[Part 1]
"I ask you to reconsider, father! Coddling this weakling who fled instead of fighting will only put shame on the entire Team! We have to punish him properly!"
"I already considered your proposition, Suwa Shiro, and decided against it," Harunobu sighed, trying not to let his horrible, pulsing headache show on his weathered face, "He could have chosen to flee to Nagoya, and we wouldn't be able to find him there. Instead, he returned to our own base, and brought us urgent and important information-"
"That he obtained by disgracing Team Brute with his cowardice!"
"I will hear none of this. Falling back to regroup in the face of a superior enemy is no cowardice, but a sign of wisdom. We might call ourselves 'brutes', but that does not make us mindless fools charging head first into sure death. If you fail to see this still, I'm afraid that you are not ready for a leadership position yet," he looked tiredly at his son, "For Arceus' sake, we live in a library. Pick up some books on tactics and management, it would improve you far better, than a few extra trips to our training grounds"
Suwa Shiro visibly bristled at the suggestion, yet held his tongue. With a short bow, the man walked out of the room, closing the door behind himself, and finally leaving his old man alone. Admittedly, he was not ready yet. Rather than rising to a greater occasion, he bought into the Team Brute mantra, hook, line and sinker. And for Harunobu, this reality was rather disappointing.
You see, the first rule of organising a Team was to obfuscate a cause that could not gather a solid following for one reason or another. In the days of old, the most egregious example was the fiasco called Team Plasma that preached equality between humans and Pokemon, yet was just after political power. And in those days, there were many, many more similar organisations, most as corrupt, if not more so. In those times of peace and relative societal content, the true intentions of such organisations generally divided into 'a bid for world domination', 'a murder cult' and 'a crime syndicate', with outliers being rather rare exceptions.
In truth, all those malcontents were the main reason the League came to power. If a singular institution becomes responsible for solving every single case of a mass-scale Legendary-fueled ecoterrorism or an ancient weapon of mass destruction falling into the wrong hands, it would only take a single corrupt enough person in charge of said institution to use it as pretext for expanding its power. At first, it was working closely with police and Interpol. Then, they began slowly taking over their operations under pretext of increased efficiency. Then, the same thing with the military. And from there, the League expanded further and further, until it's political power eclipsed any other institution on the planet.
Which is why, it was important not to draw their attention TOO much TOO soon.
Officially, Team Brute's goal was to take over the world. That's what the majority of grunts, and some of the brass believed, and Harunobu would rather use them for his true goals than let them splinter into another group that would cause havoc unimpeded. And this goal was lofty and ridiculous enough that the League would rather keep Team Brute around in case they needed a scapegoat, like with the recent Kyoto City Massacre.
Unofficially, Harunobu and his inner circle had the very same goal as his previous organisation - to spearhead a revolutionary movement to either dismantle Pokemon League completely, or to make sure it doesn't have a political stranglehold over the entire world anymore. As long as he achieves that, he doesn't care what lines he has to cross, or what becomes of him.
His last attempt to do so was a decade ago, with Revolutionary Forces, when he was foolish enough to act in the open. Sure, he managed to gather some hundreds of people who believed in the cause wholeheartedly, and were prepared to die for it. And that is exactly what they did, when the League took notice. One by one, his bases were lost to League Enforcers, people slain rather than arrested, and then posthumously blamed in the media for crimes they did not commit. At the end of it, Harunobu was lucky enough to escape with but a handful of underlings, and only because he was shown mercy by a particular then-enforcer.
Since then, after laying low for some years, he's been rebuilding his efforts under the pretence of Team Brute. He's also been keeping in contact with that person who had let him go all those years ago. They've been exchanging letters, and sometimes favours - like that time recently, when they asked for a bunch of rowdy idiots to be sent to Mt. Hiei mere weeks before its disappearance. And as much as he loathed losing people, he received a bunch of 'missing' 101s in return as a consolation prize.
Losing people was not good. Losing people to gain a much greater advantage was slightly better.
Which is why he was glad that the man named Joben came back from the mission alive and relatively well.
That man was not in Harunobu's inner circle, no. However, out of his entire squad, he showed the most promise. The rest were meatheads, bordering on cutthroats. Meanwhile Joben was smart and resourceful. Also, looking at his files, he joined Team Brute because he was out of options - and whenever a person runs out of options, a revolution doesn't sound as far-fetched to them. Considering the resourcefulness the man showed in his escape from an otherwise certain doom, he could be a great asset for the cause.
As much as it pained him to admit it, currently Joben had shown far more promise than Suwa Shiro.
Though, before they talked of revolutions, Joben had to finish recovering in the infirmary, while Harunobu… Harunobu had to deal with the news that the man brought to him.
[Part 2]
'GYARADOSES RAMPAGE ACROSS KYOTO, 48 DEAD'
'GYARADOCKS UNDER FIRE: SIGNS OF CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE?'
'EVACUATION ORDERED ACROSS SHIGA PREFECTURE'
'MAYOR FURUKAWA ARRESTED FOR EMBEZZLEMENT'
With a heavy sigh, Taro threw yet another newspaper onto the pile on his desk. This was, by all accounts, a shitshow. The GyaraDocks transmitter flatlined in a way that fried every receiver in its vicinity, which rendered the spare transmitter practically useless. And given how regular Gyaradoses and even some other, usually aggressive Pokemon were implanted with similar knockoff receivers for that same calming frequency, it weren't just shiny Gyaradoses causing trouble. The rampaging Pokemon levelled dozens of city blocks in Kyoto alone, killing 48 and injuring hundreds of people. Hell, lake Biwa was still practically inaccessible, because any transport even TRYING to approach it had to deal with laser barrages from feral lake serpents. Every town surrounding it had to be evacuated, with their people now crowding emergency centres in Kyoto, Nagoya and everywhere in-between. It took a group of League Enforcers to even get into the facility to try and make heads and tails of what happened, because Arceus knows, they weren't able to magically fix the transmitter.
And then, there's the mayor Furukawa situation. Taro didn't know the guy personally, and had little sympathy for politicians OR League higher-ups, but there was one single angle the press didn't cover. Furukawa's daughter was in the GyaraDocks facility at the very moment the shit had hit the fan, and was now in a hospital in a freaking coma, with third degree burns on most of her body. Knowing this, the timing of this 'embezzlement case' was obvious - the League officials were certain that mayor Furukawa would spearhead the cause of banning facilities similar to GyaraDocks now that he had a personal stake in the matter, and threw him under the bus, using his campaign connections to the disgraced facility. And they'll soon pin the malfunction of the transmitter on his embezzlement to turn Furukawa into a scapegoat.
Which wouldn't do much to appease the public, but all League had to do in that regard, was to wait until it all blows over. Maybe find or fabricate another scandal to expedite the process a little bit. They even had the perfect angle for that in the Spiriting Away of Mt. Hiei - ANY kind of a breakthrough, even a fake one, would make that recent thing take over the attention of the public eye.
Of course, all of this did nothing to alleviate Taro's mood. He went into the force to save people, and seeing League big wigs swipe a major breach of security under the rug, potentially endangering even more lives, was about as reprehensible as it was expected. Not that all of it mattered at this very moment, since detective just managed to catch his long-sought six hours of sleep, and now was waiting for some or the other League official to burst through the doors of his offi-
~SLAM!~
Yep. That was Taro's life now.
"Ah, detective Takanashi! Glad to meet you!" instead of a yet another suit, the doors were nearly ripped off their hinges by a tall person in a rather semi-professional attire. High pants, short-sleeved shirt and a festive-looking tie just screamed 'higher up', compared to all the Stevensons before.
"Yeah, detective Takanashi Taro, Kyoto PD," he made sure not to look too done with everything while greeting the unidentified person, "Not sure if I know you though?"
"Ah, Nagao Kagetora, at your service," the festive tie made sure to give Taro a rather firm handshake, "Just call me Kagetora, okay? And can I call you Taro?"
Oh.
Even someone like Taro, who was mostly acquainted with League matters through brief contacts with whoever was forcing themselves into his workspace knew who Nagao was. One of the top League officials, just shy of being on Elite Four in terms of the influence, and basically acting as their own branch of League Enforcers. And while Nagao WAS one of them legacy League members, you don't become Elite Four's de-facto right-hand person without some serious talent.
"Sure, Kagetora," detective smiled uncomfortably. A higher-up asking to call them by their name was never a good sign, and while Nagao was not in PD, League was certainly bossing police around, "So, I was told to expect someone from the League, but was never told why."
"Oh, I'm sure you're going to love it, Taro. Remember that badge you retrieved from poor Michihito?" at that, Nagao took out his phone and, after fiddling with it for a few seconds played some sort of a sound. Or, rather, a shriek. It was a horrifying, bone chilling shriek straight out of Taro's nightmares, that promised utmost agony and death to whoever heard it, "The labs were able to retrieve this one piece of info off it. Do you know what it is?"
"A banshee's wail?" Taro shivered.
"Close, but no. It's a cry of a Pokemon, and it is relatively similar to the cries of Pokemon from one distinct, endangered evolutionary line. To be exact, it sounds somewhat similar to a Kirlia, and its evolution, Gallade"
"You want to say that the Ghost of Mt. Hiei was a Gallade?"
"No," Nagao smiled, "You see, over a hundred years ago, that evolutionary line had another Pokemon, now believed to be extinct, called Gardevoir. Powerful little things, great psychokinetic powers, even could control gravity. Buuuut since their side evolution Gallade got too popular, they kinda dwindled out of existence. And about a hundred years ago, their last breeding facility was lost in a horrible accident we still know little about. Can you take a guess where that facility was located?"
"Mt. Hiei," at this, Taro could feel a cold shiver running across his spine, "So all this time, the Ghost of Mt. Hiei was…"
"An endling of a species that was believed to be extinct for a hundred years"
"How… How was it still alive? It's not a dragon, or a ghost, right?" detective looked at Nagao, unsure.
"Maybe a typing acquired through mutation, maybe the Ghost is actually a commune of Gardevoirs, we wouldn't really know without catching it. And if we catch it, we might be able to save both its species and Gallades from extinction," the bright tie shrugged, "And that is why I am here, detective. You're joining me on a taskforce dedicated to catching this Ghost."
"Isn't it being considered dead, now that it vanished without trace with the mountain?"
"By the League overall? Sure. But we both know better, ain't we?" Nagao smiled, then showing detective something else on his phone, "This footage was recovered in a small general store in Nagahama, after patrols noticed some signs of intrusion. The cameras on the inside were wiped completely, but the ones on the outside…"
The footage showed a Goodra running out of the store, and disappearing behind a corner. Or rather, not JUST a Goodra, but…
"Calamity…" Taro breathed out.
"In the flesh. So if it escaped, the Ghost could too, right?" with that, Nagao shoved the phone back into their pocket, "I've read your reports on Calamity of Inabayama, you know. And tell you what, I'm pretty convinced with your analysis and reasoning. There is enough evidence to this Pokemon being highly sapient, so we've got to treat this situation as if both of these 101s are alive, and at LEAST one of them is capable of human-like thought. Luckily, you're in the know with both the classified info AND with how to, at the very least, track and catch human fugitives, so you're going to help me crack this case, Taro."
Detective was fairly certain that, as with all the League business, he didn't have much of a choice. Still, this was the first time in years that he didn't utterly detest the idea.