Headin.jpg (10053 bytes)

Fanfic #2

Versions Collide

    A crossover... of a sort.

Location: ROTVGV Base, Pokemorphs Message Board

pub9.ezboard.com/bpokemorphs

 

    The first scene does not occur in the offshoot of the pokebattles network known as Dark Version. In fact, it is in a place which is run by a completely different set of rules - This world does not even have a Narrator, as ridiculous a concept as that may seem.
    However, the view lies upon a grand castle, with all the dark banners, princess-holding towers and miscellaneous spiky bits that just screams 'evil overlord's home'. The special effects guys are certainly not slacking off either - the lightning and thunder shadow the castle in exactly the right ways to make it seem even more intimidating and evil.
    A brownish-red ghostlike creature zooms down through the sky, swirling down upon the castle. Swooping through the open castle gates, it flies forward through the labyrinthic passageways of the building.
    Everywhere it goes, it seems like some degree of battling has taken place. Bricks have been cracked and removed from the walls, large holes and scorch marks can be seen on walls, ceiling and floor.
    It looks into every door it comes across, and every doorway that doesn't look like it will ever hold a door again. Exactly what it is searching for is uncertain, but it seems determined to find it. It's gonna have to be, to find something in this place.
    As it floats through the corridors, the damage done to the passageways seem to increase. A particularly large hole in one wall appears to lead to the dungeon of this castle. The ghost-thing seems excited by this find, and spends some time hunting through this area. Finding nothing but rubble, it continues to search the other corridors.
    After finding a passage completely destroyed, it turns back and takes a detour. Here and there, bodies seem to be strewn around, unconsious or worse. There are some humans, but others are pokemon or some other strange creatures, some identifyable to it, some it couldn't put a name to. It suddenly stops its search and is completely still, and then after confirming its suspiscion, races forward.
    A careful ear could sense the sound of battle, somewhere nearby...
    As the creature swoops through corridor after corridor, it becomes increasingly frustrated as it cannot find the way into the battleground. Stopping by a wall, it listens carefully for a moment, before charging a ball of brown energy in its hand and slamming it into the wall. As the wall crumbles into dust, it looks through the hold in the wall.
    The camera view zooms up to an aerial view of the entire room. This was the battle it had been hearing for some time.
    It hadn't expected it to be this big.

    Throughout the general melee, it was hard to tell who belonged to which team, and who was fighting who. Energy blasts flashed as magic countered elemental attacks, blasts of fire and psychic energy, and various other attacks or obstacles kept everyone on their feet. Recognisable figures included Bowser, who was sending wave after wave of Goombas, Koopas, MagiKoopas, Hammer Bros and others at his opponents; Giovanni, overruler of Team Rocket, commanding several TR agents and pokemon alike into battle; Ganondorf, weilding dark magic and commanding his evil servants; Dark Matter, who the author of this knows virtually nothing about and can therefore be safely ignored; Several of the bad guys from Dragonball Z, causing problems here and there with incredible speed and strength; King K. Rool, with his reptilian allies; The entire set of evil Digimon; The Master Hand, slapping and thumping at any who came too near; And the infamous mist shadow pokemon Missingno. Also hanging around nearby were the infamous Pikachu Fanclub (Which, so it appears, nobody has ever heard of...) with hundreds of Pikachu of all shapes and sizes, with many other cute pokemon hanging nearby. And last but not least, Cranky Kong, who had joined the Dark Side and was well known for his power of boring anyone to death...
    On the other side, was firstly the trademarked opponents of many of the above; Mario, Link, Kirby, the DK Clan, the Digidestined and some of the DBZ good guys could be seen battling their respective opponents. Others included a Yoshi - coloured blue to show its current alignment to water - as it fought off Bowser. Known as Pokefreak, the blue Yoshi battled bravely, recieving little damage from Bowser's flamethrower attacks.
    A huge Suikun - the legendary dog of water - fended off the Team Rocket agents with the help of a Togepi and a Jolteon. A quartet of Mews, named Skippy, BlackShadow, Waterlily and Myuu worked valiantly, helping link fight off the undead minions of Ganondorf and the humanoid lizards of K. Rool. A strange, incredibly thin reptilian-looking creature was having a load of fun tearing the Pikachu to shreds one by one, while using it's speed to avoid many of the electric blasts. It was slowing down, and the electric attacks were beginning to take their toll, but the mystery creature conveniently named Enigma wasn't going down anytime soon.
    A large humanoid/dragon creature apparently completely consisting of fire hovered near the roof, back to back with a smaller, more humanoid creature composed of shadow, each sending blasts of their respective element raining down upon their opponenets with impressive accuracy. Missingno was beginning to close in on their position, however, and the elemental beings called FireDrake and KB split up and went to fight different battles.
    An Oak-like man watched the destruction as he unleashed a massive blast of energy from a high-tech weapon in his hands onto anything that got too close. A rocket's Scyther jumped up behind him, intent on removing his head, and was rather shocked when it was blasted away by the two machine guns wielded by a Wigglytuff. Known only as the PokeProfessor and Double 0 Wiggly, these two didn't look like they were giving up, and for that matter, they didn't look quite sane either - unleashing incredible firepower from their guns and laughing loudly.
    Vegeta and another Saiyan - suprisingly a female, known only as Saiyan Devil Girl... - were both at super-saiyan and were fighting off four others - Androids 17 through 20, with the help of a shadowy being weilding a wicked-looking double-bladed sword a la Darth Maul, called Mirager. He broke off suddenly, and used the technique he was mainly named after, becoming three images and resuming the fight. Android 17 hit first one empty image, and then another, making them vanish, before hitting the third and last... and watching that vanish too? The true Mirager, hidden in cover of illusion, slashed it visciously from above.
    In the center of all the fighting, protected by a barrier whose origin wasn't certain, Giovanni faced the leader of the opposing force, a human girl called Rachel, or Rache01, in an all-out pokemon battle. Rache01's psychic pokemon and Giovanni's ground and normal were fairly evenly matched, and neither was gaining ground - yet.
    The self-proclaimed Message Board Heroes were doing what they did best - battling Video Game Bad Guys.
 
    The spirit-like being looked on in shock. The battleground appeared to be many times the size of the castle that held it. A stray Hammer Bro attempted to attack the strange being, but the hammer went straight through him, and the Bro was hit by a blast of energy from the circling KB.
    Bowser, Ganondorf and King K Rool suddenly stopped their attacks and concentrated. The air around them shimmered, and various bosses from all their games suddenly appeared and reinforced the failing minions. Pokefreak decided it was time to use his trademark move.
    "Look out!" He cried, as he hurled a large egg at a massed bunch of bowser's troops. Upon contact with the ground, the Nitro Egg detonated, incinerating the closest Goombas and throwing Koopas left right and center. FireDrake dived into the center of the explosion as soon as the damage was done, and the fire was sucked into it; Being composed completely of fire, FireDrake's main advantage was that it could assimilate any other fire into itself, healing it and increasing its power. A considerably larger and brighter FireDrake then proceeded to do battle with Recoome, Burter and Jeice of the Ginyu force, its non-physical form making it hard for them to damage it.
    Mario was leaping from goomba head to Koopa shell, then charged, triple jumped and landed a powerful flying kick to the Master hand, propelling it through a wall. It swooped back in, to be hit by Metalgreymon's Giga Blaster attack, throwing it back again. It decided to step back and recuperate, and created a small army of polygonal copies of the fighters to battle.
    KB was faring well against two DK64 bosses, the Armadillo and the Dragonfly. (Yeah, so what, I don't own the game, I don't know what they're called.) They were extremely gullible, hitting each other more often than KB. One of the Armadillo's cannons had been torn off by a stray attack of unknown origin, and the other was firing wildly at the tiny creature of shadow. Dodging left and right, KB weaved left and right, a ball of black energy charging in one hand, before reaching the creature and slamming the ball of energy into the cannon. It detonated, blowing the cannon to shreds and darkening the metal side of the creature.
    It looked at the empty spaces where its cannons had been, and the little metal hatches closed. Another, much larger one opened on top, and (completely defying the laws of physics) a cannon almost as large as the creature itself popped out, firing a huge missile that started homing in on KB's position. Cursing, the shadow elemental started swooping away from the explosive missile. It was just about to hit when Zudamon slammed the Dragonfly with its hammer, right into the missile. When the smoke cleared, there was no sign of either of them. Tiring of the battle with the huge metal monster, KB streamed at it full speed.
    "Shadow blade..." It hissed, and a black blade formed in its hand. Hitting the monster full-on, there were two loud bangs as KB went straight through the metal armour at the front, and out through the back, barely slowing down. The hole was the least of the creatures worries, however - as the Shadow Blade attack finished, the top half of the creature slowly slid off the bottom - it had been completely cleaved in two. The smaller top half was immediately scooped up by Tien, who used it to pound several Polygon Pokemon into the ground.
    The four Mews were having a ball. K Rool's soldiers were far too slow and clumsy to face their superior agility, not to mention avoiding the psychic blasts issued from the psychic pokemon. Ganondorf's undead legions were faring a little better, their mindless bodies less prone to the psychic attacks, but with Link swinging wildly with his sword nearby, they didn't get much of a chance to come closer. The mews suddenly, as one, joined into a circle and started spinning wildly, energy building rapidly, before letting it loose in a huge beam of energy, slamming Dark Matter with an incredible blow which knocked it into the melee in which Goku, Gohan and Piccolo were fighting Frieza, Garlick Jr. and Garlick's three remaining Spice Boy minions. Pummeled to death within seconds, simply by being in the middle of the fight, Dark Matter simply dissolved. See? Told you it could be safely ignored.
    Angemon and Angewomon were facing Missingno. The holy and light attacks, to which Missingno was incredibly vulnerable, unleashed again and again without mercy were rapidly draining the thing, but in a small gap it used its dreaded Glitch attack and froze Angemon in stasis. It was about to do the same for Angewomon, when all of a sudden a flying body of electricity slammed into it, burning straight through and landing on the other side. The electricity dispersed on contact with the ground, and Raizap powered up for a second assault. As Missingno recovered from the shock, a blast of light slammed into it's side, from PokeProf's Flash Cannon. Almost directly after, Togepi's metronome conveniently produced a Solarbeam. FireDrake chose this moment to throw all three of the Ginyus he was fighting right into Missingno's back, or top, or the general part of the black mist that was facing him. Finding itself weakened by all these attacks, Missingno quickly absorbed the DBZ alien fighters to replenish its failing power, and then set about defending itself from its many attackers.
 
    Obviously, the fight was far too large and furious to describe for any length of time. The above happened in less than about twenty seconds. After watching this for several minutes more, the dark spirit began to begin doing what it had been sent here to do. Gathering energy from itself, the battle's output of energy and its connection to other dimentions, it began to glow with an impossible brownish-black light. Several of the battlers were foolish enough to stop fighting to see what it was, and got smashed by their less distracted opponents.
    However, when it released the attack, they would notice... Right... NOW!
    It flew into the center of the battlefield and let loose. The scenery seemed to melt away into a black void, and all but the most determined battlers stopped fighting. A sphere of Darkness continued to grow until it had engulfed the entire castle, and everyone found themselves floating on air. The sphere then began to shrink again as a hole in space appeared in the centre of the sphere, and the strength of the resulting vortex said everything in it was going to get sucked in.
    Many of the weaker minions were sucked in without a thought. Those incapable of flight were all sucked in easily too. The stronger flyers tried to escape, but they couldn't penetrate the sphere. One by one, each remaining creature was sucked in, as the void grew smaller and smaller and they were all pushed closer and closer to the hole... then it simply vaporised, leaving the castle completely empty.
    Two seconds later, it collapsed.

~-~-~-~  

Location: Hammy's Fortress, Black Version

www.pokebattles.com/black

 

    Hammy sat at a table surrounded by his most powerful HACs. Well, actually he sat on the table, on a tiny Hampster-sized throne. He was in a particularly bad mood, and with him being a powerful psychic there wasn't a single creature within a mile that didn't know about it.
    "Men, we have an emergency." He said. "Right in the middle of our invasion of the network, our Webmaster has decided to give us up. Black Version is being shut down."
    There were shocked gasps. Many of the HACs started talking about what this meant.
    "It means that, quite frankly, Black Version is going to be gone. Along with everyone in it. That means us."
    "Gone?"
    "All our work for nothing?"
    "I don't believe it!"
    "You'd better beleive it." Hammy snarled. "Has anyone got a suggestion as to how we could get out of this?"
    "Well, we're conquering five other versions... couldn't we move to one of them?"
    "We haven't gotten far enough in any of them yet..." Hammy said angrily. "We'd need to have taken control of enough of the version to open a portal from black again, and we haven't managed that in any of the versions yet."
    "How much time have we got?" Asked one of the HACs nervously.
    "How am I supposed to know? All I know is, we've got to find a way to either get the Webmaster to keep writing... or leave Black Version."
    "Err... I think I might have a way..." Said a tentative voice across from Hammy. Everyone turned to look at the HAC in question - He'd been newly promoted for the capture of a Narrator recently, and wasn't yet used to the power of being in such a high council.
    "We're listening..." Hammy growled.
    "When I captured the Narrator, there was another with him... From what we've overheard, he's a character from another version... Dark version, I believe..."
    "So? People from everywhere end up here eventually. Get to the point."
    "He said that there's a link between Dark and Black. It's easy to get from one to the other, if you know how."
    "Well done! Guards!" He called, and two heavy HACs opened the door and saluted. "Bring me the prisoner that came in with the Narrator. Now, my generals..."
    "Yessir!"
    "Gather our entire forces! We're moving! We're taking over Dark Version!" Hammy shouted triumphantly, then laughed evilly. "And you!" He called to the HAC who had suggested it. "You're the savior of our forces! And of me! You get a promotion! You're now my personal advisor!"
    The HACs kept moving, but there were a couple of muffled cries of pain as they hurt themselves in their confusion. Since when had Hammy started acting nice? This was starting to get weird...
    "Sir..." An older Hac stepped forward, looking a little annoyed. "I thought I was your advisor!"
    "Did you dare question me?" Hammy glared up at the HAC, who stepped back in fear.
    "No, Hammy, I swear! I didn't... Aaargh!" The Hac screamed as his body was torn apart by Hammy's psychic force. The others nodded, filing out even faster. That was more like it.
    "Now, get moving! I want our entire forces gathered within two hours!"
    With that, Hammy's evil laugh echoed over Black Version.

~-~-~-~

Universal Briefing Rooms

Location unknown

    From the outside, the building would have looked like a quiet, peaceful office block, painted peach and with a friendly sign posted on top.
    Except this building didn't have an outside.
    The staff of the building would have been friendly, cheerful, organised people, no matter what the business they were dealing with was.
    Except this building didn't have any staff.
    This building was the home of the Universal Briefing Rooms. Places that could hold unlimited people, didn't have any rules as to what went on or what was organised, could be accessed from any dimention, any place, and had extremely compeditive rates. Or would have, if they had any competition.
    And above all, it offered complete privacy. Nobody would ever know what happened in such a room. That's why you all have to keep really quiet for this bit, okay? We don't want them to notice us...
    Stepping up to the machine that would project his hologram into the room filled with his agents, Giovanni checked his hair, straightened his tie, set the machine to shadow his face and moved in.
    "My brothers!" He called over the massed troops. "It is time to take what is rightfully ours, is it not?"
    "In the name of Kain!" They called back. Giovanni accidentally punched himself in the gut. He took a closer look at the mob - high-tech uniforms, complete with evil-looking helmets; several screens in the background showing a repeated slogan - "Unity, Brotherhood, Peace" - and a red cut-corners triangle symbol with a scorpion tail in the middle. Now that he looked closer, all of them had the same symbol on their armour.
    Someone tapped him on the shoulder. A completely bald man with a goatee smiled charismatically. He noticed the red symbol again on this man's loose clothing.
    "I'm sorry, I think this might be your crowd." Giovanni said, looking slightly embarrassed.
    "Thank you." Kain considered shooting the man where he stood but refrained. Giovanni moved to the next one, checked it was his Rocket agents, and moved in.
    "Welcome, members of Team Rocket." He said, watching until the last of the rockets stopped talking and figeting. "We have something to talk about...
    "As you know, we are the owners of Dark Version, a powerful contender in the Pokebattles Network, which is a strong force in the pokemon world." He said. There was a light cheer. "However, our Webmaster has set certain conditions for our ownership. These are as follows.
    "One - We shall not attempt to endanger the Webmaster or his position in the network." There was some light muttering at this.
    "Two - We shall protect the version in the event of a hostile takeover crossover." This was said with a slight sneer which not a single Rocket failed to pick up.
    "And three - Should the Webmaster call upon us for a crossover of his own, we will obey. As you know, we have recently secured a base in Ruby Version, which is supplying us with weapons and technology. Now we have been called to take up arms against the Webmaster's greatest enemy... The opposite of him in every way, the epitome of good where he is evil, the yin and the yang... The eternal opponent of all Dark.
    "Light Version."
    Giovanni left a dramatic pause there, letting the many agents in the effectively boundless room talk about this. After a minute, he raised his hand for silence.
    "Light Version should not be considered too much of an obstacle. It is not known to have many characters; It has, indeed, never even reached the top 15 sites where we have stood at number one. But the Webmaster sees them as an enemy, and if we conquer them, that is one more version under Rocket control, is it not? So, you have one day to be ready. Tomorrow we march on Light Version."
    The cheers that came up were deafening. Team Rocket would control the network yet.

~-~-~-~

    A field somewhere in Dark Version

www.pokebattles.com/dark

 
    A huge group of people - well, not really all people; Creatures, Entities, Anthro animals, Video game characters, puffballs, the list could go on forever - stood around in a field, completely confused and all fighting forgotten.
    "This is not something you see everyday." Someone commented. An actual sound was enough to bring everyone back to their senses suddenly, and they quickly assembled into their respective sides. Of course, with the amount of people... err... miscellaneous things that were actually there, it meant that quite a few ended up on the wrong side, and there were mumbled apologies and pushing and shoving as they rearranged themselves to find their team.
    After about ten minutes, everyone seemed to be alright. Rachel stood at the front of the MBH team, looking across at Giovanni, heading the other.
    "You ready yet?"
    "Yeah, let's get to it."
    "Alright peoples! Angry scowls, threatening guestures on three!" Rachel called over her lot.
    "You heard her! Get ready!" Giovanni snarled back to his team.
    "One!" Cried Rachel.
    "Two!" Cried Gio.
    "Thr-"
    COUNTDOWN was STOPPED!
    Everyone fell over. This was quite painful, as the smallest fell first, followed by the larger on top, and so on until the huge digimon and other massive beings fell on top of everyone.
    They all got up, brushed themselves off, and saw the narrator. Or would have seen it, if it had a corporeal form... oh, you get the idea already.
    "A Narrator... that means..." Rache worked this out. "Oh god."
    POKEBATTLES UNIVERSE! Mwahahaha!
    Saiyan Devil Girl suddenly groaned, and seemed to fall down, faint. "Not pokebattles..."
    "Err... Which Version?" Said a figure in the middle of the good guy's side. As one, everyone turned to look at him.
    "Who're you?" Asked KB, speaking for everyone.
    "I'm Pokefreak... oh no, I just remembered..." He looked down at his human body, the salesman outfit, the tray of refreshments over his shoulders,  "Of course... anyone who goes into the pokebattles universe with an alter ego there becomes that alter ego. I'm The Popcorn Man here..."
    The Popcorn Man? Ha! The Webmaster's gonna love this one!
    Everyone took this in. Several other figures could be seen to have changed - Sky Squirtle, Master of Sky Version, had changed into SuperSquid; Double 0 Wiggly had become Iron Butterfly, Iron Version's Webmaster; and other changes.
    "Oh man... This is the worst thing that could have happened." PMan moaned.
    "What do you mean? Where are we?" Asked Firedrake, confused.
    "It should be obvious to you, I would have thought." Pokef... er, the Popcorn Man said, a little confused. "It's you, isn't it?"
    "Huh?"
    "What? I don't understand." Suikun said.
    SUIKUN is con-
    "Shut up." The Popcorn Man dismissed the Narrator. "Look at the sky! Doesn't this place seem just a little familiar to you?" He pointed up at the sky, which was a overbearing dark marone colour.
    "It's... Dark Version?" Guessed Iron Butterfly
    "What? Dark? No way..." FireDrake, with a powerful flap of his dragon-like wings, pushed up into the sky. A quick scan of his surroundings told him... exactly nothing.
    "Ask the Narrator..." Suggested Mirager.
    "Well, it certainly isn't Sky Version." SuperSquid said. "Which is where I'm going. Sky Portal!"
    SSQUID used SKYPORTAL!
    SSQUID was transported to SKY!
    SSQUID fell a VERY LONG WAY!
    SSQUID is in INCREDIBLE PAIN!
    Everyone sweatdropped. "Could you tell us where we are?" Asked Suikun.
    DARK VERSION!
    Everyone immediately turned and glared at FireDrake, who backed off a little.
    "What? It's not me... I have no idea what's going on!"
    "In case you've forgotten, you're the Webmaster of this version." The Popcorn Man grated.
    "Yeah, that's right..." Agreed Suikun, one of his more avid... opponents, for want of a better word. "Why did you pull us here?"
    "I swear... It had nothing to do with me..." FireDrake was almost pleading now, backing off as the others advanced.
    DARKWEBMASTER ordered it! The Narrator supplied helpfully.
    "See? You can't argue with the Narrator..."
    "Excuse me..." Said a grating voice. Everyone turned to see the entire opposing army, and the allies of the MB Heroes, looking at them confusedly.
    "Are you-a gonna be mucha longer, or shoulda we just get on with it ourselves?" Asked Mario.
    "Um..." Rache thought for a minute. "Go ahead. We're not stopping you."
    "Right." The video-game characters and the Bad Guys leapt into battle, causing a huge fight-cloud which obscured all sign of everything but the biggest monsters. The MB guys turned back to FireDrake... or the burnt patch of grass where he'd been a moment ago.
    "Hey, he's getting away!" Shouted someone, as tradition demanded.
    "Gotten away, I think..."
    KB streamed off after him, leaving a dark trail that quickly disappated. A couple of the other faster flyers crouched, ready to follow, but at that moment Link and Kirby came flying from the melee to land in the middle of them.
    "Err... we could use some help, I think..."
    The others sighed, and jumped into the fight. The Narrator looked on, his expression unreadable due to lack of a face.

~-~-~-~

Hammy's Dungeons, Black Version

www.pokebattles.com/black

    "Hey, you! Wake up!" An elderly guard-HAC yelled into the cell. He got no response. "I told you to wake up! Get moving!" He started rattling on the door, and yelled obscenely at the occupant of the cell.
    Hammy waited patiently. Or, more with the impatient building anger that seems like patience but could erupt at any moment into incredible violence. The effect of this was somehow ruined by his psychic abilities transmitting his anger throughout the room. The HAC rattling at the door finally sorted through the pockets of his baggy pants until he found a ring of keys, and opened the door with one.
    "Get up, Hammy wants you!" He snarled into the figure's face. He didn't seem to notice that Hammy and his flunkies were moving further down the corridor, the door had been locked, or that the skeleton he was yelling at had probably been dead longer than he'd lived.
    Trying to ignore the yelling from down the corridor, Hammy sighed. "That old HAC... Someday I won't let him out of that cell... But he's useful to have around even if he is blind as a bat and a little too enthusiastic."
    "Why'd you lock him in there?" Asked the HAC who had captured the Narrator and SUG.
    "Because if he's out, he'll insist on being in the cell with us, and interpret every single move made by our prisoner as an attempt to escape or harm me. Including cowering in fear, cries for mercy, etc. But I keep him because... well, he's the only one who would take the duty after what happened to the last one."
    "What ha-" He was cut off as another, more experienced HAC laid a hand on his shoulder and shook his head gently. There were things that were too cruel and evil to comprehend, even for HACs.
    So, finally, they came to the door. One of the HACs started to extend a key into the lock, but before he was halfway there Hammy thrust out a paw and the door disintergrated.
    "Aaiiee! What do you want?" Some Unimportant Guy cowered.
    "We want you to tell us how to get to your version." Hammy said, grinning wickedly. Grinning wickedly is quite difficult when you are a hampster, but Hammy pulled it off perfectly.
    "Never." Everyone was taken aback by the sudden change of tone - Cowering snivel to rock-hard determination.
    "We have many ways to break you..." One HAC said, rubbing his hands together in anticipation.
    "Do not." Hammy said. "Right now... nothing could break this mind. Except possibly..." Hammy grinned again, and a rather large block of ceiling crashed down right onto SUG's leg.
    "Damn... missed." Hammy's voice, though soft, could be heard clearly over the poor guy's screams. "Let's go. He'll be killed when the version collapses in on itself. Along with all the others that resisted me. Hahahah... after all Double D and his friends did to try to stop me... they'll all be killed. With no way back. Double D, even when killed, would have returned to Black a second time... except there will be no Black Version! The irony is too good! Let's march!"
    "But... aren'th you going tho exthract the informathion from the prithoner?" Asked one flunky HAC, talking like that because of the massive uppercut to the chin he'd just received from himself.
    "Think, thtupid." Hammy said. "Thychic!" Then he realised he'd been infected by the lisp, and exploded the HAC on the spot.
    "Was that necessary, sir?" Asked Hammy's new personal advisor.
    "When one is as great as I..." Hammy said kindly, then jumped on his shoulder and hissed into his ear "...Everything I do can be seen as necessary to you."
    "Yes... sir..."
    "Good. Now, let's see if those troops are ready yet..."

~-~-~-~

Somewhere in Light Version

www.pokebattles.com/light

    A moment ago, there had been nothing but a blank, grey stone wall at the end of a passageway.
    Now, there was a swirling dark vortex leading off into goodness-knows where. Well, we know where it leads to, don't we?
    Two black-coated Rockets, a male and a female, snuck out and looked around for a moment before ducking back into the hole. Soon after, a large amount of TR troops started marching into the corridor noisily, with Giovanni at their center.
    With all this commotion, it wasn't long before someone walked up to meet them. It was an average-looking human with brown hair, round glasses, and a green jumper. The Rockets prepared themselves for battle.
    "Howd'ly-ho, Neighboreenos!" He said in a friendly tone. "The name's Flanders. What brings you here?"
    Almost all of the Rockets hurt themselves, then huddled. They'd done everything in their power to prepare for mass resistance, but nothing in their training had taught them how to deal with a friendly welcome.
    "These people are mad..."
    "Maybe it's just him..."
    "Yeah, good point."
    Apparently having come to an agreement, the Rocket Hordes got back into position. One of them pulled out a pokeball.
    "Arcanine, go! Fire Blast!"
    The huge flame attack contacted before Flanders could react, reducing him to ash. The Rockets marched on; They didn't know how to deal with someone like Ned, and so marched on to find someone who they could deal with.

~-~-~-~

    Somewhere else

    Err... is it just me or are these paragraphs getting shorter and shorter every time?
    What are you doing here?
    I'm a Dark Version Fan! Do you think I'm not gonna read this fanfic?
    DVFAN? Ha! More like DVCRITIC.
    Hey, all I'm pointing out is that they're getting so short it just starts to get confusing.
    Yeah? Well, here's to that. Seeya!
    What? Hey, you can't do tha-

~-~-~-~

    A cave in Dark Version

www.poke- hey, why do I even bother? You're here already...

    KB slowly crept into the cave. FireDrake's path hadn't been hard to follow - he left practically a comet's trail against the dark sky, and when he landed, the burnt grass and rock left a trail a blind man could follow, although he'd probably go "Ah, oh, owch hothothot!" and try to get off it as soon as possible.
    And the steady flickering glow coming from further within the cave was a pretty fair hint too.
    Efficiently hidden in the darkness, KB sat and watched FireDrake for a moment. He was sulking.
    Now, certain realists among the readers may think that this was a fairly improbable circumstance. FireDrake was, if you wanted to get technical, a hell of a lot of fire held together in a half-dragon-half-human shape by a few psychic restraints. Such a being should, with extremely little exception, not be capable of sulking. Or, for that matter, emotion, intelligence, movement or existance.
    But if that's your type of thing, then you should probably not be reading this. (Technically, I shouldn't be writing it.) This is a universe where trees are considered deadly beings (Even when not travelling towards them at terminal speeds) and reality itself is at the mercy of a booming voice. So a living fire elemental should be no problem... hold on, I'm getting something...
    Alright, it's just been pointed out to me that FireDrake is not actually from this universe. So now I'd like to say... shut up. This is my story. If you don't like it, go and read something else. K?
    So... where was I?
    KB looked at FireDrake, sulking, curled up in a ball. It was, at any time, difficult to distiguish FireDrake's features due to the fiery makeup of his body, but when curled up, there was no evidence of anything. For all KB knew, he could be staring right at him.
    "Stupid..." FireDrake started to mutter, but couldn't think of a suitable word that encompassed all the Message Boarders, and gave up.
    "Err... FireDrake..." KB said softly. FireDrake immediately jumped into a fighting stance, flaring brightly. KB, a creature of shadow, recoiled. Realising it was him, FireDrake dropped his stance, but the fire stayed just as bright - The closest comparison to adrenalin.
    "You know they're gonna blame you for that for a long time..." KB said simply.
    "It wasn't me... why would I do that?"
    "I dunno... but this is your version... And you did something similar a long time ago..."
    FireDrake thought back... It'd started when he and Suikun, his greatest... opponent... on the message boards had been transported out to the middle of the desert, for some reason or other. Anyway, the rest of them had turned up, they'd all ganged up on him, and he'd teleported away and left almost all of them in the desert with... a few difficulties to overcome. Including no teleportation, no flying and no digging. And no map. He'd brought them all back after a couple of days anyway.
    "Well... there is one way we could convince them..." He said, thinking hard.
    "And that would be?"
    "Get the Dark Webmaster?"
    "But you're the-"
    "No I'm not. I'm FireDrake. The DW is a completely different entity."
    "But I thought in pokebattles... Pokefreak said..."
    "It probably had something to do with the fact that I never actually created a form for Dark. He was nothing but a name... I probably would have ended up looking something like you..."
    "So... What are we going to do now?"
    "I'd go and try to find the Dark Webmaster, but there's one really big flaw there..."
    "What?"
    "It happened in one of the battles a while ago... two of the same being can't exist together. Of course, since this is a fairly non-realistic universe, the effect is reduced, if me and the Dark Webmaster meet up... Like matter and antimatter..."
    "Both would be destroyed..."
    "And, well, for one I have no great desire to die. But if Dark dies... Dark Version dies. Along with everything in it. And, as until a short time ago, I was the Dark Webmaster. And I haven't worked this hard for nothing." He noticed KB looking at him strangely. "And, of course, I don't want to die. Sorry, I just had to put in the corny bit."
    "Don't ever do that again."
    "Amen."
    "So, if you can't find the Dark Webmaster..."
    FireDrake said nothing, just grinned. This was virtually impossible to tell, but KB was his best friend and had learnt to interpret his expressions.
    "No. Not a chance, not a hope..."
    "You will. I know you will."
    "No, I won't, not on your... You're right, I will. I hate working with you sometimes..."
    "I've gotta stay in hiding... as soon as the others get out of the fight they're in they're gonna start hunting me. I'm can hold my own, but not against too many of them."
    "Alright, I'm off..." KB melted into the shadows, and left.
    FireDrake stared at the wall for a moment, then said to noone in particular, "I think I'd better prepare..."

~-~-~-~

Portal field, Black Version

I'm not gonna bother writing the addies here from now on, so there.

    Hammy triumphantly led his army into the field which his psychic powers had extracted the location of from SUG's brain. Confusing? Don't worry about it. Don't hurt yourselves, anyway.
    So, as Hammy found the area, he laughed maniacally for the last time in Black Version, before yelling.
    "WEBMASTER, OPEN THE PORTAL!"
    His psychic half gave the imperious command some impressive overtones and echoes, and sure enough the marone portal spun open, about three metres in diameter. Hammy snarled.
    "Too small... It'll take ages to get our army through."
    "Try asking the webmaster to make it bigger?" His advisor suggested.
    "Good idea... WEBMASTER, ENLARGE THE PORTAL!"
    And the portal grew larger, now a good ten metres. Hammy repeated his command again, and the portal grew even larger.
    "And now, let us march!"
    The clowns marched, one scout team to begin, followed by Hammy with his Royal Hamster Guard, then the rest of the army.
    They entered into a similar field, the swirling portal of jet black behind them. The HACs spread out to take out any threats in the area. Hammy looked around.
    "Yes, this will be the perfect spot for our base. Alright everyone, get building."
    "Building, sir?"
    "Of course! We have a fortress to create. Just because we're not in our home version anymore doesn't mean I can't have an impressive fortress!"
    "Sir... we've found something!"
    "What?"
    "It appears to be a congregation of... professors."
    Hammy started to reply, then stopped, every inch of his iron self-control needed to prevent him from hurting himself in front of his troops. Steeling his jaw, he said "Where are they?"
    The HAC pointed. Now that it was pointed out, a strange village could be seen in that direction.
    "Well then... let's see what's happening over there..."
 

    Soon after...

    "So... You're the Oaks from every version that have been killed off, lived in Black Version a while, and then moved to this... Dark Version?"
    "Err... Yes..." Answered the other hesitantly.
    Hammy and the Oak Mob Leader were having a pleasant interview, as one high authority to another.
    That is to say, Hammy had the Leader on a rack, stretching slowly and with a HAC pointing a high-calibre weapon into each side.
    "Do you have any information that would be of use to us on this version?" Hammy asked, in a tone that indicated that saying 'no' would... not be a good idea for someone who wished to live a long and healthy life.
    Although few people who met Hammy led long and healthy lives.
    "Well..." He scrabbled to think up an answer that didn't contain the word no. "I don't have any information right now, but I can find some..."
    "Continue. It's not like you're going anywhere."
    "We've been in Dark Version since battle thirteen and haven't been mentioned once since. Do you think we've been doing nothing? We've got about as advanced a technology as anywhere else you'd care to look, a healthy disrespect for the pokebattles network, more pokemon knowledge than we could teach you in your lifetime..."
    "I think these people would be useful as allies, sir." Hammy's advisor advised.
    "Allies... I think not. Servants, maybe, but not allies. Will you serve me in my mission to take over the network, destroy all other versions, and do what even the great Doompuff failed to do?"
    Everyone in the room gasps. "Hammy... you don't mean to..."
    "That's right... eliminate the entire population of Aqua version!"
    Everyone fell over.
    "Oh... and kill the Almighty Webmaster."
    "You're asking us to serve you?" Said the Oak Leader, the slightest accent of a sneer almost being heard.
    "You don't appear to have much choice in the matter, mind you."
    "We will." He bowed his head in defeat.
    "Then let us go outside and tell the others of our decision."
    They stepped from the quiet meeting room into the hell that had been raging on outside. Oaks and HACs were shooting each other with everything they had, and both had some very interesting weapons indeed.
    In the tradition of shootouts everywhere, the scenery had taken some extremely heavy damage while very few casualities had been taken on either side.
    "Now..." Hammy started, then realised that everyone was simply continuing with their battle. A mass Disable attack stopped that.
    "Stop your quabbling. We're friends now. We've got a version to take ov-"
    "Sir, there's something else over here... looks powerful..."
    "Is it heading this way?"
    "Yes..."
 

Very soon after (Hey, three in a row for black... lucky them...)

    "That's them there."
    Hammy looked at the three mysterious figures. In fact, they were very mysterious. About as mysterious as any figure could get. Mysteriousity was built into their very beings. You could feel it radiating off them, so powerfully that you felt that even each of them didn't know who the other two were. They probably didn't know who they were. It was so powerful that they probably didn't have someone to be.
    The effect was even greater on Hammy, who was psychically subsceptable. He actually had to shake himself to look at them and convince himself that they existed.
    Then they noticed him.
    After conferring breifly among themselves, they suddenly vanished in a blinding flash of dark light, if that makes sense. Which it don't.
    Not even Hammy's self control could stop him hitting himself this time. But Hampster paws don't exactly hurt.
    "Wow... they were strong..." The Oak Leader said, crouching next to him. "They could have wiped out our entire community by clicking their fingers..."
    "How do you know?" Hammy snarled, more annoyed that he might be hinting that they were stronger than him than actually curious. He noticed a strange device on the Oak's head.
    "Old Anime tool. Scouter. Shows the power level of any being."
    "Ah, Dragonball Z..." Hammy said, having been a huge fan of the show. Or more accurately, the powers of the characters.
    "This is a modified version for pokemon. Shows the relative level of the creature."
    "I'd like one of those..."
    Oak shrugged, reached into his backpack and handed one to him. It looked a little ridiculous, since it covered most of his face.
    "Maybe you can custom-design one for me later... how does it work?"
    "Quite simple... It recieves commands from the brainwaves... You think what you want, and it does it. Have to push the little button on the side to turn it on though."
    Hammy pushed the button, and then concentrated. The thing exploded.
    "Hmm... Brainwaves a little too strong." The Oak said, trying not to laugh at Hammy's blackened face.
    "Let's get back to the base and plan."

~-~-~-~

Mammoth Fortress, Light Version

(On Strike)

    The Team Rocket agents had gone to find something they could deal with, and now they'd found it. The majority of the population of the Fortress was fighting them now.
    It was varied, to say the least. Men in heavy armour, some riding horses, others riding Ponyta and Rapidash, others on foot, charged the forces without mercy. Sorcerers flung powerful elemental magic attacks. Archers rained death upon their opponents. Nearby, a lot of water beings fought valiantly - Zora and Mermaids, Water pokemon, and other elementals and creatures which no-one could put a name to. The X-men were there too, for some reason, unleashing their various powerful attacks everywhere.
    So, it wasn't quite as diversified as the MB Heroes... but it was still pretty impressive. And it gave Team Rocket the impression that Light Version was a pretty weird place.
    And Team Rocket were wondering about that 'Not Much Resistance' thing that Giovanni had been talking about.
    As it was, the battle was almost even. But Team Rocket, slowly but surely, looked like they were winning.
    The superior numbers of the Rocket's pokemon were pushing the opponent into a small group. But they didn't seem to be trying to kill... Then a Rocket threw all of his pokeballs, and six of the huge rock snakes known as Onix came out and surrounded the opponent, leaving them in a circle of rocks that was pretty much inpenetrable.
    And of course, with a grand entrance, Giovanni stood on the outstretched head of one of the snakes. "Good evening, citizens of Light Version."
    "Light Version?"
    "What are you talking about?"
    "What's Light Version?"
    There wasn't a Rocket in the place that didn't hurt himself then. Giovanni looked back to his specialists.
    "This is Light Version, isn't it?"
    "Yes, sir. No doubt about it."
    "Then..."
    "I've heard of this before, sir... Sometimes if a place hasn't actually been featured in any battles, or even mentioned in the version... They might not know... they might consider this the 'real world' - A place without Narrator or Webmaster or any form of superior being directing their fate." His tone of voice showed that he didn't believe such a place could exist.
    Giovanni thought quickly, and addressed the crowd. "I am truly sorry. We have mistaken you for our enemy. We will offer you our alliance, if you willl forgive us."
    There were mutters on both sides at this news. Giovanni turned, with a furious face, and nodded as if to say "Get moving, return your pokemon." They did. Giovanni had forgotten, however, that he was still on the head of one of the pokemon, and fell painfully to the ground.
    This comic scene did much to assist the friendship of the people. It wasn't long before they were cleaning up the debris and chatting away like old friends. Amazingly, no-one had died.
    "Sir, we've got an emergency..." One of the intelligence rockets called.
    "Are there more of them coming?" Giovanni sighed.
    "No... It's from back home... Hammy's trying to take over our version!"

~-~-~-~

    The Battlefield, Dark Version

(On strike)

    The fight... hadn't progressed. It was amazingly convenient in these huge fights how nobody of importance really gets killed or crippled. Usually, anyway.
    The Narrator was just getting plain bored. The fighting was far too fierce to Narrate. It began to wander away from the fight slightly, and saw something very strange.
    Then it recognized it, and shrank away in fear. It was them!
    A trio of incredibly powerful creatures of huge mystery. The Narrator knew their secret, however. They knew that, too. Way back in battle #5, they'd killed it. Literally. Killing the Narrator was no easy task.
    Hiding behind a tree (Not very effective as it's nothing but a huge voice...), the Narrator watched the beings known only as the Shadowy Trio move up and look at the battle. They appeared to be taking notes.
    A suitably impressive hit from Frieza sent Megakabuterimon flying out, and he landed on the three of them. When the huge bug got up, there was no sign of them.
    The Narrator, confused and bored, decided to step into the fight.
    GOOD GUYS were RANDOMLY TELEPORTED throughout DARK VERSION!
    The assorted Video Game Villians stopped in mid-attack as their opponents simply disappeared.
    ROTVGVHQ appeared!
    Every person on the field tryed to work this out. The Narrator had actually managed to pronounce that. Nobody could work out what it was. The Narrator sighed.
    Video Game Villians Headquarters appeared!
    "Ah." The call went up throughout the ranks. "Where did that come from?"
    The Narrator looked suprised. Wasn't it one of you?
    "No..."
    It caught a glimpse of the three dark figures teleporting out. Oh well... enjoy your little fortress...

~-~-~-~

Black Version

www.pokebattles.com/black

    When it happened, everyone knew. It came like a psychic call throughout the very large populace of Black Version. This was the end. Black Version was being shut down. It would become little more than a void in space.
    Already the basic laws that governed Black Version were beginning to shut down. Laws like gravity. Physics. The basic bonds that kept everything together. Reality itself was being put through the blender.
    But something strange had happened.
    Black Version might be saved.
    And the biggest irony was that it was all Hammy's doing.
    The portal which he had opened was growing bigger and bigger. And now that Black was collapsing, it meant that everything was being sucked in through that vortex. Everyone knew this, as they started to be pulled towards the void. Exactly how they knew... that wasn't quite certain.
    The Editor knew. He was laughing at Hammy's misfortune, that the death trap that he'd been left in was going to take him straight back to his home version.
    He laughed with glee, ignoring the crushing pain in his leg. Yes, he'd get Hammy for what he'd done...
    Just as he thought that, the huge stone blocks that had made up the prison started floating up and away. The massive block on his leg floated up, closely followed by him himself.
    And as he felt himself begin to be tugged by the currents of reality that would take him directly back to Dark Version, one by one the blocks around him simply flew in that direction.
    Unfortunately, the one in front of him was one of the last to move. He smacked right into it, and it began to slowly move towards his home.
    Even worse, the one directly behind him was not moving slowly. At all.
    At the height of his mirth, the Editor died, squished between huge stones. It probably wouldn't have been much consolation to him that when the block had actually hit him, he was less than twenty metres from Dark Version. But he died in Black Version. And he wasn't coming back.

The Black Portal, Dark Version

www.pokebattles.co- hey, wait a minute...

    Debris flying everywhere, people flung uncomfortably across various objects, the last of the Black population came from the portal.
    Everyone expected the portal to close, but... it didn't. It stayed there, an endless black swirling vortex.
    Double D looked around, seeing his friends, the LFF, and various other creatures which had been killed throughout time.
    "So... Dark Version, I believe... One step further away from home..."
    "Hey, look, some locals!" Eve pointed. The three figures looked up from their notes, and vanished.
    "Wow... some welcome..."
    A scroll flew from the portal and hit Double D on the head. He wasn't hurt as much from it as hurting himself afterwards about why it was there. Eve read from it.
    "The Black Portal shall stay alive in Dark forever... Dark shall be known as the land of the dead from now on..."
    "What?"
    "As far as I can tell, anyone who dies goes to Black Version, then comes out of this portal into Dark."
    "Sounds about right to me..."
    "So..."
    "I think we should get moving, before Hammy finds us here in the open..."

~-~-~-~

    The three mysterious figures, it seemed, were doing quite a tour of Dark Version. Various famous figures spotted them, for a few seconds before they winked out again. Nobody knew what they were there for. That was their job.
    And then, in the center of Dark Version, they appeared. One of them made a guesture, and pointed at the ground. It shook, and the three were suddenly on a tiny circular island, floating in the air.
    The air around them grew darker as they concentrated. Soon they were a dark cloud in the sky. Even through the darkness, three points of light could be seen... although the light was extremely dark, and shone over the land, shedding some very strange shadows indeed...
    One of them on each corner of the island, their powers started to join up. First a triangle of power formed, then as it spread, more power gathering, it formed into a double-triangle hexagon-star, and the power was almost tangible in the air.
 
    Back at Hammy's base within the Oak's camp, the Oak Leader saw the cloud in the sky. He used the scouter to find the reading, and waited as it grew, and grew... and stopped.
    He stared at the number in shock for a second, then fainted.

    Garrett the Holy looked up from his endless battle with the entire Orcish Horde, as they all suddenly wailed and dropped down in worship of the power-filled cloud. He considered taking advantage of this and killing various of their number, but instead took advantage of this and started running. Snorts and growls behind him told him that the Horde weren't with him on this one.

    KB, streaming across the sky, saw the darkening and felt that the Dark Webmaster would probably be involved. But something within him told him to stay back...
 
    Various other amusing incidents occured too, but the fanfic's long enough as it is...

    Then, they released the attack. The power was such, that it could rearrange the face of Dark Version as we know it...
    And it did...

1