Chapter 73; Zeroing in
Raikou raced through the wilderness, putting its all into reaching the rendezvous point with its brethren. Time was of the essence.
A couple of roars reached it. They had arrived.
Arriving on the small mountain range his brethren awaited, it was again berated by Suicune.
"You just can't stay away from the fox until the time comes right?"
"The time has come" Raikou countered "they are ready. I felt it".
"No" Entei disagreed "the Raichu is not ready. It has given in to fear".
"What? When? How do you know?"
"I challenged them again a few days ago. That puny electric type was unbalanced, torn by its lies to its friend".
"How do you know that? You've been spying on them?" Suicune asked Entei disappointment. His two brethren just kept risking everything.
"I only intervened once. Either way the time won't come until all three are ready".
"And how will we know that?" Raikou wondered "that echidna didn't tell us everything".
Suicune looked down in deep thought for a moment.
"He said we would know when the time had come. We shall trust his words".
Raikou wasn't in agreement with this. But Suicune was in charge. And it had a point. They couldn't risk altering events any more than they did already.
All they could do was wait for the right time and hope to know it was the right time indeed.
"You see anything from up there Tails?" Sonic asked him from the ground as the trio headed for the lake of rage.
"Well, the lake looks normal" Tails reported, observing with the binoculars "but they do say looks can be deceiving".
"We need to be on guard there at all times" Knuckles warned his friends "Gyarados are already dangerous enough as is. If something is really agitating them…"
"I know" Sonic nodded remembering the gruesome sight in the whirl islands cave.
As Tails landed, he decided to tackle a question he had for Sonic.
"Why did you pit me against Gary back there? And without asking me too".
Sonic scratched his head awkwardly.
"Well… I just… I thought you would easily beat him. I didn't consider the chance he would use pokemon from his Kanto journey or that his team would be more rounded up compared to yours".
"Hey look at it from this perspective" Knuckles interjected "you have been a trainer seriously for about 3 weeks now. And the battle actually came down to the wire, and you also had less pokemon. That's a huge accomplishment in an insanely small amount of time".
Tails smiled. It was indeed quite the achievement.
"You make a valid point. But the lack of fire coverage sucked. It's thankful Raikou arrived just in time" Tails looked up to the sky remembering the beast.
"The way Raikou acted though" Sonic recalled "it was literally like if it was domesticated or even a pet. And it's a legendary".
"Wasn't Moltres like this too?"
"Only after I tamed it. But Raikou… Jet actually has a point here. Once we're done with team Rocket we should look into the mystery of the beasts".
Finally arriving at the lake, the heroes looked around. They were mostly by themselves which made sense. Who but them would be mad enough to approach a lake full of giant water monsters that ate people?
Sending out their partners each, Raichu, Espeon and Typhlosion respectively, they noticed Espeon close its eyes and crying out as if it was getting hurt.
"Damn there really is something at play here. Espeon must be sensitive to it because of its psychic type" Tails surmised as he petted his partner to make it feel better.
"Raichu feels it too" Sonic also said grabbing the right side of his head "I can feel a mild discomfort which probably means Raichu is experiencing a somewhat amplified version of that but nothing really painful. And if I had to guess same for Typhlosion".
His guess was accurate. And that caused Tails' brain gears to start rotating.
"Hm… interesting. Our pokemon are indeed affected, Espeon a bit more… but they're not going berserk".
"Are we even sure they are going berserk? Maybe we should find a gyarados, see how it reacts" Knuckles suggested.
"You really want us to fight a crazed gyarados?" Tails asked his red friend with a look that read 'you insane?'.
"Knuckles may have a point. We need to find out how the gyarados act to try and figure out what is causing the pokemon this agitation. Plus we don't have to fight. Knuckles has ampharos. It knows thunderbolt. It will either knock out the gyarados or cause it to flee" Sonic supported Knuckles' idea.
"True" Tails shrugged "water and flying so 4 times weak to electric AND we don't have to engage".
"Cool. All that's left then is to find a way to attract a gyarados" Sonic turned his gaze to the water.
"I got this" Knuckles said picking up a rock and throwing it to the water.
Nothing happened.
"Well shoot. I thought that would work. You guys said it worked in the chamber of choice".
"Yeah… maybe the gyarados here, being in the wild but not in total isolation can tell the difference. What do we do?" Tails rubbed his chin in deep thought.
Looking around for a moment, the three friends tried to come up with an idea.
Sonic eventually got one. An old, frail boat stood nearby.
"Hey we could use that" he suggested "it probably doesn't belong to anyone so no harm. The gyarados could think someone is crossing their lake or something".
"Could work" Tails said inspecting the boat "it has a hole though. It will sink fast".
"I know. We set it on the water and push it far with Espeon's psychic and maybe even a small push with hitmontop's strength" Sonic suggested another way.
"Yeah that could work. Alright bring out Hitmontop. Knuckles you and it will lift the boat. Espeon you will hold it in place as long as you can ok buddy?"
Espeon cried out ready.
A few moments later they were set. The boat was in the water, held in place by Espeon's psychic powers. With hitmontop ready Sonic gave the signal.
"Now!"
Hitmontop and Knuckles gave the boat a strong push. Espeon did its best to keep it afloat.
The result was immediate.
A huge splash swallowed the boat and sprinkled water around. When the three heroes looked they gasped.
It was a red gyarados.
"No fucking way!" Sonic screamed.
"Is that a shiny gyarados?!" Tails exclaimed.
"Wow!" Knuckles was amazed.
The gyarados crunched on the boat for a moment, then roared in obvious anger before preparing to retreat in the depths.
"No!" Sonic refused to let it escape, sending out Quagsire "ice beam!"
"Sonic what are you doing?!" Tails was taken aback by the sudden action.
Sonic ignored him. He wasn't thinking. His mind was dominated by one thought in the moment.
"I want this!"
The gyarados roared and started swimming really fast towards the trio.
"Here it comes!" Knuckles took out Ampharos' pokeball in order to chase it away.
"No! It's going to flee if you use lightning!" Sonic warned him.
Gyarados then suddenly launched itself towards Quagsire, forcing Sonic to push it out of the way just in time to spare both of them.
The red gyarados lifted its upper half over the ground like a snake ready to strike and roared.
"Quagsire ice beam!"
The attack only seemed to make the gyarados angrier.
"Sonic stop! You're making it angrier!" Tails tried to reason with his friend.
"I can't let it get away!"
Gyarados lunged again aiming for a crunch.
"Meganium protect!" Sonic called it out.
The shield held giving Sonic the chance to land another ice beam with the help of Quagsire.
Gyarados roared in pain, but not only from the attack. Tails took notice of something obviously bothering it a lot more. Probably the same thing bothering Espeon and the rest of their pokemon.
"You're mine!" Sonic declared throwing a pokeball.
The ball shook once before breaking, releasing gyarados which fired hydro pump.
Before Sonic could decide on a move, a big silhouette stepped in front of him and tanked the hydro pump.
The silhouette proved to belong to a dragonite.
"Dragonite dragon claw!" a voice commanded it.
Dragonite struck at gyarados driving it back.
Out of nowhere, a pokeball was thrown at Gyarados. And it didn't belong to Sonic.
"What?! No!" Sonic whispered reaching out as he witnessed the ball shaking once, twice, thrice.
The catch was confirmed.
Sonic knelt overwhelmed, an inexplicable feeling of failure and frustration washing over him.
He had just lost the shiny gyarados. But to who?
Turning his head he saw a man with red hair, dressed in a dark blue outfit with orange stripes and wearing a black cape over his shoulders picking up the pokeball.
"You three ok?" he asked the three friends.
"We're fine" Tails answered until he noticed who he was actually talking to.
"Oh my gosh! You're… you're… you're…"
"My name is Lance. I am a pokemon trainer just like you three".
Sonic, his frustration still very present but not showing, also identified him.
"Nice to meet you. Champion".
Lance smiled.
"Perceptive. Agatha rightly speaks highly of you Sonic the hedgehog".
"Wait you're champion Lance? As in the champion of Kanto and Johto?" Knuckles came forward.
They were just talking about his cousin, Clair, on the way there while deciding their moves. To think they would actually meet the champion was far etched to say the least 5 minutes ago.
"Yes. I assume you are here for the same reason I am".
"Investigate the gyarados" Sonic answered as he stared into the shiny gyarados' pokeball.
Lance took notice of it but didn't mention it.
"I have been looking into this myself. Gyarados is one of the species me and my family have mastered as dragon tamers. My cousin, Clair, the gym leader of blackthorn city wields dragons, including a gyarados even though it's not a dragon type. So when I heard the lake of rage had become dangerous, I took it up in myself to find out what was happening".
"And did you find anything?" Tails asked him.
"As a matter of fact I did. Just now. Catching this one" he said referring to the shiny gyarados "has given me the confirmation I needed. Whoever is behind this they are using radio waves".
"Radio waves?" Sonic asked in surprise, forgetting his frustration for a moment.
"Yes. I found this one as a Magikarp splashing violently in the water. It was in a lot of pain. It then evolved right before my eyes into the red gyarados before attempting to eat me and retreating into the depths".
"You were almost eaten by that thing?!" Tails grabbed the sides of his head, shocked by Lance's calmness.
"Not at all. Me and my family are Gyarados tamers remember? But thing is, no matter what I tried before it fled, it wouldn't calm down, getting more agitated instead. I noticed several more Magikarp display the same behavior. My only explanation for this is that they are being forced to evolve".
"Forced?" Knuckles tilted his head.
"Via the radio waves. Have your pokemon been acting different or seem to be in discomfort ever since you got here?"
"Yeah… yeah my Espeon. It is picking up something and I couldn't tell what" Tails nodded slowly in realization.
"The radio waves. They are affecting pokemon around and in the lake much more than the surrounding area. Only way this makes sense is that the Magikarp and gyarados are being bombarded with these waves on purpose".
"It makes sense… but who would do such a thing?" Tails rubbed his chin in deep thought.
"Team rocket. Obviously" Sonic jumped to conclusion. Morrison had informed them of this exact thing.
"It isn't something they would hesitate to do" Tails continued "but what's their motive? Why would they bombard the lake with waves causing Magikarp to evolve into Gyarados?"
"Probably catch them in order to gain an advantage over us" Knuckles took a guess.
Lance nodded negatively.
"Gyarados are not easy pokemon to handle. In their current state that doesn't seem something they could do en masse".
"Even if they did, it's a bad move. They know of my raichu. It would be suicide to use Gyarados" Sonic assumed.
Lance although agreeing, couldn't help but notice a small amount of underestimating towards the rockets from Sonic.
"In any case" he let it go "we need to stop this. The Pokemon here have suffered enough".
"Agreed. Maybe whoever does this could lead us to the rockets" Sonic supported the idea.
"But how do we find them?" Knuckles pointed the issue.
"I have a couple of places for you to check. Dragonite and I will check some places that seems suspicious. Although you might want to change to a less obvious disguise" Lance advised.
A few minutes later, the three heroes had split with Lance, trading phone numbers so one would call the other if they found anything. Furthermore, team Sonic had swapped disguises, going with average stuff like sunglasses and hats that hid their identities just enough to go unnoticed.
The first stop was the building hosting a local radio channel. Forced to do this quietly and stealthily, the team resorted to split by having Tails spy on the main entrance and hack into the building's com system to gather evidence, while Sonic and Knuckles repeated their Ecutreak city stunt by breaking into the vents.
An hour later they had come up with nothing. Place was perfectly clean although Tails accidentally overheard one of the technicians admitting to his colleague about cheating on his wife with her sister, causing the fox to feel guilty about using this kind of means to achieve their desired ends.
The process was repeated in the town's mall and power station, once again yielding no results. And they were on the beginning of the list Lance had given them.
The team's morale was very low as they were resting laying on the grass in a park. And their patience was thin, as they were very hungry and thirsty.
"This is pointless" Knuckles complained after a while "whoever is doing this could be hiding anywhere. We can't just break into every building in town. I'm tired of hoisting Sonic to help him in the vents".
"Hey I'm not that heavy" Sonic replied annoyed.
"Well then suggest another idea" Knuckles retorted.
"How about you break into the vents for once" Sonic almost bumped into Knuckles' forehead.
"How about you just find them? You are the expert at finding the rockets".
"How about…"
"Will you two quiet down?!" Tails shouted stopping them "quarreling won't get us anywhere. We will find them. We just need to approach it smartly".
"We have nothing on it though foxboy. How do you find a location you know nothing about?"
"I mean it's not impossible" Sonic shrugged as he looked up towards the sky "Tails found my Alakazam as an abra by…"
"Triangulating! That's it! That's the answer!" Tails hopped up excited.
"Triangulating? But what do we use as data to triangulate from? Last time we had locations were my abra had stolen things or dropped things accidentally".
Tails' pupils danced in his eyes for a few moments.
"It's going to be a little harder this time. We need to do two things. First we need to locate the part of town where the radio waves are affecting our pokemon the most. Secondly I will need to analyze the irradiance in that area to pinpoint the location of the source of the radio waves. That will require a lot of data though. If I had my equipment from back home I would require a lot less but now…"
"No worries we got this now" Sonic hyped his friends up as he and Knuckles exchanged a small 'it's ok' nod for their small fight.
"Let's get something to eat and drink and we will start right away" Knuckles agreed.
And so they did. With a chili dog and a bottle of water in hand each, team Sonic split, while constantly on the phone.
After a while Tails' Espeon picked up the radio waves close to the north edge of the town.
Calling his friends to him, they regrouped. Immediately, using only Espeon this time as a meter, the three friends started walking around the area.
Every once in a while Tails stopped and marked something on their map of Mahogany. Slowly but steadily, a triangle was formed on the map with its base at the edge of the map towards the lake of rage and its two other sides progressively extending. With each addition to the map, the sides were coming ever closer to crossing.
The three heroes were silent about this. Because there was no need to say it.
When the lines crossed, they would be at the desired location.
"Do you think they will be rockets?" Knuckles voiced his question.
"Maybe" Tails answered. His voice revealed his anxiousness.
After a few more rounds of data collecting and triangulating, Tails found it; a small souvenir shop.
"A souvenir shop? Are you sure this is where the data leads?" Sonic looked at Tails with a hint of doubt.
Tails didn't notice. He too was stumped.
The place barely looked like it even used electricity. How could it possibly be what they were looking for?
His eyes slowly observed the building top to bottom. And then he noticed something.
The nearby tree.
Its trunk was covered in moss and other bits of plant life.
"Impossible" Tails muttered walking towards it.
"Tails?" Sonic asked him in concern. His friend looked like he was in a trance.
Tails reached the foot of the tree and started feeling for the trunk under the moss.
"Tails what are you doing?" Sonic asked him again as he and Knuckles approached.
"Sonic look around you. At the trees surrounding the town" Tails replied in an unsettling tone as he began looking even harder for something.
Sonic looked around. The trees looked absolutely normal just like the tree his friend was touching for some reason.
"What am I supposed to look at?"
"Their trunks".
Sonic again looked but saw nothing strange.
"I see only normal trees"
Knuckles gasped. He had apparently picked up on what Tails was saying.
"Sonic… haven't you noticed this tree is the only one with moss on its trunk on an ecosystem that produces trees without moss on their trunks?"
On que, Tails found what he was looking for. Ripping the moss off, he revealed a cable attached to the tree via small vices bolted to the tree.
"What the…" Sonic exclaimed as quietly as he could.
Ripping more moss, revealing more of the cable and eventually flying a bit higher, Tails revealed a small radio disk stashed amidst the leaves.
"Definitely the place" the fox said seriously.
"Then let's go see what excuse they have for this. We get them, then call Lance" Sonic decided.
"Wouldn't it be wiser to call Lance first?"
Sonic contemplated it but his frustration over Lance catching the shiny gyarados made the decision for him.
"Nah. Look at this place. Just how many could we possibly have to deal with? Come on" Sonic began heading for the front door.
Tails was about to land and follow when he noticed a familiar van parked nearby.
"Sonic wait!" Tails flew to the van and landed.
"What is it?" Sonic asked him.
"Give me a moment" Tails answered without taking his eyes off the van.
As Sonic and Knuckles waited for their friend to finish what he was doing, Espeon turned to Raichu.
"How did it feel to battle all those bad guys you fought back then at once?"
Raichu was caught off guard by the question.
"I don't know… I guess I felt confident. We had trained hard to not lose to that monster who killed…" it stopped.
It was so caught up in the emotions that it almost said 'your brother' instead of Jolteon.
"What was he like? The Jolteon you fought alongside?"
Raichu processed the question fighting to not panic.
Entei's words came to mind.
"You have allowed fear to consume you. Face your fear before it's too late. Or everything you cherish will be gone. And this time it will be your fault alone".
This was it. This was the final act. The crossroads of destiny. Raichu had to make the choice now.
"He was… brave. Braver than I will ever be" it said with a broken voice, meaning more than Espeon could ever understand.
Espeon rubbed its head against Raichu to try and help it feel better.
"Well let's win today then. For your friend".
Raichu went to say for your brother but refrained. It couldn't.
It wouldn't break its friend's heart like that.
"Tails are you seeing something or what?" Sonic asked him losing his patience.
"Sonic… that's the truck Ariana escaped in yesterday!" Tails verified.
"What?!"
"That means they're close. And the drive from Olivine to Mahogany is long. They may have just returned".
Sonic's temper was flared.
"If it's parked here then they must be connected to the radio waves! Come! We end this now!"
"Wait! Let's call Lance!" Tails rushed to his side.
But Sonic didn't listen.
With Knuckles by his side, he kicked the door open, ripping it from one of the hinges.
Three people inside looked at him in total shock from his aggressive entrance. One of them met Sonic's gaze.
Time stopped.
"You?!" Sonic shouted in disbelief.