Interlude Five: Six Degrees of Villainous Separation
Once again, Buzz Bolton found himself staring out at the sunset. The sky was alight with orange and yellows today, sucking the blue out of the area around them as the stars slowly began to twinkle into place like many little lights being switched on. It was one of those sunsets you couldn't help but turn towards and find yourself lightening up inside as you stared at the sun as it began to sink behind the skyscrapers, trees and mountains. It helped to make people's days, and cheer them up from the day they had.
However, nothing was going to cheer up Buzz.
He stared out at Saffron City with his mind racing. In a few weeks, he hoped to be in charge of this entire region. He could imagine people screaming and running through the streets as the floors of Silph Co. opened up, and the army he had been developing for five years would rise out onto the streets. Buzz could imagine buildings of his rivals crumbing and falling down inside themselves, balls of fire rising up from their basements. He could imagine men running through the street and grabbing people, killing whoever he wanted and could until every single region was bowing down before him and opening their gates to welcome him in. Buzz had been imagining things like this for years, and sometimes would be sitting at his desk and could see the sun turning into a giant fire that wiped out all his enemies at a press of a button.
But his plans were in turmoil. Buzz clutched in his shaking hands a brief letter that had been sent to him by an Archaeologist from the Oreburgh Museum in Sinnoh, who Buzz had bribed and flown out to Mt Moon to do some evaluation. He kept glancing back at the results given to him, wondering wheter to believe them or not, all the while finally his dreams crashing down around him.
The phone suddenly begin to ring, and Buzz let out an angry sigh as he turned towards it and pressed a button on his remote control to answer it. He had a feeling who it was going to be, and recognized the voice that let out an angry shriek as soon as it picked up.
"THAT STUPID LITTLE BITCH!" Amanda's voice screeched, echoing in the enclosed room. "I WANT THAT SELF IMPORTANT TART DEAD BUZZ, DO YOU HEAR ME, DEAD!" Buzz was a bit taken aback by this, having expected Amanda to be calling about something else.
"I don't care about Alaska fucking Acevedo at the moment darling," Buzz said, trying to keep his voice calm, "but if she is being a bother and you still haven't managed to kill her yet than I know a way to get rid of her within the next few days, alright?" Amanda's heavy breathing was all that came back, but Buzz knew she would be nodding at the other end.
"Fine, but I want a bit of her left over for me at least to personally destroy," the producer snarled. "She ruined my clothes and a camera, my tablet is covered in mud and Chloe needs to get her nose fixed!" Buzz was once again taken aback and sighed angrily, but he needed to focus on other matters.
"Did you get a copy of the report from Dr. West?" Buzz asked, only to get a loud sigh in reply.
"No, didn't you hear me? My tablet fell in the mud!" Amanda snapped back. "God, when I get my hands on that bitch I'm –,"
"ENOUGH!" Buzz yelled, cutting Amanda off mid sentence. "Alaska will be dead within days, alright? We've got bigger fish to deal with at the moment! Dr West said that he searched the area around the explosion and found no evidence of fossils being there, but he found a piece of discoloured rock in a hole that he has tested and said it contains DNA of a Kabuto in it." Amanda's gasp was clear and audible, and Buzz sighed and he collapsed down into a chair, groaning as he angrily kicked the wall, much like a toddler that wasn't getting their way.
"So the little bitches blog was right?" Amanda whispered. "Gideon is back then, isn't he?" Buzz stopped kicking but continued to groan, almost on the verge of tears, though he would never admit it. He turned back towards the phone, staring down at the report in front of him.
"I am sorry to say he is," Buzz said, his voice a lot more whiny than it usually was. "I have no idea how that dick survived for all these years, but he is back and seems to be starting up Operation Lavender." Silence fell between the two, and Buzz looked out through his windows, the low sun casting shadows across his floor as it moved behind several buildings.
"But… but… but Neil… we left him there," Amanda whispered, in so much shock that she forgot how much Buzz hated having his real name used. "We left him there to die… surely he is going to start putting the pieces together, he'll know we are still around!" Buzz stared angrily at the phone, severely annoyed at the use of his real name, but he knew that Amanda had a point.
"We'll have to keep quiet then, won't we?" He replied, trying to gain control again, his mind thinking of what to do. "I want you to focus entirely on getting these stars up to scratch and defeating gyms. Do more training and more gruelling challenges – we are going to have to bring our challenges forwards and I want at least one of them to have all eight gym badges before Gideon can do anything, alright? And don't even spare a thought for the little bitch – she'll be a bad memory in a few days."
"Fine then," Amanda said, a little bit huffily. "And what are you going to do during this time?" Buzz didn't appreciate the tone in her voice and was tempted to give her a warning about it, but had too much on his plate to properly care about it. He instead stood up, the report still clutched in his hands and drawing his attention back. Whatever Gideon was planning, there was a chance it would ruin theirs.
"I am going to keep an eye on our old colleague and see what he is up to," Buzz said firmly. "I need to use the phone to make arrangements – goodbye," and he hung up before Amanda even knew it. Buzz turned back towards his window, only a small orange glow in the distance providing natural light, and he knew that soon light bulbs would turn on and light his path. But Buzz didn't intend to stay around for much longer: with an angry growl, he scrunched up the report and threw it into the bin before snatching up the phone. Buzz wasn't going to let anything get in his way of stopping his dreams, and began dialling a number for the people that could help him.
If things went his way, Alaska and Gideon would both be dead within a week.
It was quite rare for Gideon to feel a feeling of emptiness, but as he stared around his lab, he couldn't help but feel a bit sad.
Over the past few days he had packed everything away into boxes. The murder of the many police officers wouldn't go unnoticed for long, but Gideon had moved effortlessly to secure the area using a special electrical field that would stop anyone from leaving or entering. However, it wasn't going to hold for long, and Gideon had to move fast to make sure he continued to avoid capture.
All of his machines and paperwork had been filed carefully away in a number of boxes that he had stolen from the surrounding houses, and Gideon had teleported them away to a secure facility where no one would be able to find him. It was stressful and irritating, but Gideon had to do it if he wanted to leave.
The last of the boxes had left, and Gideon was left alone in the middle of the empty room. Shelves and bench tops lay bare, cupboards empty, marks remaining in the middle of the floor from his various machines being activated. Filth and dust covered almost every surface, leaving it far from the pristine bomb shelter it had once been. All of the devices such as the fridge and television had been destroyed, and only a few of their parts remained scattered around the room.
Gideon continued to look around, smiling in a slightly psychotic way. He had lived here for many years, and hadn't left it until a few months ago, all his food being collected by his Pokemon. It felt strange to be saying good bye to it, and Gideon let out a little sigh as he once again thought of the inconvenience of it all. However, Gideon did have most of the machines and all the fossils that were necessary for his plan. All he had left to do was to collect a single book, a few ingredients, the blueprints for a Fossil Resurrection Machine and the necessary parts for that. If all went well, his plan will be complete in only a few weeks time.
"Excellent," Gideon hissed to himself, glad to have a happy thought, and decided to leave the bomb shelter behind. He briskly climbed up the ladder and pushed open the trapdoor, stepping out into the night.
It was a pleasant evening, with an inky black sky with twinkling stars. Gideon had missed all of nature's beauties whilst underground and hoped to see more to make up for it. He looked around at the disembodied limbs and charred bits of flesh and clothes that had survived Porygon-Z's Tri Attack and multiple Hyper Beams, and then around at the houses. Many people were trapped inside, worried for themselves and their friends, not knowing what the scientist who had put up the barrier was going to do to them. Gideon had always savoured fear, and he couldn't help laughing to himself as he pulled a button out of his pocket. Over the years, he had built a security system into the bomb shelter, designed to eliminate all traces of him ever being there if need be. Gideon was glad he had never had to use it until now, and felt rather giddy with excitement as he set up his teleportation part of his watch.
"Goodbye Chrono Island!" He yelled, beginning to cackle with laughter. "I hope this is good enough to remember me by!" And he pressed down on the button as soon as the teleportation was ready. Gideon was instantly sucked away, along with the button, but not before its process had been done. A loud beeping began to sound through the shelter hatch, and the people in the surrounding houses looked out their windows at Gideon's cry, wondering what he had done.
Seconds later, the nuclear bomb exploded.
Yes, it is now officially confirmed: Buzz and Amanda are ex Rocket grunts and were there when Red, Leaf and Blue stormed the Rocket facility. I hope some things make more sense now, though I also hope there are more questions you want answered ;)