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Cracking Cryzanthum; An interview with Aquan Delphinius
Topic Started: Jul 26 2007, 02:47 AM (313 Views)
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~ * ~ * ~
It was noon, on the dot, and Samson "Slick" Salsbury was enjoying a tangy lemonade at the local Escennian diner. He was sitting with his executive director and manager, Charlie Candon, his make-up artist and trend consultant, Krystal Gowles, and his old friend and a superb photojournalist, Zak Freckles.

"Remember," Krystal was saying, "Aquan is pretty hesitant to give this sort of thing up. You'll be asking him questions that delve pretty deep into what Team Aqua was doing, so don't be too hard on him, and remember that he doesn't know everything, either, so don't press too much." Krystal was a stern faced woman, not skinny but not overweight, ample features emphasized by only the latest ritzy fashion. Her overdone light blonde hair would have set her apart from the locals in any city BUT Escennia, where she simply appeared to be one of the elite.

"Come off it, Krys." said Charlie, not looking up from his newspaper. He was wearing his eternal khaki shorts and Hawaiian shirt, with a safari hat on his balding head and sunglasses tied with string around his neck. "All those stories that Magma and Aqua are still around are bullshit, everyone knows that."

"I've heard from sources that that's only what they want you to think." replied Krystal, matter-o-factly. "They wouldn't want to spread the fact that they're a secret organization, would they? Aquan is giving away lots of juicy details, or at least he promised he would be, and if any of them were still important to the group now..."

"..then he'll be dead when we get there, and we'll find out then." said Samson lazily.

Krystal looked miffed, rolling her eyes when Charlie sniggered to himself. "Well, yes, I suppose that's one way of looking at it. But we are putting him in danger... and we may be putting you in danger, too."

Samson flashed his award-winning smirk, an act that would've struck most women harmless; Krystal was so used to it she merely blinked it away after a few moments. "We'll be okay anyway," responded Samson, "won't we, Zak?"

Zak looked up from his book with only his eyes at mention of his name, then nodded, going back to reading without moving his head or saying a word. He was a pudgy fellow with ratted short brown hair and an inquisitive face, always wearing a tattered sweater and corduroy pants.

"Well, if you've decided to let him do the interview we scheduled two months ago..." said Charlie, now looking at his watch.

"Of course, I was just saying-"

"Well, we've got to let Aquan do the saying now. Time to go, crew."

***

It was clear to see that Aquan Delphinius was a water enthusiast. His navy blue siding stood out like a sore thumb amongst the green and brown houses to the sides, with port-hole windows and nautical trinkets around the small yard.

The interior of his house was also a blue, but a lighter, gentler shade, and there was a great variety of seafaring styled items (from ships in bottles, to large blue pendants and jewels, to antique flasks and jugs, to locked golden chests) on shelves covering every wall. ("How many fleamarkets do you think we could stock, per room, do you say?" said Charlie.) Aquan himself seemed to blend right in, a wrinkled, bearded, salty old man with a blue bandana and shirt, along with dressy black pants, sitting in a rocking chair that probably predated even him. Samson was sitting in a blue cushioned chair opposite him, while Zak stood behind Aquan, filming Samson, and Charlie stood either away from them for a wide shot of both, or behind Samson for a shot of just Aquan. Krystal was working the microphones.

A bit of theme music came up and faded out, and Samson smiled at the camera getting the wide shot, Aquan doing the same shortly after.

"Hello there, friends and fans, and welcome to the first episode of Cracking Cryzanthum. I'm your host, Samson "Slick" Salsbury," he said, with a wink and a grin, "and today, we'll be talking with Aquan Delphinius, a former member of the once powerful Team Aqua." Samson settled in his chair and turned his head to Aquan, the camera angle changing with him. "So, Aquan, what is it exactly that you DID in Team Aqua?"

"I was a membarr o' tha Pirate Squad." said Aquan, in a rough, sea-tossed voice.

"And what exactly did you do int he Pirate Squad?" asked Samson.

"Arr, I was the lead captain of tha Rosemary's Revenge, one o' tha finest ships ever ta sail. Back then when I was just fifty young yarrs old, the leadarr would entrust me with some o' his most important tasks, narrmally 'bout findin' clues or tha accasional spy mission." reported Aquan.

Samson nodded empathetically. "It's relatively common knowledge that the Kingdom of Cryzanthum, now the Rocky Ruinlands and the Cryzanthum District, were destroyed in the fight between Aqua and Magma. Can you confirm this for us?"

Aquan raised an eyebrow, but then gave a toothless grin and continued. "Arr, that I can, boy! Tha fight batween Kyarrgre and Groudon did not leave many a land undamaged. I'll have you know that Loch Neeru used to be all Cryzanthum Kingdom as well, yar, it was all above water, that. But Magma," he said the name of the opposing team with a sort of resilient hatred in his voice, "Magma had a varry important... very easily discovarred resarrch centarr in them ruins. When Kyarrgre was released, that was one of the farrst places it was directed."

It was Samson's turn to raise an eyebrow, leaning forward in his chair a bit in interest. "So you are indeed confirming that Kyogre and Groudon were released? That the legendary colored orbs were found to summon them?"

"Yar, that they were." nodded Aquan.

"And Aqua, you say, directed it at Cryzanthum? It was able to control it?"

"Only farr a sharrt time, ar. Kyarrgre was too parrerful even for arr combined mights, as was Groudon for Magma, I would be farrced to believe, so aftarr parrforming a few commands for us, it realized it could break free, and that's when tha chaos starrted."

"You are, of course, referring to the Land War, which is the fight between an uncontrolled Kyogre and an uncontrolled Groudon for dominance of the world, which reshaped much of the region thirty years ago, correct?"

"Carrect." replied Aquan.

"It is not related to our topic at hand so much, but I must ask this for interest's sake," began Samson, sliding a lock of blonde hair out of his face with one smooth move with his hand. "Do you know what caused the end of the war?"

Aquan seemed to think on this, and shifted his weight in his chair before answering hesitantly. "Tharr arr a lot of different theories." he said. He paused, as if unsure of whether to say his own, and then decided in favor of after a moment of deliberation. "Me, I think Aqua found a way to imprison it again. Could harrdly have an unstoppable thing runnin' around wreckin' havoc to everything, could ye? Same thing with Magma... curious how it happened at the same time with both, but as I was Aqua's right hand man, most trusted advisarr, and I didn't hearr about any under-the-table agreement batween the leadarrs... anyway, I don't know any more than the public story. Both of 'em disappearred... an' both teams sunk. Left me dry."

"Amazing." concluded Samson, with the hint of a smile on his face. "That's all the questions I have for you, and I'd like to thank you for allowing me to ask them. You've been a great help in our journey." He reached out and shook hands with the Aquan, on camera. "That's all for this installment; watch out for my next one!" And with a wink and a grin at the camera, and another fade of theme music, the episode was over.

As the crew was packing up their gear, Samson noticed Zak talking to Aquan in a corner, silently. Samson had known Zak for most of his life, and he was not a very talkative person; more of a bookworm, sort of a nerd, though Samson was with him through thick and thin. When Zak had finished and Aquan had left the room, Samson gravitated to Zak.

"What did you talk to Aquan about?" he asked quietly, still packing.

"Well..." started Zak. He looked to make sure Charlie and Krystal were both out of hearing range, and they were. "You didn't catch it, I think, but Aquan said something that contradicts our research so far."

"What?" said Samson, raising his eyebrows. "You always were observant... what was it?"

"Aquan said that Magma had a research center in the ruins." said Zak, waiting for a reaction. Samson had none.

"Yes... and?"

Zak looked exasperated. "That's important on two different levels. The first one, why do they have a research center in the ruins, out of all places?"

"I don't know." said Samson. "I imagine they'd want to be studying stuff, right? So why not study it there?"

"Magma studied the Red Orb and where to find it, as well as all forms of fire pokemon. If they wanted to study fire pokemon, they should've been on Corona Island. You don't make a research lab far away from what you want to study."

"You think the Red Orb was in Cryzanthum, then?" said Samson, hoping he was piecing together his friend's logic correctly. Zak was always the smart one.

"The Red Orb was supposed to be in a volcano or something." said Zak. "I don't think it was there... but... there had to be a reason for building the lab there. So it's a possibility... and a possible lead."

"Well, if you say so. Was there a second thing?"

"Yeah. He said the research center was in the ruins." Zak was sure to get a reaction this time, but Samson looked even more bored.

"...Yeah. We just went over that, didn't we?" he said.

"No, no. In the ruins. Think about it. That means that by the time Magma had gotten there, the Kingdom of Cryzanthum was already anciently ruined. It wasn't just because of the warfare between Aqua and Magma... it was something before their time."

Samson thought about it. "I don't know." he concluded. "Magma and Aqua were around for, like, at least a couple decades before the legendaries appeared. They could've had plenty of time to ruin the Kingdom beforehand."

"That's not what it sounded like he was saying, though." said Zak.

"Well... why don't we ask him?" said Samson.

It was at that point that they heard the old man scream from the kitchen. Giving each other a quick glance, they rushed into the next room to find only a hole in the wall where the back door used to be, and not a single trace of Aquan. With Charlie and Krystal close behind them, the crew streaked out of the door and followed a rough path that looked like something had been dragged. It led them into the main pavilion of Escennia.

The paved ground prevented the path from going much further, but the large crowd of people told the crew where to run next. Pushing and shoving their way to the front of the crowd, with Samson in the lead, they saw a grizzly sight.

Aquan's body, bloodied and torn, was laying a dozen meters ahead of them. A dark figure with a robe that dragged on the ground was bent over it, and just now getting up as it sensed the commotion behind it. It stood taller than any man Samson had ever seen, and as it turned around, he felt a chill run down his spine.

The thing had no visible face, merely glowing yellow animalistic eyes underneath the dark, torn hood. The robes were so thick and wrapped that no body could be seen beneath, though Samson knew it must be thin.

The thing made a disgusting roaring sound and the crowd caught a glint of white; long, sharp teeth. Claws extended from the arms of the robe. It drifted directly towards Samson, who was too petrified by the twelve foot monster to move a muscle.

And then, instinctively, his hand darted to the five pokeballs situated on his belt. The monster saw the movement and seemed to recoil, and before Samson could even select his pokemon, the horrible thing had fled past the body and out of town, into the forest. No one made to follow it.

"What... what was that thing?" asked a white faced Charlie Candon, standing breathlessly next to Samson, not daring to move so soon.

"It was, it was a beast from Aqua, I told you, I told you all, they still exist!" said Krystal, releasing what had been bottled up for the last couple minutes. "They wanted revenge for spilling the beans on them so they killed Aquan and you must've scared it away because it knows you're the pokemon champion!"

Samson merely glanced at Zak, who gave a 'something's-not-right' expression and shrugged. He really hoped this wasn't an omen of things to come.

***

So, enjoy reading that? That's the first episode of Cracking Cryzanthum. The episode itself, i.e. the interview with Aquan from the theme music opening to the theme music closing, was televised on every poketech in the region and is able to be watched from your handheld at any time you feel like it, as many times as you want.
Meanwhile, the death of Aquan and the incident in the pavilion has been publicized as well. Rumors abound on what the thing could be, and eyewitness accounts of it vary more than you'd believe, though it's well spread that the fearless Samson Salsbury stood up to it and chased it away. Samson has made no comment on what has happened besides to express his grief at the death of such a fine, good hearted man. And THAT is Cracking Cryzanthum, Episode One.
Sydney Snow - APL: 00 - LP: 04
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