Anville Town was more like a rail yard instead of being an actual town.
Trains and locomotives are indeed present in this world. However, like aeroplanes, they are not a popular form of transport due to the presence of pokemon. Wild pokemon tend to damage or outright destroy rail lines that pass through their territories which makes this mode of transport a very unpopular option and in certain cases, a dangerous one. Nobody could keep a constant eye and protect long stretches of rail lines that span across cities. The cost of maintenance will be too high and so, such an idea was deemed unrealistic and never put into fruition.
That doesn't mean that humanity has stopped trying to make the impossible possible.
The huge natural geographical divide between east and west Unova had always been a massive problem for the region. To get around it, there were plans to connect Unova's cities with one huge train network even as far back as three decades ago. The project was dubbed the "Battle Subway" and the testbed for it was Nimbasa City. The plan was to use Nimbasa's strategic location in the middle of the region and transform it into a nexus for the Battle Subway to link all cities and towns in Unova mainland through a network of underground train tracks. Given the fact that such a train network is still not present today it meant that the Battle Subway project had obviously failed, but I knew for a fact that the idea had not been discarded completely.
Anville Town's continued existence is proof of that. Anville Town is a relatively new town, built and founded for the sole purpose of being the place where trains for the Battle Subway project would be parked for an overhaul. Very few people lived here thanks to the town's remote location but the fact that the Unova Government had not shut it down yet meant that they had not given up on the subway idea. For all I know the project may really turn into a reality one or two decades later.
The location I was told to meet was located at a small shoddy bar in Anville Town. I had arrived about fifteen minutes earlier than the supposed agreed time and there were only a small handful of people present. The bar was small, I could observe everything and everyone in the room with a sweeping glance from the main entrance. It's to be expected given the small population size of this town.
Fool had only instructed us to be here by seven, there were no further instructions. I don't spot Colress anywhere and I have no idea if any of the other few patrons of the bar are a Card of Tarot like I am or if they are locals who happened to be relaxing here after a long day.
However, my Magician Card had been silently vibrating the moment I was within close vicinity of this bar, which meant that at least one other Card had already arrived. I would have to find a way to seek out and identify my fellow Cards of Tarot.
The barkeeper couldn't even be bothered to spare a glance at me when I entered so I simply found myself a seat and sat down, planning to wait until seven and see what happens then. Ninetales chose to lay down and rest beside where I'm sitting while weavile hung himself to the window closest to my seat, curiously observing the view outside.
"Either order a drink or get lost."
The grumpy voice of the bartender prompted me to turn my head in his direction. An idea struck my mind on how I could possibly make contact with anyone else from Tarot. For all I know this may be one of their hidden bases in Unova and all I had to do was to prove my identity as one of them.
"Do you accept credit cards?" I asked while subtly displaying to the bartender the tarot card in a manner that only he could see. This card was delivered to me through unknown means after I accepted the offer and was introduced to Tarot's inner circle as their new Magician. The bartender took one look at my tarot card with the symbol of the Magician imprinted on it without a change in his facial expression before turning around and silently gesturing for me to follow him without alerting the other patrons.
My hunch was right, this place really belongs to Tarot.
The bartender led me into the storage room and moments later, revealed a flight of stairs hidden under some heavy crates that probably would lead me to some secret room somewhere. The bartender didn't follow after me nor did he walk down the stairs, saying that the place at the other end of the stairs was not a place he could enter.
The underground passage was dimly lit by lightbulbs that in my opinion, were long due for replacement. Soon, I reached a wooden door and my card immediately stopped vibrating. I wordlessly signalled for ninetales and weavile to be on alert because you can never be too careful when stepping foot into the underworld. Somebody, or somebodies, are already behind that door.
My cautiousness paid off.
Small fireballs were shot at me the moment the door was open. Ninetales easily sucked them all up with her Flash Fire ability before retaliating with Extrasensory. Weavile sped into the room with Quick Attack before swiftly following up with a Feint Attack, slashing at a chandelure who might or might not be the culprit behind the ambush.
My senses tingled and I felt the displacement of air beside me, my instincts telling me that something dangerous was coming and I reactively crouched down to avoid whatever that was while unsheathing my dagger at the same time, slashing my dagger at whoever was trying to slash at my neck.
The metallic sound of blades clashing rang out just as spiritomb emerged from my shadow to brutally tear into whoever tried to kill me. A delphox easily intercepted spiritomb's attack and forced him away with its pyrokinesis ability, leaving me alone to deal with the delphox's trainer in hand-to-hand combat.
Well, I say that, but in actuality the "hand-to-hand" combat was just us trying to push our weapons against each other in a deadlock.
Now that I have the time to properly observe the assailant I realised that said assailant was actually a woman. She looked to be about in her mid-twenties or so by my estimate but I could be wrong. Light blue eyes, straight brown hair tied into a long ponytail, maroon long-sleeved shirt and beige coloured tight fitting pants with dark brown knee high boots whose design reminded me of mediaeval Kalos knights or historical nobles I once saw from the images printed in history books.
What's intriguing was her weapon of choice. Technically speaking her weapon was also a dagger, but I recognised it to be a weapon once used during the era of mediaeval Kalos by Kalosian knights during that part of their history. As to how I knew about that, it was because I once had to learn a little of Kalos history in order to infiltrate and go undercover as a worker in a museum many years before when I was still a lowly Team Rocket grunt.
That weapon's name is main-gauche in Kalos' native tongue which roughly translates to "left hand" in english. The purpose of this one-handed weapon was to assist in defence by parrying the enemy's thrusts while the dominant hand wields a longer weapon, usually a sword, for offence. This was why this particular weapon was named the "left hand", because it was meant to be wielded by the non-dominant hand, the left hand.
For a dagger the main-gauche was relatively large. Its most characteristic feature was the wide knuckle guard that curved from the quillons to the pommel in order to protect the wielder's hand. The design of the blade was to allow the user to trap the opponent's blade and prevent it from slipping into the defender's hand. As with all traditional weapons of that era, this weapon had quickly fallen out of use after the mediaeval era of Kalos history when knowledge of how to tame and capture pokemon became more widespread, with trained pokemon swiftly replacing traditional weapons as a more lethal and powerful form of deterrence in times of war.
"Nice weapon," I commented as I continued to push my blade against the woman's eccentric weapon of choice. The only killing intent I sensed was at the very moment she slashed her blade at my neck and that quickly disappeared when I managed to defend myself and made my counterattack. Like I always reiterated to Iris and my previous subordinates back in Team Rocket, being proficient in hand-to-hand combat is a needed skill for every trainer because it's foolish to rely on pokemon to defend you from every single threat aimed at your life.
A trainer must not only be capable of training pokemon, but themselves too.
"Not too shabby yourself," the woman returned the praise and on an unspoken signal, we both broke the deadlock and took a few steps backwards away from each other. I could tell that she's simply testing me and if I have to take a shot in the dark, she probably wasn't very agreeable on the initial decision to include me into the ranks of the Cards of Tarot.
A slow clap resounded across the small little room in the basement, prompting me to glance at the source of it as my pokemon returned to my side, still cautious and wary of everyone else present. A large and muscled man was the one clapping, beside him was an average looking man with average build who looked extremely bored and gave off a very strong vibe that he wanted to be anywhere else but here.
"Impressive, impressive! We should spar with each other one day!" The large man laughed in a booming voice as he got up from his seat and offered a hand in my direction. Now that this man was on his feet I realised that he easily towered me by at least two heads. He's huge.
"You are the new Magician? I'm Justice, Aaron Luzel, or you can also call me Aaron in private," the man who introduced himself as the eleventh card told me before pointing a thumb in the direction of the woman who assaulted me. Beside her are a chandelure, a delphox, and also a ninetales too. She's most likely a Fire Specialist.
"That's the High Priestess, Aline. Don't mind her, she's always all work and no fun, always so serious. She didn't mean any harm, just wanted to test you even if I kept telling her that whoever Fool personally chose to be included among our ranks had to be special."
"You speak too much," the woman said with a cold voice with an equally frosty look.
"Eh, oops?" Aaron didn't look the least bit apologetic for revealing Aline's name to me. "But hey, it's rare for six of us to meet each other in the flesh, not to mention working together. Introducing our names to each other is the very least we should do, yeah?"
Aline continued to glare at Aaron coldly. Aaron simply wasn't bothered.
"That guy there," Aaron pointed to the bored looking guy who was seated beside him earlier with a castform hovering near him, "he's Strength. His name is-"
"I am Aoki Yasuhira, but you can just call me Yasu," the man completed Aaron's introduction for him and for some reason his name felt vaguely familiar but I couldn't recall anything as of that moment. Aaron pointed to the last man sitting at the other end of the table and I decided that I wouldn't trust him the moment I saw his face. That man is born with the look of a cunning sly incorrigible bastard written all over it.
Yes, that's Colress that I am talking about. Seems like he reached this place before me.
"Him and I already met," the immaculate looking man with glasses slowly made his reply. Seeing that everyone here had introduced their real names, I don't see a point in hiding mine either.
"Jayce Dandolos," I revealed while making a quick count of the number of people currently present. "We are still missing one person."
"Sun is late," Aaron shrugged, to which Aline audibly scoffed and muttered something about unpunctuality and a waste of time. The door to the room reopened about a minute later as a harried man looking to be somewhere in his mid-thirties to early forties stumbled into the room heaving for air with a blissey following behind him, also just as harried as its trainer.
"One minute and forty-seven seconds. You have some nerve coming so late to the meeting, Kolten," Aline's voice was like the harsh winter, cold and unforgiving. If I recall correctly Kolten is a doctor, and I happened to know that Unova has a world-renowned doctor that also went by the name of Kolten Lott. Most likely, they are the same person because Tarot only accepts the best into the ranks of their highest echelons.
"Give me a break! I only had less than two hours to make it here and I can't teleport here and there like you guys do! I told you guys many times before, I'm not a trainer!" Kolten practically screamed his frustrations out and looked very much like he was about to tear out his hair. Aline's only response was to reward the doctor with a condescending scoff before taking a seat at her table.
"Hey doc, long time no see!" Aaron greeted the doctor cheerily and soon enough, the six of us were seated around the small wooden table in the shoddy looking underground room in one of the most remote locations in the Unova region.
Aaron, being the most talkative member out of all of us, started the meeting.
"So… what's the plan?"
"The leader wanted us to remove Team Plasma from the picture within one week, so either we take them out by force, or we make use of the Unova League to take them out," Aline spoke as if either option were as easy as ABC, which I beg to differ.
"I wouldn't count on them, they could barely pull the region together at this point. Even their Champion is already out of the count," Yasuhira blatantly stated as he poured himself a hot cup of tea from a thermal flask.
"We need information," Kolten not so subtly glanced at Colress, prompting everyone else in the room to do the same. He would know things we don't as the only person in this room who had access to Team Plasma's secrets as their scientist.
"I can provide entry into their headquarters, their estimated numbers, and things like that," Colress affirmed as he brought out a holo caster to project a holographic display within the room. "Their headquarters, formerly known as N's Castle, the one that you now see situated behind the Unova League headquarters. It was hiding underground all these years for the sake of today, to take over the Unova League in the shortest time possible through the element of surprise. When I first learnt of it I thought they were simply a bunch of lunatics, but looking back now that idea actually had some merit."
"Wonder how they managed to build a castle like that without anybody finding out about it until now?" Aaron pondered out loud.
"Wasn't there a saying that the most dangerous place is also the safest place?" Colress looked rather amused at our reactions. "Either way, the castle's existence was the most hypocritical object if I ever saw one. It was being built secretly for several years by overworking pokemon that were taken away from their trainers."
"Yeah, and you work for them. I still hadn't forgotten how that freaking airship nearly froze me to death, you little shit," Kolten snarled and Colress raised his hands up in a gesture of peace.
"Hey, if Fool really didn't want me to be employed by the Plasmas he would have already said so a long time ago. I have his implicit permission. Actually, come to think about it, is Fool a he or a she?" Colress directed the last part of his question at Aline, who didn't even bother herself to give him an answer. I guess not everybody had the chance to meet the mysterious leader of Tarot before, but it's an open secret within the group that certain members share a closer relationship to Fool as compared to others.
"Oh fine, keep your secrets," Colress callously waved his hand before bringing up a long list of names on the display. "You guys might be interested in this, these are the people I know who are heavily trusted by Ghetsis. Also, as you might have already heard from the news Team Plasma had succeeded in creating armies of pseudo Ability Holders. That is a problem we have to get around."
I frowned a little at the information revealed. That was something that I already knew of when I raided the P2 laboratory on that unnamed island and rescued Iris, Mary, and Shannon out of that facility. By harvesting blood and other organs from Ability Holders and implanting them into normal people who are die-hard supporters of Team Plasma's cause through unknown surgical methods, Team Plasma had somehow succeeded in creating an army of Ability Holders that will fight for their cause down to their very last breath. Most of these pseudo Ability Holders can achieve Resonance like the Shadow Triad did and so they are going to be a very huge problem to deal with.
Then there's the Plasma Frigate that Team Plasma used to freeze the entirety of Opelucid City. Team Plasma's self-invented mobile weapon that proved itself capable of nuking an entire city with ice was definitely a first in the world's history and something that we have to destroy as soon as we can. I guess I should be thankful that Volkner and Jasmine had already dealt with the genesect problem back at Icirrus or the situation would be much more dire than it already is.
"Leave the Ability Holders to me and Yasu if need be. It's been a looong time since we can flex some muscles," Aaron volunteered while stretching his arms upwards with a yawn.
"Give me a copy of the list of the members in their inner circle, as long as they had seen a doctor in Unova before I can dig everything there is to dig about them from the national medical archives," Kolten spoke up. "There's only six of us, so let's try to delegate all the grunt work to somebody else while we focus on the important ones."
"I can do something about the Plasma Frigate," Colress volunteered. "That airship was built to be near impossible to destroy from the outside. If we want to sink it, it will have to be done from within. I can be that insider."
"Aren't you the one who had a hand in designing it? Just tell us its weakness and we will shoot holes into that damn ship."
"Let's just say that Ghetsis doesn't trust me as much as I dislike him, so destroying the Plasma Frigate is not going to be as easy as it seems, even for me. I'm sure he had other unknown security measures in place and our relationship was purely business. He pays me money, I get things done, but now that our leader wants to make an example out of him…" Colress' words trailed off and he shrugged his shoulders helplessly. "I guess that marks the end of our collaboration."
"Team Plasma had also taken hostages when they took over the Unova League headquarters. We need someone to infiltrate Team Plasma's headquarters to get them out. Fool doesn't like it when we implicate innocents into our issues."
"How naive," Colress sighed, only to have that traditional Kalosian weapon swiftly pressing against his neck in warning.
"Insult our leader and I will send you to the afterlife before the Plasmas," Aline's voice was one of calm fury and I could tell that she reveres Fool's very existence much like how Archer and Proton revered Giovanni from this alone. Fool must be a very charismatic leader, which is kind of a given seeing that he or she leads such a powerful international underground group, but it really begs the question on just what kind of person Fool really is.
"Alright, chill, chill, that guy is our only ticket to the Plasmas," Yasuhira diffused the situation flippantly. Aline reluctantly sheathed her weapon but her dislike for the slimy scientist was clear as day. That's a sentiment that I share with the woman because despite all the help that he had provided me since we knew each other, it's very obvious that the scientist was not a man that can be fully trusted. He strikes me as the type to work for his own interests and prioritise his own selfish desires above everything else.
"Regarding the issue of getting the hostages out, do you have a floorplan of their castle?" I asked Colress and he shook his head. Guess somebody will have to map the entire place and hopefully that person wouldn't be me. I could be wrong, but I don't see any of the people seated here as the type to be able to slip into the enemy's stronghold and conduct a rescue mission.
"We can get other professionals to do that for us, I'm not a combatant but I have many strings that I could pull, just leave this to me," Kolten volunteered, obviously more than eager to throw a wrench in Team Plasma's plans. "Let us focus on the damn airship instead, that thing is just trouble."
"We also need to take out Team Plasma's biggest supporters to really leave a noticeable impact on their daily operations," Colress helpfully reminded. "And then, there's Reshiram."
"Leave that to us, you younglings can take care of the rest," Aaron yawned in boredom, looking very unperturbed despite the urgency of the situation. "Ability Holders, Reshiram, flying ship, whatever, we will just send it down into a smoking crater."
"Fine, here's the plan," I decided to take the initiative to formulate some semblance of a working plan when none of them looked like they were concerned with forming a plan beyond crushing Team Plasma with unquestionable might. That's a foolish and barbaric plan in my opinion even if I would never doubt the capabilities of the trainers who were included within the ranks of Tarot's twenty-two Cards. Still, I would prefer if we actually had a concrete plan. As a whole, it's fairly obvious that there's very little trust among the six of us here to actually encourage us to want to work together as a team. That needs to change if we want to succeed.
"Kolten, you said that you can take care of the castle and the rescue of the hostages supposedly trapped in there. Okay, fine, let's do just that. You pull your strings and get your helpers, if you need my help let me know, I can figure something out. You have access to the national medical archives, yes? Get a copy of Colress' list of the members within the Plasma's inner circle and find out everything you can find out about them. I can lend you my porygon-z to assist you and finalise a list with all the relevant data we need to take them out. I can do the assassination once we have that finalised list. If you have time to spare it would also be great if you can find a way to throw a wrench into Team Plasma's plan of building a bigger army of pseudo Ability Holders. Meanwhile, Colress."
"Sup."
"Find a way to reach out to the frigate, infiltrate it, find a way to communicate its location to us in real time and find a way to destroy it from the inside out since you said that the ship is indestructible from the outside. If you need me to assist you in the destruction part, I can help too, but I will probably have to help the doc first before I can spare time for you."
"Sure, take your time, I will probably need some time to make preparations on my end as well. Even if I wanted to let you into the frigate it wouldn't be possible to do so immediately."
"Good. If any of us picked up on any intel that there's a large stronghold of those damned armies of Ability Holders that cannot be dealt with through normal means or if the Unova League is unable to handle… Aaron, Yasu, Aline, can you deal with them then?"
"Aye sir!" Aaron gave me a huge thumbs up with an equally wide smile. Nobody raised any objections to my suggestion of a plan so I can only assume that everyone was onboard with this.
"I can ensure that we will have some form of communication between us that cannot be intercepted so that we can all be kept in the loop of the latest happenings on all sides. It will be easier for us to coordinate things that way," Colress volunteered.
"I will also see if I can find a way to help to deal with the pseudo Ability Holders," Kolten agreed. "No guarantees though, there's too little known about Ability Holders in general."
"If you come across any armies that cannot be dealt with, let us deal with it," Aline nodded her head in acknowledgement. "Our deadline is one week, so let's aim to finish our respective tasks by…"
Aline slowly focused her gaze at Kolten, who immediately shrinked in his seat at her stare. He seemed very afraid of her for reasons unknown to me.
"F-Five days for my end? Please?"
"I would need about the same amount of time to figure out the kinds of security measures Ghetsis placed into the Plasma Frigate behind my back, find a way to circumvent them, and figure out a method to sneak Jayce in. Five days, for Jayce to finish his tasks with the doctor before coming over to help me. We will destroy the frigate within the remaining two days," Colress smoothly replied when Aline's gaze fell on him.
"Five days with the doc, two with the scientist," I agreed when Aline's gaze fell on me.
"Here," I was surprised when Aline tossed me a Master Ball of all things. I know better than anyone what a Master Ball is capable of and what it signifies.
"Just in case you might need additional firepower when dealing with the Plasma problem, but keep in mind that this is a loan from Tarot. I fully expect you to return this pokemon after our job here is done."
I took another look at the Master Ball in my hand, not too willing to find out just what kind of pokemon Tarot had loaned to me for the purpose of this operation that was so shoddily put together at a moment's notice, but I guess I will find out.
Actually, no, I really hope that I would never have the need to find out.
"Understood."
"Splendid," Aline said coolly as she stood up from her seat and took her leave. "I will be waiting for your good news then. We will finish this task punctually at the end of the seventh day, Team Plasma will be dealt with by then, do not keep our leader waiting."
"I-I-I b-better get g-going too. Five days is not a lot of time…" Kolten muttered before quickly taking his leave after Aline left. I do not need to be a genius to know that he had really taken Aline's warning to heart where the rest simply took it as a passing remark. Just what on earth had the woman done to the doctor to induce such fear into him?
"What'd she do to him?" I cannot help but ask the remaining Tarot members but all I received were either knowing grins or an unknowing shrug. Seeing that I'm not going to get an answer anytime from anyone, I decided to drop the question altogether.
"I created a group chat just for us on the app," Colress spoke up, lifting his phone up in a gesture for us to check our phones too. True enough, there's a new group chat on the Tarot app where only the six of us were in it. Colress had also shared a time and location on the app.
"Let's all be on our A game if we wish to meet the deadline. Trust me, you don't want to get on the woman's bad side," Colress helpfully informed me before he stood up and like the other two before him, took his leave and walked towards the door. "I will finish with my preparations in five days, just make sure that you finish yours too and meet me at that location I shared with you once you are ready."
A few seconds later, he was gone.
"Not a very closely knitted group, huh?" I remarked, to which Aaron's answer was simply letting loose another of his roaring laughter.
"That really depends on which members you are looking at! Us older members are very familiar with each other even if we rarely bump into each other nowadays. The newer ones are those having problems assimilating into Tarot. When it boils down to it, anyone who could be a member of the Cards had to be the cream of the crop in their respective fields to be selected for the position. Everyone here has their own ego."
"It's all about pride," Yasuhira added emotionlessly. "Like he said, every single one of us here are the best at what we do and people like us all have our own ego. It's not easy trying to mesh such individuals into one cohesive group. The only reason why Tarot hadn't split into various factions was because there's nobody powerful enough to challenge Fool's authority."
"I'm sure somebody had at least tried that before."
"And it never ended well for them."
"How strong is our leader?" I asked, hoping that I might get to know a little more about the mysterious leader that sort of forced me to join this secretive group.
"Strong?" Aaron released a silent wheeze of laughter before it quickly erupted into a full-blown one. "You hadn't seen anything Tarot could do, boy! If Fool wanted we could have taken over the PWL and the world!"
My eyes narrowed a little in doubt at Aaron's proclamation. I don't doubt Aaron's strength as a trainer because simply by standing before him I could feel the obvious difference between us. It felt as if I'm facing Giovanni once again… No, my instinct was screaming at me that Aaron's a lot more dangerous than Giovanni even if he didn't look like it.
Kolten's presence was proof that not all twenty-two Cards of Tarot consisted of trainers, but even if I made a reserved estimate that only about half of them are trainers, and if I assume that each of them are at least on Aaron's level… No, even if I take another step backwards and assume that each of them are at least on a similar level to mine, it really screams trouble. Team Rocket was able to almost overthrow and conquer Indigo with just six Pillar-level trainers, Giovanni included. A team of more than ten of such individuals leading a secretive and influential group whose reach had spread across the entire world without the general public knowing, the things that they could possibly achieve to influence the decision of the world's leaders…
This is not good news. Why hadn't the PWL done anything? I don't believe that the PWL are unaware of Tarot's existence so in that case, was it because they didn't wish to do anything to put a leash on Tarot, or was it because they cannot do a thing? If it's the latter, then the PWL is not as effective in maintaining the world's peace as I hoped they might be.
I don't know why I was specifically chosen to fill in their missing ranks out of the many other possible candidates out there in the world, but this may not be a bad thing. At least right now, I can use my current position as the Magician of Tarot to keep an eye on the organisation from within.
"He doesn't seem convinced," Yasuhira released a slow and exaggerated sigh while taking another sip of his tea.
"Like everyone else before him," Aaron agreed with equally exaggerated nods of his head.
"Not like we blame him."
"How could we? Compared to us, he had only seen the very tip of the iceberg."
"If you are quite done with your two men soliloquy," I interrupted the two men who acted like immature children trying to one-up each other. Even till now I still have a feeling that their names sounded a little familiar but I could not recall a single thing. I will have to do my own research later and hope that I will come up with something. I may be able to get a better understanding of Tarot that way.
"He's no fun at all, Yasu."
"No fun at all," Yasu agreed with a dramatic lament. "You'd thought he would have asked us some questions after hearing our names."
"Maybe we were not famous enough?"
"More like we were forgotten? I mean, it's been a looong time."
"If you wanted me to ask you questions to inflate your ego you could have just said so," I deadpanned after picking up the not-so-subtle hints the two men kept dropping in their conversation that they totally intended for me to overhear.
"Well, ask away!" Aaron shamelessly invited me to ask him questions and I decided, why not?
"Who really are you guys?"
"That's a good question! Thought you would never ask!" Aaron gleefully clapped his hands once and for a moment I'm starting to question this man's maturity. Aaron purposefully dragged out his words, probably to try building up some suspense.
"The answer… Can be found on the internet!"
"Then I will just consult the internet in my free time," I turned to take my leave, deciding that it was a waste of time playing along with their childish little games.
"W-W-Wait! That's not how things are supposed to go according to the script! You are supposed to look up the internet, be shocked, then ask us questions!" Aaron grabbed me by the arm before I could leave. I gave him the flattest look I could ever give to tell him how unimpressed I was.
In the end I decided to indulge in his little game, because I have a feeling he's not letting me out of here until he has his fill of fun. Let's see, what were their names again? Aaron Luzel and Aoki Yasuhira?
I keyed in their names on the web browser on my phone. I blinked my eyes twice to ensure that I wasn't seeing things when I saw the top search results, then scrolled down to see the other search results to try and further verify that things really were not what I thought they might be.
If Aaron Luzel and Aoki Yasuhira really were their names, then it shouldn't be a question of who they are but rather, what they are.
"You are telling me," I pointed a finger at the screen of my phone for them to see, "that it's not a coincidence that the both of you share the same names as legendary figures from Sinnoh's and Hoenn's history books? The Defender of Coronet and the Uncrowned Hero of Ever Grande?"
"Yasu, he finally got it! The boy finally got it!" Aaron excitedly pulled Yasuhira into a bear hug, prompting the man to let out a very undignified squawk from the surprise. My brain was still trying to wrap my head around the preposterous idea the two of them had been aggressively hinting at me ever since everyone else had taken their leave, until I recalled that Hermit had told me on the very first day I made my appearance on their group chat about the existence of the "elders" within the Cards, people who had held onto their titles for more than a hundred years. Supposedly, there's even one of them who had been around for thousands of years, who I vaguely recalled the person to be Emperor if Hermit's information was accurate.
Come to think about it, the titles of both Justice and Strength were indeed colour coded as elders on the Tarot app.
"Are you guys immortal? Or just… blessed with… longevity?" I cannot help but ask because outwardly, they don't look much older than I do. If they really are the people they claim they are then their very existence themselves are secrets that can break the balance of the world. If historical records are to be believed these famous figures are people who had been around even before the PWL came into existence, even before the very first Pokemon League, the Indigo League, was founded. These are people who had lived through the tragic age of the warring era, people who had seen and conquered battlefields, climbed atop mountains of corpses and waded through rivers of blood for survival, bearing witness to the countless conflicts that led the world to evolve into what it is today. These are people who were once hailed as heroes by their people during their time for the impossible feats they accomplished.
Legendary trainers with half a millennium of time to hone their skills… I cannot even begin to imagine what it will be like to have them as an enemy. If they really are the people they said that are, if Tarot really are home to people like them, no wonder the PWL turned a blind eye to Tarot's existence for as long as they did. I'm already hesitant to even call these people humans because they have clearly surpassed the limits of humanity. I wouldn't even object to referring to them as Gods walking among men.
"It's a very long story," Yasuhira let out another of his long and dramatic sighs. "Truth to be told, even we ourselves are still a little unsure of what we really are at this point."
"Does it really matter?" Aaron asked.
"Does it not?" Yasuhira argued in return.
"Then Aline…" I asked with caution, recalling that her title in the Tarot app was also colour coded as an elder. Given that her personal weapon of choice for self-defence was of Kalosian origin she was most likely a Kalosian, but I couldn't recall if there were any such historical figures in Kalos' history that matched the observable features from what I observed from Aline. History wasn't exactly my best subject.
"She's not anyone famous, just happened to live long enough. That doesn't mean that she's a pushover though, you would know since you had already gotten a little taste of what she could do," Aaron filled me in. "As you can already tell, she reveres Fool a lot, so don't piss her off by bad mouthing Fool in her presence. She will kill you if she ever hears that and trust us, we saw it happen to another Card before."
"Then what about the both of you? Why did you choose to join Tarot? Is it because of Fool, or something else?" I asked when I saw that these two surprisingly ancient men were being very forthcoming with what they knew about things that they could comfortably share. I know too little about the group which I now am a part of. Be it to protect myself from them or otherwise, I need information.
"We would lay down our lives for Fool if needed, that's how much our leader means to us," Aaron said with a grin and it didn't slip my notice that everyone had purposely used a gender neutral term whenever they had to refer to Fool during our earlier meeting. Despite how forthcoming they are with certain shocking facts about Tarot and themselves, they still keep a tight lid on certain information even from the other Cards that had not yet truly become a part of their true inner circle, which I presume to be the elders. Colress, for one, had already made it very clear that he definitely had no idea if Fool was a man or a woman and it's the same for me.
They don't trust me yet. Similarly, I don't trust them too. I'm only here because they are able to provide assistance that only they could give right now. Our alliance is a temporary and fragile one, only held together by the mutual benefits shared and individual goals that were temporarily aligned.
That, and also partly because we were all certain that nobody could yet take on the full consequences of ignoring Fool's explicit orders to eliminate Team Plasma. Nobody can go up against an organisation like Tarot alone. Not even me.
"Tarot is not just an international mercenary group. There's a purpose for the group's existence," I stated with certainty and Aaron didn't even bother to try denying it given how wide his smile was.
"Heh, Fool said that you would be a sharp one but I didn't expect for you to be that sharp. My advice to you? Just keep your questions to yourself and you will be fine."
I know a warning when I hear one, so I wisely decided to not probe any further. In any case, no matter how little trust there is among the six of us that Fool had put together for this operation, there's no denying that our goals are temporarily aligned. We are here to eliminate Team Plasma within the week, then we will all be on our merry way until we meet again. Until then, we just have to put up with each other.
Just like how Tarot is using me to achieve their goal, I can use them too to achieve mine. Our goals are temporarily aligned, so there's no reason to not work with each other until our goals are achieved. The fact that two historical legendary heroes that were known and celebrated for their impossible deeds is also a great assurance that even if things really go wrong, we could correct the wrongs through sheer and unquestionable might.
The Defender of Coronet and Uncrowned Hero of Ever Grande… I will have to revisit the history books tonight in my free time. Now that I am aware of such things I cannot truly rest easy until I have them figured out, I cannot bring myself to rest properly until I have Tarot figured out.
Tarot's true goal definitely has to be more than it seems on the surface.
AN: Finally had the time to pick up on reading fanfiction as a reader recently. Found two gems and they are coincidentally Gym Leader fics.
First up is Hard Enough by Viva01. It's a Brock SI and while I'm only like 8 or 9 chapters in I'm already quite impressed and mind blown by the story. I'm sure you guys are more familiar with this story than I am so I will skip the introductions. This story is available on FFnet and Royal Road, and I'm sure it is also available elsewhere on other platforms. Just wanted to share this finding with those who hadn't known about this fic yet.
The other fic is Twisted Garden (Erika AU) by Aleister Adair, also cross-posted on various platforms like FFnet, SpaceBattles etc. It is an Erika fic that only just started out from what I could see, and for those of you who enjoy realism in the pokemon world similar to fics like Sacrifice & Subjugation then this is a fic that I recommend you read. Mastery of english, top-tier; premise, captivating; execution of idea, well done. Only three chapters are published on FFnet so far but it's a fic that's worth looking forward to if the quality of the chapters remain consistent, which I highly think it will. For those who enjoy realism with a dash of pokemon fantasy, I recommend that you try it.
I personally think that this fandom really needs more Gym Leader/ Elite Four/ Champion AU or SI, honest. So much potential.
Well, that aside, I've also been considering cross-posting some of my stories to Royal Road as of late. Already created a RR account with the same name BANIX (account currently empty) when I took an interest in RR and tried to get used to the interface as a reader in the meantime. If I really do decide to cross-post it's definitely going to be a huge project that will span months, that's for sure. I will very likely be posting some of my more popular stories (IJWTTTW, RE, etc) and maybe a few of my short stories that are already completed if I decide to do the cross posting (after more edits, definitely). I will also most likely be doing an overhaul- maybe even a rewrite- of the earlier chapters for the earlier stories like IJWTTW due to how atrocious and unreadable some of my earlier chapters can be. Hence, the predicted long preparation time before I can really start the cross posting if I decide to do so. Not too sure what you guys will think about that.
Eager to end off the Unova arc soon. You guys have no idea how long I've been looking forward to doing so (finally, it's going to be over). Hopefully by the time this chapter is posted I will just be a few more chapters away from ending this whole arc (PLEASE, GOD, JUST LET ME END THIS ARC ALREADY ARRRRGHHH)... Hopefully my plans do go according to plan this time. My company has been not-so-subtly forcing me to work more overtimes recently and I barely have time to write anymore… (insert crying face here). I hadn't played Genshin for about a month already so that I could use the time to write and post chappies. I had so little time left that Mihoyo couldn't scam me of my money anymore.
Alright, enough ranting and nagging from me. Really hope you guys enjoy the Unova arc because I really had no idea what and where I'm heading to when I first started. I'm surprised that I could even see the end of it at all, honestly thought I would just drop writing this series altogether at some point.
See you when I see you. Ciao.
Name: Jayce Dandolos
Age: 23
Pokemon Team:
1. Ninetales, female
2. Exeggutor, male
3. Weavile, male
4. Honchkrow, female
5. Umbreon, male
6. Hydreigon, male
7. Drapion, female
8. Zoroark, male
9. Bisharp, male
10. Shiftry, male
11. Porygon-Z, (Nosy), genderless
12. Greninja, male
13. Spiritomb, male
14. Pikachu, (Grumpy), male
