Archie - Pokémon: 7 Deaths: 1
Blue - Pokémon: 5 Deaths: 0
{Jinua 4th, 11:48AM}
{Route 212}
"You've been yawning a lot today," Blue noted as Archie covered his mouth.
"Haven't been able to sleep properly the past couple nights," Archie replied, pulling off his fake glasses and rubbing his eyes. "It takes a while, but usually once I'm asleep, I'm asleep, you know? I don't wake up just because some Magikarp is splashing in a pond..." He scowled and ran a hand through the gelled back mass of purple hair. "Pretty sure that camping right next to the swamp last night didn't help, but I'll bet it's because of those bloody police officers marching around. We left Hearthome three days ago and we've run into them more times than I'm comfortable with."
"Well, if I didn't think you could be useful against Galactic, I would believe that you could use more chaperones," Blue said mildly.
"Well, if I didn't think you could be useful against Galactic, I would believe that you could use a handful of swamp in your mouth," the Aqua Leader replied.
"Well boys, you're about to prove your usefulness in just a few minutes," Star said, staring ahead. "I smell trouble."
"Does trouble have a smell?" Archie asked. The Luxray rolled her eyes. "Hey, honest question. Humans can't smell things the way some Pokemon can."
"Sorry hon, I'm not literally smelling trouble. But I am hearing a bunch of shouts and screams up ahead."
"If anything, at least it sounds like trouble," Blue agreed. "What else can you tell us?"
"I smell humans ahead," Star reported. "And...I think a bunch of Piplup or Prinplup, maybe. Reminds me of Prince."
"I don't like this," Archie said seriously, picking one of the Pokéballs off his belt. "The Marsh Clan lives deeper in the swamp, and we're nowhere near Pastoria yet. They don't come out a lot...I'll let Prince handle the political stuff." The Aqua Leader opened the capsule and after a small flash of light the Prinplup appeared.
And shrieked.
"Prince?!" Archie yelped, kneeling down by Prince as the latter started rolling in the grass in pain. Archie tried to keep Prince still and check for injuries, but the Prinplup was flailing violently, as if trying to shut something out. "I don't know what this is!" the Aqua Leader said desperately. "This isn't something that I remember being documented among the possible diseases a Prinplup can get, and-"
Archie stopped and stared, suddenly reaching for Prince's head. In the middle of his face, something was growing from the top of his beak.
"...He's evolving," Archie said weakly. "This isn't right. It's not- he's evolving too early!"
"Make it stop!" Prince screamed. flailing at his head with flippers that were changing erratically in colour and size. "It hurts, it hurts, make the sound stop, it HURTS-"
Blue stiffened, then darted off in the direction of the rest of the screams that were rapidly filling the air.
"Sugar, wait!" Star yelled, running after him.
"You two can't just!-" Archie began. He glanced down at the screaming Prinplup in his arms and bit his lip.
Fuck, what do I do? I can't return Prince while he's in the middle of evolving. I can't just sit here, but I can't just leave him here either…
{Jinua 4th, 12:06PM}
{Route 212}
"I'm heading down!" Pete alerted.
Blue had released his Pidgeot so he didn't have to run through the bog, while Star easily ran over it like it was solid ground. It had started raining as well, so Blue had trouble seeing what Pete did. Blue clung tightly to Pete's back as the Pidgeot swooped down towards the swamp. Somewhere ahead of them, Star roared angrily.
"It's Galactic!" Blue snarled when Pete soared back up a little, circling just inches above the tall marsh grass with a green-haired Galactic grunt dangling from his talons, though the prisoner narrowly managed to struggle out of the Pidgeot's grip in the rain. There were more Galactics on the ground below them, fleeing from Star.
"Permission to peck their eyes out?" Pete asked.
"Only if they refuse to answer my questions," Blue replied. One of the grunts screamed when the fairly large Luxray closed her jaws around his leg, sending him sprawling into the muck. "Pete, do you see any Pokémon around that look like Prince?"
"Not seeing Prince anywhere around here, but I'm definitely seeing a few Prinplup and they're not entirely unharmed," Pete confirmed as he flew in slow circles just above Star and her captive. "A couple of them are unconscious..."
"Drop me off and see if you can find anything that looks suspicious and man-made. I think there's some Rocket-level shit going on here."
Blue hopped off the Pidgeot's back, landing on a small patch of solid grass before Pete took off again and flew over the trees. He released his Blastoise as some of the grunts turned to him and started bringing out their own arsenal of Zubat, Glameow, and Stunky. None of the underevolved Pokemon seemed bothered or in pain in any way, making Blue start to wonder if he was off the mark, but the amount of screaming that he could hear had to mean that something sinister was going on.
"Star, bring that grunt over here!" Blue ordered.
The Luxray obeyed and dragged the flailing grunt to the grass by the pants, avoiding Sam as the Blastoise fired a few shots at the attacking Galactic Pokémon.
"You! What are you people doing here?" Blue demanded to know, grabbing the Galactic prisoner by the collar.
"I ain't telling someone like you!" the grunt snapped, spitting bog out of his mouth. "Someone like you couldn't begin to understand-"
"-the greatness of whoever your loony leader is, yadda yadda, heard it already!" Blue snapped back. "If you can spit out mud, you can spit out an answer. Should be easy in your case, since they're both made of disgusting shit anyway."
"Why you-"
"What's going on?"
The grunt beamed, and Blue turned to look over his shoulder. Behind him, Archie was jogging over, his Budew riding on his shoulder and his Buizel right behind them.
"Interrogation," Blue said mildly.
"Wait, you're not Master Cyrus..." the grunt said, confused. "Who're you? How dare you imitate the voice of our Master Cyrus?!"
"This is my normal voice," Archie replied, frowning. "Who the bloody fuck is Cyrus?"
"Master Cyrus is the one who will make a new and better world!" the grunt said loyally. "There is no place in His world for the likes of you!"
"Star, please give him a zap," Archie sighed.
Blue quickly dropped his prisoner before the Luxray zapped the grunt unconscious. "Hey, I wasn't done asking him questions!" Blue protested.
"I doubt anything more than de la merde would've come from his mouth," Rapier said flatly.
"What did you need to know?" Basil asked.
"I need to know where they put something," Blue growled, glancing around. "Should look like a box or something...emits very loud radio signals, I'm almost sure of it. A few years ago something similar happened in Johto and all kinds of Pokémon in the area around the Lake of Rage went through forced evolution. Just like Prince," Blue added, watching Archie's eyes widen.
"I've heard of that," the Aqua Leader breathed. "The red Gyarados was one of them, right?"
Blue nodded. "But that one affected all kinds of Pokémon at the lake, regardless of species. This one looks like it's only affecting Prinplup, if I'm right about the signal."
Archie pressed his lips, thinking. "...Alright, I've got an idea. Leave this to me."
Blue raised a brow when Archie cleared his throat. "Could someone tell me where the device was placed?" Archie asked loudly.
"Hanging off a tree branch five hundred steps north from here, Master Cyrus!" a couple grunts chorused enthusiastically, before visibly pausing at the sight of not-Cyrus.
"I'm not Master Cyrus, but thank you for the information," Archie said smugly.
"No, you're not, and I'd appreciate it if you could stop impersonating our Master."
Blue and Archie turned to look at the new Galactic-related person coming forward, walking past the grunts as they shuffled aside.
"Commander Saturn!" one of the grunts gasped.
The blue-haired Galactic calmly raised a hand, signaling for the grunts to be quiet, before folding them behind his back. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" Saturn asked. "And why are you toying with my comrades' minds by imitating our Master's voice?"
"Why are you toying with the Prinplup from around here?" Archie asked coldly. One or two of the grunts flinched, and even Saturn stiffened a little. "There is something going on here that's causing them pain and it's pretty clear that you're the ones responsible for it."
"Got any evidence?" Saturn sneered.
"I've got a fair idea," Archie said, turning to the Buizel. "Basil, I need you to head north and look for that device they mentioned. Should be hanging off a tree. When you find it, destroy it."
"Which way is north?" Basil asked. Rapier slid off Archie's shoulder and landed on Basil's head.
"That way," Archie replied, pointing with his finger. The Buizel nodded and bolted with the Budew on his back.
"Sorry, but I'm not letting you just blindly go and break Team Galactic's things," Saturn snapped, producing a Pokéball of his own and releasing the tall blue Pokémon resembling a slender Poliwrath that was inside. "Tethys, follow that Buizel and stop it!"
"Gotcha," the blue Pokémon answered, raising its orange claws and darting after Basil.
Archie ran after them. "Basil, watch out!"
Blue glanced up, trying to see through the rain if Pete was watching. A second later he saw the Pidgeot dive down and aim for Saturn's Pokémon.
The Poliwrath-looking Pokémon raised a claw and slashed.
Archie screamed.
Somewhere behind Blue, there was a shriek of rage.
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So this week-end I got my hands on a few Hoopa codes and I was incredibly disappointed by the fact that having one in your party and talking to Looker in ORAS didn't do anything. I expected it but that doesn't make it any less disappointing.
There were subtle hints of it back in Eterna Forest, and a reference was made in the first chapter of Dimensional Destruction, but I don't think it was obvious enough for us to make a mention of it until now. The joke behind Archie and Cyrus having similar-sounding voices in-fic is really just a joke on them having the same voice actor in the anime XD (Spoiler: they won't be the only ones)
Also HOW THE HECK IS THIS CHAPTER BARELY 2000 WORDS LONG I mean my document thing showed five pages so I was hoping there'd be more than that but apparently not. Oh well hope you enjoy the cliffhanger instead.
ARCHIE
Shanks the Sharpedo, Prince the Prinplup, Star the Luxray, Warin the Beautifly, Basil the Buizel, Rapier the Budew
BLUE
Sam the Blastoise, Pete the Pidgeot, Adam the Alakazam, Gary the Arcanine, Girish the Gabite