A/N: Thanks for the reviews, guys! Danijie, actually Team Rocket isn't trying to help find Ash. Their satellites are just programmed to pick up on anyone saying the words 'Team Rocket' and record it, though it would be sweet if Jessie and James were worried too. Julie Togepi, sorry to leave it on a cliffhanger, but that's because there was a surprise in this chapter.
As for who to bring, I am thinking that perhaps Serena might be better, but I'll get to that in the next chapter.
Ash was dozing off in what now constituted his office when someone rapped on the door.
As Ash had nearly fell into his chair from exhaustion, he had told people that he didn't want to be woken up until absolutely necessary. Apparently this was something like that.
Ash rubbed the sleep from his eyes wearily as he glanced around the old-fashioned office. It wouldn't have looked out of the place of an old-fashioned samurai movie, save for the three telephones on one side of the room.
"Come in," Ash said.
The door slid open to reveal a messenger, who bowed and said, "An emissary has arrived from the ocean bearing a white flag. He says that he has a message for you, Milord."
"Huh," Ash said. "So Wade's finally sent someone. Why didn't he just call- oh wait, Selena might be listening on to that."
"No sir, it is not from Lord Wade," the messenger said. "The emissary is from His Majesty, the Eighth Gym Leader. He also had the Celestial Badge's seal to prove it. Shall I send him in?"
"Uh, yeah, sure," Ash said. "And could you call Gulliver too? I guess he might want to hear what the man has to say- is it a man though?"
"Yes sir," the messenger said. "And yes sir." He bowed and left.
One of the phones began ringing and Ash picked it up to see Mr. Jennings.
"Ah, good to see you sir," Mr. Jennings said. "I was informed that an emissary from His Majesty had just come to visit you-"
"Wait," Ash said. "Do you have spies in this place who tell you what happens all the time?"
Mr. Jennings turned slightly red. "It is a necessity sir. I was merely asking permission to observe and comment."
"Okay," Ash said. "Though that means Selena can see it too, but I guess we can switch it off if there's something we don't want her to see. Is Duke Hamnet also going to be watching?"
"Ah, the young lad's probably too busy," Mr. Jennings said.
Just then, another telephone began ringing and Ash picked it up to see Duke Hamnet.
"Ah, good to see you sir," Duke Hamnet said. "I was informed that there was an emissary from the Emperor and I wanted to just see if I could pitch in and-"
"Wait, so you have spies here too that I don't know of?" Ash asked.
"Well- I just- I mean, well, wait, what do you mean by 'you too?'"
"I'm here," Mr. Jennings said.
"I'll make this a conference call," Ash said with a sigh.
With that finished, the door slid open to reveal a man who was about fifty. There was something oddly imposing about him and his hooked nose. He was wearing a tuxedo, though unlike the black-and-white of Marley's servants, his shirt was a light green, and on closer inspection, his suit was not actually black but a very dark shade of emerald.
"Do I address Sir Ash?" the man asked.
"Yeah,- I mean yes" Ash said, trying to look more imposing and formal.
The man saluted, but it was a rather lazy and sloppy salute. He didn't bow down either- Ash didn't really care about this, but after so long with people doing it, well, it became noticeable when someone didn't.
"I bear a message from His Majesty, the Eighth Gym Leader, wielder of the Celestial Badge, primus inter pares of the Gym Leaders, the Emperor of Ten Thousand Years, the Son of Heaven, the Celestial One, and Heaven's Favorite," the emissary said.
Duke Hamnet snorted. "Very short title there."
Mr. Jennings had similar feelings. "So, he calls himself 'Heaven's Favorite,' 'The Celestial One,' and all these other titles reserved for the Emperor of Galea. Who does he think he is?"
The emissary suddenly wore a cold smile. "Oh, don't worry on that regard. The current Elite Four Champion is in no state to defy my Master's whims and fancies."
Ash blinked. "You mean it? You're telling me there was another Elite Four Champion and that-"
"Enough," the emissary said, holding his hand up. "Enough. I can talk no further, my oaths will not let me and anyway I have no desire to divulge anything." He held out an envelope at arm's length.
Ash was surprised to find his hands trembling as he took the envelope, but then again, his mind was racing as to what it might contain. Finally, he would have an explanation from someone who knew everything, and finally, everything would be clear!
He was disappointed before he even read the letter.
The first thing he noticed was that the paper that the letter was written on was of a terrible quality.
Up till now, the documents he had handled were made up of some material that was thick to the touch but light to carry and easy to read. Now, Ash was not the kind of person to go around judging the quality of paper when he went to a place, but the thing was that the difference was so much that even he noticed.
The letter seemed to have been written on a napkin. Ash suddenly had an image of the Emperor taking out a piece of tissue paper, blowing his nose in it, and saying, 'Hey! I have to write a letter to Ash! Let me use this rather than using something else! I was thinking of going green anyway!'
There was thankfully no snot on the napkin, but there was hardly anything else either. There was only one word written on it: DESIST.
That was all. The seal was on the envelope, the paper had no signature or markings or anything else.
Ash frowned. "What's the meaning of this?"
The emissary produced a flask from his tuxedo, took a swig, and then shrugged his shoulders. "I know not. His Majesty wished to write only that, and so that was all that was written."
"I know that's weird, but that's not what I meant. What does 'desist' mean?" Ash asked.
"It means to give up," Duke Hamnet said.
"Then why did he only write this much?" Ash asked. He had been expecting pages worth of information explaining in detail what had happened to Galea and why it had happened, and hopefully something saying that he would have help in escaping.
"He writes what he believes you are worthy of," the emissary said.
Duke Hamnet sneered again. "Your so-called Emperor rules only one-eighth of Galea, while Milord Ash controls half. I think it's obvious who's worthy of what."
The emissary wore that same cold smile. "Ah, but I was not talking about land area. I meant in battle prowess. Your master cannot hold a candle to mine when it comes to Pokemon battles, even if he were to hold seven domains together."
Mr. Jennings squinted. "You look familiar somehow… I just noticed that, it's like I've seen you before. Have we met?"
"Probably not," the emissary said, taking another swig. "You may have seen a sketch though. I am Fredrick, and I was the Eighth Gym Leader a long time ago."
"Wait- you're not dead?" Ash asked.
"Why'd you think I died?" the emissary asked, his voice getting more slurred with every sip.
"I don't know- I thought that was how things worked when a Gym Leader usually lost," Ash said.
"His Majesty is quite merciful and does not take pleasure in killing or harming others," Fredrick said. "Unlike the other Gym Leaders. If it were not for the fact that His Majesty intervened and forbade Selena from carrying out mass purges, several thousand people would be dead today who yet walk this earth. "
"That's… the first positive thing I've heard about him," Ash said. Fredrick's words seemed to have been genuine and free of scorn so Ash guessed that he wasn't lying. "What else do you know about him?"
"Very little. He likes growing Berries. He is an adept Trainer. Anywho, if you're done with the message, I'll go visit a bar before I head back," Fredrick said.
"Wait- I need to ask you some things," Ash protested.
"Well kid, I don't want to answer them," Fredrick answered. "And I know what you're going to ask me, lad, and I've been sworn to secrecy as I said earlier."
"Don't you want to know if Sir Ash has a message to carry back?" Mr. Jennings asked, incredulous.
"No," Fredrick said. "His Majesty said he doesn't really care for what you have to say in return. He says that it will make no difference in the end."
"Now what does that mean?" Ash asked. Fredrick eloquently shrugged, seemingly incapable of talking in a way that could be understood anymore. He stumbled out of the room as Ash turned around.
"Like seriously, what was that?" Ash repeated. "Is he always like that?"
"I don't know," Mr. Jennings said. "I never met him in person. Very few people have. And Mister Marley received very few tidings from him in the first place, but I could tell that he hated him."
"It does seem in line with what Freyja used to say," Duke Hamnet said.
"Ugh- yeah," Ash muttered, rubbing his head.
Ever since he had gotten the Fourth Gym Badge, he had gotten dizzy, had a bout of minor fever, and several sharp headaches which increased in intensity whenever he used the Gym Badges. He had written it off earlier as maybe just feeling guilty about all that had happened, but this seemed to be more than that.
"Are you all right sir?" Duke Hamnet asked.
"Ugh- it's just that I've been feeling weird ever since I got the Tempo Badge," Ash said. "It didn't feel good when I got it, and I've been feeling odd ever since."
"Oh dear," Mr. Jennings said.
"Is that what I think it is then?" Duke Hamnet said over-dramatically.
"What?" Ash asked.
"Badge Sickness," Mr. Jennings said.
"What's that?" Ash asked.
"Don't you remember- we had a discussion about it back when you had defeated Marley?" Mr. Jennings said.
"Oh," Ash said, rubbing the back of his neck, "I kind of may not have been paying attention…"
"Oh, well, allow me to explain," Duke Hamnet said with extra pomp while Mr. Jennings rolled his eyes. "You see, occasionally, it was seen among the old Gym Leaders that when the number of Badges they held increased, while it increased their power, when they had accumulated too many… well, strange things began happening. According to one account, 'it seemed like my Badges no longer wanted to be together, it was as if they were fighting amongst each other while I tried to use them.' And so some of them began suffering from fevers or even madness eventually…"
Ash obviously looked alarmed.
"But it didn't always happen, and the symptoms would vary, and we were never sure that it would happen to you," Mr. Jennings said. "And if you do feel like they're being too much, you can always appoint a proxy to take care of one for you."
"What's a proxy?" Ash asked.
"Oh- it's a replacement," Mr. Jennings said. "You just hand over one of your Badges to someone, and they take an oath to serve you as a vassal, and they have the Badge and its powers, but they take care of the realm for you. And he-"
"Or she," Duke Hamnet muttered.
"Or she," Mr. Jennings growled, angry at the interruption, "will be bound to still follow your orders and you can take the Badge back anytime."
"Oh," Ash said, looking a lot more relieved. "I think then that-"
Whatever he said next was drowned out as something crashed into the door. "WAIT! WHY WON"T THIS THING OPEN!" a familiar voice screamed as someone banged on the door. "I NEED TO GET IN! WHO LOCKED THE DO- oh yeah, it opens by sliding it."
Gulliver walked in. "Sorry, I came as fast as I could. And I forgot how the doors here work."
"Gulliver, are you really sweating that much or did you fall into a lake or something?" Ash asked.
Both Mr. Jennings and Duke Hamnet craned their necks to see Gulliver, before realizing that they were communicating via telephone and that this would make no difference.
"Kind of both, really," Gulliver said. "Where's the messenger?"
"He left," Ash said. "But don't worry- he quite literally said nothing important. I don't even know why he'd bother."
"He could be a spy," Duke Hamnet mused. "He could be scouting out or just sizing us up to tell His Majesty."
"Well, he said he'll be leaving soon," Ash said. "So, what were you doing?"
"Oh that, y'know how you said once that you needed a Water type?" Gulliver asked. "Well, you looked way too busy, so I thought I'd take a fishing boat and go look for some for you."
"Gee- thanks!" Ash said, elated. "But wait, where'd you get a fishing boat?"
Gulliver turned a bright shade of red. "Geez, I sort of appr- I mean, borrow- no…"
Ash sighed. "Okay, whoever you took it from, just give it back okay?" Ash said. It was for reasons like this that Ash had thought that if he was going to choose a proxy, it shouldn't be Gulliver. He was a great friend, but it seemed far too likely to Ash that he would start abusing his power. Ash thought that Celera and Mr. Jennings would be better choices. He wasn't sure about Duke Hamnet though- while he seemed nice overall he also seemed to like a violence a bit too much.
"Yeah sure," Gulliver said.
"But what did you manage to catch?" Ash asked.
"Oh, first of all, there was a Magikarp," Gulliver said. "I mean, I know they're weak and all- but you can train it to get a Gyarado! How 'bout that?"
"Oh yes, a Gyrados," Duke Hamnet said with a wicked grin. "Capable of leveling an entire port with a single blast and terrorizing villages."
"Right," Ash said. "But that seems a bit too hard to control. Isn't there something else?"
"Sure," Duke Hamnet said. "I have a Tentacool…"
"Nah," Ash and Mr. Jennings said at once.
"And I found a Staryu," Gulliver said.
"Hmmm, not sure on that," Ash said.
"There was also a Wingull, a Luvdisc, and a Remoraid," Gulliver said.
"Did you find a Lapras?" Ash asked, thinking about the one he had been with during the Orange League.
"No," Gulliver said. "I don't have an ice type…. I do have a Krabby though."
"Huh," Ash said, remembering that he had also had one.
"There's also a Seaking, a Horsea, a Carvanha- man that one was rare, and a Psyduck," Gulliver said.
"Psyduck huh?" Ash asked. "Golduck isn't bad, but if it is anything like Misty's Psyduck I might want to pass on it."
"Well, the last one I have is a Lanturn," Gulliver said.
"Hmm…" Ash said. "You know what, I think I'll go with the Psyduck. But I wanna make sure it's normal first."
Gulliver handed over the Pokeball, and Ash called in someone to clean up the mess that Gulliver had made while dripping all over the floor, and he couldn't help but think how there were now three Pokemon he had that had been given to him by someone.
How very like him.
A/N: Thanks for reading, and do review if you liked, as always!
