Chapter 21: Galactic Power, Inc.
It was mid-morning when the rain finally stopped. Lucas had spent the night in a small cave that kept him mostly water-free, but when he woke up his fingers and toes were still wrinkled and numb with cold. He was suddenly acutely aware of human anatomy as he could feel each and every one of his two-hundred and six bones individually throb with a dull ache. He pulled himself out of his small shelter and carefully stretched out his limbs and pumped his fingers in tight fists to force blood and warmth back into them. He looked around to see that the rain had left the trees and other foliage green and bright but the teen boy still couldn't shake the feeling of being a drowned rat. He proceeded to peel off the sopping wet clothing that was stubbornly sticking to his body. The young man looked around to make sure there was no one coming as he stripped naked, though at this point he little cared if he was caught, and rummaged through his bag for his towel and dry clothes. The teen rang out the soaked garments and stuffed them into a plastic bag, trying to avoid dripping mud onto any of his other property as he shoved the mess back into his duffel. He put on a pair of khaki shorts and a white t-shirt with the black silk-screened logo of a rock band he liked with its requisite skulls and flying bats. It was one of the few shirts he had not removed the sleeves from, a choice he was now grateful for making.
Lucas strapped back on his belt with his Pokeballs and put Gizmo's Pokeball necklace back around his neck, envious his no-doubt perfectly dry and warm team in their water-proof traveling storage were faring much better than he was. He fiddled with his limp mohawk, as he began once again walking to his next destination, but chose to leave his hair alone. It needed to be re-dyed soon anyway and it was a moot point to shellac it back into place when his first stop in Veilstone City would be the Pokemon Center and its promised amenities of a hot shower and washing machine. As the skyline of the next town became visible his pace quickened and there was more spring in his step, the promise of warm, dry shelter calling to him like a siren's song.
In the midst of daydreams of hot water and a dry bed Lucas almost failed to notice what was around him, but as his brain finally registered his surroundings and who was gathered a short distance in front of him, he stopped dead in his tracks. The uniforms, even with covered with damp, clear ponchos and fitted plastic caps were immediately recognizable. It was Team Cosmic. And discussing a map and file of paperwork with an underling was Major Mathias. Quickly, Lucas ducked behind a tree hoping for the element of surprise, but a startled Staravia darting from a tree blew his cover. The Major immediately noticed the disturbance, and motioned for two of his grunts to go investigate.
Unlike the other grunts from Mt. Coronet, these two minions were built like brick walls, and had no trouble dragging Lucas in front of their leader. Even with their steel wire muscles Lucas still managed to rip his arm from one of the two's grip and clock the other in the sciatic nerve of the thigh, sending him buckling. The downed man's companion balled up his fist to retaliate for his friend's pain, but Major Mathias lifted up his hand in warning to leave the boy untouched. The grunt stepped back submissively and the older man immediately turned his attention to the teenaged Trainer, "Well if it isn't my old friend Lucas, no doubt coming to Veilstone to get his precious little badge from the precious Pokemon League Gym. I had hoped I'd run into you again,"
"Yeah, I bet. I have some ideas of what you'd try to do if you got a hold me, Captain Bad Touch," Lucas blushed at the memory of Mathias' offer in Mt. Coronet.
"That's Major Bad Touch if you don't mind," the commander of Team Cosmic replied drolly.
"So you came here to steal more people's Pokemon? Think you can swipe the Gym Leader's Pokemon or something?" Lucas snarled, eying the dozen or so grunts Mathias had gathered.
"Mere theft is not our target for this operation. Our interests are actually recruitment. There is someone here that our leader would very much like to join us. A man called Saturn, a former commander of the disbanded Team Galactic," The Major explained, "Of course, he's no where near as good looking as you, so if you ever change your mind about joining you'll always have a high position in my ranks,"
The pierced boy grimaced. Not even five minutes and he's already propositioning me, "So why are you pulling a James Bond and telling me your plan? You know I'm going to get away, and as soon as I do I'm heading straight for the police,"
"Go ahead," Mathias flashed his snake-like smile sending a shudder down Lucas' spine. He reached into his overcoat and pulled out a folded piece of paper. He unfolded it leisurely and began reading its contents, "Vandalism, forty hours community service. Harassment and Loitering, thirty hours of community service. Aggravated assault, one month incarceration at a youth detention facility. Vandalism, fifty hours community service and a very large fine. Aggravated Assault, three months incarceration, two-hundred and fifty hours community service and a fine and another Aggravated Assault case pending. My, my, you have been a naughty boy."
Lucas ground his teeth as his old crimes were once again shoved in face, "So what's your point?"
"My point, my young friend, is that you can go to the police all you like. And we at Team Cosmic can very easily make it look like you have an outstanding warrant. Not very hard to believe with this wrap sheet of yours. And I didn't even list off all of it, just your greatest hits. While you'll be wasting away in some station waiting for everything to being straightened out, our objectives will be met without interference. Police tend to not believe the word of a Juvenile Delinquent," Mathias placed the paper back into pocket triumphantly. He motioned to his grunts to move out and turned back to the young Trainer one more time as they headed down the path, "I'll see you around Lucas, and don't forget, my offer always stands,"
As much as Lucas hated to admit it, the Team Cosmic commander was right. If what he was saying was true, going to the police would be a dead end. But there had to be a way to stop them. Though Lucas knew next to nothing about Sinnoh, he did know about Team Galactic. The story was all over the news a little over two years ago. A group came the closest a criminal operation had come to destroying the world. They had escaped detection by fronting as a mere power company, until they were infiltrated by the Pokemon League and disbanded. Team Galactic still existed, but this time really as the benign energy corporation they claimed to be. Lucas had seen the billboards and posters for the company, Galactic Inc., along side advertisements for Devon/Silph Corp. Additionally, one of their old hideouts was the building Lucas' brother John had been inspecting rather than pick up his little brother from the docks when he first arrived in the region. He wasn't aware the headquarters were in Veilstone City, but now that he was here he had to interfere with Team Cosmic's plans. Now alone again the young man racked his brain for a solution. Suddenly a small, desperate plan formed in his head: maybe he could beat Cosmic to the punch. If he could get to Saturn first, then maybe he could ask him, beg him or threaten him into not joining the group that promised to eliminate weak Pokemon from the world.
It was worth a shot. After all, it was the only choice he had. Lucas sighed to himself. This meant the opportunity to get clean and rested at the Pokemon Center would have to wait.
Veilstone City was much smaller than Hearthome in terms of area, but it was still an impressively large city. A hilly, rock filled town, rather than move or destroy the natural stony feel to the area, the buildings were built on top of the geological features. This naturally made all the buildings taller, but additionally Veilstone was heavily populated by skyscrapers dozens of stories tall. Lucas didn't have much time to marvel at the architecture, he had to find Galactic's main office. He had confidence he would get there before Team Cosmic, as it was much easier for an individual to travel through a city than a group. And even if Lucas couldn't go to the police directly, he doubted Team Cosmic could exactly through a parade down main street, either. With Pokevice in hand, Lucas located his target. The Galactic Power Company Incorporated was just a block away from the Pokemon Center. The teen was tempted to stop, but he reminded himself time was of the essence.
The Galactic building was one of those artsy pieces of architecture that enabled it to remain distinct amongst the otherwise identical skyscrapers. It was about ten stories tall and tapered upwards, distinctly colored blue and white with sky-blue glass with the top looking like some type of spaceship. He had heard of a similar looking building was located in the American city of Seattle. The lobby of the building was spacious and open. Uniformed employees piled in and out of the elevator as they started or ended their shifts and a cool feminine voice happily announced slogans from the overhead system, "Galactic Power, powering Sinnoh and the future. Galactic Power, working for you while not over-working nature. Galactic Power, companies can care, we're one of them,"
After listening for several minutes to see if the announcements were more useful beyond promoting the company, Lucas crossed the tiled floor to the reception desk, "Where is Saturn?"
"I'm sorry, the CEO doesn't see anyone without an appointment. Do you have an appointment?" the receptionist was a green-haired girl with purple lipstick. Her eyes gave the dirty, haggard teen a skeptical once-over, but her cheery, helpful smile never wavered.
Crap. Lucas thought. Saturn is the CEO of the company. It made sense. Team Cosmic's mission was based off of power and strength. It would make sense to want to recruit someone from a wealthy company. Those in positions of influence in a company could be ruthless and there was little more powerful in the world than money. The teen still needed to try to dissuade Saturn from joining but he had no idea how he would get to him now. When the receptionist's cheeriness seemed to turn to distrust Lucas had to think of something before he'd get thrown out, "My school is making us do a paper on the power company. I was just wondering what the CEO did all day and where he spent most of his time. You know, something different from everyone else interested in just how the power company itself worked,"
The receptionist's smile returned and she motioned to a line forming by one of the elevators, "We do a tour twice a day. If you like you can join it. Our tour guides would be more than happy to answer any questions you have. You'll have to hurry, it's just about to start,"
"Thanks! That's a big help," with a smile of relief he ran over to the tour.
The group was made up of typical tourists: old retirees looking for something to do, a couple classes of disgruntled children who had a million ideas for better field trips than this and a few of those quiet, uninteresting people who genuinely found these kind of tours fascinating. Lucas knew he stuck out badly, but at this point opinions of him were the last thing on his mind. Another unnaturally cheerful woman with short green hair and a plastic smile held up a sign indicating the tour and lead everyone into the elevator, "Welcome everyone to Galactic Power Company Incorporated and we thank you for coming in to see how we work today. Galactic provides electricity and heat to everyone in Sinnoh, from businesses where you buy your food to the homes you live in. But I bet you wondered where that electricity came from and how a big business like this makes sure everyone's light bulbs light up when they are supposed to,"
Lucas tuned out to most of the information the woman was spouting, concentrating instead on figuring out when he could break away and seek out Saturn. The first floor of the tour revealed nothing of use, though after the second floor of touring the teen noticed something important. By the elevator was a key that indicated what was on each floor. First floor technicians. Second floor accounting. Third floor employee lounge. It was the tenth floor that Lucas became interested it, Executive offices.
"Excuse me, but where is a bathroom?" Lucas announced abruptly. The tour guide looked startled as though her carefully rehearsed speech had never been interrupted before. The teen also got an equal amount of glares from the school children furious he dared to do something that could potentially lengthen the tour by even a couple of minutes, and by the dull people who genuinely cared how important the accountants were to the company.
"Just around the corner. Galactic Power has three sets of bathrooms on every floor. Employee health and hygiene is one of our top priorities," The tour guide said in relief, happy to once again find a place for her robot-like propaganda. With a wave of gratitude and sheepish look for forgiveness, Lucas ran from the group to find 'the bathroom.'
Once out of the tour group's sight, the teen Trainer ran back to the elevator, relieved no one was inside as he stepped in and looked at the numbered panel. Another pitfall. The elevator only went to the 9th floor, a key slot at the bottom of the panel was needed to get off at the executive level. Discouraged but not defeated, Lucas pushed the button for the 9th floor. There had to be a way to get from the 10th floor from the 9th. A set of stairs, another private elevator, something. Lucas held his breath as the elevator went up, worried about what to do if an employee decided to get into his car. The teen boy was not the best at foreseeing potential problems, and now getting caught before reaching his destination felt like a real threat.
Luck, destiny or some pleased higher power was on the teen's side. The elevator made it to the 9th floor undisturbed, and Lucas quickly ducked out and behind a trashcan as he debated his next move. According to the key, this floor was for non-executive offices, the place where underlings made sure daily operations went smoothly and that the correct people were hired were located. The employees on this floor seem preoccupied with their work, or just stupefied by a streak of monotony that entered their daily routines. However, there also seemed to be some larger gentlemen, most likely security, keeping an eagle watch of the floor as they poured themselves water and several-hour-old coffee. Lucas scanned the doors and corridors, trying to guess which could possibly lead to the main boss's office.
A woman passed by with her friend, whining that her boss wanted yet another updated version of the file hand-delivered and cursed the flakey computer system that kept crashing and forcing analog deliver of information. The teen suspected he had a likely target and proceeded to follow her. She came to a door at the end of a long hall with a ten number key-pad next to the wall. With absentminded deftness, she punched in the necessary code so quickly Lucas couldn't even make out how many numbers were in the code, let alone what any of them were. She slipped past the door and shut it tightly behind her. A few minutes later she returned empty-handed, still whining about all the walking she was doing that day. With her gone the corridor the door and hall were left entirely alone, assumed that the electronic lock was enough security to dissuade any mischief-seekers from bothering with it. The teen wasn't sure when another person would pop by to visit the CEO, so he tried to think quickly. Today he was acting far smarter than he usually was, even with this completely improvised plan, but no amount of thinking was going to get the necessary code.
In the movies the hero usually has some computer thing that can override the lock or figure out the code. But I don't have anything like that. Lucas thought to himself, playing with his lip ring so fervently he was surprised to find he accidentally made a small tear that was lightly bleeding. Or do I? Lucas remembered about his Rotom, the playful Pokemon he found in the Old Chateau and how the electric/ghost-type had possessed and controlled a TV. Though security locks were far more complicated than an old TV, it was the best idea he had. Whispering to his Pokemon he told his plan, "Sparky, when I let you out I need you to go inside this keypad and fry it or something until the door opens,"
"Rrrotommm," Sparky said happily as it was released from its Pokeball and did as its Trainer asked. Unfortunately, the Pokemon's call must of have been loud enough to be heard, as two security guards were now running down the hall.
"What are you doing here?"
"C'mon Sparky, hurry," Lucas urged his Pokemon. The teen panicked as the large men rushed him. He wasn't afraid and was fairly certain he could fight them, but he could not afford to fail this close to his goal. He frantically tugged on the door until the keypad beeped with Sparky's success and the entry way popped open. The young man rushed inside and heaved the door closed just as the guards caught up to them. He let out a sigh of relief as he heard the guards yelling and pounding on the door as they called for backup.