Despite basically crashing out in bed due to the intense exhaustion from the previous day's events, I still managed to wake up just in time for the upcoming meeting. It would be a bad look if I was late for this important occasion, so I set at least ten alarms in three-minute intervals using the app feature from the Pokégear. Fortunately, that was able to do the trick just fine.
After a few groggy yawns, brief preparations and a quick rice ball breakfast, I left my room and set foot towards the Lilycove City Gym, where the meeting was going to take place. Due to the recent circumstances, the entrance door into the Gym was understandably locked to prevent unknowing intrusions. I had to ring the doorbell to enter, which was fortunately answered almost instantly as the entrance door unlocked itself, allowing me to enter for a brief moment.
Entering the receptionist area of the Lilycove City Gym, I found myself stepping on a huge patch of well-managed artificial grass. I could notice some beautiful potted flowers on the wall shelves, along with framed pictures of Wally with his friends, including Brendan, May and Charmaine, and pictures of his Pokémon, especially his Gallade, Blade on the Gym walls. The air around the area was also generally refreshing, like it was cleanly purified. Overall, this area reminded me of Verdanturf Town, the town that seemed to hold a dear place in Wally's heart.
It did not take long for Wally to appear in the receptionist area as he greeted me, "Lows, nice to see you! Welcome to the Lilycove Gym… though I wished it was in a better circumstance."
"It is what it is." I shrugged, "Though as a Trainer, if I enter this Gym for a battle without any prior knowledge, I would've thought this is a Grass type Gym."
"You're not the first one that has said this to me, Lows. This is a relatively new Gym, after all." Wally chuckled, "You've probably already noticed, but I wanted to make the Lilycove Gym resemble Verdanturf Town, to sorta make up for my regret of not being able to have my Gym built there."
"I thought so." I nodded.
"Though looking at the number of Trainers participating in the Gym Challenge every day… I'd say not having a Gym in Verdanturf is definitely for the better." Wally said, "Oh yeah, the flower pots are really nice, aren't they? Charmaine gave them to me to celebrate the opening of the Lilycove Gym, and I thought it'd be nice to display them as decorations."
"They do look nice!" I agreed, "You must have cherished them a lot."
"They're from a dear per- colleague of mine, after all." I failed to notice the quick switch in Wally's sentence, as Wally soon led me along the walkway behind the receptionist area before pressing a button hidden behind one side of the wall. In mere seconds, a hidden staircase was revealed just behind the wall.
I was amazed, "Didn't know Gyms had secret contraptions like this."
"Same, to be honest. Never even noticed this area existed until I started working here." Wally chuckled, "Perhaps this is why they wanted to hold the emergency meeting here."
We carefully walked down the staircase, which eventually brought us to the meeting room, where the area was designed similarly to a conference room. There were enough chairs surrounding a long, rectangular table to fit multiple members participating in the upcoming meeting. Some people were already standing around the meeting area, most of them which I recognized from previous encounters. The one with the most obvious presence was May, who was laughing at her friend, Brendan in their casual conversation. Steven, the former Hoenn Champion and a current employee under Devon Corporation, was at a slightly secluded corner while seemingly typing a reply message on his Pokégear. Harry Waves, my rival, stood alongside his father, Brawly, in a somewhat awkward manner. Winona, the Fortree Gym Leader who was kind enough to fly me to Lilycove, was talking to Wallace, the Sootopolis Gym Leader, with a soft expression on her face.
"Truth to be told…" Wally whispered, "Even though I'm a Gym Leader myself now, I still feel nervous meeting so many big names in Hoenn all at once."
I could only reply with a light nod, the generally serious atmosphere around the meeting room starting to make me nervous.
Wally gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder before going back upstairs to greet the remaining participants who would be entering his Gym soon. The nervousness was temporarily replaced by awkwardness, which I quickly tried to resolve by approaching Harry for a brief conversation, to which Brawly joined shortly after until the meeting time was up. During that period, more and more participants entered the meeting room, which made the tension around the area higher than ever.
Once it was time to start the emergency meeting regarding Team Willpower, everyone quickly found their comfortable seats around the rectangular table, with the current Hoenn Champion, Brendan sitting at the head of the table, being the center of attention.
After everyone sat down properly on their respective chairs, Brendan stood up from his seat and announced, "Looks like everyone's ready to start, so I won't waste much time here. In this meeting, we will be recapping the recent happenings revolving around Team Willpower and their current rumored plans, and discuss a detailed plan on how we can stop Team Willpower before they can cause harm to the Hoenn region."
Brendan then looked towards a certain direction and continued, "First, we will have the Mossdeep Gym Leaders, Tate and Liza to start the recap."
Two short-looking, dark blue-haired individuals wearing light blue kung-fu uniforms, who looked almost identically appearance wise stood up from their seats, though their shorter heights did not help in making them stand out. Despite that, the twins' voices were loud and clear for everyone to hear as the one without any pigtails started, "I'm sure most people are aware of the incident that happened in Mossdeep before coming here, but long story short, Team Willpower intruded into the Mossdeep Space Center to steal a special fuel created for the Legendary Pokémon Tracker."
The other Gym Leader, who had two pigtails seamlessly continued the talking after her twin brother, "Unfortunately, due to how sudden the surprise intrusion happened, we were unable to step in and stop them with us being involved in a Gym Challenge battle at the time…"
Then, they apologetically said in perfect sync, "With that, we sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused!"
May was the first to respond, "No sweat, you two! None of us, not even you psychics could predict such a thing from happening out of nowhere!"
Charmaine agreed, "May's right. It was definitely not your fault, Tate and Liza. We're all in this together, after all."
"I'm sure everyone here shares the same sentiment as the two." Brendan smiled, "It was unfortunate that the damage has been done, but we can definitely do something before it's all too late."
Steven raised his hand to speak, "I agree, and I'm glad that the PLA has taken action quickly by gathering us all around here. With the special fuel obtained, they have just secured the final piece of their puzzle to activate their Legendary Pokémon Tracker prototype, which should finally work properly for them to execute their plans."
"Wait, before we proceed, I would like to ask a question." Brawly said, "Have we found out the true motive of why they're doing all this in the first place? I've tried to think this through before the meeting began, but there's just no good leads for me to come up with a theory. Out of everyone here, I don't have the smartest of brains, after all."
"The motive isn't discovered yet, but I assumed that they could be doing something similar to the stint done by Team Aqua and Team Magma years ago, where they want to capture the Legendaries for their own goals." Norman replied, "Like how Team Aqua wanted to use Kyogre to flood the world with more water, and Team Magma wanted to use Groudon to expand the landmass, perhaps Team Willpower had something similar in mind to find these Legendaries around the region."
"That's a reasonable theory, Norman." Winona said, "But Team Willpower definitely knew about the incident years ago, to realize how reckless trying to catch the Legendary Pokémon was. Aqua and Magma both tried, and they both miserably failed and almost caused a disaster in the Hoenn region. I don't see any reason why Team Willpower would go for something that would do more harm than good for themselves."
"I think both of you have made good points." Steven raised his hand before standing up from his seat, catching everyone's attention, "Firstly, credits to Winona, Team Willpower's motive was definitely not to catch the Legendary Pokémon. This is because the Red Orb and Blue Orb, the two items key in summoning Groudon and Kyogre respectively, were still intact at Mt. Pyre."
My body uncontrollably trembled for a brief moment hearing that place's name, due to the traumatic events that happened the previous day.
Brendan backed up Steven's statement, "I can attest to that. We have contacted the old couple who currently guards the Red Orb and Blue Orb at the summit of Mt. Pyre earlier this morning, and they have confirmed that the orbs are still safe in their hands."
"I see." Norman said.
Steven's eyes slowly roved the room before he asked, "Does anyone here know about the origin of Team Willpower?"
Slowly, Roxanne raised her hand to answer, "...According to my knowledge, Team Willpower was created by a man shortly after being released from prison, who called himself a 'loser' with unlimited willpower, and that the team is a place where losers rejoice and belong, to combine their willpower together."
"You're basically spot on, Roxanne." Steven smiled, "The full answer to that last sentence though… was to combine their willpower… and create as much chaos as possible."
"...So you're saying…" Flannery said.
"I think most people here should get the gist now." Steven's expression turned serious, "The most possible answer of Team Willpower's motive behind their current actions…is to use the Legendary Pokémon Tracker to find the Legendaries… then disturb their peace and lead them to cause a ruckus, creating chaos among the world."
"...That's way too reckless!" Wally said.
"I'm sure Team Willpower knows that, too." Steven replied, "But unfortunately, I don't think they care about how many people would get affected, or the potential damage to the Hoenn region caused by the awakening of the Legendary Pokémon. By doing this, this is the team's ultimate goal achieved and how the 'losers' get to feel their last bit of fulfillment in their lives."
Steven's explanation was followed by a brief moment of silence, with everyone in the room taking in all this new information. Wallace looked at the former Champion and smiled before breaking the silence, "You seem to know a lot about Team Willpower, Steven."
"During my time as the Hoenn Champion, I had a fair share of encounters with the Team Willpower Leader, Wilson. Like an unpleasant sore in the thumb, it was unfortunately hard to ignore their antics." A resigned look appeared on Steven's face.
"They're definitely on the run for their Legendary Pokémon encounter now, then!" Wattson said. When even his usual smile was gone from his face, you just knew how serious the situation was.
"Unfortunately, that is most likely the case..." Brendan said, "Which makes it more important that we have a concrete plan to be on the move soon. With that, the Sootopolis Gym Leader, Wallace will be proposing his findings that could help with our case."
After being given the green light by the current Hoenn Champion, Wallace stood up and said, "Thank you for giving me the honor, Champion Brendan. I would like to first ask everyone in this room a question: Why do you think we are having this meeting here, in the Lilycove Gym?"
"...Wasn't it to make use of the built-in hidden meeting room here?" Wally replied.
The elegant-looking Gym Leader from Sootopolis laughed at Wally's response and said, "...Well, that too."
He quickly continued, "Prior to Team Willpower's intrusion into the Mossdeep Space Center, May was already suspicious of Team Willpower's activities ever since her encounter with them in Granite Cave, of which the lovely Trainer here was also involved." Wallace's eyes landed towards where I was seated, causing me to feel slightly nervous from the sudden attention.
Luckily, Wallace was not intending to have me add something regarding the recent encounter and continued on his own, "May then kindly decided to do her own exploration and investigation on Team Willpower. Eventually, she found out that at the former Team Aqua Hideout located near Lilycove City, which was abandoned years ago, had human activity again just a few weeks ago, where Team Willpower Grunts were seen moving in and out of the area."
May added, "At the city, I also recently overheard Willpower Grunts nearby who talked about the search for Kyogre starting very soon after the final preparations are completed!"
"...Yesterday, Wallace also requested me to covertly fly around Lilycove City, and specifically, around the former Team Aqua Hideout." Winona continued, "In the distance, I saw many Willpower Grunts entering the hideout throughout the evening, as if something big was coming for the team."
"That means the time we have left is running short." Brendan said, "As such, I have decided that in just three hours after this meeting concludes, we will be investigating the former Team Aqua Hideout together and hopefully, stop Team Willpower's plans on disturbing Kyogre."
"I know about the time constraints and all, and not that I want to be a party pooper…" Flannery said, "But with our appearance, and Team Willpower on high alert for something like this to happen, are we sure that we can successfully invade their hideout?"
"With us members of the Ever Grande League, probably not." Brendan smiled, "...Which is why this is where our trump cards will be stepping in for our plan to work in our favor."
After the meeting concluded, we were given some time before our counter-plan commenced. Some people, like Brendan, Steven, Wallace and Winona, stayed to have a serious further discussion on the topic, while some like May, Tate & Liza, Charmaine and Wally, were the more relaxed group, gathering around and taking this as an opportunity to catch up with one another. For most of us, though, including me, we went back to our stays to prepare for the upcoming occasion.
...This is definitely a matter more serious than anything I'd been through my whole life.
The magnitude of the situation started to kick in, as I took out my diary and wrote down the events that had happened the past few days, needing to get everything out of my chest.
15th of October, 2004. (Friday)
A lot of stuff has happened the last few days.
Due to a request from Mom, I had to go visit Mt. Pyre, and unfortunately, had quite a traumatic experience almost equivalent to what happened back in Petalburg Woods. I don't think this will linger in my mind longer than that event, though. Maybe I did grow to become a stronger person.
Something good came out of it, though. I got to meet the last member of the team, Shadow! She is an Absol who rescued me out of all the mess, and she is a quiet, but kind Pokémon who definitely has the potential to go far with us.
I then came to Lilycove after obtaining the Feather Badge from Winona, for an emergency meeting regarding the antics of Team Willpower, which involved kidnapping Sip. I… was technically the one who helped him began his journey, and I feel partly responsible to bring him back, by doing my small part and working together with the people who are more authorized and skilled than me.
Shortly after I finish writing this, I will be heading towards the former Team Aqua Hideout to stop Team Willpower's plans. I'm not really aware of what happened back then, but the people here really do not want the same incident to happen again. Thus, I will do my best alongside them along the way.
Wish me luck!
As I finished my diary, I felt myself feeling slightly less pressured than before, and after I felt mentally prepared to rejoin the others, I headed back into the Lilycove City Gym. Most people were situated around the receptionist area, and they all seemed to have focused looks on their faces. We all knew that this was our best, and most likely only chance to stop chaos from ensuing.
When it was time to execute the plan, Harry, May, Charmaine and I prepared ourselves to first leave the Lilycove City Gym. Before that, Wally, who was standing beside Charmaine, had a rare solemn look on his face as he said, "Charmaine, I know it was usually you who looked after me… But stay safe out there, okay?"
My older sister looked even more relaxed than her friend as she reassuringly patted his shoulder, "No need to worry about me, Wally. We'll all be just fine."
"...There is no way I won't be worried, y'know." Wally resignedly smiled, "If I could, I would've taken the role instead of you."
"Yeah, that asthma of yours won't make a very convincing case for the strategists." Charmaine chuckled, "I'll bring these kids to glory myself, instead. There's a reason I'm chosen as a Gym Leader, after all."
"...I trust you." Wally smiled.
With that, the four of us left the Gym and headed towards the former Team Aqua Hideout, and hid behind a large rock to analyze the current situation. Unsurprisingly, we instantly noticed some Team Willpower Grunts walking into the hideout, confirming our suspicions brought up during the meeting.
Charmaine and May led the way as they sent their signature Pokémon, Flora the Venusaur and Chic the Blaziken. After their Trainers gave them their instructions, we continued waiting behind the big rock and anticipated any movement coming our way.
Shortly, we heard two Team Willpower Grunts slowly approaching us, having a casual chat about the recent business within the villain team and wished they could take a few days off instead.
...In some way, you two will be getting your wishes granted soon.
The figures of the two Grunts were eventually in our sight, and before they could react to our sudden presence, Flora stuck out a vine coming from its bulb and struck it right at one of the Grunts' heads, taking him out at an instant. On the other hand, Chic just gave a light chop to the female Grunt's neck, which was enough to make her fall onto the ground, unconscious.
"...What we're doing right now feels illegal." Charmaine sighed. She probably wished she could resolve this in a more peaceful manner.
May looked more nonchalant about what they had just done, "We were given permission to do this, so no big deal. They shouldn't have any severe injuries, anyway."
We then worked together to strip the Team Willpower outfits off the two Grunts, to which Harry and Charmaine quickly tried them on. The other two Grunts we needed did not take long to arrive as well, and shortly after, there were four Team Willpower Grunts lying on the ground, and four newly disguised "grunts" ready to invade into what became of the hideout of Team Willpower.
"...I wish this outfit was a lot smaller." I slightly groaned. If only I was taller.
"It is what it is." Harry said. He was larger than me in size, and had an easier time getting used to the slightly oversized Willpower Grunt outfit for him.
With that, the first step of our plan was completed. We managed to defeat the four required Grunts with almost no sweat thanks to Charmaine and May, and disguised ourselves as Team Willpower Grunts to enter the Team Willpower Hideout without any suspicions. Two secret recording devices were hidden in our disguise, one with Harry and one with May.
We then walked towards the Team Willpower Hideout, trying to act normal and blending in with the other grunts as we got used to the atmosphere. Due to the hideout's long periods of abandonment by the previous villain team, Team Aqua, there was a weird smell lingering in the area, but it was not going to deter us from proceeding.
After managing to invade into the hideout with basically zero issues, May gave me and Harry a quick wink, and we instantly separated into two groups, where I was grouped with Harry. Charmaine and May were going to explore the hideout and show the other members waiting back at the Lilycove City Gym around the area. With the live footage provided through the secret recording device in May, they can discover an appropriate opening to enter the hideout for a surprise attack, and use their powers to put a stop to Team Willpower's plans.
On the other side, Harry and I only had one priority at hand: to find Sip.
It was obvious that it would take us a long time to find the Lavaridge native without any leads. But luckily, it was like Arceus answered our prayers, as a mention of Sip's presence from one of the nearby grunts caught both our attention.
"Hey, is it now your turn to send food to the kidnapped Trainer?" One of the grunts in the group lazily said.
"Bro, I've already sent food to the guy like three hours ago." The grunt in question looked annoyed as he replied, "I'm pretty sure it's your turn this time."
"Nooooooo… I don't wanna go…" The grunt groaned.
Before I could react to their conversation, Harry was one step ahead as he approached the group and said, "Don't worry, I got you, bro! I'll send the food right to the guy in no time."
"Uh… thanks, but there's no benefit for you to do this, y'know?" The grunt was more confused than happy about Harry's volunteer request, "Also, I swear I've never seen you here before."
Harry was quick to respond, "Me and this fella here, we're new recruits. We want to mingle well with everyone around here, so we can have a better time easing into the team!"
"I see…" The grunt looked oddly touched by Harry's answer, as he patted his own chest and said, "No worries, to repay your kindness, I will get you to be involved in future after-work activities between us Willpower Grunts here! With that, you'll be in our social group in no time."
"Sounds good!" Harry smiled, which I could obviously tell it was forced, "Where do we get the food, and where do we send the food to?"
"Oh, just get the food at the cafeteria, it should be already prepared on the table, with a note saying that it's for the kidnapped Trainer." The grunt explained, "Afterwards, just head to the storage room, and you'll find the kid, probably curled up in one of the corners there!"
"Alright, leave it to us!" Harry's forced smile remained as he patted my right shoulder, signaling me to follow him as we tried to locate the cafeteria by walking further into the hideout.
"...I think you deserve the Pokécars Award just for that acting alone." I said.
"...Desperate times call for desperate measures." Harry replied. I took a quick glance towards my rival, who appeared to be slightly red-faced. I definitely could not blame him for that, though. On the bright side, he got us valuable information that could potentially quicken our task by a mile.
After obtaining the tray of what looked like very poorly cooked food, which had a note alongside that wrote, "For kidnapped Trainer", it was another long navigation towards the storage room. It took slightly longer for us to find the place compared to the cafeteria, but eventually, one of the doors we opened finally revealed the somewhat dirty room with a bunch of boxes on each of the storage racks.
Before we took action, we remained high on alert as we looked around the area, which strangely enough, did not seem to have any security cameras installed around the ceilings. We were not going to complain about that, though. We then slowly walked deeper and deeper into the storage room, and just as the grunt said, at a corner, we found the Trainer wearing the familiar red hoodie above a white top, who appeared to be in a weak condition, but fortunately, did not look severely harmed.
Perhaps hearing some nearby activity around him, Sip slowly opened his eyes, and instantly recognized me just from a glance. He appeared both surprised and relieved and weakly asked, "L-Lows?! How did you guys get here?"
"It's a long story…" I replied, "But it doesn't matter right now. We're gonna get you out of here!"
Harry and I wanted to untie the ropes binding my friend from Lavaridge, but before we could do that, we were shocked by the storage room door opening once again behind us. Footsteps sound closed in on us shortly after.
The spiky blonde hair and the two brown pigtails on the two's heads respectively made me instantly recognize the two Willpower Admins, Kyla and Stone. Stone was surprised upon seeing extra presence other than Sip in the room, but seemed to have instantly remembered me from our encounter in Granite Cave. I was fully expecting us two to be done for, but Harry and I were genuinely surprised when Kyla just sighed and said, "...I see what's going on. For you two's sake, I suggest you leave now, and we can pretend nothing has happened here."
Knowing a bit of the two's backgrounds from May beforehand, I tried to negotiate with Kyla and Stone, "...We need to get our friend out of here. He shouldn't even be involved in this in the first place."
"No can do." Stone instantly rejected us, "Boss' orders. We are already being nice enough to give you a way out here."
"And if we don't?" Harry asked.
"...You asked for this." Stone took out a Pokéball, with Kyla doing the same, they then sent out the two familiar Pokémon, Spectre the Mismagius and Hector the Dusclops. In response, Harry and I did the same, sending out his Swampert and my Absol, Shadow.
Whatever the reason was behind them joining Team Willpower, it did not matter at that moment.
We needed to defeat them before we could rescue Sip, before we could even know any part of their stories.
With that, we readied ourselves to give our all in this upcoming multi battle ahead of us.
It was do, or die.
Lows' Pokémon Team:
Surfer (Wartortle, Male), Jolly Nature
Ability: Torrent
Moves: Bite, Water Gun, Water Pulse, Sand Tomb
Ziggs (Linoone, Male), Naive Nature
Ability: Quick Feet
Moves: Dig, Headbutt, Swift, Facade
Grace (Kirlia, Female), Calm Nature
Ability: Synchronize
Moves: Teleport, Magical Leaf, Shadow Ball, Psybeam
Woody (Grovyle, Male), Lonely Nature
Ability: Overgrow
Moves: Pursuit, Leaf Blade, Bullet Seed, Rock Tomb
Power (Machoke, Male), Timid Nature
Ability: Guts
Moves: Fling, Scary Face, Submission, Seismic Toss
Shadow (Absol, Female), Quiet Nature
Ability: Super Luck
Moves: Payback, Night Slash, Psycho Cut, Protect