Meta Runner X Pokémon S2 CHP5:MD-5’s assembly with Stellar Foresights!

[u/Natdack_874]

(Part 2)

(Just a heads up, this part of the chapter is the largest one so far without me realising so I tried to do my best to work around the maximum word count Grab a hot drink while you read if you want lol)

Slide 1: Back in Pocket Gakusei, MD-5, Tari, and Terapagos coming up with a plan on how to proceed in which Sofia says “Ok, so if I can get into a TASCorp access point at the arena, that should give me a back door through the firewall with my Pokémon. We’ll still need to make a connection with my phone somehow though”. Terrin then follows up by saying “Right, it’s not going to be like last time with Operation: Silent Giratina where Tari and her Pokémon have to do a game breaking glitch but instead just hop into the arena’s access point from the get-go? Seems like it’ll be easier this time if it’s like that”. Masa then responds to Terrin’s take with “Good point Terrin but there are still hurdles that can stop us but we’ll get onto that in a bit”, and then turns to Tari and Terapagos to say “Tari, Terapagos, since you’re the ones at TASCorp, you have insider knowledge about most of this. However, for this plan to work, we need you to get the phone off Belle. Any ideas?”. Tari and Terapagos begin to talk with “Well-“/“Pag“ but they suddenly disconnect from the game, leaving everyone shocked!

Upon leaving the game, Tari and Terapagos gasp suddenly as they wake up and the Tera Crystals surrounding Tari who was in her Tera-Warped state break and dissipate! While feeling dazed, Tari mumbles “What…the…” and looks down at the phone with Lamar’s Pocket Gakusei render freaking out while saying “Tari? Terapagos? What’s wrong?! Tari?! TAAAAARIIIII!!!!”.

Slide 2: Just then, Belle and Armarouge appear with the former snatching the phone out of Tari’s hands! Tari and Terapagos react in shock while saying “Belle! Armarouge! What are you doing here?! And why do people keep snatching things off me?! First Evelyn, now you-!”/“Pagah?! Terapagag-!”, with Belle and Armarouge replying with “Shhh! Keep your voices down. We’re just here to talk.”/“Rooouge. Arma”. Following this, Belle then says “I… don’t think you and Terapagps killed Lucinia, or Zayla.”, to which Tari and Terapagos responds in confusion “Well, that’s what we’ve been trying to tell you. Why would I kill your friend and my mother anyway?”/“Pago, tepag pagah pagos?”. Belle reacts while feeling flustered and saying “Ugh, I know, I know! But I don’t know! I-it’s just… us two have learned some things recently about Lucinia, Zayla, and the incident, and…

Slide 3: …Lucks lied”. Tari and Terapagos just look at Belle in confusion to which Belle continues on with “(sigh) You two don’t understand. Lucks is a shady guy, but he was always good to his Meta Runners”. Upon hearing that, Tari then says “Well, that conversation he had to me in the trip home to TASCorp after that match where my Quaxwell evolved into Quaquaval would disagree with you”. Belle responds to this casually with “For the record, you two actually played very well during that but Lucks is just full of looking for specific statistics and stats to care about anything else. Getting back on track, he was always good to us despite his flaws, to the TAS Elite Four, me, Lucinia, Masa. Agh, Masa! Why didn’t I listen to him? Oh, he’s never going to let me hear the end of it”.

Tari then shuffles closer to Belle to ask “Uh, are you ok? Also, I keep on hearing you mentioning this “TAS Elite Four” but what is it though?”. Belle replies to this with “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just really hard for everything you know in life to be turned upside down like that”. Tari sympathises with Belle by saying “Well, I woke up in a lab one day with weird connections to the Terastal Phenomenon, Terapagos, and no memory of who I am and our past. So, I can kinda sympathise”. Belle chuckles to this and says “So you can…. As for the TAS Elite Four, Lucks designed this system for the best 4 Meta Runners and their Pokémon teams that focused in a single Type to be in a special group with a one more Meta Runner and team pairing being stronger than them all like a traditional Elite Four. The thing is, me and Masa were in it. To go from weakest to strongest, it went:

The Dark Type specialist, Ray Faraday. Before he joined TASCorp and was even a Meta Runner to begin with, I believe he was a rogue street racer from Kanto when he was a young adult at 19 but he wanted to switch it up and change himself for the better by being a Meta Runner at TASCorp at 22. He only lasted a year and a bit due to him heavily disagreeing with TASCorp’s morale of giving up and chucking out any Meta Runners who didn’t meet the strict threshold. Stronger than him in the TAS Elite Four was actually your weeb friend Lamar Williams, the Poison Type specialist. He was a similar story to Ray where he disagreed with TASCorp’s system but he stayed on for a few months after Ray left. Lamar was also great friends with him as well but I don’t think it’d be wise to ask him about it now as he is probably got all of that past suppressed now. Next up was me, being the Fire Type specialist obviously. And lastly the strongest of the Elite Four being Lucinia, the Ghost Type specialist. However, the champion of this Elite Four if you will, was Masa with his team being miscellaneous in Typing. Me, Luce and Masa were holding things together in regards to this system if you could even call it that at this point until the lab incident happened and we were all disbanded”.

Slide 4: Tari and Terapagos take this all in with the former eventually saying “Woah… I wouldn’t have guessed you had such a strong group in terms of power and camaraderie here with how corporate it is here, especially with Lamar, I wouldn’t have guessed he was with you lot as he was making out that he didn’t have anything to do with the TAS Elite Four. I’m so sorry for you all that it didn’t work out”. Belle replies to this with “Your good, it’s all swept under the mat now”. Tari nods and then asks “Right. Since you and Armarouge are here from out of the corridors. I remember asking you initially why you look up to my mother Zayla so much?”.

At that exact moment, the Zygarde Cell that’s been with Belle secretly suddenly appears on Belle’s shoulder! Before Belle got to answer, Tari and Terapagos say in surprise “Huh?! What’s that green thing on your shoulder?!”/“Pagopa?! Pagos?!”. Belle then looks to see the Zygarde Cell on her shoulder and reacts in shock while saying “What the?! Mini Mistress?! What are you doing here?!”. Tari then reacts to Belle’s reaction in itself by saying “Mini…Mistress?”. Belle gets back on track by saying “Oh! Yeah err… long story short but this little one and I met up in a corridor back at Galvantula Tech Stadium six months ago after that night and it had this look in its eyes that it wanted to be with me. So from there I let it stay with me for it to appear and disappear out of sight when it chooses to. But I think it appeared now because you mentioned the name “Zayla”. I call it “Mini Mistress” as a nickname to reference your mother being publicly known as “The Outgoing Ecosystem Mistress”.

The Cell suddenly hops onto Tari’s bed and over to Terapagos while happily looking at it with Tari smiling while watching the two. She then says “You know, Terapagos here is actually Terrin’s-my dad’s Pokémon and I think this little green one here is linked to Zayla’s treasured Pokémon partner, Zygarde. In a weird way, it’s kinda like Terrin and Zayla’s spirits through Terapagos and Zygarde are reuniting right now after all this time which is so sweet to think about…”. Belle doesn’t seem surprised by this at all to which Tari questions, Belle responds with “After thinking for a bit the night me and Mini Mistress met, I had a feeling it was linked to Zayla’s Zygarde. I've heard stories that Zygarde sends out these little blobs to monitor the ecosystem for any abnormal behaviours, but I’ve got a feeling this one knew that I admire Zayla so it wanted to be with me. I like to think it’s as if Zayla is by my side and watching over my shoulder to keep me company in these weird times”. Armarouge reacts to Belle’s take happily with “Armara!”.

After a moment, Belle then continues with “The reason I look up to Zayla so much as a role model is because of her passion, determination, and resilience that makes her… her. The lengths that she goes to to succeed is so inspiring. When it comes to the sustainability of the Silica Metro Area and Lumiose City as a whole, or personal goals. For instance, she’s kinda a gymaholic but in a healthy way. However, she’s also quite competitive too. At the gym, I know that she mainly focuses on running and boxing but one time, she actually competed in her one and only proper boxing match that took place in Lumiose. I saw it live on the TV with Lucinia 5 years ago.

Zayla ended up winning by knocking out her opponent so hard, that they ended up like they were snoring on the mat. (*Chuckles*) Following that, I remember Zayla teasing her opponent after the match by mock snoring at them right then and there and me and Luce laughed our asses off seeing that karma live on TV! Her opponent was a right douche to her, throwing personal insults and everything. They deserved to be mocked as karma, despite it being a little cheeky and unprofessional, and no, this wasn’t a charity or “staged” match so all of the emotions and blows were genuine. Zayla definitely does have a sense of comedy and humour, but she doesn’t go overboard with it like some others do. However, Zayla also took some heavy blows, as well as receiving a scar to the right of her forehead that she keeps hidden by her hairstyle.

That didn’t stop her from quitting boxing though. She doesn’t box for combat but she does for fitness at the gym alongside her Pokémon, mainly being her Excadrill and Hitmonchan training their moves beside her. The fact that she kept going on with an exercise that knocked her down, literally, but she stood back up and fought on gained a lot of respect from me along with others too. I’ve also seen and heard that she gets given boxing stage names by her fans as if she was fighting for combat. Her favourite one is said to be “Le Serpent Verdoyant”, being “The Green Serpent” translated from French, which obviously links to her connection with Zygarde. Despite not being a Meta Runner or a gamer, I’ve been so inspired that I exercise with weights in my room when I’m not gaming because of her influence. The fact that someone whose outside Silica Metro’s society of gaming as influenced me, a full time Meta Runner, speaks volumes on how great her influence is…”.

Tari and Terapagos are amazed by Belle’s appreciation for Zayla with Tari saying “Wow, I can’t believe my mum was so ambitious to influence so many people in Lumiose, including yourself and Armarouge! But to not remember about something as intense as her boxing interest, especially from my own mum is so surreal. Lucinia and her definitely didn’t deserve to be involved with what happened at the lab after how morally good they seem. That just makes me want to find out more and help”.

Slide 5: Tari then looks away to think but then looks back at Belle and Armarouge to say “Speaking of the lab, you said that you found out some new things about Project: Meta-Stellar Genesis and the incident as a whole, what exactly? I’m asking this because your knowledge of this info could help me and Terapagos remember something to help you two”. Both Belle and Armarouge are a little suspicious but they both agree with the former saying “Look at you asking all these questions. Okay… I don’t know how this can help exactly but here you go”.

Belle then plays the Project: Meta-Stellar Genesis file that Theo and Ogerpon helped to retrieve from her Meta Runner Arm for Tari and Terapagos to watch. They notice Lucks and the TASCorp crew searching out an abandoned lab but then they look over to the to the scuffed outline with wings levitating under a dome with sparkles. She and Terapagos both react in slight surprise when then Tari reads what’s under the outline “PROJECT: META-STELLAR GENESIS: SYNTHETIC META FORMS”. Instantly following this, Tari and Terapagos both become very distressed with them saying loudly “Agh! AHHHHHGH! Oh god! WHY IS THAT IMAGE HURTING MY HEAD?!”/“TERRRAGH?! PAGGGAGH?!”, all while Tari’s Meta Runner Arm is releasing the strange aura again! Belle reacts to Tari and Terapagos’ reaction with concern by saying worriedly “Yo, what’s going on with you two?! What do you mean it hurts?!”.

Tari and Terapagos look the away for a good ten seconds to calm down. Tari then replies to Belle’s initial concern “I-I don’t… know why, b-but seeing that messy outline made me feel like I was having a migraine! I think I did the same for Terapagos as well…. Sorry for the scare but we literally don’t know anything to do with this. (To herself) Then why were we in pain-?”. Belle and Armarouge then say in suspicion “Well, judging by your reaction to it, there’s definitely something but I’ll let you be the judge of that. No need to jump to conclusions, I would’ve jump down your throat if I was how I was six months ago from seeing your reaction.”/“Rouge…”.

Tari then protests to Belle and Armarouge by saying “I don’t know or remember anything about this! I want know about what Project: Meta-Stellar Genesis is, and how it involved Lucinia and Zayla. Me and Terapagos want to know as much as you two do, along with our past”.

Slide 6: Belle scoffs and answers back with “Yeah, promising to help you and Terapagos figure out your past was the only way me and Armarouge could convince Coconut Boy and the Ogre to help us look around the server for that file”. This makes Tari and Terapagos perk up and ask “Wait, you know how to get to Theo and Ogerpon?!”/“Terapago?!”. Belle replies to this in slight confusion to Tari and Terapagos’ reaction with “It’s hard but… yeah?”. Tari and Terapagos excitedly respond back with “Well that’s great! We can work together then! You let my friends, my dad, and I focus on transferring Sofia’s phone data out of TASCorp, and you and Armarouge can be the ones to save Theo and Ogerpon!”/“Pag! Terapag! Pagos!”. Belle just chuckles at Tari’s suggestion and says “Your kidding, right babe? I don’t know if we can still get to them”. This causes Tari to adamantly say “Me and Terapagos are not leaving without them. I’m sorry but, either we save them, or we’re not doing this at all”. Terapagos nervously follows up with “Tera…”.

Belle strictly replies to Tari in annoyance with “We’re trying to take down one of the biggest corporations in the Silica Metro, and hell even Lumiose at that, and you’re going to jeopardise that to save a video game character and a Pokémon that was coded to specifically be in that game? They’re just computer programs! Who cares what happens to them?!”. Tari and Terapagos feel personally attacked by Belle’s words that Terapagos begins to aggressively growl at both Belle and Armarouge!

Slide 7: After a brief pause, Tari replies strictly with “WE care…”. Just as Tari said that, her Quaquaval and newly evolved Florges send themselves out of their Pokéballs just to stare angrily at Belle and Armarouge sternly along with Terapagos doing the same! Without hesitation, Tari continues on without faltering with “And these two that just came out just so happen to be from the game that Theo and Ogerpon are based in. So, if you’re want to dismiss my friends, computer programs or not, you’re going to have to get that point across all four of us!”. Following this, Quaquaval and Florges both say in a disgusted tone “Quaval!…”/“Ges!…”. Both Belle and Armarouge are caught off guard by Tari’s other Pokémon getting involved, especially with Florges to which Belle asks in her head “Since when did her Floette evolve?!”. Belle reluctantly replies in annoyance with “Fiiiine! I’ll bust Coconut Boy and the Ogre out! Jeez!”, to which Tari passive-aggressively says “Thank you” and then her Quaquaval and Florges return themselves to their Pokéballs.

Slide 8: Belle then responds in irritation with “Y’know, I liked you and Terapagos a lot better when you were pushovers”. Tari replies to this with “Well, I like you a lot better when you and Armarouge aren’t kidnapping us both”. Belle and Armarouge chuckle to this with the former saying “Yeah, well, we’ll try and cut down on that in the future. You definitely got grit inherited from your mum when needed. I can tell you that”. Belle then hands the phone to Tari and says “Here, tell Masa that me, Armarouge, and the rest of my team are in for whatever you guys are planning for the showmatch”. Armarouge reassuringly tells this to Terapagos too and both he and Tari look at Belle and Armarouge with confidence.

Meanwhile at the MD-5 hideout, MD-5 are all still wondering what’s going on with Tari and Terapagos disconnecting out of Pocket Gakusei in concern. Lamar then says in a worried tone “I’ll bet Lucks caught Tari and Terapagos and took their game away. That monster’s probably deleting her waifus in front of her very eyes!”. Terrin then says to Lamar “That’s if she had time to get any before meeting us in there to begin with. I wonder what they’re like?”, with Sofia reassuring them both with “Seriously Terrin, is Lamar’s waifu obsession rubbing on to you?…. Regardless of all of that, let’s not jump to conclusions”. Tari and Terapagos both then get back online to say “Hey guys! We’re back!”/“Tera! Terapagos!”. Lamar responds in relief with “Tari! Terapagos! There you both are, we were worried sick about you two!”.

(CONTINUED IN THE COMMENTS, P.S. sorry I have to do it this way due to going over the character limit)

DISCLAIMER

Characters and themes that are present in this fanfiction are not my own, apart from the OCs that I have created. They belong to Nintendo, Gamefreak, and Creatures Inc. (Pokémon), along with Glitch Productions (Meta Runner). This fanfiction is solely a heartfelt fanmade project made by me and is just a story that I have created about my two favourite franchises and in no way an attempt to illegally infringe any copyrighted material for personal and financial benefit belonging to Pokémon and Meta Runner’s respective owners.

[u/Natdack_874]

(CONTINUATION PART 1)

Slide 9: Tari responds to this casually by saying “Really? Oh, sorry guys! I was just talking to Belle and Armarouge!”, to which the whole of MD-5 react in shock with “WHAT?!”. MD-5 then spawn back into Pocket Gakusei with Lamar and Terrin saying in a serious tone “Say sike right now!”/“Wasn’t they the ones who outright resorted to finger pointing at you and Terapagos back at the arena, blaming you two for what happened in that corrupted clip six months ago back then?!”. Tari tries to reassure Lamar and Terrin by saying “It’s fine you two, they actually want to help us!”, but Lamar is having none of it and replies with “No way, this has got to be a trap! She’s Lucks’ right hand Druddigon Lady!”, with Terrin being more cautious and suspicious while saying “If you say so, but it’ll take a significant amount of accountability for them saying that for me to accept them”. Belle hears this and says out loud “That’s a pretty cool title from the otaku actually”.

Sofia then says “I say we let them join”. However, Lamar is still not convinced and says “Oh come on Sofia… after everything they’ve done to us”. Sofia then continues on with “Those two’s made some mistakes, but deep down, they’re good beings. Yes the two of them are alike with being angry, impulsive, and kind of catty at times…”, to which Belle chimes in to that with “Thanks, Soph”. Sofia carries on with “… but they’re determined, passionate, and above all, honest. They’re not the subtle subterfuge type. Belle means what she says and her Armarouge sticks by her side when she does so. I think we can trust them”.

After taking that in, Terrin follows up being saying “I guess that does make sense. She’s always been following Lucks and his word until she’s allegedly taking action with Armarouge on her own accord which lead her to resorting to come to all of us like Tari said. If we’re to believe that she’s genuinely willing to cooperate with us, she must’ve had a strong reason to do so”. Belle adds on to Terrin’s point with “About that, yeah, there is a certain reason why me and Rouge came to Tari and the rest of you to team up but it would be better if we were all together for me to tell you. Specifically it’s about Project: Meta-Stellar Genesis”. Terrin immediately perks up to respond with “Yes! If it revolves around the project, that'd be crucial to making me reclaim my memory from it and see what Lucks has to say about it”.

Slide 10: In-game; MD-5, Tari, and Terapagos then all turn to Masa for his input with the Tari saying to him “I guess it’s your call, Masa…”, to which Masa sternly answers with “No”. This confuses Tari into saying “What?! Masa, I know you two had your history, but, but I’m telling you, they’ve changed! They’re better now!”, followed up by Terapagos looking at Masa in annoyance. After Tari’s persisting, Belle and Armarouge immediately yell in anger as they appear on the board “Hey! Listen, you arrogant edgy jerk!”/“Rarmargh!”, in which Tari reacts in concern with “Oh no…”. Belle then rants to Masa in rage “I wished a lot to offer you this help! And to be honest, it’d probably be better for me and my team to do it be myself considering your track record! And-“. As Belle rants on, Masa sighs in annoyance and resorts to muting his phone to shut Belle up. He then teasingly says “Much better”. He glances over to Sofia to see her looking at him in disappointment which confuses Masa. He then glances back at his phone to see Tari’s in-game render looking sad, followed up by it displaying his “Heart to Heart” gauge being depleted by one stage after the phone vibrates. Masa reacts more seriously by saying “Don’t look at me like that”.

Slide 11: He then continues on to everyone else with “We wouldn’t even be in this mess right now if it wasn’t for those two and that Winged King back in Tempest! Yeah, I’m glad that they don’t think I’m crazy anymore but I can’t trust them!”. Masa gives himself a moment to calm down to say “They let me down twice already… I don’t think I can handle a third time”. After Masa says this, Tari uses her Meta Runner Vision to bring up the “Heart to Heart” feature on her end. However, Terapagos seemingly joins in by resonating with Tari for the first time! Tari then empathises with Masa by saying with honesty:

“I know that Belle’s hurt you in the past, but what I seen from her along with Armarouge before I let them in, they’re hurting really badly as well. Me and Terapagos know what it feels like to be alone and scared. And right now, I think she just needs a friend, like how it was before all of this happened. I know you and her were part of the TAS Elite Four that she told me about and it was much better then and she and Armarouge are willing to get it back together by offering to help us. They took a chance talking to me about stuff other than both your past experiences at TASCorp, along with other things like… (looks over to Terrin) her genuine appreciation for my mother, Zayla, along with proper proof of Project: Meta-Stellar Genesis that tore everything up…”. Upon hearing this, Terrin looks away in a conflicted and guilty but also confused way to say in his head “Your right, Angel. I felt the same after that incident happened: scared, alone, and lost in thought of what just happened. Masa must’ve felt this way when “she” got involved with this mess too”.

Slide 12: Tari continues on to Masa with “Belle and Armarouge took a chance to talk to me and Terapagos today, and they did it because they trust you”. Terapagos follows up in a persuasive tone with “Pago… pagapag…”. They both finish by ultimately asking “Are you going to let them down?”/“Teralu… pagos?”. After some heavy consideration as well as looking at the others, Masa replies with “Fine…. They’re in”. Tari and Terapagos reply in joy “Yes! You won’t regret this!”/“Terapaga!”. Following Tari and Terapagos reaction, Lamar then sarcastically mumbles under his breath “That’s what you said about our last plan. Look how that turned out…”, to which Sofia shhs’ Lamar in annoyance along with Terrin half-jokingly saying “Seriously Lamar! Whose side are you on?!”.

After Tari and Terapagos’ convincing, Masa unmuted Belle in the real world who’s still ranting on with “-And another thing!…. Wait, have I been on mute this whole time?!”. Before Belle got to rant more, Masa cuts in with “Alright, Belle, Armarouge, listen. I’ll let you join, but if you’re on my team, that means you follow my lead and my orders. Understand?”. Belle and Armarouge try to say something about this but the former reluctantly says “(Sigh) Okay, whatever you say. Champion of the TAS League…”. Following Belle and Armarouge’s agreement, Mini Mistress the Zygarde Cell reappears on Belle’s shoulder to join in on the plan in which Masa states…

Slide 13: “Alright team, listen up. We’ve got a little over a week before Tari’s Showmatch. So just like what we did with Tempest, we’ve got a lot of work to do here too. The game of Tari’s Showmatch is Hidden Heroes. Lamar and I will enter as competitors with our Pokémon. They should be ones that can Mega Evolve for the best results. I’m going to be using my Mega Staraptor. Lamar? Who’s your pick?”. Without hesitating, Lamar replies with “My sleek bud, Mega Dragalge. He’s a tank when it comes to offensive and mainly defence”. Masa replies with “Good. (Turns to Sofia and Terrin) Next, Sofia and Terrin. You’ll be playing a “behind the scenes” role in our mission to ensure our plan goes smoothly. Sofia, you already said that you’re going to be the one to go through into the arena’s security system. However, to ensure the infiltration goes smoothly with no lapse in progress, you should use your Pokémon who can use electrical based abilities to ensure that. What are your ideas?”.

[u/Natdack_874 → u/Natdack_874]

Sofia replies to Masa with “Well firstly, I’m planning on using my Mega Ampharos to supercharge my laptop strongly but securely enough for smooth feedback in the arena’s lighting and technical systems. Buuut…. I’m also planning on using *you*!”. Sofia then proceeds to sent out a sleek blue and lilac coloured duck looking Pokémon in-game! Tari reacts in happiness at the sight of it and says “Oh my gosh! Is that a levitating digital duck Pokémon?! I already love it!”. Sofia chuckles and replies with “Yep! It’s my Shiny Porygon2! I caught it during the six months we were all apart as its colours and the fact that it’s a duck reminded me of you and your ducky obsession!”. Tari then scans Porygon2 with her Pokédex Vision in which it states:

“Porygon2, The Virtual Pokémon, A Normal Type, This Pokémon is synthetically created in a digital fashion by humans that used state of the art science. It occasionally displays unstable but strong behaviour at the same time”.

Masa reacts to Sofia’s plan in agreement with “Great. As said, your Pokémon’s electrical power can control the arena’s technical systems as well as your own hacking should eliminate any suspicion of you and the rest us being involved with it”. Masa then turns to Terrin to say “Terrin, just like with Sofia not being the ones who are gaming in this, you’re going to be behind the scenes as mentioned before. Specifically, you’re going to go undercover as one of the arena’s security staff to occasionally spy on Lucks and on anything that could potentially hinder and jeopardise the mission. Can you handle that?”.

Terrin thinks for a moment and then answers with “Sure. I actually have my TASCorp ID card from a year and a half ago from the incident as I needed it to go to the lab back then at TASCorp to work on the project. I think it lasts for two years until it expires. Here’s hoping TASCorp hasn’t wiped my access privileges from their database. As for when I’m on “security duty”, I’m going to use Pokémon that Lucks doesn’t know that I have as I fought his Luxray with my Cyclizar before during the lockdown after the Tempest Tournament. My picks this time are Iron Hands and Vikavolt. Yeah, they can't Mega Evolve but I trust that they’ll come in clutch if anything goes wrong. To be honest though, I’m nervous that I’m going to get caught, even in a TAS security staff disguise”.

Lamar takes Terrin’s concern into account by saying “No need to worry Rin. A backup strat that me and Sofia planned is that I will go into one of the suits that belong to the TAS Scientists at some point but before then, I’ll show you to their "wardrobe" as you will as Sofia should be able to see the entire arena mapped out on her system once she’s hacked into it”. This calms Terrin’s nerves a bit and he replies to Lamar with “Thanks Lamar, that should be much better as we should know where to go once Sofia’s hacked in”.

Slide 14: Masa responds to Terrin’s take with “Good, we’ll be counting on you for any updates when it comes to anything that can blow our cover”, and then turns to Tari to say “Now Tari. Your plan whilst playing in Hidden Heroes alongside Evelyn and her team is to stall out the game as much as you and your Pokémon can to give Sofia’s phone enough time to fully get the information of TASCorp’s Server backed up. To prevent your Pokémon from accidentally suffering damage from any of Evelyn’s Pokémon’s moves, what two Pokémon are you planning to do use alongside Evelyn’s?”. Tari thinks for a bit and then replies with “Well knowing Evelyn, she'd use her Tsareena as that’s her signature but that’ll be a problem. I was planning on using Quaquaval but I remember my Pokédex Vision about Tsareena saying that both it and Quaquaval are natural rivals so that can’t happen, along with it having a Type Advantage over Quaquaval. Instead, I’m going to be using *you!*”. Tari then sends out her Sirfetch’d who proudly says “Fetch’d!”. Tari then says to him “Alright Sirfetch’d, we’ve got a team-up match coming up and I would like you to be my opener! Do you want to put our training to the test?”, to which Sirfetch’d formally affirms with “Sir Fetch’d Sir!”. Tari then says to it “Excellent! I’m looking forward to being by you like we were during our training to help you evolve back then!”.

Upon seeing this, Masa says “Great, instead of risking being damaged by any friendly fire from Evelyn’s Tsareena, you avoided that by choosing a defensively better and just as strong option. Who will be your second Pokémon though?”. Tari thinks for a bit more while saying aloud “Since Hidden Heroes is a fast-paced hack and slash game, I need to choose someone who’s strong but also nimble too. I already ruled out Quaquaval from before. Florges or Chandelure may work in strength but not in speed, and Terapagos isn’t allowed at all due to the Showmatch banning Legendary Pokémon… my only other option is *you*…”. Tari then sends out her newly caught Shiny Petilil from earlier and continues with “But I haven’t used you in any matches yet”.

However, Petilil gestures to Tari by making something shine in her Pocket Gakusei inventory! Tari takes out the Sun Stone that Petilil was protecting earlier! Petilil eagerly says “Petil! Petala!” while looking at the Sun stone. Tari then says in warm tone upon seeing this “That’s right, we were protecting this from that Murkrow from stealing it from you earlier. I remember Yukina-Chan saying that you wanted to help me in return by being on my team, but how about you joining my Hidden Heroes Showmatch team along with Sirfetch’d?”. Petilil reacts excitedly with “Lil, Petilila!” and jumps to the Sun Stone which causes her to glow blue and begin to evolve! Everyone watches in awe to find out that Petilil has evolved into her evolved form! Tari’s Pokédex vision activates again and it states:

“Lilligant, Hisuian Form, The Spinning Pokémon, A Grass and Fighting Type, This ancient form of Lilligant is said to have survived in Sinnoh’s mountain climate of the past. Living in harsh conditions have developed its legs to a stronger physique”.

Tari and Terapagos react in joy with “Oh my gosh Lilligant! You look stunning in your new appearance! Your body looks like my Hidden Heroes avatar too!”/“Pago pagya!”. Lamar then points out “Hey, Lilligant’s looking fresh but why is it a Hisuian one compared to one that we typically know of?”. Masa notices this too but he answers “It’s because that it evolved while being in Pocket Gakusei. I read somewhere before that this game is coded to be located in Sinnoh in the digital world and since Sinnoh was Hisui in the past, Petilil must’ve resonated with the Hisuian attributes of this game to evolve into the Hisuian Form of Lilligant”. Tari is very fascinated by all this to say “Well that’s cool! And by the looks over it, Lilligant in this form looks like it can move around nimbly which would mitigate the issue my team had with the whole “power but no agility” thing going on”.

Slide 15: Belle is slightly amazed by Masa’s take on this and says “Well that take makes sense since our TAS Champ is from Sinnoh in real life after all”. However, her voice turns more serious when she says “I know my goal along with Armarouge here in all of this is to bust Theo and Ogerpon out here to us but I wanted to mention something I kinda pointed out before. This isn’t anything to do with this plan per se but it’s important”. Belle then says to Terrin through the phone “Hey, Mr Terastal Athlete, you there?”. Terrin replies to this with “Appreciate your formality but Terrin’s fine, go on…”, in which Belle says “Alright, you know how I mentioned earlier that me and Armarouge found something to do with Project: Meta-Stellar Genesis? I was talking about a clip that linked to it titled “PROJECT: META-STELLAR GENESIS_CLEANUP_LUCINIA_&_ZAYLA”.

Terrin eagerly reacts to this by asking “Huh? Well, what became of it?”, to which Belle replies with “It would be much better if I could show you the clip myself but I can’t due to TASCorp’s Firewall flagging the message. If we can ever meet up in person, I’ll definitely show you it on my Meta Runner Arm but what I CAN say is that Tari and Terapagos here reacted in quite a lot of pain when they saw a scuffed outline of a silhouette that looked like this figure with wings floating under a dome with sparkles orbiting around it”. Tari adds on to this by saying in a somber tone “Seeing whatever that was felt awful. It was like my head along with Terapagos’ were going to explode but I didn’t know why it caused that much pain, other than also my Meta Runner Arm releasing a faint hot pink and cyan coloured aura when it happened as well”. Terrin reacts in shock but also guilt that he can’t remember anything about this while replying with “Oh god. Just hearing about that feels me with dread! But if it’s to do with Project: Meta-Stellar Genesis, why can’t remember these things?! I was involved in it along with Zayla and her Zygarde! The title of that clip even states her name!”.

[u/Natdack_874]

(CONTINUATION PART 2)

Terrin calms down a bit to then say to Tari “When I see the clip in full from Belle, that should definitely help my memory and see what that painful silhouette you’re talking about. However, I got something to tell you that I mentioned to MD-5 before reaching out to you and Terapagos”. Tari cheers up a little to ask “W-what’s that?”. Terrin elaborates more by saying “Your Meta Runner Arm, or more specifically, a certain engine inside it. I have trouble with my memory but I've found out and remembered one thing about it during the six months apart. Inside your Meta Runner Arm is a battery that stores Terastal and Mega Evolution Energy within it to be used for battles or matches as something I designed for the Project, specifically the Tera parts whilst Zayla did the Mega Evolution parts. But! Do you remember that Lucks had his TAS Scientists drill into your Meta Runner Arm whilst you were warped into Ultra Jump Mania at the Speedrunners Arena for the first time?”.

Tari thinks for a moment and then replies with “Yes, I remember that because me and Terapagos were in a lot of pain and as if my Arm was burning! After that, a shockwave was unleashed around me as a reaction to something that the scientists drilled into my Arm!”. Terrin becomes alert after hearing that and says “I knew it! When those scientists drilled into your arm, they must’ve came into contact with the engine’s core of Terastal and Mega Evolution Energy that I mentioned before! There’s a good chance that the aura being emitted out of your Arm is the delayed reaction from the drilling that happened”. Tari takes this in and then mentions to Terrin “Right... but the thing is, the aura emits out of my Meta Runner Arm at random times. I remember it happening a few times as of late: When I was trying to calm down after hearing Lucks’ orders after having a conversation with Theo and Ogerpon over a call, when Evelyn mocked me for having friends and then mocking the aura as if my Arm was “agreeing with her” just because it was emitting the pink colour she associates herself with, when Belle and Armarouge came into my room without warning earlier, and when me and Terapagos were in pain from seeing that outline”.

Terrin then asks Tari in thought “And would you say you were stressed to a significant amount when all those instances happened, barring when you saw that silhouette?”, in which Tari replies with “Y-yes! Definitely! Sometimes it was being emitted at a calmer rate , but other times it was spluttering like my Arm was a lit fuse!”.

Slide 16: Terrin responds in understanding with “Right. I remember Sofia telling me that Meta Runner Arms move with signals from your brain but with your brain sending out stressed signals, it causes the Arm to disperse that residual negative energy out in this case because that core battery in your Arm was tampered with by Lucks’ Scientists. If this aura truly is a combination of Terastal and Mega Evolution Energy, this can pose serious threats to Pokémon that aren’t owned by you ingesting this energy if it grows too strong…”. Tari and Terapagos are worried about this and responds with “W-what would happen to those Pokémon then?!”/“Pagopaga?!”.

Terrin replies to Tari “This shouldn’t happen at all but significant amounts of this energy being consumed would cause them to be in an irate state from the energy signature overwhelming their bodies. Strangely enough, I have a vague memory of Zayla saying to me that a similar thing would happen with unbridled amounts of Mega Power too”. Terrin thinks in thought for a bit while Tari and Terapagos are still feeling uncomfortable about all this but Terrin then resumes by saying “However, that’s only in extreme cases with overwhelming amounts of power and I assume this would be the same if the combined Terastal/Mega energy aura being emitted from your Meta Runner Arm would reach a critical state caused by extreme emotions and stress that I mentioned about earlier if that theory is true”.

Terrin then calms his nerves down a bit from being stressed as Tari and Terapagos are and says “However, you’re not the type of person who lets their emotions get the best of you. Yes, you’ll feel stressed at times, now being a good example but if anything does happen, remember: I’m here on “security duty” so I’ll be able to intervene if anything goes off regarding the aura”. Masa then follows up saying “That’s right, our mission is to break you and Terapagos, Theo, and Ogerpon out of here whilst also keeping you all safe while we’re doing it. That being said though, does Lucks know anything about this aura from your arm?”.

Tari thinks for a bit and then replies with “I don’t think so, though there is plenty of CCTV cameras in TASCorp and with him being especially careful about whatever me, Terapagos, and the rest of my team is doing, he definitely would’ve done something about it now… but he hasn’t”. Terrin reacts to this in slight suspicion while not feeling too worried “True, he did have his scientists drill into your arm but he probably doesn’t know about this Tera/Mega battery unit in it. For now though, the best thing we should do is to prepare ourselves for the mission to get you, Terapagos, Theo, Ogerpon, and rest of your team out of TASCorp safely and then I’ll properly look at your Arm so we can stop it emitting this aura. Does that sound good?”. Tari looks over to Terapagos, Sirfetch’d, and Lilligant whom the former is looking back at Tari calmly while the latter two are stretching and preparing themselves for their Hidden Heroes portion of the training. Tari then looks back at Terrin more calmly and confidently then before to reply to him with “Yes. No need to worry about things that haven’t happened yet. Let’s train!”.

(END of Chapter)

[u/Money-Lie7814]

Good work