I don't own Pokemon, for one thing. The other I don't own: are most of the storyline and quotes which I used from 'Inception' as a template to build on.
Chapter nine
THE CONTENT OF THE TEAM
Wes – Extractor
Kellyn – Escort
Lunick – Escort
Roark – Architect
Mars – Architect
Barry – Forger
Cynthia – Chemist
Steven – Technician
Cyrus – Employer
POKÉMON THAT WILL BE JOINING THE DREAMERS
Wes – Espeon, Umbreon
Kellyn – Pachirisu, Grotle, Kirlia
Lunick – Minun
Roark – Rampardos
Mars – Kangaskan
Barry – Torterra, Ditto
Cynthia – Garchomp
Steven – Metagross
Cyrus – Gyarados
Cyrus looked at the list, and finally lifted up his head. "This is your finalization of the team? Seems pretty small."
Inside Steven's house in Mossdeep City on a clear sunny morning; the entire team was gathered and sitting around a large glass table to listen to what Cyrus had in mind.
"Cyrus, even if we've had more time, we have all the people we need to perform what you're asking of us. It doesn't get any bigger than this," Wes said. "Besides, adding that much more can be extremely dangerous and might compromise our mission."
Wes placed his hands on the table. "When we met, you told me that the world may depend on this job. How big or what is this commercial bank you're trying to stop your competitor from gaining?"
Cyrus took out a folder and slid to Wes. He opened the folder and flinched. He passed it to Cynthia. "You might find something interesting in here, Cynthia."
She took it and gasped. It was a photo of one of the Sinnoh Elite Four, from her Pokémon League. It was a well-dressed man with wavy long hair and eyeglasses. It was the Psychic user Lucian.
"Mr. Cyrus? Can you explain what Lucian is doing in here?"
The rest of the team gapped. Cyrus shook his head.
"Lucian: the president and CEO of the Hoenn and Sinnoh Banking Corporation."
"Wait. You don't mean HSBC, do you? The dominant bank which all regions in the world depend on?" Mars burst out.
"Precisely," Cyrus nodded.
"What's the issue with Lucian here?" Wes inquired.
"That is none of your business."
Now it was Wes turn to shake his head. "Mr. Cyrus, this isn't your conventional picture of breaking-and-entering into someone's mind in order to steal secrets and information. You asked for inception, and I hope you understand the weight and workload we have to undergo to fulfill that request."
Cyrus glanced at Cynthia. "With respect to the Sinnoh Champion, this man is the one I want you to perform inception on for a very great and dangerous reason."
Kellyn took a few notes. "What does your competitor have to do with this?"
"You see, my competitor is the Plasma Company: a business who claims to encourage the bond between Pokémon and humans. But this company is none other than the villainous Team Plasma from the Unova Region, whose intention is to destroy that bond. I do not know if they have any intentions to search for new means of sustainable energy, but my company holds the belief they certainly don't have any."
Barry and Lunick took further notes and nodded for Cyrus to continue.
"My company, Galactic Energy Limited, managed to briefly intercept a message from the Plasma Company. The message stated that they persuaded Lucian to hand over the HSBC bank to them by means of a signed contract. If they manage to take the bank in the end, they will control all the money from every region including Almia and the Orange Islands. Then the world will inevitably fall into a state of depression, and Plasma will achieve their goal with the amount of money that they need."
The team stared in fear at Cyrus, who kept talking.
"Should Lucian sign the contract to hand over the bank, and to all intents and purposes, Team Plasma will become the new world power! The world needs Lucian to change his mind from handing over the company."
"That's our part in this job: what is Lucian's judgment of Team Plasma?" Barry asked. "Cynthia?"
"He hasn't been acting strange. So I'm pretty sure that he trusts the Plasma Company very much. They could have convinced him that they're trustworthy," Cynthia said. "If there was anything wrong with Lucian, I would know about it."
"So what's the specific idea we're trying to plant in Lucian's mind?" Mars asked.
"The basis, Mars? We need to persuade Lucian that Team Plasma is not what he thinks they are. Our goal is to expose their true intentions," Kellyn answered.
Barry put his arms on the table. "Are there any references I can use? Because this is one of the only ways this thing will work."
The former Team Galactic leader bowed his head and did some thinking. After a while... "Try Wallace, the current Hoenn Champion."
Steven tilted his head. "What's Wallace's part with Lucian?"
"He's a colleague of Lucian's. He also happens to one of the HSBC's advisors."
Cyrus made the conclusion. "We will meet again at the Galactic Building in Slateport City when you've finished anything you need to prepare for."
The meeting had reached an adjournment. Steven collected everyone else's GridBooks for update and with Kellyn and Mars he went to manufacture Mars' GridBook.
"Mars, let's do it. Oh, and do you have a totem?" Steven asked.
"A what?"
"A totem," Kellyn said. "It's a small metallic object which you use on your GridBook to make sure that you're not in someone else's dream or as a way to keep track of reality. Take mine for example," Kellyn took out his GridBook and inside a compartment took out a small pen. "There's something this pen can't do in a dream. You can't let anyone touch the totem or else the totem will lose its purpose."
He stored the pen into his GridBook. "Just place it in there and no one can touch it. Also when Steven is upgrading the GridBooks there isn't a way he can touch the totems. Let's make your GridBook first before you make your totem, shall we?"
Steven led Kellyn and Mars to a helicopter. "This will take us to my office in Ever Grande City. I've set up my equipment there."
Steven's helicopter took off southward. Cynthia took out her equipment and went into a small house to make and tailor a modified sedative for Wes' specifications.
"Remember, we have a total of twenty-one members in this dream, including the Pokémon. Make sure that you've got the sedative right," Wes requested.
"Don't worry. I've got my special potion ready to be added."
Roark and Barry also took off for Ever Grande City: Roark to design the first layouts of the dream and Barry to privately practice his impossibly hard duties with Ditto. Wes and Cyrus parted ways for the time being to attend to their own matters. Lunick chose to follow Roark and see what they were up to.
Cyrus decided to inspect how well the Galactic Energy Limited Company was doing in his office in Slateport, where the arranged rendezvous was taking place.
Cynthia took out her chemistry kit. She put on her safety goggles and gloves before taking out the sedative. The blue potion she brought was also safely placed in there. She took out her tools, a microscope, and a few more potions.
"Let's see... we need a good sedative for five dreams..." Cynthia thought out loud. "The base compound will be a few drops of this potion..."
She added a few drops of the blue potion into the vial then added a main compound of two more sleeping doses. Finally when the potions made contact, the purple swirl in the blue potion burned through the compound and burst parts of it. The potion was approaching the end of the first phase.
Cynthia pondered. They want five levels.
She took out another specific potion, this one made to stabilize the compound to prevent the dream from collapsing and maintain the dreamer's connection with each other including her; there would be no side effects. If something unexpected happened, the blue potion would be able to stop the dream from breaking apart and tear up the team.
Twenty-one members. Cynthia used tweezers to add a piece of partially dissolved metal to expand the amount of people the dream could hold. But then there was also Lucian; that made twenty-two.
The compound split, separated, and became four separate potions.
Cynthia pulled her goggles up to her head and sighed. This may take a while, she thought. And she reached out for another potion.
Ever Grande City, the home of the Hoenn Pokémon League, was quite empty since it wasn't the Championship season. Roark and Barry, accompanied by Lunick, went to the lower half of Ever Grande to do their jobs. Steven, Mars, and Kellyn went to Upper Ever Grande where Steven's office was located.
On the trip there, Mars asked Kellyn and Steven when she should build her totem.
"It would be better if you made it as soon as possible. It would be much easier for the team's schedule, too. We could make time a lot more efficient," Steven said. "Better yet, we could make plans ahead of time."
"Where could I get some metal?" Mars asked.
"I have some at my office, but you better think of a design for your totem first."
When they arrived, the three of them disembarked the helicopter and headed to Steven's office in less than fifteen minutes.
Upon entering his office, Steven went to a nearby filing cabinet and took out a black metal case. Inside it was his own GridBook and technology tools for GridBooks.
"I'll need the Books for update, Mars, but I'll start by making yours first. When the basic parts have been made, I'll let you know. Design your totem while you're waiting and I'll be quick. Kellyn help me get the Books, will you?"
"Where's the metal?" Mars asked.
"In that filing cabinet over in that corner," Steven pointed. "But you can't use the totem until the GridBook is finished."
Mars went outside and walked back and forth. What would make a good totem?
Then it hit her. "I've got it!"
Roark had no way of designing the dream layouts unless Mars was there. Instead, he and Lunick watched Barry sleep right on the chair in front of them.
In a dream, Barry was reading files of Wallace to practice his objective. As a forger, he had the mysterious to take other appearances in a dream. The clock had been set for two minutes. That made twelve minutes of practice.
"Let's do it, Ditto," Barry ordered his Pokémon.
Ditto smiled and transformed into the Pokémon Champion Wallace. Barry looked into the mirror and concentrated hard.
"Master his personalities..." he muttered. Soon, there was a splitting image of Wallace on the mirror in front of him. Good enough, but Barry knew he could do better...
Cynthia had put together a better compound this time. With the right compounds, she had put together a powerful sedative with only two drops of the blue potion she brought. Its effectiveness was much more than what Cynthia had been satisfied with, the only thing remained was...
"They need a way out," she said aloud. She tried again to add the bit of metal she had used earlier. This metal would remove the excess sedative causing the impairment of the inner ear, allowing the feeling of falling...
The metal reacted with the potion and after a few sparks burst out Cynthia had almost completed the compound to her perfection. Cynthia held up the compound to see how it looked, but she nearly dropped it...
"The first page will show you where you are between reality and a dream," Steven flipped the first grid of the GridBook. "You will have a cursor, right here, which shows you your present location."
Mars took her newly manufactured GridBook and flipped to the second grid. "What's this one?"
"This is a similar grid to the first. In the event of shared dreaming this grid will show the team's locations, it only works when you're all sharing the dream of course."
The next few pages were blank. Mars looked at Steven again, who said. "These pages show you a record of your activity within the dream level. As you progress deeper into the dream, your GridBook will automatically record itself of what you did in that dream. When you wake up it will be blank, so that you won't confuse yourself with reality. I should add it's only the bearer of the GridBook who can read it."
Steven turned the next few blank pages onto a think one. "This is a communications grid. With touch screen control, you can talk to any team member in the dream face to face. Just call who you want in the dream and you'll talk just like that?"
Mars raised an eyebrow. "So it's basically a projection screen."
"Yep. But it's a really good one," Steven stated and turned to the last page: a grid with even square spaces. "This page... it's for your totem."
Mars eyes grew wider. "So...?"
"It means that when you use your totem to keep track of reality, your totem should only work on a specific square or two. No one should know how your totem personally works, so I'll leave it to you to make it."
Steven closed the GridBook and presented it to Mars with one hand. "Take good care of it, okay? I had to spend solid hours working on it, but at least I'm very glad this one will be the first to get upgrades! I better start updating the other ones..."
"Thanks Steven, see you at Slateport," Kellyn shook his hand.
"Right. See you later."
When Mars and Kellyn left Steven's house, they set for Lower Ever Grande City. Mars settled on making her totem after she had met up with Roark.
"I should remind you that a totem has to be relatively heavy. I hope you've got a good design in mind," Kellyn warned.
"Don't worry! I've got a very good one!"
"Glad to hear it," Kellyn smiled. "I'll get Steven to bring some metal when we're in Slateport. It'll save us some time."
So Kellyn captured two Staraptor and offered one to Mars for a ride.
Barry was still practicing how to mimic Wallace's personalities and behaviors. He had given a few more tries and afterwards he seemed to have mastered it.
He looked at his watch and at the last second he woke up.
"How'd it go?" Roark asked.
"It was alright. Let's go to Slateport City now," Barry said as he snapped the briefcase shut. "Where's my Poké Ball?" But it was right beside him.
Lunick led the way out for Barry and Roark, they boarded a ship for Slateport City.
At the Galactic Energy Limited office in the port city, Cyrus was waiting outside for the others to arrive. Through the messages sent from Kellyn, it was only Steven and Cynthia who would not be attending this meeting. Half an hour later...
"Good afternoon, Mr. Cyrus," said Wes who was the last to arrive. "Everyone here?"
"Yes, apart from our Champion duo. Mr. Barry is about to discuss how to work the first parts of the mission."
The two of them entered the space blue building. In a conference room, where Kellyn, Mars, Lunick and Roark were already sitting; Barry was the only one standing up, looking at a file of Wallace again.
"Here's the position; now that Lucian has been fully convinced that the handing over of HSBC will benefit the world, the Plasma Company will become extremely powerful. Our hope may depend on Wallace, one of HSBC's advisors, to change his mind," Barry said.
"So why won't Wallace do it himself?" Lunick asked.
"That's the problem; Wallace was involved in an injury during last year's Hoenn Championship, he'll take a while to recover and that's not enough time to convince Lucian to refuse signing the contract."
"In the first layer of the dream," Barry continued. "I can be able to imitate Champion Wallace's appearance and suggest basic concepts into Lucian's mind. In the next layer the memory of that concept from Wallace should generate itself into Lucian's mind again. In the third layer, where Lucian has put the puzzle pieces together; we enhance the idea in this level and the next one by putting the Plasma Company's intentions to contain it."
"So the second layer is basically a way to feed the idea into him by himself," Roark pointed out. "The third to hardwire into his head."
"You got it. It's the only way we can do it, otherwise he'll trace it to the source and the idea will fail," Barry concluded.
Steven and Cynthia arrived in Slateport City an hour later. Wes and Barry quickly went to them and briefed them about their conference.
That night, when the team had taken up residence in the local Pokémon Centre, Mars and Roark headed into the Galactic building to continue designing the mazes Roark had drawn out in the first place. Mars took the liberty of making her totem with the metal Steven had supplied.
She took very extreme care for forging her totem. It was the form of a small metal marble. When it was done, she took out her GridBook and for the very first time placed the sphere on the square grid.
Mars selected the fourth square from the top and the sphere rolled over to the opposite corner of the grid. It worked.
"Hey, Roark. Are the mazes done yet?" she asked.
"You better come and verify them," Roark waved a hand.
Mars opened the compartment for her totem and she shoved her metal marble inside it. She snapped the GridBook shut and went over to Roark.
There were five mazes in place on the glass table in front of Roark. Mars looked at them and gave her remarks. "The first layer is fine, considering that they have plenty of shortcuts within them inside a city and the Ranger depot. The second has... what?"
"This is an elevated maze," Roark explained. "The depot will be hidden well with the color blending itself into the environment. This maze, of course, will be in my dream, since elevation can build lots of mountains, and only I know the layout."
Roark went on explaining more about the layouts, and together they added improvements and loopholes to close the gaps. When the hour came that Roark had to sleep; Mars waved good bye and decided to play with her totem when he left.
Roark left the building. Mars heard a sound of a door opening and she went to investigate. Who would enter this place at such a late hour?
She peered into the next room. Standing with a metallic briefcase was Wes, who had his back toward her.
"Uh... Wes?" Mars said nervously. "What are you doing here?"
"Ah, nothing I was just conversing with my subconscious, that's all," Wes said evenly.
"Sorry, Wes, I was just perfecting my totem," Mars held up her GridBook.
"May I take a look?" Wes stretched out a hand.
Mars drew back her GridBook and amusingly shook her head.
Wes gave a thin smile. "Now you're learning."
Mars paused. "Was it your idea to begin with?"
"No, it belonged to someone I met in a dream. A Pokémon, actually, gave me this idea and it stuck in my head. But it really helped me a lot," Wes closed his eyes for a bit.
"What was it you were talking to in your subconscious? Was it true?" Mars asked. "Kellyn told me about her. Why is she so important to you? What has she done in the dream that makes her so important?"
Wes took a moment to choose his response carefully. Then he said, "She's my first true friend who accompanied me in all my journeys in Orre. She was never really a part of my subconscious until I left the place. Rui's been lingering in my subconscious ever since."
"In the dream, she's just like the Rui I knew in reality; always cheerful and always offering support to me. She told me once I met up with the real Rui, her work was done and she would disappear from my dream."
Mars leaned forward. "Why can't you go back to Orre?"
Wes sighed. "Because the criminal organisation we defeated back then, Cipher, convinced the entire Orre region that I am a notorious criminal. Cipher even threatened to kill me. But Rui is there and she's waiting for me, I have to see her again."
Wes turned his head to the mazes. "How are those going along?"
"Each level will be relative to the dreamer's subconscious but will undertake the objective we're trying to do," Mars said. "The subject will progress each level making the bottom level a large HSBC bank so Lucian can bring in the Plasma Company's contract. The second level will be a mountain range, and the third level will be a hotel. The fourth will be a snowfield for the Plasma Company's location."
Mars used both of her hands to lift up one of the mazes. "Could you take a look –?"
"No, don't show me. Only the dreamer has the right to know the layouts," Wes shut his eyes tightly.
"Why not?"
"For the precaution that one of us brings in our projections. If they know the layout of the maze... that would bring us disaster," Wes said.
"You mean... in case that Cipher might try to kill you again," Mars worked it out. "Why don't you take a look? You might be able to get Rui to help you. Or is it that you can't stand seeing Rui hurt?"
Wes looked down at the floor. "I just... want to see her again. If I knew the layouts, my subconscious might figure it out by then and we'll fail."
"You won't build... for that sake? Come on, Wes! This is your mission! Why don't you let go of Rui so you can stick to reality?" Mars eyes became round.
Wes turned away from the mazes silently. "Don't worry about me. Stick to your job. But Mars, Rui knows who and where our enemies are in the dream. I can't let her go yet."
He turned to face Mars again. "I need to get to a place I call my home, that's all I care and that's what matters to me most right now."
"'I will not sign the Plasma Company's contract.' Now this is something we all know for sure an idea Lucian will refuse to take," Wes pointed at the board.
The team was gathered back at the Galactic Energy Limited building in Slateport City. Wes was now open to suggestions for the idea for inception. The board was listed with the general idea and Wes was discussing with the team about it.
"Since Lucian will surely reject it this is why we'll need to plant it very deep into his subconscious. That's how this will work."
Wes took out a marker and put it against the board. "The subconscious is motivated by emotion, not reason, right? We need to make this idea into an emotional version. I'm open to suggestions, let's hear them."
"Maybe we could bring the idea as a 'go away' concept of the idea," Lunick said. "This way he won't even bother with the Plasma Company."
Kellyn's Pachirisu jumped and shouted at Wes. "Pa-chi! Pa-chi! Pachirisu!"
The group, other than Kellyn, raised an eyebrow. Kellyn smiled.
"Pachirisu is saying that we should threat Lucian into refusing the contract to that he would never go near the Plasma Company again."
Mars and Cynthia laughed. Wes smiled and shook his head. "We need a way for Lucian to slowly change his mind about the Plasma Company. If we expose that, he might be able to convince himself to stop the contract himself."
Before anyone could say anything, Wes continued. "My point is I think that positive reactions conquer negative emotion every time. We all want this to end nicely, without any motives of regret. We need Lucian to have a positive reflection of this idea when it has been planted."
"Here's an idea;" Mars spoke up. "The common good of everyone relies on my contentment alone and not the Plasma Company's, for the Plasma Company will not show any contentment compared to mine."
Wes looked at the rest of the group. "What do you think?"
"That could work," Barry agreed.
Mars and Roark were teaching Cynthia, Lunick, Barry, and Kellyn the layouts of the dream while everyone else prepared to share a separate dream. When Mars and Cynthia were done, they headed out to test the formation of the dream.
"Remember, it's a city layout," Mars cautioned.
"It's alright. I'll do fine," Cynthia answered back.
Mars pressed the button and they went to sleep.
Barely a minute later, the rest of the team gathered near Mars and Cynthia and stuck the needles into their wrists and joined the dream...
They were in the middle of an empty street. The nine team members, including Cyrus, were listening to each other.
"On the top level, we need to start off by expressing the emotions of the HSBC first, saying; 'Everyone chooses to use HSBC because of me,'" Barry explained. "Down another level, we give; 'I find great joy in controlling this bank.'"
Barry paced around. "When we take this down to the harder levels, we say; 'The Plasma Company has no good reason why they should take my bank.' At the fourth level, we'll say; 'The Plasma Company's control of the bank will not benefit others."
Barry stopped to look at the team. "And when he pieces all the things together, we bring out the tanks at the fifth level."
"'The Plasma Company won't make others happy as much as I do to them,'" Wes finished for him. "Ingenious."
"Exactly," Barry nodded.
An hour later, the team was back at the Galactic Energy Limited's conference room. Cynthia was now presenting her part of the mission.
"So, five layers down. The dreams will crumble at the smallest disturbance," Lunick brought up the point. "You better have come up with something nice, Cynthia."
She brushed her long blonde hair back. "I've added a very concentrated sedative in this potion. It's capability of immense stability can create up to six layers of dreaming. With the team members joining this, sharing the dream will be spread evenly."
"The Pokémon will become natural partners in the dream and they will be connected to the Trainer to whom they belong to. Just place the Poke Ball into the case and they will be connected."
"I'll say this again," Cynthia reinstated. "The compound we'll be using makes a strong and focused connection between dreamers. I've taken care of that."
"What about time?" Lunick brought up. "How is brain function working in this case?"
"That's the brilliant part; normally the brain would accelerate to give the dream more time on each level," Cynthia explained. "But I customized the sedative to allow brain function to remain as the standard six-times-normal compound."
"We need nine hours, you guys hear me?" Wes stated.
"Okay... so it's two and a quarter days the first level down," Roark gave this a thought. "Just under two weeks, or thirteen and a half days the second level..."
Steven continued the math. "Roughly three months the third level, and a year and four months the fourth level... which makes..."
"Eight years," Mars said in shock.
There was a moment of silence.
"Who'd want to be stuck in a dream for eight years?"
Cynthia locked eyes with Mars and smiled. "Depending on the dream, it just might be able to accelerate the time when it's most appropriate."
Kellyn pondered before bringing up another issue. "So how do we get out of that mess? I hope you have something more civilized than hitting on the head with Umbreon."
"A kick," Wes firmly responded.
"What's a kick?" Mars brought her attention fully.
"Mars, it's – ah..." Barry thought. "Basically this."
He tipped Kellyn's chair slightly. Kellyn reacted instinctively and pulled his chair up.
"It's that feeling of falling. It – snaps you awake and out of the dream," Wes smiled.
Lunick brought up the next question. "If this sedation is meant for extended sleep, are we actually going to feel the kick?"
"That's another smart thing I added," Cynthia said proudly. "I removed excess sedative to leave the inner ear functional. This way, the dreamer will still feel the kick no matter how deep they're sleeping."
Wes got up and stretched. "The real challenge is to synchronize a kick that can break through every dream level, it can't be too early or too late to make."
"We could use the Pokémon music theme to count down the kick. We could signal a clear warning for this," Kellyn said.
"Very well," Wes brought up the music and played it.
An electric guitar version of the Pokémon main theme started playing in the room and ended.
Finally it was Steven's turn to present. "I've taken the liberty of upgrading all of your GridBooks, totems aside. Communications between these GridBooks will be much clearer to you guys and I mean the projection screens. Cursor locations will also be enhanced on the grid."
He took out a GridBook and opened it. From the first page showing the cursor grid to the totem grid and giving out further details on how they worked.
Steven closed the GridBook. "If it's nothing else, it's flashy," he said and winked at Cynthia, who blushed.
"He has no health issues currently and the contract certainly has not been signed," Barry said. "The worst part is; we don't know when he's going to sign the thing. On the whole, we need a solid nine hours."
The rest of the team had dismissed to fine-tune their objectives. Only Wes, Kellyn, Barry, and Steven had some downtime.
"Where could we get nine hours?" Kellyn asked.
"Lilycove to Sunyshore City," Cyrus recommended.
Wes and Barry looked up at Cyrus, who continued. "One of the longest trips in the district. Lucian uses this trip once a month."
"It probably follows that Lucian must have taken a private plane considering he's one of the Elite Four," Kellyn spoke. "How're we supposed to get him on a ship?"
"We schedule maintenance with his plane. Then he'd have no choice but to take a ferry," Cyrus proposed. "What do you think?"
"He'll have to be travelling first class then, otherwise he would be pretty disturbed," Barry said. "Travel cabins are on the upper deck behind the crew cabin. But you'd have to buy off the cabin and the attendants not to mention the cabin itself."
Steven turned his head to them. "I bought off a quarter of the ship line's shares."
Barry, Kellyn, and Cyrus looked at him.
"It seemed like a neat way to get free tickets..." Steven said in a timid voice.
Wes nodded and gave a small smile. "Looks like we have our nine hours."
Later that day, Mars went to investigate what Wes was up to. She spotted him hooking himself with a metallic briefcase. When he had gone to sleep, Mars snuck past him and pulled up a chair and stuck a needle into wrist too.
She fell asleep instantaneously...
Mars didn't know how she got there, but she had somehow ended up right beside Wes in a baking hot desert. Wes was not surprised that she had appeared right there in the dream.
"I saw you following me," he said casually. "No need to get angry. Let's walk."
Mars looked around. "Where are we?"
"This is just a memory from my past," Wes showed the desert. "This place is what I called my homeland. I couldn't really part from this place."
A red-haired girl jumped and wrapped her arms around Wes. "Hi, Wes! You came to drop by again!" Then she looked at Mars. "Hey..."
Rui casually walked to Mars and extended a hand. "I'm Rui, Wes' best friend. Are you a friend of Wes' too?"
Mars looked at her. Rui certainly wasn't the type to harm others. In fact, she was positively a cheerful and typical girl. Mars nervously shook her hand. "Well, Wes DOES have a lot of friends, right?"
"I've met a few of them already," Rui said. "What do you think?"
In the next second, there was a great eruption. Wes, on the alert, looked and saw a few Cipher agents walking toward his way. There was even a Groudon; the legendary terra Pokémon among the agents.
"Move it, Wes!" Rui pushed him and Mars away. "I'll hold them off!"
"No! Rui!" Wes cried out. But Rui had already broken into a run, dodging and leaping from the agents' attacks. Eventually though, Rui got hit with a Poison Tail. Its toxins digging into her knee...
Wes shook his head in disbelief. Mars shouted in his ear. "It's not real, Wes! Come on! Pull it together! She'll still be alive!"
The world was already fading to black...
