Chapter 3: Gathering Information

**CRASH**

Zeus was aroused from his thoughts by a loud crashing sound somewhere further into the forest.

Quickly gathering himself, he looked around for the tallest tree in his vicinity to climb for a better vantage point to see what the hell that was.

Climbing the tree was no problem and within a few minutes, Zeus was staring out over the forest which seemed to stretch on for miles in every direction. From the top of the tree, Zeus managed to form a pretty good map of the surroundings in his head.

To the north, he could see the outlines of a large city, with many skyscrapers piercing the clouds. Despite being many miles away, Zeus could tell from the architecture that the technology of this world was far ahead of his previous one, which he wasn't surprised about as just the technology used in pokeball would cause every scientist on earth to smash their heads on their desks trying to figure out how it worked.

To the south east, he could see another human settlement, much smaller that the sprawling metropolis to the north, but still big enough to be called a town.

But his main focus was on the patch of trees around a kilometer away from his current position that had been snapped in half, and the large pillar of black smoke in the center.

Zeus wasted no time after finding the origin of the loud crash and quickly descended the tree, grabbed his bag and took off in that direction.

While running, it was becoming painfully obvious that this was not his original body. His movements felt sluggish and he was already panting after running just 300 meters.

'Tch, looks like I have a long road ahead of me to get this body into the condition that I need. But I cannot be satisfied with the strength I once had.I will make this body surpass my previous one no matter what.'

Zeus kept silently cursing the body's original owner for being so weak as he kept running and pushed himself. This kind of pain was nothing to him after all.

While running, he was surprised that he didn't come across a single pokemon yet, as he thought that this forest would be teeming with life.

'Probably all got scared away by the crash' he thought as he ran forward.

He finally got within 100 meters of the origin of the smoke, and decided to slow down and approach cautiously, while giving him time to catch his breath and slow his breathing.

Despite his body's clear exhaustion, he moved expertly between the trees making very little noise until he got close enough to see the source of the sound from earlier.

In the freshly made clearing in front of him lay a very mangled helicopter, with the tail lying a few meters from the rest of the cabin, clearly torn off in the crash.

The other notable thing in the clearing, were the 4 human bodies spread around the helicopter, nearly burnt beyond recognition.

'Hmm, judging by the scorch marks and the way the tail has been ripped off, it looks like the fuel tank of the helicopter exploded which caused it to crash. But what caused the explosion?'

Zeus decided to keep watching for another minute to see if there was any motion from the surroundings and it didn't take long before he observed some movement coming from the direction of the crash.

A man stumbled out of the forest into the clearing, clutching his arm and limping with blood dripping down his sides.

Zeus surmised that this man was also on the helicopter but jumped out before the explosion as his injuries matched what you would get from a nasty fall.

Zeus kept low and kept quiet as the man limped towards the downed helicopter, ignoring the remains of his once teammates on the ground.

'Well he clearly ain't no saint as he shows no concern for their fates, that makes this much easier.'

The man entered the remains of the cabin, most likely to call for help and as he did, Zeus left his hiding place and very stealthily moved towards the wreckage. As he got closer he heard the man inside calling for backup.

Man "...This is Grunt number 69420, we have sustained heavy damage on the mission and are currently downed awaiting pick up on this marked location. Our Admin is with the earth. The target was also heavily injured before we went down and is suspected to be in our area. Please bring a capture team with you…"

Zeus 'No one from a respectable organization would refer to themselves as Grunt, and from his report, these people were chasing something and managed to injure it so it can't be far from here. Seeing he called for something called a capture team, It must be a pokemon, and a strong one at that to be able to take out a helicopter.'

Zeus decided that he had heard enough and silently entered the cabin while taking out the knife attached to his belt, and found the man fiddling with the on board radio.

Now that he was close he could finally get a good look at the man and was surprised by what he saw, as he recognised that outfit. He was wearing long red pants and a red hoodie with a black 'M' insignia on it.

Zeus 'Well that's a surprise. Now time for some good old fashioned interrogation.'

Zeus crouched down, and kept his eyes on his target before bursting forward with explosive speed.

Man "What the…"

Before the man could properly react he felt an intense pain just above his shoulder and suddenly, his entire body went numb as he found himself unable to move anything below his neck as he collapsed onto his front. That feeling didn't numb the pain at all however as he still screamed in agony. He tried to move any of his limbs but was unable to despite being able to feel the cold metal floor of the helicopter beneath him as the fear finally started to creep in as he couldn't roll over to see what had ambushed him.

Zeus put on his interrogation voice, a voice he picked up through many torture sessions to bring out the greatest fear in his victims whilst keeping his identity a secret. (AN: Think Spiderman Interrogation voice from Homecoming, but less robot-y)

Zeus "Don't bother trying to move, I've disabled your sympathetic nervous system, you won't be able to move. But don't worry, it doesn't disable the pain receptors!"

The man on the ground felt fear creep up his spine when he heard that voice but he gathered his courage and tried his own intimidation tactics.

Man "Who the fuck are you? Do you know who we are? You better let me go or you're gonna regret it, I swear to god!"

Zeus rolled his eyes at the threats he heard a thousand times before 'Seems people still love the cliche lines in every universe.'

Zeus "I know who you are, Team Magma. And I'll be the one asking the questions here."

The Team Magma Grunt on the floor's fear overcame him when he heard that voice again. It was void of any emotion and he knew that whoever it belonged to would have no problems finishing him off if he didn't prove useful to him.

Magma Grunt"*gulp* Look man, I'm just a grunt. I don't know anything about the boss's plans, I just follow orders, please just let me go, I won't tell anyone about you." he said shakily, the interrogation voice clearly doing its job.

Zeus "I don't give a shit about your boss's plans, what I want is information on the state of this region and any recent major events in the world?"

The Magma Grunt was stunned momentarily. "That's it? You can find that information anywhere, why did you ...."

Zeus "ANSWER THE FUCKING QUESTION!"

Magma Grunt "SORRY, SORRY. I'll tell you please don't hurt me! This is the Hoenn region and everything is calm on the surface, but there is an underground war going on between my organization and our opponents, Team Aqua. I'm not sure what The end game of either side is but most of us just follow orders and grunt work. The league is finally starting to take notice of our activities so we've started moving a lot more than previously. Not only that, recently a third underground organization has emerged but they are very secretive and don't seem to want to interfere with Team Magma or Aqua's war."

Zeus ' Interest, so it seems I've come to the start of the storylines of the Hoenn games and anime, with these 2 organizations trying to increase land mass or raise sea levels by using the power of 2 legendary Pokemon. How stupid can someone be to upset the entire balance of the world for no reason other than liking the land/sea. But this third underground organization intrigues me, there was no mention of them in any format. Oh well, as long as they stay out of my way, it makes no difference to me.'

The Magma Grunt on the ground, hearing no reply from his captor, continued, "As for the rest of the world, The Johto league just ended about a month ago, though the winner wasn't able to defeat the Champion Lance who maintained his title.

"There was also news that an underground organization operating in Kanto and Johto was recently uprooted and dismantled, with its leader being the former Gym leader of Viridian City in Kanto.

"There is also lots of hype about a newly discovered Pokemon evolution method, but the details haven't been released yet."

Zeus 'So the Johto storyline also just ended, and that organization sounds like Team Rocket, glad I won't have to deal with them. I'm curious to see what characters from the canon are in this world. I recognise Lance so it's not a completely new universe, it seems my prior knowledge will still be relevant.

'And that new evolution method will probably be Mega Evolution, but it seems the method is not fully discovered or they would have released it. But I should assume there are some out there who do know the secrets.'

Satisfied with the information, Zeus turned his attention from his thoughts to the shivering man beneath him.

Zeus "Thank you for that information, it was… enlightening." he said as he stood up.

The Magma Grunt heaved a heavy sigh of relief as he felt like he had just been spared from the jaws of death herself.

"One more thing…"

The shivering returned and the Magma Grunt managed to stutter "Y..yes?"

Zeus smiled and said in a much lighter tone but still in his interrogation voice "Could you point me in the direction of the Pokemon you were chasing? Much Appreciated!"

Magma Grunt "...."