Fanfic / Borne of Caution

An irritated Pokémon might tell you to stop what you're doing. An irritated animal will probably just attack you. Pokémon, for all their power, would be open books and a breeze to care for to any competent animal handler on Earth. After a fiery death, a professional zookeeper who never outgrew Pokémon games ends up in the world of Pokémon. The entire world is thrown onto its side.

Borne of Caution is a Pokémon Fan Fic by Fuggmann. The story can be found on SpaceBattles.com (here), Sufficient Velocity.com (here), FanFiction.Net (here) and Royal Road (here). It also has a mirror posted on Archive of Our Own (here) courtesy of Vibelordess with Fuggmann's permission.

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Borne of Caution provides examples of:

• Adaptational Villainy: Maxie of Team Magma. Showing a willingness to kill anyone in his way? Not surprising. But using a Claydol to turn his ace Camerupt into a meat puppet, forcing it to fight and even Mega Evolve past its limits? To the point where Camerupt tries to turn on Maxie the instant he gets the chance? That's far beyond what he was like in the game.
• Affably Evil: Maxie of Team Magma, as in the source material. He's polite and amicable, and though ruthless, he pulls a Don't Make Me Destroy You on the heroes when they confront him, offering to let them walk away if they surrender.
• Apocalypse How: The nuclear exchange that devastates Earth in chapter 1 is at least a Class 2, possibly a Class 3a.
• Armor-Piercing Question: In Act 2: Chapter 11, Birch's Medicham tracks down Corvi, and the question "Why run?" torments Corvi until he finally returns to Lee.
• Armor-Piercing Response: In Act 2: Chapter 11, Birch's Medicham delivers this when Corvi protests his Armor-Piercing Question:
  Medicham: Why run?
  Corvi: Let me answer your question with a question of my own! Tell me, O aloof one! What would you do if your entire world came crashing down!?
  (Beat)
  Medicham: I cannot say. I do know what I would not do, though.
  Corvi: Enlighten me! What sort of sage advice do you have for me? What would you not do?!
  Medicham: Run.
• A Truce While We Gawk: Played for Drama in Act 2, Chapter 18. The heated battle between Maxie and Lee suddenly ends when Corvi lands a Taunt on Claydol. Before anyone can move, Camerupt howls in utter agony and immediately succumbs to all the pain and injuries that it had taken over the battle, to Lee's horror and Maxie's displeasure.
• Bag of Holding: SilphCo Bags are made with the same stuff as Pokéballs, providing a In-Universe explanation for how everyone can carry so much stuff.
  Lee: (silently) I can hear physics weep hideously in the distance.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: In Act 2, Interlude 5, a POV for Sylveon states that she had been cold and numb ever since the human she fell in love with abandoned her, and more than once she'd considered throwing herself in the fireplace just to feel something again. The next chapter, when Lee finally tells his companions everything, Sylveon surreptitiously maintains her empathetic contact with Lee when he orders her not to, and vomits at the memory of Lee burning to death.
• Big Damn Heroes: Corvi in Act 2, Chapter 18, immediately following his evolution to Corviknight at the end of the previous chapter.
• Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The only genuine part of Octillery's behavior is his intelligence. Beneath his amicable and sociable mask is a creature of cold logic with a Lack of Empathy who looks down on almost everyone around him. His companions are, by and large, only a bother to him that have tempted him to go his own way more than once, and his only reason for agreeing to join Lee was to understand why Ninetales cared about him so much, because he wants to be able to counter it.
• Crossover:
  • One (probably) non-canon side story, "Borne of Divinity," shows Lee and Ninetales meeting Amaterasu and Issun in Nippon. Ninetales implies that it's not the first nor likely the last time that they've traveled to another world for Lee's work.
  • Another side story shows them arriving in Konoha village for studying chakra.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Lee has this, and it seems to be a pattern that every Pokémon he catches is the same: Vulpix has an existential crisis, Treecko lost his home, Corvi lost his first trainer, Shinx lost her mother, Octillery lost the rest of his school, and Sylveon lost her first love.
  • Zinna also has one- Aster, her best friend and the previous lorekeeper of her tribe, died and passed on the role to her, leaving Zinna with a huge responsibility that she's not sure she can hold up.
• Cliffhanger:
  • Chapter 1-5 ends with Lee and Brendan finding that Oldale Pokémon Center is on fire, and they're the best chance of helping. This is after the previous chapter ended with Brendan informing Lee that they, as Lab Trainers, were responsible for law enforcement and disaster management wherever necessary.
  • Interlude 1-2 ends with Ash learning that pretty much all of the Gyms he'd defeated, he'd done so while they were using teams that were deliberately weaker than their best, and resolving that he'll train even harder to be a proper Pokémon Master...and Lee feeling fate breathing down his neck.
  • Chapter 1-14 ends right as the final battle of the Dewford Beach Brawl is about to begin: Lee and Zinnia vs Andre and Benjamin.
  • Chapter 1-23 ends with Andre challenging Ash to a one-on-one battle.
  • Chapter 1-28 ends with Courtney, incognito Magma Admin, taking on the Team Rocket Trio alone.
  • Chapter 1's finale ends with Courtney joining Lee's group.
  • Chapter 2-8 ends with a last-minute change in battling at Lavaridge Gym: Lee ends up facing Moore instead of Flannery.
  • Lee's Logs 2-1 ends with Birch asking Scott if he can borrow Anabel.
  • Chapter 2-12 ends with Corvi finally resolving to return to Lee.
  • Chapter 2-16 ends with Lee rejecting Maxie's offer of leaving with amnesia, and Maxie attacking with lethal force.
  • Chapter 2-17 ends with Corvi entering the seemingly lost battle against Maxie's Camerupt, and evolving into Corviknight.
  • Chapter 2-29 ends with a (seemingly) chance encounter between Lee and Archie, boss of Team Aqua.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: Lee has a bad habit of thinking out loud, one that predates his arrival in Hoenn.
• Divine Intervention: A dream sequence in Act 2, Chapter 26 implies that Giratina was responsible for Lee ending up in Hoenn after his world ended.
• Does Not Know His Own Strength: Ninetales tries to use her telekinesis after evolving to open a door. She ends up ripping it off the hinges.
• Downer Beginning: At the end of chapter 1, Earth (or at least most large cities on it) is destroyed by a nuclear exchange, killing all those Lee ever knew and catapulting him into the Pokémon world.
• Driven to Suicide: After everyone finds out that they're about to be blown up by nukes, two of Lee's coworkers kill themselves with a gun.
• Easily Forgiven: Despite abandoning Lee at his most vulnerable, when Corvi finally comes back, Lee's only response is joy.
• Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Courtney's reaction at the end of Chapter 2-20, when she's thoroughly examining herself for any indication that her mission could have been compromised. As she thinks over all of the facts, she realizes that in response to Brendan's Armor-Piercing Questions concerning the wisdom of a human having the power of Groudon, she wants to say that Maxie is the one who can harness the power. But she hesitates. She no longer has absolute faith in Maxie, and realizing that makes her realize that she's accidentally betrayed Team Magma.
• Face of a Thug: Lee has large scars on his face and a stoic continence, which makes him seem intimidating- not to mention looking like someone who's been in fights and highly experienced. In reality, those scars are the remnants of the event that sent Lee to Hoenn, and he doesn't emote much because strong facial expressions pull painfully on those scars.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: After Corvi asks for forgiveness for abandoning Lee, Grovyle agrees, but warns him that it had better not happen again. Inverted with Ninetales, who refuses to forgive him but is willing to put the matter behind them.
• Heroic BSoD: Lee has this response when Vulpix loses to Zinnia in Chapter 8, the logic that she'll be OK failing to break through the memory of failing to save a mauled lion cub back at the zoo.
• Hope Spot: When the EBS announces the launch of nuclear missiles and lists off the cities that they are targeting, Lee and his fellow zookeepers feel relief, as Ohio doesn’t have anything worth attacking. Then the very last city mentioned on the announcement is Columbus.
• From Dress to Dressing: Lee cuts up his right sleeve to bandage up the cuts he got from the glass shrapnel.
• The Gloves Come Off: After the battle with Team Magma on Mt. Chimney, Lee has this resolve when two things become clear: this world isn't a game or cartoon, and Maxie fully intends to kill them next time they meet. Shaken as he is, his hatred for Maxie crystallizes a new resolve. He reflects on how he's been making waves in the world already, and the chapter ends with this Badass Boast:
  Lee: You call those waves? I'll break every known rule of the world if it means we get to live in peace afterward.
• Godzilla Threshold: Meteorfall Crater is a sacred training ground to the Draconids, and allowing outsiders to even set foot there requires exceptional circumstances. All three of the Draconid elders concede to allow Zinnia to bring Brendan and Lee there with the reveal that Maxie not only had access to Mega Evolution but was forcing it upon his Camerupt. Yet it seems Zinnia made one deeper request; Elders Juniper and Tanae are both willing to allow it, but Taxus, who only grudgingly agreed to let outsiders into the crater, requires further meditation.
• I Need a Freaking Drink: Birch often has this reaction when listening to Lee's video logs, due to him casually sharing earth-shattering news.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Corvi is vain, spiteful, ruthless, and impersonal. Yet he grudgingly grows to care for Lee, and eventually opens himself to try loving again.
• Lack of Empathy: First shown in Act 2: Interlude 3, Octillery has been numb to emotions for most of his life, ever since he barely outthought and escaped from a group of vicious Water-type predators. He wears a convincing mask, but he's relied on the strength of his mind for so long that he can't comprehend the strength of the heart. Indeed, the chapter shows that the only reason he joined Lee was that when Ninetales told him how important he was to her, the numbness in his mind wavered for the first time, and he's determined to learn what caused it.
• Laser-Guided Karma: In Act 1, Chapter 6, Brendan and Lee help with a fire at the Pokémon Center, which is soon revealed to be caused by a giant Manectric whose egg had been stolen due to interest in the giant's gene. Lee carefully pacifies the Manectric by returning the egg. Much later, in Act 2, Chapter 2, that same Manectric tracks down Lee to request that he raise the Electrike that hatched from the egg (though as he's already raising a Shinx, he suggests Brendan instead, which Manectric accepts).
• Living Lie Detector: Any Psychic-type fits. Professor Birch's Medicham fills this position when Lee tells the professor his origins.
• Made of Iron: Pokémon in general; no matter how brutal the battle, the recovery time has never been more than a week. The only instance so far of it taking longer was an Octillery suffering from acute iron poisoning, which took about a month to heal.
• Mundane Utility: Pokémon aren't always battling, after all.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Lee's reaction to his first battle against Brendan's Mudkip, a curb-stomp to the latter. He gets over it as he sees what he already logically knew: Pokémon are Made of Iron and made to fight.
• My God, You Are Serious!: In Act 1, Chapter 2, when Lee tells Professor Birch his origins, even with Medicham verifying him, the professor remains skeptical, thinking it could be very strong delusions, until Lee says there were no Pokémon in his home dimension. When the shock passes, so do the doubts.
  Birch: Not even the most deranged person could say "there was no pokemon in my alternate dimension" and honestly believe it, and no one sane would come up with such an unthinkable lie.
• "Not So Different" Remark: In Act 2, Chapter 14, Ninetales and Corvi have this after the latter comes clean about his Dark and Troubled Past, and he realizes that for the first time, he's facing someone who can fully understand his fear of it happening again: not because it has happened to her, but because due to her much longer lifespan, it inevitably will. For her part, it's the primary reason that she moves past his offense of abandoning Lee.
  Corvi: It's almost like looking into a distorted mirror...
  Ninetales: I suppose it is...
  (Beat)
  Ninetales: I swore I would endure the pain of parting when the time came, but now? Does it get easier as time goes by?
  Corvi: No. You merely forget sometimes.
  Ninetales: Ah...
• Not So Stoic: Smug Snake Maxie loses his cool when Lee and Corvi finally see through his monstrous Camerupt's power:Maxie's Claydol is controlling its every move and suppressing its injuries. And that turns to a full-on Oh, Crap! when Corvi Taunts Claydol, shattering its control over Camerupt.
• Olympus Mons: In Chapter 16, going over the list of candidates for his team, Lee expresses some interest (though no expectation) of recruiting Latios or Latias. There's also a mostly scratched-out entry at the end of the list that's nevertheless obvious to any reader: the only Pokémon whose name ends in "-wo" is Mewtwo. Suicune is mentioned later to be one of the few Legendaries to ever have been captured, as well as Tobias' Latios.
• One Degree of Separation: Perhaps justified due to the rarity of Psychically gifted humans, but Lucian of the Sinnoh Elite Four was the mentor of Anabel the Frontier Brain.
• One-Winged Angel: Maxie's Camerupt is already monstrously strong as is. Then it Mega Evolves.
• Patchwork Fic: The story combines elements from both the anime and the games.
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse:
  • Lee's Vulpix is this; from his initial physical, he thinks she's strong enough to potentially pull a car behind her and leap over a whole building. And that's before they start jailbreaking her fire attacks.
  • Also, of course, Ash's Pikachu.
• Poor Communication Kills: The fact that Lee and Zinnia don't tell Brendan the full truth about Courtney allows him to develop a crush on her, which is returned, and for her to make a solid attempt of swaying him to her side.
• The Reveal: In Chapter 70, we have two of these. Zinnia finally tells Brendan and Lee the truth of her mission: that on the day of the summer solstice, a colossal meteor will destroy the world unless a human can synchronize with Rayquaza to destroy it. And afterward, Lee blows that revelation out of the water by finally telling Lee, Brendan, and their teams the truth of his origins.
• Secret-Keeper: For Lee's origins.
  • Professor Birch is the first one he tells, and it opens the possibilities for making his place in the world.
  • Birch recommends a therapist, Mabel, who is psychically compelled to never reveal her clients' secrets. She and her Xatu are a massive help for Lee and Ninetales.
  • Finally, he tells Zinnia, Brendan, and their teams in Chapter 70, blowing Zinnia's reveal of the looming apocalypse out of the water.
• Secret Secret-Keeper: One of the Draconid elders overheard Lee telling Zinnia and Brendan of his origin, and seems to have no plans to tell anyone. The writing deliberately leaves it ambiguous which one, not even revealing their gender.
• Scissors Cuts Rock: Type advantage is a significant factor, of course. But it's not the most significant.
  • In his modded Emerald version, Lee defeated Rock-type specialist Roxanne with only Vulpix. Later, facing Roxanne in person, he defeats her Geodude and Nosepass with Corvisquire and Vulpix.
  • When Brendan gets his Mudkip starter, the pair of them challenge Lee and Vulpix many times. They always lose.
  • Andre repeatedly challenged Brawley's Fighting-type Pokémon with his own Dark-type team out of some kind of inferiority complex, refusing to leave Dewford until he succeeded.
• Spiders Are Scary:
  • Aasir, Lee’s trainer at the zoo, had no issues taking care of lions but could not handle spiders.
  • Vulpix, later Ninetales, is less terrified and more disgusted, as shown when they see a shop in Lavaridge where Spinarak and Ariados are weaving fine clothes.
• Strong and Skilled: Ash's Pikachu is a powerhouse in and of himself, but he and his trainer also have several years of experience behind them. As such, he inflicts a Curb-Stomp Battle to Andre's comparatively Unskilled, but Strong Absol, who's very fast and strong but lacking in strategy.
• This Is Gonna Suck:
  • In Chapter 1, Lee quotes this verbatim before he yanks a shard of glass out of his side from the nuclear disaster.
  • In Chapter 8, he has this reaction as he's coerced into a battle with Zinnia.
• There Are No Therapists: Zig-zagged. There are therapists, and Professor Birch advises Lee to see one. However, once the scale of Lee's issues are revealed to Birch, he has to go back and find someone who not only can deal with the "Multiverse Theory" thing, but also someone capable of dealing with the extreme level of trauma that led to Lee's arrival in Hoenn. And even after that, the actual meetings with the therapist are not as frequent as they'd like, since Lee is still on the road and can only regularly meet up at Pokemon Centers. Still, once it becomes clear how his mindset could hurt his Pokemon, Lee starts attending once all the arrangements are made.
• This Is Unforgivable!: Vulpix and Grovyle have this reaction to Corvi abandoning Lee. Subverted when the offender finally shows remorse from it; Grovyle manages to forgive him, and Vulpix (Ninetales by then) agrees to put the matter behind them.
• Training Montage: Blatantly lampshaded by Zinnia at the start of Chapter 2-27:
  Zinnia: Every good story has a training montage, and ours starts today!
• Trapped in Another World:
  • Lee doesn't mind it, but considering Earth was destroyed in a nuclear apocalypse, he should be dead; he has no idea how he got to Hoenn, and no way to leave the new world if he wanted to.
  • It turns out that he's not unique, either; "Fallers" are a little-known myth in the world of Pokémon. Zinnia has heard of them, but until Lee came clean about his secret, nobody could ever confirm their existence.
• Trauma Button: Lee's death in Act 1 Chapter 1 caused explosions to be this. The explosion caused by Ash's Pikachu overloading Birch's machine immediately sends Lee into a panic attack and other explosions often require Vulpix to use their Psychic Link to suppress his panic.
• We Can Rule Together: Late in Act 2, Courtney reveals her secret to Brendan and asks him to join her. The fact that Lee and Zinnia have kept him in the dark about her for too long and the real friendship that the two of them have built leaves Brendan conflicted up until the conflict with Team Magma atop Mount Chimney, where he agrees to join Courtney. However, when he sees that Lee and Zinnia are about to die to Maxie, he decides to destroy the TE extractor and rejoins them. He tells Courtney that he only considered it because he wanted to be close to her, and turns the offer back on her.
• What Is This Feeling?: Revealed in Act 2: Interlude 3 to be the reason that Octillery joined Lee; feeling Ninetales's fervent affection for Lee, the numbness that he's hidden behind for most of his life wavers, and he's determined to understand what caused it.
• Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: Lee's mentor and coworker, Aasir, does not like spiders. At all.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: In Chapter 70, when Zinnia comes clean about her mission and her insecurities, Brendan gives her a heartfelt speech to this effect with uncharacteristic vitriol:
  Brendan: Shut up! Don't talk about yourself like that! You changed your mind and did the right thing! So what if you followed us because Lee reminded you of your friend?! It's okay to be hurt, to be upset! You didn't have to get Lee that Battletent ticket as an apology for yelling at him, yet you did! You didn't have to train with us, or trade stories, or show us through the Valley of Steel, or anything! Yet you did! All that matters is that you did the right thing in the end, so don't talk about yourself like you're a bad person or bad friend, because you're not!

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