"So… there are four of us."
"Five." Nova corrected. "Plus another two more that we haven't found."
"Two more?" Akamu and Volkner both asked in unison. It's not just them, I'm baffled as well. This is a little much to take in all at once.
"You said five, who is the fifth?" Volkner questioned.
"Shannon." Nova stated without blinking.
"Her?" I exclaimed. "I really couldn't tell."
"I know what you mean but trust me, don't be fooled by how she usually acts around us, she's good at what she does." Nova reassured us before elaborating. "I met Shannon at Unova some months back, just right before the Lacunosa invasion. It was where we found out about each other's true identity by accident, all because of a stone tablet I found."
All of us remained silent to allow Nova to continue her story.
"As you guys know, I'm from Kalos. I was there at Unova in a collaboration effort to unearth and study an ancient ruin of what is possibly dated to the Efru civilisation. Asher, Grimsley's youngest and now deceased son, discovered a secret room that nobody could enter. Nobody could enter until I came along."
"Now that's some weird shit."
"I'm about to get into the weirder shit." Nova replied to Volkner before telling her side of the story. "Long story short, some sort of powerful psychic barrier was blocking any access to the secret room and tearing the walls down wasn't an option unless we want the entire ruin to fall apart. Unbelievable as it sounds, I somehow managed to enter the room by walking through the wall. In there, I found a stone tablet that was translated thanks to Shannon's help. It was how we found out about each other."
Nova took out her holo caster and displayed a holographic image of a piece of paper with neatly written words on it.
"This is the translated text of what is written on the stone tablet. It's about the Unova legend of the Seven Sages, a very famous tale within the region. Some parts of the text on the stone tablet had eroded so it's not complete, but when you read it, you would know why and how Shannon and I found out about each other."
The rest of us leaned in closer to take a closer look at the holographic image to read the ancient text Nova had translated.
"In times of … seven otherworldly sages will be called upon, displaced and reborn from the cycle of death, they will rise to… each sage holds power that mortals know not, each having a unique strength… unite the world, liberate the world from chaos and bring about a new dawn… different titles:
Shadow, Vanquisher of Darkness
Flier, Symbol of Courage
Traveller, Companion of Chaos
Leader, Incarnate of Lightning
Scholar, Eye of the Mind
Watcher, Embodiment of Earth
Guardian, Protector of Lives"
What the hell?
"What the hell?" Volkner apparently shared the same thoughts as me when he blurted it out just when the exact same words crossed my mind. The words 'otherworldly', 'displaced and reborn from the cycle of death' were a pretty huge hint towards the idea of reincarnation, namely us.
"So, thoughts?" Nova questioned without a change in her facial expression, probably already expecting this reaction.
"So what this so called… I don't know, prophecy?" Akamu questioned with an unsure hand gesture as he spoke up. "Is the foretelling of our existence? From how long ago?"
"The Efru civilisation is one of the most mysterious civilisations, but it is estimated to date back to at least 500 years ago, right around before the formation of the PWL. Basically, it was present before this part of the world was united. That period of time was a period of turmoil across the world."
"And these dudes foretold our existence from so long ago? Is that even possible?" Volkner asked in obvious disbelief. Honestly, I cannot bring myself to believe it too.
"Blob mentioned that Arceus had a hand in the prophecy. If that's true, then it might be possible because in this world, Arceus is a literal god."
"Blob?"
"Oh right, you guys haven't met him." Nova's hand went to her pocket and began to try and dig something out. "Come on out, Blob. Go say hel- Now, don't be rude, okay? You've already met Shannon, what's wrong with meeting a few more? Come on, don't be shy."
The three of us watched on as Nova struggled to fish out whatever was in her pocket. After some time, she did manage to finally dig out a small green creature smaller than the size of her palm. Nova showed the creature to us, some small… blob that is currently resting on her palm. Said blob is glaring at us with a haughty expression, chest puffed up and looking at us as though we are some sort of lower lifeforms.
Huh, the nickname Blob really suits this… blob.
"Guys, meet Blob. He claims that he's Zygarde."
"Zygarde doesn't look like this." I replied, which immediately made the green blob hop up and down on Nova's palm in obvious anger.
"You remembered what Zygarde looks like?" Nova asked curiously. "I didn't play the games that far so I have no clue."
"I didn't play past anything beyond Gen 3, but I did catch up a little on the game mascots of each new release or what new legendaries Nintendo added for each region. I'm pretty sure Zygarde is this huge black and green snake thing. At the very least, Zygarde shouldn't be this small."
The blob continued to hop even more angrily upon hearing my words. Nova then turned to Volkner and Akamu, who both shrugged.
"Don't remember much of the pokemon series beyond the gameboy versions." Volkner offered. "Sorry, no clue."
"I remembered a little of everything up to the Sun and Moon versions." Akamu said with a thoughtful frown. "But I wasn't really a true die-hard fan of pokemon, so I only know the very basics, like the name of each region and the game mascots and maybe a little more. Sorry, I have nothing useful to offer as well."
"It's fine. Honestly, at this point all Shannon and I wanted to do is to find all seven of us to see if any one of us had a clue on what was going on. Like, why us? If this stone tablet is to be believed, we are here, given a second chance to live in a new world for a specific reason. We just don't know what that reason is."
"Seven people, seven titles, huh?" Volkner said thoughtfully as he stared at the holographic image of the translated text. "If these seven people are indeed referring to us, we each have a title?"
"That was what Shannon and I speculated too, and we think we know what both our titles are."
"Oh? That is?"
"Shannon is certain she is the Scholar, the Eye of the Mind, because a large group of wild psychics she met in Unova kept calling her just that. Not only that, she has a weird affinity for psychic types. Psychic types are just attracted to her somehow. She is special to psychic types."
"And you?"
"I am Watcher, the Embodiment of Earth. When I first picked up the stone tablet in the secret room I had heard an unknown voice referring to me as such. It was so soft that I almost thought that I was hallucinating, but I'm certain that I had heard it. Not only that, like Shannon, I attract a certain type of pokemon to me. My affinity is with ground types, which coincides with Earth."
"Affinity?" Akamu questioned, which Nova nodded in affirmation. I looked towards Volkner, who met my questioning gaze in silence before he spoke up.
"Mine is with electric types, short stack's with ghosts. We confirmed that when we first met each other a few days ago." Volkner spoke up before turning to Akamu. "Hey big guy, you must have one too, right? What's yours?"
"Fairy." Akamu replied. "I can understand Fairy types extremely well. Too well, in fact, almost to the point that I can converse with them."
"Same for me, guess we are pretty alike. High five?"
Akamu raised an eyebrow at Volkner's childish action, but acquiesced to it anyway after a few seconds of thought.
"Ghosts are attracted to me, but I cannot understand them." I clarified. "At least, I cannot converse with them like how Volkner does with his electric types, but they are more willing to befriend and take orders from me even if they are from the wild. In fact, a large group of them are currently living in my shadows."
"That's kinda cool." Nova commented.
"It is." I agreed.
"Short stack, you are only thirteen right? As in, physically?"
"What about that?" I growled in annoyance. I swear, if this irritating man is going to make fun of my height again, I might just kick him in the nuts.
"My ability to attract electric types has been there all along, but my ability to converse with them didn't appear until a few years into my training career." Volkner replied with a somewhat uncharacteristic serious look on his face. "What I'm speculating is that maybe this… power of yours may not have fully matured yet. Give it some time, and you might just understand what these ghosts are saying when you are talking to them again a few years down the road, just like what happened to me and electric types."
"Hopefully." I sighed. How cool would it be to be able to understand what Dolly and Wacky say to me?
"Weird, I've always been able to understand ground types for as long as I could remember."
"Same here for fairies."
"You guys are lucky then." Volkner waved it off dismissively. "So, so far we know that there are likely seven of us out here in this world and five of us have already met, one from each region. Funnily enough, there are seven regions in total as well if we exclude Orre."
"Shannon and I speculated that there is one of us, each from a region that made up the PWL. So far, our theory lined up with our findings. In that case, Shadow is very likely from Kanto and his affinity is with dark types. Flier is from Johto and his affinity is for flying types."
"How are you so sure that they are from Kanto and Johto respectively?" Akamu asked.
"It goes back to the order of our titles." Nova pointed to the holographic image with her finger. "What do you think your corresponding titles are?"
"Mine's definitely Leader." Volkner replied immediately. "Ex Gym Leader, Electric Specialist, and then this Incarnate of Lightning thing. No other title fit me more than this."
"Mine should be Guardian." Akamu spoke up. "My moniker back when I was an agent at the PWL was Fairy Guardian. Guardian, Protector of Lives. In certain parts of Alola, fairy types had been synonymous with the giver of life and also because of how our region's guardian deities had been protecting our region for as long as it had existed, which is why we call them our guardian deities. Since my affinity is with Fairy types, mine should be Guardian."
"My title is definitely not Flier." I opted to go for the process of elimination in deciding who is what. "So it's either Shadow or Traveller. Personally, I think mine is Traveller, because my dream and motivation to become a trainer in the first place is to travel the world. But Companion of Chaos? What does that mean?"
"Shannon and I speculated that words like Darkness, Courage, Chaos, Lightning, Mind, Earth, and Lives refers to pokemon types. In your case, Chaos should refer to ghost types because according to Shannon, there are researchers and scholars who have described the energy ghost types emit as chaotic. It will fit with your abilities, wouldn't it? Ghost types do love you from what you told us."
"I guess…?" I trailed off with narrowed eyes and a tilt of my head. The entire thing still sounded a little off to me. Our existence had been foretold by someone or something more than 500 years ago? Arceus is possibly involved according to the green blob, if it's words are to be trusted? What about Jirachi that is currently slumbering at my family's farm then?
This is all so confusing.
"Your existence and abilities actually did prove Shannon's hypothesis, that the order of the titles coincided with the order in which the regions were united and then subsequently became a part of the PWL. Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova, Kalos, Alola, and now our titles and corresponding affinities lined up in that exact same way as well."
"Isn't that order the same order in which the games came out back in that world?" Volkner pointed out. "Red, Blue, Green, Gold, Silver, Crystal, Ruby, Sapphire, blah blah blah and all that."
"There's probably a link to that." Akamu agreed after a brief period of silence. "When everything is too much of a coincidence, then it is no coincidence."
"We think the same, big guy. Come here, give me a high five."
"No thank you."
"There's another thing you guys should know about Shadow." Nova interrupted the conversation using a more serious tone, catching all our attention immediately.
"Do we want to know?" Volkner asked cautiously, obviously having picked up the change in tone in Nova's voice.
"I'm not giving you an option." Nova deadpanned. "Shannon and Grimsley are good friends, so there's an interesting tidbit of information that she managed to find out from him. Grimsley actually has two sons, not just Asher who died a few months back. His eldest son was born in Kanto. Grimsley said that he only held him for a week before he and his wife lost him due to a fire. At most, Grimsley's son was just a few months old when that happened."
"Is there something that I'm supposed to pick out here? Because I didn't."
"I'm about to get to it." Nova sent Volkner a glare of warning, prompting him to shut up. "This is where things get weird. Grimsley told Shannon that his oldest son has an unnatural affinity for dark types, dark types just seem to love him. Sounds familiar?"
"Grimsley's oldest son is one of us." Akamu said in realisation. "But you said Grimsley lost him to a fire?"
"Not just him, but his in-laws too. Grimsley wasn't with them back then, when he returned the only survivor was his wife. No matter how they searched they just couldn't find their son, not even a corpse. Grimsley said he knows that the fire is not natural, that it had to be set on purpose, he just doesn't have any proof. After that, he and his wife left Kanto and had another son, Asher, who died trying to protect Lacunosa recently. His wife passed away five years ago. Till date, they still never gave their oldest son a name."
"So a premeditated murder or kidnapping, eh?" Volkner looked deep in thought as he pondered about the issue. "Why though? Is the attack aimed at Grimsley? No, it couldn't be. Simply setting a house on fire cannot possibly kill an Elite Four. That means the target is one of the other four members of his family. His in-laws, wife, and son. Most likely his son, given that not even his corpse was found."
"Is it just me, or does this sound a little too much like what we just read about Project Illusion?" Akamu spoke up. "Remember what we read about how Kain kidnapped many of those children who are from prominent families? Grimsley's family qualified as one and they happened to be in Kanto at that time. The entire thing started about two decades ago. Nova, do you or Shannon know how long ago was this incident?"
"I do not know, but Asher was nineteen." Nova said after some thought. "That means the age of his older brother if he is still alive would be about… damn. The timeline actually matched. Shadow's possible age and the time when Project Illusion first started does coincide."
"But we never saw a single profile which stated that the operative was abducted from Grimsley's family." Volkner argued.
"There's one missing page, remember?" I reminded him. "Operative 2046? That could be it."
"You gotta be kidding me, right? That is too much of a coincidence. Are you sure we are not overthinking things here?"
"We might be." Nova admitted. "But you have to agree that this does make sense. The timeline fits. Grimsley's account of how he lost his son is the only thing we have to go about tracking down Shadow, assuming he's still alive."
"Hold up." Akamu raised a hand to stop us before we could continue. "I may be sidetracking a little here, but remember what we speculated about this 2046 earlier? If Shadow is indeed this Operative 2046, then he very likely works for Kain and is also working undercover in Team Rocket, masquerading as one of them. That means we might face him in battle in the upcoming conflict, depending on what his real intentions are."
"We don't even know if Shadow is really on our side to begin with." Volkner added with a look of skepticism. "And isn't it too naive to think that every single person like us will use our foreknowledge for good? What if one of us decides to be the very bad that no one ever was simply because they can? We cannot just assume that Flier and Shadow are both good guys simply because they are like us."
"So, what are we going to do about this piece of information?" I brought their attention back to the topic at hand. "What can we do about it? We can't just inform Grimsley about what we found out about his son without revealing to him our secret."
"Wait and see." Volkner replied immediately. "I mean, we did practically nothing and somehow we all found each other one way or another. There's nothing much we can do other than looking out for people with unexplained affinities for flying and dark types anyway, and trying to do so is harder than it sounds. Just look at the size of Indigo."
"And we also have a burning problem to solve right now. We don't have the time nor do we have the energy." Akamu added, referring to our task at hand as members of the interpol.
"But just in case Shadow and 2046 are really one and the same person, we can look out for sightings of known Rockets who are also notable Dark Specialists." Volkner said after some consideration. "If his gift is so pronounced even when he was just a baby there might be prior records of such a Rocket running around."
"Well, that settles the issue of Shadow, I guess, assuming that he really is 2046." The corner of my eye caught sight of the green blob sitting on Nova's palm and out of curiosity, I turned back to face it once more.
"You are really Zygarde?"
Blob's response was to hop angrily up and down again. I looked back up at Nova, who merely shrugged.
"I only have his word to go by. I'm kind of inclined to believe it considering that there are many things Blob can do that my ground types cannot, but everytime I look at his behaviour…"
Blob continued to hop up and down in that same childish tantrum.
"I can see why." Volkner said dryly. "Is he talking to you now or something?"
"He's been yelling in my head ever since I introduced him to you guys. Wait, you guys cannot hear him?"
"No."
"Nope."
"I heard nothing."
"So only I can hear Blob? Well, at least I learnt something new." Nova commented as she picked Blob up and slid it back into her pocket.
"You know, anyone of you here has a clue on what world we are in exactly?" Akamu questioned. "There are many adaptations of pokemon, right? Games, anime, manga, whatnots. Do any of you know just what kind of world this is?"
Volkner and I both glanced at each other.
"You can have the honour of saying it, short stack."
"You should do it. Your words hold more weight as a Gym Leader."
"Ex Gym Leader. I'm retired."
"Fine." I replied with a roll of my eyes before facing Akamu and Nova. "Uhm, how do I put this? For one, this world is screwed up."
"Screwed up?"
"Any timelines that we know of don't match, for one." I explained what I found out with Jarvis' help the other day before I reached Johto. "I live in Petalburg. Norman is my city's Gym Leader and I was once his gym trainer so I know quite a bit of his personal life. He has a daughter, name's May, only at a year old. I had thought that this was the anime world or something because of her presence. Then I start to realise some differences. You guys would have realised that too by now, right? How this world differs from what we thought we know about the pokemon world."
"Like how pokemon can learn more than four moves." Nova stated. "That's certainly a big difference."
"How certain things have not yet happened, or maybe never will." Volkner added. "The high speed rail that I remembered which linked Johto and Kanto from Goldenrod to Saffron in the games is still not present."
"I'm pretty sure Ultra Beasts can be caught in the games, but they cannot be caught in this world. At least, not currently." Akamu said with a frown.
"I had my own porygon-z check if there is an Ash Ketchum." I elaborated. "If the anime's timeline is to be believed, he's definitely born by now since May is already here. Guess what? No such person exists. Not even a Delia Ketchum. So now not only are we short of a world saviour, we are not in the anime world. Every bit of our knowledge about it is officially useless."
"Yay." Volkner stated dryly and purposely made the rolling of his eyes especially obvious.
"But." I ignored Volkner's sassy self and continued. "There is a Gary. Gary Blue Oak, that's what my porygon-z found out, and Gary is already an adult."
"Is there a Red then?" Nova asked.
"As far as we could search, no." I shook my head. "If there is, then his identity is probably very heavily guarded."
"Or he doesn't exist at all." Akamu offered an alternative point of view.
"This isn't the world of the pokemon manga, that's for sure." Volkner spoke up. "I used to be a fan of the Pokemon Adventures manga and I can safely say that this world is not it. None of the events in the manga happened in this world, so we can rule that possibility out."
"Which means we had reached another dead end." Nova said with a sigh.
"So, what kind of pokemon world is this, that should be the question we are asking." Volkner contributed. "I've been to quite a few regions in my youth and from what I can see, I believe that this world is more closely aligned to the games than anything else. At the very least, the key characters that I remembered that made up the games that I once played are all the same. The age of several important people might have been mixed up a little compared to what I remembered, but it's nothing too significant in the larger scheme of things."
"So this crazy world we found ourselves in is just… just simply a world of pokemon?" Akamu asked, obviously still trying to wrap that idea around his head. "No plot or timeline to rely on to know what is going to happen next?"
"As far as we can tell for now, yeah."
"Maybe this is one of the alternate universe things you often see people write crappy fanfictions about." I shrugged. "Something about parallel worlds or something, right? Maybe we are simply existing in one of many pokemon universes out there and we happen to be in the one where all of our foreknowledge is useless."
"In that case, it's best to not rely too much on what we thought we know is 'canon'." Nova quoted with an air quote motion of her fingers. "Assumption kills, and having preconceived notions about things that we thought hold true may in the end backfire on us instead. Whenever we can, we should just learn about this world as much as we can with an open mind. Let's just take it that nothing is impossible in this world until we understand it a little better."
"This week is really not my week." Volkner groaned as he facepalmed. "First, short stack came knocking on my door and interrupted my quiet retirement life. Then another three of you came up to my doorstep just a few days later. Come on man, I just want to enjoy my-"
"Retirement." We chorused in unison. "We get it the first time."
The few of us remained silent for a short while after that, not knowing how to react and respond after we exchanged what we all know about this world from our own individual experiences.
"Let's go back to start cooking our lunch." Volkner proposed as his gallade reappeared with a teleport. "Anything else to say before we act like this meeting never happened?"
"I still cannot believe someone like you became a Gym Leader." Nova stated flatly.
"I second that." Akamu added.
"What they said." I said with a cheeky grin.
"You guys suck. And by the way, I'm no longer a Gym Leader. I'm-"
"Retired. Yes, we know."
"Good. As long as you guys know that I'm-"
"Retired. We know."
It was when lunch time came around that I finally saw who were part of the "tech team", as Volkner puts it. Each of them are renowned experts in their field and seeing them all gathered in Volkner's house kind of put things into perspective on just how serious this Rocket crisis is.
Professor Samuel Oak, Professor Elm, Blaine, Fuji, Bill, Professor Samson Oak, and of course Shannon and Mary. Together, they are the team assembled by Lance and Looker to help find a way to release Mewtwo from the M2 Bind. A very overpowered team in my opinion, but the situation warranted such a lineup.
"Honey! You really should call me if you guys are planning to cook! There are so many things I could have cooked! Manapua, Loco Moco-"
"It's fine, dear. Besides, you were busy."
As it turns out, one of Mary's hobbies is cooking. She is a little upset that nobody invited her into the cooking session that we reincarnated souls indulged ourselves in for a little bonding session. Each of us cooked a little of our region's specialties. Akamu is from Alola, so the food he cooked has the kind of wild taste that you cannot really quite replicate unless you've been there yourself.
Akamu cooked a large pot of Saimin noodles. According to him, it's a popular cuisine among the locals. The taste didn't disappoint too. It is a little similar to what you expect from traditional ramen, but it is also different in an indescribable way.
"Next time you guys are cooking you have to call me. Okay?"
"Looking forward to it." Volkner replied to Mary with a smirk. "Alright, I know this doesn't seem like much but this is the best dish I can cook. Grilled fish."
Volkner lived most of his life in Sunyshore, a place built on and surrounded by the sea. The description of Sunyshore reminds a little of Pacifidlog if I have to be honest with myself. Sunyshore is a unique city even in Sinnoh. Seafood is the staple of Sunyshore citizens due to their close proximity with the sea and as such, most of their local cuisine has very much to do with what they can net from the ocean itself.
"Volkner. This is good." Nova said in visible surprise the moment she ate a bite. We all quickly took a bite ourselves after hearing what Nova had to say about Volkner's grilled fish. Nova is right. It is good.
"Really?"
"I have a masterchef for a friend. Trust me, even Siebold will be wanting to learn how you did this." Nova affirmed as she helped herself to another bite.
"Huh, I'm flattered." Volkner said in a smug grin before turning to me. "Alright, short stack, what you got?"
"You call me by that one more time, we are going to have problems." I warned Volkner before introducing what I have cooked for the team. I'm glad I learnt a thing or two from Mum before I set off for Johto.
"This is tempura. I know Johto has tempura as well so it might not seem special, but tempura is a very popular dish in Hoenn. Everyone eats tempura back in my region no matter where you go."
"Ah, Hoenn's tempura. Sure does bring back some fond memories." Bill said dreamily before helping himself to the food. "Wonder how Lanette's doing? Been a long time since we kept in contact."
"Hoenn is indeed famous for their tempuras. The hot spring eggs at Lavaridge too, I could never forget that." Professor Samuel Oak mused as he ate the tempura as well. The Professor Samuel Oak.
"I figured that we could all use a bowl of soup each, so this is what I cooked." Nova spoke up when it's her turn to introduce what she just cooked. "We call it Soupe à L'oignon in our region's native tongue, but it's basically onion soup."
"Is that melted cheese on top?" Mary asked curiously when she took a closer look at Nova's dish. True enough, there is actually cheese on top of the soup.
"It's how we eat it back in Kalos." Nova explained. "It goes well together, trust me. I'm no Siebold, but I'm confident that I managed to reproduce at least 80% of what he taught me when it comes to cooking this pot of soup."
"If this is 80%, I cannot wait to eat 100% of it." Professor Elm gave his praise as he happily slurped on his soup. "Soupe à L'oignon? I'm definitely looking up the recipe for it the moment we are done with our work."
"I can ask Siebold to give you his, he'll be more than happy to do so." Nova offered. "Actually, since he's already here in Johto we should just ask him to come over to cook us a meal someday. He likes it when people eat what he cooks."
"Caramelising those onions must be difficult." Mary examined with a critical eye. "But you did it so well. How did you do it?"
"After burning at least ten pots of soup back home while practicing." Nova shrugged. "It took me some time to be able to cook a pot of Soupe à L'oignon properly. It's really not as easy as it looks. If you want, I could teach you what I know when we have the time."
"Next time we old timers should cook a Kanto dish or two for you youngsters to try out." Professor Oak laughed out loud good naturedly. "It's been a long time, but I could probably still cook a good plate of deep fried tofu!"
"If you youngsters ever have the chance, go try Cinnabar's curry. It has a unique taste that you will not regret trying no matter the spice level." Blaine added.
"Lavender has the best sake, that's the one thing you cannot miss out on when visiting Lavender." Fuji said with a smile as he ate his meal. Sake? Too bad I'm underage. I will definitely buy a few bottles of it and bring it around with me otherwise.
Or maybe I could just ask someone of age to buy it for me. Hmm, Volkner, maybe?
"I… I could probably fry a large plate of fries, that's about it. Ehehehe…" Shannon said sheepishly. "Sorry, but cooking really isn't my thing."
"It's fine, we all have things that we are good and bad at."
All things considered, the interpol's very first official meeting was a huge success. Guess Volkner was right. We do need an ice breaking session to know each other better.
It was in this meeting that I can see why these are the people that had been recommended to join the interpol. They really know what they are doing. It's also then that I saw why the annoying Volkner was so heavily relied upon by the Sinnoh League during his time there.
How do I put it? He's a true leader through and through. He knows how to properly delegate the most suitable tasks to people who are most suited for the job. He can identify the strengths and weaknesses of everyone present with just a glance and handed out our respective tasks without delay. All he needed to do to formulate a plan for Indigo in defending Johto from Team Rocket was a single look at what we know about Team Rocket's plans, now made available to us thanks to the mysterious informant, and he then came up with the backbone of a reasonable counterattack strategy in a single night. I can now see why Team Galactic is so afraid of him. He really does have some crazy skills in the crime busting department despite his annoying self and he is really all about efficiency.
There are a few things that got Volkner concerned during our meeting to discuss what we know about the Rockets. For one, we don't have the full plan that the Rockets are scheming to put into action on the big day. What we have is just a large part of the plan and while it is a lot better than not knowing about it in the first place, it is still an incomplete plan. We are working with incomplete information and that means that we will have to take calculated risks.
Secondly, Mewtwo is involved. That alone will take up quite a bit on our already scarce manpower among the available Pillars, Indigo or foreign ones, because this is a pokemon on par with a Legendary pokemon that we are talking about, one that is created to easily rival the combined powers of Johto's Legendary Beasts and it will be under the full control of Team Rocket until we help free it. According to the informant, Mewtwo is certain that it will never side with the Rockets and is willing to join forces with us in order to regain its freedom. So, depending on our luck and its mood, Mewtwo will be our ally at best and a neutral party at worst after we helped free it. Honestly, that is a lot more than what we expected it to be considering what we reincarnated souls know about Mewtwo based on our foreknowledge. All we are hoping is that the informant's information about Mewtwo's personality is accurate because if it isn't, then we will have a Legendary level threat to prepare for.
Thirdly, although we do have some information regarding some of Team Rocket's Executives, not all of them are complete information. All we do know is that they all possess the strength and capabilities as expected from a Pillar and are all extremely dangerous. The most notable one is Executive Archer, a Dragon Specialist and according to what we know, is the most powerful trainer in Team Rocket short of Giovanni. The informant estimated Archer to be about Elite Four level in terms of strength, which is a huge cause for concern.
Fourthly, Team Rocket had planned to launch an all-out siege on every single town and city in Johto, all at the same time and they were planning to conquer Johto in a single day. It sounds ludicrous and over ambitious at first, but when the information we have on hand pointed out just how powerful and large Team Rocket is, the threat suddenly felt very real. We will be stretched very thin because everything will be happening all at once. Not only that, the ways they planned to conduct their siege on each city differs from city to city, so we have to react accordingly as well. A one-size-fits-all plan is not going to work for our counterattack.
Since the Indigo Pillars would be busy preparing plans to defend their own respective cities, the purpose of this first meeting of our interpol group is to help Indigo produce the first draft of what our overall counterattack strategy would be on a very macro view. After this, Volkner and Looker will meet Lance and the Indigo Pillars in secret to discuss the details and then finalise the plan. Right now, we are simply here on Volkner's request because he needs a quality second opinion and to hear what we have to say about what he has done so far, and also because he wants to know in-depth the extent of our individual capabilities.
Volkner had identified a few key places of interests that he knows for sure will be heavily targeted by Team Rocket. The incomplete information provided to us by Lance and his mysterious informant also points to this fact. Indigo Plateau, Violet City, Goldenrod City, Olivine City, Mahogany Town, Blackthorn City, Cherrygrove City. Seven places in total and they are each targeted for different reasons. These places are where Team Rocket's Executives are most likely to appear, which means it will be where the battles will be the fiercest and where we would need to station our most elite forces to combat them.
According to Volkner's explanation, Violet City, Goldenrod City, and Cherrygrove City are targeted for their strategic locations. If Team Rocket could take over these cities they can easily control Johto and the movement of both our forces and theirs. Violet City lies smack dab at the heart of Johto, linking the north, south, east, and west of the region together. Cherrygrove is located at the eastern part of Johto, and passing through it is the quickest way for any forces marching in from Kanto to reach further inland. Goldenrod is not exactly situated at the heart of Johto, but it is close enough. Not only that, controlling it allows the control of the naval route around the southern part of Johto. If Team Rocket sends in their forces from the sea, then Goldenrod cannot fall, because if it does Team Rocket can immediately attack Olivine and from there, easily conquer Ecruteak and then march eastwards to Blackthorn, or westwards to Cianwood from Olivine.
Blackthorn is targeted simply because of how Team Rocket is planning to launch their attack. Beneath the Johto region lies a complicated network of underground tunnels that reached deep underground. These networks of tunnels only have three known exits and these places are collectively named as the Dark Cave. Somehow, Team Rocket has managed to hide a massive army within the depths of the Dark Cave itself. Hiding in there was how they kept evading detection in Johto. Coincidentally, the three exits of the Dark Cave are situated closest to Cherrygrove, Violet, and Blackthorn. If Team Rocket's army suddenly swarms out of there without warning at the same time at their full power, two eastern cities and one central city of Johto will be taken down in one fell swoop before anyone has any idea what is going on.
Looking at this, all I can say is that we are really lucky that we have a mysterious informant on our side that managed to inform us of what Team Rocket is planning. If Indigo remains ignorant of what they are planning, it will be disastrous for not only Indigo, but also the world. Like Looker had explained, if Indigo were to fall, the world will start to crumble.
Whoever that mysterious informant is, that guy just did Indigo and the world a huge service. He or she just possibly managed to prevent an entire region from falling apart and quite possibly the PWL too.
Mahogany is targeted because for Team Rocket's forces to advance further inland from Blackthorn, they need to pass through Mahogany unless they want to make a big detour through the Dark Cave or Cherrygrove. Going through Mahogany is simply the quickest way to achieve a strong control over the north side of Johto and from there, Team Rocket can advance westwards and southwards in their conquest. Olivine is targeted because it is close to the sea and the only thing protecting Ecruteak from any invaders from the west. If Team Rocket could control Olivine, it would also mean solidifying Team Rocket's control of Johto's naval route. What we do know is that Team Rocket's main army is planning to advance towards Goldenrod and Olivine from the sea on the big day, which means they are conducting a pincer attack on Johto from both the west and east before bulldozing their way inwards. That is how they are planning to conquer Johto in a nutshell.
That is not to say the other towns and cities of Johto will not be attacked that day, but the size of the Rocket army that will be sent there will definitely not be as large and the battles will definitely not be as fierce or harsh. In fact, from what we could find out about Team Rocket's plans, New Bark Town and Cianwood are totally ignored due to their remote locations. Cianwood lies in the remote west of Johto and Team Rocket chose to bypass New Bark Town entirely through the sea in order to quickly reach Azalea, Goldenrod, and Olivine undetected. There simply isn't enough incentive for Team Rocket to devote their attention to Cianwood and New Bark Town if they want to take over Johto within a day because they could easily conquer the other cities first before marching their way there. Indigo forces will still be stationed at Cianwood and New Bark Town, but definitely significantly less.
Next on the agenda was how to deal with the key members that made up the core of Team Rocket. To know, understand, and predict how Team Rocket will act that day and which key members they would send to which city, we also need to understand their organisational structure and chain of command. To keep things simple, there are only three types of people in Team Rocket that we need to be very careful of. They are namely the Leader, the Executives, and the Elite Officers. These people are the strongest and most dangerous members of Team Rocket, each of them wielding the power of a Pillar, or close to one. There's a need to know as much as we can about them in order to send the best suited people we have on our side to put them down. Everything from their true identity to their specialisation to their pokemon team, we need to find out as much as we can.
Team Rocket's leader is Giovanni, that much we now know. Ironically, he is the only one among the Rockets who we have the greatest understanding on just how strong he is because he is a public figure as Viridian's Gym Leader. Below him are his five Executives, namely Ariana, Archer, Proton, Petrel, Plague. Five different people, each specialising in different things and holding onto different responsibilities within the organisation. They are also all Kantonians, handpicked for the position by Giovanni himself.
This is where we start to catch a glimpse of how effective and organised Team Rocket truly is. It's scary just to even think about it. Like how every Gym Leader has their own designated responsibilities depending on which city they are stationed at, each Rocket Executive has their own roles to play. Lance's informant had managed to do the impossible by unearthing the true identities of most of the Executives, their specialisations, and their roles in the organisation, something which the Indigo had never succeeded in doing ever since Team Rocket came into being.
Ariana's real name is Alice Riana. She is also Giovanni's wife and leads Team Rocket in his absence. She is a Rock Specialist but there is nothing much we know about the kind of pokemon she uses. Since we knew Giovanni was from SKIP, we immediately went to find out more about Ariana from the former members of SKIP that are now on our side and also happened to be working on a way to destroy the M2 Bind, most of them conveniently located in Volkner's garage where they had holed themselves in. Interesting enough, or not, depending on how you look at it, Alice used to work under Mary's father and was his student. She used to participate in Kanto's famed Space Shuttle Columbia project and was once one of SKIP's leaders.
All we have about Ariana's abilities as a trainer are accounts from the former members of SKIP who managed to remember the kind of pokemon she uses, and those accounts are severely outdated because it has been more than two decades since they last saw her. Ariana is in charge of the R&D department of Team Rocket. She is also noted by the informant to be the one in charge of supervising Team Rocket's numerous science experiments, including the one that created Mewtwo.
Archer's real name is revealed to be Arawn Jaecar. He is a Dragon Specialist and the first to make Executive if we exclude Ariana. Not only is he the strongest Executive in terms of power, he is in charge of Team Rocket's finances and making plans for Team Rocket's expansion. He is arguably Giovanni's and Ariana's right hand man and their most trusted Executive. He is also known in certain circles as the 'Relentless Hunter' because he always managed to hunt down his prey no matter how far they ran from him. Upon further digging after knowing his true identity, we found out that Archer is the son of Giovanni's best friend, Elias Jaecar, who was also one of the leaders of SKIP who was killed during the organisation's extermination. Archer's father was one of the fallen members of SKIP, so Archer is probably in Team Rocket for revenge. According to Blaine, Arawn was presumed to be dead during the extermination of SKIP. Nobody knew that he was still alive and is now working for Giovanni as Team Rocket's Executive Archer.
Everything and everyone about Team Rocket seems to link back to SKIP somehow. Hearing about it from Looker was one thing, seeing it for myself is another.
Other than that, there is nothing much we could find out about Arawn. Even Lance's informant drew up a blank thereafter. We have no clue how powerful he really is other than the vague description of "possibly Elite Four level" by the informant and we have no idea on what kind of pokemon he uses. Whoever that will be facing him is certainly going to have a hard time.
Proton's real name is Olwen Lummiki. He is an Ice Specialist and used to be a serial killer. At one point, he was the most feared serial killer lurking about in Johto. His targets are always Johtonian politicians, especially the corrupt ones, and his way of killing them is by freezing them alive in the most morbid of ways, earning himself the moniker of 'Iceman'. Due to the group of people he often targeted, how brutal his murders are, and the fact that he eluded capture for five years, he was designated as a Level 10 threat by Indigo and thus warranted the need of a Pillar to deal with this threat. Giovanni was the one who volunteered to capture or neutralise him back then. Thereafter, the case was closed when Giovanni reported that the threat had been neutralised.
Now we know that apparently wasn't the case, because Giovanni had obviously taken Olwen under his wing and gave him a new identity and cause to work for. Proton is stated by Lance's informant to be the one in charge of Team Rocket's manpower. He recruits and trains people who join Team Rocket and find ways to collect more pokemon for the organisation. If there are any huge threats to Team Rocket that must be put down and there is a need to make a big show out of it, Proton is usually the one sent for the job to help Team Rocket make a statement. Thankfully, the information we have about Proton is a little more detailed than Archer's. At the very least, Lance's informant managed to list out a few pokemon that Proton is known to use on his team, so that is something that we can definitely prepare for.
Petrel's true identity is Henrik Amon, and also the Executive who we have the most information on when it comes to his capabilities as a trainer. Henrik was a talented trainer of Indigo and was very successful in his career as a trainer. He is a Poison Specialist and used to have a daughter who had passed away some years back due to an incurable illness. Somewhere down the line before his daughter's passing, Petrel had turned to underground tournaments and became the undefeated reigning champion of the underworld for three years, which is no easy feat from what Volkner had explained. Underground tournaments are very much like the usual annual Regional League Tournaments, but a lot more brutal and bloody because every battle is a life-and-death battle. Pokemon die there all the time. Only the victor will walk out alive and because of the risks involved, it is a very lucrative underground business that profits from those who love to spectate such violent battles. Basically, high risk, high reward. The amount of money a champion of an underground tournament can earn in one go is staggering.
After his third year in maintaining his position as the undefeated champion of Johto's underground tournament, Petrel then joined Team Rocket for reasons unknown and quickly worked his way up to be Executive due to his strength. He is also noted to be extremely adept at infiltration and has the skill to create convincing and lifelike disguises at the snap of the fingers. It was what earned him the moniker of 'Toxic Mask' during his time as the reigning champion of Johto's underground tournaments. Lance's informant had given us a lot of crucial information regarding Petrel when it comes to his pokemon team and favoured battle tactics. It is the most comprehensive list we have among all the known Executives and probably the only person who we can properly prepare against.
Lastly, the most mysterious Executive of Team Rocket, an individual that we know close to nothing about. The Rocket who we spent the most time investigating his background and skill sets and even then, we are not sure if what we found out about this person is accurate at all.
Executive Plague. Real name, unknown. How he looks like, unknown. Specialisation, dark types. Pokemon team, unknown. History and background, unknown. Role in the organisation, espionage and assassination. Unlike the other Executives where things are more detailed and explained, almost everything is a blank for this guy and what we do know isn't very useful in formulating a plan to defeat him.
We only had a little bit of breakthrough when Volkner's and my Jarvis scoured through the information given to Volkner from Lance's side to see if there are accounts of anyone from the Indigo League who might have faced this unknown Rocket before. According to three different reports about the attack on Johto National Park almost six months back, there were people who encountered an extremely dangerous Dark Specialist who is also a confirmed member of Team Rocket. This is the closest description of an individual we could get and match with the profile of this Executive Plague, because this unknown individual from Team Rocket had been listed as a Level 10 threat by Lance himself, definitely somebody powerful enough to possibly qualify as a Rocket Executive.
From there, with the exception of Mary and Shannon who had excused themselves earlier to figure out a way to destroy the M2 Bind, the rest of us manually searched through whatever information the Indigo League has on hand to find out more about the abilities of this Executive Plague, or what we suspect is his handiwork. This was where Nova's skills as a historian came in handy, because her photographic memory and ability to sort through and then quickly pick out the relevant information that we need from the gigantic pile of information dumped on us made our work a lot easier.
The attack on the Johto National Park was the most notable case Nova had dug up. That attack was one of the most terrifying attacks conducted by Team Rocket to date. That Rocket easily dispatched a Ranger from Johto's 1st Ranger Regiment, a place where only the most elite Rangers from Johto can qualify to enter, which meant that the Ranger wasn't weak by any means. The Rocket might have killed her if her commander and Falkner didn't arrive in the nick of time and took over the battle.
You would have thought that the combined might of a squadron commander of the most elite Ranger Regiment and a Gym Leader was more than enough to put a Rocket down regardless if he possessed the strength of a Pillar or not, but that never happened. Not only that, the Rocket not only matched them both in battle while outnumbered, but played them for fools by stealing both their Mega Stones right under their very noses, almost as if mocking their inability before making his getaway with a Teleport. To add on to our frustration, there were no footages recorded by the security cameras in the park. They had all been erased somehow, so we could not even observe his fighting style. All we have about his known battle tactics are written accounts.
What we do find out from the submitted reports by the two Rangers and Falkner is that the Rocket is a master at deception, expert on controlling the flow of the battle, and a skillful weaver of illusions. His zoroark, houndoom, and hydreigon was noted to be especially dangerous to face in battle because they were what gave Falkner and the Rangers such a hard time. The illusionary capabilities of the Rocket's zoroark surpassed every single fact we knew about their species' abilities in this field. Shannon had helped us consult Grimsley and her uncle to double check with them to be doubly sure about it. According to the two Unovan experts, the illusionary capabilities of the zoroark is very likely the pinnacle of its species. It will be close to impossible to find another zoroark in the entire world that could match the illusionary capabilities as displayed by the Rocket's.
Then comes the Rocket's houndoom and hydreigon. Falkner and the Ranger both noted that the Rocket's houndoom displayed defensive capabilities that should not be present or feasibly achieved, something which baffled even Karen when Falkner consulted her about the houndoom's unusual display of power after the attack on Johto National Park. He also suspected that the Rocket's weavile may be unusual as well. The hydreigon the Rocket used was described as 'a berserker' by the Ranger who first encountered the Rocket because it easily went berserk in the heat of the battle and scarily enough, the Rocket could maintain complete command over the hydreigon even when it was in that state of mindless rage. That is not something many people in the world can claim to do, even for someone like Grimsley.
Just that alone is more than enough to list this individual as a Level 10 threat, that is for sure.
We had hoped that was the full extent of the threat Executive Plague posed to Indigo, until a footnote in Falkner's report had prompted Nova to dig up several older reports that Falkner suspected might have links to this Executive Plague. Everything from then on was a lot of guesswork on our part.
What Nova had dug up was a raid on a League facility researching prehistoric pokemon that was located near Blackthorn, and the poaching of an Elite level wild mamoswine at Cherrygrove Nature Reserve. Those two events happened at two separate times, with the attack on the League facility happening before the poaching at Cherrygrove. The poaching done at Cherrygrove Nature Reserve was confirmed to be the handiwork of the same Rocket who faced Falkner at Johto National Park because by some sort of twisted luck, the same Ranger who made first contact with the Rocket at the Park had bumped into the Rocket at the Cherrygrove Nature Reserve a few months prior, and then the same Ranger happened to possess an aerodactyl that came from the research facility that was previously mentioned.
That aerodactyl was the key in identifying that the few unknown individuals that appeared in these three places at three different points in time are in fact, one and the same, because the aerodactyl's sudden aggressive behaviour when it spotted the Rocket at Cherrygrove suggested that it knew the Rocket personally and it held a personal vendetta against the Rocket, and the only other place it had been to before that incident was the research facility that was raided and wiped clean of all the prehistoric pokemon that were kept there for research. The only prehistoric pokemon that wasn't stolen at the facility was the aerodactyl, who was hypnotised to fly all the way from Blackthorn to the sea south of New Bark Town to attack a specific ship that was ferrying civilians to Unova, where the aerodactyl ended up being captured by the Ranger who will later end up meeting the Rocket at both Cherrygrove and later on at the Park.
The entire timeline of events was confusing as hell and I'm not even sure if I fully understand it myself, but from this, there is one crucial thing that we manage to learn about the Rocket's capabilities that made us realise that he is a lot more dangerous than we thought him to be.
Since we had established that the Rocket who hypnotised the aerodactyl at the facility, poached the Elite level mamoswine at Cherrygrove, and attacked the Johto National Park are very likely the same individual, and that this individual is very likely to be the Executive Plague we are trying to find out more about, then the fact that this Rocket managed to hypnotise an aerodactyl to fly all the way from Blackthorn to New Bark Town to attack a very specific ship is a huge cause for concern. In other words, the Rocket has a pokemon that is a master at using the move, Hypnosis. Not only that, he uses it to mind control his victims to do his bidding, almost like a master puppeteer working from behind the shadows.
Hypnosis is commonly used to lull a target to sleep by implanting a hypnotic suggestion within their minds to fall asleep. In the hands of any ordinary trainer, that is the extent in which one can use Hypnosis because it's very difficult to do anything more than lulling your victims to sleep with Hypnosis. However, in the hands of a master, Hypnosis can be used to control every single thought and action of the target through implanting 'suggestions' within the mind, compelling them to act in a certain manner that is favourable to the controller. In the hands of a true master of this move, very often, their victims would not even know that they are being controlled. Very few trainers and their pokemon in this world managed to attain such level of skill with Hypnosis, but those that do are always being watched very carefully by their respective Leagues in their region due to the kind of chaos they can sow without anyone the wiser. Nobody wants to be mind controlled.
The real problem is that in Indigo, there isn't a single known person who is a master at Hypnosis and fits the description of this Executive Plague. Meaning to say, he's a true unknown. No identity, no face, nothing. He's a literal nobody. All we have are words of his exploits and what we now know of most of his abilities are through sheer guesswork on our part. That is assuming that Plague and the Rockets who were at Blackthorn, Cherrygrove, and Johto National Park are really all the same individuals, because they are the closest match we can find regarding what we know about Plague and what we know about unidentified dangerous individuals in Team Rocket.
In any case, Plague's true identity and capabilities must be investigated further. He or she is the only Executive who we could not pin an identity to nor match a face to his name. For the sake of Indigo, we all agreed that we need to eliminate any kinds of unknown as much as possible. At the very least for the other Executives, we now know how they look like and what their true identities are so investigations done on them will be a lot smoother from this point onwards, but not for Plague.
Thus, the only way to possibly find out more about Plague is to go visit the people who had faced him in direct battle before, namely the two Rangers from the Johto 1st Ranger Regiment and Falkner himself. If there's anything that is not written into the reports about this Rocket for some reason, we need to hear it from the mouths of those who had faced him in battle and survived.
When Looker left the meeting temporarily to answer a phone call, Nova did bring up a concern, that such a powerful Dark Specialist like Plague might very well be the holder of the title of Shadow, another missing member of the seven of us as we discussed earlier while we were preparing our lunch. The other three of us aren't really convinced even if we didn't dismiss that possibility. Truly accomplished Dark Specialists are not a dime a dozen, but it's not the rarest specialisation either. Shadow could be anyone and he or she might not even be a trainer, like how Shannon is.
Besides, like what Akamu said, if Plague is indeed like us, why is he using his foreknowledge to destroy this world? And statistically speaking, what are the odds that one of us ended up becoming a criminal?
In any case, this doesn't change the fact that Plague's identity and capability must be further investigated so that Indigo can prepare their own countermeasures against such a powerful villain. Volkner will interview Falkner and see if he can get any more concrete details about the Rocket he had faced, Looker and I will go and search for the two Rangers who were also there on the scene that day at Johto National Park. Hence, that is Looker's and my next assignment, to conduct further investigation on Team Rocket's Executive Plague.
That also meant that it is time to start my Johto travels.