Journey - Part 6

Journey
Part 6


Despite Eggman and Giovanni's escape, the Team Rocket trio were left behind by them. The three stood awkwardly behind a wall of Ash's house, out of everyone's sight.

"Why is the boss with that round guy?" asked Jessie, quietly. "He doesn't look reliable..."

"And I guess he doesn't want the Pikachu anymore..." said James, also whispering. "Now, what do we do?"

Meowth noticed Flavio was the closest one to their position and quickly formulated a plan on his devious little mind.

"Hey, this kid isn't from here, is he?" he asked the other two. "At least I haven't seen him before..."

"Well, to be fair, we already tried stealing from a lot of people we didn't know..." James pointed out. "But what about this boy, Meowth?"

"Well, that round guy said he wanted to take over 'this world'." said the talking Pokémon. "This means he's either crazy, from somewhere else, or both!"

"You mean he's from another world!?" said Jessie. "Meowth, that's ridiculo--"

"Don't you see the walking, talking hedgehog and his friends!?" said Meowth. "That kid probably has answers for this!"

"I agree with Meowth on this one!" said James. "Let's get this kid and get some answers!!"

"Right, then!" agreed the woman.

Carefully they got out of their hideout and sneaked their way towards Flavio, preparing for a pounce. Only then, Flavio felt someone's presence and turned around to see them getting ready to capture him.

"WHAT THE!?"

"GET HIM!!!" the trio yelled as they made their move.

Flavio covered himself the best as he could, until...

"RI LU!!"

The trio was suddenly blasted by an Aura Sphere attack, which instantly sent them all against the floor once more. The small Riolu suddenly jumped in front of Flavio, standing between him and the group.

"A... Riolu...?" Flavio asked himself.

Sonic noticed the ruckus and immediately began running around the trio, rounding them up together. Knuckles then grabbed a rope and tied the three, immobilizing them at last.

"How do they do that??" asked James.

The Riolu looked at Flavio.

"Lu?" it said in an inquisitive tone.

"Ah, yes, I'm fine." said Flavio. "Thanks for your help."

"I knew he would come to us, eventually..."

Flavio looked behind him to see Lucario approaching him.

"Wait, you knew he was close?" asked Sonic. "Why didn't you just say it?"

"He is a shy Pokémon." said Lucario. "He was mustering his courage to come and speak to us."

"He saved my life." said Flavio. "I wouldn't call him s-- Oh..."

He looked at the Riolu again to see he was hiding behind a crate. Flavio rolled his eyes at the irony and calmly approached him.

"Hey, come on, little guy..." he said, trying to calm him down. "No one's gonna hurt you. Especially me."

The Riolu slowly came out of his hiding spot and approached Flavio, smiling awkwardly when he finally did.

"He kinda looks like Lucario..." said Sonic.

"Riolu is Lucario's pre-evolution." explained Flavio. "His infant form, so to speak."

"Lu." nodded the Riolu.

Ash approached them and saw the Riolu standing there. The small Pokémon at first hid behind Flavio's leg after seeing him, but after sensing Ash's aura, realized he was no threat and came back slowly.

"He was here before?" asked Ash.

"Yes." answered Lucario. "Only now he chose to reveal himself to us."

The Riolu suddenly remembered why he was there in the first place and started talking to them on his language.

"Riolu Ri Riolu!!" he said. "Lu Riolu!"

"What's he saying??" asked Sonic.

Lucario paid attention to every line he said, and finally widened his eyes once he heard what the problem was.

"His family has been taken by that organization! Team Rocket, I believe." he explained. "His mother and father have been taken from Sinnoh to be used on their schemes."

"Alright, this is personal, then!!" said Ash. "We're gonna find his family and bring them back!"

Shadow quickly caught up to them to transmit an important message.

"Seymour managed to hack into a radio frequency from this world." he said. "Between Eggman and the Rocket leader."

Shadow used a loudspeaker mode on the communicator as they all gathered around to hear.

"...finish the plan?"" Giovanni's voice said. "We have a ton, already!"

"It needs to be balanced, Giovanni." responded Eggman's voice. "All of them are needed to make this whole plan work, if my readings are correct!"

"IF, Eggman, IF! If this thing you mentioned is supposed to be so strong and powerful, then we can still bring it here with these Legendary Pokémon only! The rest is a waste of our time!"

"Need I remind you that this is Missing!? It NEEDS all the power, so it can, you know, actually HAVE their powers combined!!!"

"How are you so sure that this hoax is even real, Eggman?"

"I've seen my share of God-like entities where I came from. Believe me, with these creatures around us, a God is the least to be expected. Now make sure they are all secured, and preserve the bait we acquired. Eggman out."

The transmission was cut short after that.

"WELL!" said Flavio, abruptly, making Lucario and Sonic jump back a bit. "You think Eggman would have learned his lesson after Chaos, Solaris and Dark Gaia, but NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! He wants to awaken ANOTHER God-like being! TOP notch!"

"That man has ALREADY tampered with such power!?" asked Lucario.

"You wouldn't believe it..." mumbled Shadow.

"What was that he said about 'Missing'?" asked Ash.

"Good thinking, but it's not just that fact that bugs me, actually... He said something about 'having their powers combined'... Could this be...?"

"You know what they're up to, then?" asked Ash.

Lucario nodded and began telling what he knew.

"A long time ago..." he began. "A legend was told to me about the period of creation of all Pokémon. When the almighty Arceus brought life to this world, one Being in particular whose real name was never known or told, boasted that he should be the most powerful among his brethren. When Arceus inquired him on his reasons, the Being told him that one of the new creatures should bear all of the others' powers to prevent them from being misused. However, Arceus denied that he should be given such ability, and gave it to himself, claiming to be not only wiser, but the gatekeeper for the raw power of every Pokémon that was to come. The Being was taken by anger and lust for power, and attacked Arceus using several other abilities from many different Pokémon. The god repelled his attacks, and as punishment for defying his will, the Being was denied existence in this world."

Everyone imagined that situation, Ash being the first one to break the silence.

"This thing didn't have a name at all??" he asked.

"Sir Aaron, who also heard the legend, told me that the Being's name was 'Number'. I never saw how that name made any sense..."

"Wait a minute..." said Flavio. "Denied existence... missing... number... Missing numbe--"

It suddenly hit him.

"Oh no... OH NO!!!"

"What's the matter??" asked Sonic.

Flavio immediately looked at Lucario.

"Lucario, back in our world..." he said. "All of Ash's quests and adventures are told through an anime."

"Really??" asked the boy.

"Pika???" asked Pikachu.

"Yes, yes, but look, there are also video games about Pokémon." continued Flavio. "In Pokémon Red edition, there's this glitch where you fly to Cinnabar Island and after you walk for a while, you meet this mishmash of coding data called 'MissingNo'."

"MissingNo?" asked Shadow.

"The thing is, that 'No' is an abbreviation for 'Number'."

Lucario widened his eyes.

"You mean your people know of him??" he asked.

"Know? We FEAR that thing!" said Flavio. "In the game, he's supposed to be a glitch Pokémon that, at least everybody claims, erases all of your saved data once you fight or capture it! Usually he's just a mishmash of data, but sometimes the game shows him as a freaky skeleton or another random form, and what he really does is erase your Hall of Fame data."

"Why's this glitch in the game, then?" asked Sonic.

"No one knows for sure..." said Jasper, butting in. "Well, okay, that thing's a result of the game trying to process data that really isn't there. But get this: some OTHER people claim he was GOING to be the Pokémon to occupy the zero spot on the Pokédex, but the project never took off, so he was scrapped from the final product."

"In other words, he was denied existence..." Lucario realized.

"So this is Eggman's plan?" asked Shadow. "Bring back a creature that doesn't really exist to begin with?"

"If that thing's so powerful, think of all the trouble it could give to this whole world!" said Ash. "We gotta stop those two before this happens!"

"Pika pikachu!!" said Pikachu.

All of them gathered to formulate a plan. A plan to end the existence of a being for the second time.


Team Rocket HQ
Near Viridian City

At the roof of the large building, Giovanni stood watching the sky. A dark cloud began engulfing it, grey replacing blue. Rain was about to fall, and the thunder roared through the skies above.

"Why is he taking so long...?" said Giovanni. "And where the heck is the rest of those useless grunts! Shouldn't they have taken those Legendary Pokémon ba--"

Once he spun around, he suddenly saw a small robot resembling a bird with a big screen on his chest, flying still over the ground before him.

"What the..." he said. "Are you another of Eggman's robots??"

The screen lit on, revealing another man wearing a business suit and with a spiked blond hair. Unbeknownst to him, this was Ryan Weever, sworn enemy of Eggman and Shadow the Hedgehog.

"Greetings, Giovanni." said Ryan in his thick accent. "This message is recorded, so do not bother answering it vocally. I am Ryan Weever, scientist and geneticist, leader of the newfound Britannia. I have a history with this man you work with, Dr. Ivo 'Eggman' Robotnik, and I know your plan for the Legendary Pokémon. You see, Eggman might have just told you that all of the Legendary Pokémon are required for Missing Number to be brought to this world. Well, I did my own research and discovered that while this is true, this is only an excuse for Eggman to beat ME, a perfectionist, in my own game. The machine WILL bring MissingNo to you, with or without all Legendary in it. What you need, however, is a single Pokémon of each fighting type for this plan to work, Legendary Pokémon only assure that it will work. If you wish to take risks, you can go with this logic I just told you, however I fear that MissingNo cannot be controlled as you foresaw. I myself recommend out of altruism that you abort this plan and abandon Eggman immediately. However, if you wish to go on, just know that you will need to find a way to control this beast, if you want it so much."

The robot, a Hummingbird, deactivated and fell to the ground, ending the message. Giovanni looked at all of the Legendary which were already captured, and then at some cages containing other Pokémon inside. His answer to Ryan's message was a big evil grin.

"Then find it I will..." he said.

He began walking towards the first set of cages, containing two Lucarios inside of it.

"And I think I know how..."