Hi everyone. If you'd like to know where I've been... you can read about it here:
https://www.pokecommunity.com/blog.php?b=5082
I know I'm usually up to engaging with you guys in detail, but not so much at the moment. :( I will say a few things though. Firstly, thanks for your reviews. :) Secondly, I love the fanart (fan-fanart?) of Bevan, Sgt Shock. :D As for Cicero... he's about to get up to worse. A lot worse.
Obviously this means I'm not really up to writing much more HWIMAR. Luckily, I wrote ahead - all the way up to Chapter 32. :)
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Chapter Twenty-Eight: Toward Twisted Ends
Liam was sitting on the floor beside Charlotte's bed, ready to tell her the story behind the Golden Twirl.
"As you know, Evan Emerit, before the Lord Augury persona, there was the Lord Augury alias. That was, the pseudonym he used for himself in the underground. Right?"
"Right."
"Augury was an apt choice. It means 'omen'. Augury has always operated through fear: he's never been cruel for the sake of it. He's known that the threat of pain was always enough. Actual pain was needed far less. This is the basis of his strategy, something that your guys have just cottoned on to with the Sectra attack today.
"Anyway, I digress. From the very beginning, Augury's always had a guy in the financial part. You can't move around that much money without a guy on the inside." He said the next name with a tinge of hatred. "Calvin Shore, who was at the time the Chief Treasury Officer was that inside man. You see, Emerit found out something important. Shore had escaped from a cult when he was younger. As you know, people who escape from cults don't do so well. He made up a new identity for himself and everything."
"So, one of our old Oligarchs...?"
Liam nodded. "Former cult member." He then put up a mock smile. "To think what you coulda become, Charlotte!"
"Anyway..." said Charlotte, steering Liam back on topic.
"Yeah. Anyway, Emerit, being head of cults, was perfectly positioned to send Calvin back to his cult, or even have him executed for treason. Conversely, he had the power to bribe him with the complete freedom of some family members. So, he approached Shore as Augury. One free family member a year per year of following orders, and a reasonable salary on the side. Revelation of his secret if he didn't. It was a no-brainer for young Calvin."
"What does this have to do with the Twirl?"
"I'm gettin' there, I'm gettin' there. Anyway, Calvin and HWIMAR had one secret, offshore bank account. It contained about twenty mil, and a safe-deposit box. By far the biggest one. It was the exit strategy for HWIMAR. Round about the time Evan left to Sinnoh, the account was hacked. And this included managing a smuggling operation with the safe deposit box."
"But... who?"
"Three people arranged it. As access cards, they made these." Liam flashed his Golden Twirl card. "'Course, two of 'em passed on. Only one of the original three remains."
"So, with those access cards...?"
"Entitle the holder to four mil and associated interest. The rest, including the safe deposit box can only be accessed with all three."
"You've had all this money? Yet you still stole?"
Liam shrugged. "This isn't the kind of money you live off. It wasn't any ordinary people who arranged this hacking. These were masters of the underworld. The one that still lives was a master cyber-crime dude. One was a major trainer, who gave me mine while he was 'bout to get caught, 'bout eighteen months ago. So, by a process of elimination, Dagger knew the corrupting arms and narcotics dealer. Essentially, the holders of these cards are acknowledged as the elite of the underworld."
"I thought most people didn't know about them?"
"It's not by virtue of holding the cards that you're a leader. It's the other way 'round, Charlotte."
"And... what's in the safe deposit box?"
Liam leaned back, smiling grimly. "I know you've heard of this one."
"Oh?"
"The Vile Vial. It's real, Charlotte."
Charlotte's face contorted with horror.
*
"Ah, you must be the legendary Liam I'm hearing about?"
It was the next day. Liam turned around from his breakfast to the foreign accent of Manfred von Stauffenberg.
"Ah, Manfred, isn't it?"
"Yes," said Manfred, sitting down next to him. Charlotte, who was about to sit down next to Liam, decided to find another table. She had tried to avoid the man responsible for making the first sixteen years of her life a living hell. She realised that he was necessary for the operations of the Knife, but that didn't mean she liked him any more.
"Can't say I'm a fan of your earlier work," said Liam with his mouth full of cornflakes. "What with the hocus-pocus and making Charlotte's life miserable."
"Your history's no less colourful. An aristocrat of all things," Manfred countered with mock disapproval.
He'd touched a raw nerve, but Liam laughed it off in his characteristically casual fashion. "So, like, I get why you wear a robe in the cult, but it's been what, three years? It's now just cross-dressing, mate."
"How did you manage to become popular with that attitude?"
"Standing up to people like you?"
"...Like
me?"
Liam's lip twitched with contempt. "You led a cult. In doing so, you imprisoned and brainwashed a couple of hundred people. You took Charlotte away from her parents. I've heard you like to take the moral high ground. So either everyone else has no ethical instinct to speak of, or you're just a jackass pretending like he's better than everyone else."
Manfred grinned. "Ah, so it's about
Charlotte."
"If you could really read people's minds, you'd know that already. Which means you're toying with me. Which means you're being a manipulative bastard."
"So humour me with an answer to this question: do you love her?"
Liam leered at him, and stole a glance at Charlotte. "But you already know the answer."
"Let's just say that I'm curious as to your honesty."
Liam smirked. "There's a reason people told me to stay away from you. I think I'll heed that advice."
He stood up, took a piece of Manfred's toast, and walked over to see Charlotte.
*
"The Vile Vial?"
Bevan was sitting in Augury's office. Or, more accurately, the office of President Evan Emerit. Earlier that day, the Moonlight Squad had killed a notorious computer hacker and taken his Golden Twirl. Augury had explained the story to Bevan.
"Yes, the Vile Vial. It's an old trainer legend. A true story, in reality."
"What is it?"
"It's a vial with a most potent liquid inside. If you gave it to a Pokémon, it would supposedly become invincible. Dark. Horrific."
"How did you get it?"
"How do you think?"
"Von Stauffenberg?"
"Precisely. It seems to be intrinsically linked with the Event, somehow. Manfred never explained it to me. He didn't really appreciate it being stolen."
"What value is it to you?"
"None, really. It would help to make one of my Pokémon lethally powerful, but the risk associated with it... Manfred was not lying when he told me of its potency. It's more to keep it out of the hands of others. As long as we have just one of the three Twirl cards, we're safe."
"They've stolen from us before. They can get it."
"This will be on my person at all times," said Augury. "I'd like to see them try."
"And Calvin Shore? Why did you insist that he stay alive? You have no use for him anymore."
Augury laughed. "And now we're leading on to quite a new tangent. Very well, I shall tell you."
*
Cigarette smoke twisted upwards. Liam was leaning against a tree, outside, smoking.
"That's terrible for your health, you know."
Manfred strode out, his robe noisily moving against the scattered twigs on the ground.
Liam shrugged. "It's relaxin', though."
"You need relaxing?" Manfred was curious.
"You don't?"
"No," said Manfred casually. "But I'm surprised you do."
"This world's ugly. You experience the brunt of it as a trainer. And, well... become a part of it. Look what I've got myself sucked into. The odd ciggy now and then helps."
"What about love? Surely that would help? Something good amongst the ugly?"
Liam scoffed. "I've been payin' for it since fifteen. Except..."
"Except...?"
"You've already looked into my head, haven't you?"
Manfred laughed. "So suspicious. I know I look it, but I'm not exactly a gossip," he winked. "If you don't want to tell me, I won't look."
"So why ask?"
Manfred shrugged. "I like to help people with their problems. Perhaps a little too much..." He trailed off, muttering to himself. A few seconds later, he realised what he was doing, and added, "'Cause I'm swell like that."
"You know how long it's been since someone's said swell?"
"A few seconds, by my watch," winked Manfred.
They stood in silence. "Who did you hurt?" Liam's curiosity had been piqued.
"Huh?"
"You trailed off earlier. Who'd ya hurt?"
Manfred sighed. "I share, you share."
"It's a deal, old man." Despite their rocky start earlier today, Liam was beginning to like Manfred. Despite the fact that he'd always given off a rebellious image, he'd always respected people with wisdom. He was beginning to sense this in Manfred. And this troubled him a bit, because he knew how cruelly Manfred had lead his cult. How he had hurt Charlotte.
"Bevan Emerit."
Liam spat.
"You've heard of him," said Manfred.
"Thanks for the info, Captain Obvious," Liam said abrasively. "He's been terrorisin' the underground for the last two years. I used to know him as a kid. I quite liked him then, but he's become a right bastard now. What do you have to do with him?"
"He was a Knife member three years ago. I sensed an emotional dull in him. I tried to help him, but I ended up driving it. I took an innocent phase and made it horrific. His cold-hearted bastardry is partially my fault. If I hadn't driven him to that... he would have never been able to forgive Augury for killing his mother-"
"His mother committed suicide," said Liam, crushing his cigarette and lighting up a new one.
"That was staged," said Manfred coldly.
Liam swore sympathetically. "Bevan joined the person who killed his mum? What a f-"
"No," interrupted Manfred. "He's a victim. One might look upon his nature as cruel, and it is, perhaps. But he simply couldn't handle his own emotions and so tried to expunge them. He would have failed, but I lacked the foresight to stop myself from intervening. And here we are. Now, what's your story? The one exception."
"Well, you know from breakfast."
"Charlotte?"
"Yep."
"How?"
"We traveled together. Up until a week before she got caught. I fell in love with her, Manfred. It's not just infatuation. I've felt
that before. This was different."
"And Charlotte?"
"No idea," shrugged Liam. "Truth be told, I haven't had the guts."
"Fear of rejection is..."
"Irrational, I know," waved Liam dismissively, the last few ashes of his second cigarette falling to the ground. "And yet here we are."
"You've fought off Cloaks, and yet..."
"Fighting off Cloaks is thrilling. And you know you'll succeed. But getting rejected... I tried to avoid coming here because it tears me up a little inside that I don't have the stomach to tell her how I feel."
"it's another thing entirely," said Manfred grimly. "Tell her anyway."
Liam laughed, pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, and scribbled something on it. "Payment for not telling this to Charlotte." Then, he left.
Manfred looked down at the piece of paper and laughed. It read, "IOU 1 piece of toast".