PMD - Meeting

Finally finished this. It's a new desktop background for myself, featuring most of the team so far, minus Groudon, who's too big. Also two cameos of 's characters, showing their team spirit. 

Pretty happy with this one. Anyways, I also whipped up a short story to go with this.


Warning: tl;dr below. And there is very little joy to be found.


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Short Story - Meeting

“Mew, would you just quit doing your stupid light shows and pay attention?” 

Charmander’s gaze had not moved much from his clipboard, but his tone maintained the usual harshness, directed right at the friendly Mew, who had just sparked off a display of miniature fireworks, much to Linoone’s delight. Mew loved entertaining Linoone, who was very easily amused, but obviously Charmander saw no joy to be found in the act.

Charmander was not yet done addressing the apparent lack of focus among his team members. “Lat2! Stop flirting with the Guardian! Firstly, he has standards that you can never hope to reach, and secondly, he obviously has no interest or passion for anything that involves the team, so what makes you so special?” He showed absolutely no remorse as Latias, who had been getting quite comfortable with the Draggie, shrank away with a very hurt expression, while her brother Latios watched with a mixture of disapproval and concern. 

Team Guardians was currently in the middle of its monthly performance assessment meeting, which mostly consisted of Charmander ranting about how terribly everyone had performed over the past month. The meeting was held at Spinda’s Café, which was barred to outsiders for that night, and Spinda was more than happy to provide complementary refreshments to the team members, knowing that they would need something to cheer them up while Charmander unleashed his torrent of criticism. 

As usual, the team members generally sat away from their bad-tempered team leader. Raichu sat at one of the round tables with her precious Linoone as always, with Mew floating in between to entertain its playmate. Raichu normally appreciated Mew’s friendly efforts to make Linoone happy, but in this case she could not help but show concern when Charmander found it to be annoying; she knew all too well what Charmander was capable of when he was pushed. 

Off to the side at the bar was Quilava, who preferred to be alone and whom everyone else preferred to leave alone. He wasn’t the type to turn off his flames unless absolutely necessary, though Charmander did caution him not to burn anything down. The usual criticisms he received involved his high mortality rate when battling through Pokemon in the Mystery Dungeons or while chasing criminals, but Quilava prided himself in his killing efficiency and only took care not to go below the team leader’s expectations. He was paid very well for his job, and he had no plans to get fired. 

In the middle of the right portion of the café where the meeting was taking place was Charmander, who was currently standing on the table itself, reading off his notes and not particularly looking at the Pokemon he was addressing. He had no need to check to see if the team member being addressed was paying attention; if said member did not show satisfactory improvement over the following month, things would get rather painful, and the whole team knew it. The only Pokemon who dared to sit near him at the same table was Shaymin, who wasn’t as chatty without the Gracidea Flower but was still quite outgoing and apparently not too worried about the close proximity to the irate team leader. 

Behind that table was the table around which the three dragon types sat. There was the Draggie, who was trying his best not to react to the constant flirting from Latias, who seemed to have grown quite fond of the Dragonite recently. The Draggie found the entire situation very awkward, but at least he had no obligation to listen to Charmander’s rants involving his apparent laziness. Not that Charmander could do anything, of course, but Charmander had no reservations about yelling at a being unfathomably more skilled than he was. Sitting next to the flirtatious Latias was her brother Latios, who was still looking at her with concern. This was one of the very rare days when the two of them could see each other, and as always he felt extremely protective of her and constantly blamed himself for the situation in which they found themselves. Latios was aware of the Draggie’s status while Latias wasn’t, and Latios certainly did not want his sister getting hurt, yet he could not find the will to try to dissuade her, seeing how happy she appeared. 

Finally, closer to the entrance of the café was the table occupied by two Pokemon of very contrasting sizes. There was Lugia, whose head almost reached the ceiling light above the table, looking rather glum as it usually was; Lugia felt nothing but shame at being placed under Charmander’s control and was always concerned about the constant unhappiness that the leader caused. And being one of the most revered and powerful legendaries, Lugia was the victim to some of Charmander’s harshest criticisms, since Charmander loved rubbing it in that he had overcome power with skill and knowledge. Sitting across the table from Lugia was the newest member of the team, Jirachi, whose thousand-year sleep cycle had been disrupted when Charmander barged into Wish Cave and disconnected the link to the surrounding land through which Jirachi released its energy over the thousand years of hibernation. It had a quite a mellow attitude and was fairly eloquent and outspoken, so Charmander had appointed it as a spokesperson for the team. Jirachi did harbor resentment towards Charmander for possibly permanently disabling its hibernation, but it had no choice but to join the team, or suffer the eventual decay of the land that it was supposed to protect. At the moment Jirachi was quietly chatting to Lugia, having noticed Lugia’s constant unhappiness and wanting to cheer it up a little so that the meeting could be a bit more bearable. 

“And that concludes the monthly assessments,” Charmander finally said after what seemed like an eternity and a half. He quickly raised his voice when the team began to get up to leave. “I have not dismissed you yet, you idiots. Sit back down, now!” 

The team members sat back down, not even grumbling in fear that Charmander would single them out and do terrible things to them. All except the Draggie, of course, but he stayed just to see what Charmander had to say. 

Charmander held up an official mission request poster. “Two days ago, Lat1 was assigned to perform this mission.” He then proceeded to read from it. “Mission summary: Missing Nidoran, male. Client: Nidoran, female. Objective: Rescue Nidoran, male. Location: Treeshroud Forest, 18F. Reward: Unspecified.” He suddenly tore the poster into shreds. “This is the last time anyone is allowed to accept a mission with unspecified rewards. Do you know what Lat1 got after the mission? Go on, guess.”

There was nothing but silence; no one dared to speak up for fear of incurring more of the team leader’s increasing wrath. 

Charmander rummaged through his bag and took out a small egg. “This was what he got. An egg.” He almost threw the egg down against the table but stopped himself and simply placed the egg back into the bag. “Firstly, an egg is not a reward; I only look for new team members when they are needed, and I only accept them when they have met my requirements. This egg is simply an extra, useless mouth to feed, something that we do not need after that stupid Manaphy incident.” 

He glared at Raichu, who seemed to shrink in her seat. “Secondly, the client is a terrible parent if she thinks she can simply get rid of her child. Did she really go procreate without considering the consequences of said actions? This is nothing but laziness and lack of foresight on the parent’s part. In fact, I will lobby for new regulations that will allow for removal of the ability to procreate for idiots who do said actions while clearly incapable of supporting the child.” 

Charmander quickly took a sip from his Wonder Gummi shake before continuing. “Lastly, there is no sense in putting an unidentified reward on a mission poster. A team needs to know if the mission is worth the reward; the guild is not a simple charity service but is a business. If one doesn’t show the offer outright, then one does not get business. This option of not displaying the reward has clearly opened up ways to use deceit to receive service for rewards that do nothing to match the resources and effort involved. Therefore, I will also lobby for new regulations prohibiting the unidentified reward option.” 

By now, Charmander was clearly very sour, as he rubbed the temple of his head. The entire place was quiet, with no one daring to even breathe, not even Spinda, who had paused in the middle of pouring a drink and had not noticed that the drink was overflowing. 

“This must not continue,” Charmander concluded with a sigh. “Until the new regulations are in place, we are rescinding our services from those who offer unidentified items. This is the twentieth egg we’ve received, and we have never received anything else from unidentified rewards. This will be the last. This egg will be delivered to Chansey as were the others; she has a program for dealing with orphaned eggs.” 

There was another long, uninterrupted silence. Everyone did wonder what happened to the eggs that Charmander took to Nurse Chansey, who ran both the hospital and the station where she would take care of the eggs until they hatched for the parents to pick up. But no one was about to ask the team leader. 

Then Charmander spoke again. “One last announcement. This one involves Lat1 and Lat2.” He ignored the brief flash of anger from the Eon siblings at being called such derogatory names. “Lat1 and Lat2 will no longer be subject to the once-a-month visitation rules. This restriction has been lifted, and they are free to be in close proximity to one another as long as they do not have any team obligations.” 

Latios was clearly dumbfounded. “You’re…not joking…?” Latios quickly shook his head when he realized how foolish that question was; Charmander never joked. “Umm…why?” 

“I simply respond to logical needs for maximizing efficiency of the team,” Charmander replied matter-of-factly. “Before, I needed to place you under a higher degree of restrictions to force my control over you. Now I have observed that you have indeed accepted this control, so the restrictions are no longer necessary to maintain your performance, and this action actually will increase performance overall, as I plan to add Lat2 to the mission rosters. And yes, Lat1, I know you have become too incorporated into the team to be independent now. You know it, and I know it.” 

What happiness that Latios felt at being able to see his sister freely was severely crushed at Charmander’s biting remarks. Indeed Latios had fallen into Charmander’s control, and he no longer had the will to try to resist. It shamed him and saddened him, and Charmander saw no problem in rubbing that fact into his face.

Latias watched her brother’s mood deteriorate and felt an urge to comfort him, but at the moment the urge was overridden by her slight contempt for his weak will. Of course, she hadn’t been subject to Charmander’s ruthless treatment, so she could not understand exactly how Latios fared with Charmander around, but without that information, she could not help but wish her brother was stronger. At least she could now be around her brother more often to complain about it. 

Charmander did not want to go into further discussion now that the final announcement was out. “Okay, that’s the news, and that concludes the meeting. You’re all dismissed; I will return to the base.” With that, the team leader promptly collected his belongings and walked off without acknowledging any of his teammates. 

The team members hung around for a little bit, trying to collect themselves, while Spinda went around trying to offer them condolences and more complementary drinks. But the mood was already too dark, and once the team members had buried their heavily-worn pride deep beneath them once more, they dispersed to their beds, hoping that sleep would cure the terrible feeling looming over their heads. 

------- 

It was the following morning. Nurse Chansey was always at her Pokemon egg care center first thing in the morning, to make sure nothing was amiss for the precious, new lives that were to enter the world. But this time, she found a new egg, placed on the drop-off incubator, with a note attached. Even without reading it, she knew from whom the egg had come, and the joy that came from looking at all the eggs suddenly vanished. 

Indeed, the egg was from Charmander, whose note unsurprisingly mentioned that he wasn’t going to return to reclaim whatever was inside. While Nurse Chansey understood why Charmander did not want the egg, she was saddened that he would abandon a new life so easily. Of course, she did get the occasional egg from parents who did not want their child; she had begun an orphanage system for those few eggs that came in. In fact, this egg-hatching service and the orphanage were started before her hospital, since she had been primarily interested in helping new lives into the world. She had only started the hospital after Charmander had moved in, since he seemed to bring with him a higher rate of injuries among basically everyone in town. 

This work was in no way leisurely for her. The hospital work required so much of her time that she had to hire interns from other parts of the continent to help her manage the workload. But she always insisted on handling her egg station on her own, wanting to keep to her passion. And…there was another, hidden reason why she did not allow anyone else to work there. 

Nurse Chansey took a look at her orphanage roster. As she suspected, the orphanage was at maximum capacity, part of it due to Charmander’s previous visits. She had been at maximum capacity for quite a while, and it would be a few months before a group was mature enough to be allowed to go on its own. Nurse Chansey sighed, knowing she had no choice but to use the other option. 

“Let’s get this over with, little one,” she said to the unresponsive egg, making a smile that was utterly tainted by pity and sadness.

She passed her interns, who always came to the station to check in before heading to the hospital, and one of them said, “Another egg? We can handle it if you want.”

Nurse Chansey tried to look more confident and shook her head. The interns did not press further and went on, but not without noting the heavy sorrow in her eyes. Sometimes, Nurse Chansey did wish there were others to do this work for her, but she could not and would not allow anyone else to bear this terrible burden. She would remain stoic and endure so that others may be happy. 

She took the egg into a back room, where a medical table was situated in the center, with various medical cabinets set on most of the walls. She carefully placed the egg in a shallow basin on the table to keep it from rolling off, and then she began rummaging through the cabinets to gather the proper equipment. When she was done, she had a single syringe with a mixture of some of the compounds that could be found in the cabinets, placed gingerly on a medical tray set next to the egg.

Nurse Chansey gently touched the egg, summoning up the willpower to follow through with what had to be done. She picked up the syringe and pushed the needle inside, the eggshell showing little resistance to the specialized, microthin point. She paused there to push her emotions deep down, shut her eyes tightly, and injected the contents of the syringe into the egg in a smooth, fluid motion. 

There, it was done. 

It took all of her strength to keep standing after the deed was done. “I’m so sorry, little one,” she whispered, pulling the needle out and discarding it in a specialized waste bin. She took the egg and placed it in its own specialized waste bin, wanting the egg out of her sight as quickly as possible in hopes that she could get it out of her mind. 

But she felt her foundations weakening, her resolve faltering. A little bit of her died each time she had to do this, multiplied a thousand times by the fact that Charmander was not going anywhere; he was probably going to bring more and more eggs in the future, and she would have to keep repeating this until everything about her had been whittled away. Many of her interns, who were all Blisseys, often asked her why she had decided not to evolve. The truth was that she could not evolve; she was far too unhappy and far too removed from social interactions due to her constant stress such that she completely failed to meet the criteria for evolution. But she did not tell anyone this, since to everyone else, she was the calm, comforting, sympathetic nurse extolled for her compassion and skill. But she was nothing like that now, in the privacy of the room. 

Nurse Chansey completely broke down inside that room, crying her heart out, at the same time hoping that no one was outside to hear her through the locked door. This was one of the moments when she wanted it to all end. For her, Charmander had poisoned the entire town, and she had to handle all the hatred and anger that surrounded him. She sobbed, she moaned, she poured out tears of absolute misery onto the table, somewhat wishing that there was at least another person who could provide her comfort, someone to cry to. She was great at giving sympathy, yet was cursed to never receive any. 

She cried until the nagging voice at the back of her mind told her to get back up. She had work to do, fueled by her passion for helping people, a passion that constantly gave her strength despite her common breakdowns. She would swallow this down as she always did, and put on a smile for the others. She picked herself off the floor, wiped away the tearstains, dusted herself off, and quickly cleaned the area. She set her nurse hat properly on her head, and then she took a deep breath. She put on her characteristic smile, opened the door, and slowly walked out. 

“Good morning! How may I help you today?” 

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Later that same morning, Charmander was back at Spinda’s Café with Lugia, Latios, Latias, and Jirachi. Latias was mostly there just to be with her brother, since Charmander had yet to give her an assignment. And this time, the café was crowded with other Pokemon, who made sure to stay as far away from Charmander as the seat availability permitted. The only Pokemon willing to approach was Spinda, who needed to serve drinks to all his customers. 

Charmander spread his Wonder Map across the table. “Okay, L, we need to talk about your scouting report from yesterday. Mark the location of that island on this map.” 

Lugia took a charcoal pencil and marked a spot far to the northwest of the continent. “Here, well beyond our previous scouting boundaries.” 

Charmander was doing some calculations on a sheet of paper. “That’s fine. What kind of life on the island? Geography? I need some details.” 

Latios frowned at the map and idly swished his drink around in his cup. “I don’t see why you’re so interested, Char. It’s just a tiny little island.” 

“Well, good to know you’re oblivious to everything as usual, Lat1,” Charmander replied, not looking up from his paper. “However, your ignorance is not detrimental to my plans. L, continue.” 

Lugia looked apologetically at Latios before answering. “The island seems to have been burned down at some point in the past. Looks like it’s been some years, since the blackness is fading away, and the regrowth of vegetation seems to be a few years old.” 

“Volcanic event?” Charmander speculated. “Actually, don’t let me interrupt. Give me the full report and then I will make an educated guess.” 

Lugia cleared his throat before continuing. “The island has a very low overall elevation. If it was a volcano, it’s extinct and has eroded away to almost nothing a long time ago. I also noticed a lack of large Pokemon on the island, despite its relatively large size. I only noticed the smaller types, and not many of them at that. I spoke to some of them and they said the island had indeed been set on fire almost a decade ago, which killed off all the large Pokemon. By whom they do not know, since they mostly hid from the large Pokemon before that event.” 

Charmander shrugged it off. “Must have been some lightning storm or something that sparked a fire. Okay, this island will be marked, and depending on its proximity to other landmasses, I may consider putting a relay station for ships there.” 

Jirachi seemed concerned about this. “Excuse me, Char, but I was wondering why you have plans to build a harbor or some sort there.” 

Charmander seemed to have the tiniest start of a smirk going on his face at that remark. “Well, because you told me there is a human continent nearby.”

Lugia, Latios, and Latias all made a huge start and proceeded to glare at Jirachi, and Lugia exclaimed, “You told him?” 

As Jirachi shrank away, shaking its head rapidly, Charmander said, “No, you just did. Right now.” 

It was Lugia’s turn to receive the glares from the other legendaries. “Erm…uhhh…oh no…” 

Charmander hopped onto the table and advanced towards Lugia, who visibly cowered from the advance. “The thing I’m wondering is why all of you decided to withhold information from me.” 

In most cases, the scenario of a legendary like Lugia cowering from a tiny Charmander would have made most others laugh. But there was no laughter or mocking here. Lugia had all the reasons to be afraid, and everyone knew it. The café suddenly turned very quiet, as everyone felt the tension rising. 

Latias saw that Latios was too scared to speak up, so she spoke for him. “Char, please don’t be angry. All the legendaries who have traveled the world have agreed to keep this part a secret.” 

Jirachi also decided to speak up, being new to the business of fearing the team leader. “Latias is correct. We legendaries do not speak of the other continent. We cannot help it if you found out on your own.” 

Charmander turned away from Lugia and began pacing around the Wonder Map. “I’ve known about the human continent for a long time. It began with the fact that the Pokemon here knew what a human was. When I washed up on shore after that storm, the Pokemon thought that I was a human transformed into a Charmander. There was also a Squirtle that washed up that claimed to be a human. I cannot confirm whether or not that the Squirtle or I have been humans in the past, nor do I care, but the important part is that the Pokemon knew the concept of humans. In order to have that concept, they must have existed for the Pokemon to have had experience of them in the past.”

“However, this fact alone is not enough to confirm that humans do exist in the present time, only that they had existed in the past. The confirmation came from the future, from Grovyle, Darkrai, and Dusknoir. While they have not provided explicit form of proof, testimony from three separate sources from three separate interests is in perfect agreement. This provides high confidence that a human indeed tried to enter our timeline from a future timeline, which, although is no longer matching with our future, shares our past. Therefore, by continuity arguments, I can conclude that there is a human population in our world.” 

Latias still had some problems, and she wanted to voice them. “For all we know the population might have dropped to zero in the past and then will go back up much later in the future. How can you assign a nonzero value to the present based on the nonzero values at the past and the future?” 

Charmander surprisingly did not seem to mind the question. “See, unlike your idiot brother, you have an inquisitive mind, even if it’s inexperienced and full of bad knowledge. The reason I can assign a nonzero value to the population today is through projectability. To explain, let me sketch this scenario for you: suppose I took data, and the data points seem to suggest a linear relationship. However, I could also fit a sinusoid or some extremely irregular function that goes through all the data points but is certainly not linear. This is merely because inductive reasoning is not deductively valid. Yet I still choose the linear fit, and the reason is that based on what I know about the world, a linear fit is determined to be the one that best describes the data.” 

“We all know that spontaneous generation is highly improbable. In fact, this probably hasn’t happened since life first began on this planet. A population that reaches zero at some point will not arise again, at least not for an unfathomably long period of time. By projecting this knowledge onto the data I have here, I can reasonably assume that we have a nonzero population of humans in this world, even without having to fill all the gaps between the data points. Does this satisfy your curiosity, Lat2? We scientists have to make these projectability judgments all the time, and it is a normal part of our work.” 

Latias wasn’t sure if she should feel good or bad about Charmander’s response, so she did not speak any further. 

“That was my initial motivation to begin the scouting missions for Lat1 and Lugia,” Charmander continued. “My suspicions were strengthened when both of you showed hesitation when I told you to scout in the western direction. Through your hesitation you basically told me that there was something you knew that you did not want to tell me. I also talked to Mew before about the humans, and he also showed some…restraint when discussing the topic. That’s why I suspected that the legendaries, at least the ones documented to have traveled in the past, knew something about humans that I would need to find out. I figured this was true for Jirachi, and I knew you two would react accordingly if you thought Jirachi had spilled the secret. It is amazingly easy to manipulate all of you, did you know that?” 

Lugia briefly looked away in shame but still had its concerns. “And you plan to look for them? I’m not sure if that’s a good idea.” 

“You are in no position to judge my decisions,” Charmander responded, giving Lugia a look of pure contempt. “In any case, I will eventually build a station there to serve as a starting point for more scouting missions.” With that, Charmander got off the table and retrieved his belongings. “This concludes our discussion. L, you take Lat1 and Jirachi to that island and tell the inhabitants that they’re going to see more development soon. I expect Jirachi to do most of the talking, since neither of you can talk properly to save your lives. I’ll brief you back at the base. Lat2, you’re coming with me on a mission, during which I will assess your abilities.”

Latios’s face was full of concern at this, but both Charmander and Latias ignored him. Besides, there was no arguing with the team leader, and there was absolutely no stalling once an assignment had been made. The Pokemon all quickly got their mission supplies ready and departed, trying not to think too much about Charmander’s plans. 

-------

“Where are we really going, Char?” Latias said, toting her brand new team bag, complete with the badge, through Brine Cave. “Surely you’d have me attack if you wanted to test me, but you’re doing all the work.” 

Charmander dispatched another Pokemon with a disjointed Hyper Beam and then pointed to a part of the cavern that met with the sea. “That is where Lapras lives. He will take us to the location.” 

Latias was confused, since she could fly anywhere she wanted and did not know of any place that she could not reach by flying, but she figured Charmander knew what he was doing and wordlessly followed. She soon found herself facing the open sea, with some sort of pattern drawn on the rocky wall behind her. And it didn’t take long for a lone Lapras to show itself from behind a cluster of rocks that offered shelter for the Pokemon. 

Before any of them could speak, Charmander cut in. “Lapras, the usual. Hidden Land. Lat2, stay on Lapras and do not float away, or you’ll be left behind during the warp.” 

Latias was surprised that they would be warping to a location, but she was quite fascinated and followed her leader’s directions. Lapras, having learned that not talking to Charmander increased overall safety, quickly took off without a word, out into the open sea. What Latias did not know was that Lapras only provided the service so that his friend Wigglytuff would be kept happy, and that Charmander was already researching a way to get to Hidden Land on his own so Lapras would no longer be necessary. 

It didn’t take long for Latias to realize that they were entering a new place. Lapras lifted into the air, and in a flash they were looking at a floating landmass with a tower rising from it. While Latias was fascinated by the entire view, Charmander did not even bother glancing, never having cared much about sightseeing. What she did not notice was the lone Perfect Apple tree and a large Gracidea Flower patch behind Temporal Tower, since Charmander intended to keep that a secret. 

Lapras stopped at the start of a pathway at the edge of the landmass, where he was told to wait until Charmander’s return. Then without further ado, Charmander and Latias entered Hidden Land. Here Charmander mostly stayed back and had Latias battle the Pokemon along the way, but the enemy Pokemon were the least of her problems. The team leader seemed to be overflowing with criticism and insults, and he did not have any problem letting his sharp words fly even when Latias thought she was doing well. In fact, she was not taking any damage, and she dispatched each enemy within a few moves. She could not understand why Charmander had to nitpick everything despite her apparent success. She wondered if her brother had to deal with this whenever he and Charmander went on missions together and began to understand why her brother seemed so unhappy and afraid. 

It was finally near the end of the Mystery Dungeon that Latias finally snapped. “Will you just quit yelling at me?” Latias furiously launched a Tropius away with a Dragonbreath and whirled to face the belligerent leader. “Do you ever have anything nice to say? I’m doing the best I can and you’re not helping! I can’t believe Latios can even—” 

Latias could not even yell in pain when Charmander’s perfectly-executed E-field-boosted kick to the face sent her crashing into a tree. She was so utterly shocked at the unbelievable pain and the fact that Charmander had not hesitated to hurt her that she could only stare open-mouthed, with terror in her eyes, as Charmander approached. 

Charmander looked directly into her eyes and showed nothing but coldness. “That was an example of a proper attack. Yours were unrefined, inefficient, and poorly planned. Learn to be competent if you don’t want to hear my criticisms. Otherwise, shut your useless mouth.” 

That was Latias’s first time dealing with Charmander’s unforgiving approach to any sort of rebellion, and it did not fail to drive her ego deep, deep down. She just lay there, trying to gather herself, while Charmander walked away as though nothing had happened. When she finally realized that Charmander was not slowing down for her, she willed herself to get up and follow after, but at a distance, having found new fear of the team leader. 

Latias did not utter a single word for the rest of the journey. She just listened and obeyed, her thoughts never leaving that single kick that Charmander had dealt to her. The sting from all the insults and criticisms seemed to face away into a dull pain on the back of her mind, but she could not prevent herself from paying attention to all of them. She felt terrible, and she just wanted the mission to be over so she could go to the comfort of her brother’s arms. 

It wasn’t long before Charmander halted at what seemed like a shrine built from stone, with the same marking from Brine Cave imprinted at the top. “This is the Rainbow Stoneship.” He noticed the funny expression on Latias’s face. “Yes, it’s a stupid name. Also spits out a rainbow at the back, like we don’t have enough photons already. Which is why you can ferry me over on your own.” Without waiting for Latias to respond, he hopped on her back. “Well? Get going. And make sure to block the headwind with a barrier.” 

Latias did not appreciate being ordered to ferry someone on her back, but she saw why Charmander could so easily go around giving orders to everyone without a single thought. She simply took off as quickly as she could towards the tower in the distance, fearing that if she went any slower Charmander would strike at her. She also remembered to put on the barrier to filter the headwind, a trick that she and her brother learned a while back to avoid getting watery eyes while flying. 

Charmander nonchalantly pored over his Wonder Map and idly talked to Latias along the way. “This is much easier. I usually come alone, and I have to climb the entire tower, but this time I have someone who can ferry me all the way to the top. I only had you go through Hidden Land to make an assessment of your abilities, which I have to say are downright terrible. I’ll hold it to you not to tell anyone where you have been. The only other people who have been here are Raichu and Grovyle…and the latter is deceased.” 

If Latias had any plans about telling anyone about the mission, even to Latios, they were all gone now. She dreaded to even think about what the team leader would do to her if she opened her mouth about this. And she was amazed that Charmander could talk about this so calmly, as though he was a mastermind who was a hundred percent sure that everything would be done according to his will. The amount of confidence and control he possessed both amazed and frightened her. 

Soon Latias was at the top of the tower, giving a startled yelp and almost falling when she spotted Dialga watching her. So she was at the home of the legendary Dialga, something that Charmander had felt wasn’t necessary to tell her before entering Hidden Land. She knew from her brother that Charmander had visited Palkia before and had defeated it, but neither she nor her brother knew many details about Dialga aside from the fact that Charmander and Raichu were the ones who confronted it and stopped the Paralysis a few years back. She at least knew from the general words going around among legendaries that Dialga and Palkia were close to the top tier as far as legendary powers went, and she was extremely afraid to approach Dialga at the top of the tower. But her fear of Charmander overrode her fear of any legendary, and she cautiously landed at the center of the clearing at the top. 

Charmander approached Dialga immediately, showing no sign of hesitation. “Okay, I took the trouble of coming all the way here, so you better provide good answers.” 

Surprisingly, Dialga was not aggressive at all and actually seemed to be a little afraid of the little Charmander, answering in a voice quite low for a large legendary. “I WILL ANSWER YOUR QUESTION.”

Charmander cringed and held his head. “I’m going to one day tear out the vocal cords from all of you big legendaries. Seriously, is voice control that hard?” Dialga did not respond, so he continued. “I hope you retained some memories of when you were more of an idiot than you are now, when the tower was collapsing. I need to speak to you about the portals used to link this timeline to the future timeline. I believe there were six in total: when Grovyle arrived; when Dusknoir arrived; when Dusknoir took Grovyle, Raichu and me to the future timeline; when we returned to this timeline; when Dusknoir returned to this timeline; and finally when Dusknoir opened the portal near the tower in an attempt to take us back to the future. Do you remember these?” 

“I REMEMBER THEM, YES.” Dialga seemed to be making an audible effort to keep its voice down, but with little success. “ALTHOUGH I WAS LACKING PROPER THINKING, I DID SENSE THE PORTALS.” 

Charmander’s eyes seemed to glow with hatred now. “Good. Then you must remember their characteristics. You can probably open a portal to the same future timeline if you wished, correct? I have reasons to revisit that timeline and kill Dusknoir and the Primal Dialga there.” 

“YOU WISH TO KILL ME IN THE FUTURE?” 

“Firstly, this future timeline is separate from our universe,” Charmander stated. “If it truly were our future, then there are paradoxes that cannot be resolved. Therefore, this Dialga I wish to target is not you, but another. Secondly, the two of them have shown that they present a clear danger to the world, especially during desperate times when proper performance from them would have made a difference. Therefore, they must be eliminated. Thirdly, they attempted to bodily harm me, but due to circumstances they got away without repercussions. They will not escape me. I will show them the consequences for making me their enemy.” 

Dialga was not convinced. “YOU EXPECT ME TO ALLOW YOU TO KILL ANOTHER ONE OF MY KIND?” 

Charmander aggressively moved forward, with an expression that told everyone that he was not going to be denied. “I am not asking for your permission, legendary. I am commanding. You are in no position to tell me what I can or cannot do. You have shown yourself incompetent in the area of your expertise, as have all other legendaries in this world. I have defeated you multiple times, and one of those times was to fix the world after your incompetence led to its endangerment. Now I have given you legitimate reasons for eliminating a Pokemon, and all you can do is give me sentimental bullshit about which I care nothing. Your emotions mean nothing to me, and your reluctance means nothing. I expect you to provide the means to enter the future timeline, unless you wish to bear the consequences of defying me.” 

To Latias’s surprise, Dialga actually backed off, cowering, actually looking as though it were panicking. It was amazing how much influence the team leader had over the most powerful of legendaries, and Charmander wielded this influence with so much ease. Latias was going through the same emotions that the other legendaries felt as they dealt more with Charmander; first she was overwhelmed by fear after Charmander’s ruthlessness then it was followed by an increasing admiration for such a harmless-looking Pokemon who had managed to achieve such power. 

For Dialga, it was apparent that not even its abhorrence towards the thought of killing its own kind could override its fear of what Charmander would do if it did not follow his wishes. “I…will provide the portal, as you wish.” 

Charmander took the lower volume to be a sign that Dialga’s feeble barrier had been broken down. “Good. Now that I have confirmation from you that this is a possibility, I can finish planning my build order. I will return to you when I am ready to make the journey. I expect you to show no hesitation when that time comes. Farewell.” 

With this bit of business done, Charmander promptly returned to where Latias was and hopped on so she could make her way back to Lapras. Latias gave Dialga an apologetic look before taking off, not wanting her team leader to get too impatient. It wasn’t long before they were back on the familiar seas, heading towards Brine Cave. 

------- 

In the meantime, Lugia’s group had managed to reach the island without incident. The entire area smelled like a mixture of ash and fresh plant life, quite an odd mixture during the island’s transitional phase from an ashy wasteland. There seemed to be a small village still under construction, looking rather primitive due to the fact that the relatively small Pokemon were incapable of getting stone materials, and that there was almost no wood available.

As the team landed, a male Wartortle, who appeared to be in a leadership position, approached them. “It’s you again,” he said, glancing at Lugia. “And you brought friends.” 

Lugia did not like the jaded tone from the Wartortle, but at least it wasn’t Charmander. “Yes, these are two of my teammates, Latios and Jirachi. I’m sorry our last meeting was brief, since as I told you I was on a scouting mission and had to cover all of the assigned area before night set in.” 

Wartortle was not impressed. “And why are you here this time?” 

It was Jirachi’s turn to speak up. “Gather the Pokemon here and I will be happy to announce the reason for our visit. It is an important matter and will impact everyone living here.” 

Wartortle looked at the team suspiciously but growled out, “Fine. I’ll gather everyone up so you can talk.” 

Many of the villagers were eager to hear what Jirachi had to say, since this was really the first time that they had visitors, not to mention that they were eager to connect with some outside group that could provide assistance for their meager existence on the island. As instructed, Lugia and Latios stayed back to allow Jirachi to speak on behalf of the team. 

“Thank you for your attention,” Jirachi began, putting on a very disarming smile. “I am Jirachi, representing Team Guardians, an Exploration Team based at Treasure Town on the continent to the east. I am accompanied by two other members, Lugia and Latios, who are senior members tasked with decision-making and general protection during the mission. Before I go on, may I ask if you all know what an Exploration Team is?” 

There were blank stares from the audience, so Jirachi proceeded to the answer. “An Exploration Team does exactly what the name implies: explore. We explore new places and look for treasure and new Pokemon, but we also provide services such as rescues, bounty hunting, item retrieval, and escorts, all through dangerous territories. There are many others like us, but we are proud to say that Team Guardians is the biggest and the most successful of the teams out there. Our team leader is Charmander, one of the two who founded the team some years ago, and he’s helped the team grow to what it is today.  While he hasn’t visited you personally, he has listened to Lugia’s scouting reports and has felt it necessary to take action regarding this island and its inhabitants.” 

“You see, while I have told you that we are based in Treasure Town, we have other bases in many other towns scattered throughout the continent to serve as staging areas for missions to dungeons local to those towns. With these outpost bases we are able to provide more efficient services as well as offer our resources to the Pokemon living there. We would like to make a similar proposition here, to build an outpost and provide our services and resources to you. This also includes opening of travel between this island and the main continent.” 

“Now I know some of your concerns, and hopefully I can alleviate those concerns with the following. The towns in which the outposts are built retain their autonomy; we do not attempt to take any leadership and only offer our services and resources. The Pokemon of the towns have the full freedom to choose not to receive our services and resources and can pass regulatory laws. However, it is our policy to resist regulatory actions if they’re not done in due process of the laws, and we reserve the right to withdraw our services as we see fit.” 

“Therefore, we humbly ask for your permission to begin construction of our outpost on this island, and to organize our services and begin resource trading with you. We are very excited for this opportunity to better the situation for both the team and the Pokemon here, and we hope for your approval. Thank you for your consideration.” 

With that, Jirachi backed off to let the villagers discuss this among themselves, rejoining Latios and Lugia. The villagers indeed broke into a heavy discussion, spearheaded by Wartortle, but overall they seemed to be inclined to accept the offer. This wasn’t surprising, since Charmander had already predicted that they would be guided mostly by their desperation for resources, something that he would use as a crutch to consolidate his control over the region despite the autonomy that he had offered to the region. 

Latios seemed quite impressed by Jirachi’s talking. “Did you speak all that on your own, or did Char write a script for you?” 

Jirachi gently floated to Latios’s eye level and cheerfully smiled. “Char gave me a list of points to touch upon, but nothing else. You could say he gave me the framework, while it was my job to provide the rest of the details.” 

Lugia shook his head disapprovingly at the chattering villagers. “Look at them, they don’t know that they’re basically getting themselves in Char’s trap. They don’t know how Char really operates.” 

“I’m sorry to hear you say that, Lugia,” Jirachi said, its smile slightly disappearing. “I know I provided no details on Char’s real intentions and the reasoning that he’s working with. But I have strict instructions, and Raichu pleaded with me not to do anything that might work against him. She’s told me that he can easily tell if someone is trying to cross him, and I believe her.” 

Latios agreed. “That’s very true. If you want to go beyond your orders, it better be good for him. He can watch your behavior for a few seconds and he’ll quickly realize you’ve done something. In fact, we’ve all been victim to that, so hopefully you don’t become the next.” 

As the talking died down, Wartortle approached the team members. “Got a few questions.” 

Jirachi moved to the side and pointed at Latios. “You should ask Latios, since he is the highest ranking member at the moment and has all the information. I am only a messenger.” 

Wartortle shifted his gaze to Latios and spoke. “What kinds of resources can you provide us?” 

Latios thought for a moment, then answered, “I think Char would be more than willing to completely rebuild your village, free of charge, with building materials from the mainland. This also includes safety measures in case of storms. Char’s done  projects like that before. Otherwise, we sell general goods such as food, medicine, and exploration supplies.” 

“So you expect us to pay for things when we have nothing to offer?” 

“No, no!” Latios said, caught slightly off-guard. “You always have something to offer! If the Pokemon here do the construction, we will compensate them for the work. You can also start your own Exploration Teams to bring in resources; we have a program for starting mini-teams under ours, where we let them use our bases and some of our supplies, and they’re highly independent. We can also offer other lines of work, like running our stores, bringing in missions, all of which will be compensated. Char doesn’t believe in merely giving you free things, but he will make sure that you receive the resources you need while making sure that there is a fair trade between us.” 

Wartortle seemed satisfied. “Then we accept. It’s obvious to all of us that we could use your help. I’m also interested in starting a team under yours, because it sounds like a team is a good way to get money quickly.” 

Latios knew that there was no prosperous ending for the Wartortle’s ambitions, but he had no choice but to accept the decision. “That’s fine, we’ll get the paperwork sorted out. Since you’ve made your choice, we’ll head back and report to our leader. Expect us or other team members later today to begin organizing. Farewell for now, and thank you.” 

As the three of them left, Latios could not help but remark, “Looks like Char gets another village full of victims.” 

Jirachi saw Latios’s pessimism and tried to cheer him up. “I know Char’s done a lot of bad things, and I’m also upset at him for what he did to me. But I’m at least happy to have made friends like you and Lugia. Aren’t you two happy about that as well?” 

Latios did not reply, but Lugia said, “I suppose that’s true. And to his credit, he does help me a lot with preserving the environment, even if he threatens to poison it to make me do what he wants. I don’t think of him as evil nowadays. Just misguided in how he deals with other people.”

------- 

Charmander was indeed satisfied at the results of the mission at the island. He sent Lugia over again with Raichu and Shaymin to get the development started and arranged for a nearby coastal town with a harbor to begin ferrying building materials. Meanwhile, Charmander had other plans to take care of, such as his journey to the future timeline, but this was something he would have to plan on his own and keep from everyone else. 

When night fell, Lugia had returned with Raichu, leaving Shaymin behind to stay with the inhabitants of the island, and Latios had finished relocating himself from Sharpedo Bluff to Latias’s home located farther within Treasure Town. For some reason, he hadn’t seen Latias all day, even though he knew she had returned from the mission with Charmander. He would have gone looking for her, but his busy schedule made it impossible for him to do so until nighttime. And when he found the time and used his emotional link to find Latias inside Beach Cave, he was horrified to find her in such an emotional distress. 

“Sister, what’s wrong?” Latios said, trying not to panic. “What did he do to you?”

Latias was not crying, but anything positive about her was missing. “He hit me…” 

Latios took her in a comforting embrace. “He does that, I know. He does that to everyone. It’s his fault, not yours. You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“He just hit me…” Latias could not face her brother directly. “He didn’t even care.”

Latios had to do his best not to let his pessimism get the best of him, and tried to take Lugia’s approach. “I think he does care a little. I mean, he let us see each other. He knows how much it hurts us to be apart almost all the time. I know he made the excuse that this was a logical choice, but he knows our feelings and he wanted us to be happier. He’s…probably not all that bad. He’s…just really misguided on how he deals with things.” Latias silently nodded, and Latios tugged on her arm. “Come on, let’s head back. A good night’s sleep will do us both good.” 

Latias was coaxed back to her home—their home now—with a renewed sense of hope and love towards her brother, who had resumed his role as a protective figure for the sister. She did feel quite happy that she was now able to sleep within her brother’s comforting presence, and she vowed to herself not to make mistakes like that again. She would not give Charmander a reason to hit her or yell at her, and perhaps she would even surpass him…or perhaps that was being too ambitious. In any case, she did not want a repeat of what happened that day, and she would make herself better, even better than Latios if she had to. 

So the two of them went to sleep, soon forgetting the troubles of the day as they slipped into peaceful sleep. All the while Charmander, after making sure everyone else had gone to bed on time, made a mental note to himself based on his observations that day. Despite all the flaws he had noticed, Latias was indeed more capable than Latios. It wasn’t her current abilities that impressed him, but the fact that she actively responded to his criticisms and quickly found ways to improve. She seemed to have a better learning mindset than Latios did. He would pay a lot of attention to her training, and she would soon be a great asset to him. 

Charmander never stopped pushing his advantages.

The End