Ch 10
Caterpie stumbled out of the cave that morning and glared at the one creature that was the cause of its early rise from sleep. Raykyoudon stood in the field not far away, a thunderstorm raging overhead and the winds lashing at his slender figure, whipping the coattails of his jacket around.
"Raykyoudon! What are you doing?! Knock it off!" the little Pokémon yelled as it scampered across the grass as fast as its tiny suction feet would go. Raykyoudon looked back at him in surprise, then took on a blank expression, wobbling slightly on his feet. The storm swirled faster, then suddenly broke apart, leaving only darkened clouds and falling rain to show anything had been there. All this played out in concert to the Weather's Master collapsing onto the grass, trembling.
"It hurts." he murmured and gazed over at his friend and caretaker with a haunted expression, "It's cold and it hurts." Caterpie backed away and took in the scene with a horrified look. It was playing out like the one in its story, about the death of the Chosen Master and his final plea for help from the Pokémon that gathered around him in anguish. But the storm hadn't ended that night, just kept hurling out lightning and thunder to hide the violent event and ensure he would never see sunrise again.
"Raykyoudon, snap out of it. Wake up!" Caterpie snapped shakily and felt relief wash over him as the glazed look on the young man's face cleared and took on an expression of confused concern.
"Caterpie? What am I doing out here?" he asked and sat up, looking himself over. "I'm all wet! Did I fall in the river?" The little Pokémon shook his head.
"Please don't ever do that again here. Not with the day so close." it merely remarked softly and turned away to find breakfast.
Rui hugged Red's back tightly as she peered over the Charizard's shoulder at the ocean below her. Several hours after they left Goldenrod City, the heroes were flying towards the uninhabited Cinnabar Island. HeartSong called out joyfully as Brendan continued to argue with his father over the phone.
"Why should that story matter?! Dad! Wait, the signal's breaking up! Dad, can you hear me?!" he yelled. Rui sighed and gazed skyward.
"Seth, wherever you are, please be safe and sound. I'm coming to find you, but please, leave us a clue to where you are!" she murmured. Silver scanned the distance and frowned at the swirl of thunderclouds that hovered in broken formation far away from them.
"There it is!" Red suddenly declared and the two Flying types descended towards an island covered in cooled ash and lava. "Cinnabar Island, we meet again. May all that perished here rest in peace." They touched down and gathered on the crunchy beach.
"Should we spread out and search for Seth then?" Brendan asked as May and Red recalled the Pokémon. He had given up trying to make sense of his father's words, though he was able to make out the words 'City', 'years', and 'famous'.
"May as well; that's what we're here for, isn't it?"Silver remarked, "Or should we let the Eon twins run loose for us again?" Red kicked at the gravel and chunks of rock. Scanning the island again, he pulled the MasterDex from his pocket and flipped it open, Pikachu immediately switching shoulders to watch him.
"The area is devoid of other life, so they should be safe on their own and they'll travel far faster than any of us." he decided, "In the meantime, let's sit here and plan something out. I've collected some information on Evice's son." The others looked back at him curiously as Rui set Jupiter and Pluto out.
"Okay, guys. I'm counting on you! Go find Seth!" she told them and watched as they nodded and raced off, bounding over the dunes as they began to search.
Red sat down and opened up a laptop from his pack, a rarely used item as his MasterDex did all the work he needed for his trade. Connecting the two together, he allowed the data to scroll across the screen. The trainers gathered around and watched it, unsure of what to make of the maps and articles.
"Garik Evice, founder and CEO of Cipher Corporation, a major real estate brokerage and construction conglomerate, and his wife, Diana Evice, were blessed with the birth of a healthy son. Named Wesley Evice, this son grew in the training of his father's tutors to become next in line to inherit the Evice fortune and the Cipher Co. stock. At the age of eighteen years, he left his birthplace and home in Orre to become a Pokémon trainer. Last recorded location is still being tabulated." Red summed up as the laptop automatically pointed to each article and map location in correspondence to his words. Rui's PDA beeped and she pulled it out to check her e-mail as May frowned and looked up at Red.
"All of these articles are dated about thirty years ago." she pointed out. Red shrugged.
"Which puts Wesley at about forty-eight years now. This brings us to a new mystery. Seth was created as a result of the research and experiments conducted under the name Project: WSLY." the champion remarked, "If Wesley was so important and loved by Orre's residents at the time, why would his father go to the trouble to turn an honest corporation into a criminal syndicate to create a copy of him?"
"That's weird." Rui suddenly remarked. The others looked to her. "Nett found the floor plans of Realgam Tower, but he says there's two versions of the same tower. He wants to know which one we want."
"Why would there be two blueprints of the same tower?" Silver asked in confusion. Red scratched his head.
"What's the difference between them?" he asked. Rui typed out the question and waited for a response. It came a moment later.
"The first version is dated March 13, 2134. The second one is dated June 3, 2140." she read aloud and cocked her head. Brendan did the math in his head quickly.
"Strange. It'll be June third in about seven days. That will be exactly thirty years old." he remarked. Red frowned and looked down at his data.
"2140? That was the year Wesley left for his journey. In the same year, Realgam Tower was torn down and plans to rebuild it were drawn up, not to be implemented until..." he paused and gave the others a confused expression, "Last year."
"That was the year Seth ran away from Team Snagem and rescued me." Rui remarked, "What a strange coincidence." Silver shook her head furiously.
"I don't like this. This reeks of setup. What is going on? Wesley is connected to the Realgam Tower's destruction and revised blueprint as well as the namesake to the experiment that created Seth? How? More importantly, why?" she growled. Red studied the MasterDex a little longer, then pressed a few buttons.
"Dexter has finished tracing Wesley's path. His last stop was in Neon Town, in the Kanto region. After that, he never continued his journey." he announced.
"Why not?" May asked, resting her chin on her hands as she looked up at him. Red continued scanning the data silently, then blinked. His eyes widened in shock as he reread the information. "What's wrong?"
"He never continued his journey..." Red went on, voice cracking, "because he died there. Wesley Evice died at the age of eighteen on May 31, 2140. Tomorrow is the thirty year anniversary of his death."
Rezrik and the peons clutched their plane tickets tightly as they boarded the seaplane. They made the excuse that they wanted to take a quick look at the island, as so many of their happy vacations had taken place there when they were young. The pilot relented at the puppy-eyed expressions on their faces and agreed to do a flyby.
"You sure the boss'll accept a flyby as a search?" Loraine, one of the female peons, whispered fiercely. Rezrik smiled as he leaned back in his seat, the plane already beginning to take off.
"Trust me. He's not here to watch us, so we're safe." he replied and already began counting all the coins he would collect in the casinos of Neon City. "We do this quick, and then we'll go for some fun in the lights of Neon City!" Loraine sat back and gazed out the window apprehensively.
"Somehow, I doubt things will be so good for us." she muttered under her breath.
Evice watched as the first early party-goers arrived and smiled. Dozens of men and women, bringing with them many lovely young girls, any of whom would be a fitting bride for his son.
He turned to Nascour, who sat firmly at his station, typing furiously on the keyboard to find additional places where he could be. Shaking his head, the round man walked up to him and pat his shoulder. Nascour nearly jumped and looked at him in confusion.
"You still haven't found the Beginning, have you?" Evice purred. The underling swallowed hard.
"Sir, if I could just have a bit more information..." Nascour stammered out, eyes flicking towards the cameras picking up the images of rich guests entering the tower's secret entrance. Realgam officials hadn't noticed anything wrong, too busy trying to cater to the trainers that flooded the grounds.
"Think about it, Nascour. Why did I start all this?" Evice murmured and placed the two golden chess pieces down next to Nascour's hand, the king and queen. "Now, try a little harder and work a little faster. We have so many brides to attend to!" With that, Evice left the room, humming a birthday tune to himself. Nascour studied the two pieces, then yelped in shock.
"Of course! That's the reason!" he exclaimed and resumed the search on the database, this time entering Wesley's name instead of Seth's. A single window bloomed open, containing a copy of Wes's obituary from thirty years ago. "Wesley Evice, age 18, rests in peace in the Neon Town Cemetery. Survived by his father, Garik Evice, sister Sera Evice, and loved by Anca Fleur... Neon Town... Neon City... that's in Kanto!"
Quickly typing new orders to the peons, Nascour's mind raced. He didn't have much time left, but if he could get the helicopter to take him to Kanto and the peons lay siege to the city, he could search the area for Seth. The Beginning was there in that city of lights; Wesley's death had been the trigger for the Cipher Corporation's turn to evil!
Neon Town, May 30, 2140-
Wesley finished writing out the melody that had played in his mind during the dream and closed his journal. He looked up and smiled as Anca Fleur twirled into the room, decked out in her best dress and a huge blue flower in her hair.
"Ready to go!" she announced and hooked her arm into his, laughing happily. Wes pressed a kiss to her forehead and led her out the shop on their first date.
Following behind them came Celebi and Jirachi, arguing over what the next step would be.
"We sent the dream, he left the journal; I say we get out of here and never speak of this whole thing again!" Jirachi griped, "I want to get back to sleep. Man, you still don't ever want to just leave time the way it is, don't you?"
"I told you this timeline was broken and I'm just trying to fix it! Now shut up and let's go! We're going to advance by twenty-four hours!" Celebi snapped back.
"Why?"
"It's the final day, dummy! I have to be sure that the journal remains in Anca's hands on the last day. If it doesn't, then everything we've worked for in the future will be lost!"
"How do you figure that?" Celebi paused in mid air and sighed.
"Raykyoudon's a bit impetuous about finding out what's going on around him. He'll try to learn about The Beginning from the one who experienced it. Without the third Time Flute to restore the blocks of memory that weren't recorded by Cipher's computers, he'll keep Wes with him. And if Cipher gets him, with Wes still around, then it's only a matter of forcing the spirit to remain in his body. Cipher gets Wesley back but completely under their command, and we lose Seth, the embodiment of our new hopes for Orre." she explained and frowned at Jirachi's glazed look, "All right! We don't make sure she has the book, the bad guys win! Do you get that at least?!"
"So we're jumping to tomorrow to find that out?" Jirachi asked. Celebi nodded. "Okay, just making sure I don't have to send anymore crazy, prophetic dreams."
"Listen, Jirachi. I have a favor to ask of you." Celebi added, opening the portal to the future.
"Shoot."
"If what I do in this time doesn't fix the future, grant me a wish." she went on. "Grant my wish and erase me from this existence. Because I can't stand to live in a timeline that I've destroyed." Jirachi only stared at her in shock. She offered no other explanation, just took the two of them into the next day, leaving Wes and Anca to enjoy the parade passing by the shops.
Neon City, May 30, 2170-
"Happy Birthday!" Deborah exclaimed to her son, the blue-eyed boy staring at his cake. "Say hi to grandma, honey!"
"Is this white cake again?" the boy muttered and smiled up at the red-headed woman entering the house, "Hi, Gran! Please say you brought chocolate!"
"Of course I did, Jim! I need to talk with your mom a bit, so why don't you go and see the presents I brought in the car?" she remarked and watched the boy cheer and run out of the room. Deborah frowned and put her arms akimbo.
"Mom, what's that all about?" she asked in irritation. The older woman pulled the leather-bound book she had seen the night before. "You're going to the grave-site today? But the anniversary is tomorrow. What is this all about?" she pointed out.
"It was written in his final entry." the other woman answered faintly, "I have to keep the journal with me today. The event that he told me about is very soon." She slid it back into her handbag and set a small gift on the table beside the cake. "I just came to let you know where I'll be for the duration of today's party. I wish I could be here, but I can't let the event take place without me and this book. So wish me luck that I play my part correctly."
"I'm sure you will, Anca." the daughter murmured and watched her leave quietly.
