The Patron Quadrilogy: The Legend Begins

Chapter 38

Monday, October 16th, 5:12 p.m.
Tree of Beginning (Meeting Area)
(Brendan)

"Shit. So that's where they got this many people from." Brendan thought as he looked down at the dead Thorn Trainer, seeing a blue bandana adorned with a symbol that resembled an "A" made out of bones. He clenched his fist as he immediately recognized it.

"Team Aqua," Brendan growled. "I thought all of the major syndicates had been disbanded following the arrests of their leaders and higher-ups."

"Do you recognize him?" Sagara asked.

"Sort of. I don't know his name, but what I do know is that he was definitely pretty high up in Team Aqua, before Archie got arrested." Brendan looked at Steven. "The other body, did it also belong to a Team Aqua member?"

"Team Rocket," Steven answered. "But I heard that others are finding members of Team Magma, Plasma, even Galactic. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if you found members of every team among the bodies, but Aqua, Rocket, Magma, Plasma, Flare, and Galactic concern me the most. But a few are also just regular thugs and undesirables out there as well."

"Something about this doesn't make sense," Brendan said. "This attack was too massive to just have been the work of two Patrons, excluding Harley. Not to mention, even if the Syndicates fell on hard times, I find it hard to believe that they'd follow anybody other than their leaders, regardless of whether or not they have Powers."

"Maybe they were getting desperate?" The Patron of Regigigas suggested.

"Not likely," Steven said. "In Magma and Aqua's case, we only brought a handful of their higher-ups to justice. For all we know, those organizations could've been much larger than either of us were expecting. And this would mean that there's undoubtedly more higher-ups that we didn't know about. And if that's true for Aqua and Magma, I don't see why it wouldn't be true for Rocket, Galactic, Plasma, and Flare."

"Arceus forbid," Brendan said, his imagination filling in the rest of what Steven had set up.

"The bright side, however, is that this is just a theory," Steven noted. "I'll need to do some digging back home to see if I can find any information about this."

"Irregardless, one thing won't change about this. For one reason or another, Harley now has every single Syndicate he can find on his side."

"And now the Order just suffered an attack that took the lives of several Patrons and Lieutenants," Sagara added. "Right now, our only hope of winning is for the Order to band together. And after an attack like this, that shouldn't be too hard to achieve." He looked at both of them. "I'll be whatever help I can be, but unfortunately as one of the Patron Monks, I must stay near the Tree of Beginning."

"Alright, but right now we need to rally everyone that's left," Brendan said, and Sagara nodded, walking over to what remained of the thrones in the center of the room.

"Patrons and Lieutenants! Gather around!" The Patron of Regigigas called. Slowly, the surviving Patrons and Lieutenants walked or limped over.

"Everyone seems so despondent," Brendan thought. "Guess almost everyone lost somebody in this fight." He saw his cousin Gail, limping over with the rest of his friends, holding her elbow. There was a gash on her bicep that had been bleeding, but stopped. He also noticed the rest of the Team Petal Lieutenants following close behind, and felt his heart sink when he realized that they were also short one Lieutenant.

"Even they lost someone... I'll have to talk with Gail later," he told himself as he turned to face Sagara.

"As you all know, tonight we were betrayed and attacked by the Patrons of Genesect and Palkia. According to testimonies from the Patrons of Groudon, Kyogre, Ho-oh, Lugia, Mewtwo, and several others, the traitors were conspiring with the Patron of Darkrai. And, while I'm unsure of how many here are aware of this discovery, but the Team Thorn members that attacked us had members of the old Syndicates among their ranks. Tonight, this attack was a declaration of war from the Patron of Darkrai. We have suffered greatly, and I fear that this is only the beginning. Dark days are on the horizon not just for the Patron Order, but for the entire world. I know many of us have lost somebody here tonight, and I believe that we can all agree on one thing: this cannot go unpunished. The Patron of Darkrai must pay for his crimes. I have never lied to any of you, and I never will. The Patron of Darkrai is the largest threat that the Order has faced. But I know we will emerge victorious! What I need to know is whether we must stand against this threat alone, or if we will band together, and make this darkness retreat back to the shadows where it belongs! Who will stand with me!?"