Hello, good people! I'm back with another chapter =)

Enjoy the update!


..

Despero

11:30 PM
Indigo Plateau
International Trade Center
Floor 3F
15.00%

"Max, why did they fight?" A brunette girl asked her companion while trying not to be seen from inside the hall.

"I don't know, Dawn. But it seems there's more to Thanatos than I've thought." The teenage boy answered while fixing his glasses. "From what I can see, he just took out a fellow Team Galactic member on his own accord."

"But why?" another girl asked.

"You just asked the same question as Dawn, May." A man with squinted eyes replied to the question. "Judging from what we saw, Thanatos was the traitor to Team Galactic, and is trying to take Cyrus down." Said the man with squinted eyes in soft whisper, attempting not to alarm the person in the next room. "What do you think, Mr. Kozenikata?"

"It's the Looker, boy. We, hard-boiled men..."

"Oh, give it up with the hard-boiled act! We all know you're not hard-boiled at all!" a female tomboy interrupted him while giving the man a slap on the back of his head. The Looker gave a deep sigh, and started to walk towards the person standing in the next room. "I'll talk to him. You youngsters go and get a good night's sleep. This is a matter between men." With that, he entered the room.

"You heard the man, let's go!" Brock said while tugging on Max's shirt. "No! I want to see what happens next. For all we know, that Thanatos guy could be a lot of trouble!"


Thanatos walked over to the unconscious vice-captain and took his pack containing the documents the man took from the trade center. The young trainer pulled the papers from the bag and started examining it. He threw the bag on top of the body as he started to read the stolen goods. "So, boy. How's business these days?" He turned around to see a sophisticated looking man with a cigar. The man fixed his Fedora, and walked closer to Ash.

"Not bad. Did you come here for the bomb, Mr. Kozenikata? I'm afraid you're too late for that. And your company in the next room was making quite the ruckus. While we're on that subject, can you lot over there come here, instead of sneaking around outside?" The young man answered while looking over the papers. "I don't feel comfortable being watched."

Soon the gang entered the room slowly and carefully, accompanied by an awkward laugh. "Relax, it's not like I'm going to take you out like I did this guy." Said the young man while pointing to the unconscious man. He proceeded to read the papers again. "I think I just found another piece of the puzzle." He stated with a big grin. "What was that?" "Nothing. I feel like I'm forgetting something though. Something really important."

"You mean the bombs? We need to disarm these." Said the older man while going over to the explosives. He inspected the threats and came to a quick conclusion after taking another puff from his cigar. "These aren't connected." Said the man. "Gee, you think?" Ash stated sarcastically just as he finished reading. "Wow, you know about these stuffs, Mister?" Max asked with admiration in his eyes. "Heh. This is nothing for me, boy. Living as a detective means you have to solve crimes like this every day in the downtown area..." The man was cut mid sentence by a slap on the back of his head from his assistant. "We don't even have a downtown area!"

"Thanatos." A brunette girl called out Ash's work-name with a serious face. She was holding a Buneary, and a Prinplup was standing beside her. "You're working for Team Galactic, right? Why should we trust you?" she asked. "That's right. Why should you?" Thanatos shot back a question, answered with a confused look the girl gave. "You could've just called the Police right then when you were hiding, but you didn't. In fact, we've got a very accomplished officer right here!" He stated in a playful manner while pointing out The Looker. "Well then, can we ask you some questions?" A man with squinted eyes stepped up from the group, confronting the man wearing the overcoat and the balaclava. "Try me, Mr. Brock."

"We were ambushed by a number of Galactic members on our way to Indigo Plateau. Do you know anything of this incident?" he asked. "You do realize that I'm a Galactic member myself, right?" Brock gulped hard, and replied, "Yes, and a very rebellious one, at that." He answered while pointing to the person lying on the ground. Thanatos gave a slight chuckle at that remark. "Cyrus is trying to do what he failed to do 4 years ago. Now with major upgrades." Thanatos waved the bundle of documents at Brock. "You guys foiled his plans the last time remember?" Brock nodded, followed by the gang behind him. "He doesn't want any of that right now. So he's planning to get you guys out of the picture. All of you."

Thanatos' PokeNav started ringing a second later. He pushed the answer button and began to speak.

"Thanatos here." Answered the young man while signalling the others to wait. "Ah, there you are. I've looked over the copy of the documents you sent me about an hour ago, and I must say you've got an interesting find." The person on the other side of the line replied. "Hey there, old man. Start the story."

"All right. So the Time Gears, from my research, are artefacts of great importance. It keeps the flow of time going in this world. Even the most hardened criminals know not to touch the Time Gears, lest the flow of time be disrupted. From the copy of the notes I have received from you, it seems that these places are where the Gears are located. Once they are taken out from their places, time will completely stop in the area of jurisdiction of that specific gear. While in that jurisdiction, there contains a Guardian that keeps away intruders from the artefact. Why did you want me to research about this, anyway?"

"At first, out of sheer interest. Now, it seems that Cyrus plans to gather all five. For what, I don't know."

"How do you know?"

"The documents I recovered from a Bravo Company member I stopped..."

"Bravo Company..." Ash thought inwardly.

"Hey! Are you listening to me?" The Doctor yelled through the PokeNav.

"Yeah, yeah! Wait a sec! It seems I'm remembering something important! Don't hang up the call, old man." Replied Ash. "Something about Bravo Company..."

"Hey, so this is a member of Galactic's proud fire team? He's heavily armoured and equipped..." A girl wearing a bandana said while kneeling beside the unconscious body.

"Bravo Company... Fire team... Armor... Equipment?"

Ash shot a fierce look to the body, and saw the 'G' imprint on the body's left shoulder. "Shit!" He started to make his way to the windows, and got ready to exit. "Looker, it's all up to you! The detonator's somewhere with him!" The gang gave a confused look. "What about you?" The Looker asked the obvious question. "I've got something to do, something urgent. Let's go, Pikachu!" "Pika!" He jumped out of one of the open windows, and took a PokeBall from his belt. "Salamence!" said the young trainer while releasing his pseudo-legendary. He got on top of the dragon Pokemon. "To the Galactic Headquarters, double time!"

"Ash! What's happening?" A voice from the PokeNav reached his ears.

"The sound transmitter equipment from the Bravo Company member! I forgot to destroy it before I revealed that I'm against Cyrus, and you were included in the conversation! You have to get out of there, quick, and take the documents about the Time Gears with you too!" Ash screamed at the top of his lungs to the PokeNav. "Okay, okay, I'll get to it!" "I'll be there in less than 10 minutes, get out of there as fast as you could and come to the usual place." With that, Ash ended the call. He texted Cynthia in case he needed help, informing her of the rendezvous point he had chosen. "Step it up, Salamence!"


11:50 PM
Galactic Main Headquarters
Vici
Research Room

"Stuff to take, stuff to take..." an old, bearded man was gathering his belongings before he evacuated the building. He had a Galactic nameplate on his lab coat that said "Dr. Raito". "Where were those copies of the documents that Ash had sent me?" mumbled the aged man while looking for the pieces of papers. "Ah, here it is!" Finding the bundle of papers, he slipped some into his pocket, while he held the copies.

"Unfortunately, you're going to have to hand those over to me, Doctor." Said a man who had just entered the room, accompanied by two men who were fully armed and guarded by three Mightyena. Dr. Raito quickly turned around to see who it was.

"Cyrus." He stated. "What a surprise to see you here. Usually you just stay coped up in your office on the top floor. What brings you here?" he said with a big smile. "You know what I'm here for, Raito. Don't play dumb." Said the organization leader while pointing to the sheets of paper the Doctor was holding.

"Oh, you mean these?" the older man said while flashing the bundle of paper. He strafed little by little, until he stood beside a machine placed on a table beside a big recycling bin. "What are you doing..." warned one of the guards while raising his pistol.

"These are just my shopping list, you see, so there's nothing to see." Dr. Raito inserted the papers he was holding to the machine beside him, which ripped to pieces to shreds. "Hehe, I wouldn't want people to see what I buy in private." "You bastard..!" the guard said as he pointed the pistol at Raito's head. "We can always recover the bits and pieces from the shredder. But shoot him first. Any last words, Doctor?" Cyrus said as he got ready to give the command.

"Mind giving me time for one last smoke, good sir?" said the bearded man while lighting up a lighter.

"Sir..." the other guard spoke. "Hmm?"

"He... doesn't smoke... He doesn't smoke!" the guard shouted when he saw Dr. Raito quickly took the lid off the shredder and threw the lighter in the bin, setting the papers on fire. "Aah, the documents!" the guard panicked and accidentally fired a shot, hitting one of the Doctor's arm. "Aaargh!" shouted Raito while holding his arm. The other guard got ready to bash the living hell out of the former Galactic Researcher.

"Hold it!" Cyrus quickly intervened and lowered the guard's pistol. "You're going to pay for that, Doctor. Guards, restrain him!"


In less than 10 minutes later, Ash had arrived in the Main Headquarters, and he quickly rushed off to the research center. The other employees did not seem to know about Ash and Dr. Raito's declaration of betrayal, but he knew that the disciplinary officers would have taken action by now. Ash knew he was digging his own grave, but he could not reach Raito by phone, so he had to make sure. In a seemingly endless hallway, a bad feeling rushed to Ash's chest. The door that usually was kept open was closed, and that itself gave him a bad premonition. Pikachu was running beside him, and kept a worried look on his face.

He got ready to open the door, and rushed in to the room. "Old man!"

When he opened the door, his eyes widened in surprise. The old man was sitting in a chair in the rather large research facility, with a bleeding arm. Heavily bleeding. "Old man, what happened to you? We need to get out of here!" said the young man in panic.

"Oh, that won't be happening anytime soon, or at all, Silent-Killer." Said the man who Ash quickly identified to be Team Galactic's leader while approaching the Doctor. "You see, this Doctor here has done something quite unacceptable." Cyrus started explaining. "He burned away important documents. I was going to make his capture a fast and normal one, but he brought it to himself." He turned to face Thanatos, who was getting ready for a fight. "You, give me that thing." Ordered Cyrus to one of the guards, who immediately complied. He accepted the pistol from the guard, and pointed it at the Doctor's head.

"No... You wouldn't!" Ash cried out while removing the glove on his right hand, while Pikachu's cheeks started to spark.

"You will keep that arm and mouse to yourself, or I will blast this man's head off." Cyrus warned. "Now, kindly hand over the documents you got from Bravo Company."

"Don't... do it..." said Dr. Raito to Ash while panting heavy breaths.

"Now, Doctor, you have to remember that I am the one giving orders here!" shouted Cyrus before hitting Dr. Raito on the face repeatedly.

Ash tried to intervene, only to be stopped by the guards who had increased in numbers and were all pointing their pistols at him, with a number of Mightyenas surrounding him. "Now, the documents?" Cyrus said to Ash once again, to which Ash just stayed stationary. "Very well, then. We'll just have to take it off your dead body. Guards, shoot him."

Right after Cyrus issued the order, Dr. Raito got up from his seat.

He took a knife from a nearby table, and ran up to Cyrus in an attempt to stab him.

Being inexperienced with a firearm, Cyrus quickly turned around and fired multiple body shots while getting thrown back from the recoil of the gun.

"Old man!" Ash ran to Dr. Raito who was now lying motionless on the ground. "Old man! Hang in there!"

"I am getting sick of this nonsense. Guards, take them out, and retrieve the documents." Said the Galactic leader while standing up and fixing his clothes. With that, he exited the room.

"You... You bastard! Come back here!" Ash tried to go for Cyrus only to find that the way was completely blocked off by guards. Holes once again appeared on his metallic arm as he prepared to launch an attack, only to stop before he could finish. The arm was jammed.

"H-hey... What's wrong? Too afraid to come at us, Silent-Killer?" a guard tried to taunt him.

"Shit!" Ash pulled Dr. Raito's hand and placed it across his shoulder, carrying him towards a wall, which he released his Metagross to break down. They jumped down a couple of stories with the help of Metagross, and tried to escape to the forests, but were pursued by the guards. Ash ordered his Metagross to perform a Hyper Beam attack to break down the source of pursuers, to which the pseudo-legendary happily complied.

Ash started to make his way to the forest with Dr. Raito on his back.


"What's this? I have an artificial arm?" Ash said in surprise when he took a good look at his supposed-to-be-missing-arm. "Yeah. I couldn't just leave it like it was before. I don't know how to amputate, so I just attached a metallic arm." "Cool..." Ash said, still dazed.

"Now, with this arm, you'll get substantially strong. What I request of you is that you'll never take the life of another human being with this arm." Dr. Raito said with a big smile.

"Don't worry, old man. I promise I won't."


"I still kept my promise up until now, old man! The arm jammed, and I didn't kill those guys like I wanted to! Don't die on me!" Ash shouted, his eyes getting watery. He dragged his feet, carrying the man along the rugged path of the forest. He had no idea where he was going, he just needed to get away from that place.


"They took away your sister?" Ash gave a question to the old man's earlier statement.

"Yeah, to make sure that I absolutely follow orders, and that I join Team Galactic without question." Dr. Raito answered. "3 years after joining, I found out that she was long dead. She was killed by Team Galactic to prevent any unwanted attention from the public."

"Why... are you telling me this?"

"Cyrus did that, no? The fall from the cliff and the arm. And I saved your life, Ash, so you owe me one. Also, I happen to bear a similar grudge to Cyrus! We'll do it together, you and me, whaddya say?" said the older man with a bright smile.

"Sure!"


"Damn it, Old man! Don't play with me, you're going to be fine, right? You'll just recover completely and laugh all the time like you usually do, right? We'll take down Cyrus together, right?" Ash's voice was getting sore, and more water made their way to his eyes. His legs were starting to get weak, his vision was getting blurry, and he was starting to wobble. "Pikapi..." said Pikachu, worried about his trainer and the fatherly figure to his trainer.


"What are your dreams, Ash?"

"My dreams?"

"Yes. Dreams. Surely you have them, don't you?"

"Oh yeah! My dream is to be a Pokemon Master! To be the best that I can ever be!"

"Now that's a good dream!"

With that, both shared a moment of laughter.

"Say, old man."

"Hmm?"

"When this is all over, when we take down Team Galactic, will you watch me participate in the regional Conferences? I'm going to win each and every one of them and proceed to the Grand Conference!"

The old man gave a chuckle and answered, "Of course I will."


"Damn it, old man! You promised to see me win the Grand Conference..." Ash was now dragging his feet completely in an effort to move forward, but was failing. "Why aren't you answering, old man!" They had only been walking for a short amount of time, but it seemed to last an eternity for Ash. Using his last energy to take a step, he fell to his knees, and rested Dr. Raito against a tree. Motionless, the Doctor sat there with a smile spread across his face. Tears began to roll its way down Ash's cheeks as he watched the person who had been like a father to him for the last four years.

Never before that he felt like this, the terrible feeling of having someone he deeply cared about get taken away.

Ash rose to his feet eventually, and returned Metagross to its Pokeball after thanking the steel-type for the good work. He took out another, and released his Salamence. He picked up Dr. Raito's body, and placed it on Salamence's back. Afterwards, he got on also, with Pikachu.

"Let's go home, old man."


01:30 AM
East of Indigo Plateau – Mountainous Area
Clearing
Villa – Sanctimonia Residence

A certain blonde woman was getting restless after waiting for almost an hour at a large and empty waiting room and a Mansion, after getting texted by a certain someone about him needing help. She was getting a bit frustrated and angry, not because he texted her at midnight and requested that she had to go to a noticeably far place to meet, but because he made her wait this long in a very big Mansion that apparently required a number of servants. She didn't even make him wait 20 minutes last time.

When she was mumbling something along the lines of 'That idiot', she heard the growl of a Pokemon outside, landing on the courtyard. She ran outside to see that a Salamence just landed, and a person with long hair was standing next to it. She noticed that a number of servants made their way to the courtyard too, greeting the arrival of the owner.

Cynthia started to walk towards the man who was standing beside the Salamence, the man who made her wait for quite a long time. "So, Ash, where have you..." she stopped mid-sentence. Ash was carrying a person, a person who was lying motionless on his arms. The servants gasped at the sight, most of them running towards Ash to see if it was really true, while one or two went inside the building to get the medic. She could hear some of the maids saying, "The master! The master has passed away!"

Ash passed the body to the head butler and said, "Let me have the honour of digging his grave." With that, Ash headed to the Residence's graveyard. The butler offered him a shovel to which Ash declined and replied, "I'll dig the grave with the arm he gave me."

Cynthia stayed by Ash's side the whole time he was digging, where the noises of dirt being shaped echoes in Ash's head.

The next day, the funeral was held for Raito.


The funeral ended early that day, because of the rain that started to pour at the end of the ceremony. Ash stayed in front of the grave, cursing himself of his mistake he made the day before. He could have destroyed the sound transmitter if he had not forgotten it; he was careless. "Damn it..." he muttered.

"Ash..." Cynthia said from Ash's side. "Let's go, you'll catch a cold if you keep standing here." Stated the blonde-haired woman while reaching out for his hand. She realized that he had no intention of moving away anytime soon. He had told her what happened the morning after he returned, spending a lot of time letting it out.

She pulled Ash to embrace him in a hug in an attempt to comfort him. Knowing her intentions, he returned the hug. "Are you feeling any better?" she asked. Ash smiled, and replied, "Better than yesterday night, definitely. Now, I'm even more determined to take down Team Galactic and pay Cyrus back for what he had done; to me and to the old man. And I don't think the old man would want me being depressed and emotional, when I've got something big to accomplish in the near future. Thanks for making me feel better, Cynthia."

Hearing this, Cynthia let out a deep sigh of relief and released the hug. Ash looked at her and said, "I didn't say I was feeling that much better, I still need the hug. In fact, I might need something more..." Cynthia immediately looked down in embarrassment , hiding her flushed red face. Ash chuckled at her behaviour. "You're so cute." "Stop teasing me!" said the girl in protest.

Ash leaned in towards her face, catching her lips in a kiss, which she gladly returned.


A bit shorter, but hope you enjoyed nonetheless =)