Defenders of Evodusai Part 12
"These five will do," I said handing the profiles back to
Haless. As he looked over the chosen folders I politely excused
myself and walked away gracefully. Once I calmly closed the door
behind me, a childish grin spread across my face. Sprinting off to
the mess hall with thoughts of relieving my belly from its emptiness,
I turned left through the doorway only to find the place nearly
empty. Cursing under my breath, I almost left until I heard the sound
of someone calling for me from across the room. Waving a friendly
blue paw around, Liru was smiling and chewing on something that
looked delicious. Heading over, I was overjoyed when I discovered a
tray of fruits that Liru prepared for me. Slurping at her paws as I sat down, she picked up a chesto berry
and crunched into into it merrily. "Haless told me to get you some
food since he wanted to discuss some things with you privately,"
she said after swallowing. Rolling an apple around in my paws, I
leaned in close and bit into it. Eyes widening at the sudden
sweetness filling my mouth, the intensity of the flavor threw my mind
into a world of bliss. Time passed by slowly as I enjoyed every bit
of this wondrous fruit. Before I knew it, the apple had been
completely consumed. Going through the rest of the food in the same manner, I patted
my belly and squeaked out a tiny burp. Liru had already taken the
tray back to the wash station where a gardevior worked in. Handing
the tray over to the elegant looking pokemon, Liru thanked her and
began her return. As she made her way back to the table, a flash of
brown traveled past her and bolted towards me. Before I could react,
this pokemon that I now recognized as an eevee collided head first
into my chest. Together we tumbled towards the ground, rolling on top
of one another until we were finally stopped by crashing into a wall.
Both of us just laid there, confused and in pain after going through
such an unusual ordeal. Liru screamed from afar and appeared next to
me in seconds. "What's your problem?" she shouted towards my
brown furred attacker before we both noticed a note that the eevee
held in its mouth. Flipping back to her feet and spitting the piece
of paper out towards us the eevee mumbled out "for you" and
rubbed her head. Picking it up, it appeared to be written in Unown. Winta, I have gone and gathered up the candidates you have
chosen for the team. Meet us at the fountain of unity and bring both
your blue scaled friend and the messenger that brought you this
message. See you soon!Intelligence Division Captain-Sir Haless the Dragonite "Oh! Does this
mean that I'm on the team?" Liru asked with a glint of excitement
in her eyes. Before I could reply, the eevee suddenly broke into our
conversation. "We were some of the few who were chosen by the Intel
captain right? Even if it isn't official yet, I'm fairly certain that
we'll all make it in." Liru glared at her. "Hey, who do you think
you are? First you headbutt my friend over here. Then, without even
apologizing to her first, you go and cut her off in the middle of our
conversation." Taken by surprise by the harshness of her tone, the
eevee tensed her muscles and glowered back. "I'm Nyami and I've
been working around here for about three years. I may be in the wrong
here so I sincerely apologize for hurting you charmander. However, as
a senior member of this organization I will not tolerate that force
of tone from some unknown junior. Besides, I answered your question
so you should be more grateful." I jumped up and clamped Liru's jaw
to prevent her from saying anything else. "Stop provoking her," I
whispered into Liru's ear. "It really was just an accident and
she's one of pokemon that I specifically asked for. Like it or not,
we're going to be in the same team together so try to get along with
her." The amount of
killing intent radiating from these two was enough to make my stomach
churn from fear. Acting as a mediator/barrier, I stood in between
these two as we walked to the fountain. Throughout this short twenty
minute walk, I could feel their piercing gazes dig into me like
daggers. When we got outside, the uneasiness lifted up a bit only to
come crashing back down when the group of four waiting by the
fountain came into view. "OY! YER LATE NYAMI," screamed a
chikorita. Launching out some vines, we were caught unaware as they
wrapped around our bodies. A quick yet forceful tug transported us
the rest of the way. Plopping us down
onto the ground like garbage, the chikorita approached the eevee with
an annoyed look in his eyes. "Ain't you suppose to be one of the
fastest round here? Would have expected you to get the job done
quicker then that." Nyami ground her teeth as she stood up and just
stayed silent. "And you two," the chikorita continued as he
focused on Liru and me. "You're both newbies right? How the hell
did you weaklings even get picked to join this team?" A cough from
behind made the chikorita look back. "Their appearance masks their
power, Ritch," the spheal proclaimed as he rolled over to the
chikorita. "The blue one had been trained and raised like a
daughter by the recon chief while the orange one managed to defeat
Mishren with her own two paws." Hearing the spheal's words, the
chikorita's attitude and demeanor changed. "Mi-Mishren, are Jorge's
words true?" the chikorita gasped as he turned towards the moping
flaaffy. "Yeah...," the pink sheep grumbled as he turned to hide
his face. Completely shocked by the news, the fire in the chikorita's
eyes flared up and he shouted at the top of his voice. "YOU MUST
HAVE CHEATED SOMEHOW TO WIN AGAINST-." "Enough,"
Haless calmly stated sternly. His voice instantly defused the
situation and the chikorita's rage died off slowly. "I'll answer
any and all questions later, but first we must head into the base
that I received permission to use." Lifting off into the air, the
dragonite flew up towards the fountain with his badge in paw.
Clicking the badge into the brain that was etched into the fountain's
shield, the water suddenly stopped spouting from the sword's hilt. A
gentle rumbling in the ground made us all cautious but that feeling
soon disappeared when a passageway opened up behind the shield.
"Okay, follow me," Haless said after landing close to the
entrance. Unlike the other main buildings that Sofeda used, the state
of this passageway was surprisingly poor. Multiple cracks in the
walls of this tunnel and the debris littering the ground made it
appear that the place hadn't been used in years. The tunnel led us
into a trashed up room. "This place used to be Sofeda's first base
of operations," Haless said somberly. "Back when the organization
first started up, all three branches shared this space together. I
was still just a dratini back then, but I can still remember the
laughter that we all shared in these halls." Nyami, after regaining
her confidence, stepped up. "Jeez, how old are y- ack!" The
chikorita had used a vine to cover her mouth. "Shh, quiet," Ritch
whispered. "Can't you read the situation here?" Haless turned and
smiled. "It's quite alright. I'm as old as this organization so I
guess that means I'm about a hundred?" Gasps and shouting echoed
around the room when we heard this. "A hundred?!" Nyami wheezed
having broken out of Ritch's grasp. Haless chuckled. "My kind
usually live for quite some time. If you have any other questions,
feel free to ask now." Jorge the spheal
bounced forward and stared directly into the dragonite's eyes.
"What's the purpose of this team and why were we chosen to be in
it." Haless hid a faint grin under his paw and stared back to the
intelligent spheal. "With a mind as sharp as that, you could have
easily climbed the ranks in Intelligence Central. Tell me why you
decided to join Defensive Defiance and I'll answer both of your
questions." Jorge sighed. "The answer is simple. Even though my
mind is sharp, it could not even leave a scratch in the shield that
my heart had established." Haless nodded. "I see. I'll leave it
be since it appears to be personal. Anyways, the purpose of this team
is to revive the Sofeda of the past by promoting teamwork between the
current three factions. The system as it is right now will only be a
hindrance to Sofeda's main objective and is slowly killing the team.
If it continues on like this, Sofeda itself will simply collapse from
mistrust and infighting. As to why you all were chosen, ask Winta
since she was the one who picked all of you." Most of the group
turned and looked at me. "You...picked me?" the flaaffy asked.
His fighting spirit reignited and he was back to his old self again.
"Is this... some kind of a SICK joke to you?!" He went up and
picked me up by my shoulders. "Tell me, why the hell did you choose
me to be in your team after what I did and said to you?" A bead of
sweat rolled down the back of my head as I gathered my thoughts.
Looking into his watery eyes, I could tell that saying the wrong
thing would simply break this unstable fool. "The reason I chose
you and all the others..." I began, "is not because of your
strengths. All I did was look at the pictures that was taken of you
all to see if you had that certain spark shimmering in your eyes. Out
of all the candidates, the ones that are in this room right now had
that certain spark and became worthy enough to join this team. Now
please put me down, or else I'll put you back in the hospital." Noticing my grin,
Mishren dropped me and walked towards the group. Ritch got up to
protest but the flaaffy stopped and glanced back to me with a tiny
smile on his face. "If you're gonna put me back in the hospital,
I'll make sure to bring you along with me after I'm done kicking your ass."