Intermission 1: The Glimpse
A dark room. Obscured in its darkness lies common place items usually found in an office. A central desk and computer, assorted cabinets on rocky walls as if it were in a cave, a couple of plants, and a whiteboard on wheels. In one of the cabinets, crunching could be heard behind its shuddering door. It stopped however as the noise of a conversation approached the entrance of the office, as if something was inside.
“-so that’s your plan?” said a voice.
“Yes. It is our chance through rehabilitation and support that we can help them achieve harmony.” said another voice.
“That may be true, but these people are different.” The door opened, inside came Armageddon and Rival. “You’ve seen what they were able to accomplish, they may not even consider-”
Armageddon interrupted Rival, “Everyone has their own block obscuring their mind. It is up to us to figure out what tools to use in order to remove those blocks.”
“But-”
Armageddon raised his hand, “Rival please,” he turned on the light to the office, “We have just been involved in our largest operation since our founding. Though we will see this plan come to fruition in the future, it is still much too early to make any moves. I must see what attention we drew due to our involvement so that I can prepare accordingly.”
Rival sighed, “Fine. What would you have me do now?”
“Do as you please, I have no assignments for you as of now.”
“Yes sir.”
She was about to walk out of the office when Armageddon added, “Oh, one more thing. I advise you to remain in HQ until further notice.”
Rival was surprised, “Why?”
“Your act of delinquency towards the police in Tuviere for one.”
“Please I… I only had the best interests of Team Harmonious in mind.”
“This may be true, but we mustn't over step our authority. Creating conflict with those of political background or law enforcement would leave a stain in our reputation. We would be seen as authoritative or perhaps even as vigilantes. This I cannot afford. We must remain inviting to all those who would come to seek our help.”
Rival started to get angry, “I’ve learned my lesson! If something like that happens again, I’m gonna need to be out there! I’ll recruit, I’ll patrol, I’ll-”
Armageddon placed his hand on her shoulder, “Please Rival, I’m only asking you to stay.” She calmed down. “Rival, we formed Team Harmonious to further our main goal, which is?”
“The betterment of the experience of life, for both people and Pokémon.”
“Correct, we must help people experience their best life. But we are not to do it at the detriment of others. Think of your brother and sisters here. We are all family, and we must all move forward in agreement together. Barging ahead without a plan will leave you and your family hurt. So please stay here, so that you may not worry us.” He rubbed the back of his hand along Rival’s cheek.
She grabbed it and slowly pulled it aside, “I understand.”
“Thank you Rival. Remember that we all love you and only care about your well being.”
“Yeah, I know.” She smiled faintly and promptly made her way out of the office.
Armageddon sighed. He walked over to the desk and sat down on the leather chair. Looking over the assorted papers on the desk, his gaze came upon that of the right top drawer. While reaching out to pull it, he stopped at the sound coming out the cabinet. A crunching noise behind the shuddering door. He pulled himself up and walked over. Standing close to the cabinet, the crunching continued. Armageddon sighed and pulled the door open.
Inside was a surprised female Meowstic, holding a bag of chips in between its legs and was about to indulge in one evident by its half opened mouth and the singular chip in its hands.
“Those are mine you know.” said Armageddon.
A moment passed. In an act of defiance, the Meowstic took a bite of the chip anyway. Armageddon was unamused.
“Come on, we have work to do.”
Meowstic smacked its hands down on the bag of chips to express its disinterest.
“Let’s go, stop being cranky.” He grabbed it and tossed it across the office gently. Before it hit the wall, it stopped itself upside down by using its psychic power. Clearly disinterested, it rolled up its bag of chips and tossed them aside on the floor. It flew over to the desk and sat on its ledge, resting its head on its hand and swinging its legs.
“I know, I know. But we will never know unless we keep trying.” Meowstic told him off in a bossy tone, as if it just wanted to get it over with. Armageddon sighed. He reached over to the drawer he had eyed earlier and pulled it open. As it opened, a single pokeball rolled into view. It was of unusual design, with yellow crests forming an X on the button, on top of a blue grid pattern. He opened it up and out came a Pokémon on top of on the desk next to Meowstic. It seemed to be grossed out by its appearance. Telling, as it was nothing but a round clear orb of transparent white slime.
“Ready to begin?” asked Armageddon. Meowstic scoffed and raised its ears. “Thank you. Now, let us start.” He bent down upon the mysterious Pokémon. “What is your true name?” he asked of it. Nothing happened. “Where did you come from?” Nothing. “How about, do you have friends, family?” Nothing. “Meowstic, anything?” Meowstic shook its head no, as if it had given that answer many times before. “Ah well, we’ll keep trying.” Meowstic groaned in boredom. Before they could ask any more questions, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in.” said Armageddon. The door opened, and in came Crisis.
“Sir, I have the report regarding the Battle of Tuviere.” he said.
“Excellent. Give it here.” Crisis walked over and handed Armageddon a flash drive. On his way over, he had noticed the mysterious Pokémon on the table.
“Is-Is this the Pokémon the science team mentioned?” he asked.
“Ah yes, glad to see you have noticed.” answered Armageddon.
“Why do you have it in your office?”
“The science team has had it for the past three months. During that time we tried to analyze what it was capable of or where it came from. But it almost seemed as if it wasn’t even alive. Each individual cell we’ve collected from it seemed to be mostly unique and it would not consume any food we would give it. Naturally, the team gave up on it. They started giving their findings out to any institution that might be able to find out more. That is when the team came across the Aether Foundation. They told us it was most likely what they call an ultra beast. They also told us that they specialize in the study of them, sending them home when they are collected.”
“So what have they discovered?”
“Not much more than we did. Nonetheless, they tried to send it back to wherever it may have come from. However, the ultra wormholes seemed reluctant to even acknowledge the presence of our little friend here.”
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“What might you be pertaining to?”
“It just, as they put it, fell straight through them. They described our friend here as an anomaly to the very fibers of the universe itself. Perhaps something more than just dimensional differences. That is how I have him today. The Aether Foundation gave him back to us for safe keeping. The science team had no interest in studying it further, so they handed it off to me. From then on, I have been trying to communicate with it.”
“I assume your progress hasn’t been all that progressive, sir.”
“Right you are Crisis. But, Meowstic and me are still pursuing the discovery of what this Pokémon is in earnest, right Meowstic?” Meowstic turned its head away in defiance. It then used its psychic power to pick up the bag of chips off the floor and resumed its indulgence. Armageddon couldn’t help but smile, “It’ll come around.”
“Alright then, I suppose I shall leave you to your work.” Crisis bowed and began to leave the office.
“Hold on a minute,” said Armageddon. Crisis stood in place. “How has your training journey been going?”
“I had challenged a variety of gyms to test me and my Pokémon's ability to do battle.”
“And how has that worked out for you, Crisis?”
“I'd rather not say.”
“I have heard from Rival and others that you had struggled during the Battle of Tuviere. Might this be true?”
“Twas only because of a Pokémon of extraordinary strength.” Crisis gripped his arms tightly, “That freak of nature was able to overpower the will of me and my Pokémon. It doesn’t make sense to me. I thought the will of many was supposed to overpower that of the will of those who act alone.”
“Some beings are just equipped to handle the will of many. Whether it is because of pure arrogance or drive, I will not know. But do not think battling is so clear cut as that. Working as a unit becomes exponentially harder the more wills there are to work with. So you must learn to battle without having to over strain your mental capacity. Only then will you be able to battle at your fullest potential.”
“I understand.”
“By the way, that nice young fellow I met at the town. What might be his town again?”
“He goes by the name Ceailean, sir.”
Unknown by the two of them, as Meowstic chomped down on another chip, it’s ears twitched a little after the mention of Ceailean. It looked to the mysterious Pokémon as it had said something.
“Do you perhaps have any of the names of the allies he may have had?”
“They’re written down on the report. A similarly aged girl named Marie, a vigilante going by the name Blaziken mask, and a Professor by the name of Sycamore.”
Meowstic noticed another reaction from the mysterious Pokémon, this time from the mention of Marie.
“Might this Ceailean have a connection to the professor?”
“Not that I know of sir. But why the professor specifically?”
“It would help to have more talented minds to help us is all.”
Meowstic could no longer ignore the fact that the mysterious Pokémon was reacting to certain names. It got the attention of the two by interjecting itself into their conversation.
“What is it, Meowstic? Are we boring you with our talk?” asked Armageddon. Meowstic shook its head and pointed at the Pokémon. A look of surprise slowly filled Armageddon’s face. “Wait, it said something? It really said something!?” Meowstic nodded vigorously. “Excellent!” Armageddon rushed over to the whiteboard and pushed in front of Meowstic. “What did it say?” he said excitedly. Crisis watched on from the front of the office.
Meowstic shook its head no. “What do you mean?” Meowstic thought for a moment, then it got an idea. It used psychic to bring over Armageddon’s name plate and pointed to it. “You could’ve just pointed at me if it reacted to me.” Meowstic shook its head again and pointed harder at the nameplate. “What are you trying to say?”
“It’s saying that it reacted to a name.” said Crisis. Meowstic pointed to him and nodded, indicating that he had the right answer.
“Well I’ll be! So who was it, Sycamore?” Meowstic shook its head no. “Blaziken mask?” Another no from Meowstic. “How about Marie?” Meowstic’s ears twinged. It pointed to Armageddon to say it was the right name. “Okay… Marie,” Meowstic’s ear twinged again. “Marie, Marie, Marie, Marie!"
This time, the mysterious Pokémon physically moved to the side. Meowstic's eyes gleamed blue and with its psychic power, grabbed a marker and wrote the words, “Please stop.” on the whiteboard.
Crisis and Armageddon were stunned at the words on the board. “Perhaps it would be best to leave it be. It seems to have a vendetta against this Marie.”
The Pokémon turned side to side. Meowstic wrote, “Wrong, friend, I, betray, can’t, see, again.”
Armageddon bent down and asked, “Just how much does Marie mean to you?”
The Pokémon sagged down. Meowstic wrote, “Everything.”
“Very interesting.” said Armageddon.
“What about Ceailean?” asked Crisis. He walked over to Armageddon's side, “Who is he to you?”
A moment of silence. Then, the orb shape of the Pokémon began to distort heavily. Waves ran across its smooth body aggressively. Crisis and Armageddon began to feel heat emanating from the Pokémon. Suddenly, the room began to shake. It felt like the entire headquarters was in the midst of an earthquake.
“What’s happening?!” shouted Crisis.
“I don’t know son!” answered Armageddon. A deafening rumble could be heard throughout the entire base. Objects around the office were shaking and falling off of their resting places.
“Look!” shouted Crisis. Armageddon looked to see Meowstic slowly rising as if it were being hung by a string. The two watched as it slowly rose. Then as it nearly reached the roof, it stopped. The shaking stopped, but everything in the room was suspended in the air.
Armageddon approached Meowstic cautiously, its eyes still gleaming blue and head tilted slightly upward. “Meowstic?” he asked. In that instant, Meowstic’s head snapped forward, startling Armageddon. All the objects in the room then viciously pointed in his direction.
“Get down!” shouted Crisis, tackling him to the ground as all the objects fly by. The objects crashed through the whiteboard and began scratching into the walls. Seeing that the objects weren’t getting the desired results, they shifted back. They were then imbued in psychic power, creating an audible shing*. The objects went back into the wall, carving it all up. The more the objects moved away from where they started, the more strain Meowstic’s face became. The base began to shake again, dirt and rocks were falling from the roof and the two struggled to stand.
“Meowstic! Please stop this!” pleaded Armageddon. It did not react to his words. Carving away, the object began to break. However, this only splintered them off into more psychic knives. Armageddon heaved himself on top of the desk, there he saw the Pokémon looking more aggressive than ever. It’s figure warbling every which way as if it were water. Armageddon decided to put a stop to it. He took the weird pokeball from his pocket and returned the mysterious Pokémon.
In that instant, all the objects fell to the ground and Meowstic fainted. Armageddon caught it before it hit the table. Running footsteps came to the door and Rival slammed it open and shouted, “The place is having an earthquake! Hurry, we need to-” She stopped upon seeing the situation. “W-What the hell happened here?”
Armageddon dismissed her question and looked at Meowstic, who he was cradling in his arms. “We’ll figure it out later!” he said desperately. “You are to take Meowstic to the treatment center, now!” He handed her Meowstic.
“Understood!” she said, taking the ill bodied Pokémon and running off down the hallway.
Armageddon put his hand to the bridge of his nose and walked over to his desk. On it he saw a burnt circle where the mysterious Pokémon used to be. He kicked the desk and yelled, “Damn it!”
“Don’t be too hard on yourself.” comforted Crisis. “There was no way we could’ve foreseen what had happened. Besides, I believe that the Pokémon had left us with a most peculiar message.”
Armageddon observed the carvings on the walls. To him, it seemed like it was a map of some sort, but not of anywhere he knew. What was clear was that there was a person carved in the center. Words surrounded it, all saying, “Enemy, cruel, defeat, hate.”
“Do you know who this is Crisis?” asked Armageddon.
“No sir. I have no idea.” he answered.
After observing the carvings a little more, he turned to Crisis and said, “I want the entire science team on this. I want these carvings written down and I want to know who this person is.”
“Sir? Are you sure?”
“I’m serious. The way I’m seeing it, it looks like a warning. I could be wrong but just in case, I want to see it if it is important to what may come.”
“Alright then, I’ll be employing the science team now!
“Good.”
With that, Crisis left. Left alone in the office, Armageddon observed the special pokéball. He walked over to his desk and opened the drawer that he took the pokéball from. Out of it he took a hard drive and held it next to the pokéball. “If what Gordon observed is true, then you are capable of great things. If you can help me, I assure you that I can bring you the perfect world and show you the true meaning behind the names I have given my children,-
Miskivin.”