Max sat down on one of the uncushioned stools provided by the Center and booted up the computer in front of him. It was an old- nah, more like ancient- name brand desktop that looked like it had been through a war or two. Initials, hearts, and the occasional insult were written onto the side of the battered machine with multicolored permanent markers, which had been bleached off by one of the Nurse Joys so that nothing but the outlines of the words remained. He pressed the power-on button, and watched as the computer started itself up. He opened a search browser, and found a website solely dedicated to current events in Orre. After much fruitless searching and frantic deleting- and a couple exclamations of 'For the love of Arceus'- he found an article, dating from a year and a half ago.
"Three teenagers stop Cipher!" he read aloud, propping his head on his left hand. "Wonder if there're any pictures..."
And sure enough, there were. An undercover agent for the League had watched the final battle against the boss of the criminal organization, and had been lucky enough to have a camera- even if it was of questionable quality- on him. Max immediately recognized Michael- his distinctive hair, even when thrown into shadow, was a dead giveaway. An Espeon was at his side, preparing to use a move of some sort. Blue was a little harder to spot, but a blur with flying curls tucked under a strange looking cap with a Mienfoo at her side proved to be the older trainer.
Red, however, took him longer to find than he liked to admit. The older boy had grown his hair out since when the picture was taken, and a Quilava and Pikachu were duking it out with an unseen opponent in the shot. He too wore a weird hat- like an overlarge sweatband with a short three-pointed windsock attached to it- in the last picture, where he was ordering his teammates while carrying an unconscious Pikachu. And in that moment, Max swore that he could see Ash in the sprawl of Red's shadow.
He scanned all the articles about the 'Cipher Crisis' that he could find, but couldn't find any other names than the one he knew.
Blue. Red. Those couldn't be their real names- what kind of parents name their kids after primary colors?
He remembered something about how Red was on that conference with the Rangers and Lance... didn't he say something about 'superiors' to Aurian after that call ended?
What if Lance was their superior?
Max shook his head. Nah. Lance didn't have time for stuff like that- being the current Champion of both Kanto and Johto left no time for extra shenannigans. He had to stay on his toes to keep his title. That meant that he was training his dragon-types for seven, eight hours a day, easily. If he couldn't find out anything else about Lance, then maybe he could find a lead through his mentors...
He pulled up a trainer database, and entered 'Red Aronshu' into the search bar. A short list of gym records and assorted challenges came up along with a hometown of 'Kanto'- but none of the Hoenn dates coincided with his travels with Ash Ketchum, which disproved his theory that Red really was Ash. Out of curiosity, he inputed 'Blue Katrian', as well, and got the same results, along with a picture of the older girl in a League Conference alongside her Empoleon, nicknamed Azul. Her Orre challenge dates coincided with Red's, proving that they really did go to the region together.
He sighed, and turned off the computer when he realized that his friends were probably wondering what was taking him so long. As he moved to head back to Blue and Maddy, he looked through a window and noticed Red standing outside of the Center, holding what looked like a microchip and a newer-model Pokédex.
Ash bit down on the inside of his cheek in shock, and tasted blood soon afterwards. He had seen artificial or manmade Pokémon before- Porygon, Genesect, Mewtwo, Castform... but this was... different. The picture that popped up behind Lance's spiky-haired head didn't even look remotely like anything he had ever seen. There was no definite body... only a fuzzy and glitchy-looking reversed L.
What if it's sentient? Ash pondered. He shook his head and plugged a pair of G-Men issued navy-blue earbuds into his Dex. Couldn't afford for anyone else to catch wind of this information.
Lance continued his speech. "We don't know anything about its moveset, but our agents have confirmed that this 'MissingNO' is of Normal typing. I'll forward more information through Michael or a few of our other agents when I find out more. I trust you, Ashton. I want you and Miss Borealis, as the leaders of the Aura Armanda, to start hunting down Rocket operatives. Jessie, James, and Meowth are currently in our custody, and have disclosed that Domino and her underlings, along with others, are competing with faked resumes. Once you find them, knock them out and call me. Dragon Master out."
The screen went black. Ash pulled the microchip from his Pokédex and put it back in the envelope that Michael had passed to him. Aurian had to see this. She was a lot better at noticing things out of the ordinary- she'd love the challenge of finding the hidden Rocket operatives.
As he walked off towards the cafeteria, he felt Max's eyes watching him from the window in the computer lab. He smiled slightly and kept his pace. He knew that the little guy was onto him, and wasn't surprised in the least. Nothing got past Max Maple without notice.
Ash stuck his hands inside of his pockets and observed as a chilly wind began to blow from the northeast. Change is coming, he pondered. This tournament won't know what hit it once Michael, Aurian and I get into the mix.
Both Ash and Max rejoined the girls at their table at the same time. Aurian saw the grave look hidden within Ash's eyes, and just gave him an understanding smile. She knew that he had received some bad news, and wondered how bad it could possibly be if he was this freaked out. In the two and a half years that she had known her patonai, she had never seen him this worried.
Hope for the best, expect the worst, she thought with a smile. That was one of the first things that the G-Men drilled into her during initiation. It really was true, and she wondered why she didn't realize the truth in that statement earlier in her journey. Over the years, it had become something of a mantra for her.
Ash smiled as he listened to May and Dawn's Contest chatter. It was rather unusual that every single one of his old traveling companions and rivals were either here at the Global Invitational or on their way. Kinda funny how things turned out. Apparently Dawn had won the Hoenn Grand Festival during his absence, and was working on a fashion designing career with her Buneary and the rest of her team.
A door opened, revealing a familiar spiky-haired face and a miniature replica of him. Ash would know those squinty eyes and that self-assured stride anywhere.
Brock and Forrest had arrived.
And, of course, Brock ran straight for the nearest Nurse Joy. "Oh, my darling, has anyone ever told you how your hair shines like rose quartz or how your eyes are as bright as a Hyper Beam?!..."
The ex-gym leader was cut off by a Poison Jab to the stomach, courtesy of his trusty Croagunk. Forrest, completely unfazed by his brother's actions, stepped over Brock's limp body to register with Joy, who was completely shocked by the rather arbitrary turn of events. Ash laughed internally as the poison-type started dragging his trainer off into the shadows. Aurian shot her patonai a look, and Ash responded with a casual shrug. Max started laughing, while turning to Maddy and exclaiming, "Man, I should've ran over there and pulled on his ear! What memories!"
"You know that creeper?" she asked, blowing a strand of blond hair out of her face.
Max sighed in an overdramatic manner, which made his three friends laugh. "Yeah. That's Brock, the ex-gym leader of Pewter City. His little brother, Forrest, took over his position when he decided to travel full time with Ash, May, and I back in Hoenn. We've all seen some pretty wacky stuff, ranging from all of us nearly dying at the Tree of Beginning to meeting a Deoxys to stopping the theft of a Manaphy egg..."
Maddy listened attentively, her eyes wide, as Max launched into the stories of some of his crazy adventures with his old friends and sister. Max had seen so much as a rookie trainer, which greatly impressed her. And he had met so many Legendaries, which some people never even dreamed of seeing!
Eventually, the sun started setting, meaning that Maddy had to go check into a room. She waved farewell to her mentors and new friend, and asked them to meet her in the cafeteria at eight the next morning as she summoned an elevator.
"She's a good kid," Ash said with a smile as he watched the elevator doors close.
Aurian grinned. "Yeah. I can't wait to start teaching her some of the tricks that I've learned. Hey Max, do you need to rent a room?"
The rookie trainer shook his head. "Nah. If you don't mind, can I crash back at your campsite? I've got a sleeping bag and all my stuff in my backpack."
"I don't see why not," Ash responded, as Pikachu yawned from his shoulder. "We'd best be heading back- it'll be dark soon."
The three trainers exited the Center just as the sun started its decent to the horizon.
Max as asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow. Ash made sure that he could hear the boy's distinctive- and rather annoying- snores, then tossed the microchip-containing envelope to Aurian.
"Michael slipped this to me earlier today. It's not pretty."
She plugged it into her top-grade Unova Pokédex, along with a pair of earbuds. Ash watched her face turn from normal to shocked to grave in a matter of seconds.
"He's serious if he's using our full names," she muttered. Ash smiled despite the situation. Aurian nodded once, twice, then carefully wound her headphones back up and removed the chip. She ground it under the heel of her combat boot, effectively destroying the information.
"Arceus..." she whispered, shaking her head. "Rocket's really screwed with us this time. Who knows what this MissingNO can do."
"We'll need to be on our guard. You remember Domino, right?"
She grimaced. "Sadly. The little cheerleader seemed to have a minor grudge against us."
"We did destroy her entire stock of electric tulips and completely disgrace her in front of her Boss," Ash offered. "Do you think that's why?"
The two of them paused. "Nah," they said in unison. Quiet laughter broke out between the two as they unrolled their sleeping bags and stretched out under the beautiful Sinnoh sky.
"Red?" Aurian whispered.
"Yeah?"
"I'm getting kinda worried. We've gotten wind of three different organizations being involved, there could be spies out there..."
He frowned. "You're not normally this nervous during missions."
"Not during the kick-butt parts where we win, like how we took Gary and Paul down this morning. All this espionage stuff isn't really my thing. That's more you- blending into the shadows all ghost-type-like, gaining information without ever being seen."
"Well, our coworkers did call me the Cerulean Shadow during initiation training."
"It's stuck with you since then. Mine was always 'hey you' or 'that one girl'."
"I distinctly remember two veterans referring to you as 'Braveheart.' Does that count?"
She smiled. "Yeah. Thanks for being here for me."
"Isn't that what patonai are for?"
"See you in the morning."
Ash laid on his back, Pikachu snoozing by his head, and gazed up at the stars. He knew that somewhere, his mom was watching the sky as well, and most likely thinking of him. She knew of his induction into the G-Men, and tearfully accepted his departure into the oblivion of disguise, knowing that she probably wouldn't see him again for a very long time. He missed her quite a bit. Over the years that he had been away from home, he had learned to appreciate good cooking when he could find it, which was kind of rare in his occupation.
Maybe he'd get to go home after the tournament- and all this Rocket, Cipher, and Galactic wackiness- ended.
(A/N): Hello, readers! Thanks for reading Chapter 6! I'll be responding to reviews from here on out.
partner555: Hope the last two chapters have proved your guesses correct.
NaturalGieling: I pull inspiration from everything, really. If I find an element of something that I really like, I try to put a spin on it to fit my style of writing.
EmeraldDragon1: Thank you so much for being a great Beta Reader! Your advice really brings a lot to the story. Let these last two chapters be the beginning of a wonderful tag-team.
gallantmon7196: Why thank you! I figured that a certain glitch needed a formal fanfiction debut, since I've seen a certain lack of MissingNO on this site.
Special thanks to all who have followed/favorited, and don't forget to review! PL, signing off!