Chapter 103; Magma boiling
A fist slammed on the desk as for the first time in a really long time, Maxie lost his temper, if only for a moment.
"What… did you just say?"
"They ran us out sir. I failed to secure the hedgehog or the parts" Shadow admitted.
Maxie turned his back to Shadow as he looked outside the window at the majestic spectacle that was Mauville city.
"Your repeated failures are concerning".
"I was not ready the first time and I wasn't ready this time either sir. But next time I won't let you down. You have my word".
Maxie didn't reply for a few moments.
"When I found you" he spoke after a few seconds "alone in that alley, bruised from that fight, I thought you to be another average bum I'm trying to create a better society for. But when I looked into your eyes… the determination I saw, the desire to make something of yourself… those were the factors that made me decide to take you in. Now… I fear… I was mistaken".
"I gave my everything to you sir. To our cause".
"And yet, ever since that meddlesome hero came into the picture, all you've been is failure upon failure upon another failure. I supplied you with the strongest pokemon we could secure. And you were still bested by a measly Raichu!"
"I captured him sir. Seviper had him ensnared and he… I don't know how but he spun just like a ball and freed himself".
Maxie remained silent.
"You know, I didn't really believe you the first time. I still don't. There is no denying his Raichu is strong for its kind but him?" he snorted.
"And there is more sir. He didn't battle me alone. It was two against one".
"And who exactly was his ally?"
"…Archie".
Maxie's eyes momentarily widened.
This was a most serious predicament.
On their own, team Aqua were not even worth laughing at. All this time they had been unable to even dent team Magma's plans.
But if the hero of Kanto was added to the equation…
"What happened after the battle?"
"Team Aqua left the museum after a few minutes".
"Was he with them?"
"No. No he wasn't".
"Good. Their stubbornness and his prowess as a trainer isn't something that should be mixed. However this still sets us way behind schedule. The meteorite is too well guarded to try and take outright and without the hero of Kanto, there is no alternative method to harness enough energy to get the device going".
"There might just be a way sir".
"Elaborate".
There is one final thing that I have yet to report from the museum brawl" Shadow said as he took out a rock and slammed it on the desk.
Maxie turned around, annoyed at the slamming until he noticed the stone from the museum.
"How is this possible?"
"Tabitha stole it during the brawl there. Unfortunately a small piece was broken off during the skirmish with some weakling kid named Ash".
"No, no, no. It's perfect. The perfect bait. Professor Cosmo is bound to fall for this".
He looked at Shadow.
"You may have failed but thanks to this, the meteorite is within our reach. Good work".
"Thank you sir but as I said, it was Tabitha who stole it".
"Yes, yes I'm aware. He will be greatly rewarded the first chance I get to visit the hideout. Now, about your punishment…"
"Sir?" Shadow asked, a bit anxious that he hadn't managed to avoid it. But failure was failure.
"You are to stay in the hideout and work with Tabitha to formulate a plan to get the meteor away from professor Cosmo and Fallarbor town. You are to not take on any missions until a good enough plan is presented. I will have others keep tabs on the hedgehog in the meantime. Dismissed".
Shadow was very annoyed but nodded.
"Yes sir" he said and left Maxie's office through the secret passage.
As he rode the hidden elevator down to ground floor, his fist was shaking.
Remain in the hideout? Formulate a plan? Him, the enforcer, the fist of team Magma, the strongest of them, the one who would bring change to the region by helping Maxie change the world, whatever way he was planning to, just sit back and do nothing?
"I swear next time I see that blue loser, I will put him in the ground, powers or no powers".
Exiting Socexp's main building, he received a text from Maxie. He was to travel back to the hideout on foot. The police was asking about the attack on museum and the enforcer. So he had to lay low.
Furthermore, Shadow was to take the long way to the hideout, by first returning to the location of his first real failure against Sonic, at rusturf tunnel and then take the other path the cave provided which many people didn't know about and which led to Lavaridge town and make his way back to the hideout from there.
Shadow was now just plainly irritated. That was just unnecessary. He was very skilled at going unnoticed.
As he proceeded to head to the west exit of Mauville city, he remembered something that cheered him up.
Maria's family's farm was on route 117. In other words he was going to pass by.
He increased his pace, thinking there was no time like the present to visit.
After a short walk he was standing at the shop's door. Despite the excitement, Shadow was hesitating.
"What if she's too busy to see me? What if she's not here? What if…"
He froze.
He had never wondered about the most dreadful what if.
What if she had a boyfriend?
Shadow felt his body go numb upon the realization of this possibility. And with her beauty and kind personality, there was a huge chance this was the case.
"Was this what Sonic felt when I and Amy…?" Shadow thought, wondering if karma was about to get him.
He had no idea how long he had spent standing there until he remembered a crucial detail.
Maria was in Slateport visiting her grandfather for the whole week. She had literally told him so during that very bus ride.
Utterly disappointed, Shadow continued on his way.
He looked around him as Pokemon watched him pass by. Some he recognized some he didn't. Not all species originated in Hoenn.
"Maria would probably say how they were all adorable. Even that Mightyena".
Maria. Even during the battle at the museum he couldn't shake off the sight of her from his mind's eye.
Her cute, innocent voice, her moving show of kindness towards him, her cheerful personality, her love for both pokemon and people.
And then her sweet, addictive, radiant smile, her golden wavy hair, her hot silhouette…
"What the hell am I thinking?!" he slapped himself as he yelled, shaking his head afterwards.
Sitting by the edge of the path, Shadow closed his eyes and tried to compose himself. This was worse than he thought.
This wasn't just a crush. The mere thought of Maria, a girl he had met literally days ago, was paralyzing him.
"So weak" a malicious male voice whispered in Shadow's ear.
"Shut up" Shadow whispered back.
"You always were weak. And now your thoughts betray your weakness".
"I said shut up".
"You always were an embarrassment. But to be ensnared by a woman's charm… even I didn't think you this weak".
"Get out of my head father" Shadow said imperatively, silencing the voice.
Shadow spent half an hour in the same spot trying to get his head back in order. It was extremely difficult.
Eventually, feeling calm enough to continue, he got up and, while walking forward, focused his mind on ideas he could utilize to get professor Cosmo to bring the meteor to him and Maxie.
That meteor.
Maxie had had Shadow set up their spot of operations on top of mt chimney a while ago, and it was quite the operation. Although the hideout of team Magma was halfway up the mountain, it was quite a struggle.
Shadow had suggested Maxie renting the cable car that led from the entrance of the fiery path to the top of Mt chimney to get their equipment there easily and simply give a statement to the public that it was an experiment to harvest the volcanic energy or something. Shadow never quite figured out all the sciency stuff too much.
Maxie had vehemently vetoed the idea, stating that team Magma needed to work in absolute secrecy. Team Aqua was mere troublemaker environmental activists but if they caught word out that team Magma was connected to Socexp and leaked it to the public with actual evidence like the machine on top of the volcano, the company would be finished.
Therefore Shadow was to work in secrecy. And he had. He, in the leading role had led team Magma to setting up all the equipment on the mouth of the volcano, the sight of the bubbling lava inside amusing Shadow.
And yet despite all their work, one component was missing; an energy source.
Maxie was a little bit at fault here, having counted his pokemon before they hatched; his plan was to collaborate with professor Cosmo to study the meteorite together and, when the time came, use it as the energy source.
But the good professor had rejected their offer. And for a reason as stupid as it was his life's work and didn't have the heart to part with it.
"And I got to come up with a plan to get that stupid meteorite" he thought.
Finally arriving at Verdanturf town, Shadow headed immediately for the Rusturf tunnel.
Finding the sealed passage he called out another one of his pokemon, a machamp.
"Move it!" he ordered it.
Machamp complied, moving the boulder covering the entrance to the passage to Lavaridge town. Shadow walked in and Machamp followed, sealing the passage again before Shadow recalled it.
Taking out a flashlight to walk through the dark passage, Shadow was trying to keep his mind focused on brainstorming.
But the darkness was playing tricks on him. And so was his mind. And it had a dirty trick set for him next.
Shadow felt her grip over him.
He blinked.
In front of him stood his mother.
"You can't run forever" she solemnly said.
"And you were too scared to run, memory" Shadow replied.
"You know I couldn't run" the memory of his mother replied.
"You could. And you chose not to".
The memory walked towards him, love etched on her face.
"You never had to be this, my darling. You still don't have to".
Shadow's face remained unyielding.
"Out of my sight" he said walking through her as she disappeared "You are dead. Shadow the hedgehog is dead. Only I remain".
He only felt a semblance of peace crawl up to him when the rays of the sun falling on Lavaridge city filled him with warmth.
Grabbing something to eat at a local restaurant, Shadow headed up the jagged pass, eventually arriving at a small plateau.
He headed towards a section of the mountainside. He took out his special magma emblem and placed it in front of a metal detector hidden in the surface.
Within seconds a heavy mechanical sound was heard and the huge camouflaged door was rolled downward, revealing the entrance to the team magma hideout.
Shadow snorted with a smile. It was truly an ingenious move on Maxie's part, to build the team's operations hideout in the volcano. The thermal energy from the volcano could power the hideout indefinitely, including air conditioning. Not to mention how close it was to Mauville as Maxie visited fairly often.
Shadow walked in, greeted by the red rocky interior of the hideout. Again he never seized to be amazed by Maxie's brilliance.
Although the metal detector at the entrance would react only to the specific metal the Magma emblems were made of, Maxie took zero chances. In the case anyone who was not team Magma accidentally entered the hideout, the interior wouldn't scream illegal organization, thereby giving team Magma time to knock out the poor individual, seize or destroy whatever had allowed him to enter and then stage it as fainting or knock out by a wild pokemon or whatever else. It wasn't Shadow's duty so he still didn't really care how they stopped them.
Walking through the long and curvy section of the cave, Shadow evaluated the ideas he had brainstormed on his way there, only one seemingly worthy of examining further. Still, he held on to the rest, wanting Tabitha's opinion too. Those were his orders after all.
Eventually he found the real entrance to the hideout. As he repeated the process with the first entrance, still marveling over the brilliance of his employer, a question popped up in his mind.
Could Sonic, despite all of Maxie's brilliance and superior planning for a very very long time, bring down team Magma? Or worse, expose Maxie to the public?
"And by extension… me".
He scoffed. He couldn't put it past Sonic after what he had done to him in Green hills. After stories starting spreading of his legendary deeds against team rocket and their monster of a boss, in both Kanto and Johto, Shadow just couldn't help but slightly fear Sonic.
Or more accurately, what Sonic could do.
"All the planning needs to take him into consideration. And all of his annoying powers" Shadow thought as he walked in.
Immediately he was saluted by two Magma grunts who happened to be there.
"Enforcer" they said in unison.
"At ease. Where is Tabitha?"
"In the barracks, sir" the female grunt replied.
"Good. Send for him right away. He is to meet me in the planning room, immediately".
"Yes sir!" both grunts said in unison, somewhat shaken by his sharp tone and rushed to follow the orders.
Shadow then began making his way for the planning room, eager to get this task over with. He wasn't going to spend more time in the hideout than necessary.
Along the way he came across several more magma grunts, all of them saluting Shadow and some of them apologizing for their poor performance in the museum brawl.
Ironically it wasn't even their fault. But ever since Maxie introduced Shadow to the rest of team Magna, when he supplied him with just his Salamence and had him battle the two admins of team Magma plus a dozen grunts, he had earned everyone's respect.
For Shadow hadn't just prevailed. He had utterly dominated. He and Salamence immediately developed a unique and powerful bond with each other as if they were kindred spirits. And the dragon and flying type destroyed every pokemon it came across in that fight with immense ease.
Finally arriving at the main area of the hideout, Shadow looked around at the grunts socializing. A lot of them wanted to acknowledge his presence but after the museum, they knew he didn't want to be bothered.
His eyes fell on the double leaf door, guarded by two grunts.
"The grand plan" he thought.
Behind those two door leaves was Maxie's quarters when he stayed in the hideout as well as the area containing the grand plan. Literally Maxie's words.
Shadow had many times tried to get in. Had even tried sneaking in a couple of times. But every time he was thwarted.
Maxie every time reacted calmly, complimenting Shadow's curiosity instead of berating him for it and each time promising to let him in on the grand plan soon enough.
Since then, Shadow had been gently pushing to be let in but each time the same promise. It did frustrate him but at the same time was content with his life with team Magma.
At least, until Sonic arrived in Hoenn and started making a fool out of Shadow in the eyes of Maxie.
After a few minutes of contemplation and silent thoughts, Shadow made for the planning room, with a good hunch that Tabitha would arrive later.
And she would be there instead.
He pushed the door open.
And of course there she was.
Courtney.
The other team Magma admin.
Courtney was sitting on the planning table, legs crossed to make her look hot, her hood down, revealing her purple hair and that annoying flirty expression on her face.
"Well look who it is. Welcome back, Magma champion".
"I don't have time for games. I'm on orders from Maxie".
He went to walk past her and get to a small notebook to write down his plan before presenting them to Tabitha but her leg stopped him.
"Oh come on sugar. I'm not one for games and you know it" she said seductively as her fingers walked up his hand.
Unimpressed, Shadow pushed the hand off.
"I said I don't have time for games".
"Oooh, someone irritated my champion? I know just how to help you relax. If you let me" she spoke the last words as a whisper.
Her hand was once again running up his arm.
With a quick motion, Shadow grabbed it and shoved it off but didn't let go,
"Perhaps you need a reminder why I'm the enforcer and you're just an admin" he spoke with a tone of authority.
"I think I would like a reminder, just not the one you have in mind" her face almost touched his face, that annoying seductive smile still etched there.
"Courtney!" Tabitha came to rescue, to Shadow's relief and reduced irritation "stop slacking and go do something useful. We have work to do!"
Courtney rolled her eyes.
"We'll see each other soon hon" she winked and smiled at Shadow, who rolled his eyes.
"I don't think so. And don't touch me again".
After Courtney left, Tabitha turned to Shadow.
"Did she annoy you a lot this time?"
"All I have to say is that I'm impressed with her insistence. Although it could just be that she is a clueless idiot, plain and simple" Shadow roasted the absent Courtney.
"Hey, just let her be. She can be annoying but she is a precious comrade. Anyway what are our orders?"
"We need to come up with a plan to get the meteorite from Professor Cosmo without outright stealing it. Or at least deflect blame if we do steal it".
Tabitha sighed.
"I warned leader Maxie this would happen. Did he really expect professor Cosmo to just agree to let a Mikado meteor out of his sight?"
"Whatever, our orders are to come up with a plan. I got several ideas here. Take a look".
As Tabitha evaluated the ideas, he stopped as he remembered what he had been planning to ask Shadow.
"You said the hedgehog and that Aqua trash Archie fought you side by side. Are you sure they're not allies?"
"They didn't seem to be. But in any case, we will take extra precautions. We don't need to get into another brawl like that in the museum. And certainly we don't need people's attention on the team".
"I just can't help but wonder why doesn't leader Maxie just have us go and take care of them once and for all. You are more than a match for Archie if your attention is undivided".
"I don't know and frankly I don't care. The Aquas can keep struggling all they want. The only real problem could be the hedgehog" Shadow shrugged Tabitha's worries off.
"What about that kid that was with the hedgehog? The one named Ash? He put up quite a fight".
"He has lost two leagues to the hedgehog. He will be of no concern in the long run. Enough questions. Focus on the orders" Shadow declared, forcing Tabitha to focus on their task again, eager to get back out there as soon as possible.
Eager to settle the score with Sonic.