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[Pokémon] The Thinking Man's Guide to Destroying the World

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
Why, thank you, 01. It's very pleasing to know that people enjoy what I create; that's why I do it. That and the fact that if I don't finish The Thinking Man's Guide to Destroying the World, I'll never be able to get my head clear enough of it to focus on more important things. So don't worry, I will finish it.

Oh, and I did rewrite Chapters 36 and 37, that's right. It was brought to my attention that they were awful, and, upon re-reading them, I was forced to agree.

Chapter Sixty-Six: Grand Theft Hydro


"Is... is your arm OK?" I asked cautiously.

Sapphire glared at me.

"My arm is falling off," she replied caustically. "What the hell do you think?"

Duncan stopped abruptly at the sound of her voice, and the big red lights on his head flashed ominously.

"Nothing you can do about it now," I said to him. "Keep swimming and we might get out of the Jellicent's body before he attacks again."

The Tentacruel, evidently deciding he would rather be alive with Sapphire on his back than dead without, started moving again. I returned my attention to Sapphire's arm.

It looked like the love-child of a toad and a pot of tarmac; black, blistered and smoking gently, it reminded me of that business last year. As I watched, a few flaky bits fell off it.

That's really, really nasty, Puck said. Isn't it awesome?


"How – was that the Hex?" I asked.

"It does a lot of damage if the target has a status condition," Sapphire said from between clenched teeth. "So when it hit my burned arm..."

I winced.

"Do you want a Potion?" I asked lamely. Sapphire glared.

"Those only work on Pokémon."

I smiled smugly, then quickly assumed a straight face as Sapphire's frown deepened dangerously.

"Uh, OK, so – what do we do?"

"Get some bandages out of my bag and bandage it for me," Sapphire said. I did, and started to wind it tightly around her arm – at which she flinched, swore and tugged her arm out of my grip.

"Hold still," I said.

"Sorry, but my arm's falling off," she replied. "And so I'm in a little bit of pain here."

"It's not really falling off, is it?" I said. "It's more... flaking. Now hold out your arm again."

After a few false starts, I managed to get her arm bandaged well enough that nothing else was going to fall off, and Sapphire made a sling of her jacket to carry it in. Satisfied that I'd done my good deed for the day, I sat down on Duncan's back and felt for the Jellicent's presence; he was still there, so I assumed we weren't safe yet.

I sighed. Things never seemed to go as we planned.

"What are you sighing about?" asked Sapphire sourly.

"I'm wet," I replied. "And the Jellicent's still here."

"Oh, you're wet, are you? Well, my arm's falling off."

"We've been through this," I said, in my best soothing voice. "It's not actually falling off. It's just flaking a bit."

"Go and leap off a cliff," Sapphire said grumpily, and turned away.

Someone's feeling a bit upset, Puck remarked. It's amazing how badly you've managed this sea voyage, Kester. Duncan's probably going to stop and demand Sapphire's thrown overboard when we get outside the Jellicent, Sapphire's pissed-off with you (well, more than usual), and Felicity's unconscious. Congratulations, your ferry service is officially the worst in Hoenn.

"Shut up," I muttered, and settled down to wait.

About ten minutes later, Duncan stopped suddenly; I realised we were out of the Jellicent's range now, and he probably wasn't going to move unless we got rid of Sapphire. His lights flashed and he made one of those electronic hisses.

"Just keep going, Duncan," said Sapphire darkly. "I need medical attention. Would you prefer my arm came off than I ride on your back."

Duncan paused. It was self-evident that, in all honesty, he would prefer that Sapphire's arm came off.

"OK," Sapphire said, the fight leaving her voice. "Just take us to Mossdeep or I'll smash your globe again."

Duncan's lights flashed very brightly, and a ring of tentacles appeared around us, arched menacingly.

"Sapphire doesn't mean any of this," I said hurriedly. "Look, Duncan, you can trust me. I'm a nice guy. Aren't I, Sapphire?"

She made a rude gesture.

"I'm trying to help you here," I said in a low voice. "Help me out, OK?"

"Fine." She sighed. "Duncan, Kester is a nice guy. He's much better than I am."

Duncan shivered and emitted a strange grinding noise; it took me a moment to realise he was laughing, presumably at Sapphire. She ground her teeth and glared at me.

"So yeah," I said, trying hard not to laugh myself, "we'd really appreciate it if you'd keep going. Please?"

The Tentacruel seemed to waver for a moment, then withdrew his tentacles, and bobbed slightly.

"Does that mean yes?" I asked.

He flashed his lights and started moving again; I guessed that it had.

Pleading with a jellyfish, Puck mused. That's got to be demeaning.

That wasn't a good one, I replied, and the Rotom sighed.

Yeah, you're right, he said. I'll think of something better to say. Watch this space.

Sapphire gave me a long look, and then sighed.

"Thanks," she said. "Sorry."

"Rare praise indeed," I said, raising my eyebrows. "But no problem. It's fine."

Felicity stirred and groaned; it seemed she was coming around.

"What exactly will Iron Head have done to her?" I asked.

"Maybe a couple of broken bones." Sapphire shrugged. "I don't know. She always seems to heal on her own, doesn't she?"

"Does – yeah, she does..." I thought of the water that permeated her body. Were her bones made of ice?

Felicity's eyes fluttered open, and she sat up holding her head.

"Ouch," she muttered, and I breathed a sigh of relief. Skuld was safely back inside her head.

It would have been bad if she'd got out, Puck agreed. Why, we'd all be dead, and then where would we be?

"She's... gone," Felicity said, blinking. "Sapphire?"

"Yes?"

"Thank you. You stopped her." Felicity examined her hands minutely, as if she hadn't seen them for a while and needed to remind herself what they looked like. "I used too many of her attacks. It almost let her out."

"What were you using?" I asked.

"Shadow Ball," said Sapphire on her behalf. "A strong Ghost move."

We can use that, Puck said. Or we could if you were a higher level. You're still a bit pathetic.

"What did we get to eat?" asked Felicity suddenly. "I'm hungry."

So we ate, and drifted on through the afternoon; as the full moon rose, we could just see the outline of Mossdeep appearing in the distance, which cheered us all up quite a bit – it was mind-numbingly dull aboard Duncan's back, and Sapphire was getting more and more worried about her arm. We'd put some of the Blissey lotion on it, but nothing much had happened; it was going to take a proper doctor's attention to fix it.

Yo, Kester, Puck said.

"What?"

I saw the crescent, but... you saw the whole of the moon.

I looked up, and could indeed see the moon.

"Uh... what?"

Never mind. I just wanted to quote.

"Puck?" asked Sapphire, and I nodded.

"Something about the whole of the moon," I replied.

It's only one of the greatest songs of the '80s, you cultureless swine.

"Now he's just being abusive."

That is a gross oversimplification

"Now I don't care."

Puck harrumphed and fell silent, and I smiled to myself. Beating Puck never got old.

As Sapphire had predicted, we made landfall at around midnight, Duncan steering gently into a small cove that housed Mossdeep Island's Trainer Beach.

We splashed off his back and onto land wearily, and before he could make his views regarding Sapphire known to us I recalled him.

"It's good to be back on land," I said. "My legs have gone to sleep."

"My arm's gone to sleep," Sapphire said. "In fact, I think it's properly unconscious. Maybe even dead."

"All right, all right," I said. "Let's find a hospital."

So we walked up the stairs cut into the dark cliff face, and entered Mossdeep City.

Now, I'd liked Mauville. I'd quite liked Slateport's Wharf. I'd really liked Fallarbor and its sunny atmosphere of fame and glamour.

But I really, really liked Mossdeep.

White and shiny, with brown-slated roofs and green bricks creeping across the pale walls, the city rose up like a fantasy castle from the sheer rocks of the island. In the distance, I saw a pillar of glittering lights: the tower of the Hoenn Space Centre, our country's answer to NASA.

It's a pretty bad answer, Puck said. It's like I asked: 'Do you know what 186 divided by 7 is?', and you said: 'Uh... maybe?' That's how bad an answer it is.

We wandered through the streets, and, by asking a couple of people we passed, found a hospital; while Sapphire was seen by the doctor, Felicity and I sat in the waiting room and pondered, next to a boy with a saucepan on his head and a man with a Sandshrew and a hand full of Poison Stings.

Ah, Sandshrew, Puck said, with the air of one greeting an old friend. The only creature in the world dumb enough to attempt to copulate with fire. It's amazing there are any still alive.

Forty minutes later, Sapphire was back with something halfway between a bandage and a cast on her arm; the doctor said something about her to me, but listening was too much effort for one in the morning, so I just nodded, left and followed Sapphire through the streets towards a Pokémon Centre.

And followed her.

And followed her.

And followed her some more.

"Sapphire, do you actually know where the Pokémon Centre is?" I asked. She turned around and smiled dreamily.

"Where the what is?" she asked in a sing-song voice.

Oh-oh, said Puck. Somebody's liking their morph-iiiine!

"Oh, damn it," I said forcefully.

"What is it? What is wrong with her?" asked Felicity, concerned. She sounded very tired, like a dormouse.

Is that a reference to a well-loved novel or a well-established fact about hibernation?

Er... both?

That's the same sort of answer that your Space Centre is to NASA.

"She's trippy from the painkillers," I sighed, wishing I'd listened to the doctor. "We've been following someone who barely knows they're awake."

"Trippy?"

"Uh, confused. Spaced-out. Dreamy."

Oh boy, a synonym contest! Game on! Let's see... whacked-out, vacant, staring into space slash the middle distance, daydreaming, high, on a trip

Shut up!

"Oh." I wasn't sure if she really understood, but I was too tired to care.

"Look, forget the Centre. Only she can stay in one anyway. Let's just find a hotel."

Fifteen minutes of stumbling around an almost-deserted city – it seemed Mossdeep had less nightlife than a dead badger – we found one. I thought I saw insects crawling across the floor, but by then I was beyond caring; I just wanted something horizontal that wouldn't get me arrested for vagrancy if I passed out on it. They had plenty of rooms available, and after I'd helped Felicity get Sapphire inside theirs (she was showing an unusual desire to explore the cupboards) I stumbled into mine and blacked out almost immediately.

---


"It's cold out 'ere," Blake muttered.

"Ssh," replied Fabien. "I'm trying to think."

They were on a little boat in the middle of the sea, and they had just discovered that some prankster had loosened certain key parts of the engine in such a way that after a couple of miles the whole thing had fallen apart.

"We might 'ave to swim for it," Blake said, shivering in the chill night air.

Goishi kept silent. He didn't want either of the former Magmas to realise they could fly off on him; they were a long way out to sea, and the strain of carrying one of them all the way to land would probably make his heart explode.

"Look!" cried Fabien suddenly, standing up and rocking the boat. "Someone's coming!"

It was true; someone – or, more correctly, something – was approaching at a steady clip, skimming along the surface of the water like a dragonfly.

"That ain't a boa'," Blake said, puzzled.

"No, it isn't," agreed Fabien. "What is that?"

It came closer and closer, a dark shape that shot along a foot or two above the water. It had wide-spread wings with notched edges, and on its back, a tall figure was balanced.

"'Ow can it carry that person?" wondered Blake. "'E's got to weigh twice as much as it does..."

"I know how it can carry him," said Fabien, in the tones of an aged oracle about to impart a great prophecy to a future king. "It's a Ninjashell. A very specific Ninjashell. The Ninjashell belonging to that Devon man."

Blake gasped.

"You're righ' an' all!" he cried. "What do we do?"

"Lie down in the boat!" Fabien commanded. "He must not discover us, or we will surely perish!"

Goishi wondered if he ought to point out that the Devon man had absolutely no reason to kill them, but decided that it might be more fun to play along, and so crouched down in the hull with his masters.

The 'Ninjashell' and its passenger slowed as they reached the boat, and the former Magmas heard the researcher's voice call out:

"Is anyone there?"

He received no reply, though, and moved away with a soft swish of displaced air. Fabien stood up and brushed himself off triumphantly.

"We have just escaped certain death," he proclaimed dramatically. "How do you feel, Blake?"

"Lucky to be alive," he answered.

"Now, while we were dancing with death," Fabien went on, "I hit upon an idea. It'll get us to Mossdeep, but it's risky."

"'Ow d'you mean, 'risky'?" Blake asked suspiciously.

Now, if you are one of those fortunate people in whom perspicacity, good observation and eidetic memory come together, you will doubtless recall that at the start of Chapter Eleven of this fine tale, it was mentioned that Fabien and Blake in fact possessed two Pokémon between them. It was also mentioned that that second Pokémon was far less reliable than that master of the sardonic squeak, Goishi.

If you recall all of this, congratulate yourself. If you do not, you have just found out again, and we shall both pretend that you did remember.

"We'll need to use Morgana," Fabien said seriously.

Blake raised his eyebrows so far they were in danger of coming down over the back of his head.

"Tha's risky, Fabien," he said, sucking in a deep breath through his teeth. "You know wha' 'appens when we se' 'er loose."

"I know, I know," Fabien replied, turning so that the moonlight caught his face in a dramatic sort of way. "But she's the only hope we've got!"

"I dunno," Blake said. "I dunno..." He looked over at Goishi, who looked surprised for a moment and then made a motion that might have been a shrug; the Golbat didn't really care if they were left adrift here. Built to cope with migratory flights, he could survive without water for a long time – and once his masters died of dehydration, he could snatch his Poké Ball off them, fly off and toss it in a ravine where no one would find it. Blake looked back over at Fabien, and found that he'd struck a noble pose at the bow, like a pirate captain staring at an island on the horizon.

Blake sighed.

"All righ'," he said. "I guess we ain't got no choice."

Fabien spun on his heel and almost fell into the sea.

"Excellent!" he cried. "Right, let's get her out of here."

He drew a pink Love Ball from his pocket with trembling fingers, held it up to the moon for a moment – and threw it down onto the boat.

---


As Kester Ruby awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself

"Puck? Is that you?" I sat up, blinking.

Aw, you interrupted me just before I got to the good bit. That's the thing about Kafka. The good bits are at the end of the sentences.

I looked around. At first, I thought I was in a car park in a red light district, and then I realised that I was in a hotel room. I stared at a line of cockroaches crawling across the floor, followed them with my eyes and ended up looking at a large dead Taillow, rotting just underneath the broken window.

"Oh my God," I said, to no one in particular, and left as fast as possible.

I hammered on the door of Felicity and Sapphire's room; I heard the sound of people waking inside, then a couple of low noises of horror. The door opened, and Sapphire half-ran, half-leaped out and thumped into my chest. She stared up at me, and I stared down at her.

"We have to get out of here," she said urgently.

"Agreed," I said, and, dragging Felicity along with us, we left the hotel faster than I'd ever left a building before.

"That was scary," Sapphire said, when we were a good mile away through the pale streets. "I don't remember how I got there..."

"You were spaced-out from the morphine," I told her. "We didn't really look where we were going, and ended up... there."

Sapphire shivered.

"OK," she said. "Well, I feel much better today." She flexed her arm and winced. "Ouch. Shouldn't have done that. Right, we need to get ourselves an HM Dive and something to use it on."

"Can't we use Duncan?" Felicity asked.

Sapphire shook her head.

"We only just got him to take me here. There's no way we'll get him to take us down to the sea floor; I'll have to send him back to Dad."

We bought and ate breakfast as we moved, found a Pokémon Centre from which to email Duncan to Professor Birch and then got on a bus that took us in the direction of a large grey building that was, according to the sign, Arizona Fats' Relicanth Dealership.

"We're getting a Relicanth?" I asked.

"A big one would take us all and be less expensive than a Wailord," replied Sapphire. "You can choose, Kester?"

"Really?" We passed through the automatic doors into a dingy little office with a broken ceiling fan. "Why?"

"Because you're good at finding interesting Pokémon."

'Interesting' might be putting it a little lightly, Puck said. How about 'certifiably insane'?

I thought of Malvolio and Stacey, and was forced to agree.

"Can I help you?"

I glanced over at the desk at the other end of the office, and saw a man who would have been stylish about fifty years ago getting up from behind it.

"Arizona Fats," he said, coming over and holding out a hand for us to shake. "How can I help you?"

Wow. He looks almost exactly like Jackie Gleason, observed Puck. Well, I think that joke's had its run now. Better move on.

"We were looking for a Relicanth," Sapphire told him.

"Then you came to the right place," replied Fats. "Come through here, I'll show you my stock."

He led us through a door to the right of his desk out onto a broad patio, beyond which a gigantic pool stretched away over about an acre. Beneath the surface, I could see ranks of dark backs twisting sluggishly in the water.

"That's... quite something," Sapphire said, looking around. "Is there any way we can—"

"See them? Of course," replied Fats. "Right this way."

He took us down a set of stairs that let us look through the glass wall of the pool, and now I could see heavy beige jaws and deep-set eyes, and thick-lobed fins that slowly paddled at the water as if driven by lobotomised oarsmen.

Uh... That's a really, really strange analogy.

"Now," said Fats. "This one's been here four years now, and—"

"I don't need and definitely don't want the sales patter," said Sapphire sharply. "Kester, I just want you to walk along the side here, and see what you can find..."

---


As so often when I argued with Sapphire, I was cut down as swiftly as a Russian cherry orchard. I had tried to persuade her that the Relicanth I had found had some sort of congenital disorder – it definitely didn't look right – but in vain; she said it was rare, and therefore to be valued, and so we should take it off Arizona Fats' hands and use it.

So she bought it and called it Percival, for no reason other than it was the first name that popped into her head. Apparently that was how a lot of Trainers named their Pokémon.

"I'm telling you, that thing's got to be dangerous to ride!"

"It'll be fine," Sapphire contended. "He's just a bit... sparkly."

"There might be more wrong with him than just the colour," Felicity put in. Sapphire glared at her.

"Not you too!" she cried. "Kester, is Puck on my side?"

I listened.

I'm on her side. No, on yours. No – oh, I don't know! It's just so – so – IRRELEVANT.

I winced at the volume of the thought.

Seriously, it doesn't matter. Your puny human arguments are so far below my concern that I should probably go join Timon in his cave and have a good natter about how people are a bad thing.

"Well?" demanded Sapphire.

"Uh... I'm not sure. He's making Bardic references."

You don't get the Hamlet ones, but you get the Timon of Athens ones? What the hell kind of person knows about Timon but not – gah, I hate these inconsistencies!

"Well, it doesn't matter," said Sapphire firmly. "He's fine. Besides, it'll be proved he's fine to Dive, because we're going to have to get a licence before we can do it."

I halted in the middle of the street and stared.

"You're kidding me? We're moving as fast as possible, trying to catch up with Team Aqua before they awaken a gigantic monster that's going to give them untold power – and you're telling me we have to wait and get a Diving licence first?"

Sapphire shrugged.

"The law's the law," she said.

That's so unlike her. Who are you and what have you done with the real Sapphire? Did you eat her? Oh my Mew, you did eat her!

Puck!

Kester! Kill her quick!

I shook my head, blinked, and resumed my argument with Sapphire.

"Look, I don't want to put this off," I said, trying to sound reasonable and probably sounding infuriating instead.

"I agree with Kester," said Felicity. "Speed is a priority—"

"Well, you would think that, wouldn't you?" Sapphire said patiently. "You've got a massive score to settle with Zero."

Felicity's mouth snapped shut and her eyes darkened, and that was all she said for quite some time.

"Stop." I halted, grabbed Sapphire's arm and spun her around to face me. "Sapphire," I said. "I am not stopping so that we can pass a test. I'm even willing to take to the sea on that freaky Relicanth if it means you'll bypass this test."

"There's no way we can do it," said Sapphire, sighing. "You get your Dive HM from Mossdeep Gym, after you've signed up for the training course."

Inside my head, Puck let out a loud, crowing laugh.

Something locked away from you? he asked slyly. Are there walls between you and the object of your desire? Do you, in short, need a thief?

I was about to make some sort of vague retort, then thought better of it. After all, this was in the service of the greater good.

"Actually," I said slowly, "I think Puck might have an idea..."

---


WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!

Run run run run run!

"What do you think I'm trying to do?"

I dropped out the window, failed to land on my feet and leaped back upright.

"Some plan!" I snarled under my breath, pelting away over the car park, feet hammering on the tarmac like runaway drills.

I'm out of practice! Puck cried defensively. Besides, I'm an art thief, I don't usually steal things like – oh, hell, you should probably duck.

I did, just in time to dodge something purple and wobbly that fractured the air above my head.

A Psybeam, Puck noted. I'd say it was nasty, but it really isn't. Not unless it hits your brain, and if it does that you should probably make sure you've written your will and that all your affairs are in order.

I climbed awkwardly over the fence, ripped my shirt on the spiked railings and tumbled inelegantly down the other side; this time, my ineptitude was my saving grace, because whoever was blasting Psybeams at me had been counting on my head being somewhere above the pavement.

I stumbled upright and made off as fast as I could down the street; before launching this plan, we'd had a look at a roadmap of Mossdeep, and so I knew that coming from the back of the Gym as I had, there should be a little network of alleyways that I could duck into right—

"—Here?" I said, puzzled. "Puck, there's no – there's no alley!"

There's a time to make a fuss, but now is not it! Just keep running!

So I did; I turned a corner, saw a shopping centre across the road and dived through the doors. It was packed, and I had to slow down here – but I didn't think anyone would find me here, in the midst of the crowds, and I fought my way over to a fountain and sat down on its edge, breathing heavily.

"Oh God," I gasped, "Puck, remind me never ever ever to trust you again."

It isn't my fault the guard saw you. It's yours. I mean, you insisted on accompanying me on this job; he never would've known if it had just been me.

"You're inside me! I can't not accompany you!"

My wild cries had drawn a number of very strange looks, and since I wanted to keep a low profile right now, I moved away and switched to silent communication.

Oh, that sounds cool, doesn't it? 'Switch to silent communication'. Like in a movie: 'Johnson, we're going to need to switch to silent communications.'

Stop avoiding the issue! I almost got caught!

But you didn't get caught, said Puck earnestly. Isn't that what really matters? Honestly, you humans. It's always 'almost this' and 'almost that' with you. Can't you just relax?

This is not a relaxing situation! I told him fiercely, finding a payphone and dialling for Sapphire. Puck, I swear to God that if you ever suggest a plan for stealing something again, I'll – I'll

I couldn't actually think of what I would do; I'm not the best at thinking up threats.

You could throw me into the sun, Puck said, after a considered pause. That's about the only thing that could properly destroy me. Or you could infect me with a computer virus, which would torture me but not kill me. Or you could get another Ghost to attack me, but that wouldn't eradicate me completely. I'm pretty darn hard-wearin', he said proudly.

I

"Kester?"

"Oh, hi Sapphire!" I said, surprised. "I got it. Didn't go quite as we'd planned, but I did get it."

"Oh good," she replied. "I didn't think the Gym would have great security. OK, we're probably going to need to leave Mossdeep pretty quickly, so... meet us at the Trainer's beach in half an hour?"

I checked my watch, then remembered that it no longer existed.

"What's the time now?" I asked.

"Half three. So four o'clock meeting time. OK?"

"OK. See you there."

I hurled the phone down, angry that Sapphire could be so calm about the whole thing when I'd almost got caught, and stormed out.

Er, Kester – you do realise that she doesn't know that you almost got caught, don't you?

"That's right," I muttered. "And I'm going to keep it that way. I'm already low enough in her estimation."

Not really. She thinks she's in love with you, the crazy girl.

"Have I ever told you how much I hate you?"

Many times, answered Puck, as if answering a question born of love rather than loathing.

"Have I told you recently?"

Um... Nope. Don't think so.

I told him, and left the mall. Getting out of the city was, I decided, more important than heckling a ghost that lived in my brain, and bearing that thought in mind, I headed down towards the Trainers' Beach.
 
Last edited:

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
Chapter Sixty-Seven: Super Gunk Bros.

Percival's a scary gargoyle on a tower
That you built with plastic power.

We stood on the shore at Mossdeep's Trainers' beach, staring at Percival the Relicanth.

I didn't entirely trust him to carry us.

He wasn't an ordinary Relicanth; that, of course, would have been too much to hope for, since Sapphire had made me choose him. He didn't have a mental disorder, like the other Pokémon I'd found – instead, he had a rather obvious physical one.

He wasn't made of stone.

His rhinestone eyes are like factories far away.

"OK, are you certain he can take us?" I asked nervously.

"Positive," Sapphire replied. "He's made of diamond, isn't he? He won't break."

"Sapphire, that's not diamond," I said, suddenly realising the relevance of Puck's song.

"It's rhinestone," Felicity finished for me.

We all stared at Percival, watching him bob happily up and down in the surf. He was impossible. A diamond Relicanth? Sure, that was fine – it was rare, but every so often you'd get a mutant Rock-type who was born made of diamond; they usually made it onto the news. But rhinestone? That wasn't even a natural material. Rhinestones were made of... well, I didn't know what they were made of, but they didn't occur naturally. They were made in laboratories.

"Do you think he's artificial?" I asked.

"Could be Devon," Sapphire said after a while. "They do this – this kind of research."

She spat the last word with more violence than I'd ever heard in her voice before – and this is Sapphire we're talking about. I supposed she must have been fairly violently opposed to any sort of experimentation on Pokémon.

Devon are renowned for that sort of thing, Puck said. They've got their fingers in so many pies that they're in danger of being thrown out of the bakery.

What?

Don't question me!

"It does not matter," Felicity decided suddenly. "We must leave. The police will be looking for Kester and Team Aqua is getting closer to their goal."

"Yes," agreed Sapphire distantly. "You're right."

She knelt down in front of Percival and set up the TM Case she'd bought while I was risking life and limb to steal the Dive HM.

Don't be such a drama queen, Puck said. You weren't risking life and limb, just your life – Psybeam leaves no wounds.

How reassuring.

"Give me the HM," she said, and I handed it over; one unexplained and probably very unscientific move-learning process later, we were wading out into the sea and getting onto Percival's back.

"Will this be OK?" I asked. "I mean, will he obey?"

I was thinking of Stacey, and how at first she had had to be bribed to do anything.

"He ought to," Sapphire said. "He must've been broken in already. The real problem will be finding the submarine."

"No, it won't," Felicity said, as Percival started to swim obediently away from the beach. "I bought this while you were buying the TM Case."

She held out a single grey headphone, with an aerial attached.

"It's the same model as my old one," she said. "Waterproof, and it can work as a radio. Kester can use it to find the submarine's radio signals."

I took it from her, and slotted it into place over my ear.

"Puck? Can you do that?"

Can I do it? Do most major celebrities need air to live?

"What?"

Yes, I can do it.

"OK, that's fine." I paused for a moment; there was something at the back of my head that had been bothering me, but I couldn't quite remember. For a while, the only sounds were Percival's lobed fins beating steadily at the water and the waves breaking against his flanks as he moved far out enough to Dive – and then it came back to me, and I spoke. "Sapphire?"

"Yes?"

"How do we breathe when Percival dives?"

She was sitting in front of me, and she looked over one shoulder to give me that wicked, lopsided grin.

"I guess we're about to find out," she said, and to my horror, Percival suddenly gave a shudder – and sank down through the water, right beneath us.

---


As Gulliver when he reached the shores of Lilliput, so too were Blake and Fabien relieved beyond measure when they actually made landfall in Mossdeep; their pleasure at arriving was eclipsed only by their disappointment as they saw something large and shiny, bearing Kester Ruby, Sapphire Birch and the white-haired girl, travelling back out to sea.

"Oh, damn it," said Fabien, from the top of the stairs down which Kester and company had so recently descended. "They've already left."
"They were quick, weren' they?" noted Blake.

"Never mind that," said Fabien with a sigh. "We'll have to get back out there." He swallowed in the same sort of nervous way that a man walking to the gallows might swallow. "And that means..."

"Not again," replied Blake, crestfallen. "Not Morgana again."

"I'm afraid so," Fabien said. "We don't have time to get hold of another boat; we'd lose them by then. No, we shall have to get Morgana to power the boat with Surf again..."

---


I held my breath for as long as I could, but it was no use; the burning in my lungs and throat grew stronger and stronger, and eventually I gulped in—

a breath of slightly stale but very breathable air.

"What?" I gasped, looking around. "But we're..."

"Underwater, yes," Sapphire replied, grinning at me. "But that's why we needed the move Dive. If we just went underwater on Percival, we'd drown. The reason we have Dive is because using it allows a Pokémon to take a massive bubble of air with it."

"How long does it last?" I asked.

It was strange, being underwater yet dry; the water was suspended above and around us, as if we were surrounded by some spherical force field.

"With three of us..." Sapphire shrugged. "I don't know. Percival's quite big and he seems quite strong, so I'm guessing about twenty hours."

He's Level 39, Puck said. And I'm picking up the sub's signal. Head deeper and tilt to the left.

"I see. Puck's got the submarine's signal," I told her. "Go deeper and a bit to the left."

"OK."

Sapphire pulled on one of the glittery flanges on the side of Percival's head, and he turned good-naturedly to the left.

"Down," she said, and he started sinking slowly, like a stone dropped in treacle.

Now for a long and very dull undersea voyage, Puck remarked. I suggest we cut to someone else's narrative for a bit.

We sank further; it was eerily silent down here, I thought. The only noise was a faint roaring from the waves on the surface, and the sound of Sapphire's breath. With a slight jolt, I realised that Felicity wasn't breathing at all – and that she hadn't been for a while now.

She'll be fine, Puck said. Come on, someone else's narrative. Really, there's nothing to see here. We're just going to be swimming along underwater for about thirty hours.

"Felicity, are you OK?" I asked, looking back at her.

"What? Yes, I am fine," she answered, puzzled. "Why?"

"You're not breathing."

"Oh. No, I'm not."

Seriously? We're actually going to sit here and force everyone to read their way through thirty hours of nothing?

"I have not breathed for days now." Felicity didn't sound concerned – in fact, she said it in a cool, clinical sort of way that sent shivers down my spine. "I don't think I need to any longer."

OK, that's a little bit of creepy exposition. Can we change narrative now? Please, I'll get bored

---

There was a tall figure in black standing calmly on the Jagged Pass.

Oh, thank Arceus, said a voice from hundreds of miles away.

It was Mellifluous Gunk who first found him – he whose habit it had been, since he joined the Team, to come and stand guard every so often outside the tunnel. He had found Zero at about eleven o'clock, and immediately brought him inside, utilising both his tremendously forceful personality and his nine-millimetre pistol (though it was, of course, his personality that bore the brunt of the work).

The pistol at his back did not seem to bother Zero unduly. Though it wasn't possible to see his face beneath the mask, he seemed remarkably calm. Mellifluous marched him through the tunnels, and soon he found that he had brought his prisoner all the way to Maxie's office.

He blinked.

"That was quick," he said to himself. "It's not usually that quick."

"I took you via a shorter route," Zero told him. "Now get on with this and get me into Maxie's room."

Bewildered and not a little unnerved, Mellifluous knocked on the door.

"If this is anything except good news," came the answer from within, "you'd better leave now, because I'm going to remove organs that you didn't even know you had."

"I've caught Zero, sir!" said Mellifluous, in what must surely have been the zenith of his career as a Magma.

Abruptly, the door opened, and Maxie appeared.

"Excellent," he said, apparently without the least vestige of surprise. "Both of you, get in here."

With some trepidation, Mellifluous stepped into the office, herding Zero ahead of him with nothing but his charisma, and, of course, his gun.

Maxie went over to his desk and, leaning over it, pressed the button on the intercom.

"Courtney, Tabitha," he said. "I'd like you here now, please."

He turned around and leaned against the desk; neither he nor Zero said anything, and Mellifluous began to feel a little uneasy.

A few moments later, both of the Magma Administrators came into the room, and for some reason Courtney seemed to start when she saw Zero.

"Now we're all here," Maxie said at last, making Mellifluous jump, "I think we might be able to begin." His voice was completely level. "Firstly, Zero, what the hell were you thinking of?"

"And a very good afternoon to you too, Maxie," said Zero. "And Courtney, it's wonderful to see you again."

"What about me?" asked Tabitha.

"I'm afraid I don't really know who you are," Zero said. "But I can tell at a glance that I'm not likely to want to."

Stung, Tabitha was about to say something – but Maxie shot him a look, and he found something fascinating to look at on the toe of his boot.

"What the hell were you thinking of?" asked Maxie, taking a step towards Zero. "Virtually giving us the Orb, then disappearing just in time to avoid telling us how to activate it... what do you mean by that?"

"I had other business to attend to," said Zero. "Steven Stone was becoming too involved—"

"What?" Maxie's head snapped around to face Tabitha. "Gerald!"

"I'm Tabitha—"

"We've been through this before!" roared Maxie. "You're Gerald if I say you're Gerald! Now, as head of intelligence, why didn't you know that the greatest Trainer Hoenn has ever produced was getting interested in this?"

Tabitha cringed.

"I – er..."

Thankfully, Zero spared him the necessity of explaining.

"It's all right," he said. "The fact that Tabitha – who despite his manifold obvious shortcomings, is doubtless a fine head of intelligence – did not know about this is no fault of his own. Stone offered tremendous and annoyingly helpful aid to Ruby and Birch and, despite the fact that I blocked his communications to the League, would probably have come after us all himself. I distracted him by calling in a favour from his father and have sent him to Mossdeep, and kept the whole thing secret to avoid distracting you from the important task of discovering how to work the Orb, which I thought you would doubtless work out yourself." Zero bowed, which almost got him shot by Mellifluous, though he didn't seem to care. "It seems I overestimated your intelligence, Maxie."

For a moment, there was silence; then Maxie growled:

"How do we activate the Orb? Tell us now, or I'll have you killed."

At the word 'killed', the Mightyena in the corner looked up from its bone and barked questioningly.

"Quiet, you," snapped the Magma boss, and it fell silent with a whine.

"You won't kill me, Maxie," said Zero sharply. "I don't like to be threatened. I won't work on such terms."

Mellifluous made a big show of releasing the safety catch on his handgun.

"Oh, please," said Zero dismissively. "You can't kill me. You'd all be dead within seconds."

"What do you mean?" asked Maxie cautiously. Zero looked up, towards the vent that brought fresh air down into the stifling hideout from the surface; something heavy landed with a deafening clang on the grille, and a two-foot claw extended from between the bars, bending them with a hideous shriek of tortured metal.

"That's one," said Zero mildly.

Almost as soon as the first claw had appeared, another sprouted from behind Maxie's desk, swiftly followed by a massive, blunt head with two wing-like eyes mounted either side of it.

"That's two."

Now Maxie's great Mightyena yelped, and from the shadows that cloaked its body a lumbering form stumbled, as tall as a man but built like a taloned tank.

"And... third time's the charm," said Zero.

Everyone stared at him.

"You see, I knew that when I returned, I would most likely be met with death threats," Zero said, as if this were something that happened every day. "So before I left you the last time, I concealed my friends' Poké Balls at strategic points around your office. As you can see."

Maxie was silent for a long time, face red save for a little circle of pale flesh above his upper lip. Finally, he spoke – and when he did, his voice was full of so much suppressed vitriol that he could have bottled it and sold it as a pesticide.

"Put the gun away," he said to Mellifluous.

"What? Sir—"

"Put it away!"

Mellifluous did, with all possible haste.

"Tabitha," Maxie went on. "He's seen too much. Have him killed."

He pointed at Mellifluous.

"What? No!"

Tabitha sighed and dragged him away, kicking and screaming; it was a cliché, but in a very satisfying sort of way – particularly if you were Zero, and knew it was going to happen beforehand.

"All right, Zero," said Maxie, taking a deep breath and eyeing the closest Armaldo, "we'll do it your way."

"Excellent," said Zero, strolling over to Maxie's desk, vaulting it and throwing himself down in his chair. "Courtney, come over here."

Hiding a smile, she did; Maxie looked on, bemused despite his fury. When he did that, Courtney complained of harassment. What made Zero so special?

"Now," Zero said, relinquishing Courtney and clasping his hands, "the key point here is that the Red Orb is Groudon's soul. In order to revive himself, he needs something for his soul to enter into: in short, he requires a body..."

---


"Oh, that's hardly fair," said Fabien, crestfallen.

"We're goin' to 'ave to go down there, aren't we?" Blake said glumly, staring at the spot where Kester Ruby and friends had disappeared into the depths.

Fabien sighed and cast a glance at the back of the boat, where a medium-sized and unusually helpful wave was pushing them along.

"I suppose we'll have to use Morgana," he said. "She can Dive. Goishi!"

"Eee-eee-E-EE-EEE-eek?"

"I'll have to recall you. There won't be enough air for you too." Fabien looked at him distastefully. "Look at yourself. Breathing like there's no tomorrow. Disgraceful."

Goishi did something with his wings that would, had he done it to another Crobat, have got him into a fight to the death. Since he did it to a human, however, there were no repercussions whatsoever, and he was recalled without incident.

Blake and Fabien walked slowly to the stern, and looked over the edge at the Pokémon floating in the water beyond.

"Is she dancin'?" asked Blake in a low voice.

"Her actions are not for us to question, friend," Fabien replied in the sort of hushed tones one uses when one has entered a secret castle built by a lost civilisation.

"Righ'," Blake agreed. "She could turn nasty."

"Morgana," called Fabien cautiously.

The blue Pokémon ceased writhing amongst the waves, and turned wide eyes to look at the two men who were (in theory at least) her masters.

"Morgana, we need to use Dive," said Fabien. "Is – is that OK?"

He flinched back, expecting a violent response – but evidently Morgana was in good spirits today, for none was forthcoming. She merely beckoned with an appendage (the precise nature of which shall remain unknown for no reason other than to increase your desire to know what species she belonged to) and, glancing at each other uncertainly, the two Magmas stepped carefully off the edge of the boat, dropped into the sea, and landed inside a large air bubble.


---

This trip is really boring.

Shut up, Puck.

But I'm bored, he whined. Do something interesting. Electrify the water and see how many fish you can kill.

No! Aside from the obvious ethical dilemma

Hah! I love it when humans think those things exist!

I'll hit Percival.

Oh yeah. Puck sounded disappointed. Bummer.

Actually, since when have you not cared about ethical dilemmas? You're always talking about morality and philosophy and stuff.

I'm like Hamlet: I know what I ought to do in theory, it's just that I just pretend to be mad instead. Puck sighed. No, but in all seriousness, you pointed this out yourself a few days ago. I know all about morals, but I don't actually have any. He sounded almost proud of this. I was ashamed when you first mentioned it, but I now think it's something that sets me apart from and above you puny meatfaces.

Humans. We're called humans.

You're called what I say you're called. I mean, nothing you can do about it.

I meditated for a few minutes on that business that had happened last year, and then had to stop because both of us were feeling queasy.

See, that's just plain mean, Puck said. Someone in that state shouldn't be left on their own at all, let alone in a warehouse containing that many carcasses.

Do your nonexistent morals tell you that?

No, replied Puck with surprising honesty, but yours do. Oh, down and to the right.

"Down and to the right, Sapphire," I said without opening my eyes. I was actually almost asleep; we'd been travelling for hours and it really was getting quite dull. Behind me, Felicity was asleep; she'd slumped forwards to lean on my back, which I couldn't help thinking would have been nice if she had been breathing and didn't feel so cold – the two of which combined to make her feel unsettlingly similar to a corpse.

"I know, Kester," replied Sapphire. "I can see it."

"What?" I jerked my eyes open and craned my neck to see past her – and she was right. In the dark, blue-green distance, there was something broad and pale moving perpendicular to Percival – and if I squinted, I could just make out tall letters across the side. I was willing to bet they spelled out 'S.S. CANGREJO'.

Me too, Puck said. But that's because I know for certain that this is the S.S. Cangrejo, because that son of a glitch Matt with his damn Swampert is playing with the radio and trying to get the football results.

Son of a... glitch?

I hate glitches. One of Puck's shivers went down my spine. They make programs go all funny, and usually the whole thing ends up with me in pain.

Fair enough.

"What's the plan now?" I asked Sapphire.

"We'll have to tail it until we see where it's going," Sapphire said. "It's not like we can just board it. Then we'll follow the Team into this deep-sea cavern we've heard so much about and help the druid who brought it there defend the Orb or get it away entirely."

"That's a good plan," I said. "I vote we take the Orb and flee. I mean, there's the entire might of Team Aqua to go up against here. Every single member has come on this mission."

Don't worry, said Puck enigmatically. I sincerely doubt they'll bother you.

"What? What does that mean? Why won't they bother us?"

They'll be otherwise occupied. I'll say no more; you'll see when we get there.

"Was that Puck?" asked Sapphire. I nodded. "Did you just nod? You forget, I can't see you back there."

"Yes, I nodded."

"Fine."

So we drifted on, a Relicanth against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

---


"Sir?"

"Yes?"

"I think you should take a look at this."

Archie sighed, set his book aside and got up to follow the grunt to the bridge.

"This had better be important," he said warningly. "I'm at a good bit."

"Yes sir."

"The Hork-Bajir are in danger."

"What?"

"It's in the book."

At this point, someone might have pointed out to Archie that he was reading one of a series of rather underwhelming children's books, but, wishing to remain in possession of the full complement of organs and limbs that they had been born with, they did not.

They reached the bridge, and the Aqua grunt – who was, by a strange coincidence, the estranged half-brother of Mellifluous Gunk, Euphonious Gunk – pointed to the little sonar screen.

"Someone's following us?" asked Archie, surprised.

"Yes sir," replied Euphonious.

"It's a very small dot," said Archie dubiously.

"It's been following us for half an hour."

"I see." Archie considered for a moment. "Torpedo it," he said at length, and walked off.

Euphonious Gunk stood still for a minute, confused, then ran after him.

"But sir!" he cried. "We don't have any torpedoes!"

Archie stopped and stared in disbelief.

"No torpedoes? On a submarine? What sort of submarine doesn't have torpedoes?"

"A research submarine," Euphonious told him. "Like this one."

"So, there are absolutely no torpedoes?"

"No sir."

Archie sighed; it was such a sigh that his whole body seemed to deflate.

"Fine," he said. "We'll let them follow us until we reach the cavern, and deal with them there. They're not interfering with the submarine or anything, are they?" he added, a note of anxiety coming into his voice.

"No sir."

"Excellent." Archie started back into his cabin, but paused on the threshold and leaned out to speak. "Just keep an eye on them, would you?"

Then he was gone, back inside and back to his book.

---


At the bottom of the sea, a druid was waiting.

He had been busy recently. In fact, he'd been very busy. He had been trying to build some rather ambitious traps in the caverns – not just to keep out the Aquas when they eventually came here (as they inevitably would), but to stave off boredom, too.

It was very dull at the bottom of the sea.

Regrettably, the whole project had been dogged with issues. Firstly, the druid (whose name was Phil) had discovered that neither he nor his Shiftry had actually done the costings correctly, and had had to spend a day adding up prices for giant boulders and the like – only for his Shiftry to point out at the end of the day that he didn't need to pay anything, and might, in fact, be going crazy from the isolation. Since he was unable to understand the Shiftry's soft, sighing language, Phil paid him no heed, and began construction forthwith.

The next issue had been the digging of a number of holes for poisoned stakes to come out of. This wasn't in itself difficult, but it seemed that previous druidic visitors had already fortified this place against intruders, for in opening the ground he uncovered a massive pit, already filled with poisoned stakes – which he promptly fell into and perished in.

Naturally, this had been a little upsetting for the Shiftry, which, in his grief, had accidentally activated another ancient security system, with the result that he was hacked to pieces just a few minutes after his master's death.

So you understand, when we say there was a druid waiting, we mean there was a druid lying broken and dead at the bottom of a giant spike-filled pit.

This is mentioned purely because, with two alerts, the entirety of the old druid-built security system in the deep-sea cavern had reactivated itself, ready for future intruders. Coincidentally, this happened at the precise moment that the S.S. Cangrejo arrived outside a cave mouth in the wall of the sea trench it was in.

And as the submarine entered, and started to rise to the surface, hidden wheels clicked into place, and a whole lot of everything started to happen all at once.
 
Last edited:

01

01
29
Posts
13
Years
  • Seen Dec 2, 2016
Another interesting chapter. Was the Jellicent sent by Zero ? I read it somewhere I think. By the way, what level is Kester at now ?
 

Silent Memento

Future Authoress
85
Posts
12
Years
Hang on; does Matt even have a Marshtomp? I thought it was a Swampert?

As for the creepy-as-hell hotel that Sapphire led them to in her drug-induced state, was that based off of anything in particular?

Nice reference to the Animorphs, by the way. It had all the potential in the world, but it just sucked too much to take advantage of its fairly-original concept. I couldn't help but grin at the Hork-Bajir line. Ah, sweet memories...

I couldn't really find any errors aside from the Marshtomp line, so I have to give you kudos for that.

Your friendly on-again-off-again lurker/reviewer,

Mem.
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
Thanks, Silent Memento and 01. I've corrected what you pointed out, and, 01, the Jellicent probably was sent by Zero - but no one can say for certain, not even me. As for your question, Kester is Level 31 or so at the moment.

In other news: incoming chapter! Everyone get down!


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Chapter Sixty-Eight: To the Bottom of the Sea[/FONT]


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fabien climbed out of the water, shook his hat out and gave a deep sigh of relief.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Blake," he said, "we made it."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]There was no response.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fabien turned around.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Blake?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]An arm burst out of the water, scrabbled for purchase on the sandy cave floor, and began the laborious process of dragging its owner along with it. Fabien bent down and lent a rather ineffective hand, and soon Blake was lying on the floor of the cavern, gasping for breath and, unlike his friend, very wet.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What happened to you?" Fabien asked, puzzled.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fell out of the bubble," Blake puffed, "while we were gettin' out."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ah." Fabien straightened up and peered into the sea. "Morgana?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Pokémon in question leaped up out of the water, and started to float at Fabien's eye level.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Return!" Fabien raised the ball, and the red light flashed once – but a moment later, there was a blue one, and Morgana was out again. "Now see here," Fabien said crossly. "I won't have this! Get in there—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A large quantity of water hit Fabien in the face at this point, and he was forced to conclude that if Morgana wanted to stay out of her ball, there was very little he could do to stop her.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]But," he said warningly, "this is a top-secret undercover mission. You can't attract any attention, understand?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Morgana nodded. Whether or not she had the neck which is so often a prerequisite for performing this action is open to dispute, but she did it anyway.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nice work," Blake muttered, as the trio turned to examine their surroundings more carefully. "You got her to obey."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I know," Fabien said, and he sounded as surprised as Blake. "Can you believe it?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]They had surfaced in some enormous underground cavern, through a pool on the floor that connected it to the sea; the Aqua submarine lay at anchor a few metres away, deserted. Finding out where its owners, Kester and Sapphire had gone seemed to be the priority right now, so the two Magmas had a quick search around the cave. This turned up a large hole in one wall that appeared to lead further into the cave network, and so they crept through.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Upon emerging on the other side, they instantly dived behind a convenient pile of rocks: this room was lit by hastily-set-up arc lamps, and was populated by what must have been the entirety of Team Aqua.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What the devil are they up to?" murmured Fabien, peering over a boulder. From his shoulder, Morgana, ignoring her lack of shoulders, shrugged, and started twirling merrily on the spot.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Look!" hissed Blake. "It's Archie!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fabien looked, and perceived that it was indeed Archie – and, more importantly, Kester Ruby, Sapphire Birch (with, for some reason, her hair dyed black) and their white-haired friend. They were standing in the middle of the Aqua crowd, in a little clearing, and Fabien bent his ear towards their conversation.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I should have all three of you killed right now," Archie was saying, clenching his fists. "But unfortunately, I didn't come prepared for what was down here."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]is[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] down here?" asked Kester.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Archie pointed, and Fabien looked down towards the other end of the cavern; there was an ominous-looking stone doorway there, carved to resemble the open mouth of some gigantic whale-like creature.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Through there," the Aqua leader said, "is a series of very nasty traps. Druid-built, by the looks of things."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I really don't like where this is going—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shut up, boy." He did. "Now, you've got Rotom powers, is that right?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]We-ell," said Kester evasively. "I wouldn't say [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]powers[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Kester, if they don't think we're useful, they'll kill us," Sapphire told him.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yes, I have Rotom powers. Lightning, machine control – you name it, I can do it." Kester smiled broadly, and not a little nervously.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Why are they arguin'?" Blake wondered. "They're both Aquas..."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]No," said Fabien softly, a thunderbolt of genius coursing through his veins. "It all makes sense now..." He looked up at Blake, and for once his face bore no trace of drama. "They didn't know who they were at Meteor Falls, either. Blake, those two – [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]they're not Aquas!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]And you," Archie continued, turning to the white-haired girl. "You've – well, I'm informed you can do things too...?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I have a Froslass in me," she replied simply.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I see. Seize the black-haired one!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A couple of Aquas stepped forwards and grabbed Sapphire by the arms; to her credit, she struggled admirably (Fabien had an eye for that sort of thing) but one teenage girl could not fight off two thickset men in their thirties.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Now, Mister Ruby," said Archie. "You and Miss Kusagari will go ahead and dismantle the traps for me so that I can get to the Orb. We've lost several men already, but you should be able to do it. You have powers, after all."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If we don't, do you kill Sapphire?" asked Kester.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yes."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The boy sighed.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]All right," he said resignedly. "What sort of traps are up there?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Archie smiled unpleasantly.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]They're difficult to miss," he said. "You two, escort them to the doorway."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The massed ranks of Team Aqua parted, and two of the bulkier grunts stepped out to take Kester and Felicity away. One of them was, coincidentally, our old friend Barry Hawksworthy – he of unparalleled strength and stupidity – but, of course, neither Fabien nor Blake were aware of this.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What do we do?" asked the latter. "What do we do?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fabien bit his lip.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]We wait," he said at last. "We have to wait for them to clear the traps, then follow the Aquas. Think of it, Blake! If there was any doubt that we were the main characters—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]This again?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"—[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]then let it be dispelled now: we have stumbled across an opportunity to stop the greatest Aqua plot of all time! We'll be heroes!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Should we call for backup?" asked Blake.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]No!" replied Fabien vehemently. "We must take all the glory for ourselves."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]But we're up agains' the whole of Team Aqua—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yes, but think," Fabien said, his low cunning churning out ideas at an unprecedented rate. "If we can get Kester Ruby and that Felicity girl on our side, we can probably get to Archie and hold him hostage. And we [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]can[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] get them on our side, Blake – we both want to stop the Aquas!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Blake stared at him. If at times he had doubted the infinite genius of his partner, that doubt was blown away now; he could do no more than stare, and wonder at the mind that had spawned this grand scheme.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fabien," he said at length. "Let's do this."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]And so saying, they and the still-dancing Morgana hunkere[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]d down to wait.[/FONT]

---


"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]How hard can it be?" I wondered aloud.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]We had made landfall a short while ago, waiting for the Aquas to get out of their submarine and get away; unfortunately, it seemed they'd noticed us before, and when we surfaced, we found fifty of them waiting for us.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Very hard," guessed Felicity. "They said they had lost several men."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Nothing we can't handle, surely," I said, pausing in front of the giant mouth-door and staring apprehensively into the darkness beyond. "I mean, it's not like we've not got anything at all."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]That sentence was horrible to decipher[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Puck complained. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You're being a real Holden Caulfield[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What?[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]No one understands, and you're annoying as hell[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Look, we've got our powers," I went on, trying to reassure myself. "We can—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You two! Get on with it or Birch dies!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I grabbed Felicity's wrist and dragged her through the door.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]After a short tunnel that seemed to be full of darkness with the consistency of fog, we emerged into another long cavern, this time lit with a series of Duskull in glass boxes on the roof. Periodically, each one would use Flash, and light up a large area all around it; after a few minutes, the light would fade, and another would Flash instead.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It's like watching the heart of a disco ball," I said, looking up at the ceiling.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Never mind."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I wonder who put them there," said Felicity.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Probably the same person who put those skeletons over th[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]ere[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What?" I cried, and looked down sharply.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A hole had opened up on each wall, halfway down the cave, and slowly, with a lot of shuffling and clicking, a horde of human skeletons with swords was coming out of them.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I stared. My legs had locked up with shock and fright. Blank eye sockets stared back sightlessly; beneath them, bare teeth made impossible grins. The ringing click of bone on yellowed bone sounded continuously, like sticks falling down stairs; a wave of foul, musty air rolled out with the skeletons, and clouds of dust rose off their bodies whenever they moved.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I swore violently, turned around and ran away.[/FONT]

---

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A slim hand caught my wrist.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Calm down," Felicity said. Her voice was perfectly level; I couldn't detect even a trace of emotion in it. "It's easier than it looks."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Felicity, those are skeletons," I replied, twisting free and running back towards the door. "This – no! It isn't possible—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Puck!" Felicity called after me. "Tell him!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stop, Kester[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Puck's mastery over my nervous system must have been getting better, because I did: my legs seized up and I almost fell over.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Puck, I have to get out of here," I said in a low, urgent voice. "I can't do this. I can't do skel—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Turn around[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I did, and then I felt it.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A wave of Ghostly presences, hundreds and hundreds of them; they were weak individually, but together formed a crashing tsunami of spectral force that forced me to my knees.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ghosts?" I whispered at the slow-moving army. "It's not... they're not real...?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]They are," Felicity said, helping me up. "They're Gastly, bound into bones."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Low-level, mostly four or five[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Puck added. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Come on, Kester, think evil thoughts and let's have us an Ominous Wind[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]R-right." I still couldn't stop staring at the horde; the skeletons didn't seem to have noticed us, just kept on walking.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]They'll keep on walking til the sun comes up[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Puck said. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Or until they've gone a thousand miles to fall down at your door.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Kester, you take them," Felicity said. "I don't want to wake Skuld, and you can do that wave attack."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Om-ominous Wind." I was still struggling to get my mind around it: these skeletons had once been men and women, and now they were dead – but they kept moving, and they turned their swords this way and that to catch the pulsing, haunting Flash-light.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Come on, think evil thoughts. I'll start you off:[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]William Sikes, and Estella's intentions,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Judah's reaction to Tartarus Rotations[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Circe, Medea and monkeys with wings,[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]These are just some of the best evil things[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]look, do [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]some[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] of the work yourself[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Puck said crossly. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I just did two rhymes and about six references for you![/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It was already enough; the wind had sprung up behind me, and now a dark mist was rolling down the cavern. I had enough presence of mind to pull Felicity close, to stop her from being caught up in the Wave – and then a thousand voices were crying out in my head, squealing and jingling like windchimes in pain.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Let me get that for you[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Puck said, and the voices faded.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The skeletons were all fixed to the spot, juddering and shaking; one of them vibrated so hard that its arm, still clutching its sword, popped out of the socket and flew across the room. They kept that up for a second or two, and then, abruptly, every single one of them collapsed.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I stared. Fear had turned to shock. If I wasn't very much mistaken, I'd just taken out about two thousand Gastly with one move.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yeah, that's what you get for having me lodged in your brain[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Puck said. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I'm just that good.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I... did [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] do all this?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yes. They were not strong." Felicity looked at me. "Shall we go on?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Um... OK."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I let her take my hand and drag me off through the sea of collapsed skeletons, but I was still staring around at the carnage; every so often, some of the bones would slide aside and release a little cloud of black gas, which would float away slowly, wheezing heavily.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Some of the Gastly were damaged badly enough to release them from the bones they were animating.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Stop!" cried Felicity, and held me back; I snapped back to reality for a moment, and saw that we were standing on the edge of a massive pit, perfectly cylindrical – as if someone had taken a massive hole puncher to the floor of the cavern. The bottom was cloaked in shadow, but I could make out the outlines of a few fallen skeletons, pacing around steadily with their swords held ready, and between them some tall, pointy things that looked rather more dangerous than I was comfortable with.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Oh," I said, my response dulled by the whole skeleton thing. "How do we get past this one?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I don't know." Felicity kicked a shoulder bone—[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A scapula, Kester. Wait, how come [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] know the name when I don't even have bones?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
—[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]over the edge of the pit, and we watched it fall. It hit the bottom a full five seconds later, and immediately all the skeletons down there converged on it and attempted to cut it into little pieces with their swords. When they found that it was, in fact, impervious to slicing, they slumped their shoulders and went back to mindless pacing.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Is there a way around?" I asked. I was coming back to reality now. There had been skeletons, and that had been too much; now there were just Ghosts, bones and a big hole. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]That[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] I could deal with. I just wasn't too good with the reanimated dead.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Remind me never to take you to Whitby[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Puck said. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Last time I went, Lucy was still kicking about[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Perhaps." Felicity turned to look at me. "Shall we check?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I stared at her for a very long time. Far too long, in fact – [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]so[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] long that Puck had to prompt me to speak.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Kester? You're staring[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Um. Oh, yes. Let's check."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Felicity turned and started to wade through the bones and dust towards the edge of the room. Still slightly dazed, I headed off after her, trying not to breathe in too much of the powdered remains drifting through the air.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It turned out that the pit didn't quite extend to the walls, so we went around it, by the edge. This took us to the next door, which, like the last, was large and rather too toothy for me to be entirely comfortable going through it.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Felicity, of course, stepped through without a second thought; a moment later, she called back to me:[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It is fine. The skeletons and the pit were the only traps. I can see the Orb."[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]This was encouraging news, so I followed after her and found myself in an even bigger cavern than the entrance one, though with a similar pool in it. On a small island in the middle of this pool was the Blue Orb, looking for all the world as if it had been there for centuries, and not just since Friday.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shall we take it?" I asked. "Or shall we leave it to them..."[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]We'll have to take it," Felicity said. "Zero can't succeed."[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]But then Sapphire dies."[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Something unnameable flickered across Felicity's face.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]If that's the price we have to pay..."[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What?" I cried. "Felicity, I can't believe – you're not serious, are you?"[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]She kept her gaze level.[/FONT][/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Of course I am serious," she replied. Was it me, or had the circles around her eyes deepened, darkened, in the last couple of minutes? "I cannot not be, now."[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Uh oh[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], said Puck. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I don't like the look of this...[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I gave her a long look.[/FONT][/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Felicity," I said, a horrible feeling of dread welling up somewhere at the base of my spine, "what exactly do you mean by that?"[/FONT][/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]No more emotions," Felicity told me simply, and now her voice was soft and sibilant. "When I woke up they were gone. There's just me, and ice. Cold, cold ice..."[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I knew what was coming before it even started to happen; I turned and ran as fast as I could for the exit. A strangled scream echoed out from behind me – but I couldn't stop to see how Felicity was doing. I sped through the door, almost fell into the giant pit, crashed through the sea of bones and then – just as I heard the long, mournful wail of a Froslass echo out through the caves – I burst out into the main cavern again, panting hard.[/FONT][/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Killed – the skeletons," I gasped, leaning against the wall. "Dodged – pit – but Felicity's gone – Skuld!"[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Team Aqua stared at me.[/FONT][/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Does anyone have any idea what he's saying?" asked Archie.[/FONT][/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]There was silence. I straightened up and said, slightly more coherently:[/FONT][/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I dealt with the traps, but my friend's gone insane and turned into a monster."[/FONT][/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A werewolf?" Archie looked furious, and turned swiftly to face Matt. "Matt, that girl was once part of our Team! I recall giving specific orders that on no account were werewolves ever to be admitted to the organisation[/FONT]—"[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]She's not a werewolf," snapped Sapphire. "She's possessed by a highly predatory Froslass that seems intent on destroying everything around it."[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Oh, one of those," Archie said, nodding. "I know those. I saw one in Manchester once." He paced for a moment, agitated. "She does this regularly?" he asked at length.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I came closer, so I wasn't shouting at him.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Uh... this is the second time, but I do have experience of dealing with her," I told him, ever-eager to stress the fact that I was worth more to him alive than dead.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Can we suppress her?" asked Archie.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Probably," replied Sapphire. "There are a quite a lot of you here."[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]She can say that again. We've got so many Aquas that if one of them said 'I'm Spartacus' we'd have to wait six months before they were all finished.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Right. The traps are all deactivated?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yes," I replied.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Archie thought for a moment, then called:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hawksworthy!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Our old friend Barry stepped out of the crowd.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yes boss?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Make sure these two don't run off," Archie instructed. Then, turning to the Aquas in general: "Team! We're going to the Orb! Those of you with Pokémon effective against Ice- or Ghost-types, get to the front!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]There was a minor cheer – evidently, the Aquas hadn't yet connected Felicity with the disastrous museum invasion – and the Team assembled itself into something vaguely resembling military formation. Barry, and by extension Sapphire and I, were at the front with the Poochyenas and their Trainers, and as the group began to move, he grabbed our arms and started walking.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You could let go," Sapphire told him. "Come on, you moron, where are we going to run to? We're at the bottom of the sea!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shuddup, woman," rumbled the big Aqua menacingly, and she did. I almost laughed, despite being in what some might have called dire straits: random acts of chauvinism might not be politically correct, but they were definitely funny. At least, they were if they happened to Sapphire.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Kester! That's rude![/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You don't care about manners![/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Incorrect. I don't care about morals. I care deeply about manners. I mean, I'm English – genetically disposed to be polite, whatever the situation.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]That's just not true.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I like to think it is.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]We entered the bone room, which caused some consternation amongst the Aquas; a lot of people turned to look at me uneasily, concerned that if I'd managed to destroy all these skeletons, it might not be so difficult for me to destroy all of them.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What the hell were these?" whispered Sapphire.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Human skeletons," I replied, shivering at the memory. "Animated by Gastly. They were weak, so I Ominous Winded them. I don't want to think about what would have happened if I hadn't been able to do that."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You're welcome, Kester, said Puck. I have graciously loaned you my powers so that you may survive. Now worship me.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Go to hell.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Been there, got bored, came back.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What?[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I'm a Ghost, he answered, as if that explained everything.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I sighed, and kept walking, only for something to—[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]---[/FONT]


"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Right," said Fabien. "Are we ready?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Blake nodded.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Let's go," Fabien said, and the two men slipped out from behind the rock and joined the back of the Aqua column, Morgana drifting along behind them.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]They were, as they had been for several days now, in their disguises: Fabien in trenchcoat, fedora and sunglasses, Blake in a plain black suit; most of the Aquas were in their blue suits, but there were a few who hadn't been prepared, and the two Magmas didn't stand out. Morgana was the only potential spanner in the works – but Fabien thought that since she was probably a Water type, she wouldn't give them away.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Blake," hissed Fabien, "phase two!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The big man nodded, and began to slowly power his way through the crowd, moving just slightly faster than everyone else in the group. As he moved forwards, Fabien followed in his wake, and Morgana trailed after. No one really wanted to question Blake, since he stood head and shoulders above everyone around him, and so Fabien's unlikely scheme paid off: in the time it took for the company to reach the edge of the giant pit, the two Magmas had reached the front of the great crowd, and could, if they looked left, see Kester and Sapphire.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]There!" said Fabien. "Now, while we move around the pit – catch up with them."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Unfortunately, things got slightly complicated here, and a number of events happened at once.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The first was that something white appeared at the other end of the cavern.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The second was that Kester Ruby collapsed.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The third was that the lights went out.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Instantly, what had been order became pandemonium; Blake and Fabien fought to get clear of the pit edge as the Aquas that surrounded them blundered about in a panic.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What on earth—?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Someone bumped into them, and Blake lashed out in retaliation; there was a lingering scream and a distant thud, and he winced. [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Oops."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]SILENCE!" thundered Archie's voice, and the Aquas ceased their motion instantly, like the tumultuous waters in the story. "Everyone who can, use Flash!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The first part of his sentence was swallowed up in another unearthly shriek, but the idea got across; small areas of light flickered into existence all over the cavern, and immediately the white thing flew up into the air from where it had been throttling an Aqua, covering its eyes with its hands.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Shoot it down!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Bullets sang and whistled overhead like so many lead-jacke[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]ted pipers; they passed clean through the Froslass with little more than a splash of water, but it was a potent distraction, and Fabien seized his chance to take Blake and head for Kester.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]---[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]They found him in the custody of a surprised-looking man who appeared to have borrowed both his skull and his standards of personal hygiene from a mountain gorilla; Blake tapped this curious apparition on the shoulder and, when he turned around, laid him out flat on the floor with a right hook.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sapphire Birch?" enquired Fabien, looking at the girl he was now facing. "Is that—?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]He never finished the sentence, for the girl had hit him squarely on the nose, and then attempted to run away. However, hampered as she was by the fact that Kester was unconscious, she got no further than a step or two before Blake caught her.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Look," he hissed. "We're tryin' to 'elp. We got the same goal 'ere."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A Poochyena sailed by overhead, yelping; presumably hurled by Skuld, it let out a short scream before it descended into the pit and came to a pulpy end.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What do you want?" hissed Sapphire.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]We're here to stop the Aquas getting the Orb," Fabien told her, glancing nervously at a man with an alarmingly large shotgun standing to his left. "Come on, we'll sneak around the edge while they're—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Froslass screamed so loudly that Blake's ears started bleeding, and the trio looked up to see what had happened. It was not a pretty sight: dripping with water, the ice ghost had separated into several pieces, evidently shattered by a lucky Rock-type attack; she attempted one last swoop, but fell apart in midair and splashed down into the bottom of the pit. With her disintegration, the Duskull that powered the lights seemed to regain their confidence, and began Flashing again.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Archie's voice rang out again:[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Everyone all right? How many casualties?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The man with the large gun, in noting Barry's unconsciousness, seemed to have worked out that neither Blake nor Fabien actually worked for the Team, and promptly raised the alarm by attempting to kill them; thankfully, Morgana would have been caught by the shot too, and, in defending herself with a wall of blue energy, inadvertently shielded her masters.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sapphire stared.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Is that a—?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Damnation! Our cover's blown!" cried Fabien. "Blake, grab those two and follow me!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Spies!" yelled the man with the shotgun, loosing another blast after them as they fled around the edge of the pit. "The Magmas are here!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]This had the fortunate effect of starting another riot amongst the Team; fortunate because, while Archie and his administrators were frantically trying to calm their underlings, the Magmas and their new allies (or captives, depending on whose view you took) managed to escape into the third room, completely unscathed.[/FONT]
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
As we come closer and closer to the climax of the story, the Cutlerine gets so excited he starts talking about himself in the third person!

Also, he starts writing way too quickly, and tells himself crossly that he really must stop doing a chapter every day, or he's going to swamp those few certifiably insane people who reads his crazed ramblings in a tsunami of text and stupid jokes.


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Chapter Sixty-Nine: One Orb, Two Orb – Damn it, I've Used that Joke Already. Twice.[/FONT]


"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I can't believe it," said Courtney, as she ran with Zero through the halls of the Magma headquarters. "We're doing it! We're actually doing it!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Wait," said Zero, tearing off his mask for ease of breathing, "we have to get out of here first!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The two of them burst out onto the Jagged Pass, past the guards who were just heading in to respond to Maxie's call, and collapsed breathlessly onto the back of Zero's flying transport.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Get us out of here!" cried Zero, and the Pokémon began to rise obediently into the air, moving straight upwards in a way that was impossible for any normal creature.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Three seconds later, they felt it take.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It was a sound like a fire bursting into life, a fierce, muffled [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]whumph[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] from deep under the ground; the whole mountain shook slightly, and flocks of Swablu burst, cheeping in alarm, from the pine forests on its sides. A thin plume of smoke shot out from the top of the volcano and—[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
—[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]silence fell over the Madeira Mountains. The only testament to what had just happened in the mountain's bowels was the smoke dissipating on the wind above the crater.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Now[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] we can say we did it," said Zero, after a long pause. He glanced at Courtney, a half-smile of relief and disbelief tugging at his lips; her expression mirrored his own, and within moments they were weak with hysterical laughter: the plan had come off! They had just entered into the ranks of history's greats – and the best part was that no one knew yet. No one so much as suspected...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Kiss me," demanded Courtney, suddenly recovering, and proceeded to take the initiative without waiting for an answer. Zero, mildly surprised for once, responded in kind, and as the sun rose over the Monday that would start the end of everything, their bodies closed together in a passionate, savage kiss.[/FONT]

---

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You can do anything," Scott said eagerly, bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Pick any facility in the entire Frontier – you can be the Brain of whatever you want."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The boy with jade eyes – or, as we now know him to be, Sebastian Emerald – stood still and did not reply.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Come on," Scott continued. "I mean, aren't you happy? You beat all the best Trainers in the world to be here! You're phenomenal!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I'm the best Trainer the world has ever produced," Sebastian replied, without a trace of arrogance. "I knew I would win." He sighed. "I only came here because I was looking to scratch an itch, to find someone who wouldn't lose right away. But there was no one who could take down more than one of my Pokémon."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]All the more reason to stay as a Frontier Brain," Scott went on, sensing his star battler was slipping out of his grasp. "The best will come here, and—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]am[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] the best," Sebastian retorted. "And I already know that no one as good as me will come here." He sighed. "I apologise. That was rude. But I'll have to decline your offer, Scott." He held out a hand for the older man to shake. "No hard feelings?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Scott hesitated.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sure I can't persuade you?" he asked pleadingly. "You'd be the best opening publicity this place could have..."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I don't work for you," Sebastian replied. "Shake my hand and let's have done with this."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]They did, and Sebastian turned to leave the office. Something, however, made him pause – and in his breast, Scott's heart skipped a beat. Was he reconsidering?[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]By the way, Scott," Sebastian said, "can I ask you a favour?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sure," replied Scott eagerly. "Anything. What can I do for you?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Can I borrow your helicopter?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]---[/FONT]


"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Would you just sign for this and be done with it?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Steven held out the clipboard beseechingly; looking into his eyes, the heart of the Space Centre clerk melted, and he signed without a second thought.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I cannot thank you enough," said Steven with feeling.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Why did they send [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]you[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] with the fuel, anyway?" asked the clerk.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Steven sighed.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]My father believed that Team Magma might break into your institute, steal the fuel and use it to make the volcano erupt," he said.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The clerk shook his head sadly.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]He's not any better, then?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Lamentably, no," replied Steven. "But his lunacy does at least keep him entertained. Thank you, and goodbye."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]He walked out, and tossed the clipboard into the first rubbish bin he saw.[/FONT]

---

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sumvahoo!" I cried and leaped upright, looking around wildly; however, I perceived nothing other than Sapphire, Blake and Fabien.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Blake and Fabien?[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What are you two doing here?" I asked, hands starting to glow with sparks.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Fabien raised his hands.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]We're on your side right now," he told me, as soothingly as he could. "Really, we are. You don't want the Aquas to get the Orb, we don't want them to get the Orb."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I think they mean it," Sapphire put in. "Come on, Kester, we don't have much time."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Since I, however misanthropic Sapphire might be, trusted her, I took her word for it and asked what the plan was; while she told me, I had another look around, and noticed that we were in the third chamber, where the Orb lay in the middle of the pool.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]We don't really have a plan," said Sapphire, "but [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]that[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]" – here she pointed at a blobby blue thing that floated in midair next to Fabien – "said that there's a way to Dive out through the Orb's pool."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What are you waiting for?" I cried, choosing for the moment to ignore the question of what precisely the blue thing might be.. "Why haven't we taken the Orb and fled?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Because the water's dangerous," Sapphire said urgently. "Kester, if you could electrify it and get rid of the Pokémon in there—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]There were shouts from the doorway; I whirled around, but no one came through.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What's happening back out there?" I hissed.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]That Froslass," Sapphire replied grimly. "They thought they got her, but the more she takes over Felicity, the quicker she gets at healing... Fabien had a look out there. She's killing anyone who gets too close to this room."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What?" This was strange; was Skuld actually helping us? "Why would she do that?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It's the Blue Orb. Its essence is water, and so is Skuld's; right now, Skuld is the Orb's defence system. You see, the beauty of Rayquaza's spell is that not only did Groudon and Kyogre fall asleep, they never want to wake up[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]OK, OK, I didn't ask for your life story." I looked up at the others. "Puck says the Orb's controlling Skuld to defend itself right now."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Hang on," said Fabien, holding up a hand. "Does that mean that if we remove the Orb...?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yep[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], said Puck cheerfully. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Skuld will come after us[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yes," I told Fabien. "If we take the Orb, we become her targets. But that's good," I said, attempting to look on the bright side. "That'll bring Felicity back to us."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]No," said the Magma. "No, I don't think we can do that."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]But we don' ge' the Orb if we do nothin'," Blake argued.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yeah, I've been wondering about him. What the hell is someone with an accent like that doing outside London?[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]We'll have to risk it," Sapphire decided. "Kester, electrify the water."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I went over to the pool apprehensively.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What's in here that's so dangerous?" I asked, and then saw a tall, triangular fin break the surface.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sharpedo," replied Sapphire quietly. "Remember that Carvanha? These are the same thing, only bigger, angrier and faster. But like the Carvanha, they won't take even one good hit – so shock the water already."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]All right, all right."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I put both hands in the water, which was, naturally enough, freezing cold; I did my best not to recoil out of it, and let two Charge Beams go at once. I thought that maybe I'd see sparks dancing over the surface of the pool, but evidently not; all that happened was that the big fin toppled over and some bubbles floated up to the surface, presumably from deeper Sharpedo.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Is that it?" I asked, straightening up. "I thought it would be more impressive."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Can you see the sparks on an electric fence?" asked Sapphire.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Well – actually, I've never seen one—"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Never mind. Tell us when the charge has dissipated."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I poked the water experimentally, and felt no tingling at all.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It's gone."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Let's go, then."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Percival appeared in the water and didn't explode in a burst of sparks and smoke, so it seemed safe enough; Sapphire and I got onto his back, while Blake and Fabien stared.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Is that... diamond?" asked Fabien.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]No," replied Sapphire, "that would be too expensive. It's rhinestone."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I could almost see the fuses blowing in the depths of Fabien's mind, but he got on regardless.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What's rhinestone?" I heard Blake ask him.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Synthetic diamonds," Fabien said, sounding vaguely shell-shocked. "[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Synthetic[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] diamond..."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Yes," said Sapphire, as if that were something you saw everyday. "What of it?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Percival began to swim towards the Orb's little island; we fell silent, and all I could hear was the distant shrieks and gunshots from the room behind us, overlaid gently with Fabien's disbelieving mutterings:[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Artificial! [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Rhinestone[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], of all things..."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Quite surreal this, isn't it?[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] Puck remarked. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Calm in here, backed up by extreme violence out there, and over the top of it all, a man dressed like a 1950s detective muttering about manufactured gemstones.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]It was further than it looked, and it took us a full three minutes to reach the Orb; as soon as we were near enough, Sapphire leaned out and picked it up – and then all hell broke loose.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Immediately, Skuld flew back through the door, screaming at us; I almost fell off Percival with the force of her presence. Sapphire thrust the Orb into my arms and, while I tried desperately to hold onto both consciousness and the big blue ball, Percival submerged.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Skuld hit the water a few seconds after we'd Dived, and it seemed whatever process she moved by worked just as well under the surface as above it. She powered straight down, burst through the side of our air bubble and rushed towards me; something foul and acidic rose in my throat as her yellow eyes met mine, and before I knew it I was once again reminded of that terrible business from last year, because I was falling unconscious.[/FONT]

---


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]In the seconds after Kester passed out, a great number of things happened very quickly. To avoid any confusion that might arise from such a mess of simultaneous actions and events, they will here be listed in a calm, clinical manner.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Number One: Kester Ruby fell off Percival's back.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Number Two: He left the air bubble and his body, in a show of rather base selfishness, immediately began the process of drowning.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Number Three: Sapphire Birch released Toro, on Percival's bac[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]k, within the air bubble.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Number Four: Concurrently with Toro's release, Fabien and Blake glanced at each other, and at Morgana, and decided that the best place to be right now was elsewhere.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Number Five: Team Aqua burst into the room.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Number Six: Toro, displaying a singular sense of balance, managed to strike Skuld with an Ember.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Number Seven: In response to this slightly annoying attack and to recover the Orb, Skuld dived after Kester, at precisely the same moment that—[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Number Eight: Fabien and Blake jumped off Percival and into the ocean.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Number Nine: Team Aqua, determining in that astute manner of theirs that the Orb was not on the island, began searching the premises for it.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]And since this is where things become marginally less confused, here is where we shall return to conventional narrative.[/FONT]

--


[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sapphire took less than a second to decide what to do next. Without the slightest thought for Toro, she leaped off Percival's back and plunged straight through Skuld.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The water was as cold as ice, and all the breath was knocked from her as soon as she hit it; a moment later, she was even colder as she passed into Skuld's body. All her muscles locked, and Sapphire, paralysed and drifting downwards, had quite a long time to get very, very pissed-off with herself for being so impulsive.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]She hadn't so much as mildly inconvenienced Skuld; in fact, it was debatable whether or not the Froslass had even noticed her. Above her head, Sapphire could see the Froslass wrapping strong, white arms around Kester and heading straight for the surface; some detached corner of her mind that hadn't joined in with the rest in abusing its mistress wondered if that was Felicity's work.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Gradually, the sounds and lights receded into the distance; even the cold seemed to fade a little. Sapphire knew very well that she was probably on the verge of hypothermia right now, but what could she do? She couldn't move, not even an inch, and she only had about thirty seconds of breath left anyway.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Her anger was fading away; it was over now. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Just relax[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], she told herself calmly. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]There's no other way out...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sapphire almost sighed, but she wasn't quite ready to let out the last little bit of air yet. Instead, she drifted downwards, and wondered when she'd start to float to the surface again. Surely her downward momentum must have been used up by now? She decided that it must be the weight of her bag that was bringing her down.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Then Sapphire saw what was at the bottom of the pool.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sand.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A sudden burst of explosive anger rushed through Sapphire's body, and now she was thinking clearly; she didn't want to drown, she didn't want to die, and she most certainly did [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]not[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] want sand all over her! A mighty convulsion, born of sand-induced fury, wracked her body, freeing her trapped limbs – and Sapphire struck out for the surface.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Inch by inch, she rose through the freezing water, powered by hatred and the remnants of a good lungful of breath; six inches higher, a foot, three feet, four yards. She could see Percival's great brown belly above her now, and sounds of the violently percussive sort.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Then she ran out of air, and froze.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]So startled was she that she began to sink again for a moment. This couldn't happen. She could feel her lungs burning, filling up with something hot and prickly that chased the last dregs of her breath away.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Oh my God[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], thought Sapphire. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I'm actually going to drown[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]And then that violent desire for life took over her again, and she began to swim once more; her muscles screamed at her, told her that there was nothing to power them – but right now, Sapphire didn't care if it wasn't possible, she just – wanted – air—[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Her head broke the surface, and she gulped in a great breath; it was stale, from being in the Dive-bubble, but it was without a doubt the sweetest she'd ever taken. Gasping, coughing and even, on occasion, spluttering, Sapphire hauled herself out of the water and back onto Percival.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Oh my God," she gasped, trying feebly to sit up. "Oh my God..."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Next to her, Toro cheeped in alarm; she might not recognise incipient hypothermia when she saw it, but she could see her mistress needed warming up and drying, and so breathed a gentle flame over her. Blessed heat began to burn its way back into Sapphire's bones, and she managed to sit up, almost setting her hair on fire in the process. She sat there, gasping and panting, for a moment, and then worked up the breath to say:[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Thanks, Toro."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]She patted the Combusken on the head, and received an affectionate squawk and another slow flame in return. Sapphire, now mostly dry (except her bag; she didn't even [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]want[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] to think about the state of everything inside it) recalled her, and ordered Percival to the surface.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]As they rose, Sapphire's mind began to race again. She was out of danger for the moment, but what had happened to Kester while she was down below? How long had she spent drowning? What exactly was she planning on doing?[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Oh. That was a tricky one, she thought, but it was too late to come up with a plan; the top of her Dive-bubble had just broken the surface. Thankfully, it seemed that no one was too concerned with her, since Team Aqua were facing in the opposite direction to her, looking at Archie, who was making some kind of speech.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...Orb," he was saying. "Our Benefactor has been contacted, and he is on his way to witness our crowning glory."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]A cheer went up from the massed grunts; issuing from two thousand mouths, it was deafening enough – but it also rebounded from the ceiling and walls, multiplying itself a hundredfold and making Sapphire wince.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]He will be here at any moment," Archie continued. "Apparently he was already on his way."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sapphire nodded cynically; that was like Zero – always knowing what was going to happen far in advance. She bit her lip. It seemed like things were going very much against her right now. And where was Kester?[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Incorrect, Mister Taniebre," came a dark, quiet voice, like oil on ice. "I am, in fact, already here."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The Aquas murmured amongst themselves; Sapphire couldn't see Zero from here, but she was willing to bet that he'd appeared from nowhere, like a ghost.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I hope you don't mind," continued Zero, "but I brought a friend."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]No," said Archie. He sounded shaken. "Wait. Is that—?"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Ah yes," Zero interrupted. "This is the delightful Courtney, who has been working for me for quite some time now."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Courtney! Sapphire almost cried out in surprise; the Magma Administrator had been an accomplice of Zero? Was that how he'd made everything run to his plan?[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Well, I..." Archie broke off and laughed. "[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]That's [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]how you always knew what the reds would do!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Guilty," Zero replied, sounding vaguely amused. "Now, go ahead as we discussed, my good man; I've been looking forwards to this for some time."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Right," Archie said. "Loyal underlings, soldiers, friends – we are on the brink of a new age. Today, we resurrect Kyogre from his age-old sleep. Today, we bring him back, here at the very heart of the sea we adore. Today, we fulfil the twin imperatives of our charter. One, we will complete our original goal of expanding the sea!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]There was smattering of polite applause; it seemed that your average Aqua grunt wasn't actually that interested in the ideology that had led to the Team's formation.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Two, we will become an unstoppable superpower, capable of destroying the Magmas and forcing the world to bend to our will!"[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The applause was much more heartfelt this time; several people raised their hands right up above their heads, and more than one person whooped and whistled.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Now," said Archie, calming his Team with a word, "as you know, the Blue Orb contains Kyogre's soul. We cannot place him back into his original body; that has long rotted. Thankfully, we have one here that has two lives wound into it; one that is capable of withstanding Kyogre's tremendous power – and one that, conveniently, I have already captured and contained in this Poké Ball."[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The bottom dropped out of Sapphire's stomach; she felt very sick and not a little frightened.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Please welcome the latest addition to our Team," Archie went on, "someone who I'm sure you've all met before: Mister Kester Ruby!"[/FONT]

---

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]The last thing I remembered before passing out was Skuld's eyes; the first thing I saw when I woke up again was a massive crowd of Aquas, stretching out across the cavern. I coughed, and an alarming amount of water forced its way out of my mouth; after that, I felt slightly better, and was able to register the fact that I was standing on some sort of makeshift podium, with Archie and the Blue Orb on my right, Barry behind me holding my arms, and Zero and Courtney on my left.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Courtney? That's unexpected. I mean, I didn't have Zero down as the kind of guy who was after forming a relationship.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I blinked, dazed; Archie was saying something and the Aquas were cheering, but I didn't quite get it.[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Kester, you were captured while you were out – with a regular Poké Ball, too. Quite disgraceful. But the point is, they're probably going to implant Kyogre's soul into you[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]That woke me up.[/FONT]

"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What!" I cried. Or at least, I tried; it actually came out as a low mumble.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Look, I told you that Groudon and Kyogre's bodies are g[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]one, right? So they need new ones that they can grow back into their old ones. Your body is one of very few that's suitable: you've got me inside you, which makes your body a [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]lot[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] stronger than a human one – that's why you weren't outright killed when Matt's Swampert attacked you. I also serve as a massive source of energy. If Kyogre wanted to grow back to his full size once he was in you, he'd get halfway there in one go if he absorbed me. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Puck sighed. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]How barbaric is this? I mean, I almost expect some guy to come up to us, yell 'Kali Ma!' and rip your heart out[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I couldn't think. I had barely regained consciousness (though I was getting better at that; I'd been getting a lot of practice) and now this? All I could do was look around wildly, and notice that Zero was leaning towards me ever so slightly, and hear the soft-whispered word that passed between him and I.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Checkmate," he said quietly, and I imagined a thin, satisfied smile on his face.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You have to think[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Puck said, [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]was this his plan all along? Did he really mean what he said back in Lilycove, or was that all a lie? Or is he lying now, and does he have some further diabolical scheme we don't know about yet?[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Way to blow the subtext," I muttered, regaining some of my composure.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Just shut up and listen. Because I'm cunning and mighty on a scale not heard of since Odysseus, I have a plan to get us out of here – but for now, we need to listen to Archie and get more information[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
"[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]...and now to awaken the Orb!" finished Archie, raising the artefact aloft; whatever his speech was, it had whipped the Aquas into a real frenzy, and they were baying and howling like mad dogs.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Oh, for Pete's sake[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Puck said crossly. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]You talked all through the exposition. I just hope Sapphire was listening.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]What's your escape plan?[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] I demanded urgently.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Still, er, fine-tuning it. Hang on a moment...[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Archie, with some small assistance from Zero, had done something to the Orb; it began to glow now with an unearthly ultramarine light that pulsed outwards in steady waves. As if from a great distance, I heard the bellowing cry of some great sea creature, and the splash of a primaeval tide. Below me, the Aquas looked like a collection of strange deep-sea monsters, lit by the Orb's flickering rays, and suddenly I noticed Percival, the light glittering spectacularly off his body in the distant pool, and Sapphire atop him. She looked about as scared as I felt; our eyes met and something that might have been companionship, or might have just been plain terror, passed between us.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Then the waves of light halted, focused themselves, and formed a steady stream that shot straight towards my chest.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Got it[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif], Puck said. K[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]ick Barry in the balls.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Immediately, I went to Rotom-speed; my leg curled up behind me and connected with soft flesh. Barry yelped at a surprisingly high pitch and doubled up – and I threw myself off the stage, just as Kyogre's soul passed through the spot where my heart had been a moment ago.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I hit the ground, rolled and leaped up again, eyes wild. I didn't care who I hurt just then, only that I escaped; shouts and cries went up, but no one could stop me: I moved too fast, Charge Beams hitting those Aquas closest to me. I glanced back, and saw that the ray had rebounded from the wall and turned back into waves, spreading out over the whole cavern. I heard screams and shouts, and people running – but I didn't care, I was running as fast as I could towards Sapphire and the glittering Relicanth she sat on.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Don't stop me now![/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif] sang Puck as I broke free of the crowd. [/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Man, Queen were great, weren't they? I met someone who looked a lot like Freddie Mercury once. He wasn't, but he signed my album anyway. I got it at home – Steve Briggs, his name was[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, sans-serif].[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]I wasn't listening; I wanted no more than to get away from whatever was happening behind me. I could hear ripping flesh, screams, footsteps; I didn't even care what it was, just that Percival was right in front of me, and he would let me put a large distance between me and whatever horrors lurked back at the podium.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif][/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana, sans-serif]Sapphire held out a hand; I grabbed it and leaped for Percival's back. I slammed into it hard, chest-first, and had the wind knocked out of me, but it didn't matter, we were sinking away, the world disappearing into the dark, blue-black waters of the sea, and all the terrible noises fading away to nothingness.[/FONT]
 
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40
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen Nov 9, 2013
Who's that Pokemon?
Spoiler:


EDIT: Sorry for the short replies, I am trying to avoid the following:
-affecting the plot
-eliciting any response that takes significant time away from writing the story itself (sorry if I did that before)

me shut up now.
 
Last edited:

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
You can guess all you like, I'm still not revealing Morgana's species yet. It's set to be exciting. Or an anticlimax. I won't even reveal that yet. You're also not affecting the plot, or distracting me from writing the story because I'm writing long replies.

Also, I have a chapter for y'all.

I also have wise advice: when waiting for a post to upload, never cross your arms when your bracelets are covered in spikes. I have just discovered that it hurts. Quite a lot.

Chapter Seventy: The Froslass and the Deep Blue Sea

Darren Goodwin. A man of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy, if you caught him in the right mood; regrettably, when he was working he never was in that sort of mood. You would have to visit him at home to find him so jovial.

Right now, he was a lot less than jovial. Right now, he wasn't even agreeable. Right now, he was wondering where the hell Ruby and Birch had got to.

For Darren was sitting on a bench in a park in Mossdeep, sipping rapidly-cooling coffee and feeling like he was missing something. He didn't know what it was – but he had the strange sensation that there was some vital piece of information that he was missing out on.

Ruby and Birch had obviously met up with Team Aqua at some point, he thought – but where they had gone after that was completely unknown. He could only hope that at some point they'd be coming back.

In the meantime, Darren had been doing some thinking, and a little research. He had contacted a hacker he knew in order to look into Dahlia's background, and found a suspicious absence of data; he didn't know if perhaps the CIA had erased it to prevent people like him from finding it, but it was still something to be wary of. Giving up on that approach, he had instead instructed his friend to search for information on Mister Zuckerman – and here, in the CIA service files, there had been one solitary page devoted to him.

And all it had said was this:


My dear Mister Goodwin,
You have no doubt realised by now that something is not quite right with your new partner, or her dislikeable superior. Since you won't be reading this until the day before I begin to put an end to this business, I suppose there's no harm in showing off a little and telling you that neither of them are real, and both are working for me.

I wish a very merry Armageddon to you and your lovely wife.

Yours,

Zero


So now, as he sat on the bench on Monday morning and watched the city come alive around him, Darren Goodwin had a new puzzle to solve, and another name to muse upon.

"Hex," he said, looking over at his ever-silent Shedinja, "this guy's been here all along, hasn't he? All of this... this Zero guy, Ruby and Birch mentioned him in the restaurant in Lavaridge. He's important somehow..."

The Goodwin sighed, and took a mouthful of coffee.

"You're different," said someone; Darren started and almost dropped the cup. He looked to the left, and saw a young man dressed entirely in black sitting there, pallid skin looking dead in the morning sun.

"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously. It was not every day that someone managed to sneak up on a Goodwin-rank researcher without them noticing.

The youth's green eyes flashed.

"My name is Sebastian Emerald," he said. His voice, Darren noted, had an American accent; after his misadventures with Dahlia and Zuckerman, that naturally made him even more suspicious. "And there's something different about you. What is it?"

For a moment, Darren did not know what to say; then, he replied:

"Nothing. Go away, kid."

"Fine. Don't tell me about that. Let me ask something else instead. Have you seen these two people?"

Sebastian held up a piece of paper with two drawings on it; they'd obviously been drawn from memory, but they were accurate enough that the Goodwin stared in suprise.

They were Kester Ruby and Sapphire Birch.

"Ah," said Sebastian happily. "I see you have. Where were they"

Darren Goodwin caught the boy by the front of his shirt and stood up, hauling him to his feet.

"Let me go—!"

"What do you know about those two?" demanded Darren. "And why are you seeking them?"

Most people answered Darren when he did this. Some people quivered in fear. A select few fought back.

Sebastian Emerald did none of those things.

He just smiled.

---


It was so quiet, down here under the sea. The only noise was Percival's fins.

"Are you OK?" asked Sapphire quietly, after she'd judged that enough time had elapsed for me to have recovered.

"Yeah," I replied. "I'm all right. I think."

You're definitely all right. You might even say you were the full Bill and Ted – that is to say, excellent.

"What – did you see what happened?" she asked.

I shook my head.

"No."

I know what happened. Kyogre's soul lost its host, but now he's awake he can't go back to sleep. He's looking for a body, and since there's nothing around that can take his soul as is, he's going to build one for himself.

I flinched; a very, very unpleasant image had just popped into my head.

"Oh no," I whispered. "Not—?"

Yep, Puck said cheerily. The old boy's going to disassemble Team Aqua cell by cell and recreate his old body. He's probably going to kill them all.

I wasn't certain what the right response was, so I sighed and then swore.

"What is it?" asked Sapphire.

"Puck told me what was happening," I replied.

"Oh." She bit her lip. "At the risk of being really, really tactless... what was happening?"

Tactless? Sapphire? Surely you jest!

"Kyogre was taking Team Aqua apart so he could build his new body out of their flesh," I told her.

Sapphire stared for a moment.

"Damn," she said. It sounded more surprised than anything. "That's really... unexpected."

Not really. You just had to think about it. Who was closest to Kester? Archie. So the soul defaults to him when Kester vanished, and, finding that he wasn't capable of holding it without being destroyed, started absorbing other people, one cell at a time, to

"Puck, I can't think of anything you could say that I want to hear less than that," I told him.

How about this: I slept with, and then brutally murdered, your sister?

"If I had a sister, that would probably do," I conceded.

"What?" asked Sapphire.

"Puck's being stupid." I sat up straight, a thought suddenly striking me. "Oh, crap!"

"What?"

"We forgot Felicity!"

Now it was Sapphire's turn to swear.

She'll be fine, said Puck, in a voice that let me know precisely how little he cared. She's made of water, she can ooze her way out. Or feed off the life force of those Gastly, whatever floats her freaky human-ghosty boat.

I can't believe you don't care

She's tried to kill us at least three times, Puck said sharply. As Barry the Baptist might have put it, she's more than good – she's a liability.

"Do you think she'll be OK?" asked Sapphire, looking worried.

"I hope so," I said.

Otherwise you'll never get the chance to copulate with her, said Puck caustically. What is the human obsession with reproduction, anyway? You live, like, forever.

I chose not to answer that.

"She can swim out, can't she?" Sapphire said. "I mean, she doesn't need to breathe..."

We were both thinking the same thing, I knew, but neither of us wanted to say it. I suppose we hoped that Kyogre didn't have the power to assimilate meltwater into its body.

The best part is, it's impossible to save her, mused Puck. If you go back, you'll be absorbed into Kyogre.

Shut up, you boneless bratchny.

It wasn't long before we reached the surface; we rose straight up, just wanting to get as far away from the deep-sea cavern as possible. Thankfully, the Dive-bubble, Sapphire assured me, negated the need for decompression. Ordinarily, this would be the sort of point I'd ask for evidence to back up, but I didn't really feel up to it.

It was a relief to see the sky again, when it appeared. According to it, it was some time in the morning, and I supposed it must be Monday. We'd spent well over twenty-four hours underwater in all.

"Is there any food left?" I asked, taking a breath of fresh sea air and realising I was starving.

"We ate most of it on the way here," Sapphire replied.

"But there's still some left?"

"No, it was all ruined when I fell in the water."

"You fell in?"

Sapphire looked away from me, and started looking intensely at her compass.

"I didn't have you down as the type to fall in," I said.

"That way, Percival." Sapphire nudged his glittering flanks with her knees, and he started swimming placidly in the direction of Mossdeep.

Come on, Kester. Not even you're this thick.

"Sapphire."

"I dived in after you," she muttered, not turning to look at me. "I thought you might be dying."

I suppressed a smile.

"I think I was," I said. "But I also think Skuld dragged me out."

That reminded us of Felicity, and we stopped talking for a while.

Oh, the long uncomfortable silence, said Puck. They were everywhere in '40s noir, but where are they now? In the middle of the sea, between two rather stupid teenagers.

"You really like her, don't you?" Sapphire asked after a while.

I hesitated before replying. This wasn't usually the sort of thing I'd discuss with anyone outside of Luke or Beatrix, but Sapphire, after our two weeks together, seemed almost to be a third best friend, even if I did cordially despise her.

Give over, Puck said wearily. You don't hate her. You quite like her.

"Yeah," I said quietly, answering both him and Sapphire. "I suppose I do."

"There's nothing wrong with that."

"I know. I never said there was."

"But just so you know," Sapphire persisted. "That's nothing to be ashamed of."

Like being from Basingstoke, added Puck. Now there's a reference they won't get.

"Why would it be?" I asked, puzzled.

"No reason."

Throughout the entire conversation, Sapphire had remained facing away from me; now she sighed, and settled down to steer Percival.

Boy, is this trip going to be a barrel of laughs, Puck said. I haven't had this little fun since that Parrish kid asked me over to play a board game.

The ominous sound of distant jungle drums popped into my head, and then faded away.

"Sapphire?" I asked at length.

"Yes?" She still didn't face me.

Oh dear. This is going to be one of those 'emotional' scenes that come across as being pasted together from a load of fractured rom-coms by a ham-fisted teenager who believes in love at first sight, isn't it?

"I do know, you know."

"Know what?"

"About you."

Dear God, this is painful. If you need me, I'll be quoting movie posters to try and distract myself from this.

"What about me?"

I sighed. I was fairly emotionally drained right now; I was in no mood to tiptoe around the issue.

In space, no one can hear you scream.

"You think you're in love with me," I said tiredly. "But you aren't. This is friendship, and you're confusing it with something more than it is."

I wrote twice before about the longest pauses we'd experienced on our journey, but I have to correct myself: this was the longest, most pregnant silence of all.

Nothing on earth could come between them.

"Damn," Sapphire said softly. "Puck's good, isn't he?"

"I hate to say it, but... yeah. He is," I agreed.

Sapphire turned around and gave me a long look.

"Would you mind..." She trailed off.

It's as real as the feelings you feel.

"Would I mind what?"

"Never mind." Sapphire blinked. "What do we do now, Kester?"

"For now, let's just get back to land," I said, glad to be back on more familiar ground. "We'll – we'll talk it over then."

A Barry LevinsoAh, damn it, Rain Man didn't have a movie poster tagline.

After that, there didn't seem to be much else to say. We rode on in silence, and watched the sky flush into the full light of midday.

---


It was midnight again when we reached Mossdeep; we were ridiculously hungry, but we were even more tired, so we decided that sleep would, on this occasion, win the right to come first.

When morning came, I met up with Sapphire at the Pokémon Centre where she'd spent the night, and found her watching the news on TV.

"...will doubtless be held as soon as all the pieces of his body are found," Gabby van Horne was saying cheerily. "In other news, the gang of marauding Sableye that have been harassing citizens all over the nation have vanished entirely." Stock footage of the Sableye ransacking shops played. "It is uncertain where they have gone as yet, but police urge everyone to remain cautious and watchful." It cut back to Gabby. "Foreign affairs now, and it seems that the Volscians and the Romans have at last called for a ceasefire. It's said that a 'merrier day never yet did greet Rome'. In other news, the former Roman general Coriolanus was brutally murdered earlier today..."

"Sapphire?"

She looked up from the sofa and blinked in surprise.

"You're early."

It was only nine o'clock; usually, neither of us would have woken for at least another hour or two.

"I couldn't really sleep much."

"Neither could I."

I sat down next to her.

"So," I said, trying hard to sound cheerful, "what next?"

"I had a thought," Sapphire replied. "Do you think Zero...?"

I'd had this thought too, and interrupted.

"No," I replied. "He planned this, I'm sure. He must have known what would happen. He knew Team Aqua would be... destroyed. Whatever he wants, it's not a war between Aquas and Magmas. It's something to do with Kyogre, and he definitely escaped before he could be absorbed." I sighed. "I still don't really know where that leaves us, though."

"If anything, we know less than before," agreed Sapphire. "Shall we list the facts?"

Oh joy, said Puck dryly. I just love it when we feel the need to recap for all those readers who weren't smart enough to pick it all up as we went along.

"OK," I said. "We know Zero is planning something with Kyogre."

"We know he's been using Courtney to influence the Magmas," put in Sapphire.

We know he's really, really cool, Puck added.

That's not helpful. Or true.

Hey! It's not helpful, yeah, but it is true. He's a perfect example of the super-cool supervillain.

"We know..." I trailed off. "We don't actually know anything."

We know Felicity's gone, and that she was part of Zero's plan before she broke free.

I don't want to think about her right now. Mention her again and there will be consequences.

"We know – hang on, what was that?" Sapphire's head snapped around to face the TV, and, somewhat bewildered, I looked to see what was going on.

"...activity at Mount Chimney," Gabby was saying urgently, as a banner bearing the words 'BREAKING NEWS' scrolled by beneath her. "The quake has destroyed part of the vihara on the volcano's southern slopes, but it is not known yet whether was anyone was injured." Footage shot from a helicopter showed us that part of the vihara had indeed collapsed, and that there had been a large landslide on Jagged Pass. "Scientists believe an eruption may be imminent..."

I was no longer listening to her. I was staring at Sapphire, and she was staring back. We had both just had the same thought.

"Groudon!"

---


Bravo, said Puck; I heard a slow clap from somewhere inside my head. It only took you 513 pages to work that one out.

"You knew?" I said, thunderstruck. "Puck, did you know about this?"

Of course not, he replied. I just like insulting you.

"Puck knew about this?" asked Sapphire.

"No," I answered. "Turns out he was just abusing us." I stood up. "Sapphire, this is huge. Zero never wanted civil war. He didn't want to set the Magmas and the Aquas against each other. He saw that they were the only two organisations in Hoenn big enough to provide enough flesh to rebuild Groudon and Kyogre's bodies!"

"So he started increasing the tension between the Teams—"

"In order to make sure that they'd want to get hold of the Orbs above all else," I finished. "He must have researched it all beforehand—"

"And that way he could feed them information that would lead them steadily closer to the Orbs," Sapphire concluded.

"Finally, he had Rayquaza killed to get him out of the way, leaving no obstacles." I paused. "That just leaves two questions."

"What?" asked Sapphire. I could tell she was very impressed; I was actually making it up as I went along, but it sounded like I was being clever. And, much to my surprise, all of what I was saying was making sense.

"One: how does Zero manage to calculate every move we make in advance. That's what gives his plan such power," I added knowledgeably. "And two: why? Why is he doing this?"

I'd have thought that was obvious.

"Give me your phone," I said to Sapphire. "Puck has ideas."

It didn't work so well since its immersion in the sea, but it still had speakers and that was all Puck needed.

"It's fairly simple, when you think about it," he said in a very crackly voice. "How do Team Aqua and Team Magma – or how did they, given their current state of disassembly – feel about each other?"

"They hate each other," Sapphire replied. "Everyone knows that."

"And how do Groudon and Kyogre feel about each other?"

"They... hate each other," Sapphire said, the light dawning. I could see it myself, now; it was simple, now I thought of it.

"So what Zero's trying to do—"

"Is use the Teams' hatred of each other to kickstart Groudon and Kyogre into beginning their battle again," I finished.

"There was no need to interrupt," said Puck sniffily, "but essentially, yes. Archie is the primary host for Kyogre; I'm willing to bet that Maxie is for Groudon. Their hatred of each other is strong enough that it'll probably get sucked into the mix and remind Groudon and Kyogre that they haven't finished killing each other yet. As soon as they're conscious again, they'll start moving towards each other, and when they meet..." Puck made a noise that clearly indicated that there were few things he would like less than being present at that meeting. "Well, let's just say that 2012 is going to look pretty tame in comparison."

After Puck had finished speaking, both Sapphire and I were very still. My mouth had gone dry and there was a sort of roaring in my ears; I'm fairly certain I could no longer hear the TV.

"Hoenn," I said at last. "It..."

"There won't be any more Hoenn," Sapphire managed. "Between them... they'll destroy it, won't they?"

"'Fraid so," replied Puck. "Bummer for you guys. Won't affect me, though; once Kester's dead, I can hijack a satellite communication and bounce myself out of the country."

Hoenn was going to be destroyed. It wasn't the sort of concept you could get your head around easily. This was harder to believe than the assertion that two prehistoric monsters could have their souls fossilised into Orbs and come back millions of years later.

It was... unbelievable.

"So, how does everyone feel about fleeing the country?" asked Puck brightly. "Look, I'm being generous. If you like, we could stop off in Littleroot and Rustboro and pick up your friends and fami—"

I dropped Sapphire's phone; we could both do without Puck's jabbering.

Hey, what was that for? I'm actually suggesting we perform an action that will save your lives. Seriously.

"We have to stop them," I said.

"Definitely," agreed Sapphire.

We were silent for a little while longer.

"How?" asked Sapphire.

"I don't know," I replied.

I can help you with that. Give me the phone; I promise I'll be good.

I picked it up cautiously.

"First off, we need to work out how long it'll take Groudon and Kyogre to rebuild themselves," Puck said rapidly. "Now, no one can say for certain, but I reckon we've got a couple of days at least; they're pretty big. After that, Groudon will head south-east towards Kyogre, and Kyogre will head north-west towards Groudon, and that'll probably take a few hours."

"How will we know when they start moving?" I asked.

"Do you really need to ask, Kester? We're talking about monsters bigger than the entire nation of Andorra here. When they start moving, they'll notice it in Turkey."

"But how do we stop them?" asked Sapphire, agitated. "Puck, this is our entire country at risk here!"

"The thing is, the rest of the world will barely notice you're gone," observed the Rotom. "That would be funny if it weren't so sad. Oh, wait, it's still funny."

"Puck!" I snapped.

"Oh, OK, OK. Listen, there isn't really much you can do now except go to the government. Actually, go through the League; they're more likely to believe you."

"We couldn't contact them earlier," Sapphire pointed out.

"Look at the telly. I'm pretty sure you can contact them now."

We looked, and and we saw a very familiar figure standing by Mount Chimney, talking to the camera in deliberately-roughened tones.

"Spike," I said. "Sapphire, we can get the number of her Gym from the website and call her! She's actually in the League, so—"

"She'll be able to get us heard," finished Sapphire, nodding furiously. "Kester, that's brilliant!"

Felicity and our awkward conversation at sea forgotten, we rushed out of the room and over to the Centre's computer room, where Sapphire logged on and searched for the Lavaridge Gym website. A couple of minutes later, Puck was forcing Sapphire's phone to keep working while we called her – and two hours after that, we were on a plane to the heart and soul of Hoennian Pokémon Training, the place where every wannabe Trainer dreams of ending up; the place where the elite test their mettle, and where the world-class Trainers come to find their equals.

Ever Grande City.

---


Zero settled deeper into his seat, and sighed to himself. Felicity was out of the picture now, he knew, which made one out of three threats destroyed. Granted, she was the least dangerous – but she was also the most driven, which made up for it. Both she and Skuld would be gone soon enough, nothing more than blood in Kyogre's veins.

That just left Kester and Sapphire, he mused. If his calculations were correct, they were even now heading to the League building at Ever Grande City. Steven would be there already, he thought, waiting for them. It was a risk to let him meet them at this late stage – but it didn't matter; there was very little that could be done now. Nothing could stop the two great Pokémon from resurrecting themselves; anything that came close would simply be assimilated into their bodies.

In fifty-three hours, Groudon and Kyogre would meet for the first time in sixty-five million years.

Within a week, the average surface temperature of the earth would be somewhere around minus eighteen degrees centigrade.

And twenty-two weeks after that, precisely six months after Zero had made the bet, humankind would be extinct.
 
Last edited:

mew_nani

Pokécommunity's Licensed Tree Exorcist
1,839
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14
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...Yikes. Zero really thought of everything didn't he? :\ I hope Felicity and Skuld are OK...

It's been quite a while since I last responded. This is epic. I can't wait to see the climax!

P.S. I have a really silly question. What were Zero and Steven's father betting on? You know, when Zero made a bet that he could obliverate the world in six months. They had to be betting on something...
 

Silent Memento

Future Authoress
85
Posts
12
Years
I'm wondering if Barry Hawksworthy is among the deceased. He probably is, though; he had to be at that meeting with the Aquas. Not that I actually care about him as a character; I'm just shocked that the guy would go out without so much as a whisper. Then again, physical strength alone isn't much help when your body is being stripped down at a molecular level and crudely reformed into something that doesn't even resemble you...did I mention that you write dark stuff really well?

I'm wondering where Fabien, Blake, Goishi, and Morgana are and what role they'll play. I wonder how Goodwin and Emerald will play into the plot. It's nice to see a cameo by Spike, and it'll be nicer to see Steven make an appearance. I've got to give credit to Zero: he really did do his research.

Oh, and the Alien reference won me over completely. I freaking loved those movies. I loved the Predator movies as well. The Jumanji reference was nice as well.

I apologize for my off-topic rambling. I just wanted to let you know that the chapter was rock-solid.

Sincerely,

Mem.
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
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P.S. I have a really silly question. What were Zero and Steven's father betting on? You know, when Zero made a bet that he could obliverate the world in six months. They had to be betting on something...

I'm sorry, I don't see what you mean. They were betting on whether or not Zero could destroy the world. If Zero wins, humanity dies out; if Zero fails, President Stone gets the satisfaction of knowing that everyone's still alive.

It's nice to see you back, though. Familiar faces are always welcome here. Actually, any faces are welcome here.

Silent Memento: I'm glad you liked my references. I love Alien too. I'm ashamed to say that I actually have the novelisation of it sitting on my shelf.

With reference to Felicity, Skuld and Barry, I shall reveal nothing, but our loveable morons Fabien and Blake are on the move. As for everyone's favourite Devon researcher and the spooky boy with jade eyes, I'm sure we've not seen the last of their stratagems to capture/battle with Kester and Sapphire...
 
38
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14
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  • Seen Dec 31, 2014
Is the story really over 500 pages? That is an incredible work of consistency right there. The last chapter seemed quite significant, as if it's the beginning of the end.
I've loved the story from start to finish, and its both exciting and saddening to see it reaching its conclusion.
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
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14
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Good to know you're enjoying yourself, callumjames3. Now, read on! For herein are contained the final secrets of Zero's great plan!


Chapter Seventy-One: The Goodwin Strikes Back


They say your first sight of Ever Grande city forms a memory that stays with you forever. In my case, it was one wreathed in so much obscuring fog that I couldn't really see anything; it seemed my luck wasn't getting any better.

Spike met us on the airstrip, her Torkoal a vast, indistinct shadow in the fog.

"Kester, Sapphire!" she cried. Much to my surprise, I got a hug; seconds later, I remembered that she was one of the people we'd met who actually quite liked me. It was easy to forget when so many people were of the opposite opinion. "Come with me," she went on, moving away towards a blob in the mist that I vaguely recognised as possibly being the League Headquarters. "I really hope you're right about this. I had to call in a lot of favours to even get this case heard; someone didn't want you to get through to us."

I exchanged glances with Sapphire.

"Zero," we both said.

"He has that sort of power?" asked Spike. "That's... unnerving."

"Yeah," I replied. "He's terrifying."

The League building was disappointingly plain on the inside; I supposed that all the real money was spent on the outside and on the stadiums, which were the parts that got seen on TV.

The word is stadia, Puck told me. Stadia. Like the plural of datum is data and the plural of medium is media.

Shut up.

Spike led us through a plain lobby, down an unremarkable corridor and into a long room with a large table in it, around which were seated no less than six very, very important people. At a glance, I saw Steven, Phoebe Lácrimere, Sidney Rodgers, Glacia Turnford, Drake Landen and Wallace Beckett, the current Pokémon Champion of Hoenn. If I'd been living in a cartoon, my jaw would have hit the floor.

"Wow," breathed Sapphire beside me.

Eh. I've spoken to royalty, Puck said smugly. Well, by 'spoken to', I mean 'stolen from'. And by 'royalty', I mean drug barons. So yeah, no actual royalty involved. Or speaking, for that matter. Why do I keep saying these things?

"This is Sapphire Birch and Kester Ruby," Spike said. "They're the ones I was telling you about."

"Excellent," said Wallace, rising to his feet. "Pleased to meet you."

Oh my God, I thought. I'm actually shaking his hand!

"Uhm," I said, and then my tongue came unstuck. "Yeah, er, pleased to meet you too."

"It really is, all of you," Sapphire said. "But there isn't really time for pleasantries. Hoenn is on the brink of destruction."

"We gathered as much from what Spike told us," Phoebe replied, stretching in her chair. "Look, why don't you have a seat and tell us all about it." She turned to Spike. "Spike, can you get that guy for me? The one who brings... stuff?"

"Terry? OK." Spike left the room, and Sapphire and I sat down nervously, next to Steven.

"All right," said Sidney, leaning across the table. His bald head shone under the bright lights, and so did his teeth. He looked positively demonic – an effect that entirely appropriate for a Dark-type Master, and which was also slightly undermined by the fact that he was wearing a shirt with a very weird collar. "Tell us about what this Zero guy's up to."

So we did. Between us, we got the whole story out: from my accident back home in Rustboro all the way up to the horrific incident in the deep-sea cavern. We told them all about Zero, all about Groudon and Kyogre and the Teams; we told them about Puck, about the druids and about the Orbs. In all, it took about an hour, by which time 'that guy', otherwise known as Terry, had brought us all refreshments. These were received with gratitude, because neither Sapphire nor I had actually had eaten since the trip down to the bottom of the sea.

"That's... quite a story," said Wallace at length. "I... Steven? Spike? This is true?"

Spike tossed a blood-red mobile phone on the table; I picked it up and immediately Puck began to speak.

"Whoa," he said. "This is a nice phone. I'd steal this, if I weren't stuck in your meaty brain."

The Elite Four stared in shock. It was a fantastic scene: the League greats, the strongest in Hoenn – surprised by something I'd done.

"Hey," Puck went on. "Ghosts nearby. Six of them, in the hot chick's pocket."

At this point, I felt it prudent to give the phone back to Spike before Phoebe decided to have me killed, and therefore handed it over again.

That was your approximation of her, not mine, Puck told me. Your mind has been affected by her clothing. Or lack of it.

"Sorry," I said, aware of the silence. "He's... not actually a very nice person."

What the hell? I'm perfectly nice! I'm loveable! Loveable, I tells yas!

"That's all right," replied Phoebe uncertainly. "Ghosts often aren't."

"So it's true," said Wallace, moving back to practical matters. "The next thing is to decide what we're going to do about it."

He stood up and began to pace.

"Does anyone have any ideas?" he asked. "I think we can rule out the possibility of managing to defeat these creatures, if they're as powerful as you say they are. We might be able to kill them as we did with Rayquaza—"

"No," Steven interrupted. "We would be wasting our time." He sighed. "Rayquaza was a fragile creature, for all its size. Groudon and Kyogre come from the earth's core and from the ocean deeps respectively. They will be able to withstand tremendous pressure and heat; I should think that, combined with their great size, will render them more or less invulnerable to weapons or Pokémon moves."

"That's reassuring," remarked Sidney. "OK, so we can't kill or defeat them. That means we need to think of another plan. How long do we have until they meet each other?"

"Puck estimated it would take a few days for them to rebuild themselves," I answered, "and a few hours after that for them to meet—"

"For them to meet," said Steven suddenly. "My God."

"What is it?" asked Sapphire; we all turned to look at him.

"This... could you mark that deep-sea cavern on a map?" Steven suddenly demanded of her.

"Well – yes, I suppose—"

Steven ripped one from the wall and laid it out in front of her, then handed her a pen.

"About here, I guess."

She marked the spot with an X.

"Now look at Mount Chimney," Steven said.

"Where are you going with this, Steven?" asked Drake roughly. "This had better—"

"Calm down, Drake," interrupted Wallace. "I trust Steven's judgement." He nodded at him. "Carry on."

"If I draw a line between Mount Chimney and the cavern," Steven went on, "do you see where the midpoint is?"

"Sootopolis City," answered Spike. "So what, Groudon and Kyogre will meet up in Sootopolis?"

"You don't understand," Steven said urgently. "You have to know about the geography of Hoenn for this. Do you see the island chain on the east side of Hoenn?"

We nodded; we did.

"See how it describes a circle around Sootopolis?" Steven asked. He drew the circle in on the map.

"Ye-es...?"

"Well, that's the thing," Steven said, deadly serious. "That could make this disaster a hundred – no a thousand – times worse."

---


"Well," said Fabien, "I think we can both say that that didn't go exactly as planned."

"Too righ'," agreed Blake.

They were walking through the city in search of sustenance, and had fallen into a veritable winter of discontent over their failure to achieve anything at all the previous day. Goishi flapped along above them, and Morgana was safely back in her ball, where she could cause no more mischief.

"I mean – good grief! It's the Devon man, and he's killing someone!"

Blake turned to look; it was indeed the Devon man, and he did appear to be killing someone. He was hauling a short boy clad in black clear of the ground, and his Ninjashell was hovering nearby, ready to strike.

"Do you think we ought to help?" asked Fabien, but before Blake could even begin to formulate any sort of coherent response, there was a flash of blue light, and a lithe brown Pokémon, all carapace and blades, appeared at the boy's side. It darted forwards and sliced the unfortunate Ninjashell in half, and the Devon man was forced to let go of his captive and recall his Pokémon.

"That was surprising," Fabien said. "I think this might be an encounter worth eavesdropping on. Positions!"

He brought out a large, battered newspaper from his pocket, sidled closer to the Devon man and the boy, and proceeded to unfold it, revealing that it had holes cut into the pages. Blake, on the other hand, sat down on a nearby bench and pretended to watch the traffic. Goishi, fearing association with the would-be spies, flew up to a nearby rooftop and simply listened in with his acute hearing.

"I'm very sorry about that," the boy said. "I didn't want to harm your Shedinja, but I would like to be put down. I'm perfectly happy to talk reasonably with you, if you like."

The Devon man hesitated, then dropped him. The boy dusted himself off, and then spoke further.

"Now," he said. "You've obviously seen these two people. They're mixed up in something beyond me, I can see that. You want to find them, I want to find them. I'd like to suggest we pool our resources."

"What advantage would that give me?" the Devon man asked suspiciously.

"For a start, you would actually find them," the boy replied, smiling. "I have a way of finding people like them. Then, if you would just let me fight them, you can do whatever you want. Besides," he admitted candidly, "I don't think I can find them without your talents, which don't seem to be inconsiderable. Is that a deal?"

The Devon man appeared to be thinking it over.

"All right," he said at length. "But I don't want you dragging me down."

"Don't worry, I won't," the boy replied. "I can honestly say, without conceit, that I'm the best Trainer in the entire history of the world. Were you aware that we're being spied on, by the way?"

Fabien kept his cool. As the Devon man walked up to him, he maintained the pretence of reading the newspaper right up until it was snatched from him.

"Something wrong?" he asked nonchalantly.

"Who the hell are you?" the Devon man asked with a certain quiet ferocity that made Fabien wish that he were about five hundred miles away, and then five hundred more. But he was Fabien Latch, and, as ever, he hid all uncertainty, and went ahead with a ridiculously unlikely plan.

"My name is Fabien Latch," he said, smiling and holding out a hand that went unshaken, "and I think you'll find that we could both help each other..."

That had been yesterday. Today, following the same strange sense that had brought Sebastian to Kester and Ruby in Mauville, they had, in the company of the two men they now knew as Sebastian Emerald and Darren Goodwin, arrived at the airport, where the nice Mister Goodwin had gone through a 'Staff Only' door, and come back with something red on his knuckles and the information that Kester and Sapphire had just left for Ever Grande City.

You might well wonder how Fabien managed to convince Darren Goodwin that he and Blake would be of any use to him. This is a wholly appropriate question, and easily answered: the former Magma had impressed upon Darren their talents as spies and warriors, and then Sebastian had pointed out that they would make excellent cannon fodder. This was a rather ominous thought, but it got Blake and Fabien into the gang, and that was what counted in his book.

Upon receipt of the information that their targets were now in the very heart of the League itself, three of the four members of the group had a few second thoughts. Blake, Fabien and Darren all had reasons for not wanting to go anywhere near them. Sebastian, on the other hand, had no problem with the League. A brief argument ensued; brief because they realised at this moment the necessity of fleeing the airport before they were arrested.

Reconvening elsewhere, the debate continued, and it was eventually decided that they would all take the next flight to Ever Grande City, and that Sebastian would then use his mysterious sense to locate them. If they were in the League HQ as was suspected, then Sebastian would be sent in to lure them out. Otherwise, they could all go.

With this sterling plan in mind, then, the intrepid quartet set out for the airport and thence, Ever Grande City.

---


"What do you mean, that could make it thousands of times worse?" asked Glacia.

Steven put down the map and started speaking.

"Millions of years ago, the space now occupied by the East Hoennian Ocean was a gigantic cluster of mountains." He paused. "Volcanically active mountains. Extraordinarily volcanically active mountains. Their magma contained exceedingly high levels of silicon."

This was apparently meant to impress us, but no one reacted.

"Um... is that a bad thing, Steven?" asked Phoebe. "We're not all geologists."

"My apologies. I forget." Steven gave a little bow of apology and carried on. "The higher the silicon content of magma, the more viscous it is. And when magma is viscous, it gets stuck in volcanoes. It builds up, until the pressure is so immense that you get—"

"A volcanic eruption." Spike nodded. "Right, but how is this relevant?"

"In a so-called rhyolite volcano, the pressure is tremendous. The blast can actually destroy the entire mountain. Our mountain chain was a cluster of this sort of volcano, and over the course of several million years, the chain destroyed itself, the mountains collapsing to form a vast ring, which we now see as the islands that form a circle around Sootopolis."

"Still waiting to see how this turns out, Steven," grumbled Drake warningly.

"Quiet," snapped Phoebe. "Steven's not done yet."

Isn't it hilarious how everyone loves Steven except Drake? I wonder why that is. Actually, it's probably just a hackneyed plot device to keep Steven's monologue anchored to the room so that the reader doesn't forget where the action's taking place.

Puck?

Yo, Kester?

Shut up.

"Sootopolis is a new volcano, growing in the centre," Steven went on. "In time, if allowed to continue growing with the magma within it, it will probably cover most of the East Hoennian Ocean, as the old mountain chain did."

"Are you saying that if Groudon and Kyogre meet at Sootopolis, the volcano would erupt?" asked Wallace.

"No," said Steven. "I'm saying it's worse than that. Allow me to finish. The entire East Hoennian Ocean is what we call a caldera. It is a single gigantic volcanic crater, several hundred miles across." He turned serious green eyes on us, and suddenly I realised what he was going to say. "If Groudon and Kyogre start fighting at Sootopolis, they are going to trigger the eruption of the biggest volcano on the entire planet."

---


"They are in there," Sebastian told his new companions. "Shall I go and get them, or do you have any requests?"

They were standing outside the great wrought-iron gates that formed the sole point of entry to the grounds of the Hoenn Pokémon League. In the street beside them, cars rushed past through the fog like shadows escaping their casters.

"Learn what they're doing in there first," commanded Darren. "Then you can battle them, but you must tell me what they're doing. That is the information I've come to find."

For him, Zero was the main mission now; it was clear that he had been orchestrating the Goodwin's entire chase, working through his fake CIA members to keep events running to a hidden plan. Darren had an idea that Ruby and Birch must be connected to Zero – but first he would need some more information, and it was that he hoped to gain from Sebastian's spying mission.

He was slightly concerned about the boy, though. He was as big a conundrum as any Darren had come across; normal people did not have mysterious sense that led him towards strong or unusual Trainers. Normal people treated affairs like this seriously, not like a game. Whatever Sebastian really was, he was something that Darren had never encountered before, and did not particularly want to encounter again.

"You two," the boy said, turning to Blake and Fabien. "What do you want me to do?"

"Same as 'im, actually," Blake replied. "We wan' to know wha's goin' on."

The two Magmas had decided that figuring out exactly what the hell they'd got themselves into was the important thing here, a surprisingly smart move from them. Capturing Kester was no longer important; he was obviously not working for the Aquas, but against them, and that meant that he was their most powerful ally right now.

"All right, then." Sebastian dropped a Poké Ball, and a large, blue and grey turtle appeared; it walked on its hind legs, and had the most vacant look in its eyes since records began in 1856. "Remove the padlock, Coast," Sebastian instructed, and the giant turtle leaned forwards and bit ponderously through the chain that held the gates shut. "Right," said its master brightly. "I'll be back soon. You might want to find somewhere less conspicuous to wait.

And without another word, Sebastian and Coast headed away, up the driveway towards the League building.

Fabien, Blake, Goishi and Darren exchanged glances; it took quite some time, but eventually everyone had looked at everyone else.

"Do you think he does this all the time?" asked Fabien.

"That, or he's the most arrogant person in the entire world," replied Darren. "Right now, both seem equally plausible."

And he walked off to find a hiding place, and his new lackeys hurried off after him.

---

I really have to stop doing this, but I'm afraid I have no choice but to tell you that, contrary to everything I've said before, this was the longest, most stunned silence since our journey began.

"What's going to happen?" Sapphire asked, after a while. She and I had the most experience of these silences, and so recovered soonest.

"Hoenn itself will be destroyed more or less instantaneously," Steven said. "Explosive lava ejection, earthquakes, ashfall; all life here will be extinguished very quickly.

"The rest of the world must suffer worse, though," he went on grimly. "The ash clouds will blot out the sky entirely. Every nation on earth will be trapped in endless night for anything up to several decades.

"In the absence of the sun, photosynthesis will cease. The world's plants will perish, swiftly followed by all the animals, most of the Pokémon... and humans." Steven's voice was low now, as if the effort of producing such dark words had drained him of all energy. "Then, of course, there will be natural disasters triggered by the eruption: tsunamis will tear through every country that borders the Pacific Ocean, for instance. In the worst-case scenario, I'm afraid to say that the human race will go into rapid, irreversible decline, and succumb to extinction in perhaps just a few short months."

Once again, there was silence.

Whoa, said Puck. You guys need to lighten up; the atmosphere in here's getting way too serious. Here, I got a joke: why did the chicken cross the road?

I couldn't answer. No one could speak. We were all too busy taking in the information that very soon, we and everyone else on the planet were going to die.

Come on, have a guess. Puck waited. No? Aw, fine, I'll just tell you: there was a Prius coming down the road then and, assuming that the drivers liked nature and wouldn't kill her, the chicken – who happened to want vengeance on humanity for taking her eggs – darted into the road to make them swerve, crash and cause a four-car pile-up. He paused. What, no laughs? I suppose the punchline is a little wordy.

"But that doesn't have to happen," Steven said, pulling himself together with a visible effort. "If we stop Groudon and Kyogre, then we can definitely avoid this."

"Why?" asked Wallace simply. "Why would Zero do this? He's a clever man to have worked all this out... what drives someone to want to eradicate humankind?"

"He is self-evidently insane," Steven replied. "I can think of no reason."

Give me Sapphire's phone, Kester.

I did, with some trepidation, and announced that Puck wanted to speak.

"Look," he said, "I get that you wouldn't understand. You're human. But isn't it obvious why he wants to get rid of you? He's bored."

"What?" cried Spike. "That's not a—"

"Shut up, punk, unless ya feel lucky," snapped Puck. "You can't understand. I've been living in one of you guys' heads for a while now, and I can tell you your minds just work differently. You have a sense of society; you place value on life. It's different for Ghosts. We don't care about others. We're sentient – or some of us are, anyway – but we didn't evolve like you. We need no society, so we place absolutely no value on anyone's life except our own." Puck sighed. "I understand why you feel it would be awful if you all died. But I can't feel it, and neither can Zero. All I can say is that he either wants to commit suicide in the most glorious way possible, or he knows of some way to survive the apocalypse he's making. He's doing this for fun, and he doesn't care that everything will die. Neither would the millions of Ghosts who will survive the apocalypse completely unchanged. Their lives won't change, and so they have no objections."

Silence greeted Puck's statement.

"That," said Glacia after a minute or two, "is one of the most frightening things I've ever heard." She glanced at Phoebe. "Did you know this?"

The other woman squirmed uncomfortably.

"I didn't really like to think about it," she replied. "But I did sort of suspect, I suppose. I know what Ghosts are like."

"Leaving that aside," said Drake roughly, "what are we going to do?"

Again, silence. No one knew. I looked hopefully at Sapphire and at Spike, and I pleaded silently with Puck – but no one had the least idea of how to combat the threat.

"I think we can conclude that the only thing possible is to try and contain Groudon and Kyogre before they fully reform," Sidney said after a while. "I mean, if they're just embryonic meatballs, they won't put up much of a fight, surely? We could go to the Ministry of Defence, get the army on board—"

"From what I've heard," I said, "I think Groudon and Kyogre are just too big for that to be possible."

"But if they're trapped in too small a space for them to grow fully—"

"Then they'll press against it until they break it," Puck said through Sapphire's phone. "These are not regular Pokémon. Rayquaza shot a meteor onto them, and it just knocked them out. It's going to take a freakin' supernova to actually kill them."

"So we're screwed?" asked Sidney. "No, there's got to be something, man; we just haven't thought of it yet..."

Glacia suddenly clicked her fingers.

"What about the golems?"

"Do you think they're up to it?" asked Phoebe.

"They're legendary, aren't they? And there are three of them, they could team up and take them one at a time..."

"They haven't worked for seventy years," pointed out Drake grumpily. "They're not going to work now."

"I think we have someone who might be able to get them started," Spike said proudly, and put a hand on my arm.

"Me?" I asked. "I don't even know what we're talking about."

"The legendary golems, Kester," said Steven, leaning forwards on the table. "They're Pokémon of remarkable power. And more than Pokémon—"

"They're machines," put in Puck. "The ultimate machines, if you will. Machines that can manipulate the earth itself. Machines that you and I, Kester, are going to pilot to the epicentre of the end of the world." He sounded like he would have been grinning if he could. "And if you don't think that that sounds like it's going to give us scope for a truly epic ending to the story, then you need to reconsider, because baby, this is going to blow. Your. Mind."

Note: Have a look at the artwork for the map of Hoenn. If you have any knowledge of geography, you'll recognise it as a so-called super-volcano, like Yellowstone - only bigger. This is one of two ideas that spawned this story; I had one for the beginning, and one for the end. I wanted someone with a Rotom in their head, and I wanted to point out, in the most spectacular way imaginable, that the ocean easy of Hoenn appears to have been designed to be the world's bigget caldera. The rest of the story was kind of made up as I went along.
 

Silent Memento

Future Authoress
85
Posts
12
Years
You know what? I'm starting to think that Kester and Felicity aren't the only ones with ghosts in their heads. Or maybe Zero is a ghost-type himself?

Spoiler:


I'm still wondering what Morgana is, and I'm excited to see what the quartet (Darren, Fabien, Blake, and Sebastian) are going to do. And now I'm truly interested in seeing who, exactly, Zero is.

This is an amazing climax. Truly amazing. You really thought this story out before you planned on writing it, and I commend you for that.

Sincerely,

Mem.
 

mew_nani

Pokécommunity's Licensed Tree Exorcist
1,839
Posts
14
Years
Note: Have a look at the artwork for the map of Hoenn. If you have any knowledge of geography, you'll recognise it as a so-called super-volcano, like Yellowstone - only bigger. This is one of two ideas that spawned this story; I had one for the beginning, and one for the end. I wanted someone with a Rotom in their head, and I wanted to point out, in the most spectacular way imaginable, that the ocean easy of Hoenn appears to have been designed to be the world's bigget caldera. The rest of the story was kind of made up as I went along.

Wow. I haven't seen a set-up this big since 8-Bit Theatre. EPIC! :D

Funny. In the games, the Regi Trio had no purpose whatsoever. Look at them NOW. You just made them awesome. (Had no idea they were machines. Maybe I should draw a picture of them... :))
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
Mew_nani, the legendary golems being machines is kind of an adaptation I made. Like Jellicent being an area of water, and the apparent body just being a projection. If you think about it, it makes sense: the Pokédex entries state that the golems are artificial, and no one knows who made them or how they work. So my take on it was that they were organic machines, like Replicants. Only made of rock/steel/ice.

Anyway, I'm glad to see you're all excited about my impending climax. Allow me to ramp up the tension even higher, one chapter before the battle to save the world begins.


Chapter Seventy-Two: Rock of Ages


Sebastian backed away from the door slowly, mind racing. This was much, much better than he'd ever imagined. This Kester Ruby... he had to fight him, when he and his Rotom were in control of the golems. That would be it, he thought gleefully; the toughest battle in the world, against three legendary Pokémon acting with a single mind. Enemies of unparalleled power, backed by a human intellect. Yes, this would be perfect.

However, he would have to see what the reactions of the three men waiting for him outside was first. If it turned out that they actually wanted to capture Kester – which, given his remarkable abilities, seemed likely – then he would have to take steps to stop them. He'd be breaking the agreement, but Sebastian didn't think he really needed to honour contracts made with the sort of person who kidnapped other people.

So he made his way back out of the League headquarters and back to the gates; on the way, he noticed that the security guard he'd knocked out on the way in had slumped over his desk again, and so repositioned him in a more upright pose. Hopefully, thought Sebastian, no one would notice until it was too late.

Upon reaching the gates, he found no one around except Blake and Fabien's Crobat, which was hovering lazily above his head.

"Eee-eee-EEE-e-ee-ek," it said to him, and flapped off. Presuming that he was meant to follow it, Sebastian did, and came upon a small café, where his companions awaited him.

"Well?" asked Darren Goodwin. "What did you find out?"

Sebastian sat down and calmly stole Fabien's muffin.

"As far as I can make out," he said, taking a bite, "a man called Zero is going to destroy the human race by causing two legendary Pokémon, Groudon and Kyogre, to battle over the top of Sootopolis, thus activating some sort of super-volcano that will destroy Hoenn and block out the sun with ash, causing the rest of the world to die." He had another bite; it was a good muffin. "I think they're trying to stop this."

"You wha'?" asked Blake.

"My muffin!" cried Fabien. "Also, what perfidy is this?"

Darren looked at them, and both shut up.

"Zero," he said. "That name again..." He fell into thought for a moment. "You say Ruby and Birch are trying to stop him destroying the world?"

"That seems to be it," replied Sebastian. "They're going to activate the legendary golems and use them to fight Groudon and Kyogre."

Darren started.

"The golems? Do they even work?"

"Apparently Kester Ruby can make them work. He has a Rotom inside him."

Darren nodded slowly.

"Of course."

Fabien and Blake exchanged glances.

"Excuse me," said Fabien crossly, "but what are these 'golems' of which you speak? And more importantly, can I have my muffin back?"

---


"What on earth are you talking about?" Sapphire asked. "What are the golems?"

"Three unique constructs," Steven answered. "Artificial Pokémon, created... well, no one knows how long ago, or by whom. They are tied to Hoenn, to the land – Registeel, Regice, and Regirock. I believe the League has them stored in secure vaults around the country."

"That's correct," Wallace affirmed. "They seem to work along the same lines as computers; the crystalline structure of their bodies forms a series of binary gates that..." He coughed, aware that no one was really following him. "Well, never mind that. The point is that they require instruction to move – it's just that no one has ever worked out how to activate them."

"It'll be easy," Puck said arrogantly. "I could reprogram the Pentagon if I wanted to. A few million-year-old robots'll be no trouble at all."

"If you say so," Sapphire said. "But I have a question. Kester, you need to maintain contact with the thing you're controlling at all times, right?"

I nodded.

"So how will you operate three of them at once?"

"Ah," said Puck. "I... do actually need to think about that. Don't talk to me."

Sapphire's phone started making that sound phones make when the line's gone dead, and so I gave it back to her.

"Isn't there a way Kester could reprogram the golems to respond to other people?" asked Spike. "That way, three of you could do it."

The Elite Four and Champion nodded and made appreciative noises at this; I was glad. I definitely did not want to be going anywhere near either Groudon or Kyogre; it was probably a move that would be bad for my health. Besides, I was sure that a proper League Trainer could do a better job of taking them down.

Oh no, Kester, said Puck. I insist we take one of them ourselves. You do realise that I'll never get the chance to pilot one of these again, right?

I do now. And so it gives me even more pleasure to know we won't do it.

You...

"Kester, could you do that?" asked Phoebe. "Or rather, Puck, could you do it?"

Could I? Child's play. But I insist that Kester pilots one, because I want a chance to drive.

I sighed.

"He could do it," I confirmed. "But he won't unless I operate one of them myself, because he really wants to drive one of them himself."

The Elite Four exchanged glances.

"Well, there's no problem with that," Glacia said. "I mean, Rotom are supposed to be expert with machinery, aren't they?"

"That's true," Phoebe said. "In fact, Kester, you'd probably be the best operator out of all of us, with Puck with you."

I stared, horrorstruck.

"You must be joking," I said, when I'd regained the power of speech. "There is absolutely no way I'm going anywhere near Groudon or Kyogre, even if I do have a super-powerful legendary Pokémon on my side."

Sapphire kicked me under the table.

"Kester!" she hissed. Then, to the League Trainers: "I'm sorry. What Kester means is that he'd be delighted."

"Are you sure?" asked Wallace. "You didn't sound very delighted to me—"

"I'm not—!"

"But he is," said Sapphire sweetly. "Because he's acutely aware that if he doesn't, there's a very real possibility that everyone in the world is going to die."

Puck gave a decidedly evil chuckle.

Looks like we're all against you, Kester, he said. Come on. Give up and be a hero. If you do this, you get to be the boy who saved the world. Aside from the fact that that's pretty cool in itself, that's going to get you a lot of girls.

What about Felicity?

Eh, you never know. Skuld's presence might have insulated her from full absorption. Maybe you could get her out again.

"OK," I said immediately. "I suppose I am delighted."

Sucker, Puck snickered. God, humans are so easy to manipulate. All they need is hope, and they'll march off a cliff like lemmings. Or Lemmings, in which case four of them get little pickaxes and one gets a bomb. Wait, did I say that out loud?

"Excellent," said Steven, clapping his hands together. "I shall take another. You have no objections?"

No one did. He was Steven Stone, for God's sake. He had a Metagross.

You don't actually know just how impressive that is, Puck observed, yet you're still impressed. Weird.

"Mister Beckett?" asked Sapphire. "Will you take the third one?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. At this, Drake looked up eagerly; he was the next strongest member of the League, if I remembered correctly. "Glacia will."

"What?" Everyone looked at Glacia, who in turn looked at the ceiling, embarrassed.

"Think," Wallace said. "These three Pokémon are Steel-, Rock- and Ice-type. Steven is the most qualified to pilot Registeel; Glacia is the most qualified to pilot Regice. They are both Masters of those types. That leaves Regirock for Kester and Mister Goodfellow."

Ooh. Mister Goodfellow. I like this guy.

Drake slumped lower into his seat, and started visibly sulking.

"Right," said Spike. "We've sorted that out now. Shouldn't you three get going to the vaults where the golems are? Kester has to activate them all manually, and I don't know how long that's going to take."

About half a microsecond, Puck said confidently. Assuming, of course, that they're still running antivirus software from a million years ago. If it's up-to-date, it might take as much as a whole second.

"A fine suggestion, Miss Temulence," exclaimed Steven. "We—"

"Spike," interrupted Spike.

"Sorry?"

"Please. Call me Spike."

"My apologies, Spike." Steven made one of those elegant, apologetic bows he was so good at. "But you are correct, whatever appellation you prefer. We have no idea how much time we have or will need, and should move out with all haste." He stood up. "Now, are the rest of you coming, or...?"

"No," replied Wallace. "Sidney, Phoebe, I want you to go to Mount Chimney and keep an eye on the Groudon situation; Drake, you're coming with me to the deep-sea cavern. For God's sake, be careful – I don't want any of you absorbed into them." He turned to Spike. "Spike—"

"I'll go back to Lavaridge with Sidney and Phoebe," Spike said. "I grew up on that volcano. If anyone can help there, I can."

"Very good." Wallace turned to Sapphire. "And Miss Birch, would you please come with Drake and myself? We may need your help in locating the cavern."

"Yes!" Sapphire cried eagerly. "I mean, OK. Whatever."

I smiled; it was nice to see Sapphire acting like a normal teenager for once, completely starstruck.

What do you mean, 'for once'? She is a normal – ah, who am I kidding? She's a freak. It's a good thing you did, becoming friends with her. Mind you, you still need to properly resolve this tension about the whole 'she thinks she's in love with you' thing between you and her before all this is over, and you've only got a few more chapters to do that in.

"Right!" cried Wallace, leaping to his feet. "There's no time to lose! Steven, you're a qualified pilot, I believe? The League jet is at your disposal! Everyone, we have an unspecified but rather short time to save the world, and I think we'd all prefer it if we got this done before the deadline. Now, let's go!"

With that, the meeting dissolved into a welter of confusion, and in moments I was back outside on the foggy airstrip, and Steven was talking swiftly about how it was going to be difficult to take off; I have a hazy idea that I might have said goodbye to Sapphire and Spike then, and before I knew it I was back in the jet, and we were rising high into the air, Ever Grande falling away beneath us like the house of cards Malvolio had knocked over, all those long days ago in Javier's house.

---

As Darren explained the secret of the three golems to his cannon fodder, his acute mind was already whirring away on a different level.

For our favourite Goodwin was no longer certain where he stood. What would Devon want him to do? For a start, Devon probably wouldn't want him to be striking out on his own like this. They would want him to return to Lilycove and resume work with Dahlia – but she was just a foil for Zero; working with her would only damage his cause.

The imperative for Devon, Darren decided, was probably that the world continued to exist. More importantly, it was what his wife would want. If the world was to be saved, then the success of the League mission was paramount, and that meant that if he should be doing anything, it was helping Ruby and Birch. He didn't know what he could do, but he was damned if he was going to let the planet freeze to death.

And besides, he could always capture them after the apocalypse had been averted.

Darren Goodwin nodded the nod of the man who plans treason; he told himself that if it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done quickly, and hurriedly concluded the explanation he'd been giving.

"I see," said Fabien, nodding sagely.

"Do you?" asked Sebastian.

Fabien wavered.

"Yes," he answered defiantly.

"I'm sure you do." Sebastian raised his eyebrows. "Right. Does anyone else want to save the world?"

Darren nodded.

"I think that's what we ought to do," he agreed. "The interests of the people I represent would be best served by the world's continued existence."

"I also think we ought to save the world," Fabien said, eager to have his say. "As the main character, it's my duty to participate fully and save the human race from destruction."

Sebastian and Darren exchanged looks, but said nothing; both had decided already that Fabien was certifiably insane, and that Blake was a moron. If Goishi – who was perched on the back of Blake's chair – had been able to speak, he would probably have confirmed these suspicions to be true.

"Right," said Darren, fixing Fabien with a querying eye. "I suppose we should plan what to do next." He took a sip of his coffee, and was about to say something else when Sebastian spoke.

"All right, then. We have at least a day until the giant Pokémon appear. In that time, Kester, Sapphire and the League will be getting hold of, and reactivating, the golems – and then transporting them to Mount Chimney and this deep-sea cavern. The question is, what will we be doing to help in that time?"

"We could," Blake said with great clarity, "nick a figh'er je'."

Everyone stared at him.

"Why in the name of God," asked Fabien, "would we want to steal a fighter jet?"

"We could shoo' 'em," Blake replied, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "Migh' distract 'em while the League attack."

"I think we might use a different plan," Sebastian said kindly. "I think that Groudon and Kyogre are a bit too bulletproof to be bothered by fighter jets."

"Oh, don't mind Blake," Fabien told him good-humouredly, "he's harmless. Now, what's your idea, my child?"

Sebastian regarded him with the same look he used for unidentifiable sticky things on the sole of his shoe.

"My name is Sebastian," he said icily, "and my plan goes like this..."

---


"Have you ever been to a secret government base before?" asked Glacia. I think she was trying to make conversation, because I probably looked very nervous. As it was, I stared at her.

"OK," she admitted. "That was a stupid question."

We were in the League jet, heading west at ridiculous speed; Steven was a good pilot, but not a cautious one by any means. Even inside the plane, I could feel the speed we were going at.

Cool, isn't it? Puck asked.This is how I like to fly.

"Look," Glacia said, giving me a reassuring look, "I'm sure this'll be fine."

"And if it isn't?" I asked, and immediately wished I'd remained silent.

"Then..." Glacia looked out of the window. "Well, it'll be quick, at least, since we're at the epicentre."

"Oh. That's... reassuring."

Relax, Kester, said Puck. I've got this all figured out. I know what's going to happen.

Really?

Yep. You're all going to die.

I froze in my seat, fingers gouging deep into the armrests.

Kidding! Puck laughed. No, really, I'm sure you'll do fine. Just chill out a bit.

"Kester! Glacia!" Steven called over the intercom. "We're coming in to land at Area 17, so please fasten your seatbelts!"

I hadn't removed mine. I'd been too busy worrying.

"Area 17 is in the desert," Glacia told me. "Regirock is waiting here. Your golem."

"Oh," I replied weakly. "Fantastic."

The plane touched down, and we got out into an ocean of heat; I would have complained, but Steven had already grabbed my wrist and dragged me across the tarmac and over to a low, nondescript grey building that looked like a garage.

"This," he said, turning to me, "is the first of the government's three most secret bases."

With that, he opened the door and bundled me in.

I blinked. It was cool in here, and quite dark; to me, it looked like we were in a little concrete room with a set of stairs at the other end – and completely alone.

Odd, mused Puck.There'd usually be soldiers at a place this important. I can only assume there's some Pokémon-based defence.

"Aren't there any guards?" I asked, stepping forwards. "I mean—"

"Stop!" cried Steven, tugging roughly at my shoulder. "You'll be killed. Glacia?"

"Yes, just get out of the way," she said, and squeezed past us; once she was about a foot ahead, two little slots appeared in the far walls and emitted the tell-tale flash of an activating Poké Ball.

Immediately, two tall, lithe green men appeared; they had fierce, aquiline eyes, and they spun their forearms around to reveal swords growing out of their elbows. As I watched, these swords extended to an alarming length.

Ah, said Puck. Clever. The Gallade are kept in self-release balls, so when they sense someone coming with their psychic powers, they come out and attack. And let me tell you, they're deadly when they attack. They're like Sylar crossed with Zorro: they block bullets with their mind, and slice letters into your chest. And then they kill you and pull your powers out of your brain. Wait. No. Just the killing.

"It's me," Glacia said, standing very still. "Glacia of the Elite Four."

The Gallade looked at her for a moment, then at Steven and I.

"It's OK," Glacia assured them. "They're allowed here."

"Yeah, I know the password," I muttered. "It's 'swordfish'."

"OK?" asked Glacia, and the two Pokémon retracted their swords and vanished in pulses of red light. She turned to us. "All right," she said. "Let's go and get this golem."

Ooh, alliteration, Puck observed as we went downstairs. I like that. Almost as much as synecdoche, but I sincerely doubt that you're ever going to use any.

The staircase was very long; it must have taken fifteen minutes to reach the bottom – and when we did, I was disappointed again. This was just another blank concrete room, with a couple of old nineties computers against the walls. It did have a sixteen-foot-tall monster made of rock in the middle, though, which made up for things a little.

"Regirock," Steven said, as if it were something you saw every day. "It's quite nice, isn't it?"

"Nice?" I repeated. "Nice? This thing... it's terrifying."

Regirock was shaped roughly like a man – or, to be more precise, a gorilla. With no head. And no hands. And a big hump on its back.

What the hell happened there? Someone steal your descriptive capabilities?

"Well, each to his own," said Steven politely. "I happen to like it."

"I'm glad we're enjoying the discussion," Glacia interrupted, "but I'd like it if you could activate it now, and then walk it upstairs into the plane's hold."

I stared at Regirock apprehensively. Then I walked carefully up to it, and put one hand on one of its massive shins.

Yeah, baby! cried Puck in a weird voice, and sparks exploded out around my fingers. Oh. My. Arceus. This thing has organic valves made of stone! How is this even possible? I – sweet Palkia's pancreas! It doesn't use binary: it uses braille! Whoever built this was certifiably insane, and I want to bear their children!

"That," I muttered, "is far more than I wanted to know. I'm going to stop listening to you now."

Oh, it can connect to the Internet! But... using Netscape? Man, that's outdated. Hang on, I'm going to upgrade to Firefox. No, let's be contrary for the hell of it and use Opera!

"I'm not going to ask how it's possible that a Pokémon created millions of years ago by some unknown power can connect to the Internet, but I am going to ask if you'll shut up."

I glanced over at Steven and Glacia, who were watching me with interest, and smiled in an embarrassed sort of way.

"It's Puck," I explained. "He's... waxing eloquent."

Nicely put, Puck said admiringly. In other news: this thing is a Mac. Can you believe it?

"No, I don't believe that," I replied.

Oh, OK. It isn't.

"Thanks for telling the truth."

It has got the Nintendo logo printed on the inside of its CPU, though.

"What?"

I said, I'm finished! Stand back!

I took a step back, and watched as the lines of lights on Regirock's face clicked on, one by one; with the sound of grinding stone, it straightened up, flexing its massive arms and experimentally pounding a hole in the floor. This last made everyone in the room leap back about a mile.

"Oh my God," breathed Glacia. "You did it. For the first time in a million years..."

It's... alive! shrieked Puck, and broke into an insane cackle. Now, grab hold of its foot again.

"You did it," I said, staring up at the giant creature. It stood there, motionless and humming slightly. "You really did it..."

Touch it already.

I reached out cautiously and put a hand on Regirock's foot; a second later, it reached down carefully with both arms, sandwiched me between the stumps of its wrists and picked me up.

"Aah!" I looked around wildly. "Puck, what's it doing? Is it going to crush me? It's going to crush me, isn't it? Oh God, it's going to crush me!"

Er, no. It's going to put you in the driver's seat.

"Oh," I said, as Regirock lowered me into a hollow in the hump that stood up above its head. "Wow. We're really high up." The golem let go of me, and I clutched at the sides.

"Are you in?" called Steven. For some reason, he didn't seem excited at all; to look at him, you'd have thought he saw the resurrection of legendary Pokémon every day.

"I think so," I called back. "Puck, does this thing have seatbelts?"

Hm. Let me query the central database. Oh wait, Regirock was made about seventy million years before Health and Safety laws were invented. No, it doesn't have seatbelts.

"Oh, good," I muttered. "OK, how do I work it?"

Think, Puck said.It's sophisticated. It'll detect the electricity of your thoughts.

"All right," I said. "Um... Steven! Ms. Turnford!"

"Kester, you can call me Glacia—"

"Whatever, just get out of the way!"

I might have thought too hard. I'm not sure. But what I do know is that Regirock suddenly lurched forwards beneath me, bounding forwards like a gorilla and smashing its way up the stairs, scattering Steven and Glacia as it crashed past like only seventeen tons of living stone can.

---


"OK," I said, once the blood had stopped flowing, "we've established that these things require some practice to operate."

"You should have let me drive when I offered," grumbled Puck through the plane's intercom. "I mean, that's the only reason we were asked to do this—"

"I hardly think this is the attitude that the saviours of the world should have," Steven said. "Have you stopped bleeding yet?"

We were back on the plane, which thankfully seemed to disobey the laws of physics and carry Regirock's weight – it had proved impossible to contain in a Poké Ball – and flying north now, heading for some secret airstrip in the middle of the Akela Jungle. It was about four o'clock, and we'd received our first updates from the rest of the League and Sapphire a short while ago: the quakes at Mount Chimney were getting more severe, while rings of ten-foot waves were radiating from the point above the deep-sea cavern. It seemed that activity was intensifying.

"I think so," I called back, feeling my nose. "You don't have a Potion, do you?"

Glacia had one, and handed it over; as I sprayed it on my face, I reflected that I would, in all likelihood, never get used to the sensation of a tooth regrowing at high speed.

We probably should get seatbelts fitted, Puck said thoughtfully.I don't think it'll help if you fly out like that again.

"Puck, I think you might just be right," I said. "Now shut up and let me feel nervous."

Suit yourself, he sighed.I'm just being jolly in the face of the extinction of your entire species. Under the circumstances, I think I deserve a bloody medal, but never mind.

"You don't care if we all die."

Yeah, but I like to pretend. It humanises me for the readers.

"What?"

Nothing.

"It's very strange, only hearing half a conversation like this," observed Glacia.

"Sorry," I said.

"No, it doesn't matter," she replied. "It's just strange."

After that, nerves overtook me again, and we lapsed into silence. We had one golem. I could only hope that three of them would be enough, because I had a very, very bad feeling about this mission.

---


"Will they manage to stop them, do you think?" asked Courtney.

Zero smiled.

"Honey bunny, the golems are entirely incapable of matching even one of our legendaries in battle," he said. "I have calculated it."

"But what if they do?" she insisted, looking up at him. Those eyes, thought Zero, usually looked so dead; now he was here, they glittered and gleamed, as if there actually was a soul behind them. Could it be, he wondered, that she really had fallen in love with him?

"It's impossible," he replied. "But naturally, I have a plan for that contingency. One of those golems is already mine."

Courtney's face broke into an incredulous grin.

"You mean...?"

"Yes." Zero smiled his cold smile. "At the last moment – at the point in the battle where they need just one more push to get ahead – then I will turn one golem against the other two, and watch their plans come crashing down."
 
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Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
Chapter Seventy-Three: The Big Four

By Wednesday morning, we had them all.

It was three o'clock, the rest of Hoenn was asleep, and I had just spent an hour manhandling a gigantic monster made of ice into the cargo hold of a passenger jet. To make matters worse, Regice appeared to levitate instead of walking, which meant that it was really, really difficult to brake. Consequently, I'd crashed into Registeel and fallen out. As Puck had pointed out, this did have the advantage of stopping Regice, but it had also broken my arm. Thankfully, Glacia kept a stock of Full Restores on her, but it was still something I was keen to avoid.

So instead of sleeping like sensible people, we got the guards from Regice's vault – it was protected by humans rather than psychic swordsmen – to help us install seatbelts, something which was easy enough on Regirock and Regice, which could be drilled into, but impossible with Registeel, since its body appeared to be completely indestructible. In the end we had to give up (we'd broken all the drill bits) and retired to the living quarters at the military base to sleep for a few hours. While we did so, the plane was placed under armed guard; no one wanted to take any chances with the golems' safety. If they were stolen by agents of Zero, then any hope of averting the apocalypse could be consigned to the scrap heap.

At the revoltingly early hour of eight o'clock, Steven woke me, and fifteen minutes later we were in the air again. This time, I was so nervous that I was actually sick; this time, I knew, we were heading towards the Madeira Mountains, to make our first attempt at subduing Groudon.

Two hours later, we were landing in Fallarbor; the jet couldn't land at Lavaridge, and we would have no choice but to continue by terrestrial transport. Evidently, the League had been busy in our absence: an armoured freight train was waiting for us, and I walked the three golems carefully onto it in turn. Having done that, I took a seat in one of the passenger carriages with Steven and Glacia, and chewed my fingernails, wondering if I was about to die.

Groudon can't absorb the golems, Puck reassured me. They're made of inorganic materials.

"What about me?"

Yeah, it can absorb you. But please don't let that happen.

"You care?"

Well, not in so many words. It's more the fact that if Groudon absorbs you, it'll get me too. And if it gets me, it gets enough power to start a small nuclear explosion, so it'll grow to full size fairly instantly. Not to mention that I'll be dead, which is something I'm fairly keen to avoid.

I sighed.

"Sometimes, I think I liked you better in the beginning, when you at least pretended to be human."

The words I uttered then still leave a nasty taste in my mouth.

I sighed again, and Glacia caught my eye.

"It'll be fine," she said reassuringly. "Groudon can't fight back yet. It isn't fully-formed."

"It could absorb us," I pointed out.

Again with the whole absorption thing? All that's going to happen is that you'll be molecularly disassembled and then rebuilt into a cubic yard of tendon.

"That is correct," Steven stated, looking up from the book he was reading. "I wouldn't underestimate the dangers of this mission, Glacia. However, if you are concerned, Kester, you would do well to remember that the golems will protect us as best as they are able. My research indicates that they automatically retreat if they detect extreme injury to their host."

"Only extreme?" I asked anxiously. "What about if there was an injury that was more severe than light, but less severe than extreme, and which would still pose a significant threat to my health...?"

Steven gave me a long look, and I shut up.

"You're afraid," he said. "But that's fine. So am I."

"And me," replied Glacia.

"No you're not," I retorted. "You're reading a book."

Steven blinked.

"Yes," he said, "but it's a book on law. I'm reading through to make sure I've got my affairs properly in order, in case I don't return from this little quest."

"Oh."

"You see," Glacia told me, "the point Steven's trying to make is that you're scared – but you're coming anyway." She shrugged. "That shows something, doesn't it?"

It does indeed, Puck agreed. It shows that you're an idiot.

I said nothing.

"It shows courage," Steven said. "An unexpected virtue from you, to be sure – but a welcome one."

I frowned.

"Unexpected? What do you mean by that?"

"You're a schoolboy from central Rustboro," he replied. "The most terrifying thing you've faced before this is probably so far removed from this situation as to seem completely absurd."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," I muttered darkly, thinking of the business from last year. "I think I may have met flesh-eating aliens before."

"Pardon?"

"Nothing."

Flesh-eating aliens, eh? Is that what you think they were? From your memories, I would have guessed that they were a group of demons summoned by unrelentingly cheerful Cockney shamans.

I nodded deeply.

That also fits, I thought back to him.

At about half past twelve, the train arrived; as I disembarked, I saw that Spike was waiting for us.

"You got them?" she asked excitedly. I nodded dumbly. "Amazing," she said. "Anyway, I've had the Cable Car closed on the grounds that it's unsafe, with all the earthquakes. The track it follows is one of the easiest ways up the mountain, so I thought you could take the golems up there – the crater's split open, and you can just about see Groudon, so I thought it'd be a good place to start."

"OK," I replied, looking nervously at the three colossal freight cars behind us. Soldiers in the acid-green uniform of the Hoenn Internal Affairs Army were rushing around, asking Steven and Glacia what they were supposed to be doing; it seemed that everyone except me was entirely focused on the job at hand, whatever Steven had told me.

Man up, meatface, Puck said. I mean, you actually are a man, in that you're a male human, so... you know. It should be easy.

Spike, sensing my anxiety, gave me the most reassuring look she could, given that her face was more metal than flesh.

"It'll be fine," she said, squeezing my hand. "Look, I think Steven and Glacia want you."

They did; I was to take control of Regirock now, and show them how to work the golems. As Spike looked on, mouth and eyes wide, the soldiers drew back the doors to the freight carriages, and I laid a hand on Regirock's foot. It lifted me into the hollow in its hump, and I hastily strapped myself in with the seatbelts, which, reassuringly, had been taken from a fighter jet. Less reassuringly, this fighter jet had crashed a year ago and left its pilot dead despite the safety precautions, but right now I felt I really needed to focus on the positive.

Following my example, Steven and Glacia swiftly mounted their golems, and I actually pitied both of them: Steven had no seatbelt, and Glacia had to sit on something so cold it should have given its operator frostbite.

Well, Steven's sheer awesomeness should give him perfect balance, Puck said thoughtfully, and if I read the code correctly, Regice has a system that removes the cold from around the operator.

"It didn't do that for me!"

I didn't turn it on for you.

"You...!" I shook my head and shouted. "OK, guys! Think what you want the Regis to do, but don't think too hard or it'll go crazy."

I'd had some practice, and so I managed to walk Regirock onto the platform without damaging the train or station too badly. The golem had some impressive shoulder blades, and these made a couple of holes in the station roof, but that was about the sum of it.

To my chagrin, both Steven and Glacia got the hang of it immediately: Registeel swung itself forwards on its long, flexible arms and landed next to me almost without a sound, and Regice simply leaned forwards slightly and glided out.

"Oh," I said, a little bitterly. "I suppose you don't need my help, then."

"No, it's remarkably easy," replied Steven from his perch atop Registeel's globular body. "Spike! Fly ahead, if you would, and tell Sidney and Phoebe that we're coming!"

Spike called back her assent, and sent out a gigantic bird of prey that apparently had two beaks, one atop the other; a couple of seconds later, she was riding out ahead of us, dwindling to a dot in the sky as she ascended in the direction of the peak.

Staraptor, said Puck. That's from Sinnoh, or California; I never remember which. Either way, it isn't a Fire-type, but they're excellent for riding because of their size.

"OK," I said, looking at the Internal Affairs soldiers, who were all looking up at us and awaiting instructions. "Um... would you all mind getting out of the way? I think you might get squashed otherwise."

They promptly scattered (in a precise military sort of way; it was the neatest scatter I'd ever seen) – and, feeling like I was about to be sick again, I urged Regirock forwards, and we were soon out of the station and climbing the mountain.

This was singularly unpleasant. Regirock had many features, but good suspension was not one of them: it leaped and bounded from slope to slope, and every time we hit the ground I felt a jolt run through my entire body. By the time we had gone a hundred yards, I felt like I'd fallen down the Jagged Pass all over again.

You know, Puck said diffidently, I could drive. Then maybe I'd figure out how to enable Regirock's shock absorbers.

"You bratchny!" I yelled – or tried to yell; unfortunately, we landed mid-word, and my teeth snapped shut on my tongue. I looked up and saw that there were several hundred feet still to go before we even reached the base of the Jagged Pass; I sighed, and handed over control to Puck.

Immediately, the ride became smoother: Regirock still climbed like a rabid monkey on crack, but now I didn't feel it half as much. The main problem now was that I was already very sore, and even the small jolts affected me.

I glanced to my right, and saw that Steven had managed to make Registeel break a series of steps in front of it as it climbed – the advantage, obviously, of having very long and very hard arms. I sighed, and looked right to see that Glacia was simply rising beside me, without Regice even touching the ground. It also glittered fiercely in the afternoon sun, and so bright was the light reflecting off its facets that I was temporarily blinded.

Yeeaaaahhh! cried Puck, casually bringing one of Regirock's fist-stumps down on a tree and turning it into matchsticks. This is awesome! Finally, I've possessed something that'll beat the Rotom who stole that battlesuit in Johannesburg!

I had a fleeting glimpse of a huge, vaguely humanoid shape running through a shanty town, then the memory faded. I sighed, gritted my teeth, and prayed I'd still be alive by dusk.

---

They were like the Three Musketeers, thought Sebastian. The thought made him smile, but it was true: there was Darren, reserved and noble, like Athos; Fabien, vain and pompous, like Aramis; and Blake, a little slow but huge and obviously useful in a fight – in other words, a perfect Porthos.

"Sorry to interrupt," said Fabien, shouting to be heard over the helicopter's rotors, "but where exactly are we going?"

"To see Zero," replied Sebastian, from his perch in the co-pilot's seat.

"Won't he realise we're coming?"

"Definitely. The way we found out his location is bound to have drawn his attention."

This seemed to worry Fabien, but Sebastian took no notice at all, and concentrated on the speck on the horizon that was to be their destination. It was a mere dot in the sea for now, but he knew that it was, in fact, extremely large, and also abandoned; it probably appealed to Zero's doubtless swollen ego. (It here must be made known that while Sebastian was quick to note flaws in others, he was decidedly slow in perceiving those same inadequacies in himself.)

"We'll have to be careful," said Darren, fiddling with the helicopter's controls. "He will probably have defences."

"No, be bold – but not too bold," Sebastian replied. "Zero will have defences in place, but he might disable them for us. I expect he's curious to meet us, since we found out where he's hiding."

Darren glanced at him, and a strange look passed over his face.

"What?" asked Sebastian, irritated. "What is it?"

"Nothing," replied Darren, looking back out of the windscreen. "It's nothing."

Sebastian made a small tch of annoyance, crossed his arms and refolded his legs in the opposite direction. He didn't like being left in the dark; after all, he was the leader of this project. It was regrettable that he couldn't get the information out of Darren, but he didn't want to risk causing the helicopter to crash into the ocean, which would be detrimental to everyone's plans.

The time passed, and the speck in the distance turned into a line; a while later, it became a little finger against the horizon; half an hour after that, when the sun was about to set, it turned into a old, weathered tower, built of huge blocks of brown stone. There were pilasters set into the bottom floor, but most of them had cracked into several parts; almost all of the arches of the windows had fallen in, leaving streaks of scratched stone down the sides of the tower. The longer you looked at it, Sebastian thought, the sooner you estimated its time of collapse to be.

"Sky Pillar," he said aloud.

"Along with Mirage Tower, the oldest artificial structure in Hoenn," Darren Goodwin said. "Also the least-visited, again along with Mirage Tower."

There had been attempts, Sebastian gathered, to preserve Sky Pillar; however, as with everything in Hoenn, things didn't really work out as planned, and President Loganberry had embezzled all the funds and diverted them to the building of a new chain of government-run sandwich bars. As very few people in the country apart from a couple of ageing academics actually cared about Sky Pillar, the decision had been widely applauded, and Loganberry had gone on to be re-elected for his sixth consecutive term.

Now, it seemed that Sky Pillar was almost entirely forgotten, and housed a criminal genius the like of which had not been seen on earth for quite some time.

At the helicopter's approach, clouds of what appeared to be security cameras billowed out of the windows and formed into a loose swarm above the tower's cracked roof; immediately, Darren brought the chopper into a hover, watching carefully.

"What the devil is this?" wondered Fabien. "Why would anyone use a swarm of flying security cameras as their defence system?"

"Who the 'ell 'as flyin' security cameras?" asked Blake, more pragmatically.

Sebastian peered at them. The cameras were a long way off, but they looked angry; their lenses flashed red, and they bobbed and swayed in an evil sort of way.

"Fly towards them," he said.

Darren looked at him askance.

"What?"

"Keep going," Sebastian said confidently. "Zero will want to see us."

"What?" cried Fabien. "Never! We'll all be killed!"

"Well, that is what we brought you two along for," Sebastian replied indifferently. "You're cannon fodder. But that's not really important now; we won't be killed. Fly on."

"I hope you know what you're doing," Darren muttered, and did so.

The helicopter surged forwards again, and the cameras shook harder; now, just a few hundred feet away, Sebastian could see that they weren't cameras at all, but Beldum – hundreds and hundreds of them, more than he knew even existed in the whole world. Of course, that made sense; Zero would have to have had more than one of them – but still, there were so many...

The swarm of Beldum hovered for a moment, then withdrew, retreating back into the tower. Sebastian smiled, and Blake and Fabien looked astounded; even Darren widened his eyes a little.

"How did you...?"

"I told you," Sebastian said. "Zero wants to meet us now." As Darren brought the helicopter down onto the rooftop, he leaned forwards over the dashboard and looked eagerly at the approaching tower. "Now," he said quietly, "let's see what we can find out tonight, Zero..."

---

I think it's safe to say we made a pretty impressive entrance.

I won't go into details; suffice to say that Puck figured out how to make Regirock jump about fifty feet into the air. Steven and Glacia were less flashy, but I don't really think that mattered. Sidney and Phoebe were still blown away.

The top of the mountain hadn't been a prepossessing sight when we'd last visited, but now it was completely ruined. The crater had split wide open, and vast cracks had spread from it all over the peak. Vile-smelling fumes were billowing out of them, and in the depths of this nebula bright cinders winked momentarily.

Like Rotom existence, added Puck poetically. Life is so short. Unlike you humans; you live forever, unless a couple of million-year-old giant Pokémon come back to life and destroy your planet.

"The hell—?" Sidney leaped back and almost toppled into a smoking crevasse; as fast as lightning, Registeel's lithe arm darted out and steadied him.

"We have the golems," Steven shouted down, a little unnecessarily.

"So we see," Phoebe replied, staring. "Kester, I have to congratulate you! And you, Puck!"

Aw, you shouldn't have, said Puck, sounding pleased. It was nothing, Ms. Lácimere.

Ms. Lácrimere? What's with this sudden respect for a human?

She's a Friend to Ghosts, Puck replied simply. I treat her as I would another Ghost: I don't necessarily like her, but I have a certain level of respect for her.

I shook my head, and called down to Phoebe:

"Thanks! Where – I guess it's down there?"

"Yep," replied Sidney. "Judging by the way you came up here, you should be able to jump down there no problem." He looked from one golem to another and then to the next. "Glacia, is Regice going to be OK? It won't melt, will it?"

"According to Mister Goodfellow, it possesses a core temperature of -200 degrees," Steven told him. "I sincerely doubt it will melt. Besides," he said, looking over at Glacia, "Groudon is a Ground-type. Regice will be our strongest weapon here."

"OK!" she said. "Got it. Everyone ready!"

"Yes," replied Steven.

"No!" I cried.

Steven and Glacia gave me twin looks; such was the force contained in their eyes that my reaction made Regirock itself give a mighty shudder, and accidentally hurl a boulder into a distant Altaria.

"All right, I'm ready," I said, resigned. "Let's go—"

I grabbed hold of Regirock's hump as it leaped forwards beneath me, Registeel and Regice following in its wake; for a brief moment, it felt like I was flying, soaring through a cloud of foul-tasting gas—

—and then all three of us were falling, down towards the boiling heart of the volcano. Gas rushed past me, choking any screams I might have wanted to make, and then suddenly we hit solid rock with a bone-shaking impact. Regirock crouched to absorb the brunt of the blow, but even with that and its shock absorbers, I felt like every bone in my body was being shaken loose, and I shouted out a mighty oath at the top of my voice.

Wow, observed Puck mildly. That curse is actually new to me, which is quite something.

I looked up, blinking blearily, and perceived dimly that we were on a ledge somewhere on the side of the volcano's shaft, surrounded by more choking fumes; all at once, Registeel slammed into the ground to my left, and Regice drifted calmly down on the right.

"Are you two OK?" yelled Glacia. Down here, the hiss of the gas and the rumble of cracking rock made conversation difficult – or would have, if I could have brought myself to say anything intelligent.

"Perfectly well!" returned Steven. "Kester!"

"Why aren't I dead?" I howled, which probably surprised them both. It was a valid question, though – I'd just fallen about three hundred feet and was now in a pit full of toxic gas and boiling heat. By rights, I should have died before I hit the ground.

"That's the power of a legendary!" cried Steven. "They're Safeguarding us!"

"Oh, brilliant," I muttered. "I'm riding into hell and I can't even die."

I'd have thought that would be an advantage, Puck said. Come on, ramblers, let's get rambling!

And with that, Regirock bounded forward and flung itself off the ledge once again.

Three times, we fell like that; three times, my coccyx was rammed up into my brain; three times, I bit my tongue nearly in half. After all that, I was about ready to give up and call it a day; how Steven was still holding onto Registeel, I had no idea.

But then I saw Groudon, and all thoughts left my head.

We were below the smoke now, in the ruins of what must have been Team Magma's base. All around us were shattered walls, broken chairs, spilled files; wires hung from the ceiling and sparked optimistically, and I could even hear a TV or radio that was still working somewhere, blaring out foreign music.

I took all that in distantly, with a level of detail that I've never experienced before or since. I can remember the gurgle of a burst pipe, the pattern of a cobweb that had somehow evaded destruction just above my head. If I close my eyes, I can see the whole chaotic mess exactly as it was.

And I can see the huge, fluid shape of the embryonic Groudon towering above me.

It was colossal, at least four times the size of my house – and I knew it wasn't even half-grown yet. Its flanks were great quivering masses of white jelly, looming constructions of pallid corpse-flesh studded with half-absorbed bones, veins, limbs. There were no limbs, not yet – or at least, not as I knew them: four or five great, fat cords extended from Groudon's body, snaking away through the wreckage and down the tunnels that threaded through the mountain. Every so often, a slow bulge would travel down the top of one of these cords, drawn into the main body, and I knew Groudon had found another Magma, or a hapless Pokémon.

And above this ghastly column rose a head.

This was not a nice head. It wasn't like Felicity's, which I could happily have stared at for a very long time. This head was one that also drew my gaze – but not voluntarily; there was so much horror packed into its jagged form that I couldn't help but look. Ridges ran down the top, and two great flat spines projected down below the jaw; the eyes were unformed, milky and filmy, and set deep inside translucent sockets.

"My God," breathed Steven. "This..."

"So this is it," Glacie whispered. "Groudon..."

All right, sightseeing over, Puck said, and lobbed a rock at it.

It wasn't a normal rock, you understand: Regirock had created it from nothing, and it was very sharp – which was why it sliced into the Groudon-embryo's side like a knife through butter, and let out a vast gout of unnaturally red blood. Groudon roared, which brought down part of the ceiling on its own head, and suddenly we were in motion.

If it bleeds, we can kill it, Puck said grimly, and took us to one side as a bloated white appendage formed from the beast's flank and shot towards us. God damn, I've always wanted to say that one.

Regice levelled one massive arm at Groudon, and a freezing wind sprang up behind it; half a second later, a tidal wave of snow and ice was howling into the monster's neck, freezing great chunks of the embryonic flesh and making it crack as it drew back to strike—

"Move!" yelled Steven, and Regirock and Regice shot left and right respectively, as Groudon's huge flabby head smacked against the ground where we'd stood a moment before. It didn't seem to have true bones yet; as it hit, it squashed down, like a dropped beanbag, before wobbling back into shape as it rose again.

Half a second later, a beam of brilliant white-grey light shot into Groudon's eyes, and it screamed and recoiled hurriedly. Another pseudopod snaked towards Registeel, but Steven remained calm and actually caught it in his Pokémon's long, twisting arms. They coiled right around it, squeezed – and sheared it clean off. This might have been a major blow, only another blobby tentacle caught and reabsorbed it.

Kester, are you crying? asked Puck. I don't have a problem with it if you are, but I think you might want to snap out of shock and give me a hand here. We're meant to be working as a team here.

I blinked and touched my face. He was right; I was crying. Since I was seventeen and male, this was embarrassing, even if right now I was piloting the closest thing in the world to a mecha and fighting a giant monster.

Actually, phrasing it like that made it sound like I had less than no right to be crying. I ought to have been screaming battle cries and talking about how my drill would pierce the heav—

Kester! Duck!

Having learned by now that when Puck said duck, Puck meant duck, I did so immediately, and Regirock crouched too, tipping me forward in the seatbelts. Simultaneously, a pseudopod rushed by overhead.

"Oh my God!" I shrieked, returning fully to the present. "Puck, if I die I'm going to kill you!"

That's the ticket, replied Puck, as we leaped up high and punched an oncoming tentacle into droplets of fleshy goo. That's the Kester I know and love. Actually, better make that just the Kester I know.

I wiped Groudon-goo from my hair – it was trying to eat me – and looked around, trying to get a feel for what had been going on while I'd been in shock. I saw Regice, hovering and circling Groudon's half-formed head, launching repeated Ice Beams at its face; Registeel was nowhere to be seen, until I saw it valiantly wrestling with a bunch of massed tentacles off to my left. Steven still looked calm, I noted.

Where were we? It looked like we'd climbed to the top of a pile of rubble next to a load of tunnel entrances, from which protruded an alarming number of Groudon's pseudopoda. The TV I'd noticed earlier must have been nearby, because I could, incongruously, hear it.

Ooh, MTV, noted Puck, making a cluster of boulders form in midair and crush one of the tentacles to mush. Is that Ke$ha? Who the hell spells their name with an unpronounceable character, anyway?

"It doesn't matter! Just don't let me die!"

Calm down, Kester. You're such a worryw— whoa!

Groudon had got a grip on Regirock's leg, and hauled it off its feet; the stony Pokémon crashed backwards onto the rubble, abruptly silencing the TV and almost snapping my spine.

Kester, give me a hand! Think hard!

Another tentacle slapped down across Regirock's chest, and I slammed its arms down on it so hard I chipped some of its abs off; the tentacle fell apart into a sort of cellular soup and trickled off us as we got back to our feet.

"All right," I said, in a low voice, "let's fight."

All right! cried Puck enthusiastically. Your fighting spirit levels just went through the roof! Row, row, fight the pow-AH!

I turned Regirock on one heel. Glacia and Regice had been struck down, and one of the spines on the latter's back had been smashed; Registeel was grappling with Groudon's flabby head, arms wrapped around its neck as the big beast attempted to swallow it.

Then I took a deep breath, pounded Regirock's giant fists together and leaped for Groudon's throat.
 
Last edited:
40
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen Nov 9, 2013
/ Whoa it's Virus Groudon! I think it's great how the story just focuses in on it at just the right time.

Well about affecting the plot / slowing you down I noticed some errors but Screw the Rules. I've actually come to like how crazy the story is. And the updates almost every other day. Anyway you could just excuse it as an Unreliable Narrator or something like that.

So I have another guess.
Spoiler:
 

Cutlerine

Gone. May or may not return.
1,030
Posts
14
Years
/ Whoa it's Virus Groudon! I think it's great how the story just focuses in on it at just the right time.

Well about affecting the plot / slowing you down I noticed some errors but Screw the Rules. I've actually come to like how crazy the story is. And the updates almost every other day. Anyway you could just excuse it as an Unreliable Narrator or something like that.

So I have another guess.
Spoiler:

Errors? Please let me know about them. I want my story to be insane, but I want it to be sensibly insane.

As for updates every two days... that's just me, getting excited that I'm almost at the climax.

Also, I have no idea what you mean by the guess in your spoiler, but I can assure you that the only Metagross in this story is Steven's one, Deep Thought, whom we saw (if you recall) back on Dewford Island.
 

olih

Who says you can't go home?
417
Posts
13
Years
Love the climax. It's really dramatically insane, but uninsane enough to seem realistic.
 
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