The first step has been completed.
Project Head Sigma stood triumphantly on his catwalk, far above the scientists milling about below him. Their official group name was the Kadabra Science Team, named for the hyperintelligent Pokémon of the same name, but Sigma pridefully (though often privately) referred to them as his Combee drones. Before now, they just busied themselves with pointless tests, like the structural integrity of the testing facility and the moral ethics of what they were doing, yadda yadda science shit. Their assistants and mechanics generally spent their time double, triple, quadruple checking everything and getting nothing of value done, either. Regardless of station, they were particularly excited and on alert today, and there was no debate as to why.
Zekrom was in the building.
It resided securely in a reinforced chamber built specifically to combat its electrical abilities. Sigma didn't know or care what his men put in there, but whatever it was made of worked. As an added bonus, they cheekily put in some sort of apparatus that connected it to the building's main power grid. He had to admit that it certainly helped power their larger systems, but was probably implemented as a joke since they had to disconnect it after 13 short minutes when Zekrom started specifically targeting that area with its attacks. The thing wasn't stupid. Any longer and it would've shorted out the entire system. A few of the scientists were working on an updated module that would severely limit the amount of energy that went through to the grid, but that was most likely out of spite as opposed to any real power concerns. As of now, Zekrom sat fuming in its tank, concealed by a storm cloud it wore around itself like a cloak. A storm-cloak, Sigma thought. Almost like something from the fantasy genre.
His reverie was broken by the sudden appearance of another. Sergeant Kata had finally finished up debriefing her troops and came up to meet with Sigma about the next phase of the plan. Though he wasn't shorter than her by any means, Sigma still felt like Kata towered above him. She had a presence around her that was almost regal, but definitely commanded respect. It's part of what made her such a great leader. That and her tactical prowess, but hopefully that should have gone without saying. Especially after today.
"Hey, there's the woman of the hour! I always knew you could do it, but you still vastly exceeded my expectations. 'Great job' isn't enough to describe how proud I am of you," Sigma exclaimed. He excitedly reached his hand out for a handshake. Kata looked at it for a moment, and reluctantly shook.
"Cut the Bouffalant shit. We both know you didn't bring me all the way up here for a pat on the back," she said coolly. Sigma frowned and pulled his hand back. "Now what do you need me to do?"
"You're right," Sigma replied. "I didn't bring you here for that, but that doesn't mean you don't deserve the praise." He quickly pointed at her for emphasis. "I need you to organize some scouting parties. They don't need to be big, but they do need to be well equipped. We're going to have to fan out pretty far for this next phase. Zekrom was actually the easy part," he claimed, gesturing at the tank of storms. Kata winced, barely perceptible in the darker lighting of the catwalk.
"Do we have the manpower for an operation that large? There's too much ground to cover as thoroughly as you want us to. What's more, you only told us we'd need to find Zekrom. There's more you're not telling us about." Kata looked as though she was going to raise even more concerns, but was quickly cut off by Sigma.
"Please, Kata, I know that a lot of the other men you work with aren't the brightest, but I know you should've figured out our primary goal by now even with the limited information I gave you. Now you can see for yourself what we're doing here, and you still refuse to believe it?" Sigma made a broad, sweeping gesture over the lab area. Zekrom sat in its tank on the far right of a trio of the chambers. One built against the hottest of fire, and the other against crippling cold. He turned back to Kata, grinning eagerly. "We need the other members of the Tao Trio, Reshiram and Kyurem."
"We're going to rebuild the Original Dragon."
I awoke to the sound of, um, profuse vomiting. It looks like my new best friend finally woke up too. I looked over to find her still going, mixing her stomach acid with the mud. It had stopped raining by this point, and the sun had risen once more. Things were noticeably dryer since I fell asleep, so really, she was just convulsing in the dirt as opposed to the wet mud. I stood up to dust myself off, but it looked like I made a considerable amount of noise because when I finished, I looked up to see her groggily match my gaze.
"Did you have a nice nap?" I asked her. That probably wasn't the best thing to say to a pissed-off aggressor, but not quite the worst, either.
"I could ask you the same," she said without missing a beat. It wouldn't surprise me at this point if she had trained in battlefield banter or something. "Come let me go and we can continue our fight without being hindered by exhaustion." She fought at her restraints and tumbled forward. Even with her face stuffed in the dirt, she continued mumbling obscenities. I walked the short distance over to her and propped her back up against the tree. She spat dirt at me, missing, and continued looking at me, sizing me up. "I can't believe I lost to you of all people. I've secured trained soldiers twice your size, and they went down like little babies. When I get loose, you're going to regret being born, you li-"
I cut her off. "I can always put you back down in the mud." She went silent, but she still visibly had hate in her eyes. "Who do you work for, and why were you following me through the woods in the middle of the night?" I asked. She was silent for a few seconds, and then spoke again.
"I'm a retrieval specialist for Team Nova. I-" I interrupted her again, though this by accident, by snorting. "What's so funny?" she spat. "I'm telling you what you wanted to know."
"I'm sorry," I said, "it's just that I can't believe people are still going by this whole 'Team' thing still. You'd think that after 70 or so years, the fad of naming yourself after Team Rocket would lose popularity, especially since the subsequent teams all prove to be mostly incompetent."
The faintest whisper of a smirk appeared on her face, but just for a moment. "We mostly just go by 'Nova' officially, for that exact reason. It was our Director's idea to add in the 'Team' in front, but no one dared tell him no. I came out here to take back your little doodad," she said, nodding at the distortion in my pocket, "and then drag you back to base."
"Tough luck, then," I replied. "I don't see you finishing your mission any time soon. Ironically, your own binds have been used against you," I taunted, poking her with the tip of my shoe. She thrashed out at me, throwing me off balance. I stumbled back a few steps and tripped over that damn root again. The same damn root that gave me trouble during the night-fight. I had half a mind to cut it off the tree and burn it at this rate. The agent of Nova appeared to pick up on this rivalry, or at least appreciated the fact that she finally had a minor victory over me, and chuckled maliciously as I cursed out a plant. I dusted myself off and angrily started back towards her.
It was at this point when I noticed something new on her belt. Something shiny and red, even despite being splattered with mud: a PokéBall. It looks like that's what I was kicking when I knocked her out, though more likely she just passed out from the pain of having a ball shoved into her kidneys repeatedly. I pointed at it. "You're a trainer?"
She looked to where I was pointing, and then back at me with narrowed eyes. "I am," she said, "and what's it to you?"
I held my hands up in mock surrender. "I didn't mean anything by it. It's just a bit odd that you didn't sic your Pokémon on me last night instead of going for fisticuffs."
"I probably should've," she said, looking down. "I just got a little overconfident. But you know what they say." She had a smidge of humor of humor in her voice now. "'Arrogance is a slow and insidious killer.'" She paused. "Or at least, something like that." She looked back up at me, all business again. "And if you didn't attack me, we wouldn't have needed to go for 'fisticuffs.'"
"Do you always get this bitter with your targets?" I asked, annoyed with our increasingly circular conversation. "Or am I just that special?"
"Oh, you're special alright," she said, grinning evilly. It took me a moment to catch what she meant, and it only took another to lob a ball of mud at her. My skill at throwing is next to nonexistent, though, and I hit the tree next to hers instead. This did not help my case. A nearby Caterpie also took heed of our fight and started curiously peering down at us.
"Cut the shit. I'll assume your answer is yes if you won't tell me," I said. She remained silent, still smirking, albeit less intensely. "Fine. Let me ask another question. What Pokémon do you have there? You should at least be able to answer that," I said drily.
"Why don't you open it up and find out?" she asked, matching my tone and inflection almost perfectly. "They're really friendly!" Once again, getting me nowhere.
"Alright, I'm just gonna go. You're clearly not going to stop posturing, so if you're so good at your job then it won't matter much to you if I leave you here, right?" I asked.
"Of course not," she said coolly. "I'll be back on your trail in 15 minutes and dragging your sorry ass back to base in 20." Her voice trembled a bit near the end, but her face still read calmer than the ocean on a still night. Or at least, I assume as such. Once again, desert dweller here. Not the best at water-based expressions. Regardless, my assumption that she was just boasting seemed pretty accurate.
I shrugged. "Okay. See you in a few, then." I grabbed her gun, which had fallen in a mud puddle during my nap, and made to leave.
"Wait!" she called out. I turned back around, and I saw that all of the color had drained from her face. She looked down and sighed. "Normally, I would be able to escape from these binds. I would," she insisted as I gave her a disapproving look, "but you really got me last night, much as I hate to admit it. I'm feeling terrible, and I have no way of getting out of this forest on my own, let alone out of these." She clinked her cuffs for emphasis. She was definitely right about the last point. It would seem that I got a bit overexcited last night when I tried to subdue her. "In any case, if you even try to use my gun without my help, you're just going to hurt yourself." The sly grin had returned to her face while she said this, but she quickly noticed this and returned to her more serious expression. I don't think that she was used to talking to her marks without her helmet on. Her constant quips made her considerably less intimidating, and she seemed to know it.
"What are you talking about?" I asked in reference to her gun comment. "I know what I'm doing with this thing. Just point and shoot, yeah?" I posed for emphasis.
The agent sighed. "It's comments like that that make you even more likely to shoot yourself in the foot. Look, I know you don't trust me enough to let me go." I nodded in an exaggerated manner. She ignored me. "And for good reason, of course. But by the end of the day, you're going to be dead or dying. Period. Plus, the fact that you explicitly noticed that I'm a Trainer along with you're being a stowaway on a train out of Orre leads me to believe that you're only just starting out as a Trainer yourself. Am I correct?" she asked. I remained silent. What was I supposed to say to that? "I figured as such," she said snootily, "We wouldn't want your journey to end so soon, would we?"
"Oh, so the vicious tracker has a heart now," I spat. "What'd stop you from just trying to knock me out again?"
"Nothing. At least, aside from my sudden wooziness. Let me tell ya, getting knocked out really messes you up. As much as I'd like to lie and say I could wipe the floor with your sorry ass, I can't. At least not right now. But regardless of all of that, you're not going to survive out there without me. Especially not in these woods, desert boy." More snark. I was getting real tired of her shit.
"Watch me," I said. "I've made it this far. If anything, you'd end up slowing me down." My words came out sounding hollow, even to me. I looked up at the trees to avoid her gaze. The Caterpie from earlier had invited some of his friends. There was even a Metapod that had been dragged over for the watch party. Curious creatures, those Bug-types.
"Look, I'll make you a deal. You're heading off to Johto, right?" she asked. I nodded. "My orders were to get you to Saffron City in Kanto, so it's not too much farther off. If you let me escort you back to my base, then I'll vouch for you."
"You'll vouch for me? Oh, I feel so honored. You're graciously accepting me into your little cult of edgy bastards now?" She looked confused for a moment, probably not realizing that her clothes looked stupid as hell by modern standards. "In any case, your employers must have low standards." My turn for some self-deprecation. I didn't want to completely come off as a pompous ass.
"If you wanted to join, yes, but that's not what I meant," said the agent. "Usually, human targets are put in holding until we decide if they provide a threat to our organization. I don't make those rules," she clarified as I rose an eyebrow. "That's just the way it is. If I vouch for you, then you can just hand over the component and we'll let you be on your way. We get what we want, you won't be bothered by us anymore, AND you get to continue your Trainer's journey under better circumstances. If you really work with me, we can sneak you some extra funding."
Not gonna lie, that prospect sounded pretty good. I could definitely use the money, since my account balance was only slightly above zero, but that wasn't the main part. She was right. I couldn't survive more than another day out there. My plans never involved getting kicked off of a train, and I severely lacked any real survival skills. Letting her escort me to Saffron was the best course of action I could take. Not the smartest choice, but the best one given my situation.
"I accept your terms. On one condition," I said. The agent looked at me expectantly. "You let me keep the gun until Saffron. I don't trust you enough for that quite yet."
"Done," she said without hesitation, "if it makes you feel safer. As long as you let me out of these cuffs. They're starting to cut off my circulation." I put her gun down the back of my pants. Hey, I didn't have anywhere else to put it. I starting walking over to her. "The keys are on my belt, next to wear my cuffs usually are." I hesitated for a moment. She noticed and gave me a look. "Don't make it weird. You're the one who cuffed me, so you're the one who has to let me go, no matter how awkward."
"All right, sheesh. I got it," I said. I grabbed the keys and quickly unbound her legs first. She stood up and held out her hands eagerly. I unlocked those cuffs too, and they fell to the ground. The agent rubbed her sore wrists for a few seconds, then suddenly punched me in the face. As one should anticipate, I stumbled back a few steps and tripped over another. Arceus-damned. Root. "WHAT THE HELL?" I shouted at her. That one was going to sting for a while.
"Just a little payback for forcing me to rely on you to get me out of your own situation," she said calmly. "Do you have a name?" She stuck out her hand to help me get back to my feet.
"Jack," I said, grabbing it. She pulled me up, but not without my own help. I'm not that heavy, but I think her strength is better suited for punching as opposed to lifting. "I assume you have a name of your own, too, right?" I asked.
"Officially, my code name is Mavin," she said. I scoffed and she aimed a weak kick at me. "It basically means 'expert.' But my real name is Kira."
I nodded. "It's a pretty name. Doesn't really fit a ruthless psychopath like you, though." Another kick. "'Mavin,' though. Do all of you have weird little nicknames?" I asked. No kick this time. Evidently, that was a valid question.
"We do, actually. It's not required, but it is heavily encouraged by the leadership. And if you think my code name is bad, you should hear some of the others that I have to work with. 'Mavin' is nowhere near the tier of 'Flamerunner' or 'Victorium.'" I laughed at her, but not maliciously. Those names were pretty stupid, especially for people who got to name themselves.
"Well," I asked, "should we get a move on? With your equipment, we may be able to navigate these woods by the end of tomorrow."
"We should," said Kira. "My bike is just about a click away. I was just barely able to get it through the forest last night. In any case, it definitely seats two." She was poking around the grass as she said this. After the end of her sentence, she had produced her flashlight from there and shook it. "Damn thing's dead. You couldn't have bothered to turn it off?" She shook her head and placed it back on her belt. "Toss me my helmet, would you?" she asked. I found it lying where it fell, its visor shimmering in the morning sun. I chucked it underhand at her, and she caught it. "Come on," she said, patting me on the shoulder as she passed by, "the bike is stashed under a tree, so it shouldn't have gotten too soaked since I was last there. It should still have enough charge to get us at least to Olivine City."
And so then I set off, traveling alongside an assailant that had tried to kick my shit in less than 4 hours ago. If that isn't a great start to an adventure, then I don't know what is.
