WIP The Origin of Species by DaystarEld - T - Pokemon

Xion · Oct 1, 2020

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 85
Words: 818,548
Updated: 2020-10-01 10:01:21 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: 30 days ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Nov 1, 2020

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 86
Words: 830,327
Updated: 2020-11-01 11:49:18 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Nov 2, 2020

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 86
Words: 830,327
Updated: 2020-11-01 11:49:18 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: less than a minute ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Nov 3, 2020

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 86
Words: 830,327
Updated: 2020-11-01 11:49:18 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: less than a minute ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Nov 3, 2020

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 86
Words: 830,327
Updated: 2020-11-01 11:49:18 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: less than a minute ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Nov 7, 2020

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 86
Words: 830,409
Updated: 2020-11-01 11:49:18 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: less than a minute ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Dec 1, 2020

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 87
Words: 840,911
Updated: 2020-12-01 13:00:26 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Aug 1, 2021

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 95
Words: 929,326
Updated: 2021-08-01 10:40:50 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Sep 1, 2021

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 96
Words: 942,683
Updated: 2021-09-01 04:01:11 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Oct 1, 2021

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 97
Words: 951,995
Updated: 2021-10-01 20:23:29 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Nov 2, 2021

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 98
Words: 966,604
Updated: 2021-11-02 02:19:36 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Dec 2, 2021

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 99
Words: 978,395
Updated: 2021-12-02 04:44:06 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

MonkeyEpoxy · Dec 3, 2021

So. I maintain that this story is an irritating mass of words that takes all of the charm of Pokemon and distills it into complete 1.5/5 dross, but this shit on Ditto is magnificent.

Ditto said:

The island stays on high vigilance, however, and a region-wide League meeting is scheduled to discuss next steps.

They're rare enough that Sabrina only remembers it happening once in her past six years as the head of Saffron. All eight Gym Leaders are present, along with Champion Lance, Ranger General Taira, and Professors Elm and Oak. The latter looks simultaneously more tired than he did at the Lavender Tower debrief, and more excited. She can sense it more than see it, a buzzing energy that lifts her own spirits and sharpens her focus, but he has a spring in his step as after he and Elm set up the computer and projector for his presentation. Without any Seconds, assistants, or other staff in the room it feels almost empty compared to how often each of them has their own people around.

"Hello everyone," he says once everything is done, and what little chatter there is between Brock, Misty, and Erika fades. "Since it will get annoying to keep referring to the new pokemon without a name, the first order of business is semantic." He sighs. "As usual, the race began on the net before anyone even fully knew what we were naming, but on the bright side the most popular ones aren't too bad." He clicks on the first slide, which shows trendlines for a dozen different words on the net. "As of now the leading three are 'metamorph,' 'metamon,' and 'ditto.' That last one is pulling ahead, so I'm going to abuse my power over this meeting and try to normalize my own preference."

A light chuckle makes its way around the room as the Professor clicks to the next slide, which is labeled "Metamon Biology."

"Metamon are, in almost every way, a defiance of classification. Their entire bodies appear to be made up of cells that follow basic instincts: copy, mate, feed, reproduce, and that last part is different from the second. But rather than each cell being independent, they make up individual organisms; one piece of a metamon that gets cut off will wither and die, though we're not entirely sure why, as they don't have a circulatory system or consistent organs that would indicate why separation would be deadly."

"But the reports say they reproduce by separating bits of themselves," Lance says, brow furrowed. "What makes those bits different?"

"Still unknown. It's not just lack of organs that make them a mystery; their bodies seem to be made up of stem-cells that they can repurpose at will once they've sampled the DNA of another living organism, but that alone is an insufficient explanation for how they can so precisely mimic their targets. When transforming into, say, a blastoise, parts of them simply liquify into something that resembles water as close as their biology will allow, ready to be weaponized through their attacks. This costs them mass, of course, but seems to have no effect on their overall health."

"Where did they come from?" Giovanni asks. "Not geographically, I know we're still searching through those caves, but do we have any idea what substance they arose from?"

"None," the Professor says, and sighs. "Their own DNA is an absurd, impossible, chaotic mess that we're still trying to understand, with fragments of plant, mammal, reptilian, avian, and even mineral life forms. At first we thought that was just a result of their transformations, but even freshly born metamon are like that… though the parent may be passing the accumulated DNA of its transformations down."

"The science of all this is fascinating," Koga says, sounding sincere. "But I hope you will forgive me moving to other matters, such as the likelihood that this pokemon will be trainable."

The Professor runs a hand through his hair. "We've only had a couple days, but what we've confirmed is that we've found a true nightmare scenario, worse than falinks and even exeggcute. These things have one mind, such as it is, but their copied form introduces an entirely new set of instincts that their original ones get channeled through. There's little enough for the training programs to build on when they're in their basic form, and trying to get them to retain it once they transform is going to take a while."

"But it's possible," Sabrina says, not quite a question.

"I'm not ready to declare it impossible, but it would take a major breakthrough to do it anytime soon. Luckily Bill has grown fascinated by the challenge, but he said it's too soon to give estimates… which, knowing him, means it's on the order of months at least."

"Containment," Blaine says, voice hard. "I want my island back. What do we need to do?"

"Catch them all," Oak says, face devoid of humor. "A single metamon could potentially start duplicating if it can find a mate, though thankfully not just any mate will do, which is why we have some chance of actually doing it."

"Meaning?"

"Remember what I said about mating and reproduction being different; from the two small nests we found in the wild, we can confirm that the eggs created by the copied pokemon appear to create normal children of the species the metamon mated with. Their own reproduction only occurs afterward, in a parasitic process of separating a portion of themselves into the eggs to absorb the embryo and grow into a new metamon."

"So they can only reproduce if they mate with egg-laying species?" Erika asks.

"That's our current guess, though they can mate with others." He clears his throat. "In fact, when placed in a contained habitat with a single pokemon, as long as no other pokemon of the opposite gender were around, the metamon first copied the pokemon, then transformed into the opposite gender of the same species."

The room is silent for a moment before Misty mutters, "The net's going to have a field day with that one."

"Say again, Misty?" Lance asks from the other side of the table.

"Just thinking of the possibilities, Champion."

A chuckle works its way through half the room, and Professor Elm raises a hand. "Just to clarify, they can probably be impregnated or impregnate non-egg-laying species as well. But if so, their transformation almost certainly keeps any children from coming to term, which is why laying fertilized eggs would be their fastest method to duplication.

Ranger General Taira leans forward, face thoughtful. "There are plenty of those, to be sure. While obviously a threat to the local wildlife, this species represents boundless potential opportunity. The implications for breeding alone… under careful monitoring and observation, the destructive post-mating behavior could be interrupted such that each ditto—sorry, Professor, metamon—doubles our breeding stock for rare pokemon."

"Good as that is, the real prize would be using these things against legendaries," Erika says. "They're equalizers the likes of which we've never seen."

The room is quiet again, but Sabrina doesn't detect any real surprise this time. No one in the room would be where they are if they weren't the sort that would already have considered it.

"It would be hard to get one close enough to touch a Stormbringer or Beast," Misty muses. "But the Titans…"

"Surely they couldn't become that bi—"

Blaine claps his hands together, and everyone turns back toward him. "Doesn't matter. Too dangerous without knowing how long they can stay transformed and whether they copy abilities like Pressure."

"Aren't they weaker than the copied pokemon, though?" Misty asks. "Can we confirm that yet?"

"We can," Professor Oak says. "And reasonably predict it. They retain the same mass when they transform, and so copies of smaller pokemon are more likely to be tougher than the original, while larger pokemon are less so, sometimes drastically less. A copied snorlax collapsed after a single hit that barely fazed the original."

"But they can obviously mimic the properties of other pokemon," Koga says. "Fire, electricity, claws as sharp as any genuine pokemon. A group, all wielding these metamon, might be able to take a titan down."

Surge stirs. "If their mass stays the same no matter how big they get, they'll be able to be returned to their ball, and if the transformations persist… you'll have trainers with legends on their belts."

"Leaders and Elites, surely," Brock says, brow furrowed.

"You think that will matter to their neighbors once those legends are used to expand their borders?"

"Gentlemen," Erika says before Brock can respond. "While this debate is arguably long overdue, perhaps we should table it until we have a better idea what we're dealing with. If these metamon can transform into pokemon that powerful, and they can persist in that form for long, then we should definitely have that conversation, but meanwhile there are other things we need to discuss."

"One in particular," Blaine says. "Had my people check outposts all over the island, spotters, ranger cams, looked over everything. Unown were spotted flying patterns near the caves a week ago."

"Shit," Misty mutters.

"Experiments are still being done in controlled settings," Professor Oak adds. "But combined with what Wallace reported after Hoenn, at this point the odds of coincidence are shrinking."

"What research? Where?"

"Independent, mostly. The What Comes Next initiative has been bearing fruit, or rather in this case, has grown branches from which fruit can grow. The researcher that assisted in Lavender, Artem, took it upon himself to study an unown Red purchased in isolation with objects for weeks at a time."

So far there has been no effect," Elm says. "But this kickstarted a community effort; people have been collecting different number of unown with a variety of objects to see if any of them result in abiogenesis, and if so how many were required, what sorts of objects, how long it took..."

Blaine frowns. "Even if none do, it would not disprove the hypothesis."

"Worse," Giovanni says. "If certain letters are needed, there will be millions of combinations untested. If letters relate to objects, billions. If environments outside the lab are needed—"

"—it's even worse than that," Oak interjects, voice wry. "Maybe only wild unown can do it, and even with the right combination of letters and objects we won't see anything. All that is why no lab could justify such an expensive and time consuming line of research, not while being thorough. But people are doing it anyway, because it's important, and someone has to, just in case."

There's a contemplative silence, and then Erika stirs. "A bounty. Collectively paid by multiple institutions, for the first individual or group that demonstrates it with sufficiently scientific documentation."

"Hmph." Blaine shakes his head. "Less a bounty and more a lottery."

"And yet it will encourage more to try, at no cost if none succeeds."

"It's a good idea," Elm says. "Though we should be cautious not to incentivize it too much, and draw excessive time and effort away from more promising avenues."

"Something that can be decided later, by those with the knowledge and interest," Lance says. It's the first time the Champion speaks besides his question to Misty, and his strong voice always taking Sabrina by surprise for how deep it is. His gaze sweeps the room before he adds, "Assuming it's allowed at all."

A third silence, contemplative, approving, surprised, disapproving, a medley of subtle undercurrents combined with each. She can feel Professor Oak struggling to hold himself silent, though his face has gone blank.
Click to expand...

Cirvante · Dec 12, 2021

MonkeyEpoxy said: ↑

So. I maintain that this story is an irritating mass of words that takes all of the charm of Pokemon and distills it into complete 1.5/5 dross, but this shit on Ditto is magnificent.
Click to expand...

The Dittos weren't quite as terrifying as the one in Detective Pikachu in terms of their abilities, but the sheer numbers and biological horror was a nice touch. But I actually like this story, despite the fact that pokemons are only superpowered animals in it.

Xion · Jan 2, 2022

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 100
Words: 986,704
Updated: 2022-01-02 04:28:45 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Feb 1, 2022

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 101
Words: 998,847
Updated: 2022-02-01 07:33:36 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Mar 1, 2022

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 102
Words: 1,009,053
Updated: 2022-03-01 17:28:06 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: 28 days ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Apr 1, 2022

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 103
Words: 1,019,282
Updated: 2022-04-01 11:39:53 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · May 2, 2022

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 104
Words: 1,028,026
Updated: 2022-05-02 02:10:59 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

Xion · Jun 2, 2022

Pokemon: The Origin of Species has been updated with a new chapter.

Story Stats
Chapters: 105
Words: 1,036,883
Updated: 2022-06-02 03:12:54 UTC
Published: 2013-10-26 06:50:19 UTC
Previously updated: about 1 month ago

Brought to you by Scryer story thread updates.

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