Days had been long and repetitious ever since the end of Team Magma's plan months prior. When Team Aqua was pulled to a halt as well, days just seemed dull but relaxing. Maxie had never realized how stressed pushing his ideal of land expansion had affected him until a week after the young trainer had stopped both teams single handedly.
After such a large blow to his pride he had locked himself in his room for a few days. He sat alone and slept most of the hours away, the others reading and ignoring the worried comments Tabitha and Courtney sent him via phone. The third day is when he noticed when passing by a mirror how thin he was. It had shocked him how much weight he had lost in those months of planning and research. Half of him was disgusted with the complete lack of care he gave to his own body, the other intrigued but otherwise still very frightened.
With that on his mind, he only secluded himself for a few hours before becoming sick of the silence. He dressed himself and walked out of the room into the loft of the hide out. Each grunt instantly growing quiet in anticipation.
"Attention all." His voice rang out loud and clear in the now full room. "In light of recent events, Team Magma will abandon it's original plan of acquiring Groudon and expanding the land."
"However," Their attention hung on him, on his words, very closely. "After much thought, I have decided not to disband Team Magma. Instead our plans will focus more on bettering the land itself. We all have been gifted pardon for our crimes, and while we may never truly be 'good,' we should push for all to see us as great and respectable. Any of you who no longer wish to be apart of this ideal may resign at any time. Thank you."
Clapping and cheering bounced off of every wall in the base that day, his admins congratulating and thanking him.
"I did nothing worth thanking me for." He sighed, already exhausted from the thought of starting over from scratch.
"We'll gladly help in this new plan sir!" Tabitha was on the verge of tears. "You really had us worried."
"I told you they were unwarranted. Maxie always knows what he's doing." Courtney muttered. Seeming to ignore that fact she had sent him as many messages as Tabitha, if not more. Part of him could not throw all that they worked for away, and the worry that nagged his mind of what would become of his subordinates should he shut down the base, most of which might now be unwanted by their families after what they had almost done. Even if the authorities had forgiven them, the general public would be much less inclined to forget.
As such over the next few months, the team worked hard to raise public opinion of them. Quickly hearing through the grapevine Team Aqua was doing the same.
"Should we do something sir?"
Contemplating putting everything in the past, Maxie murmured softly before becoming firm. "No, we have no business with them anymore."
"Understood."
Nothing more became of his old rivalry, in fact he had become so busy trying to keep himself healthy and gaining the knowledge to further their new plan he seemed to forget about team Aqua. Becoming so wrapped up in his team once more, a schedule now in place and followed to a T, that it was surprising when he heard a timid knock on his door during the early morning hours one day.
"Sir...? It's Tabitha."
Maxie felt a himself hiss out a 'what do you want at this ungodly hour...?' but his pillow muffled most of the anger. His admin opened the door and seemed to fidget with panic.
"I'm sorry to wake you boss but-" Not panicked, no, out of breath. He gave a few huffs before continuing. "Someone broke into the base."
Maxie sat up at once, throwing off the blanket and putting on his glasses. "Where are they now? Who are they?"
"I-in a storage closet. A newbie thought he heard crying and-"
"Crying?"
He questioned as he walked into the hall in his pajamas, the urgency more important than trivial garments.
"It's not a robber, I think. Just a kid." They walked at a brisk pace, many of the subordinates now up and readying themselves for the day.
"And why haven't you thrown them out?"
"Sir!" Two grunts, presumedly guarding the door, saluted to him before opening the assumed storage closet. It was dimly lit, but with a flick of a switch the room filled with light. Showing a small child.
"As you can see...it's a young kid. We can't just throw him out."
Indeed the child was young, perhaps 6 or 7, curled up in a corner. Much too young to be a trainer who happened to get lost in the mountains.
"Check all cities for any amber alerts or missing children flyers. I want as many people questioned without raising suspicion."
"Right away boss!"
"Courtney." As her name left his lips she appeared, dressed and ready to go. "Has there been any attempt to get the child's information?"
"Yes sir. As soon as we found him Tabitha went to get you and I attempted to extract his name and hometown."
"And?"
"Nothing. He refuses to speak to anyone of us." She sounded slightly insulted, but otherwise neutral as they walked closer.
"Very well. Anything else?"
As she described the finding of the boy, Maxie noticed the child was now looking at him. Dark arms and legs were scraped and covered in tiny cuts as the short, black hair moved slightly, trying to watch him better.
"You." He cut off Courtney as he got down to eye level the child. "How did you get into our base?"
Slowly, the boy rose his head, large blue eyes puffy and red looked up at him as he let out a sniffle. His face was dirty, as well as his shirt and shorts. His lips were dry and he seemed somewhat sleep deprived. In a small voice the boy spoke.
"I dunno..."
"... ... ..."
Tiny arms wrapped around his neck when he tried to get up, making a disgusted noise crawl out of his throat. "You're filthy..."
"Maxie. What are your orders?" Courtney asked, watching as he cautiously picked the boy up.
"I don't believe he can be of any use in his current state." Any movement made to remove him was met with a shriek of no and his small hands gripping his shirt until his knuckles turned white. Heaving a low sigh, Maxie adjusted him to rest on his arm. "I will give him a bath, during which I want you to find suitable clothing. After which some food and sleep will get him aware enough to speak properly."
"Understood."
Walking while the child clung to him, he returned to his room and began running the bath.
This time the boy didn't fight him when he put him down, nor when he scrubbed him head to toe (he was literally caked in dried mud). Once done rinsing and drying him, Maxie wrapped him up in a towel before fetching the clothing the grunts had found and neatly folded on his desk, as well as a glass of water and the medical kit.
"Drink this."
The boy wasted no time in draining the liquid before getting into the baggy clothes and following him into his office. Rolling out a futon, Maxie instructed him to sit down. He bent down and carefully looked over the cuts, most likely from climbing through bushes and tripping on the unforgiving slope of the mountain. One by one he cleaned and bandaged them before dusting himself off and giving a sound of approval.
Maxie rubbed his temple lightly, he was never a fan of children and yet here was one, unnamed and clinging to HIM of all people.
Maybe I can get to him to latch onto Tabitha...
He suddenly felt something tugging on his pant leg, the child, half lidded with sleep trying to get his attention.
"What."
"Maxie...the lady said..." He lulled off into silence.
"Yes." He sighed. "My name's Maxie."
"..."
"And you are...?"
"...Archabald."
"Archibald?" Maxie repeated slowly, the child nodding slightly.
"Mama only calls me that when she's mad though..."
"So...Archie, then." It was more of a statement then a question, but the boy nodded again and solidified the information. "Get some sleep. Then we'll talk."
His small fists refused to let go of his leg, almost holding onto it for dear life when he moved forward.
"You..."
His voice dripped venom, but he froze when he noticed the tears welling in his eyes.
"...I'll be in the room, at the desk. So sleep." Defeated, he let the child get the upper hand on him this once. In a few hours his persons should find his family and return him promptly. He only needed to bear with it for a few hours...
Manually he had to take the hands off his pant leg, but little Archie let him. Maxie was left in quiet as the child fell asleep under the blanket. His exhaustion coupled with the natural warmth of the room was ideal for such a quick transition.
Doing paperwork, hours ticked by and before he realized it, the clock struck 4 pm. His grunts had been out for almost 10 hours. Surely they had gathered the necessary information?
Almost on cue his phone buzzed, but the message itself was of little use to him.
|May we discuss next month's land conservation project?|
|Fine. But make it quick.|
He never understood why he kept that old habit up. The discussions always lasted 3 hours at a minimum with grunts filing in and out to bring in their reports.
"And thus with the current windflow and predicted weather patterns, as well as the patterns documented over the past 25 years during this period we can safely say-"
The soft pitter patter of feet broke him out of his lecture as the boy- Archie, half asleep and pulling the futon's blanket, clammered up to him.
"Good, you're awake." Sending a grunt to prepare a small meal, Maxie set out a cushion on the floor so he could eat at the table. Wrapping himself in the blanket, Archie sat down and tried not to doze off.
"Tabitha, has there been any progress regarding the child?"
"No sir. I sent grunts to every town, even Pacifidlog! No one has ever heard of him, and no reports have been filed in the last 6 months resembling him. If I may add..." His expression grew troubled, and with a wave of a hand to continue, he murmured. "There are no reports of him...period. No birth records, school records, nothing."
"And how, pray tell, were you able to discern that without a name?"
"One of the grunts found these in the boy's clothing you told them to wash."
A wrinkled birth certificate, social card, even photo ID was laid out onto the table.
"My apologies for not telling you sooner, but we needed to make sure they were not falsified."
"... ... ...Right." Even through the creases and dried liquids, the name ARCHIBALD was written clearly on the certificate, but the last name was scribbled out in black pen, quite forcefully too.
"What should we do with him?"
"... ... ..." Folding his hands, he let out a long breath, staring intensely at the table. "Have you traced the birth certificate back to the original hospital?"
"That's another thing..." Tabitha rubbed his neck lightly. "The hospital it came from was part of a large branch that was in every region until about 5 years ago...It has since been closed down completely."
"And after such a length of time all the dated paperwork would have been shredded to make room..."
"We can not turn him over to the police." Courtney's voice piped up as she arrived with the plate of food. "They'd send him to foster care."
"... ... ..." A few grunts agreed, expressing their distaste for how they did things 'over there.'
While this new issue would be extremely problematic if allowed to stay, the idea of such a young child being thrown from home to home in such a manner...
"...it looks as if I have no choice."
With not a second wasted, many looked relieved and spoke at him with more respect, heavens knows why. All the while Archie, a new found hunger awoken inside him, ate eagerly.