K_S
Unrepentent Giovanni and Rocket fan
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I can wait for you to finish then hunt down the comic for a compare contrast after the fact...
Pokémon The Devil You Know
- Thread starter Blackjack Gabbiani
- Start date
Joshthewriter
Charizard Fan
Alright, so I’ll just get this out of the way first. You should not, under any circumstances, be telling readers “go look up these characters if you don’t know them.”
It’s a terrible look. I want you to tell me the story, not be told that I can’t understand it without having read ancillary material (especially the manga considering it’s probably the least known of the canons).
I’ll give you this example: I use tertiary Rocket characters like Vicious and Domino in my fics, but its not necessary for you to have seen them before at all. I tell you what you need to know about them in the story itself.
I love this as an opener. I don’t know the Manga, but this tells me that it’s after their big defeat and that things may have gone differently than the canon I know (which is a huge plus to me lol). I also really like the way it sets our POV character out in front of us right off the bat.
Here’s what I meant. I know you’re probably not trying to bog the fic down, but if this character is important, then their significance should be explained in the fic (even if it’s not explained at this point).
As it is, it does make me want to know more about her and why she left Galactic. Perfect opportunity for you to expand on it at some point for readers who aren’t familiar with her.
I kinda wondered why Charon apparently took over Galactic after Cyrus lost. It never really got explained, and the fact that everyone disliked him made it more confusing.
That being said, Charon just figuring it out and manipulating events in his favour works as a villain trope.
Lol, the matter of fact-ness of this makes me smile. Like, Saturn isn’t wrong that people probably want to kill Cyrus, but he’s probably not wrong that some would want to see him for other reasons.
Ho boy, Charon really doesn’t think much of Cyrus, eh?
Me too, Saturn. Me too. The smug little prick seems to need it.
Well, being entrusted with the safety of a man who you served unquestionably and attempted to kill you all the same (probably some other “bad boss” shit as well) would undeniably be A heavy burden to bear.
Alright, so overall I thought this was an excellent piece. The concept of following a defeated villain after their defeat is great, and other than a quibble about looking up characters, I honestly don’t have an issue with anything here.
This is a great fic idea with great potential for fantastic character work. Hopefully catnip or another event brings me back soon (and hopefully I’m not as depressed next time lol)!
Blackjack Gabbiani
Merely a collector
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Glad you liked it! The part about looking characters up was really just for this forum since a prior DPA fic had people wondering if Mitsumi (a major character in the manga) was an original character so I wanted to avoid any further confusion. That intro doesn't exist in any other posting.
chapter 8
New
Blackjack Gabbiani
Merely a collector
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- Partners
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And Saturn had his own part to play. If Rowan was at the Canalave Library, it would put Hareta there too, almost certainly. He bet. He hoped. He guessed.
But bets and hopes and guesses were all the intel he could have. Rowan was a well-known figure and was easy to track, at the very least, but everything else was uncertain.
It was the most he had.
"All right!" he told himself with a clap of his hands. As enthusiastic as he could pretend to be, he forced a commanding expression and entered the commons room. "All right!" It was in the same tone he had said it to himself, but none of the assembled grunts knew that.
They turned towards him, quizzically. Some of them saluted, but still seemed confused.
Every eye was on Saturn, every identical eye, identical contact lenses, identical colors matching identical wigs over identical uniforms. A sea of conformity, trained to obey as if they were the drones of a Vespiquen. Idly, Saturn wondered why Cyrus never thought to train one. They had so much in common. "All right!" he repeated, but this time the tone was different, flatter, more blunt. "I have a special mission for whoever among you has a Golbat!"
None of them would have a Crobat, after all.
He was able to assemble a surprisingly populous force, though he suspected it was less due to the availability of Golbat and more to do with a want to get away from Charon for a few hours. The only thing he had planned for them in his current incarnation of what passed as a plan was to act as guards in case anything surprising happened. Oh, and to be enough of a noticeable force to draw attention to Galactic's continued presence in Sinnoh. And to get the attention of everybody in the library. And probably any other number of things that could come up at any given time. But whatever came up, he could handle it, or at least that was what Saturn told himself.
The more he drew attention to Galactic, the sooner the International Police would stop dragging their feet over the bombing incident and finally do something about it. They had waited long enough, and it spoke poorly of however they were run if this was how they handled a terrorist threat. It wasn't as though Galactic was hard to find, but all they had sent was a small detachment led by a fool and a child, to Stark Mountain of all places. An entirely different region, likely with entirely different laws, but it shouldn't take that long. Not nearly this long.
And that Saturn was hoping for the International Police, hoping for anybody, to invade the Galactic base was a twisting knot in his stomach that he had to force himself to ignore. Just so long as what the team had been distorted into no longer existed. It would be better to have no Team Galactic at all than to permit it to continue on as nothing but Charon's bloody plaything.
Maybe, he thought, this was what Cyrus had felt. Better to terminate the world, all creation, than to permit it to exist as a den of strife and suffering. No, one organization couldn't possibly stand on the same level as the concept of existence. But it was, perhaps, the same sort of rationale that had driven Cyrus to such an extreme.
This was an extreme too, wasn't it?
The flurry of the bat swarm battalion--a name being spoken by several of the grunts, in eager tones--clouded the skies for the land below. Saturn could hear people exclaim as they passed over Jubilife City. Good, his plan was working. They could have easily taken a transport and simply crossed the channel to Canalave, but he had explained it to the grunts as sending a message. That Team Galactic still existed and could expend any force they cared to. At least they had believed it.
Maybe it was this easy to lie after all. Somehow it felt good, and that was dangerous.
No, he would have to channel that into something more productive. Something considerably more than anything he had done in his life.
Would people expect him to go even further? Once this was done, if things played out like he wanted, would they want so much more from him than they ever had before? Success could destroy him and yet it was the only possible outcome. Anything else was unthinkable.
The latest intel showed that Rowan was still inside the library, and hacking the security cameras in the rare book section had showed that he was indeed accompanied by not only Hareta and Mitsumi, but a wiry yellow haired kid that had been identified as the Tower Tycoon's son. Chances are he would be a powerful trainer as well, if someone as competitive as Palmer had raised him. He vaguely remembered the boy being on the Spear Pillar with the others, but couldn't think of anything he had accomplished there.
At least the target was still in position, but the thought of encountering Hareta again made Saturn's blood boil. A squeak from his Golbat startled him into realizing that he had tightened his fist, and he relaxed his hand enough to still hold on in flight.
Was that caring, he wondered. Was it compassion or just good sense? After the events of Lake Valor, Cyrus had chided him for treating his Gallade so cruelly, but it wasn't as though Cyrus had encouraged compassion. If you view your pokémon as tools, he had told Saturn, then treat them as such. You do not abuse a hammer, or else it will be unable to serve its purpose. A bent nail cannot hold fast.
It was a striking lesson, and yet utterly devoid of emotion.
He knew Cyrus had emotions, despite claims to the contrary, despite claiming that emotions only caused pain. And yet the man had said before that he did not, that he had banished them as unnecessary. That was impossible, wasn't it? And even if it wasn't, it still didn't apply to Cyrus. He would smile, he would get angry, he would demonstrate emotion in a thousand different ways and still deny they dwelled within him.
He was saving a hypocrite, and a madly dangerous one at that, simply because he was preferable to the alternative.
No, Saturn's thoughts drifted around, that wasn't why. He was saving Cyrus because he was still faultlessly loyal, despite all reason and rationality.
Saturn knew that Cyrus was well aware of this, and moreover so was Charon. The twin spectres of both "Cyrus is lying to you he hasn't changed at all" and "Charon is watching your every move why are you being so overt?" hung over him, no matter how he tried to keep his thoughts on only his mission.
"Did you say something, commander?" a nearby voice called.
"Did I?" He must have voiced his thoughts aloud. The Golbat troops were too far apart for him to have been properly heard, though, and he took comfort from that.
"Saw your mouth moving like you were talking!" The grunt had to project considerably. "Thought I missed something."
Saturn shook his head and turned his gaze to the approaching city. He would have to keep himself from getting so lax. This time he had said it where he couldn't be heard, but he couldn't afford to drop the ball at the last second. His anxiety was wearing on him, and he couldn't give in.
That anxiety, he knew, along with years of strife and subservience, had eroded at him like a stone in a river, life passing him by as he rested in his niche, and now that he was high and dry, it was disgustingly unfamiliar. It may well have been an entirely new world; not the one Cyrus was after, but something foreign to either of them.
If he couldn't feel, none of this would matter. But it wouldn't do anybody any good either, no matter how much Cyrus insisted otherwise. To have no suffering would be meaningless in a world where nobody could enjoy peace. But a world of pure suffering, the world Charon was angling towards, was even worse. It may have purpose, but it was a purpose of greed, turning all against each other for the aggrandizement of a scant few.
A hollow life or a life lived in fear. Saturn couldn't let either of those happen, and holding those tides away beat down on his back as if it was a physical burden.
They had forced him into this position, to play mediator for two lunatics, to pick the lesser of two evils, and it was a damn good thing that Hareta awaited at the end of this because he wasn't about to let his anger and frustration just get bottled up inside. That was Cyrus's domain, and even he had challenged the brat on multiple occasions. Hareta would make the perfect idiot-shaped punching bag.
And Saturn had gotten considerable stronger. His Gallade was sharper than ever, he had added a Magmortar to his roster. They were an unbeatable pair, and it was going to be an utter blessing to finally be able to trounce that brat.
The idea of defeating the very person whose strength he was trying to recruit was, perhaps, a contradictory one, and it played at the back of his mind, but like every other doubt he had, it went ignored. Besides, anyone he found only needed to be strong ENOUGH. They didn't need to be entirely unbeatable, only someone that could cut through Charon's forces and defeat whatever the old man had in store.
Which itself was a complete unknown. Charon apparently had the perfect weapon to combat a specific member of the International Police, but that was about all Saturn knew.
He signaled for his cloud of bats to start their descent, and grinned as he heard the shouts and screams from below. There was, he had to admit, something fun about being able to instill fear simply by existing. Golbat already did so inherently, especially in great numbers, and taking control of that phobia in others gave Saturn quite an inappropriate but heady rush. He let himself smile and was positive beyond all doubt that it was a very wicked one indeed.
A window on the side of the top floor opened, the inhabitants peering out to see what was going on. Several people had gathered, and it confirmed Saturn's intel.
Hareta was indeed there. This would be utterly delicious revenge.
"Are...you all right, commander?"
Saturn was still twitching slightly from the massive electric shock that Hareta's Minun had attacked him with. The weakling-seeming newborn mouse had proven to be a powerhouse, and Saturn didn't know if it was from Hareta's influence or Kaisei's. After all, this had to be the result of the egg that Kaisei had given the boy at the league.
"Commander?"
The concern in the grunt's voice grated on Saturn's nerves. Under most other circumstances, he would be far more receptive, perhaps even grateful. But at the time, he had only to keep focus on keeping his hand tight around Golbat's leg.
The grunt didn't ask again. That was fine. That was more than fine. He had delivered the message he meant to, planted the seed in Hareta's mind. And Hareta was an unpredictable element in everything he did, but he could never resist the promise of an excellent battle.
Something else pulled at his attention, but rather than a grunt crossing a personal line, it was a com line beeping. Saturn stuffed his headset around his ear with his free hand and waited to be addressed.
"My boy!" Charon, his thick voice in a chaotic way, "you'll never guess what's happening!" After a very brief pause, too quick for Saturn to even try, Charon continued. "It's the International Police! They think they can even make a dent in our defenses! We'll need you to shore things up inside just in case. And bring those grunts back with you! You picked a hell of a time to take a battalion, my god." His tone was the very definition of annoyance. "Why, I'd almost think you were working against me."
"I can assure you," Saturn said as dully as he possibly could, ignoring another twitch, "that everything I'm doing is to keep the team safe." It was the truth, and nothing could shake that. It just so happened that he and Charon had different definitions of what that meant.
"Yeah well, hurry back. We need to make an example of these upstarts before they learn too much. Keep them at arm's length." And the call suddenly cut out.
It was uncertain to Saturn if the call's hastened conclusion was due to an emergency situation or if Charon simply didn't have the patience to continue speaking to him. Either way, they had to get back.
To think that the International Police had waited that long. The league bombing, or the attempt at it, had been so long ago that Saturn figured they would have overlooked it, though he couldn't figure out why. Thousands of people and pokémon would have died if Charon's plan had come to fruition, all to serve his own ego and establish himself as a criminal mastermind, and yet in that time there was no rumbling of police involvement. But then, nobody had ever said that the International Police were good at what they did.
In a way it suited Team Galactic. Galactic was shockingly good at what they did if one only considered Cyrus. Even Saturn's success rate was quite low. He had destroyed Lake Valor and captured Azelf, but lost a subsequent battle and was fired on the spot.
His memory of that time was spotty, and thinking of it wound through him like a virulent toxin, stabbing from the inside. He couldn't let go, not of Golbat, not that high up, but he couldn't let go of the memory of his utter humiliation at Lake Valor either.
He had a tendency to hang on. To memories, to pain, to his devotion to a man who had tried to kill everyone, to his bitterness. The sooner he could let go, he knew he would be happier.
The only thing he really *had* to hold onto was Golbat. Everything else was his own choice.
Except...he realized something strange. There was a choice remaining, and it was one granted to him by the invaders. If he could take this brief chance, it could end everything in his favor. And suddenly everything seemed as clear as the view from Coronet's peak.
"All right!" he shouted to the flock of grunts, the sudden sound startling his Golbat. "I've received word that the base in Veilstone is under attack! The moment we arrive, we begin to battle, so everyone is to be prepared!"
The grunts around him murmured in surprise, some expressing gratefulness that they hadn't battled in Canalave, others griping that they hadn't packed their strongest pokémon. Saturn doubted any of them had anything that could be considered truly "strong", but it was relative anyway. Any obstacle they could throw at the International Police would be worthwhile.
If they could divert attention entirely on Charon, Saturn could slip in and free Cyrus without notice. And then Cyrus would have no choice, would he? He had claimed he wanted to give up, and even if the claim had been as false as Cyrus's vows to save the world, the former leader would be in no position to object.
Saturn could force honesty out of the man, but only if he had the backing of the invading officers. It was a window that wouldn't be open forever, and he had to use every available inch of it.
Finally, by sheer chance, dumb luck, and an unanticipated amount of actual planning on Saturn's part, things were falling into place.
The assault on the base was visible from the air the moment the swarm passed into Veilstone, but Saturn was more interested in what he saw closer to the warehouse. "Go on ahead and find out what our leader wants!" he ordered. Whoever the grunts took that to mean was on them.
Landing at the side of the warehouse, he approached the target and waited. B-2 was there, looking as though he had been looking forward to this his entire life. "Sir!"
"Report."
B-2 saluted, the strong gesture seeming to wobble his considerable rear from the shock wave. "Sir I was able to track down Jupiter. Just like you said--my Skuntank-attracting abilities are unparalleled! Found at least five of them before I got her. One was even red!"
Under less hectic, less serious circumstances, Saturn would have had several questions, none of which were comfortable, likely starting with 'at least five? You couldn't tell?' and followed quickly by 'did you capture the shiny?', but there was no time for any of that. "Excellent. Where is she?"
"Awaiting your orders inside, sir. And Mars is here too!" B-2's smile broadened. "Turns out they found each other and were keeping each other safe."
Under less hectic, less serious circumstances, Saturn would have felt relieved, but there was no room, no time to relax. "Excellent. I'll--"
But his instruction was caught short by a sharp string of beeps. Before he could even properly place his headset back on, Charon's voice cut through. "Saturn, where the hell are you? You'd better not be skipping town on me!"
To the side, B-2's eyes widened, his fists clenched and mouth tightened.
Saturn, on the other hand, took it in stride. If Charon didn't know where he was, it meant he wasn't watching any security cameras. And that meant that all Saturn had to do was tell the truth. "Sir, I've sent most of the detachment back to the base. I'm currently leading a faction in from the warehouse."
Charon chuckled, a surprisingly casual sound given the tension of a moment ago. "Clever lad! Didn't think you had it in you. If you're successful in this, you'll be rewarded." A click deadened the line, and the two agents were alone again.
B-2 waited to say anything, making sure his words wouldn't be heard by anybody but Saturn. "...you really just told him what we were doing." His usually hyper voice was slow and breathy.
Saturn sighed deeply before smiling, though the smile faded by the end. "Yeah. But not why. He's got no idea what we're really doing. Or even where we are, or else he wouldn't ask with that fervency."
"That makes sense..." B-2 sighed. It was jarring to see that sort of distress on the normally hyper and chaotic agent. "I just...don't know what else to do. It's stupid to wish Cyrus was here but I still do."
With so much chaos around them, it had been vital for Saturn to keep his cards close to his chest, but with B-2 and the other officers at hand, it was finally time to show what he had. "I think it's time," Saturn's smile returned as he opened the door to the warehouse "that you hear about who's being held in the base."
But bets and hopes and guesses were all the intel he could have. Rowan was a well-known figure and was easy to track, at the very least, but everything else was uncertain.
It was the most he had.
"All right!" he told himself with a clap of his hands. As enthusiastic as he could pretend to be, he forced a commanding expression and entered the commons room. "All right!" It was in the same tone he had said it to himself, but none of the assembled grunts knew that.
They turned towards him, quizzically. Some of them saluted, but still seemed confused.
Every eye was on Saturn, every identical eye, identical contact lenses, identical colors matching identical wigs over identical uniforms. A sea of conformity, trained to obey as if they were the drones of a Vespiquen. Idly, Saturn wondered why Cyrus never thought to train one. They had so much in common. "All right!" he repeated, but this time the tone was different, flatter, more blunt. "I have a special mission for whoever among you has a Golbat!"
None of them would have a Crobat, after all.
He was able to assemble a surprisingly populous force, though he suspected it was less due to the availability of Golbat and more to do with a want to get away from Charon for a few hours. The only thing he had planned for them in his current incarnation of what passed as a plan was to act as guards in case anything surprising happened. Oh, and to be enough of a noticeable force to draw attention to Galactic's continued presence in Sinnoh. And to get the attention of everybody in the library. And probably any other number of things that could come up at any given time. But whatever came up, he could handle it, or at least that was what Saturn told himself.
The more he drew attention to Galactic, the sooner the International Police would stop dragging their feet over the bombing incident and finally do something about it. They had waited long enough, and it spoke poorly of however they were run if this was how they handled a terrorist threat. It wasn't as though Galactic was hard to find, but all they had sent was a small detachment led by a fool and a child, to Stark Mountain of all places. An entirely different region, likely with entirely different laws, but it shouldn't take that long. Not nearly this long.
And that Saturn was hoping for the International Police, hoping for anybody, to invade the Galactic base was a twisting knot in his stomach that he had to force himself to ignore. Just so long as what the team had been distorted into no longer existed. It would be better to have no Team Galactic at all than to permit it to continue on as nothing but Charon's bloody plaything.
Maybe, he thought, this was what Cyrus had felt. Better to terminate the world, all creation, than to permit it to exist as a den of strife and suffering. No, one organization couldn't possibly stand on the same level as the concept of existence. But it was, perhaps, the same sort of rationale that had driven Cyrus to such an extreme.
This was an extreme too, wasn't it?
The flurry of the bat swarm battalion--a name being spoken by several of the grunts, in eager tones--clouded the skies for the land below. Saturn could hear people exclaim as they passed over Jubilife City. Good, his plan was working. They could have easily taken a transport and simply crossed the channel to Canalave, but he had explained it to the grunts as sending a message. That Team Galactic still existed and could expend any force they cared to. At least they had believed it.
Maybe it was this easy to lie after all. Somehow it felt good, and that was dangerous.
No, he would have to channel that into something more productive. Something considerably more than anything he had done in his life.
Would people expect him to go even further? Once this was done, if things played out like he wanted, would they want so much more from him than they ever had before? Success could destroy him and yet it was the only possible outcome. Anything else was unthinkable.
The latest intel showed that Rowan was still inside the library, and hacking the security cameras in the rare book section had showed that he was indeed accompanied by not only Hareta and Mitsumi, but a wiry yellow haired kid that had been identified as the Tower Tycoon's son. Chances are he would be a powerful trainer as well, if someone as competitive as Palmer had raised him. He vaguely remembered the boy being on the Spear Pillar with the others, but couldn't think of anything he had accomplished there.
At least the target was still in position, but the thought of encountering Hareta again made Saturn's blood boil. A squeak from his Golbat startled him into realizing that he had tightened his fist, and he relaxed his hand enough to still hold on in flight.
Was that caring, he wondered. Was it compassion or just good sense? After the events of Lake Valor, Cyrus had chided him for treating his Gallade so cruelly, but it wasn't as though Cyrus had encouraged compassion. If you view your pokémon as tools, he had told Saturn, then treat them as such. You do not abuse a hammer, or else it will be unable to serve its purpose. A bent nail cannot hold fast.
It was a striking lesson, and yet utterly devoid of emotion.
He knew Cyrus had emotions, despite claims to the contrary, despite claiming that emotions only caused pain. And yet the man had said before that he did not, that he had banished them as unnecessary. That was impossible, wasn't it? And even if it wasn't, it still didn't apply to Cyrus. He would smile, he would get angry, he would demonstrate emotion in a thousand different ways and still deny they dwelled within him.
He was saving a hypocrite, and a madly dangerous one at that, simply because he was preferable to the alternative.
No, Saturn's thoughts drifted around, that wasn't why. He was saving Cyrus because he was still faultlessly loyal, despite all reason and rationality.
Saturn knew that Cyrus was well aware of this, and moreover so was Charon. The twin spectres of both "Cyrus is lying to you he hasn't changed at all" and "Charon is watching your every move why are you being so overt?" hung over him, no matter how he tried to keep his thoughts on only his mission.
"Did you say something, commander?" a nearby voice called.
"Did I?" He must have voiced his thoughts aloud. The Golbat troops were too far apart for him to have been properly heard, though, and he took comfort from that.
"Saw your mouth moving like you were talking!" The grunt had to project considerably. "Thought I missed something."
Saturn shook his head and turned his gaze to the approaching city. He would have to keep himself from getting so lax. This time he had said it where he couldn't be heard, but he couldn't afford to drop the ball at the last second. His anxiety was wearing on him, and he couldn't give in.
That anxiety, he knew, along with years of strife and subservience, had eroded at him like a stone in a river, life passing him by as he rested in his niche, and now that he was high and dry, it was disgustingly unfamiliar. It may well have been an entirely new world; not the one Cyrus was after, but something foreign to either of them.
If he couldn't feel, none of this would matter. But it wouldn't do anybody any good either, no matter how much Cyrus insisted otherwise. To have no suffering would be meaningless in a world where nobody could enjoy peace. But a world of pure suffering, the world Charon was angling towards, was even worse. It may have purpose, but it was a purpose of greed, turning all against each other for the aggrandizement of a scant few.
A hollow life or a life lived in fear. Saturn couldn't let either of those happen, and holding those tides away beat down on his back as if it was a physical burden.
They had forced him into this position, to play mediator for two lunatics, to pick the lesser of two evils, and it was a damn good thing that Hareta awaited at the end of this because he wasn't about to let his anger and frustration just get bottled up inside. That was Cyrus's domain, and even he had challenged the brat on multiple occasions. Hareta would make the perfect idiot-shaped punching bag.
And Saturn had gotten considerable stronger. His Gallade was sharper than ever, he had added a Magmortar to his roster. They were an unbeatable pair, and it was going to be an utter blessing to finally be able to trounce that brat.
The idea of defeating the very person whose strength he was trying to recruit was, perhaps, a contradictory one, and it played at the back of his mind, but like every other doubt he had, it went ignored. Besides, anyone he found only needed to be strong ENOUGH. They didn't need to be entirely unbeatable, only someone that could cut through Charon's forces and defeat whatever the old man had in store.
Which itself was a complete unknown. Charon apparently had the perfect weapon to combat a specific member of the International Police, but that was about all Saturn knew.
He signaled for his cloud of bats to start their descent, and grinned as he heard the shouts and screams from below. There was, he had to admit, something fun about being able to instill fear simply by existing. Golbat already did so inherently, especially in great numbers, and taking control of that phobia in others gave Saturn quite an inappropriate but heady rush. He let himself smile and was positive beyond all doubt that it was a very wicked one indeed.
A window on the side of the top floor opened, the inhabitants peering out to see what was going on. Several people had gathered, and it confirmed Saturn's intel.
Hareta was indeed there. This would be utterly delicious revenge.
"Are...you all right, commander?"
Saturn was still twitching slightly from the massive electric shock that Hareta's Minun had attacked him with. The weakling-seeming newborn mouse had proven to be a powerhouse, and Saturn didn't know if it was from Hareta's influence or Kaisei's. After all, this had to be the result of the egg that Kaisei had given the boy at the league.
"Commander?"
The concern in the grunt's voice grated on Saturn's nerves. Under most other circumstances, he would be far more receptive, perhaps even grateful. But at the time, he had only to keep focus on keeping his hand tight around Golbat's leg.
The grunt didn't ask again. That was fine. That was more than fine. He had delivered the message he meant to, planted the seed in Hareta's mind. And Hareta was an unpredictable element in everything he did, but he could never resist the promise of an excellent battle.
Something else pulled at his attention, but rather than a grunt crossing a personal line, it was a com line beeping. Saturn stuffed his headset around his ear with his free hand and waited to be addressed.
"My boy!" Charon, his thick voice in a chaotic way, "you'll never guess what's happening!" After a very brief pause, too quick for Saturn to even try, Charon continued. "It's the International Police! They think they can even make a dent in our defenses! We'll need you to shore things up inside just in case. And bring those grunts back with you! You picked a hell of a time to take a battalion, my god." His tone was the very definition of annoyance. "Why, I'd almost think you were working against me."
"I can assure you," Saturn said as dully as he possibly could, ignoring another twitch, "that everything I'm doing is to keep the team safe." It was the truth, and nothing could shake that. It just so happened that he and Charon had different definitions of what that meant.
"Yeah well, hurry back. We need to make an example of these upstarts before they learn too much. Keep them at arm's length." And the call suddenly cut out.
It was uncertain to Saturn if the call's hastened conclusion was due to an emergency situation or if Charon simply didn't have the patience to continue speaking to him. Either way, they had to get back.
To think that the International Police had waited that long. The league bombing, or the attempt at it, had been so long ago that Saturn figured they would have overlooked it, though he couldn't figure out why. Thousands of people and pokémon would have died if Charon's plan had come to fruition, all to serve his own ego and establish himself as a criminal mastermind, and yet in that time there was no rumbling of police involvement. But then, nobody had ever said that the International Police were good at what they did.
In a way it suited Team Galactic. Galactic was shockingly good at what they did if one only considered Cyrus. Even Saturn's success rate was quite low. He had destroyed Lake Valor and captured Azelf, but lost a subsequent battle and was fired on the spot.
His memory of that time was spotty, and thinking of it wound through him like a virulent toxin, stabbing from the inside. He couldn't let go, not of Golbat, not that high up, but he couldn't let go of the memory of his utter humiliation at Lake Valor either.
He had a tendency to hang on. To memories, to pain, to his devotion to a man who had tried to kill everyone, to his bitterness. The sooner he could let go, he knew he would be happier.
The only thing he really *had* to hold onto was Golbat. Everything else was his own choice.
Except...he realized something strange. There was a choice remaining, and it was one granted to him by the invaders. If he could take this brief chance, it could end everything in his favor. And suddenly everything seemed as clear as the view from Coronet's peak.
"All right!" he shouted to the flock of grunts, the sudden sound startling his Golbat. "I've received word that the base in Veilstone is under attack! The moment we arrive, we begin to battle, so everyone is to be prepared!"
The grunts around him murmured in surprise, some expressing gratefulness that they hadn't battled in Canalave, others griping that they hadn't packed their strongest pokémon. Saturn doubted any of them had anything that could be considered truly "strong", but it was relative anyway. Any obstacle they could throw at the International Police would be worthwhile.
If they could divert attention entirely on Charon, Saturn could slip in and free Cyrus without notice. And then Cyrus would have no choice, would he? He had claimed he wanted to give up, and even if the claim had been as false as Cyrus's vows to save the world, the former leader would be in no position to object.
Saturn could force honesty out of the man, but only if he had the backing of the invading officers. It was a window that wouldn't be open forever, and he had to use every available inch of it.
Finally, by sheer chance, dumb luck, and an unanticipated amount of actual planning on Saturn's part, things were falling into place.
The assault on the base was visible from the air the moment the swarm passed into Veilstone, but Saturn was more interested in what he saw closer to the warehouse. "Go on ahead and find out what our leader wants!" he ordered. Whoever the grunts took that to mean was on them.
Landing at the side of the warehouse, he approached the target and waited. B-2 was there, looking as though he had been looking forward to this his entire life. "Sir!"
"Report."
B-2 saluted, the strong gesture seeming to wobble his considerable rear from the shock wave. "Sir I was able to track down Jupiter. Just like you said--my Skuntank-attracting abilities are unparalleled! Found at least five of them before I got her. One was even red!"
Under less hectic, less serious circumstances, Saturn would have had several questions, none of which were comfortable, likely starting with 'at least five? You couldn't tell?' and followed quickly by 'did you capture the shiny?', but there was no time for any of that. "Excellent. Where is she?"
"Awaiting your orders inside, sir. And Mars is here too!" B-2's smile broadened. "Turns out they found each other and were keeping each other safe."
Under less hectic, less serious circumstances, Saturn would have felt relieved, but there was no room, no time to relax. "Excellent. I'll--"
But his instruction was caught short by a sharp string of beeps. Before he could even properly place his headset back on, Charon's voice cut through. "Saturn, where the hell are you? You'd better not be skipping town on me!"
To the side, B-2's eyes widened, his fists clenched and mouth tightened.
Saturn, on the other hand, took it in stride. If Charon didn't know where he was, it meant he wasn't watching any security cameras. And that meant that all Saturn had to do was tell the truth. "Sir, I've sent most of the detachment back to the base. I'm currently leading a faction in from the warehouse."
Charon chuckled, a surprisingly casual sound given the tension of a moment ago. "Clever lad! Didn't think you had it in you. If you're successful in this, you'll be rewarded." A click deadened the line, and the two agents were alone again.
B-2 waited to say anything, making sure his words wouldn't be heard by anybody but Saturn. "...you really just told him what we were doing." His usually hyper voice was slow and breathy.
Saturn sighed deeply before smiling, though the smile faded by the end. "Yeah. But not why. He's got no idea what we're really doing. Or even where we are, or else he wouldn't ask with that fervency."
"That makes sense..." B-2 sighed. It was jarring to see that sort of distress on the normally hyper and chaotic agent. "I just...don't know what else to do. It's stupid to wish Cyrus was here but I still do."
With so much chaos around them, it had been vital for Saturn to keep his cards close to his chest, but with B-2 and the other officers at hand, it was finally time to show what he had. "I think it's time," Saturn's smile returned as he opened the door to the warehouse "that you hear about who's being held in the base."