Chapter 6: The Calm before the Storm

"Mr. Kuststad, we have repeatedly interrogated the few left behind. It seems that they not only had nothing useful to say, but were actually in a trance of sorts."

"Well, Commander, do you have anything NEW to tell me?"

"Yes, sir. It's their leader. His name is Gregers von Slav. Formerly a radical leftist politician."

The projector screen showed a younger Gregers in a suit at a campaign rally.

"Anyway, Gregers at first seemed only to oppose oil, claiming it would run out and pollute."

"And that is what prompted me to have this company ease up on production, so that our reserve lifespan increased by 290. PLUS, thanks to him we add detergent to our oil to make it cleaner."

The merc commander smiled. "Yes, you remember him. Anyway, something bizarre happened to him. He then extended his hatred to natural gas, coal, and even renewable synthetic fuels. He began to hate all forms of technology."

"Finally one day he decided to go for a swim in the ocean near Pacifidlog Settlement. He was never until now seen again."

The next slide saw a much more unkempt Gregers leading an attack.

"Gregers and his gang called the Defenders of Nature began mounting guerilla raids on the drilling platforms. As a result, production dropped to levels unheard of before. Thankfully, because of your mercenaries, the production level is now back at absolute maximum."

Alexi Kuststad stared at the commander: "And what about these 'Regis'?"

"They are supposedly artificially created and extremely powerful Pokemon. Gregers wants to unleash them. He means to do so using this."

A picture of a very young woman of about twenty with extremely skinny features and terribly messy teal hair appeared on the slide. "Her name is only Laleh. Born to Gregers and one of the female Defenders-"

Suddenly a voice spoke up. "I can explain about this, Mr. Kuststad."

It was a woman in her fourties who looked just like an older and aged version of the person in the picture. Kuststad motioned for a group of mercs to escort her out. "Please, Mr. Kuststad. I'm her mother!"

This surprised everyone.

"OK, you can explain. Please tell all."

"All right. Back when I was younger, we were all people who had grown disgusted with Technology and were living in our undersea hideout. Me and Gregers fell in love, and we had our baby."

"The most bizarre part was when he would insist on feeding me special chemicals he had concocted when I was pregnant. I thought they were just remedies until finally I found that my daughter was special. She could activate these messages left behind by these ancient peoples. But Gregers didn't love her."

"He saw her only as a tool to achieve his ends. I tried to talk him out of it but he beat me up and shut me in a dark room until I behaved. Then he went and ran off to look for the Regis with the able-bodied members and left the weak women and children behind."

"You mean you weren't the only women in the hideout?"

"No, Mr. Kuststad. The young, fit women are helping him look for the Regis. The ones that can't fight are left behind."

"I see. Well, I'm sorry but for now you'll have to go back to your cell. Thank you for your information."

And the mercs escorted her out.

The merc commander glanced at Alexi. "Sir, what do you want to do with these people?"

"Oh, just give the sane ones like that woman a chance to work for HPP as janitors and the like. The crazy ones, send em to the loony bin" he said with a laugh.

Far away, Ivan and Laleh were out of the desert and relaxing in a small café. Ivan had let his Pokemon outside to give them some fresh air, and the mood was a very relaxed one. But then he wrote a note and gave it to Laleh. The note went like this:

LALEH: GREGERS MIGHT BE SPYING ON US SO I CAN'T TALK OUT LOUD. THE PLAN IS TO WANDER AIMLESSLY TO STALL FOR TIME UNTIL WE CAN GET THE AUTHORITIES TO LISTEN. WHILE WE DO THAT I CAN SHOW YOU TECHNOLOGY SOME MORE. AS SOON AS YOU'RE DONE READING THIS NOTE, CRINKLE IT UP AND TEAR IT TO PIECES!

Ivan said "So what do you think of my plan to open a bank account?"

She did so and smiled. "Pretty nice idea, huh?"

But he really referred to the note.

"Listen, Laleh. This is just the calm before the storm."