The Great Butler
Hush, keep it down
As soon as Matt gave his assent, the glass changed from opaque to clear, revealing two men behind it. One was Looker, holding a small remote in his hand that triggered the change in the window.
The other was an elderly man in an orange prison jumpsuit. He was balding, retaining only some wisps of white hair on his head, but he also had an unkempt beard similarly lacking in color. When he set his eyes upon Matt, he smiled and slowly picked up the phone on his side of the window.
“Hello, Matt,” he calmly said.
“And hello to you, Jacob…” The bitterness in Matt’s voice was obvious.
“To what do I owe this pleasure? It’s quite nice to have you come calling with your rather lovely new friends.”
Matt didn’t see Nekou blanche at the implicit suggestion in Jacob’s words, but he didn’t have to as he felt a similar revulsion. Bunny, meanwhile, simply sat stone-faced, staring at her former professor and friend.
“Don’t push your luck, Jacob,” Matt growled, clutching his shoulder where Jacob had once shot him. “I would rather just watch you go back to prison for the murder you committed. Unfortunately for me, I need help and you’re the only man I can turn to.”
“So what is it? What did you seek me out for?”
“It’s about the past of this country and the world. I am aware of the existence of a certain Guild of men that shaped the world’s history thousands of years ago, but they dropped off the charts of history around the time of Caitlin the First’s rule over this country, about a century and a half ago.”
“Did you ever think that they don’t exist anymore?”
Matt almost instantly became visibly flustered at the suggestion. “But… I remember back to when I found the Golden City of La Ciudad Dorada years ago… that man who tried to stop me, Count Fernando VIII… he said that he thought people from that Guild were coming for him and an artifact in his possession. He thought I was one of them.”
“And since when do you put stock in the ravings of a madman?” Jacob reproached him. “You’re Sutter’s grandson, I know you’re smarter than that. Listen well. That Guild disbanded after the events of the attempted revolution led by Colonel Nixon against Caitlin the First in the year 1850.”
Matt shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He knew the events Jacob was referring to, especially because he had lived them. Some time earlier, while at the Indigo Plateau investigating the ruins of an ancient city, Matt, Nekou, Olivia and Bunny had been sent back in time by a strange phenomenon and witnessed the rebellion firsthand. Recalling these events led Matt to a realization he considered even more ominous – the Time Gate phenomenon in Ilex Forest was very similar to what had happened.
“…are you even listening?” Jacob snapped, bringing Matt back to reality. “They were disbanded because their influence was seen as no longer necessary. Caitlin the First instated the earliest workings of what would become the Pokémon League. As it were, she replaced the guiding hand of a secret organization with bread and circuses for the people, but damn if it didn’t work.”
Matt stood and stepped away from the glass, running his hand down his face. All of a sudden, his quest for the truth of the events of the past had hit a wall. He considered the apparent link to the Guild a clue to why those events had taken place, but with that lead now quashed by Jacob, he felt helpless, as if he had run headfirst into a brick wall.
He failed to notice Nekou take up the phone.
“I’ve got a few questions for you too, old man.”
Jacob’s expression brightened at the chance to talk to her. “Well, I have to consider this quite a gift. I’ve been in prison for a long time now, after all. You’re a sight for sore eyes.”
“You’re lucky I need you. And you’re even more ****ing lucky you’re on the other side of that glass, because don’t you think for a second I’d hesitate to crack you one for that. I need to know more about what’s in this book.”
Nekou produced the book she’d stolen from the Pokémon Academy library, the one where Sutter and Jacob recounted their adventures. Much to her surprise, as soon as he saw it, Jacob turned white as a sheet and attempted to stand, only to be restrained by his handcuffs bracing him to the table. He ended up smashing his face against the glass.
“No! Not that!” he screamed. “Don’t read that! What’s in that book should have been burned decades ago!”
“Well I hate to tell you, but it’s more relevant than ever now. I read all about your travels with Sutter Chiaki in it… but what’s really got me intrigued is this one person, Saeko Oryo…”
“NO!!” Jacob slammed himself against the glass again. He was blatantly trying to break the handcuffs off the table, which forced Looker to rush in and restrain him.
“Doing that you are again, and ending this meeting will!”
“Fine, fine, I’m sorry…” Though he stopped throwing himself around, Jacob was visibly rattled and disturbed.
“I need to know,” Nekou repeated. “What is the truth behind Saeko Oryo, the Jewel of Life and what happened that day in the Tenganist holy land?”
“If you really want to know, it’s a horrible story…” Jacob looked up, hoping to see Nekou dissuaded from the story, but he was disappointed to find her gaze more determined than ever. “Fine. You know of the Transcendence, the power that many Tenganists have?”
“Yes.”
“Saeko Oryo had the most powerful one, the ability to see the past and future. Her people called her “The Oracle” and she was held in a position of high honor within their society. But then…”
“I know, she was burned as a witch,” Nekou said, irritated. “Stop stalling. What really happened?”
“The… the reason she was to be burned was because… she… she got too close to us. Sutter and I, we were outsiders. That led the Tenganists in the holy land to treat us with suspicion already, but she got too close to us. When she was tried and condemned, we were exiled from the holy land. But, as we were leaving, she escaped her prison and tried to leave as well. When she couldn’t, she… she committed the mortal sin. She used the partial Jewel of Life there for her own benefit.”
“How, and why?” Now Bunny was involved in the questioning, as she was utterly fascinated with the story.
“As far as I can tell, she didn’t want to die, so she swallowed that accursed thing. Foolish choice… it unleashed massive energy and burned her from the inside out. She condemned herself to the very death she tried to avoid. But that wasn’t it. The backlash from her swallowing it… even though it was just partial… it unleashed a blast of energy that destroyed the Tenganist holy land. At once all of its residents perished, and a lush jungle was turned into a snowy wasteland. Sutter and I only survived because we were just outside of it. We watched as everything in front of our eyes turned to pure death in an instant.”
“No wonder he’s so shaken…” Matt murmured.
“You said it was a mortal sin in their eyes. Why?”
“Your fortitude is admirable,” Jacob complimented Nekou. “Long, long ago… the Tenganists spread throughout the world. There was not one place they didn’t reach with their then-advanced society. In the Kalos region, an especially strong settlement of Tenganists took hold three thousand years ago. They were led by a mighty, powerful king… he was called AZ, the beginning and the end, because of the great power he held. He was the alchemist who first discovered the way to create a Jewel of Life using the Life Plates of Arceus. Even with just shards of the Plates, a jewel containing the life energy of the earth could be created, just as it was by Arceus itself in the legend of Michina. AZ created a Jewel of Life and led his kingdom to great prosperity, but it would not last.”
Jacob stopped for a moment to appreciate how enthralled his audience was.
“A war started. Greedy individuals led by AZ’s younger brother wished to capture the kingdom and the power it held. The war was so horrible and vast that AZ had to send his beloved Pokémon to fight in that war… and it perished. When he received its body, AZ was distraught. Desperate to save it, he created a device powered by the life energy of other living Pokémon to resurrect that Pokémon, but it was not enough. He had to augment it with the Jewel of Life for the device to work, and it did. But even with his Pokémon revived, he was too far gone into his madness. He further powered up the device and turned it into an ultimate weapon, a harbinger of death itself… with the Jewel of Life he set devastation and ruin on both sides of the war. He ended it, but his Pokémon left his side because of his sins… AZ then disappeared, and the kingdom was dismantled by his regretful brother. Because of AZ’s actions, using the Jewel of Life for such purposes is considered a mortal sin even by the modern-day Tenganists.”
“I see…” Nekou passively said, lost in her consideration of what she had learned. “Well, thanks, I guess.”
“Listen to me though!” Jacob was screaming again, and behind him, Looker was watching warily. “Don’t pursue any further knowledge about this!”
“Why the **** would a murderer like you care?” Nekou countered with a bitter tone.
“I learned my lesson. What I did was wrong. But if you pursue the Jewel of Life and knowledge of what happened in the past, it will bring you nothing but ruin! Listen to me! Matt, you know better than anyone here what could happen!”
“All I know is that you shot me.” Matt shared the same audible bitterness that Nekou had. He looked down on Jacob and added, “Why should I believe that you care about my well being now?”
“It’s not just yours but possibly this entire world’s!”
Jacob stood up again, and at that point, Looker had had enough. “That is having it, Alexison! We are being done here!”
The glass went opaque again when Looker pressed the button on his remote, and Matt’s group could hear several crashes against the glass, presumably from Looker restraining Jacob.
“I guess he sure takes his job seriously,” Olivia awkwardly uttered to break the uncomfortable silence.
“Sometimes, you’re right about that,” Silver put in, approaching the group for the first time since the meeting started. “I think he wants me to show you out now.”
“That’s probably for the best,” Matt concurred.
Before they started walking, though, Bunny tapped both him and Nekou on their shoulders. When they turned to look at her, she said, “I’m going to keep looking into what he told us, because that story reminded me of something I heard that happened in Unova.”
“Unova, huh?” Nekou raised an eyebrow. “Who knows what you might find…”
-:-
Team Rocket weren’t the only ones with a hideout in Goldenrod’s slums. Polaris had one too, set up in a small warehouse inconspicuous to passersby on the street. Inside, Cassy lay on a makeshift bed with her leg bandaged. Geminus was with her, though he was speaking to Finansielle using a video screen.
“I have to say, I appreciate your diligence in going out there and recovering her,” Finansielle said, “but she must be punished according to the Sacred Helix’s code for removing her mask. Do you understand why we wear masks, Geminus?”
“Do enlighten me, my lady,” Geminus requested, standing with his arms crossed.
“We wear masks because in the world envisioned by Polaris, we are all equal. That cannot be perfectly duplicated right now, so the next best thing is erasing who we are by all assuming the masks. I let Ghetsis get away with it for now because he’s too much of a blind egomaniac to cooperate and it’s not worth the effort for the time we need him, but I have higher expectations of Séduire.”
“If we are trying to be the salvation of the world from its sins,” countered Geminus, “should we not forgive her for her own? I understand we must hold ourselves to a higher standard if we are to be the leaders of man’s next evolution, but she is just an innocent girl who lost her mask through an accident.” Geminus grinned, then asked, “Can she not be forgiven?”
Geminus and Finansielle stared at each other for what felt like forever, their eyes searing into each other from behind their masks. Abruptly, though, Finansielle smiled.
“I suppose forgiveness can be arranged.”
His request granted, Geminus grinned a bit more widely as well. “I knew you’d find some mercy in your heart, Lady Finansielle.”
“I sure did. Stand by for what you should do next.”
Finansielle disappeared from the screen. Geminus then walked over to the bed, sat down and took up Cassy’s hand.
“Don’t you worry. I’ll make everything you wish for come true.”
-:-
Outside the court complex, Matt, Nekou and Bunny were left standing in confusion as they attempted to rationalize what Jacob had told them while Olivia and Monroe went off on the subject of Goldenrod City’s Gym. Each of them was struggling with the new knowledge in a different way. While Matt was sullen and silent, holding his chin as he faced the wall his quest had seemingly reached, Bunny was pacing back and forth and Nekou was facing away from the others, fiddling with the stem of her glasses.
“What’s wrong?”
Matt jumped, having been so enraptured in his own thoughts that Bunny’s sudden question startled him. “What he told me… well, what I asked him about was what spurred me into looking for the truth in the first place. Back when we first met Dante, he told me that the Light Stone, which is necessary for finding Reshiram, will only appear to someone who has put extraordinary effort into searching for the truth. But if my search all started for a reason I was mistaken about, how can I actually find the truth?”
“Is it really mistaken, though?” Bunny suggested. “So the Guild you thought was behind what happened five years ago doesn’t actually exist anymore. Does that really matter? The end result you’re pursuing is still the same. You still want to know the truth behind the same events, it’s just that one potential answer isn’t in play anymore.”
For a few minutes, Matt considered what Bunny had said, taking to pacing back and forth much as she had been doing. When he finally stopped, he turned to her and said, “You’re right. Thanks for talking me down from that.”
“So what will you do next? What’s your next step?”
“When I defeated her in Cherrygrove, Dahlia told me that the Frontier Brain of the Battle Factory might know more about Reshiram. Plus, Olivia needs to go there to get one of the stamps she needs for entering Goldenrod Gym, so I think the answer is that we should head over there first.”
“Alright.” Bunny smiled, then looked over to where Olivia was still in Monroe’s face regarding battle strategy. “Olivia! Come on, we’re going to the Battle Factory now!”
“Alright!” she called back. “Come on, you’re coming with us,” Olivia then said to Monroe.
“I… I wanted to in the first place.”
As Olivia and Monroe walked back toward Matt and Bunny, they passed by Nekou, who was still preoccupied fiddling with whatever she was doing. Olivia realized that Nekou’s lack of presence in the conversations going on was unusual, so she slapped her friend on the back to get her attention.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
“What the fu…” Once Nekou had turned around and realized who was addressing her, her angry expression softened. “Sorry, Olivia, I was distracted. What’s going on?”
“We’re heading over to the Battle Factory.”
“Okay, obviously I’ll be coming along.”
Matt and Bunny had been watching the entire exchange between Olivia and Nekou, and by the time the two of them and Monroe finally joined with them, they were visibly frustrated.
“Ready yet?” Matt sighed.
Nekou gently draped her arms over his shoulders, licked her lips and stared into his eye as she breathily replied, “I don’t know… are we?”
“Okay, now you’re messing with me,” he said, pulling away. “I’ll take it as a yes. Let’s go.”
“Maybe not, you don’t know…” she thought to herself with a wry grin as the group finally started on its way.
The Battle Factory was at the far western end of the city, but not terribly far from the Pokémon Center and therefore not far from the court complex. While the trip didn’t require a significant amount of walking, though, the necessary route did take them past a number of landmarks on their way. While they passed by the Magnet Train station – a dome-roofed building that Nekou never stopped staring at as she passed – and the imposing structure of the city’s Radio Tower, a large building made of glass came into view. It was both wide and tall, with multiple antennae and satellite dishes affixed to its roof. A vast, busy plaza spread out before it.
“Wow, that building is beautiful!” Olivia burst out, running to get a closer view of its sun-drenched splendor.
“That’s the Global Terminal, Olivia,” Nekou explained once she caught up. “People trade Pokémon and battle with others worldwide from there. That’s the nexus of the Pokémon trading market.”
“You have to go there to get one of the stamps,” Monroe added as a reminder.
“Can we go to the Battle Factory first?” Matt quietly asked. “Remember, you guys can all split from me once I get started there.”
“Fine, fine,” Nekou said, waving him off.
Matt turned, but stopped almost instantly. Over by one of the plaza’s fountains, he could see a towering man in a dark red trench coat. The figure’s height wasn’t the only thing setting him apart from the nondescript crowd around him, however, as he had a wide shock of orange hair that spread out in both directions from his head, as well as an orange beard. He was just standing there, staring toward the rest of the plaza and the Global Terminal itself.
“Wait,” Matt said, putting his hand up to stop the others.
It ended up being Nekou who walked into his hand, and when her chest bumped into it, she immediately took a single step back and snarked, “I knew you were interested.”
“Nekou, not now.” Ignoring Nekou’s attempt to get a rise from him, Matt pointed toward the strange man. “Doesn’t that guy look familiar?”
“Yeah, he does, actually…”
“I’ve never seen him,” Olivia remarked. “He gives me the creeps.”
“Wait, I know who he is,” Bunny suddenly realized. “That’s Lysandre Flordelis, the president of the electronics company Lysandre Labs in Kalos. What’s he doing here?”
As it turned out, Bunny would soon get her answer. Lysandre had seen the group pointing at him, and he slowly and deliberately approached them himself. Matt quickly understood why Olivia said she was disturbed by him; he was easily taller than the six-foot-plus Matt, and his eyes burned with an unsettling intensity.
“I see you recognize me,” Lysandre said, his deep voice shaking the bones of his audience. “Therefore, we will dispense with formalities. Who are you?”
“Matt Chiaki, sir.” Matt couldn’t help but show Lysandre a degree of respect he didn’t usually show. “And this is Nekou, and Bunny, and Olivia and Monroe.”
“Matt Chiaki…” Shutting his eyes, Lysandre continued speaking, “I know of you as well. Even as far off as the Kalos region, your efforts in creating a renewable energy source are recognized. I commend you for your efforts to improve this world.”
“Th-thank you…”
“May I ask why you are in Johto, Mister Flordelis?” Bunny spoke up.
“I am here because I am intrigued by the organization known as Polaris…” Nekou immediately blanched at the statement, but Lysandre didn’t notice. He instead turned away to face the Global Terminal once more. “A group that aims to reshape the world… is it a force for good? I have tried to help the world with the profits from my company but my efforts have been futile. Resources, money and land simply exist in only finite qualities. Could Polaris be able to accomplish what I could not and save this world?” Turning back to the group, Lysandre asked, “What do you think?”
“I think Polaris is a ****ing scam and you’d have to be dumb as **** to fall for it,” Nekou immediately chimed in, causing her companions to visibly panic.
“Nekou, don’t be so rude!”
Nekou shrugged at Matt’s reproach. “So what? He asked what I think, and I just answered him.”
“Yes, that is true,” Lysandre said, much to the surprise of both Matt and Bunny. “You have your opinion on Polaris. I recognize that. I wonder what you will do to contribute to the world, though. As for me, I’m interested in this place because Polaris will be holding a speech here in this plaza tomorrow. I want to see for myself if their claims have merit.”
“Maybe we’ll meet there?” Olivia suggested.
“Perhaps. Well, it has been interesting speaking to you and your friends, Matt Chiaki. I would like to see you again someday. I expect that I will.”
With that, Lysandre walked past Matt and the others and left the plaza. Immediately, Nekou turned her nose up at him as he vanished into the crowd.
“What a ****ing weirdo.”
“Nekou, please…”
“Actually, I think I agree with her on this one.” Bunny’s agreement with Nekou made Matt stare in wide-eyed surprise at them both. “I heard he was a strange guy, but that was actually disturbing…”
“Come on, let’s go,” Olivia urged them. “We can’t fall behind schedule here.”
Shaking off the sense of fear that Lysandre had instilled in him, Matt started to lead the group down the road toward the Battle Factory once again. They didn’t have far left to go, and before long, the huge, egg-shaped metallic building came into view. It was at the front of a cluster of buildings on the coast and had several large industrial fans on each side.
“There we go,” Matt said, smiling in relief. “Now we can finally get going.”
“Come on, you slowpokes! Get moving!”
For the second time, Olivia ran ahead of the others, but she didn’t slow until she reached the entryway of the Battle Factory. Matt, Nekou, Bunny and Monroe all had to rush through the crowds to catch up with her at the iron gates.
“You’re pretty enthusiastic about this, aren’t you, Olivia?”
“After the **** we’ve been through,” Nekou said to Bunny, “I can hardly blame her.”
Matt pushed the doorway open and held it for his friends to pass through before he entered himself. He was surprised what he found inside – unlike the Battle Arcade, which had a dark and flashy interior, inside the Battle Factory was bright and stark white, both on the walls and on the floor. The only break in this sterile setting was a path of transparent blue plastic on the floor leading from the entrance to a desk on the other side of the room, underneath which ran glowing circuitry lines.
“Olivia, this way,” Monroe urged while gesturing toward a bank of computers nearby, “that’s where you get the stamp for the Gym.”
“Alright.”
“I’m guessing that’s the registry desk where I need to go…” Matt ventured while Olivia went off with Monroe. He followed the blue path, and Nekou and Bunny went after him. When he got to the desk, however, he was left in confusion as he looked around for an attendant. “What’s with this? There’s nobody here?”
“Look at that,” Bunny said, pointing at a red button on the desk that Matt had initially missed. “Think that calls someone?”
“Let’s find out.”
Almost instantly upon the moment Matt pressed the button, a hologram lit up from the desk. It was of a short, droopy-eyed man, whose green hair was styled into segments wrapped around his head. He was well-dressed, clad in a black vest with a white undershirt accompanied by a slate-gray necktie.
“…Thorton?!” Matt exclaimed, stepping back in surprise.
“Welcome to the Battle Factory. I am the Factory Head, Thorton,” the hologram introduced. “If you are a challenger, please scan your Frontier Pass now.”
“You know this guy?” Nekou questioned Matt as he fumbled for his Frontier Pass in his bag.
“I went to school with him in Rustboro. We had the same robotics class together.”
Once Matt had scanned the Frontier Pass using a small panel in front of the hologram projector, it recited, “Welcome, challenger. Today in the Battle Factory, you will face a series of three-on-three Single Battles. However, you will not be permitted to use your own Pokémon. Instead, you must select virtual rental Pokémon from our stock, and your opponents will also be using rental Pokémon. After each victory, you will get a clue toward your next opponent and the opportunity to trade a Pokémon for one of the previous opponent’s Pokémon. If you win three battles, your fourth and final will be against me. Good luck.”
Part of the desk slid away, allowing Matt passage through to the path leading to the battlefield. Before he followed it, he turned around to Nekou and Bunny, discovering that Olivia and Monroe had rejoined them.
“I guess I’ll be here a while if I want to talk to him about Reshiram. You guys go around the city and get the rest of the stamps. I’ll meet up with you later at the Gym.” Matt put his hand on Olivia’s shoulder and added, “Be confident when you go in there. Just go ahead and go for what you want. Make all of us proud.”
“I will!” she responded with a broad grin.
Matt straightened up to his full height, but before he could turn around, he noticed Nekou wink at him and say, “Nice.”
-:-
Roughly fifteen minutes later, Thorton was watching from his control room as Matt wrapped up his first battle. With a Tangrowth in the group of Pokémon he’d selected, Matt had made short work of the Gastrodon and Quagsire before him, and was just finishing up the last opponent, a Magnezone.
“Tangrowth, Focus Blast!” Matt’s voice echoed in Thorton’s spacious office from the monitor the Factory Head was watching the battle on.
A sphere of energy took shape between the Tangrowth’s arms, which she then threw at the Magnezone. There was a great explosion, and when its smoke cleared, the Magnezone was lying still on the ground.
“Challenger wins!” the holographic referee droned. “Battle number one concluded!”
“****…” Thorton groaned, slumping in his chair. “I can’t deal with this. Not now with Finansielle breathing down my neck.”
“He’s going to ask you about Reshiram if he reaches you,” Jeunes said from the shadows behind Thorton. “We cannot risk letting any information fall into the hands of the enemy.”
“Don’t you think I know that?!” Thorton snapped. “And why are you here anyway? I’m working!”
“Cool your jets, Getriebe,” Colress sarcastically uttered, stepping forward toward the control computer where Thorton was seated. “We finished entering all the Pokémon we received from the others into the database, so you of all people should know how to fix this. The Purine Base is yours, after all. Just dial up the difficulty on his challenge. Make him face a Pokémon he cannot possibly defeat.”
“Yes, yes, you’re right,” Thorton responded, calming considerably. “He’s gotten better as a trainer since I went to school with him, but this base contains enough data for me to create something he has no hope against.”
With his colleagues looking on, Thorton swiftly entered a command into his control system. When he hit the execute key, the holographic referee on the battlefield instantly acted.
“Challenger, your second opponent will lead with a Pokémon that knows Air Slash. Would you like to trade?”
“Yes, here.” Matt pulled away one of the holographic Poké Balls floating next to him. Three more of them appeared in front of him, and he touched one of them – the one with the Magnezone – to add it to his team.
“Your trade is complete. Now beginning battle number two.”
A holographic trainer was projected on the opposite side of the battlefield from Matt. It was a young man with spiky green hair, dressed in a vest, bowtie and cape.
“I took time off from my gig at the circus to battle you! Go, Tornadus!”
The Pokémon that materialized from the hologram’s Poké Ball was a muscular, green humanoid, with everything below his waist enveloped by a white cloud. Another cloud sat atop his head like hair, and his long, purple tail stretched around him to its ending in a curl.
As soon as they saw the Pokémon Thorton had sent Matt’s way, Colress broke down laughing.
“G-Getriebe…” Colress was so beside himself with hilarity that he could barely speak. “You sure took my advice literally, didn’t you?! I mean… wow, throwing a legendary Pokémon at him… this is just too good!”
“We just have to hope Tornadus gets past the Magnezone,” Jeunes added, sobering the mood. “It gets that far, we’re home free.”
The sudden sound of footsteps indicated that someone else had joined the group of three conspirators. “It’s all finished… those containers are all counted and collected safely on the ship that’ll carry ‘em on out of here…”
Colress turned around and pushed his visor up again. “Ah, good job, Meowth,” he said to the brainwashed Pokémon. “Putting you to work for Polaris’s cause was a fine idea after all.”
“Don’t stress him too much,” Thorton remarked while pulling up a chart on his computer. “Have a look at this. If you overtax his mind, the Meteonite’s energy may cause him to simply fall into a comatose state. The energy he was exposed to wasn’t stabilized.”
“You’re lucky you have a mind like mine working to fix that, because with just a little bit more work, I’ll have that sorted right now. Now, what’s the schedule for getting those Pokémon to the Adenosine Base?”
“The day after tomorrow,” Jeunes answered. “Trust me. I have this all prepared already.”
The three Polaris members continued to discuss their plans while paying fleeting attention to Matt’s struggle against Tornadus, which was unfolding on the monitor.
What they were unaware of was that they weren’t the only ones privy to their colluding. Outside, flying over the Battle Factory, were two Pokémon staring intently at the building.
“Duskull, dus duskull,” Edgar chattered to Lenore, his eye glowing as he gazed at the Battle Factory.
“Mur-krow.”
-:-
Olivia, Monroe, Nekou and Bunny had gone to the city’s Game Corner in their pursuit of the Gym stamps. They’d saved it for last on Nekou’s recommendation, agreeing with her belief that it would be good to relax with some games before heading off to the Gym. Nekou had stayed behind as the others went to get the stamp, however, as she was preoccupied looking at something on her phone.
That something was a direct video feed from Lenore’s camera. Grimacing at a revelation she didn’t want to believe, Nekou pressed a button on the screen to switch to an infrared view of the video. Her worst fears were realized when she could make out four figures, which with a small amount of digital enhancement took on the recognizable shapes of Thorton, Jeunes, Colress and Meowth.
“****…” Nekou growled at the phone, a feeling of dread taking hold in her stomach. “****ing hell… I was afraid of this… the Battle Factory is the Purine Base after all…”
“Hey, Nekou, what are you doing?” Olivia called out from a cluster of games a short distance away. “Come over here and check this out!”
Putting aside the grave concerns she had for the moment, Nekou put her phone away and followed Olivia’s beckoning. The girl and her friends had gathered around a game machine titled “Meloetta’s Dance Rumble,” which featured a small, fairy-like Pokémon with blue eyes and long golden hair overlooking a stage.
“Oh, this game?” Nekou laughed, a wry smirk coming onto her face. “I’m good at this ****. Let’s play.”
”Good, because Monroe thinks I’ll beat him.”
“Aw, come on, Olivia, I told you I’m just not that good at it…”
“You won’t beat me.” Suddenly thinking of something, Nekou turned to Bunny and asked, “Why didn’t you play?”
“This game isn’t my favorite,” Bunny replied, waving off the inquiry, “you play. You guys ought to have more fun.”
“Alright then.”
Nekou and Olivia took the stage, each of them occupying one of the two pairs of directional arrows under their feet. After looking to Olivia to confirm that she was ready, Nekou deposited several coins into the game machine, bringing it fully to life. The Pokémon adorning the machine, Meloetta, cried out cheerfully, followed by the words ‘Both of you, dance like you want to win!’ displaying on the video monitor before its two players.
“Get ready to lose, Olivia,” Nekou whispered while she continued smirking. “I like you, but I play to win.”
“I won’t go down without a fight.” Olivia countered with a wide grin of her own. “Either way, we’re walking out of this with fistfuls of game coins.”
Spotlights flared around the game, and a fast-paced dance song started to play. Arrows started scrolling up the screen to tell Nekou and Olivia which steps to make on the stage, and they furiously attempted to follow every single one.
-:-
“You have got to be kidding me!” Thorton screamed, standing and kicking away his chair. Behind him, Colress and Jeunes both had looks of worry themselves.
It had taken another twenty minutes, but Matt had actually overcome the trainer with the Tornadus. Luck had played a huge part, as Matt quickly deduced Tornadus’s Flying-type from its Air Slash and sent the Steel-and-Electric-type Magnezone to face it, only to discover it also knew the Fighting-type move Focus Blast. However, all of the attempted Focus Blasts Tornadus used missed their target, leaving Magnezone able to defeat it. After that, defeating his Gengar was a simple matter, but it took Magnezone, Tangrowth and Matt’s third Pokémon, Glaceon, to finally put down his Pinsir.
The mood in the control room was one of palpable panic. Though none of them said it, the three Polaris leaders were all thinking the same thing: if Matt could find a way around a legendary Pokémon like Tornadus, there could very well be no way to stop him.
“Maybe try another legendary Pokémon?” Jeunes suggested. For once, the ordinarily cunning and brilliant scientist was at a loss for a solution. “Heatran? Landorus?”
“That’s not going to work. He’ll find a way around it.”
“Wait, Getriebe, I have an idea,” Colress chimed in. His sarcastic manner from earlier was gone. “This base contains data on just about every possible Pokémon. So far we’ve been hitting him with Pokémon he clearly can figure out. So why not hit him with something we know he’s never seen?”
“What are you thinking, Colress?” Thorton questioned, reverting to his typical bored tone.
“Finansielle told us about him. He’s been to Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Orre. Notice something missing from that list?”
“Kalos,” Jeunes immediately answered, verbally stepping on Thorton, “and the only Pokémon from Kalos he’s seen is Séduire’s Pyroar. We send a team of Kalos Pokémon against him, and he’ll have no chance.”
“Let’s do it then,” Thorton said, turning back to his control system. “I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve.”
-:-
Out on the battlefield, Matt had just finished his trade, swapping away his Magnezone for the Tornadus used by the previous hologram trainer.
“Your trade is complete. Now beginning battle number three.”
The hologram generator on the other side of the field projected a young woman wearing a tank top, tight jeans and her brown hair in a bun. Despite being just a computer program, she displayed personality by lifting her sunglasses from her eyes.
“Oh, my, a challenger…” she said. Matt thought he detected a condescending tone in her voice. “Let me finish you off so I can go back to the beach. Go, Greninja!”
The Pokémon sent out by the beautiful woman caused Matt to recoil. It was unlike anything he’d seen before – a purple-and-white frog with flat, webbed feet and hands and sharp, angular ears, whose tongue wrapped around its neck and flowed out like a scarf. The Pokémon, Greninja, leaned down and struck a battle-ready stance as he awaited Matt’s move.
The other was an elderly man in an orange prison jumpsuit. He was balding, retaining only some wisps of white hair on his head, but he also had an unkempt beard similarly lacking in color. When he set his eyes upon Matt, he smiled and slowly picked up the phone on his side of the window.
“Hello, Matt,” he calmly said.
“And hello to you, Jacob…” The bitterness in Matt’s voice was obvious.
“To what do I owe this pleasure? It’s quite nice to have you come calling with your rather lovely new friends.”
Matt didn’t see Nekou blanche at the implicit suggestion in Jacob’s words, but he didn’t have to as he felt a similar revulsion. Bunny, meanwhile, simply sat stone-faced, staring at her former professor and friend.
“Don’t push your luck, Jacob,” Matt growled, clutching his shoulder where Jacob had once shot him. “I would rather just watch you go back to prison for the murder you committed. Unfortunately for me, I need help and you’re the only man I can turn to.”
“So what is it? What did you seek me out for?”
“It’s about the past of this country and the world. I am aware of the existence of a certain Guild of men that shaped the world’s history thousands of years ago, but they dropped off the charts of history around the time of Caitlin the First’s rule over this country, about a century and a half ago.”
“Did you ever think that they don’t exist anymore?”
Matt almost instantly became visibly flustered at the suggestion. “But… I remember back to when I found the Golden City of La Ciudad Dorada years ago… that man who tried to stop me, Count Fernando VIII… he said that he thought people from that Guild were coming for him and an artifact in his possession. He thought I was one of them.”
“And since when do you put stock in the ravings of a madman?” Jacob reproached him. “You’re Sutter’s grandson, I know you’re smarter than that. Listen well. That Guild disbanded after the events of the attempted revolution led by Colonel Nixon against Caitlin the First in the year 1850.”
Matt shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He knew the events Jacob was referring to, especially because he had lived them. Some time earlier, while at the Indigo Plateau investigating the ruins of an ancient city, Matt, Nekou, Olivia and Bunny had been sent back in time by a strange phenomenon and witnessed the rebellion firsthand. Recalling these events led Matt to a realization he considered even more ominous – the Time Gate phenomenon in Ilex Forest was very similar to what had happened.
“…are you even listening?” Jacob snapped, bringing Matt back to reality. “They were disbanded because their influence was seen as no longer necessary. Caitlin the First instated the earliest workings of what would become the Pokémon League. As it were, she replaced the guiding hand of a secret organization with bread and circuses for the people, but damn if it didn’t work.”
Matt stood and stepped away from the glass, running his hand down his face. All of a sudden, his quest for the truth of the events of the past had hit a wall. He considered the apparent link to the Guild a clue to why those events had taken place, but with that lead now quashed by Jacob, he felt helpless, as if he had run headfirst into a brick wall.
He failed to notice Nekou take up the phone.
“I’ve got a few questions for you too, old man.”
Jacob’s expression brightened at the chance to talk to her. “Well, I have to consider this quite a gift. I’ve been in prison for a long time now, after all. You’re a sight for sore eyes.”
“You’re lucky I need you. And you’re even more ****ing lucky you’re on the other side of that glass, because don’t you think for a second I’d hesitate to crack you one for that. I need to know more about what’s in this book.”
Nekou produced the book she’d stolen from the Pokémon Academy library, the one where Sutter and Jacob recounted their adventures. Much to her surprise, as soon as he saw it, Jacob turned white as a sheet and attempted to stand, only to be restrained by his handcuffs bracing him to the table. He ended up smashing his face against the glass.
“No! Not that!” he screamed. “Don’t read that! What’s in that book should have been burned decades ago!”
“Well I hate to tell you, but it’s more relevant than ever now. I read all about your travels with Sutter Chiaki in it… but what’s really got me intrigued is this one person, Saeko Oryo…”
“NO!!” Jacob slammed himself against the glass again. He was blatantly trying to break the handcuffs off the table, which forced Looker to rush in and restrain him.
“Doing that you are again, and ending this meeting will!”
“Fine, fine, I’m sorry…” Though he stopped throwing himself around, Jacob was visibly rattled and disturbed.
“I need to know,” Nekou repeated. “What is the truth behind Saeko Oryo, the Jewel of Life and what happened that day in the Tenganist holy land?”
“If you really want to know, it’s a horrible story…” Jacob looked up, hoping to see Nekou dissuaded from the story, but he was disappointed to find her gaze more determined than ever. “Fine. You know of the Transcendence, the power that many Tenganists have?”
“Yes.”
“Saeko Oryo had the most powerful one, the ability to see the past and future. Her people called her “The Oracle” and she was held in a position of high honor within their society. But then…”
“I know, she was burned as a witch,” Nekou said, irritated. “Stop stalling. What really happened?”
“The… the reason she was to be burned was because… she… she got too close to us. Sutter and I, we were outsiders. That led the Tenganists in the holy land to treat us with suspicion already, but she got too close to us. When she was tried and condemned, we were exiled from the holy land. But, as we were leaving, she escaped her prison and tried to leave as well. When she couldn’t, she… she committed the mortal sin. She used the partial Jewel of Life there for her own benefit.”
“How, and why?” Now Bunny was involved in the questioning, as she was utterly fascinated with the story.
“As far as I can tell, she didn’t want to die, so she swallowed that accursed thing. Foolish choice… it unleashed massive energy and burned her from the inside out. She condemned herself to the very death she tried to avoid. But that wasn’t it. The backlash from her swallowing it… even though it was just partial… it unleashed a blast of energy that destroyed the Tenganist holy land. At once all of its residents perished, and a lush jungle was turned into a snowy wasteland. Sutter and I only survived because we were just outside of it. We watched as everything in front of our eyes turned to pure death in an instant.”
“No wonder he’s so shaken…” Matt murmured.
“You said it was a mortal sin in their eyes. Why?”
“Your fortitude is admirable,” Jacob complimented Nekou. “Long, long ago… the Tenganists spread throughout the world. There was not one place they didn’t reach with their then-advanced society. In the Kalos region, an especially strong settlement of Tenganists took hold three thousand years ago. They were led by a mighty, powerful king… he was called AZ, the beginning and the end, because of the great power he held. He was the alchemist who first discovered the way to create a Jewel of Life using the Life Plates of Arceus. Even with just shards of the Plates, a jewel containing the life energy of the earth could be created, just as it was by Arceus itself in the legend of Michina. AZ created a Jewel of Life and led his kingdom to great prosperity, but it would not last.”
Jacob stopped for a moment to appreciate how enthralled his audience was.
“A war started. Greedy individuals led by AZ’s younger brother wished to capture the kingdom and the power it held. The war was so horrible and vast that AZ had to send his beloved Pokémon to fight in that war… and it perished. When he received its body, AZ was distraught. Desperate to save it, he created a device powered by the life energy of other living Pokémon to resurrect that Pokémon, but it was not enough. He had to augment it with the Jewel of Life for the device to work, and it did. But even with his Pokémon revived, he was too far gone into his madness. He further powered up the device and turned it into an ultimate weapon, a harbinger of death itself… with the Jewel of Life he set devastation and ruin on both sides of the war. He ended it, but his Pokémon left his side because of his sins… AZ then disappeared, and the kingdom was dismantled by his regretful brother. Because of AZ’s actions, using the Jewel of Life for such purposes is considered a mortal sin even by the modern-day Tenganists.”
“I see…” Nekou passively said, lost in her consideration of what she had learned. “Well, thanks, I guess.”
“Listen to me though!” Jacob was screaming again, and behind him, Looker was watching warily. “Don’t pursue any further knowledge about this!”
“Why the **** would a murderer like you care?” Nekou countered with a bitter tone.
“I learned my lesson. What I did was wrong. But if you pursue the Jewel of Life and knowledge of what happened in the past, it will bring you nothing but ruin! Listen to me! Matt, you know better than anyone here what could happen!”
“All I know is that you shot me.” Matt shared the same audible bitterness that Nekou had. He looked down on Jacob and added, “Why should I believe that you care about my well being now?”
“It’s not just yours but possibly this entire world’s!”
Jacob stood up again, and at that point, Looker had had enough. “That is having it, Alexison! We are being done here!”
The glass went opaque again when Looker pressed the button on his remote, and Matt’s group could hear several crashes against the glass, presumably from Looker restraining Jacob.
“I guess he sure takes his job seriously,” Olivia awkwardly uttered to break the uncomfortable silence.
“Sometimes, you’re right about that,” Silver put in, approaching the group for the first time since the meeting started. “I think he wants me to show you out now.”
“That’s probably for the best,” Matt concurred.
Before they started walking, though, Bunny tapped both him and Nekou on their shoulders. When they turned to look at her, she said, “I’m going to keep looking into what he told us, because that story reminded me of something I heard that happened in Unova.”
“Unova, huh?” Nekou raised an eyebrow. “Who knows what you might find…”
-:-
Team Rocket weren’t the only ones with a hideout in Goldenrod’s slums. Polaris had one too, set up in a small warehouse inconspicuous to passersby on the street. Inside, Cassy lay on a makeshift bed with her leg bandaged. Geminus was with her, though he was speaking to Finansielle using a video screen.
“I have to say, I appreciate your diligence in going out there and recovering her,” Finansielle said, “but she must be punished according to the Sacred Helix’s code for removing her mask. Do you understand why we wear masks, Geminus?”
“Do enlighten me, my lady,” Geminus requested, standing with his arms crossed.
“We wear masks because in the world envisioned by Polaris, we are all equal. That cannot be perfectly duplicated right now, so the next best thing is erasing who we are by all assuming the masks. I let Ghetsis get away with it for now because he’s too much of a blind egomaniac to cooperate and it’s not worth the effort for the time we need him, but I have higher expectations of Séduire.”
“If we are trying to be the salvation of the world from its sins,” countered Geminus, “should we not forgive her for her own? I understand we must hold ourselves to a higher standard if we are to be the leaders of man’s next evolution, but she is just an innocent girl who lost her mask through an accident.” Geminus grinned, then asked, “Can she not be forgiven?”
Geminus and Finansielle stared at each other for what felt like forever, their eyes searing into each other from behind their masks. Abruptly, though, Finansielle smiled.
“I suppose forgiveness can be arranged.”
His request granted, Geminus grinned a bit more widely as well. “I knew you’d find some mercy in your heart, Lady Finansielle.”
“I sure did. Stand by for what you should do next.”
Finansielle disappeared from the screen. Geminus then walked over to the bed, sat down and took up Cassy’s hand.
“Don’t you worry. I’ll make everything you wish for come true.”
-:-
Outside the court complex, Matt, Nekou and Bunny were left standing in confusion as they attempted to rationalize what Jacob had told them while Olivia and Monroe went off on the subject of Goldenrod City’s Gym. Each of them was struggling with the new knowledge in a different way. While Matt was sullen and silent, holding his chin as he faced the wall his quest had seemingly reached, Bunny was pacing back and forth and Nekou was facing away from the others, fiddling with the stem of her glasses.
“What’s wrong?”
Matt jumped, having been so enraptured in his own thoughts that Bunny’s sudden question startled him. “What he told me… well, what I asked him about was what spurred me into looking for the truth in the first place. Back when we first met Dante, he told me that the Light Stone, which is necessary for finding Reshiram, will only appear to someone who has put extraordinary effort into searching for the truth. But if my search all started for a reason I was mistaken about, how can I actually find the truth?”
“Is it really mistaken, though?” Bunny suggested. “So the Guild you thought was behind what happened five years ago doesn’t actually exist anymore. Does that really matter? The end result you’re pursuing is still the same. You still want to know the truth behind the same events, it’s just that one potential answer isn’t in play anymore.”
For a few minutes, Matt considered what Bunny had said, taking to pacing back and forth much as she had been doing. When he finally stopped, he turned to her and said, “You’re right. Thanks for talking me down from that.”
“So what will you do next? What’s your next step?”
“When I defeated her in Cherrygrove, Dahlia told me that the Frontier Brain of the Battle Factory might know more about Reshiram. Plus, Olivia needs to go there to get one of the stamps she needs for entering Goldenrod Gym, so I think the answer is that we should head over there first.”
“Alright.” Bunny smiled, then looked over to where Olivia was still in Monroe’s face regarding battle strategy. “Olivia! Come on, we’re going to the Battle Factory now!”
“Alright!” she called back. “Come on, you’re coming with us,” Olivia then said to Monroe.
“I… I wanted to in the first place.”
As Olivia and Monroe walked back toward Matt and Bunny, they passed by Nekou, who was still preoccupied fiddling with whatever she was doing. Olivia realized that Nekou’s lack of presence in the conversations going on was unusual, so she slapped her friend on the back to get her attention.
“Hey! What are you doing?”
“What the fu…” Once Nekou had turned around and realized who was addressing her, her angry expression softened. “Sorry, Olivia, I was distracted. What’s going on?”
“We’re heading over to the Battle Factory.”
“Okay, obviously I’ll be coming along.”
Matt and Bunny had been watching the entire exchange between Olivia and Nekou, and by the time the two of them and Monroe finally joined with them, they were visibly frustrated.
“Ready yet?” Matt sighed.
Nekou gently draped her arms over his shoulders, licked her lips and stared into his eye as she breathily replied, “I don’t know… are we?”
“Okay, now you’re messing with me,” he said, pulling away. “I’ll take it as a yes. Let’s go.”
“Maybe not, you don’t know…” she thought to herself with a wry grin as the group finally started on its way.
The Battle Factory was at the far western end of the city, but not terribly far from the Pokémon Center and therefore not far from the court complex. While the trip didn’t require a significant amount of walking, though, the necessary route did take them past a number of landmarks on their way. While they passed by the Magnet Train station – a dome-roofed building that Nekou never stopped staring at as she passed – and the imposing structure of the city’s Radio Tower, a large building made of glass came into view. It was both wide and tall, with multiple antennae and satellite dishes affixed to its roof. A vast, busy plaza spread out before it.
“Wow, that building is beautiful!” Olivia burst out, running to get a closer view of its sun-drenched splendor.
“That’s the Global Terminal, Olivia,” Nekou explained once she caught up. “People trade Pokémon and battle with others worldwide from there. That’s the nexus of the Pokémon trading market.”
“You have to go there to get one of the stamps,” Monroe added as a reminder.
“Can we go to the Battle Factory first?” Matt quietly asked. “Remember, you guys can all split from me once I get started there.”
“Fine, fine,” Nekou said, waving him off.
Matt turned, but stopped almost instantly. Over by one of the plaza’s fountains, he could see a towering man in a dark red trench coat. The figure’s height wasn’t the only thing setting him apart from the nondescript crowd around him, however, as he had a wide shock of orange hair that spread out in both directions from his head, as well as an orange beard. He was just standing there, staring toward the rest of the plaza and the Global Terminal itself.
“Wait,” Matt said, putting his hand up to stop the others.
It ended up being Nekou who walked into his hand, and when her chest bumped into it, she immediately took a single step back and snarked, “I knew you were interested.”
“Nekou, not now.” Ignoring Nekou’s attempt to get a rise from him, Matt pointed toward the strange man. “Doesn’t that guy look familiar?”
“Yeah, he does, actually…”
“I’ve never seen him,” Olivia remarked. “He gives me the creeps.”
“Wait, I know who he is,” Bunny suddenly realized. “That’s Lysandre Flordelis, the president of the electronics company Lysandre Labs in Kalos. What’s he doing here?”
As it turned out, Bunny would soon get her answer. Lysandre had seen the group pointing at him, and he slowly and deliberately approached them himself. Matt quickly understood why Olivia said she was disturbed by him; he was easily taller than the six-foot-plus Matt, and his eyes burned with an unsettling intensity.
“I see you recognize me,” Lysandre said, his deep voice shaking the bones of his audience. “Therefore, we will dispense with formalities. Who are you?”
“Matt Chiaki, sir.” Matt couldn’t help but show Lysandre a degree of respect he didn’t usually show. “And this is Nekou, and Bunny, and Olivia and Monroe.”
“Matt Chiaki…” Shutting his eyes, Lysandre continued speaking, “I know of you as well. Even as far off as the Kalos region, your efforts in creating a renewable energy source are recognized. I commend you for your efforts to improve this world.”
“Th-thank you…”
“May I ask why you are in Johto, Mister Flordelis?” Bunny spoke up.
“I am here because I am intrigued by the organization known as Polaris…” Nekou immediately blanched at the statement, but Lysandre didn’t notice. He instead turned away to face the Global Terminal once more. “A group that aims to reshape the world… is it a force for good? I have tried to help the world with the profits from my company but my efforts have been futile. Resources, money and land simply exist in only finite qualities. Could Polaris be able to accomplish what I could not and save this world?” Turning back to the group, Lysandre asked, “What do you think?”
“I think Polaris is a ****ing scam and you’d have to be dumb as **** to fall for it,” Nekou immediately chimed in, causing her companions to visibly panic.
“Nekou, don’t be so rude!”
Nekou shrugged at Matt’s reproach. “So what? He asked what I think, and I just answered him.”
“Yes, that is true,” Lysandre said, much to the surprise of both Matt and Bunny. “You have your opinion on Polaris. I recognize that. I wonder what you will do to contribute to the world, though. As for me, I’m interested in this place because Polaris will be holding a speech here in this plaza tomorrow. I want to see for myself if their claims have merit.”
“Maybe we’ll meet there?” Olivia suggested.
“Perhaps. Well, it has been interesting speaking to you and your friends, Matt Chiaki. I would like to see you again someday. I expect that I will.”
With that, Lysandre walked past Matt and the others and left the plaza. Immediately, Nekou turned her nose up at him as he vanished into the crowd.
“What a ****ing weirdo.”
“Nekou, please…”
“Actually, I think I agree with her on this one.” Bunny’s agreement with Nekou made Matt stare in wide-eyed surprise at them both. “I heard he was a strange guy, but that was actually disturbing…”
“Come on, let’s go,” Olivia urged them. “We can’t fall behind schedule here.”
Shaking off the sense of fear that Lysandre had instilled in him, Matt started to lead the group down the road toward the Battle Factory once again. They didn’t have far left to go, and before long, the huge, egg-shaped metallic building came into view. It was at the front of a cluster of buildings on the coast and had several large industrial fans on each side.
“There we go,” Matt said, smiling in relief. “Now we can finally get going.”
“Come on, you slowpokes! Get moving!”
For the second time, Olivia ran ahead of the others, but she didn’t slow until she reached the entryway of the Battle Factory. Matt, Nekou, Bunny and Monroe all had to rush through the crowds to catch up with her at the iron gates.
“You’re pretty enthusiastic about this, aren’t you, Olivia?”
“After the **** we’ve been through,” Nekou said to Bunny, “I can hardly blame her.”
Matt pushed the doorway open and held it for his friends to pass through before he entered himself. He was surprised what he found inside – unlike the Battle Arcade, which had a dark and flashy interior, inside the Battle Factory was bright and stark white, both on the walls and on the floor. The only break in this sterile setting was a path of transparent blue plastic on the floor leading from the entrance to a desk on the other side of the room, underneath which ran glowing circuitry lines.
“Olivia, this way,” Monroe urged while gesturing toward a bank of computers nearby, “that’s where you get the stamp for the Gym.”
“Alright.”
“I’m guessing that’s the registry desk where I need to go…” Matt ventured while Olivia went off with Monroe. He followed the blue path, and Nekou and Bunny went after him. When he got to the desk, however, he was left in confusion as he looked around for an attendant. “What’s with this? There’s nobody here?”
“Look at that,” Bunny said, pointing at a red button on the desk that Matt had initially missed. “Think that calls someone?”
“Let’s find out.”
Almost instantly upon the moment Matt pressed the button, a hologram lit up from the desk. It was of a short, droopy-eyed man, whose green hair was styled into segments wrapped around his head. He was well-dressed, clad in a black vest with a white undershirt accompanied by a slate-gray necktie.
“…Thorton?!” Matt exclaimed, stepping back in surprise.
“Welcome to the Battle Factory. I am the Factory Head, Thorton,” the hologram introduced. “If you are a challenger, please scan your Frontier Pass now.”
“You know this guy?” Nekou questioned Matt as he fumbled for his Frontier Pass in his bag.
“I went to school with him in Rustboro. We had the same robotics class together.”
Once Matt had scanned the Frontier Pass using a small panel in front of the hologram projector, it recited, “Welcome, challenger. Today in the Battle Factory, you will face a series of three-on-three Single Battles. However, you will not be permitted to use your own Pokémon. Instead, you must select virtual rental Pokémon from our stock, and your opponents will also be using rental Pokémon. After each victory, you will get a clue toward your next opponent and the opportunity to trade a Pokémon for one of the previous opponent’s Pokémon. If you win three battles, your fourth and final will be against me. Good luck.”
Part of the desk slid away, allowing Matt passage through to the path leading to the battlefield. Before he followed it, he turned around to Nekou and Bunny, discovering that Olivia and Monroe had rejoined them.
“I guess I’ll be here a while if I want to talk to him about Reshiram. You guys go around the city and get the rest of the stamps. I’ll meet up with you later at the Gym.” Matt put his hand on Olivia’s shoulder and added, “Be confident when you go in there. Just go ahead and go for what you want. Make all of us proud.”
“I will!” she responded with a broad grin.
Matt straightened up to his full height, but before he could turn around, he noticed Nekou wink at him and say, “Nice.”
-:-
Roughly fifteen minutes later, Thorton was watching from his control room as Matt wrapped up his first battle. With a Tangrowth in the group of Pokémon he’d selected, Matt had made short work of the Gastrodon and Quagsire before him, and was just finishing up the last opponent, a Magnezone.
“Tangrowth, Focus Blast!” Matt’s voice echoed in Thorton’s spacious office from the monitor the Factory Head was watching the battle on.
A sphere of energy took shape between the Tangrowth’s arms, which she then threw at the Magnezone. There was a great explosion, and when its smoke cleared, the Magnezone was lying still on the ground.
“Challenger wins!” the holographic referee droned. “Battle number one concluded!”
“****…” Thorton groaned, slumping in his chair. “I can’t deal with this. Not now with Finansielle breathing down my neck.”
“He’s going to ask you about Reshiram if he reaches you,” Jeunes said from the shadows behind Thorton. “We cannot risk letting any information fall into the hands of the enemy.”
“Don’t you think I know that?!” Thorton snapped. “And why are you here anyway? I’m working!”
“Cool your jets, Getriebe,” Colress sarcastically uttered, stepping forward toward the control computer where Thorton was seated. “We finished entering all the Pokémon we received from the others into the database, so you of all people should know how to fix this. The Purine Base is yours, after all. Just dial up the difficulty on his challenge. Make him face a Pokémon he cannot possibly defeat.”
“Yes, yes, you’re right,” Thorton responded, calming considerably. “He’s gotten better as a trainer since I went to school with him, but this base contains enough data for me to create something he has no hope against.”
With his colleagues looking on, Thorton swiftly entered a command into his control system. When he hit the execute key, the holographic referee on the battlefield instantly acted.
“Challenger, your second opponent will lead with a Pokémon that knows Air Slash. Would you like to trade?”
“Yes, here.” Matt pulled away one of the holographic Poké Balls floating next to him. Three more of them appeared in front of him, and he touched one of them – the one with the Magnezone – to add it to his team.
“Your trade is complete. Now beginning battle number two.”
A holographic trainer was projected on the opposite side of the battlefield from Matt. It was a young man with spiky green hair, dressed in a vest, bowtie and cape.
“I took time off from my gig at the circus to battle you! Go, Tornadus!”
The Pokémon that materialized from the hologram’s Poké Ball was a muscular, green humanoid, with everything below his waist enveloped by a white cloud. Another cloud sat atop his head like hair, and his long, purple tail stretched around him to its ending in a curl.
As soon as they saw the Pokémon Thorton had sent Matt’s way, Colress broke down laughing.
“G-Getriebe…” Colress was so beside himself with hilarity that he could barely speak. “You sure took my advice literally, didn’t you?! I mean… wow, throwing a legendary Pokémon at him… this is just too good!”
“We just have to hope Tornadus gets past the Magnezone,” Jeunes added, sobering the mood. “It gets that far, we’re home free.”
The sudden sound of footsteps indicated that someone else had joined the group of three conspirators. “It’s all finished… those containers are all counted and collected safely on the ship that’ll carry ‘em on out of here…”
Colress turned around and pushed his visor up again. “Ah, good job, Meowth,” he said to the brainwashed Pokémon. “Putting you to work for Polaris’s cause was a fine idea after all.”
“Don’t stress him too much,” Thorton remarked while pulling up a chart on his computer. “Have a look at this. If you overtax his mind, the Meteonite’s energy may cause him to simply fall into a comatose state. The energy he was exposed to wasn’t stabilized.”
“You’re lucky you have a mind like mine working to fix that, because with just a little bit more work, I’ll have that sorted right now. Now, what’s the schedule for getting those Pokémon to the Adenosine Base?”
“The day after tomorrow,” Jeunes answered. “Trust me. I have this all prepared already.”
The three Polaris members continued to discuss their plans while paying fleeting attention to Matt’s struggle against Tornadus, which was unfolding on the monitor.
What they were unaware of was that they weren’t the only ones privy to their colluding. Outside, flying over the Battle Factory, were two Pokémon staring intently at the building.
“Duskull, dus duskull,” Edgar chattered to Lenore, his eye glowing as he gazed at the Battle Factory.
“Mur-krow.”
-:-
Olivia, Monroe, Nekou and Bunny had gone to the city’s Game Corner in their pursuit of the Gym stamps. They’d saved it for last on Nekou’s recommendation, agreeing with her belief that it would be good to relax with some games before heading off to the Gym. Nekou had stayed behind as the others went to get the stamp, however, as she was preoccupied looking at something on her phone.
That something was a direct video feed from Lenore’s camera. Grimacing at a revelation she didn’t want to believe, Nekou pressed a button on the screen to switch to an infrared view of the video. Her worst fears were realized when she could make out four figures, which with a small amount of digital enhancement took on the recognizable shapes of Thorton, Jeunes, Colress and Meowth.
“****…” Nekou growled at the phone, a feeling of dread taking hold in her stomach. “****ing hell… I was afraid of this… the Battle Factory is the Purine Base after all…”
“Hey, Nekou, what are you doing?” Olivia called out from a cluster of games a short distance away. “Come over here and check this out!”
Putting aside the grave concerns she had for the moment, Nekou put her phone away and followed Olivia’s beckoning. The girl and her friends had gathered around a game machine titled “Meloetta’s Dance Rumble,” which featured a small, fairy-like Pokémon with blue eyes and long golden hair overlooking a stage.
“Oh, this game?” Nekou laughed, a wry smirk coming onto her face. “I’m good at this ****. Let’s play.”
”Good, because Monroe thinks I’ll beat him.”
“Aw, come on, Olivia, I told you I’m just not that good at it…”
“You won’t beat me.” Suddenly thinking of something, Nekou turned to Bunny and asked, “Why didn’t you play?”
“This game isn’t my favorite,” Bunny replied, waving off the inquiry, “you play. You guys ought to have more fun.”
“Alright then.”
Nekou and Olivia took the stage, each of them occupying one of the two pairs of directional arrows under their feet. After looking to Olivia to confirm that she was ready, Nekou deposited several coins into the game machine, bringing it fully to life. The Pokémon adorning the machine, Meloetta, cried out cheerfully, followed by the words ‘Both of you, dance like you want to win!’ displaying on the video monitor before its two players.
“Get ready to lose, Olivia,” Nekou whispered while she continued smirking. “I like you, but I play to win.”
“I won’t go down without a fight.” Olivia countered with a wide grin of her own. “Either way, we’re walking out of this with fistfuls of game coins.”
Spotlights flared around the game, and a fast-paced dance song started to play. Arrows started scrolling up the screen to tell Nekou and Olivia which steps to make on the stage, and they furiously attempted to follow every single one.
-:-
“You have got to be kidding me!” Thorton screamed, standing and kicking away his chair. Behind him, Colress and Jeunes both had looks of worry themselves.
It had taken another twenty minutes, but Matt had actually overcome the trainer with the Tornadus. Luck had played a huge part, as Matt quickly deduced Tornadus’s Flying-type from its Air Slash and sent the Steel-and-Electric-type Magnezone to face it, only to discover it also knew the Fighting-type move Focus Blast. However, all of the attempted Focus Blasts Tornadus used missed their target, leaving Magnezone able to defeat it. After that, defeating his Gengar was a simple matter, but it took Magnezone, Tangrowth and Matt’s third Pokémon, Glaceon, to finally put down his Pinsir.
The mood in the control room was one of palpable panic. Though none of them said it, the three Polaris leaders were all thinking the same thing: if Matt could find a way around a legendary Pokémon like Tornadus, there could very well be no way to stop him.
“Maybe try another legendary Pokémon?” Jeunes suggested. For once, the ordinarily cunning and brilliant scientist was at a loss for a solution. “Heatran? Landorus?”
“That’s not going to work. He’ll find a way around it.”
“Wait, Getriebe, I have an idea,” Colress chimed in. His sarcastic manner from earlier was gone. “This base contains data on just about every possible Pokémon. So far we’ve been hitting him with Pokémon he clearly can figure out. So why not hit him with something we know he’s never seen?”
“What are you thinking, Colress?” Thorton questioned, reverting to his typical bored tone.
“Finansielle told us about him. He’s been to Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh, Unova and Orre. Notice something missing from that list?”
“Kalos,” Jeunes immediately answered, verbally stepping on Thorton, “and the only Pokémon from Kalos he’s seen is Séduire’s Pyroar. We send a team of Kalos Pokémon against him, and he’ll have no chance.”
“Let’s do it then,” Thorton said, turning back to his control system. “I’ve got a few ideas up my sleeve.”
-:-
Out on the battlefield, Matt had just finished his trade, swapping away his Magnezone for the Tornadus used by the previous hologram trainer.
“Your trade is complete. Now beginning battle number three.”
The hologram generator on the other side of the field projected a young woman wearing a tank top, tight jeans and her brown hair in a bun. Despite being just a computer program, she displayed personality by lifting her sunglasses from her eyes.
“Oh, my, a challenger…” she said. Matt thought he detected a condescending tone in her voice. “Let me finish you off so I can go back to the beach. Go, Greninja!”
The Pokémon sent out by the beautiful woman caused Matt to recoil. It was unlike anything he’d seen before – a purple-and-white frog with flat, webbed feet and hands and sharp, angular ears, whose tongue wrapped around its neck and flowed out like a scarf. The Pokémon, Greninja, leaned down and struck a battle-ready stance as he awaited Matt’s move.