Love in the Time of Tomorrow

Chapter 15: A Boss

Hopefully Fanfiction has resolved its problems here. Anyway, to clear an issue: Diantha was trying to prevent mass panic over the attacks. Her wish to not have it in the open is not a bad one, if irrelevant now. That said, I hope everyone enjoys and leaves some comments for me. Chapter 15 time!

Chapter 15

A Boss

"IDEAL? What's that?" Ash asked. The air around him felt tense, buzzing with an electricity that most certainly was not a result of Pikachu. He didn't think it was from the collapsed base in the distance, either. Hearing Nanu's words had simply set everyone on edge from the whole thing, even if they didn't know what it meant. This seemed to be most evident in Diantha, who seemed to be one of the few to actually, vaguely recognize the name. Nanu didn't answer right away, as if allowing the Champion to process just what he was saying.

"No...that's not possible..." she whispered out, barely heard over the rushing wind in the ears of those floating in the sky. "I thought they were broken up, or had died."

"So had I, and I was directly involved with them," Lance spoke up, drawing even with Nanu as he spoke. "However, what had happened to ARC...That deadly accuracy showed me that we were very much wrong."

"You guys aren't really making a lot of sense here," Ash spoke up, drawing the Champions from their conversation. They blinked, and the raven-haired trainer was certain that he now had their full attention for the moment. Huffing out a breath, Ash sat back, leaning into Serena while he picked up the thread of conversation. "What is IDEAL?"

"It's a team. The best of the best," Nanu spoke. His tone was sterner now, less forgiving or joking than it had ever been. The only time Ash could remember hearing it as such was when he talked about changing Alola all that time ago, even if that particular mission was long since done with. Either way, it was enough to let him know that Nanu was taking this whole thing far more seriously than almost anything he'd ever taken before. "You kids have fought for years against these 'tipping points', making sure they went the right way. Long before then, were these guys."

"But...that makes no sense," Seamus spoke. Ash felt his body being pressed as Seamus leaned against Serena and thus himself in order to be seen on the screen. "Dalton's whole idea was changing a world because the League never did anything to prevent the death of children."

"Because IDEAL wasn't founded for that," Lance sighed out. "At the time, we three were far lower than we are now. I wasn't yet Champion when IDEAL was formed, but I was assigned as a liaison to them. So was Nanu, and with Looker as his protégé, we are the three that know about them the best."

"You still haven't answered what IDEAL is, Champion people!" Jessie screeched from inside the balloon. James and Meowth grabbed her back, like they wanted to chastise her, but Ash had to agree. For saying all these things, they were ultimately not even discussing the question that had been asked in the first place.

"IDEAL was a joint operational task force," Nanu decided to go ahead with answering. He was still leaning back, as if acting like he didn't care, but Ash could see the glint in his eyes: he wanted a battle, and knew he was about to get one. "We took the best of the best from the International Police and the G-Men, gave them autonomy, and they even chose their own name as time went on...which was fine and fitting. I mean, who would want to call themselves the International Espionage and League Task Force? I wouldn't...though I doubt the name still holds the same meaning as it did then, if it truly meant anything back then at all...But, in any case, when it came to them, each member specialized in things, which is what made them so effective in their autonomy. This was about twenty years ago now, I'd imagine...perhaps earlier. I don't really care."