Chapter 463: Team Flare
The Winding Woods is a forest located exactly south of the snowfield.
In winter, this place will also be covered with a thick layer of silver quilt, but now it is in the relatively warm late spring, so it's just relatively cold here, and not much snowflake can be seen.
"According to a friend of mine... if we go all the way forward into the depths of the Winding Woods, we might find the legendary Pokémon Village."
Professor Sycamore frowned looking at the map in his hand.
Before coming, he asked some friends who live nearby or have explored here.
Therefore, he also learned some intelligence.
Convenient for them to explore.
"Pokémon Village?"
"Mm, as the name implies, it's a village composed of Pokémon; it's said those living there are some Pokémon living in seclusion, and it's very difficult for humans to enter there."
"Uh..."
Cynthia was stunned after hearing this, turning her head to look at Will beside her.
Will understood what she meant.
Nothing more than sighing why they encountered another Nebel Plateau.
But there are still some differences.
The Pokémon living in the Pokémon Village don't hate humans; they just like a quiet life and don't want to be disturbed, so they deliberately hide the existence of the village.
If someone gets lost or meets an accident in this Winding Woods, they might even help and guide humans out of here.
"I suspect now, Xerneas might be hiding in this Pokémon Village; humans being unable to find this place might exactly be because of his power."
Sycamore voiced his guess.
The idea is very novel.
As far as the currently known intelligence is concerned, inferring like this is not wrong, but rather seems very reasonable.
But Will knows this is not the case.
The Pokémon Village is able to hide.
Is because Pokémon like Zoroark, Gothorita, Noctowl, and Banette live there.
Simply put...
They are either masters of illusion or masters of hypnosis.
Under the circumstance that humans cannot guarantee what they see in front of them is true, they also cannot guarantee the road they are walking leads to the depths of the Winding Woods.
The three went all the way deep.
Until the road ahead split into three.
Then they stopped their footsteps.
"Three roads, split up, or pick one road to go together?"
Cynthia turned her head looking at Sycamore.
"Let's forget about splitting up; in this Winding Woods, it's very hard to reunite after separating..."
Sycamore shook his head, opening his mouth to say.
But halfway through.
"Shh."
Will suddenly raised his hand to interrupt.
He held Cynthia running towards the dense bushes aside; Sycamore beside followed with a confused face.
"A group of suspicious guys are coming."
Will pulled them to squat in a temporarily dug pit.
About two hundred meters away from this place.
There were about seven or eight people sneaking towards this side; looking like they were looking for something.
Will initially thought it was a gathering team or farmers from nearby villages or something.
But looking at it now, it doesn't seem to be.
These people were completely following the path they had walked all the way here.
"Suspicious?"
Sycamore made a doubtful sound.
This was his first time encountering such a thing, somewhat not quite believing it.
In his consciousness.
The Kalos region is peaceful and beautiful.
The worst bad guys are nothing more than one or two Pokémon Hunters popping up occasionally, and their ending is basically nothing more than being caught by the League.
"Probably followed you here."
Will muttered a sentence.
Recently Sycamore's reputation has spread loudly, everyone saying he found Xerneas's location.
Attracting the tracking of people with ulterior motives is simply too normal.
Trainers wanting to watch the fun.
Pokémon Hunters forming groups.
Even Team Flare whose development stage is unknown.
Anyone could be tracking Sycamore.
So Will also couldn't judge what background these seven or eight people behind exactly had.
"?! That's the legendary God of Life, are these people so reckless with their lives?"
"..."
Will and Cynthia were speechless.
These words were simply an indiscriminate attack.
Not only attacked that group of trackers, but also attacked Will and Cynthia, even attacked Sycamore himself.
But this also exactly explained how tempting Xerneas is, making so many people pursue his traces regardless of the consequences.
"Wait, if those people are tracking me, then when they find our traces disappeared later, wouldn't they realize something is wrong?"
Sycamore suddenly froze for a moment.
"So be it if they realize; the first thing we have to do now is to confirm the purpose of this group of people."
Will responded not caring much.
If this group of people is really tracking them, then take action decisively while they are still unaware.
If this group of people is not, just happening to be on the same way, then they will track the other party in reverse, to see what this group of people is looking for.
Maybe there will be unexpected surprises.
Pat.
Rustle.
Sparse footsteps gradually approached, some stepping on the soil, some stepping on the grass.
Seven figures gradually appeared in the vision of Will and the others.
Squinting to look.
Even though those people wore brownish-gray hooded cloaks, Will could still see the red suits under the fluttering cloaks.
Catching the red under those cloaks.
Will could basically judge the background of these people.
The evil organization of the Kalos region, Team Flare.
Of course.
Team Flare at this time is not an evil organization.
On the surface, they benefit all of Kalos, have helped countless poor people, provided countless convenient technologies for the whole people.
A legal group with a promising future; their technology has penetrated into the daily life of the Kalos region.
And the boss of Team Flare is also a famous young philanthropist in the Kalos region, Lysandre.
Lysandre's reputation is obvious to everyone in this Kalos.
In his youth, he also traveled around the Kalos region with his Pokémon, lending a helping hand to people suffering everywhere.
In the game, one can see the respect for Lysandre from the words of many passerby NPCs, as well as the regret for Lysandre's actions after the great war.
If really wanting to eradicate Team Flare.
The first to be unhappy would be the Kalos people who don't know the truth.
But.
Because of being disappointed with people who constantly argue, rob, and take assistance for granted and demand more, Lysandre and Team Flare "darkened".
They developed extreme and cynical thoughts.
So.
In order to let people live beautifully in a world without arguments and robberies.
Lysandre decided to reduce the number of lives, destroy the current real world, and create a utopia.
Ideologically, Lysandre perfectly inherited the madness of the Eternal royal family, truly originating from the same root as his ancestor's elder brother AZ. Action-wise, he is similar to Uchiha Madara in the Naruto world, deciding to create an Infinite Tsukuyomi world or something to permanently stop wars.
But probably exactly because of this extremity.
Lysandre could become the boss of Team Flare and do something incredible.
"Is that... Team Flare?"
Sycamore's eyes were very sharp, also seeing the red uniforms under the cloaks.
"What is Team Flare?"
Cynthia asked.
"The largest charitable organization in the Kalos region, has saved many poor people, but in recent years their style of doing things seems to have started to change a bit; I'm not too clear on the specifics."
"Then aren't they a group of good people?"
Cynthia doubtfully tilted her head.
Actually, her thought is not wrong.
The Team Flare of the past was really a group of pure good people, and even ten years later, at least on the surface Team Flare still maintained a fairly good public reputation.
After all.
Team Flare does things sneakily, rarely letting others find out they are doing bad things.
"Ordinary people wouldn't dress up like that. Cynthia, do you remember who was the last group of people dressing up like that?"
"Team Plasma."
"Mm, looking at it now, this group of people doesn't seem to be tracking us; they are also looking for something."
Will squatted in the bushes observing quietly.
The eight people of Team Flare.
The one in the lead held an unknown instrument in his hand, which seemed to mark the location of something.
This group of people was sneaking over following the navigation of that instrument, rather than specifically tracking Sycamore.
They might not even know Sycamore came at all.
"What to do?"
Cynthia's eyes flickered faintly, glancing at Will.
"...Don't know, quietly follow and see? Or, we continue looking for Xerneas, ignoring them."
Sycamore shook his head blankly.
Experiencing this kind of thing for the first time, he was like a rookie in front of Cynthia and Will.
"This group of people doesn't look like they are going to do anything proper no matter how you look at it. Professor, do you have the contact information of Officer Jenny in Snowbelle City? Personally ask her to bring a few people to investigate."
Will turned his head looking at Sycamore.
Right now there is no conclusive evidence to prove the other party is doing bad things.
If calling the police just because their dress and whereabouts are suspicious, might fall under the name of illegal acts like occupying police resources and disrupting public security order.
But if Sycamore personally requested the police to do a slight investigation, then there would be no problem.
Anyway.
Leaving it alone is impossible.
Will doesn't know exactly when Team Flare in the original work started to change their ambitions, so he can't be sure since when they started doing bad things either.
Although.
The goal of Team Flare in the anime is to use the power of Zygarde to create a beautiful new world.
Team Flare in the game uses the power of the Ultimate Weapon to reduce life and create a utopia.
The means of the two versions of Team Flare to achieve the same goal are different; Will has no way to judge which version the Kalos region of this world is right now.
But.
To draw out Zygarde, one must awaken the X God or Y God to destroy the balance of the ecosystem in the Kalos region.
To activate the Ultimate Weapon, the power of the XY Dual Gods is needed.
No matter which version, cannot avoid taking action against the XY Dual Gods.
Like in the anime when Ash's group's plot just started.
Team Flare had already taken action against the split Zygarde don't know how many times.
That means they had already taken action against Xerneas or Yveltal long ago.
Maybe.
Right now they just happen to bump into Team Flare taking action against the sleeping Xerneas.
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