Chapter 48: Silph/Devon, Inc.
Lucas couldn't stop looking at his new badge. Though this was technically his tenth earned badge, he was as proud of it as he if it was his first. The previous day's battle against the Petalburg City Gym had been tough. Unaware of the affect his status as Sinnoh Champion had, Lucas challenged the Gym Leader May with a team of lower level Pokemon that he had planned to train on his Journey across Hoenn. However, as a Champion, Lucas was required to face an upper level team all Gym Leaders were required to keep in case of an advanced challenge. But even with his much lower-level Pokemon, with the help of his first Pokemon Gizmo, and a little bit of luck, the teen defeated May.
There was no room for more badges in his old badge case, so after visiting the Pokemon Center to heal his deserving team, he went to the Pokemart to buy a new one. Even in the new case Lucas continued to stare at the badge, watching how the light played against its enameled surface. Finally finished indulging his pride, Lucas put the case away and pulled out his guidebook. After all, the single badge was worthless if his intentions were to become the League's new Champion, he would need the other seven in order to gain the right to face Hoenn's Elite Four. According to the book he had purchased in an attempt to better prepare himself for the new region, the next closest Gym was in Rustboro City, the third largest town in the League and home of the region's business center. While Hoenn largely relied on shipping and tourism, all the financial and commercial enterprises took place in Rustboro, including one of the head offices of Silph/Devon, Inc, the corporation largely responsible for the production of the tools and items every Trainer always used.
Leaving the store, Lucas put away the book and pulled one of his Pokeballs off of his belt. The other reason the teen was able to win was because of the determination of his newest Pokemon Diablo, a vicious Poochyena that previous to his capture was the leader of a gang that had terrorized the towns of Oldale and Littleroot. If it hadn't been for Diablo's unwillingness to walk away, Lucas would have forfeit his Gym Match and switched out his team to avoid harm to his weaker Pokemon. Diablo sat indecisively in front of his Trainer. Though the Pokemon was loyal, and for the most part, obedient, it was clear that the Poochyena still had trepidations about belonging to a human. Lucas bent down to the Pokemon's level and patted him on the head. The Pokemon tried very hard to pretend he didn't enjoy the affection, "I need to thank you, Diablo. You're still a little bit of a pain in the ass, but if you didn't hold your ground like you did, I probably would have forfeited for the first time in my life as a Trainer. I'd do it to protect you guys, but I sure as hell wouldn't like it. So thanks again lil guy,"
Between the human's praise in such a kind voice and the way the scratching behind his ear felt, Diablo felt his shield go down and he finally had to admit to himself that he liked Lucas. Though he had caused a lot of trouble as a wild Pokemon, the Trainer regarded him with nothing but kindness. And even after his disobedience in the Gym, Lucas didn't get angry. And right now he seemed grateful. The Poochyena didn't know too many humans before his capture, but the ones he did were always impatient and unfriendly. Lucas was clearly different. Special. While he initially he was only resigned to being a captive Pokemon, now Diablo saw it as an opportunity. He would follow this human to the ends of the earth.
Lucas let the Poochyena follow on foot as he headed north out of town. As he exited Petalburg he looked down from the low cliff path to the small beach below. Old retirees and Fisherman Trainers cast their lines into the lapping surf while stir-crazy mothers let their little ones run around as they enjoyed the sun of another day too beautiful for staying home and doing chores. The pleasant sea breeze once again blew through Lucas' hair and clothes. There was such an easygoing nature about the tropical region that the teen had to admire and adjusted his pace to enjoy his travels. After so many days on the boat, and then all the hectic activities from his first couple days of traveling in Hoenn it was nice to get back to pleasant familiarity of being on the road.
Past the sea cliff road lied Petalburg Woods, a small forest that was the only obstacle between Petalburg and Rustboro, and was small enough that even from the entry to the woods, the tall buildings of the larger city started to come into view. Lucas knew that while he was incredibly lucky with May, the next Gym Leader would not be as easy to defeat. He was still determined to use his new team of Pokemon to conquer the League, so he had to increase the intensity of his training. He crossed most of the woods before the end of the morning and had captured several new Pokemon including a Slakoth, Lotad and Seedot. In Sinnoh, towns and cities were spread very far apart, with the western and eastern regions separated by the massive Mt. Coronet, a huge, treacherous mountain visible almost everywhere in the region. By contrast, Hoenn was much, much smaller and by lunchtime, the teen Trainer had left the forest and was crossing the bridge into Rustboro.
The guidebook didn't do Rustboro City justice. Built at the beginning of the last century it mixed the last of the elegance of the 19th century with the industrial efficiency of the 20th. Like Hearthome City in Sinnoh, each building was carefully decorated with wrought iron fence work and ornate masonry. But while Hearthome was a cozy burg more interested in cafes and antiquing, Rustboro managed to blend its elegant beauty with the raw power of the corporate machine. Skyscrapers, though not as impressive as the much more modern cities in Kanto, still kissed the sky and forced onlookers to crane their heads up. Surprised by the speed in which he was traveling to the next Gym, Lucas decided he would spend his first day in Rustboro sightseeing.
The tattooed teen made a quick stop at the Pokemon Center to heal his team and plan his day. In addition to the old buildings full of history unto themselves, the large metropolis was home to the region's finest Pokemon School and also the Hoenn Region's commercial center. Many of the largest world corporations had offices in this city to try to appeal to the somewhat offbeat culture of the Pokemon World and was home to the original office of the world's leading Pokemon Product giants: Devon Corp.
Devon Corp in Rustboro City and Silph, Inc in Saffron City were responsible for producing every good a Pokemon Trainer would ever need. Pokeballs, Pokemon medicine, even the Pokedex were produced by both companies, and for years the corporations had a fierce but honorable rivalry. Silph produced the first version of the Pokedex, Devon created the net and dive balls. The Hoenn company came out with the PokeNavi, and less than two years later the Saffron-based corporation introduces the PokeGear. Then after years of competition, Steven Stone, the son of the previous CEO, upon his father's retirement shocked the financial and Pokemon worlds by announcing the two competitors were coming together to create the ultimate Pokemon company. Now the company was named Silph/Devon, Inc.
According to both the guidebook as well as a pamphlet from a rack in the Pokemon Center, the original Rustboro office was open to the public. The company offered tours of the office, demonstrations of how Pokemon products were made as well as detailed history of the technology responsible for allowing the people of the region to capture and train Pokemon. While all of that sounded fairly interesting to the pierced young man, it was another feature that captured the teen's attention. The pamphlet stated that the office of Silph/Devon had a lab that could bring Pokemon fossils to life. Lucas was fascinated by ancient Pokemon and their fossils. Seeing the exhibits at the Pewter City Museum as a boy was what inspired the Trainer to ink into his right arm the tattoo of a Kabutops fighting an Aerodactyl. While in Sinnoh, the teen had learned of the amazing technology, and after saving the life of a Gym Leader, was given a Pokemon fossil that would allow him to bring a Cranidos back to life. This, more than anything else, was what motivated Lucas to spend his first day in the new city at the corporation's building.
Silph/Devon was north of the Pokemon Center and just a few blocks over from the city's Gym. It was also the city's largest building. The lobby of the large building was alive with activity as office workers, researchers, executives and tourists zipped about, consumed with the hectic energies of their personal agendas. The last time Lucas was in an office such as this, it was to infiltrate a plot and stop the nefarious Team Cosmic from recruiting the head of Galactic to their ranks. Once again he went to the receptionist to ask questions, though this time it was for his own reasons rather than having a mission.
Lucas began to suspect all receptionists were alike. With professional, well-practiced friendliness the polished woman behind the counter with a near-constant smile informed the visitor that her company's fossil lab was on the 16th floor. And that the facility was open to Trainers and was more than happy to give more information about the lab and would he be interested in going on a tour as well? The teen did his best to break away from the over-eager secretary's rehearsed pitch and got into the elevator to the 16th floor. Like the Galactic Building in Sinnoh, a tour guide with an artificial cheerfulness motored on about the history of the company and the features of the facilities to a group of various people paying various amounts of attention. The group got off on the fifth floor (a guided view of Pokemon good manufacturing!) while Lucas stayed on and continued on his way to the lab.
When the elevator reached the 16th floor the doors opened with a ding to a large laboratory. Like the main floor of the office, the lab was bustling with activity. Interns zipped between desks while men and women in lab coats were working over microscopes and spectroscopes, and a group of scientists with thinly veiled impatience put up with answering questions from a tour group. Another tour group swept past Lucas as he stepped off the elevator and started wandering around the delicate and fascinating equipment, searching for whoever he needed to speak with in order to have his fossil brought to life. For how well organized everything else was, the teen was a bit frustrated that reviving wasn't more clearly labeled. Finally the Trainer decided to ask someone. Looking for a scientist that looked the least busy, he tapped the shoulder of a man who had just finished writing down something in a report
"Yes?" the scientist responded with tried patience.
"Um, hi, sorry to bother you but I was wondering, who do I talk to order to get someone to turn my fossil into a Cranidos?" Lucas tried to explain politely, though after running around the floor wildly for several minutes, wasn't much more patient than the scientist.
"Oh, you're a Trainer!" the man immediately got friendlier once he realized Lucas wasn't a tourist, "Oh sure, I can take of that for you. The process is actually pretty fast. We should have your Pokemon ready in about an hour if you don't mind waiting around. Or you could always join one of the tour groups," the scientist added wryly as he gestured his head towards the newest tour group some unlucky researcher was now forced to babysit.
"Oh sure, that sounds like loads of fun!" Lucas responded with a snort. The man shook his head with a smile and went behind a door that was marked 'employees only'. The teen and his Eevee instead chose to wait around, quietly observing the remaining scientists as they continued to shuffle slides and write down information. The Trainer silently wished he was smarter, as he was fascinated by the employees' work but knew even on his best day couldn't wrap his brain the complex material they took for granted.
As he leaned against the edge of a desk and tried to glean some of the writing from a finished report a lady with pencils stuck in her hair had just set down, a man approached the teen. He had light gray eyes and light blue hair. He was impeccably dressed with a perfectly tailored suit, immaculate shirt and tie and high-end, yet tastefully understated, jewelry in the form of tungsten rings and stainless steel and platinum necklace. The man carried himself with huge authority, yet clearly was incredibly charismatic and friendly. It was obvious to Lucas that he was an executive and though he looked fairly young, only approaching his thirties, he probably had a lot of authority in the company. He immediately caught the Trainer's attention. Not only did his personality seem to command attention wherever he went, he also addressed Lucas without hesitation. It was rare for even the friendliest and most open-minded of people to talk to the tattooed teen with the Mohawk and numerous piercings to without at least a little trepidation. This man smiled and asked Lucas directly, "Excuse me, are you waiting on a Pokemon revival?"
"Yeah," Lucas nodded, "But I went to the guy about fifteen minutes ago so it should only be another forty-five minutes,"
"Ah, that's not too bad a wait. I recently got in possession of a Root Fossil and now that I'm back in the office I'd really like to evolve it. What kind of fossil did you bring in?"
"A Skull Fossil,"
"Ah, that means you'll be getting a Cranidos. Does that mean you've been in Sinnoh recently?"
"Yeah, I just left there a week or so ago. I'm here now to challenge the Hoenn League," Lucas explained continued to make small-talk with the stranger.
The man looked over the teen and squinted as though he were trying to remember something. Then he smiled with recognition, "Ah, that must mean you're Lucas, the new Sinnoh Champion,"
"Yeah, that's right? How did you know?"
"There've been a lot pictures of you going around," the man responded, "It took me a second to place you but you've been in our news just as much as in Sinnoh's. You're getting to be pretty famous. But if you're the Sinnoh Champion, that must mean you're also the guy that ended up with my house,"
"Wait, what?" Lucas blurted.
"I had heard from my men in Sinnoh that the home I had in the Resort Area had been given to a red-haired Trainer with tattoos and an Eevee, and had later become Champion,"
"Oh, there you are Mr. Stone. We have some new schematics that we would like you to approve," A lady in a tailored red pantsuit approached the man and handed him a folder. Upon hearing the name something clicked in the teen's mind.
"Mr. Stone? As in Steven Stone? The CEO of this company?" Lucas felt his heart go into his throat.
"That would be correct," the man responded with a mischievous smile.
Lucas felt himself grow pale before blushing brightly. He scrambled through the numerous pockets of his clothing, searching desperately for the house keys he had gotten in Sinnoh. On his way to getting his final Sinnoh Badge, Lucas had ended up in the Resort Area in the northern part of the region. As he was passing through, a shady real estate agent gave him a set of keys and a deed, claiming he was now a proud owner of a luxurious mansion completely for free. The teen thought the deal too good to be true, even when reassured that the transaction was perfectly legal. Now he had just learned that the house he had ended up with belonged to one of the wealthiest and most famous Trainers in the Pokemon world. The Trainer finally found the object and shoved them towards the CEO, "Here! You can have it back. It's really your house to begin with, anyway,"
Steven smiled reassuringly and waved Lucas' gesture off, "Now, now, I'm not upset with you. I was just teasing you a bit for my own amusement. You can keep it, I wasn't using the property anyway. You didn't do anything wrong. But if I do ever track down that real estate agent...well, let's just say the things I do probably would be looked highly upon by the Board of Executives,"
"Still, it doesn't feel right to have a house that nice for free. There's gotta be something I can do for you?"
The well-dressed young man frowned in thought at he rubbed his chin, then his surprisingly mischievous grin returned, "Actually, I think there is something you can do for me now that you're here, being that you're a Champion and all..."
Steven didn't say much after that. Instead, he addressed some of his employees and told Lucas to go down to the 12th floor, which was the marketing department. Lucas went along, but a nagging feeling was telling him he may have agreed to help prematurely, and would have been smarter to get the terms of his help before agreeing to go along with the CEO's scheme. Steven Stone was clearly a smart, charismatic businessman and a respected and formidable Trainer. But it was now becoming apparent that there was an impish side to the otherwise serious man. The older blue-haired man lead the Trainer to a room where the walls were pinned with slogans and product designs, and several pedestals contained Pokemon products. Steven picked up one that was very familiar to Lucas, "This is the Pokemon Device. We've been developing it for a while and we've just finished the beta testing by providing samples to some of the most famous and well respected Trainers across our regions. It's a phone, computer, library, calendar and much, much more in one convenient touchscreen device,"
"Oh a Pokevice, I've got one of those. It's really useful," Lucas pulled out his own red and white Pokevice from his duffel bag.
"Excellent. This thing is going to blow the PokeGear out of the water and we have everything ready to launch the product. Everything that is, except a celebrity spokesman to lead the advertising campaign," Steven explained as he put the prototype back on its pedestal and looked over Lucas' device.
"Oh cool, who were you thinking of having? I remember you got Mary from Pokemon Talk for the old PokeGear commercials," Lucas asked naively. Steven's closed-eye, beaming smile gave the teen his answer, "Whoa! Wait a minute. You want me to be in the ads for the Pokevice?!"
"Lucas, it'll be perfect! You just became Champion of Sinnoh and everyone's talking about you. And they'll talk about you even more as you make your way across Hoenn. And you have the perfect image. You're rebellious, assertive and courageous. If you have a Pokevice, everyone will want a Pokevice!" Steven explained excitedly.
"But I'm not an actor. I don't really do well in front of a camera," Lucas tried to argue.
"It's not acting, it's an endorsement. And you actually do use and like the product, so you're hardly selling out if that's what you're worried about. Let me tell you, usually we pay about a million and half for endorsements, and that mansion in the Resort Area was appraised for double that so..." Steven added off-handedly.
"Okay, okay, fine. I said I'd do something to make up for the house, and I try to stick to my word. So if you want me in your commercials, I'll do your commercials," Lucas sighed grimly.
"Perfect. And I thought this was going to be a good day just because I was getting a Lileep,"
"You're kind of evil, you know that?"
"Hey," Steven smiled slyly as he patted his new spokesman on the shoulder, "I didn't become CEO of this company just because of who my father was. By the way, your Pokevice was seriously in need of an update, so added all the apps for maps and guides to Hoenn. Now let's get you into makeup."