The group arrived at Hydroton and were in awe at the architecture: black buildings with sapphire accents in an Art Deco style. Towards the coast, smaller houses with the same color palette dot the streets. The beach was only minutes away. On a nearby mountain, mansions with a white and blue color scheme sat, giving an excellent view of the city.
Aggron breathed in the fresh, sea air,
"Wow, what a place. Shame we won't be able to stay," He said. Sceptile nodded,
"Indeed, but we need to focus on the cult. Ask around, get any information you can about their whereabouts." The group nodded. Infernape looked at the mansions. He grinned as he took it all in. He never thought he would ever set foot here. Something about this place was so inviting. Opportunity was in the air, waiting to be grasped. Gardevoir could see all of this in his eyes. She smiled. Gliscor shot in front of the group,
"HA HA HA HA, YOU FOOLS! YOU'VE LEAD ME TO HYDROGEN AND NOW I'LL TAKE OVER!" Garchomp rolled her eyes in frustration,
"Can you shut up?!" to which Gliscor quickly shut up.
The smell of roses began to fill the air. Garchomp recognized the smell and looked around.
"I'm over here, chaps." a voice called out as Garchomp was the first to find the source.
"ROSERADE!" She yelled in excitement as she ran to her friend. The dragon embraced Roserade tightly as the group caught up. Roserade tapped Garchomp's shoulder,
"What is it, Roserade?"
"Air!" Roserade gasped. Garchomp immediately let go of the grass type. As the group had their introductions, Roserade explained why she was there.
"I received an invitation to come help with a dig here, and since this town is so beautiful, I jumped at the opportunity and well, here I am." Garchomp pulled Roserade to a cafe to catch up as the rest of the group was left to their own devices.
Elsewhere
Lopunny rubbed her eyes as her alarm clock sang it's demented song. She groaned as she turned it off and rolled over to get some extra rest. Lopunny then yelped in shock as she accidentally rolled off of the bed. She hissed in pain as she stood up.
"Good morning to me." The bunny stepped down the stairs and started to make herself breakfast. Five minutes later, she had made omelets, waffles, pancakes, sausages and cups of yogurt. A meal that would be waist-destroying were she not gifted with an abnormally high metabolism and worked out for six hours a day on average. While she eagerly began to eat her buffet of a breakfast, the TV had been turned on and reported the news of the upcoming election. Lopunny didn't care in the slightest and kept it on for background noise. Apparently, Rida Kuraya…Kuriyani…Kurayam. Lopunny scoffed at herself and decided fuck it and moved on. She had always struggled with Nihoneran, which tied with math as her worst subject. She grew up speaking Galarian so the transition was always hard. Anyway, Rida Something was giving a speech, in response to her opponents' claim that the Senshi budget was overkill. That encounter with those cops seemed to indicate otherwise.
While Lopunny was far from the smartest academically, she was intelligent in other areas. She could sense that something was going wrong. This was the third time this week she had to step in with some incident. And while the fights were awesome, she could see the writing on the wall. Crime was on the rise. More innocent lives would be in danger as the days went on. The Senshi would be needed more than ever to deal with the large-scale incidents that would soon follow. However, that would mean that she would get to fight more and more bad guys. Her mind went wild, imagining the battles.
Lopunny finished her food and got ready for her training. She was still a little sore from that fight with the police so she'd go easy today. She'd do two hours this morning and three in the afternoon.
Sceptile started to go up towards the mansions, he had to visit a former hero for advice. Gardevoir, Gengar and Infernape went with him. Gardevoir went because she was excited to meet this hero, Gengar went to watch Gardevoir make an ass out of herself, and Infernape went because he honestly had nothing better to do. They walked along the street, looking for a particular address. Infernape asked Gardevoir what was so special about this hero in particular.
"He, Charizard, and Venusaur are considered the greatest of all time. You should've seen their battle with Mewtwo, it was so intense and brutal and awesome and..." Gardevoir continued on and on about how great this hero was. Gengar was getting giddy with expectations,
"I can't wait to see how you humiliate yourself in front of him."
"I won't!" Gardevoir denied quickly.
"Bet?" Gengar slyly challenged. Gardevoir paused cautiously before nodding,
"500 " Gengar smirked, he was getting some Poken today.
Grandpa heard a knock on his door as he made his breakfast. Naturally he was confused, he wasn't expecting anyone. He opened the door to see Sceptile and a few others he didn't recognize. Sceptile bowed,
"Hello, Blastoise. Long time, no see." They shook hands as the other three watched. Gardevoir couldn't contain her excitement and immediately went to introduce herself,
"HEY BLASTOISE! Sorry, Hi there, I'm Blasto- I mean Gardevoir-"
"And I got my 500!" Blastoise was bemused and Infernape explained the gamble, making him chuckle. Sceptile cleared his throat to get the attention of the older hero,
`"I came here to talk about something urgent." Blastoise nodded as Sceptile turned to the three bystanders,
"Wait out here." and went inside the house with Blastoise. Blastoise told the three that they could explore the mansion if they wanted to.
Blastoise led Sceptile towards the living room. They sat down on a black couch,
"So," Blastoise began, "do you want something to drink?" Sceptile shook his head and he started,
"Those folks outside are deputized heroes working for me. They are helping me hunt down the Darkrai cult."
"Right, right, I've heard of them." Blastoise commented.
"Anyway, I need some advice, you have fought hundreds of groups like this, I need help to figure out the best way to find them." Blastoise took a drink of water as he collected his thoughts.
"Well, this isn't a group trying to get attention, they have a genuine goal in mind. So I would suggest you find out what they want and dangle it in front of them like a dog to keys." suggested Blastoise. Sceptile nodded,
"But what do we have that they want? They have the Eclipse Gem." Blastoise chuckled,
"They do, huh." Blatoise then stood up for a moment, battles from decades past resurfaced. Some of which were much less pleasant than others. He realized that he hadn't taken his antidepressants yet.
Lopunny stepped out of the restroom and looked at herself. Satisfied that she looked like a normal Lopunny, she went downstairs and was about to make breakfast when she saw Blastoise and Sceptile talking. Not wanting to interrupt, she quietly went around the back to the backyard. It had a pool and an empty field, similar to a tennis court in size, with a marble pillar at the entrance. On the pillar was a screen with different settings like "easy" and "hard." She pressed the "expert" setting and stepped into the middle of the field. Parts of the field sank underground and came back up with about ten robots, plain white with no distinctive details. They charged at Lopunny as she dodged the initial attack with ease.
Gengar, Gardevoir and Infernape patiently waited outside the mansion for Sceptile to come out. They didn't want to enter the plot without Blastoise being there. Infernape was kicking stones, trying to pass the time, when he heard what sounded like bodies crashing into the floor. Infernape decided to see what the ruckus was and walked around the mansion into the yard. Gengar and Gardevoir, also curious, decided to follow him. They walked past a fountain and turned the corner.
Infernapes eyes laid upon a Lopunny fighting against training robots. He immediately became completely entranced by her beauty. Each movement of her lithe body showed off such serene grace and such raw power. Every kick, every punch, every jump, played a part in this elaborate dance. The world seemed to disappear into a void, leaving only Infernape and Lopunny. Infernape smiled as the Lopunny walked over to him, asking him for his hand in marriage and having chil-
"Infernape? Infernape? Gardevoir, he broke." Gengar commented as he looked at the fire type. Gardevoir noticed and shook Infernapes shoulder, snapping him out of his trance. Infernape glanced at her nervously, to which she nodded,
"Go ahead." Infernape took a deep breath before a voice called out to them.
"I can see you three." Lopunny shouted as she turned off the training robots. She hopped right in front of the three in a single jump.
"You must be with the guy talking to Blastoise, am I right?" Gardevoir nodded and introduced herself and Gengar. Infernape interjected before she could introduce him.
"Hi there, I am Infernape. Come on, remember how you used to do this! How are you?" He said and thought as he outstretched his hand. She smiled and accepted the gesture.
"To be honest, not great."
"Oh, what happened?"
"Well I fell off of my bed, we ran out of hot water and I stubbed my toe."
"Oh my goddess, are you okay?" Infernape worriedly asked. Lopunny shrugged it off,
"I'm fine, don't worry." Infernape decided that now was the time to flirt. A little compliment will suffice.
"Oh wow, you have beautiful eyes." He began. Lopunny was caught off guard
"What?"
"Yeah." Infernape flirted, using his fingers to gently lift Lopunny's head to get a better view of her red eyes. "I can't take my eyes off them." Lopunny couldn't help but blush. He was playing ball and she was willing to play along.
"Oh, really? What's next, they're so pretty, they're hypnotic or something?" Lopunny remarked. Confidence began to return to Infernape. That charismatic casanova was coming back to him, like the skills of a singer reusing his voice for the first time.
"Is that what you wanna hear? Or maybe you want something else? It's all up to you." Infernape continued, "Was it your mother or your father that gave you these?"
Lopunny visibly cringed at the comment. Of course, Infernape took note and immediately began to apologize,
"Wait, I-I-I'm sorry."
"It's alright," she said. Infernape nodded and waved, "Anyway, It was nice meeting you. I hope we can be friends, or maybe something more," he said. Lopunny flirtatiously smirked at the fire type,
"Maybe we will, maybe we won't, it's your call." she said before walking back inside, deliberately swaying her hips to keep his attention.
Infernape could only see in hearts as Lopunny disappeared into the mansion. Her 'figure' being the main thing he was focusing on. Gengar smacked him over the head to knock him out of this trance.
"Choose the wrong dialogue option and you still won."
"I'm sorry but she's so hot. But that's not how that works by the way" said Infernape. Gengar just waved his arms,
"I don't know. I've never been in love before," said Gengar.
Infernape looked towards Lopunny and noticed that she had a small red scarf around her wrist. He wondered what it meant but noticed a little bit of white fur. He just shrugged, some Pokemon just dyed their fur. Who was he to judge?
Aggron immediately went to the Koraru district to ask about the cult's whereabouts. After a hot load of nothing, he came across a massive gym across from a bakery, a candy store, a fast-food joint, and a pizzeria.
"What sick joke is this?" Aggron thought as he entered the facility. He looked around in wonder at all the equipment he could use, rows upon rows to fitness machines ready to be used. Seeing this investigation was going nowhere, he decided to kill some time with a workout. He began his rigorous routine with a warmup, a simple 500 kilogram bench press would do nicely. As he lifted increasingly heavy lifts on the equipment, he began to think to himself. About his friends and this adventure they had all been on. Specifically a recurring nightmare he had been having. One regarding his parents
Aggron shook his head as he focused back on his routine, pushing himself harder and harder, his muscles burned but he kept on going. He would never be that weak again. Just as he finished, a familiar electric sheep sat down next to him.
"Hey Aggron, you look like you're pushing yourself really hard." Ampharos pointed out and Aggron got off of the machine.
"Yeah, that's the routine I've given myself." Ampharos noticed that something was wrong.
"If there's something wrong, you can tell me," stated Ampharos. Aggron grinned, it was a kind gesture.
"I appreciate it, but I'm not in the mood to talk." This was met with reluctance from Ampharos, who seemed to sense that there was more than meets the eye,
"I know how you feel. You can't keep your problems hidden like that. That only makes things worse." The sound of weights being dropped clanged throughout the gym, scaring Ampharos, forcing a chuckle out of the steel type. Aggron thought about it for a minute before concluding that there was no problem with talking to the sheep.
"Fine, I'll talk, just let me finish my workout. I'm almost done." Ampharos smiled and stood up to leave,
"I'll see you at the bakery." He said as he left. Aggron went to his last exercise, working on his legs. Once he finished he walked across the street, again asking what evil genius decided to put a bakery across the street from a gym. He saw Ampharos waiting patiently at an outdoor table and waved. Ampharos noticed and waved back. Aggron then sat down and began to talk.
"Alright so... I've been having nightmares." Aggron started, expecting a sly remark.
"What are they about?" Ampharos asked, he was calm and understanding. That made the steel type even more willing to talk. He told the whole story. Once Aggron finished, Ampharos took a moment to process what he had heard. He finally decided on what he wanted to say,
"Hey, you are one of the strongest people I know. Don't tell yourself that you aren't. We tend to lie to ourselves a lot," said Ampharos.
Suddenly, Gliscor's maniacal laughter echoed through the city. "Most of us can fend for ourselves." Aggron chuckled as Gliscor yelled,
"YOU ALL BETTER BOW DONE TO YOUR NEW RULER! Wait, no IT'S JUST A PRANK!"
That evening, most of the group met back up again in a plaza in the main city. The general consensus amongst the group was that no one had seen them. Sceptile had grown worried. Had they escaped the city and were already planning something else? The less they knew about their opponents, the more dangerous they were. However, cult weren't the only ones that were missings.
"Where's Infernape?" asked Aggron as he looked for the fire type.
"He went back to Blastoise's house to look for someone." Gardevoir explained. It was now that Gengar decided to interject. He joked
"He wants to do the uh, devil's tango." Gardevoir shook her head,
"No, he just wants to talk to her. I don't think he knows that dance." Gengar performed an double-take, completely bamboozled,
"Wh-What the-Do you know what that is?"
"No, I don't think I-"
At that exact moment, it clicked. Gardevoir violently blushed bright red,
"NO! I've never heard it called that before!" she yelled, much to the amusement of the group. Well, most of the group.
"Oh my god, I told him we're not here for a good time and off he goes, distracted by a woman like a moth to a flame." Sceptile fumed in frustration as he rested his face in his hand. The group felt like Sceptile was being a little harsh. Ampharos was the first to call this out.
"Don't you think that's unfair to him? He's-He's been through so much. Maybe it's better if we let him have his fun." Sceptile sighed. He hated raining on the parade but they had a purpose,
"I know, I know, but remember, we don't even know where the cult is. They could already be summoning Darkrai and we are wastin' time," That silenced any complaints but that still stung to hear. Out of everyone there, Infernape deserved a break the most.