Brotherly Battle

Brotherly Battle

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1

The hallway was quiet, which is to be expected for two-thirty in the morning.
When a line of blue-white light starts moving along the wall, there’s no one around to see it. It moves without noise, getting longer and longer, starting from the floor and going up in a perfectly straight line.
Suddenly it stops, then makes a right angle and heads right, still going in a straight line. It stops again and starts going down.
Down and down, until it hits the floor.
The rectangle of wall that is inside the line of light begins to glow itself, glowing in the same blue-white light.
The wall suddenly disappears, and if there had been anyone to look inside, they would have seen a tunnel of sorts, made of the same blue-white light, with another room on the far end.
A figure stands at the entrance to the other hole, but he starts walking forward. All his attention seemed focused on walking through.
As soon as both of his feet are on the beige carpet of the hallway, the blue-white hole vanishes in an instant.
The man takes a second to look at his surroundings, noting the night-light. He knows that a night-light is a good sign.
He walks down the hall, his footfalls making no noise whatsoever and glances into one of the rooms at the end.
Inside he sees what is unmistakeably a kid’s bedroom. A mess all over the floor, three different console controllers trailing their cables across the length of the room and, the big giveaway, the fact that the youngster is sleeping in a bed on the far side of the room. He goes to walk in, taking a quick glance over his shoulder into the other room to check on the parents.
He stops as he sees another kids room.
His mind does a bit of quick thinking and he sighs, knowing what he now has to do.
Having already made his decision, he walks into the first kid’s room and looks around. Spotting what he’s looking for on the floor, he picks it up and looks at the cartridge in the back.
Pulling a little device out of his pocket, he inserts the cartridge into the device. On a small screen a number quickly goes from 0 to 100 and he pulls the cartridge out, placing it back where he got it.
He walks out of the first kid’s room and into the other one. Looking around again, he spots what he’s looking for and he stopped, a frown creasing his face.
What he’s looking for is in the kid’s hands.
He takes a step closer and looks carefully, wondering if he could pick it up without hassle.
Reaching forward, slowly and carefully, he pulls the object out of the boy’s hands.
Quietly removing the cartridge and placing it in his device, he waits with a fast-beating heart as the number climbs to 100. When it’s done he puts it back into the object and goes to place the object back.
But he freezes as the boys moves.
He feels his heart stop and his blood run cold. He stops breathing, trying not to make a single sound, desperate not to wake him up.
After what feels like forever, there’s no sign of further movement from the boy and he lets out the breath he was holding.
Quickly but carefully placing the object near the kid's hand, he walks out of the room and back into the hall.
Letting out an all but silent sigh, he tries to calm his heart down. After a minute of deep breathing, he turns and faces the wall that he had walked through earlier.
He glances to his right, at the bedroom doors, and although his face shows no emotion at all, his eyes betray a sign of concern.

- - -

2

The next day, all of Marks attention was focused on one thing: Timing his Boostball Boosts correctly to get to the Bomb-slot to activate the platforms and get the Spider Guardian to roll into the electric pillars and kill him.
He was playing Metroid Prime 2: Echoes for the Gamecube and he had been spending all of his time on it since getting it a few days before.
He had pestered his mom for a week, and she had finally given in and bought it for him. Of course, now he had to empty the dishwasher every night for a week, but he saw it as a small price to pay for such an awesome game.
“Ah, no!” he yelled as he lost yet more life.
He was down to 51 points of health and he knew that he still had a lot to do.
He gritted his teeth and began to move the controller around in a vain attempt to get her to move quicker.
“Hey Mark!” Jacob yelled as he ran into the room.
His younger brother’s sudden appearance distracted him and he rolled into the boss.
“Ah! Not now!”
He glanced up at his health; 4 points were left and the warning symbol was flashing.
“But you said that you’d fight me on Pokémon today.”
“I’m kinda busy right now!”
“But you said…”
“In a min-”he crashed into the boss and the Game Over sequence began “-ute…” he looked his brother “Thank you very much.”
His brother grinned. “So, you can play now?”
“Well…” he said, going to argue, but he looked at his brother and thought better of it. His brother had always been the favourite with his mother, mostly because he was younger. He knew that if he said no, or even if he said that he’d do it after lunch, there would be tantrums and that he would get in trouble. Of course, with their mother out at work, he’d save his tantrum until later, but that wouldn’t make much difference.
He didn’t want his new the game taken away from him.
“Oh…go and get your Advance, then” Jacob was gone “…and don’t forget the Link Cable!” he yelled after him.
Reaching over and turning the console off, he gets up and looks around the room, searching for his own GBA.
He begins to search more carefully when he can’t find it.
He’s still looking as Jacob walks back in.
“Ready?”
“Hang on a sec, I can’t find my Advance.” He looks a Jacob “You don’t know where I put it, do you?”
Jacob shrugs and starts looking around the room too.
After searching for nearly 10 minutes, he sits down on the bed and tries to think.
“Where did I put it?” he whispers to himself.
He leans back on the bed and something digs into his back.
“Wha…?”
He rolls over and digs under his covers…only to find his GBA. He shakes his head, remembering that he had been playing it late last night and must have fallen asleep while playing.
Grabbing some new batteries and switching them with the old ones, he switches his GBA on.
It took him a while to get to the nearest Pokémon Centre because he’d dropped his Flying Pokémon off before going out to train some of his weaker Pokémon that he wanted to Evolve.
Jacob became extremely impatient and fidgety while he was doing this.
“Hurry up, Mark.” He repeated on a constant basis.
Mark just ignored him as best as he could, wanting to get to the Centre and get the battle over and done with.
Eventually, after taking a little extra time to avoid random battles, he reached the centre and got his group out of the PC.
His best group had been the same for a while, with his lead, and best, Pokémon being Mightyena.
He knew that his brother favoured Mewtwo, and had used him in the few battles and so Mightyena’s Dark moves came in handy.
They linked up their GBA’s and then checked into the Colosseum.
As they waited for the battle to start, he ran over the basic idea for his strategy, which was to basically kick the crap out of him. Usually he let his brother win, because when he lost a tantrum usually ensued, but this time he wasn’t gonna hold back.
The screen went dark as the battle began, and they both stared at their screens.
The blackness seemed to last longer than it should have and mark was worried that the game had locked up.
The blackness was suddenly replaced by rows and rows of tiny little 0’s and 1’s switching and moving around. He sighed as he realised that something must have screwed up, and so he turned the game off.
But the screen didn’t shut down.
Now he was really worried.
He thought about it for a sec and then decided to take the batteries out. Before he could even turn the GBA over, an intense bright light shined from the screen. It hit him in the eyes and, even when he closed them it was still there. He dropped his GBA onto the floor and somehow the light was still shining in his eyes.
Even with his arms in front of his face, the light refused to become any dimmer.
Suddenly it was gone and he could see again. There wasn’t any image left on his vision like there would be normally.
He still blinked a few times, mostly out of shock more than anything else.
He looked over at Jacob and could tell by the look on his face that the same thing had happened to him.
He looked down at the GBA and he saw that it was off, just like it was supposed to be.
“What was that?” Jacob said.
“I don’t know” he said, picking the GBA up a looking at it. Finding nothing wrong, he looked back at his brother.
“I don’t know…”

- - -

3

Jacob began to feel strange as he looked down over himself.
His skin...it was turning smooth and sleek....as well as blue. He looked at his hands and saw that they began to shrink with the rest of him. His fingers started to retract and merge into short digits and short sharp claws began to make their way out of them.
His bones started to pop and shift around silently, his stance shifting to inverse as his feet began to shift into small paws, his toes also began a merging process and retracted into digits too. More sharp claws emerged from them.
His spine crackled as a fin like ridge started its way from his neck down his back and a long tail began its way outward above his tail bone. It also is covered in the smooth blue skin as it split at the end and shaped into a long fin. The fin from his neck moves down over his new tail too.
His ears turn thinner and thinner, and become rippled. Pushing their way out, forming fan like fins, while the area around his neck forms out into a large thin white fin making a kind of large collar. His skin finishes turning a cool sleek blue and his changes continue as his face pushes outward into a short muzzle. His eyes go from brown to a green with a cat-like slit in them. His changes complete as does his thinking, now that of a Vaporeon. He looks over at Mark and his changes.

“J-Jacob...?!" Mark asked in shock as he began changing too, somehow expecting a Mewtwo from him.
He felt somewhat itchy, as a light grey fur began sprouting over his body, and black fur did the same on his back, hands, arms, feet and legs.
His hands felt stiff, as did his feet. He noticed as his nails were turning sharper and whiter and his fingers and toes were retracting, becoming paws. Afterwards, his eyes started turning from brown to red, the pupil black and the white of his eyes to yellow. His senses nearly tripled as his nose began to turn black and cold, as well as wet. His ears became pointed and long, somewhat canine.
The fur began thickening, forming a nice coat. His insides and bones shifted around painlessly and he had to fall onto all fours. His shirt had slipped off and a long tail had just ripped its way through his shorts and was swiftly enveloped in the dark black fur as well. His face began an extent into a muzzle, as sharp canine teeth formed; his tongue thinning. His ears angled, their interior becoming black, the exterior into the grey fur. Two black strips appeared at an angle beside his eyes and another two between his eyes, into a long insignia. Soft leathery pads beneath his new paws made it easier to walk. The long black fur on his back thickened and extended more like an extra layer. His mind cleared, as his new instincts took over he looked at his brother and thoughts of fighting kicked in. He let out a growl.

Jacob let out a water gun as Mark dogded it and it smashed the TV in two.
Mark followed the onslaught with a tackle, knocking Jacob down, he recovered swiftly though. Jacob then used a Quick attack and it startled Mark and knocked him back into the door. It broke and he also got back up.
He countered it with Tackle, sending Jacob into the bed, smashing it. They both felt tired, almost knocked out. They both thought to use Takedown and began a charge at each other.
They collided head on and both looked into each others eyes and fell over.
They’d KO'd themselves.

- - -

4

The strange doorway opened up in exactly the same way it had the previous night and the same man poked his head around the edge.
He took a quick look around, making sure that no one had seem him, and then stepped through, the door closing like before.
‘Right,’ he thought ‘now where have you gone and got too?’
It didn’t take him long to find them, spotting the mess in the kid's bedroom as soon as he got near the door.
On the floor a Vaporeon and a Mightyena lay unconscious, breathing fast.
He grinned.
‘Heh, looks like they did half of my job for me.’
He reached into his pocket and pulled out two tiny little balls, half red and half white.
Pressing the button on them, they grew in size and he threw both of the balls at the unconscious Pokémon.
They hit them and the two Pokémon faded into the red light that got pulled into the balls. They fell to the floor with a soft thud.
Still grinning, he picked them up, put them in his pocket and went to leave. He stopped at the door to the room and turned back, looking into the room. He stared at the destruction brought on by the two Pokémon.
Thoughts ran through his head.
In the end he just looked away, still thinking, but knowing that he had to get back.
He went to the wall and pulled a knife out of his pocket. Bending down he dug the knife into the wall and drew it upward, leaving a thin line of blue light behind it. Once it was at head height, he pulled it out and turned it horizontally dragging it through the wall again, before bringing it back down to make a door shape.
He placed his hand on the wall inside the door shape and closed his eyes concentrating.
Suddenly the wall disappeared, a tunnel replacing it.
He opened his eyes and walked through, stepping out into a warehouse-like building on the other side.
The doorway vanishes once again and he just stands next to the wall, thinking.
“Hey!” someone says.
He looks up, and someone he’s never seen before walks up to him.
“The boss wants to see you. Now!”
“Oh does he now…”
He pushes past the man and walks straight for the stairs.
‘What does he want now?’ he thought.

He walked strait into his office a few minutes later, not even bothering to knock.
“You wanted to see me?” he said, standing in the doorway.
“Yes, I did. Please take a seat.” He gestured to the chair in front of his desk.
As usual, his voice was perfectly calm and just a little too smug for his liking.
He sat down, but then he lifted his feet up and rested them on the corner of the table.
“What’s up, G?” he said.
He saw annoyance creep into his eyes but not his face.
“Don’t call me that. You know my name.”
“I know, but your name has four syllables, and I’m too lazy to bother with a name like that. Besides, I like G. Don’t you?”
G didn’t rise to the bait.
“I only wanted to inquire as to how things were going.”
‘Yeah right, my eye you did.’ He thought, but he said “Same as ever.”
“Good.”
Neither of them said anything for a while.
“Anything else?” he said in the end, suddenly wanting to get some fresh air, or at least get some air that wasn’t near him.
“Actually there is. I’d like it if you could increase your catch rate.”
“Ain’t gonna happen.”
“That wasn’t a suggestion.”
He laughed.
“Really, well that’s too bad. The amount you get is my limit. Any more and…well, you know…”
G stared at him for a few seconds.
“Well, my advice to you, would then be to find a way to increase it.”
He rolled his eyes “Also ain’t gonna happen.”
“Listen you…”
“No you listen.” He interrupted. He knew this would annoy G and he could see it by his expression. “I ain’t one of your stupid little Grunts. You DO NOT order me around. Don’t forget, you came to ME for help, so don’t think you can start telling me what to do because I don’t conform to your standards. You don’t like it, fine, but I’m outta here.”
G didn’t say anything for a long time, he just sat there and stared at him while he stared back.
“Fine.” He said in the end.
He took his feet off of the desk and stood up.
He was the one with a smug smile this time as he left.
“This isn’t over.” G said behind him.
He stopped only for a second, before leaving without saying anything.
He walked through the building to his storage area.
While he was walking, he was also thinking.
‘That’s it,’ he thought ‘I’m outta here. That guy thinks he can order me around, well he’s got another thing coming.’
He walked into the storage area and grabbed a pack and started piling all of his stuff inside of it. There wasn’t much. Most of it was tiny little red and while balls that he had gotten from earlier missions.
He sighed inwardly, wishing he’d done this sooner. There was no chance of taking them back, but at least he knew somewhere to take them where they’d be safe.
He pulled his two latest victims out of his pocket.
‘Well guys, hope you’re not mad at me. I’m gonna need you for getting out of here.’
He left the room and closed the door behind him.
He sighed and mentally prepared himself for the task ahead.