Pokémon: Hoenn Travels.

-The Important Stuff:-

1) I am not at all affiliated with Game Freak nor Nintendo, or any other companies that write/produce Pokémon.

2) I do not own any part of Pokémon.

-A Waiver:-

1) This is not a direct steal from anything already Pokémon-related that exists, not the show or a game or a novel/book. It is my own creation, therefore I may bend the rules a little bit to fit my needs.

2) The names of Professors, Gym Leaders, and Cities were taken from Ruby Version.

Chapter Twenty:

Team Aqua!

My head was pounding. My shoulders were taut and burning. My wrists felt immobilized.

I released a low groan, willing my eyes to open, but the movement was difficult. As my eyelids finally fluttered upward, I found myself in a damp, musty room. There was a lone light overhead, the bulb was dim and the fixture was swaying back and forth ever so slightly.

I was seated in a wooden chair in the center of the otherwise bare room. It was a small space and out ahead of me was single, solid door. Even though the room seemed small, the light was so dim it didn't reach all four corners of the room.

I slowly shook my head, trying to clear the confusion from my thoughts. As I stared downward, I noticed the floor beneath my feet was soggy and there were puddles of water about the room. I also noticed my belongings and my pokéballs were gone.

I tried to bring my hand up to the side of my face, and finally realized that my hands were tied, tightly, to the sides of the uncomfortable chair. I tried twisting to look behind me, but my ankles were also secured to the leg posts.

From what I could see, and smell, I assumed I was in a basement.

"Hello?" I called out.

Silence.

"Please, I think there's been a misunderstanding!" I shouted louder, my voice reverberating off the dark walls I could barely make out.

There was still no response. I gave it a few extra moments before I started struggling as hard as I could against my seat. I decided I would either break my limbs or the chair and then decide my next steps.

It seemed whoever had locked me in the room didn't appreciate my struggles as the door finally flew inward. I flinched when it struck the wall and clanged loudly. After recovering from the startling entrance, I stared up at the man standing in the doorway. He was glowering down at me.

"There's been a mistake," I whispered to him.

"I don't think so," was his response. It definitely wasn't the same nervous man that I had spoken to prior to losing consciousness. This man was older, larger, and way more intimidating. He reached into the dark corner of the room, grasping another chair and sliding it in front of me. He dropped into it and stared intensely at me. "Who sent you here?"

"I thought a Team Magma member, but I am starting to suspect that may be the wrong guess."

"A name, miss," he hissed at me.

"Uh, he didn't give me a name," I retorted. "He approached me and the man I was traveling with," I started to say, and then interrupted myself as I thought about Doug. Did he know I was missing? How long had it been? Would he be able to find me? Did he even know where to start looking? Panic was slowly bubbling its way out of my chest. I had royally screwed up.

"Please, continue, you'll need to do better than that if you're hoping to get out of here," the man pressed me.

"Sorry," I murmured, slowly lifting my gaze to his eyes. "Doug, that's the man I am traveling with, and I were looking for a cave in Lilycove City. We thought Team Magma was meeting there, we were trying to interrupt the meeting," I explained. "And this man approached us, he was wearing a red shirt with a black M pinned to the collar. He told us we were looking in the wrong place. He told us we needed to find Kevin in Mossdeep, that he would have the information we needed."

"What information did you need?" I couldn't tell from his tone of voice if he believed me or not.

I watched him carefully. "Doug and I are from Johto. He's the Champion of our region and of Kanto, the two regions have only one Champion, and that's Doug."

"Yes, I get it," he interrupted my stammering. "Who are you?"

I shrugged, though the movement was strained because of my binds. "I'm a schoolteacher from Ecruteak."

"A schoolteacher?" The man scoffed and I nodded. "What the hell are you doing out here?"

I chewed on my lower lip, feeling foolish. "I don't know."

"And why exactly are the two of you here? In Hoenn?"

"Norman, Petalburg City's Gym Leader, asked Doug for help with the whole trainer situation," I answered honestly. It seemed my only option at this point. "We got to Rustboro and found out that Team Magma was handing out flyers for a recruitment event in Slateport. We went to the event, but Team Magma never showed. A powerplant was destroyed and Slateport lost power, so I guess it spooked Magma." The words flowed easily from me now even though nothing was making sense. "We ended up making it to Fortree, and Magma had handed out posters there too, only this time they wanted trainers to meet in Lilycove for a lecture about the truth about the Pokémon Trainer challenge. So, we went to Lilycove City to try and find that meeting place."

"Where you were approached by a man in red with a black M pin who sent you here," the man finished for me.

"Here?" I echoed. "I'm still in Mossdeep?"

He ignored me. "You did all of this because you think Team Magma is handing out flyers and recruiting all the young trainers and convincing them not to partake in the trainer challenge?"

"They're also stealing Pokémon, the kids who aren't doing the trainer's challenge."

"Stealing Pokémon?" He echoed.

"You know, strong, already trained Pokémon. They are taking them from their siblings or parents or neighbors."

"At Team Magma's request?"

"I assume so."

"And by infiltrating a Team Magma event you hoped to do what? Stop them?"

His words made me feel pointless and foolish. "Yes."

He stared at me silently for a few moments, then reached to his waist where he pulled out a knife. My entire body went tense and I struggled against the ropes tying me to the chair. I was aware that I was begging for him not to do anything, but the words fell from my mouth completely involuntarily. The man grabbed my shoulder tightly, pointing the tip of the blade at my face. I froze, my breathing strained and terrified tears in my eyes. "Stop. Moving," he growled at me.

I closed my eyes tightly, not wanting to see whatever was about to happen. However, I was caught completely off-guard when the ropes from my feet and hands were cut free. I immediately pulled my hands to my chest and opened my eyes, warily watching the burly man. He was standing now and moving the chair back to the corner he had gotten it from.

"Follow me," he grumbled, waving me to the door.

I slowly stood, rubbing my wrists as I followed him from the room. On the other side of the door, there was a flight of stairs that immediately ascended up a floor. My ankles burned as I walked upstairs. I had to shield my eyes as we came to the top, it was much brighter since I was no longer underground.

I could not confirm that I was not in the small house where I had met Kevin. I wasn't sure where I was, but I had to guess it was an office building or perhaps the Space Center. The room we were now in was almost like a closet. We exited out of the room with the staircase and into a hallway. He led me only a short distance further and into another, larger room. There was a long table occupying the center of the space, with multiple chairs encircling it.

Entering the room, I froze just inside the door. There were half a dozen people in the room. Four were men, two of which were dressed business casual, one was wearing an almost military-like uniform, and the other was dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. The other two people in the room were women, both dressed in business casual attire, but one had a white lab coat over her clothing. They were all staring at me and the burly man who had released me just moments before.

"You let her go?" The man in the military outfit spoke first.

"She's not a threat."

I was still waiting in the doorway, unsure of what kind of situation I was now in. The burly man looked back at me, he had moved several paces into the room, but when he realized I hadn't, he returned to my side and dragged me further into the room. He pushed the door shut behind me and I heard it lock heavily.

"How do you know she's not a threat?" The woman in the lab coat asked. "She mentioned Team Magma."

"Yeah, because she doesn't know about them," the burly man remarked.

"What about them?" I couldn't help when the question left my lips. His response was to wave at me, as though I had proved his point.

No one immediately answered my question. The room continued to stare at me, judging me or wary of me, I wasn't sure.

"How did she know about Kevin?" Finally, one of the well-dressed men asked.

"Someone pretending to be a Team Magma member told her about him. They gave her vague information, Kevin in Mossdeep, nothing more," the burly man continued. "He was wearing a red shirt and a black M pin."

The room collectively took in a sharp breath. I was more confused than ever.

"What is going on? What don't I know about Team Magma? Who are you people?" My voice communicated more strength than I actually felt. The strength was actually desperation escaping my body.

"Team Magma doesn't exist anymore," the burly man murmured. Though his tone was soft, the words slapped me hard across the face. I was stunned by the information, unsure what to do with it.

"As for who we are," the woman who was not wearing the lab coat spoke now. She waved around the room at the half a dozen people in it. "We are the commanders of Team Aqua."

Doug and I had been very bamboozled, I learned as I stood in the room with the commanders of Team Aqua. They were able to answer many questions I had, but in doing so, they only created so many more.

The burly man was named Croxley, if that was his last name or first name, I wasn't sure. He was actually a captain of Team Aqua and all the people in the room reported directly to him. He had explained to me that Team Magma had slowly become more and more quiet following the robbery at the Rustboro Department Store, months prior. At first, Team Aqua had appreciated it, then they grew wary of it.

Team Magma and Team Aqua had always been rival gangs. Although they both had grandiose visions about what a different world they could create with less stringent laws and guidelines, the gangs had different thoughts about how to get to those world views. Every so often it behooved them to work together, but for the most part they had always just been trying to outsmart each other and law enforcement at the same time. Many times, Team Aqua had been blamed for Team Magma's crimes and vice versa. It had become a game and a challenge for the two gangs to have their crimes blamed on each other.

Shortly after the Rustboro Department Store robbery, Croxley got wind of that the Team Magma captain had been usurped. He never found out who had taken control, but things changed afterwards. The gang became significantly less active.

Croxley had sent out his commanders and their units to try and find out more information, worried that perhaps Team Magma was trying different tactics and selling out Team Aqua for lessened charges or deals with law enforcement.

Marlow, the female commander without the lab coat, now began explaining what she had learned. She had had a friend who joined Team Magma, and though their friendship waned when they ended up on opposite sides, they had always maintained a respect for each other. Marlow reached out to her old friend.

She found out that under their new leadership, Magma had been advised to close ranks. They were to spread the word far and wide. Team Magma needed to meet up in Ever Grande City for their next mission assignments. Marlow had brought the information to Croxley.

Croxley sent Commander Oppenheim, the man in the military uniform, to infiltrate. Subtly was Oppenheim's strength, blending in was a skill that came naturally to him. He made it safely to Ever Grande City, even found out where Team Magma would be meeting. His plan was to blend in with the crowd. A gang as big as Team Magma, they didn't know every single member.

No meeting ever took place. Oppenheim never even heard a whisper once arriving in Ever Grande. The infiltration was a bust.

At that point, Croxley decided that Team Aqua needed to take their concerns directly to Team Magma's front door. Aqua knew that Magma's main lair was located on Mt. Chimney. They would bring the discussion, or the fight, right to their rivals. Croxley dispatched Commanders Hindley and Leeman, the two men in the business casual attire, and their units to Mt. Chimney.

Hindley and Leeman laid out their plan flawlessly. They found all the backways into the hiding place, had Team Magma surrounded, and forced their way in. But when they entered the hide-out, all they found was bodies.

Dozen of Team Magma members, dead. Grunts and commanders and no sign of their new captain.

The problem was, according Team Aqua intel, Team Magma members whose bodies had just been found, were still popping up as active. "You see," Hindley had explained, "we may be criminal gang members, but most of us started out as trainers. You can track a trainer's activities through their database, and all those members we found in Mt. Chimney, they were still popping up as active. Still catching and training and evolving Pokémon."

"How do you know that?" I had asked.

"Because of me." The man in the t-shirt and shorts waved at me. His name was Bradley, he was Team Aqua's IT and computer support. He was also a very gifted hacker. He had been tracing Team Magma's activity prior to the located corpses, and then started hacking their databases as soon as the bodies had been found.

"I'm still working on it," he explained, "but I can tell you all of those members still having Pokémon registered to them. A lot of Pokémon."

"And who are you?" I looked at the woman in the lab coat, the only person who hadn't yet spoken.

She had introduced herself as Dr. Lauren Hill. She was a pathologist and she had performed the autopsies on the deceased Team Magma members. Most had died from what she could only assume were Pokémon attacks. But a few, the higher-ranking individuals including all the commanders and the original captain who had been usurped weeks before, were killed by sharp force trauma.

"Stabbed?" I asked for clarification.

"My best guess is a very thin, very sharp sword."

"But I saw a Team Magma member, in Rustboro," I recalled, relaying what I had seen in an alleyway less than two weeks before.

"There's no way it was Team Magma," Croxley corrected me. "We found the bodies weeks before you even got here."

Before I could ask any further questions, I vaguely heard a pained shout some distance outside the locked door behind me. I glanced over my shoulder, furrowing my brow. I was not overly concerned by it, but the other people in the room immediately went on high alert. I was shoved away from the door and they took up defensive positions.

Minutes passed and there was silence on the other side of the door. However, it was short-lived. A body met the outside of the door and the entire door collapsed inward. I ducked, throwing my arms over my head, even though I was far enough back that I wasn't in danger of getting struck by anything.

A cacophony of calls came out as Team Aqua all summoned their own Pokémon. It was in that moment I realized that my belongings still hadn't been returned from me. I dropped my arms and straightened out, taking in the numerous Pokémon ahead of me. I immediately recognized two.

Phantom and Steelix.

The Team Aqua members were shouting commands, which Doug obviously ignored as he made his own demands just as loudly. They were all distracted by each other and I noticed my belt sitting on the long table in the center of the room. I stepped forward, my movement completely unnoticed by the other people in the room. I found Luma's ball, releasing her beside me.

She was immediately on high alert because of the unfolding situation in the room. Everyone was still screaming at each other and no one was listening to anyone else. I quickly explained to her the situation: I had been kidnapped, Team Magma was not the actual reason for the lack of trainers, Team Aqua was doing their best to figure out the situation, and Doug had finally shown up to rescue me. I promised her the details if she could diffuse the situation in the room.

"Just a big Psychic blast, I think?" I suggested. "Knock everyone on their butts?"

"Call our Kira," Luma sighed. "I am going to need help."

I found Kira's ball, the two psychic Pokémon took a moment to discuss their plans, before hopping on the table and positioning themselves in the center of it. A couple of the commanders finally seemed to notice them, but they noticed too late.

Kira placed her hand on Luma's shoulder. They concentrated for a moment, a blue aura surrounding and shimmering around both of their forms, and then it exploded outwards, knocking everyone, including myself, back and onto the floor. I wasn't sure if it was from the power of the attack or due to being linked to Luma's strength, but following the Psychic blast, Kira started to glow. Her evolution was blinding and as she came out if it, her form was far more elegant with a flowing, white, gown-like body and her intelligent and alluring eyes.

Whether it was due to the evolution or the blast, silence came over the room and I hurried back to my feet first. Doug was already on his knees, staring across the room. His eyes landed on me. His expression changed from explosive rage to relief.

I offered him a smile. "Hi Doug," I said, then waved around the room. Team Aqua was slowly gathering themselves. "Say hello to Team Aqua."

Croxley and his commanders, after getting over their initial anger with Doug's intrusive arrival, demanded to know who he was. I introduced him, and Croxley immediately gave the order for his commanders to stand down. They only agreed once Doug explained how he had found them. Doug waved in the doorway and Kevin sheepishly walked in.

"He held my arm behind my back and pulled hard!" Kevin wailed. "I thought he was going to dislocate my shoulder."

"Next time, don't be so difficult and it won't hurt as much," Doug muttered.

"So, who is Kevin?" I asked, having not gotten that answer from Team Aqua yet.

"I used to be Team Aqua, I left when I got hired by the Space Center," Kevin explained. "I was a dumb kid who made a bad choice and Team Aqua was kind enough to let me change my vocational path when I realized what I actually wanted to do with my life."

"The only other people who knew that Kevin was prior Team Aqua was Team Magma," Croxley explained. "So, whoever took out Team Magma got information from them first."

"So, when I came looking for Kevin," I started to put the pieces together.

"You couldn't be Team Magma," Croxley assured me, "because we already knew they were gone."

"But you could be whoever took them out," Oppenheim finished for Croxley, who nodded in agreement.

"And if you were looking for Kevin," Marlow added.

"It means you were looking for Team Aqua," Bradley stated.

"And that can only mean that the same fate is intended for our team," Dr. Hill finished.

"Team Magma is gone?" Doug asked.

"Infiltrated and destroyed from the inside out," Croxley stated matter-of-factly.

"And as soon as Team Aqua realized that," Hindley added, "we knew we had to go underground too."

"Or we would be next," Leeman agreed with him.

"So, you guys didn't destroy the powerplant in Mauville City?" Doug asked the room.

They exchanged glances, shaking their head. "That's what caused the power outage in Slateport City, I assume?" Croxley looked to me.

"We think so," I pointed at Doug as I agreed with the captain.

"Flyers in Rustboro, Slateport, and Lilycove," Croxley mused, "a destroyed powerplant, trainers stealing Pokémon, and dead Team Magma members still acquiring Pokémon."

"What?" Doug snapped.

I waved at him. "I will explain it all to you."

"What are they up to?" The question was directed to the commanders in the room.

"They?" I asked.

"You know who infiltrated Team Magma?" Doug followed up my question with his own.

"We don't know who the muscle is, but we know who the person leading the entire act is," Croxley stated.

"It's the whole reason I took down the communications between Hoenn's storage database and the other regions," Bradley admitted.

"You guys did that?" I was incredulous about the hacker's declaration. He merely nodded, clearly not as impressed as I was by his own actions.

"We had to do something to protect outside Pokémon," Marlow's hand came down on Bradley's shoulder as she spoke. They exchanged glances of mutual respect.

"From what?" Doug asked now.

"Who." Croxley corrected him. "Whatever group destroyed Team Magma and has been suggesting to trainers to steal Pokémon and not do the trainer's challenge and to meet up at a recruitment event," he explained, his expression becoming stern and concerned. He paused, shaking his head as though he still didn't believe it. "They're following the orders of Cornelia Rowe."