Capítulo 30: Galactic Infiltration
"Come on guys! Mom said this battle was really good!" Dawn enthusiastically said as she dragged Ash and Brock to the computer in the room, although it was late, she had just gotten off the phone with her mother who told her about Shuichi's gym battle.
"What kind of battle Dawn?" Ash said as Dawn was dragging him, knowing her it would probably be another contest battle. "I'm going to let you two be surprised!" Dawn said as she reached the computer.
Ash and Brock just looked at each other with some confusion, it took a few minutes for Dawn to find the battle and then she hit play. Gardenia suddenly popped up on the screen and then quickly panned to Shuichi as the challenger.
"So it's Shuichi's gym battle! He must've chosen for a public match." Brock was an ex-gym leader thus he knew about the difference between public and private matches. Ash didn't care for fame thus he had all his battles be private.
"Yep! Mom told me Shuichi's mother wanted to see the battle, so she asked him to make the match public." Dawn filled them in on the reasoning. The battle started and the group could see the tension even on the screen.
"Clamperl has evolved!" Ash noted once Huntail hit the field, "It seems like Gardenia is using different Pokémon than when she fought you, Ash." Dawn noted and Brock filled her in "Gym leaders have multiple teams and Pokémon depending on how tough the challengers are."
They watched the battle and gave some commentary during interesting moments, one thing that Dawn seemed to notice was Shuichi's catchphrase had changed. They came to Eevee's clutch Protect and Dawn frowned seeing it.
Ash and Brock were too engrossed in the battle to notice it but Dawn didn't miss it, in fact now that she thought about it Shuichi's whole demeanour had changed drastically. Before it was more wild but now it is much more controlled.
"Ah! Eevee's evolving!" Dawn was snapped out of her thoughts as she noticed Eevee was glowing, then Shuichi recalled him and collected the Everstone on the ground, surprising the entire group.
"I don't get it, why did Shuichi do that?" Ash was a bit confused but Brock seemed to understand it. "Shuichi probably wants Eevee to evolve in a specific form with an evolutionary stone rather than this way." He explained.
Combusken came out and they heard Gardenia's question about Shuichi's new Pokémon, "I wonder what Shuichi's fourth Pokémon is!" Dawn was curious to find out, maybe her mother would know more.
Shuichi won the battle and received the Forest Badge which ended the recording, "Now I want to battle Shuichi again!" Ash said as he finished watching the battle. Dawn didn't react as she still thought about Shuichi's change in personality, even his speech was different.
She looked at the comments on the battle which noted that Shuichi seemed to be giving off this pressure and that the people who were there in person noted that it felt like needles were prickling their skin. ('Just what happened to you Shuichi?') Dawn thought concernedly.
All over the Sinnoh region were different trainers who watched Shuichi's battle. "Just as expected of you Shuichi! I'll beat Byron for sure this time!" Barry said as he finished watching the battle.
Close to Ash's group was Paul who also watched the battle, "Humph, he's changed his style completely." He noted. Nando and Zoey also watched the battle from their places and were also surprised by Shuichi's change.
The other gym leaders were also watching Shuichi's battle after Gardenia notified them, Roark could see Shuichi's change in personality and asked Gardenia about his demeanour after the battle.
"Honestly now that you mention it, he talked as if he was much older than he looked." She said after she gave it some thought. It confirmed that something happened to him that made him much more intense.
"He's not going to me next is he?" Maylene asked a little nervously, the other gym leaders debated whether he was going to Hearthome next or Veilstone.
Shuichi was blissfully unaware that people were getting surprised by his change in personality as he was sleeping.
The next morning, Shuichi was talking to his father about yesterday's discussion. "Now you suddenly want me to join you on the investigation? What changed?" Shuichi asked his father, it was a sudden change as Enki didn't budge at all yesterday.
"I saw the battle and was impressed by your growth so far, I also thought back to the Valley Windworks incident and realised you entered and came out with no scratch on you," Enki explained his reasoning but left out his other reason.
Shuichi didn't think too much about it and nodded, it seemed logical. "Are we going in today?" He asked and his father nodded. "You will need a disguise as a regular grunt, I know of their location and we'll probably find a grunt your size there," Enki explained the plan.
Shuichi however quickly found a hole in the plan, "Hold on, my face is still recognisable. What about that?" It was an honest concern as he did encounter them before during the Valley Windworks and even his recent battle against Gardenia was visible.
Enki however shook his head "Only Commander Mars saw your face and escaped during the Valley Windworks incident and they have no interest in watching the gym battles so they don't know who challenged them."
Shuichi nodded and believed his father, he didn't think Enki would lie to his son about something this dangerous.
"Well then, are you ready?" Enki asked Shuichi and Shuichi nodded, he had told Cheryl he had another errand to run today and they would set off the next day. Cheryl didn't mind another day of waiting as she wasn't on a scheduled deadline, unlike Shuichi.
Speaking of the schedule, Shuichi had now obtained his second badge and had an average of 39 days until the next gym battle. He had decided to go to Veilstone after Celestic Town for Maylene's badge.
Shuichi followed Enki up north of Eterna City, they came to a bunch of foliage and dense trees that blocked a large building completely from view. Shuichi had to credit them for their ingenuity as no one could see the building from far away and no one would wander far enough to discover it accidentally.
The plan was simple: find a wandering grunt and knock him out to take his uniform. He had to find a male grunt as he wouldn't be able to pass as a female grunt.
It only took a few minutes as there were a lot of grunts going in and out of the building, a random grunt around the same height as Shuichi walked out of the building and began to walk in the direction of Celestic Town.
Shuichi quickly appeared behind him and grabbed him in a chokehold. The grunt wanted to grab his Pokéballs but Shuichi wasn't going to let the man do that. Shuichi wrestled with the man for a bit before the man passed out.
Shuichi felt the man go limp but he didn't release his hold, something told him to kill the man. He squeezed hard and was about to twist to break the man's neck when another arm suddenly appeared around his own neck.
He quickly let go and experience kicked in, he went for an elbow directly in the stomach of the man behind him making him release Shuichi. He turned around and paused when he saw who it was.
It looked like a normal grunt but Shuichi could feel shock and panic from the man's face which shone brightly and jumped in between them. It was Ditto and his father's face was now visible.
"Father!?" Shuichi blurted out and his father marched towards him with anger on his face, "Just what in the world were you planning on doing!?" Enki yelled at Shuichi. Enki had never been angry at Shuichi so this was something new.
"I-I" Shuichi stammered and thought about his actions, he was about to kill the grunt after he was knocked out. He fell silent at the realisation of what he had nearly done.
Enki saw that Shuichi acted on pure impulse and didn't think through his actions, he sighed and asked him "Have you ever killed someone before?" Shuichi quickly shook his head, he hadn't killed anyone, at least in this life.
Enki nodded and was glad he was able to step in before Shuichi made that mistake "Shuichi, we do not kill. We only apprehend criminals, killing them makes you no different than them."
Shuichi nodded but didn't listen to Enki, his thoughts were more preoccupied by his actions. Why did he go for the kill on the grunt? The answer was simple, habit. A habit from his previous life, he was trained to always kill his enemy and never spare them.
He didn't have this habit during his other incidents with Hunter J or the Valley Windworks because he still hadn't accepted Kristoph or his past.
Enki noticed Shuichi wasn't paying attention and was more focused on his thoughts, "We'll continue the mission, just don't try to kill anyone else. You promise?" He asked Shuichi.
"I promise," Shuichi said, he didn't want to kill anymore. He wasn't the soldier of his past life anymore, he was a Pokémon trainer now.
Shuichi got dressed in the Team Galactic uniform and Enki tied up the Galactic grunt and hid him in the bushes. Enki also gave Shuichi a turquoise wig that he wore, if someone looked at Shuichi from behind they wouldn't recognise him.
"Alright, you look the part. Let's go." Enki told Shuichi, he had gotten the ordinary face back as Ditto was there again. They walked back to the Team Galactic building and entered it.
Enki and Shuichi each had a different goal, Shuichi would try and find the stolen Pokémon while Enki would try and find out their next goals and missions so that they could prepare for them.
They entered the building, on the inside it looked like a normal office building. There was a receptionist's desk with a grunt behind it and many more grunts were walking around either talking or looking at something on their screens.
Shuichi and Enki split up once on the inside and Shuichi eavesdropped on some grunts talking. "Heh, I'm glad I joined here. I was able to steal Pokémon and they couldn't do a thing about it." "I wonder what plan the boss has?" "I caught a glimpse of Commander Jupiter today! Man, she's so-"
The talks were everything from regular gossip to bragging, still, it didn't sound like the grunts even knew what Cyrus's plan entailed. As such, he doubted his father would find something that detailed their plans.
Shuichi knew of some of their plans but he couldn't tell Enki that, he didn't have a good excuse for how he found that out. Now that he was alone and in a Team Galactic building with a Commander close by he could claim he found a hint to one of their plans.
He went around and eventually came to a set of stairs, he walked up the stairs. The stairs oddly created a lot of noise and once Shuichi was at the top of them a female face quickly found him. The woman was a tall, slim, pale woman with purple eyes and hair. Her hair was tied into buns.
Shuichi froze upon seeing the woman and she walked to Shuichi, "What are you doing here? Don't you know this place is off-limits to you grunts?" She asked Shuichi.
Shuichi quickly stood straight and said with a straight face "Commander Jupiter! I am a new recruit from Veilstone ma'am! I don't know my way around here yet!" He resisted the urge to salute as he spoke.
Commander Jupiter seemed to buy the excuse "Tch. Here's your warning, the upper floors are off-limits. You'll be called up if there are missions you need to attend to." She explained to Shuichi.
"Yes ma'am! Apologies ma'am!" Shuichi said as he quickly scampered back down the stairs. Contrary to what Commander Jupiter expected, Shuichi was still close to the stairs. Commander Jupiter had basically admitted that something was interesting up there.
He waited for a few minutes acting as if he was doing some important research when all he did was read some comments about his battle with Gardenia. He nearly responded to one random guy who called Huntail a bad Pokémon and that Cloyster was much better.
Shuichi got to the stairs once more but this time he decided to sneak up the stairs creating little to no sound, he looked around the hallway and didn't see anyone there which meant that Commander Jupiter didn't hear him.
Shuichi sneaked around and looked at some of the offices, there were more grunts focused on computers but looking at them from afar showed a clear difference between these and the ones downstairs.
These grunts were doing actual research for future missions while the ones downstairs were all just pawns that could be dismissed at a moment's notice. Shuichi debated whether he should go back down and tell his father about this.
Suddenly, he heard the stairs creaking which would alert Commander Jupiter. With no other option, Shuichi quickly entered a room that was occupied by one grunt.
The grunt was alerted by the sound and turned around "Who are you and what are you doing here?" The grunt asked and Shuichi didn't reply, he only locked the door and released Eevee.
The grunt quickly picked up that Shuichi wasn't a normal grunt and released his own Pokémon; a Stunky. "I don't know who you are but-" The grunt was about to give some speech before Shuichi cut him off.
"Quick Attack." He said to Eevee and Eevee sped off slamming into Stunky, The grunt was surprised by Eevee's speed but Shuichi wasn't done. "Tackle." He didn't use Tackle often anymore as Swift was just better, but in situations like these Tackle was better.
Eevee rammed into Stunky once more knocking out the Pokémon, Eevee was just too strong for the regular grunts at this point. Shuichi quickly ran at the grunt and knocked him out, he resisted the urge to kill the grunt as he looked at the screen.
The stairs creaked once more as someone was quickly descending them, Shuichi guessed his father had also run into Commander Jupiter and she sent him off the same as she did to him. It seemed like the sounds of the fight couldn't be heard over their conversation.
Shuichi looked at the screen and noticed it seemed to be about some ruins near Solaceon Town, could this be their next objective? Shuichi didn't remember something like this in the games.
He remembered that their next objective was the abduction of the legendary Pokémon Azelf from Lake Valor, it was a bit odd once Shuichi thought logically. How did they discover Azelf's location and how did they force it out of the dimension it's residing in?
Shuichi knew from prior experience in encountering Mesprit that it liked to reside in a separate dimension as he had seen it exit the dimension with Dawn back on his first day as a trainer.
It was likely that there was something at the ruins of Solaceon Town, Shuichi remembered the place from the game that was filled with Unown. Unown was always a Pokémon that protected secrets and acted as a massive hive mind.
He would discuss this with his father later, for now, it was time to move again as he had waited for a few minutes. Shuichi tied up the grunt and gagged him to be safe, his mind still told him to kill the man but he resisted.
Going out of the room and looking around, Shuichi spotted no one around. He went around and found nothing interesting in the other office rooms, there were more grunts but he didn't alert or fight any of them. He did notice that most of them researched the aforementioned ruins.
Shuichi went up another flight of stairs and this one didn't seem to create a lot of sound as he went up there, it was likely that the first set of stairs was purposefully made like that to alert anyone going up the stairs.
There wasn't much new to the third floor but just more grunts doing more research, he finally came to the stairs of the fourth floor. The fourth floor was much more different than the other floors.
This floor only had one hallway and the decor changed dramatically, it was no longer a normal office building but suddenly a space-themed hallway. ('Seriously, do they love space that much?') Shuichi wished they would focus their attention on space instead of wiping the world clean.
Shuichi went through the hallway silently, there didn't seem to be a grunt around but he knew Commander Jupiter had to be somewhere on this floor.
He suddenly felt some emotions from around a certain place on the floor, Shuichi got closer and noticed that there were a lot of fearful and panicked emotions. Shuichi peeked around the corner and noticed tons of cages with Pokémon in them.
It was a sickening thing to see the Pokémon in fear and caged up but it was a harsh reminder that not everyone viewed Pokémon the same as people.
('I've found the Pokémon and got some intel, I should find Father to discuss this with.') Shuichi wasn't stupid enough to try and rescue them himself, if Commander Jupiter spotted him it would be bad.
"Going somewhere?" A female voice suddenly halted Shuichi, Commander Jupiter was standing right behind him and next to her was a fat white and purple skunk-like Pokémon, it was the evolution of Stunky; Skuntank.
Skuntank's emotions were a mix of laziness and loathing, it seemed like it liked to sleep and was now going to take out its anger against Shuichi.
"Suppose I can't convince you I'm still lost?" Shuichi tried as he slowly backed up. "No chance this time around, I must admit you had me completely fooled." Commander Jupiter told him.
Shuichi turned around and entered a full sprint, "Skuntank, Hyper Beam." Commander Jupiter didn't seem to mind Shuichi's running as something bad as she went in for the kill.
Shuichi quickly turned around and threw Eevee's Pokéball, "Eevee, Protect!" He yelled as he threw the Pokéball, Pokémon could hear what happened on the outside so Eevee was ready.
Skuntank fired an orange beam directly at Shuichi but Eevee suddenly appeared and quickly put a shield around them. An explosion happened and smoke was thrown everywhere, "Good job Eevee." Shuichi said as he recalled him.
It was better to run alone than with Eevee as Shuichi ran through the building with the smoke as cover. "After him!" Commander Jupiter ordered Skuntank and it just gave a lazy side eye to Jupiter before walking to Shuichi's location.
Shuichi sprinted down the stairs and encountered multiple grunts there, the sound of the explosion alerted them and now they all looked at Shuichi.
Shuichi just sprinted past them leaving them all dumbfounded, Skuntank quickly arrived and was instantly annoyed with all the grunts there. The grunts quickly put one-and-one together and began to chase after Shuichi, saving them from Skuntank's anger.
Meanwhile, Enki was still trying to figure out how to get past the stairs when the explosion rocked the building. He figured something must've happened on the upper floors and all the grunts were running up the stairs. He quickly blended in and went up the stairs.
Once up the stairs, he noticed Shuichi running towards the group where he was and realised it was him who set off the explosion. Shuichi also noticed the group but quickly honed in on one grunt whose emotions he could feel on their face.
"I found them, It's time to rumble," Shuichi said to Enki, it was enough of a hint for Enki to take off his disguise and reveal his badge. "I'm from the international police! You're all under arrest!"
The grunts didn't take his threat seriously and as a result, they released their Pokémon, Enki released his own as Ditto transformed into Ursaring and Ursaring himself also came out and they quickly cleaned up all the other Pokémon.
Shuichi and his Pokémon blocked the stairs making the grunts stuck with nowhere to go, "Well, well, well, it seems like you have some back-up." Commander Jupiter said as she and Skuntank came around the corner.
"Give it up, Team Galactic Commander Jupiter, I'll be arresting all of you." Enki confidently told them all. Commander Jupiter just scoffed "You and what army? Skuntank, eliminate them." She went on the offensive.
Skuntank stepped forward and charged another Hyper Beam, "Eevee, intercept with Protect." Shuichi quickly intercepted with another Protect. Eevee jumped in front of the Hyper Beam and put up a green shield.
Enki nodded as he looked at Shuichi "Ursaring, Stone Edge." He decided to have Ursaring fight Skuntank, he had fought Commander Mars before with his Fearow and was surprised at their strength being near his. It would mean that Ditto wouldn't do well against them.
Ursaring created a blue ring around itself which quickly turned into rocks, the rocks were then fired off directly at Skuntank. Skuntank couldn't go anywhere as it still had to recharge from the Hyper Beam.
Shuichi could see this battle getting out of hand with all the grunts here, "All of you grunts, follow me!" Shuichi decided to move the grunts downstairs and block the entrance to prevent them from escaping.
They tried to mount another assault but they didn't have many Pokémon left and the difference in strength was too much. He huddled the grunts together and took their Pokéballs from them.
Shuichi waited downstairs for his father to come down from the battle, he had the utmost faith that his father would come out victorious. Sure enough after 10 minutes his father came down the stairs cursing under his breath.
"They got away again, same as last time. I'll bring a counter next time to make sure they won't get away again." Enki claimed as he walked to Shuichi.
Shuichi nodded and told Enki what he found on the computers and also that he knocked out a grunt in one of the rooms. "Solaceon ruins? What are they planning there?" Enki was confused about why they wanted to go there.
"Is there anything of value there?" Shuichi asked, he didn't remember something of real value down there in the main games and asked his father to be sure.
Enki thought about it and explained, "The ruins are a temple dedicated to the legendary Pokémon Dialga and Palkia and the inside has been fully searched with nothing of value being found there."
It was odd, why would Team Galactic research ruins when it was supposedly empty? Enki suddenly had an idea "Could you possibly go there and take a look? Solaceon Town is close to the route you wanted to take."
Shuichi was a bit surprised by the sudden request, "I thought you didn't want me entangled in this mess?" Enki shrugged "No use now you're already in deep, plus isn't Leona close by there? You could also visit her."
His father brought up some solid points, Leona was another one of Shuichi's childhood friends but he was a bit apprehensive about visiting her. His whole outlook had changed on them and while he was friendly to them he didn't know if he could still be friends with them.
"I'll see what I can do, Cheryl might also enjoy the ruins there." Shuichi didn't forget about Cheryl, she was a treasure hunter after all, maybe she could find a hint there.
Enki nodded and appreciated that Shuichi was willing to do this pro bono, many trainers wouldn't even do this for money. What Enki didn't know was that Shuichi didn't want Team Galactic to win, he had seen one world in flames and he didn't want to see it again.
"You should probably change, I'm about to summon the police and we don't want you getting implicated do we?" Enki smiled as he asked the question, Shuichi quickly nodded and was glad to get out of the uncomfortable uniform and hideous wig.
Shuichi was about to leave when his father stopped him, "One more thing, make sure to control those 'impulses' of yours." Shuichi turned and looked at his father like a Stantler in a headlight, how did he know?
Enki only looked knowingly at Shuichi which confirmed to him that his father knew something about him. Shuichi asked Enki how he knew but Enki didn't tell him, he left the Team Galactic building and went to the Pokémon Center to meet up with Cheryl.
Enki looked at his son leaving and sighed, he was sure of it now. His son had somehow inherited that military-like spirit that the rest of his family had, he thought back to how Shuichi acted in the past and concluded there were subtle signs here and there.
His constant need for physical training ever since he was young, that diligent yet studying when he was in school. Not to mention never going out of line against his parents.
('Shuichi seems to be aware of it as well, it was likely the reason for his nightmares and now he's accepted that part of himself.') Enki didn't know the true reason but if Shuichi heard him then he would be shocked.
This was close to what had happened, Shuichi accepted his past life as a military and with it came the habits that followed. The only thing he was wrong about was that Enki guessed it was inherited.
Shuichi was in deep thought on his way to the Pokémon Center, he had nearly habitually broken the first grunt's neck to kill him. It was a stern reminder that he had several bad habits from his combat days.
Just because he accepted his past didn't mean he was completely cured, he would still think about his combat days here and there along with some of his choices during those times. He often thought of if he had emotions during those times what he would've done differently.
Shuichi entered the Pokémon Center and asked Nurse Joy for jobs for a two-badge trainer, he asked just in case he could complete one on the way to Celestic Town. 'Calm down the Machoke group!'
This was an interesting one, apparently a group of Machoke got together and were blocking a specific part of Route 211.
The job paid ₽1,200 but it did require two badges which Shuichi had, the higher the badges needed the more that jobs paid. Shuichi took the job and went to Cheryl in the room. Cheryl was already ready to go and thus after one more shopping session, they set off to Route 211.
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