Ch 6

Red, Rui, Brendan and the Eons blinked at the afternoon sun as they returned to the surface and made their way to the hotel. Already waiting anxiously for them were May and Silver, both wearing proud expressions. Rui laughed and ran towards them, jacket tail flying up almost cape-like as she darted for the two trainers.

"I can see why she was mistaken for Seth now." Red remarked brightly as they joined the chattering girls, "Her jacket moves like his coat-tails."

"Well, we did it! We got what we wanted out of the colosseum and they are just gushing over us over there!" May laughed, "So any new leads? Found another Beginning?" Brendan grumbled sourly about his hand as Rui blinked and nodded.

"Three of them actually. One further confirms Hoenn as a Beginning." she replied, "The Cave of Origin, or something like that. You guys should know about it." May looked troubled.

"We do. Very well, unfortunately." Brendan sighed. "The Cave of Origin in Sootopolis is the cave where both Kyogre and Groudon were sealed in slumber until Teams Aqua and Magma woke them up to fight each other again. Since awakening them caused a wreck of an environment for Hoenn, May and I captured them."

"The battles to subdue the both of them tore the place up pretty badly. Wallace was kinda pissed, but got over it once he saw why we had to fight in there." May added with a wry smile, "I suppose the mess in there is how Cipher got the DNA samples to make Seth. I can see why that could be a Beginning. Seth would never have existed if Brendan and I hadn't captured Kyogre and Groudon."

"So our next stop is Hoenn? We don't even get to finish the Colosseum Challenge?" Silver asked, disappointed by the thought of abandoning the new frontier.

"'Fraid so, love." Red murmured with a smile, "But on the one hand, we'll finally get to see what the fuss is about that place. Word is they have Pokémon the main-lands don't." Silver brightened at the idea of capturing new Pokémon. "Well, are there any objections to our leaving for Hoenn right now?" The group looked at each other and shrugged. "All right then. Let's go. Charizard!" Red declared and threw out the dragon once more.

"Come on, HeartSong! Back to Hoenn we go!" May declared joyfully and the cute Legendary appeared before the group, beaming proudly. Soon, Pyrite was looking up in awe at two large Pokémon winging their way to the northern skies. Capt. Sherle rubbed his head as he watched them go, wondering what in the world was going on and deciding that perhaps he just needed another shot of coffee to survive another day in this crazy world.


Rezrik adjusted the sunglasses on his face and muttered a small curse as he took in the view of Lilycove City. His group spread to ask questions about any transport making its way to Sootopolis. He himself was stuck waiting for Nascour's plane to arrive. The airport was bustling with activity and, under the guise of traveling trainers, the Cipher peons began blending into the population.

"Man, can't these guys just cut me my check so I can finally get the hell outta here?" Rezrik sighed as a tall figure walked up behind him.

"Why on earth would you want to do a thing like that?" Nascour asked in a darkly smooth tone. The peon blanched and spun around to face him, forcing a smile on. The acting leader of Cipher, seeing as Evice was busily making the remainder of the research and development team into a band worthy of his 'son's' birthday party, glowered down at the peon.

"No, no, I meant get out of Hoenn so I can go back to my wonderfully rewarding career in Orre working for the illustrious Cipher Corporation!" Rezrik hastily stammered out and stepped aside quickly to let him pass.

"Good. Now, we must get to Sootopolis. What have you discovered so far in the way of transportation?" Nascour ordered. The peon sighed and shook his head.

"Nothing so far, but we have people working on it right now." he replied as one of the women ran up to him.

"Rezrik, Sir, glad to find you both here!" she reported, "There's a small private plane service that allows skydivers to fly anywhere they like for a fee."

"Then we shall be skydivers. I must get into the Cave of Origin before Rui Roane does." Nascour hissed and strode towards the shop.


"Why? Why can't you stay here and be a trainer? Once the terra-forming is complete, Pokémon will surely move in here and you can go on a journey in Orre!" Garrik Evice pleaded with his son. The silver-haired young man smiled and shook his head.

"It'll be good for me to see the world. I'd like to see the regions with my own eyes. Who knows? Maybe I'll find people who might like to come here after Orre has become a beautiful forest region!" the man replied laughingly.

"But, Wesley..."

"Dad, I'll be fine. I got an invitation by one of my pen pals that says I'm free to stay at her place whenever I get tired on the journey." Wes answered, deep blue eyes sparkling joyfully, "This trip will be just what I need to loosen up and gather my strength to help lead Orre. After all, the Cipher Corporation will help build the new government, so I may as well get ready to be its first elected leader, right?"

"Sera will miss you." Evice murmured, gesturing to the small golden-haired child idly playing with several dolls in her playpen. "So will I." he added in admittance. Wes looked over at his sister and sighed softly.

"I know you will, but it won't be forever. I'll come and visit when I can. And Sera will find friends her age soon, right? Once the schools and home properties are complete and people begin to move in, there will be lots of other kids her age to play with." he replied. He smiled and picked up his backpack. Evice looked somewhat sad, then brightened and dug into his desk for a phone.

"Well, take this along, Wesley! Call home when you can, all right?" the small, round man urged, "You know I worry when you're off somewheres. If your mother was still here and knew what you were up to..." Wes laughed and accepted the satellite phone his father held out.

"Aw, Dad, I'm sure Mom would have wanted me to explore the world, too. I'm gonna make this journey for her, too. She always wanted to be a Pokémon trainer when she was young, right?" he answered and tucked it into his pack. "Well, my bus is leaving soon. I'd better get going."

"Where are you starting your Pokémon journey? Johto?" Evice asked eagerly. Wesley thought about that and shrugged. He ran a hand through his spiky hairstyle, shouldered the pack on and brushed off some lint on his black shirt.

"Johto's right on the other side of the mountains, right? Actually, I thought I'd visit my friend first, in the Kanto region. I hear that it's actually better to start Pokémon training there. There are plenty of tough trainers and better chances of developing good battling techniques." he finally replied, "I'll call you when I get there. See you later, Dad! Bye, Sera! Be a good girl!" The toddler waved at him and laughed before resuming her pretend tea party. Evice watched with a worried but proud expression as his only son strode out the door and walked past the cool fountain in the center of Phenac City towards the bus-stop.

"Take care, Wesley." the corporate president whispered.

-----------

Evice smiled wider as the huge room was filled with decorations. Streamers and banners hung from the dome ceiling and balloons floated about everywhere. Things were perfect. The new speeder stood gleaming on a stage draped with velvet curtains, a huge golden silk bow tied to the handles of the construct.

"He's coming back soon. And we'll rule the world together, me and my son." he murmured and grinned almost viciously, "My Wesley is coming home!"


The land of Hoenn was still in recovery from the attacks by Team Venus weeks before. Professor Birch looked up in surprise as HeartSong and Charizard landed before him in Littleroot Town. Brendan leaped off and ran to his father.

"Dad! Can you make a call to Wallace and have him open the Cave of Origin for us? We gotta see if Seth's in there or not!" he blurted as Rui slid off the dragon and looked around. The older man blinked and looked confused.

"What? Why would Seth be in the Cave of Origin? What happened with the fight against Cipher? And the other regions?" he asked back, "Who are these other trainers?"

"This is Silver Summers, the Johto Champion, and this is Red, the Kanto Champion." Brendan introduced briefly, "Guys, this is my dad, Prof. Birch."

"Former Kanto Champion." Red corrected, "Pleased to meet you."

"Heyas." Silver added in as male a voice as she could muster. Prof. Birch looked at her strangely, then shrugged.

"Good to see you both. But what happened?" he pressed. Brendan swiftly gave him a run down of what had happened in Johto and Kanto while May interrupted to add details where they were needed. "Ah, so let me get this straight. You say that Seth was created by Cipher as a super-legendary Pokémon to control the earth's weather, but the machine using him went out of control and created a mega-cell that he died to dissipate, but he came back to life at the Beginning and you don't know where that is?" he summed up.

"Basically." Brendan replied.

"That's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard."

"DAD!"

"Well, supposing that what you've told me is true, why would the Cave of Origin be the Beginning? Why not the research center?" Prof. Birch questioned, then shrugged, "All right. I'll call ahead. You'd better go on to Sootopolis and check it out. I'll contact Nett and see if the two of us can't find more leads on this together."

"We found three with him. But maybe you can find more. Good luck, Professor Birch!" Rui declared as the group thanked him and began to fly towards the crater city. Prof. Birch waved at them, then looked troubled as he headed back to the lab.

"Now that I think about it, Seth looked rather familiar. Where have I seen that young man before?" he murmured.


Nascour readied his parachute and eyed the city sprawled below him. He didn't want to do this, wanted to just go back to the hidden headquarters and direct others to do this kind of grunt work, but with Evice lost in his fantasy of Wesley's return, there wasn't much he could do. On top of that, there was the chance that Rui was on her way here with the other trainers. If Seth really was in that cave and they got there first...

He shook the thoughts from his head and followed the peons out of the plane, diving for the hidden city of Sootopolis. The Cave of Origin was so close; Seth just had to be in there! The sooner the corporation had their most expensive experiment back, the sooner they could begin rebuilding the Earth Seal Project. The research and development team, before being divvied up to Evice's whims, had built a new type of weather control device that would house Seth and draw on his power when needed, keeping him sedated so he would force a chain reaction within the core. It was more stable and less violent than the original Earth Seal, and could be placed anywhere in the world.

It was currently located in the secret room where Evice and his subordinates were holed up. The Realgam Tower was built for more than just covering up Cipher's tracks and generating a steady income of Pokémon for snagging; its architecture allowed one or two secrets to be held there. However, the blueprints to the tower were lost when Ein scrubbed most of Cipher's data.

Nascour pulled the pin and floated down towards the city, grinning slightly as Rezrik cursed loudly at his own floating, declaring that it would be the last time he would enter any area in that manner. The blueprints were no big loss. The copy was stored in Seth's memory, which they now possessed.

He only had to worry if the same copy existed in the other backup of Seth's mind.