Click-clack
The sound of heels slowly clicking against the sandy rock flooring at the depths of the Relic Castle felt very out of order. A faint glow of naked flame dimly lit the dark musty corridors of the magnificent building that had once seen glory at the height of the civilisation that built it.
Click-clack
A vague outline of a human slowly came to view. Any wild pokemon who spotted the stranger that intruded into their territory soon fled when they felt the ominous presence beside the human. A delphox and ninetales leisurely stroll alongside their trainer, an elegantly dressed woman whose attire is in stark contrast to the depths of this dreary ruins while a chandelure dimly lit up the path for them with its ghostly flames. Her long chestnut brown hair was tied into a high ponytail, displaying the sharp features of her face and her light blue eyes. The glow of her chandelure's flames illuminated her fair skin within the darkness.
Click-clack
Even within the darkness the woman walked as if she knew where she was heading. Her steps were slow and unhurried yet full of purpose. She's here on orders of her lady and she will not fail her master.
Click-clack
Her feet gradually took her towards the great hall at the depths of the Relic Castle. She paused for a short moment, raising her head to take a good look at the grand entrance of the great hall that the ancient volcarona was said to reside according to her lady. Her lady knows things, she always does.
Click-clack
The sound of clicking heels resumed after ninetales easily pushed open the creaky and ancient stone doors guarding the great hall of the Relic Castle with its psychic powers. The room was lit up almost instantly as a suffocating presence slowly descended from the ceiling to greet her with a menacing buzz. The volcarona was not pleased for being woken up from its slumber once again.
Even so, the woman only spared the powerful being a disinterested glance. She held no affection for this pokemon but her lady had asked for her to capture it, saying that it will be a great addition to their plans. If so, then she will carry out her duty as her servant and tame this monster.
The woman's aware that the Unova League was now keeping a close watch on this place after they discovered the presence of this volcarona just yesterday. She had seen for herself how closely guarded the perimeters of the ruins were before she silently infiltrated into the Relic Castle. There's only so much time she has on her hands before the Unova League inevitably notices her presence.
"Let's make this quick. Our lady is waiting."
Delphox let loose a swirling mass of flames just as volcarona released its own. The two opposing flames clashed in a fiery explosion as the woman observed the battle calmly. She won't deny that the volcarona is powerful, but she dislikes it when she has to spend time away from her lady in this rotten place just to capture a stupid bug.
A small round object rolled out from the long sleeves of her blouse and she idly caught it with her palm. It's unmistakably a type of pokeball and upon closer inspection, the upper half of it was purple in colour with two pinkish circles on the sides of the upper lid of the pokeball.
What was most eye-catching about this unknown pokeball is the big white "M" in the middle of it. It's a gift to this woman by her master, saying that she would need it to capture this powerful volcarona.
The look in the woman's eyes sharpened when her ninetales informed her through telepathy that it sensed a trainer swiftly closing onto their location. Any trainer that could make their way here into the depths of the Relic Castle could not possibly be a pushover.
How troublesome.
Irritatedly, she withdrew and grabbed onto another pokeball as if plucking it from thin air, one that looked very old and worn and within which resides the partner which she formed a pact with ages ago. If a pokeball expert were to take a closer look, they would have realised that the pokeball design was one that went out of fashion a very very long time ago.
"Thirty seconds, end this."
The worn looking pokeball opened and a huge wave of fog immediately covered the area. The volcarona pulled back immediately, its instincts screaming at it that a larger and more powerful predator had arrived.
A huge shadow burst through the fog. The last thing the volcarona remembered before it blacked out was a huge pokemon the volcarona had never seen before slamming its huge fist right into its face.
Wild pokemon scurried out of the way when two shadows flitted past them in a blur. As residents of this place they knew better than to cross anything that remotely resembled a fire-breathing moth, even if this particular one that they spotted was nowhere near the size of the apex predator living at the very depths of this place.
Right beside that volcarona was a huge man with flaming red-orange hair spiked up in a ridiculous fashion and tied into a long downwards ponytail. Despite his old age, Alder Lauro, the current Unova Champion could move at a speed that put many youngsters to shame as he and his partner swiftly descended down the ruins of the Relic Castle. None of the wild pokemon here tried to even stop or challenge them after they felt the kind of power the volcarona beside Alder passively exuded just for it being there.
"Faster."
Alder and his volcarona picked up speed. The news he received was very worrying, especially after every single piece of information they gathered pointed to the conclusion that Team Plasma not only knew about the ancient volcarona who lived here, but also assembled a team to try and get their hands on it. Their plans might have been foiled in the end but that was due to a fortunate coincidence. If the interpol wasn't there and if Elesa and EDGE didn't arrive in time to handle the situation, who knows what other kinds of nefarious things those terrorists hiding behind the disguise of pokemon activists would come up with.
For everyone's sake, he needs to capture and relocate the ancient volcarona as soon as possible. Preferably somewhere that Team Plasma can never locate.
He finally reached the deepest parts of the ruin where the volcarona was said to reside. Alder's heart dropped to the pit of his stomach when his keen ears picked up the unmistakable sounds of a fierce battle occurring right ahead because whoever that was, it couldn't possibly be someone from the Unova League. At the very least, whoever was battling that volcarona couldn't be an ally.
No words needed to be exchanged between Alder and his volcarona. They burst into the great hall with a blazing ball of fire, just in time to witness the fallen form of the gigantic volcarona being sucked into a pokeball amidst the fog covering the entire hall in a translucent veil. A woman stood within the company of four other pokemon. A ninetales, a delphox, a chandelure, and the shadowy outline of one other huge pokemon that Alder couldn't quite identify through the fog before the woman swiftly recalled it just a split second after he arrived.
"Hand it over, I'm not going to repeat myself," Alder demanded as his volcarona buzzed in anger. The fog easily dispersed with a flap of its wings, finally revealing the woman for Alder to see clearly.
Alder narrowed his eyes when he finally caught a good glimpse of the unknown woman through the light of the flames her fire types emitted. As Champion, he's privy to certain unbelievable secrets known only to the highest echelon of the PWL. Through that avenue, he had seen the picture of this woman only once before but he would never mistake her for anybody else.
"Tarot?"
"Champion Alder, it's a surprise seeing you here," the woman casually replied as she gracefully crossed her arms across her chest. "I was warned by an acquaintance that I might come across a hindrance, but I wasn't expecting it to be you."
"You are the High Priestess," Alder stated with certainty as he immediately released his entire team out for battle. As the Champion of Unova he has a very good guess as to the kind of power that the mysterious international underground group known as Tarot was speculated to hold. Tarot is a presence that even the PWL do not want to carelessly make an enemy of, the first and only true international underground organisation to date in the world's history. It's a truly wondrous feat in itself how such a group managed to stay in existence for hundreds of years and maintained a solid international presence despite their high level of secrecy.
Alder wouldn't question the power of the trainers within the "Cards" of Tarot. He's reluctant to even refer to those people as humans because he knew for a fact that some of them had long since surpassed the limits of humanity. Even after so long, the PWL only managed to obtain images of a scant few members of the Cards of Tarot to match a face to a name and this was only possible because some of these people were said to have walked this planet for centuries.
"Justice" is one of such people, a very well-known figure to the PWL to those in the know. He's an Aura Guardian and a hero of Sinnoh that was said to have once risen to defend the region and possibly the world from a world-ending catastrophe even if it was a complete mystery why he would eventually end up joining an organisation like Tarot. Aaron Luzel was his name. He's the last Aura Guardian, the student of the forgotten legendary hero Yasui Kenta, and the Defender of Coronet whose tales of his feats are still written into Sinnoh's history books and celebrated today.
In contrast, this woman in front of him is not a known hero. There's very little information the PWL has over her other than one blurry image of her face, allowing them to finally match a face to the mysterious High Priestess of Tarot. Even if the woman doesn't seem to be one of those legendary heroes from the history books nor does she match the descriptions of any of those incorrigible villains persecuted by the PWL, Alder will never underestimate her. To the PWL's knowledge this woman is the one giving instructions to the Cards of Tarot in her leader's stead, the one that holds the title of The Fool. If Fool is the indisputable leader that unites the cards together, then the High Priestess is the messenger that Fool uses to lead Tarot from the shadows.
Furthermore, like Aaron Luzel, the High Priestess was also rumoured to have lived for at least more than a century despite how young her outward appearance is. Contrary to popular beliefs longevity and even immortality is attainable under the right circumstances, but such secrets are kept under wraps by the PWL for obvious reasons. The world's order would deconstruct itself if such knowledge were to go public. If the High Priestess is really one such person who achieved longevity or even worse, attained immortality, she would have power and experience that dwarfed even his despite him being a Champion.
"So the PWL now knows my face. Colour me impressed, the PWL can be efficient if you wanted to," the woman who admits to being the High Priestess of Tarot slowly made her reply, not even the least concerned at being surrounded by the full might of a Champion's pokemon team.
"What do you need the volcarona for?" Alder questioned instead, ready to jump right into battle at the slightest hint of danger. He had never felt so on edge by an opponent's presence ever since he was a youth, which was a testament to the High Priestess' abilities in itself.
"What do you think we need the volcarona for?" The woman answered his question with another question of hers.
"Is Tarot working for the Plasmas?"
"Team Plasma? Those clowns?" The woman released a soft and condescending scoff at the mention of the largest terrorist group currently in existence after the downfall of Team Rocket. "That reminds me of what a failure of a Champion you are, unable to even clean up the mess in your own home just like how Lance and Samuel had proved themselves to be. Champion… Hah."
The woman looked back at Alder, the disinterested gaze in her eyes telling Alder that she's not even registering him as a threat.
"Last warning, child, don't get in my way."
"I'm afraid that I cannot let you go, not after how you captured that volcarona for unknown purposes. As Champion, I have to eradicate any and all threats to my region," Alder declared and he knew that all hopes of a peaceful reconciliation were now dashed. The woman opposite him merely gave him an annoyed glare.
"Fine, suit yourself. Delphox."
The delphox beside the woman let loose a roaring stream of flames that Alder identified as Mystical Fire, a signature move of the delphox line that has the mysterious effects of lowering the opponents' offensive capabilities. Alder immediately understood that he cannot allow those flames to hit any of his pokemon, especially from a delphox of such calibre and skill.
"Volcarona!"
Alder's response was to fight fire with fire, his volcarona responding to delphox's onslaught with Fiery Dance. Balls of purplish flame pelted down at them from the woman's chandelure that looked like a masterful combination of Shadow Ball and Will-O-Wisp and Alder quickly commanded his reuniclus through telepathy to block that attack that couldn't be anything less than nasty.
Another huge wall of flames surged in their direction when the woman's ninetales joined in the battle. Alder grimly accepted the fact that even when he had eleven pokemon against three of the woman's pokemon, he's still being outclassed if it comes down to sheer firepower alone. When he first took up the mantle of Unova Champion and learnt about the existence of Tarot he had heard rumours about it from his predecessor, that among the Cards of Tarot there exists individuals capable of fighting a Champion to a standstill or even defeat them. Hearing about it was one thing, but to experience it personally…
Alder grimaced. Tarot had been keeping a very low profile all this time but it seemed that they had been getting increasingly active as of late. He had no idea why this was the case but it couldn't be anything good.
However, he's the Champion of Unova. He will defend the region down to his very last breath even against an adversary like Tarot.
His krookodile, bouffalant, and druddigon braved through the flames and rushed at the woman's pokemon. The woman's delphox easily intercepted their charge with a powerful Psychic and threw them back like helpless dolls. Alder could only watch in disbelief how the delphox's Psychic ignored the immunity that krookodile's Dark typing theoretically provided it against psychic type attacks, and the delphox wasn't even using Miracle Eye to remove said immunity. Escavalier and accelgor tried to use this brief moment of distraction to overwhelm and swiftly take out the delphox using their superior speed but that was also quickly foiled when the delphox easily evaded their strikes as though it had predicted each and every of their moves.
Alder narrowed his eyes and he immediately understood how the delphox managed that. That had to be an application of Future Sight, specifically modified to function almost in the same way as Detect.
"Fire Blast."
A powerful burst of fire crashed upon them and it took everything Alder's reuniclus had to defend everyone from harm. When the smoke finally cleared the woman and her pokemon were nowhere to be seen. No matter how Alder searched, there wasn't even a single clue left behind by that woman or her pokemon that could allow Alder to deduce where they might have disappeared to.
"Damn it," Alder gritted out and punched a nearby wall in frustration, his immense strength cracking the wall a little in the process. To run into a Card of Tarot was definitely an unforeseeable circumstance, but to think that even he was being suppressed to the point of being unable to put up a proper resistance to the woman's merciless onslaught showed just how powerful Tarot is.
Tarot had never caused any real trouble for the world or the PWL and in fact, it had actually assisted the PWL in averting several world crises throughout the long history of the world since the PWL's founding. As long as the PWL could pay the price for their services, Tarot would not hesitate to offer their assistance. As a matter of fact, Tarot had historically assisted the PWL before, free-of-charge, when the situation had proved itself to be that dire.
However, the existence of this group alone is also very worrying. They are an extremely unstable factor that could either easily guarantee the continued peace of the world, or becoming the bomb that throws the entire world into chaos. They might call themselves a mercenary group but till date, even after four hundred years since Tarot started to really make itself known as an international presence, nobody ever managed to find out what their purpose is or who their leader might be.
If his brief battle with the High Priestess was any indication, if this is the kind of power a Card of Tarot holds, then the power of their leader is simply unfathomable. If that person is anything like Aaron Luzel and the High Priestess Alder wouldn't be surprised if the leader of Tarot had also achieved either longevity or even immortality. That's another huge problem in itself.
Just which Champion in this world can claim to be able to defeat a trainer with hundreds of years of accumulated power and experience? Nobody. Yet, Tarot has several of such trainers in their ranks. At the very least, today, Alder had confirmed the existence of a second trainer other than Aaron Luzel within the ranks of the Cards of Tarot who had lived for over a century while mysteriously retaining the appearance of an adult.
"I'm fine," Alder reassured his companion when his volcarona lightly nudged him in concern. That's a lot of things to do today and what he just discovered was certainly an alarming problem that would get the highest echelon of the PWL in an uproar once they heard of it. He still has no ideas just what Tarot is planning to do, but the other regions need to be kept in the know just in case the worst were to happen and Tarot starts to play an active role to jeopardise the world's peace.
Alder turned and left after giving the great hall one last look.
There's a lot to be done.
She understood what had happened when she suddenly found herself back in the familiar surroundings of the garden outside her lady's home. She sighed and hung her head in shame, inwardly cursing the Champion of Unova for the trouble he caused for her and also at her ineptitude for being unable to swiftly deal with him before her lady decided to intervene. If she was stronger, faster, and more capable, her lady would not have needed to deem it necessary to personally pull her out of there.
She's such a failure as a servant.
Her light blue eyes shone in a faint glow as she briefly activated her Ability to locate her lady. Images instantly flashed across her mind and she understood where her lady was right now.
Her brisk steps brought her to the back of the garden and she found her master, her back facing her as she waters the flowers with a watering can and looking as if she never aged a single day ever since their first meeting centuries ago. Right beside her was the incredibly powerful Aegislash that could always be seen keeping a constant vigil by its trainer's side, its lone eye closed as if taking a comfortable nap under the warm rays of the morning sun.
The woman immediately walked up and got onto her knees in her master's presence.
"I apologise for my incompetence, milady."
"Aline, how many times have I told you to stop with all the needless kneeling?" Her master let out an exasperated sigh, her back still facing the High Priestess of Tarot, Aline Serre, as she continues to water her plants. Aline hung her head deeper in shame after hearing those kind words. She's not worthy of her master's kindness.
A mocking cackle resounded across the beautiful garden and Aline glared at the annoying troublemaker for mocking at her failure. A light-purple pokemon with a vaguely humanoid appearance slowly manifested in view, its green eyes with yellow sclera looking down at her in condescension while it played around with the yellow ring it held in its hands. As much as Aline disliked the childish troublemaker, she cannot deny the power and versatility this pokemon could bring about on the battlefield. She had seen with her own eyes how her lady had conquered battlefields with hoopa at her side. Hoopa must have been the one to extract her out from the Relic Castle upon her lady's instruction before her battle with Alder could intensify. After all, there's nowhere in this world that hoopa cannot reach with its mystical and unexplainable power.
Hoopa's mocking laughter didn't last long, however, as its trainer lightly knocked the back of its head with her fist in silent reprimand. Hoopa whined childishly but upon seeing the warning glare from its trainer, unwillingly stopped its antics and disappeared back to wherever it came from.
"Ignore him, he's just a brat that could never grow up."
"It's my fault for forcing your hand to bail me out of my battle with Alder. I will accept any punishment," Aline replied instead, still feeling ashamed for not being able to defeat Alder before her master decided to intervene. She is her lady's personal and trusted servant that had served her for centuries, such a mistake is inexcusable. How could she stand by her lady's side if she couldn't even defeat a child with less than a century's experience in under three minutes?
"Aline, please stand."
Aline felt even more ashamed after hearing those words. She would feel much better if her lady were to punish or berate her for her incompetence, but her lady had never done any of such things to her for as long as they had known each other. No matter what kinds of mistakes or follies she made, her lady always forgave her.
She's unworthy of such kindness.
She felt a force pushing her up onto her feet against her will, forcing her to stand even before she could resist it. She glanced at the still sleeping aegislash beside her lady, knowing that it must be the culprit. Still, her head remained lowered in her lady's presence, as she should be as her lady's personal maid that had accompanied her throughout their long lives.
"Milady, the volcarona," Aline quickly and respectfully presented the Master Ball containing the ancient volcarona that her lady tasked her to capture. Her lady very rarely tasked her with a mission that took her so far away from each other, so it must have been a very important task even if she could never understand why her lady felt that the volcarona's addition to Tarot is a great boon to the organisation. Still, it's not her job to question her lady's orders. She is her servant who swore to follow after her till the end of time. All she has to do is to carry out her orders.
"So, we meet again," her lady playfully hummed while observing the Master Ball in her hand. Aline remained silent, her head still bowed. She had once heard her lady recounting her experience regarding her first encounter with this particular volcarona in her youth, which was why Aline had a very poor impression of this bug to begin with.
"Have you met Aaron and Yasu?"
"I did, milady. They are making progress on the task you sent them on," Aline replied dutifully. Part of her task in Unova was to meet up with the two oafs before she made her way to the Relic Castle to capture the volcarona. They were happy to see her but the same cannot be said for her when she saw them. They can be a little… overwhelming.
"They really found leads about the Swords of Justice?"
"Yes, milady. Aaron is tracking them down as we speak."
"That boy is reliable," her lady agreed with a nod of her head. "Tell them to keep an eye on the situation at Unova as well. If needed, we will intervene and deal with Team Plasma ourselves. Now, who am I forgetting… Ah, Colress."
"Milady, his… loyalty is questionable," Aline felt the need to remind her lady once more about the madman who held the title of The Hanged Man within their organisation. If it wasn't for her lady forbidding her from doing so she would have terminated that lunatic given the first opportunity and replaced his position with a candidate who they can have a better control over.
"And that goes for about half of our Cards, what's new? But Lovers… did he seriously think that he could accept the commission from the Euclids to steal Genesect's fossil behind my back without me finding out about it? That scoundrel, maybe I really had been too lax with the Cards recently."
"Should I eliminate him?" Aline inquired and her lady shook her head. Again, her lady was being too kind. Anyone who goes against her lady's wishes should be granted a swift and unforgiving death.
"Just a warning would do. We should not forget that he did us a huge favour for stealing the blueprints of the Master Ball without anyone the wiser. Lovers is one reason why we are one step closer to our goal. What about our newest member?"
"He had never made an active presence ever since his induction. My guess is that he still doesn't trust the organisation," Aline replied respectfully, knowing that her lady was referring to their newest member, Magician. Her lady seems to have high hopes for him for reasons still unknown to her.
"It's the smart thing to do," her lady commented. "Well, it's just a matter of time before he warms himself up to us. He can be trusted, I'm in no hurry."
Her lady surprised her once again when she passed volcarona's pokeball back into her hands.
"Milady…"
"Keep it, I intend for you to have this volcarona right from the very start," her lady replied. Aline wanted to protest because she does not deserve such a generous gift but quietly swallowed it all down when she saw the look her lady was giving her, telling her that she's not accepting any objections.
"I humbly accept your generous gift. Thank you, milady, I shall not fail you."
"It's been five hundred years, Aline, we are long past such formalities," her lady sighed fondly as she took a seat at a nearby table and Aline quickly poured her lady a cup of tea from the teapot on the table without losing any of the elegance or grace as expected from her lady's trusted servant.
"That may be so, but I'm your servant, milady. Some formalities still have to be observed."
"And like I said many times, you do not need to walk down the same path I chose to follow. Immortality is a painful curse, one that you do not have to bear."
"And I would return your kindness with the same answer I gave you when you first asked, my life is yours the moment you saved me five hundred years ago. No matter the ending, no matter what shall befall, I will be there to serve you till the end of time."
"You stubborn girl," her lady shook her head in fond amusement but there's no mistaking the slight upwards curl of her lady's lips on her beautiful face. Aline finally felt at peace to smile as well, continuing to stand at her lady's side to refill her teacup when the contents were emptied.
"It's winter over at Unova, isn't it?"
"Yes, milady," Aline answered.
"Then we need to prepare. If all goes as predicted, Team Plasma will begin to make some really big moves during the start of spring. We only have so much time left before the world shakes on its foundations once more. The dissolution of Team Rocket was merely the start."
"Milady?" Aline asked, knowing her lady well enough that there's something that she's alluding to.
"What I know Team Plasma is planning to do when spring comes was one reason why I sent Aaron and Yasu there. I will also need your assistance then, Aline. More people will die soon, that is an unchangeable fate that we cannot avert, but that doesn't mean that it cannot be changed entirely."
"I am at your service," Aline pledged.
"Victini, I will need you to capture it when the time comes. Its power will be needed and I do not wish for Team Plasma to get their hands on it, as unlikely as it seems. The volcarona should prove itself useful in assisting you to capture victini once it's tamed."
To say that Aline wasn't shocked was a lie, but she quickly got over it and acknowledged the order given to her by her master. Forget victini, she wouldn't even hesitate to take down Unova Twin Dragons as long as her lady gave her the word to do so.
"Your wish is my command."
For her lady, there's nothing that cannot be done.
Even if it meant making the entire world her enemy.
Character and pokemon list:
Velda Vera, Age: 14, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Member of the International Police
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Tyranitar (Kratos), male
11) Clefairy (Joy), female
12) Nidoqueen (Ness), female
13) Pangoro (Hulk), male
14) Porygon-Z (Jarvis), genderless
15) Scizor (Archer), male
16) Lapras (Chill), female
17) Gengar (Wacky), male
Alder Lauro, Age: 65, Male, Unova Champion
Alias: Wild Hermit
Pokemon on hand:
1) Volcarona
2) Accelgor
3) Bouffalant
4) Druddigon
5) Vanilluxe
6) Escavalier
7) Conkeldurr
8) Braviary
9) Reuniclus
10) Krookodile
11) Chandelure
Aline Serre, Age: ?, Female, "High Priestess" of Tarot
Pokemon on hand:
1) Delphox
2) Chandelure
3) Ninetales
4) Volcarona
5) ?
?, Age: ?, Female, "The Fool" of Tarot
Pokemon on hand:
1) Aegislash
2) Hoopa