Northern Star
folder
Pokemon › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
10
Views:
6,730
Reviews:
22
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Category:
Pokemon › General
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
10
Views:
6,730
Reviews:
22
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
0
Disclaimer:
Pokemon is the exclusive intellectual property of Nintendo, with whom I am not affiliated. I make no profit from this writing (though I accept donations).
Interlude: H71 and Mr. Rainbow
This little thingy will act as a bridge between parts 1 and 2. The characters that are going to be part of the recurring plot have all been introduced. From here on out, they'll have room to stretch out, find themselves, have lots of kinky sex, kill some motherfuckers and blow some shit up.
Ready? Go!
****************************************************************************************************************
H71's journey had been a long and incredible one. It had borne silent witness to the birth of stars and the death of systems. With its built-in warp capacitor, it could travel the black nothingness between stars in a matter of weeks - on a galactic scale, it was impossibly fast. It had traveled an incalculable number of miles during its lifetime, and had no plans of stopping.
It spoke of the vastness of space that despite H71's incredible speed, in its three thousand years of constant searching, it had covered less than a thousandth of a percent of the galaxy.
H71 cared not for the almost guaranteed futility of its search. It was the most patient being ever to exist. It was comfortable - if the word applies - in its role. It had searched fruitlessly for three millennia, and would search for at least three more. Resigned to its eternity of wandering, it had developed a near-consciousness that took pleasure in its own purity of purpose.
H71 was a happy probe.
H71 was as happy as Marcus Ranek and Asenath Culexus, as they stood in each other's arms mere hundreds of thousands of miles away. As Marcus kissed Asenath gently on the forehead, her happiness lit her psychic mind like a beacon in the emptiness of space.
H71 saw it.
There was no outburst or cheer from H71, but it knew at once its life purpose had been fufilled. When its tiny, electronic mind triggered the contigency protocol for psychic detection, it became more at peace than any Buddha. There would be no celebration, nor would there be tears. Instead, H71 poured the entirety of its being into a single subspace wail, a victorious shout of discovery and completion that was both the realization of its life and the knell of its death. It wailed itself to death, pouring all that remained of its power core into broadcasting its siren, until at last - less than a second later - its psychic eye faded and closed forever.
As Marcus and Asenath sped the other way, H71's dead husk drifted silently in space, set to journey the void for eternity. And far away, on a distant planet once called Earth, an alarm rang.
A ship would be sent. Perhaps this one would not be a false alarm.
****************************************************************************************************************
South Saffron was largely suburban, and its short streetlights could not completely chase away the night as the building lights did in the always-active city proper. As it was, the night was dark and starry, and the air was cool. It turned up the dark man's long coat as he walked down the winding, cracked street of one of the lower income neighborhoods.
It had always seemed to him that the poorer the community, the louder it was at night. As he stode past dilapidated row houses, he took in the intimate cacophony of the disenfranchised at home. Thumps, a loud television, babies crying, the sizzling of a saucepan, a man shouting, the crash of a cat tipping over a trash can. He listened for a moment, and then tuned it out.
Seeing a police car approaching, he quickly slid into an alleyway and waited for it to pass before continuing. He turned a corner and continued the last hundred yards to his destination. He would not have given the unlit gas station a second look had he not been seeking it; this served his purposes perfectly. After making sure he was not watched, he walked around to the back door and opened it with a generic-looking key. He slipped into the total darkness of the interior and closed the door.
"The Lord's heart is merciful. His claw is not," the man murmured into the darkness.
A grimy, flickering light came on above his head, and two guards emerged from the shadow, lowering their silenced shotguns. "Did the loa smile upon you, Bokor Rainbow?" one asked.
"They did," Mr. Rainbow said softly. "Is Chawel back among us?"
"He is resting," the guard said quietly. "He has been among the spirits for two days, and is quite exhausted."
"Did his commune go well?"
"He has not spoken," the guard said with finality. Mr. Rainbow nodded and walked between the guards through the door and down the stairs to the basement.
The sight was familiar to him, but vibrant and alien to an outsider - the walls were adorned with maps, pictures of people, draperies and fetishes. The smoky, fragrant room was lit only by candles and there was no sound. Next to the door he had entered through there was a crate of ammunition, upon which several imported machine guns rested. In the middle sat tables heavily laden with blueprints for various buildings and schematics for complex circuits. On the schematics laid half-built timing and triggering devices, clearly intended for the several hundred pounds of explosives stocked along the far wall. Brother Pele was examining one of the devices with a pair of jeweler's goggles and a surgeon's flashlight on his head, and looked up with magnified eyes at Rainbow as he entered the room.
"Friend Bokor, your arrival is most timely," Pele rasped. "I have completed three devices using the Composition-4 you kindly provided. They need only your blessing before they serve. I would have asked Chawel, but..."
"I understand he has been visiting the loa."
"Yes," Pele affirmed with a slight smile, "and he is most sensitive at the moment. If you speak to him, do use the curtain."
Mr. Rainbow withdrew from his pocket a nondescript piece of paper with several sets of numbers on it, and used push pins to affix it to a wallboard underneath a large version of a picture exactly like one that had been featured in the program for the latest Kanto Trainer's Conference - one of Dominic Cypress. Along the wall next to his picture were various photographs of Cypress entering his apartment, eating at restaurants, going to clubs, and the like. The latest one was taken through the window of one Dana Redwood's apartment - one of him straddling her Gardevoir. He truly hated those things.
Mr. Rainbow smiled grimly and turned away from the wall to approach the door to the room's closet. A heavy velvet curtain had been attached to a ceiling rail to create a sort of airlock by which one could prevent light and sound from entering the room when the door was opened. Rainbow stood in front of the door and drew the curtain around him, enveloping himself in darkness. He then opened the door, stepped inside, and closed it.
The room was tiny and heavily padded. A heavy cushion in the middle covered floor eyelets with which a chair could be bolted to the floor - this was used for prisoners. At the moment, the room was being used as a chamber in which the local commander of the Claw of Arceus could commune with the loa, the lesser gods that took their orders from The Immaculate One.
"Chawel," Rainbow whispered into the pitch-darkness.
"I am here, child," rumbled the voice of Abomè Chawel, the commander of the local Claw chapter. If Mr. Rainbow still knew fear, he would fear this man. His ruthlessness was legendary, and he held a spot on Kanto's Ten Most Wanted. No one, except perhaps the higher eschelons of the Claw, knew exactly where the myths of his work ended and the facts began, which was just the way Chawel liked it. It was said that he was responsible for the kidnapping and murder of three members of various Elite Fours, making him an international criminal. Rainbow knew this to be true. It was also said that he could make men vanish and reappear as cadaverous versions of themselves, bound to do his bidding. Rainbow would not have believed this, had not Chawel already taught him the secret of how it was done. Under Chawel's mentorship, Mr. Rainbow had become a bokor, or sorceror of Arceus, using not foul Psychic power or the corrupting power of Dark, but something more elemental, something more simple and ancient and therefore closer to Arceus.
"The loa tell me you did well," Chawel said, choking slightly. Rainbow drew some water from a cistern in the corner and after following the sound of his breathing ladled it into Chawel's mouth. Chawel drank readily - the potions used to induce communion with the loa caused severe thirst.
"Yes, Father. I was able to convince the locksmith to hand over the master codes, and in doing so I acquired access to many other places which may become of use to us," he said softly. Chawel was not his biological father, but his spiritual one.
"The great architects always leave themselves a back door," Chawel said. "We can safely assume he did not tell anyone about his master codes. And I assume you did not leave him the ability to tell anyone else?"
"No, Chawel. I fed his greed." This was a coded statement that only members of the Claw and a few police officers would understand. The Claw hated wealth in the form of business, and had a habit of pouring molten silver down the throats of business owners, to "feed their greed." It was one of their more creative executions, but by no means their most brutal.
"The master codes will be useful. But now you must put them to use. Go now. Acquire the Crown. Destroy the beast-lover."
Dismissed, Mr. Rainbow left Chawel alone to recover. Rainbow was an unusual man in that he was always happier before he accomplished his mission than afterwards. He truly loved the hunt.
****************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************
On that ominous note, Part 1 ends. So, to recap, here's a list of characters and things: who they are, where they're from, what they do, and what's going on with them.
Dominic Cypress (born Domingo Zyprizi)
Home Planet: Hielodar
Age: 26
Height: 6'00" Weight:173lbs Skin:LightBrown Eyes:Turquoise Hair:Blond
He's an ethnically Seviian Pokemon geneticist. His research has led him to the conclusion that humans did not originate on the planet they live on. Few people believe him, but as you know, he's right. He's generally soft-spoken and occasionally dry-humored. He's a career academic with an out-of-place murderous streak, probably borne of his youth, which he spent in his rough, dire homeland. He hasn't noticed, but we now know that he has the same dark power that Northern Star has to resist psychic power.
Dana Redwood
Home Planet: Hielodar
Age: 26
Height: 5'07" Weight:129lbs Skin:White Eyes:Green Hair:Red
She's a Pokemon behaviorist who studies abuse. Her work combines psychological research with therapy. She's a boisterous, rough-and-tumble type of person, at contrast with her friends Dominic and Minerva. She won't take any shit, and out of the three is the most collected. She and Cypress have a very close but unorthodox relationship.
Minerva Redwood
Home Planet: Hielodar
Age: 19
Height: 5'04" Weight: 104lbs Skin:White Eyes:Red Hair:Green Level: 41
Dana's companion Gardevoir, and one of her first research subjects. Dana adopted Minerva to protect her from being put down by a Pokemon Center. It is believed she has suffered brutality at the hands of her old Trainer, but she won't tell, so no one knows. She is quite powerful and territorial, making her mental imbalance a serious issue. She loves Cypress and Dana - she is simply overcome by psychological problems.
Marcus Ranek
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 20
Height: 6'02 Weight:234lbs Skin:LightBrown Eyes:Hazel Hair:Black
Janitor-turned-hero. Marcus was grinding his way through a civil engineering degree when he was chosen by the Emperor to join Northern Star. He is excited at the chance to serve, but as he has lived his whole life in a peaceful utopia, he is painfully unaware of what horrors await him on other planets. He wants to understand the Dark Gift that allows him to resist psychic power.
Asenath Culexus
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 19
Height: 5'09" Weight:131lbs Skin:White Eyes:Blue Hair:Black
A playful, witty psychic who was chosen to accompany Marcus. At once easygoing and fiery, she is as shaken as Marcus at her induction into Northern Star, though for her it is less of a leap. She and Ranek are infatuated with each other, though part of their closeness has to do with their clinging to each other in the face of the unknown.
Gaius Culexus
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 166
Height: 6'02" Weight: 199lbs Skin:White Eyes:Blue Hair:Black
The Chief Justice of Gaia, father of Asenath, and one of the Emperor's most trusted advisors. He is stern, uncomprimising, and just, and so he gets along well with Northern Star.
Sampson Eversor
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 521
Height: 6'06" Weight: 262lbs Skin:DarkBrown Eyes:Blue Hair:Black
The commander of the Northern Star drop team. Over five hundred years old, he unerrringly guides Northern Star on the ground. His mastery of the Dark Gift and centuries of battle experience greatly intimidate psychics. He is all business all the time, and he is so old and heavy with wisdom that some of his actions are at first incomprehensible to the others.
Svigvald Haegr
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 220
Height: 7'03" Weight: 417lbs Skin:White Eyes:Green Hair:Red
A huge man and a huge personality, he is the most junior member of Northern Star aside from Marcus. Of the entire drop team, he is the most open and companionable with Marcus, and the only person on the team that Marcus would consider calling his friend.
Salieri Emendi
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 419
Height: 6'05" Weight: 212lbs Skin:LightBrown Eyes:Blue Hair:Blond
Taciturn and icy cool at all times, Emendi, like Eversor, works best when he's alone. He is New Moon's most frequent pilot, and has spoken barely a word the whole time Marcus has been around.
Roger Young (The Attacker)
Home Planet: Hielodar
Age: 18
Height:?? Weight:?? Skin:White Eyes:Blue Hair:Blond
Man who infiltrated Dana's office to kidnap Celia. Suspected rapist and drug user. He was caught wearing an odd device which disrupts psychic power.
Grog Cypress
Home Planet: Hielodar
Age: 19
Height: 3'10" Weight:165lbs Skin:Black Eyes:Spectral Hair:None Level: 64
Cypress' pet. Unswervingly loyal and gentle. Gigantic for a Sableye, and a paragon of Pokemon fitness - Cypress provides the best for him. Cypress trained him for some time.
(Note: wearing of power armor increases user's height by 4.37 inches.)
(Another note: People from more highly developed countries tend to be taller - it seems to be related to the abundance of food and health care. Since Gaia is far more advanced than Hielodar, Gaia's people are healthier and as such bigger and taller. In addition, the races are less removed from each other on Gaia, and so racial combinations impossible on Hielodar are normal on Gaia, and vice-versa. Imagine a big, fat, tall Vietnamese guy with a red Jew 'fro. You don't see that in the real world because of racial barriers and because our phenotypes just don't work that way. But perhaps in the distant future, on an isolated planet, they do. See, I just provided a pseudo-scientific explanation for anime hair. Aren't I awesome?)
Part 2 will center around Northern Star's arrival on Hielodar and their attempts to discover the nature of the impending disaster. The focus will be on Marcus' nervousness - a good example of this will be the meat of the next chapter. It will also involve Minerva's tempestuous feelings for Cypress and Dana, as well as some exploration into their feelings for each other. This part will also be characterized by a faster, action-driven plot as opposed to the slow, character-driven movement of the previous chapter.
This trend will continue. I'm planning, as the story goes on, to keep slightly adjusting the story type as the characters get established. It's pretty much a space opera at the moment, but the parts will transition from that to action/adventure, to mystery, to horror, and finally to epic at the end.
I promise, the story will stop reeking of 40K if you give it some more time. Damn, but there's been a lot of setting up to do.
****************************************************************************************************************
One last thing. "Hielodar" is a word made up by Northern Star so they could give a name to the other planet. The inhabitants of Hielodar (remember, it's the Pokemon world) just call their world "ground." You know, like we do.
****************************************************************************************************************
The next chapter begins Part 2: Those with Sight
Ready? Go!
****************************************************************************************************************
H71's journey had been a long and incredible one. It had borne silent witness to the birth of stars and the death of systems. With its built-in warp capacitor, it could travel the black nothingness between stars in a matter of weeks - on a galactic scale, it was impossibly fast. It had traveled an incalculable number of miles during its lifetime, and had no plans of stopping.
It spoke of the vastness of space that despite H71's incredible speed, in its three thousand years of constant searching, it had covered less than a thousandth of a percent of the galaxy.
H71 cared not for the almost guaranteed futility of its search. It was the most patient being ever to exist. It was comfortable - if the word applies - in its role. It had searched fruitlessly for three millennia, and would search for at least three more. Resigned to its eternity of wandering, it had developed a near-consciousness that took pleasure in its own purity of purpose.
H71 was a happy probe.
H71 was as happy as Marcus Ranek and Asenath Culexus, as they stood in each other's arms mere hundreds of thousands of miles away. As Marcus kissed Asenath gently on the forehead, her happiness lit her psychic mind like a beacon in the emptiness of space.
H71 saw it.
There was no outburst or cheer from H71, but it knew at once its life purpose had been fufilled. When its tiny, electronic mind triggered the contigency protocol for psychic detection, it became more at peace than any Buddha. There would be no celebration, nor would there be tears. Instead, H71 poured the entirety of its being into a single subspace wail, a victorious shout of discovery and completion that was both the realization of its life and the knell of its death. It wailed itself to death, pouring all that remained of its power core into broadcasting its siren, until at last - less than a second later - its psychic eye faded and closed forever.
As Marcus and Asenath sped the other way, H71's dead husk drifted silently in space, set to journey the void for eternity. And far away, on a distant planet once called Earth, an alarm rang.
A ship would be sent. Perhaps this one would not be a false alarm.
****************************************************************************************************************
South Saffron was largely suburban, and its short streetlights could not completely chase away the night as the building lights did in the always-active city proper. As it was, the night was dark and starry, and the air was cool. It turned up the dark man's long coat as he walked down the winding, cracked street of one of the lower income neighborhoods.
It had always seemed to him that the poorer the community, the louder it was at night. As he stode past dilapidated row houses, he took in the intimate cacophony of the disenfranchised at home. Thumps, a loud television, babies crying, the sizzling of a saucepan, a man shouting, the crash of a cat tipping over a trash can. He listened for a moment, and then tuned it out.
Seeing a police car approaching, he quickly slid into an alleyway and waited for it to pass before continuing. He turned a corner and continued the last hundred yards to his destination. He would not have given the unlit gas station a second look had he not been seeking it; this served his purposes perfectly. After making sure he was not watched, he walked around to the back door and opened it with a generic-looking key. He slipped into the total darkness of the interior and closed the door.
"The Lord's heart is merciful. His claw is not," the man murmured into the darkness.
A grimy, flickering light came on above his head, and two guards emerged from the shadow, lowering their silenced shotguns. "Did the loa smile upon you, Bokor Rainbow?" one asked.
"They did," Mr. Rainbow said softly. "Is Chawel back among us?"
"He is resting," the guard said quietly. "He has been among the spirits for two days, and is quite exhausted."
"Did his commune go well?"
"He has not spoken," the guard said with finality. Mr. Rainbow nodded and walked between the guards through the door and down the stairs to the basement.
The sight was familiar to him, but vibrant and alien to an outsider - the walls were adorned with maps, pictures of people, draperies and fetishes. The smoky, fragrant room was lit only by candles and there was no sound. Next to the door he had entered through there was a crate of ammunition, upon which several imported machine guns rested. In the middle sat tables heavily laden with blueprints for various buildings and schematics for complex circuits. On the schematics laid half-built timing and triggering devices, clearly intended for the several hundred pounds of explosives stocked along the far wall. Brother Pele was examining one of the devices with a pair of jeweler's goggles and a surgeon's flashlight on his head, and looked up with magnified eyes at Rainbow as he entered the room.
"Friend Bokor, your arrival is most timely," Pele rasped. "I have completed three devices using the Composition-4 you kindly provided. They need only your blessing before they serve. I would have asked Chawel, but..."
"I understand he has been visiting the loa."
"Yes," Pele affirmed with a slight smile, "and he is most sensitive at the moment. If you speak to him, do use the curtain."
Mr. Rainbow withdrew from his pocket a nondescript piece of paper with several sets of numbers on it, and used push pins to affix it to a wallboard underneath a large version of a picture exactly like one that had been featured in the program for the latest Kanto Trainer's Conference - one of Dominic Cypress. Along the wall next to his picture were various photographs of Cypress entering his apartment, eating at restaurants, going to clubs, and the like. The latest one was taken through the window of one Dana Redwood's apartment - one of him straddling her Gardevoir. He truly hated those things.
Mr. Rainbow smiled grimly and turned away from the wall to approach the door to the room's closet. A heavy velvet curtain had been attached to a ceiling rail to create a sort of airlock by which one could prevent light and sound from entering the room when the door was opened. Rainbow stood in front of the door and drew the curtain around him, enveloping himself in darkness. He then opened the door, stepped inside, and closed it.
The room was tiny and heavily padded. A heavy cushion in the middle covered floor eyelets with which a chair could be bolted to the floor - this was used for prisoners. At the moment, the room was being used as a chamber in which the local commander of the Claw of Arceus could commune with the loa, the lesser gods that took their orders from The Immaculate One.
"Chawel," Rainbow whispered into the pitch-darkness.
"I am here, child," rumbled the voice of Abomè Chawel, the commander of the local Claw chapter. If Mr. Rainbow still knew fear, he would fear this man. His ruthlessness was legendary, and he held a spot on Kanto's Ten Most Wanted. No one, except perhaps the higher eschelons of the Claw, knew exactly where the myths of his work ended and the facts began, which was just the way Chawel liked it. It was said that he was responsible for the kidnapping and murder of three members of various Elite Fours, making him an international criminal. Rainbow knew this to be true. It was also said that he could make men vanish and reappear as cadaverous versions of themselves, bound to do his bidding. Rainbow would not have believed this, had not Chawel already taught him the secret of how it was done. Under Chawel's mentorship, Mr. Rainbow had become a bokor, or sorceror of Arceus, using not foul Psychic power or the corrupting power of Dark, but something more elemental, something more simple and ancient and therefore closer to Arceus.
"The loa tell me you did well," Chawel said, choking slightly. Rainbow drew some water from a cistern in the corner and after following the sound of his breathing ladled it into Chawel's mouth. Chawel drank readily - the potions used to induce communion with the loa caused severe thirst.
"Yes, Father. I was able to convince the locksmith to hand over the master codes, and in doing so I acquired access to many other places which may become of use to us," he said softly. Chawel was not his biological father, but his spiritual one.
"The great architects always leave themselves a back door," Chawel said. "We can safely assume he did not tell anyone about his master codes. And I assume you did not leave him the ability to tell anyone else?"
"No, Chawel. I fed his greed." This was a coded statement that only members of the Claw and a few police officers would understand. The Claw hated wealth in the form of business, and had a habit of pouring molten silver down the throats of business owners, to "feed their greed." It was one of their more creative executions, but by no means their most brutal.
"The master codes will be useful. But now you must put them to use. Go now. Acquire the Crown. Destroy the beast-lover."
Dismissed, Mr. Rainbow left Chawel alone to recover. Rainbow was an unusual man in that he was always happier before he accomplished his mission than afterwards. He truly loved the hunt.
****************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************
****************************************************************************************************************
On that ominous note, Part 1 ends. So, to recap, here's a list of characters and things: who they are, where they're from, what they do, and what's going on with them.
Dominic Cypress (born Domingo Zyprizi)
Home Planet: Hielodar
Age: 26
Height: 6'00" Weight:173lbs Skin:LightBrown Eyes:Turquoise Hair:Blond
He's an ethnically Seviian Pokemon geneticist. His research has led him to the conclusion that humans did not originate on the planet they live on. Few people believe him, but as you know, he's right. He's generally soft-spoken and occasionally dry-humored. He's a career academic with an out-of-place murderous streak, probably borne of his youth, which he spent in his rough, dire homeland. He hasn't noticed, but we now know that he has the same dark power that Northern Star has to resist psychic power.
Dana Redwood
Home Planet: Hielodar
Age: 26
Height: 5'07" Weight:129lbs Skin:White Eyes:Green Hair:Red
She's a Pokemon behaviorist who studies abuse. Her work combines psychological research with therapy. She's a boisterous, rough-and-tumble type of person, at contrast with her friends Dominic and Minerva. She won't take any shit, and out of the three is the most collected. She and Cypress have a very close but unorthodox relationship.
Minerva Redwood
Home Planet: Hielodar
Age: 19
Height: 5'04" Weight: 104lbs Skin:White Eyes:Red Hair:Green Level: 41
Dana's companion Gardevoir, and one of her first research subjects. Dana adopted Minerva to protect her from being put down by a Pokemon Center. It is believed she has suffered brutality at the hands of her old Trainer, but she won't tell, so no one knows. She is quite powerful and territorial, making her mental imbalance a serious issue. She loves Cypress and Dana - she is simply overcome by psychological problems.
Marcus Ranek
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 20
Height: 6'02 Weight:234lbs Skin:LightBrown Eyes:Hazel Hair:Black
Janitor-turned-hero. Marcus was grinding his way through a civil engineering degree when he was chosen by the Emperor to join Northern Star. He is excited at the chance to serve, but as he has lived his whole life in a peaceful utopia, he is painfully unaware of what horrors await him on other planets. He wants to understand the Dark Gift that allows him to resist psychic power.
Asenath Culexus
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 19
Height: 5'09" Weight:131lbs Skin:White Eyes:Blue Hair:Black
A playful, witty psychic who was chosen to accompany Marcus. At once easygoing and fiery, she is as shaken as Marcus at her induction into Northern Star, though for her it is less of a leap. She and Ranek are infatuated with each other, though part of their closeness has to do with their clinging to each other in the face of the unknown.
Gaius Culexus
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 166
Height: 6'02" Weight: 199lbs Skin:White Eyes:Blue Hair:Black
The Chief Justice of Gaia, father of Asenath, and one of the Emperor's most trusted advisors. He is stern, uncomprimising, and just, and so he gets along well with Northern Star.
Sampson Eversor
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 521
Height: 6'06" Weight: 262lbs Skin:DarkBrown Eyes:Blue Hair:Black
The commander of the Northern Star drop team. Over five hundred years old, he unerrringly guides Northern Star on the ground. His mastery of the Dark Gift and centuries of battle experience greatly intimidate psychics. He is all business all the time, and he is so old and heavy with wisdom that some of his actions are at first incomprehensible to the others.
Svigvald Haegr
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 220
Height: 7'03" Weight: 417lbs Skin:White Eyes:Green Hair:Red
A huge man and a huge personality, he is the most junior member of Northern Star aside from Marcus. Of the entire drop team, he is the most open and companionable with Marcus, and the only person on the team that Marcus would consider calling his friend.
Salieri Emendi
Home Planet: Gaia
Age: 419
Height: 6'05" Weight: 212lbs Skin:LightBrown Eyes:Blue Hair:Blond
Taciturn and icy cool at all times, Emendi, like Eversor, works best when he's alone. He is New Moon's most frequent pilot, and has spoken barely a word the whole time Marcus has been around.
Roger Young (The Attacker)
Home Planet: Hielodar
Age: 18
Height:?? Weight:?? Skin:White Eyes:Blue Hair:Blond
Man who infiltrated Dana's office to kidnap Celia. Suspected rapist and drug user. He was caught wearing an odd device which disrupts psychic power.
Grog Cypress
Home Planet: Hielodar
Age: 19
Height: 3'10" Weight:165lbs Skin:Black Eyes:Spectral Hair:None Level: 64
Cypress' pet. Unswervingly loyal and gentle. Gigantic for a Sableye, and a paragon of Pokemon fitness - Cypress provides the best for him. Cypress trained him for some time.
(Note: wearing of power armor increases user's height by 4.37 inches.)
(Another note: People from more highly developed countries tend to be taller - it seems to be related to the abundance of food and health care. Since Gaia is far more advanced than Hielodar, Gaia's people are healthier and as such bigger and taller. In addition, the races are less removed from each other on Gaia, and so racial combinations impossible on Hielodar are normal on Gaia, and vice-versa. Imagine a big, fat, tall Vietnamese guy with a red Jew 'fro. You don't see that in the real world because of racial barriers and because our phenotypes just don't work that way. But perhaps in the distant future, on an isolated planet, they do. See, I just provided a pseudo-scientific explanation for anime hair. Aren't I awesome?)
Part 2 will center around Northern Star's arrival on Hielodar and their attempts to discover the nature of the impending disaster. The focus will be on Marcus' nervousness - a good example of this will be the meat of the next chapter. It will also involve Minerva's tempestuous feelings for Cypress and Dana, as well as some exploration into their feelings for each other. This part will also be characterized by a faster, action-driven plot as opposed to the slow, character-driven movement of the previous chapter.
This trend will continue. I'm planning, as the story goes on, to keep slightly adjusting the story type as the characters get established. It's pretty much a space opera at the moment, but the parts will transition from that to action/adventure, to mystery, to horror, and finally to epic at the end.
I promise, the story will stop reeking of 40K if you give it some more time. Damn, but there's been a lot of setting up to do.
****************************************************************************************************************
One last thing. "Hielodar" is a word made up by Northern Star so they could give a name to the other planet. The inhabitants of Hielodar (remember, it's the Pokemon world) just call their world "ground." You know, like we do.
****************************************************************************************************************
The next chapter begins Part 2: Those with Sight