Defenders of Evodusai Part 7
Marching along the northern path,
we finally arrived at the headquarters of Intelligance Central.
Passing through the automated sliding doors, the inside of this place
looked very modern. The polished smooth stone floors and reflective
metallic walls gave the place a feeling of intimidation. Adding to this was the number of
pokemon who all turned to look at us when we walked on in. I did my
best to ignore their quiet gossiping, but there was one pokemon that
stood out the most to me. Almost three times my height, this huge
dragonite stopped his conversation with a gengar and gazed towards
me. The look that he gave off appeared as if he was closely studying
me, giving me the shakes. Rubbing off the goosebumps, I
didn't notice that Truce had stopped in his tracks and I accidentally
walked into his soft floofy tail. The way that he yelped out in
surprise was quite adorable despite the stern look he gave me with
his reddening face. "Sorry about that," he said turning back to a
pokemon in front of him. At first I thought he was talking to a
person, but looking closer made me realize that it was an old Mr.
mime. "Hahohahaa," he rumbled with laughter, "I haven't heard
you cry like that since you yourself were just a recruit." Patting
Liru's head, the way he smiled could fill anybody up with a sense of
achievement. "Goodness little Liru, I can't
believe that you finally made it past the trial. When Truce first
brought you here, you seemed so scared, so frightened at the world
around us. Those feelings of fear slowly buried the flame that I saw
in your eyes and I couldn't help but feel sorry for you. But now look
at how much you have grown! Gone is the darkness as that flame has
now grown to be bright and strong! It fills this old elder's soul
with pleasure to see youth such as yourself stepping up to the
challenge of defending these lands. Congratulations!" After
expressing his joy through clapping, he soon took a slight interest
in me. "Oh? I see that you brought along a friend. Hmm! My, oh,
my! And what a unique friend this is!" Taking a couple steps
forward, he examined me for a bit before turning back to Truce. "You
don't normally see charmanders around these parts. Then again, most
of our members aren't from around these parts either!" Slapping the
Mr. mime on the back, Truce gave off his trademarked grin. "Very
true, old friend and well said! Anyways Souna, this here charmander
helped Liru out during her trial and passed with flying colors.
That's right, we're getting two new members today and that means more
paperwork for you." Clasping his hands together,
Souna turned to me with the same smile he gave Liru. "Ah, splendid!
Extra work won't be a problem for me if it means that such a capable
looking pokemon such as yourself would join our ranks. Oh, pardon my
manners. I am Elder Souna and I manage the files of all the pokemon
within this organization." Shaking hands with the elder, I only
introduced my name. "Well Winta, bring Liru along and come with me.
Oh and Truce? The boss made it clear that she wanted to see you when
you came back." Truces eyes began to bulge out. Without a second
thought, he raced away at an alarming rate. Chuckling softly to
himself, Souna lead us to a room where the shelves were brimming with
paper. "When recruits such as yourselves join up, I must first
determine the ideal division to place you in. To do this, I must use
my psychic powers to look at the potential deep within you. Let's
start with you Liru." Propping her up on a chair, the
Mr. mime began by staring into Liru's eyes. A purple aura covered
Souna's hands and he slowly gripped Liru's head carefully. They
stayed like this for a couple of awkward minutes until I heard both
of them gasp. "It seems that," Souna panted, "you will be
joining Truce's team. The fact that he raised you must have been a
huge influence, but it does seem to suit you. Now Winta, I'll get to
you as soon as I catch my breath." Liru gleefully hopped down to
let me into the chair. Meanwhile, Souna was writing something down
onto a piece of paper. Tearing it out, he gave it to Liru and sent
her off. "Alrighty, let's see what kind of potential lies within
you my dear." Following the same procedure
that he went through with Liru, I found myself caught within Souna's
hypnotic gaze. The feeling of his hands grasping my head didn't quite
register in my mind. However, I could feel him prodding around
inside, gently interacting with my psyche. The entirety of this
experience was very calm and soothing. Pretty soon, we both gasped as
he exited my mental body. "Oh...oh my," he calmly stated. "This
is troublesome. Winta, parts of your psyche appears to be damaged by
some sort of internal conflict between two large spiritual forces.
Two possible outcomes could be made from this battle: either one of
these entities could have been eliminated by the other, or they
struck each other hard enough to merge into one." "What does that mean?" I
asked, a bit scared of how serious his tone was. "Well truth be
told, I have no idea what it means. This is a rare condition that is
hard, if not impossible, to treat. Not to mention all the risks, I'm
afraid that I am unable to help you." I gave a tiny sigh that was a
mixture of relief and disappointment. It looks like he didn't find
out about my human past, but was very close. "Despite all the
damage, I've managed to determine that the special attack division
would be the best place to suit your skills. I believe that they will
find your destructive powers to be one of the best around." Giving me a note and some
directions, I found myself inside the building of Offensive
Superiority. The amount of intimidation coming from all these tough
looking pokemon made my heart beat sporadically. I soon found myself
unable to breath due to the pressure. Its as if a vice had found its
way onto my chest and started to tighten itself. Rushing back
outside, I coughed out loud while struggling to control my breathing.
As this was going on, I sensed a presence behind me. "Hey, you
alright?" he asked. Turning around, I was now face to face with an
alakazam. "I assume that you're the new recruit Souna mentioned via
telepathy. Your name is Winta, correct?" Giving a nod after
regaining my breath, the alakazam returned his approval with a nod.
"Wonderful. I am Plena, chief officer of the special attacks
division. I'm sorry about what my subordinates had done to you when
you first arrived. They seem to always pick on the newbies by acting
like thoughtless barbarians. You seem to be different from the rest
of them, but I must first test out your abilities to see if you
belong here. Come." Leading me off to what looked
like some kind of outdoors arena, I could see a group of pokemon just
waiting. One of them spotted us and alerted the rest of its friends.
Pretty soon, cheers of "Hurry up chief!" and "We wanna break in
the new kid!" erupted from the crowd. Gesturing with his hands to
keep the volume down, Plena and I reached the eager gang. "Is this
all? She doesn't even look that tough!" a flaaffy shouted. This
caused a domino effect of disappointed cries being heard from the
group. Plena gave a long sigh of disapproval. "Let's just get this
shameful tradition over with so we can get back to work. Form a line over
there and wait until I give the okay to start fighting." Taking
position across from the line, my first opponent was the flaaffy. The
air around him was charged with energy, showing just how excited he
was. "Ooh, I'm gonna enjoy breaking you," he silently mouthed.
Waiting for Plena's signal, we stared each other down in an attempt
to intimate the opposition. Once Plena gave us the okay, the battle was
on.