MATURE: Hoenn Wars

[Flaze]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 4 Up

It seems like an interesting story and it makes me even more jealous that I never joined that RP. So far I like the characters and I can definitely see which is HiPS's but the guy I'm most interested in is Silver, is he like the Silver from the games or a totally different characters.

Also one thing I advise is to try and get a better hold of all the characters so that you can give them equal attention.

 

[Sarcastically Insane]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 4 Up

Silver is not the Silver from the games; see my thread in the Atlas for more details. He was originally created as a counterpoint to Maxie in the RPs, and he just came out with may similarities to game-Silver. I've had trouble writing him, ironically, because he's already an acquaintance of Ricky's, and couldn't come up with a reason to describe him in detail.

Also, Ricky, Antoinette, and Amber are the main characters here- very little will be from someone else's point of view. Next chapter has A.D.'s point of view, but only out of necessity. Ricky and Antoinette's squads will be getting more characterization, but the main people here are the three introduced in the first chapter. They may get their own viewpoints down the line, but it's going to mainly be Ricky, Antoinette, and Amber's story.

 

[BlueNostalgia]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 4 Up

Loving this, it's a great idea, and well written. I'd compeltly forgotten about New Mauville until now, and your use of it is brilliant. I'm gonna check out the background thread now, and I can't wait to read more

EDIT: Could you maybe provide a link to this 'Atlas'? :S

 

[Sarcastically Insane]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 4 Up

Go to the main Workshop area, and it's with the Writer's Block and Archive above all the other threads.

 

[BlueNostalgia]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 4 Up

Go to the main Workshop area, and it's with the Writer's Block and Archive above all the other threads.

Thanks

 

[Sarcastically Insane]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 5

Well, I'm putting up Ch. 5 a day early, because there's a character limit on blog drafts, and I've reached it with the blog draft I put my drafts in with only 1/3 of Ch. 6, Ch. 5, and a few notes (the limit is 32000, for those of you that care).

+++

Ch. 5: The War Begins

Ricky was flying through the Hoenn sky at full speed on his Charizard, with Ryuu and Caleb flanking him on his left, riding Ryuu's Flygon, and Savanah on his right on her Tropius.

Ricky had been told what he was needed for shortly before. While Silver flew to Rustboro with his Charizard to negotiate with Roxanne, Ricky was to haul ass to get to Verdanturf and set up defenses. Shit was hitting the fan- even though he hadn't said it on the television, Archie had basically declared war on Team Magma, and Maxie had quickly ordered teams to defend Magma's powerful hold over many towns in West Hoenn. Hundreds of teams had been sent out to small towns and villages, and Maxie had come down from Mt. Chimney's peak to take the head at Lavaridge full-time. His more trusted expendables, like Silver and Ricky, had been scattered to the more important or populous areas.

Suddenly, shadows fell over them and a flock of Wingull and Peliper began dive-bombing them and shooting powerful blasts of water.

"Shit!" Ricky yelled, loud enough for the others to hear him. "Savanah, take them out! Ryuu, evasive maneuvers and support!" Ricky himself signalled to his Charizard with his knees to barrel roll to the left and get the hell away from anything that could knock them out of the sky. He began scanning the flock for a sign of a trainer or leader to knock down.

Savanah and her Tropius quickly gained altitude and released a massive barrage of hundreds of razor-sharp leaves upon the flock. Ricky felt a spray of blood and saw many of the gull Pokemon drop from the sky. Even if the attack hadn't done them in, the fall would.

However, the flock was quick to retaliate, and began pecking and beating at the Tropius with their wings. Ricky feared a tear in the leafy wings would result in Savanah falling, and he wasn't going to lose a squad member on his first mission.

Suddenly, a massive sandstorm engulfed the flock, followed by a powerful, high-pitched screech. a green streak shot into the whirl of dirt and sand, and Ricky realized that it was Ryuu's Flygon. More birds dropped from the cloud of sand, but Tropius and Flygon remained inside.

Then Ricky heard a long, low cry that sounded like a Tropius. Ricky tensed, ready to tell Charizard to dash and catch Savanah in her fal, but nothing appeared from the aerial sandstorm. Suddenly, Flygon appeared again, with Savanah on its back. It shot a burst of flam into the sandstorm, and more gulls fell from within. Ricky was amazed that Flygon had managed to do so much damage, but, as it approached, he sa that it had taken heavy damage and didn't look like it could hold up much longer, especially with three riders.

"All right, Drago," Ricky said to his Charizard, "it looks like we're going to have to help out. Blade, you too!" He released his Scyther, who stood behind Ricky on his Charizard's tail, baring its scythes. "Drago, we're going to have to pick up one of Flygon's riders, then we're going in close to take out some of those birds. Sound like you can do it?" The Charizard gave a roar of assurance.

Ryuu and his Flygon turned in the air and drew up to Ricky. "We're sending Savanah over!" Ryuu yelled over the powerful winds. "Ready?" Ricky nodded. "Three, two, one- shit!"

Savanah had braced herself for the jump, but, when she tried to make it, the wind caught her and she shot backwards as the Charizard and Flygon flew forward at top speed.

"Blade, catch her! Drago, dive and get ready for a falling mount!" Ricky grabbed on tight to the back of the powerful, dragon-like Pokemon as his Scyther shot backwards towards the falling girl to try and slow her fall. The Charizard quickly shot straight downward, then began to angle towards Savanah. Suddenly, a powerful stream of water shot by Ricky's ear. The flock was getting closer.

Drago was drawing closer to Savanah as she shot towards the ground, thousands of feet below. Ricky reached out his hand, trying to see if she could reach him.

Suddenly, an unnaturally powerful wind buffeted him and his Charizard, knocking them back slightly. Ricky glanced up to see an Aqua trainer riding on a large Honchkrow.

"Well, well," Ricky murmured as he glanced between Savanah and the Aqua, gauging their distances and trying to figure out if he could reach her before the Aqua did too much damage to his Charizard. He squeezed his knees, and his Charizard gave one last powerful flap of its wings to propell them downwards, and then folded them and streamlined its body to get the hell towards its target now, forgetting about caution.

Then Ricky saw the Honchkrow begin to quickly circle Charizard, gaining speed at an unbelievable rate...

Realization dawned. "Sky Attack," he said numbly. Then, "Shit, shit, shit, oh shit, OH SHIT!" Things were not going to end well when that attack hit, and-

Something large and green tackled the Honchkrow. Ryuu and Caleb held on tight to the Flygon as it entered an aerial grappel with the dark bird, and Ricky turned and foused on grabbing Savanah.

As the quintet of Pokemon and trainers tumbled through the sky, Caleb took aim with his arm and shot a burst of flame onto the Honchkrow, settig many of its featers aflame. The Aqua hysterically slapped the flames, trying to get them to go out, while reaching for a knife with his other hand. Ryuu saw the movement and grabbed his own dagger, climbing over the ball of scales and feathers as it careened through the sky to engage the Aqua.

Ricky stretched out, trying to grab ahold of Savanah, who was righting herself and reaching back out.

Ryuu stabbed at the Aqua, who parried and slashed back.

Ricky stretched a little more. Almost, almost...

Ryuu brought the knife down, and the Aqua blocked by crashing his forearm into Ryuu's.

Ricky grabbed Savanah's hand, pulling her onto the Charizard.

Ryuu punched the Aqua, dizzying him.

Ricky's Charizard began to right itself, slowly enough that its riders weren't hurt.

Ryuu stabbed again, hitting the Aqua in the shoulder. Suddenly, a flame hit the Aqua's back, lighting his shirt on fire. Ryuu stabbed again, hitting the Aqua in the gut, and kicked him off.

Ricky watched as the Aqua fell past him, gaining speed as he dropped to the forests below. The flock above began to disperse without a trainer.

Charizard lined itself up with Flygon as they returned to their route towards Verdanturf.

"You guys all right?" Ricky asked, still slightly in shock. All Ryuu and Caleb could do was nod in reply. "Good," Ricky said, almost to himself. "Good."

***

"No, no, no!" the island's harbormaster said. "What do you mean there's an incoming vessel? Nobody should know where we are but Drake! There couldn't be an incoming vessel, so ignore it!"

The man he was yelling at shook his head. "They say it's important. If they don't get in, there'll be... well, they phrased it as 'extreme consequences'. They seemed to be talking directly to us, sir, and not using an all-frequency distress call."

The harbormaster turned red. "No! No clearance! Tell them they are DENIED!"

Suddenly, a high-piched screech blasted through the shipyard, causing everyone to cover their ears. It stopped, and nothing happened.

The harbormaster looked around for the source of the noise. There was nothing in the shipyard-

Suddenly a massive shape burst from the sea and crashed into the surf. The harbormaster's eyes widened. There was no mistaking the submarine.

The hatch opened, and a blue-clad, pirate-looking man climbed out. "G-guards," the harbormaster yelled, then, louder, "GUARDS!"

Archie smiled. He drew an old-fashioned flintlock pistol from underneath his right armpit, aiming it at the harbormaster. "Am I to take that as a declaration of war towards the leader of several cities in Eastern Hoenn?"

No answer, except the pounding of feet as guards flocked towards them.

Archie pulled the trigger. A ball of water exploded from the end of the barrel with incredible speed, hitting the harbormaster square in the chest and continuing through to the ground, turning red on the way. Archie quickly squeezed off more shots to various guards as he jumped down and grabbed the cutlass sheathed on is left hip, running towards the guards and the Pokemon they were summoning to aid them. He fired shot after shot, slashing and parrying with his blade as he went, cutting a swath of destruction through the crowd easily. A Crawdawnt brought its massive claws down on him; he cut its arms off and put his flintlock to the star-like crest and fired, killing it. A Mighteyena jumped at him, losing its head as he turned and sliced through its vertebrae. A Gyarados burst from the water to attack him and he fired at it, the impacts jarring it, Archie ran over and dove his blade up to the hilt into the Gyarados, then jumped and slashed Gyarados's entire neck, then jumped off of its body and back onto the land. Nothing could stop Archie.

Minutes later, he wiped the gore off his blade and sheathed his weapons. The beach around him had turned red with the blood of his enemies.

"Alakazam!" he yelled. "Slowking! Come to the beach and check for survivors. You know what to do if you find any."

From within the submarine, two Pokemon revealed themselves, floating with psychic power. They began to sweep the beach, while Archie headed in to the center of the island, his hand on his blade.

Soon, the foliage became too thick for Archie to continue through. He drew his blade and began to cut through the undergrowth as he continued. He knew he was getting closer.

Suddenly, the foliage disappeared, and Archie's foot sank into deep mud. He smiled. It was here.

He waded through the mud slowly, careful not to get pulled into a sinkhole. He had finally uncovered its location, and he wasn't going to be undermined now.

Suddenly, his foot hit something hard. He grinned like a maniac- he had finally found it! Perfect! He quickly dug through the mud to find the pedastal, the pedastal that held his objective, the item that would allow him to control Hoenn, and-

He wiped mud off the top of the pedastal. There was nothing there.

Archie's face contorted into a terrible expression of hate and anger. He would find Drake, track him down, and end him. No, that would be to painless. He would tear limbs off, one by one, starting with his toes, torturing him until Drake begged for mercy. Then he would cut his vocal cords out, and when his eyes began to plead, Drake would be blinded.

Drake would pay.

***

Amber moved through the small crowd of people that had already taken residence in New Mauville. The place was different than she had remembered from her childhood visits- it was much more extensive, and had areas for sleep, food, storage... it really was starting to become an underground city.

She suddenly noticed one person in particular- the red-coated man that had called her short. He was talking with Wattson again. Amber figured he had to be important, since Wattson always seemed to be looking for him or talking to him recently.

The red-coated man started towards the entrance, waving Wattson away. They seemed to be having an argument.

Amber sat back. She didn't care. What mattered to her anymore? She was beginning to feel like a prisoner in this underground city.

---

A.D. climbed the stairs to the outside world, reaching into his red coat and grabbing a Pokeball.

"Come on out, Aerodactyl," he said, releasing the ancient flying-type from its ball. "We're heading to Lilycove to check out how things are." Aerodactyl spread its wings, and A.D. climbed onto its back, holding on tight and putting his cane through a belt loop to keep it secure. "I hate it when region-wide wars break out when I'm close enough to be the calvalry, and nobody has any strawberries to give me for my big save."

The giant flyer took off, leaving a small whirlwind of dust behind.

---

"Five minute check-in, western entrance. All clear," the Aqua grunt radioed in, nodding to the other four grunts that held the position with him. Aqua command in Lilycove had assigned a constant defense on the border in case of a Magma assault. Most of the grunts not on patrol or guard duty were being outfitted in the Aqua seabase to the east.

"Wait, I see something!" One of the other grunts yelled, motioning to a lone figure descending down the hill. "But... he looks like he's limping."

"Alright, let's take him into custody if he gets close enough. We're not taking chances, remember? We can get him treatment while he's assessed by our superiors."

The five grunts lined up at the entrance, aiming at the man as he got closer and taking cover behind a car.

In the course of the next five seconds, a few things happened. The first was that A.D. unleashed his Snorlax, a massive beast of unbelievable power, even among his battle-hardened team.

Second, the Snorlax stomped, creating a shockwave powerful enough to knock over the grunts, wreck some signposts, crack the pavement, and collapse a few shoddily build buildings closeby. The car the grunts were using for cover flipped, but didn't hit anybody.

Third, the grunts panicked, sending out their entire teams.

Fourth, a screech sounded from above.

Fifth, a massive Hyper Beam smashed into the ground, burning everything in its path. It hit a few Aqua Pokemon before it reached the car and caused it to explode, taking out all thirty Pokemon, six grunts, and any nearby building left standing.

A.D. continued on.

Another squad of grunts appeared, firing at him and summoning their teams to fight. They lasted no longer than the first squad, and did no more damage.

Then A.D. stopped. Around him, from every opening or hiding place, emerged an Aqua grunt. He glanced around, gauging his chances.

"It would appear," he said calmly, "that I might be at a disadvantage." He brought his cane to his waist, parallel to the ground. "In that case, I'll even the odds with another of my team." He flicked his cane down, knocking a Pokeball down from within his coat, and releasing a gigantic blue serpent. The Gyarados roared, shattering what few windows were still intact, and spewed forth hundreds of gallons of water at the small army of grunts.

The water froze solid.

The newly frozen wall of ice shattered.

Hundreds of bullets, jets of water, shards of ice, rocks, and energy projectiles filled the air between A.D. and the grunts. To protect its master behind its powerful scales, Gyarados coiled itself around A.D., taking most of the damage. A.D. grabbed the trident on its forehead and instructed it to lift him to Aerodactyl in the sky; Gyarados complied, launching A.D. into the air to be caught by his flying-type. He reached over its wings to recall Gyarados and Snorlax into their Pokeballs quickly, before they became hurt.

As they flew from the razed port city, A.D. sighed. There was no way to nip this in the bud. Wattson was, unfortunately, right. A war had begun, whether it was formally declared or not. Team Aqua had obviously been preparing for it; guns were next to impossible to come by, and they seemed to have stockpiled them. He was sure that Maxie wouldn't have let that slip under his nose, either, and was planning his way around that, if he hadn't already. Teams Magma and Aqua... no, it wasn't just them. Their ideals, their reasons... it was like they were rival religions. A.D. sighed again. It seemed like bad luck followed him, recently. He had come to talk to a certain someone about his leg. Now there was a war.

"It figures," he mused as Aerodactyl sped through the sky.

 

[Zekurom]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 5

You'll have to excuse me if I'm a bit muddled on what's going on. The first chapter does seem to act like a prologue. Do I need to have read any of Instrutilus' Travels fics in order to know what's going on?

Your flow in individual scenes is great; however, the scenes tend to jump around quite a lot, and it disturbs the flow somewhat. It might have to do with the original RP nature of the fic, but you'd have to work around that in order to be able to present it as a story.

Those characters, too. I especially liked Rex's antics. Ricky is all jaded and stuff, and the other two... are kinda average. at least, I don't notice anything from them except that maybe Savannah is uncharacteristically shy, especially for somebody who knows Krav Maga.

Also: just a few things here and there about some of the idioms and expressions you use.

she had no doubt, as few people are as bloody as him and bad at fighting.

Hmm. This could be rephrased as "few people are as bloody as him, bad at fighting, and are still alive to talk about it." I think that works a bit better - how about you?

"Squad!" she commanded, and Donovan and Alden stood at attention.

From my Air Cadets training, I seem to remember that the "Squad!" command means that you stand at ease, and even then only when you've fallen in. It might be different for the army or other such forces, though.

Hmm, an unrelated note, but I had a Mrs. LaRosa as my math teacher in Grades 8 and 9.

Chapters 4 and 5 will come later, if I still have the time. Right now, I'm writing the next chapter of Generation 2021, and doing a biology project.

 

[Sarcastically Insane]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 5

All right, thanks.

Ricky has been the easiest to write, as I remember him the best and I've tried to write him similar to HiPS's writing style. Amber hasn't had much happen to her yet, but will come into focus later, but Antoinette has been the hardest of the three to write.

I agree on the part about the odd sentence about Rex- I was trying to figure out how to word it differently, but couldn't come up with anything.

On the 'Squad!' part... yeah, I'm just going to say I have no real military knowledge, but Antoinette isn't exactly using official military terms and everything.

As I said, nothing needs to be known about the 'verse beforehand (except one minor detail I've come across in Chapter 6 that I found I couldn't write around, but that's neither here nor there), as Instru is generally pretty good at keeping stories within it separate (except the aforementioned minor detail). Everything in this fic is supposed to be self-contained or explained fully within. A.D., for example, is a Travelsverse main character, but he has no Giant Space Flea from Nowhere baggage; he's in the fic because of reasons that are important to the fic, presented in the fic for the first time in the overall Travelsverse timeline, and explained. I'm actually trying to avoid other Travelsverse characters that end up in Hoenn around this time according to a timeline Instru has given me, because it would be too much.

tl;dr: In the Travelsverse, Instru has more or less said Hoenn is my region to do as I please, after the events in the games take place (and coming up with the backstory from before the games); thus, 99.99999% of this fic is self-contained, and just adds to Travelseverse continuity and abides by it.

Currently, since I crammed as much action as I could into Chapter 5, I'm working on a much more characterization-focused Chapter 6.

And the scenes jump around how?

 

[Zekurom]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 5

And the scenes jump around how?

Well, the problem died down a little in the later chapters, but Chapter 1 was just all over the place with scenes. First you had Ricky's scene, then Antoinette, then Amber, and then back to Ricky, in true RP style. It was hard realizing who was where.

 

[Sarcastically Insane]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 5

Oh, the jumping viewpoints. That's mainly because there are multiple sides to the war. Most war stories usually either show the "good" side, which there is a distinct lack of here.

 

[Instrutilus]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 5

Either A.D kicked arse or chewed bubble gum. And I don't see no gum =P

Love the chapters so far, keep 'em up, SaIn.

 

[Flaze]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 5

It was really good, the part where Ricky tried to save Savanah I was left hanging with more, and it was really cool how AD kicked those guy's asses.

All right, your description is great, I can see the fight clearly which is something hard to do in fics that focus on scene breaks. Your characters, they're your biggest accomplishment, it's a fic based on an RP whcih is usually hard for someone to adapt perfectly unless they really pay a lot of attention and care about the characters, you adapted them perfectly, even AD who I have a lot of trouble to get used to myself, this is a great fic and one of the few fics where the characters themselves are enough to make it good and the fact it already has a simple and cool plot makes it even better.

 

[Sarcastically Insane]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 5

A/N: This chapter actually requires you to read a bit of the Travelsverse backstory I put up in the Atlas. I hate making someone read supplementary material, but there's no justification to go in-depth about the occurrence in-story, but with Ricky's personality and the plot, it had to come up :/

Also, this is the first chapter entirely from one side's point of view.

Chapter 6: Plans

Ricky flipped through the channels, keeping an eye on how the reporters skewed the events. He had an innate distrust of the mass media, but he had learned that if you looked over all of them, you could get a general idea of what was going on by ignoring what they had to say to stay on the air and comparing everything else to other stations.

He flipped the channel back to the one broadcasting from Rustboro, which was sickeningly skewed towards Magma to the point of not even being funny. When they had found out Maxie’s adoptive son was in the city, they had gone from ‘we sympathize with the heroic members of Team Magma’ to ‘Team Magma’s members are just short of sainthood, fart rainbows, and cause spontaneous floral growth where they walk’.

Still, they had the only remotely hot female anchor in all of Hoenn, and that relieved a bit of the stress he was under.

Ricky was surprised, though, when the channel blinked to Roxanne making an announcement. He had an idea of what it was, since Roxanne was a suck-up of incredible proportions, though.

“I, Gym Leader Roxanne of Rustboro City, Principal and Founder of the Trainers’ School, and authority on Rock-type Pokémon, declare that I ally myself with those of the organization known as Team Magma in their humanitarian pursuits. I also will let it be known that the City of Rustboro welcomes them with open arms, and that all of our resources are at their disposal.”

Ricky whistled. Silver was good. Ricky usually had to use his charms to get into the pants of an important female, and use any of the possible plots from there on out, but Silver wasn’t like that. Just a genius, Ricky guessed. He also figured that a bunch of other Leaders would start announcing loyalties.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. Ricky’s hand shot to a concealed knife, but stopped. Ryuu’s voice came through the door.

“We’re done with the pits and other fortifications, Sir,” he said.

“Good. You’re free to do whatever you want now, until we get more orders.” Ricky himself looked over at the locked book Silver had handed him. Its contents were rather interesting, if not slightly worrying in that it meant Ricky had a liability on his team. He was probably going to finish reading it in his free time.

---

“Yes, Sir,” Ryuu said from the other side of the door. He wondered what he should do the rest of the day. He had already recorded everything, and setting up the defenses didn’t seem important enough to warrant writing down. He decided he would find Savannah, and ask her for some fighting lessons. He had survived the aerial battle because of luck, and luck didn’t last.

“Training?” Savannah asked when he found her. “Um, I-I don’t… I mean, I’ve never really trained someone, and… but, I mean, if you want to learn, maybe I can… I mean… w-well, let’s see your stance, okay?” Ryuu took his dagger in a reverse grip, with the blade against his forearm. As an afterthought, he spread his legs to shoulder width. “No, no, that’s not right. Here, you’re much better off like this.” Savannah grabbed him by the shoulders, put him in a crouching position with his off-hand closer to her, grabbed a handful of dirt and put it in his off-hand, and flipped the dagger in his hand to be held loosely in a forward grip, all before he could protest. “This way you can do more than just a downward slash, and you can blind your opponent with the dirt. You have a very close-range weapon, so fight dirty- pragmatism keeps you alive, not chivalry. When you’ve blinded your opponent, stab them in the stomach, or any other undefended area you can hit. Attack quickly, and don’t throw the dagger, ever- it’s not made for that, so it’ll be hard to do it right, anyway, and even if you hit your opponent, you’re down a weapon, and that’s deadly.”

Through all this, Ryuu really tried to listen, and not pay attention to the fact that a pretty girl was touching his hand. He was determined to not look like a dumbass who couldn’t interact with a female, and was definitely not going to blush, no matter what. In fact, if he hadn’t been completely focusing on not looking like a dumbass, he probably would have heard everything she said and not looked like a dumbass.

“Um… could you repeat that?” Ryuu asked, his brain finally catching up with the fact he should be blushing. The realization hit Savannah at the same time, making her turn redder than her uniform.

“O-ohmygodI’msorryifIdidsomethingwrongamIsupposetobesorryImeanImeanImeanI HAVE TO GO!” She turned and sprinted away at a speed Ryuu knew he was never going to catch up with. He sighed dejectedly, and sheathed his dagger. He decided he was going to go home and update his journal with the rest of today.

---

Ricky awoke at midnight to his cell phone ringing. Checking it, it was Silver, which didn’t surprise him. Johnnie calling would mean very bad things for Johnnie, and they were the only two with his number- well, them and Maxie, now, but he doubted Maxie would call him directly.

“Oi?”

“Hey, Ricky. It’s Silver. I have a favor to ask.”

“Oh really? At midnight?”

“Yeah. In case you missed the news, Roxanne’s on our side now, and Flannery’s formalized Lavaridge’s alliance with us. Brawly and Wallace are on board with Aqua, though.”

“Okay. So?”

“So we’re on even ground with Aqua, and it’s always good to be a step ahead or a step above your opponent. I think we can get another city on our side.”

“How so?”

“In Fortree City, you know Winona stepped down a while ago and her daughter Talia took over, right? Well, I could get her on our side, but I’m tied down here in Rustboro.”

“So what do I need to do?”

“Well, all you need to do is talk to her and tell her a code word.”

Ricky waited, but Silver didn’t elaborate. “What would this code word be?”

“My name- my real name.”

That woke Ricky up. “Why would that matter, Silver? To most people, it’s just a mouthful of gibberish- I thought only us three and Maxie knew it. Why would it matter to some chick-“ It suddenly hit Ricky. “Dude, isn’t she only seventeen? I’m pretty sure that breaks both the age and the whole four years thing.”

“She’s nineteen! And it’s not like that!”

Ricky grinned. It was very rarely that he got to tease Silver over something, and he was going to take full advantage of this. “But still, with you being away from Hoenn for so long, that means you either met her when she was-“ he quickly did the math in his head- “eleven, or you two ‘hit it off’ in the past few months.”

“I already said it’s not like that! She’s smart, and pretty, and a good trainer!”

Ricky smirked. “Actually, you haven’t been to Fortree since you got back from wherever, unless you went there before the whole Lilycove thing, so that means that she was nine when you guys met. Wow, Silver, catch them young?”

“Ni- what? She was thirteen, the same age I was. You guys missed four years, remember? Look, just tell her my name and that we need her help. She doesn’t exactly know I’ve gotten back into the Team, so she might not believe you at first. Also, don’t hit on her or else.”

“Is that a threat to protect your oh-so-innocent girlfriend?” Ricky said in the most saccharine voice he could muster.

“No, I mean she’ll taze you, kick you in the balls, and have a flock of birds peck your eyes out if you screw with her. I’m giving you fair warning.”

“Oh. I’ll head up with my team tomorrow.”

---

Ricky flinched as light hit his face. Damn it, is it morning already? He groggily got out of bed and grabbed his gear. Any of his uniforms would be too obvious- red or brown in a wetlands area wouldn't blend in too well. Do I still have that gillie suit? No, it's back in Lavaridge... Ricky sighed. He didn't have any clothes that were suitable for sneaking around the wetlands around Fortree. He rummaged around his bag to grab his brown uniform, since it wouldn't be as obvious as the red one...

And he pulled out a dark green one. "What the- I don't remember having one of these." To be sure, he checked the tag on the bag, where he had his name... "SilverA Millions. Figures. He needs to start telling me before he drops stuff in my lap." Ricky slipped on the dark green uniform over a set of more casual clothes, finding it in his size and not Silver's- as expected. He then grabbed his knife-bracer, various knives, his handgun and a suppressor, and a length of garrote wire and hid them on his person.

"O'Connor! Louise! Asakura!" he yelled as he walked outside. "Gather in ten. We have a new mission. Grab wetlands gear if you have any." Fifteen minutes later, they were in the air and Ricky was explaining the plan to them. "We're going to set down south of Fortree and continue on foot, to be safe. O'Connor, you're going to Dig in and make a tunnel to the Gym. Don't come up unless you're needed. Louise, Asakura, you two are going to keep in the air and radio me if you see anything suspicious. If things go haywire, we're all regrouping at the end of O'Connor's tunnel, okay? I'm going to go in as a civilian, and try and get in that way, so there's the least amount of suspicion. Let's go."

Ricky's Charizard set down, letting Ricky and Caleb off of its back. Ricky called it back, and Caleb called out his Flareon and had it start digging a hole in the wet ground. Ricky signaled to Ryuu and Savannah to head up, and Ricky himself ducked into the tall, thick grasses of the Route.

---

Savannah shifted uncomfortably on her Tropius as Ryuu and her circled the city at about cloud level. Ryuu's Flygon was still beat up, so they had to ride on the only other flyer they had... together.

"I, uh, don't see much," Ryuu said. "Do you?"

"M-me?" Savannah said, startled. "W-well, um... I-I don't know? What are we looking for, specifically?"

"Ricky said to look for anything suspicious."

"W-well, what would be suspicious? F-Fortree's kinda a... weird city, y-y'know? They live in trees, after all..."

Savannah managed to not notice the incredibly uncomfortable silence that followed.

"Well," Ryuu said, "why are you on the squad? I'm here because I have some... well, problems, but apparently they might be useful in some situation or another that Ricky could exploit. And you?"

"I-I'm here because my c-cousin, Silver... he put me with Ricky because they were friends, and Silver's always worried about me, ever since we grew up together... but I want to help! I-I want to make the world a better place... a greener place."

"Really?" Ryuu looked down at the ground, far below. "I don't really remember the exact reason I joined Team Magma in the first place. I don't regret doing it, though. It's certainly helping with my... problem."

Savannah wanted to know just what this 'problem' was, but was too scared to ask. Suddenly, their radio crackled, and Ricky's voice came through. "I'm on the outskirts of the city. Anything I need to know before I get into the Gym?"

"No," Ryuu answered. "Everything looks normal."

"Got it. Going in."

---

Ricky shed his uniform behind one of Fortree's famous trees and stuffed it in his bag, revealing civilian clothes. He did a quick check to make sure his weapons were still well-concealed, and grabbed a rung of a nearby rope ladder and climbed up into Fortree proper.

First, Ricky was amazed by the city. He had only come here once before, and had loved it. The levels upon levels of complex pathways and interconnected houses and bridges gave the impression of a carefully constructed city, yet one that was one with nature. Some kids swung past him on a vine, yelling like wild children.

Ricky made his was onto a sturdy rope bridge between two massive trees, heading towards the Gym. He climbed ladders, swung on vines, and dropped down a level once or twice. The Gym was in the very center of the city, and the pathways to it were designed to be a challenge to trainers, invaders, and bloodsucking media storymongers, and give the Gym time to prepare for them by setting up deathtraps with various levels of deadliness; annoy, maim to interrogate, and almost kill, respectively. Winona... did not like reporters, and Talia hadn't changed the setup much.

However, as Ricky came within view of the Gym, a horde of reporters stood outside its door, banging on every flat surface to try and get in and extract a story from the poor girl inside. Ricky retreated, grabbing his radio.

"O'Connor do you read?"

"Yeah..."

"O'Connor, are you right beneath the Gym?"

"Yeah."

"Can you bore a small hole, an almost unnoticeable one, but one I could get through, in the side of the tree, about ten feet below the floor of the Gym?"

"Got it."

Ricky dropped down to the level below the Gym and watched as a tiny hole was made in the side of the tree, then was enlarged, by Caleb's Flareon. In short order, Ricky was lifting up a section of the Gym's floor and peeking his head out to check around like some sort of comic plumber.

"Hey! Who're you!" Ricky, acting instinctively, narrowly avoided a boot to the face by dropping back down into the hole. "I told you damn journalists to piss off! I have no comment on either Aqua or Magma!"

Ricky, from the safety of the hole, replied. "I'm not with the media. I'm here on request from a friend, and I couldn't get in through the door."

"So you dig a goddamn hole in my floor?"

"Look, it's obvious you're angry, but Miss Talia, I have important news from a friend of yours, though I'd rather discuss him where other ears won't hear." Talia didn't yell back, so Ricky had Caleb lift him up and motioned for him to leave. "Talia, my name is Ricky Fowler. I'm not sure if our mutual friend has mentioned me to you, but A- Silver sent me to talk to you, since he's tied up in Rustboro now. Can we talk somewhere safer?"

"I don't trust you. If he sent you, he should have told you something."

"Yes, yes, I know his real name. I'll say it when we're in a place nobody else can hear it-"

"Ricky, was it? Well, I'm not going to go to a place where nobody else can hear with some guy that just dug a hole into my Gym and claims he knows my boyfriend. Just because I'm nineteen doesn't make me stupid, you know."

Ricky realized what he had sounded like. "Alright, fine. Alaois sent me. Alaois Millions, in the rare case there's more than one person with the name Alaois."

"His birthday?"

"He doesn't know. He celebrates it every New Years, though."

Talia relented. "Okay, what did he send you about?"

"He wants your help with Team Magma."

"Bull." Talia looked Ricky in the eye. "Even before he left, he hated pretty much everything Team Magma stood for. For all I know, you're just one of Maxie's goon's trying to exploit Al again."

God, she even has a pet name for him! This is going to be great when I talk to Silver again! "Okay, then, how do I prove I'm with Silver and not Maxie? I can't just call him up, seeing as the one flaw Fortree has is that it has no cell towers anywhere near it."

Talia thought for a moment. "Nope, you can't convince me. The last time I talked to Silver, he made no mention of Team Magma, so I have no reason to believe you. Now, can you please leave?"

Ricky facepalmed, quickly thinking of something that could prove he was with Silver. "Wait," he said. "wait. How would Maxie even know about you and Silver? I'm one of the few people he trusts, and even I didn't know until last night."

"I'm sure Maxie has a lot of spies on him, and always keeps tabs on him."

Ricky chuckled. "You've got it backwards. Silver handles most of the black-ops missions, precisely becauase he was so vocal about hating Team Magma years ago. If things were traced to him, then it was obviously just a ploy to make Team Magma look bad. Maxie has to stay squeaky-clean for the media."

"Okay, so you might not be from Maxie. But I still don't think Silver would be with Team Magma."

Ricky suddenly remembered something. He grabbed his bag and dropped it on the floor. "Then check his signature on the tag on this bag. SilverA. Does that prove it?"

Talia looked at the tag. "I'd say you could have stolen it, but Silver is too careful for that. So he... he's really back with Team Magma?"

"Yeah. He said it'd be hard for you to believe at first.'

"But... why?"

"I don't know, specifically. Maybe it's got to do with his dad. Or he's planning something bigger. Or he just had nowhere else to go. But he said to ask you for help."

Talia shook her head slowly, a bit unbelieving. "All right, then. I guess I finally have something to tell the press."

"Or you could just escape through the tunnel and announce it from Rustboro."

Talia looked at the door, then the hole. "No, I'm going to do it here. I need to stay with Fortree. After all, announcing a city's allegiance from another city would be pretty meaningless, right?" She walked to the door to make the announcement.

---

Silver looked over the report frantically. "Red coat, cane, extremely powerful Pokemon... shit, shit, shitshitshit. He's already here? I thought he'd at least go to Johto first, but... shit. He's coming for me already." He leaned back in his chair, looking blankly at the ceiling. "I need to change the plans. All of them, damnit. At least we should have Talia on our side now, and Ricky's ability to react to everything. Those two are the cornerstones..." Silver turned in his chair to face a wall completely covered with pictures, strings connecting them, notes, and plans. Lots of plans. "I had it all perfect... now I'm not sure if I can make sure we survive. A.D. won't kill anyone... I hope. I hope he won't kill me. He will put me out of commission, though. Which means Talia is going to have to take over... damn, I didn't want to have to do this to her." Silver sighed. "Damn it!"

 

[Legacy]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 6

Great chapter, SI. I especially like the dialog/interaction between Ricky and Silver. Very good description and wonderfully flowing prose as usual. Keep this up! It wasn't really that much of a bother to read thru the info on the Atlas either. I encourage people to do that, it's worth it.

 

[Sarcastically Insane]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 6

Thanks, Legacy.

Also, if anyone wants to be tagged, let me know.

 

[Hector]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 6

Tag me please.

 

[Instrutilus]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 6

Wow, A.D actually is like the Doctor: he inspires fear in people he's met, even though he just wanders the regions. =P

Sope, you revealed Silver's name, eh? I would've thought you'd keep it quiet for a bit of mystery. Regardless, lovely chapter, plot advancing rather nicely, I can't wait for future updates =3

 

[Sarcastically Insane]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 6

I thought about keeping it a mystery, but decided it'd be a bit pointless, since, as mentioned by Ricky, it's just a pointless garble of letters to most people (though it is a real name). It wouldn't be relevant to make it a mystery, because there'd be no real drive to solve it, and the reveal wouldn't work all that well.

Besides, this way, I get another reveal later on.

 

[Flaze]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 6

Alaois? I was expecting something more gibberish sounding after what Ricki said before.

Now I wonder why Silver was so mad about AD being in Hoenn, guess I'll have to check the Atlas too.

 

[Sarcastically Insane]

Re: Hoenn Wars (A Travelsverse Fic) Ch. 6

It could just be, y'know, Silver is on a major organized crime syndicate and A.D. generally stomps on their throats and kills their dreams via giant explosions.