Saving the Human Order with Chat(FGO/Pokémon)

President Henderson took a moment to observe the faces of his fellow board members.

Many of them looked stone faced at the symbol he displayed, a few even uneasy, but all of them were utterly focused on it. Thus far, the Chaldea Security Organization has been a thorn in their side since young Gudao's kidnapping. 

"I know all of you are already aware of which organization this symbol belongs to, so I am not going to treat you like children and explain who they are. You've seen the news, the tweets, the reports and the videos."

Seeing all the head nods and murmurs of agreement gave him the cue to continue, "the Poke Net has already labelled the Chaldea Security Organization as an Evil Team. So before we get into the main reason why we are here, I propose a vote. Should we make it official, or should we wait for more evidence before we publicly announce the organization as an Evil Team? Yay or Nay?"

Charles was unsurprised by the unanimous decision that followed almost immediately after the President had finished speaking.

Yay.

It makes sense. Unlike other Evil Team identifications in the past, this was one of the most clear-cut cases in their organization's history. It's so obvious, in fact, that the public had already accepted the verdict long before they could even get a chance to have a vote. So really, this was more a formality than anything.

What constitutes an Evil Team has been a question that has been a subject of intense debate for as long as Interpol has existed, but there are key factors that most can agree are indicators of what makes a group of people an Evil Team.

The main identifier of potential Evil Teams is the fact that they all wear the same uniforms and emblems. These emblems all have a pattern of representing and/or relating to the name or the goal of their organization. However, if that alone was enough of a reason to label a group an evil team, Interpol would have arrested the Joy, Jenny, and Don George clans years ago. 

Which is why it's also important that an organization must also coalesce behind a single goal that starts out noble, but ultimately becomes corrupted by the immorality of the members who joined or the leaders who lead them. 

As an example, Team Rocket started out as a small militia group that provided aid and relief to the Kanto towns and cities who were hit the hardest by the Indigo War. Their contributions and good deeds cemented their trustworthiness, which is why when Giovanni took over the role of leader from his mother, he was easily able to use the public's trust and goodwill of Team Rocket as a cover to commit illegal acts.

Lastly, the most common trait shared by Evil Teams is their theft, mistreatment, and/or misuse of Pokémon to disrupt society. From Team rocket, to Team Yell and even to the misguided youths in Paldea, this is something that everyone in the world are aware of or have experienced when dealing with these groups.

Taking these factors into account and all the gathered intel written in the reports given to every member of this Board of directors, Chaldea staff has been observed wearing the same uniforms as each other. Their emblem's symbolism has not been made apparent to them, but they knew that it would only be a matter of time until the truth is revealed. 

Chaldea's goal, so far, has thus been extremely noble. Securing humanity's continued existence is something everyone can agree with, but the methods by which they are achieving said goal have been suspect at best and alarming at worst.

Case in point, Mash Kyrielight.

A young girl who had apparently been possessed by a magical ghost who elevated her strength to match elite tier Pokémon in strength and agility.

The confirmation on the existence of magic and souls was another headache that they would have to tackle at a later point, but it was on the agenda. They just needed time for their world's scientists to unravel its mysteries so they could properly advise how governments would regulate it.

However, they didn't need to understand the intricacies of their magical powers to know that Mash was a victim of Human Experimentation. 

Evil Teams rarely experimented on humans themselves, but it has happened in the past. With the kind of mission they entrusted themselves with, the lack of pokemon in their world, and the troubling signs of apathy for the heroic spirits Gudao summoned, it's not surprising they would resort to human experimentation.

And unlike in the past, they didn't have to prove they were doing it, as Romani outright admitted Chaldea was practicing such horrific, inhuman experiments due to his choice of words when he saw Mash had become a demi-servant. The exact details of the process by which a Demi-servant is created are unknown, but based on what Romani called "Chaldea's Sixth experiment" being a success, it lent enough credence to the theory that Chaldea had done multiple experiments on unknown individuals prior to Mash.

And to make matters worse, due in part to Mash's age and how slow a process science can be, it's very likely that she was experimented on when she was a child. Charles still felt ill just remembering the findings he read in that portion of the report.

This fact, alongside the confirmation of 5 failed prior attempts, was the final nail in the coffin that cemented everyone's decisions. 

Seeing the unanimous agreement, President Henderson grunted in approval.

"Now then, onto the next matter of business, how is our organization going to respond to crisis that has befallen Gudao's world? As many of you know, despite the fact that Chaldea is an Evil Team in the minds of the people, that hasn't stopped them from supporting Gudao and the organization to help undertake their genuinely heroic action to undo the damage done to their world." President Henderson paused, letting the group take a moment to absorb and process the information before he made his following proposal.

"Which is why this would be a perfect opportunity for us to win back some public approval by helping them. So I propose to allocate a percentage of our budget to make monthly donations to fund Gudao's care packages."

The President put his hands behind his back, and waited to see how his fellow board members would respond.

Many were murmuring to each other, others looking pensive at the idea, however, two men looked displeased by the proposal. Before anyone could make the first approval, one of those men spoke up in opposition.

"Why should we bother helping them in the first place?" All eyes suddenly shifted to Shinjiro, a portly man from Kanto who was also the oldest member of the board. He joined the organization that later became Interpol, so most of the board held his opinions in high regard. Seeing him oppose a proposal was usually a good sign that the proposal would end up being rejected, however, unlike in the past, the looks of shock and disapproval at his opposition showed that this case could end with a different outcome.

The elderly Kantonian knew this, but he kept speaking, as he was far too old and experienced to fall to peer pressure.

"I understand that they are going through an extinction crisis, and under normal circumstances, I would have been completely on board to helping… but I can't help but feel that letting our world remain involved with Gudao's is only going to bring danger to ours."

The other board members seemed to shift nervously at the fact, and Board Member Shinjiro was not in the wrong. Since Gudao's stream turned supernatural, the cases of people being harmed by the stream has skyrocketed, which is in itself absurd, considering this is the first time a stream has led to people getting hurt merely for watching.

It was a compelling argument, one which was made evident by the others voicing similar sentiments. However, one of them was not having it.

"So what you are saying is…that you want Interpol, an international police force who was founded to stop criminals from hurting innocent people, who have preached about wanting to keep our communities safe for our children. To advocate to the people that we should just turn a blind eye and let an entire world of innocent men, women and children die just because it carries a risk of danger?" the youngest member of the board, Daniel rebutted. 

Unlike many others in this board, Daniel had actually completed his entire gym challenge and had even gotten top 10 in the Unova league. He even had a few years as an ACE trainer before he joined Interpol. His experiences as a top level trainer, his drive to do right for his community and the world was what allowed him to rise the ranks until he reached the top. 

He and Shinjiro were well known rivals in the board and would often oppose each other when it came to some partisan issues, although most of the time he would get outvoted due to the older man's influence outweighing his. 

However, based on the conflicted expressions of the people around them, this was already shaping up to be one of those cases where he could win the board's favor over him, but the old man did not respond to his emotional colleague with heated emotions, but rather cold logic.

"Yes. I am." The coldness of his words actually caught everyone off guard, but the old man didn't let up, and he continued to present his reasoning, "Don't misconstrue my words, I am not a heartless man who would callously reject aiding people in need. The loss of Gudao's world is a tragedy, and I pray that the billions of souls that were lost find peace. However, I am not naive." He narrowed his eyes at the young board member, "You all heard what that monster said, There is no humanity left to save. Lev and his mysterious king already won."

Everyone in the boardroom winced.

Everyone had seen the graphic video of that psychopath as he viciously killed a young girl with glee. Lev Lainur Flauros was one of the most dangerous and sadistic criminals that Interpol had ever observed, by a wailord sized margin. The gleeful cadence his voice took when he described how he had not just murdered hundreds, but also helped kill billions of people. It was truly sickening.

And his inhuman face was still vividly etched into their minds, even Charles would have to admit that hearing the old man mention that monster caused him to hallucinate its face for a brief moment.

And based on everyone's more petrified expression, they had gone through a similar experience.

However, while others relived the trauma of watching a hopeless situation, Daniel looked incensed with fury, as he glared back at the old man, "you're wrong. If you bothered to pay attention to the reports instead of skimming them, you'd know that Doctor Roman told us that not all hope is lost as you make it out to be. So long as Gudao takes on and completes all seven singularities, his world will be saved."

Shinjiro gave a derisive snort, "IF he clears them. I may be old, but I know how to read. That boy almost died multiple times in the first hour he arrived at Fuyuki, and he barely cleared it by the skin of his teeth. And he has to deal with seven more!! The kid has spunk, but he's still merely a squishy human, and worse yet, a young one who's never seen combat until a few days ago. It will only be a matter of time before he makes a mistake, like all us humans do."

"Which is why it's all the more important that we help him!! If he fails, and we do nothing to support him, we will have the blood of billions on our hands!!"

Shinjiro seemed to have finally had enough, as he slammed his fist on the table, "I will gladly swim in a lake of blood if it means I can keep my family safe!!"

Everyone, including Daniel, looked at the man with disbelief in their faces. None of them had ever expected to hear such words to come from him. Even Shinjiro himself seemed to have been surprised by his own words, as his anger dulled a bit and he looked down at the table in shame.

"My wife was watching Gudao with my grandchild. When I received news that she had suffered a heart attack after that Medusa woman used her eye powers on her and my grandson, to say that I was scared would be an understatement." He clenched his fists, "she and my grandchild are my life… if she hadn't been saved on a whim by that blasted stream, I would have had nothing left."

He glared at Daniel, who flinched at the intensity of his gaze, "and that's just the beginning. What's to stop those planet killers from coming over to our side and doing the same to us?! Lev has already shown that he is fully capable of reaching out and hurting one of our own like Medusa, or did all you gloss over gym leader Sabrina's hospitalization?!"

He looked around the room, and as he expected, no one could look him in the eye.

"Board member Shinjiro is right," The others turned to see Javier, a blonde haired kalosian man in his 40s, as he gave his opinion.

"Instead of using our precious resources to help a doomed world, we should focus more on helping our own. A lot of people were traumatized by that event after all, so I propose that we instead reallocate the funds to create more scholarships for budding therapists."

Everyone but Charles, the President and Daniel seemed to agree with Javier's words.

Daniel, seeing he had lost the argument, just grit his teeth and muttered a soft "unbelievable" under his breath, but still loud enough his fellows could hear him.

Javier scoffed, "Believe it kid. We are the International Police, not the interdimensional police. Gudao's world is outside our jurisdiction, and helping them would only bring more harm to us than helping would. Now settle down, we still have to take a vote."

The Kalosian looked at President Henderson, who sighed, "All in favor of helping Gudao's stream monetarily, say Yay." Daniel and a few of the other members approved.

"All in favor of using that money to help alleviate the therapy shortage?"

The majority of the room voted Yay.

"Damn." Daniel cursed, which just cause Javier to roll his eyes.

"Lighten up kid, just because we chose not to donate part of our budget doesn't mean Gudao and his group are going to starve. Gudao's core audience is filled with influential, powerful, and RICH people from EVERY region. He'll be fine." The man grabbed a glass cup of water and took a drink, "Besides, if you are so adamant about helping him, just donate part of your salary to his stream."

"I already donate money to his cause, but it's not the point, I am just upset and disappointed at how callous all of you are," Daniel said with exhaustion in his voice.

"It's not enough." Shinjiro spoke up again.

"What's not enough?" President Henderson asked, although he had a feeling what was coming next. 

"Our response to Chaldea. We need to shut Gudao's channel down!" 

The President sighed. "I know you're going through a terrible time, Shinjiro, but you have to understand that Twitch headquarters cannot control what's happening with Gudao's stream. They're a rogue channel that follows its own rules, there's nothing we can do about it."

"No, there is a way we can put an end to all this." 

"What are you thinking, Shinjiro? If a group of the best IT experts and elite Porygon 2 couldn't stop Gudao's channel from going rogue, what makes you think you could do it?"

Charles had a bad feeling about what the old man was about to propose, a feeling which proved to be true when he opened his mouth to speak.

"We uproot everything." 

Charles couldn't believe what he had just heard, so for the first time since he arrived, he spoke up.

"What exactly do you mean by that?"

All eyes focused on him, many of them confused as to why a regular investigator was attending this board meeting but said nothing as President Henderson had allowed his stay. 

The old man didn't seem bothered by his interruption and answered his question, " what I mean is, we seize Twitch's servers…. and we destroy them. No servers, no stream and most importantly, no connection."

Charles rubbed the bridge of his nose when he realized what this man had just proposed, "I'm sorry… Did you just advocate for our organization to partake in censorship?! Did you not pay attention to what we have been saying? The entire world, regional governments, and the media are watching him fight for his world's survival… and you are advocating for us to resort to abusing our power to commit a terrorist act?!!"

Hearing his outburst emboldened Daniel to speak up again, "Insanity!! Absolute insanity!! Did you not learn anything from the Marnie incident, old man? That kind of paranoia is exactly what caused the people to lose faith in us!! If we go through with your plan… the whole world will turn on us! We'll all face heavy punishments for breaking not just our own laws, but regional laws too!!"

"If it means we can keep our people safe, then I would gladly take the fall if that is what you are worried about." Shinjiro said, which only made Charles's headache even worse. 

Daniel and Shinjiro continued to bicker back and forth, but Charles was already fed up.

He turned to the President, who looked just as done with this meeting as he was.

"I believe the members of the board forgot who exactly put us in this position to begin with. Would you play the clip of my mistake for them, for the sake of jogging everyone's memories?"

President Henderson looked hesitant but seeing the conviction on his subordinate's face gave him the courage to continue.

"Before this meeting gets completely out of hand, I would like to draw your attention to something you all might find interesting."

Shinjiro and Daniel stopped bickering and gave their attention back to the President. The others in the room followed suit and order was temporarily restored.

He clicks his remote and shows the Twitch headquarters building. Almost immediately, everyone in the room knows what clip they are about to be shown. 

The video shows a panicked young man rushing to his desk. The images in his monitor show the devastation of Chaldea's sabotage.

He was furiously typing on the computer, communicating with chat, all while muttering soft curses under his breath.

Then, a phone rang. 

The young man winced at the message in the device before turning back to the computer and sighing.

Charles's lips pressed thin when he saw this scene again. His guts twisting into knots as he remembered the cold words he had sent that poor kid that day. 

Uncaring of his inner turmoil, the video continues to show the young man doing his job. The group heard him apologizing to Gudao and wishing him luck just before banning his channel.

The calmness in his features is only temporary, as the video shows the twitch employee grow confused as his commands failed to ban the channel. It wasn't until the first warning text that showed up on his monitor that the confusion turned to panic.

The phone rang, and Charles can't help but feel amused seeing the man dismiss his orders with an eye roll, exactly like a kid.

The twitch employee then tried to get up but failed when he began to suffer a seizure.

The video recording then showed the message that has been haunting Charles's nightmares the past week.

 [THEE AND THY ILK SHALT NOT INTERFERE, NOT THIS TIME NOR EVER AGAIN. ]

Then in a baffling display that defies logic.

The Twitch Employee disappeared.

No theatrics.

No screams.

One moment he's there, then he's just gone.

The video ends showing the man's coworkers rushing in to check up on him after seeing him suffer a seizure… only to find no one there.

The video ended and Charles looked back to the crowd of suits. 

All of them had pallid expressions on their faces. 

Good. They remembered.

He turned his gaze back to Shinjiro, who looked more mortified than he expected him to, and said: "that kid's name was Jerry. I was in charge of him as he monitored Gudao's channel. And because of my actions, he was erased."

He stared harder into the old man's soul, "If you really think you can handle fighting an opponent who can erase us as easily as taking a breath, then I truly believe it's a sign that you should be removed from your seat of power before you endanger more innocents."

Shinjiro grit his teeth at what Charles said, but he knew he didn't have an argument against this, so he put his head down in shame.

"So what, are we just going to accept being taken hostage by some unknown entity without being able to do anything about it?"

Charles saw the man was nearly at the verge of tears, but he didn't care for his emotions and crushed his smoldering ambitions before they could be set alight once more,"Unfortunately yes. We have no way to stop that thing from targeting us or if they chose to interfere. So we won't. And if you truly value your family like you told us, you won't either."

President Henderson, seeing the perfect moment to intervene, spoke his mind, "all in favor of Board Member Shinjiro's call to seize Twitch's assets and forcibly end Gudao's stream, say Aye."

No one, not even Shinjiro himself, who was too distraught to vote, had agreed with the option.

The group unanimously voted against the plan.

President Henderson hummed, satisfied by the result, then he looked back at the defeated man with pity in his eyes, "do not let our decision discourage you friend. Just because we cannot actively interfere does not mean we cannot benefit from this limitation we were imposed."

The man looked to the President, his attention earned but Henderson could tell that misspeaking here would damage his friendship with the man.

"Make no mistake, just because our world is observing and can't interfere, doesn't mean we have to stand idle. I agree that this connection between worlds can easily become a chokepoint for a future invasion, one which we are woefully unprepared to face… which is why this demand is a blessing as well. The stream is literally feeding us information of potential enemies of our world, that in and of itself is already worth its weight in gold."

The board members around him seemed to perk up at that news. A few of them, like Shinjiro, had regained some color in their eyes.

"So I say, let the entity broadcast all the violence and obscenity it wants. In the meantime, we watch, we listen, and, most importantly, we take notes. Knowledge is power, and right now, we need every ounce of power we can get."

✦✧✦

Nuvema town, Unova.

An eggshell cracks.

The pan sizzles as the Chansey egg hits the hot bacon grease.

The aroma of cooking egg fills the kitchen, where a woman with fluffy brown hair stands at the stove, making breakfast.

She covers the eggs and lets them cook over low heat. In the meantime, she grabs some white bread and places it in the toaster.

Two minutes pass. The woman removes the eggs from the pan and slides them onto a plate beside four strips of bacon. The toaster dings, and she retrieves the golden-brown slices, adding them to the plate.

Finally, she pours a glass of strawberry Moomoo Milk.

She picks up the plate and glass and heads toward the stairs.

At the top floor, she notices the empty dinner plate sitting in front of her daughter's door and exhales in quiet relief.

If there's one thing Touko is thankful for, it's that her daughter still has an appetite.

Without wasting time, she follows the new routine she's kept for the past week and calls out gently to her daughter.

"I brought you breakfast, honey."

No response.

She sighs. Still nothing. Her daughter was going through a whirlwind of emotions, but this was the first time she had ever withdrawn like this. Even during the Team Plasma incident, she'd never been this bad. Back then, she had refused to let herself rest, constantly pushing herself and her Pokémon to be ready for anything.

Seeing her holed up in her room now was heartbreaking. Every effort to get her to open up had been quietly, firmly turned away.

Touko had even tried to schedule an appointment with their therapist, but that too was a dead end. Therapists were overwhelmed due to the shortage, and none had the time to see her daughter anytime soon.

Eventually, she gave up trying to force it and decided to wait.

She sighed again and set the plate down gently at the foot of the door, just like always.

"I'll leave it here for you."

Touko walked away, her heart heavy with worry about her daughter's well-being.

✦✧✦

Meanwhile, inside the shut room, it was nearly pitch black.

The curtains were thick and heavy enough that they blotted out the sun from reaching Hilda. And yet, even if they could, they would be unable to pierce the cocoon of blankets enveloping her.

Despite sealing herself inside her impenetrable fortress of darkness, she could not sleep. Because every time she closed her eyes, her head would replay the events of the last stream.

And so, she distracted herself by being on her Rotom Phone, who was courteous enough not to bug her to go outside.

She was mindlessly browsing forums online, rewatching some of her favorite Pokémon League matches of the past, but no matter how much she tried to find enjoyment in the battles, she couldn't take her mind off that day.

The reason she had so much hatred for Olga was not just because of how she treated Gudao. It was mostly because Olga reminded Hilda of someone from her school days, an annoying, entitled girl who always bragged about her family's long lineage and wealth while putting down everyone else who didn't measure up to her standards.

She even went around and bullied Bianca for being shy and meek, something that she and Cheren didn't stand for.

Hilda thought Olga was the same as her… but she wasn't.

She was just a normal girl who was forced to take up the responsibilities of an adult, the exact same as her and her friends when they were forced to take down Team Plasma.

Adults were incompetent and couldn't fix an obvious issue because of politics, so young people like her had to step up and fight. Her normal journey was soured by having to deal with those buffoons, but she had a bleeding heart and couldn't let bullies get their way.

But now she was no different from them.

Worse even, since she was the most vocal decrier against Olga, judging her mask as who she was as a person without bothering to understand the girl behind that mask.

Tears streaked down her cheeks as she recalled the harsh last words she had told her.

"Stubborn, entitled bitch."

SLAM

Hilda yelped, her body instinctively jumping in place like a frightened kitten as the door to her room slammed open.

Her sheets fell to the floor as she scrambled to reach for her Poké Balls, which she kept on her bedside table.

Then a flash of light blinded her, as the intruder turned on the light of her room.

"Rise and shine, sleepyhead!!!" the familiar voice boldly said.

Hilda recognized that bubbly, if angry, voice. "Bianca? What are you doing here? I thought you were in Galar." She rubbed the spots out of her eyes, and when they refocused, she spotted her blonde, bespectacled best friend, her best friend, who had her arms crossed while she was glaring at her with a cute pout.

"I was in Galar, but then I heard a best friend of mine was driving her mother sick with worry because she wouldn't get out of her bed for nearly a week!"

Hilda rubbed her arm, not willing to look Bianca in the eyes. Had it been that long since she shut herself in her room?

"Sorry…"

Bianca, seeing Hilda's current state, toned down her anger into a more somber mood.

"I'm not really too good at dealing with hard emotions, Hilda, but I do understand that you need time for yourself to sort through them."

She pursed her lips. "But you shouldn't do it in here. Trust me, shutting yourself off in your room only makes your feelings worse." Bianca looked at the ground, her hair drooping slightly to match her sadness. "So please, will you come out?"

Seeing Bianca's sad face was unfair. Hilda had no defenses against it.

Realizing there was no point in arguing, Hilda gave up and got up from her bed.

"Fine. I'll go outside."

Hearing her words caused Bianca's sad mood to instantly turn bright once again.

"That's the spirit!! Now come on! Let's go! The sunshine will make all your bad feelings go away!"

Before Hilda could react, Bianca grabbed her hand and started to drag her away. "Wait, Bianca! I still need to change!"

Bianca realized her mistake and made an abrupt stop, but it was too late.

"Wah!!" The blonde had slipped on a sock Hilda had left out on the floor.

Bianca flailed as she fell to the ground, but Hilda was fast enough to pull her back. Unfortunately, she was wearing slippery socks, and she also slipped, which caused Bianca to fall right on top of her.

"Owie… Gasp, are you okay, Hilda!? I am so sorry, I'm still such a klutz and… and…"

Hilda opened her eyes and saw Bianca crinkling her nose in disgust.

"And what?"

Bianca quickly lifted herself up off the floor and plugged her nose. "You reek. When was the last time you took a bath?!"

Hilda's face lit up in embarrassment, but after she lifted her arm and took a whiff, she recoiled in disgust.

Bianca, seeing that reaction, just sighed. "Change of plans. You need a bath, pronto. Come on, I'll wash you."

Hilda wanted to argue that she could bathe herself, but seeing Bianca's pout killed the argument before it could leave her lips.

So she just accepted her fate.