I stared at the television as Lance’s press conference ended.
Damn, the Dragonmaster was serious about burning Blaine out of his hiding place, wasn’t he?
I had no doubt that teams of people were already scouring the hills for other potential hidden bases, but didn’t know all of the details. Then again, if I checked my Guardian intel I could probably find out some specifics.
“That’s a good thing, right?” Salvadore asked.
“Yeah… it’s a pretty solid action for Lance to take actually,” I said. “I gotta go check some work off,” I murmured.
Lola watched me go from between Suzie and Cindy with a knowing look that I ignored while Flint fretted on the edge of the couch.
Ah, he was probably a bit freaked out from what had happened, wasn’t he? “Hey… Flint?” I called softly.
“Hmm, yeah Brock?” he asked, eyes still glued to the news article that had the backdrop as the destroyed Plateau.
“Might not be a bad idea to get ahead on the baking for the kids this week… if you wanted to, you could go crazy and have a bake sale at the school.”
Flint nodded slowly. “That… that would be nice,” he murmured, hurrying out of the room like he was fleeing his demons.
I gave the television another look before glancing over the kids. “Isn’t Samurai Furret on about now?” I suggested, causing the kids to perk up and switch channels to their beloved cartoon.
“Samurai Furret! You dare?! I will burn you from—” I hummed with approval as I departed. That was much better for kids to watch than the aftermath of a fight like Blaine had unleashed.
I made it into my room and booted up my computer only for a call to come through on my private line. I also heard it coming from Sabrina’s form on the bed only to be silenced quickly.
“Brock here,” I answered, giving Sabrina’s sleeping form an amused smile.
“Hey, everyone. I need to call a face-to-face meeting,” Karen said by way of greeting.
That caused me to blink in surprise.
Getting a call from Karen of all people to meet up for a Guardian’s talk… well, it was an odd enough time with everything going on right now.
In the past it had typically been Sabrina or I chairing meetings or filling others in on threats that we’d encountered or wanted them to know about.
“Is… everything alright?” Erika asked, her image appearing in a small box with the conference call.
Karen worked her jaw. “No,” she admitted after a few moments of silence. “Agatha and Koga are both not responding to messages. Which is weird considering the bomb Lance just dropped with his press conference.”
“Ah, true that,” I murmured, just now noticing that it was only the young members of Guardian ‘Leadership’ that was on the call.
“Father will most likely be part of the teams scouring the land for a possible base that Blaine and his compatriots might be operating out of.”
That made a lot of sense. “Agatha is probably doing the same,” I pointed out.
“She usually says something…” Karen muttered darkly. “It’s a shit time for them to run off. There’s going to be a lot of chaos over this whole shitshow. Can’t believe Lance did what he did.”
“I think it was the right call,” Erika replied. “It shows that Indigo is not without options and while the amount isn’t that much, it will tempt many people.”
I held back from pointing out that only a rich person could consider ten million pokedollars to be ‘not that much’.”
“Wow, silver spoon in your butt much?” Karen joked, having no desire to restrain herself.
“Think you mean in hand,” growled Erika only for Visquez to chortle at Karen’s joke to cause her to sigh. “Speaking of missing people, where is Sabrina?”
“She’s passed out. She had to do a lot of Teleporting with last night’s events and that’s laid her out.”
That got a round of surprised looks. “It effected her that much?” Erika asked worriedly.
I nodded. “Some big events like this can wear her down. She might bounce back after a night’s sleep but in previous situations like this, it wasn’t unusual for her to sleep like… almost two days away,” I stated calmly.
Karen scoffed. “Weak,” she muttered.
I raised an eyebrow. “Have you ever had as much demand placed upon your aura reserves?” I pointed out.
Janine coughed. “Perhaps it would be best to hide such a weakness. Might I suggest having actresses or even a Ditto transformed as her appear in public?”
“Considering that reporters are going to be throwing around a lot of questions, that might backfire no?”
“Best if she appears from controlled situations, such as seen walking in the Gym behind glass so she can’t be engaged with,” Janine replied.
“Hmmm,” I hummed. She did have a point. “I’ll talk to her dad, Saul, about setting that up. It might be something worth investing in.”
It might not do much, but it would hide the fact that Sabrina could be out of action for a few hours to a few days after significant events like this, or Shamouti, depending on how much she expended her energies.
“I can arrange some other Teleporters…” mused Karen with a grumble. “Although… I suppose…” she made a face. “I suppose I should wait for Sabrina to wake up.”
“Hmmm, might be worth doing some reviews of the situation. Do we know what else The League is doing apart from establishing the bounty?”
“They’ve got Surge and Bruno out smashing in bases from what I’ve determined,” replied Karen. “Apparently, they ran into each other at one of the bases, and they fought over who’d blow it up.”
“That… sounds so wasteful,” Erika lamented.
“Did Pops win?” Visquez asked.
Karen snorted. “Against Brunoe with his Onix-laden team? No he did not.”
“Tch, weak,” Visquez muttered as she visibly began typing something out.
“Don’t taunt your father about his loss so quickly. He might be an annoying man, but he is sharp when he wants to be. He will know someone slipped the information to you,” Janine cut in, causing Visquez to pause and slump.
“Shit, you’re right. Guess I’ll give it a day or two.”
“Is there anything I can do to help?” Asked Lucy.
“Probably run through the intel we have on the situation as it stands and keep your area locked down. I wouldn’t put it past Blaine to cause trouble for Indigo with Fiore if he gets the chance. It doesn’t seem like there are many lines he isn’t willing to cross,” I suggested, while thinking of how he’d burned down Bark Town at the end of the war.
“Fucking hurry up and wait then eh?” Visquez muttered.
“Nah, we gotta do intel gathering first, but I suspect we’re not going to be the ones to get a lead this time,” I said calmly. “Lance’s bounty… it’s a pretty good bait for people that would be supporting Blaine.”
“Only the hardened criminals would ignore it,” Janine mused. “It was rather inspired.”
“Didn’t expect it from Lance, but then again he’s been acting different this circuit,” said Karen with a narrowed gaze.
“Guess he’s just learning from his previous mistakes,” I offered with a shrug. “I’ll do some reading and keep everyone posted on anything I find. Anything else we need to talk about? We got emergency medical ready to go if Agatha or Koga need it?” I asked.
“I can see to that, I know we got a system in place, I’ll check it over, then double check that,” Visquez offered, happy to have something she could action. “Brock you probably need to sleep actually seeing as how you have all those newbie trainers about to start knocking on your door.”
I had to give it to her, she wasn’t wrong. “If something comes up I can ditch and run. It’s not like you’ll be one to talk in a few weeks either Visquez.”
Visquez shrugged. “That’s future me’s problem!” she declared. “Until then I’ll do the grunt work.”
“Don’t forget to make the rounds of your respective cities,” Erika chimed in. “They are going to be worried right now, so a familiar face will be important.”
That got a round of nods from us all only for Karen to cut in. “Guess I’ll go sit in League headquarters and look pretty then. Any time I go out and about, the reporters are going nuts.”
Casting my mind around for anything else that I could be doing right now, I found myself coming up blank.
It felt rather strange to suddenly find myself sidelined after all the previous actions where I’d been at the forefront, leading the charge, but at the same time, I knew I needed to be ready to support either/or both of the League, or the older Guardians.
Rather odd of them to have ducked off on their own like…
“Has anyone seen Oak in a while?” I asked, recalling that he’d been very interested in my retelling of facing Blaine during the Celebi incident. Hadn’t he also cautioned me into not seeking Blaine out while saying that it was his duty to see to Blaine?
“No? Wasn’t he retired on his reserve?” Visquez asked.
Everyone blinked slowly.
“Visquez… you do understand that while he has given up a lot of his power, he is still one of the strongest pokemon trainers around, yes?” Erika probed.
Visquez blinked and nodded. “Yeah, I mean sure, but he’s old and hasn’t fought anyone for years. He’s a fun guy for drinks. I met him that one time with Brock in Viridian city.”
“What were you both doing int… no never mind. “You’ve never met Oak before that?” Erika stressed.
Before Visquez could rat us both out for going to a bar I decided to speak up. ”Visquez, he fought through a war, ended it between Johto and Kanto and forged Indigo. He also has to deal with numerous young trainers' newly arrived pokemon as part of his stabling. Somehow, I doubt he has been lacking for fights. They’ve just been happening out of sight,” I mused.
Lucy coughed. “Actually, that’s not how it would work at all.”
We blinked at her slowly, and she hummed. “Ah, this is something Ace trainers sometimes talk about when they’re close to retiring or slipping down the rankings,” she said.
She cleared her throat. “Trainers like Oak wouldn’t have to fight pokemon that any of the young trainers would catch. Strong trainers are recognised by most pokemon straight away and they know not to cause trouble. They’ll play around sure, but beyond certain personality types… or dark types, they won't cause trouble with a strong trainer on hand.
“It’s why most successful stables have to have a strong trainer at their centre. It’s why so many ace trainers retire and take on positions or start their own Stable. They serve a vital role and it's good money,” Lucy declared.
“...huh,” I replied, having not really made that leap of logic in the past.
It made sense, and even explained why people had merely nodded their heads when I’d first announced I was creating my own stable for trainers that I sponsored.
Was this the badge effect from the games expressing itself? That was kind of neat.
“Right well you little Gym Leaders should get to bed. I imagine some of you have challenges to face tomorrow,” Karen taunted, causing me to roll my eyes while Janine and Visquez bristled.
“Hmmm, I suppose some of us need to keep the lights on,” replied Erika mildly.
Lucy giggled quietly, and Karen snorted before ending the call from her end.
I turned to Janine. “I suppose with the Porygon swarm the trap on the pokeball data is lost to us?”
“No, actually, that was one of the servers that were able to be defended, which is not the same as having no one access it. We have a lead there that we are following, but the technician who accessed it is being very careful. Give it some more time Brock.”
“Huh, that’s some good news,” I murmured before signing off myself.
I sat back and gave the nearby clock a look. It was late, but not late-late. I could do a bit of reading.
Opening up the Guardian’s reports on the damage that had occurred around Indigo I got to work trying to see anything that jumped out at me. Within ten minutes my eyes glazed over.
“Alright, this isn’t working,” I murmured. There had to be a way to make this more engaging… I opened another screen and overlaid a map of Indigo. From there, I began noting down where each damage report's location was while adding in other sites of importance, such as Cinnabar, the various data centres, and even the few communication towers that had been attacked.
The pins started to pile up with a starting density towards the south. Although there was only a singular report on an attempt upon Pallet Town and another attack on Gary Oak while he and Mia were travelling from New Bark to Pallet Town.
The only reason I wasn’t racing to check up on her already was that she’d messaged me informing me of her health and that Gayr had bundled her off to a hospital. I did however make sure to send her what cream I had for dealing with burns as she hadn’t escaped unscathed from that attack on Gary.
Those two incidents stood out as oddities to me but it was also something that I could wave away as Pallet Town didn’t have anything really going for it beyond Oak’s laboratory and pokemon reserve and Gary Oak was Sam Oak’s grandson. If they’d captured him… well, I wasn’t sure what Oak might have done.
As it was, he’d been delayed dealing with both of those before coming to the plateau.
Johto had much the same spread of pins across the map, with various pins around the data servers and then other big sites like Goldenrod and Blackthorn City getting raids and traps set off within them.
A yawn escaped me, and I smacked my lips.
Ah, now it was late-late, I thought to myself as I checked the time. Before I closed down the computer, my eyes trailed around Indigo.
Hmmm, it was bigger than the games gave it credit for, but at the same time, it really didn’t take long to reach the various points of interest. Pewter and Cerulean were pretty close with a dedicated trainer being able to either city at a run within a day or so.
Most people just used pokemon however.
It was funny how… huh… “Cerulean doesn’t have any markers around it?” I muttered aloud, surprised at that.
Then I chuckled. It wasn’t like there was a lot in Cerulean apart from its water features, beautiful public spaces, and the shows put on.
My eyes flicked north to the cape, where in the games you could encounter Suicine. I let my gaze linger there for a moment.
It wasn’t just Suicune that you could encounter… but also Bill, and even Mewtwo within the mysterious cave that was something of an oddity in Indigo with all the strong pokemon that called it home.
Kind of funny how Mewtwo had taken up residence within the Kingdom of Rota rather than a cave. Then again, if I had a choice between the two, I’d join the nobility of Rota as well.
Hmmmm, it was still weird that the mystery cave was a place in Kanto.
I wonder if the Guardians had any further intel on why it was the way it was? I began a new search and hummed as various articles began to pop up, one of which was even written by Agatha herself.
“Let’s see… the mystery cave appeared after a small localised earthquake that was later deemed to be due to a rare instance of pokemon within the cave fighting each other…” That straight away read odd to me.
What did the report mean about the pokemon within the cave fighting being an oddity? That was normal.
What did they do for territory, resources, or carnivorous pokemon do for meat?
Pokemon fighting each other was a natural state of being, with the circle of life playing out, albeit with powerful pokemon moves that would have crushed lions and tigers from my first life, able to be launched from the smallest rodent.
Strange, strange, strange, strange. I couldn’t help but find this entirely wrong.
I kept reading through the reports, noting that it had all been pokemon trainers, with very few researchers poking their heads into the cave. That had a lot to do with the heightened aggression shown by the abnormally powerful pokemon.
The pokemon themselves were wild, as it was noted that they could be captured, and when a Ranger team attempted to clear out the cave, they faced increased aggression while the pokemon they attempted to relocate slowly migrated back, entering into the cave system via small crevices and tunnels that had gone unnoticed.
The entire process was deemed a categorical failure.
Pryce himself had considered entering the cavern to wipe it away only for his match against Blaine to occur and his injury to hamper him from moving around too much, which when exploring a cavern system was a must.
My finger tapped that table slowly.
He’d been about to inspect the Mystery cave, only for the fight with Blaine to occur.
Everyone I knew stated that Pryce had been the one to instigate the fight… but what if Blaine had led Pryce by the nose and the fight had all been a ruse so he could injure Pryce and stop him from exploring the cave with his much stronger pokemon?
I turned to the report written up by Agatha.
She detailed how the pokemon within the cavern displayed heightened aggression towards her and her pokemon, which turned out to be an issue with the large number of psychic pokemon that would Teleport in, attempt a Psybeam and then Teleport away.
She’d had to keep a roaming pokemon performing Dark Pulse to stop such ambushes as the impact was mounting up.
I found the tactic to be the more concerning aspect as pokemon didn’t typically do hit and runs like that.
Agatha eventually concluded that the local population of Abra, often found dozing in the grasslands to the north of Cerulean, were the children from a nest, or family of Kadabra, that had set themselves up within the cave.
She even went so far as to postulate the pokemon were being hypnotised to create optimal conditions for the Kadabra and other psychic pokemon to keep out trainers and others that might impact their way of life.
I stared at the report for a long minute, then blinked and reread that line.
That… wasn’t how Kadabra operated at all. What was going on here?
Opening the pokedex I began cycling through the family dynamics Kadabra and their evolutionary line used. It was mostly to Teleport away when threatened. There were rarely any instances of an Alakazam in the wild, and those were all linked to trainer releases or deaths that allowed the pokemon to return to the wild.
Most took to meditating quietly.
The malicious attitude that Agatha was ascribing to the Kadabra of the cave system… that just didn’t match up with my own experiences with Kadabra.
So, something else was going on here.
I made a note of it as highly unusual and something I needed to talk to Sabrina with… I glanced over only to find that the clock was now reporting that it was past late-late, and trending towards too early in the morning for me to be anything other than awake.
I saved my work and notes, determined to check them again in a few hours.
Hopefully with Sabrina.
_______________
The sound of a mouse softly clicking awoke me seconds before my alarm did. I blinked blearily even as muscle memory saw my arm lashing out to silence the alarm only to be beaten to it by a telekinetic pressure.
“Feeling better?” I asked Sabrina.
She nodded once, eyes still tracking the screen. “Much better. You forgot to turn your computer off last night,” she commented, eyes narrowing in thought.
“Oh? Sorry, did it wake you up?” I asked.
Sabrina made a noncommittal noise, eyes still locked on the screen. “You’re onto something here,” she said, inclining her head towards the screen.
“Hmm?” I replied, wondering what I’d written as my sleepy mind struggled to come up with what I’d done only a scant few hours ago.
Rising to see what she was talking about I found that she had both displays active. Where I’d left a map with some idle comments there were now an extensive listing of timings, infrastructure importance and even damage levels.
Not only were there added comments from Sabrina but also Janine, Erika, Visquez and Lucy. All of them had weighed in, offering their own insight into the situation.
There was also now a large circle around Cerulean with Visquez’s handwriting on the map.
‘Sus as fuck yo!’ it read.
Inspecting the other notepad I’d left open I saw that my thoughts on Kadabra and other psychic pokemon’s behaviours being wildly outside the norm had been further supported by Sabrina with her going so far as to list no less than twelve studies on psychic pokemon behaviours in the wild.
I gave Sabrina a pointed look “...you took Agatha’s report personally, I see?”
“She’s wrong,” Sabrina said defensively. “Your initial thoughts were much better than this… it doesn’t add up. Also, from what I’ve seen, everyone agrees that the timing of Blaine’s fight with Pryce does seem suspicious in hindsight.”
A yawn escaped me and I nodded only for another thought to occur to me. “Wasn’t the Team Rocket Academy north of Cerulean in the hills up there?” I asked.
“Yes… and the base had numerous Hypno that were specialised in performing Hypnosis.”
“Yeah, and with Blaine having access to Team Rocket’s resources, there is every chance he used them to create a secret base and then hid the base from everyone using the Hypno.” I rubbed my chin. It wouldn’t be possible to confirm this hypothesis without investigating it ourselves, as I had little doubt that Blaine either wiped the memories of those involved in constructing the cave, or he ‘took care of them’.
“I don’t suppose there is any chance we could ask the Hypno, is there?” I asked, considering Blaine and what I knew of him. Would he have seen a pokemon as a threat that needed to be silenced? Most wouldn't, but Blaine was touted as a genius. Or was this a case of ego?
“Do you think Blaine would have remembered to wipe their memories?”
“From the few interactions I had with him, I would suspect not, but he has been able to keep a mask up for many years about his tasks. The Mystery Cave might have also been a secret hidden from Team Rocket.”
Sabrina tapped the screen, causing the map to zoom in on the Cerulean Cape. “You wrote Bill down here. What is that in reference to?”
“Oh, that’s Bill the creator of the Pokémon storage system.”
Sabrina gave me a slow blink. “That doesn’t exist, at least not in this world. It is still in testing due to the ethical concerns for pokemon undergoing digital storage.”
“Oh, yeah, I know that. It was just something I made a note of because he was in the area there and is about the most interesting thing in the games that I knew of beyond the encounter that was possible with Suicine.”
Sabrina stared at me for a long moment.
“What?” I asked. “Was this something I should have mentioned?”
“Not particularly,” she replied with a sigh. “Still, there are a lot of oddities building up around Cerulean.
She considered the map for a long moment. A messaging service popped up linking me to the Cerulean police, and before I could ask what she was doing, Sabrina had a message ready asking them to do a welfare check on Bill.
“Something the matter?” I asked, frowning.
“It’s just that you were right in wondering about the lack of damage and action around Cerulean City. It is strange. Other cities got at least rudimentary attacks to tie up their police and Rangers but not Cerulean. The Mystery Cave is certainly an area we need to investigate, as is Bill’s presence. I can imagine several ways that a criminal organisation would be interested in the creator of a digital storage system, or indeed anyone that has an idea how the pokeball transfer system works. They could hijack much of Indigo’s pokemon population if they played their cards correctly.”
“Ah… you’re right,” I said as I realised how much of a threat that would be to our way of life.
Heck, the Rangers alone were constantly catching and releasing wild pokemon too strong for certain areas within Indigo… if that was curtailed, they’d be extremely hampered.
That was before we got into things like pokemon trades, or merely swapping out pokemon on your team from a stable. It would cause disruptions nationally.
“Damn… we were all paying attention to the communication systems and pokenet followed by the Plateau while Blaine was sneaking another attack vector right under our noses,” I mused.
“We don’t know that just yet,” she replied.
I nodded in agreement only for another thought to occur to me. I eyed her carefully, noting the way her eyes still had slight bags underneath them. “You’re still tired, aren’t you? Otherwise, you would have teleported to Cerulean yourself.”
She grimaced but nodded. “Yes. I just don’t feel like I can sleep for as long as I’d like to.”
When I shot her a worried look she made sure to squeeze my hand. “I’m alright, it’s just that I’d like more sleep. I’ll be much better once I have a coffee,” she said leadingly.
Knowing what she wanted I snorted and rose to get her a coffee.
As I was preparing it, my Xtransceiver started to buzz from a number identifying itself as Cerulean police dispatch. “This is Brock,” I answered.
“Gym Leader, we got your welfare check and we’re sorry to say that it does appear that Bill the reclusive inventor has been taken somewhere under duress. Might we ask how you knew to ask after him?” remarked a suspicious tone.
“Oh,” I replied. “Uhmmm. I just… Sabrina had a premonition,” I replied quickly.
There was a long moment of silence, only for the police officer to sigh. “Right, that tracks. There was only a Clefairy in the house when we got there and it seemed to be in a state of shock. It is registered to Bill so we’re—”
“Can we come over and have Sabrina interview it?” I asked, a suspicion forming in my mind. It didn’t happen in the anime, but in the games there was a scene where Bill transferred his mind into that of a pokemon.
It was a pretty weird thing to do, but if there was a possibility that whoever had abducted Bill might have actually abducted his Clefairy.
I returned to Sabrina with her coffee in hand. “You were right, Bill has been abducted but the good news is we at the very least have a lead.”
“The very least?” Sabrina asked, taking a sip of her coffee.
“Yeah, see in the games there is this moment where you first meet Bill and—” I explained the moment in the game and Sabrina stared.
She took another long pull of her coffee. “I’m not sure why he wants to create a technology that swaps a person’s body with that of a pokemon.”
I was about to wave it off, only to grimace. There… there were some reasons… but… oh… yeah.
Sabrina nodded knowingly and sighed as she finished her coffee. “Let’s go sort this out,” she said, taking my hand and teleporting us to the Cerulean police department, where we were quickly ushered through to an interrogation room.
Sabrina took one look at the Clefairy and blinked. “...Bill?” she asked slowly.
The Clefairy blinked and stared at Sabrina only to perk up.
“Oh thank goodness! I wasn’t sure how I was going to explain this and make anyone believe it! But with you here, Gym Leader Sabrina, I can move things right along!” chirped the Clefairy.
“Oh… wow,” I murmured. I’d known it was possible and was still surprised to see it had actually happened.
“What the hell? Why would you even do something like this?” squawked one of the police officers in the room.
The Clefairy became extremely bashful at the same time as Sabrina shuddered and gave Bill a look of utter disgust, so that there could be no question in my mind what the purpose of this technique was for.
Oh… oh,
Bill, no, that’s nasty.
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A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for continued support!
It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!