CHAPTER 29: MEET THE CHIEF

Chapter 29: Meet the Chief

“Alright,” Martin said when the group arrived just outside the doorway to the Command Bay, “I need to calm myself down when we get in there so that I’ll be thinking clearly for when Chief Reynolds asks… whatever it is that she wants to know.” He turned and pointed at Jack, who still had Riley wrapped in a ribbon.

“That means you need to not mess around and get on my nerves, little eevee.”

Riley let out a little whimper in protest.

“And the rest of you should probably all stay out of frame as well… except you Robert, she did request your presence as well.”

After placing his keycard to the scanner, the door began to open for Martin. “Now I just need to-“

He cut himself short, as at the meeting table sat a woman with curly brunette hair, small hoop earrings, and a uniform covered in all sorts of regalia. Next to her stood her a large, black-and-gray-furred wolf-like pokemon that gave off an oddly menacing presence. Having expected her to video call, Martin was startled enough by the unexpected presence of the Commander-in-Chief in his own Command Bay that he nearly dropped his illusion.

“C-Chief!” Martin started nervously. “What are you doing here? How did you get here on such short notice?”

“It wasn’t that short of notice,” Tara answered. “I left two days ago; you were just out of the loop.”

“Yes, well… being stuck on Earth without a working communication device will do that to someone.”

“Oh, is that so? We should really look into getting more powerful signal boosters for this hunk of junk…”

“Guh! Hey, the Pernautica is a more than serviceable ship, you know! Hunk of junk is a bit too far!”

“Yeah, sure, but anyways…” Tara pulled out a notepad. “I looked through the document you sent me- some fascinating information in there- and I can’t help but feel like you’re leaving out some crucial details.”

“Erm, I don’t know what you’re talking about?” Martin was shifting nervously.

“Oh really? Then tell me… where’s your intern?”

“She, uh… needed a bathroom break! That’s why she’s not here!”

“But looking over the security footage, in all of the shots you are in, she is nowhere to be found! Am I supposed to believe that she’s been in the bathroom for the entire day up to this point? Or is there something you’re not telling me?”

Martin had no rebuttal to that. He had to come clean.

“Actually… I… do have something that I need to tell you… you see this lavender shinx here?” He picked up the pokemon in question.

Tara nodded. “Yes, what does it have to do with my question?”

The shinx furrowed her brow at being called an ‘it’.

“You see… I already told you about the Transmogrium? Well, Kori breathed it in, and… this is her right here.”

The commander-in-chief’s eyes widened. “Well… that could be a problem. I should hear it from her, then.” She pulled out a pokemon-to-human translator and turned it on. “So, shinx, are you really Kori?”

“Yes, ma’am,” the shinx answered.

Tara sighed, resting her head on her arm that was itself rested on the table. “This… this is a serious problem. Your parents… do they- have they already been notified of this?”

Kori nodded as she was placed on the table next to her

“And how did they react?”

Her ears drooped. “They basically disowned me. They acted like they still loved me, but they also said I couldn’t come home, so I know how they really felt.”

Tara winced. “Mmm, that’s rough.” She tapped a pen to her chin. “Have you… er, did you help the human from another dimension become a human again?”

Ryan spoke up. “Wait, how do you already know about that?”

“Word travels quickly within the IEF, young glaceon,” Tara answered. “But I was asking Kori. Did you help this ‘Terry’ person?”

Kori nodded again.

“Oh… that isn’t good…”

“What do you mean?” Lena asked.

“You see, Lena, despite all of our efforts, we have not developed a method to turn pokemon into humans without any human DNA. So, unless she has someone else willing to give up their own human form, or three someones since the newer model is out of order right now, then Kori is stuck as a shinx.”

“So that’s it then, I’m stuck like this for the rest of my life.” Kori sighed. “I already knew that, but it’s still disappointing to hear from someone else.”

“Speaking of…” Tara continued, “Martin, would you mind telling me who the three people were that gave their human DNA to Terry so he could be human again?”

The commander shifted nervously as the commander-in-chief gave him a wide, knowing grin.

“Well, um… you already know Kori was… was one of them…” he began. “You may know that I found my daughter, and she… she went ahead and did it as well…”

“Okay, that’s two of them. Who is the third?” Tara emphasized each word in the question.

“It’s, erm… it’s a complicated question and I think… I should…”

“It’s not that hard of a question, Martin. Who is it? Oh, and by the way, I already know the answer, I just want to hear it from you.”

Martin blanched. “H-how…” He turned to Robert. “Did you tell her?”

Robert raised his hands defensively. “No, no, absolutely not! I would never breach your trust like that!”

“He speaks the truth, Martin. I saw it on the security footage. And for further proof… Mighty! Use odor sleuth!”

The mightyena trotted up to Martin and began sniffing him all over. Martin did not move, fearing that the hyena-like pokemon might attack and break his illusion if he did.

“I smell zoroark,” he barked.

Martin sighed in defeat. “Yes… it was me…” He dropped his illusion to reveal his true appearance as a zoroark. Tara smiled, this time genuinely.

“Thank you for cooperating, Martin. Now, was that so difficult?”

Martin grumbled.

“Listen,” Tara said, “if it makes you feel any better, that illusion of yours is very convincing. I never would’ve guessed it on my own if I hadn’t known the truth beforehand. And, for the record, when you were speaking in your illusion, it was plain English. Just thought you’d like to know that.”

“I knew it!” Lena said.

“So, um…” Martin said, scratching his mane, “what are you going to do with Kori and I?”

“I’ll start with you,” she said. “The regulations state that a pokemon cannot be a commander in the IEF. However, it doesn’t say anything about a human who becomes a commander, then gets turned into a pokemon after the fact. In other words, due to that loophole, you will be allowed to retain your position as commander. The fact that you have such a convincing human illusion certainly helps in that regard.”

Martin sighed with relief.

“As for Kori, I’m afraid we have no choice but to discharge her. The regulations have no such protection in place for interns.”

Kori sighed yet again. “Can’t say I didn’t see that coming…”

“And how will we have to deal with her?”

“If you want her to stay aboard the Pernautica, you can register her as your personal pokemon. All pokemon that live on the space station full time must be registered with a trainer, unless the pokemon is a grandfathered commander as you are.”

The shinx frowned and shook her head vigorously, disliking the idea of being put into a pokeball. Martin agreed. “Is there another solution?”

“If what you say about the Earth being a safe place for pokemon to live is true, she could be sent to live down there. She can be sent back to her parents, which is what the regulations say to do if an intern is accidentally transformed, but we’ve already ruled that one out. Finally, she can be sent to one of the pokemon refuge planets.”

“I say we have her stick around on Earth,” Martin said. “What do you think, Kori?

She sighed. “Honestly, it’s kind of a case of picking my poison. I’ll choose Earth, I guess, since I at least have people- well, pokemon- I know there.”

“Yeah,” Jack said, “she can stay with us! She’s been great fun to have around over the few days we’ve known her.”

Tara made a single clap. “Alright, I believe that’s all settled then. I’ll make sure that any future explorers we send down to Earth are aware that they are required to wear a spacesuit at all times but that their pokemon don’t have to. We should probably also set up some sort of system to distinguish between wild and civilized terrestrial pokemon and ban capture of the latter, otherwise we could end up stirring up some serious trouble.

“Now, am I forgetting anything?” the commander-in-chief thought aloud. “Ah yes, the whole mystery dungeon thing. Would any of you terrestrial pokemon happen to know anything about how they work or why they exist?”

Ryan hummed in thought. “Come to think of it… I… don’t actually know anything about that. All I know is that they never have the same layout each day, yet they always have the same number of ‘floors’ to them. Never really thought about how they work, though.”

“I see. How disappointing. But can you tell me about your guild system? I’m told that it’s not too different from our own hierarchy.”

Ryan explained how the guild system worked, at least on the Moon Continent.

“..and we also get given these badges,” the glaceon explained. “As you can see, mine is silver because my team has the silver rank.” He showed off his badge, even activating the holoscreen, much to Tara’s surprise.

“Whoa, it can do that?” she said, shocked that the pokemon had this level of advanced technology.

“I’m pretty sure it’s just reverse engineered from old human technology that was left behind; it’s really not that big of a deal.”

“What do you mean ‘it’s not that big of a deal?’ It’s absolutely a ‘big deal!'” Tara shouted, nearly jumping out of her seat. “This could change everything about how we view pokemon and their relation to humans!”

Mightyena rolled its eyes and sneered. “About time,” it muttered.

“Martin, Robert, both of you please make sure that the terrestrial pokemon, as well as Kori, and Lena if she wants to, get back to the planet safely, please. I need to have some alone time to process all of this.”

The actual human and the zoroark who had reillusioned himself in his human form led the pokemon out of the room. Before they returned to the ship, however, Robert offered to pick up a malasada for each of them for the trip home. They then proceeded to board the ship for the two-hour ride back to the beach. When they arrive, Robert decided to offer Jack to take some of the magazines since Riley was very clearly interested in reading them, an offer that the sylveon accepted.

“Wow, I didn’t realize just how cold it was in the ship and aboard the Pernautica until we came back out here,” Kori remarked as she stepped into the sand.

“I know,” Angela agreed. “Seriously, they had the temperature far too low up there.”

“I thought it was fine,” Ryan said, wincing with each step as he made his way over to the cooler wet sand near the water’s edge.

Then, after all of the pokemon that were staying on the planet had left the ship, Martin and Robert began to wave goodbye.

“Well, Kori… I guess this is it,” the commander said. “It’s not like I’ll never see you again, but it probably won’t be a daily occurrence either… I may not show it all the time but you were a great intern, and if you hadn’t been discharged, I genuinely think you may have been able to take my place someday. But that’s all in the past now. Whatever it is you end up doing with the rest of your life down here… make the most of it. Don’t let your past get you down… for me and for Terry. As little as you know him, I think he’d hate to see you squander your life because of him.” Martin chuckled. “I talk too much. Come on, Robert, let’s go…”

And with that, the door to the spaceship closed up, followed by a robotic countdown, and after that, the spaceship lifted off. The pokemon on the beach called out goodbyes and watched as the ship left the atmosphere until it was no longer visible. After that, there was just the rustle of the palm trees and the crashing of the waves.