chsdbacks Chapter 580: Mobilise the plan
Chapter 580: Mobilise the plan
The gang quickly stepped out of the way of the crowds of people immediately panicking after the speakers shouted out the warning.
People ran in the opposite direction. The two boats that the gang were on were immediately filled, and the dock workers had to assure people that more ships were coming, much to the crowd’s fearful cries.
The gang stepped to the side and took off their winter clothing since they got hit with the sudden heatwave, and while they were still trying to process this, another earthquake happened.
Wally had to catch himself on a building and quickly use his inhaler to catch his breath since this stress was getting to him.
May and Max almost fell over, but they caught themselves on a nearby building as they quickly looked around.
"What’s happening?!" Max said as he hugged May’s waist.
"I don’t know," May said, hugging her little brother closely.
Meanwhile, while Brendan, Wally, and Brock were trying to process things, Ash was looking at the ground and clenching his fists, starting to think. Well, if Ash could get the gang to safety in Mauville City, he could make his way to try and fix this, but no, that wouldn’t work. Maybe if he sent D...no, D had another very important job.
As Ash grabbed his hair and tried to think, Brock saw his face and stopped.
"Ash...why do you have that look on your face?"
Ash stopped and opened his eyes and noticed that everyone was looking at him, and that’s when they started putting things together. May was the first to say what everyone was thinking, "You know what’s going on, don’t you?"
Ash opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He was about to do his usual thing of deflecting and avoiding the topic, but then May, having gotten used to this before, jumped at him and grabbed his arm, hugging it tightly, "Oh no you don’t!"
"May, what are you doing?!" Ash said in surprise, trying to push her off.
But May didn’t let go, "I know that look. It’s the look you get when you’re trying to do everything alone again. You want to teleport us to Mauville City, don’t you?!"
And the look of shock on Ash’s face confirmed it for everyone.
That’s when everyone else did the same. Max hugged Ash’s legs, Brendan grabbed Ash’s other arm, Wally hugged Ash from behind, and Brock grabbed Ash’s shoulder.
"You can’t send us away as long as we hold onto you, right?" Brock said, "Now Ash, talk to us."
"Yeah, dude, we’ve been through so much. Don’t leave us out of this. We can help you!" Brendan nodded.
Even Wally gulped and softly said, "Ash...please, we don’t want you to hurt yourself for us again."
Ash looked at them and sighed, "You guys aren’t gonna let go of me, are you?"
"Unless you start explaining. Ash, we talked about this. Let us help," Brock said seriously, grabbing both of Ash’s shoulders.
Ash looked at them, then sighed, "Fine," he relented as he looked up, "I don’t know everything that’s happening, but I kinda know a bit."
"Remember Team Magma and Aqua?" Ash revealed, "I know they’re doing this. Magma wants to expand the land, and Aqua wants to expand the sea, and if they’re both doing this, they’re gonna destroy Hoenn. But I don’t know where they are or what they think this is gonna do."
They were silent for a bit, processing what Ash just said. It’s not that they didn’t want to believe him, it’s just...well, you know.
"This is a lot to take in..." Brendan admitted.
"Yeah, but we’ve dealt with crazier things," Brock admitted before looking at Ash, "And you were planning on trying to deal with all of this alone again."
"Well, technically—"
"I swear to Mew, if you say technically you weren’t alone because of your Pokémon, I swear I’m going to slap you!" May shouted as her eyes became a little glossy.
"We talked about this," Brock reminded him.
Brendan nodded, "Yeah, dude, you don’t have to try to do everything by yourself. I know you’re strong, but you’re still only one guy."
Ash looked down at Max’s head, "I’m sorry. I just...don’t want any of you to get hurt."
"You say that, but what about you?!" May shouted back, jabbing her finger against Ash’s chest, "Last time you did this, you got stabbed in the chest!"
"I was so worried. I thought..." Wally said as his voice got quieter and quieter until none of them could hear him anymore.
Ash looked at May’s finger on his chest. May immediately realized what she said and how she said it. Literally jabbing a finger at his chest, she pulled her hand back like it burned, "A-Ash, I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have—"
"No," Ash said, stopping her, "You’re right," Ash admitted.
Ash used his newly free right hand to rub his chest, "I don’t ever think about myself. I just think about everyone else, and you’re right, I’m only one person. Every time I try to do things on my own, it feels like I just can’t do enough."
To be honest, this was something Ash thought about quite a bit. The fact that even though he knew things were gonna happen, he either wasn’t strong enough to stop them, or couldn’t because too many things changed.
You think Ash wouldn’t have liked to go to Archie and Maxie and kick their teeth in so they could never summon Groudon and Kyogre? You don’t think he wanted to break Pryce’s arms back in Johto so the Masked Man stuff couldn’t happen? You think he wants to deal with knowing something horrible might happen every time, and that he could die?
No. It’s frustrating.
Ash tries his best, but he is still only one person, and he can’t just go murder-hobo. He can’t just stop the source immediately. If he could, don’t you think he would’ve already done it?
If he had it his way, Ash would’ve gone after Archie and Maxie the first day he arrived in Hoenn. But this isn’t the anime, this isn’t the games, this isn’t the manga, things are different.
Information is wrong, locations are wrong, or he just doesn’t have them, or maybe its one of the few times someone is just stronger than Ash. Because remember Ash is stronger than 70% of the vers, he just keeps running into that 30%
That’s why he has D, but even D can’t do everything. He can’t just send him wherever he wants. That’s not how it works. He can’t just wave his hand and magically get all the information in the world just because he has Porygon.
Even when he tells his friends he’ll try to depend on them more, he isn’t lying. He wants their help. He doesn’t want to deal with things alone. That’s why he likes traveling with his friends, they make each other stronger. But because of that friendship, Ash doesn’t want them to get hurt either.
He knows his own strength. He can only make a general guess about how strong his friends are, and that scares him. Because the truth is, facing things that can kill him doesn’t scare him. What scares him is if his friends or people he cares about get hurt.
That’s why he did what he could do, not what he couldn’t. Like repairing New Mauville so that if this happened, people would have a bunker. Or saving Tate and Liza so they could play a part. Or, more importantly, gathering the researchers he got onto his team.
Because Ash was so cautious, trying to get as much information as he could, and because he didn’t know how much of what he knew was accurate, he focused on something he could control.
Like looking at space, and that’s where he found out, "It" was happening, Grand Meteor Delta was coming to Earth. For those of you who don’t remember, Grand Meteor Delta was a meteor event that happened during ORAS, and if it hit the Earth, it would destroy the entire planet and all life on it.
When he got here, Ash didn’t know if that would happen, so he spent a lot of his time researching it. That’s when he learned it really was coming.
That’s why Ash couldn’t dedicate as much time as he would’ve liked to stopping Team Magma and Aqua. Again, Ash is just one person. He may be smart, but that’s not enough.
And Ash knew that better than anyone, that him alone wasn’t enough.
And even though Ash knew full well that he was the biggest hypocrite when it came to this, and he knew that in the future he would probably try to deal with things on his own again because that was just who he was.
If Ash could protect everyone even if it meant losing an arm, then I guess that arm was as good as gone.
But today, with all these things happening together, Ash didn’t have any more prep time. The things he already had ready were all he had right now, so he’d have to fill those gaps with the help of everyone else.
As Ash opened his eyes again, he looked at everyone, "So, are we gonna save Hoenn, or are you gonna keep hugging me?"
After a bit, where they had to make sure Ash was serious and not just trying to escape, they finally let go. Pikachu and Vee immediately retook their spots.
Then they looked around the city, people were panicking, others were crying, more earthquakes were hitting every few minutes.
And this was just one town, all across Hoenn, the same thing was happening.
Ash took a deep breath, "Okay."
Everyone immediately focused on him, and Ash laid out the plan.
"I think I know a way to stop this, but we need to find where Team Magma and Aqua are, so we need to split up to save people and gather information. Once we have that, we can win."
Ash immediately pointed at Wally, "Wally, I need you to go to Pacifidlog Town."
Wally froze, "Pacifidlog?"
Ash nodded, "When you get there, you’ll understand, and I’ll tell you what to do next. I just need you to trust me."
Wally swallowed, then nodded, "O-Okay."
Ash smiled, "You can do this."
Wally took a breath and stood a little straighter.
Next, Ash looked toward Brendan, "Brendan."
"Yeah?"
"I need you in Slateport."
Brendan blinked, "Seriously?"
"Trust me. When you get there, you’ll understand," Ash said seriously, making Brendan realize he meant it.
Brendan nodded.
Then Ash looked at May, "May, I need you to go to Route 123."
May looked surprised, "Route 123? Why does that sound really specific? You didn’t just choose a random route did you?"
Ash shook his head, "It’s at the center of Hoenn. I need you there, and you’ll meet someone there too."
Once he explained, he looked at everyone, "When you all get there, I can text you the next step. But if we want to get through this, then trust me, because I’m trusting you guys too."
Everyone took a second, then nodded. Then Ash looked at Brock next, "And you, Brock, I need you to get to the Battle Frontier and ask for their help."
Brock blinked, "Wouldn’t they already be helping?" he asked immediately, assuming they would come here as soon as they heard things were going wrong.
"Not necessarily. They might not even know this is happening, and if that’s the case, I need you to get them here, we need everything we can get."
Brock understood and nodded, briefly thinking about Lucy, but he shook his head, this was a serious moment, he could think about a date later.
Right now, what mattered was saving Hoenn.
"What about me?" Max raised his head, "I want to help too. I don’t want to just sit around and be useless," Max stomped his foot.
Ash looked at him, then knelt down in front of him, pulling out a Poké Ball and putting it in Max’s hands.
"Max, I need you to do something important. This might be the most important job out of all of them."
Max looked shocked, "Seriously?"
Ash nodded, "I need you to help get people to New Mauville."
Max’s excitement faltered slightly, "Oh."
Ash shook his head, "Listen, people are scared right now, and they don’t know if they’ll get to Mauville in time. And even if they do, they aren’t just gonna sit and relax while their homes are getting destroyed. They’re gonna be even more scared."
"So this Pokéball has Abby. I managed to convince her to help, with a lot of sweets. She’ll help you get people to Mauville and keep them calm for us. I need you to do this," Ash said, "Maybe it’s not beating up bad guys, but making sure people still have hope is just as important. So can you do it?"
Max looked at Ash in shock, but then he blinked and pumped his fist, "Just leave it to me, big bro Ash!"
Ash smiled and held out his fist to Max, "That’s what I like to hear. And after this, I’ll even buy you that gift you wanted. So let’s get through this, all of us."
"Yeah!" Max returned the fist bump and ran toward the crowd of scared people with Abby’s Poké Ball.
Ash watched him go and sighed. He knew Max was young, and he wanted to help even though he wasn’t as strong as the rest of them. If he told Max to do nothing, then that would just make things worse, so he gave him a job. It was a simple one, but an important one.
When Ash stood up and looked at everyone, he saw them all pumped up and looking at him expectantly, so Ash relented and held his fist out, and the group did a group fist bump.
"Alright, let’s do this!" Ash said as he grabbed a Poké Ball, and everyone did the same.
May brought out her Altaria, Brock his Aerodactyl, Brendan his Swellow, Wally also had an Altaria, while Ash chose to let out Charizard.
They all got on their Pokémon and took off into the sky, scattering across Hoenn.
Meanwhile, Ash pulled out his phone. He had some calls to make, starting with Green and Gary to check their status.
—
{Meanwhile with Ashtwo}
Team Rocket had been in a buzz ever since the situation started. Well, they were already like this since Team Aqua and Magma decided to stop fighting, but you get the point.
And now, in this situation, Matori was grateful Carr spent so much money to make the giant airship, because this way they didn’t have to deal with the tsunamis.
But here’s the thing: Team Rocket was doing nothing. Because why would they? They weren’t heroes.
I mean sure, they were the lesser of a bunch of other evils, and this could destroy Hoenn, but did they know that? No.
As far as they knew, this was just another fight between Team Magma and Aqua, so they would step back, let them destroy each other, then take over. Because again, they weren’t heroes.
Now that wasn’t too good for some people since the ones who were born in Hoenn were stressed and worried something could happen, and they wanted to go down there and help.
Even Enid, who, reminder, was born in Hoenn, wanted to help. This was her home.
But they didn’t, because they didn’t know what to do. I mean, how do you fight a natural disaster?
Right now, in the rush to transfer things onto the ship, Matori was in the main conference room trying to get into contact with the Boss and set some things up.
But while everyone else was gloomy, like the team’s table since Enid was uncharacteristically quiet because of all of this, making everyone genuinely uncomfortable since they were so used to Enid’s constant rambles
Well, everyone except Orm, who, as long as the people on the ship and his Shuckles were safe, was happy.
But of course, how could a certain boy make that easy?
D walked into the room saying nothing, but he held a paper in his hands as he walked straight up to Matori.
Again, Matori didn’t seem annoyed and actually sat up, "Yes, D? Do you need anything?" she said, like she hadn’t already given D his own room on the ship while most of the other grunts and even Admins had to bunk together.
D held out the paper, "I am requesting this. Well, it’s more of a formality."
Matori took it, not caring much. She was just about to immediately approve it, but then she quickly scanned it and her eyes nearly bulged out of her head, "WHAT?! No way, I won’t allow it!"
"What?" an Admin asked while Matori seemed to be breathing hard.
Matori continued, looking confused and startled as she tried to process what she just read, "There is no way I’m approving a mission for you to break into the Pokémon Association headquarters! Why would you even want that?!"
Everyone immediately looked on in shock too. The Association was one thing, but also in this environment, when tsunamis and earthquakes were starting?
D looked at her calmly, "I am only requesting this out of formality, but I will be going. You yourself said I have more leniency. If you won’t approve it, I will just go without one."
"Why would you want that?! Why do you insist on working so hard after everything that already happened to you?!" Matori nearly screamed at him.
She didn’t need to say it for everyone to know what she was talking about as everyone looked at D’s covered face and eyepatch.
"It’s because that happened that I have to," D continued as he glanced around the room, "The Executives, Archer, Petrel, and Proton, they are out there right now working on fixing everything for us while we are here. The same thing happened to Archer, and he’s out there anyway."
"That’s different," Matori said, "Why do you need to do this? No one is making you do this, you idiot."
"Haven’t you ever found it suspicious," D said after a moment of silence, "that even though the Hoenn Pokémon Association says it was the most powerful one, Hoenn is the only region to have two evil teams?"
That made Matori shut up. She was so stuck in paperwork that she never thought about it, and by the silence in the room, no one else had either.
"I think the Association, or at least the people on top, are evil too, and they might even be helping Team Aqua and Magma. And if they are, that means even if we beat them, more will come," D explained.
"So if we can stop the Association, they won’t be able to keep going. And even if this isn’t the case, Team Magma and Aqua won’t keep fighting forever. If one of them wins, then they win, and we can’t use the other one to fight them for us. Maybe we could win, but we would lose too many resources."
"So that is why, while things are like this, right now is the best time for me to do this. If I don’t, we might never be able to. So whether you’re with me or without me, it makes no difference to me." D pushed himself up and walked out of the room, leaving everyone to process what he said.
After D left the room, they heard a light chuckle coming from Matori’s desk. Matori recognized that chuckle. She looked around, but the video wasn’t on. She forgot she was in the middle of setting up the projector, but she didn’t notice the audio was already active.
So the Boss heard everything, but he was laughing. As Giovanni’s laugh continued, he spoke, "Ah, I see. Even after everything, he still acts the same. Very well then, Matori."
"Y-Yes sir," Matori said quickly, hoping Giovanni didn’t hear how much she tried to stop D.
"Tell everyone, if they want to go down to Hoenn to join in the efforts, they are allowed to. Just change into civilian clothes and don’t die." Giovanni gave one command, then hung up. He could check up later, but for now he’d let the hot-headed ones have their fun.
And that was heard by most of the grunts, and immediately every single grunt and Admin from Hoenn stood up and began pushing their way through to get to Matori to request permission to go down and help.
Matori could only feel helpless as she quietly started accepting applications. Meanwhile, Enid and the group looked at each other and immediately agreed. They couldn’t let D do this alone, not again.
—
{Back in the Seafloor Cavern}
Archie’s team continued to blast water at Kyogre’s sleeping body, and eventually the water reached it, causing it to open its massive eye.
Kyogre immediately turned and shattered the crystal around it. Then, without even looking at Team Aqua, Kyogre swam away toward the surface
Archie began laughing, "We did it! We’ve managed to awaken Kyogre! And before Team Magma woke up Groudon!" he gave a cold laugh that once again made Amber uncomfortable.
Then the cave shook around them, and Archie kept smiling, "Haha! Team Magma is trying everything they can think of to awaken Groudon! They must have caused those earthquakes in hopes of stirring it from its slumber."
"How foolish! They were no match for us! The energy of the sea has outdone the energy of the land!" Archie laughed, getting a sadistic look on his face, "If the two Pokémon are equal as the legend says, then the one who awakens first has the advantage!"
He spread his arms wide and yelled into the cavern, "We’ve won!!!"
Meanwhile, on the other side a few seconds later, with the help of all the members of Team Magma, Groudon finally awoke, and when it did, the room immediately started getting even hotter, so hot everyone began to sweat.
But Groudon paid them no mind, instead, Groudon burrowed down into the ground, seemingly leaving them alone.
"Good work," Maxie smiled, watching Groudon leave.
Tabitha looked at the hole, then back at Maxie, "But Boss...it started burrowing underground."
Maxie looked back and waved his hand dismissively, "Don’t worry about it. Groudon is only searching for a large territory to destroy. It will come up again soon," he smiled wider as he pushed up his glasses, "Hahaha, I can’t wait to see which town it decides to honor first with a visit!"
Then they felt the cavern begin to shake again, and Maxie understood immediately, making him frown, "Hm, it looks like they woke up Kyogre first."
Then he got a mocking smile, "So Archie must think that the power of the sea is stronger than the power of the land, and since Kyogre woke up first, it would seem that Team Aqua has won."
"Under normal circumstances, he’d be correct, but I’m sure he’d have a different view if he knew we had the Orbs," Maxie said as he finally walked toward the Orbs he had set down. He grabbed one in each hand as they began to glow brightly.
—
Steven and Alain were finally arriving at another set of ruins. Ever since Lysandre decided to share his own findings with Steven, he had been more than happy to help out.
Remember, the current Lysandre was a genuine person who was doing what he truly believed was the best thing, so that’s why he could trust Steven so easily. Call it naivety, but he was right, wasn’t he? And when people in this world could betray you, having a good relationship with people like Steven Stone was nothing but a good thing. Anyway, that was Steven and Lysandre.
With Steven and Alain, they traveled all over Hoenn looking for ruins. Some were ones Steven found, and some Steven didn’t even have access to or know about, and they could investigate them thanks to Lysandre’s connections.
Even if he wasn’t there personally, he could still help them. Sure, Steven could have gotten access on his own, but he didn’t like relying only on his name. It made it feel like all his accomplishments were only because of his family.
But yeah, thanks to all this, Steven and Alain built up a friendly relationship, even if Alain still couldn’t just call Steven by his first name. But that’s how they got to this new place.
According to their sources, this place might hold the key, and when they got there, they only found a staircase leading to seemingly nothing, but it had two pillars standing beside it.
Steven pulled out his phone, and Alain did the same as they put their phones together to reread the tablets again, "Okay, if I got this right, the legendary giant rock the ancient people kept was located somewhere here, and the path that leads us to the secrets starts at a gate."
Alain nodded, "And it says here the gate opens with the light of two stones, so maybe..." Alain was just about to suggest something while looking at their Mega Stones
When suddenly an earthquake hit, making them both fall to the ground, and immediately afterward they felt the air getting hotter.
"What?!" Steven said in shock, "What’s going on?!"
"I don’t know!" Alain quickly answered. This wasn’t part of the plan.
Then suddenly Steven’s phone began ringing, he looked at it and saw it was Wallace, so he immediately answered, "Wallace? Did you feel that?"
"Steven, that wasn’t a random earthquake," Wallace didn’t bother trying to ease into the conversation. He got straight to the point, "Something is happening, and we need your help now!"
Steven blinked. He was about to say something, but Wallace stopped him, "And don’t say anything about you not being the Champion. We both know you let me win that last battle. You didn’t even use Mega Evolution. We need your help. I’m not asking you as the Champion. As your friend, we need you to help us."
Steven had his mouth open. He stayed silent for a second, then took a breath, "Fine. But you’re keeping the position for another year." Yeah, they had effectively traded the position by abusing the system.
Basically, they were pretty evenly matched, and since they were the strongest trainers in Hoenn, no one could challenge them to take the position, so every year or so they switched Champions so the other could relax.
"Send me everything, and I’ll get things ready," Steven finished, then hung up.
Then he looked at Alain, "I’m sorry, Alain. Something is happening that needs my attention. I can’t ask you to potentially put yourself in danger, but if you’d like, I can—"
"Are you kidding?" Alain interrupted, "If people need to be saved, then I’m here. It’s what Professor Sycamore would do!" he said seriously, and Steven could tell he genuinely believed that.
Either that Sycamore guy was the best human on the planet, or Alain was a massive fanboy, probably both. But Steven wouldn’t complain, they had a region to save.