For the next few days, this will be my FF routine
Revise 2 Old Chapters
Submit 1 New Chapter
Rinse and repeat until every chapter has been revised
Probably not going do much on the story over my Christmas break, but I'll try to get at least a few chapters done, as well as finish the revisions.
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Chapter 13: Finally Official
Without the blizzard or being lost getting in their way, it wasn't long before the three pokemon successfully made the trip to the Brotherhood headquarters. Nobody said a thing since coming out of Glacier Tunnel, everybody had to much on their mind, to much to think about, this being especially true for Isaac, the newest member of the team.
Waiting for them at the gates of the HQ was Ewan, looking happy, probably thought the mission was a success. It wasn't long before he could see their disappointed faces and knew things didn't go well.
"Oh dear... What happened? Did you fail your mission?"
Nobody felt like talking, after a moments silence, it was Lloyd who finally decided to talk.
"No... We helped the town, did exactly what we were sent to do. But the villains who endangered the city in the first place put a poison in their food supply somehow, and now the entire city is..."
Lloyd couldn't finish, but Ewan easily figured out what came next.
"The entire town was killed. I see... Don't worry, we'll send out some teams to bury the dead and investigate. We'll do everything we can to catch the villains responsible." Trying to change the subject, Ewan pointed at Isaac. "So, who's your friend?"
"My name is Isaac sir, I was the one who sent the request to the brotherhood. Some stuff happened, and Rita was unable to continue the mission, so I went with Lloyd the rest of the way. He asked me to join his team later, and I accepted."
"Well, its good to see some good come from this." Ewan said, trying to sound as cheerful as he could. "Welcome to the Brotherhood Isaac."
"Thanks."
"You three should get something to eat in the cafeteria, and after words, go down to the mail room and have the Buneary register your new team mate. Speaking of which, have you thought of a name yet? I noticed you left that part blank."
"Not yet." Said Lloyd.
"Me neither," Said Rita. "Naming a team is harder then naming a pokemon."
"Don't worry you two... er, three, I'm sure you'll figure something out soon enough, now scoot."
They began to leave, but half way to the elevator, Ewan stopped them again.
"Oh, don't forget to check your mailbox while you in the mail room too. I picked another mission for you."
"What?" Said Rita. "I thought you were only gonna pick our first mission?"
"Nope, sorry. You guys are still learning, we don't need you guys going on a tough mission and end up getting smashed by a Nidoking or something. See you later!"
---
Location: Unknown
"Boss, Boss! Its me, Maverick!"
"What is it? Did you capture the targets?"
"Unfortunately no, they proved too strong, and we had to leave. But I made sure not to leave without doing at least one thing."
"What do you mean?"
"That poison you provided for me, I put it in the machine that baits Pipton's food supply. As soon as they turned the machine on and the Piplup began eating, they all got infected and died moments later. The entire town is dead."
"Hmm, I'm rather impressed, while you did fail to capture the target, you show yourself to have no morals, I need men like you."
"Why thank you sir, I can assure you I enjoyed it just as much."
"I'm sending you the directions you need to get to our base. You will stay here until your services are required again."
"Thank you kindly, you are very generous..."
"Just remember, don't make failure a regular thing, otherwise I will have to kill you myself. Do you understand."
"Clear as can be. Next time, I'll have that pokemon for you, and the others, especially that little rat Isaac, will be dead."
"Good."
The Boss hung up.
---
Location: Brotherhood HQ
Like the journey back, nobody said anything during dinner, everyone quietly ate, keeping to themselves. When everyone finished eating, they all went to the mail room, inside was the same frantic Buneary from before.
"Hello everyone! Please don't mess up any papers on my desk, spent all day organizing them and... Never mind you'd never do that anyways. So you're here for your next mission right?"
"Yeah." Said Lloyd. "And were here to..."
"Well its in your little cubby hole already!" She interrupted. "Put it there myself, like I do with every bit of mail, because that's my job, to give everyone there mail... What was I supposed to do again? Ahhhh!"
Frustrated about something, the Buneary went into the back room. A moment later a crashing noise came from the room, then nothing at all.
"What's with her?" Asked Rita, to nobody in particular.
"Who knows." Said Lloyd. "Lets just worry about what we came here for."
Lloyd went to the mail box, inside was a single letter. Lloyd immediately opened it, and began to read.
Dear Brotherhood
You might recognise my name from the radio, I am Kane, host of PNR! As some of you may have noticed, my station had been off the air for quite some time. My fans are dying on the inside, I here them cry out for me!
Please send help asap, the reward for the mission is a cool 3000 poke.
Hope to see someone soon, I'll be waiting!
The Great Kane, Host of PNR
"So Lloyd, what's the mission?" Asked Rita.
"Some guy needs our help fixing his radio station... Some guy calling himself 'Kane'."
"OH, MY, GAWD!" As soon as Kane was mentioned, Rita perked right up, excitement visibly filling her up rapidly. "You have to be kidding me! This is great!"
"Why? Who's Kane? And what's PNR?"
Since Rita had stopped listening, overly excited in hearing about their mission, Isaac decided to explain.
"PNR stands for Pokemon News Radio. Its the most popular radio station in the entire Wasteland. Its host is Kane, an Arcanine, and a total celebrity. Girls from all over drool over him and his deep voice."
"Not just his voice!" Said Rita. "But he's totally awesome, and drop dead gorgeous! And, and..." She ran out of breath from talking so fast and was breathing heavily.
Isaac finished her sentence. "In other words, he's a total celebrity."
Lloyd laughed softly to himself. "Yeah, I figured."
Unexpectedly, another voiced yelled to him from behind the cubbies, startling Lloyd. It was the Buneary.
"You guys have more mail! Here it is!"
The letter inside the hole was strange, it was jet black, and was bulging slightly, as if it had something in it. Lloyd picked it up and saw it was addressed to Isaac.
"Its for you Isaac, doesn't say who from though."
Isaac opened it, inside was a short note and a red strip of cloth.
Hello Brother, nice to know your still alive.
Now you know how it feels to lose everything, to have everything taken away right before your eyes.
Inside you'll find a little token to commemorate, this used to belong to me when I was a child, and was the only thing I had on me when I was taken away from my home and my life. Your experience is now complete, you have become me.
I'll be leaving you three alone for now, but I promise you, I will come for your little club again soon, and when I do, I'll finish the job.
Don't go dying yet, I wouldn't want to miss out.
Much love, Maverick
Isaac couldn't believe it, Maverick was taunting him. After everything that had happened, Maverick was actually taunting him. If he was here right now, Isaac would have ripped him limb from limb.
Lloyd and Rita saw Isaac's face, scrunched up in anger, and knew something was wrong. "What is it Isaac?" Asked Rita.
Isaac crumpled up Mavericks letter and threw it in a nearby trash bin, he was about to do the same with the cloth but thought against it. He just held it near himself and stared at it, he realized that this little red cloth was the last thing that belonged to his father.
"Its nothing, forget about it."
"Listen... Isaac..." Lloyd put his paws on both of Isaacs shoulders, to comfort him. "What happened down there, in Pipton, none of it was your fault."
Isaac wanted to argue. It was my fault. He thought. I let Maverick get away, I activated the machine that poisoned everybody, I gave my father the poison myself...
"Isaac, the one who did this was Maverick, plain and simple. You fought bravely to help your town, as well as Rita. You battled along side me all the way through Celsius Cave. You fought with me against Maverick and his men, despite being overpowered and outnumbered. Your not some coward like Maverick..."
"Lloyd, please stop..."
"No Isaac! You need to hear this! You aren't like Maverick, you are brave... You are heroic... Your... What was that word you used in Celsius Cave?"
Isaac thought back, he remembered it clearly. Hesitantly he said it aloud.
"Valiant."
"Yeah, that's right. You are a valiant pokemon Isaac, you've proven that."
At first, Isaac planned to dismiss everything he had said, but Isaac realized he was right, it wasn't his fault. Isaac and Maverick were not brothers, he was nothing like him, and he would never be.
"Lloyd... Thank you."
Lloyd let go of his shoulders. Isaac remembered the strip of red cloth, he took it, untangled it, and wrapped it around his forehead. The red cloth would be a symbol, to remind him not to become like his 'brother'. Isaac was going to help the world, he was going to do everything in his power to stop people like Maverick.
"Lloyd, Ewan mention that your team didn't have a name, correct?
The sudden change in subject took Lloyd off guard. "Um, yeah, why?"
"Because, I think I just thought of a name."
Both Rita and Lloyd listened closely. "Yeah?" They both said.
"Team Valiant."
As soon as they heard the name, Rita and Lloyd both knew it was perfect. It was as if the name was made for them, no other name would sound right to them after today.
"It's perfect Isaac." Said Lloyd.
"Yeah!" Said Rita. "Your really smart!"
"Haha, thanks guys."
"Soooo..." Began Rita. "Now what? We still have a few hours before bed."
Lloyd remembered something from a while ago. "We still have to go to that database thing and find out what pokemon I am, remember?"
"Oh yeah, I guess all the Brotherhood stuff kinda distracted me."
"Well, you guys can go, "Said Isaac "I'm gonna go relax in that pool for a while. See you two later."
"See you later Isaac." Said Lloyd. Isaac left right away.
Rita and Lloyd didn't know where to find the database though, Ewan never showed them on their tour of the HQ.
"You guys know where the database is? Huh?"
Once again scaring Lloyd, and this time, Rita as well, was the Buneary, speaking through their cubby hole.
"Stop doing that!" Yelled Lloyd, I bit louder then he expected. "And yes we are, where is it?"
"Back here actually, aren't you lucky? Just wait, no, come back here. Oh, I locked the door didn't I? Umm..."
The door to the back room was wide open, obviously not locked.
"Ok, come here, don't knock over anything please."
Before either Rita or Lloyd could say anything, the Buneary disappeared as suddenly as she had appeared.
"Yeah, lucky us." Said Rita.
---
Location: Somewhere below the Brotherhood HQ
The Buneary must have gone ahead of them, as they hadn't seen it at all so far. The backroom of the mail room was a complete mess, stacks of papers piled up higher then both Rita and Lloyd, filing cabinets over filled, and desks buried in paperwork. Not much light in the back room either, the only light came though the cubby holes from the mail room, barely enough to be able to see in.
The only place left to go was down, a cramped staircase in the deepest part of the back room went down, the bottom not visible in the shadow.
"After you." Said Rita.
"Ladies first." Lloyd didn't want to go down any more then she did.
"What? Changed your mind about finding out what pokemon you are? Ok, whatever you want..."
"Fine, fine, I'll go first."
Gonna be hard to do if I can't see. Thought Lloyd. Maybe I can use my electricity to light this stairway up.
Lloyd held out his hand, an inch away from the cold, stone walls. He charged up a bit of electricity, and slowly let it loose into the wall. Lloyd's hand produced a small, blue spark that went directly into the wall. The light it gave off was not very bright, but it was good enough to see with. Still producing the little blue spark as he went, he began to descend downwards, Rita following close behind.
They silently stepped downwards further and further, the light from the mail room no longer visible, only Lloyds blue spark provided any light at all. After what felt like forever, a different light could finally be seen at the bottom of the steps, it was faint, orange and flickered every few seconds, it was the light from a candle.
The room at the bottom of the stairs reminded them much of the backroom where the stairs began. Their was papers stacked to unbelievable heights, these ones having collected a ton of dust, obviously much of these papers have been untouched for a long time. Buneary waited for them in the middle of the room, holding the candle that they predicted was illuminating the room.
"Come here, the database is right over here." She walked away, not waiting for them, around a wall of paper stacks that had fashioned a kind of wall. Rita and Lloyd followed her around the corner.
The Buneary didn't go far, she stopped in front of some kind of device, sitting on top of the table. It looked like a TV of some kind.
"What is that?" Asked Rita.
"Its a computer, an old device the humans used a lot. Its where all our information goes, it was found here a long time ago, way back when the Brotherhood first started. It already had a ton of stuff on it, and we've been adding stuff, lots of stuff, and by us I mean me, since its my job, my other job." Buneary was beginning to trail off, but then she regained focus. "Just use the mouse to select a category, then look around for the info you need. Pretty simple."
The Buneary started to leave, but Rita stopped her on her way by. "Wait, your leaving us here?"
"I have work to do, lots of work, mail to sort, papers to sort. Just come back up when your done, or stay here..." She trailed off again, and began to head up the long staircase.
"Man she's weird." Said Rita.
"You probably would be a little too if you did what she does every day." He said, looking at the mountain of paper that surrounded them. "Now lets check out this computer."
Lloyd sat in a chair next to the desk. He grabbed the mouse and moved it around, and figured out how it worked quickly. He read the categories to himself, but couldn't find any that sounded helpful. He clicked on a button labelled 'search' at the very top. The screen changed to just a black screen with a white bar in the middle. Below the bar it said, 'Please type the name of your search.'
"Type?" Said Rita. "What does it mean type?"
Lloyd looked around the desk, looking for something that might help. Other then papers, the only thing he found was a black rectangular thing covered in little buttons, each with a letter on it. He pushed a button, and on the bar appeared the same letter of the button he pushed. Lloyd typed out 'pokemon' and pushed the 'confirm' button on the far right side of the device.
The screen once again changed, listing all categories with the word 'pokemon' in it. The one that sounded helpful was near the very top, called 'Species of Pokemon'
Lloyd pushed that one, making the screen change again to another one, again with a bar. Below the bar this time it said 'Please state the name, type or serial number of the pokemon'
Not knowing the other two things, Lloyd just typed 'Electric' and pressed confirm.
Another screen, this one listing dozens of names, each with a number beside it, all organized by their numbers.
Nothing to do but go one by one down the list.
First option, '#25 Pikachu', Lloyd clicked on it.
With luck Lloyd never imagined, he saw his picture pop right up. He had picked his pokemon on the first try.
"Wow, that was pretty lucky Lloyd."
"Yeah."
Below the picture was information on the pokemon.
Name: Pikachu
Pre-evolution: Pichu
Evolution: Raichu, via Thunder Stone
Type: Electric
Habitat: Forest regions
Basic Information: An electric mouse pokemon, it stores electricity in pouches located in its cheeks. The pokemon, as well as its evolution and pre-evolution, have been extinct for an estimated 3000 years.
Information Last Updated: 2174 years, 7 Months, 27 Days, 3 Hours
Print Out Information?
"Am I reading that right?" Asked Rita. "Your species has been extinct for over five thousand years?!"
Lloyd couldn't believe it himself. If the computer was really accurate, his entire species of pokemon hasn't been seen in five thousand years. "It can't be..." Said Lloyd. "How...?"
"Whata that mean at the bottom? Print Information."
Lloyd didn't know either, he decided to click it and see. When he did, another nearby device sprang to life, made a lot of noise, then produced a single page of paper. On the paper was all the stuff he just saw on the screen, as well as the picture at the top.
"That's pretty useful. Now what?"
"I can't think of anything else to look up right now. We should go to bed, its getting late."
"Sounds good... Pikachu."
"Please, Rita, Lloyds fine. Its more familiar to me then that."
"I know, just playin', I wouldn't wanna be called Chikorita all the time."
They left the computer alone, took the papers that had all the information on them, and left the giant, dark room, going back up the long dark stairs.
---
Location: Brotherhood HQ, Room 160
Isaac had already returned, he was asleep in the bed farthest from the door, snoring slightly. Rita went straight to bed, said "Good Night", and quickly went to sleep.
Lloyd went to his bed and did the same. But before he fell asleep, he heard a voice, one he heard two nights ago in this exact same bed.
"You mustn't fail this time. Kill everyone... find the... capture. Kill the oth..."
Lloyd couldn't comprehend what the voice was saying, as he immediately lost consciousness as soon as the voice stopped.