Chapter 4: The Confession of Andre Dantes
Marie arrived outside of a local T.V. station in Lilycove with Zoroark and Darkrai out to assist her. Zoroark opened the locked back door of the station with a slash of its claws and the three went inside. Only a few steps Marie heard footsteps from around the corner and stopped, signaling her two Pokemon to do so as well. She looked and saw that it was a lone security guard. With a hand signal from Marie, Darkrai moved out from around the corner and hit the guard with a Dark Void attack before the guard even noticed.
With the guard out cold the three continued down the hallway. Marie opened each door and looked inside each room until she found the room she was looking for, the editing room. Inside there were two men sitting at the consol working on something. Marie signaled Darkrai to knock them out with another Dark Void attack. Once the two men were out Marie went in.
Zoroark and Darkrai stayed by the door in case someone came while Marie went over to the editing consol. She pulled of the front of her cape clasp and from the back extended a retractable black cable. Marie plugged the cable into the editing consol computer, and when the right icon appeared on the screen she clicked it and opened up a video file. As Marie set to work on what she was doing she couldn’t help thinking about how she had earlier used Darkrai to attack Lisa. Marie found that even though she had finally gotten her revenge on Lisa she for some reason felt even more miserable than before.
Even as she laughed over Lisa’s fallen unconscious body, Marie had felt that a strong part of her was in pain, like she had been stabbed in the heart. Marie couldn’t explain it, but she tried to put it out of her mind and continued her work. She needed to get done what she was doing if she wanted to get her revenge on Andre. Marie felt that it wasn’t enough just to use Darkrai’s power on Andre. She needed the world to know what he had done.
* * *
Meanwhile at the Flare estate, Ash, Misty, Desmond, and Bolt had gathered downstairs to discuss what to do about the current situation with Marie. Though Bolt had sat down on the couch and turned on the T.V.
“I still think it’s a good idea to contact the police.” Desmond insisted.
“It’s too dangerous to get them involved.” Ash told him. “They wouldn’t stand a chance against Darkrai.”
“But if Marie really is convinced that Andre framed her, who knows what she might do.” Desmond pointed out.
“Man, this is messed up!” Bolt exclaimed from where he was sitting on the couch.
“I know.” Misty agreed. “Lisa finds out that her closet friend is alive, but is also a member of Team Rocket. And what’s worse is that Marie seems to hate Lisa now.”
“Huh? Oh yeah, that’s pretty screwed up too. But I was talking about how there’s nothing on T.V. but Pokemon Contests.” Bolt told her.
“Now isn’t the time to be watching T.V.!” Misty scolded.
Before Bolt could offer a rebuttal, the television screen went to static for a moment before changing to a picture of Andre in the basement boardroom with Giovanni and Archie.
“You certainly have an ambitious plan.” The recording of Marie’s voice said, getting the attention of everyone in the room. “And you even have the Blue Orb. That must’ve been difficult to get.”
“Not as difficult as you might think.” Andre replied on the screen. “Actually I had stolen the orb once before, where it served another very useful purpose.”
“What on earth is this?” a confused Desmond asked as the recording of Marie’s voice asked about Andre’s plan.
“Not at all my dear.” The recording of Andre continued. “To answer your question I used the orb to frame my younger cousin for theft. It was easy enough for me to steal it from the museum, and easy enough to plant it in my cousin’s room. Then all I had to do was bribe a few witnesses and members of the police force, and she was found guilty. I even bribed the judge to send her to some far off desert prison where she’d be safely out of the way.”
“Rather excessive.” The recording of Giovanni commented. “Though I admit it is ingenious.”
“Well it was all so I could get my uncle to disinherit the little brat and get me one step closer to gaining the company.” Andre continued to brag. “And it worked out even better than I had planed, because my cousin died in that hell hole. Something about an accident, I don’t remember the details. But it really helped my efforts to send my uncle to an early grave.”
“…What do you mean?” a startled Marie asked on screen, causing Ash and the others to get a very bad feeling.
“Well, it’s publicly known that my uncle had taken ill for many years.” Andre began on screen. “But what isn’t known is that it’s because I’d been slowly poisoning him over the years. And now that he’s finally dead I can carry out my master plan, with the cooperation of Team Rocket and Team Aqua of course.”
With that, the screen suddenly changed to back to the Pokemon Contest that was originally on. Misty, Bolt, and Desmond stared at the screen for a moment with stunned expressions, but Ash on the other was hardly surprised by what they had just seen.
“…Dear god!” Desmond exclaimed.
“I hate to say I told you so.” Ash cut in.
“You were right dude, the guy’s a psycho.” Bolt admitted. “But what was all that stuff about Team Rocket and Team Aqua about?”
“No clue.” Ash told him. “But now I think we should call the police, only we should tell them to go after Andre.”
“Yes, I think you’re right.” Desmond agreed. “Though I’m sure they’re already after him. That broadcast interrupted a very important contest, so almost everyone in the city has seen it.”
Sure enough, the screen suddenly changed to an image of a female news reporter with long dark-blue hair.
“We interrupt the broadcast of the Lilycove Championship Contest with a breaking news bulletin.” The reporter announced. “Moments ago our coverage was interrupted by what was apparently a recording of Andre Dantes, the new head of the Dantes Corporation, admitting that he had not only murdered the previous head of the Dantes Corporation, Alex Dantes, but had also framed his younger cousin, Marie Dantes, for the crime of stealing an artifact from the Lilycove City Museum thirteen years ago. The other two men seen in the video with Mr. Dantes have already been identified as Giovanni, the suspected head of a criminal organization known as Team Rocket, and Archie, the known head of a group of environmental extremists here in Hoenn known as Team Aqua. The Lilycove Police Department has issued a city wide manhunt for Mr. Dantes, and…”
“That was quick.” Bolt commented as he turned off the T.V. “Now what?”
“I should head down to the company and try to get this situation under control.” Desmond told them. “I’m sure all hell is breaking loose down there. In the meantime we should keep all of this from Lisa. If she learns about what’s going on she may do something rash.”
* * *
Unbeknownst to Desmond and the others, Lisa had already seen the whole broadcast on the T.V. in her room and was left in shock. For years Lisa had thought she had done the right thing by helping the police apprehend Marie when she tried to escape, but in reality all she had done was help an evil man with his selfish scheme to gain power. Lisa glanced over at the mirror on her dresser and found that she was disgusted to look at herself. In a fit of rage Lisa cried out and shattered the mirror with her fist, knocked off all the items on her dresser, and fell to her knees sobbing. After a few moments Lisa had regained some composure.
Lisa wasn’t sure what she should do, but she was sure that she had to find Marie. She needed to find her. Lisa got back to her feet and went over and opened the window of her room. She looked down out the window and saw that the drop down wasn’t incredibly far.
“Go Rapidash!” Lisa called as she threw out a Pokeball.
Emerging from the ball on the ground outside below the window was a cream-colored horse with a single horn on its forehead, a mane made and tail made of flames, and flames coming out around its hooves. Lisa jumped out the window and landed safely on Rapidash’s back. She then road off on the fiery steed, and from inside the mansion Ash and the others heard the galloping. By the time they had gotten outside, Lisa was long gone.
“We have to go after her!” Desmond told them.
“Relax, I’m on it.” Bolt said as he reached for a Pokeball at his waist. “I think I can catch her on Raikou.”
“Hold it Bolt.” Ash interrupted, causing him to freeze. “Lisa needs to handle this on her own.”
“Dude, are you serious?” Bolt asked with a surprised look.
“There have been times when I’ve wondered why Ho-Oh chose me as its partner,” Ash told him, “and why it chose you, Misty, and Lisa to partner with the Legendary Beasts. I think I may have part of that answer. I’m not sure, but I think maybe Ho-Oh and Entei picked Lisa so she could meet up with Marie again and repair their friendship.”
“That’s all well and good young man, but you can’t expect us all to just stand by and do nothing.” Desmond pointed out.
“I’m not.” Ash replied. “Go Ho-Oh!
Emerging from Ash’s thrown ball was a massive red bird with a white underside and a green band around its long neck. Green feathers rimmed its wings and its tail was made of long golden feathers. Adorning the top of its head was a gold comb. Desmond was both surprised and dazzled by the appearance of the great bird.
“Pikachu, Lucario, Ho-Oh, and I will keep an eye on Lisa from the air.” Ash informed the group.
“I’ll go with you.” Misty told Ash.
“Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Ash said to her. “In the meantime Bolt, you go out and look for Andre. It’d probably be better if we found that bastard before Marie does. As for you Mr. Flare, you just worry about that company of yours.”
“Just who are you?” Desmond asked Ash.
“Just a Pokemon Trainer who’s seen a lot.” Ash said casually. “Now let’s get going and hope that the Aura is with us.”
With that, Ash and Misty got on Ho-Oh’s back with Pikachu and Lucario and flew off. Desmond looked up at them with an expression of awe.
“He really is extraordinary.” Desmond commented.
“You know earlier Misty said something about Ash being an Aura Master.” Bolt remembered.
“An Aura Master?” Desmond repeated. “Those only exist in stories.”
“I once believed that too. But nowadays I’m not so sure, not after seeing Ash in action.” Bolt told him. “Well, I gotta go hunt down a psycho.”
* * *
Down at the Lilycove harbor, Andre stood looking at all of the ships that had docked trying to find a specific one. Setting at his feet were the metal case that Giovanni had brought and a small black box with a handle on top.
“I knew you would come here eventually.” A voice suddenly spoke. Andre turned around to see Marie standing behind him.
“And I knew you would show up again.” Andre told her. “But what I don’t know is why you’ve been trying to attack me.”
“I think that should be obvious.” Marie said as she took off her mask.
“…Marie?” Andre said with a look of surprise. In moments Andre then burst into laughter. “Well dear cousin, I have to admit that I never even imagined this happening. How on earth did you end up in Team Rocket?”
“That doesn’t matter.” Marie said coldly as she put her mask back on.
“No, I suppose it doesn’t.” Andre agreed. “Though I find it hilariously ironic that a girl falsely accused of theft escapes her confinement by joining a gang of thieves. And I must say you’ve actually made things far easier for me. Thanks to your little stunt during the meeting I was able to obtain the technology for wielding the Blue Orb and Kyogre without having to work with either Team Rocket or Team Aqua. Now I can reshape the world, and in doing so become the great hero known for helping humanity survive the great flood.”
“You’ll never be known as a hero.” Marie told him. “I recorded you during the meeting when you bragged about what you did. And that recording has been broadcast all over the city. Now everyone knows what you truly are.”
“Hmm… well done cousin.” Andre commented looking very unconcerned. “It seems that joining Team Rocket has made you more cunning. I really am impressed. But in the end it’s a minor problem. So what if the city knows of my deeds? It’s too late for anyone to stop me now that I have Kyogre.”
“You won’t get a chance to use that control.” Marie told him as she reached behind her cape.
“I beg to differ.” Andre said as he swiftly reached into his pocket and threw out a small smoke bomb.
In a few moments the smoke cleared and Andre was gone. As Marie looked around and tried to figure out where he went, she suddenly heard the sound of galloping. Marie looked around and saw Lisa riding in on Rapidash. Marie found that she was overjoyed that Lisa had recovered from Darkrai’s attack, but at the same time a part of her was angered to see her.
“Well dear Lisa.” Marie said to herself. “It looks like Andre will have to wait while we settle things once and for all.”
