PARAGON
Remnants of the Great War Arc [4]
Chapter 13 : New Game
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The Hano Grand Resort was a golden castle by the sea. Silken beaches and tropical coves drenched the property in luxurious prestige, and the sun above bathed the whole city in a perfect heat, never too hot or too humid, all year round. Golf courses, volcanic hot springs, and furnished bars littered the resort, and its guests were never left wanting for greater services or accommodations. Despite the astronomical price tag on even their smallest suites, the resort remained fully booked year-round, though the property was so vast that it never felt cramped or crowded. It was unusual to not see at least several world-renowned celebrities enjoying one of the crystal pools or relaxing on one of the many private beaches.
Cynthia took a sip of her cocktail, a lemon-colored nectar flavored with the purified enzymes of a Toxapex cultivated specifically for that one ingredient. It was refreshing beyond all belief, like drinking sunlight with accents of wood and spice. An array of small plates covered the circular table she sat at, holding powdered cakes and frosted cookies and fluffy meringue and other pastries and sweets she couldn’t even name.
It was a bit past noon and the sun still hung overhead, but she was inside. A day like today would’ve been best spent outside, but this penthouse suite at the top of the resort offered a different strain of comfort. The walls were lined with doors, and all of them were open to let in the fresh air and island breeze. Artificial streams trickled throughout the room, adding to the ambience. The ceiling above was painted with an oceanic mural with beautiful renditions of the local pokémon wildlife.
Across from Cynthia sat a woman she’d known since she was a child. She had long black hair that cascaded over her shoulders like water and pooled on the floor around her. She wore a simple white sundress that swept over her tenuous form down to her ankles, and silver ringlets banded her fingers. Even though they were indoors, a wide-brimmed white hat sat on her head. Cynthia had learned how to be a woman from her, and she was the obvious inspiration for her own meticulous public image. Her face was spotless, without a single wrinkle or mole marring her porcelain skin. Her long eyelashes flitted like the wings of a butterfly with every blink, and her eyes were a cold pearl.
Zelda Leora was perfection incarnate.
“I’m sorry for calling you away during such a busy time. I would have understood if you declined.”
Funny.
“Of course not!” Cynthia waved her hand. “Not even the end of the world could stop me from coming to tea time.”
Zelda beamed. “You’re so sweet, Cynthia. And speaking of, try one of these honey tarts. A cafe nearby just opened several months ago and these sell out an hour after they open every morning.” She pushed one of the plates in Cynthia’s direction.
Cynthia picked one up, then looked back at Zelda. The woman laced her fingers together and stared at her expectantly, like a child, her face alight with pride. Cynthia smiled and bit into it. Sugary goodness blossomed across her taste buds, and her eyes widened. She brought a hand to her lips. “Oh my goodness.”
“Right!” The lavender eyeshadow around Zelda’s eyes shimmered as she smiled. “Here, have another! Oh, and then you have to try some liechi pudding next! And the sugarberry eclairs after that.”
“I’m trying to watch my weight…”
“Oh, enough, you’re still young,” Zelda scolded. “Life is all about mundane pleasures like this. You need to enjoy them while they’re still in front of you!” She pushed another plate forward with her glossy fingernails.
Cynthia smiled and helped herself to a bit of each, putting the various pastries on her plate but not moving to eat any of them yet. “I must say, I’m enjoying this cocktail much more than I should at this time of day.” She swirled her glass around.
“Oh, I knew you would. I had to get my personal staff to mix it for us. Each individual ingredient is so rare, even the resort doesn’t dare put it on their public menu. I heard a man was killed once over a tiny bottle of the liqueur alone.” She winked and smiled mischievously. “I’d only partake on a special occasion.”
“And what occasion is that?”
Zelda’s eyes narrowed, and her winged eyeliner looked ready to take flight. “Time with my darling Cynthia, of course,” she said, and she shook her head alluringly. “I look forward to these quite a bit, you know?”
Cynthia was a resolute woman, but even she felt her cheeks heat up. She balled up her napkin and threw it across the table. “Stop that.”
Zelda laughed and shielded herself. This was how these meetings always went. They always tried to maintain an air of dignity as expected of their statuses for as long as they could, but it always inevitably devolved into banter between schoolgirls.
“Still, this does feel different from our usual tea parties,” Cynthia said soberly. “It almost feels like the world is starting to spin faster than usual.”
Zelda took a long sip from her glass. “The World Prison incident was certainly unexpected. Another monster set loose in the world, as if there aren’t enough already.” She shook her head in disdain.
AZ’s escape wasn’t public knowledge, but it came as no surprise to Cynthia that Zelda knew about it. The woman sat at the pinnacle of society. She was the sort of person people were talking about when they complained about the rich. She was a serial investor, at least for right now. She never seemed to stay in one sector for long, always dabbling here and there in the various enterprises that underpinned society. But to Cynthia, she’d always just been Miss Leora, and Zelda once she’d gotten older.
“It’s not just that,” Cynthia said. “More and more rogue groups are cropping up in the east, pokémon are getting restless across the world, and then there’s the new World Champion.”
Zelda nodded and smiled. “Continue.”
“The League’s been scrambling to align themselves under his new leadership, but honestly, the World Prison situation couldn’t have come at a better time. The transition has been uncharacteristically smooth. Nothing like a good crisis to get everyone pointed in the same direction.”
“Well, you’ve met the man. What do you think of him?”
World Champion Albrecht… She’d only met him once, by chance, two years ago at Ash’s victory party, and her first impressions weren’t kind. He immediately realized the lengths I’d gone to capture Ash, and he was interested in him too. She hadn’t heard from him since, until the League called her out to Indigo Plateau for an impromptu internal meeting. That was when she learned they’d changed their minds, and were electing a new World Champion, effective immediately. I never expected them to keep that throne empty for five whole years. But for them to announce it, then renege… There’s always been factionalism within the League, but this can’t be described as anything other than a hostile takeover. And for it to happen all without my notice…
“He’s an interesting man,” Cynthia replied. “If nothing else, his pokémon are certainly of the proper caliber. And he stabilized the League during a period of uncertainty. His political acumen is sharper than most.”
“You’re hiding something from me, Cynthia.”
Cynthia bit her lip. She glanced down at her mental cards.
“He’s dangerous,” she finally said. “He’s using the League for something, but I’m not sure what. And the fact that I can’t tell if his intentions are good or bad worries me even more.”
“Could you beat him?”
Cynthia ran her hand through her hair, letting the breeze cool her sweat. “The Board elected him, so he never had to go through the tournament, and he hasn’t done any public battles throughout his career that I’m aware of. Normally, I’d say yes, but…” She frowned and bit into a tart involuntarily. “Something else is going on, I can feel it.”
Zelda nodded. “Your instincts are spot on, as usual. I’ve heard of the man called Albrecht through the grapevine for some years. He’s always been an enigma.” She crossed her arms. “I suppose I’ll just sit and watch, for now.”
“For now?”
“Try some of these diamond pies, Cynthia, or I’ll end up eating them all.”
Oh, well. It was worth a shot. “I also noticed a number of Alolan firms suddenly buying back a lot of their shares. Know anything about that?”
Zelda blushed and smiled cheekily. “Guilty.”
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Zinnia stormed down the empty halls of Paragon’s headquarters. The sunlight that sheared through the windows cast shadows over her face as she walked.
Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Stupid!
He was so, so stupid! Zinnia herself was basically a genius, but there was a limit to how distant he could be in the intelligence department, especially for a fellow member of Paragon. His first assignment, no less! World Champion, my ass!
When Zinnia received the message about Ash’s condition while out in Johto, she’d quickly put a cauldron of insults and expletives on the fire to boil. When he woke up, oh, there’d be hell and more to pay. At least, that had been the plan.
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She exhaled loudly in frustration and slapped a curtain beside her for no reason.
Stupid me.
For all her pomp and pride, Zinnia Higana did not do well with death. How many times had she said goodbye at this point? First, her grandfather, of old age, then her grandmother, of cancer. Her father died while on the quest, and her mother followed him in anguish.
Her sister and her few childhood friends met their end when a wave of sickness passed through the village. By a stroke of sheer luck, she hadn’t been in the village when it had, and she returned to the stench of corpse piles burning in the square.
That had all happened before she turned ten. And it was why she’d sworn to follow a solitary path as she pursued the mythical Great Dragon.
Well, Cynthia had a funny way of shuffling one’s life plan around like a deck of cards and always drawing the card that said, “Join Paragon.”
Zinnia herself had been on the verge of death when Cynthia found her. Breaking into the island chamber at the center of Lake Acuity to pursue a lead on a possible connection between the Spacetime Dragons of Sinnoh and the Heroes’ Dragons of Unova may not have been the wisest decision in hindsight, especially at age twelve. Azelf had left her bleeding from every orifice in her body, but she’d gotten what she came for either way. The cosmic coordinates to the ancient temple at the beginning of everything were a prize she’d do it all over again for, and luckily she finished copying the last inscription just before Azelf appeared.
As it turned out, her bombastic way of doing things had alerted the League of an imminent intrusion, and Cynthia arrived just in time to quell Azelf’s wrath. She managed to get her to a hospital just fine, but seemed to have trouble getting her out of a ten-year sentence in the World Prison for her trespassing… unless she joined Paragon.
So here she was. And here she’d been, for three years now. And damn it, these people were cool. Zinnia would never admit that aloud. She barely admitted it to herself. But after years of encounters with weaklings and oafs and fools who knew nothing about the Great Dragon, it was nice to finally find herself in the company of people who could, at the very least, appreciate her path for what it was. They were all eccentric like her, and had their own lofty dreams they wanted to realize.
If any of them died, she wasn’t sure how she’d react.
Danger was plentiful in the world of Paragon, but none of them had come as close to death as Ash just had. Not yet, anyway.
Get a grip, stupid. She cursed, though whether it was addressed to Ash or herself, she couldn’t immediately say.
Her room was sparsely furnished, with the door in one corner, and nothing else but a bed, a dresser, and a desk pushed into the remaining three. Unlike Sabrina, who treated this place as a second home, Zinnia spent almost no time here. The walls were bare and the room was tidy, though only for lack of belongings to mess it up with.
She strode over to her desk and sat down, flicking on the desk lamp. She pulled a pair of glasses out of their case (glasses were completely unbefitting of a Dragon Master, but she was farsighted… she never wore them in the presence of others), sighed, and opened her journal.
Inside lay the fruits of her life’s work up until now. Inscriptions, sketches, scribbled notes, and esoteric codes covered the pages of her book. No one but her could glean anything from this disorganized chicken scratch, but it served its purpose. She flipped to the latest page she’d begun working on. The histories of various dragon legends in Johto were scrawled across the paper in clumps, with no regard to the printed lines on the page. She glazed through them to re-familiarize herself with where she left off, then flipped back several hundred pages to a master sheet on the Legendary Dragons, then to another page to cross-reference them with a sketch of a mural she’d found in Hoenn.
That Kingdra in Blackthorn could be a descendant of Rayquaza, who’s said to control the wind and weather, but I won’t know until I look into it a bit more. And I still don’t know how Rayquaza fits into the hierarchy of dragons… Is it part of the greater pantheon, or is it one of the lesser vassals?
For the longest time, the Draconid people thought Rayquaza was the Great Dragon. But Zinnia herself had debunked that theory several years ago, after paying a visit to Sky Pillar in southern Hoenn. She’d burned up the validity of decades of Draconid literature in an instant, and the village elders were none too pleased at that fact.
Those old coots can rot away for all I care. I’m the one who actually cares about finding the Great Dragon. They gave up a long time ago and are content to gorge on the wisdom of false idols just to maintain their pride.
After spending an hour planning her trip back to Johto, she put her glasses away and stood up.
Should I leave now?
She glanced at her bed.
Ah, well, a nap can’t hurt. As busy as we are, I’m sure I won’t get assigned anything in just the next few hours.
She smiled and jumped into bed, wrapping the covers around her until she looked like a Swadloon.
She woke up that evening to the sound of Cynthia pounding on her door.
“Get up, Zinnia, we need to talk, now.”
Everyone was back.
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“How are you feeling?” N asked, leveling a concerned look at him.
“Just fine,” Ash responded, rolling his arm around in its socket. “Those painkillers worked wonders. Now that I know I’ve been out for a month, my body doesn’t seem to want to stay asleep. I basically spent the afternoon cleaning out the fridge, and now I feel good as new.”
N didn’t look too convinced, but he clapped his friend on the shoulder. “If you say so. Just, take it easy for a while.”
“Thanks. And thank you. For saving me, and everything. I should’ve been more careful.”
N shook his head. “No, he caught me by surprise too. It had nothing to do with you.” He pursed his lips. “We’ll talk about it some more once everyone is gathered, okay?”
“Sure,” Ash replied. Even N seemed shaken by what had happened. Just how lucky had he gotten? By all accounts, it seemed like he and N both should be dead right now.
When they arrived in the situation room, Cynthia was already seated at the head of the table. Sabrina and Anabel sat beside each other, and Ash and N seated themselves opposite them. Sylvester sat at the end of the table, and he stood to do a quick inspection of Ash, but the younger man waved him off. He left and came back with a couple bottles of water and another dosage of medications.
Zinnia arrived fifteen minutes later with a blanket over her head. All eyes turned on her when she pushed the door open and yawned obnoxiously. After wiping her eyes and realizing everyone was staring at her, she blushed and hurried over to an empty seat between Ash and Sylvester.
“Good, now that we’re all here, let’s get started,” Cynthia said, and the lights dimmed as the screen on the wall flicked on. “For the first time since Paragon’s inception, we’re faced with a threat that far outclasses any individual in this room.”
The screen clicked, and a black and white photograph of AZ’s mugshot appeared. His hair was long and tangled, but dark eyes peeked out from behind his mane. Ash nearly shivered at the sight of him. This was a man who existed beyond comprehension. He belonged to a time and place that no longer existed, yet he persisted all the same. His eyes bore holes in Ash’s chest, and he suddenly found himself conscious of every breath he took.
“AZ is over three thousand years old, and was a former king of the region now known as Kalos,” Cynthia continued. “How he’s still alive, we don’t know for sure, but it’s safe to assume that it’s the work of a pokémon. He’s been buried beneath the World Prison all this time, and never once has he caused a disturbance.” She flicked to the next slide, a picture of his decimated cell. “Until he escaped earlier this month and vanished without a trace.”
“How did he do that?” Sylvester asked.
“Also a mystery. From the sparse report Interpol got from Warden Barke, his attack seemed spontaneous and was executed sloppily, so he does not suspect outside help.” Cynthia clicked her remote, and an image of the world map appeared, with gradients of red and blue across the different regions. “This map represents the concentration of Interpol’s forces across the world. Word of AZ’s escape has yet to reach the media, but a full-scale manhunt is already underway to find him. Interpol is relying on the Paragon Organization and the Pokémon League to back them up. The other Champions and Elite Four have already been deployed to densely populated areas, as well as various Interpol black sites. It’ll be up to us to pick up his trail and apprehend him.”
Cynthia stepped aside, and Anabel stood.
“Sabrina and I spoke with Warden Barke and saw the scene of the escape ourselves.” She shuddered, as if recalling something horrible. “He killed everything in this way. It’s no exaggeration to say he alone is far more dangerous than any legendary pokémon or crime ring any of us has ever encountered. We received a file from Barke detailing his alleged crimes during the Great War, but a brief summary includes mass murder, mass torture, attempted genocide, corruption, and many other violations of sovereignty at the time. I’ve already sent the file to you all.”
Silence fell across the table. It sounded too ridiculous to be real. Even Sabrina, who was normally stoic, was scowling and seemed detached from the meeting.
“We don’t have anything concrete yet,” Anabel continued, “but Sabrina and I found shreds of newspaper in his cell. The ink totally bled off, but I think I may be able to figure out what was on it, I just need a bit more time. Something in it must have caused him to break out now.”
“I can shed further light on the breakout itself,” Sylvester said as Anabel sat down. “I spoke with the breeder responsible for creating AZ’s shackles. They were forged from the iron cross on Metagross’ face, the source of its power. The Metagross were raised in the depths of Meteor Falls, where that line originates. The psychic power that courses through that metal should be enough to give a migraine to anyone who walks in their vicinity without the proper protection and can wipe the memory of anyone who touches it, rendering them permanently amnesiac instantaneously. AZ was covered in the stuff for years, but I doubt they were simply ineffective. More than likely, he was actively protecting himself from their power that entire time.”
Ash raised his hand. “Sorry for bringing this up now, but I remembered something about Zagreus.” After Cynthia motioned for him to continue, he did. “He used the power of the Aura Guardians.”
N frowned at the new revelation, as did Anabel.
“Aura Guardians?” Cynthia repeated. “Are you sure?”
“Absolutely.”
Cynthia closed her eyes to think. After a few moments, she opened them again. “That certainly explains how he was able to keep up with you and N at the same time. But a Guardian who would try to murder…” She closed her eyes again.
“That man is certainly dangerous,” N said. “Guardian or not, we would be unwise to let Zagreus abscond into the aether without facing justice.”
“I know,” Cynthia said, opening her eyes. “This changes things. I’ll have to reorganize my initial plans. Our priority is still the AZ incident. Anabel, please continue working on your lead so we can figure out why AZ broke out. I’ll send you intel from Interpol as I get it. N and Zinnia, you’ll be on the dark spots,” she motioned back to the map. “Interpol can only cover so much ground. I want you two to fill in the gaps. If you should locate him, you are not to engage him under any circumstances. Do I make myself clear?”
N nodded, and Zinnia bobbed her head up and down lazily. “Guess I’m not going to Johto,” she muttered.
“Sabrina, you’ll head to Rota and investigate this rogue Aura Guardian called Zagreus. Speak with the Guardians there and see what you can learn.”
Sabrina nodded, though she cringed noticeably at the thought of having to interface with strangers.
“Wait, what about me?” Ash asked. “I can go to Rota and speak with them.”
“Not this time, Ash. You’ll be coming with me.”
Ash frowned. “I promise, I’m just fine. I can—”
“It’s not that,” Cynthia cut him off. “You’re coming with me to an audience with the new World Champion.”
“Wait, what?! New World Champion?”
Zinnia snapped her fingers. “Oh, yeahhhhh.”
Next — Chapter 14 : Fairy Forest
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To be clear, Zelda Leora is a completely original character and not connected to The Legend of Zelda or the Princess Zelda character in any way. Maybe I’ll explain how I came up with that name at some point later in the story.