Chapter 10: Who You Are
"When fate throws a dagger at you, there are two ways to catch it;
By the blade, or by the hilt."
~ Chinese Proverb
AN: I'm sorry. For those of you who haven't read my profile, I had an anxiety attack at work this past week, which left me shaken. That, on top of my Lyme disease acting up, and my mum breaking up with her boyfriend of 10 years and us moving out has made life recently somewhat unpleasant. I'll also apologize for not posting these past few months, but I've been working so much that when I get home I fall down and pass out so I can get up at 4AM and do it all over again.
Leaving aside the mess that is my life and mental state, here's chapter 10. I'll post the first Interlude, which is a short story that takes place in that little 'haunted house', in a little bit. It'll be posted as a separate story though, since it doesn't really have much to do with the story, and the title will be 'Haunted'. Again, for those of you just finding the story, hello, and to those of you who've stuck by me through this unannounced haitus, thank you. Here's your chapter.
Darius frowned as he sipped his large take-out cup of coffee. Michael trailed after him, oddly pale beneath his dark skin. He'd been almost completely silent since they'd exited the hotel that morning to hit the streets of Luminose. He'd been somewhat talkative after the fight with the Team Flare scientist the day before, but upon entering the city, the young agent had shut down, his energy swirling with that cold chill of trauma. Darius was unsure how to shake his younger companion out of it though; it wasn't exactly a regular blue funk. For now though, his plan was simply to fill the teen with coffee and get him out of the city. Without any leads on Team Flare however, Darius thought it would be best to take the usual Stellon route; wander around until you tripped over a criminal syndicate. It'd worked so far, after all.
"Your communicator is buzzing." Michael commented quietly, startling Darius. The blue-haired agent turned to face the younger before Michael's words caught up to him. Absently, he plucked the device from his pocket while taking a sip of coffee.
"'Sup boss?" Darius asked, injecting cheerfulness into his voice. He was supposed to be on vacation, he shouldn't sound thoughtful. Apparently Looker was getting to know him a little too well though.
"I need to have a word with you. Get your behind to Lysandre's Café, right off Magenta Plaza, pronto." Which was followed by a click.
"Well, that was more abrupt than usual." Darius muttered, shrugging. He turned to Michael, but the younger agent just shrugged.
"Shall we see what's up?" He asked.
"Might be better if I deal with grouchy old Looker on my own." Darius admitted, not wanting to chance Johnny running into Michael and connecting a few dots. "Meet up at the gate to Route 14 at noon? We can head north and look for more clues after that." Michael hesitated, but nodded all the same.
"I'll go find more coffee." He said, before continuing on down the street. Darius stood and watched him for a few seconds before turning down one of the narrow side-alleys, making his way towards the plaza and the café Looker had named.
Michael sighed as he wandered around, looking for someplace to get another cup of coffee. He probably didn't need another cup, but he was trying desperately to drown the memories of smoke and death and decay that the city had awoken. He was just striding past yet another café when he heard a familiar voice.
"Ark! We meet again!" The young agent turned to see Professor Sycamore sticking his head out the door of the café he'd just walked by. Taking a second to bring up a grin for the man, Michael turned and followed him into the café.
"So what are you doing in town Ark? Just exploring the area?" The teen shrugged, following the professor to a table where a man with short sandy hair had his feet propped up as he flipped quickly through a newspaper.
"Pretty much." Michael said with a shrug. "Thinking of heading north later on though. The city makes me uncomfortable." The professor nodded, grinning as he snagged a third chair from another table and dragging it over to join the sandy-haired man.
"Come, sit with us." He offered, sitting in the chair and gesturing towards the other unoccupied one, which Michael hesitantly sat in. He blinked as he realized the stranger seemed to be staring at him strangely over his newspaper.
"Ah, Johnny, this is Ark; I gave him a Pokedex a little while ago, he's the one I was telling you about. Ark, this is Johnny, he's also researching Team Flare." Johnny blinked at Ark's name, still with that odd look in his eyes, but he smiled and offered Michael a hand, which the teen shook warily.
"Pleasure to meet you Ark." He said, shaking the teen's hand vigorously.
"Same to you." Archangel muttered in return, suddenly feeling wary.
"What were you researching?" Looker demanded as soon as Darius stepped into the garishly red café and seated himself at the bar next to his boss.
"Nice to see you too." Darius replied sarcastically, glancing around the nearly empty café. There was a waitress leaning against a cabinet in the back looking utterly bored and a pink-haired woman with red sunglasses reading a newspaper several chairs over from Looker. Several young women in rosy red dresses were giggling at a table, and a scowling waiter behind the bar was cleaning a sparkling-clean glass, but no sandy-haired snarky agents. "Where's Johnny?"
"Getting coffee and hunting some leads. Don't change the subject."
"Well, if I knew what the subject was, I'd probably have an easier time of not changing it." Darius replied, accepting a mug of coffee from the waiter behind the bar with a nod and a quiet 'thanks'. "After all, I've been doing quite a bit of research. I stopped in at a wonderful art museum for example, and back in Shalour I was studying this really interesting concept called Mega Evolution-"
"I'm talking about the other agent." Looker growled, cutting off Darius's ramblings. Testing the man's swirl of anger, Darius sighed and dropped his façade.
"I'm still trying to figure out how he's connected to the Team Flare case."
"The case you're not on?" Looker growled.
"I'm not studying Team Flare, I'm studying Archangel." Darius retorted before sighing and holding up a hand to hold off Looker's retort. "I'm speaking as Titan right now, okay?" He informed his superior officer, giving Looker pause. "You know I pick up odd sources. One of those sources; I can't tell you about without possibly threatening that new agent."
"What does one of your questionable sources have to do with an agent who hasn't even been assigned a commanding officer yet?"
"Like I said." Titan growled. "I can't tell you without possibly putting him in danger. I don't know all the details yet, but I have a rough understanding. And no, you cannot talk to my source; he's already traumatized enough without you scaring him further."
"Traumatized?" Looker growled, concern blooming beneath his anger and frustration. Titan nodded, frowning as he quickly glanced around the café.
"What I can tell you is he knows who leads Team Flare, but has no viable proof. He also knows what they're planning." Spotting Looker's obvious 'go on' look, Titan sighed. "Dialga."
"What about it?" Looker asked, surprised.
"It's not him, but I suspect something similar. That's how my source knows that Team Flare plans on capturing and utilizing the legendary Pokémon of Life and Death, Xerneas and Yevtal. How he knows that they're planning to use an ancient machine buried under Genosage to do that. And how he knows that when they try to restrain both Pokémon, they're going to fail." Titan stared directly into Looker's eyes, pushing his aura behind his words to make the man understand what he was hearing. "Xerneas and Yevtal will escape, and they will destroy this region. Team Flare won't be able to control them once they're loose. Hundreds of people will keel over dead in the streets. Hundreds of dead people will sit up gasping and wondering what the hell just happened. And there will be no control. Looker, the very embodiments of Life and Death will be loose in the streets."
"It'll be a disaster." Looker muttered, grey eyes wide. Titan nodded, grimacing. Abruptly, just for a second, he felt a powerful flare of surprise, horror, and guilt, there and gone in a flash. His head shot up, swiveling left and right as he quickly searched the faces of the other people, searching for the source of that energy. Looker frowned, wariness rising up underneath the horror that had exploded at Titan's words. The blue-haired agent growled under his breath, unable to identify who'd reacted. Frowning, he dropped several coins on the counter, striding out the door and leaving Looker to scramble after him in irritation.
"What the hell was that?" Looker demanded once they were out of sight of the café.
"Someone overheard us. Someone who works with Team Flare." Titan informed him.
"How can you tell?" Looker demanded, but Titan refused to answer. He may have explained part of his odd power to Archangel to gain the younger agent's trust, but he wasn't quite ready to explain it to Looker yet. Seeing that he wasn't going to get an answer, Looker changed tactics.
"Where are you going?"
"Finding my source and getting out of town." Titan growled. "Team Flare's already seen us working together, there's a chance someone will be able to put two and two together and come after him before he can remember anything else to threaten their plan." Here, he paused, turning and grinning sharply at Looker as he reached down to his belt. "Which means I apologize, but I need to lose my tail." And before Looker could ask what tail he was talking about, his subordinate flickered and vanished. It took Looker only a few more seconds to realize that Titan had been referring to his commanding officer. Growling under his breath, the older agent returned to the office, hoping Johnny had been able to get something useful out of the local Professor.
Michael grinned as Johnny swung his hands out, describing the amount of candy he'd once found hidden in Professor Rowan's refrigerator. He'd been mostly forgotten by the two older men once they'd realized they both knew the older professor, but Michael was honestly enjoying listening to them while he sipped what must have been his fifth cup of coffee. Somewhere behind him, the bell over the door tinkled merrily as someone entered the café, eliciting a cheerful greeting and offer of coffee from the waitress making the rounds. Johnny too glanced up, grinning as he saw the newcomer.
"Hey, I was just telling the professor and my new friend Ark here about that time Professor Rowan let us have free reign of his kitchen." He paused and sniggered. "Have fun getting chewed out by the boss-man?"
"I hate you right now." Darius growled as he snagged a fourth chair and dragged it over to join their trio. Johnny snickered while Michael glanced nervously between Darius and Johnny. They knew each other? Was Johnny another agent? If he was, Archangel was in a very dangerous position. Especially considering the look Johnny had had in his eyes when the professor had introduced them… like he already knew…
Archangel caught Darius looking at him, and when their eyes met, Darius seemed to melt in his chair, sighing. Johnny glanced between them, shrugging when he saw Darius crumble.
"I can see why you were so agitated earlier." The oldest of the three agents commented.
"You researched me." Archangel stated. Darius nodded, even though it wasn't a question.
"I already had an idea of what happened; I've dealt with the deities of Time, Space, and Distortion. Honestly, a situation like yours isn't as insane as you seem to think. Rare, yes, unlikely, yes, but not crazy. And not impossible."
"Did you tell Looker?" Johnny asked, leaning forward. Darius grimaced.
"No. And I may have made a terrible mistake. I wasn't keeping a close eye on the other people in the café. One of them reacted when I told Looker what Team Flare is planning."
"Reacted?" Archangel pressed, frowning. "You sure it wasn't just someone freaking out?"
"Surprise and horror, yes." Darius growled. "But there was guilt too. That person knew the plan; they just didn't know the consequences. No doubt that person has already bolted to inform Ly-, their boss."
Michael grimaced as Darius stumbled, knowing the other agent had obviously just barely restrained himself from saying Lysandre. They still had no evidence after all, and that was a major accusation. Going by Johnny's frown, he'd picked up on the stumble as well, but obviously chose not to pursue it.
"So what do you think they'll do now?" He asked instead. Darius shrugged, still glaring down at the table.
"There are several things that can happen now." He said. "One; the Flare keeps it to themselves and nothing changes. Two; they tell someone in charge, and that person does nothing, making no change. Three; they tell someone in charge and they do make a change. Four…" Here, the blue-haired agent looked up, staring directly at Archangel. "Four; they decide to remove the chance of any more of their plan being exposed."
"In other words, get rid of me before I can tell you anything else." Archangel summarized. Titan nodded and the younger agent sighed, curling himself around his cooling cup of coffee. "This was supposed to be my first mission." Michael muttered. "Watcher was supposed to be in charge; I was just supposed to follow him around and not get in the way."
"I hate to be blunt, but shit happens." Titan said, very bluntly. "That Pokémon; Amersu, you called her? She chose you for this for a reason. Not Watcher; you. There's a reason for that. I don't have any idea what that reason is, but this is the situation now." The gathered agents fell silent, and Professor Sycamore leaned back in his chair, sighing.
"I have no idea what's going on, but I get the feeling we're in more trouble than anyone realizes." He shrugged and reached out, snagging his own cup of coffee off the table and taking a long drink. "Anyway, no use worrying about it now!"
Darius and Michael both stared up at the man incredulously before Darius snorted in amusement.
"I still think it would be best to get out of the city." He said, rising from his seat. "Probably head north from here, like we were planning earlier. Whatever Team Flare does, we'll just have to keep our eyes peeled." Michael took a deep breath before he followed Darius towards the door, pausing just before he got to the exit and turning back to Johnny and Professor Sycamore.
"I suppose I should re-introduce myself then Professor." He offered with a lopsided smile. "My name's Michael Briggs." He paused. "The third." Johnny smirked at that, but Sycamore just smiled, nodding in acceptance. That out of the way, Michael quickly exited the café, hurrying down the alley to catch up to Darius. He was definitely eager to get out of the city.
Again, I'll apologize for the hiatus, and from now on I'll try to warn you guys if it happens again, but this wasn't exactly something I could predict. My mother finally got tired of waiting for her boyfriend to make a commitment as of last month, which led to their breakup and us moving out of his house, which we'd lived in for the past eight years of their 10 year relationship. Luckily, we had another place we could go to, so we've been settling down there. Funny thing is they talk on the phone more now than they have talked in person for the past 4 years. I started working again about a week after the break-up, so that's been distracting me, but as I said, my Lyme disease seems to have made a reappearance recently, and that added to the weakened muscles from when I broke my back makes work rather unpleasant. Finally, I'll explain that I have ADD and anxiety, which I can usually control without medication, but this past week, I've been in completely screwed up. Right now, I can't even be alone in my own apartment, which has led to a large amount of time curled up on the neighbour's sofa, or spending hours on end at my local Panera Bread, just wrapping myself in the presence of others, strangers or not.
Again, to those of you who've stuck around, both through this hiatus and the massive one from my last story, I'll say thank you. Just, thank you for being some of the people who are just there. You don't know how much it means to me right now.