Interlude – Cynthia’s Burden (Part 2)

Interlude – Cynthia’s Burden (Part 2)

INTERLUDE - Cynthia’s Burden (Part 2)

Vernon had signed the law, and so it was time for interrogations. Two policemen were in the room with her, ready to take notes of everything the galactic grunts would say.

“Let’s start this the easy way, shall we?” Cynthia said with a smile. Alakazam was right next to her, ready to use his abilities when needed. “What is your goal?”

“Go die in a ditch,” The grunt said before spitting on her shoe. She smiled at him.

“Alakazam,” She said in an icy tone.

Alakazam’s eye flashed, and his spoons bent unnaturally, and the grunt started to squirm, then scream. The policemen winced and turned away, but Cynthia kept looking. Right into his eyes. With a smile. The torture kept going for around two minutes until the grunt was left on the ground with a nosebleed, passed out, drooling all over himself.

“Verdict?” The Champion asked.

He did not know much, but he knew the names of their leaders. Their organization is led by a man called Cyrus, but he doesn’t know what he looks like. Under him, there are four commanders. Saturn, Jupiter, Charon, and Mars. The reason he didn’t talk was because he seems to fear Mars more than you. They weren’t told what the goal of their operation today was.

Cyrus, hm? Cynthia thought. That was a name those two trainers had told Roark.

“Of course, that would be too easy. What will happen to him?”

He will never speak again, and his intelligence has been reduced to one of a five-year-old.

“Should have talked,” Cynthia said.

They continued like this, going room by room. Floaroma’s police station was never meant to hold so many criminals, so sometimes they had to be packed tightly into rooms. A few of them had tried attacking her, but Alakazam stopped them in their tracks using Psychic. Out of the thirty-four people they had captured, eleven were crippled beyond function by the memory extraction process, and two had died. All of the grunt’s Pokemon would have to be sent to the League to be rehabilitated. They had all been rather new to the organization, so Cynthia had only learned what the leaders looked like except for Cyrus after Alakazam perfectly drew their faces on a piece of paper by levitating a pencil. She had also learned that Dusknoir had been lurking in the plant for a week before team Galactic had moved in, observing the schedules to know when would be the best time to strike.

“Thank you, Alakazam. You can go back to Lucian,”

I hated every minute of it, He told her before teleporting.

Cynthia walked out of the police station and ignored the reporters swarming her once again. Now that she was done with interrogations, it was time to go see some of the trainers that had been held in the plant. There were three in particular that she wanted to see, so she quickly made her way to the Pokemon Center with the two police officers that had interrogated the galactic grunts with her. She ignored the stares and immediately asked for Chase Karlson’s room.

The Champion knocked on his door.

“What’s up? Who is it?” He said.

Cynthia came into the room with the police. “Chase Karlson, I presume? I have a few questions for you.”

The young trainer’s face was swollen and purple, but his eyes widened for a second before returning to a neutral expression.

“O—oh, yeah, no problem. Ask away.”

Cynthia smiled. “I heard you took down a few of the team galactic grunts yourself. I am thankful, but you could have been hurt. What compelled you to go inside of the plant after you figured out something was wrong? Actually, how did you figure out something was wrong?”

“I was working out with my Pokemon next to the plant before my Riolu sensed that something was wrong using his aura. He usually knows better than I do, so I just immediately called the police.”

“And why did you go inside?” Cynthia asked again.

“To test myself,” He spat. “And I failed. How mediocre.”

“You did more than most would have done, and for that, I wanted to thank you personally. Is there anything you heard that could help our investigation? Go over your experience inside of the plant, please.”

Chase did, recalling every detail that happened while he was in the plant, which admittedly wasn’t much since he got there late. Still, every piece of information would help solve the greater puzzle at play.

“Thank you very much, we’ll be on our way now. I wish you a healthy recovery,” Cynthia said.

“Wait,” Chase called out. “I’m going to beat you this year. Just wait and see,” He said with a confident grin.

“Hm? Interesting. And then what?” She asked.

“What?”

“You’ll beat me, and then what? What will your goal be beyond that victory?”

Chase stammered a few words, but Cynthia ignored him and left. It wasn’t the first time she had met trainers like him, and it wouldn’t be the last. The best she could do right now was help him think. Cynthia smiled as she knocked on Cecilia Obel’s door. She was swarmed by what Cynthia assumed were her friends. She recognized all of them— all heirs to rich businesses.

“Good evening. May I have a few minutes of your time, Ms. Obel? Alone?” Cynthia asked.

“Champion Cynthia! What an honor it is to finally meet you! My father has been trying to arrange a meeting between us,” The oldest of them said. Cynthia recognized him as Louis Bianchi.

“Louis... not now,” Pauline King said quietly.

Emilia Lussier clasped her hands. “Cece’s in a really bad place right now, so please be careful with her,” She said.

“Of course. You have my word.”

Louis cleared his throat. “Cece is shaken from what happened to her, I believe it may be best for us to stay to support her—”

“Leave,” Cynthia ordered.

They timidly nodded and exited the room. Cynthia sat next to Cecilia Obel, who straightened her back and fixed up her hair.

“None of that with me,” Cynthia said. She had lived long enough to spot a girl faking her way through life from a mile away. “Be yourself.”

“C—can I? Be myself, I mean.”

“Of course,” Cynthia said, before gesturing toward the two policemen, who then promptly left. This one was delicate and needed privacy. “I see you’re shaken by what happened today. Do you need to vent? I’ll listen before asking you my questions.”

“Well, you’re the Champion of the region, aren’t you? How does it feel to be free?”

“Free? In what sense?”

“You can speak how you want, act how you want, go where you want! You can be free! There’s no one breathing down your neck, judging every little move you make!” The child snarled.

If only she knew how wrong she was, Cynthia thought. She would entertain her idea for now.

They all quieted down, probably taken aback by the amount of weakness Cynthia inflected in her tone.

“Roark, you first.”

“I’m glad you kept your promise and dealt with the threat at hand, Cynthia. Please tell me if there’s anything I can do?”

“Keep a teleporter in your gym at all times in case you need to be called up— that goes for all of you. Your League-mandated Kadabra don’t know the move yet, so call Lucian and get them replaced,” Cynthia said.

“Sounds good. Also, I want to know anything we have about them. Their goals, the number of people they have, and their leaders, if possible.”

Cynthia explained everything she had found out today.

“Damn, what a drag,” Volkner said. “I thought my tenure as gym leader would be chill, man... turns out I have to deal with terrorists.”

“Anything productive to add, Volkner?” Cynthia asked.

“I can send a few of my people to replace the employees at Valley Windworks,” He said with a sigh. “They’re well versed in anything electrical, and I assume you don’t want an energy crisis in your laundry list of fucked up shit to deal with.”

“Thank you, that’ll be a big help,” She said.

“If they want to screw with reality, then there’s no telling how many people they could end up killing. We need to be on top of this, now,” Roark said. “Your new law today was a great step.”

“Really, Roark? Really? You want to torture people and turn them into vegetables?!” Maylene yelled.

“Maylene, they’re criminals—” Roark protested.

She cut him off. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but criminals have rights to a defense and a trial! And they got none of that!” She interrupted him, still kicking and punching the punching bag.

“It had to be done, Maylene. Don’t let your sense of justice get in the way,” Cynthia said.

“The only reason I joined this call was to know if you had really caused the law to pass,” She said. “And now I know you did. I lost a lot of respect for you today, Cynthia.”

Cynthia sighed. Maylene was the youngest gym leader, and more hot-headed than even Roark. She often let her ideals get in the way of efficiency, something Cynthia hoped she would learn to deal with as she aged.

“Calm down, Maymay. Screaming isn’t helping,” Gardenia said with her usual angelic voice. “Look at it from—”

“From her perspective, I know! I’m just pissed off because if we keep going down this path, we’ll end up being just as bad as the bad guys!”

Maylene had a lot of respect for Gardenia, and they were very close. In fact, Cynthia was sure the two girls were practically sisters.

“That judgment is flawed, Maylene,” Roark said. “We’re doing this to help people. If they don’t want their memories extracted, then they can just talk.”

“And what if they lie? How can you be sure? Wouldn’t you just have Alakazam do it anyways to be sure?”

“Alakazam can tell when people are lying,” Volkner said tiredly. “Your point is null.”

“Shut up, you lazy bum! you never visit me, but you keep being annoying! I hate you!” Maylene screamed.

“I have a city to run,” Volkner said. “You barely do any of the work, you just battle people over and over.”

“I want to help out more, but they keep saying I’m too young!”

“Let’s stay on topic,” Cynthia said. Dealing with all of these children at once was pure hell, even if she liked them. “Gardenia, anything else you want to say?”

“You know me, Cynth. I’m a pencil pusher, you tell me what to do, and I’ll do it.”

Ah, Gardenia. Always the reasonable one. “Good. And... uh, Candice?”

“Yeah— Trying— Fuck!”

“I thought we sent someone up to Snowpoint to fix the internet. What happened?”

Cynthia heard Candice hit her computer.

“Oh, wait! I’m getting four bars! I’m here! Can you hear me?”

“Yes,” Cynthia said, rolling her eyes. “Hurry up before you lose connection again.”

“Okay, so I had this really wild idea. What if the next time team Galactic showed themselves, we have Alakazam ready, and boom! He just scours one of their leader’s memory right then and there while we protect him.”

“That’s what you’ve been trying to say this entire time? That was a given,” Volkner yawned.

“It’s a smart idea. You’re just jealous ‘cause you don’t have my intellect.”

“Candice, that was already in the cards. The problem is that if they have a Dusknoir and a Hypno that is capable of teleporting, there is no guarantee that the combined strength of Jupiter, Mars, Charon, Saturn, and Cyrus won’t overpower you— older gym leaders and elite four included. As of now, I’d call their commander a threat to all of you— especially Mars. If you find them, do not engage and call me. I sent you all Alakazam’s portraits.”

“Sure!” Candice smiled.

“All of this fuss is unwarranted. As soon as you find their HQ, they’ll be dealt with,” Maylene said.

Cynthia shook her head. “I wouldn’t be so sure, Maylene.”

“But you’re... you,” Maylene said, having stopped her workout. “If you can’t deal with them, no one can.”

Cynthia could sense fear in her voice and in the gazes of all the others. It seemed that they were finally realizing the true threat that team Galactic posed.

“I’m not saying I can’t, I’m saying that nothing is set in stone and that these people are an actual danger, and will be for the foreseeable future. I’m going to go to sleep. Stay alert, and do not under any circumstances speak to the media. We can’t let anything else slip to the public, or there’ll be a panic. Am I clear?”

They all acquiesced. Cynthia was satisfied as she hung up. The Champion was nice, but strict. She needed to whip all of the kids into shape really quickly, or there was no telling what would happen. She released her Togekiss, who chirped happily and snuggled next to her. It was a tight fit on the bed, but it would have to do.

She couldn’t escape the nightmares without his help. The companions she had seen die, the people she had killed, her failures, her duties, they all came back to haunt her. Sleep was impossible without her Togekiss, and she hoped that Grace Pastel would not fall into the same trap.

Smile Cynthia, She thought. Everything is fine. Don’t let them see your weakness.

Cynthia Collins was Sinnoh’s Champion, but she was human too. She carried the entire region atop her shoulders, and her throne sat on a pile of lies.