Chapter 23: Throwing an anchor
Morning
Mahogany Town
Dex criminal's hideout
The soft thuds of pots and pans hitting a carpeted floor prompted Red to look up from his work. He noted how Diamond stared helplessly at the fallen utensils instead of picking them up. Easing himself off the chair, the ebony haired man went over and picked them up; his underling shifted his blue irises to his leader and gaped. Clutching a spoon in one hand, the child switched on the stoves and waited, his eyes reflected dancing blue flames.
"Dia, are you feeling okay?"
"Mmmm okay." he spoke, his words slurring incomprehensibly. The boy tried to say something else, his lips moved but only warbled sounds came out. Ignoring his senior, he pulled a pan over the stoves and drizzled oil on the surface. As he lifted his spoon, the grip on the cutlery slackened and now the spoon fell to the floor. Muttering to himself the boy bent down and instead of picking it up, he keeled over and lay motionlessly on the carpet. Red watched him, apprehension ballooning in his chest. He was well aware that Diamond's condition was not fully medicated but to see his little pupil in such a state was tearing him up inside. The boy couldn't speak properly, he always dropped things and his empathic skills, which were in the top tier in the organization, was lacking. After suffering that skull crushing blow from Mewtwo six months ago, Dia had fallen into a coma and had undergone several operations and therapies. The Sinnoh native had woken up and insisted on attending the reunion and straightaway it was apparent Diamond he was not the same. Platina had informed the three leaders that he is still undergoing treatment in one of the most reputable hospitals in Unova. Right now, the child was sent home to Sinnoh with medications and the doctors were trying to rehabilitate him. It was still quite some time before he will be able to function on his own, he was not allowed to battle and someone was required to stay near him at all times.
"You must be tired," the leader of the group bent down and scooped the warbling boy up in his arms. Diamond thrashed and made some noise before quieting down and blinking confusedly at his senior."
"Senior Redd...Wherre are you taking me?"
"Back to bed for you Dia" the adolescent stated kindly, "yesterday night must have been quite tiring for you, you were singing at the top of your voice with Pearl and Gold remember?" The boy merely looked at him owlishly.
"I don don't remember...Mmm...Mom said I should start counting the berries growing on our berry tree. We have a berry tree in our garden Red...You should visit one day, I'll ask Mom to make a berry grll...Grill. Her berry grill is the best, mmm...I'm hungry."
"Should I get you something to eat? I'm sure I can make a decent sandwich."
Diamond laughed at this, Red had put him down on one of the chairs and the teenager swung his legs back and forth and giggled. Pulling his cap off, the red eyed man smiled and began working. His subordinate was humming a little ditty and he listened as he worked. The clock ticked and soon Gold and Lack-2 swaggered into the area, both boys hauled themselves to the couch in front of the television and switched it on, soon a mini argument started brewing as they tugged for the remote, each wanting to watch a program of their choice. The second youngest trainer, mildly disturbed by their rising voices stuck his fingers in his ears and hummed louder. Eventually the pulling turned into a brawl and the mentor-student pair started tumbling over each other on the rug. Seeing this, the black haired boy cheered indolently and approached them with the intention of joining in. Rude words flew from the tussling pair and Red, who was watching the proceedings, became alarmed when Dia dragged his feet to the group. Throwing everything down, he forced the screeching Lack-2 and Gold apart.
"Dialga's sake you two, it's early in the morning! Don't cause such a ruckus you will wake Black up; and besides I'd appreciate it if you could show some restraint, remember Dia is still sick." he admonished
"I'm fineee, really!"
The scolded duo glanced at each other and then at their leader who gazed sternly down at them. Bowing, they mumbled apologies and raised themselves off the floor, dusting their clothes off, they reseated on the couch. This time Diamond sat in between them. Switching on television, Gold flipped through several channels and halted when Diamond made a noise, the boy tried saying something and after several attempts he finally worded a request, his fingers twiddling nervously.
"I want to...watch...this."
Lack-2 glimpsed the screen and his eyes flickered back and forth between the monitor and his childish seniors. Both of them sported zany smiles and his teacher outright fist pumped when the Poke-Gundam smashed a building down. Turning his head back, he observed his commander was also engrossed in the cartoon. The four of them watched and when the ending credits rolled by, he was acutely aware of Gold and Diamond singing along at the top of their voice. Black, who was asleep on the second floor, had woken up and leaned over the railings glaring at them all, his brown hair was stuck up in odd spikes and he had the flower patterned pokemon resting on his head.
"I'm trying to sleep! Geez have some thought for other people will you? I was up late at night trying to developing strategies to deal with legendary pokemon and I finally got a nice one which minimizes collateral damage...Ah my notes are all scattered beneath my desk, I'll give them to senior Green to analyze later...And is our leader making breakfast?" All this was delivered in a loud tone and those on the first floor winced as his voice steadily got louder with each word.
"Yeah" mumbled Red, "is there something wrong?"
"N-no sir...I look forward to eating whatever edible things you put on the table." The brown haired quickly stated and disappeared from view.
"Senior Red can't cook?" Lack-2 voiced out clamorously and watched in satisfaction as his commander flushed. Gold raised a fist and bumped the child on his head, the russet eyed youth ducked in time. "I'm surprised though, I heard you lived alone all your life and...Really? You can't cook?" A wide mischievous smirk formed on his face and Red's Pika scampered out of nowhere and attempted to tackle Lack-2. The boy sprang from the couch and smoothly dodged to the side; both the pokemon and the occupants in the room beheld him in awe.
Except Red, who was trying his best to chop an onion without crying.
"You are surprisingly agile on your feet." The gold eyed trainer commented as Pika and his apprentice flitted around the room. The electric mouse squeaked in indignation and let loose a thunderbolt. To the astonishment of all, the cinnamon haired boy managed to side step just in time. The smirk on his face grew wider as even Red stopped tackling the onion to gape at him.
Pika had enough.
With a roaring squeak, the yellow rodent let loose a deafening thunder, striking Gold, its master and Lack-2. The lightning graciously missed Diamond who was rolling the floor, laughing. A shout from upstairs relayed that Black was not spared of the electric mouse's wrath. Satisfied, it hopped out of the room. Red moaned and put the knife down; he started fixing his electrified hair. The Johto native was doing the same as well. As for the young Unovian, the boy's hair was sticking up like a brown halo and he gritted his teeth. Before anyone could have a look at his twisted expression, he smoothed his face and ran a hand through his disheveled hair.
"Well, at least we were entertainment for Dia" Gold stated and dropped to the floor. If Red was making food today, they'll need another half a day before breakfast was ready. Stating that he was going to nap on the rug, he lied down and closed his eyes.
Execution's commander swore, he was still having a difficult time with the onion.
Mid-morning
Hoenn
A meeting room
Steven stone placed four video discs on the table, each of them were labeled. One of them read Team Aqua and Magma, another one read Team Plasma, a third one had Team Galactic and the fourth one was left blank. The other people seated around the room grabbed the discs and examined them. Cynthia tossed him the first disk and asked him to play the contents. The adolescent got up and inserted the disc into a player, the large monitor blinked to life and the police officers leaned back in their seats and watched.
At first there was only static and then the footage showed a clear image of a rocket launching session. The crowds shouted elatedly and a countdown began. Once the number reached zero, the camera zoomed up to the rocket, instead of a burst of smoke and fire announcing the takeoff, a loud noise assaulted their ears and a rough voice spoke up. It told the assembly not to panic. Droves of maroon and blue uniformed personnel swarmed in the area and released their fire and water based pokemon, subtly threatening the audience not to make a move. Another team entered the secured area and started commanding their monsters to tear the rocket apart. Aron and its family of metal eaters reduced the spacecraft into nothing in several short hours. The two external torpedo shaped fuel tanks and the interior spherical one was carefully dragged away by camerupt, claydol and baltoys. Thereafter a large explosion was detonated; the launch base crumpled and steel pipes and girders fell to the earth dispersing the crowd in a panic. The event was so masterfully executed that the local police could do nothing. The platinum haired female grimaced and looked away.
"Can we watch the next one?" yawned Volkner. Surge imparted a disgusted look at him and flipped the disc he was holding.
"Put that in next."
Right away the screen showed a large ship flying in the sky. Baffled, the officers leaned forward in their chairs and for the first time in many ages Volkner's look of apathetic boredom morphed into fascination. His eyes widened and he tethered to the edge of his seat. The enormous ship was flying over the mountain ranges of Unova and one could see the snowcapped peaks. Some distance later, the craft released its sailcloth and descended slowly into a huge body of water, an ocean no doubt. Oars were lowered into the water and the vessel was rowed near a shore and anchored. The monitor went blank and shifted in perspective, the surroundings were pitch dark, muffled words could be heard and suddenly a light was switched on. A young adult with green tea hair was smiling and pushing his face right in the camera. The blonde recoiled and hissed:
"What's his problem?"
"Quiet!" his superior snapped.
N finally angled the camera away from his face and started talking.
"Father is not here today," they adolescent sounded sad, "he urged me to keep a video diary of what I do each day so...Zorua wait, this is important we can play later..."
"I didn't actually believe it when you told me he talks to pokemon" Cynthia's irises grew big, "now I'm seeing it with my own eyes."
The slate eyed youth resumed talking: "Let's see, I'm in the new headquarters of Team Plasma," the camera panned and showed cream colored walls and Greek styled pillars holding up the roof, "Today I was trying to coax Kyurem out of the stone again but to no avail, he won't respond to me no matter how much I call. Dad is constructing this new base and asked me to keep watch here, the ship is not enough now that we have more members signing up for our cause. I'm glad the people of Unova are starting to see our ideals, we have no right to keep pokemon cooped up in..." The screen went blank.
"What happened?"
"I assume someone cut the connection abruptly. More importantly our suspicions are confirmed, those people are building a fancy new castle for themselves somewhere in Unova, we need to send out troops in order to determine where it's situated." Falkner tiredly replied. "We will view the last two discs later, the unnamed disc contains information on the Dex criminals and it hasn't been updated yet."
A few grumbles were heard in the room.
"Now for the purpose of our gathering here today. After the fiasco in Kanto, the Dex criminals are assumed to have disbanded; we haven't found any of their calling cards after investigating the crimes happening in the different regions. These new teams seem to take the center stage now and considering how the local police were unable to handle the situation on their own, I'm proposing a joint team consisting of gym leaders and police agents." Norman and Volkner glowered at the cyan haired deputy, "...I mean that gym leaders who are not part of the international police will also be required to help out in the field. We international agents are not always available to deal with local crimes so this project has been suggested by the chief. It is an inter-regional effort and we already contacted the other region's champions and leading authorities to gain their consent." Falkner shuffled the documents in his hands and extracted a paper, "unfortunately Kalos and Alola politely refused. Kalos stated that they already have the chief of the international police operating in their region whilst Alola added they can't take part due to lack of gym leaders...As for Ransei...Lord Nobunaga personally video called me to remind me that the nobles are above ordinary people. So yes, no co-operation from them.
"Hmph! All they do is eat rice with gold plated chopsticks and shove all their problems to us, just because Arceus rests in their region doesn't mean the rest of us are scum!" Lt. Surge roared.
"We are still trying to locate the missing legendary pokemon and the youth shown on the video just now. It seems Looker has some information for us."
The man in the trench coat shuffled and placed a sheaf of papers on the table. He began to speak: "It is rumored the green haired young man is the King of Team Plasma, as mentioned, he goes by the name of N and can communicate with pokemon. This villainous group is supported by seven sages acting as the back bone; their names are Gorm, Bronius, Rood, Zinzolin, Giallo, Ryoku and Ghetsis. It seems this Ghetsis is a father figure to N. Their members are mostly dressed as either medieval styled knights or as black clothed pirates. A floating ship anchored near Route twenty one acts as their base of operations."
"Hold on," Cynthia cut in, "how do you know all this?"
"Boss mailed it too-"
"He keeps in contact with you?" The blonde woman quizzed.
"Yes" Looker replied "He drops by my house at random times and he gathered all of this information himself. He says he could do so since the main targets are not so active anymore."
"I see...we should thank him for his hard work." Falkner nodded his head and the burly male crossed his arms and snorted.
"For the main discussion, Steven, please open the doors and welcome the gym leaders in and Norman, switch on all the monitors will you? Please?" The two went about their respective jobs, the screens came alive and the champions of each region greeted. Inside the meeting chamber, Hoenn's gym leaders all squeezed in and took a seat. The atmosphere inside the room became cramped and humid. Laughter spilled as old friends met, fists were bumped and compliments exchanged. From one of the monitors, Iris excitedly waved at Cynthia who smiled back. Kanto's champion was already replaced by a new person, Lance the dragon tamer; he was the previous title holder before Red.
"Please calm down we have important matters to discuss." Falkner sat next to Steven and initialized the meeting, once the din died down, the young champion related the need for co-operation across all regions, he implored his own gym leaders to take up on the offer.
"It's of utmost importance, you saw how easily they managed to hijack the rocket and steal its fuel. The local police are on their trail but to no avail, these two teams have hidden themselves quite cleverly, it is up to us, who possess power, to do our duty. You can still go about your professions as a gym leader, this is voluntary, we need a few gym leaders to accompany police at all times. I'm sad to report that the local police are not too great in terms of battling and handling situations where strong pokemon are involved."
The champions all agreed, they knew better than anyone about the pressure of keeping an entire region safe. However some of the gym leaders disagreed and others claimed they had demanding occupations. Only a handful stepped up and the rest left.
"I feel a bit disappointed" the steel eyed man mumbled as he eyed the twins before him, his gaze swept to Winona and Wallace who were also present.
"But we are one of the strongest gym leaders in the region Stevie" the young champion winced at the nickname Wallace had given him, "we can't force the others to co-operate can we? Besides when push comes to shove you will see all of them swarming together to defend Hoenn, don't be so down!"
"We are trying to prevent a disaster, not to wait for one and then band together, the situation may already be too dire to handle when the time comes."
"As I expected, co-operation will be difficult" the flying type gym leader from Johto muttered, "but we already have a few willing to help so I say we make do with whomever we have." Turning to the motely group, the vice bowed and uttered his gratitude, "we are thankful for your help, please assist us when the time comes." Exchanging pleasantries the volunteers left and Steven heaved a sigh, he loosened the collar of his shirt and fanned himself.
"We don't have time to relax." Sinnoh's champion abruptly broke the silence. "I'll be returning to my home region to conduct some investigation on my own. Steven, when you are done here, go to Sinnoh as well. Meet me in Celestic town." Imparting these words, she got up regally from her chair and left the room.
Afternoon
Mahogany Town
Underneath the souvenir shop.
Cramming the sandwich in this mouth, Red focused on the screen before him and typed out a few words. A while after he finally managed to make breakfast, Green had called him to strategy's meeting room to discuss some matters. Once he got there, the brunette was nowhere to be seen. Not really in the mood to wander around and search for his friend, he brought a plate of sandwiches, sat down in one of the chairs and began reading the news on one of the several laptops placed on the table. His chewing halted as red pigmented eyes skimmed over an article, apparently the pokemon leaders association replaced Red as the champion of the league. Lance's spiked hair and stiff smile were littered across the news article. The man blinked and wondered why he didn't feel a bit of remorse. He worked really hard to stand at the top, only to come tumbling down on his own. Memories of being lectured on etiquette, thrust into battle simulators for as long as twelve hours a day, surfaced in his mind and his face turned dark. According to the higher ups, he was a natural at battling and his potential far surpassed anyone else who came across them. Johto's champion had to step down and all new challengers were encouraged to go to Kanto to compete. Both regions' victory roads were slated to be redesigned with him in mind. He saw the plans and that was the first time he took flight. It only lasted for a day though, guilty conscious forced him back.
Then he met Gold.
The upstart had no ambition in mind, he swaggered into the champion's arena and Red practically glared at him, hostility rolling off in waves. Deciding to crush the teenager's listless optimism (and why did this amber eyed youth remind him of himself?) he let loose his pokemon and turned his back. His partners knew what to do; he didn't need to command them. One intense battle later he was surprised when the challenger actually beat him.
Red felt happy. He was elated beyond words there was someone of his level, someone whom he could enjoy a battle with
His elation did not last.
Gold's victory over him was kept a secret, the boy himself was being accused of cheating in the challenge (because who can win against someone who spends days on end in a nonstop virtual battle?) and Red was once again jailed to his spot. The night Gold was supposed to be sent home on the basis that he never participate in another competition ever again, Red broke out from his confinement (lavish confinement he might add) and offered the sulking teenager a proposition. The duo escaped and bit by bit Red stopped going to the league altogether. He had a little family to come home to now.
Losing his title didn't evoke any negative emotions from him, in fact a sense of content settled in his chest.
"Why are you getting bread crumbs all over the laptop keyboard Red?" Green's voice cut through his happy musings. "I spent a fortune on them, don't get them dirty." The brunette sat opposite his friend and observed him, "and why do you look so happy?"
"I just got replaced as a champion, isn't that great?"
"Black would weep for you" the jade eyed male stated and flashed a wry smile. Blue came in a few seconds later and crashed next to Red, the black haired male offered her his platter and after eyeing it disturbingly, she politely refused. Pushing the laptop aside, the three started discussing future goals and projects.
"Well, I found a bit of information about this N guy after I spent a month at Unova," Blue related and placed several papers on the table, "He is the king of some sort of criminal organization and he's somewhere in Unova, as much as I tried, I was unable to pin down his location. I don't want to send anyone after him when we don't even know his location." She bit her lip and exhaled, "I'm not sure what to do though."
"I want to send Dia, Pearl and Platinum back to Sinnoh" Red spoke up quietly and his best friends looked at him, "Dia...Still needs to complete his rehabilitation...I'm worried for his health. You guys understand, don't you? The poor boy almost died...no...He died but a time slip prevented the worst from happening."
"What will you do Red, if the child does not recover completely?"
"GREEN!" hissed Blue "be more sensitive will you?! It's not like Red never thought about it."
The man tugged at his cap, pulling it over his eyes. "I...I'll...I don't know." he deflated and his jaw tightened, the surroundings seemed to swim before him. "I really won't know what to do then." he whispered and his leaned back, shoulders drooping with depression. The brunette female gave Green a pointed stare.
"We can't run away from our problems like that. Alright, the Sinnoh trio will be sent home and they will only return when Diamond has fully recovered. I read the doctor's reports, according to them, he is making remarkable progress. It seems they are using a new therapy on him, something along the lines of having psychic types enhancing the neurons that were left unharmed. They can't do anything about the ones which are dead, however, with proper stimulation, the remaining ones will be able to create new pathways and reduce his damaged state."
"You way of trying to comfort someone is so lacking Green, Red didn't even crack a smile."
"Quiet pesky woman! Not my fault he doesn't even understand half of what I'm saying."
"I don't actually," the mute adolescent spoke up.
The pseudo professor sat back down on his seat and scribbled something on a piece of paper. "Have White and Black go to Unova to search for this N, it's their home region and I'm sure they will appreciate it. They can scout the region for any signs of him, if they find him great, if they don't, they will have to come back empty handed. Red, here are the mission protocols, give it to Black, I'll make another copy and send it to White." The adolescent took the paper and scanned it, after shrugging helplessly he shuffled out of the room.
"I'm worried about him." Blue took off her hat and slumped on the table, "I hate it when he enters into that dejected mode of his...Ugh Green do something! He's supposed to be the closest to you, cheer him up!"
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm trying my best...leave him be. Red will be like that for a few days and eventually he'll let up. He needs some time to calm down. Anyway, you promised me those creation myths you managed to steal from Sinnoh? I'm still waiting for them."
"Oops~" the woman made an exaggerated motion and leapt up from her seat, "I still have them in my bag. Be right back." She practically flew off and left the brooding male to stew into his thoughts. Strategy's commander sighed heavily and stared at the potted plant.
The plant mocked him for being so complicated.
In executions room:
"Yahoo! So it's only me and the Prez?" Red nodded "and we can do anything we like?" another nod. Finally Black asked in a skeptical tone, "Is this for real? Senior Green isn't going to saddle us with something difficult when we get there is he?"
"Nope, I don't think so." the leader replied and dropped languidly into a couch, "we are not aware of our target's whereabouts so the mission is sort of a half vacation for you two. I think he liked your battle strategies so he's being lenient. You deserve a holiday don't you? I mean, you work so diligently Black."
The youngster blushed with happiness at the compliments and took off at breakneck speed, no doubt to tell his friends about the good news. Musha frantically followed its trainer, trailing a thin mist of fuchsia smoke along the way. Saph was in the corner of the room; Red watched her as she leapt up in the air and executed a devastating kick on her worn sandbag. Blaziken followed suit and an arc of flames writhed and dissipated in the air. The plush cushion depressed and the male turned to see Gold, with towel around his neck, sitting next to him.
"...Senior...there is something bothering you isn't there?" The adolescent's eyes were uncharacteristically somber.
"..."
"Diamond's gonna be fine, he was wandering around the corridors last night so I took him to my room and he slept there. So...don't worry, things will work ou-" he stopped when the older man start laughing. "...did I say something weird?"
"No Gold" his senior gasped, "it's just...I appreciate you trying to cheer me up. Green is horrible at this..." he calmed down and smiled bitterly "Dia is going home till his condition improves. Ah, Thanks for taking care of him...I guess I'll miss training him."
"I could do with some lessons...Gold offered and grinned mischievously." The two continued to talk whilst Lack-2 eavesdropped on their conversation. Copper tinted eyes pinned the duo with an enigmatic gaze.
A/N: Eh...no crackpot theories to get my brain boiling? That's just sad. Anyway, much thanks to Jack54311 and sileaf for reviewing/ alerting the story. At Jack54311: Silver is Giovanni's son, it's canon in the manga. As for Eevee's question (which I forgot to answer in the last chapter) Dark Mewtwo was the experiment Green conducted with the cloned mewtwo...basically a black homicidal mewtwo who's got issues with his creator. Hope that answers your question. Anyway, please keep on reading and reviewing, is the story good? Bad? Drop a line of your thoughts. And virtual cookies for all (unless you prefer cake then please tell me)