Last time, Astolfo and his friends attended the Pokémon Fangame Rally, where they met Ame and a few of her friends. However the rally was interrupted by the arrival of the Divine Powers, who spoke of their intentions to destroy the fangames.
Before I begin, there's a couple things I want to get off my chest. The first is that this takes place before the events of Shin Megami Tensai IV: Apocalypse. The second is that Nino got a new alt in Fire Emblem Heroes and it's the cutest little thing of all time. And with that off my chest, we can now begin.
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in this fic. They're the property of their respective creators.
Chapter 2: There's treachery afoot
Pokémon Fangame Headquarters
The group had arrived at the fangame headquarters in order to discuss the events of the rally, most notably the Divine Powers and their master plan. They had entered the lobby, with Astolfo and his group picking up a brochure from the front desk, when they were soon halted by a man guarding the nearby elevator. He was a fairly tall man of African-American descent and had short white hair and brown eyes. His outfit consisted of a tan long-sleeve jacket and matching pants, with a dark blue undershirt and a pair of boots. He also wore a brown wide-brimmed hat that had the logo for the Cellian Police Force. Shiv immediately recognised the man and gave him a friendly bro-hug.
"Garret, long time no see!" Shiv greeted, as the two broke off the hug. "How have things been going?"
"Could be better, but nothing worth complaining about." Garret replied, a grin on his face. "Sorry I was late but I got caught up in some official business. How did the rally go?"
"That's why we're here, we need to get to the meeting room as soon as possible!" Shiv blurted, as he made his way to the elevator and quickly pressed the button a few times. A few seconds later and everyone entered the elevator and they soon made their way up. Once they arrived at the top floor, Shiv bolted out of the elevator and made his way to the meeting room.
"Damn, shit must've hit the fan if Shiv's this worried about it." Garret commented, as the rest of the group entered the meeting room. Asides from Shiv, there were four other people in the room, three women and one male. The male was a young man with a dark shade of purple and his eyes were brown. His choice of attire was rather unique, with a black, fishnet shirt cover by a dark purple jacket as well as a pair of matching coloured pants. He also had purple boots and wore black eyeshadow. This was Cain, the reserve Poison-type Gym Leader of Reborn and the Minister of Tourism for the region.
The first woman had luscious navy blue hair that reached her back, and matching blue eyes. Her outfit consisted of a short sleeved blue shirt that showed off her naval, and a pair of blue shorts, with a rope belt around the helm that held two small pouches. She also wore blue boots, which matched her outfit. This was Valerie, the Water-type Gym Leader of Aevium.
The second woman was very pretty; with her long green hair and bright blue eyes. Her outfit consisted of a green short-sleeved shirt, a blue pleated skirt, thigh-high socks and light green sneakers. This was Nora, one of the Torren regions most talented trainers and a close friend of Damian.
The third and final woman was a gorgeous young woman with her long pink hair done up in ponytails, with matching pink eyes. She wore what appeared to be a short-sleeved, red button up shirt, a matching red skirt, as well as red gloves and boots that reached the bottom of her knees. This was Rosetta, the mayor of Cellia City and the Fairy-type Gym Leader. She and Garret are acquaintances despite some tense moments in the past.
"H-hey Shiv, what's the rush about?" Rosetta inquired, curious about his attitude.
"The entire rally got screwed up thanks to those asshats!" Shiv complained, slumping down on an empty seat.
"Screwed up, by who?" Rosetta turned to Ame for answers.
"This group appeared out of nowhere and called themselves the Divine Powers, before going on a tangent about how our games are denying humanity the opportunity of salvation." Ame explained, sighing to herself. "I honestly don't know what they were going on about."
"T-t-that head honcho of theirs said that I had great potential to me, as if I was important to his plans." Damian mentioned.
"I wouldn't pay too much credence to it." Nora attempted to ease his worries. "It's probably nothing but an attempt to get a reaction."
"Y-Yeah, you're right." Damian replied, as Astolfo was taken aback by Cain.
"Wow-wee! You look amazing!" the pinkette grinned like crazy. "What's your name?"
"The name's Cain sweetie." Cain replied, a soft smile on his face. "You look stunning as well."
"Aw shucks." Astolfo blushed, as Sothe whipped out his pen and notebook.
"Cain! I've heard about you. Would it be a hassle if I got an autograph from you and your friends?" Sothe requested.
"Not at all handsome." Cain replied, as he took the pen and notebook and wrote his autograph in it before passing it onto the others who proceeded to do the same. Once they had all finished, Garret handed the pen and notebook back to Sothe.
"Thank you all so much!" Sothe thanked them all, as Valerie noticed the troubled look on Melia's face.
"Is something the matter?" She asked.
"Yeah. That Maitreya fellow said something about people buying dakimakuras with images of me on them, yet I don't recall anyone of us making those." Melia commented.
"You think Ren could've been behind it?" Valerie asked.
"I swear if he did make those pillows, I'll never talk to him again!" Melia threatened, crossing her arms.
"Anyway, back to business. Does anyone here know anything about this Divine Powers?" Titania asked out loud.
"No unfortunately, this is the first time I've even heard of them." Rosetta replied.
"Well there is something I heard that may be of use to us." Nora chimed in, with everyone turning to face her. "I overheard Jaern mentioning something about meeting up with this guy with a flute and a fedora."
"Sounds a lot like that Krishna fellow who stole the stage." Ame replied, before pausing for a moment. "You think Jaern's planning in defecting to the Divine Powers?"
"Oh he can try, but I'll break his legs if he goes through with it." Titania added, stretching her arms.
"Perhaps I could be of assistance?" a feminine voice called out from outside the room, as two more figures entered the meeting room, one female and one male. The female was of average height and had long red hair, matching red eyes and tanned skin. Her outfit consisted of a simple black dress. The male beside her was a teenage male around Cain's age and had short, messy brown hair and blue eyes. His outfit consisted of a black jacket, grey undershirt, black tracksuit pants with a white stripe running down the sides.
"Amelia…what brings you here today?" Garret inquired, facing the woman.
"I came here to propose a little deal with you. If we help weed out those potential traitors, you dispose of our criminal records. Sound fair?" Amelia bargained, with Hardy waving politely to everyone else in the room.
"That's an unaccep—"Rosetta began speaking.
"Now hold on there, I'm willing to hear them out." Garret interrupted her, causing Rosetta to huff in response.
"I'm glad to see you're willing to listen to reason." Amelia replied, before Sothe made his way to the duo.
"May I have your autograph please?" Sothe requested.
"Sure, if it keeps you out of my hair." Amelia replied, as she and Hardy proceeded to write their signature in his notebook before handing it back to him.
"Thank you both so much!" Sothe replied.
"Eh, no big hassle." Hardy replied, shrugging his shoulders. "Anyway, I'm down for this infiltration mission. My younger brother had just come out of surgery and is able to care for himself now."
"I can't say I'm too thrilled about this idea, but it's not like we have any other choice." Rosetta admitted, resting her chin on her hand. "Very well, we accept the terms of your deal. But you better get some results."
"Oh don't you worry your pretty little head about it, the Black Foxes always get results. Amelia retorted coolly, before turning to Hardy. "You can handle this Hardy."
"Alright then, I promise not to disappoint you all." Hardy pledged, with Garret placing a duffle bag on the table.
"Now then, you'll be wearing a wire over your chest so that we'll be able to record their conversation. Additionally you'll be wearing this bowler hat sine it had a concealed camera in it." Garret explained as he unpacked the mentioned items from the duffle bag. "I'll need you to remove your shirt and jacket so I can attach the wire and fine tune it."
"Alright then, but be quick about it." Hardy replied quickly, removing his shirt and jacket and turning away from Garret who proceeded to attach the wire.
"It if makes you feel just a bit better, you appear quite healthy for someone your age and stature." Micaiah commented.
"Uhh, thanks for the comment miss…" Hardy replied somewhat awkwardly, a faint blush on his face. A few minutes later, Garret had finished attaching fine-tuning the wire with Hardy putting his clothes back on.
"Now then, you know where the meeting is?" Garret inquired.
"The entrance hall of the temple in Tsukiji Kongangi. Jaern's probably already there alongside anybody else who wishes to join the Divine Powers." Hardy deduced. "Any way, I gotta get going. Wish me luck!" he called out as he exited the room.
Tsukiji Konganji: Entrance hall
Befitting the large temple, the entrance hall was lavishly decorated in precious metals and jewles. Additionally there were several priceless artefacts on display, guarded by highly durable glass containers. As Hardy entered the hall, he soon spotted several figures wearing hooded cloaks being guided by Jaern, whose hood was down. Jaern had short blonde hair and had a ponytail hanging off the back of his head. He soon noticed Hardy and went up to him.
"S-s-so you came Hardy?" Jaern said, his voice being rather high-pitched. "Got sick of Amelia ordering you around?"
"Nah, I needed some money for my brother's surgery." Hardy lied, hoping Jaern would by it.
"Makes sense, though I wish you contacted me earlier so you would've gotten your own cloak." Jaern replied.
"Ah I'll be fine without it." Hardy brushed off the statement. It was then that a rather tall man entered the room. He had bright red skin, a bushy beard and clothing that originated from Ancient China. This was Zhong Kui, a rather friendly agent of the Divine Powers.
"Hey there, you must be the new recruits Lord Krishna told me about." Zhong Kui said out loud in a polite tone of voice. "The name's Zhong Kui and I'll be leading you to the initiation room."
"Alright then, lead the way." Jaern replied, as the group proceeded to follow the agent for a while. Eventually they reached the initiation room, where the leaders of the Divine Powers were waiting.
"Lord Krishna, I brought the recruits you mentioned." Zhong Kui replied, bowing before his master.
"Well done. We can handle it from here, you return to your post" Krishna replied.
"As you wish." Zhong Kui replied, as he exited the room and shut the door. The traitors took their place in the middle of the room alongside several other humans, demons and gods, while the three deities looked them over.
"Welcome to Tsukiji Kongani, I am Krishna of the Divine Powers and the lovely gentlemen beside me are Odin and Maitreya. Thank you all for coming here today." Krishna introduced himself and his compatriots.
"Our mission is simple; to eradicate all those who stand in our way. We do this in order for humanity to obtain salvation." Odin commented.
"The Pokémon fangames are one such obstacle; though I detect several people who worked on these fangames in here." Maitreya added.
"C-Correct. We wish to rebel against our former friends, having realised the poor quality of the games." Jaern replied.
"Oh? You must be the newcomers then. Everyone else already introduced themselves, so why don't you take off those hoods and introduce yourselves." Maitreya suggested, with the traitors, sans Hardy doing so.
"Jaern, Second Augur of Torren and head of the Sky Cult." He bowed.
"Zenith, head of the Infernal Cult." He bowed.
"Professor Maple, head scientist of the Holon Delta Pokémon Laboratory." He bowed.
"Lin, leader of Team Meteor." She bowed.
"Sirius, long time commander of Team Meteor." He bowed.
"Blake, hired agent for Team Meteor." He bowed.
"Cal, Blake's brother and long-time rival." He bowed, with the two brothers staring down each other.
"Fern, reserve Grass-type Gym Leader of Reborn and the greatest trainer of all time." He bowed, smirking to himself.
"Madame X, founder of Team Xen and the wielder of Senketsuken." She bowed.
"Nastasia, second-in-command of Team Xen." She bowed.
"Madelis, head of Team Xen's Shadow Pokémon Program." She bowed.
"Neved, prison warden of Blacksteeple Castle." He bowed.
"Geara, commander of Team Xen's spec. op forces." He bowed.
"Ren, former lab assistant of Professor Jenner." He bowed.
"Professor Larkspur, talented researcher from the Tandor region." He bowed.
"Rick, future champion of the Rikoto region." He bowed.
"Professor Gobline, renegade professor from the Everia/Rathio region." He bowed.
"Radius, former leader of Team Lightning." He bowed.
"Redi, Radius' son and admin of Team Lightning." He bowed.
"Sam, field commander of Team Lightning." She bowed.
"Elia, spec. ops commander of Team Lightning." He bowed.
"Lavius, one of the true leaders of Team Lightning." He bowed.
"Lavia, Lavius' sister and the other true leader of Team Lightning." She bowed.
"Baron, second-in-command of Team Crescent." He bowed.
"H-Hardy, renegade agent of the Black Foxes." He replied slightly hesitant, before bowed like the others.
0000
"Well now that we know who the traitors are, we can arrest them and charge them with treason." Rosetta commented.
"I figured Fern would betray us, like the slimy vermin that he is." Titania scoffed to herself, crossing her arms.
"Huh, that Krishna fellow's rocking a nice outfit." Garret admitted. "That flute's a nice touch."
"Now's not the time to be admiring the enemy's outfit." Shiv reminded his friend.
0000
"It's a pleasure to meet you all." Krishna replied to the traitors. "Now onto the main topic at hand; we've already secured a minor victory for the Divine Powers by disrupting their rally over at Akihabara, but we've still got plenty of things to deal with."
"For instance, the fangames have been distributed all over the world via the internet. That is why we need to spread our influence to contain this virtual plague." Odin stated. "Doing this will decrease the amount of followers these games draw in."
"Speaking of followers, you also need to find a way to shrink the player base. Converting them, disposing of them, we don't care what you do to them. If anything, killing them would free their souls from the corrupted prison of flesh the Creator God bestowed upon humans." Maitreya added.
"Then there's the merchandise they peddle to their followers; fan art, manga, dakimakuras. There's no level they wouldn't stoop to in order to profit off of children." Odin added as well.
"Uh…about the dakimakuras. I-I-I-I was forced to help make them!" Ren admitted, lying through his teeth. "They told me that if I didn't make those Melia dakimakuras, they'll break my kneecaps." He blubbered, as he began crying crocodile tears, with Redi "comforting" the young man.
0000
"What a lying sack of shit!" Amelia scoffed at Ren. "I always knew he would try to weasel his way out of responsibility."
"I swear if he put me or Amy on any of those godforsaken pillows, I'll break him in half!" Titania growled, clenching her fists tightly.
0000
"It seems that they have no problem mistreating their own workers in order to push their agenda." Krishna mused to himself. "However, we also need to look out for this Hyperdimension Neptunia thing the fangame creators mentioned during their rally."
"It could be a red herring planted by the fangame creators in order to protect their sorry hides." Odin interjected.
"True, though it's worth investigating, just in case it's a legitimate obstacle to our cause." Maitreya replied.
"That is all for now. You may leave." Krishna called out, as the recruits began to exit the room. "Oh and one more thing?" he added, with Odin snatching Hardy and tying him to a chair.
"W-W-What's going on?!" Hardy cried out, as Odin backhanded him hard, with Krishna walking up to him.
"Did you really think you were gonna get away with it? I knew all along you were a spy for the enemy." He smirked, sending shivers down the young man's back.
"How did you know that?!" Hardy demanded an answer.
"As it turns out, somebody else decided to betray the fangame creators. Somebody who knew about your plan." Odin informed the young man.
"As a matter of fact, here he comes now." Maitreya commented, as another person entered the room, with Hardy glaring at him intensely.
"Greetings. My name is Connor, and I'm the Fire-type Gym Leader of the Ayrith region." He bowed.
"I thank you for finding out about the mole they planted." Krishna thanked the bespectacled redhead.
"No problem. After all it gets rid of another obstacle in my path."Connor smirked.
"Oh, seems like you have an agenda of your own. May I ask what your goal is?" Odin inquired.
"I wanna hook up with Scarlett, however she already has her eye on someone, and it happens to be Rosetta's wimpy scrub of a son." Connor scoffed.
"Heh, seems I'm not the only one looking for some action." Blake smirked.
"How about splitting some of the tail once we beat them?" Fern suggested.
"Sounds fair, but I get first choice." Blake agreed.
"You can all kiss my ass you gutless traitors!" Hardy snapped at the traitors, as he attempted to break free.
"Wiggle all you like, but your fate is sealed." Maitreya informed him ominously. "How do you suppose we deal with him Lord Krishna?"
"Yeah what are you gonna do, play some flute song that kills me?" Hardy taunted, with Krishna shaking his head in response.
"No, I've got a more fitting fate for you. One that I hope your allies can see through their camera, so I could teach them the consequences for opposing me." Krishna replied, before turning to an open door on the other side of the room. "Oh Shesha, I've got a surprise for you!"
"Shesha?" Hardy inquired. The room started to shake mildly as the sound of something slithering on the floor drew closer and closer. From the open door emerged a colossal emerald green cobra with the arms and torso of a well-built man. There were several red eyes on the creatures head, and a large mouth filled to the brim with sharp fangs.
"You called masssssster…?" the massive serpent hissed in a raspy tone, bowing before Krishna.
"You see that young man tied to the chair? Why don't you free his soul from his prison?" Krishna requested, with Shesha knowing what he meant. The serpent eyed up Hardy for a while, as the young man was shivering in terror.
"Certainly, he looksssssssss quite tantalisssssssing." Shesha hissed, snatching the boy up and crushing the chair in its massive hand. Hardy let out a blood-curdling, ear-piercing scream as Shesha shovelled him into its mouth and began chewing him alive. The other traitors looked on in morbid curiosity as chunks of muscle and tissue were sprayed onto the floor alongside a bucket's worth of blood. Shesha soon swallowed the mangled remains of the boy and lightly petting its stomach.
"Mmmmmmmm, ssssssscrumptiousssssss!" it hissed.
"I hope you all learnt a lesson on what happens to those who cross the Divine Powers." Krishna told the traitors in a friendly tone, as they all bolted out of the room. "You'll get your first assignments tomorrow."
0000
The recording and video feed had ended upon Hardy's grisly demise. The atmosphere in the room was a mixture of shock, anger, and utter horror at what they say. Amelia in particular was both livid and saddened over the loss of a trusted comrade and friend.
"What the fuck was that thing?!" Garret broke the ice. "How are we expected to defeat that monstrosity?!"
"Oh god!" Damian cried out, as he began sobbing into Nora's shoulder. "I don't wanna get eaten by that thing!"
"Hey there, it'll be alright." Nora attempted to comfort him, gently petting his back.
"Well now that we know who the traitors are, how do you suggest we deal with them?" Ame suggested.
"Who cares about the traitors, they've got a giant snake on their side!" Sothe exclaimed. "I've dealt with some shit, but this takes the cake."
"Look, we're not gonna get anywhere if we keep freaking out. Why don't we take a break to compose our thoughts?" Micaiah suggested.
"Now that sounds like a good idea." Valerie agreed to it.
"In that case, we'll all meet back here in half an hour." Ame informed everyone, as they all went their separate ways temporarily.
Now that chapter was intense. Not only did we find out who betrayed Ame and the fangame community, but we learnt about the Divine Power's trump card. The next chapter will have a duel in it and I've got a good idea how it's gonna go down.
I'll also be putting down a list of the heroes and villains so that it's easy to keep track of the characters. See you next time everyone.
Astolfo's group:
Astolfo
Roland
Chevalier D'eon
Blair Flannigan
Micaiah
Sothe
Pokemon Fangame Community:
Ame
Cain
Titania
Melia
Valerie
Shiv
Garret
Rosetta
Hardy (K.I.A)
Amelia
Damien
Nora
The Divine Powers:
Krishna
Odin
Maitreya
Shesha
Zhong Kui
The Traitors:
Jaern
Zenith
Professor Maple
Lin
Sirius
Blake
Cal
Fern
Madame X
Nastasia
Madelis
Neved
Geara
Ren
Professor Larkspur
Rick
Professor Gobline
Radius
Redi
Sam
Elia
Lavius
Lavia
Baron
Connor
