Ch 7
Wallace was waiting outside of his gym in the center island of Sootopolis for the trainers. The two dragons landed and May leaped off to talk with him. Rui watched the conversation start, then turned to her PDA, trying the find the tracking chip one more time. The map bloomed on the screen, and two green lines of light scanned the area vertically and horizontally. After a few minutes, a tiny window popped up with the message, "Subject not found". She sighed and closed the PDA, wishing she knew why the chip couldn't find Seth. May suddenly yelled something out and she jerked her head up as the Cave of Origin erupted in smoke and debris.
"What was that?! What's happening?!" Rui cried as Wallace spun in shock.
"Someone's broken into the cave! I have to see what the damages are! Hurry!" he exclaimed and raced to the shore of the island, "Walrein! Surf!" Red barked out an order and the Charizard rose to follow him to the cave. Silver gaped at the Pokémon that appeared in the water.
"What the-?! What kind of Pokémon is that and where can I catch me one?!" she cried and then clamped her mouth shut, realizing she just spoke in her normal voice. May climbed back onto HeartSong and set her to follow quickly.
"Walrein, they evolve from Spheals. You can probably find one in the cave if they haven't been killed by that weird explosion." she replied and zipped off.
The Cave of Origin was in shambles and Wallace was already inside. Red landed the Charizard and raced in after him, the Pikachu hot on his heels. Rui slid down and followed him, fear coursing through her at the thought that, if Seth was in there, he may have been killed by the blast. She prayed silently that he was okay.
"Agh! Who are you?! What are you... augh!" Wallace's voice cried out, then abruptly was ended. May and Brendan hurried into the cave with Rui, then stopped in shock at the scene before them.
The gym leader in ice blue lay crumpled on the floor with Nascour standing over him, rubbing his fist and smiling coldly at them. Red stood ready, the crackling glow of the Thundershock Dagger in his hands. Rui gasped, then narrowed her eyes at the man.
"You! You're the guy that got arrested with Evice! Nascour! What are you doing here?!" she demanded. Nascour turned his gaze on her and snorted in contempt.
"Step a little closer, young lady, and I'll give you the same answer I gave your gay friend here." he replied curtly, "What it is that I am here for is of no concern to you, though it may please you to know that what you seek isn't here." Rui shook her head furiously and waved her fist at him.
"Where's Seth?! What have you done to him?!" she demanded. Red growled angrily, stepping up behind her.
"Answer the lady's questions! Where is the Snagger of Orre?!" he snapped out. Nascour merely smiled and shrugged nonchalantly.
"I have no earthly idea. I am merely following the same clue you are. He is at The Beginning. It was safe to assume that he meant here, where the idea of creating a super-legendary began. We were both wrong." he answered and looked over his shoulder quickly. "It seems we are ready to leave. Now, if you don't mind, I have matters to attend to." he added coolly and picked up the unconscious gym leader. Red cried and darted forward to stop him. "Hold it right there!" Nascour snapped, "Unless you want this man dead, you will get out of my way!"
"Do as he says, everyone." May remarked quietly, "We can't afford to lose a gym leader and the guardian of the Cave of Origin." Growling angrily, the trainers stepped aside and pressed their backs to the walls of the cave as Nascour walked out, followed soon after by a group of peons.
"I wanna go home already." one of them grumbled irritably. As soon as the peons were out, Rui and her friends chased after them, startled by the sight of a helicopter descending into the the city to pick up the criminals.
"Whaddya mean 'why didn't you tell me you had a helicopter'?!" Nascour was yelling at the grumbling peon, "I didn't send for one! It was the Master! Now get your ass in there or I'll leave you here for the punks!"
"Hey! Stop! Let Wallace go!" Brendan shouted angrily. Nascour gave him a disgusted look and dumped the unconscious gym leader onto the sand.
"Take him and be grateful for it! I would have snapped his neck anyway, if I had my way. If it weren't for the fact that my master is more intent on finding the brat that looks like his son than in killing you, I'd challenge you all to a battle right now." the man declared, "But mark my words, Rui, that Snag Machine will be ours once more! It's still the property of the Cipher Corporation!" With those words, he boarded the helicopter and it swiftly rose up to the sky.
"HeartSong! Powder...!" May began to order when she was stopped by Red's hand coming down in front of her.
"Don't. He may prove useful in his own way." the older trainer murmured, "Besides, the wreckage will land here and cause far more damage than is necessary." May grumbled, but the group had no choice but to let Cipher's goons escape the city. Wallace stirred and sat up, groaning in pain, catching the attentions of the two Hoenn trainers. They raced to check on him as Red, Rui and Silver debated their next plan.
"Well, we now know that Seth isn't here. We'll have to hurry to the other two leads before those guys figure them out too." Silver muttered, "So where's the next lead? Where's the next Beginning?"
"Johto, since that's where Seth got his Pokémon from. Jupiter and Pluto were stolen from someplace in Johto when they were still in eggs. So where could that be?" Rui remarked. The Johto champion snapped her fingers and laughed.
"That's easy! The Day Care Center near Goldenrod takes care of Pokémon for trainers. Sometimes the Pokémon breed and the people there take care of the eggs until the trainer returns. They have a large collection of Pokémon eggs that some trainers let them keep as payment for taking care of the Pokémon." she explained, "The Eons must have been from there. So let's go!"
"Evice's son." Red murmured suddenly as May and Brendan caught up with them.
"Wallace should be fine now. He's going to call on his gym trainers to help him repair what they can of the cave and alert the police. What's going on?" they reported and looked between the trainers.
"Rui, did you hear what that man, Nascour, said?" Red interrupted, "He is looking for the copy of Evice's son. Is Seth a clone of Evice's son?" Rui blinked in surprise and looked up at him.
"No, he's the result of an experiment to create a super-legendary Pokémon. You know that already." she replied. Red frowned and looked skyward thoughtfully.
"Then why is he human? Unless there was something more to Seth's creation than just making a Pokémon to power the Earth Seal, he should have been born a strange mix of the legendaries." he murmured.
"Does it matter? Let's just get to Johto before they do!" Rui yelled. The group blinked and stared at her in surprise. She turned a bright red and spun around, unwilling to face them. "I'm sorry... I... I just want to find Seth before Cipher does. I'm afraid that if they get him first, I'll never see him again." she stammered, holding back tears that threatened to spill.
"Losing your temper isn't going to help find him. That goes for the rest of us." Red answered, "Brendan, call up your father and see if he's found any leads for us. We'll let the Pokémon rest for a bit before we head for the main-land again." Brendan nodded and searched for his phone. "Evice's son... Maybe if we found him, he could point us to the most likely place where Seth could be waiting." the trainer murmured, "What do you think, Pikachu?"
"I think the Beginning should have stayed where it is, at the beginning. I'm tired of wandering the world with no solid clue as to where we're supposed to go." the mouse grumbled, "And we need to get a paying job soon. Don't we have any clients that could use some stolen information or a few hijacked technological secrets?" Red grinned and rubbed his partner's head.
"After all of this is done. I'm sure I know someone who might pay good money for data from the Cipher Corporation, once we edit out a few key things they don't really need." he replied and smiled again when Rui looked at him strangely. "Ah, calming the Pikachu. He's in a grouchy mood over all of this."
Caterpie grumbled to itself as it watched its charge splash about in the river. The leaves had done their job of neutralizing the poison from the sting, and already Raykyoudon had forgotten about it. Though the Caterpie was free to do as it pleased, the fact that it had been asked by the Forest Guardian to watch the kid gave him reason enough to stick by him despite the fact that, sometimes, it just wanted to tape his mouth shut.
But Raykyoudon was missing something and Celebi was off traipsing through time to find it, so Caterpie was stuck with babysitting. It looked up just in time to see Raykyoudon flop down in front of him and puff a blast of air up into his bangs, the silver-gray of his hair rustling with it.
"Hi, Caterpie! What are you doing?" he asked brightly.
"Plotting your demise. Actually, I'm trying to figure out where the heck Celebi went and when she's coming back." the Pokémon replied and sighed. "Go get something to eat, but don't go too far. I still have to tell you about trainers and Poké Balls."
"Okay. I'll gather up some fruit. But I can't leave The Beginning, so I'll hang around the edges." the young man answered and ran off with a laugh. The Caterpie looked somewhat glum.
"Celebi, where and when are you?" it murmured.
Elsewhere-
Celebi floated through the city in the past with the newly awakened Jirachi, who was currently fuming over the events.
"Why couldn't you wait for me to wake up in a thousand years like all the other normal people in the world? Time traveling to catch me awake is cheating!" he griped.
"You went willingly, WishMaker. Now keep an eye out for him. We showed up a couple of days before the creation of The Beginning." Celebi remarked with a grim expression. Jirachi grumbled and kept looking around.
"The guy we're looking for... he looks like Seth, right?" he asked. Celebi nodded, her large eyes searching the crowds for her target. "Ain't that him right there?" he then added, pointing at a silvery-haired young man running down the sidewalk towards a flower shop. Celebi glanced over and blinked.
"Yeah! Quick, let's go! You have to deliver that dream prophecy!" she exclaimed and grabbed Jirachi's hand, zooming after the young man.
"What?! You never told me I had to send another one of those things!!" Jirachi wailed as the two flitted invisibly after Seth's look alike.
--
"Anca! Anca, you here?!" Wesley called out brightly as he jogged into the shop, "It's me! I just got into town and let me tell ya, it sure is a pain finding the Pokémon Center in all this ruckus!" The young woman at the counter looked up in surprise from arranging flowers and smiled, her red hair tied up in a spiky ponytail and bangs hanging over her luminous green eyes prettily.
"Wes! Glad you could make it! That commotion is the Pokémon Float contest they're starting. The culmination will be later tonight. How on earth did you find me? I forgot to e-mail you my address." the flower girl remarked. Wes shrugged.
"I asked around. Seems you're famous around here for your flowers." he replied and leaned forward onto the counter, grinning almost wolfishly. "So, Miss Flower Girl, where would you like to go for our first official date?" Anca reached across and placed her hand on his head, ruffling his hair affectionately after a moment.
"Wes, did you just fly on in for that? I thought you weren't allowed to date." she teased. The trainer made a face.
"Dad means well, but his rules sometimes get so controlling." he muttered and smiled suddenly. "Why don't we do that parade? We can watch the floats and then have dinner out."
"After I close shop. So, tell me all about your travels. Caught anything good?" Anca asked, looking over at the collection of modified Apricorns gathered on Wes's belt.
"My team's still on the training level, but my Eevee's the best! Who knew that such a cute little sucker could be so tough on the field when you need him?" he replied in mild surprise and brought the creature out onto the counter. Anca rubbed its head with a laugh.
--
Celebi peered through the door and signaled Jirachi to send in the dream. The WishMaker grumbled once, then sent the tiny gold bead into the shop, where it promptly disappeared into Wes to be called upon the next time he slept.
"Remind me why we're messing with history again?" Jirachi asked in irritation.
"To help out Rui. I want this situation to work out this time!" Celebi growled, "You know about the legend of the Chosen One, right? Well, for this time period, Wesley over there was supposed to be the Chosen Master born to protect Pokémon lives. His descendants would reforest Orre and eventually turn the entire region into a Pokémon haven for those abused in other regions."
"It doesn't work out?" Jirachi asked.
"Not for this timeline. Seth is basically our last shot at getting Orre straight, though he isn't the Chosen Master of his time. Ash, I mean Red, still is, even though he claims he's abandoned it by turning quasi-mercenary on us." Celebi replied seriously, "So we gotta help him out by having Wes do some extra work for us."
"I get the feeling someone's gonna go crazy from all this. It might be me, this time." Jirachi sighed as a large sweatdrop appeared over his head, his ribbon-like wings drooping down.
