Chapter 41: Taking Care of Business Pt. 1

(A/N: Uh a quarter of the year has passed since the last chapter huh… Not much to say there, that's just my bad y'all. In the meantime, I've finished most of BDSP and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Pleasantly surprised with how good Arceus was (and I enjoyed the nostalgia trip of BDSP), so I'm looking forward to the gen 9 drop at the end of the year and new games in the direction of Pokemon Legends: Arceus. In the meantime, I've been addicted to Rune Factory 5 and also am really excited for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 as XC2 is my favorite switch game. As for anime this season, lots of great shows to watch, I'm currently watching Ousama Ranking, and looking forward to Shikimori, Spy x Family, Kaguya, and Koi wa Sekai Seifuku no Ato de. Alright on with the chapter!)

General

Red and Platina were making their way over to the old Team Galactic HQ and they started discussing their infiltration plan.

They hadn't expected that the Berlitz family's appearance here would have anything to do with the dexholders' mission, but now that they were aligned, it seemed like the pair would have to modify their approach just a bit.

"Since we don't have to sneak in anymore, I think we can use this to our advantage."

"That makes sense Platina, I was thinking that we could get close to the elites/admins from one end and coordinate with the others who can take down the bulk of their forces elsewhere."

Platina thought about the idea for a bit and then remembered a key detail.

"I almost forgot you haven't been in the Team Galactic Headquarters before."

"Haha no worries, I know we talked about it a little bit when we were planning with the team, but I'm not actually that clear on what the rest of the building is like since we weren't the ones who would be going from the back. I assume that we'll be doing the meeting with the other financiers in a ballroom kind of thing?"

"You're probably right about the ballroom part, the rest of the headquarters is kind of hard to describe but there are teleporting pads that connect the whole base in weird ways. If you don't know the way or have a keycard for the locked doors, it's pretty easy to get lost or reach a dead end."

… Red nearly facepalmed after hearing that description. Somehow, even in a whole different region, different criminal organizations managed to make teleport pads and mazelike bases, seem unoriginal.

Platina wasn't sure what the exasperated expression Red was making was about, but she figured there was some deep-seated reason for it, so she wasn't going to press on it unless he wanted to talk about it in this case.

"I'll contact Blue and update the others on our new plan" Red took the initiative on moving the plans forward.

Platina didn't object although she had wanted to be the one to convey the plan, not because she had doubts about Red's communication skills, but because she wanted to minimize the number of times that Red would be texting the other girls even if this time around it was for mission purposes.

Red took out his smartphone and started explaining the situation to Blue in a text message(to avoid a call in case they were already too deep in enemy territory to discuss things openly).

"Hey Blue, minor change in plans, we're not going to need to do any sneaking around from the front side. Turns out that Platina's parents wanted us to attend a banquet being held at the Neo Organization's headquarters so we'll have an easier time scouting out the area. Besides that we can continue with the original plan for the most part, but I want to have the cue to cause chaos to be on our mark."

Blue saw the message an internalized it briefly before telling the rest of the team the news. Some of the team members raised their eyebrows at the part about "Platina's parents wanted us to attend a banquet", but since they were still on a mission they decided to keep it under wraps for now. Some of them (White and Crys for example) noted that they would ask for the details later, while the others had some version of "How nice…" running through their minds.

Meanwhile, Blue didn't have any of those reservations as she still had the obligation to text him back her confirmation of the new plans. As a result, she took the liberty to dig deeper on the issue at hand.

"Roger that Red, we'll be ready for your signal whenever. On another note though… could you tell me why Platina's parents want the two of you to attend this banquet together?"

Blue had her suspicions since the premise of the meeting was Red being introduced to Platina's parents as her fiancé, but she had to confirm with Red or she would be distracted during the mission. Or at least, that was what she was telling herself as a way of justifying her curiosity.

"Good to hear, I'll let you know when we're ready to go and then we'll start our attack simultaneously. As for why Platina's parents want us to attend together, it would seem that the Berlitz family was invited to this banquet for affluent families in Sinnoh, so we'll be going in an official capacity to represent the Berlitz family. Platina's parents seem to approve of our potential engagement, despite it being all fake. That's pretty funny huh? I didn't think they would buy our acting since this wasn't real at all."

"K."

Red was surprised to see the short reply, but chalked it up to her being busy with getting into position so he didn't dwell upon it for long.

Blue's Side

Blue on the other hand, was certainly dwelling upon something at the moment. She currently wore a stubborn looking pout as she re-read Red's message about how Platina's parents wanted Platina and Red to represent the prestigious Berlitz family in an official public-facing social function.

She couldn't even stop herself from sending a sulky "K" message to him. Which was something she had never sent him in all the time that she had known him.

Her mind was racing with thoughts about what to do when things calmed down. She felt the window to have her chance with him narrowing in real time as she continued re-reading his last text.

If only there was a way to not have to worry about Red being taken away from her by all the other competition that she saw in the team.

Still, since her team was currently sneaking around the area, Blue's sense of duty overtook her concerns for now and she refocused on trying to figure out how they were going to infiltrate the HQ from the back.

From what Platina had shared with them, there should have been a warehouse west of the HQ that she had infiltrated from before. Since she had done this many years ago, she wasn't exactly sure which warehouse it was but apparently it should stand out since there would be a gated door with a hi-tech looking keypad next to it in the warehouse.

As for how to get inside… Platina didn't have the keycard on hand since it had been so long since she had last infiltrated. When they were going through the multiple options for getting past this issue they came up with beating the grunts that would be guarding the area as the winning solution.

Sapphire was a bit disappointed that her ideas of blowing the door down with Chic's Blast Burn, or burrowing under the door, after taking out the guards (with Phado the Donphan), were rejected.

Apparently, Platina was concerned that if they used this approach, the sheer number of reinforcements that would come to the warehouse area would consume too much of their time for them to save Rayquaza.

Being tactical with their attack would be key for this mission as this was one of Team Neo's major bases. It would be hard to tell how powerful and numerous the opposing forces would be.

On the other hand, there was a palpable excitement over this being a good opportunity to let loose with the new mega-evolutions that everyone had worked hard to achieve.

Red's Side

Red told Platina that the message had been properly conveyed to Blue's team, so everything was set in place for the upcoming encounter.

Platina acknowledged this and they continued to walk towards the HQ that could be seen a ways off.

"Alright, all that is left to do is for us to represent the Berlitz family at the banquet and then we can get the plan in motion." Platina said excitedly.

Now that they had made plans and shared it with the other team … an awkward silence arose between the two of them.

Normally, they would be able to converse normally when they were with each other. Their ability to converse causally when they were on the way to meet Platina's parents evidenced this.

The reason why this silence was arising was because…

It had dawned on them simultaneously that they were going to go to a public event together as a couple. Even if it was "fake" and just for show. That wouldn't be the case to the other people who would see them at the event. And they couldn't even go in a lowkey manner because there were so many high profile people at the event, and of the high profile attendees, the Berlitz family not being represented by Johanna and Jonah would certainly turn heads. There was also a nonzero chance that someone would recognize Platina since she had attended events like this one multiple times with her parents in the past.

This meant that a lot of people would be internalizing them as a couple and some of her parent's friends and acquaintances would certainly make note of Platina, one of the most attractive and desirable young socialites in the upper echelons of Sinnoh society (and pokemon trainers in general in Sinnoh), finally breaking her notorious streak of being single.

In fact, it was a fairly common belief amongst trainers and young men (and many women) that they had no chance with Platina due to how high her standards must have been to stay single for so long.

That was not something that Platina was only partially aware of, and of course, Red had no idea of this. If they had known about the full extent of how hot a topic courting Platina was in the public sphere, the awkward silence would have been even more deafening between them.

As it were, the awkwardness on Platina's end was mostly from being worried about having to act like a couple without giving away too many embarrassing expressions in front of people she might know, and especially in front of Red.

The reason for Red's awkwardness was hard for him to pinpoint, he wasn't exactly sure what the source was. He knew that logically there wasn't much to be nervous about since this was all for the sake of a façade for Platina's family. However, since he had already told himself that he'd think a bit more seriously about how to think about and treat Platina and his other teammates in the future. He decided now that he'd resolve himself to seriously evaluate how to think about and treat his relationships with the women in his life once everything was resolved with Team Neo here.

After some more moments of this stifling feeling, Platina broke the ice by saying "While it wasn't relevant when we went to talk to my parents, I think we should work on what our story will be if I meet someone that I recognize at the banquet. I don't know how long it will take for us to locate the important members of Team Neo, but in order to not raise too much suspicion, we want to make sure we come off as naturally as possible."

Platina was right about the importance of being prepared for the scrutinizing eyes of high society. However, Platina didn't really care much about her own reputation in these circles ever since she had become an accomplished trainer. Honestly, she mostly just wanted an excuse to plan more make believe couple stuff with him.

"Let's start with figuring out what a plausible story for my fiancé would be."

Red nodded in agreement to her suggestion and thought about it for a bit.

"What would be a good story for how we met? I think ideally whatever story we go with has something to do with something I actually know about."

"Good idea, I think if it'll be more natural if we stick to something you and I share…"

Platina paused and thought about it for a bit.

"When it comes to respectable and likely shared interests that we have… it could only be that couldn't it?"

"… Yeah you're right Platina, it could only be that."

They both looked at each other and simultaneously said "Pokemon training!"

"Ah glad we're on the same page here, I guess when it comes to prestigious activities, pokemon training really is the thing that most people couldn't even hold a candle to you in."

Platina complimented Red naturally as she truly believed there were few trainers in the world that could holistically be on Red's level as a pokemon trainer.

"Well if that's how we met, we should decide what activity we were doing at the time and the other details too…"

Platina thought that Red made a good point and pondered what a plausible reason would be for someone like her to meet the Kanto pokemon champion.

"Wouldn't it work if we just said that Professor Oak asked us to both do a pokemon related task for him and that's how we met up? It's more or less the truth and it sounds plausible in case any Team Neo members were mixed in with the crowd."

Platina's suggestion made sense to Red and he nodded with approval.

"Going with this flow, we might as well just use most of the things we've done together as the reason we've gotten closer and I'm sure most people wouldn't think twice about it."

Red said this with an air of assuredness that made Platina turn red.

She hadn't realized it when they were brainstorming but, what they were both essentially implying was that the circumstances they had met up in was a reasonable backstory for them getting together.

Red's assuredness on the whole matter just made it even more embarrassing for her as he must have felt it was a really plausible story, which left her imagination to run wild as she inevitably thought,

"What if I said I wanted this to be real?"

(A/N: I'm fairly sure I'll get the inspiration to write before 3 months pass next time. It took me a while to write this chapter as I was trying to get my flow going. Hopefully y'all enjoyed the chapter and I'll see you in the next chapter. Let me know how you felt about the chapter as I always read the feedback even when I'm not actively writing a chapter.)