Chapter 6: Branches
Rebecca still couldn't quite believe it, she'd actually fled from her own mother and left behind the very home she was raised in. Packing the only belongings she cared for into a beaten brown holdall received as a gift from her father (and one of the few reminders she had of him), she ran as far as she could without really knowing where she was going. Passing the Daycare Centre on Route 3 only exacerbated things. These were children who probably had loving (but busy) parents to go home to, while now she was leaving hers behind. To be fair, most people her age couldn't wait to get away from their parents. That was one of the main reasons Accumula University was packed with students from all corners of Unova, only the real nerds or those with a ten-year plan voluntarily went to university to learn, everyone else was just there for the experience. Consequently the Centre had to deal with the drunken idiots from time to time but the staff had become used to this after years of the same old routine.
Knowing that Jason must have passed through this route on his way to Castelia, Rebecca began asking around for any information pertaining to the current predicament. Many had either not seen him or simply chosen to ignore him due to him simply passing them by without a word and assuming him to either be antisocial or deaf, possibly both. Those who did offer assistance only told her what she already knew, that he had passed through the route and entered Nacrene City a couple of hours ago and there had been no sign of him since.
"He might still be hanging around the city," a young boy with his baseball cap flipped to the side informed her, "he was chatting to one of the guys working on the Museum case."
"Roughly when was that?" Rebecca enquired, faintly hoping this boy was a latent Psychic who could track him down just by concentrating. Alas, he was not.
"Dunno," the boy shrugged, "I don't have a watch." Rebecca decided she was wasting her time with this imbecile and walked onwards, soon on the outskirts of Nacrene City, which was in disarray after the combined murder and theft at the Museum. Jason had provided her scant information on it earlier, but from her own research and overhearing the town gossip she was able to ascertain many more details. Many had elected to stay indoors, becoming paranoid that they would be next to be savagely sliced up by these ghastly criminals, but those of a more resolute disposition stayed outdoors. The forensics team were still hard at work, including one who seemed to be fretting over something.
"Arceus save me," he moaned, trying to look like he was still collecting samples, "if that boy lets anything slip it'll be the end of my career!" This caught Rebecca's attention, she knew that Jason was interested in all things mythological and had definitely seemed interested in the case of the missing Dark Stone when discussing it that morning.
"Excuse me, sir," Rebecca said.
"That's Doctor Taggart tae you, lassie!" the good doctor interjected rudely.
"Alright, excuse me doctor, but could you possibly tell me more about that boy? I think you might be referring to a friend of mine."
"Aye lassie, he were a wee scrawny bugger, he was. Wearin' one o' them hoodies and carryin' a big duffel bag. If that little bugger's ratted he'll be the next one gettin' a nice chalk outline around him!" Dr. Taggart picked up a stray piece of chalk that happened to be rolling past and scribbled furiously on the ground until it snapped in half. "If ye find the guy," he said, "tell him tae keep his trap shut or Uncle Jimmy'll lose his job!"
"I will," Rebecca assured him before turning and leaving him behind. Now she knew Jason had definitely passed through Nacrene at some point, and with Owen in pursuit, she could concentrate on finding a place to stay temporarily. The warehouses of Nacrene were famous for their use as temporary accommodation, making them perfect for the time being. They had been built at the turn of the 20th century and rather than demolish them to make way for new houses when more people started moving in, they simply converted the warehouses for a more practical use, creating vast luxurious living spaces that were perfect for the party animals studying at Nacrene Art Academy, a lesser-known offshoot of the museum that Burgh helped maintain by displaying various piece of artwork within.
Approaching the nearest warehouse, it was quite obviously inhabited due to 'Careless Whisper' blaring out at full volume. Even with the windows closed the sound still escaped through the thick walls, so whoever lived there was either extremely deaf or seriously involved in their current activities, something Rebecca chose not to focus on. She proceeded to the next warehouse along, finding the door to be unlocked (even after Team Plasma's attempted liberation people tended not to lock their doors). Shrugging her shoulders slightly, she entered the warehouse and was rather taken aback by what she saw. The living room was a complete mess, like a bowerbird's nest, a random array of items cluttered the floor and the walls were covered in elaborate paintings. The entire far wall was covered with a mural depicting a massive swarm of Bug-type Pokémon of all shapes and sizes. Presently, the television was covered in canvas in lieu of a proper easel, and Burgh himself was so absorbed in his latest artistic endeavour that he had not even noticed the door opening and closing.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Rebecca blurted out, having only just noticed him hard at work. He turned sharply, as if he had been violently awoken from a deep sleep.
"Can I help you?" he asked. For an artist he certainly seemed more polite than most although his eccentricity was clear to all. He looked her up and down, noticing the holdall. "You're a runaway," he observed. "I know the type. We're all free spirits here."
"I never knew," Rebecca said sincerely, admitting she had never visited Nacrene before due to the oppressive regime in the Smith household.
"You're incredibly well-spoken, my dear," Burgh complimented her. "I take it you're from the Dreamyard then?"
"I am," Rebecca replied bluntly.
"Ah, the Dreamyard, such a wondrous place. It inspires such brilliant art, you know. You see that piece over there?" Burgh pointed to the wall behind Rebecca, who whirled around to face it. Upon the wall was a Pollock-esque piece that looked as though several children had ingested and subsequently vomited tins of paint onto a canvas, then rolled around in the resulting mess. "I painted that under the influence of Dream Mist. Never before or since have I been able to express myself so freely!" He threw his arms up with joy, the sheer brilliance of the experience rushing back in that one moment, then realised what was going on and picked up the paintbrush that had been sent flying upwards. Rebecca turned back to him, not wishing to gaze upon Burgh's magnum opus any longer.
"If you're quite finished I'd like assistance with finding a place to stay, thank you," Rebecca said, tapping her foot impatiently while trying not to raise her voice too much. Her mother had taught her that trick. On second thoughts she should have just yelled in Burgh's face, Rebecca was sure her mother would have loved that.
"Oh, but of course!" Burgh replied gleefully. "I have no objection to you staying here! I only ever stay here when curing myself of a case of the dreaded artists' block anyway. That's why so much of my work is on display, it inspires me to strive for perfection. But enough about moi! We should be sorting out your living arrangements!" He was now stood bolt upright, standing impressively tall. The canvas on the television depicted a rather horrific scene of a policeman sprawled out in a pool of blood with rather a high amount of detail. It almost looked real, and it frightened Rebecca, but she had nowhere else to go right now so she would have to endure this madman for just a little while longer. She wondered how someone this disorganised and eccentric could ever become a Gym Leader in the first place. "Come now, my dear, it's through this way!" Burgh led her through to the kitchen-cum-dining room, where the staircase rose above the alcove containing a refrigerator and a cupboard which in a normal household would be full of either food or crockery but in a place like this may well have been full of human heads.
"I can see why people like living in these warehouses," Rebecca remarked. "There's certainly plenty of room."
"Ohoho!" Burgh laughed heartily, a rich sound that bounced off those historic walls. "Just wait until you see upstairs! Your room will be the one on the right just as you step out on the landing. You might have to tidy up a bit but it should be adequate." Already Rebecca dreaded to think what kind of monstrous creations awaited in that room, but she'd achieved what she had set out to do at lunch, escape from her mother and find somewhere to stay for the time being. She would probably have to negotiate further with Burgh when it came to rent and other such details, but for now, there was shelter and that was all that mattered. Well, that and a lack of those garish paintings he had plastered all over every wall. Before leaving him behind to find her room, Rebecca had just one last question.
"You wouldn't happen to have seen a boy my age wearing a Scrafty hoodie and carrying a duffel bag would you?"
"As a matter of fact I did!" Burgh exclaimed. "The poor chap was rather overwhelmed by my presence. He said he had some sort of important meeting to attend to in Castelia City."
"Alright, thank you," Rebecca said before turning back towards the staircase.
Ascending the staircase was like walking through a vertical hall of nightmares, despicable twisted abominations leering at her as she passed. Some people had those tacky pottery ducks flying up the wall, this crackpot happened to have creepily detailed paintings of insectoid beasts everywhere, with frames covered in decorative cobwebs to add to the effect.
Reaching the top of the staircase, surrounded by yet more frighteningly vivid paintings, Rebecca crept gingerly towards the room that Burgh had told her about. The door creaked like a prop from a bad horror movie as it opened, revealing a room that had probably not been used in years. She dropped the holdall in surprise as the room was literally covered in webbing. Quickly, she slammed the door shut and went to the next door along.
The next room was almost completely bare, just a mattress and a wardrobe that Rebecca was too frightened to open in case a family of Galvantula leapt out. At least this was more tolerable, she reasoned, unpacking a few things and attempting to settle in. She unzipped the holdall, removing and laying out the sleeping bag that was tightly packed into it, along with an external hard drive with all her data stored on it and a cheap laptop that she'd bought in preparation for such an event. Plugging the charger into the singular plug socket on the wall just in case, she began re-installing everything that was useful and hogging Burgh's broadband connection, which although not strictly part of the agreement she did not see as being a problem. For now, this would have to do. If she didn't hear back from Owen soon, now that she was in a position to do so, she would set off and look for Jason herself. Before that, though, there were other matters to attend to...
Are these guys really a team? Jason thought as he seated himself next to Kathy at the large conference table. They couldn't have been any less mismatched. For once, it seemed the females were the only competent members of the group, the two men sat across the other side looked completely ill-prepared. The one sat just across from him had done a terrible job of bleaching his hair, as the dark roots still showed, and he was wearing an ill-fitting, weather-beaten red overcoat, and was that cheese residue he could see on the ends of the sleeves? The recluse next to him looked no better; he was your typical scruffy graveyard shift worker with what looked like a bird's nest on his head and glasses that may genuinely have been made from bottles. Lisa was currently hammering on a door at the other end of the office.
"DENNIS!" she yelled, still pounding the door with her fist. "Can you even hear me in there?" After about a minute, the door opened and a man resembling the guitarist from the Cafe Sonata emerged. He had a colossal pair of headphones around his neck, which probably had some real ass-kicking bass to them and were really expensive. Jason had much preferred the cheaper option of earbuds, if they broke they were easily replaceable and he wasn't too fussy about sound quality. The discussion they were having didn't quite reach Jason's ears as they were right across the other side of the office, but it seemed the discussion was becoming rather heated.
"So, how'd you end up in here, newbie?" Jason was distracted by who he presumed was the one in the battered overcoat, the voice sounded too upbeat to belong to Mr. Bird's Nest.
"Umm... Didn't Lisa tell you about that?" Jason asked hesitantly.
"Maybe, but then again she coulda told me the meaning of life. Name's Victor by the way." Victor offered a hand and Jason took it. He sniffed his fingers shortly after and confirmed that they smelled strongly of cheese.
"I'm Jason. And I have no idea what's going on."
"Don't sweat it bro," Victor assured him, "you'll be finding out soon enough. I doubt you'll be in the thick of it anyway bein' the new guy." Victor began drumming his fingers on the desk, idly looking around the room. Jason suspected his attention span was shorter than most. "So where ya from, kid? You don't sound like you're from round here."
"Accumula Town." Jason said, secretly considering the hypocrisy of Victor's statement, after all, his accent didn't exactly scream 'Castelia, born and bred' either.
"Ah, the place where it all began..." Victor stopped, losing himself in a train of thought that Jason assumed was related to the events of five years gone. "Came down here from Opelucid myself. Wasn't my choice, of course, I just happened to get dragged into the whole mess since I ran the channel."
"Channel? Like a TV channel?"
"Nah, man, IRC. Y'know, the ol' Internet Relay Chat. You tellin' me you've never heard of IRC before?" Jason had to confess that he hadn't, he suspected Rebecca would probably know what he was talking about though. "Well, a kid like you probably wouldn't last five minutes in there, but us, we're tight, we've known each other for years. Like a band of brothers kinda thing." A few Henry V quotes would have been appropriate given the circumstances but Victor didn't seem the type to be well-versed in the ways of Shakespeare. He seemed more the type that thought Romeo and Juliet was primarily a love story rather than the tragedy the Bard had envisaged.
Finally, Dennis had come out of hiding and he and Lisa made their way toward the conference table. He sat down in the vacant spot next to the scruffy guy, she stood up at the front, using a remote to switch on the overhead projector (the PC was already up and running by this point). Displayed upon the screen was a currently blank video-link to another PC, and from this Jason could safely assume there were more members of this organisation out there.
"Alright, team," Lisa began, "you all know what this means. Tomorrow, we set out at dawn and make our way to Route 4. We pose as inconspicuous travellers simply wanting to pass through to Nimbasa City. I assume one of you has a forged permission slip?"
"That'll be me," Victor said, raising his hand helpfully.
"Good." Lisa unfurled an intricately-detailed map of Castelia City and its surrounding areas. This map had much higher production qualities than the one Jason had been using, that was for certain. Once the four corners had been held down with blu-tac to stop them curling over and possibly obscuring vital areas, Lisa was able to continue, sweeping a finger along the route they would be taking as she explained their plans. "Now, once we arrive on Route 4, our destination is the Bandit's Hideout, the tavern. Even in the early morning we should be able to recruit a few new members to our cause. They may not be the safest of people but if we pay them enough they should co-operate. While we're on Route 4, try to gather as much information on our target as possible, whether the front gate is heavily guarded, whether they've set up Stealth Rock traps, if there's any secret tunnels that can allow for easier access to their base. Once done with that, we collate this pool of information and take further action accordingly. Is everyone clear?" A harmony of affirmation assured her that they were.
"I don't like the heat," the unkempt man complained.
"You'll be staying here anyway, Rick," Lisa said. "We can't leave this place unprotected after all. I'll leave you a couple of Pokémon so you can at least defend yourself."
"They won't listen," Rick groaned, "nobody ever listens to me."
"Actually, you raised a good point about the heat. Everyone remember your canteens, you'll need to keep hydrated out there especially in the middle of the day! So, again, are we all clear on that?" After confirmation that everyone was indeed up to date with the protocol, Lisa went to the PC and, after configuring a few settings, brought the video feed crackling to life. Dennis was probably distracted by whatever music was blasting through those huge headphones of his, everyone else had probably heard all this before.
"Are you receiving us?" Lisa asked, as the image began forming on screen.
"Affirmative," a cold female voice replied. The room was poorly lit and Jason could barely make out any facial features at all, but he was at least sure that this woman was younger than Lisa by quite some margin. "This is the one?"
"Yes, this is him. Jason, this is your introduction to the Dark Lady. She's the one really pulling the strings around here. Victor brought us together, I take the lead most of the time, but the Dark Lady has all the ideas." Dark Lady? What kind of a name is that? Jason thought. What was to come next would be a huge shock considering the trials and tribulations of the past five years.
"Now, if that is all, the briefing on the first step to stopping Team Plasma begins..."
Around the same time, Owen was still in Castelia City trying to retrace Jason's steps. He'd been led around in several circles by misguided individuals who'd seen him in several different districts. None of those tip-offs had led to anything. It was easy to get lost in such a huge city and this had happened several times, but Owen was undaunted, eventually he'd end up back where he started with enough patience and a circular path. Sure enough, he was back outside the entrance to Skyarrow Bridge, contemplating his next course of action. He'd already been down each of the main streets and not spotted Jason once, he'd checked the docks too and found nothing. He regretted his harsh decision not to accompany his friend but that morning had been a living hell and being in such a crowded place would have merely exacerbated it, at least now he was over that the city was slightly more tolerable.
Gazing out over the horizon, thinking over everything, he noticed a commotion in the unnamed dock directly outside the entrance to the city. He rushed over, wondering what on earth could be happening, making sure he had Hogan by his side in case he needed to battle his way through. What he saw upon arrival looked like some sort of protest rally, with people shouting all sorts of random abuse at whoever was caught up in the middle of it.
"Alright, punks!" he yelled. "Lemme through! Don't make me have to force my way through!" Everyone was still focusing on the centre of the crowd, and he wondered if he had even been heard above the puerile insults being thrown around.
"Ok, that's it! Hogan, Dynamicpunch!" he commanded, sending his trusty Machoke to swing its powerful fist into the crowd. Luckily nobody was hit due to its low accuracy (Hogan had the misfortune to be born with the Guts ability rather than the superior No Guard) and the crowd dispersed enough to let Owen see a man in a very familiar black uniform, wearing a flat cap and with the bottom half of his face obscured by a mask. The real giveaway was the emblem adorning the uniform, the Chi-Rho symbol. There was no mistaking it, either this was one of the few remaining members of the radical Neo Plasma division or an unfortunate guest at a fancy dress party who'd forgotten to remove his costume afterwards.
"Alright, everyone let me handle this," Owen said, trying to calm the situation down. The Plasma grunt threw his arms up instinctively, he was already bruised from where Owen presumed he'd been kicked and beaten by the savage lynch mob. The reaction was unquestionably understandable, after all, the people of Unova had been put through hell by the forces of both guises of Team Plasma, but to focus all of their anger on someone who may have been unwillingly conscripted to the organisation was beyond wrong.
Owen crouched down to the grunt's level, assuming he was too weak to stand up. Hogan stood back, giving the mob warning looks every so often.
"Look, man, I don't condone this at all, but what the hell do you think you're doing walking around Unova's biggest city in that get-up?" Owen asked.
"I-I don't even know... w-what is this place?" the miscreant stuttered. For some inexplicable reason he had a Geordie accent.
"Come on, nobody's that sheltered, everyone knows Castelia City."
"This isn't the city I know..." It was clear the grunt was in shock, the fight or flight response must have kicked in pretty heavily.
"Finish him!" a random voice from the mob urged Owen. He flipped the bird in their general direction before turning back to the grunt.
"Ignore these guys and tell me what happened, if you can still remember," he encouraged this representative of evil.
"I-I don't know. I-it was like, I was on duty, on patrol, like, when suddenly, WHAM, there was this weird light, and this floating sensation, and then I end up in this city. I thought 'Blimey, that's weird, what the hell was that?' Then I realise everything's different, it's not like it was before. It's like... another world or something." The last sentence reminded Owen of what Rebecca has discovered pertaining to the three items described by Jason, the allegory of Alice in Wonderland referring to Team Galactic.
"Ok, pal, would you happen to know anything about a guy named Jason?" he requested, thinking this could be the lead he was after.
"N-no, mate, never. Unless it's the Stath, of course." Of course, Owen's diminutive friend was not Mr. Statham, and Owen began to wonder why he'd even rescued this fool in the first place.
"Alright, I'll take your word for it since I saved ya from these morons here. One last thing, if this is another world, then where the hell did you come from?"
"Th-this is gonna sound ridiculous I bet," the Geordie stammered, "but where I come from... we won." A collective gasp of horror rose up from the crowd, and were it not for the threat of Hogan they would surely have resumed the lynching for such a suggestion. It was less shocking to Owen considering that he had previously mentioned being on patrol, which must have meant that Neo Plasma were not ostracised where he came from, but the revelation that there were multiple universes still rocked him to the core.
"Ignore 'em," Owen urged the Tyneside grunt. "Let's get you outta here before it kicks off again." He helped the grunt to his feet, propping him up against his shoulder. Hogan the Machoke leered at the crowd for a final time before departing with his master to the Pokémon Centre, where they would learn some astonishing truths...
"I don't understand!" Jason lamented. The truth was out, he had somehow crossed the dimensions of the Multiverse and ended up here, in the very place Don LaFontaine often described, a world gone to crap, a universe where Team Plasma had won and the righteous Hilbert Blair had been manipulated by that wondrous substance, Dream Mist, harvested from the brains of a thousand Musharna. Through the cunning of the lead sage Ghetsis and the technological knowledge offered up by their chief scientist, Colress Slade, Team Plasma had easily triumphed over the rest of Unova, even going so far as to create a year of permafrost in order to flush out any remaining Trainers. The UN itself had become involved shortly after N departed the regime due to the realisation that his dream would not become a reality, but they were no match for Team Plasma's forces, especially not after the PC system had been emptied. This was the point where Lisa had entered the fray, solemnly swearing an oath to avenge those who had fallen during those dark days. Now, several years and an appeasement treaty later, here she was, with a team that she had thought to be experts gathered, preparing to do her best to make that wish a reality.
"I don't get it either," Lisa said. "I never even knew other universes existed. What do you make of this, ma'am?"
"If this is indeed true, then we are in even more danger than could ever have been imagined. Harbouring an illegal Trainer would be one matter, knowingly hiding evidence of the existence of the Multiverse is quite another." Jason had tried to assure them that he was in no way dangerous but there was no defending his perilous position.
"It has to be connected to those three guys," Jason declared. "Whoever they were they're responsible for me being here."
"Consider this, boy," the Dark Lady said in that unnerving tone that could almost literally have frozen the blood in his veins, "if this trio you describe have the capabilities to travel between dimensions, it's entirely possible they do not even inhabit this world. Our chances of finding these people, much less reasoning with them, are almost nil. You can go on your silly little hunt later. For now, our priority is striking the Relic Castle down, removing a key component of Plasma's plans."
"Understood," Jason affirmed, nodding in an exaggerated way.
"Now, let us proceed with the briefing," the Dark Lady declared. All this is going to take a lot of getting used to, Jason thought glumly. How am I supposed to let Mum and Dad and Owen and Rebecca and everyone else know I'm still alive? What will they do?
The plans were laid out in the clearest of terms over the course of the next half-hour. The first phase had already been covered extensively, but what came next was entirely new to Jason. This was when it became crucial that everyone co-operated and nothing failed. Once they found a way into the Relic Castle, the team would have to find their way past potentially hundreds of guards until they reached the central control room, at which point they were to insert a USB with a custom-built virus that would replicate itself across the Plasma network and relay all the information contained upon it back to the Dark Lady, who by this point would have made it to Castelia.
Right now, the Dark Lady was renting facilities linked to the Deansgate-Castlefield company, situated deep within the Dreamyard, where extensive research into the Dream Mist had taken place. Once the scientists there had managed to ascertain that Musharna possessed a unique frontal lobe that excreted psychic energy produced from its food that manifested itself in a smoke-like substance, as many Musharna as possible were harvested for this unique property, and much of the facility was built specifically to keep them in captivity.
"All of you have your individual duties to fulfil," the mystery one reminded everyone, "and I would appreciate if you kept an eye on the boy."
"We're nearly the same age!" Jason blurted out. Everyone immediately gave him a look that warned him that this was extremely risky territory. He hastily apologised and resumed feigning listening.
"As I was about to say before being rudely interrupted," the enigmatic leader continued, "we cannot let the boy out of our sights under any circumstances for various reasons, the main one being that he claims to inhabit another universe. Him being a Trainer makes him a liability as well, seeing how little ability he seems to possess."
"I can look after myself, you know," Jason interjected.
"If you're quite done, I think this meeting has covered everything necessary. All I ask is that all of you return safely, as all of you will have a part to play in the second phase. I bid you all farewell, and good luck." The video link fizzled out, and Jason half expected the projector to explode so nobody would ever see the message again.
"Alright," Victor broke the awkward silence afterwards, "who's hungry?" More awkward silence. "Just me? Well, if you insist I'll get a set menu for six all for myself. And I'll love every goddamn minute of it."
