Thanks to srgeman and Final Flame Dragon for reviewing!
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Chapter 20-
"This is Sarah Williamson for Hoenn Action News. We have breaking news just in out of Mauville City- rumors are swirling that another kidnapping attempt by Team Aqua has occurred, and this one was a success. There is no word yet on who the victim is, but we will continue to monitor the situation and bring you updates as they become available. "
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"What more can you tell me?" Sophie Chillar asked softly into the phone.
"We don't know much more than we've said, Mrs. Chillar. Team Aqua has had unclear motives since they first started committing crimes. You know about as much about them as we do." Officer Jenny replied, Gary sitting next to her.
"I remember we had that conference awhile back and I've seen the news, I just want to know why Tristan?"
"We will try and figure that out. It could be a move against the league, it could be another reason related to their cause, we just don't know yet."
"We are doing something though Mrs. Chillar," Gary piped up. "I had my Dustox trail their helicopter, so hopefully we can find out where they are."
"Thanks Gary. I appreciate your help more than you know." Sophie said. "Alright, I'm on my way to Mauville. I'll be there as soon as I can."
"We'll see you then." Jenny said, hanging up the phone. "That went the best I could have hoped for." She said turning to Gary. "I hope your Dustox can help us- we have a lot riding on it."
"Me too." He replied. She walked out of the room leaving Gary sitting still at the phone. He looked down at the six pokeballs in his hands- Tristan's pokemon. "There's got to be more I can do" he said aloud. Suddenly he turned to the phone and began dialing a number. He knew some backups he could bring in to help with this…
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Tristan was bored out of his mind. He had no idea what time it was since he had no clock in his cell, but he knew it was nighttime. He sat on the bed staring at the ceiling for awhile, lost in his thoughts. Just yesterday he had been earning his fourth badge, now he was a kidnapping victim by a deranged group of pirates that thought they could zap him with a memory ray and that he'd help them get some orb thing. He thought about his pokemon and felt a pang of guilt at how worried they probably were about him, but was glad that they were with Gary instead of here.
Out of nowhere, an Aqua guy walked in followed by Matt, followed by another guy who was holding another person captive, their face covered by a mask. He yanked the mask off and Tristan gasped in shock- it was Flannery!
"We thought you should see our newest friend." Matt said. "Have you met?"
"Tristan? They took you too?" Flannery asked. "Let us go!" she yelled.
"What did you take her for?" Tristan asked angrily.
"Our dear little fire princess here might have information our buddies in Team Magma might find useful. This is merely a preventative measure to keep her away from them." he explained in his mocking voice. "Take her away." He ordered.
"Tristan!" she yelled out to him as she was forcibly removed from the room.
"You realize that kidnapping a gym leader is going to get the attention of every police department on the continent not to mention the League, right?" Tristan said through gritted teeth.
"It makes no difference. By tomorrow evening your usefulness will be up, and we will be moving the gym leader to another location. Plus, this place is well hidden. No one is worried about being found by the League before we have completed our task. Now I must leave- I advise you to sleep. You have a big day ahead of you." He said turning around and leaving, being sure to slam the door shut. Tristan stared at the door for a moment and then pounded the bed with his fists in frustration.
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"We have an unfortunate update on the Team Aqua kidnappings. Apparently two victims related to the Hoenn Pokemon League are the ones that have been taken. The first person abducted was 16 year old Tristan Chillar, son of Azure Town gym leader Sophie Chillar. It occured along Route 119 where Chillar was traveling along with Gary Oak of Kanto. Then later this afternoon 16 year old Flannery Moore, the new gym leader in Lavaridge and granddaughter of acclaimed former elite four member Mr. Moore was taken. It happened somewhere near Lavaridge while she was out training. Moore became a gym leader only recently, taking over the post that has been held by her grandfather since his retirement from the elite four, and is very popular amongst the citizens of Lavaridge. Chillar is a well known trainer from the Hoenn region known for his good showings at other regional pokemon league tournaments and his popularity amongst girls who follow the league.
The location of the two teens is unknown at this point, nor is the reason for their kidnappings. League official are mum to this point on the response the League plans on taking, but have said that everything will be looked at in trying to rescue the two teens. We will continue to follow the story as it develops. This is Sarah Williamson, HAN."
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"Of course we have to do something!" Norman said loudly, pounding his fists at his table.
"Calm down Norman." Winona said soothingly. The League had set up a conference call with the remaining gym leaders they could get a hold of, plus the elite four and the current champion and Officer Jenny to discuss what should be done. To say it had been a tense conversation so far would be an understatement.
"I don't care what you all decide, I'm going to Mauville whether you like it or not." Kyle, the Orchid Town gym leader said, a fierce look of determination on his face. "They have taken two of my closest friends, and I'm not going to take that sitting down."
"Here, here." Wattson agreed.
"We can't just go running around like a bunch of headless Pidgey's looking blindly for these people." Wallace pointed out. "Officer Jenny, is there any word yet on the location of the helicopter from Mr. Oak's Dustox?"
"Not yet. We are hopeful it will come back soon. Gary is waiting outside the station here and I have Nurse Joy on the lookout at the Pokemon Center."
"Well what are we going to do when it does check back in? We should have a plan ready to execute." Norman said.
"I agree!" came a chorus of several voices.
"Then let's plan this out…." Steven said.
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Gary waited around outside anxiously for one of two things to arrive to him, his backups or his pokemon. He had paced back and forth for the same fifteen feet for the past hour, though it felt longer. He had his Umbreon out to keep him company and give him someone to talk to to keep his nerves under control. Though he exuded a calm exterior at all times, inside he felt emotions just as strong as anyone. And the emotions he currently felt were too many to count. Fear for his friends, disappointment with himself for not being able to save Tristan, impatience for his Dustox to return, and boiling anger at Team Aqua just to name a few.
"When I get my hands on them…" Gary said to his Umbreon.
"Then you will be getting the bloody pulp that I've left behind." came a voice from behind him. He turned around and was relieved to see Gabrielle had arrived.
"Glad you could come so quickly." he said.
"Well I figured someone with some brains needed to help out a bit. Tristan's lucky I didn't have a contest to be competing in." she said, though without the same level of smugness Gary was accustomed to. "What more can you tell me?"
"Well they apparently also took Flannery- I'm sure you remember her from Lavaridge. The League is going to get involved now- Officer Jenny told me they're making up a plan as we speak."
"Glad they have the backbone here to take these idiots on. I hated being part of the Johto Pokemon League- they're half idiots, half egotistical crazies."
"Anyway, I'm waiting for my Dustox to get back to let us know what direction the helicopter went. Then we can hopefully set out after them."
"I'll wait with you."
Both sat down on the bench, wordlessly looking to the sky for a bug that had the hopes of a lot of people riding on its wings.
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Tristan had been sleeping for what seemed like only a couple minutes to him before the door was slammed open again by the Aqua grunts and Matt, waking him up.
"It's time for your appointment with the memory ray." Matt said.
"Was that today?" Tristan asked sarcastically, slowly sitting up in the bed. He looked outside and saw it was just past sunrise. "Can I reschedule?"
"Cut the crap kid. Tie him up." He ordered to the grunts. They came up and put ropes around Tristan's wrists to tie them together behind his back and put a gag on his mouth. They then began to lead him down the halls to the machine. They went through several corridors and down the elevator again before arriving in a large room with a table, a big laser looking thing, and lots of computers and consoles with more pirates sitting at the controls. The two grunts lead him to the table, untied his wrists and removed the gag, removed his shirt, and strapped him onto the table. Tristan was starting to get scared. The laser thing looked like it could kill him, not unlock non-existent memories. A pirate wearing a lab coat came up to him at the table and attached some sensors to his chest and head. She then put a strap over his forehead so he couldn't move his head around.
"The ray should not cause you any psychological or physical harm. What you need to do is just look at the light when we tell you to. If you follow our directions, nothing will go wrong. You will probably become lightheaded after the procedure is done but that will pass quickly. Do you understand?"
"Are you sure you guys have to do this?" Tristan asked. The woman just laughed and then headed back to her console.
"Starting initial calibration of the ray." a person called out. The ray machine started to hum, getting louder and louder. It coincided perfectly with Tristan's steadily rising fear.
"Calibration complete." another voice called out.
"Move subject into position."
Suddenly the table that Tristan was lying on began to tilt forward. When it stopped, he was at about a 60 degree angle to the floor.
"Subject is in position."
"Adjust waves to subject's frequency."
"Adjustment complete."
"Move the ray into position."
The machine began to move closer to Tristan. It drew closer and closer, while Tristan looked at it wide eyed in fear. It stopped when it was about five feet from him, and was pointing directly at his eyes.
"Well, this is it. If this thing kills me…" Tristan thought, not wanting to go further along that train of thinking.
"Ray is in position."
"Tristan, I need you to look at the light." the woman from before said. He looked at it, given that he had no other option.
"Engage ray."
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"There's my Dustox!" Gary cried, leaping to his feet. It was just past sunrise. He had not slept the entire night, even though both Officer Jenny and Sophie, who had arrived around midnight, had insisted he try. Gabrielle hadn't either.
"I'll get Officer Jenny and Sophie." She said, taking off into the police station. Dustox spotted Gary and made a beeline for him. It landed on the ground and fell over in exhaustion. Officer Jenny came running out of the building with Gabrielle and Sophie right behind her.
"Get me Nurse Joy on the double." She called into her radio upon seeing the state of Gary's Dustox. Nurse Joy arrived in minutes with a police escort. She immediately began working to fix up Gary's Dustox from its apparently long flight. After a few minutes, she let the three know that they could talk to Dustox, but it needed a good rest to recover afterwards. Gary approached his Dustox.
"Dustox, did you follow the helicopter to a building?" he asked. Dustox nodded.
"Were there a lot of people there?" Again it nodded.
"Can you point us in the direction of the building?" Dustox nodded and turned towards the southeast. Officer Jenny got out her compass to take an exact reading on the direction and then put the results into the computer.
"They must be on one of the islands to the north of the ocean current. I'll inform the League of the news. They can enact their plan at once. Before I go, do you two want to be a part of the rescue?"
"It's not even a question Officer." Gary replied immediately. Gabrielle nodded her head in agreement.
"I thought so. Thanks for all of you help Gary and Dustox." She said before leaving the room to make the call. Gary reached his hand into his pocket and felt the six pokeballs that belonged to his friend. He had let them out last night to give them some food and to fill them in on what had happened. The pokemon were upset at what had happened, but seemed determined to be reunited with their trainer no matter what.
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"Steven this is Jenny. We have a possible location on the Aqua hideout. We ran the information from the Dustox against our satellite imagery and have found a large complex with a large amount of air traffic coming in and out of it within the past few days on an island just north of Route 133. I've sent the coordinates to you. Are you ready to enact the plan?"
"Yes. I'll inform the rescue team. We'll rendezvous with you in Mauville within the next few hours. Then we'll head to the location."
"See you in a few hours then."
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"We have an update in the Team Aqua kidnapping story that we've been following. Rumors are flying that a large rescue operation is apparently being undertaken by Hoenn League officials including several gym leaders as well as the Elite Four and reigning champion Steven Stone. It's been a day since two teens related to the League, gym leader Flannery Moore of Lavaridge Town and popular trainer Tristan Chillar of Azure Town, were kidnapped by Team Aqua. It's been speculated that the move is to not only rescue the teens but also eliminate Team Aqua and bring them to justice. We will continue to monitor the situation here at Hoenn Action News and bring you the latest on any developments. This is Sarah Williamson, HAN."
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So after some thought, I've decided that I want/need someone to beta this story for me. Anyone interested? I'm looking for plot and character review and feedback more so than spelling and grammar stuff. PM me if you would like the job...
Oh yeah, and be sure to review!