Beep
Beep
Beep
Ugh... Where am I? And can someone stop that annoying beeping sound?
What was I doing? Where am I? What happened-
DEATHBLOODMACHAMPKELKRATOSTOOTHLESS
"TOOTHLESS!"
"Vel! Calm DOWN! Look at me! I'm right here! It's me! Vance! C'mon calm down and look at me!"
I felt someone holding me down by my shoulders as I thrashed around. Vance? What happened? I was at Lilycove wasn't I? What happened to Toothless? He was fighting machamp alone! Where are my pokemons? Are they alright?!
"VEL! JUST CALM DOWN! BREATHE!"
I finally opened my eyes as I saw a tired and haggard looking Vance staring at me in concern from where I was laying down on a bed. A hospital, I had somehow ended up in a hospital.
"Vance..." My throat was hoarse as I tried to speak. How many days has it been? Vance quickly supported my body and helped me to sit up and lean on the headboard of my hospital bed and gave me a glass of water to drink. I drank it quickly despite holding the glass with my clumsy fingers, which is still shaking from long periods of misuse. I don't care. I need to know what happened to my team.
"Your team is alright, Vel. They are safe. I managed to reach them in time."
I breathed out a sigh of relief as I felt the tears welling up in my eyes. I cried. I rarely cried in front of anyone. I don't like to cry. It solves nothing. Crying is a display of weakness that I do not want to show to anyone, even to my own family. But I couldn't care less. My team is safe. They are safe.
Vance gave me a hug as he rubbed circles on my back with his hands. "Your absol and pupitar suffered a bit of damage but the nurses fixed them. They are still in intensive care but they are awake and fine, just strapped onto their beds and not allowed to move. They will make a full recovery. I found the rest of your pokemons and brought them with me. You are in Ever Grande Hospital now. You have been asleep for a week."
"How many?"
"Vel?"
"How many died."
Vance was silent, but I could feel the slight tightening of his grip on me.
"We counted 8 LSDF officers, 5 Rangers, and about 25 trainers that had died trying to defend Lilycove. The total death toll in Lilycove is high, the bulk of the casualties were civilians who were on the beach. Many of them didn't get to safety in time, or the shelters nearby were full so they have to find somewhere else to hide but they got picked off by aquas along the way. We haven't finish tallying the total number of casualties. Some of the bodies are still being found in all the wreckage."
"I don't know about the civilians, but. But. Th-That's about the whole lot of them, Vance. The defense force. Th-there-Our numbers definitely didn't hit over fifty. There were only slightly above forty of us, max, over there trying to hold the aquas off. There were at least a hundred of them, and then there were more that popped up later. W-Why? Why would they want to invade Lilycove?"
Vance said nothing for a short while as he continued to hug me before speaking softly. "You nearly died yourself, Vel. Worry about yourself for once. I am not blaming you, but what were you doing out there? Why aren't you at the shelter? You are too young for this. You are only twelve."
"I was too close to the beach, Vance. I was the first one to spot the salamence firing the Draco Meteor that destroyed the LSDF office. I tried to stop them, I REALLY tried, Vance. B-but I FAILED. I-I..."
"Shhh. It's alright. Everything's alright now." Vance held me tighter as he gently rocked me. "You did great. Many of the officers in the building died in the initial attack, but there are those that survived as well, thanks to you. Wallace had informed the war council what had happened, he told me what you did. You did the correct thing in contacting him. You are the reason why we responded to the situation as fast as we did. All forms of communication were somehow cut off during aqua's siege on Lilycove. The aquas didn't want any reinforcements from the league to arrive. The LSDF were grateful for your intervention to intercept the Draco Meteor, you prevented the officers stationed at Lilycove from being totally wiped out. Nobody blames you." Vance gently pulled me away and looked me in the eyes. "You saved Lilycove."
I could care less who saved Lilycove as long as it was saved. But.
"W-war? A war council?"
Vance looked grim. "Yes, Vel. A war council. If Team Aqua could pull something off like this and catch us all off guard, who's to say it won't happen to the other cities as well? Lilycove was the only city to get invaded this time but the attack put the whole world on guard. Something like this hasn't happened in a very long time. If Team Aqua has the strength to invade a city, what about Team Magma? Those two groups are supposedly equal in strength. Wallace put the whole of Hoenn on Code Red. Nobody is allowed to come and leave Hoenn unless given permission by the league. Lethal force is now authorised when dealing with aquas and magmas. The other regions are on lockdown as well, this invasion had them trying to find out if such a thing could happen on their own soil. The whole world is afraid."
Vance shifted himself to sit beside me on the bed as we leaned back on the bed's headrest. He put a comforting arm around my shoulders and pulled me closer to him, but there's still a nagging question in my mind that I cannot put off. I need an answer.
"Vance, has anyone found out the purpose of their attack?"
Vance remained silent. He knew, but he couldn't tell me.
"Vance."
"You know I cannot tell you, Vel."
"I'm one of the few surviving members of the defense force that helped defend Lilycove. I was there. If anyone can help in figuring out their motives, it will be me."
Vance's lip pulled into a thin line. He's hesitating.
"DON'T tell anyone else what I told you. This is just between you and me." He sighed as he ran his hand through his hair in frustration. "We think they are looking for an artifact, or something similar from what we know from the aqua grunts we captured. The problem is that these grunts don't know what exactly it is, only their admins knew and we didn't managed to catch the admins. The grunts were mainly tasked with attacking Lilycove. The admins escaped before we can catch them. It's like they just disappeared. They couldn't have teleported, we made sure of it. It's hard to achieve, but there are ways to prevent pokemon from using Teleport with dark type techniques. We used that in ACE all the time. The aquas didn't go underwater, Wallace was there. We really don't know where they went. They just...vanish, and left us without clues on why and how they attacked Lilycove. The grunts got killed by a psychic trigger planted in their minds the moment we probed it for details, especially when it comes to finding the location of their base. The trigger was planted by a powerful psychic pokemon that was meant to destroy the brain of whoever it was implanted into. I'm guessing it was an application of Future Sight, and it made us lose all of our leads. Aquas and magmas are extremists and they will sacrifice their lives for their suicidal beliefs, there's no way we can make them spill out the information willingly." Vance ran his hand through his hair once more. "We speculated that the aquas thought that the artifact was at Lilycove. But what kind of artifact? Why was it so important that they were willing to lay siege on Lilycove at the expense of the wrath of the entire region? We don't know. The only good thing is that we know for sure that they didn't find whatever they were looking for. The league wanted to try and find the artifact as well so that we can protect it and prevent whatever these lunatics are planning from becoming real. But there's just no clue."
I narrowed my eyes in thought. Why the hell was the entire thing...I don't know. It felt familiar. Why? Team Aqua disappeared? How did they even appear in the first place? Assuming that they didn't use Teleport? If they did not use Teleport it means that they probably have a place to gather their forces before attacking Lilycove with their numbers. They appeared undetected. Lilycove is not Slateport, but it is well-protected nonetheless simply by housing one of the two harbours in Hoenn. It seemed absurd that the entire LSDF stationed at Lilycove did not sense their approach. To launch such an assault, Team Aqua would need a base, somewhere large-
POKEMONEMERALDTEAMMAGMAMTCHIMNEYMTPYREORBSTOAWAKENGROUDONANDKYOGRETEAMAQUABASEAT
Lilycove.
Team Aqua's base was at Lilycove.
WHERE?! I have played the damn game before! Where was it! I KNOW it's at Lilycove somewhere, the invasion proved it so-
Dolly.
Could it be? No, it has to be. Dolly had sensed them. She was attuned to negative emotions as a shuppet, that ability shouldn't have diminished when she evolved into a banette.
"Vel? Breathe, Vel. It's alright now, I'm here."
Yes, Vance is here. I need to know. He can help.
"Vance. Are the rumours true? That the aim of Team Magma and Team Aqua is to awaken Groudon and Kyogre?"
"Why are you-"
"Answer me. I think I might have gotten on to something."
"...Yes. The rumours are true."
"I think I have figured out how they managed to come and go without leaving any trace. But I need Dolly and Rena. Where are they?"
Vance's eyes widened in shock. "Vel, how-"
"Where. Are. They."
Vance's eyes turned unnaturally serious, and at the point I knew that I'm not talking to Vance Vera, my lovable and idiotic older brother. I'm talking to Vance from ACE, one of their strongest operatives.
"Macky, bring Dolly and Rena here."
I heard a cackle from Vance's shadow, and Dolly and Rena appeared shortly afterwards when Dolly brought themselves in with a Shadow Sneak.
'Mistress!'
Rena and Dolly jumped up onto my bed and snuggled up to me and I held them tightly in my arms. They are alive. But there is something I really need to ask Dolly right now. I need to confirm something.
"I'm fine, sorry for worrying y'all. Rena, Dolly, there's something urgent that I need to confirm and I need your help right now. Rena, I need you to help me translate Dolly's words for me, can you help me?"
'Your wish is my command, Mistress.'
I turned to Dolly. "Dolly, remember the time we spent on Lilycove's beach? You kept wanting to bring me close to a large rock. Why?"
Dolly chattered agitatedly as Rena translated her words.
'She says that she felt people inside, she never felt something like that before other than the time at the...she called it a fire-breathing mountain? She thought the rock was interesting, it had the ability to muffle her senses although she can still vaguely sense people in them. It's like they are there but not there at the same time, and she can't tell if they are evil or not because her senses are partially blocked. However, she found out during our last battle that these are the same people that harmed you. She would have gone back to kill them herself, but we are too far away now to do anything.'
Shit. Team Aqua is really hiding in a rock, somehow. But that rock cannot fit a hundred people even when hollowed out, it's large but not that huge. Unless they somehow created space inside the rock like how pokeballs store pokemon, but the technology progression in this world had not progressed to that level yet. Unless it's a pokemon move that can create-
Shit. There really is one.
"Dolly, by fire-breathing mountain do you mean Mt Chimney? Do you feel exactly the same thing as that rock at Lilycove? Was it the cliff that you pointed to me?"
Vance was trying very hard to follow our conversation as he was not privy to the telepathic communication that Rena had set up for my sole use in communicating with her. But he knew that I knew something no one does.
Dolly nodded furiously and I never saw her so angry before. I slumped back onto the headrest of my bed in cold sweat.
We were at the front of the base of both Team Magma and Team Aqua once. We were fucking lucky to be alive.
"Vel?"
"Vance, how much do you know about the shuppet species."
"How is that impor-"
"Ghosts are naturally attracted to dark thoughts, but none are as attuned to it as shuppets. The shuppet species feed on dark and negative emotions, they are naturally better in sensing these thoughts than any other ghosts. Assuming that this ability does not diminish or disappear when they evolve into a banette, they can possibly sense threats even before they appear. Magmas and aquas would had emitted negative emotions in waves given what they usually did, it allowed Dolly to find the base of Team Magma and Team Aqua by total accident with the trait found in their species. The shuppet line is not popular among humans and trainers. They are ghosts, which naturally made them unpopular among humans as companions. They aren't that strong in battle compared to other species of ghosts, like Macky. So they aren't popular with trainers, who usually only wanted strong pokemons like a salamence. It's just not a worthy investment for most trainers to tame a wild ghost, when they can tame another wild ghost, like a gengar or dusclops, for example, that are known to be more powerful as a species. I haven't met a single trainer that have shuppets or banettes with them, such occurrences are rare. To sense the aqua's or magma's base you probably need a pokemon with similar abilities to Dolly and to be at the right place at the right time. So that's why nobody sensed the base of the aquas or magmas."
"YOU found their base?"
"Dolly found them, not me. I didn't recognise it at that point in time. All I see were rocks. What can you tell me about the move Secret Power."
"It's a move that is almost extinct. The remaining few trainers that have the knowledge on how to use this move guard it jealously, no one knew who most of them are. These moves are largely passed down in secret among family members for generations, outsiders have little hope in trying to learn it. There are only maybe one or two of such trainers under the league's forces. But Secret Power is not that strong in battle and the effects depended very heavily on the terrain the pokemon is in."
"There's another effect of using that move. You will know if you read 'The History of Pokemon Moves And How It Worked' by researcher Joe Hardrock who published it a 100 years ago. Ask Roxanne if her clan still has the research papers. Secret Power can allow pokemons to create their own secret space within rocks or trees. I mean like an entire different space, like how pokeballs can store pokemons despite being smaller than the size of our palms. If a highly trained pokemon knew Secret Power, imagine the space that it would be capable of creating. It can hide hundreds of people right under your nose. It's most likely how Team Aqua appeared unannounced and disappeared without a trace."
Vance was silent and expressionless the entire time but his eyes betrayed his shock.
"Dolly found a large rock during our second day in Lilycove on the beach. She sensed people in there but she cannot tell if they are good or evil. The distortion of space from Secret Power dulled her senses. She wanted to bring me there to see if I could find anything out of the ordinary about it, but it looked normal to me and I didn't bother to translate her words with Rena's help at that time, I thought she just found something interesting. I just wanted to relax on the beach so I didn't think too much about it. Dolly just confirmed that these people were the aquas that attacked Lilycove, she said it explicitly. She had a similar reaction when we were back on Mt Chimney. There was a cliff that brought about the same reactions from her. I don't think that's where Team Aqua's base is considering it's Mt Chimney and the aquas wanted to revive Kyogre, so I'm guessing the cliff at Mt Chimney belongs to Team Magma. The logic will fit. Groudon, Team Magma's ideology to expand lands, and a volcano. It has to be Team Magma. In summary, Team Aqua's base is at a rock situated near the end of Lilycove's beach, Team Magma's base is on a cliff at Mt Chimney."
"Vel, you aren't pulling my leg, aren't you?"
"DO I LOOK LIKE I WOULD JOKE ABOUT THIS, VANCE VERA?"
"No, you wouldn't." Vance covered his face with his palm. "But damn, that would explain why we never found their base of operations."
I closed my eyes and pinched the bridge of my nose. Should I tell him about the orbs? I never played pokemon ruby or sapphire so I don't know the plot in those games, but in pokemon emerald, either Team Magma or Team Aqua found the orbs. I can't remember who, but they did find them eventually. That artifact they were talking about were probably the orbs. Lilycove and Mt Pyre were situated near to each other, Team Aqua's information about its location isn't that far from where it actually is.
Argh, screw the original plot and the stories. If these loonies really managed to awaken those two titans the entire world will collapse. We cannot rely on Rayquaza to save our asses, we don't even know whether Sky Pillar is its real home. Even if that sky dragon did help save our ass, too many people and pokemon would have died.
"Vance. I think I know what the artifact is. I know where it is. In fact, there's two of them."
"Vel? What? How? I mean-"
I gestured for Macky to knock him on the head just as how we always did at home. It never failed to get Vance's attention back on track.
"Mt Pyre. I visited Mt Pyre before coming to Lilycove because it was most likely Dolly's birthplace. I met Agatha there, the Agatha who was once part of the Indigo's Elite Four. We found an ancient mural with drawings of Groudon and Kyogre, there's no doubt about what it was depicting. It showed a massive fight between the two of them. That's not the important part. There were two orbs, one ruby red, the other sapphire blue, at the base of the mural. We don't know what it does, only that it is definitely related to the two legendaries. Personally? I think that each orb has the power to control one of the above legendaries. Maybe the red one for Groudon and blue for Kyogre, or the other way round. I don't know, I don't want to know. I promised Agatha to keep my mouth shut. We agreed that it's better to let them be and remain unknown to the entire world. But the attack on Lilycove showed that Team Aqua's information is not that far from the truth. There IS an artifact and Lilycove is not that far from Mt Pyre. The orbs will be found sooner or later at this rate. We need to hide the orbs and keep this information away from as many people as possible. You are the only person I trust now. The only other person I think you should share this information with is Wallace. Let him retrieve the orbs alone, the orbs held powers and it's definitely not ordinary. I think you need someone with very strong willpower to even touch it. It nearly mind-controlled me when I first saw it and I was standing a few feet away. Make sure you have strong pokemons from each category of the Mind Arts Trio to protect your mind just in case. I don't know what will happen if or when someone touches the orbs. Just don't touch them with your bare hands."
I finished my explanation and I never felt so mentally exhausted in my entire life here. Pokemon emerald. Most likely, the game verse still held true here, at least to an extent. I'm not sure if the invasion of Lilycove happened in the game, I can't remember most of my past life now, but the happenings thus far showed that certain aspects of the plot that made pokemon emerald as it is still held true. I have the foreknowledge, I can help save things. The plot will be screwed now once I told Vance, but I couldn't care. More people might die if no one could prevent Team Magma and Team Aqua from achieving their goals. These people are extremists, they are so loyal to their beliefs that they have no qualms doing atrocious stuffs.
I don't want anymore people to die after what happened at Lilycove. I hated death. I hate conflicts. I was lucky to be reborn, but what about the innocents that died in Lilycove?
"I will need to extract your memories to verify them, Vel. No one will believe your stories even if I do. Your words won't be enough. They will want your memories as proof."
"I only trust Rena to do it." Rena will make sure to not extract anything more than is strictly necessary. I want to bring the secret of my reincarnation to my grave.
"Ask her to transfer your memories about what you just spoke about to me. The league can extract my memories after that."
I leaned in to Vance, who held me, and Dolly pushed herself closer trying to hug and comfort me. I returned my thanks to her with a smile. I turned to Rena, who was sitting by my side.
"Rena, do it."
It's true.
Velda's words were true. Not that Vance ever doubted her, but Velda's memories that were copied by Rena and transferred to his mind verified every single thing that Velda had said. He himself had went to verify some of the facts. He teleported to Mt Chimney with gallade and sneaked up close to the cliff Velda had mentioned. Macky had confirmed that something's in there even if he does not know what or who it is, just that there were many individuals. He checked with the Hardrock clan with Roxanne's help, Secret Power really has the ability to create space within solid objects. He went to Mt Pyre, followed the path shown in Velda's memories and saw the orbs but heeded Velda's warning and backed off for now. He doesn't want to mess with anything that has to do with legendaries just yet.
The worst part? The whole scenario Velda had deduced is entirely possible. The most pressing issue is that Team Magma and Team Aqua could very possibly hide in solid objects with Secret Power right under their very noses.
It's a weird feeling seeing Velda's life and memories through her eyes, even if Rena only extracted the relevant portions needed to convince the league officials that yes, Velda had really found the base of operations of the magmas and aquas. Funny how she always teased him for being a trouble magnet. The trouble she got herself into this time could have got herself killed without her even knowing why.
Velda could have died.
Death is an occupational hazard that comes with being a trainer. The death rate of trainers have been brought to an all-time low but the risk will always be there no matter how small it is. Their family accepted it when he and Velda both became trainers, but they never expect the risk to make itself known in such a manner.
His parents were worried sick about Velda but they weren't allowed to visit her just yet. Even Ever Grande is on lockdown. He himself can come and go freely only because of his status as an ACE operative.
The world went crazy when news of the attack was announced. Various reporters tried to get the news from the survivors, which wasn't much. Those at the shelters don't know anything much other than the salamence's attack. Those who were helping to defend mostly died in battle or succumbed to their wounds much later. Only Velda and a few of the defenders were alive and even then they don't have the full picture. The league had also tried to control the media, they don't want a mayhem to happen on top of whatever they urgently need to do now. No one really knew what exactly happened except that Team Aqua had attacked Lilycove.
There were just too little clues to follow.
Until Velda woke up, pieced whatever little information they both knew about 15 minutes after her awakening, and put together the most probable picture of what exactly happened. She deduced the how and the why with minimal help of his own.
That's his little sister.
Vance still couldn't help but frown. Orbs. Two orbs that according to Velda's guess, could probably hold the power to control one legendary each. It is a scary thought. If the aquas had gotten hold what they were looking for...
No, that wouldn't happen. He and Velda know where the artifacts are now. Velda had figured out their secrets, they have the upper hand now.
He reached the door of Wallace's office and knocked.
"Come in."
Vance entered and saw a tired looking Wallace going through war plans and papers. He has been running himself ragged trying to keep the whole of Hoenn in one piece. Steven is helping as well, but he was tasked with the protection of Mossdeep and Ever Grande since Wallace is trying to figure out where the aquas went.
Wallace spoke without even looking up, something very uncharacteristic from his usual polite self.
"What is it, Vance. I'm busy."
Vance stood straight at attention. They may not be in uniform now but they are still ACE operatives. His posture immediately got Wallace's attention, and Vance saluted.
"Sir. My younger sister, Velda Vera, and a survivor who had helped defended Lilycove had figured out the how, and why Team Aqua attacked. She deduced the most probable places where Team Aqua AND Team Magma built their base of operations. She found out a big secret of Hoenn's legendaries that we absolutely have to protect. I have extracted her memories with her permission, and I am ready to offer my mind for the viewing under the help of psychic pokemons. I have verified and checked through the information myself before coming here. What she deduced is most likely correct. This is our chance, sir. We can finally counter-attack."
Wallace stood up, and faced him.
"Call out your gallade. Show me the memories."
They have the upper hand now, it's time for a counter-attack.
"Coming!"
Flanney's houndoom, Gavin, stood protectively beside her as she opened the door to her house. To her credit, she only raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the sight of an ACE operative standing outside her door, fully masked and geared.
"I am ACE operative Phantom of Ghost Company. Gym leader Flannery, your help is being requested by both the league and ACE. I was told that you were informed to be on standby."
"Yeah, I am on standby. Standby for what? No clue. The league only told me to be on standby and to ban any visitors to Mt Chimney for the period, saying it's too dangerous for people to travel there given how Hoenn is now. Sounded like a whole lot of crap to me, but I know better than to question further. They didn't tell me what else to prepare for just that I have to be on standby. Come in. I don't think we want our conversation to be heard."
The two of them entered into Flannery's home, and Phantom wasted no time in talking the moment the door to her house was closed.
"Prepare your full body armour. We found Team Magma's base on Mt Chimney. We are going to destroy it."
Phantom watched as Flannery's eyes widened in shock as her houndoom growled. Flannery clenched her fists as her voice rose slightly.
"Team MAGMA? Here on MT CHIMNEY?! Right under our very noses? Thousands of tourists flocked there every year for Arceus's sake! And no one knew about it the whole time?!"
"We only just got the information ourselves two days ago, and only managed to recently confirm the validity of the information and organise the force necessary to take them down. It's time for our counter-attack. We need your help, Flannery. We need the power of a gym leader."
"You stay right here. Give me a few minutes to get changed and retrieve my pokemon."
ACE operative Phantom watched as Flannery went up to her room to change, and walked down the stairs from the second floor of her house and stood in front of him decked out in a full armoured body suit about five minutes later. She also wore a helmet, similar to those worn by motorcyclist, with a darkened visor that covered Phantom's view of Flannery's face.
"Lead the way, operative."
The two of them exited Flannery's house and walked in comfortable silence for a while with Phantom leading the way. The silence is a little uncomfortable for Flannery, so she decided to make small talk with operative Phantom.
"What's your name? Have we met before in a gym battle?"
"I'm afraid I can't tell you my name. It's against the rules we set in ACE. But no, we haven't met in a gym battle before. I haven't met you before this meeting. I got my fourth gym badge from your grandfather, the previous Lavaridge gym leader. My sister has high praises of you though. She said you were the inspiration for some of the rock type techniques she helped create for her team to counter water type attacks."
Flannery's voice went higher than usual. "Praise me for rock type techniques? Excuse me, but the last time I checked I'm a Fire Specialist. You know, fire as in the red thing that burns? I can understand if people praise and worship me for my fire techniques, but rock type? What did I do? What did your sister say exactly that I'm the inspiration for inventing rock type techniques."
The operative snorted. "Can't really remember, that was quite some time ago. Something about your magcargo defending itself from Bigblu-" The operative abruptly stopped himself, and Flannery could hear him muttered a quiet 'Shit' under his breath. The operative had said too much that could have revealed his true identity.
Flannery grinned. She knew who she was talking to now. There was only one pokemon with the nickname of Bigblue and had faced her magcargo in battle. No way would she be forgetting that anytime soon. That battle was one of the most memorable battle she had as a gym leader.
"Tell your sister I said thank you for the praise, and that I said hello to her as well, Vera."
The operative grumbled something inaudible under his breath, but didn't say anything else.
"How is she doing? We haven't called each other in a long time." Flannery missed the young Vera. She knew Velda had an older brother but they didn't talk much about him in their calls. She never expected to meet him in this manner.
The operative went silent again and this time Flannery felt a little uneasy. Did something happen to Velda again? Did her body give her problems again?
"She was at Lilycove."
Flannery's jaws dropped behind the large visor of her helmet that covered her entire face. Velda was at Lilycove? It's a warzone there!
"She's fine, if you want to know. She's awake now, but very shaken by what she experienced. She was part of the temporary defense force that stayed back voluntarily and helped hold back Team Aqua until we came. She almost died. I watched as my comrade took her away in a Teleport while she's soaked in her own blood. She would have died if her espeon didn't manage to contact and find me with a public link when I arrived. She-" The operative caught his breath and clenched his fist. "Sorry. It's just that-"
"No, it's fine. I'm just glad she's alive. No one should have gone through that, much less Velda."
"From what I know from Vel's espeon, the charmander you gave her had willingly evolved into a charizard in that battle. It evolved to save her. Thank you, for giving Toothless to her."
"No biggie. I knew they are good for each other when I first saw her. I'm glad I was right."
They didn't say anything else as they had reached a hidden clearing at the foot of Mt Chimney. A large group of ACE operatives was stationed there in an orderly manner and awaiting instructions. A familiar figure was at the front, and obviously the commanding officer of this operation. That fellow was masked and wore a full body armour as well. He had several pokemons around him and there's no mistaking that monster of a slaking.
"Norman? Is that you?"
"Flannery? Yes, it's me, Norman. I have been temporarily called back into service as are many retired operatives that were able to help out in this time of crisis. Thank you for coming."
Flannery looked at Norman and then at the rest of the people around her. So THIS is ACE. She knew Norman was from ACE, but she didn't know exactly what it means. She herself had served in LSDF for a few short years before retiring from its service to be a gym leader. She didn't know Norman was actually qualified enough to lead so many operatives on missions.
Just how strong is this guy? If the higher ups are willing to give him so much power and authority over their elites, what had he achieved in ACE for them to have so much confidence in him?
"I have already briefed everyone here except for you, Flannery. So I'm going through the plan again. The aim of this mission is to destroy Team Magma's hideout. We have already confirmed the exact location with numerous ghosts and psychics. They have hidden themselves with the elusive move called Secret Power, and that's why no one had found their base so far. Apparently it has the effect of allowing the user to create a different space inside solid objects and it is possible to hide hundreds of people in it. We have located them now, and it's best to strike when they are still unaware that we have already found them. Operative Phantom will be with you for this operation to protect you. We need your help, but we cannot have our gym leaders dying no matter how slim the chances are. The masses will panic. I have a guard to protect me as well. Steven and Winona will be attacking Team Aqua's base any moment now. We had timed for both operations to happen at the same time. Wallace is on another top-secret mission on his own. Unfortunately, we have no idea on who or what to expect when we enter the magma's base. So prepare yourself for anything. Lethal force is allowed, the league had approved it against magmas and aquas. Kill them if you are not confident to take prisoners without them retaliating. Protocol M is also approved, so don't hesitate to go all out if you feel you need it." Just as he said it, Norman's kangaskhan moved closer by his side, its claws holding and showing her the brightly coloured stone in its possession before putting it into its pouch.
Mega evolution. The Hoenn League had deemed the situation serious enough to authorise the use of mega evolution.
Flannery nodded at Norman's words. The situation is bad, even more than she initially thought it was. The league had actually approved the use of mega evolution, one of the most tightly guarded secrets that PWL had guarded for centuries, for this mission. Usually, only the thirteen pillars of the respective regions will be allowed the possession of a mega stone and they would not usually have more than two of those. Most of them had only one. The public is not allowed to know about their existence. Only high ranking officials and trainers under their respective leagues will be allowed to know the existence of mega evolution but nothing more than knowing its existence. Even then, they were only given a vague description. She knew that sometimes ACE operatives, or high ranking members of LSDF or Rangers would be loaned a stone or two for their missions. But those cases are rare and these members are sworn to secrecy. Anyone who leaked the knowledge or existence of mega evolution to the public will be severely dealt with and punishable by death according to the law.
That's just how dangerous mega evolution is.
"We still have five minutes. Take this time to prepare. Phantom can brief you along the way the other things you might want to know about."
"Are you sure this is -Charlie Flamethrower!- the right way to go?!"
"Is there any other way that you -Watch it!- see?!"
"NO! But HOW on earth did we get SEPARATED from the rest of the group?! There were at least 40 of us!"
"We were ordered to -TAKE DOWN THAT GRAVELER SCEPTILE!- clear the damn -GET THEM OFF US ELECTIVIRE!- BLOODY WAY FOR THE REST OF THE GROUP!"
"Doesn't explain how we got lost!"
"It's perfectly -ARGH DUCKKK!- NORMAL FOR ME!"
Vance barely had time as he forcefully pushed Flannery, who was standing beside him, down as they both hide behind a huge boulder within Team Magma's hideout. A stray flamethrower from a magma's numel shot at the spot where their heads were a second ago. There were simply too many enemies! Doesn't matter how good your pokemon is at single battles, all it takes is a lucky shot from a single zubat out of a group of a hundred of them to put you down. The caves were small and there's a limit to how many pokemon they can release in the tunnel if they do not want to friendly-fire each other. The magmas had no such considerations. They simply attacked anything that got in their way, friends and foes alike. He couldn't destroy the magmas like how Wallace destroyed the aquas on Lilycove's beach, doing the same thing will just bring the whole volcano crashing down on them. Vance absentmindedly tighten the grip of his hand on Flannery's shoulder which he used to push her down. He should have just gave the memory to Norman and went to finish off the aquas instead. What possessed him to volunteer to come here anyway?
"Don't TOUCH me THERE!"
Vance barely had time to turn around before he was hit in the face and landed on the ground. He looked up and saw a very angry and embarrassed Flannery, who was suddenly hugging her arms protectively around her chest. Vance took a look at his right hand which he used to push down what he thought was Flannery's shoulder. From the looks of it, what he touched probably wasn't her shoulder. Did he..?
Oops.
"Uh... I'm sorry?"
"LOOK OUT!"
Vance instinctively rolled himself towards Flannery before throwing himself prone on the ground behind another boulder beside her. A speedy rock powered by a Rock Throw left a crater where he was lying down prior. Thank Arceus for the abundance of boulders here, they make good hiding spots.
"HEY! I almost died there! Can you save the face-hitting for later?!"
"You DESERVE it! And I WARNED you, didn't I"
"I COULD have died!"
"But you didn't! And where are we?!"
"I don't know! We were supposed to just clear the way for the rest to follow! Maybe we were too fast for the group?"
Vance and Flannery emerged from their hiding spots as their pokemons just finished putting down the magmas that they were facing. The interior of the base is a networks of tunnels that led to many different caves. Norman had borrowed a pokemon that knew Secret Power from a trainer that was in the league's employment (thank the stars that there were a few trainers employed by the league with pokemons that knew Secret Power) to open up the entrance to Team Magma's base. After storming through the entrance of Team Magma's base, there were two tunnels to follow. Norman simply sent Flannery and Vance to the left tunnel while he proceeded to travel using the one on the right, and the remaining ACE forces split evenly among themselves and followed them.
This is the eighth cave they had cleared since the start of the operation about 15 minutes ago. Where's everyone?
"Phantom!"
Ah, there they are.
"You are late, Charcoal."
"You guys are too fast! Do you know the meaning of slowing down?! I know you guys are good but not everyone are like you two!"
Vance simply shrugged. "Eh, you will get used to it soon enough. My comrades from Ghost got used to it within a week."
Operative Charcoal wanted to facepalm, but his palm stopped halfway when he realised his combat mask was in the way. He let out a frustrated sound. "I still don't know why you are the only one from Ghost Company that came here. Isn't your entire company with Steven demolishing aqua's base?"
"I'm the only one who knew the exact position of the cliff other than Wallace and he's on another mission. The rock at Lilycove isn't hard to recognise. This cliff is. I was the one who extracted the memory from our information source. I'm the only one who can lead us to the correct cliff."
The main group that initially followed Flannery and Vance had caught up by now, and they all proceeded to walk deeper into the tunnels with Vance and Flannery leading the way.
"Charcoal, how many casualties do we have on our side so far?"
"None. You guys took care of at least half of the magmas on your own, we didn't have much to deal with. Did your gengar sense anything else?"
As it turns out, ghosts were better suited to sense their opponents in this operation. Team Magma had precautions to prevent enemy psychic pokemons from finding out their location, but they forgot to account for the fact that ghosts can sense them as well. Ghosts don't have senses as accurate as psychics, but it was good enough to pinpoint the general direction of where the main bulk of them are.
The amount of negative thoughts they emitted is like a beacon for any ghosts in their group.
"Macky, did you find anything else?"
Flannery watched in curiosity as a purplish paw simply emerged from Vance's shadows and pointed to a smaller tunnel that branched off from the main tunnel on their right side.
Flannery watched in amused shock when the paw then begin to extend itself to Vance in a 'I want my reward now' manner. Vance gave a resigned sigh as he simply fished out a pecha berry (where did he keep it in his body suit?) and dropped it into the waiting paw. The paw grabbed the pecha berry before disappearing back to the shadows. A loud munching sound came from the shadows immediately and the seeds were soon spat out onto the floor. The shadow burped.
"HAHAHA! Your ghost had you whipped!"
"He didn't have me whipped. My sister spoiled him. She always give him pecha berries whenever they meet, now he won't stop asking for them. Tells me to reward him with it for every little thing he did for me."
"I'd heard from others in Ghost that you were a siscon, Phantom. I never expect it to be true. Everything we talked about somehow comes back to your sister."
"Shut it, Charcoal."
Following the small tunnel Macky had pointed, they reached a fork. One tunnel led to the left, the other one to the right. Both tunnels led downwards deeper into the volcano.
"Macky."
Two paws appeared from Vance's shadow this time and Macky pointed to both tunnels.
"So the magmas are in both tunnels, eh? Which one has more of them?"
The right paw slunk back into his shadows while the left paw remained pointed to the left tunnel.
"Right. Charcoal, I can't leave Flannery's side, and the both of us can handle ourselves. You take the rest of our men and storm the right side. It will be faster that way."
"Got it, you guys stay safe."
"You too. Come on, little missy, let's get going."
The only reply Vance got was a hit to the back of his head that almost sent him rolling down the left tunnel.
Vance peered below into the cave he and Flannery had stumbled into from their hiding spot up above. He should have asked Macky if he knew the exact number of magmas they were expecting before going down the left tunnel.
Fifty. Vance counted at least fifty of these bastards. Assuming each of them has six pokemon each it will be 300 pokemons that they will have to deal with at the minimum. Vel said that there were at least a hundred aquas at Lilycove when they first appeared, didn't she? So she would have at least faced off 600 pokemons with the defense force, and that is a very optimistic estimate. Many trainers have more than six pokemons, the aquas had to have at least ten pokemons each since they made up for their lack of quality with quantity. The defense force only had around forty people. A large number of it were made up of volunteer trainers and they mostly only have about an average of three gym badges from what he saw from the KIA list, the number of pokemons on the defense force's side probably added up to around 300, at the best. So only about 300 or less pokemons on their side to face off at least 600, no, probably at least 1,000 pokemons from team aquas.
Less than 300 against more than 1,000. Team Aqua also had the element of surprise while Lilycove was unprepared. No wonder so many people died.
The only good thing right now was that this cave that he and Flannery found themselves in is a very large one. That means they can finally cut loose. They are also hidden from view undetected up above a rocky ledge, which means they have the element of surprise as well.
From where they were hidden above, Flannery's torkoal withdrew into its shell as it spun itself at high speeds and launched itself downwards into the mass of magmas, knocking them aside like a spinning top. It stopped its spin at the middle of the surprised group of magmas before it released a huge Inferno that cut off the entire group, creating a wall of flames and splitting the magmas into two groups on the left and right side respectively.
"Hey, siscon." Vance could feel his fingers twitching the moment he heard the 'S' word. She wouldn't stop calling him that the moment she heard Charcoal called him with that 'S' word. "How about a little competition? The one who took a lesser time to destroy the magmas on their side would get to ask the loser to do one thing, one thing that the loser cannot refuse. How about it?"
Despite having a darkened visor that covered his view of Flannery's face thanks to her helmet, Vance could swear that Flannery was grinning. Well, they have to destroy these bastards anyway, might as well have some fun while they are at it. He swore that he would make the aqua scums pay in blood back at Lilycove, but the number of aquas he decimated back there still wasn't enough to quench his rage. He wanted to annihilate more of them. That is not possible now seeing that he is currently at Team Magma's base, but the magmas are a good enough substitute for the aquas.
"Get ready to lose then, missy. I will take the right side. You take the left."
On an unspoken signal, Vance and Flannery released their entire team. He saw Flannery releasing a charizard, magcargo, houndoom, camerupt, arcanine, flareon, infernape, and a chandelure on top of her already released torkoal, who was already decimating its foes on the left side.
Wait a sec.
"HEY! No one says start yet! You are cheating! I want a reset! A reset!"
"Too late, siscon! What do you want Charlie to do? Stand there and take a beating? Hurry it up already! I want to hurry and go back and take a bath! I'm smelly and sticky and sweaty from all the heat in this volcano!"
Flannery's pokemons took this as a cue to charge down and decimate their foes. Picking up on the situation, Vance's pokemons did the same as well as they went in to wreck havoc, the bigger and more destructive ones were eager to be finally let out, the small caves that they had passed by earlier weren't suited to fit their large size.
Vance watched as Flannery's flareon stood by her side as a guard while it sniped magmas and their pokemons with precise blasts of fire, her houndoom snarled as it tore the throats of the enemy's pokemons and burned them alive. Camerupt simply bellowed and moved through the crowd, its large size crushing anyone who were too slow in getting away, its volcanoes on its backs spewing flaming rocks that hit its foes with pinpoint accuracy even without looking. Infernape simply scaled the rock walls with its hands and feet as it shot large cones of fire down onto its enemies below, her chandelure appeared before large group of pokemons and burned them with ghostly fires while they screamed in pain. Her magcargo sent sharp rocks set alight with fire shooting at its foes. Her charizard's a monster. It simply blasted through the crowd and sent their burnt corpses flying with Blast Burns after Blast Burns without having a need to recharge. Her arcanine ran at high speeds around the perimeter of the group Flannery was in charge of, boxing them in and ensuring none of the magmas could get out.
Vance turned back to look at his side of the battle.
His magmortar is by his side as his arms had turned into what he called 'cannon form'. Like Flannery's flareon, he acted as his guard and simply blasted the foes with intense flames. His weavile was laughing madly as it slit the throats of whatever pokemons it could find, the heat of the volcano not affecting it in the slightest despite it being an ice type. His electivire coated itself in an armour of electricity as it punched its opponents left and right while releasing the occasional huge blasts of Discharge. His sceptile and gallade worked together like a duo of expert swordsmen, slicing any opposition they faced into halves while running through the crowd. His metagross floated slightly off the ground with Magnet Rise and raised a shield of Reflect in front of it before dashing into the crowd of magmas like a speeding truck, smashing its foes into lumps of meat. It was a move that was inspired by Velda's Battering Ram, but she preferred to use the Protect version of it. His salamence sent out waves of draconic fire and pulses, clawing and crunching anyone that got too close. It does not even bother to fly when dealing with these low lives. They are not worthy enough for him to use his wings. Walrein simply raised itself off the ground with a huge chunk of ice that formed beneath it before unleashing a massive wave of Surf on the magmas, sending them crashing into the walls of the cave, ending their lives instantly. Macky dove in and out of the shadows, launching Shadow Balls and punching his paws through the bodies of his prey with Shadow Punch.
Vance's team were doing a good job at cleaning up their side of their battle rapidly, but Flannery is faster. Her fire type attacks are naturally good at AOE and crowd control, which is perfect for their situation. Crap, she just tricked him into a bet that she knew she would definitely win, didn't she?
Time to even the odds a little.
"Hey salamence! Just use a Draco Meteor or something already! Flannery's winning!"
"Are you CRAZY?! We are in a CAVE-"
Whatever Flannery was planning to say was cut off as she watched in gaping horror, together with the remaining magmas, as Vance's salamence flew up and began to charge up a Draco Meteor. Both sides of the battlefield fell uncharacteristically silent as the crowd watched the sphere of draconic energy forming at the front of salamence's opened mouth, growing bigger by the second.
"SAVE YOURSELVES!"
No one knew who said it, but it broke the silence as people and pokemon alike rushed to find safety. It's too late, the attack was already fired. Vance's pokemon just looked resigned as they took shelter behind Vance's metagross, who had thrown up a huge shield of Protect to protect the team. Flannery's pokemons took the opportunity to cross the wall of flames that Charlie had created earlier and hide behind Vance's metagross as well. Metagross simply increased the surface area of the shield without losing its protective power to cover the new occupants. It actually looked a little apologetic when Flannery's pokemons hid behind him, and looked as if it was apologising telepathically to Flannery's pokemons for his trainer's stupidity.
Magmortar just stood in front of Vance and threw a shield of protect of his own just as Flannery and her flareon hid behind Vance and used him as a human shield. Vance just stood there and had a wide smile plastered on his face behind his mask, his combat mask glinted as it reflected the light from the energy of salamence's Draco Meteor. His crossed his arms and he stood with his feet shoulder-length apart, his chest puffed out with pride, looking very proud of his decision.
Flannery finally knew why Velda called Vance a trouble magnet whenever he became their topic of discussion.
The resulting explosion shook the entire cave that they were in and Flannery swore that the entirety of Mt Chimney shook together with it. The Draco Meteor kicked up a huge cloud of smoke and the smell of burnt flesh wafted into their noses. The smoke was quickly cleared by salamence's beating wings and the two trainers saw the now very dead group of magmas and their pokemons lying in the craters that resulted from the Draco Meteor.
"Ah, that was refreshing! Good job, salamence! Hey missy- AHH!"
Flannery cuffed Vance on the side of his head a second time as she screamed at Vance.
"Hey?! HEY my ASS! What were you THINKING?! Do you even have a brain?! How are you still alive if you pulled stuffs like these all the time?!"
Vance rubbed the side of his head where Flannery's fist had hit, looking annoyed. "Well, we got rid of them, didn't we? And we did it in like..." Vance took a look at the watch on his wrist. "Wow, less than five minutes. That's a record for such a large group, even for me. And- AH HA! I won our bet! That's the most important thing!"
Magmortar shifted slightly away from his trainer and looked sideways, looking a little embarrassed at his trainer's antics. Flannery's flareon gave a sympathising look. It must be hard to live with such a problematic? idiotic? stupid? trainer, even if he is a capable trainer.
Flannery's entire body was shaking and looked as if she would just jump on Vance and strangle him alive. She settled for giving a hard kick in his shin, only to jump back in pain as she tried to nurse her hurting foot.
"I wear armour plates on my shin, missy."
"You-!"
Vance jumped down to the area where the dead magmas are and was caught in time by metagross's Psychic lest his trainer accidentally committed suicide by falling from tall heights. Vance continued to walk forward as he put a finger to his chin, muttering his thoughts just loud enough to hear. Flannery caught up to him as her charizard, Sarah, dropped her gently on the ground next to Vance.
"Hmm...what should I ask you to do? Maybe I could get you to deliver coffee to me for an entire week? Or I could dare you to shave your head and post a picture of it online? Or maybe-"
Not wanting to hurt her foot this time, Flannery took a step back and forcefully kicked Vance on his butt with the flat of her right foot as Vance fell face down into the ground with an 'oof!'. Vance turned around, sat up, and pointed an accusing finger at Flannery.
"Hey! What's that for?!"
"Technically, it was a draw. Sure, you took out your share of your magmas. But our bet was to-" Flannery raised the fingers on both of her hands to do an air quote motion. "-see 'who took a lesser time to destroy the magmas on their side'. You destroyed my side in that stupid Draco Meteor as well, dummy. We never said we cannot help each other to destroy those magmas. Since both sides were destroyed at the same time, it's a draw. I don't owe you anything. Not after that stupid stunt you pulled."
Flannery took great satisfaction as she walked past Vance's stunned figure, who is still sitting on the floor pointing at her previous spot like a stone statue trying to process her words. She continued walking for a few more metres, before turning around and dragged Vance along with her by his collar in an impressive show of strength.
"Come on, siscon. We don't have time to waste. I really want my bath."
Norman could feel his balance being tilted forward, back, sideways and many other directions as the entire Mt Chimney shook like an earthquake had occurred in the volcano. Many will think it was a real earthquake, but Norman knew better. Vance had did something stupid again, there's no doubt about it. The source of this earthquake came from where he was supposed to be and it is enough proof for Norman that the earthquake was Vance's doing. Underneath his mask, the edge of his mouth was twitching uncontrollably even though the twitching was so minute no one could see it even with his mask off his face. Norman tried to rein in the frustration and resignation he felt in the confines of his mind as he remained cool and unaffected on the outside. Norman silently thanked his lucky stars that he remembered to send Vance far and away from him the moment they had the chance to split up. He will apologise to Flannery later if she questioned him on sticking Vance with her, but otherwise he will remain absolutely silent. He had no wish to rile up the energetic gym leader.
Vance is a very capable trainer. That fact was obvious on the very first day he enlisted himself into ACE. But there was a very good reason why Norman never accepted his application into his company and referred him to Wallace instead.
Vance did things like this on almost every mission he went with his ACE team. Norman was still in ACE when Vance just enlisted into its service, and was tasked to train the batch of recruits that Vance was a part of. On the very first mock mission Vance went as a new recruit, he nearly destroyed the entire training building with an Explosion from his gengar, saying that the mission can be cleared faster this way. While his reasoning wasn't wrong, per say, since there were no hostages, important documents, vital information or anything of that nature that he and his team of recruits was tasked to retrieve. Their mission was to simply eliminate all the hostiles in the building that was used for their mock mission. The 'hostiles' were senior members of ACE that had volunteered to helped train the recruits since they were on a lull period on that time. They certainly didn't sign up for receiving an Explosion in an enclosed building and right in their face.
The worst part? No one could find any fault with Vance's actions. His team wasn't required to make sure that the building remained standing or ensure that there were no extensive collateral damage to their training facilities. It wasn't said out loud as it was kind of an implicit notion that the training building have to remain standing after the whole training was over or else no one after them could use the buildings for their own mock missions. Right before Vance's team started their mock mission, Vance had convinced his team to not enter the building and leave it all to him before he swiftly commanded his insane gengar to infiltrate the building and use Explosion, so Norman and the senior members can't fault him for unnecessary friendly-fire. They also can't fault Vance for intentional manslaughter, since Vance and his team knew that there were hostiles, but they didn't know that the 'hostiles' were members of ACE as well since they weren't told. The recruits had thought that it would be dummy hostiles, which was what Norman wanted them to think. He placed real 'hostiles' because he wanted to train them to react to unexpected situations. The entire training building along with the senior members of ACE in it would have been blasted to kingdom come if Judge hadn't quickly intervene with a Sucker Punch.
Despite the stupid act, Vance's actions were well within the parameters of their mission if they have to interpret the mission details strictly word for word. No one can fault him for acting outside the parameters of the mission.
As Norman soon found out, these kind of things happened every, single, time Vance is on a mission, even on mock missions.
For the sake of his sanity, Norman himself had sent in a letter of plea to Wallace to let him accept Vance into Ghost Company after Vance had completed his recruit training. Only Wallace can handle someone as destructive as Vance.
He turned his thoughts back to the cave he found himself in near the heart of Mt Chimney. It is large, and could probably fit a few ACE companies worth of operatives together with their pokemons. The cave looked important given how it was furnished. The cave is very wide, tall, and long as well, and he could see two large metal doors at the other side of the cave. His men spread themselves out as they combed through the large cave. He heard Judge gave a low growl and immediately raised his right fist to signal his men to stop, something's not right here.
A slow clapping sound sounded across the cave as the large metal doors at the other end of the cave swung open. A man with slick back red hair walked in while clapping his hands, with him were six magmas who wore admin uniforms and stood by the red hair man like his guards. They had another group of grunts at the back and Norman estimated that there were about 70 of them.
This red hair man is obviously the leader of Team Magma.
"Well done. I wasn't expecting our base to be found this soon. I wasn't expecting it to be found at all. Please enlighten me, how did the league found out about it?"
Norman didn't bother to reply as he gestured his men to take their positions. He signaled them to split up evenly among themselves and to pay extra attention to the admins. The admins were known to be at least Elite level in strength and are usually on the higher spectrum of it. Norman will take on the Team Magma's leader himself.
The red hair man continued his monologue.
"You guys did a good job in preventing our escape. I don't know how you did it, but we can't teleport ourselves away. There's a large group of ACE forces outside that surrounds the whole of Mt Chimney, so we can't escape through our escape routes even if we wanted to. You guys had us completely cornered. But don't you know the saying?"
The red hair man and the entire of Team Magma released all of their pokemons as Norman and his ACE operatives released theirs. Pokemons on both sides took their battle stance and sized up their opponents, ready to start another war.
"A cornered rat-"
The red hair man's camerupt blasted a Fire Blast at Norman which was batted away by Judge. Trainers and pokemons on both sides jumped into action, and began their fight.
"-attacks the cat."
AN: Sorry if this chapter took a little long, there are a lot of info in this chapter and I needed to ensure that they are all consistent with each other so that I don't drop myself into a plot hole.
I'm glad that you guys enjoyed the previous chapter. That chapter may be a lot shorter in length compared to the previous chapters, but sometimes there is value in having less than more. If you noticed, a lot of the stuffs I wrote in the earlier chapters is a prelude to the war chapter. Like Dolly's ability to sense negative emotions, the finding of the rock on lilycove beach, why I wrote Velda's trip to Mt Chimney in her lavaridge training arc and found the cliff, why I keep repeating the fact that Toothless is a prideful pokemon, which is true according to the pokedex entries, and the reason I gave a charmander to Velda. I also kept subtly repeating the fact that Overheat cannot be used as a charmeleon. All of these arrangements is for the war chapter, which is the very first scene I planned out for IJWTTTW.
I hoped this chapter isn't too boring for you guys. I had tried to arrange it so that it wouldn't feel like an information dump, and tried to add some humour in it to lighten the mood brought about from the previous chapter. I did not want to write about the raid on the Team Magma and Aqua's base initially, but some of you had said that you wanted to see the gym leader's true powers in action, so I decided to try and write it. This also means that my writing for Velda's Mossdeep and Sootopolis gym challenge will be delayed, but I will see if I can write it out before school starts.
Hoped you enjoyed this chapter.
Velda Vera, Age: 12, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Reincarnated Soul (to be kept a secret until the day she dies again)
Pokemon on hand:
1) Rapidash (Flamel), male
2) Swampert (Bigblue), male
3) Banette (Dolly), female
4) Flygon (Snap), male
5) Absol (Kelsa), female
6) Charizard (Toothless), male
7) Cradily (Lily), female
8) Espeon (Rena), female
9) Pachirisu (Fuzzy), male
10) Pupitar, (Kratos), male
Flannery, Age: 20, Female, Lavaridge Town Gym Leader, Ex LSDF Member
1) Torkoal (Charlie)
2) Charizard (Sarah)
3) Houndoom (Gavin)
4) Camerupt
5) Magcargo
6) Flareon
7) Infernape
8) Arcanine
9) Chandelure