Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

Author's Note:

The beginning part of this chapter takes place in a dream in case it's not obvious enough.

***

“Haha! AHAHAHAHA!!!”

Noboru cackled madly at the pain being inflicted upon him. What’s a few split fingernails to a man like him!

The head of the Yamaguchi family sneered at the woman who was responsible for his torture. “Aha… AHAHAHA! You’re not getting a single word out of me, bitch! Do your worst! Noburo Yamaguchi is nothing if not honorable!”

Karen shoved another needle into her subject's finger, eliciting yet another maniacal cackle from Noboru. “You know nothing about honor, you scum!” spat the woman with silvery-blue hair. 

“Now speak! Where is Giovanni?! Who was responsible for that abomination of a Charizard you used? Speak!” The woman demanded, shoving yet another needle underneath Noboru’s fingernail, sending a jolt of agonizing pain down the man’s spine.

Noboru let out another cackle. The man’’s relationship with Giovanni was purely business, but what’s a businessman without his word? He would not succumb. The man would die before betraying his word. Besides, it wasn’t like he knew anyway. Nobody knew! Team Rocket had been without a leader for years at this point.

“AHA! AHAHAHA!!!”

***

Karen of the Elite Four sighed as she exited the cell, within it lay the sleeping figure of Noboru Yamaguchi, covered in bandages and hooked up to every single life support implement known to man. The woman had been chipping away at her task for hours now, with little to show for it.

This sort of work was supposed to be under Sabrina’s purview. But given the appalling state of their subject and the high level Psychic block imposed upon his mind, They had to resort to dream interrogation instead. Something that Karen’s Ghost Pokemon were more suited to than Sabrina’s Psychics.

“So, how’d it go?” Bruno asked, the mountainous man being as insensitive as ever.

Karen clicked her tongue in annoyance and ignored her male colleague, turning to address Sabrina instead. “Anything new?”

The dark haired beauty shook her head with a frown. She had been working in tandem with Karen, trying to piece together whatever wayward thoughts she was able to gather from Noboru’s unconscious mind.

“No,” Sabrina replied. “He genuinely has no idea where Giovanni is.” This was largely in line with the evidence they had gathered so far. Noboru’s wing of Team Rocket had mostly been operating under standing instructions left behind by their enigmatic leader. Were it not for the massive profits that their enterprise had been reaping for the Yamaguchi Group, it was unlikely that Noboru would have stuck with the train for so long.

Karen frowned. “And the maniac in charge of torturing that poor Charizard? Surely something would have come up by now?”

Sabrina once again shook her head in denial, saying that the mental block in that regard was too strong. “Noboru didn’t even acknowledge your question.” She explained. “It’s as if his mind is incapable of processing all matters pertaining to the subject. We might have to consult a psychiatrist and try a more indirect approach to this line of questioning.”

Karen screamed in frustration and slammed a fist into Bruno’s rock hard pectorals, the man  was barely tickled by his colleague's feeble strike.

“Now, now, Karen…” Bruno pulled his struggling colleague into a gentle embrace — gentle by his standards at least. “I think it’s time for you to take a break. Here, have some protein. That oughta cheer you up!” The man exclaimed jovially as he let go of the fuming Karen and offered her a boxed beverage. “It’s strawberry~” He added in the end.

Karen growled at her brutish colleague, but swiped the carton of sweets from Bruno all the same as she aggressively jabbed a straw in and noisily slurped down its content. Her brain was in dire need of sugar at the moment.

Sabrina nodded her head in agreement with Bruno’s words. “Bruno’s right, we’ve been at it for hours. Let’s try again later. Just so happens, Lance has called for a meeting of the Elite Four.”

Karen scoffed. “Finally! And pray tell, where has our glorious Champion been all this time? We’ve been trying to get a hold of him for almost an eternity at this point!”

Sabrina smiled warmly and gave the woman a gentle rub on the shoulder with her gloved hand. “He was not slacking off as usual if that’s what you were thinking. Instead, he was busy tracking down Koga who has been incommunicable since the start of this fiasco.”

Both Karen and Bruno let out a savage grin. It was about time they put that unruly Zubat in his place.

***

Lance looked down at his feisty little niece with a haughty smirk. “I see you’ve been busy in my absence, Lily.”

The girl in question scowled at her uncle. “Busy doing your job, dearest uncle!” Lilian replied, voice full of angst.

Lance chuckled. “You have my number, you could have called. In fact, you really should have called.” Lance said in response, his voice taking on a much sterner tone at the end. “Taking down an entire criminal enterprise with just a ragtag group of students is hardly becoming of our clan’s nominal heir.”

Lilian scoffed at the admonishment. “As if you wouldn’t have done the same in my shoes. And don’t you dare lecture me! If you were in any way responsive and actually doing your job, things wouldn’t have devolved into this mess!”

The girl proceeded to list out all the troubles that she and the rest of Lance’s proxies had been dealing with in his truancy; the resurgence of the League’s conservative faction, the increasingly brazen conducts of Team Rocket, the escalating tensions between Kanto and Johto, the great clans butting heads with the entrenched military families and so on. All of it interconnected in a convoluted web in some way or another, if the evidence they seized from the Yamaguchi Group was anything to go by.

“What is the point of all your power, dearest uncle? What meaning is there in a Dragon’s strength if not to protect their domain?! To allow such ingrates to tarnish our region without care, you are a failure as a Champion!”

Lance laughed, thinking that his niece really had him nailed to a wall there. “Little hatchling has grown fangs…” The man mused, with no small degree of pride. Pride which he openly displayed with a firm pat on his niece’’s shoulder.

“Good work, Lilian. You’ve done well in my absence.” The Blackthorn patriarch commended, eliciting a genuine look of surprise from Lilian. “I look forward to the day that you come to challenge me for my mantle.” The Champion added, with a savage grin on his face. An expression that the ambitious girl mirrored in return.

Lance then turned to the League official who was accompanying his niece. “I believe my niece’s testimony should be concluded by this point, yes?”

The middle-aged man stuttered and opened his mouth to correct his Champion, only to abruptly shut up and acquiesce when subjected to Lance’s sharp glare. “Yes, Champion. I believe we should have all that we need from Lady Lilian…” The man responded meekly.

Lance shifted back into his usual easy going smile. “Good. I want all the kids involved in this courageous operation to be treated as heroes and afforded the highest honors we can give, is that clear?” The man added, eliciting another round of nods from the official.

“Now leave us. The both of you.” Lance commanded. “I’m about to convene a meeting of the Elite Four.” With a swoosh of his cape, Lance turned his back and assumed his seat at the head of the conference table.

Lilian was reluctant, but still complied in the end. Her Aunt Clair was present, which meant she could allow herself some respite. The girl curtsied and left after receiving a firm nod from her uncle and a gentle one from her aunt.

“They do grow up fast don’t they?” Lance said to his cousin.

Clair snorted. “Maybe it only seems that way to you because you’re never around to observe her growth.” The aqua-haired woman quipped, unable to resist the urge to dig at her irresponsible cousin.

Lance responded with a pained smile and settled down to wait for the last of his Elites to gather, which they soon did as the conference room burst open to admit the powerful figures of Bruno, Karen and Sabrina.

They each took a seat around the table, with the ladies to his left and Bruno joining Clair to his right. His cousin was attending as the de facto leader of their clan whenever he was absent. Koga, as usual, was skulking around in a shadowy corner. The coward always made sure to stick close to an exit whenever he could.

Lance greeted each of his entourage and turned to the ladies on his left. “How goes the interrogation?” He asked, eliciting a pair of beautiful frowns in return.

“Fruitless!” Karen exclaimed, the Ghost Pokemon Master growling in frustration.

Sabrina proceeded to elaborate on their findings, which largely amounted to jack squat as Karen implied. Lance sighed but held back his temper. If two of the most eminent experts in the world were experiencing difficulties, then there was little a brute like him could contribute to the matter.

The regal Champion nodded in acknowledgement and responded with some words of encouragement, before asking that they explore all avenues and persist for just a while longer. “And what about the Charizard? Has Professor Oak analyzed the corpse yet?” 

The fact that one of their iconic regional Pokemon was subjected to such heinous treatment was an insult of the highest degree. A fact that Lance, as the trainer of a Charizard himself, took very personally. “When I get my hands on that bastard, they will know that there are horrors beyond the likes of Giratina in this world!” He vowed.

Sabrina shook her head once more. “The Professor is… inconsolable at the sight of the deceased Pokemon.” The empathic woman let out a melancholic sigh. “Please allow the esteemed elder some time to regain his faculties. Even the hardiest of champions grow soft with age.”

Lance sighed in solidarity and opted not to pursue the matter any further. He had absolute faith that the venerable Samuel Oak would pull through. The man may have given up his mantle, but one does not simply become Champion without a fire in their heart. A fire that he had no doubts the Professor would reignite once more in pursuit of justice for the Charizard’s tortured soul.

Lance then turned to address Bruno. “And what about the matter pertaining to Erika and Celadon City? How could they allow such a problem to fester underneath their noses?” The man demanded, with a great deal of vitriol in his voice. Lance had zero tolerance for incompetence, an irony that most of his overworked proxies would be happy to point out at this point.

“Lady Erika insists upon her innocence,” said Bruno as he proceeded to read off a summary that his subordinates compiled for him. Basically, the issue tied into the conflict that Lilian mentioned earlier about the great Kantonian clans butting heads with certain entrenched factions. 

Erika had been struggling for years against the local politicians of Celadon, and had, at some point, decided that she’d had enough before recusing herself from the city’s governance. A big point of contention was actually the proliferation of crime and the prosperity of shady enterprises like the Yamaguchi Group preying on the feeble minded. A fact that the Gym Leader had actually repeatedly brought to the League’s attention, only to be stonewalled by certain bureaucrats in the conservative faction time and time again.

Lance frowned. “The girl did ascend to the seat of Gym Leader at a very young age after all…” The man who once held the title of youngest Champion in history could fully sympathize with Erika’s plight. Trying to fend off all the conniving Sneasels undermining her authority without sufficient might must have been quite the frustrating ordeal.

At the conclusion of Bruno’s report, a scoff sounded out from the shadows of the conference room. “Hah! Innocent, but not inept. That girl should be held responsible for failing to keep her city in check.”

Lance narrowed his eyes at the source of the voice. “Speaking of being held responsible…” He chimed, the Champion’s voice tinged with animosity. “Mind telling me why you tried to eliminate one of my niece’s companions, Kyou? Or has the Koga clan aligned themselves with criminals perhaps?”

The shadows stirred, as a wrinkled, black clad individual emerged from the darkness with a scowl, angry that Lance had the audacity to use his real name.

“You overstep your boundaries, Blackthorn.” Koga spat, tone full of venom. “That girl and her Golbat stole clan secrets, and so did your niece for that matter. Hand them both over willingly and I may be persuaded of leniency.”

Lance laughed out at the ninja patriarch’s lofty threats. “Boundaries? Since when was the Indigo Champion subject to boundaries?! But speaking of…” Lance snapped his fingers, admitting a couple of Ace Trainers into the room who were currently escorting a bound individual — the same ninja who made an attempt at the life of Lilian’s friend.

“In addition to this little cabbage right here, we have also secured definitive proof from Yamaguchi’s records that you have been aiding and abetting certain malignant individuals — ones who have been persistently sabotaging the League’s internal operations…” Lance continued to train his eyes at Koga, his lips shifting to take on a haughty smirk. “Individuals, who I should add, have also been found guilty of colluding with Team Rocket.” 

The man paused to allow time for his words to sink in. “So tell me, how should one be held responsible for that, O great Koga?”

A tense silence descended upon the room. Koga remained as impassive as ever as he stared down the Champion sitting at the head of the table, but Lance could see the fires of hatred burning in the man’s eyes.

Among all the conservatives of Kanto, none harbored more vitriol for his family than Koga himself. And honestly, despite his harsh words, Lance had nothing but praise for Lilian and her companions. It wasn’t easy to pull one over the head of their two region’s central intelligence authority. A wild card in the form of a random group of meddling kids was definitely great in that regard.

After a full minute of silence, Koga finally shifted, prompting Lance to do the same as the entire conference room exploded into mayhem.

***

Author's Note:

Next up, Lance vs Koga.