Thread: Disbelief And Truth

Unlike most of my other stories, I've had this idea in my head for over a month, as well as it's planning. But finally, everything fits together, and I am able to write it! This is going to be a Dark Fic, and will have some mature, explicit and dark content, although it won't be as heavily present in the story as that warning might make it out to be. Unless you're sensitive to issues that are considered immoral and/or illegal, continue on. And this story will include what you might normally expect from a story rated Mature, but again, not as heavily present as it might sound. So, if you're fine with all the issues pointed out above, read on.

The story follows two thieves in the Sinnoh region, trying to seek the truth about Team Galactic as well as escape the International Police. Enjoy, and comment!

Chapters: 1, 2, 3.

Chapter 1
The Theft

It was the darkest hour of the night. The silent air carried hints of the waves south of Sandgem Town, and brushed slightly against Therma’s exposed hair, while Thierry struggled to keep his eyesight clear. Their backs were pressed against the outer wall of the lab. Covered in black, and masks hid their faces.

“I will go first,” Thierry said with a thick accent, carefully pronouncing each word for his partner to understand. “You wait for me to signal you in.”

Therma nodded and watched as Thierry climbed the wall using the tiny spaces between the bricks. His body moved slowly, yet agilely. He could fall at any second, and wake someone up that could prove the end of any hope they had of uncovering the truth. Therma waited at the bottom. Her breathing was slow and organised. Anything can go wrong. Ippolit could find them at any second. Rowan could wake up and report them. All the possibilities centered on being discovered and captured.

The pair had been on the run from the International Police, and an agent had only one mission, and that was to capture them. The hunt started a year ago, when they attempted the same thing; stealing Pokémon. But Ippolit had somehow uncovered their plans and managed to stop them, and the chase around regions started. This was their latest effort. Exactly one year after their first failed attempt.

Team Galactic had just disappeared, and everyone in Sinnoh praised that event. But the truth was what the thieving pair was after. Starter Pokémon sell for a high price; acquiring them was sure to get them enough money to start their investigation. What Team Galactic really was, and why they did the things they did was what they were after; the truth.

“Climb,” Thierry said with a croaked voice. “Climb.” He repeated mere seconds later, to hurry Therma.

She placed one hand on the wall and swiped it around for cracks. Her fingers dug into one, while her eyes scanned the surface for one she can’t reach normally. Her feet mustered the strength to kick her up high enough for her to grab onto the other crack, and the climbing started. Her partner was soon helping her up onto the roof.

“They are here,” Thierry said, and the accent reflected his deep nervousness. “On the table.”

“How’re we supposed to get in?” Therma said and looked through the glass. Her voice lacked the accent Thierry had.

“We can not open it,” Thierry said. “We have to break it.”

“Then we will break it,” Therma breathed heavily; the nervousness in her started to take over as well, even though she tried so hard to keep it locked away. “We will smash it then jump inside, grab the Pokémon, and run out the front door onto Jubilife City. The city is big enough for us to hide somewhere.”

“Will you do it?” Thierry asked, out of hopes for the success of their mission more than fear of what happen if he does it.

“Yes,” Therma said firmly. “Be ready.”

Thierry nodded, and took a few steps back carefully. The roof of the lab was made of slippery green tiles, but that worked for their advantage. Therma detached a single tile from the formation and prepared to smash in against the glass in the center of the roof. She looked back at her partner, who gave her one final nod as a confirmation.

She breathed heavily one more time; everything could go wrong right now. Her arms raised themselves above her head, as if she wasn’t in control of her body. She breathed out one last time, and brought her hands down. She let go of the tile moments before her hand connected with the glass, and it flew through the transparent material. There was a shattering sound, and someone must have heard it, but the pair had no time to check. Therma jumped into the hole, and landed with a roll on the floor. The glass cut her, but the injuries weren’t big enough for her to care about them. Moments later, Thierry dropped from the hole by hanging on to the edge and slowly letting himself go. By then, a few lights had turned on outside the lab. Therma was there before Thierry, and managed to grab two of the Poké Balls that rested on the table, while her partner grabbed the third.

“A suitcase,” Thierry pointed out and rushed to grab it, but Rowan had appeared out of nowhere. “Rowan!” His instructions had changed from those of an extra treasure to those of warnings.

Therma was already halfway to the door before Thierry started running after her. “Stop!” Rowan shouted after them. “Thieves! Stop!”

The doors flung open as soon as Therma crushed her body against them. The locks gave away and the noise alone caused more people to exit their homes. The pair ran across the crowd, which was filled with people too sleepy to realise that the thieves were running right past them. They managed to stick to their plan, and exited Sandgem Town through the north, towards Route 202, where to their surprise, they saw individuals from Jubilife City running towards them.

“Rowan must’ve called them!” Therma shouted back at Thierry. “We can’t go back!”

She lowered her pace in order to allow Thierry to catch up to her, but also in an attempt to delay her capture by whoever came to help Rowan. There were three figures, and one of them had to be Ippolit, who knew that they were somewhere in Sinnoh. It must have been a completely idiotic move for them to go after what they had always gone after; Ippolit must have guessed it.

“I think I can help,” Thierry said, struggling for words to express himself. “The tree.”

His speed picked up, and he jumped towards a tree, arms stretched out in front of him. His fingers wrapped around the branches and he lifted himself up, while Therma followed. She had no idea what Thierry had in mind, and could not bring herself to guess it; she wanted a way out, no matter what it took.

“When they come here, jump,” Thierry said. “Hit them.”

“Are you telling me to throw myself at them?” Therma said, not believing the stupidity of this plan, and not believing herself for thinking that it could work. “Throw myself at my chasers?”

Thierry nodded. How he managed to come up with such a wonderful, yet ridiculous, plan is a short time was beyond her, but it had a chance of working either way.

“It’s over,” the voice told them. “Get down, right now!”

“Nice to see you followed us here, Ippolit,” Therma started. “No home back home? Oh sorry, is that a touchy subject?”

Ippolit fought to hold back his curses in front of his supervisor, and asked the pair to get down once more. “You’ve caused a lot of trouble,” his supervisor added. “It’s over now.”

“Now?” Thierry demanded from Therma, and she nodded. Her body rushed towards the ground, and her feet connected with the third member’s head, causing her to scream out in agony, while Thierry knocked both Ippolit and his supervisor down with his arms.

The pair continued their escape through the dark night, and eventually Jubilife City, which was still as vibrant with activity as ever. Strangely enough, the pair didn’t raise any suspicions, even though they were running through the city at top speed. Thierry was a few meters ahead of Therma, even though she got a head start. Their legs started straining, and the fear of being caught became too great; it was the only thing driving them forward at that point.

Thierry took a sudden turn into an alleyway, and Therma followed after him, only stopping to see the distance between them and their followers. The three chasers were just entering Jubilife City in the form of silhouettes.

“Come on, Therma!” Thierry rushed her. “Hurry!”

She pushed herself away from the building she was leaning on and ran after Thierry. Her partner passed someone who shouted at them, and attempted to stop Therma. She ran straight, without any change in her speed. Her only response was stretching out her arm and smashing it against the attacker’s head, and the pair kept on running until they found a hiding spot behind the Global Trade Station.

“They can not find us here,” Thierry said. “We are safe for now.” Therma was going to point out the fact that it wasn’t an intelligent place to hide in, but her partner pointed at a half-open window. They climbed in slowly, carefully avoiding the broken glass on the floor inside the house. There were no lights or furniture, and the entire place seemed very damp.

“This was where I lived before I met you,” Thierry said. “Not this room, but the basement.”

He tore apart some floorboards to reveal a set of stairs leading to darkness. “You’re a genius,” Therma said in awe and descended, while Thierry took on the job of returning the boards to their place and placing some material under them as to drown out the footsteps of anyone who walked on the place. “Is there any light?”

Suddenly, a match lit up and guided itself around the room, but Therma’s eyes soon adjusted to se Thierry’s gloved hands. The match reached the string of a candle, and the room was suddenly a little bit brighter. The actions repeated themselves a few more times, and the candle grew from one to ten or twelve. But the number didn’t matter to Therma; she spotted a mattress and threw her body at it. The run had left her exhausted, and she needed as much rest as she could get. She placed the two Poké Balls she had on the floor next to her and lay on her back, eyes closed. Thierry put the Poké Ball he had next to the other two and flexed his hands, as if trying to remove the pain of the jagged floorboards.

“An exciting night,” Therma said. “Wasn’t it?”

“Yes,” he replied. “You did great.”

Therma smiled as Thierry’s hand began rubbing against her shoulder, and the weight of his body entered the mattress, and was eventually on her body. They kissed each other, while Ippolit and his partners continued their search above the ground.

How do you juggle all these stories? I am amazed, and I'm not joking. It's troubling with just two.

I love the concept, the recklessness. Can't judge it yet, though. But the plot deserves recognition. And I'm not embaressed to say I admire your writing. It's so...descriptive.

Glad to see you like the story!

And quite honestly, I've always thought of description as one of my weakest points, but I'm happy to see that you consider it good!

Thanks for reading and commenting!

Well this is exactly the type of stories I like to read.

And it's not weak, it's better then alot of description I've heard people use. Such as:

"The blade so strong, It cuts you like a knife"

Chapter 2
The Start

The morning sun’s light could never reach the basement they were in, but Thierry and Therma’s eyes had adjusted to dark places throughout the years of their lives. Three Poké Balls rested on the ground next to the mattress, holding in them three starter Pokémon that new trainers would never be able to get.

“I feel sorry for them,” Thierry said from across the room. “The people that will never get to use these Pokémon. The kids probably went to sleep looking forwards to today, only to find that the Pokémon have been stolen.”

Therma sighed. She was sitting on a chair opposite a laptop, making meetings with whoever can pay the highest for these stolen creatures. “Life isn’t fair,” she said. “We should both know this by now.”

“But is it an excuse to make other lives unfair?” he said. “Normal people will not make others suffer like them.”

“We did not suffer,” Therma said. “And we are normal.”

Arguing with her was no good. Therma never liked the conversations that dealt with morality or her normality. She regarded the world as hers. Everything was to be used in the way she wanted to; that ideology was what got her in this business in the first place. Black markets, underground battles, breaking the law, and running for her life; she slowly became accustomed to that life, and began to take a liking to it. Soon enough, she wanted no other life style.

“How much do you think we will get for the Pokémon?” Thierry said as he picked up the three Poké Balls. “Enough to last us some months, maybe?”

“Probably,” Therma agreed. “I’ve sent the offer to some of our past clients. We’ll see how it pans out.”

She kept tapping at her laptop, while Thierry studied the Poké Balls they had stolen. They were clean for the most part, and seemed brand new; Rowan must have spent a lot of time preparing them for the new trainers. Thierry would always feel a rush of guilt after any crime he does, but it was his only was keep on living, while Therma seemed completely devoid of any emotion, not just concerning her crimes, but her entire life. Life wasn’t fair for her, and that was probably what left her without any kind of emotion. He threw one Poké Ball into the air, and caught it seconds after he sent the second one flying, and the third followed the pattern. Mere seconds, and he was juggling, with his speed increasing each second.

“Are you serious?” Therma sighed, the laptop in front of her was closed, and her chair faced Thierry, who started juggling fasted as he threw some of the Poké Balls underneath his legs. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Juggling!” Thierry smiled. “In a serious way, but still having fun.”

“You’re going to drop them,” Therma said. “And you might break them; we have to make money, you know.”

“All good,” Thierry laughed. “I am good at this!”

Therma looked around for anything she can throw at her partner, but it proved useless; he made a mistake after the pacing was too fast for him, and dropped all three Poké Balls, but instead of breaking, they produced three Pokémon.

The first of three shook his head, causing the twig on top to sway with the action. His green body was covered by a shell on his back, and it was hard enough to withstand the second Poké Ball that smashed against it, producing a small Pokémon whose body was mostly red, with a flame burning instead of a tail. The last of three was a short blue Pokémon with small wings instead of arms.

The three of them looked around, and then at their two trainers. They didn’t know how the three of them would be shared across the two, but their happiness at getting picked for a journey was overwhelming. Turtwig and Piplup charged towards Therma, while Chimchar jumped into Thierry’s arms.

“Easy there,” Thierry laughed. “What are you so happy for?”

“I think they think we picked them,” Therma sighed as Piplup pulled on her pants, while Turtwig nibbled on her shoe. “This is going to be troublesome; return them to their Poké Balls, now!”

“I never owned a Pokémon,” Thierry said. “Why don’t we keep them? They might help us in our search.”

“No, we are not keeping them,” Therma said. “They sell for a high price. A very high price, we can’t keep them!”

The three Pokémon looked at Therma with confusion in their eyes, and then at each other.

“I never owned one before,” Therma said, almost sympathising with the Pokémon. “And I guess it would be helpful if we used them for our search.”

“Yes!” Thierry said. “That would be great! They will prove very useful!”

Chimchar jumped up in happiness and climbed up to Thierry’s shoulder, holding his own Poké Ball in his hands, and he handed it to Thierry.

“Then I guess the other two are mine,” Therma said. “This is very weird of me to do.”

“Let others convince you to do something?” Thierry laughed as he withdrew Chimchar. “It is weird. But I’m sure it was more you wanting to keep them than me convincing you.”

Therma shrugged off that idea as she withdrew Piplup and Turtwig to their Poké Balls. “Then these two are mine,” she said. “I hope you have a plan for us to somehow be able to buy food and other essentials.”

“I do,” Thierry said. “It is fairly easy. You made an offer to sell these three, but you know that our buyers like to meet in public places. Surely they won’t send out three stolen starters to check them.”

“So we can sell them any three Pokémon!” Therma’s grin extended across her face. “That’s genius!”

“Not exactly,” Thierry laughed. “I was thinking three empty Poké Balls.”

“That’s probably the smartest thing you’ve ever thought of, Thierry,” Therma said as she placed her two Poké Balls in her bags. “We’ll go and get these three empty Poké Balls.”

“Very good,” Thierry said. “But why do you get to keep two, while I only get one?”

Therma looked at her partner with a confused look. “You never said you wanted two,” she said. “And it’s too late now.”

I think this is a good story for so far. When is the next chapter ready?

I don't really have a schedule, but thanks for reading and commenting anyway. Glad to see you like it.

However, you should know that I'm not the best writer, I really wouldn't advise reading my stories to learn anything...

Chapter 3
The Con

It truly was a crowded area.

Therma hid her two Poké Balls in her backpack, while Thierry hid his single one in his own pocket. The pair stood at the center of a very busy street in Jubilife City, probably the busiest one, where several merchants sold some goods, artists on the street stopped tourists and offered to sketch them, and kids were running behind their mothers holding balloons shaped like Pokémon and carrying ice-cream cones. It was just these two who were there for an illegal exchange.

The International Police were nowhere to be found; they must have assumed Therma and Thierry went through one of the three directions heading out of Jubilife, and abandoned this city to their few numbers; all the more flexibility for the pair.

They stood against a building, waiting for Thierry’s client to show up.

“How many times did you work with this man?” Therma started; she had never met the man they were supposed to sell the starters to.

“Two, maybe three times,” Thierry said. “He got me on this road, but I never liked him. He is very obnoxious, and should be put behind bars, not us. We only steal, never harm, but he kills those who oppose him, and apparently, the International Police don’t care much for a dead criminal.”

“So much wrong in that speech of yours,” Therma laughed. “We do harm people, such as the three kids who were supposed to start their ‘adventures’ today, whoever they were. Stupid dreams, really.”

Thierry laughed with Therma; sure, they did crush some dreams with their actions, but after being criminals for some time, they both knew that consciousness would only bring them down. They waited for the client to show up, and readied the three empty Poké Balls.

After a while, he finally showed up, accompanied by a few bodyguards that blended spectacularly with the crowd, with their eyes still on the two thieves, ready to counter any suspicious attempts on Therma and Thierry’s side. He was a short round man wearing a striped suit, with a bald head, and sunglasses covering his eyes. He approached the pair, and nodded his head at them.

“Nice to see you again, Thierry,” the man said. “I see you have a friend with you.”

“This is Therma,” Thierry said. “She is my partner, and you can trust her.”

Therma offered her hand for a shake, which prompted the man to step back before realising that she wasn’t attacking him. “I’m Therma,” she said. “And you are?”

“You can call me Ben,” he said as he took her hand. “You’re quite a lovely young lady. Very beautiful.”

“Thank you, Ben,” Therma said, and pulled her hand away from him away the handshake lasted a little bit too long. “Let’s get this over with, Thierry. I don’t like our little friend here.”

Ben’s eyes fixated themselves on Therma, almost as if they were visible, and his expression changed into a disgusted face. “You’re a very rude girl,” Ben said. “It would be a real shame if you were abducted from your sleep, tortured in a pool of your own blood, and killed before your body was defiled and thrown to the gutters.”

“Give him the Pokémon, Thierry,” Therma turned to her partner, who froze with shock at the little exchanged between Ben and Therma. “Let’s get this over with.”

Thierry stuttered some incomprehensive words at Therma before he produced three Poké Balls, gave them to Ben, and received a briefcase from one of the bodyguards who seemingly appeared out of nowhere. Therma immediately grabbed the briefcase, and cracked it open just a little, enough to spot the money inside.

“This was fun,” Therma said. “Let’s get going, Thierry. Goodbye, Ben.”

Without another word, or waiting for a reaction, she walked off, followed by Thierry. “What was that back there?” he whispered to her. “You could have gotten us killed!”

“We are going to die, you idiot,” she whispered back. “He knows. I don’t know how, but he knows. Into the building; we’re going to the roofs.”

And with a quick movement, she turned and went into a building, and Thierry followed. All Therma was interested in were the stairs; she ran towards them, and up the steps. She ran as fast as her legs could carry her; her life depended on it.

“What makes you so sure he knows about us?” Thierry called after her. “You could be paranoid!”

A slam echoed up the apartment complex, followed by footsteps. “Find them!” Ben’s voice followed suit, and made it’s way to the pair. “Find them and kill them!”

“He checked the Poké Balls in public, I knew he would,” Therma said. “He didn’t care about being spotted with stolen Pokémon; he had bodyguards.”

The footsteps followed them up the stairs, but the pair had too great of a head start. They were already on the roof, and running towards the closest other one they could jump to. Therma was the first to make the jump, as she had a few seconds of a head start up the stairs, and Thierry followed her just moment later, with a far more agile jump.

The pair kept running, and eventually onto the next rooftop, before Therma took a sudden turn towards the staircase. She rammed the door with her shoulder, and forced it open, quickly getting in, and holding it for Thierry, who had a delay in catching up to her.

“We’ll wait here,” she panted and gasped for air. “Find a way to lock this door, and a way to lock the one right down the stairs.”

“You want to trap us here?” Thierry did something he had rarely done before; question Therma. The pair had always been on good terms, and generally, the same mindset, but in crucial situations like this, their common traits were erased, and they almost became like counterparts. “They will flood us from both sides.”

“They will flood each other,” Therma kept on panting. “They won’t see us. The stairs all around this city can be torn apart and put back together; they’re hollow, just like the basement we stayed in. We’ll lead them to think we’re here, but we’ll be below them. Now get to it, there isn’t much time!”