Chapter 14
Kasmir jumped into the air and hovered longer than a normal human would in the air. "Ok, first stop on the tour is; Hiku."
Jaylon's eyes grew wide. "I almost forgot! Is she ok? Did she make it…?" he clenched his fists and looked serious.
The Mewtwo nodded, "She survived thanks to my accidental landing on the thug. But I haven't been able to find her starter Pokémon; Mudkip. The third goon must've kidnapped it." he beckoned to a white door. "She's in here."
Jaylon pushed through the door and saw that this room was designated for more critical patients. There were several IVs going into Hiku's arm and she had an oxygen mask over her face. The rookie trainer wasted no time in getting to her side. "Hiku…" he pleaded with the sleeping figure.
Rain the Zangoose staying back from the bed and growled at Kasmir. "Zangoose-oose Zan Zangoose goose [What kind of Pokémon are you?]" she glared at Kasmir with her black eyes.
Kasmir tried to be friendly back. "I'm a Mewtwo; a legendary Pokémon. I'm not native to Hoenn… more like Kanto."
Rain continued to growl at him.
At a loss for finding peace with the Pokémon, Kasmir walked over to Jaylon.
Another person joined the scene; the medic with chocolate brown hair. He smiled sadly and asked the trainer, "Is she your friend?"
"Yeah, what happened to her? How soon will she be able to be back to normal?" Jaylon didn't look up from Hiku's sleeping face.
"She was stabbed in the chest, shy of the heart. Her ribs received some wounds and her right lung was punctured. But she was taken in quickly, so she will recover quicker than other cases of a punctured lung. I'd give her a week to get back to her training." The medic replied calmly, in a voice that could soothe any upset person.
The brown haired trainer breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, it's much better than if she was… a week's worth waiting."
Kasmir expected to be thanked for the quick delivery of Hiku, but the rookie was too relieved and focused on his teammate that the human-looking Pokémon received none. But that was fine with the Mewtwo; he could feel very strong emotions coming from the boy about Hiku. Were they a couple? The curious Pokémon didn't ask. "We can continue exploring when you are ready to go," Kasmir admitted softly, so as not to disturb the moment building between sleeping Hiku and Jaylon.
Jaylon looked up and realized that he had been kneeling at Hiku's bed for several moments longer then intended. He stood up slowly and sighed. "Ok, we can go. I just want to see her again when she's awake."
Kasmir contradicted Jaylon's request, "Sorry, 'Raquaza' has dibs. Hiku is the first trainer to survive a snatching, so naturally the leader would want to get her story first, as well as you and your Forte friend's. But after Raquaza is done talking to her, you can." He beckoned to the trainer, "Ok, follow me."
The two boys left out the way they had come, then took a different door out to a main hallway. The floors were all tiled to make a mosaic of a Raquaza Pokémon twisting through the sky. Kasmir lead the way around and stopped when he saw a young, blue haired boy and a man in Garchomp cosplay.
"Hey, Dieg- I mean 'Garchomp'. And this is 'Gible', right? HI!" the human-looking Mewtwo smiled warmly.
The man in Garchomp cosplay waved with his finned arms, but kept an even voice. "What are you doing around here, Kasmir? Aren't you supposed to be finding 'Latios' and Vekra? We need them here."
"I am?" the Pokémon raised his eyebrows. "I thought they were coming in on their own power… is something wrong?"
Jaylon didn't care if Vekra was in trouble; she had been a snob to him in the beginning. There were so many reasons not to like her that Jaylon tuned out on the conversation.
"They were shot at in Johto. They've been stuck there for only a day or so, and they are staying with Phoebe, but we need everyone together for Raquaza's announcement." 'Garchomp's eyes darkened under his Garchomp helmet. "You did see it, didn't you?"
Kasmir was completely in the dark about this. "No, why are you so grim? What happened?"
Garchomp rolled his eyes. "You'll see in Raquaza's emergency meeting. She DVR'd it."
"Technology… it's really confusing, isn't it?" remarked the Pokémon. He had been born in Aura Guardian times, so he was still unused to computers and satellite TV.
"This isn't the time to be goofing off, Kasmir. This could topple our whole operation…" 'Garchomp' shook his head and gave a very heavy sigh.
The boy with blue hair was looking at Jaylon's Zangoose with interest. He walked over to Rain and lifted his hand for her to sniff it. Rain ignored him at first, but caught a scent of other Zangeese on him. She trotted over to the young boy codenamed 'Gible' and began to sniff up the foreign scent.
Jaylon noticed his Zangoose was introducing herself to this boy, so Jaylon joined in. "Hey, this is my Zangoose, Rain."
'Gible' ignored Agent J and pulled out two red and white balls. He addressed the Pokémon instead, "Would you like to meet my Zangeese?"
Rain pushed her nose on the button to release the Pokémon inside. After two flashes of red light, two smaller and younger Zangeese appeared at 'Gible's feet.
"I didn't know you had a Zangoose, two Zangeese at that." Jaylon admitted and watched carefully to see if his Pokémon would be violent to the other Pokémon. He was ready to stand in if things went bad.
The twin Zangeese were surprised to see another Zangoose and cowered by their trainer. After a moment, Pieces (the female twin) came up to Rain: ears lowered and crawling close to the ground. Pieces squeaked slightly and rolled over to show the older Zangoose that Rain was superior. Rain the Zangoose seemed quite pleased and licked the younger one's head. Gemini, the other young Zangoose, copied his sister's movements and received a lick as well.
Now that the three Pokémon were acquainted, the twins called to each other and waved their tails happily. Rain seemed happy and began to play with the kits. They play-fought by tackling each other and nipping.
Agent J had never seen Rain more happy. He smiled at the younger boy. "Where'd you get two young Zangeese like that?"
'Gible' finally acknowledged him and said quietly, "My sister gave them to me."
"You must have a really great sister." Jaylon said as he tried to pet one of the small Zangeese twins. The young Pokémon ducked away quickly and playfully ran around Rain and swatted at her fluffy tail.
The blue haired boy became sullen. "Not really…" he stood back up and returned his Pokémon. Without another word, he walked away.
Rain was left without playmates and she sat down in a pout.
The two other trainers walked on to another part of the hideout. Jaylon watched them go. "Are we both unaware of this thing right now?" he asked his Pokémon guide.
"Uh-huh." The purple eyed Pokémon agreed. "What ever happened, it wasn't a good thing." He made eye contact with Jaylon and said quickly, "After I show you around, I have to find 'Latios' and Vekra. This thing that we missed could be really serious; I've never seen Diego-I-mean 'Garchomp' in that dark of a mood."
Jaylon nodded. It must be great to be a psychic Pokémon. You can teleport anywhere and use your mind to move things. This Mewtwo guy is very friendly and really powerful. I wish I could capture him, but I guess if he considers me a friend already, he can help me find my parents. He can't seem to keep a secret. From him I already know that 'Garchomp's real name is Diego. "Ok, let's go then."
...
As Kasmir was walking around the base, showing Jaylon around and introducing him to the trainers, an important figure walked up to them.
"Kasmir, showing the newbie around, I see?" a calm, female voice said from behind him.
The Mewtwo turned around and gave the speaker a big smile. "Hi, Raquaza."
Jaylon jumped and whipped around to see the leader of this entire operation. This person had given him two Pokémon a long time ago (it felt). This person had organized Hiku, himself, and Vekra into a team of rookies set out to understand the true role of a trainer. Jaylon felt giddy to finally meet this figurehead. "Raquaza…" he choked and examined the lady in a tight, green dress with yellow circles. She had a green helmet on, with long blonde hair coming out from underneath. He couldn't see her eyes, but her presence was enough to command attention. It was almost as if she had the 'pressure' ability that a real Raquaza had.
Jaylon noted that despite that this person was the brains behind this entire operation, Kasmir greeted her informally. That's right; he said that the Lugia Rider's sister became Raquaza. He knows her from before.
The woman nodded to the rookie. "Jaylon, welcome to my hideout. Do you like it?"
The brown haired trainer could only squeak and nod. He'd never met anyone with this much power before.
"Good. It's nice to meet you in person. Perhaps you will trust me more than before?" she asked again.
"I trusted you from the beginning." He said back.
The blonde woman smiled and nodded. "That's good." She changed the subject, "I'm sorry for what happened to Hiku. We should have been more careful, or maybe I should have taught you more on being safe. I didn't want this to happen to her."
Jaylon couldn't help but feel that she was being friendly, as if she was gaining his trust and friendship. "No one could have seen that coming, Ma'am. But now we know that humans are snatching up trainers."
Raquaza seemed interested now. "Did you see how the men kidnapped Hiku?"
"I didn't see all of it, but I know that they had some kind of cloth they put over her mouth, and then three of them tried to get away, two guys carrying the Pokémon and trainers, and the last to cover their escape." His eyes grew wide again. "Oh great! What will Hiku's family think since we didn't come back from the forest?"
"They've been notified already." Raquaza held up her hand to calm him. "I sent a call to tell them Hiku was safe. They will be transported here to watch over and care for Hiku shortly. They also said that the man they captured shot himself in the head. We no longer have a captured culprit." She paused to let this news sink in, then she went on, "Hiku's family did mention that the man said something about human dominance and that by calling Pokémon friends, we forfeit our human authority. Is this correct?"
Jaylon nodded quickly. "I heard it myself. I don't really know what that means…"
"We now have a better idea on who this mastermind is…" the leader said thoughtfully.
"Yeah, of course!" Jaylon agreed with her.
"Anything else you know about these men?" Raquaza asked.
The brown haired boy scratched his head. "Oh, yeah. Some similar guys tried to mug me in Fallabor town. But my handy Zangoose defended me." He looked down at his Pokémon and patted her head, "She's a good Pokémon."
The Zangoose didn't look all that happy to be babied over.
Raquaza's voice grew the slightest higher in pitch. "So you saw these men before? And you captured a Zangoose in Fallabor?"
He nodded back.
"Can you understand your Zangoose?" she asked quietly.
The brown haired boy's eyebrows rose up. "Yeah, how'd you know?"
Raquaza took on a mysterious look. "Jaylon Wicklow…" she muttered before saying to Kasmir, "Kasmir, go and bring Vekra and 'Latios' back here. You know where Olivine city is, right?"
"Yes, Raquaza!" he saluted with a grin and teleported away.
The lady in a green dress smiled slightly to the rookie. "I will finish your tour. Then at the end, I will introduce you to some people you would really love to meet." She left off mysteriously and began to walk to the unexplored part of the base.
Jaylon followed her without a word. Even though she had been friendly, he still viewed her with high esteem.