Act 2: Chapter 20

Act 2: Chapter 20

"I believe that we can do that, Lee. Can I get that list one more time to confirm I have everything correct?"

With one hand occupied by his cell phone, Lee has to flick his wrist to reopen the notebook held in his other hand. "Yeah. I need six copies of Protect, two copies of Solar Beam, two copies of Energy Ball, two copies of Focus Energy, one Dig, one Iron Tail, one Synthesis, one Thunder Wave, one Thunderbolt, one Psychic, one Swords Dance, one Payback, one Roost, one Light Screen, and one Hyper Beam. I'm willing to pay a premium if they come from quality donors."

On the other end of the phone line, Aarons is quiet for a moment. "Quite an impressive order. Why the sudden interest, if you don't mind me asking?"

Lee clicks his tongue. Aarons doesn't need to know. "I'm just closing gaps in my team's coverage. I am a career competitor, after all."

"Hmm" Aarons hums on the other side of the line. "We can get the TMs to you within the week, though there is the matter of cost. I'm sure I can talk the boys upstairs down quite a bit since your TMs were quite a hit, but even my conservative estimates are putting the bill at nearly a hundred-and-twenty-thousand credits. Your second TM run will cover a fair amount of it, but" The Silph Co rep sighs melodramatically. "Goodness, the remainder might hurt."

"I'll send you an email authorizing another run of Seed Sniper and Seed Blast when we're done talking," Lee interjects, trying to hold back his cringe at the expected but still painful number. "Just get the TMs to me when you can."

"That would certainly help out" Aarons, being the asshat that he is, pauses dramatically. "But consumer projections of Grass TMs aren't as favorable as they were now that we're approaching the middle of the league year. The major players have theirs now, and a second run is never as exciting as the first. The Finance department might consider your 'tab' to be a debt if the new run doesn't sell as quickly, and they are rather aggressive when trying to collect an outstanding balance."

A scowl mars Lee's face. "That almost sounds like a threat."

"No no! Not a threat!" the businessman backpedals. "They would never! Silph Co values the relationship it shares with the fine pokemon trainers of the world, and that is why so many trainers look to us to support their journeys and endeavors. Why, we "

"I'll fly back out to Mauville and let you copy something new," Lee interrupts, already exhausted from the conversation. "Give me two-three weeks."

"will have your TMs in the mail by the end of the day!" Aarons is all radiant positivity, but he can't quite hide the greed-tinged eagerness in his voice. "Where should we ship them?"

Finally.

"The Fallarbor Pokemart. I'll be there in a week," Lee supplies, reaching up to massage his brow. "Oh, and Aarons? When I show up for the TM copying, skip all the posturing and pleasantries. My Ninetales' temper is much shorter than it was back when she was a Vulpix. Have a good one."

Without waiting for an answer, Lee ends the call and leans back on the rickety park bench, relaxing. The dull throb of his migraine is slowly siphoned off, and he looks down to find out why.

Standing at his feet is Ninetales, who is breathing in deeply with a slight shake to her limbs. The tuft of chest fur on her breast is shaved short, and if one looks at her at the proper angle, they'll see pink scar tissue on her chest, nearly touching her heart.

It's been a week since Lee, Brendan, Zinnia, and their pokemon left Lavaridge, making north towards the distant town of Fallarbor, all the way on the other side of Mount Chimney. It's also been a week since Ninetales was finally released from the Lavaridge Pokemon Center

But not without complications.

The Pokemon Center's surgeons worked some absolute magic to save Ninetales' life, and even ensured that any lasting damage would be minimal, but that was only the silver lining of a dark cloud. A portion of Ninetales' left lung was destroyed, and although only a small fraction of her lung tissue was twisted and burned beyond repair, the loss compounded with the rest of the damage was enough to cause physical setbacks.

Until everything recovers, Lee's dear fox is going to be short of breath and easily fatigued. She's hissed and grumbled her discontent the entire way north so far with only Lee to hear her thoughts, as she's spent the long days of walking off of her paws and cooped up in her ball. Only now that they've reached a small border town west of Mount Chimney has she been allowed to begin exercising again, much to her frustration.

'Done with your laps, love?' Lee sends, patting the bench next to him, which Ninetales hops up onto. The fox lays her front half across Lee's lap, and Lee silently pours a bit of his stamina into her. His limbs grow a bit heavier, but the vixen's tremors fade.

'Seven laps around a park at trotting speed and I'm already exhausted?' Ninetales gnashes her teeth and tries to calm her rapid breaths. 'I hate this. I hate this feeling of weakness.'

Lee watches the various pokemon and people in the park as he thinks of a reply. His eyes roam to Zinnia, who is in a distant corner, letting her Tyrunt brutalize a challenging trainer's poor Pancham, to Brendan and Electrike, who are impressing a group of similarly-aged children with Brendan's four badges.

On the surface, everything seems normal. If Lee didn't know his friends well enough, he would have missed the lingering uncertainty, the guarded look in the eyes of his fellow trainers.

Everyone is still recovering.

'Don't let it bother you, Nine,' Lee silently soothes, combing his fingers through her silky pelt. 'Your trotting speed is a dead sprint for most other pokemon. You'll come out of this stronger than before. We all will. It's just a temporary setback.'

Ninetales sets her jaw like she's going to argue, but sighs and melts into his lap when Lee heads her off with a hug, one gentle enough to not squeeze her ribs. 'Very well. I suppose now is not the time or the place. How did your call with the slimeball go? I was not paying attention.'

'I gave him the list, and he estimated a hundred-and-twenty grand. I had to promise a new TM to get him to shut up. I also told him not to mess around when we show up, lest he annoy you too much. I didn't get a reply from him before I hung up, but I imagine he's pissing himself a little.'

Ninetales lets out a raspy, vulpine chortle. 'As he should!'

While Lee would have loved to take the time to teach all of his pokemon new moves from scratch to better aid their long-term mastery and further his own understanding in the process, the incident upon the volcano left the zoologist with a painful idea of what sort of gaps his team possesses, and expedited the need to close them.

TMs are not a perfect solution, not by a long shot. As miraculous as the disks are, they only impart the fundamentals needed to use a move and little else, like inserting a new line of code into a program. Any tricks, quirks, and hangups will have to be discovered manually through use and training, meaning true mastery takes time. Only TMs from truly exceptional donors have the donor's honed, instinctual understanding of the move woven within.

Still, though, TMs provide an accelerated starting point, eliminating the initial hurdles of learning a new move. Time is money, which means TMs are expensive. To Lee, though, the cost is worth it.

The first one Lee looked at when considering TMs was Octillery. He and the octopus have been slowly getting better at working together, but it's obvious that they lack synergy; their effectiveness simply isn't up to par, at least not compared to the rest of the team. Lee is simply too used to having pokemon with superior mobility, and the transition to a slower-paced fighting style has been a difficult one.

The answer for that? Simply make Octillery the faster pokemon in the match. Until Lee's skill as a trainer catches up with Octillery's full capabilities, this is the most straightforward solution. Easier said than done, but some new moves might make all the difference in the world, which is why Octillery is getting Thunder Wave, Psychic, Focus Energy, and Payback.

Thunder Wave's near-guaranteed paralysis will slow down speedier opponents and give Octillery ample time to use Lock-On and Focus Energy.

Psychic is going to be a bit trickier, as Lee wants Octillery to learn telekinesis not for attacking, but for mobility. Pokemon without an innate predisposition to levitation often have trouble moving themselves with telekinesis, as Lee and Ninetales found out shortly after Nine's evolution, but if any pokemon can spare the brainpower to psychically levitate themself, it's Octillery. Telekinesis also opens a lot of interesting doors for the cephalopod.

Finally, Payback is to make other pokemon think twice about getting too close. Octillery's Wrap is crushing, and his Headbutt is painful, but he simply isn't a physical attacker at his core. Payback, which increases the user's physical strength after taking a hit, will even the odds for a close-range engagement.

Grovyle's greatest weakness is his fragility, which unfortunately is difficult to solve. The Sceptile line is not well predisposed for defensive moves in general. Lee is certain that, given enough time, he can work out something viable for Grovyle, but for now, it seems more prudent to go with what's tried and true. Synthesis should aid the wood gecko in his battle longevity as the two of them continue to develop the still unnamed 'drain blade' technique, but in an ideal scenario, the battle wouldn't drag on long enough for Grovyle to get that banged up.

For that reason, Lee decided Swords Dance is a must-have. It's difficult to master, and borderline dangerous for the user if they can't control their own strength, but once the user has some expertise with it, the boost to the pokemon's physical attributes is immense. Lee isn't terribly concerned about that, as Grovyle is nothing if not a master of his own body. He researched the move, and was shocked with how huge a difference it makes. Grovyle is also getting a copy of Focus Energy, because why not? The techniques pair well together.

On the projectile side, Grovyle is also getting Energy Ball and Solar Beam, just in case he faces a foe more susceptible to energy attacks than physical ones. Solar Beam also synergizes quite well with Ninetales' Drought, because as the name implies, Solar Beam is empowered by the sun's rays. In situations where Solar Beam isn't the best choicesay, a cloudy day or at nightEnergy Ball will make for an excellent backup.

Corvi might be the best balanced of Lee's team. The great raven has no outstanding weaknesses other than a susceptibility to Fire and Electric-type. Nevertheless, Lee picked out TMs for him too.

Roost was an obvious one. How do you make a flying tank even worse to fight? You give that tank the ability to heal itself. Roost also has some properties that might make for interesting research later. How does the pokemon use Flying TE for healing?

Given how many Fire and Electric-type moves are energy-based attacks, Light Screen was another gimmie. With Light Screen cutting the potency of energy attacks, Corvi should be able to shrug off most projectiles and reduce the potency of his only two type disadvantages.

Lee would have liked to get an offensive Ground move for Corvi to defeat his sole pair of weaknesses, but most experts say that Ground TE is beyond the Corviknight line, meaning that that is going to have to be an independent project on his part.

Thunderbolt is for Shinx once she grows a bit more. It should serve as an accelerated stepping stone once she masters Thundershock. Once the kitten has a few battles under her belt, Lee can more effectively build a movepool for her. If Lee is being honest with himself, Shinx is probably ready to begin battling. She's fully transitioned to solid food, is finally in the healthy weight range for her species, and watches the rest of the team train with growing restlessness.

And for Ninetales? His ace is getting Solar Beam, Energy Ball, Iron Tail, Hyper Beam, and Dig.

Solar Beam was the most obvious choice for her. It hits hard, synergizing with the harsh sunlight brought by her Drought, and is super effective against her three main weaknessesthose being Ground, Rock, and Water. Like with Grovyle, Energy Ball is a backup for when Solar Beam isn't viable.

Iron Tail is a move Lee tried to teach Nine himself, but something about the Steel TE has been eluding her. They can get the fur of her tails to stiffen and shine, but they've always been too rigid to maneuver, sticking out like an awkward fan behind her. The fox is no slouch in melee, and turning her namesake tails into weapons would make her a terror at close range. But this pales to what Lee has in mind for long-range.

Hyper Beam is a ferocious technique spoken of in hushed whispers. Few pokemon have what it takes to use the move in the first place, let alone master it. Even novices can reshape the landscape with it, and Ninetales could make fantastic use of a powerful, Normal-typed beam attack. The poorly understood components within Hyper Beam that allow a pokemon to unleash such unearthly amounts of energy at once will arguably be more useful to Ninetales later, though. If she and Lee can reverse engineer thatUpdated from novelbIn.(c)om

Finally, Dig is almost exclusively to introduce Nine to Ground TE. The move will be useful on its own merits, but the end goal of learning it is to use it as a stepping stone to other Ground techniques. With Ground at her disposal, Nine will be able to effectively counter other Fire-types with unfavorable secondary types, such as Fire-Ground, or Fire-Dark.

Lee can thank some poor guy in his Battlenet megathread for this decision, as the poster proudly announced that he acquired a Houndoom with Flash Fire, an ability that completely negates fire moves, to counter Ninetales. A Fire-Dark pokemon that's immune to both fire and psychic type attacks might be the worst matchup Nine can face.

Lee replied with the word "Dig" and muted the thread for a few days, much to Ninetales' amusement.

Then, almost as an afterthought, Lee decided that everyone, eventual sixth pokemon included, will be getting Protect. Damn near every pokemon can learn it, and it's too useful to not have. In the pokemon games, Protect negates all incoming damage outside of a few rare circumstances, and it works much the same here. Only an attack of truly monstrous power can break Protect's barrier.

According to Zinnia, the Draconid stronghold outside of Fallarbor would provide an excellent place for some private training, meaning Lee will be free to teach his pokemon one TM at a time and help them master each move before moving on to the next. By the time they're back on the road, every one of them should have a greatly expanded repertoire.

'Seems sound to me.' Ninetales nods, following Lee's thoughts. Inside the fox is a twinge of excitement at the prospect of a handful of new moves, with Dig being the only exception. Already she can imagine her fur covered in filth

'Even with a bit of dirt on you, you'd still be the most beautiful pokemon in Hoenn,' Lee insists. He presses a hand to Nine's chest, just to the side of her scar, and measures her heart rate. 'Your heart is calming down plenty fast, and your breathing is settling. You'll be back to one-hundred percent in no time.'

The fox huffs, a smidgen of her foul mood returning. 'It cannot come soon enough.'

The pair remain there on the bench for a time, their silent chatter turning inconsequential, which Lee can't help but find to be a pleasant change of pace.

'I finished my last book last night,' Ninetales begins, her troubles fading from the forefront of her mind. 'The Cerulean Account is a fascinating read to be certain, though I can't help but feel as if the author glossed over a number of important details. There was never a stated reason as to how Cinnabar Island and the Pallet Outpost began to poach seaborne merchant traffic from the Cerulean ports located on Route twenty-four. One can certainly assume that they lowered their tariffs as low as Kanto would allow, but that does not explain why even ships coming from the north, like from the growing Hisui, would be willing to circumvent Kanto's entire eastern flank and add weeks to their trip'

Oh Arceus, she's talking about geopolitical history again. If he couldn't lift the knowledge directly from Ninetales' mind, Lee would be so lost. Even if he finds the subject dull, Lee listens dutifully.

The topic drifts here and there, from books and history

'I would like to take up calligraphy, if funds will allow it.' Nine gives Lee a hopeful look. 'Other Eyes mentioned that it was used as a meditative art form during the days of the shogunate, and I found myself intrigued by the concept. Learning Old Kantonese along the way may also be useful later.'

'Some are more patient with others, though' Lee thinks to himself, watching Mawile's crocodile-like jaws drool in the grass. He lets his gaze wander.

Corvi is over beneath a tree, resting along with Octillery as they wait to be called for food. Neither wants to be in the sun, one because he'll overheat in his armor, and the other because he'll dry out. It's good to see the corvid and cephalopod chattering quietly, as they didn't seem too fond of each other before Corvi's evolution.

Grovyle, meanwhile, is lying in the grass along with Breloom. The Grass-types leisurely sun themselves, but Lee cringes when he lays eyes upon Grovyle.

So many of his scales, especially on his chest, are deformed or pale from his burn scars, but it looks like a nightly application of Rawst-infused cream, the same stuff that Lee uses to keep his own scars pliant, is helping minimize everything.

It obviously chafes Grovyle, who is so used to training daily, that his body refuses to move how he wishes. The wood gecko has few tells that slip through his aloof attitude, but Lee can see the annoyed bounce of his chewing twig whenever Grovyle is reminded of his injuries. Every day, he's able to push his limbs a little farther, pulling at his scarred skin, but not as far as he could at the height of his health. It's going to be some time before he gets everything back, and it's heartening to Lee that Grovyle finally seems to be accepting that he can't work himself to the bone.

For now, at least.

Lee touches his spatula to one of the steaks on the grill, and judging it to be right at the halfway point between rare and medium rare, he scoops it up, plates it, and hands it down to Mawile.

The fairy looks at the slab of meat with glee, her eyes starry and both of her mouths watering. Her croc-jaws begin to rise and drape over her shoulder, ready to snap up the meal in one bite.

A canine whine interrupts her.

Looking to the side, Mawile is treated to the sight of both Electrike and Shinx looking at her with large, despondent eyes. Shinx waivers slightly, letting her gaze fall to the steak for a moment before fixing her eyes forward again.

Mawile grimaces, her shoulders tensing as if she were just stabbed. She looks between the steaming meat on her plate and the pair of younglings giving her big Growlithe eyes, indecision coloring every movement. Then with a pained hiss, she shakily holds the plate out to Electrike, trying, and mostly failing, to put a sincere smile on her face.

Stubby tail wagging so fast that it's practically a blur, Brendan's giant, electric puppy takes the steak right off the plate and trots over to a shady spot, Shinx bounding along with him. He tears the meat in half Then promptly cedes the larger half to a loudly purring Shinx without a fuss.

Mawile drops to her hands and knees dramatically, a mournful moan leaving her.

"Oh, don't be like that," Lee rolls his eyes and bends over, picking up the discarded plate. Taking a patty off the grill, he assembles a regular burger from the spread of ingredients laid out on the folding camp table next to him and hands it to Mawile.

The fairy is back on her feet in an instant and shoves the sandwich into her rearward-facing jaws, shredding it between her teeth like a wild animal.

'Jeez' Lee smiles awkwardly at the sight. He takes two more patties off the grill and puts more on to cook. With the two he took off, he makes a double burger, leaving out the onions, and holds it at hip height.

'What are you ' Ninetales begins to question before her stomach growls. The inside of her ears turn pink in a blush, and as nonchalantly as she can, she bites into the offered sandwich.

The taste of the burger and Ninetales' satisfaction both wash over Lee, and he smiles as both are equally pleasant.

Looking over his shoulder, Lee finally focuses on Brendan.

The boy is still occupied by his cellphone, seemingly disinterested in any of the food being prepared. Considering his appetite as a growing boy, it's unusual, to say the least. His usually smiling face, is instead neutral as though troubled. It seems as if the young trainer has been smiling less and less over the last week.

Something must be troubling him.

"Brendan?" Lee calls to the younger trainer. "You alright? You look kind of down."

Brendan jumps, apparently not expecting to be addressed. He puts his phone down and plasters a thin smile on his face. "Yeah! I'm fine! Just a bit bummed about a losing streak," he says, lifting his phone and giving it a shake.

Beside the young Birch, Zinnia's eyes sharpen, and she slows her eating. For a brief moment, Zinnia and Lee lock eyes.

She's noticed, too.

"Okay" Lee lets the word hang. When Brendan doesn't spill, he continues. "If something was wrong, you'd say something, right?"

Brendan nods, though it looks rather unconvincing to Lee.

Clicking his tongue, Lee returns his attention to cooking. 'What's eating you, Brendan?'

"You're certain that this is needed?" Courtney weakly asks, looking at her new quarters within the Magma hideout.

It's spartan, even by her own pragmatic standards. A bed, a filled bookshelf, a desk with pens and stationary, a dresser with a mirror atop it, and a small door leading to an even smaller lavatory. Air circulates from somewhere, but Courtney can't see from where.

"Leader Maxie's orders, ma'am," the lieutenant escorting her says. Courtney can't tell who the lieutenant is on account of the bulky, psychic-dampening helmet they wear, but they sound like a man beneath the polarized visor. "Standard quarantine post-contact with hostile telepaths is four weeks. Your decontamination will start at o-seven-hundred hours tomorrow."

If it is Leader Maxie who ordered it, then Courtney is in no place to argue

Stepping inside the rehabilitation quarters, Courtney looks around and realizes that she's never seen them from the inside. She's seen the schematics countless times in her dogmatic pursuits to ensure that everything within Magma is up to par, but being inside one is completely different.

There is a slam and a click, and the Magma Admin whirls around, seeing that the heavy steel door behind her has been shut and locked. Her first instinct is to reach for the pokeballs on her belt, only to stop.

Her pokmon were separated from her. 'Safety concerns,' said the medical officer who evaluated her. 'We don't want your pokemon to be endangered by unwilling orders from you in the event you were implanted with time delay or conditional compulsions. We'll take care of them.'

With an anxious sigh, Courtney slowly trudges over to the bed and sits, staring down at her hands.

Everything seemed to be going well enough when Leader Maxie rescued everyone, using Claydol to teleport them safely to a hidden clearing on the eastern part of Mount Chimney's flank. As per standard protocol, all of the members scattered and made their way back to the hideout at random times to throw off pursuers. Courtney was one of the last ones to arrive. She immediately made herself useful and began gathering the various lieutenants and low-ranking members of the volcano operation. She received reports and debriefs from each one, then forwarded everything to Leader Maxie in a secure email. Things would play out calmly for some time afterward, and Courtney was thankful for the return to normality. Leader Maxie was scarce, likely dealing with the fallout of the botched operation.

Courtney began to shift her priorities, starkly remembering the words of Lee Henson on top of the volcano.

'Magma is up here on this volcano for one purpose: they intend to awaken Groudon and try to leash it like a rabid dog.'

How? How did he know? Who leaked the information to him? Magma must have some sort of information leak, and for ruining their plans so thoroughly, Courtney found herself determined to plug the leak permanently. She began sorting through all the member dossiers, trying to find who in the world would dare interfere with Leader Maxie's vision.

Then everything began to change all at once.

Countless Magma assets were recalled, filling the hideout to capacity and then some. Some were dismissed, and new blood was brought in to replace them. What struck Courtney as strange is that She wasn't consulted on any of those changes. She reached out to both Tabitha and Leader Maxie, only to get no reply

Then out of the blue, Tabitha and a host of lieutenants barged into her office, with Tabitha declaring that Courtney had been compromised. She stood up and argued her case, only to be silenced when Tabitha spoke those damning words.

"The order comes from Leader Maxie."

She wanted to ask why, but she set her jaw and allowed herself to be led off. Leader Maxie must have a reason.

In the medical wing, a psychic specialist saw to her and declared her a risk within thirty seconds. Her pokeballs were seized before her pokemon could do anything rash, then she was led to this room.

'Was I Really compromised?' Courtney's breath hitches in her throat, her usually placid face screwing itself up into horror. 'Did that Ninetales slip past my blocks? No, that's impossible But how did Henson know?'

Her hands grip her head, and the room seems to spin. Was someone actually in her head without her knowing? What other secrets did they acquire? What else do they know? All of Magma, all the time, effort, and ambition might be in danger now! Henson might have everything!

For all the damage she may have caused, though, something else hurts just as much now that the botched mission won't leave her mind.

"Should anybody have power like that? Are people even able to handle power like that? I don't know, and the more I think about it, the more fishy the plan to awaken Groudon becomes. If I'm being truthful, Courtney, then I didn't want to join Magma for their goals, anyway"

"I wanted to join to be around you."

Brendan could have been an Admin like her; he could have helped them change the world.

Then at the last moment, he turned on Magma.

Should anybody have power like that?

Are people even able to handle power like that?

She wants to say it. She wants to say that Leader Maxie is the one, that he alone can lead them into a new era, a shining era, one where man is no longer subject to the whims of the world beneath their feet.

But she hesitates.

She hesitates.

Courtney's eyes shoot wide open, and for the first time since her childhood, she wants to scream.

She has been compromised.

She's betrayed Magma without even meaning to.