Author's notes: Okay, let's get through some things before you start reading. First of all this story will be mainly set in the World of Pokémon and it will majorly have characters from the Pokémon Anime. Second, the tone of the story will be similar to Pokémon movies, which are usually darker than the tv-show.
Thirdly, and this is important, I think we can all agree the character of Ash Ketchum and his friends ARE NOT STILL 10 YEARS OLD! It is referenced in this chapter that Team Rocket has attempted to capture Ash's Pikachu for almost a decade by now, so Ash is 18-19 years old by the logic of journey through Kanto, Orange Islands and Johto being 2 years, Hoenn and Battle Frontier being year and a half, Sinnoh lasting 2 years and Unova another year and a half, same with Kalos(And on personal note, by the time Serena snogged Ash, our boy had become a man). For this age debacle, I'm re-imagining Ash's stay in Alola Region(I haven't really watched Sun & Moon that much, because reasons) as something close to a college, because it's never too late to go to school.
Next, for the non-Pokémon half of the story, there will be only two Batman-characters I'm carrying over from my previously written stories and their presence here is is explained there, but also acknowledged in the spoken dialogue in later chapters eventually. The antagonists are fairly recently created DC characters currently making their first appearance in the comic event Dark Nights METAL. Still, as an experienced fanfiction writer(I have been on this website for 4 years by now and I let my stories speak for themselves), I was able to use my imagination to come up with a story that combines all these characters.
Now, I still have 2 on-going stories to write THAT I AM GOING TO FINISH! For now, I'll just leave this first chapter aka prologue aka first teaser of what kind of story this is to see if it gets any attention from the readers. Meaning, the more followers, favorites and reviews this story gets by this chapter, the sooner I will post following chapters that continue the story onward.
Prologue: Enter the Dark Knights
Cerulean City, Kanto Region
Woman with a pale, cracked skin stood before the Cerulean Gym. Grasping to the trident in her right arm, she lifted it up and brought it down with strength with every step she took walking towards the entrance. She felt weak, dry and unnourished as she pushed the door open and made her way inside. The first thing she saw as she entered was the large swimming pool in the large hall of the Gym and the sight brought a faint smile on her face.
''Excuse me?'' Misty the Gym Leader asked she notice the woman approaching the pool. ''Are you here for a battle or-''
Misty went silent as soon as she saw the woman's appearance and weakened state. She was wearing black leather jacket over an orange and green corset, green knee long skirt over black pants and boots. Her head was covered by a tight black hood and an orange bandana, with a large golden medallion with an unfamiliar symbol on it hanging from her neck. Her pale skin with cracked lips were a worrying sight of her being dangerously dehydrated. She basically looked like a zombie pirate.
''Water…'' the woman asked in a shaking voice as she kept limping towards the pool meant for Pokémon Gym Battles. ''I need… water…''
''I can have an ambulance called for you if-'' Misty said offering to help but-
SPLASH!
-the woman managed to get to the pool and letting go of her balance, allowed herself to fall into the water.
Misty hasted herself to the pool to see what had happened to the woman in the pool. She floated there underwater with her face down towards the bottom, with her dark hair floating in the water.
''Politoad, I choose you!'' Misty called out taking and throwing a Poké Ball, which released her green toad Pokémon into the water. ''Help her back up to the surface!''
Politoad dove into the water and begun to swim towards the woman. Before it got close to her, however, the water-Pokémon stopped as the woman turned around, surprising both Politoad and its trainer by apparently breathing underwater. As she opened her eyes, the first thing the woman did as she saw Politoad was put her left hand on her temple and look concentrated on the water-Pokémon.
Politoad turned away from the Woman and looked up towards Misty, before beaming out of the pool and using Tackle on its trainer.
''UGH!'' Misty moaned as she was tacked to a nearby wall. ''Politoad, what did you-''
''It's called Marine Telepathy, if you're interested,'' the woman said, with her voice now stronger than before and color returned to her skin as she rose up from the water, holding onto her trident with both hands. ''It gives me the power to control the minds of everything that lives in the water, especially water-Pokémon no matter if they are wild or owned.''
The woman was almost literally standing on the water, mostly as the bottom of her feet were still underwater, in some sort of whirlpool that was a being created by her trident, which she was pointing at the whirlpool.
''You made Politoad attack me?'' Misty asked looking as the Woman moved towards the edge and stepped out of the pool.
''And I can make every single Pokémon you own to do the same,'' the Woman pointing at Misty's bag of Poké Balls with her trident. ''Go ahead, call out your Pokémon to fight me. I'll just turn them against you like I did with Politoad.''
''Why are you doing this?!'' Misty asked now scared of the Woman before her. ''Who are you?''
''They call me the Drowned,'' the Woman said answering Misty's second question as she turned her trident to point at the pool and the water started shaking with the whirlpool rising. ''And I am here to cause my fair share of pain to create something powerful and worthy of the Dark Knights.''
As the water rose, Misty reached to her bag and her Poké Balls. The Drowned lifted her trident, rising the whirlpool higher, ready to a bring it down on Misty, who had grabbed two Poké Balls from her bag and threw them at the Drowned, releasing Staryu and Psyduck.
''Tell me, Water Pokémon Master,'' the Drowned said, letting the whirlpool dissolve and fall back into the pool, ''when you first decided to start training Water Pokémon and ONLY Water Pokémon, did ever imagine that they would turn against you?''
''Staryu use Rapid Spin!'' Misty yelled pointing at the Drowned, who once again put her had on her temple. ''Psyduck, use Disable on the Drowned's Marine Telepathy!''
The Drowned countered Staryu's attack by striking the starfish Pokémon with her trident. Not stabbing it, but hitting it like a ball and set it to hit the wall on the opposite side of the pool. Then she turned to Psyduck.
''Huh, that's a first,'' the Drowned said striking her trident to the floor and used both of her hands to lift Psyduck up. ''You know what they do to mutineers?''
SPLASH!
The Drowned threw Psyduck into the pool, where at the sight of irony the Water Pokémon struggled to stay on the surface.
''I might not be able to control them for the time being, but I can still hear their thoughts,'' the Drowned said, kicking Politoad away and begun to walk towards Misty. ''Because that's how Disable works, on active moves, not passive ones. And by using Disable, you took out the way this could have been done the easy way.''
Team Rocket Headquarters, undisclosed location in Kanto
Boss Giovanni of Team Rocket sat in his office reviewing reports from his agents, mostly making frown mixed between disappointment and contemplation when reading the report from his most infamous trio of operatives currently assigned at the Alola Region. Those three had worked for Team Rocket for almost full decade and most of their accomplishments could be summarized as series of disappointments mixed with random achievements that had managed to keep them from being fired.
''Sir, there are some men here to see,'' the receptionist's voice spoke from the intercom informing Giovanni. ''Misters Machine and… Breaker.''
''Unless they have an appointment, I have no time to see them,'' Giovanni answered to his receptionist while still focused on the reports. ''I am too busy to see anyone right now-''
CRAAASH!
Something that glowed green broke the door to Giovanni's office.
''Golem, Machamp, get ready to attack!'' Giovanni reacted throwing out two Poké Balls that released a rock-type and fighting-type Pokémon to respond the attack.
From the blown-out doorway walked in a man wearing a black and green costume with long pointy ears on his hood and goggles covering his eyes. On his left hand he was carrying a bright green lantern shining green light and on his right a green ring. On this man's chest there was a large black symbol with white circle that had a green lantern symbol on it.
''Golem, Rock Throw!'' Giovanni yelled orders to his Pokémon, ''Machamp, Karate Chop!''
''Golem.''
''Machamp!''
''Two flies with one sweep,'' the ringbearer spit out pointing his ring hand at the Pokémon as it glowed green light that took the form of a bug swatter, ''coming right up.''
SWAPP!
The green bug swatter hit both Pokémon against and through the wall, canceling their attacks, before taking a form of a cage to imprison them.
''Dawnbreaker,'' mechanical voice spoke as a man in suit walked in to join the ringbearer, ''are-you-done?''
''What is this?'' Giovanni asked demanding an answer as the suited man's appearance was revealed to be a hologram of a metallic man with red and blue light lines around it's body.
''It's called a hostile takeover, dumbass,'' Dawnbreaker, as the metallic man had called the ringbearer, said as if he had been asked a stupid question. ''What else does it look like?''
''You are here to take control over Team Rocket?'' Giovanni asked shocked that this had come to happen.
''In-this-world, adaption-to-change-is-necessary,'' the metallic man spoke. ''Team-Rocket-has-resources-we-can-use-in-our-mission. You-have-Pokémon-and-intelligence-about-them. About-the-surrounding-regions-where-we-need-to-find-our-targets.''
''You will never have Team Rocket as long as I live!'' Giovanni answered in defiance.
''Understood,'' the metallic man said rising his arm which changed into the shape of cannon.
Giovanni realized too late that he had chosen his words poorly as the cannon was aimed at him and it blasted him away through the window.
''This-is-Murder-Machine,'' The metallic man said changing his appearance to another hologram, this one reassembling Giovanni. ''Dawnbreaker-and-I-have-taken-the-control-over-Team-Rocket.''
''Still better if no one finds the remains,'' Dawnbreaker said using his ring to create a green aura around himself and flew out of the window after the real Giovanni.
Pallet Town, Kanto Region
It started with a large being casting its shadow from the sky to cover the small town below. It was so high that it's shadow covered almost the entire town before it begun to descend from the sky and to the ground. It was big, angry and violent. No one had time to see what it was, even if it was a Pokémon. Naturally some people took it to see safety from their own homes, but the houses weren't much of a protection from this monster. No one dared to use their Pokémon to fight against it, out of fear that they wouldn't stand a chance against it.
Resident Delia Ketchum was an owner of a Mr. Mime so the first thing she ordered her Pokémon to do was use Barrier to create invisible walls in front of her house and areas not yet attacked to build defense against the monster's rampage.
''Let's see,'' an unfamiliar voice, that was deep and had an unnerving amount of levity in it, spoke from second floor from Delia's son's room. ''Kanto pins and a not-first-place trophy… Orange Island pins… Aaah, and an actual Champion Trophy from winning the Orange Island League, hah hah hah.''
The presence of an intruder caused Delia to grab an improvised weapon and see who was in her son's room.
''Johto pins, Hoenn pins, Battle Frontier buttons, a champion diploma and half of a ribbon, hah hah hah,'' the voice continued listing out what Delia knew were her son's Gym Badges and laughing at its findings. ''Sinnoh pins, Unova pins and finally we have the Kalos pins. I might need another bag these consolidation prices.''
Getting up the stairs and to her son's room, Delia saw something she couldn't comprehend guarding the room. It looked like a small child, but it behaved like a feral animal. It was wearing a red tunic with a yellow cape and a domino mask on its face with green gloves and boots. As soon as it saw Delia, it started to growl threateningly and move towards her on all fours.
''Crow, crow crow!''
''What is it, boy?'' the voice from the room said, moving towards the door. ''Is someone there?''
The feral boy stopped on its tracks as it was revealed there was a chain tied to its neck that kept it from moving any further. As Delia was trying to resonate how to approach the situation, someone walked out of her son's room carrying two black garbage-bags on his shoulder. And this man was the most frightening sight Delia could have imagined.
''Hah hah hah, hello dear mother,'' tall and slender man wearing black and dark gray said, smiling under his cowl and thorny headband, which had two pointy ears, covering his eyes.
The smile was wide and creepy from the only exposed pale white skin, which was the only expression shown from his covered face. ''You realize it not safe around here with Devastator releasing his tantrum out there, hah hah hah?''
''Devastator? You know what that monster out there is?!'' Delia asked backing away from the smiling man.
''Oh, yes, we're practically like brothers,'' the smiling man said grabbing the chain tied to the feral boy and pulled it to come closer to him. ''Poor boy, broke his heart one day when his best friend died and tried to cope with it by… Hah hah hah, experimenting on the monster that killed him, eventually turning himself into that monster himself. Hah hah hah!''
''You find that funny!?'' Delia said shocked at the smiling man's laughter.
''Why wouldn't I? Hah hah hah,'' the smiling man laughed. ''Everyone knows laughter is the best medicine that truly extends your life.''
''Mimey!'' Delia yelled downstairs knowing she was not up to go against the smiling man.
''Ready, boy?'' the smiling man said looking at his feral boy as Delia called for her Pokémon and let go of the chain. ''Crow!''
''CROW! CROW! CROW! CROW! CROW! CROW! CROW!''
Delia ran down the stairs, chased by the feral boy as the smiling man looked. Down the stairs he could hear the chase sounds as well as his feral boy's grunting sounds, which made his grin as he threw the bag containing his loot over his shoulder. The he walked down the stairs, to find Delia with her Mr. Mime, which had used Barrier to create a protective box around them. Box that the feral boy was trying to scratch with its hands.
''Hah hah hah hah hah hah,'' the smiling man laughed at the sight and grabbed the chain, pulling the feral boy at his direction. ''Bar! Hah hah hah hah hah!''
Still laughing, they walked away from Delia and Mimey, kicking the door open and walking outside.
Then, when outside he yelled: ''Hey, Devastator! You missed this house!''
Walking out of the Ketchum residence and into the Pallet Town ruins, the smiling man looked up to the hill where there was a fire at a burning building. From there, he saw a large man in a dark blue armor coming from the burning research laboratory.
''Merciless,'' the smiling man said greeting the armored man, ''how was the hunt?''
''Batman Who Laughs,'' the Merciless said holstering his weapons. ''Those who fought fell and those who flew, live to fight another day.''
''You showed mercy?'' Batman Who Laughs said amused.
''The target was the laboratory and the old man,'' the Merciless replied challenged. ''As for the livestock, why stop after just one hunt? They are noble creatures.''
''Hah hah hah, funny,'' the Batman Who Laughs said showing the Merciless his spoils in the bags. ''Doesn't matter, we have destroyed the foundation of our target's strength and spirit, with the fruits of his labor in our hands. And you just managed to create fading hope for him to cling onto.''
''True,'' Merciless said looking around the ruins. ''When he knows that he has lost everything, he will be one of us.''
At sea near the coast of Hoenn Region
''Red-Death, everyone-has-reported-to-be-done-at-their-ends.''
''I'm closing in on Hoenn,'' Red Death responded to Murder Machine in his earpiece as he ran over the water. ''The plan called for it to be public, so this might take a little longer.''
''You're-after-two-primary-targets-to-our-mission,'' Murder Machine spoke as Red Death was getting nearer to the coast. ''With-them-off-the-playing-field-the-corruption-will-be-easier.''
''That's what you keep telling me,'' Red Death said as he managed to get on land and run onto the rooftops. ''I'm in Lilycove City now and I can see the Contest Spectacular Hall. People are lining up to get inside.''
''Your-targets-will-be-contesting-there,'' Murder Machine responded. ''If-they-are-as-good-as-the-research-shows-they-should-be-competing-against-each-other-on-the-second-run. That-is-when-you-strike!''
''In other words,'' Red Death said pulling off his mask, ''now we play the waiting game.''
Hoenn, Route 120
VWORP..!
VWORP..!
VWORP..!
VWORP..!
Thumb!
A man wearing a knee long trench coat appeared out of thin air and looked at his left hand's palm.
''Where have you taken me this time?'' he asked first looking at the glow and then his surroundings. ''I don't recognize this forest.''
The air was moist and the ground was wet, signs of it having rained recently. The man fixed the scarf on his neck and closed the three upper button on his trench coat to hide the symbol on his chest, then put the tail of his scarf to the collar made by the highest button. The dark green cargo pants and his boots didn't look suspicious. Next, he took of his gloves and put them into his inner breast pockets before folding his sleeves.
Looking at his reflection from a puddle on the wet ground, the man nodded approving his appearance, which to his opinion suited anyone doing a hike in the woods.
''Right,'' he said looking ahead of himself, ''let's see where I am now.''
Getting through the woods, the man got to a road with crossroads, that had a sign.
Route 120, he read from the sign pointing at the road he was on and on the other roadsign, Route 121 to Lilycove City.
That city name said nothing to him. Wherever he had arrived, this was not the world he knew. All he knew for now that there was a city in that direction and there he would learn more about where he had arrived.
Continuing his walk on the road towards Lilycove City, the man caught a glimpse of someone else walking on the road towards the same destination as him. So, he fastened his walking pace to catch up, having decided learn more from the travelers through social interaction. Getting closer, he noticed the traveler was a young woman wearing red outfit with a hat and being accompanied by… a red firefox walking on two legs. And getting even closer, the firefox looked behind itself, noticing him.
''Braixen,'' the firefox told it's companion, who first turned to look at it and then what it was looking at.
''Hello,'' the man said greeting them as he was noticed. ''Going to Lilycove as well?''
''Yes,'' the young woman happily said greeting the man by lifting her hat, ''we're going to attend the Pokémon Contest there.''
''Aah,'' the mad said trying to sound like he knew what she was talking about, ''you both?''
''Not just Braixen,'' the young woman said excited as she took out two red and white balls, ''Pancham and Sylveon too.''
She opened the balls and released what the man recognized as a mix between koala and panda bear that had sunglasses and some kind of a fairy dog. Keeping his cool, the man kept up the friendly conversation.
''Do they have what it takes to win?'' he asked.
''We're not too much focused on winning,'' the young woman said with determination. ''We're after experience to become better performers.''
''Cham-cham!'' the koala-panda hybrid said pumped.
''Sylveon,'' the fairy dog said in a serene voice.
''They sure seem exited,'' the man said looking at her companions.
''Are you going to watch the Contest?'' the young woman asked.
''Suppose I will,'' the man answered. ''Are you asking for an audience member to cheer for you?''
''Cham,'' the koala-panda hybrid said looking at the man suspiciously. ''Pancham.''
''No, but it would be nice if you clapped your hands when we're on,'' she answered, before noticing the hybrid's suspicions. ''I'm Serena, by the way.''
The man nodded to Serena as they arrived to Lilycove City limits and said:
''Bruce Wayne.''
Author's notes: Okay, to those of you who have read through this prologue, now I expect you to leave a review and follow the story if you're interested.
EDIT: Okay, some background information. The default Batman, who just met up with Serena, is a version I have written in stories Traveler Among Wizards, Hereafter, Outsiders Beyond Good and Evil and Arcane War between Gods and Men. In Hereafter he was implanted with alien technology to his left hand, to which he was talking to, and it stood dormant until the end of Arcane War between Gods and Men, where it begun to take him to different universes. He has so far been to a Dragon Age/Witcher universe and Gotham TV series universe. This Batman is still set to appear in Return to Hereafter, but this is before that story.
Okay, now you can start reviewing.