Ash's POV:
I felt like kicking myself for letting down my guard and I turned to see the shocked faces of Alder, Cynthia and Wallace while Lance and Diantha had an I-knew-it kind of an expression.
"So it's you who cracked open Archer's skull, huh?", Lance asked me rather amused and I sighed in defeat.
"So what? You've given up your battling career for a vigilante run?", Diantha asked me extremely cross about my recent hobby.
"I've....um.....put it on a hiatus", I told her. Meanwhile, Lucario was trying to control Gliscor and Gengar who were still laughing like it was the end of the world. Greninja was helping Clair in restoring order and in kicking the press out of the private function.
"Come on, guys. We gotta go!", I told my Pokemon who simply nodded to me and returned to their Pokeballs.
"If you have any more plans on continuing your vigilante run, I'd like to tell you that Archie or...Archer was it? Why do these people have so similar names, and EVEN if they do so, WHY do they have to be famous? It's so confusing", Wallace lamented.
"If you mean the Team Aqua leader, it's Archie. If you mean the deceased Team Rocket leader, it's Archer. You were saying?", I cleared his doubt and motioned him to continue.
"Yeah, well. While I was practising my skills with my darling Milotic in Rustboro City, I happened to see Arch...ie....er talking to Maxie, the Team Magma leader. They seemed to shake hands every now and then with villainous grins. They had a small machine which had an R logo on it, and it seemed to hold pointy things which seemed like rockets. I reported their meeting to Jenny but she couldn't find anything as they had cleared the spot within a jiffy!!", he told me petting his Milotic which came out of its Pokeball when its name was uttered.
"And you didn't have the elementary manners to TELL US? Pfft....Coordinators", Alder roared/snorted.
"Let me remind you that I'm also the Hoenn Champion. I hold a great chance of knocking you out. Empty vessels make more noise, don't they Mr. Old-Pot-Belly?", Wallace countered.
"How did you create weapons out of nothing, Ash?", Diantha asked me suspiciously crossing her arms across her chest.
"I discovered it a year ago during a Bond Phenomenon practice session with Greninja. He had learnt to shape ice by his imagination and when we underwent the Bond Phenomenon, part of his powers passed on to me. It seemed like a great way to expose myself to self defence", I told her.
"Who the hell are you calling potbellied, you insolent BRAT?!!", Alder roared and attacked Wallace, and I decided to use the time to avoid further questions.
"Nice chatting with you people. I have to go, and of course, happy married life", I told the stunned champions and jumped out of the building. I didn't wanna be there amidst the rising tension.
Mid air, I called Charizard where I fixed up my next destination - Hoenn.
Cynthia's POV:
Diantha was looking rather worried and Lance seemed to notice it. He nudged me to go talk to her as I was rather sociable and I was the closest to Diantha. Lance was well....scary, I admit, the first time we met, when we were 6, he simply glared at me when I introduced myself and even the sight of an angered Gyarados hadn't freaked me out THAT much.
"What's wrong?", I asked Diantha and she began to fidget.
"The first time, when I battled Ash and his Greninja when they were in the Bond Phenomenon phase, they nearly defeated my Mega Gardevoir, that too with a single hit. The result might have been in Ash's favour of he hadn't fainted during our battle", she told me, but what was the thing to worry about?
"Fine, he's a really capable trainer. He has gotten stronger now. What's to worry about?", I asked her wrapping my arm around her shoulders.
"Exactly!! Just imagine the consequences if they somehow bring him to their side", she told me and I didn't have a reply for it. Lance had the similar grave expression while Alder was fidgeting with his Pokeball garland.
"He seems to have a good reason to exterminate them, I mean, nobody has gone this far right?", I weakly protested their possible assumptions.
"Diantha may be right, Cyn. No matter HOW strong a person's motive may be, they have the strength and the ability to be so cunning to just bring him towards their side. Each person has a weakness, hon. Money, power and whatnot. She's right! He'll play a major card in this battle", Lance told me petting one of his Dragonites which cooed in pleasure but Lance's expression was rather uncomfortable to look at, I haven't seen him like this in AGES.
"Giovanni was one of them, you know?", he asked me in reply to which I had no answer.
"Look, one step at a time. We'll use our powers to find some befitting info on him, where he goes, who he meets and a bunch of stuff. Just calm down, okay?", I tried to cut down the rising tension amongst us.
"They'll be expecting that, Cyn. Every second we waste in unnecessary jargon, they go further", Lance told me glaring weakly at the broken window.
"Fine, then! What do you expect me to do?", I asked him placing my hands on my hips.
"Once upon a time, there were two ways to cover up Ash. One, by his love of food or two, by his love of Pokemon. He still loves his Pokemon, if you'd have noticed. We have to reach him by that way, convince him to avoid any sort of communication with the Teams", Lance told us clutching his fists, and Alder nodded his head in approval.
Then, Lance ran his hand through his wild locks in frustration and possibly, fear.
Ash's POV:
It was tiring 7 hour journey on a Pokemon's back. While I was flying on Charizard, I felt a voice calling me and I asked him to fly low and I saw the usual trio running behind me. Seeing them, I asked Charizard to fly down.
"I expected to hear from you in Sinnoh", I told them while they were busy catching their breaths.
"WE DUG A HOLE, TWOIP!! AND WE TRAPPED DA TEAM ROCKET GRUNTS!!", Meowth yelled ecstatically while Jessie and James nodded their heads in pride.
"Are you going to Hoenn?", James asked me and I nodded.
"Wallace told me that there is a conspiracy going on between Team Aqua and Team Magma", I told them and they turned their heads away when I told them about Team Aqua and Magma.
"They always mocked us back then!! They told us that we were good for nothing and a bunch of other stuff", James told me while Meowth and Jessie nodded frowning.
"Well, it seems like a good platform to get your revenge, right? Listen, I'll have to hit them soon, alright? Do some recon around Rustboro City because Wallace happened to see them there. We may get some info there. PidgeyMail me if you get some solid info", I told them.
"Can we dig a hole here too, twoip? We'll fill da hole with lots o' Voltorbs and Electrodes, so they'll explode!!", Meowth asked me with stars in his eyes while Jessie and James looked at me with the same expression. It was nearly impossible to deny them when they gave me that look, so I succumbed to their requests. Well, it's not like it would harm my plans, would it?
Time Skip
I was trying to search for a few grunts to kindly enquire them for information about the R-missile, when I received a video from James.
"Hey twerp, these missiles aren't the usual explosive ones. They simply send out a gas that would make certain changes in the neurological regions of a human being and they've been modified in such a manner, that if the missiles were sent to the nooks and crannies of Hoenn, Maxie and Archie would be the undisputed leaders of Hoenn! The base isn't like Team Rocket's base. It is HEAVILY guarded, with no easy points of entrance. All the entrances are heavily guarded with no blind times, and all grunts are armed heavily. There is an alarm button every few metres, so the whole building can be notified if there was a breach. That's all we could gather in these 4 days. By the way, we found out a few hot spots to dig holes! We'll start when you decide to go on with this mission. See ya"
The whole video was from James's point of view, with animations and rather weak editing but simple enough for me to understand the whole situation.
If there were missiles, someone must be there to commandeer it's direction and a bunch of other stuff. But the most important thing about missiles, what was I missing?
YES!! Launch codes!! They will almost ALWAYS be with Maxie and Archie. But at the same time, they might carry fake codes on their persons to fool certain threats like me. The death of Archer and Giovanni would've definitely reached them by now. If the original launch codes were tampered with, or modified, their might be a small crack in their unity which can be HIGHLY beneficial in bringing them down. At the same time, they might place sensors on their launch codes which could detect different fingerprints, which may hinder my task.
While I was in my reverie, I received a video call from James.
"Hey twerp, we found this wierd switch near the Team Magma HQ. Any idea about this?", he asked me.
It was similar to a PokeTab but it had a medium sized red button on it's right side which caught my attention.
"HEY!! What does dis button do, twoip?", Meowth asked and immediately pressed it without knowledge of it's severity.
"NO!! DONT TOUCH IT!!", I desperately yelled at him but it was too late as he had done the damage.
To be continued.....
A/N: Thanks for reading! Do consider leaving behind a vote if it was good enough. Thanks!!:):):)