Hard Enough - Chapter 343 - Storm on the horizon

In the games I had never cared about what capturing a Legendary pokemon had entailed. 

It was perhaps hypocritical of me, seeing as I now owned a Legendary, but my general view of them was that they shouldn’t be captured. It was like someone taking control of a force of nature, or law of the world.

What would happen if someone captured a pokemon like Palkia? Dialga?

Or Arceus?

The thought seemed blasphemous but Arceus wasn’t known to smite people.

But Lugia? A pokemon that was known to maintain the currents of the world? The Oceanic lifeblood?

Perhaps there was a reason that so many nations couldn’t find their way to us and that we had to battle through dangers to link up.

“Brock? What is that pokemon?” asked Erika. Visquez had started to twitch like a charge was building up in her. She’d explode into action or speech soon I could tell. 

I sighed. For a moment, I toyed with denying Erika the information. Perhaps I still could.

I gave everyone a long slow look. I paused on Arashi the longest.

Then I rubbed a hand down my face in annoyance.

I could deny them, but no. I respected Erika too much. I didn’t want to hurt her by pushing her away. I’d let things progress too far now. Visquez was a new friend, but a good one. I didn’t want to sour the relationship either.

“That pokemon is thought to be a Bringer of Balance. A pokemon that is known as the Guardian of the seas. It has been rumoured to have been seen on the night of a storm breaching the water but most people assume it is a Wailord or a leaping Lapras…” I began to show a variety of blurry, dark images that were much like pictures of Bigfoot in my previous life. 

No one was going to believe such images, not unless you know to look for it. 

“It sleeps in a deep-sea trench. If it flaps its wings, it is said to cause a 40-day storm.” 

I stared at the young man before us. “How big was it? The pokemon that you captured?” I asked.

It was vital that I establish just how dangerous it was. One thing I’d noticed, especially with the Legendary birds, was that size indicated age and power. 

The Moltres that burned down the Silver range had to have been at least four metres minimum, whereas the Zapdos I’d fought with Sabrina to the east of Cerulean would have only measured in at two and half metres. 

It had been strong… but there had been a notable difference in power.

The kneeling Scientist blinked in surprise at the strange question. 

“It was only a metre and a half tall?” he replied.

“Huh?” I replied, stumped by this. The Lugia that should have… wait, no, Sabrina had sensed the Lugia around Shamouti islands, so it was still present. And it was common knowledge that there were multiple Legendary pokemon. This wasn’t like the games.

And also… There had been a few examples of Lugia appearing in the cartoons.

There was the movie Lugia, and then a parent… with a child.

“It didn’t tower over you?” I clarified, locking eyes with Howard as a horrible thought began to settle in my gut.

He shook his head slowly. “N-no! It was small! Doctor Ivo ran comprehensive tests on it during the time it was with us. It was rather poorly behaved for a pokemon captured by the Masterball and Doctor Ivo wanted to fix that but he never got around to it.”

“How did you escape the raid on the facility?” Sabrina cut in before I could ask about the sanity and ethics, or rather lack of ethics, that Dr Ivo might have possessed.

“I wasn’t on the roster after Dr Ivo ‘expelled’ me from the island and a black suited man came to the island on a helicopter one day. I thought they might realise I wasn’t meant to be there so I volunteered to perform some gardening and maintenance around the facility.”

Howard shifted. “I wanted to stay as far away as possible so I camped out near one of the beaches with an impromptu hammock I made up. By the time I woke up it was early in the  evening and I wandered back only for the first explosions to sound out.”

Sabrina’s eyes began to glow and Howard without any further prompting began to talk all about how he’d crawled on his belly towards the explosions only to witness the battle.

A small pressure my mind allowed let me know that Sabrina was going to feed me everything Howard ‘remembered’ about the event. We weren’t going to let just his words work but whatever he could recall, even the small things he might have overlooked.

The battle itself was a surprising affair with an unnamed group of black wearing figures fighting against what had to be Team Rocket Grunts and Admin members. 

Pokemon were being thrown at everything, even other humans rather than just each other, in a chaotic brawl that saw people being dropped.

The battle paused however as the doors of the facility opened only for another group to appear. 

This group all wore armour that looked futuristic. It left only their mouths exposed. Another feature that stood out to me was that only a few of them had full pokebelts.

This group smirked at everyone as a small figure with wild jagged white hair stomped out of the facility with a crazed expression. “No witnesses!” growled the small man sending his moustache twitching as he wiped at his hands. 

It took me a moment to realise that the red coating his hands wasn’t gloves, but rather blood. 

The short man swept his hand across his waist and various powerhouse pokemon emerged around him. 

Scizor, Machamp, Salamence, Slaking, Tyranitar, and even Aggron announced themselves by falling upon the other groups like an avalanche.

The man’s gaze locked on the battles taking place and his smile seemed to grow at the sight of his pokemon tearing others apart. 

As people began to flee or fall back he scoffed and shook his head. Then he performed a slow turn, observing the battlefield and the surrounding area. For a moment he seemed to pause on where Howard was hiding only to move on with a dismissive shake of his head.

Then I caught sight of something strange. 

The man had black and red eyes like another comic book antagonist.

Confusion rippled through me. None of this was making sense. Who were these people? The name Ivo had to be a coincidence, but at the same time those eyes… metallic and full of cruelty.

Howard began inching himself back away from the battlefield as more and more screams and shouts of ‘Retreat!’ rang out from the various groups.

I found myself sighing as I slipped back into the real world only to blink as I caught sight of how Erika, Visquez and Arashi were wide-eyed. They turned their eyes to Sabrina with gazes full of awe. 

Ah, she hadn’t just included me, but the others. 

Howard shifted where he was kneeling, unsure what to make of everyone’s sudden silence. He must not have even felt her probing his mind. 

I asked the next question more out of habit than actually expecting anything from Howard, “Did you recognise the man who gave the order?”

“No? How would…” he paused. “I mean he sort of… but no that would make no sense,” he muttered. 

I blinked, surprised that my shot in the dark had gotten a response. “It might be important later on,” I prompted. “What were you going to say?” I asked.

Howard frowned. “Well, he sort of looked like Dr Ivo… but more like an evil cousin or something. Dr Ivo always wore glasses like I do now.” Howard sniffed theatrically. “It’s how I honour him to this day!” he said with a clenched fist.

“How… kind of you,” I replied as I considered the context of what Howard was saying. I flicked my gaze towards Sabrina and raised a questioning eyebrow.

Sabrina pursed her lips, our connection still in place. “From the memories Howard has of the man compared to the short few moments of this newcomer… The build, age, and even hair colouring is the same. I suspect that whoever Dr Ivo is, he was a plant with a penchant for disguise,” she projected to me. 

I hummed. And the plot thickens.

“Can we get everything you have on Dr Ivo?” I asked, turning toward Arashi who inspected a large stack of folders that had arrived. He offered up a folder specific to Dr Ivo that listed the man’s various credentials and other identifiers. 

I hummed as a few things jumped out at me. He was Old, which therefore meant he’d taken part of, or been directly impacted by the Great War. Everything seemed clean and clear-cut however with no mention of the man having served. It simply stated he’d studied at Celadon University and graduated as the Valedictorian of his class.

I pursed my lips at the date listed for his graduation.

“Was Celadon university accepting students during the Great War?” I asked. 

Arashi stilled. “They were not, too much potential of losing our best and brightest back then,” he declared as he noticed what others would have overlooked. 

I shook my head. “This is why we need to know our histories,” I muttered. “I’m assuming whoever hired him never made the connection.”  

Arashi just nodded tightly, his gaze turning to look out a nearby window. “Many mistakes… in the hope of reconciliation.”

“It wasn’t reconciling our differences but denying targets of opportunity,” I replied to which Arashi nodded. 

Visquez crossed her arms. “Who were Team Rocket battling?” she asked.

Everyone frowned. Everyone except for Arashi.

He sighed and stood, turning to face away from the group. “Silph Co might have been experiencing Corporate Espionage. It is known to occur in unsecured sites like this that hold potentially high risk high reward items for companies.”

Erika blinked. “Has Silph Co done such things?” she asked, her gaze boring into her uncle, demanding an answer.

“Not under my current tenure,” he replied. 

Erika pursed her lips as everyone else found somewhere else to look. 

He might have only just taken over Silph Co, but before the previous CEO, Erika’s father had been in charge of Silph Co along with her great uncle. 

Everyone had caught the specific wording he used, but none of us were going to judge.

I would be keeping it in mind however and making sure certain interests of my own were better secured. It seemed that the Corporations of this world had their own shadow wars that weren’t garnering anyone’s attention.

My thoughts jumped towards a certain Crystal cavern where Onix were being raised quietly, or a certain Pink Diamond mine in Mt Moon. 

They’d be worth someone’s time if they knew they existed.

Visquez bobbed her head from side to side. “Hmmm! Hmmm! Hmmm?” she rumbled as her head picked up speed. Then she stopped. “Alright! I’ve decided!” she declared, slapping her hands on the coffee table.

The table rocked from a blow it was no doubt never designed to take. Erika looked halfway ready to admonish her only for Visquez to stand and punch the air. 

“There’s some scummy bastards out there that have stolen something dangerous! Worse they did so after Silph Co did something terrible with that! What we need to do therefore is find this Masterball! Beat up the people who have it! And then we need to rescue the little Legendary and save the world!” she declared.

Everyone stared at her as she put her hands on her hips and gave a firm nod. “That about sums it up!” she declared proudly. 

I raised a finger only to lower it. That… in no way summed up what we’d just discovered. But… it kind of did? 

Erika’s mouth opened and shut and a small croak sounded out. Huh is that what a dying spirit sounds like?

She slumped in her seat like a Sunflora suddenly being deprived of sunlight. “You’re impossible Visquez!”

“Impossible to deny and impossible to stop!” Visquez replied. She then turned to Arashi. “Now, what sort of goodies can you give us to help us find this missing doohickey?” she asked. 

Arashi smiled. “Ah, nothing!” he replied shamelessly. 

Visquez clicked her tongue. “Stingy!” She turned to Sabrina and I. “You two look like you have plans right? Something about the Orange Archipelago?” 

Before either of us could confirm or deny it Visquez nodded. “Right! Erika pack a bikini, thongs and some sunglasses! We’re going tropical this winter!” she ordered. 

“I can’t just flounce off to the Orange islands!” snapped Erika as she sat up.

“Eh, it’s not like you’re doing anything important, the winter gala you were talking about sounded boring.”

“Boring does not mean it’s not important!” snapped Erika hotly. 

Visquez smirked. “So you admit it is boring!”

Erika growled and clawed the air between them. “You!” 

Visquez turned to Sabrina and I, shooting us a thumbs up. “Good news! You’ve got backup! Prepare a Teleport for five! We’ll swing past Fuchsia and pick up short and stabby!” 

I huffed a laugh. “Actually Janine has been with us for a while now,” I stated.

Erika and Visquez blinked at that only for Visquez to nod. “All the better then! The gang’s pretty much all together!” she declared. 

I shook my head, unsure what to make of Visquez. Erika stormed around the table, apparently just as done with her taller, more muscular friend. She grabbed Visquez by the shirt front and began to shake, or rather attempt to shake Visquez. The taller girl just grinned.

Arashi cleared his throat. “While I can’t claim the previous administration’s faults as my own, I can be shameless in asking for your support in righting a wrong that Silph has performed. If you need anything—”

“Million Pokedollars!” said Visquez without missing a beat. 

“Done,” replied Arashi equally as quickly. 

Visquez gaped. Oh, she had been joking hadn’t she?

“That…” Visquez rubbed the back of her head. “I was just messing around. You’re Erika’s uncle right? I can’t actually accept that money,” she said, becoming serious for a moment. She bowed her head. “Please keep it.”

Erika gaped only to rub her eyes and blink them a few times like she couldn’t believe her eyes.

“Hmmm, what an honest young woman you are,” Arashi commented. “Very well, I shall have to find another way to compensate you.” He turned his gaze to Sabrina and I. “The offer is the same for yourself but seeing as we are already in debt to you both…” he sighed and shook his head. “I will have to find another way to reward you all.”

“Uncle you—” Erika began only for Arashi to raise his hand. 

“No niece, good acts must be rewarded lest the world only turn to evil. Please go and help your friends, or at the very least enjoy yourself” he said earnestly.

Erika bowed her head. “Very well Uncle.”

She then turned to Sabrina. “I… need to pick some items up along with changing out my pokemon team.”

“Understood, I would recommend pokemon that can deal with Flying types, Electric, Ice, Fire, and Psychic,” she said seriously. 

“Ummm, Sabrina should we really be dragging our friends into this?” I projected from my mind.

Sabrina shot me an amused look. “If we didn’t take them they’d find their own way now, for better or worse, we just got back up,” she shot back.

I glanced up to find Visquez grinning at me while Erika had a fire in her gaze. 

Well if nothing else they were motivated.

Still, there was something that niggled at me. On a whim, I dialed up Professor Oak.

He answered, looking harried and worn. “Brock! I assume you’ve started to notice the strange pokemon migrations?” he asked.

“Ah, no, actually, I’ve been investigating some issues down in the Orange islands. We encountered something of concern and I wanted to touch base. What’s that about pokemon migrations?” I asked.

“All across Indigo pokemon are moving in mass towards the south! This is extremely worrying Brock as the only time this has occurred in the past has been…” he grimaced. “It was towards the end of the war. Packs of pokemon would form and move towards sites of future battles where Legendaries would appear… for this many pokemon to be involved however… It is very troubling.”

“I’ve got a theory about that,” I offered and Oak perked up. 

“I’d be willing to hear anything you have to offer!” he declared.

I shared a look with Sabrina. I’d already told Erika, Visquez and Arashi. The Guardians also knew, so why not Oak?

And so I read Oak into what we’d been up to. His lips thinned.

“A single Legendary… even a young one… I… that could be the trigger perhaps, especially if the parent is enraged… It rather amazes me though.”

“No the timing is all wrong; this might be something else. Perhaps because it is young, it has yet to take on any role within the natural order?” That would match up to what Mew and Mewtwo had discussed at the Tree of Beginning.

That got a slow nod from Oak.

“It might be the conflux of the other Legendaries being involved,” I suggested. 

Oak nodded. “I will make some calls if you’re correct and that Team Aqua are responsible for this or other unknowns, then we need people close at hand. The trick will be navigating the international red tape. I will reach out to Champion Yuji through Professor Ivy. I’d suggest doing the same to the Leaders of Shamouti,” he said as he signed off.

I nodded and stared at my watch. Wasn’t Professor Ivy the woman Brock tried to stay with only to leave a sobbing mess?

I rubbed a hand down my face, this felt like it was starting to balloon out of control.

__________________

“So where’s short stuff?” Visquez announced as soon as we landed on the beach of Shamouti islands. Visquez shaded her eyes with a hand and glanced around as though expecting Janine to be standing around waiting for us.

“Oh I think she was playing with some new toys,” I replied as I moved to check on my fiancee.

Erika hummed, tugging her rather large sunhat into position. “Well the locals certainly look to be getting into the swing of things,” she murmured, noting the sounds of construction along with the various crews of workers marching back and forth while various Elders stood vigil on platforms and directed the flow of traffic. 

“Yeah just watch out so that the Island’s Elders don’t try to drag you into things,” I said as I gave Sabrina’s back a rub. “They’re a stubborn lot and I won’t be able to talk to them until the work is done.” 

I drew out some cold milk that Sabrina accepted and pressed to her forehead. 

Visquez glanced at us and lost a bit of her energy. “Oh, uhmmm Sabrina if we were too heavy we coulda gone a bit slower.”

Sabrina shook her head. “No it’s fine, sometimes I need to push myself. This was just… a bit much,” she said as she drew herself up. 

Visquez shifted. “Seriously though, we didn’t have to rush.”

Sabrina shook her head and smirked at the taller girl. “We did, if we were going to test you both on your skills in a pokemon battle.”

Erika raised an eyebrow. “Uhm, Sabrina we’re both Gym Leaders we’re very good at pokemon battles.” 

Sabrina glanced at me and gestured to a distant part of the beach. 

“Follow me please,” I replied without any further preamble. I shot Sabrina a look before flicking my eyes around us and she nodded back, indicating we weren’t being observed, nor was anyone close by.

Good enough for me, and with a flick of my wrist I had a pokeball soaring through the air. 

“Regirock! Out and Hyper beam!” I ordered. 

“Did you just—”

Regirock appeared with a heavy thump locked eyes on the rock I was indicating and chirped twice in acknowledgement. 

Then it fired. 

The Hyper beam was much like every other it had done to date. Overpowering and awe inspiring. 

With how close we were all standing to Regirock, the air whipped back at us and sand blew over us but I just firmed up my stance, ignoring the tiny scrapes.

A few seconds later the Hyper beam ended and the beach returned to its previous tranquility. 

Notably any Wingull or Pelliper that had been drifting overhead had fallen silent. I glanced up only to see that the various winged nuisances had hightailed it away from here lest they become the next target of opportunity. 

“Huh, smart birds,” I muttered as I turned back only to find that both Erika and Visquez were wearing a layer of sand.

Erika opened her mouth and a small pile of sand streamed out while Visquez turned and spat loudly. 

Sabrina lowered the barrier in front of herself and held up her fingers in a v for victory that had me chuckling. 

Visquez braced and I just knew she was about to shake like a growlithe to get the sand off only for her to pause and instead step away from Erika before shaking her whole body. 

“Blah!” she shouted as she sent sand flying everywhere. 

Erika drew out a small watering can from her pouch and poured it over her head without missing a beat. She shook her head once, unmindful of how she’d just drenched herself. She actually looked a bit refreshed. Huh, Grass type trick, neat. 

“So this is the level of some of the people we’ve had to fight lately.” I gestured towards Regirock. “Regirock is one of my latest acquisitions and has been coming in clutch with its introduction into my team.”

Erika and Visquez stared. “You have a Legendary pokemon…” Erika said slowly. Then her eyes turned to Sabrina expectantly. 

“I don’t… yet,” Sabrina muttered and both girls relaxed. 

Visquez rubbed her chin. “Man I’m gonna have to really up my game if you’re stepping up this much!” 

I hummed. “Best not to try it with the local Legendaries, they’re probably all going to be Older than the typical Legendary birds one might encounter in the wild.”

Visquez clicked her tongue while Erika tilted her head. “So, you’re going to test us?”

I nodded. “I know you can handle a straight up fight but this is going to be a different magnitude of power along with there being a lot more chaos involved.”

“Hmmm you have an idea don’t you?” Erika prodded. 

I pursed my lips and rocked my head back and forth in a so-so gesture. “There are a few different ways something like this could play out to my understanding,” I admitted. “The point of issue is going to be the Shamouti festival.” I gestured out to sea where an island was present. “There are three islands that a ‘chosen one’ picked from the attendees will travel, all to acquire three orbs that signify the ruling Legendary. The islands are named Ice, Fire, and Lightning so you can guess which pokemon lives where easily enough.”

“Which one is Lightn—” Visquez started to ask as a glint appeared in her eyes only for Erika to swat at her. 

“No! Bad Visquez!” she admonished as she gave another backhand to Visquez’s elbow. 

“Alright I was just playing!” she announced raising her hands in surrender.

I coughed. “You done? Let’s see if we can get in a training session before dinner, yeah?”

Erika and Visquez nodded and I grinned. “Good.” I winked at Visquez. “Safeword is Snickerdoodles or a raised hand above your head, and also? We’ve already begun,” I stated.

Sabrina flicked her hand and both Visquez and Erika were hurled off the beach into the nearby surf. 

Around Sabrina her team of pokemon were out and ready. I deployed my own complete roster with all ten pokemon taking stances and preparing themselves.

Visquez sailed through the air, shooting us double middle fingers. “Biiiiiiiiiitc—” she shouted before she hit the water with a huge boom.

Erika, rather than hitting the water, deployed her Tropius who happily caught her. 

Well that was smooth but also a terrible idea considering she was facing off against me. 

“Launch!” she shouted, not using the bond to give Erika more of a chance.

My pokemon stomped their feet and a barrage of rock shot into the air. 

I thought I heard an ‘eep!’ from Erika only for a trio of Jumpluff to appear and begin filling the air with Cotton Spores that absorbed the incoming rock attacks.

Hmmm type advantage was working well for her there.

Erika swooped down atop her Tropius and as soon as her feet touched the ground, more pokemon emerged around her. 

Venusaur, Tangrowth, Vileplume, Victreebel, Shiftry, and Exeggutor all appeared while her flying pokemon floated above her. 

“We’re using all of our pokemon?” she said as she slashed her hand causing a ripple among her pokemon with Sunny Day, Ingrain and more began to be used.

I grunted and marched my pokemon forward, ignoring the bolt of lightning that Bertha swatted away as Visquez announced her own emergence from the water with a Lanturn while other pokemon like Electrivire, Jolteon, Raichu and a Magnezone appeared.

“I’m getting you back for that cheap shot!” Visquez barked as her pokemon began to spark up.

I twitched. Was she insane she was going to fry herself if she did that!

Surprisingly showing a degree of self awareness for herself, Magnezone slipped under Visquez and began to levitate the two of them.

 Sabrina stepped towards her, indicating how the match would go. 

I grinned and locked eyes with Erika. On paper this was a bad match but I had more than enough tricks to handle her.

Rather than quail Erika narrowed her eyes. “Solar Beam Barrage!” she roared.

Huh, good move.

“Counter with Three Hyper beams!” I ordered. Signalling Tide, Regirock, and Empress to step forward and match the attacks.

Don swept high, his gaze locked on the floating Jumpluffs while I had Sanchez and Titan vanish into tunnels.

The Solar Beams and Hyper beams clashed and I grunted in surprise as Erika’s pokemon held, albeit with seven of them to my three. That they needed four pokemon to manage the steadily advancing Hyperbeam was rather telling however and I could just make out Erika starting to sweat as the attack inched closer.

“Bertha charge,” I commanded softly as the beam battle ended with pokemon on both sides slumping.

Bertha surged forward as a one pokemon wrecking crew that Erika locked eyes on only for Titan and Don to strike from beneath and above, tearing through her pokemon and sending them flying. 

I forced Don to hold back instead of savaging the floating puff balls he was currently lashing into. Tropius brayed in shock and leapt into the air to contest Don, while beneath, Titan smashed into Venusaur only for the powerful starter to barely move. 

We didn’t let that stand as Bertha followed up with a one-two hit that launched Venusaur off the ground and out of the fight. Behind me the sound of more electrical discharge rang out as Sabrina and Visquez’s fight picked up. 

Then a shocked shout rang out as Sanchez popped up among Visquez’s pokemon where he unleashed a point blank Earthquake to flatten most of her team.

“Oi! Foul!” shouted Visquez which only got a grin from me.

From there the training session wound down quickly with Sabrina and I dismantling our friends. 

We left enough of their pokemon up that neither of them went into White Out shock but they were also struggling to stand.

“So we passed your test?” Visquez bit out as she lowered the Chateau Romani that I’d given her.

“Very much so, you don’t have the advantages that Sabrina and I do, having Journeyed together along with regular training sessions. We know how the other operates in fights along with having run multiple theory sessions.” I smirked. “We also faked you into getting lazy by assuming that Sabrina and I were content to keep to the matches to make you think we were just squaring off instead of teaming up.”

“Tch! We fell for it like chumps too,” Visquez said only to glance to the side. “Hey, you doing alright there Erika? You’re not passing out on us are you?”

Erika blinked and shook. “No, I was replaying the fight in my head. Brock and Sabrina were right. We didn’t do very well but we weren’t supposed to.”

I offered a consoling nod. “No you weren’t but you have some easy fixes.”

“Like don’t get sucker punched?” snarked Visquez. 

I chuckled. “Yeah, sorry about that.”

Visquez shrugged. “Nah it’s alright. I should have realised you were going to pull something like that. I read about it in Pops’ journal about bootcamp and how the army used to pull things like this to help trainers. You always grow stronger after a butt whooping after all.”

I raised a finger. “Not quite how I would have put it,” I offered only for Visquez to wave me off. 

I was about to offer up some suggestions when Sabrina shifted and glanced upwards. We all glanced up after her and I felt my breath catch in my chest as two people stared down at me.

Both had long green hair and were wearing robes of all things with numerous symbols that I couldn’t make heads or tails of. 

It was the smaller of the two people that caught my attention however as they seemed to exude an aura of peace and gentleness. 

Their eyes were turned upon me with scorn however that resulted in my heart stuttering. I noted that Erika and Visquez both curled slightly while Sabrina straightened and her eyes widened as she locked on the young green haired child. 

“Well well, we come to the Orange Islands for a festival that is touted as a celebration of pokemon and we find captors and jailers causing chaos!” sneered the tall woman.

I frowned, tearing my gaze from the child to the woman. 

“You have us at a disadvantage,” I said as I started to wonder if this woman was about to attack us. 

“High Priestess Fjord!” gasped Erika as she straightened. “I didn’t know a delegate from Fiore was going to be here!” 

I blinked. Fiore? 

I flicked my eyes up and down, noting how the robes did look rather authoritative while also being obviously religious in styling. 

I glanced around at the destruction we’d caused on the beach. It was rather obvious what we’d been up to.

“It sickens me to see you forcing pokemon to fight this way!” growled the Fjord. 

Erika coughed. “It was a training exercise to prepare for certain security concerns that have arisen with the upcoming festival. Our intent is pure!” Erika stated, stepping forward to take the lead in these… negotiations? 

I glanced towards Sabrina only to find she was still staring at the child.I considered nudging her to get her to stop but everyone else was too focussed on Fjord and Erika’s talk. 

I had a sneaking suspicion that I knew who the child was. 

“Hmph! I will pray for your souls! If you knew what was good for you you would release your pokemon instead of binding them in servitude, but I don’t expect proponents of evil to understand!” she declared as she turned, sweeping her robes in a flourish. “Come Natural we will return to our lodgings!” she declared. 

Erika sighed while the rest of us watched them go. 

“Well she seemed nice,” offered Visquez sarcastically. 

“Hmmm,” Sabrina offered. “I’m more concerned about the child.” that got Sabrina a round of odd looks. “If that child talks with you be wary, they are a natural empath and are able to project their emotions onto others.”

“Ah,” I replied. That would explain a few things. I rubbed at my chest, surprised that my dark energies hadn’t blocked them, or perhaps it was because I’d lowered them to better converse with Sabrina during the fight just now.

Hmmmm, either way it was worrying. If Natural, or rather ‘N’ became as Charismatic as he was displayed to be in the games then there would be a lot of converts to the Fiorian religion. 

“So we have a potential incident involving multiple Legendary pokemon, an unknown Criminal organisation potentially wielding Masterballs, and a foreign religious group…” I trailed off before groaning as I recalled that Team Aqua were still floating around here somewhere. 

“Fuuuuuuuuck,” I swore and Erika rather than admonishing me just nodded along.

“This was going to be such a shitshow,” declared Visquez and I could only nod along with her assessment. Then I noticed she was grinning like she couldn’t be happier.

Sabrina coughed. “Your brother and his friends are also going to be here soon,” she reminded.

I put my head in my hands and groaned.

_______________________

A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support!

It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter! 

For those wondering Mew just posted online at this exact moment! - ROFL! XP -