February 14th, 2143
1:16 p.m
I entered Oldale Magma Base for the first time. It was much smaller than Slateport Magma Base since Oldale was a small town. There weren't many Magma grunts. To be frank, I was surprised we even had a base.
No one paid me much attention until I came to the Oldale Magma Lieutenant Admin's office room. A grunt came running to me.
"Hey, I wouldn't go in there if I were you!" He cried out. "Lieutenant Admin is not the kindest guy to anger. If you have something to complain to him about, don't bother unless you want your throat to be pierced with a finger."
That new information did not make me happy. "Oh, I have an appointment with him," I told him.
"An appointment, sweetie save yourself… you're better off no…" The grunt then looked down at my badge. "Oh my Arceus, I'm so sorry ma'am, I didn't know you were the newly appointed Brigadier Admin." The man then looked a bit scared. He then quickly walked away.
Huh, I don't think I'm that intimidating. I'm like ten years younger than a bunch of these grunts and rather skinny looking. But I just shrugged and went on with my task.
I opened the door to see a man hardly older than 25 sitting at the desk. I felt my face visibly become pale. No wonder those grunts looked uneasy when I said I wanted to come and see him, he was the coldest looking man I had ever seen. He glared straight at me, his expression showing no interest or warmth.
"Uh...hi," I said weakly. He simply continued to stare at me.
"Who are you," he said in a low growl.
"I am May Sapphire Maple the…" I began.
"My new Brigadier Admin. About time they sent someone over. Took them long enough," he grunted out. "I've been asking for a Brigadier Admin to help me with all this work. Although I was expecting someone less… timid and weak. And especially not a tiny girl like you."
Ok, that hurt. Who did this man think he was? I wasn't about to let him go with that rude remark.
"Excuse me… I am neither weak nor timid," I growled back, arms akimbo. I then realized that that was a horrible decision when his already cruel expression darkened even more.
"Rule number one when you work under me, don't question or cross me. Or else you'll regret it heavily. You may be second in charge of this place. But don't you for a second forget who is your superior in this relationship," He growled.
My terrified glance then turned into a frown. "Wait, second in charge?"
"Yes, you work under me." The man said.
Under him?
"We're gonna be working together often?" I asked worriedly. The man blinked in confusion for a second.
"Yes, very often. So be very careful not to tick me off. Your job is simple. Assist me whenever I need, make sure Magma keeps in power here in Oldale. Our ultimate goal is to wipe out those Aqua fools and increase land for human civilization. As you already know." The man said gruffly.
"Yes sir," I said with a salute.
"And one more thing, meet me at the Oldale Ruins around…" he looked at his watch, "Nine o'clock sharp after dusk. I'll show you where you will be working most of the time. I'm busy at the moment so you better get out so I can actually get something done."
"What do I do until then sir? You have some work for me?" I asked him.
The cold man shrugged. "Assert dominance."
That caught me off guard. "What?"
He then glared at me. "Let the grunts know who you are, although I doubt it'll take long since gossip can be one very annoying thing in this damned town. After that, do something productive to pass time or something."
"Ok sir, I'll do that," I turned around to leave the room, but I turned back once more and somehow got the courage to ask my last question.
"Um, sir? Do you mind if I ask what your name is?" I asked.
To my surprise, the man's cold face suddenly left his face as amusement replaced it. He looked thoughtful for a moment before answering.
"Hunter. Lieutenant Admin Hunter of Oldale Base," He answered. He then turned around to prove that our conversation was over and for me to leave. I didn't need to be told twice. I turned around and booked it out of there. That guy creeped me out.
Hunter was right about one thing, gossip spread quickly. Only a few gunts knew I was the new Brigadier Admin after I told it to one grunt and they heard it. Now it seemed the entire base knew. Heck, maybe even the entire town.
People were muttering behind my back. I could see and hear them. I decided to pay no attention to them. I then at that moment realized I had no idea where my office was, so I walked to the front desk and asked them.
"Hey," I said to the grunt at the front desk. The grunt looked up in annoyance.
"Hey," the grunt said back.
"Can you tell me where the Brigadier Admin office is?" I asked.
"And why would you want to know that?" She asked me.
I frowned at her. "Because it's my office."
She then looked up and had the audacity to FROWN at me.
"What the hell do you me…" then her eyes landed on my badge. Her eyes widened. "Oh my Arceus. Brigadier, I'm so sorry. Take a straight down that hallway and a right, then a left when you reach the end of that hallway."
"Ok thanks," I told her. I followed her directions and came face to face with a door with my name on it. Ok, that was pretty cool. I had to admit.
I opened the door and entered. It was nearly identical to Hunter's office, except more barren. There was nothing on the desk, and the bookcase in the back was not filled with many books. There was also a few boxes in the corner.
I sat down on my chair and rolled around. It was that type of chair with wheels on it. I love those. I haven't had one like it since before the September 27th Petalburg attacks. My father had one in his office that I would roll around in when he wasn't looking.
I looked at the clock on the wall to see that the time was around 1:45. I decided to open the boxes in the corner of my room. It was filled with a few books and a PC and a Monitor. I decided to get the PC and monitor ready for use and spent the next two hours plugging it and in and downloading applications for work and for myself (no applications for the insurgency work though. These electronics are most likely to be monitored by Magma). I played games on the PC and read the book "A Dark Day for Me."
I got through the first five chapters before I looked up and saw it was ten to nine. I decided now was as good as a time as any to go to the ruins. I took out Blaziken's poke ball and threw it up into the air.
"Come on buddy, it's time to get going," I told Blaziken. He nodded at me as we walked out of my office and began to the Ruins.
Many residents stared at me as I made my way to the Oldale Ruins. I tried to ignore their stares as I walked but it was rather hard. Normally these were people who would have called out to me to talk or look away because I was always trying to get myself killed by talking ill about Magma. Now they hated me for joining them.
I felt their eyes piercing through my soul and I hated it. It was one of those "never judge a book by its cover" situations. They saw a traitor and a dangerous person. When in reality I was fighting for the freedom they yearned ever so much for.
As much as it pained me, I tried my best not to stare at them as it would only make matters worse. I looked ahead and pretended I noticed nothing. Blaziken kept giving them icy glares but stopped when I gave him a glare back. He understood what I wanted and did it… though hesitantly.
February 14th, 2143
9:00 p.m
After around 10 minutes I arrived at the Ruins. I was surprised that I was exactly on time. That was definitely a first. I saw Hunter standing at the entrance of the ruins. He was staring at the door. I walked over to him cautiously. I thought he didn't notice my presence until after about twenty seconds of him just standing there and staring at the door, he looked towards me.
He then stared at me for a good while, taking me in. I felt very uncomfortable under his cold and calculating gaze. I felt my hands begin to sweat and my toes tightening around each other. Slipping against one another inside my shoes.
"Let's get going then," he said nonchalantly after a few seconds of this. He took out a small box from his pocket and opened it. I saw a familiar sight. Four different colored small orbs. More like the size of marbles. He picked one after the other and placed them on the door in small holes. He placed the first three in a triangular shape. At the tips of the makeshift triangle. The fourth orb went in the middle of the triangle.
The door began to rumble, then it opened. I walked into the ruins for the first time in a near-decade. A near-decade ago I had entered the ruins, expecting it to be the first and last time I'd ever step foot in it. Guess I was wrong.
When we walked in, I don't know what I was expecting. But I was surprised when Hunter led me to the area where me, Ash and that other guy had found the ancient water pokemon known as Relicanth.
"We found it opened when we interrogated the scientist who had opened it a few years ago. He led us right to it," said Hunter said, taking note of the confusion on my face. "Well, it was more torturing than an interrogation. We did this after we got a second leak about the Oldale Ruins holding ancient information on primal evolution."
I raised an eyebrow. "Second?"
"The first one was received a near-decade ago. But that search ended in vain. Turns out we didn't look deep enough. Years later, we found this." Hunter said.
"So what happened to the guy you… tortured?" I asked grimly, already having a faint hint of what happened.
"He died shortly after showing us this room. We may have overdone it on the torturing," Hunter said shrugging.
"I…" I stuttered. I was astounded by this man's coldness. A man had been tortured to death and he hardly cared. I didn't know much about this guy… but he wasn't making a good first impression.
I couldn't remember the scientist's name but I pitied him. He was the second person I met on my Pokémon journey after all. I remember his face. Poor guy.
I finally took my eyes off of Hunter and scanned the room. I was surprised that I hadn't noticed a bunch of equipment located around the cave. A safe distance from the lake though.
"This is to help with all the research you and your team will be conducting here," Hunter said in answer to my confused stares. "You will lead the research, make sure everything goes smoothly and accordingly to plan. If anything were to go wrong you would be the one who would have to fix it. Make sense?"
"Yeah, seems simple enough," I answered him.
"Good. You start work tomorrow." Hunter answered stiffly. He looked at his watch and then back at me. "Follow me. I'm gonna introduce you to your subordinates."
"My what?"
"Your subordinates. The people who work under you," he said, frowning at me with annoyance.
"Oh," was the only answer I gave him. Subordinates was an interesting word to use, but it seemed like a word he would use since he wasn't very… friendly.
I followed him back to headquarters. I walked behind him while trying to keep up. Hunter-was-fast. He had rather long strides. He seems to walk with a certain confidence that I couldn't match.
I was intimidated.
I heard a saying that you should walk one of two ways. Either walk like you rule the world or walk like you don't care who does. This man walked like the former. I wasn't surprised. He did practically own this little town. Pretty sure even the mayor herself feared Magma.
We entered the headquarters and Hunter led me into a room labeled "Research Room #2." As he opened the door, I found myself frowning. I looked around the hallway. Hunter noticed this and turned back around to look at me.
"What?" He asked me coldly.
"Where's Research Room #1?" I asked him. If there was a "Research Room #2", then where was the first?
"It's in another building," he answered me bluntly.
"Wait, why?" I asked as he turned back to the door. He turned around to face me again with anger on his face. Knowing I was on the verge of ticking him off I stopped.
"Sorry never mind," I said. He growled and opened the door. He then shut it in my face before I could even enter the room.
That guy really loved making the environment so awkward.
I opened the door for myself to see a bunch of people sitting and standing behind desks filled with papers. The room was incredibly messy. People were talking to each other using their hands to convey their message to the other person. A few grunts stood at the wall standing guard for whatever reason. There were about 30 people in the room, including the grunts.
Conversation ceased when Hunter and I entered the room. I felt 30 pairs of eyes fall onto me. Most people must have recognized Hunter, so they were curious as to why there was some weird small girl standing behind him.
"Alright, be quiet now would you?" Hunter growled. "This tiny minuscule piece of a human being behind me is your new Brigadier Admin." He thrust his thumb towards me. I was about to make a remark about his insult about me when I remembered that he would most likely break my leg if I did that. So… as any intelligent human being, I remained silent.
"She is gonna overlook your research at the Oldale Ruins," he finished. Most of the scientists (I think they were mostly archaeologists) just nodded at me in acknowledgment. Some of the ones in the back craned their necks to get a better view of me. And some of them looked at me warily.
I raised my hand and was about to wave at them with a smile when Hunter grabbed my arm and pushed it back to my side roughly.
He gave the people in the room one last look before roughly telling them to get back to work. They hastily did so. Not wanting to irritate Hunter.
When no one was looking, he pressed his nails into my wrist. I was taken aback. I bite my lip in order to keep from screaming out loud in pain. I looked down to see beads of blood appear where his nails were digging into my wrist.
"Do not wave or smile at them. You are their superior. You must appear to be better than them because you are. You will not show any sort of weakness in front of anyone. Smiling and waving is associated with weakness and someone will try to take advantage of your weakness. Do you understand?" He snarled at me in a whisper.
What the heck? When was kindness associated with weakness? This guy really needs to get a reality check.
"Yes sir," I said, writhing my teeth in anger and pain. I didn't dare to say anything else and was very relieved when he released me. I hastily brought my hand to my side and wiped away the excess blood on my wrist.
Hunter gave me one last glare and left the room. His footsteps thundering after him. Not knowing what else I was to do, I went around the room taking in everything. Watching the scientists doing their work. I tried not to look too intimidating, I wasn't Hunter unfortunately for him.
No one really went out of their way to talk to me, so I was very surprised when I felt a pair of hands wrap around my waist. I swiftly pushed the arms around me off and turned to see who had done it. I was ready to throw hands. Just before I could land my first punch I saw my assailant.
"Harley?" I asked spellbound.
Harley waved his hands in a most feminine way at me.
"Hey hon, it's so good to see you again," he said. He grabbed my hands in his. A few people turned around to see what the commotion was about.
"I wasn't expecting to see you so soon Harley," I replied, trying to pry my hands out of his grip. Unfortunately for me, he had a vice grip on me and had no inclination to let go.
"I know right," he answered flamboyantly. More people were looking at us, gawking in surprise and interest. This was getting out of hand and very embarrassing.
"Why are you even here Harley?" I asked him suddenly. Wasn't he supposed to be in Slateport? Was he visiting someone? No, I doubt it. Traveling restrictions were still very strict. That could only mean…
"I was transferred here. They said they had some important stuff going on in Oldale and they lacked the manpower. I immediately volunteered. They were more than happy to send me away. They said something about not being able to stand me." He pretended to act aghast when he added the last part. "I am so likable, don't you think so sugar cookie?"
No, I agree with that person.
"Get back to work Harley," I said strictly. Now was as good as any time to figure out my "boss" voice.
"Oh come on sweetie. You can't turn away a close friend like that. I thought we had so much his…" Harley began.
He never finished his sentence before threw my fist into his face. It made contact and he fell to the ground groaning. I then threw my leg back just before slamming it into his stomach. I kept kicking him over and over again until I had run out of breath.
I looked up from the whimpering Harley to see a silent and stunned room of people. No one said anything, no one dared to. I may have been small, but I had a fierce kick.
And that's on years of military service.
"Back to work, all of you. No idling," I said to them harshly. My annoyance at Harley creeping into my voice. Everyone did so, no one asked questions. People were a lot more scared of me than they were a few seconds ago.
I flicked back the hair from my face, which had blocked part of my eyesight when I went all out on Harley. For the first time, I had attacked someone unprovoked and no one said anything. I walked around the room with a grin.
Power is nice.
I hope you enjoyed this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it (which was a lot)
Reviews are much appreciated.
I don't any of the characters (except for certain characters which any genius can guess) and locations, those belong to the Pokemon Company. I only really own the plot.
