Curate, connect, and discover
- Down, down, slightly left, slightly forward, down, down... - motor-mouthed Levi into comm, dubbing his vocal commands with gestures with handheld signal beacons. Above his head, Cherie, controlling Alva’s personal airship “Kamiya”, slowly descended, trying to place the huge pile of cargo, which was now hanging on external mount, right into designated zone.
- Down, down, half’o’sec’o’thrust right... Perfect! - screamed Levi. - Disengage electromagnet, drop Raleigh and take our baby back home.
- “Our” baby? - sounded the cabinet minister’s voice in the comm. - Well, it’s not that I’m that against you two using my airship when I don’t need her, but, if the costs for flight, not counting energy for engines, exceed two million, you will be the ones paiyng them. However, if you want to take her for a private flight for your honeymoon...
- Boss? - sounded confused Cherie in the channel. - What do you mean - “honeymoon”?
- Ah, I suppose, I’m rushing the events, - replied Alva in somewhat sarcastic voice.
- How did you know? - asked Levi, already knowing the boss’s answer.
- I know you two much more than you think. Me, being a cabinet minister, arcane researcher and pretty much a father replacement for prince, does not mean I do not monitor condition of my two most important henchmen.
- Well, thank you for putting us in such a high regard! - happily said Cherie, repositioning the airship. - Raleigh and “package” on cargo platform. Levi - he’s under your responsibilty now.
- Acknowledged! - replied her colleague, walking to the lowered platform, on which young prince stood near the heavy metallic briefcase, obviously designed for transporting hazardous materials.
- Monsieur Levi? - wondered boy. - And where’s the minister Alva?
- Cabinet minister is very busy now, - said henchman. - He plans to perform a test today, and I need to deliver this cargo to him now.
- What kind of test? - asked him curious prince.
- New power source. Let’s go, no need to hold boss and Cherie waiting, - finished this conversation Levi, taking the briefcase and walking inside the Flying Fortress. Curious Raleigh followed him, and Cherie, after retracting the platform and closing the ramp, took the airship back to the port.
- -
- Here, boss! - said Levi, giving a heavy metallic briefcase to the Alva and leaving the room at once, closing the blast door in process. The cabinet minister carefully placed it on the table, grabbed tongs, dressed himself in a full hazmat suit and only after that opened the briefcase. In it, there lied several strange crystals, glowing faint blue.
- Unown shards, power source of the Kingdom’s future, - whispered Alva, carefully picking them with tongs one by one and loading into special holders in a strange-looking device. After he was finished, he installed the safety cover on the device and placed the tongs aside, but remained in the hazmat suit. Shortly after, he placed the device on small cart, opened the blast door and rolled it into the main engine room, which was loaded with terrifying amounts of equipment, installed on the new platforms near the central catwalk, above which the main power distribution core was suspended.
- Preliminary ignition cascade... operable. Secondary ignition system... operable. Secondary distributors... operable. Emergency power-bleeding system... operable, - mumbled arcane researcher, checking the machinery. - Looks like I can install the power source now.
- Minister Alva? - suddenly sounded child’s voice. Alva turned around and saw Raleigh, coming to him from the side of the steam condensers and coolant storage.
- Prince Raleigh, I strongly advise you to leave at once, - replied man, looking at the young prince. - The power source is very dangerous to handle without sufficient protection.
- Understood, understood, leaving... - muttered Raleigh, turning around and backtracking. Arcane researcher nodded to no one in particular, then opened a heavy reinforced hatch on one of the bigger machines, took the device, placed it in the connection port inside, closed the hatch and only after it exhaled quietly, being proud of himself. According to the data, showed on the nearby sensors, the power source was installed correctly, so, the second stage of the test was about to begin...
- -
- Please, Raleigh, be careful, - said Alva, guiding the young prince through the mess of cables and tubes, which covered floor of this corridor of the Flying Fortress in a thick layer.
- Boss, we’re ready! - screamed Cherie from the control room. No one was quite sure, how she has managed to get here from the dock so quickly. Apparently, it was one of her “girly secrets”.
- Understood, we’re almost there! - replied cabinet minister, right before he and Raleigh entered the room itself.
Even if Nikola supposed this room to be elegant in some way, it was anything but this now. Entirety of the floor was covered in tubes, cables and wires of nearly all kinds, the bridge was perma-raised and fixed in this position now, with an aluminum ladder placed to provide access, everything was cramped with a new machinery...
- Boss - need any help? - asked Levi, bending over the safety rails.
- Yeah, help me to get prince up there, - mumbled Alva before, along with Levi, getting Raleigh on the bridge, then getting on it himself.
The bridge - originally, pretty spacious - was even more cramped, than the rest of the control room. The layer of cables and tubes here was so thick, it worked as a floor by itself, the secondary consoles and equipment racks obstructed most of the view on the main screen, the original singular seat was removed in favor of modified office chair... Well, at least, now, before both of the primary control consoles, there were normal seats. Though the right one was so surrounded by additional control panels and indicators, it looked like it was in some kind of a strange cockpit.
- Raleigh - stay there. Cherie - on standby, - started to give orders Alva, trying to get into the “cockpit”, while his henchgirl sat before the left primary control console and, unbeknownst to him, invited Raleigh to sat on her knees, to get the better view. - Levi - activate the preliminary ignition cascade!
- Acknowledged, preliminary ignition warming up, - replied the henchman, sat on the central seat and started to flick switches and turn knobs on the nearby panels in order, which would seem somewhat chaotic to the uninformed observer. After roughly a minute, he said, - Preliminary ignition cascade ready!
- Commence the preliminary ignition!
- Acknowledged, preliminary ignition commencing, - lazily said Levi, flicking open the safety cover and pressing the button.
Deep inside the Flying Fortress, in the main engine room, one of the machines finally hummed to life. Unown crystal shards, stimulated by arcanotechnological devices, glowed, trying to open the breach between dimensions and never succeeding in it, but giving away lots of energy in process, which was instanly harvested by the human creation.
- Preliminary ignition successful, crystal reactor is now at two percent, - reported Levi. - Commence primary engine ignition?
- Wait, power distribution normal, power-bleeding normal... - mumbled Alva, then replied, - Yes, commence primary engine ignition!
- Primary engine ignition commencing... - Levi tried to raise the power of the crystal reactor and route it into the Fortress’ main power distribution core. - So far, so goo...
At that moment, siren sounded, while the power monitoring display showed, that core, instead of activating and routing energy through the entirety of structure, remained locked and just accumulated energy, which could’ve meant explosion in this situation.
- Emergency shutdown and power-bleeding! - screamed Alva and Levi at the same time, each doing their own part in preventing a solid chunk of the wall, surrounding Azoth Kingdom, getting into the sky the wrong way. Thankfully, well thought-out contingency protocols and machinery helped to do it quickly, putting this crisis to end.
- Well, boss, I think your tech-paranoia has a very good basis, - mumbled Levi, trying to recover from this. - What do we do now?
- For now - let us just finish the second external power transfer line, then re-activate the reactor and share some of the energy with Kingdom - as much as safely possible, anyway. For later - we need to find and get the Soul-Heart, or this Fortress will stay locked on the ground forever, - replied the minister.
- And what do I do? - asked Cheri, helping Raleigh to get back to the floor.
- Go relax somewhere, I guess. Or you can try to help us to finish this power line. What’s your Pokemon today?
- Alakazam.
- Great. Your majesty?
- I think I want to see it.
- No problems. Just please, use the protective clothes, - finished his talk Alva, powering down most of the control equipment.
“Sometimes, I hate Nikola. He was genius, but a crazy one. Even with a new power source, we still need a Magearna to unlock the Fortress.” - thought the cabinet minister, crawling out of the “cockpit” and walking through the bridge, before getting down by a ladder. - “Well, I still need to make Azoth Kingdom a better place. For now, the better power source will do fine.”
(Author's Note: this story was previously submitted to the villain story contest in @allhailpokemonvillains. Because the contest is over, I'm finally publishing it here.
Chronologically, it's set after "Promise" and before "Business")
- So, Levi, - started the cabinet minister in sinisterly gentle voice, - can you tell me, why there’s no VTOL gravplane on the aft landing pad of my airship?
- Well… - began his henchman.
- Twenty words or less, - taped Alva, gripping his staff harder and pointing it at the Levi.
- I’ve forgot to moor it after the scanning sweep in area, where bringing entire airship wouldn’t have been an option, so…
- Twenty, - stopped him minister. - Cherie - what’s your excuse?
- We were forced to commence emergency evasion maneuver soon after Levi's return, so, unmoored gravplane fell off the airship, - said the woman, looking at the sharp tip of the staff, which was now pointed at her. - At least it, during the fall, has collided with the Volcanion, which tried to attack us, and absorbed a decent part of its Overheat while simultaneously throwing its aim away, which is why we were able to bring the airship with barely working aft levitation engine here, back to the docks. If not for the gravplane, the ship would’ve been crashed wreck now.
-… OK, I accept this explanation, - replied minister, changing the grip position of his staff to the less threatening one. - After all, I saw the damaged parts of the airship. However, it does not change the situation, that, thanks to your doings, I’ve lost my private gravplane - not a cheap one, by the way, and almost lost my airship - a pricy one too. Had I ever told you “Now, these airship and gravplane are completely yours. Use them as you wish!”?
- No… - began Levi.
- Right, I never did such a thing. However, the gravplane is no more and airship is seriously damaged. What the time it is, when you come back with damaged equipment, no gravplane and no results?
- Third, boss, - said Cherie in exhausted voice.
- That’s right, you come back with no gravplane and no… Stop, you did come with some results this time! - suddenly cheered Alva, activating the projector, switching to the map of Azoth Kingdom's surroundings and pointing at it with his staff. - From what it looks like, Volcanion protects this specific region - even more specific, the Nebel Plateau. Each time you’ve tried to approach the Plateau, this Pokemon suddenly attacked you, as to if prevent you from ever getting a chance to perform a scanning sweep! Maybe, what it’s trying to hide is exactly what we are searching for.
- So… wait ‘till repairs are over and commence search-and-retrieval operation? But…
- No, not like that, - said cabinet minister with strange and menacing smile. - I’ll make sure airship gets some armoring this time and you… you will get the presents I was talking about for the long time already.
- MWDs? - asked Levi and Cherie at the same time.
- Yes, Mega Wave Devices, I’ve almost finished testing the final prototypes, so, in following months, you’ll get them along with Mega-able Pokemon. It’s kinda bad Hunter J has disappeared somewhere, so, I’ll have to work with either this new K girl or some smaller players at the black market… Anyway, you two are dismissed!
Alva’s henchmen has happily left his room, while the cabinet minister placed his staff away and took a tablet with a scanned images of Nikola’s design diagrams - specificially, Flying Fortress and Magearna.
“A year or so - and the kingdom will receive two rulers, which will finally guide it back to the ways of might and glory!” - thought Alva, analyzing the designs of the Soul Heart and the Fortress’ cannon’s power source’s cradle. - “And I’ll finally fulfill my promise!”
- Approaching designated randevu point! - announced Cherie, carefully pulling engine control throttles and making the Azoth Kingdom-built airship descend.
- Still nothing, boss, - reported Levi. - All radars give clear picture. By the way, the lateral turning motor of the main parabolic radar broke once again, looks like short-circuit. Any ideas why?
- Levi, did you forget to apply varnish? - asked him Alva in exasperated voice.
- No, boss, I’ve triple-checked this before we’ve gone flight. You know, it’s kinda uncomfortable, when your main radar loses ability to turn and can only scan the last direction. Good thing it stopped at zero-zero.
- Then no ideas, beside obvious humidity build-up somewhere.
- There we are! - announced Cherie, flicking switches and putting the engines of the airship to hovering mode. - Anchored and ready!
- If not for your words and sensor readings, I’d have never noticed it, - said Alva in pleased voice. - Great piloting.
- Thanks, boss, - replied somewhat shy Cherie, checking the ship’s systems. - Everything’s normal, no scratches or like this, our girl is healthy’n’good.
- Besides the main radar. Sixth time already, - murmured Levi, then began to announce. - All radars...
Man’s voice faded when a huge signature suddenly appeared on all radars. Outside of the ship, a big airship, somewhat similar to the classic “Hunt-3R″, but bigger, with sleeker lines and more visible weaponry, de-cloaked and landed less then 300 meters from the airship of cabinet minister, two bow-mounted autocannon turrets aimed near the bridge.
- This ship looks like she was built by “Kirasawa Shipyards”, - finally managed to squeeze out a word Levi.
- But she wasn’t, - objected Alva, who was already studying the newcomer. - “Kirasawa”, most of time, puts external hangars and cargo containers, which often have more height that the ship herself, on the sides of main hull, while this one has containers half the ship’s height mounted between main hull and external engine pods. Also, bridge is too small and too deep into hull, and I never saw any ship from the “Kirasawa Shipyards” with that much weapons - those two turrets are definitely just part of point defence system.
- Boss, you know a lot! - said impressed Cherie
- I need to. After all, our kingdom continues to lose position on the airship market, and “Kirasawa Shipyards” is just after the corporations in the list of competitors. It’s like this ship was purposely built to fool those who know too little to think it was built by “Kirasawa”, but to let those who know style of those shipyards understand that it’s not... - Alva made a strange motion, as if shrugging something off. - Anyway, here they are, so I’m going in. Levi - open the hatch and prepare the elevator, Cherie - stay here, keep engines warm and ready. I feel far from good about this...
- Yeah... - replied Levi, remembering seeing records of the cabinet minister’s talks with this Hunter. While Hunter J, who has mysteriously disappeared not so long ago, was somewhat scary on her own, K...
***
- So, cabinet minister of the Azoth Kingdom, huh? I’m happy to have such a client! - said woman with a jet-black hair, slowly moving across her small quarters, presumaby onboard of her ship. Levi couldn’t explain it, but something in her made him feel wrong and, from what it seemed, Alva too. For most of people, it would’ve been impossible to spot, but Levi knew his superior for long enough to notice he was nervous.
- So am I. Miss K, - Alva took an opportunity, trying to direct this talk into where he wanted it to go, - I want you to give me Pokemon from this list.
Cabinet minister quickly pressed some keys on his personal terminal, sending a message to her. Woman sat down on chair, reading the message without any hurry, then slowly rose from it and said:
- So, perfect stats; does not matter if Shiny or not; abilities, that work great together if those Pokemon fight side-by-side; some Egg moves; does not matter, if bred or hunted and all capable of Mega Evolution? Am I witnessing revolution, that is about to happen?
- I knew it’ll be obvious... - replied cabinet minister. - Sort of. Some of them will be needed for other, non-political purposes. And, if this info gets out...
- No need to worry, I never tell anyone about the details! - said K with somewhat menacing curved smile. - Contract privacy is contract privacy, no matter what. Also, I’m not into politics, as long as they don’t touch me. So, what about payment?
- Twenty millions total, ten - now, ten - after getting Pokemon.
- Fair enough. I’ll give you coordinates of the randevu point in two weeks. K out, - finished the talk woman and cut the channel. Alva opened a drawer, grabbed a small bottle of Azoth-produced “Cog Oil” whiskey, poured himself a shot and took it in a single long gulp. From what Levi saw in this recording, minister was still nervous about this K. Something in her was just plain wrong, but neither he, nor Cherie or Alva could point out, what exactly.
- It’s not like we have other options, - commented cabinet minister, stopping the video and shutting down his terminal. - She’s our best option now - both in price and quality.
- So, cabinet minister Alva, I suppose? - said one of the K henchmen, when Alva approached her airship, still feeling uncomfortable of CIWS turrets and her henchmen, which’ve already released their Pokemon to establish defense perimeter around her airship. - Commander K will be there very soon.
- Good, - replied cabinet minister, taking a closer look on the ship. Even now, he could see several characteristic coverings of missile tubes and two retractable machine gun turrets near the opened frontal hatch. For all of her worth, this ship could be easily classified as a full-fledged heavy assault ship. Considering, what kind of team was now guarding the airship, the implications were far from good.
- Glad to see you, - sounded beautiful, but, for some strange reason, scary voice. Alva turned back to the lowered frontal hatch and saw a woman with jet-black hair slowly walking down to him, carrying a small case.
- Same, Miss K, - said Alva in gentle voice, then pointed his staff at the case. - All of them? Loyalty imprinting?
- Of course to both, - responded Hunter, opening the case and presenting it’s contents to cabinet minister. Inside, there were 15 standard Pokeballs, lying in small holders.
- May I commit a small test right now? - asked her Alva, gently closing the case and taking it from her hands.
- If it does not mean injury or destruction of my property, - replied K, pointing to a small clear zone next to the starboard of her ship. Cabinet minister travelled to this spot and, surrounded by K’s henchmen, released the Pokemon one by one, then pulled his own Pokeball out of many pockets of his coat and added his own Gengar to this team.
- You can easily assault a palace and dethrone the king with team like this, - commented one of the henchmen.
- But they are not for it, - replied Alva, changing a grip of his staff and passing two fingers above the small dark-violet stone, embedded in the unusually shaped pommel. - Mega Wave!
- ... Can you sell a device like this to me? - asked amazed K, looking at 16 Pokemon, which were all Mega-Evolved at once. - I can pay up to a billion for a such a gadget!
- Not yet, - said cabinet minister, passing the fingers above the stone again, reversing the effect, then taking out two wristbands with similar dark-violet stones out of another pocket of his coat and unleashing the second Mega Wave with one of them. - They are fragile, dependant on Master Stone - one per several devices, have limited worktime until shutdown, require some time to relax between activations to prevent malfunctions, often need repairs... In short, there are still many problems with them. However, once I iron those problems out, I might consider putting them on sale - our kingdom will really benefit from it.
- Then I’ll wait, - responded K, seeing, how Alva, after three Mega Waves and successful testing of all devices, returned his Pokemon back into Pokeballs. - By the way - do you really need to say words when activating them?
- Yes, you need to, - replied violet-haired man, putting most of the Pokeballs, bar the one with his personal Gengar, back into the case and closing it. - I’m sure you won’t like it to suddenly activate just because you waved your hand the wrong way!
- Of course! - let a somewhat scary laugh Hunter. - So, what’s about the second part of payment?
- Right now, - said Alva, taking his PDA out of one of his pockets and tapping the polarized touchscreen, contents of which were invisible to anyone bar cabinet minister, several times.
- I see, - murmured K, looking at her own PDA. - However, I thought we agreed on ten millions! Of course, it’s pleasant, but...
- But I do appreciate the great quality of the Pokemon you brought to me and want to give you some bonus for such a nice work! - replied cabinet minister, giving Hunter a gentle nod and taking a case with Pokeballs in his hand. - Goodbye, Miss K.
- Goodbye, cabinet minister Alva, - said she, ordering her troops to return to the airship with a simple gesture and walking back to the frontal hatch. - I hope that some time later, you will be my customer once more.
- ...And I surely hope not to, - whispered Alva, once his was back aboard his airship.
- Boss, the K’s ship has gone flight and cloaked once again! - sounded the Levi’s voice in the intercom.
- That’s great, - replied minister, putting the case with Pokeballs on the wall bench and taking a seat on it himself. - Levi - close the hatch. Cherie - lift off and take us back home. I’ll be on the bottom deck for some time.
- As you wish, boss, - replied his two trusted henchmen. With hydraulic whirr, the cargo platform collapsed and hatch started to close, while airship started to to gain altitude. Alva spent nearly half of hour like this, but, after it, focused and took a trip back to the bridge, where Levi and Cherie were already waiting him.
- We’re glad to see you, - greeted him Levi. -"Chancellor Cocktail”, the one you like, in the cupholder. Temperature optimal and everything.
- Do you think of me like some kind of an alcoholic? - asked him Alva, placing the case and staff near his chair and then taking a seat, though not before ensuring, that control is all transferred to Cherie.
- No, boss, but we do see, how do you feel after speaking with... her, - shuddered woman.
-... You know what? You’re damn right! - replied minister, taking a shot. - Nice. Who was one preparing it?
- Me, boss, - said Levi. - Cherie couldn’t bring herself out of her seat all the time you were ashore.
- Levi, I just wanted to get out of here ASAP! - told him Cherie. - I’m sure none of us wanted to be there anymore than needed. Those autocannons and goons...
- Uh-huh, - said her co-pilot. - Cherie, by the way - would you like to try to pilot the assault ship of this K?
- Nah, I won’t exchange our little “Kamiya” for anything, - nearly purred woman, gently stroking the surface of the pilot’s station, - She serves us well and I’m used to her. Even her little cargo bay doesn’t mean anything - “Traveller-4″ class can take three time it’s own mass into air on external, and our girl was upgraded by our boss to be able to take four times her own mass.
- And the main radar breaks every two damn weeks after this damn second scanning run, when this damn Volcanion hit us with Steam Eruption, - grunted Levi. - Boss, I was outside and fiddled with it - yep, short circuit in secondary control scheme. I've replaced it and the corresponding circuit breaker, but this is a temporary solution. I think I know how to rework it, so it will at least break once in two months instead of every two weeks. Do you authorize me to do it once we are back home?
- I do, - replied Alva, making some notes in his PDA. - By the way - after we return to Azoth Kingdom, I give you two weeks of vacation and then you start training with MWDs and your new Pokemon.
- OK, boss! - said Levi and Cherie at the same time, then Levi continued. - About the Pokemon, boss - are you really happy with your purchase?
- I am, but I don't want to do business with people like that anymore, - murmured the minister before falling asleep from lack of sleep beforehand and today's stress. His henchmen exchanged looks, then continued piloting ship like if nothing happened, alllowing Alva to silently snore right on the bridge.
- Well, that’s it for today! - said cabinet minister Alva, closing the old book. - Your majesty, your homework - assemble the levi-drone and program it to avoid obstacles during the flight on determined path. Next lesson will be in two days.
- Understood, minister Alva! - happily responded prince Raleigh. The cabinet minister gave him a smile, left the prince’s room and headed for his own one, slowly drifting in his thoughts...
"Why they can’t spend more time with me?” - asked young Alva himself, slowly reading “Introduction to Arcane Science”. - “Am I less important to them, than arcane researches? Or...”
- Happy birthday, Alva! - said Ogden, giving his son a present. - Sorry for so little time, but, as you know, our salary...
- I know and I understand you, - replied boy, slowly unwrapping the package. - Wait, is it...
- Yes, it is, - proudly said Nancy. - “Young arcane researcher’s first kit”.
- But it’s so expensive... How much... What... Why...
- Alva, you’re our son, - announced both Ogden and Nancy at the same time, - and we want you to be happy. About money... It’s not that important. Again, forgive us from spending so little time with you, but...
- Thank you so much... - responded the young boy, who was on verge of crying. As he knew, this kit costed nearly thrice the dad’s salary, so, they should’ve either started saving money no less than few months ago, or overwork. From what it looked like, it was the second cause. And they did this just because they’ve wanted their son to be happy...
- Prince Raleigh, why are you crying? - gently asked cabinet minister young prince, who was silently sobbing in the far corner of the library. - If it makes you feel better, I promise, that I won’t tell it to anyone.
- Dad... I’m not sure if he still remembers that I exist, - angrily whispered boy. From what it looked like, he just couldn’t keep it in himself anymore. - Sister loves her jetbikes more than her own brother... And mom, the only one, who loved me...
Raleigh couldn’t see it, but Alva’s grip on the staff became harder. His parents may’ve spent too little time with him, when he was child, but, at least, they’ve truly loved him and wanted their son to be happy.
- My condolences, prince Raleigh, - said cabinet minister, looking at the book, which was placed on table before prince. - You’re interested in the arcane science?
- Yes, and what? - harshly replied boy, showing, that his closest relatives didn’t share this kind of interest.
- Nothing special, prince Raleigh, I’ve just wanted to say, that I’m an arcane researcher and can provide help in it to you, if you want it.
- Really? - asked Raleigh, looking at cabinet minister with hope in his eyes.
“Just how alone is he?” - asked Alva himself, while giving a smile to prince and saying:
- Of course.
- Great work, but there are some mistakes, - said Alva to Raleigh, checking his homework. For more than year now, Alva was pretty much giving free private lessons in arcane science to young prince and, from what it looked like, neither king nor Kimia cared. - Looks like we need to perfect your math first!
- If we need it, I’ll do my best! - responded Raleigh whole-heartedly. As Alva has understood, he was pretty much the only friend of young prince, his closest men... and that the plans about overtaking kingdom needed to be re-written. Raleigh may never know it, but he was the one who deeply softened the cabinet minister’s heart and prevented a chain of planned political assassinations.
“When we overtake the kingdom, you will be the one, who will bring it might and prosperity, and I... I’ll help you do it,” - thought Alva, looking at young prince’s work and explaining him his mistakes.
“From what it looks like, I’m more of a parental figure to Raleigh, than the king,” - finished his chain of thoughts Alva, putting the staff aside, taking the place in the chair, pressing the “Door lock” button on the remote, opening the drawer and taking an old photo from it.
The lavender-haired man entered the room, put his staff away and took a sit in the big chair. Financial reports, talk with the king, princess and other officials, an arcane science lesson with Raleigh, who was so heart-achingly similar to him - right now, the cabinet minister Alva was very exhausted.
The man smirked, remembering something, then pressed the “Door lock” button on the remote, opened a drawer and took an old photo from it.
On the time-worn card, there were three smiling people - a lavender-haired green-eyed man roughly in his late 30′s with a book in his hands, a similar-aged green-haired lavender-eyed woman with a clipboard and a young lavender-haired lavender-eyed boy with a short haircut and an old goggles on his forehead. All of them looked so happy...
-... but it did not last, - finished his thought minister, diving deeper into the memories...
***
- You made us proud, son, - sad the green-eyed man, gently patting young Alva’s shoulder. - You made us really proud.
- Ogden, can’t you wait until we’re home? - asked the man his green-haired wife.
- No, Nancy. I still can’t think of it - you’ve managed to do your first arcane science discovery in such a young age! Alva, you’re truly our son.
- Thank you, dad, - smiled the boy, tugging the goggles away from his head and putting them into pocket. - I always thought of it as... Mom, dad, just imagine it - you’re surrounded by agressive wild Pokemon, your only hope is, let’s say, Lucario, Alakazam and Steelix, but you can’t Mega Evolve them all at once... at least, the classic way. Just think, what the Mega Wave will be able to do in this situation! Quick multiple Mega Evolutions, which also bypass usual side-effects of Mega-Evo, such as loss of Pokemon self-control and like that, do not require Mega or Key Stones, so you can give your Pokemon something more useful, and require no special bond with them, so you will not be forced to pick a favorite from your equally-beloved team or force yourself to bond with a strongest one, if you don’t like it! Mega Wave will make them all strong and powerful, and will protect them from loss of mind!
- Of course it will, honey, - responded Nancy. - However, you can see, that it will take many years to complete and perfect this technology!
- I know it and I will do it, Mom, or I won’t be your son!
- Alva, there is no need to say it in such a way, - lost his smile Ogden. - You are and will always be our son, no matter what.
- Okay, Dad.
- Son, say me, what do you want to do in your life? - asked him mother, hoping to quickly shift the theme.
- Become the best arcane researcher and make the Azoth Kindgom great and prosperous! - replied the boy from his very heart. - I promise you, I will do it, no matter what it takes!
***
-... And I will keep my promise, - whispered the cabinet minister, putting the photo back into drawer. Today was the 20th anniversary of the unfortunate day, when his parents died in the accident.
In my fic, cabinet minister Alva is a child of the not very famous, but still pretty well-known arcane researchers Ogden and Nancy.
During his childhood, young Alva was a pretty lonely boy, whose main and almost only interest was the arcane science. Because his mom and dad were too much into arcanics to pay enough attention to their son, Alva spent most of the time reading the Ogden’s and Nancy’s books, trying to study the arcane science himself. While Alva’s parents were proud of it, they still paid too little attention to the boy, so Alva had to pretty much fight tooth and nail for his social progress from the position of the simple researchers son to recognized arcane scientist to the (much later) cabinet minister. However, Alva still loved his parents very much and they loved him too, though, again, payed too little attention to him.
Both Ogden and Nancy died in the accident (one of the catwalks above the big city gears, due to metal fatigue, broke and fell down along with people on it right into the working mechanism. The results were far, far from the pretty), when Alva was 19, so, from this moment, lavender-haired boy could only count on himself. Thanks to his parents library and his own skills, he was able to quickly take a position of the arcane science student in the local technological university and earn a degree in just five years. Overall, professors thought of Alva as a very promising student, so he was able to take a position of the junior arcane researcher.
At this point, Alva started to grow dark. Seeing, how Kingdom used pretty much the same technology as in the Nikola’s times with little to no advancement (how else would you explain such hi-tech control systems in the Nikola-built and then unmodified Flying Fortress?), how safety rules were violated from the very founding of the Kingdom (his parents died because of badly-placed and undermaintained catwalk, after all), how not-very-young corporations started to slip in the traditionally Azoth-monopolistic airship market (Tunguska Technologies, SaL-12 “Charizard” Assault Ship Aerodyne, which, thanks to high resilience and durability, low price, great fuel efficiency along with ability to use pretty much any liquid, gaseous or even gelatinous fuel, wide range of modifications and very easy repairs became widely-used platform for different machines, including even the VTOL cargo fliers and passenger transport) and how royalties weren’t doing a thing about it made him angry. After understanding this, Alva chose to become at least cabinet minister to try to, in the best case, influence royalties to take actions, or, if they won’t, take over the Kingdom and do it himself. Considering his genius, it didn’t take a long time.
The true reason why Alva sympathizes Raleigh is because cabinet minister sees himself in the young prince and does not want such a childhood for this young boy. If not for this, his plan wouldn’t even included Raleigh after the Alva takes the control over the Kingdom - he would’ve simply exiled or even executed everyone from the royal family and become the sole dictator, but friendship with the prince made Alva change his plans - in the new version, after the Alva takes control over the Kingdom, current king and Kimia are stripped of their positions, but left alive, Raleigh becomes a new king and, until he reaches the adulthood, former cabinet minister takes control of the Kingdom, while continuing to teach Raleigh arcane science and, as a part of preparation to become the king, politics and economics.
On top of everything above, the reason Alva is doing all of this is because he loves Azoth Kingdom very much and wants it to become mighty and prosperous once more, even if by such a dirty means.
Unlike in the canon, Cabinet Minister Alva here is less of a “Complete Monster” and more of a “Well-Intentioned Extremist” with a tiny bit of Richard Hawk from “Metal Wolf Chaos”. He still wants to overtake the Azoth Kingdom and rule it from the Giant Metal Spider Flying Fortress (which here is also often called “Defence Fortress”), but here, it’s because he wants Azoth Kingdom to become great and powerful once more (no, no Trump jokes. Really, no Trump.)
As for now, Azoth Kingdom is slowly, but surely losing positions in the airship and small VTOL markets due to corporates proposing more advanced machines for the same price. Considering that Azoth’s main sources of income are, again, airship and small VTOL production and export, you can understand the feelings of minister, who does love his motherland and does not like the ruling royalties, which do next to nothing about it.
The true reason Alva was able to get along with prince Raleigh is because the young boy was very alone. Raleigh’s mom has passed away several years ago, dad is paying next to no attention to him, Kimia is not much better in it, so young prince took refuge in studying arcane science, which has brought him close to Alva, who was an arcane researcher. A small kinda quote from the fic:
(Raleigh, trying to ask his sister for help): Kimia, can you help me?
(Kimia, going to king to discuss Alva’s financial report and barely paying attention to her brother): Not now, Raleigh.
(Raleigh, silently, but angrily whispering): “Not now”, just as always! Daddy - “Not now”, Kimia - “Not now”, so when will then be “Now”? And these people wonder...
(Alva, silently coming to prince): Is there something wrong?
(Raleigh, calming down): Nothing special, minister Alva. For some reason, I can’t assemble a working levitator - outer shell breaks all the time, resulting in systems failure. Can you help me with this?
(Alva, smiling): Of course I can.
Not quite like the canon Alva, this version of the cabinet minister actually does sympathize Raleigh, which is why he tries to slowly get his trust, loyalty and support instead of just using him as a simple tool.
When it comes to arcane science, Alva uses the Nikola’s version (the only one available now), but he does know the rumors about the Soris origins of this discipline, though he prefers to dismiss them as jokes. His favorite directions in it are arcane computing devices (for unlocking Fortress’ control systems) and Mega Evolution research (he is yet to create Mega Wave devices here, though he has some working prototypes now).