Chapter 35: The Hunt
(It has been a while since the last chap, in that time I've quit my current job, found a new one, and also transitioned out of it so now that that's done I finally have some free time to play some games and write some stories. I'm not entirely sure how much I can get done in the time before my new job starts but I'll be juggling playing games, writing, and finding a new place to live when I move back to the west coast. Looking forward to the new chapter in my life and hope y'all enjoy this new chapter of the story as well!)
General
Mega Rayquaza? Are you kidding?
Collectively, some version of this thought was spreading throughout the group.
How in Arceus' name was this unholy combo allowed to exist, Red thought to himself as he began thanking his lucky stars that Saur was finally getting his mega evolution as there was definitely a need for some extra fire power to combat the ridiculous opponents to come.
As Red was collecting himself, Platina shifted the topic towards what the plan would be, "Is there anything we can do at this point now that the meteorite has been stolen?"
The other dexholders didn't really have many ideas beyond "We'll probably find out the next time Team Neo inevitably shows up…"
Luckily for them, the overseers had a bit of intel to share with the group.
"When we received the meteorite from the Mossdeep Space Station, they also provided us with a special portable detector for monitoring the specific energy that came out of the meteorite. While it reacts to most types of mega stone energy, it can read the specific energy trails that the meteorite has on it. We can certainly lend you the device if you are trying to pursue Team Neo immediately." The overseer explained while pointing towards the main room where all the doors were connected.
Finally, something that was a clear lead towards the next conflict. Red was still struggling with identifying the traitor and it was something he would have to continue to think about even while pursuing overpowered legendary pokemon.
His previous 1-on-1s with Mei and Blue, while enjoyable, seemed to have tentatively cleared them for now. They didn't do anything that was remotely suspicious towards the objective of beating Team Neo and especially in Blue's case, he had known her for so long that it was very unlikely that she would betray him.
Especially with her history of having messed with him during his Kanto adventures, Red figured that if she hadn't joined up with Team Rocket back then, it would be hard to suspect her of suddenly having a change of heart this many years down the line.
In Mei's case, Red didn't know enough about her history since they hadn't gone on an official "date" yet, but at least from the time they had explored the underground colosseum together, he thought that she was a reliable team member who was dedicated to the battle.
If he had to say, the only thing off about both of them would be that they were both somewhat more … physical with him than when everyone was in a group together.
Still, they were pokemon trainers, not professional fighters, so he couldn't see a world where he would be physically in danger from the traitor being too close.
As a result, he couldn't really piece together what the reason was for them being so much closer, maybe it just felt safer that way. That would probably make more sense in Mei's case since they were in a dark underground area with potential enemies around.
What he couldn't fathom was what Blue was thinking as she wasn't known to be much of a scaredy cat when it came to infiltrating criminal team bases.
As these thoughts ran through his head, he was snapped back to reality by the overseer telling the group that everyone should head over together to get the monitoring device.
The group filed out of the room into the common room. Now that there wasn't a potential threat behind every door, Red and Mei felt a lot more at ease than they did just a few moments ago.
"It's funny what a little perspective can do for your mentality" Mei thought to herself.
The overseer stopped in front of an inconspicuous door that looked significantly less important than the mega stone room's door. Instead of a hi-tech looking metal door, this one was behind a regular looking wooden one that didn't look out of place with the rest of the aesthetic of the Tower of Mastery.
"At the time, I thought Janet (one of the other overseers) was being paranoid when she said to put the very important monitoring device in a different location from the very important meteorite. I didn't think that would be necessary, and even if we were attacked I didn't think the intruder would be naïve enough to only target the important looking rooms." The overseer explained why they were standing before this inconspicuous door and then Janet stepped in and briefly added in "I told you that hiding things in plain sight works best."
Platina thought that there was probably some underlying tension between the two overseers here but that was neither here nor there when it came to the urgent matter at hand.
Luckily for Platina and the group, the two overseers didn't continue their conversation and went straight to opening the door. It unlocked easily with a simple key that Janice produced from her bag, and the door swung open to reveal a simple storage room that had shelves of supplies including pokemon food and unused pokeballs as well as other things.
It wasn't obvious at first glance where the special detector was in the room and Red looked towards the overseers for guidance. One overseer pointed towards the main attraction in the room which were the two safes that were tucked away on the bottom shelf in the corner of the room.
Guess they were extra careful to the extent that they even had two safes, Red thought silently, and the safe on the left side of the room was opened up by Janet soon after they had entered the room.
Janet handed the device that looked like a pokeradar to Red and then began promptly explaining how it worked.
"Essentially the device can detect any unusual mega stone energy and it's currently tuned for the meteorite's energy signature. After finding the direction that the energy is going in, it can also predict generally where the target is within a certain degree of accuracy. If you pair with your phone you can even figure out what region your target is in. Of course, the more precise tracking will need to happen when you're in the region in question but this would be a great start at least." Janet gave her elaborate explanation and then waited expectantly for questions.
Yellow was the first to speak up "if we use this in conjunction with the information from pokemon on the way, we should be able to narrow down where Team Neo has gone!"
Serena followed up with "it should be very doable especially when it's hard to be stealthy when transporting something as large as a meteorite."
With the strategy of using the detector along with Yellow's ability to talk to pokemon decided upon, Red decided to start pairing his phone with the detector.
After a moment of silence, the detector made an "errrrr" sound that reminded Red of the sounds an laptop would make when you hit shift too many times.
"Uhh… I'll assume that that's not how it's supposed to sound." Red said in a confused tone.
Janet looked over at Red's phone and paused to think for a moment before a look of realization dawned upon her face.
"Ooh it's because you're using a rotom model phone, our detector is only compatible with the Applin phones. We were wondering why it didn't have support for both OS (operating system) but apparently it was something about the development costs and market share or some other mumbo jumbo." Janet rambled on before she cut her explanation short due to the signaling from the other overseers.
Blue stepped up to the plate and brought out her Applin Phone X, the detector responded very quickly as if the previous errors had never occurred.
Red was a bit exasperated that the issue stemmed from his arbitrary choice of the better priced and more customizable device but he didn't want to dwell on it. It was probably an unlucky coincidence, surely there were not situations out there that unironically ostracized individuals based on there choice of phone.
While Red was musing over the inequality of the tech world, a much cheerier beep sound came from Blue's phone. It seemed to have located the trail of the meteorite successfully and the group crowded around to see the results.
The phone display showed a zoomed out map of Kalos and it seemed to show a dark blue trail heading away from Shalour City westward towards the ocean.
"Wait a second… that's going way out of Kalos" Platina commented as there was a growing suspicion in her head.
Blue couldn't have read Platina's thoughts so she zoomed out the map and it showed the trail slowly turning into a redder color, like a heatmap's gradient, as it went across the ocean.
The trail eventually turned orange in the faraway region of… Sinnoh.
Platina cringed a bit internally, having seen her suspicion confirmed so soon after she had it. Sometimes she wished that she didn't have such good intuition as the impending sense of dread was not something she enjoyed, but oftentimes seemed to follow her intuition.
Red didn't have any way of knowing that Platina was dreading going back to Sinnoh, as she hadn't spoken of her personal life that much, so he only naively said "Platina, you're from Sinnoh right? Maybe you can help us out when we get there?"
Platina knew that Red didn't have any clue what Platina's baggage was back in Sinnoh, and she was happy to show the team around because it was true that she had plenty of family/friend connections and knowledge of the region from her time traveling there.
The thing was, she had one big bombshell she had to drop on the team, and Red especially.
"I'm happy to show everyone around once we arrive on Sinnoh, but I have one big favor I have to ask of you Red." She said in an uncharacteristically nervous way.
Red wasn't sure what this was about, but he didn't see any reason to refuse her so he said "Sure I'd be happy to do whatever you ask me to do."
"Okay then … can you become my fiancé?" Platina managed to form these words before chaos broke out in the room.
(A/N: So I've been in the process of getting ready to start a new job and move back to the west coast. In the meantime I'll be playing Monster Hunter World, hopefully Ori and the Blind Forest and a few other games. I'll be trying to crank out another chapter before my break ends but I can't make any promises as it depends on how much writing I can get inspiration for in the meantime. Hopefully the new season of anime can help with that inspiration part as well. Hope y'all are doing well and once again, sorry about the long wait between chapters.)