Trust is a two-way street.
This common phrase is often used in dysfunctional relationships to try and salvage what little sparks of friendship or romance is left. Generally, it's said when only one person is being open about their thoughts and feelings. Would this phrase be apt to use in the unique situation when neither person trusts the other?
Well, maybe it wasn't that unique. It made sense, at least. Agent Mavin wasn't supposed to trust any target any further than she could throw them. They could run off at any second, after all. And this kid…Jack was his name, at least if Mavin was remembering it correctly…he didn't trust her, either. That was fair too. Mavin wouldn't trust anyone who followed her through the woods at night, either. Especially if they were wearing a trench coat. Those guys are not to be trusted. Luckily, Mavin was wearing a duster instead. There was a huge difference between the two types of clothing.
In any case, Mavin tried her best to be friendly to him. She really was happy for Jack when he got his first Pokémon, and she did everything in her power to appease him during their travels, but he still didn't trust her in the slightest. Again, reasonable, but Mavin still felt annoyed that her efforts thus far seemed to be in vain.
It had been roughly 10 hours since the incident in Arbour. Unfortunately, the residents did not recognize Pokémon battles as a valid reason for destruction of property. Jack had refused to allow them to put his new friend on trial for its crimes, so the entire group had to tactically retreat. Mavin did at least manage to get the last of the supplies before that point.
Night had long since fallen. The moon provided just enough light for Mavin to make out her surroundings. There wasn't much to look at, though, just more forest for miles around. The remnants of a campfire sat smoldering in a small clearing, and Jack was there, sleeping soundly on the ground, tightly holding his Pokéball in his hand. Evidently, he didn't want anyone to take it away from him.
It had been a struggle to convince him to go to sleep without her. She had done it under the guise of standing guard and making sure that none of the Arbour villagers tried to track them down. That had eventually convinced him, but he wanted her to wake him up every so often to change shifts, and that would occur very soon. Mavin would have to be quick.
Venturing slightly into the trees, Mavin made sure she was out of earshot before bringing up her Pokétch. Turning it on, it became apparent that she had a few missed calls from Project Head Xi. To speak frankly, it was much more than a few. However, those were of no pressing concern. Mavin had another, far more important call to make.
"This is RS Agent Mavin reporting into Olivine Outpost," she said. "I have located my target as of three days ago, and I'm en route to the base of operations in Saffron City. I request permission to restock our supplies and, if possible, secure a vehicle to hasten our transit. Over," she added as an afterthought. Mavin still had trouble remembering proper comm protocol every now and then.
The Pokétch's receiver crackled for a bit, and then a new voice chimed in. "Copy, Agent. We'll contact our commander for confirmation. Please hold. Over." The receiver crackled again, then let loose a few minutes of cheesy hold music. This was not the first time that Mavin had dealt with hold music, and it would definitely not be the last, but said music seemed to get worse with every consecutive outpost that used it. At least the bigger bases had more streamlined communications divisions.
The hold music eventually (thankfully) stopped, and the voice returned. "Your resupply request has been granted. We've also relayed your message to Site Manager Eta in Saffron City as a notice of your return." There was no "over."
"What's wrong, Olivine Outpost? Do you have something else to report?" Mavin asked. "Over."
"We've received a new transmission mid-confirmation. Site Manager Eta mentioned that your mission was to retrieve an object for Project Head Xi, not a person. Who else is with you?" Damn Eta. She was too observant for her own good sometimes.
"Tell Site Manager Eta that I'll fill her in on my decision once I arrive at Saffron Site. I'll have my report more than prepared at that point in time. Over."
Another short pause. "Roger that, Agent. Continue on your mission as planned. We're eagerly anticipating your arrival. Over." And with that, the line went dead. Finally. Part of the reason Mavin chose a job with little communication in the field was because of the exorbitant amounts of formalities involved with it. Navigating that previous conversation was absolute hell. Mixed in with the garbled transmission, all of the technical words and procedure mixed together into a much more bastardized form of speech. It took a special kind of patience to work in communications.
Regardless, with that all out of the way, it was time to wake Jack for his shift. Mavin knew he would be pissed if he was allowed to sleep any longer than he had already. In any case, the trip through Olivine now had some proper substance to it. Time to get back to work.
Two days have passed since I captured Flytrap and officially became a trainer. Unfortunately, nothing has really happened in those two days. I guess I should say something about what Kira and I did those two days. Uh, we walked. That's about it. We slept some too, but that's hopefully to be expected. Should I mention how we ate and breathed, too?
…
That was a little aggressive of me. Sorry. I suppose I have learned a few things about Pokémon training during that timeframe. First and foremost, most Pokémon are much more aggressive than most people realize. They jump out at you from within the tall grass, which seems to happen more and more once we get closer to the Johto border, but not with the intent to merely battle. They seek to kill, or at the very least seriously maim. I can only assume that they see me as prey, but luckily most of them have been small Bug-types. As for the ones that actually can hurt me, I have Flytrap. He's great. As a matter of fact, I'm surprised that he's so strong. I've never even heard of a Yanma before, so I never knew their competitive viability, but seeing one absolutely shred apart a group of Beedrill strengthens my confidence that we'll make it to Saffron City. Although…
I'm not too sure of what'll happen when we actually get there. There's been a whole big thing with Kira about how getting to her Saffron base is "absolutely imperative" and "time sensitive." In all honesty, I think that Kira just wants to be done with me. So far, I've rejected most of her friendly advances, and she's kind of just…given up. She's still happy for me and my new status as a trainer, but beyond that I still only trust her about as far as I can throw one of the many fully-grown trees around us. As a side tangent, you'd think that after living my whole life in a desert, I would appreciate the presence of trees more. Well, you'd be wrong. I'm getting very tired of cozy forest trails. The late morning sun shimmering through the canopies is nice, though. In any case, whatever happens when Kira dumps me off with her shady allies, I'll just be glad to be back to civilization.
Kira, who was still walking in front of me as per our agreement at the Pokémon Center, suddenly stopped. Still thinking about possible scenarios in Saffron, I bumped into her. I stumbled over her, and with the extra weight of her sack of goodies, Kira fell over too. "Watch where you're going, dumbass," Kira said, picking herself up. She didn't bother to help me up this time, which was fair.
"Next time, don't just stop in the middle of the road," I told her, clambering up. I didn't have anything necessarily clever to say anyway. "Why'd you even stop in the first place?"
"We're here."
We stood overlooking a huge city, one far bigger than any I had ever seen in Orre. I had a sweeping view of towering skyscrapers as far as the eye could see, and directly in front of me was a grand expanse of shining blue: the ocean. I didn't need Kira to tell us where we were.
Olivine.
As it would turn out, I didn't have much time for sightseeing. Kira was determined to get to her base, or "outpost," as she would call it. I was at least able to convince her to make a pitstop at the famous Olivine City Lighthouse. Well…that is, on the outside. She wouldn't let me go inside. I certainly tried, but as a reminder, her entire job revolves around dragging people away from where they want to go. Didn't need or even want a reminder? Neither did I, but I still got (a very physical) one when I tried to sneak into the gift shop. Ah, well. Like I had the money to buy anything in the first place.
Even when being scooted along by a hurried companion, there were still a few notable spots that we passed by. I was able to see the Pokémon Gym, which was less fancy than I had imagined. After the Software Wars, the officials at the Pokémon League waived a lot of the badge requirements while society rebuilt itself, and I guess they never got around to rescinding that. I'm sure the Gym looked far better in its heyday some 80 years ago, but now it just looked sad.
Every now and then, I was able to get a glimpse of the ocean between the buildings whenever Kira got lost and accidentally ventured too far south. That didn't happen often, but it did happen more than once. Honestly, it wasn't the first time I had seen the ocean. It had just been a long time. I know, Mister Desert Boy doesn't get much water, but Orre does have a coastline. The last time I went was with my parents, shortly before the end of the Software Wars 12 years ago, when…
"We're here."
Kira stopped me in front of some old, dilapidated warehouse. Yeah, I probably should've expected that an underground organization such as Nova would operate on the fringes of society. She went to knock on the door, and I followed after her.
A sliding bar on the door opened, and I could only see the eyes of the person behind the door. "What're you here to buy?" the man asked in a gruff voice.
"My fridge stopped working a couple days ago. I was wondering if you had some spare parts?" Kira responded. I hoped that this was some sort of password because otherwise Kira was either just screwing with me or a bit cracked in the head, so to speak.
The guy didn't respond for a couple seconds, only staring at me through the door slit. He looked back at Kira. "This the guy?" he asked. Kira nodded. The guy closed the slider and opened the door for us to enter.
"What in the Great Distortion is that password?" I asked Kira as we went inside. "Who goes to some random seedy warehouse looking for refrigerator parts?"
"That's exactly why the password works," she responded. I suppose that's fair.
I was going to change my mind and endorse the password, but my words left me when I saw the base within the warehouse. It was still obviously in a warehouse, but it had technology I had never seen before scattered about on the walls and desks of the Nova members. If I had thought Kira's Pokétch was fancy, it was an abacus compared to the operation running here. And Kira said this place was a small outpost, too. Damn.
"We're only here for resupply, so I'm going to start looking around for some more water and whatnot," Kira told me. "You should go see if they have anything in the vehicle bay. I'll be right with you. Don't try to requisition one for yourself, or you'll probably be booted out of the outpost entirely." And with that, she walked off. Like I was going to find a vehicle bay anytime soon. I've never been to Olivine before, let alone this random warehouse. In any case, better get to work.
As I wandered about, the magnitude of this place continued to astound me. The ancient shelves had been retrofitted with new material, and the walls around me were bathed in a dark blue light from the computers. The Nova members around me paid no attention to my presence for the most part. They were all intent on their work, deciphering data from field agents and running scientific studies. Most of these tests just seemed to be science for the sake of science. One was even trying to derive usable energy from a Pokémon's Hyper Beam (I saw the name of the move in the testing logs before I was swatted away). Best of luck to them, I guess.
After maybe an hour of aimless wandering (there was a lot of stuff to look at in this place, bite me), I came across a selection of vehicles in what I could imagine was a makeshift garage built in the warehouse's old loading bay. Compared to the rest of the technological marvels in the outpost, this section was pretty sad. There were only 3 motorbikes, very similar to the model that Kira rode on our first night, and a pickup truck. There wasn't even anyone around to monitor them or whatnot, so I guess they weren't in that high of a demand. As I turned around to walk back into the outpost proper (there was a crudely built wall separating the vehicle bay from the rest of the building), I turned right into Kira.
"Shit!" I yelped. I took a moment to compose myself as Kira turned away, quietly giggling to herself. "Does it amuse you to scare me like that?" I asked her. I forgot to mention that she did this multiple times over the course of the previous two days.
"As a matter of fact, it does amuse me," she replied, turning back towards me. "You should've figured that out after the fifth time I did it yesterday." I grunted and turned away from her, facing the wall. "If it makes you feel any better, I only do it to practice my stealth tracking skills. They need constant refining," she said, trying to salvage the conversation. "Of course, if you don't start getting more observant, then you're putting me at a disadvantage in the future," she added as a snide comment.
"Yeah, yeah, you've said this all before," I responded, turning back to face her again. "Multiple times. I've never consented to your tracking, either. How long were you following me this time?"
"This time it was…" She looked at her Pokétch. "…12 minutes and 47 seconds. That's 2 minutes longer than last time." I felt like firing off more expletives, but I didn't have any new words to say, so I just sighed and sank to the floor. Kira followed suit, without the dramatic sigh. "It's fine. You were just taking in the scenery. I did the same thing when I first entered a Nova building," she reassured me. "Of course, in my case, I actually figured out that I was being followed, and rather quickly at that," she said, resuming her bravado with an elbow to my ribs (ow) and standing up. "In any case, we need to get moving. I spoke with Site Manager Eta during my supply hunt. We've been denied any more food or water."
"WHAT?" I exclaimed, quickly hopping to my feet. Kira put her hands up in a "calm down" gesture.
"Eta said that abandoning my bike was an extremely costly mistake, and keeping us supplied for another couple weeks wouldn't be cost-effective," she explained. I blew a short raspberry at nothing in particular. "In any case," Kira continued, ignoring me, "I was able to convince her to let us borrow a vehicle to considerably shorten our journey. Instead of taking us a month to reach Saffron, it will only take about 12, maybe 15 hours with traffic."
"Oh," I said, surprised. I didn't expect this Eta character to hand us a free ticket to Saffron City. I suppose that was a good thing, though. Trusting Kira to drag us through cities and thick brush for weeks was not going to happen. As long as our vehicle didn't break down (haha…right?). "Which vehicle are we taking?" I asked Kira. "If we're taking one of these bikes, I need to inform you right now that I am not holding onto you for any number of hours. That's weird."
"Grow a pair," I heard her mutter under her breath. "Well, don't worry. I already accounted for that when I asked Eta for the vehicle," she said, talking to me again. "We're taking the truck."
"Oh, that's nice," I said, in what I hope was a cool tone. As Kira opened the garage door, I walked over to get into the truck. I went to open the door when Kira grabbed my shoulder. Damn, she was fast.
"Whoa, there, Desert Boy," she said. "I'm driving." She clicked her tongue and gestured her thumb to the other side. I grumbled and made the trek over to the passenger door.
We both climbed into the pickup and Kira fished the keys out of the cupholders on the side of her door. As she keyed the ignition, I asked her, "What about your stuff? Shouldn't we go back and get it?" She had dropped it off at the front door before she ran off on her supply hunt, but I never saw it again when I accidentally circled back around.
"Don't worry about it," she said once the engine had turned over. "None of that stuff was really mine to own, anyway. Aside from this," she patted the handgun on her hip, "all of the supplies were Nova property. It's fine to just leave it here." She put the stick in Drive and pulled out of the outpost and into the warm early afternoon air.
We drove in silence for a little while when I suddenly had another question. "What did you mean when you said that you 'already accounted for' me not wanting to share a bike with you?" I asked.
"I figured you'd have a similar reaction to the bike last night, when you refused to share my sleeping bag," she replied. "I assured you over and over that it was specifically just for warmth, but you said that you 'didn't need any warming.' That would've been over and done with if it wasn't 14 degrees out last night and I didn't catch you spooning your Yanma for warmth when I woke up." I looked out the window, trying to conceal my blush. I saw her shake her head in the reflection. "Whatever. In any case, we'll be at the Saffron Base by tomorrow morning. I just had 4 cups of coffee, so I'll have enough energy to get us there through the night and enough kidney stones to keep me occupied for a long while."
"That's a bit too much information," I replied, quietly. She didn't really react, so I didn't know if she even heard it. I wasn't too focused on Kira right now, though. We had a long drive ahead of us, and I would be damned if I didn't do some sightseeing.
"Wake up."
I didn't really notice myself falling asleep, but I did notice an elbow being shoved into my ribs. I quickly sat up in a panic, temporarily forgetting that I was in a truck. After regaining my memory of my surroundings, I rubbed my side where Kira elbowed me and looked over at her, tiredly glaring. "You didn't need to do that," I scolded. "How long have I been out?"
"Not long," Kira replied. "Only a few hours, maybe. I was too busy driving to pay attention to you. You made it until around Pewter City, at least. I figured that you were asleep once you started drooling on me."
"I WAS DOING THAT?" I cried out. I started checking my clothes for recent staining.
Kira laughed. "No, I was just screwing with you. You're fine."
"Oh, thank Arceus," I sighed. I never really had any drooling problems, but I sure as hell wasn't going to start now. Fully awoken, I finally noticed that the truck had stopped. "Are we in Saffron now?" I asked.
"Yep," Kira replied. "And it only took us 14 hours to get here. Now if you'll excuse me…" Kira opened her door and hobbled out of the truck, keeling over with her hands on her knees. "The coffees are catching up with me," she groaned.
I climbed out of the truck as well, squinting to see ahead of me. Save for the interior lights of the truck, it was nearly pitch-black outside. "Good Arceus, Kira, what time is it?"
"4 o'clock in the morning," she said, bracing herself against the hood. "I'm glad you're well rested, because I am not."
"Why didn't you stop for a rest, or at least a break?" I asked, feeling somewhat impressed with her dedication. "I'm sure that this Eta lady would understand if you were a little late."
"No," Kira wheezed, "she wouldn't. Trust me, this is much more preferable compared to Eta's wrath." She took a moment to compose herself and stood up. "Okay, let's head on in."
"In where?"
"In there. I know it's dark, but use your eyes for once."
As it would turn out, Kira parked us in the alleyway between two large skyscrapers. She had indicated the building with a concrete stairway with metal railings leading up to a side door, illuminated by an industrial lamp. Okay, I suppose that one was a bit obvious. My brain hasn't completely turned on yet, alright? Deal with it.
Kira walked up the stairs and unlocked the door with a key she had hidden in her duster. We both made our way inside and came face to face with a moderately long hallway. Unlike outside, the hallway was fully illuminated. Down at the end of the hallway was a bathroom. "Wait here," Kira demanded. She quickly ran in and locked the door behind her. I suppose that was a fair tradeoff, what with her holding in multiple coffees for over half a day in exchange for my transfer to this new base. I still felt uneasy about what awaits me after our meeting with Kira's boss, though.
While waiting for Kira to finish up, I took a quick glance around my surroundings. I was still in the hallway, so there wasn't much to look at. The white plaster walls were certainly helping to maintain the illusion that this area was well maintained. Indeed, though full of light, the hum of the fluorescent light fixtures in the hallway made it feel very unwelcoming. There was even a bulb out halfway down the hall. Not really the nicest of spots, but that's par for the course with side entrances, really.
My curiosity eventually got the better of me, and I decided to take a peek outside of the hallway. What I found was, regrettably, another similarly styled hallway. However, in this particular instance, there were two security guards walking in my direction.
These weren't your everyday security guards. They weren't cheap hires like the ones I encountered on the train from Orre, and they weren't suits like the other men I encountered on that damn train, either. They were armed with handguns like the others, sure, but they also had some sort of armor on them, too. I couldn't see it very well from where I was standing. Still, it would probably be best if they didn't see me…
"HEY! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"
I think they saw me.
The men suddenly started running towards me, and I panicked and ducked my head back into the hall. I knocked on Kira's door and said, "Would you kindly hurry up in there?" in as much of a fake polite voice as I could muster. Unfortunately, it would seem that Kira didn't hear me, as the guards turned the corner right at that very moment, guns drawn.
"FREEZE!" one shouted.
"PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE AIR! IMMEDIATELY!" shouted the other.
"WHICH AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?" I shouted back.
"EITHER OF THEM!" they screamed in perfect unison. It would be both impressive and hilarious if I weren't a slick finger away from death. I chose to raise my hands in surrender. In doing so, the component held in my hoodie pockets (I had chosen to move it up into there for the truck ride so I wouldn't sit on it) shifted a small amount. However, said amount was enough to cause the component to visibly peak out of my pocket. One of the guards power-walked over to me in response.
Now that one of them was close enough for me to kiss, I was able to get a better look at their armor. "Skin-tight" isn't exactly the right word for it; that would imply they wore latex suits to combat intruders. It was a gray jumpsuit, but more form-fitting than anything else. The bodysuit had thin protective plates covering their vital areas and limbs, this time colored dark blue. On each of their left arms was a patch with a peculiar emblem on it: a yellow star surrounded by dust in the same manner that an atomic model is depicted with its surrounding electrons. On their heads was a hat styled in the way of old mid-previous-century officers, with no visible armor on either instance. In short, I felt like I had been shunted both back in time and forward in time at the same time. Trippy.
The guard that was strutting towards me grabbed me by the collar, standing probably a whole 5 inches taller than me, and shouted, "WHERE DID YOU GET THAT DEVICE?". Good Arceus, this guy had issues. The other guard, however, was maintaining his distance and just watching. He still had his gun trained on me, though.
I shrugged, keeping my hands up. "Fellas, let's all just calm down. I'm sure this is all just a big misunderstanding," I said, trying to be the voice of reason. Unfortunately, the tall guard did not feel like being reasonable. He let go of my collar only to grab my arm and fluidly pin it behind my back.
Before the situation got even worse, someone loudly said, "Oh, quit the strip search, Howler. He's with me." Thank Arceus for Kira. She was finally done taking care of her business, so now she had to deal with mine again. This guard restraining me, Howler, begrudgingly let me go. Kira gave him an expectant look. "Now put the gun away. If he tries to escape, you have me to get him." She looked at the other guard. "You too, Lancer." "Lancer" had no visible response. Kira rose her voice. "I said, you too, Lancer." He finally appeared to have heard her and put his gun back in his holster, walking towards us.
"It's been a while, Mavin," said Howler. He gestured at me. "Is this your newest victim?"
"Well, technically, no," she corrected. "It's that thing in his pocket that you were trying to take from him that I was originally after." She looked back at me. "However, I thought it was impressive that he managed to steal that component from a heavily guarded train, under fire, without training, by complete accident." She turned back towards the guards. "Of course, that also says something about the guys Xi hired to protect it." They all laughed at some inside joke that I wasn't a part of.
"Oh, Arceus," Lancer said. "You had to work for Xi? How many missed messages do you have from him?"
"As of now, I have…" Kira checked her Pokétch. "…23 missed calls from Xi." They all started laughing again. Evidently, this Xi character was very, uh, meticulous.
"Well, in any case, we were coming down here to make sure that you got here safely," said Howler. "We were worried that driving all night was a bit of a tall order for you, especially after having to pull another one less than a week ago."
"And by 'we,' you mean…" Kira led on.
"Not Eta," replied Howler. "In fact, she's mildly pissed that you didn't make it here in the minimum 12 hours." Kira just sighed.
"What we didn't expect was this guy," said Lancer, pointing to me, "especially not this early in the morning. We may have…overreacted a small bit," he said, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "I'm sorry about my colleague, er…" he looked at me, confused.
"Jack. My name's Jack," I said. He extended his hand toward me, and I shook it.
"I'm sorry that we couldn't have met under better circumstances," he apologized again. He was shorter than Howler, but only by couple inches or so. Lancer looked back over at Kira. "We should definitely get going before Eta decides to have you executed for tardiness." So much for the "fairness of Eta" described by Kira when we were still driving through Goldenrod. I think her perception might be a bit warped. Hyperboles exist, but you never really know for sure…
Being so early in the morning, we didn't really encounter anyone save for a couple other guards, whom my agent allies greeted with a curt nod. We walked the empty halls for a few minutes until we reached an elevator, which we then rode to the top floor. There were quite a few other floors, which comes with being in a skyscraper, but we certainly didn't stop to look. Who knows, maybe I'd have time to check them out later. Eventually, the elevator doors slid open, and we walked out into a small waiting area complete with a receptionist's desk. Again, due to the time, empty. The agents didn't want to wait around, though. They simply barged in the ornate double doors leading out of the waiting room, and I cautiously followed.
I have no idea who this Eta lady is, but she had really nice digs. Almost the entire southern half of the top floor was converted into her office, and it was full of Nova artifacts and Pokémon knickknacks. Sitting just several feet from the large back window was a fancy mahogany desk, where a small woman sat, her back to us, watching the Saffron skyline twinkle. Even the agents tentatively approached her. Despite her stature, she commanded respect.
When we reached her desk, she spun around in her chair, regarding us with cold eyes. Unlike the rest of us, there was no evidence of sleep on her, making her even more intimidating. "You took your damn time getting here," she said in a bitter voice. Eta stood up (almost making her look shorter) and crossed over to our side of the desk. She stared at me. "So this is the kid who gave you so much trouble last week, hmm?" she asked, shaking her head. "He doesn't look so impressive.
"That didn't stop him from stealing this," Howler said, taking the moment to quickly swipe the component from my pocket. Damn, not even Kira could do that. He held it up for Eta to see, but she dismissed it with a wave of her hand.
"Yes, yes, I've heard plenty of stories about this device from Project Head Xi," she said. "But if any of those stories are true, then this kid is more dangerous than he lets on."
The agents, more or less stoics before we got up here, finally let their confusion show. Hell, I was much more confused than they were. I certainly didn't feel dangerous, less so surrounded by them. Lancer spoke up. "What do you mean, 'dangerous?'"
"He's not physically dangerous, if that's what you were wondering," Eta elaborated. "Project Head Xi has informed me on some very delicate matters regarding his project, some of which he probably shouldn't have mentioned to other Named personnel such as myself. If a mere child could steal such valued equipment and get away with it, it would inspire more defectors to sabotage our efforts."
"What are you implying?" asked Kira.
"We can't let him get away with this. There must be retribution!" Eta told her. She pulled Kira's handgun out of her holster and placed it back in her hands. "Eliminate him."
"W-what?" Kira asked, weakly. She never talked to me about this being a possibility!
"Oh, come now, Agent Mavin. This isn't the first time your mission parameters have changed part of the way through," Eta said, coldly smooth. "You've never hesitated to eliminate your target before. Don't fail Nova now!" The guards simply stood in silence, looking at each other uncomfortably.
"That was different. They were traitors to Nova. You're asking me to shoot a kid!" Kira shouted. "Do you even have permission to change my parameters?"
"As a matter of fact, I do," Eta replied sternly. "Project Head Xi and I have full Triumvirate approval. They agree with our reasoning. If you can't do this, then you'll be court martialed." Both guards behind me sharply inhaled.
Kira extended her gun out towards me, her arm shaking. I instinctively stepped back, but I was quickly restrained by the guards. We stood there for what felt like an eternity: me struggling against the guards, Kira contemplating homicide, and Eta standing there, watching coldly.
Eventually, the situation burned out. "You're taking too long," Eta snapped. She took the gun from Kira and calmly turned it on me. Was this seriously how I was going to go out? I haven't even had a legitimate Pokémon battle yet! Why must fate be so cruel?
…
*BANG*
