Dust Off The Ashes

David Lawson is someone, depending on the perspective, who could be defined as the main character of Earth. He saved the planet on three separate occasions, once from a massive abomination, next from a solar storm, and finally from starvation.

His stories were not those of fantasy and magic, but horror, agony, and perseverance. Every day, he rose from his metaphorical ashes until his job was done.

The Terror was defeated when his secret organization, LeftRook, hacked every governments' nuclear launch codes to blast the thing back to hell, with only three million people surviving its attack and following nuclear Armageddon.

The solar storm that followed in the next years was solved by placing a few surviving children on a private spaceship he built and sending them to an unaffected planet, cryogenically frozen until arrival.

Last but not least, when the remaining humans were barely able to survive, awoken aboard the ship with no food, he used his blood to help alien plants grow so that humanity would not go extinct, resulting in his death.

That is the story known to the remaining humans from his old universe. However, it was all bullshit. David was used against his will by the elites: celebrities, owners of large corporations, and leaders of nations.

When The Terror came onto Earth, David's group did save it by using all of the nukes on Earth, but the United States' CIA, one of the few remaining political organizations, hunted down LeftRook and killed every member except him. A chip was then implanted into his skull, binding David to the orders of his owners, and he was forced to fill the spaceship he made with the sons and daughters of the rich.

"At least they were kind enough to save their children above themselves," was what David had told himself at the time, but he knew it was selfishness, especially as upon landing the ship on a habitable planet after being frozen for millennia, he found himself being used as a water dispenser.

The last command given to the chip was to do whatever would result in the survival of the most people, even to his own detriment.

Thus, when all of the children were unfrozen, and the only form of food available on the planet was an alien plant that grew from iron-rich water, his blood was drained day after day until he died. Though the children looked on David with adoration, he loathed them and their damnable parents.

However, he stopped loathing them after his death. Not because he turned to nothingness as many atheists accept, but because he was face to face with a god. That's all the being could be, when the situation was considered.

David woke up on the top floor of a tall building with a glowing elderly man glaring down at him. He looked around awkwardly, standing up as he felt his head. He wiggled his facial muscles over and over again, but couldn't feel the chip.

He turned gratefully to the old man, understanding the situation. "I'm dead from blood loss, I take it. And this is heaven?"

The old man nodded. "Indeed. I am glad we are doing this quickly. This is the executive karma room. Basically, not heaven, but a sorting place. Hell doesn't exist before you ask. We aren't evil, you know. Most of us, anyway." Somehow, Dust began to feel like this old man was his friend.

"Basically, you'll be going through three stages while here. First, you get wishes. Unfortunately, you get less karma because of your hatred for those you helped.

You still have a lot considering you saved the only sentient species in Baseverse 64, but not as much. Basically, you have enough for the base reincarnator package for whatever place you choose to reincarnate in."

David bit his gums, as he thought for a few moments. "Do I have the option to just ascend to heaven? Or actually, check that, can I just stop existing? I feel like I've lived for long enough. And if not, what is this base reincarnator package?"

The god frowned, his eyebrows wrinkled as his eyes turned a shimmering rose color, then his halo brightened as he spoke, "So you were the new Module, LeftRook 7."

The halo atop a bald head shone as the old man shot a dense white beam whose presence emanated holiness at David. It entered his body, but it merely surged through him as he grinned and kneeled. "You purified my mind or something, I take it? Also, my soul is some sort of special module that's different from others? I don't really need info on it, I can feel what's special about it now that you've returned my karma to zero."

A similar grin adorned the old man's face as he slowly morphed into a child. "Your karma was stained somehow, likely because of the changes made to your soul to make you a LeftRook. Your will to live was nearly nonexistent, so I took the liberty of removing all of that stained karma. We'll send it back to the lab and give you the reincarnator package as thanks."

Standing up, David popped his spine and shoulders. "Yeah, thanks for that. I'll take it whatever it is. You can keep all of my karma, while you're at it. I get the feeling something bad will happen if I hang onto it. I have a few more things to ask if I can have them in exchange. First, a good start in the pokemon world, second a system, no quests or shit like that, just a status screen for me and any pokemon that comes within a certain distance, third, my memories, and lastly, high talent in anything that I can afford."

The now young god threw a dart through David's head as he chuckled. "Yeah, fuck that. I think I'll do what gives me the most entertainment. That's why I make you modules after all. You didn't regain your memories from having karma removed, so I guess you just didn't know. I'm the head of the "Mad Scientist Lab" here in Purgatory. So you can get just the base package, which is your memories from your past life and slightly raised talent."

David had the weirdest sense of kinship with this guy a few moments before, but it was overcome with a foreboding feeling after Lucifer spoke up. Before David could reply, the pain took hold as he began to collapse inward on himself.

"Yeah, I know exactly what I'll do. You honestly deserve better than what you're about to get considering your unfortunate past life, but as I am a gracious god, and you are so… humble in asking, you can keep your memories." The devil cackled away as David slowly imploded.

Lucifer slowly stopped laughing as he looked around. "My dart? Did it just choose a module I created over me, its creator? Interesting. Very interesting!. Let's see how this plays out! Enjoy this lucky break, David Lawson! Or should I say Dust Highbrook? Kekeke."

After what felt like years, David finally sat up, a headache pounding, vibrating, roaring through his skull. With a moan, he rolled over, cursing, "That trash god! He messes with my soul to turn me into something weird then after taking all of my karma that is used for wishes in some of those novels from Earth, he just drops my soul into the body of some kid covered in blood! Fuck, I hate him!"

As he stood, something dropped from the bag that was laying on top of him, so he bent down to pick it up.

Upon further notice, it was two somethings: a pokemon trainer license for a Dust Highbrook and an empty Pokeball. Picking them up, David fell to his knees as memories raced through his head and the migraine dispersed.

"So my name is Dust, I come from Gangnam Town, and Team Rocket stole the Pidgey I had as my starter, stabbing me with a longsword. Nope, not the Pokemon I know from the games or anime, that's for sure. Another tally on the fuck Lucifer list."

David—Dust now, as it were—was a bit of a nerd in his youth. He read a lot, gamed a lot, and worked a lot. This is obvious when one considers the fact that he made his own cryostasis chamber on a spaceship, built in part and owned in full by him.

Thus it is not notably confusing as to why he wanted to come to the pokemon world. He knew everything about it! Pokemon was his favorite franchise, after all.

Dust quickly acclimated to his situation despite the situation; that was what made him a LeftRook Module. He could adapt to any situation in mentality, even when he could not physically.

He meditated on his memories for around ten minutes as there were eight years of information, then compartmentalized everything he could, throwing away personal details apart from his name and his situation at the orphanage.

"Thanks for the little things, Lucifer. Like not having parents to deal with," was all Dust could think about his family in this world, who were killed by Beedrill.

After dealing with his new memories, Dust pulled out his map and began walking to the nearest town. He had one last thing, which would prove vital in making it to the nearest urban settlement, Verdain City.

That was his town's original martial arts style whose name resulted in a chuckle from Dust every time he thought about it: The Gangnam Style.