling. He jiggled around, trying to soothe the jiggling, but it got worse. Trying to divert his attention from the jiggling, he returned to Hardening. But the jiggling got worse. His eyes slid down slowly from its sockets. His bottom was aching terribly. Pressure was being applied to the sides. He felt extensions in his back, protruding out horribly. He wanted his sight back badly, but he could not see. He could barely hear me. He wanted to scream, to shout, to kick with his legs.
Down at the bottom of the cocoon, he saw light. He heard voices, many in a worried tone. He could hear a motherly Furret, telling her child to close his eyes. He heard a Pidgey telling someone to get Chansey "up in da house". But most of all, he heard me. At first I thought that my voice was helping him, coaching him to get through the ordeal, but soon he stopped replying to me. I thought that maybe he had run into a spot of trouble but I quickly realized that he was not answering me because his mouth was stuck. He was intent on getting out and he was going to do it no matter what. After one violent shake he could talk again and he began screaming my name loud and clear. He was in a joyful tone. He knew something that even I didn't, until I saw the bottom of him.
"You've done it, Metapod. You've evolved into Butterfree!" I yelled. He looked nothing like the Caterpie that I met him as. He was now a majestic butterfly, the kind that he always longed to be but was too afraid undergoing the process to become. The realization hit him. He EVOLVED! He could fly! He zipped upwards at an amazing velocity, immediately taking advantage of his new wings.
I looked up at him, my friend the Butterfree. He was simply amazing, floating around in the air, higher and higher. The crowd that had assembled gave shouts of applause and praise, for he had made it past one of the most excruciating forms of evolution. All methods of evolution were painful to begin with, but one where there was a week of constant restraint and immobilization was especially painful. It was well known that not every Metapod had the endurance to make it through the evolution to Butterfree, and the night before he had told me of how sickly he was. He was afraid that in due time, when it was his chance to evolve, that he would die trying. I told him to stay hopeful, because I believed in hope back then. I told him that as long as I was there with him he would be able to do anything he wanted, and that his health was not going to be a factor in determining his outcome in life. He deserved his freedom, and his life. His wings were granted with all given respect. I wanted to go and join him. I could have; I had the prowess to levitate with the best of them. In fact, I was, but then something happened that would stop my dreams forever.
I first saw the red sphere of death whiz through the air. He was facing the opposite direction, completely unaware of the danger fast approaching. It hit him on the back and opened its gaping maw. Butterfree had turned into a red beam and was trapped inside of it. He writhed back and forth, to and fro, trying to get free. He had just evolved, however, and was still fairly weak, so he couldn't break out of it. I did nothing to help him; I was in such shock as to what had just happened to him. Out in the range, we did not see many people. The ones we did see were innocent tourists. They often consisted of families with their children. The most curious of them all would usually stop and stare, the little kids always pointing at us. They never attempted to try and abduct us before. But that is what they did there. They were abducting us. Taking us from our natural habitat into some portable sphere and forcing us to do battle for their amusement. And as the ball locked, I knew that it was over. He was gone, captured.
The crowd of us, standing around in shock, disappeared off into the forest. Much to my dismay, I was the most exotic one there, so the beast had decided to come after me. I, however, did not fancy being captured again. I remembered back to the days of my infancy as an Eevee. From the first day I was born I looked up into the eyes of my parents and saw two Vaporeon smile back at me. They were my parents.
My parents had taught me much in the few days that I was with them. Both of them were Pokemon previously owned by humans who had decided to release them into the wild. They spoke of their hardships in battle, telling me that I should run whenever I see a human. They told me never to trust, and to always love my freedom, for it was something that I could never ever regain in its entirety. My parents were so wise, but they had neglected to teach me everything. I do not believe it to be their fault completely. They were only with me for a short time, and I had already neglected to follow their wisdom. I was caught by a trainer, and look where I ended up. In the woods, lonely, betrayed, and at the opposite end of that ball once again.
I had never seen them again for only a couple of days after I was born; they were captured by men in black suits with a strange emblem on them and separated. They then came for me and threw the accursed orb at me, and that is how my first term of imprisonment began. I had no idea what to expect the first time, I neglected to listen and run. The second time, I knew better, but to no avail I was caught. All at once I was digitized and crushed into the space of an atom again. The world, once so bright, suddenly grew dark and dismal. For what seemed like seconds I was in darkness before I heard the confirmation sound that signaled that I was going nowhere. Suddenly, the lights came on. They were dim and faint, but the voice was not. It was rather sonorous, and it proclaimed:
"You are now the property of Cassidy, trainer ID no. 69300. Affiliation, trainer…."
I finally realized the grave situation that I was placed into. My freedom had been robbed from under me in the space of just a few days of freedom, and my innocence died at that moment. I would never regain the childhood follies that others experienced because my childhood was robbed from me right from underneath my feet. I never had the chance to live, to make friends, to experience love, to grow with the others in the wild and attain a social ranking. I was abducted from the forest, which was the only world that I knew. I believe it's called Viridian Forest. My parents spoke of areas filled with giant stone buildings with voices that came from nowhere and they told me to never go to these places. I feared that that was where I would end up; the place of stone buildings with mysterious voices. I did not know what would happen if I showed up there, but all I knew was that that was the point of no return. I felt my paws grazing the edge of no return and I felt afraid. I finally learned what true fear was, and the worst part was that I did not know what it was that I was fearing so much.
Suffice to say my life was dark for the first few months in that jail called a Pokeball. It was dark and dismal, with the only light coming from the four orbs that brought me into the orb to begin with. There was no source of food and very little room to move around in. There was no one to talk to and I felt like I was going mad. I wondered if Butterfree was suffering the same fate, or if he managed to get away somehow. I saw the gears to the orb, and they were of a strange stone that I had not seen before. They moved without anyone telling them to, and before I knew it I was uncompressed and sent out back into the wild.
I had told myself that the first thing that I would do when I saw the outside would be to escape, but it seemed that that would not be the case the first time I was released to the outside world. I stood facing a larger opponent, much bigger than I was, with scales of red and a mouth of fangs. It roared and screamed in pain. In his roaring I could hear his story. He wanted me to listen. It spoke a story of pain, of how he was taken from the rivers in which he grew up in a place called Ilex Forest and placed under a mysterious ray that bombarded his body with rays that caused him to mutate. He experienced such a rush of adrenaline, the likes of which he had never experienced before. It felt good at first, but then it continued, and it began to change him. It hurt, he screamed and he wanted it to stop. The pain continued, and he felt himself changing into the hideous deformed monstrosity that he was now. He said that he forever feels the pain of the ray and now wants to spare all that come his way with a quick death. And now, it was my turn.
The battle was over before it even began. I stood no chance against this huge monstrosity of a creature. It lifted its huge tail and thrashed me with it. I experienced pain for what would not be the last time. I was bleeding from all over my body before the trainer recalled me and I retreated to my place of isolation. The one thing I noticed is that it wasn't the same trainer that captured me the second time. This time, I appeared to have been traded away.
It wasn't long before I was sent out again, but this time it was against a smaller opponent. A yellow shrew with a tail to match began the fight, and he told me that before I was done I would make a huge difference. He then turned into a ball and rammed me five times so hard I could not stand any longer. My trainer recalled me into my Pokeball, disgusted at my lack of fighting vigor.
It was a long time before I saw the outside again. This time I was healed. I felt stronger and like I could take anything down. I thought it through in my extended period if isolation and I decided that I was strong enough to take down whatever enemy I had to face next. After that enemy fell, I would turn on the trainer and kill him, or at the very least blind him with some sand. Then I would return to the forest and meet my parents, whom I hoped would be there waiting for me with outstretched fins.
Instead, I met a black creature with yellow rings on its body. It took one look at me with its pepper red eyes and took a step back. It stared at me again, looked me up and down. It couldn't believe that it saw me. She introduced herself as Maakii told me her story as well.
Maakii was once an Eevee, as I was then. She too had grown up in the Viridian Forest and she too was abducted. They put her in a special black Pokeball from which she could never escape. They took her back to some sort of underground lab which they dubbed a ‘Hive' and placed her into some see-through stone cage that she found herself unable to escape from.
She was in there with other Pokemon of various regions, some of which she had never seen before and haven't seen since. It was then, she told me, that she realized the gravity of the situation she was thrown into. The oldest Pokemon, which turned out to be a Weedle, led her to one end of the labyrinth and showed her a table. On the table lay a Pokemon that she had never seen before, and there was a thin needle that hovered over it. It poked and prodded and then focused itself over the Pokemon. It then spun and a small blue beam came out of it. The Pokemon arched its back and it apparently liked the response. Then, suddenly, the magnitude was amplified and the Pokemon fell into complete pain. Maakii told me that it was the most painful thing she ever had to endure. The Pokemon could not withstand the beam and it ended up evaporating. The grunts, upset with their failure, gathered up the ashes, threw it into a bin and took it somewhere.
She said that it was their fate to all be chosen for that ray. The Weedle was chosen next, and, to her surprise, he didn't die. Immediately. After that ray was done with him, he morphed into some mutated bug with deformed, bent wings and found himself unable to move. The grunts were apparently pleased with the work but deemed him useless. He was disposed of in the garbage still alive and taken away. All of the others in the cage were taken, one by one, and Maakii saw all the experiments. She noticed that they were getting better and better, each one living considerably longer than the last. It took her a while to realize that she was the one on which they planned to have their first successful test on, and she surmised that they planned to make her stronger and that the ray had an adverse effect that changed the appearance of the Pokemon it was tested on.
Her day soon arrived, and she was scooped out of the cage and placed onto the table. She described an old man, known to the grunts as Giovanni, and he peered over into her face with a nasty smile. He said some words to the grunts in Italian and they began the ray while he walked outside. The beam started up on her, and she described it as the best feeling in her life coupled with the most extreme pain she had ever experienced.
Liitle did she know that they weren't planning to make her stronger. They planned to evolve her into a new breed of Pokemon. A type of monster that can survive extreme heat and cold without suffering the effects, with no emotions, or a caring heart. A dark Pokemon, if you will. The ray, however, did not have the same effects as it did before. It appeared to seem that the scientists had achieved the equilibrium that they were searching for, and Giovanni had walked back into the room to check on her.
"What is the status?"
Around him, people were diligently trying to polish the project. She was the project; they had finished splicing her genes at the moment that Giovanni walked in.
"Finished, sir." said a grunt. "Shall we begin initation?"
Giovanni had to think for a second. He was unsure if he wanted to start or if he wanted to wait. He decided to start.
"Yes".
It didn't take long before there was a problem.
"Big G, we have a problem." one grunt said. "The thing...is evolving!"
"What?" Giovanni yelled. "Stop progress, NOW!"
She hadn't expected to evolve. No one had. The white light that enveloped her stopped the old pain and brought new ones all it's own. The scientists stared at awe as the sleek, black figure that Maakii had transformed into lay on the table. She looked over to them and they were scattering about to and fro, making calculations and predictions about her. Then, they looked up at her in fear. Something had gone wrong.
She exploded with the force of an atom bomb on the table.
"..heh, heh. My life's work, completed." Giovanni muttered before he was caught in the energy.
Maakii's pepper red eyes fluttered open to see sunrise. And she discovered that she was not moving, yet she was. After a while, she realized that she was being carried. But by whom? She looked over to find another trainer. But this one appeared different. He hadn't any black clothes on like the ones that abducted her. Rather, they were white like the scientists that caused her to explode.
His name tag read Professor Oak and she looked up to see the eyes of an old man peer back at her lovingly. She said that it was the first time that she had experienced love in her life and that it healed all the torn wounds in her heart. She, against her better judgment, let him carry her back to his laboratory.
She said that at his laboratory he performed even more tests on her, for she was a being that he had not seen before. She decided that she had had enough of people experimenting on her. In the dark of the night, which was when she had been forever changed, she slipped out from the lab and had escaped off into the wild again. She said that she had roamed the land far and wide, hoping to return to the place that she had called home. That place, Viridian Forest, as deforested, as she put it. There were no signs of life anywhere and all the trees were gone. All of the Pokemon that she had grown accustomed to no longer lived there. She described what was left as a desert of trees.
You can probably understand how upset I was at the fact that my home was gone and I could never return. She told me that it was humans that tore it down in their lust for more of everything worth keeping, and that I should trust no one.
She had wandered far and wide, looking high and low for another forest that she could call home. She was still in that search when she had the unfortunate luck of running into me and my trainer
At that point, he was becoming impatient that Maakii and I were just standing there instead of doing battle and he preempted to recall me with that nasty orb of his. I had already made the decision to escape and I did not need to give Maakii any directions. Like a swift, agile cat, she flew up into the air and knocked the Pokeball out of his hand. It rolled into the bramble and I shot off in the other direction, attempting to keep up with the much more agile Maakii.
I was free.
Last edited by a moderator: