Episode 18: The Calm before the Calm before the Storm.
Art is the expression of one's soul; the voice if a person's inner creativity. The world is their canvas and they can paint some of the most beautiful and touching of things for people to truly relate to.
Yet Anto was having a horrible time dressed up in Snubull-themed jumpsuit/tights while wearing a terrible luchadore mask all while standing on a thin catwalk over barrels of acid.
Anto was really starting to wonder what cosmic deity he insulted or wronged in his past life to incur such cruel and unusual suffering as he was right now.
"OK, Anto," Anto slowly, you could even swear his neck was creaking as he turned, glanced over to a flushed White who was laughing nervously. "I-I know that this… isn't what you had in mind."
"Thank you, detective."
Yep, he said that so straight faced, if she didn't know better, she would have thought he wasn't angry or sarcastic… probably both really. "OK, I promised Director S. Might Nhamalan, and co Director Bicheal May a new stunt double/extra and you just saved my life! So thank you!"
"All in a day's work really. All I had to give up was what was left of my dignity. Do you want me to rip out pieces of my heart for you to throw into the incinerator when you run out of wood? Maybe surrender my soul as your appetizer when you have dinner with lovecraftian horrors later on?" Again his deadpan was so great, she might have taken him seriously out of context.
White bowed apologetically to Anto. "I'm so sorry really! But I was desperate and you offered help! I couldn't ask Black because I forced him to be Liza's handmaid—I mean under-under study?"
"I know that's not a real show biz term. And I have Amnesia!" Anto mentally screamed back at her. "How many more a good men must you rope into your sick wiles of helplessness!?"
White blinked at Anto's rather poetic wording. "Oh wow that was actually really good. Now if only you could actually speak those words you'd make a great wordsmith…" White commented.
"White!?"
"Sorry again Anto! You're still a life saver!" White bowed as she heard her name called by someone else away from the set.
As soon as she left, Anto paled as he heard a megaphone.
"Alright! I want this next scene to be played out violently as possible! One of the helpless minions patrolling the cat walk gets sidelined like a bowling pin when the hero comes in his new power boost! I want the minion to be the newest symbol of the word, "Wrecked"!"
Anto stared over to the Co-director's chair before he suddenly heard a heavy thud in front of him. A rather massive and buff, almost robotic like figure descended in front of him.
"This time, Champion of Socks, I'll 'sock it to ya'!" The robot proclaimed in staged acting before throwing back his fist.
Anto did not remember what happened next except for having a strange sensation of being struck by something heavy and metallic.
[Later…]
Wes walked into the set casually before he heard rather painful bone crunching sound echoing even through the back ground.
"NO!" The megaphone guy screamed. "I need the bone crunching sound to be even louder than that! Try to punch the pathetic minion again, but really feel like he deserves to be hit with the equivalent of a high speed train!"
The Snagger raised his brow questioningly before looking to the sad looking kid crawling slowly in amazing pain. An Audino came up and used a Healing Pulse attack on the kid, healing all his injuries quickly. Before the kid could get back up; however, other people were already grabbing the boy's legs and dragging him back up the set. Wes felt a sense of odd familiarity as he watched the masked minion desperately grab on to the smooth floor, as if he recognized someone with luck that bad.
"Man, poor guy."
Wes glanced over to two people loitering around the corner. One of them was a really small kid with blond hair that almost looked styled as a boomerang or a crescent moon, and wearing green clothes. The other was a girl wearing blue clothes but she was obviously sulking and leaning on the wall.
The small kid continued to comment. "I heard that Bichael May's movies had over the top stunts, but I didn't realize he actually put his stunt men through actual stunts before he has Audino or Chansey heal the guys with Healing Pulse. It's no wonder I always hear how he gets into trouble with Unions and such."
"Stop!" The three of them turned to the Director, S. Might Nhamalan. "I just had an idea for a twist! That one minion stumbles on to the discarded and malfunctioning time hopper and appears in every new area of the story to explode! Someone, attach explosives to that minion!"
Wes blinked. "I always did hear that S. Might Nhamalan thinks of the most unexplained of things… interesting to see him work up close," He turned back to the two. "My name is Wes by the way." He casually introduced himself as the background exploded behind him.
"I'm Emerald and this pouter is Sapphire," The young boy motioned to the girl who just continued to brood. "Don't mind her. She's only like this because her boyfriend is being unfaithful to her."
"He's not my boyfriend!" Sapphire snapped.
"So what are you doing here, Wes?" Emerald casually moved the topic.
"I'm looking for my friend. Though, I have this odd sense I know where he is…" Wes was interrupted by another, louder explosion and the sound of something landing hard on the padded floors.
"Man that is one dedicated stunt man." Emerald complimented.
"What makes you say that?" Sapphire asked.
"I mean he keeps getting back up there without a single complaint. I think any normal person would have complained at least once, but that guy? He hasn't said a thing. He must be laser focused on helping this movie be a success."
"… Or he could be Mute." Wes added in bluntly.
"What?" Both of them asked quickly.
Suddenly, some of the props parted violently and out came the minion looking out of breath, beaten up, and covered in soot. His face seemed to lock to Wes and he threw himself on to Wes' feet, clinging them tightly while shivering in a horrified manner.
"Yep. Guys meet Anto, one of my friends," Wes nonchalantly introduced them to the kid who looked like he was sobbing but was making no sound. "He's mute."
"WES HELP." Anto's voice popped into Wes' head, but the Snagger noticed that Sapphire and Emerald didn't seem to notice.
Wes sighed before looking around and spotting something of interest. "HEY EVERYONE! THE BAGEL CART IS HERE!"
His words, much like a prophet, made everyone listen to him and enmass towards the legendary snack cart. The four even heard the directors shouting for a ten minute break.
Anto got up and hugged Wes like never before. … Because had never hugged Wes until this very moment, and with the way he was not letting go no matter what, it was more than likely going to be the last time Anto would ever be allowed to hug Wes.
"Anto—Anto, let go. OK, I get it, I'm cool; it's a gift—I admit— but seriously—let go!" Wes struggled to get the eternally grateful younger boy off him.
Emerald and Sapphire laughed at the two.
"Wow you two sure get along." Sapphire commented.
"Would you believe we just met almost a month ago?" Wes continued to try and pry of the clingy boy off him. "Don't make me pry you off with Espeon!"
Emerald chuckled. "Why don't you tell him why you were looking for him in the first place?"
Wes blinked. "Oh right. Thanks," Wes took out a folded piece of paper and placed it in front of Anto's face. "Hey, Anto, I need you to sign this waiver—" Anto lurched back in panic. "—For a Pokémon battle tournament." Wes quickly finished much to the relief of the minion.
Sapphire perked up at that. "There's actually a Pokémon battle tournament here!?"
"Yeah, I just found out about it too. I was hopping Anto could join as well since he and I never officially battled each other yet." Wes then looked at it again and read off it. "Oh. It also says here that even employees here will be excused for the tournament if they joi—"
The paper Wes was holding vanished almost in thin air as Anto scribbled his signature into the waiver and pushed the paper back to Wes. Somehow defying logic by having a pen with him somewhere among those tights...
"… Great, I guess I'm done here. See ya later when the tournament starts." Wes waved goodbye-much to the dismay of the young brunette trapped in volunteer work.
"Hey! Is registration over!?" Sapphire cried out.
"No… but almost. I think it ends two hours before it starts, so you've got… three hours to sign up still. But I think they're only accepting up to the first 128." Wes explained.
"I totally want to join! I can't wait to see what kind of trainers from all over the world will be like!" Sapphire pumped.
"What about Ruby?" Emerald asked.
Before Sapphire could comment, she was interrupted by a girlish squeal.
"Oh my gosh! That is so clever with what you did with your Milotic, Ruby!" A rather stylish girl with blue hair wearing a dress that looked themed around an Altaria gushed as she talked to a boy wearing red.
"Why thank you, Lisia! I made sure that Mimi is at her top condition 24/7!" The boy showed off as the girl clung to his arm. Wes, Emerald, and Anto noticed Sapphire snarling at the girl.
"Do we need to restrain her?" Wes whispered to Emerald.
"You couldn't if you tried…" Emerald offered.
Ruby then looked behind him to some poor sap carrying a lot of red cloaks. "Hurry up Errand Boy, all the good snacks might be taken."
Anto momentarily removed his mask as he spotted some familiar looking pants. "Black?" He spoke to only Wes.
"Why the heck am I carrying all of these red cloaks!?" Black's voice came out slightly muffled from the pile.
"You're calling them red?!" Ruby cried out in surprise. "I'll have you know you are carrying an array of shades such as Garnet, Scarlet, Crimson, and my personal favorite, Ruby! How could you possibly say they're red! Are you color blind!?"
"Are you serious?" Black softly whined to himself before groaning. "I'm sorry sir, won't happen again." He robotically repeated out loud before trailing after the two people he had to shadow. His eyes met with Anto and he mouthed. "HELP ME."
"Come on! The Vice President promised me you'd be great and menial tasks!" Lisia told Black as he sadly trialed after them.
The four of them sweat-dropped as the other three left the area.
"Well Anto, looks like you're not the only one suffering." Wes commented.
"Alright folks, back to your stations! Where's my minion number zero!?"
"Now let me show you guys where to sign in." Wes said rather quickly, motioning Sapphire and Emerald to leave.
Anto wanted to leave with them, but then White's pleading voice echoed into Anto's conscious.
He sighed before regrettably walking back.
"You're a great guy, Anto! Which is why when you die, I won't sell your stuff and keep them myself for sentimental value and other emotional crap people convince themselves to keep useless trinkets!"
Anto just assumed that was the highest honor and morale support Wes could possibly give, which—while admirable—was horrible and not uplifting in the slightest.
As the boy walked sadly back, he walked by a rather tall but beautiful woman with auburn hair tied up in a bun and light blue eyes under glasses older woman smiling back at him.
"Aren't you a kind boy? Going back to something you don't like and seeing it through for a friend?" She giggled. " You remind me of my son… despite whatever character he shows, he's very loyal to his friends."
Anto blinked and tilted his head at her.
" My name is Jennifer Akio," The woman smiled warmed up. "I'll be cheering you on in silence. You can definitely do this."
Anto's eyes lighted up.
Jennifer giggled lightly at the reaction. "For a mute, you are quite expressive. That is so different from my son," She said before starting to leave. "You should meet him one day. I think you'd make good friends."
Anto was grateful there was someone going to help him. That little bit of support from a kind and beautiful strange might have been what he needed… sorta.
It was something at least.
He placed the stupid mask back on then walked back into the set.
Tracey was looking over the countless fliers and stacks of formal papers nearby White's desk.
The master Suite Anto managed to let them all stay in was even bigger than he originally imagined. This room even had three different large 52 inch screen plasma Television sets!
It was a rather luxurious spot, and while it seemed rude to stay here, they didn't have much of a choice. Last night, Wes, Tracey, and Anto had to sleep in the couch while Summer and White stayed on the beds.
While White was originally skeptical of Wes, Summer assured her he was under house arrest and deemed… 'insignificant, pacified, and domesticated' member of society under the watchful eye of Summer.
Yes, even Tracey noticed the leer in Wes' gaze when she said that, but refused to speak since they might get to sleep outside like she had Black do.
As of right now, everyone except him was out…
Well, the humans anyway.
All of the Pokémon, including his, Anto's, Wes', and Summer's were actually spread out in the living room area of the suite watching the main television.
He overheard them as he passed by. But since Flow and Espeon were relaxing, he couldn't really understand what they were saying.
However, if he did...
"Ohko… why did you decide to make us watch Johto afternoon dramas?" Espeon asked as he watched the woman dramatically slap the man… then walk away and slip on a banana peel and fall down some stairs… in slow motion for dramatic effect. "We can only translate things from organic people. Flow and I can't translate from a machine."
The blue Pokémon shrugged. "To be honest I dunno. I just have this weird cravin to watch these things, ya know? It almost feels like some guy cursed me to watch these things or somethin."
Lily and Takezo just flinched as they remembered something from Ohko's first fight with Burgh's Swadloon.
"Do we tell him?" Takezo whispered to Lily.
"Sorry, I'm trying my best to suppress my memories of that Swadloon." Lily whispered back before saying this next part, "Why don't we just watch the scenes and add our own dialogues?"
"Ooh!" Umbreon exclaimed as the next scene showed a man in a Crawdaunt costume trying to dramatically scratch a lotto ticket with his silk-like and smooth claws. He was also crying for some reason. "Dibs on this one! 'I will get enough money to one day eat my delicious self'!"
Tracey left the Pokémon to have their fun until a knock came into the door.
Opening, the door, Tracey saw Summer greet him along with a Pokémon Ranger beside her.
"Aster, meet Tracey Skecthit." Summer explained as her friend came closer to the younger man and her Bagon, coming in and walking towards the television.
"Oh wow! I know you!" Summer's friend cooed as she shook hands vigorously with the assistant. "I'm a huge fan of the art work you provide along with Professor Oak's haikus! They're so beautiful!"
Tracey politely answered. "Thank you for that. I didn't expect to see one of Summer's friends so soon."
"Wait!" Aster proclaimed. "She didn't actually tell you about me didn't she?"
"Well… she probably hasn't gotten to that yet. We've only been traveling together in less than a month." Tracey maturely explained. Meanwhile, Summer's eyes widened as she started to realize what she was doing.
"But you know about Ben, don't you?~" The Cheshire grin on Aster's face was hard to miss.
"Oh yes, Summer doesn't stop talking about him." Tracey, while polite, did not realize he just sprung the trap.
"Oho?~" Aster cooed looking at Summer. "Aww I can't believe you forgot about your bestie! But even friendship pales to the power of love.~"
"I-It's not like that!" Summer shrieked quickly.
"I can't believe you still have a huge crush on Ben! It's almost so sad to see you pine for him on those nights we bunkered together and you wistfully staring into the night sky…"
Summer's face turned bright red. "I never did that!"
Tracey chuckled. "How long have you two known each other?" He subtly changed the topic for Summer.
"Aster has been my friend since childhood. We were even in the same class in ranger school," Summer explained. "She's also one of the best friends a girl can ask for."
Tracey blinked. "Oh." He didn't know that Aster was a girl until Summer had just mentioned her as a she. Momentarily, Tracey recalled Misty and wondered why he met more tomboy-ish girls than he expected to.
Aster looked over to the crowd of Pokémon watching television and saw them laughing. She listened in on a bit.
"Oh hello." Lily and some others greeted Bagon.
"My name is Bagon, and that's Aster." Bagon introduced himself.
Flow stood up for him. "Apparently Aster is Bagon's partner and she's an old friend of Summer."
"Welcome then. Want a snack?" Sen asked while munching on some of the food from Tracey's pack. "It's really good."
"Sentinel, how much have you had of that?" D. Wartortle inquired suspiciously.
"Are you calling me fat!?" Sen misinterpreted.
"Dude, you're a skeleton and undead. I'm surprised you actually need to eat." Umbreon commented out.
Sen froze mid munching as he let those words sink in. "…"
"I… think you broke him," Espeon then scoffed. "Bah whatever; be quiet guys! It's my turn to translate this scene! 'Here is my Ultimatum! Paper?! … Or PLASTIC'!?"
Aster suddenly laughed, surprising Tracey and Summer.
"You've got some fun and lively Pokémon there," Aster said sweetly.
Both Tracey and Summer looked back to their Pokémon, specifically Flow and Espeon who both seemed pre occupied with the television. They both were relaxing and putting down the link, so the two currently didn't understand them.
"Aster, do you know what they're saying?" Summer inquired as she pointed to the Pokémon.
"Oh right…" Aster confirmed. "Well umm, let's just say me going solo wasn't as smooth as I'd like it to be. … I'm just going to say one mission went bad, fast."
Summer was then reminded of how she, Jack and Ketih faced a strong Pokémon and how bad things got. She also frowned and started to worry that the longer that they were gone without sign, the more she feared the worst, and she had just almost forgotten completely about them!
Tracey, recognizing the change in the air and remembering Summer's plight from when they had first encountered the Absol, called out. "Hey! There's this amazing coffee brew down at Regal street that's really good! How about the three of us go and get a drink from there!"
Aster seemed happy to take the change in subject. "I would love to. Come on, let's go." She said as she went ahead.
Tracey quickly turned to Summer. "Summer, I know you are worried, but if your friends are even half of who you are they should be fine. We'll get them back, I'm sure of it." Tracey truly hope he wasn't wrong about this, but for now he just needed a little faith since at the back of his head he noticed how the creature never really seemed to try and kill anyone but Anto.
Summer relaxed a bit and sighed. "… Thanks Tracey… but I worry; you know?"
He placed a hand on her shoulder. "I know. I'd be worried sick if it was my friends that were gone and it was my fault. But the only clue we have to finding them is with Anto. We need to wait."
"Thanks again Tracey," Summer said. "I don't know what we'd do without you."
"Well, you wouldn't know where they're selling that great coffee is for one!" Tracey tried to cheer her up. "Come on, I think we kept Aster waiting long enough."
Uncle Bob's coffee stand, due to the amount of popularity it was receiving, was allowed to expand and be allowed extra tables and umbrellas with people enjoying the brew and other baked snacks along with it.
While Summer, Tracey, and Aster where on one side, exclaiming how this really was good coffee, on the other side of the area, two people were having a slightly more awkward conversation.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"… Lucario, help me here."
"Sorry Master, what do you want me to do? Do you want me to get Raichu?"
"No! I want things to get better, not worse!" Sebastian cried out.
Jamie looked between his Lucario and Sebastian. "You can talk to your Pokémon?"
Sebastain rubbed his head. "It's not as rare as people think," Sebastian answered. "There are Pokémon like Lucario here, who can project their language through aura. Lucario, give him a show."
"Hello. A pleasure to meet you." Lucario bowed politely.
Jamie blinked. "Oh wow. That's so weird, but cool! Can all your Pokémon do that?"
"Well no. Just Lucario thankfully. But she is my translator for everyone else in my team." Sebastian explained.
"Really? What other Pokémon do you have?"
Sebastian put out his hand to count the other five, each representing a finger. "Well there's Charizard, my starter; Dragonite, she warms up to others slowly but can be quite competitive; Lucario as you see here, the more mundane among my party; Raichu, she's kind of the type to get in trouble because she creates it; Leafeon, always smiling and happy; and Lapras, the youngest, I got him from an egg, so imagine my surprise when he hatched as I was carrying him."
Lucario laughed.
"Hey. Let's see you handle being crushed by almost a thousand pound newborn," Sebastian leered as his steel type before looking to Jamie. "So James, are you a trainer too?"
Jamie nodded, but he seemed slightly hesitant for some reason before sighing. "I've got a Sylveon, Fletchinder, and Golurk."
Sebastian raised his brow at the mention of the second Pokémon. "Fletchinder? Aren't they found in Kalos?"
"Yes. I'm from Kalos. I came here for the Music Festival."
Lucario blinked. For one seconds something in her Aura felt off, but she didn't know where it came from or what caused it. She then decided to look into it later.
"Well, I came here to join this year's league. So far it's been rather boring since I have fully evolved Pokémon… but this Music festival actually seems more interesting." Sebastian glanced around.
A female maid walked up to the two. "Excuse me sirs, terribly sorry, but we are full right now, so may we ask you share a seat with one more customer?"
"Sure."
"I don't mind."
The maid came up and introduced another man to the seat. "Are you alright with this seat sir?"
Sebastian and Jamie stared as a purple haired trainer around the same age as Sebastian sat with them on a different chair. There was also a Bisharp following around and it stared back at Lucario. What really caught their eyes was the sword the dude was carrying. Weren't weapons not allowed or something or was that a prop to one of the booths?
The costumer nodded silently and sat down with a cup of coffee before he drank from it. With that the maid left them to continue her work.
"Uh. Hi." Sebastian started.
"Hey." The stranger answered.
"…"
"…"
"…"
Sebastian coughed. "Erhm! Well my name is Sebastian Wong and this is Jamie Stanton. And you are…?"
"Arran Valliquete." He sipped his coffee.
"…"
"…"
"…"
"OK, suddenly, I wish the tournament started now instead of later." Sebastian sighed as he slumped into his chair.
Arran raised his brow at the mention of that. "You are joining the tournament?"
"Yes, and so is Jamie here."
"Huh. You any good?"
"I… think of myself as pretty fair in battling." Sebastian started.
Arran's Bisharp glanced over to Sebastian's Lucario before looking back at Arran.
"Guess this means that it won't be so boring later on."
Jamie placed a hand on his face. "You could try having a normal conversation with people."
"I dislike that."
Jamie rolled his eyes. "Anyway, I heard after the first round of the tournament, the Go Rock Quads are going to play a concert with their new single, Square Symphony."
"Oh I've heard that! It's really good." Arran and Sebastian said.
It looked like the three boys had something to talk about after all.
N pondered in deep thought at what the boy said.
Stop thinking so much! Being with Pokémon is supposed to be fun!
Being with Pokémon is supposed to be fun!? … Wait… as a kid he did enjoy being with Pokémon, and how soft and kind they truly were. … Come to think of it, when did last have fun with Pokémon? Recently actually, when he befriended new Pokémon and played with them. But why did Anto's Pokémon look like they were having fun?
A small thought crossed his mind that he didn't really think about till now. First, he thought that humans treated all Pokémon cruelly and forced them to their own ideals. Black challenged that belief and openly said that Pokémon and humans can work together and become something better.
Yet Anto? He didn't seem to see anything wrong at all. He did not seem ignorant in the slightest—he actually can understand Pokémon just as him! However, instead of N trying to preach the errors of his ways, Anto turned the tables on him and just told him to be happy.
The Pokémon are suffering while at the hands of humans! How could he be happy while his friends are suffering!?
I dunno, I just felt like… you needed to hear that most of all. That there's more to the world than one person thinks, so you shouldn't try to force your ideas on people and Pokémon you never met before.
N thought back to when both the Patrat and Anto laughed. It wasn't forced, and was simple and pure. Was that really a Pokémon suffering? And to be honest… what exactly did he know about that Patrat other than it being unusually clever, a masterful swordsman, and now following the boy almost willingly?
"N?"
N looked over to the bench next to him and saw his Zorua looking at him worryingly.
"I'm fine. I'm just thinking." N petted the head of the dark type.
"If you are simply deep in thought, then perhaps you would like to take a break and drink with me?"
N looked over and smiled at the old man offering him a soda can. Rood, one of the Six Sages, and personally one of N's favorite among them. Ever since he was young, Rood was always like the fun grandfather he never had. Whenever he had duties, Rood would always sneak in something fun in the exercise for him to enjoy. Whenever N wanted sweets, Rood would always scold him publically in spoiling his food, before slyly handing him a chocolate bar when Ghetsis wasn't looking. If there was anyone that was closest to being best friends with N that was human, it was Rood.
N smiled as he took the soda and let the old man sit next to him in the bench. "A drink sounds wonderful. Thank you Rood."
"A pleasure Lord N, anything for the future King," He said before sighing. "… Now would you like to tell me what is wrong?"
"How did you know?"
"If you will excuse me my liege, I was the one who taught you how to sneak out of the castle when you were seven. I was the one who taught you those tricks." He inflated with pride. N chuckled lightly at his friend. It was nice to have someone to confide in when his two female caretakers were back at the castle.
N drank the nice cold soda. "… You see Rood…" Before explaining how a new boy defied his expectations.
"Hmm…" Rood rubbed his beard. "Even the way you describe him doesn't make him sound like a bad child… nor ignorant. In fact, he seemed more concern about you than his relationship with his Pokémon. I can see why you are bothered by it."
"… To be honest, I can simply dismiss him since he actually seems mundane… but why is it that something completely basic as 'having fun' is throwing all of my ideals more out of whack than Black's challenge to mine? Is it because he too can listen to Pokémon?" N asked.
"… To be honest My liege, I honestly don't know. He is probably right in saying that the world is bigger than we give it credit for. However, perhaps he doesn't know how the world works as well if it also applies to him. Maybe you are right and he's wrong."
"His eyes… they were just so simple, so straight forward with those words though. I didn't get the feeling he was wrong." N explained.
"But has he actually disproved your theory? You said something like it awhile back: he isn't disproving your ideals, but exists outside of it—in a sense. You could confront him again later on in your journey. Some questions are not always solved at the first try."
N absorbed his words slowly. "… I suppose. Thank you Rood."
"Please, it is an honor to help the King," Rood smiled gently.
"Lord Rood!"
The three turned over to see a little girl and woman coming their way wearing Team Plasma Uniform.
"There's a monster!" The young girl screamed.
The older woman looked exasperated and bowed apologetically to the two. "I am so sorry my lords! My daughter is just tired from traveling so far!"
Rood raised a hand, motioning the mother's head back up. "It is alright," He turned to the girl with a gentle smile, calming them both. "What's your name young one?"
"… Whi-two."
Rood chuckled. "Such a unique name, you should be proud to have it. Now tell me Whi-two, what's wrong?"
"There was a monster! She was scary!"
"She?" Both Rood and N repeated.
The mother answered. "Actually, my lords… we've been robbed."
The two's faces showed even more shock and panic.
"What happened?" N asked as he stood up.
"A-Several Shipments of Uniforms have been stolen."
Rood and N looked to each other.
"Uniforms? Our uniforms have been stolen?" Rood asked for clarification.
"Perhaps I should explain. We had received a new shipment for new uniforms and we had placed them in the back with some of our papers and funding to keep our booths here in the festival. I left for one second, leaving my daughter in the room to watch. But then I heard her shriek and ran back in. She was screaming monster the entire time and the shipments of our Uniform mysteriously vanished."
"What else was stolen?" Rood asked.
She shook her head. "After checking, it was just the uniforms. They didn't even touch some of the money or papers."
N looked to the girl. "Excuse me. Can you… describe this monster?"
She walked the dark halls, powerful but professional. Her blonde, gold hair and fierce red eyes stood out from the darkness. Her model like figure looked more like a ruse to those who were not sharp enough to see the deadly serious air around her.
"Ahh! Welcome back, Inquisitor! … What's in the box?" Warden asked.
"It is part of the plan. These Containers hold several hundred pounds of Team Plasma uniforms." Inquisitor answered formally. "Are the masks ready?"
"Yep and everyone is setting up everything quietly. No one even notices us in plain sight!"
"Ey brethren!" Magus jived in with liveliness in his voice. "Guess who recently entered the tournament?"
"Subject 5?" Inquisitor inquired.
Magus nodded. "I'll be settin' up the cameras so we can see what kind of skills Subject 5 be havin."
"Also do the other trainers. They may try to protect him."
"Yeah bos."
She sighed before she opened up a box. In it revealed an iron mask that looked similar to the mask of Entei, but it covered more of the face and looked especially intimidating.
She put on the mask, and the eye lens glowed a scary and deadly red.
{Author Notes}
So yeah, small filler chapter. But I tried to fill it up with character development and jokes to make it feel less fillerish. More action and story plots are to come!
No lie: as I was writing the fake dramas, I actually wanted to watch something that actually does this. Also, the idea of the Pokémon just filling whatever they want when they don't understand is something I do when I watch something in a different language I don't understand.
Oh and yes, I'm making Ohko watch Afternoon Johto Dramas even though he doesn't understand it. THE SMILEY FACE DEMANDS IT! *Cough* What? I like running gags.
By the way, eat bagels. This story is really an elaborate propaganda to promote people to eating more blue berry bagels! MWAHAHA! (Joke: this is also another running gag.)
They are planning to become less subtle in the future. (expect Anto to wear a bagel costume for an entire episode-probably. I'll work it in somehow!)
Also, I LOVED writing the discussion between N and Rood (from Black and White 2 Rood was loyal to N) so I played with this a little and gave Rood a sort of real father or grandfather like figure to N to deepen their relationship. I am happy with how it turned out. It really builds on N's character. I hope it was sweet and touching as I hopped it would be.
It's funny how in this story, even the most random of people can have deep story arcs. Weird huh? And what's this looming Apocalypse thing I keep alluding to?
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What do you mean you forgot about that?
Oh hey more manga characters! I didn't see them there. Especially Whi-two, the Manga makes her look young around this period, even though she's supposed to be ten in two years according to the game... weird... Oh and Whi-two/(Rosa) is more of an Cameo than a solid story plot in this story. At least in this Saga for now.
It looks like Dimension Enterprise (?) hunters are planning something strange with Team Plasma uniforms. What could they do with all of those?
One small little note goes to MangoLimePie, a good friend of mine here in Fanfiction, he and I like to share ideas, and the next chapter has ideas from him! Go read his stories! They're pretty great! (You can go to his account through some of his reviews in my story.)
Anyway, next chapter we get into the battling with all these characters! Get ready! And Let's see how much Anto get's the short straw! Thanks a lot for reading!