"And I thought, that I would conjure a great devil, and tell all the fools in the heavens that I too was god"

After the worst of rainstorms, the sun always scintillates the brightest. The clouds part and strands of pure heaven poke through the sky, lighting up small pieces of the world individually before the grand whole of this creation glows with a soft, pure light. Lumiose City was no different, in fact taking its very name from how the plains and tall sky scrapers glowed utterly with beauty in the dawn. People from all over the world would take pilgrimages to this place, flashing cameras at the sights this country was known for like its thousands of delicious cafes or the fashions which grew out from the minds of its many denizens. And at the city of this wonderful city stood the prism tower, a magnificent structure of glass and crystal jutting unto the heavens like a final testament to man's greatness shouting to the world that yes, humanity has lived and thrived.

Or at least it used to be.

The storm that surrounded this place was not one of pure weather, but of violence and bloodshed. It was as if the gods themselves had looked down upon the world and scoffed. Lumiose was not as it once been. The city was not teeming with chatter and life as usual, no children roamed its parks, no adults its streets, no pokémon its skies. Silence is the answer to the question of war, and it is terrible.

Calem was not kind to himself, he never was. Lumiose was in ruins, with streets flooded from broken water mains and building and homes half destroyed in the previous attacks. He had not been here long, but in his time in his place it had only gotten worse. As a child, he dreamed of coming to a city as grand as this or Castelia in Unova. Now here he was, not admits its squalor, but is decimation. The thought always haunted him, in his dreams and in his waking, and as the weeks went by he spent more and more time staring out windows at the rest of the city. A part of his blamed himself for this madness, but everyone always said he should be proud of what he's done so far.

"Do not believe their lies, Calem. This destruction is all your doing". The thought came and went like a shadow across his mind. He shut his eyes.

"It's not my mind, it's not me. I am me. It's not my mind, it's not me. I am me." His mantra, repeated whenever he felt that darkness, that shadow. "Its not-"

"Calem? You can see her now." The nurse stated from the open door. Slowly, but surely, he backed away from the window and followed her through the hospital. The walk wasn't long, but room 303 was a few flights up. He had to see her.

Serena wasn't well, not by any stretch of the word or imagination. The medical equipment she was attached to beat steadily, indicating that at least the worst of it was over. Calem didn't get many details about what happened, they never told him anything. But what he knew wasn't good. She laid in bed, her eyes closed.

"Why did you do it? Why? You could have run, you could have been free of this place, free to live the life you always wanted." He started. She didn't move.

"I… I hate this place. I hate that I ever came to this city, I hate that I ever met these people." A pause. "I… I hate my father."

The steady rhythm of the heart monitor tore through the room like a marching band on parade day. Calem was not quick with his words, and the pauses between them would have been deafening if not for the machinery. Though, while they were deafening to him, Serena remained still.

"Why does being here give you so much pride? Why do you wish to do this? To follow what Aliana and the other want to do all the time? I don't. I can't."

In his pocket, his phone vibrated. But Calem didn't care. He moved to sit down, but there was nothing. He looked around the room, but no chair was to be found. His heart weighed heavy, like the pull of a thousand stars gravity pushing him down, down through the floor, through the complex, through the earth, into the bleak darkness of oblivion.

"Help me." He started. "You always have so much energy, so much strength. Help me Serena, please." She laid there motionless. No response uttered from her lips, and none that he could see coming. Which was not fair. How could she just lie there, like nothing has happened? Like that fire that burned at the core of her very being was not lit? How could she sleep when sleep was a lie?

"Hey," he started again, and shoved her. "Hey Serena, Help me." Another shove. "Please Serena why won't you help me!"

The last shove rolled her on her back, but her eyes, they remained cold and shut.

"Why won't you wake. Why won't you call me stupid, or moron, or anything like you always do. Why…" tears welled in the young man's eyes. Tears of a boy who does not understand that he grew up when he wasn't paying attention.

Earth, the third planet from the star called sol drifting endlessly in the spiral galaxy called the milky way, was teeming with life. In its seas, and skies and on its land crawled an endless array of creatures both big and small. And for years, countless, forgotten years this is how it was, is and was to be.

Today, in the modern age, there exists two primary groups of life on this rock. The first, man, a being which upon two legs and with the gift of Reason and Wisdom conquered the globe, from mastering fire to rock to lightning and even a piece of the very fundamentals of the universe. And the other being Pokémon, that ever changing, evolving mutable existence that proliferated every geological and environmental niche upon the earth. For thousands of years the two have existed side by side, sometimes hunting the other, sometimes helping. But always the two exist.

In ancient times, fear must have ruled the world, as the fear born out of the need for survivable always shone brightest. But those times have past, and for years, thousands of years, human kind has strived for one thing above all others, to live in harmony with the Pokémon that share their world. As pets, partners, and friends, every young child is taught that the creatures are to be respected, either in their natural habitat or to live alongside them.

Pokémon, in their various types and forms, could do wonders. They breathed fire and moved mountains. They flew the skies and planted forests. And the greatest among them were revered as gods. Some which sunk into myth and legends, while others always on the forefront of humanities mind, like the ever-burning sun and its ties to the bird of paradise that was Ho-oh. Together, civilization flourished, and through science and understanding enlightenment was soon to follow. Truly, humanity thought it had entered a golden age.

If only hopes and dreams were tangible things.

Second Impact shattered these, and the world with it. According to the official report from the United Pokémon League, Second Impact was an event only disaster movies dared to predict. A meteor, small enough to be nearly undetectable but traveling at near light speeds, crash landed into the South Pole, causing a massive explosion nearly 5 years ago. Debris from the continent was sent flying hundreds of miles, and the glaciers that held together the world collapsed and melted from the heat. Second Impact shook the world, quite literally as earthquakes and tsunamis rocked the planet and destroyed coastal areas. Most of Hoenn was lost in the aftermath.

The planet, once teeming with life at its every edge was rocked by an extinction-level event not seen since that which killed the dinosaurs' eons ago. It was dubbed second impact by the media soon after, with the first being that fateful meteor 65 million years ago. It was awesome and terrible and utterly changed the world in ways no one could even predict.

Bryonny collapsed into her chair, different that all the times before. Gone was the constant stress and terror of her job, replaced with a clean satisfaction that she had done it well and yes, everything was going to be alright. Of course, she still had a job, which kind of was confusing, but for now she didn't feel the need to worry about the future or any such things. Today was a good day.

Kaguya always had that same pensive look on his face, like no matter what the man was feeling inside, he always seemed slightly confused at the situation at hand, never fully grasping it. It made sense that he kept a slowbro at home, the Pokémon's endless confusion and amnesia fit the man's personality to a "t". together along with Albin the three sat in the command center sipping coffee and tea and eating biscuits. It wasn't very formal anymore around FLARE. Not anymore.

"Supposedly, we're to be on level 1 alert right now, all communications to and from the outside are cut off" Albin said. It didn't really make any sense. Sure, they had been on high alert before, on and off whenever a supposed divine was attacking, but those times were called for, or not if FLARE got the readings wrong.

"Ahh who cares! We defeated all the divines, remember? Mew was the last one! Relax its probably just procedure at this point". Bryonny half chuckled as she said.

"Yeah but why?" Kaguya chimed in as he munched through a biscotti. "I know FLARE is pseudo-military and all, but regular high alerts seem quite stupid." He glanced back at the command chair within the center, where Lysander and Xerosic usually took point during missions. Now it stood largely empty, a symbol more or less of the relax nature of these days. A relaxation well earned.

"I don't know, but I wish Dr. Celosia was here, she'd knew what's up. I'm pretty tired of us command center personnel seemingly always being the last to know things." Bryonny added. The three shrugged and relaxed.

"So, what do you think is going to happen to FLARE and the megas now? You know since all the divines are done and gone with." Kaguya asked the group.

"Well, if you ask me, I'm pretty sure FLARE is going to be disbanded. I'm mean we completed our mission, right? No sense in keeping around an army with nothing to fight. And as for us, I doubt they'll just give us a slap on the back and say 'Congratulations!' and let us all go without some sort of secrecy." Albin referred to the fact that FLARE even after all the battles was a top-secret organization. Despite the full backing of the Elites, and far too much in funding from the rest of the world leagues, the public at large didn't have much of a clue about the organization's existence. Something about happiness and bliss in ignorance was used as justification, but there was some truth to that. People generally didn't need to know that their very existence was near constantly threatened by the divines, especially since most of the world was still amid recovering from Second Impact.

"Well, all we can do is wait and see." Bryonny shrugged as she took a sip from her tea. There was at least one perk to her job, and it was imported Sinnohian herbal tea always stocked to the brim in the break room. It smelled and tasted heavenly.

They had been through a lot, this group of strangers hand-picked by Lysandre and forged through conflict into an elite working unit. They had to be, as FLARE was tasked with one of the hardest jobs of all, defeating beings so great and awesome as to be called minor deities in their own right by the people of old. FLARE, in respect to their former status gave them the title divines, but gods they were certainly not.

Part of the secrecy was the apparent blasphemy of the project. How dare man think he could challenge creatures of such majesty and might? But when the gods bring their wrath, man has the right to say unto the heavens "No."

Calem was home again. Well, home would not be the correct term. The four walls and roof where never home, not to him. He shared them with Major Aliana and her pokemon Prinplup at first, but later with Serena as well. The four were alone in this city, in one way or another. Prinplup was an artic flightless bird pokemon living in what now was eternal sunny days since Kalos no longer experienced seasons. Aliana was a woman in her mid-thirties with not even the trace of romantic ties or a family holding her down. And Serena came here on her own from Unova, somewhat like Calem himself from Johto. But Calem supposedly had his father, a father who when the boy finally moved to this city on his wishes didn't even want to live with him. He only wanted Calem to fight alongside his big science project.

"And what makes you think you're not a science project either, Calem"

At night, he wished he never came to this city, this country, this place. He wished he was still back with grandma in the country, only worrying about his grades or taking care of grandpa. Isn't that what kids his age normally do, what they're supposed to do?

But no, he came here, and he met X.

X…

When he came to Lumiose city, the timing was too good to be true. After years of silence from his real father, the call came. The call that he actually wanted the boy in his life, and wanted him to move to Lumiose to be with him. And Calem could not have rushed to the city fast enough. He hadn't seen his father for years, not since his family was whole. Supposedly his dad was some big important scientist, but he didn't know, not for sue. His grandparents didn't explain much, but he got the feeling that they truly didn't know either.

It was a lie, though. One big, gigantic lie. His father didn't want to see him for him, not for the son he used to know. No. He wanted him just for X.

The timing was too good to be true, because it wasn't, and all just a plan. And the worst thing was the X knew it.

The divines, as FLARE called them, first began their attack two years ago. To a world that was just beginning to heal, the first divine's anger was a nightmare made real. Celebii, the fairy protector of the forests and patron of all grass Pokémon, just went berserk one day. The creature, like all mythic Pokémon, was not one to appear in public, darting only through rare occurrences to children and lost hikers throughout the centuries. But it appeared over Ecruteak city like a wrathful angel. IN less than three hours, the entire city was destroyed through pure psychic and natural power. The being called natural disasters upon the land, and decimated populations. People fled from what was once their deity, confused, scared, and cowering. From there it began to move inland, but the combined might of the elite four, and the military finally managed to blow it out of the sky. No body was recovered, leading most to believe that the time traveling fairy used its namesake power, and vanished into the future.

After that, the legendary bird of Kanto began circling the globe, destroying cities that managed to survive the chaos of Second Impact, or those who were recovering. Calem arrived in Lumiose city within a day of one such attack, unbeknownst to him, but foreseen by his father. Without so much as a "Its good to see you again, son", FLARE strapped the mega ring to his wrist, thrust a purple pokeball in his hand, and sent him out into the city unguarded, as the oncoming prophetic thunderstorm begat the fury of the thunder bird.

"I should have better than you."

What were they thinking? He was only thirteen, barely old enough to get his first pokemon. And they give him this, this monstrosity? What happened to giving young kids cute, adorable creatures, like Squirtle or Turtwig? What happened to raising it with care and love, growing together and being partners, being friends?

"Why can't I just be normal?!" he yelled into the empty room, of an empty apartment, in an empty city. His voice filled with sound and fury, heralding nothing but pain and sorrow.

As the clouds rolled in, lighting struck all around. Great rolling booms of thunderous s cacophonies echoed throughout the city, and the wind kicked up a great fierceness. The sky, long since covered with shadow and great grey darkness, coalesced into a matted, twisting, storm, and from it burst power and fury incarnate. For Zapdos, the electric pokemon had come.

Rain billowed around him in great sheets, threatening to tear the many trees that still lined the once busy streets from their moorings and toss street signs asunder. Down below, in a great underground complex sat FLARE, its people and doctors and scientist huddled safely in their bunker, watching the battle unfolded on screens and monitors, and at the heart of it all in the command center that at the time Calem barely had seen was his father, hands tented in front of his face, watching the underlings scurry around like ants rattling off readings and numbers, and all glued to their seats awaiting one young boy to unleash the culmination of their ages of work. Watching one young boy frozen with fear, gripping a pokeball with white knuckles grown cold from exposure to the elements.

The memory was vivid, like the recollection anyone would have of touching fire for the first time, and the searing intensity of the heat burning away soft and tender flesh and permanently scarring their hand and mind with the notion that yes fire is hot, and that it will destroy them.

Lost to the wind and rain was the shouting's and ramblings of command in the earpiece they hastily gave him before shoving the boy out the front door into the chaos. The idea, supposedly was simple, as Aliana explained it to him between picking Calem up from the airport and rushing him over to FLARE headquarters and slapping the ring on his wrist. X was the culmination of years of research and the funding of the entire remaining world fused together into two parts. He was power incarnate, a clone of a haywire experiment decades ago that nearly destroyed a region but proved that man had achieved reason and understanding that could be used to challenge the heavens. And with him came the ring which together with the right individual, would make him a god.

Why him? What made him special? He was a nobody. Calem never excelled in any of his classes; he never showed his father's knack for the sciences, nor his grandmother's knack of the arts. But everyone, Alianna, his father, Serena, and all the others insisted that he was chosen for this, that he was destined for this.

He would have died there, Calem is still sure of that to even this day, amidst the wind and rain. Probably struct down by the thunder bird's power. But one phrase rung out throughout his headset.

"Throw the damn ball Calem!"

On instinct, he let it fly. He probably internalized the toss from watching so many pokemon matches on television, but the ball flew high and true in the storm. And just at its zenith it lit up like a flare in the night and out came X. to say that Calem was prepared for the beast that was to be his partner would be in and of itself an outright lie. Where Calem was not, X was everything. X relished the freedom with glee, looking unto the heavens that wept rain and lightning as a prisoner would the first rays of sunlight in years.

"To be released, unto this darkness, is a wonder!". Those were the first words Calem ever heard from X, though not with his ears. The words resonated through his mind with psychic reverberations. Above Zapdos echoed overhead, sending lightning down on building upon building, destroying what were once held up examples of civic pride and architectural artistry. But X did not flinch, did not budged, did not move. He stood there, floating just so above the ground, letting the rain dance upon his skin. And with a flash he was on Calem. The boy didn't even see the pokemon move, it was so fast. He covered the space of at least ten meters within a blink from rain-coated eyelids, and the creature held up via telekinetic might its partner by the throat.

"So, this is to be my 'trainer', my partner, my mega ring carrier." X thought aloud. "I swore that enigma Lysandre would provide me with another one of his armed thugs, strange as it is that I can never read that human's mind. How quaint, how… insulting it be to find out he sent me a child with no spine."

"D-dad… help…." Calem eked out as his throat was crushed. In his earpiece people shouted.

"30 seconds until Zapdos reaches the child!" the voice he now recognized as Kaguya shouted.

"Sync readings with the mega ring as fluctuating wildly!"

"Oh Arceus, is X going to kill him?!"

X hovered around the boy who struggled at his throat to even breathe. Calem membered experiencing terror, true terror, for the first time right then and there in his entire life. The kind of terror one realizes when death is a very real certainty. The kind of terror when one realizes that they have made all the absolute wrong choices leading up to that very moment in their life. And he remembers feeling something new for the first time in his life, the will to live.

The rest of the first battle is still a blur. But what he knows now is that something happened, something that activated the ring around his wrist. And with is X gained life anew, gained zeal, and gained power untold.

With that X laid waste to the divine.

The Elite never met in person these days. Gone were the leisurely meetings where they drank wine and partied without much of a care. Their revelry ended when the former world did, on that day of Second Impact.

They were called the Elite because of their status, all current or former members of their regions Elite Four, that titular organization which served as both end of a pokemon trainer's journey and leaders of their nations. In the wild, pokemon fight one another to establish dominance like animals. Thus, it spoke to some primal natural of humanity that they had organized their very governments on similar ideals. People proved the strength of their convictions through rigorous battle with their partner pokemon, and ultimately, the best of the best rise up not only in strength of combat, but strength of character. Or at least, that's how the by lines went.

Nowadays they spent their time dragged down in endless policy discussion, aid referendums, and other governmental drama. How is it that tragedy begets complications? Most regions were always more or less light on laws and small in policy; it had been tradition since ancient times that people general looked after their own. But with farms destroyed and homes and communities upheaved, people had started turning to their more baseless natures. It seemed like even in the worst of times, people could never truly know and understand one another.

Today's meeting, like all the others, was done remotely, with naught even pictures of their members to identify the voices, merely a conference call.

"With the defeat of mew, all the divines have been accounted for," Xerosic reported over the line.

"Yet, the Mount Coronet Scrolls still show all the signs pointing toward Third Impact." Elite 2 stated. They were ranked, in their organization, not by trainer strength or ability, but by seniority. It was a formality going back decades, but among the Elite, they referred to each other by their rank rather than name. Supposedly it was to humble the members as they slowly crept their way to number 1, to know that they were to be not large egos full of the grandiosity and might, but public servants above all. It did not.

"The meteorological predictions for the environment are not improving. The dust launched into the atmosphere is have an exponentially rising cooling effect on the planet. These endless summers the former temperate zones are experiencing will soon give way to endless winters as the planet undergoes a new ice age." Elite 7 reminded the group.

"It seems like there will not be time for the Ark to be completed," Elite 4 added in her despairing tone. "The scientist even utilizing Pokémon assistance in the construction say that the first of the ships won't be ready for another decade and a half. Will the norther regions even be habitable by then?"

"The Mega project was not designed only to combat the divines, as I feel needed to remind this council. The Human Instrumentality project could make use of them- "the voice known clearly to the group as Lysandre was cut off."

"We need not shed our human forms to use the megas as our ark." Interrupted 5.

"We merely needed them as part of the process to initiate rebirth. This council could consider the original plan for the units as part of the new divine project?" suggested 12

"And yet we still have no sign of Celebii. Instituting a new divine could cause us to lose control of the megas Third Impact."

"That does not though answer the question about what is to be done about Third Impact."

"Instrumentality is the answer to that." Lysandre retorted, raising his voice among the conference. A series of noes and rebuttals vied for air time on the call.

"Perhaps if it is the will of Arceus that mankind meet its end at the pinnacle of its progress- "Elite 9 managed to sneak in his zealous dogma.

"Is it not clear that Arceus has abandoned the world, or worse created Second Impact itself? Why would god bring death?"

"Through the sacrament of all being one will bring about rebirth, as in the scrolls. Death creates nothing." Lysandre muttered. It was not unnoticed.

"This council has time and again voted against Instrumentality. Lysandre were you to take steps toward its complete we would have no choice but to intervene" Struck down Elite 1. In a huff, the head of FLARE left the call. His second, Xerosic was left struggling to explain, but no one was listening. Soon, he too was cut off, as Elite 1 called for silence.

"This council will now decide."

"FLARE has served its purpose bring us the megas and dealing with the divine. We need to keep the organization around with Lysandre in control, even if we wish to use the megas as the new divine." Elite 6 chimed in.

"We cannot let Third Impact come to pass."

Den mother. At one point in time she was an actual solider with some worth in the military, and now al she was known for around here was that. She remembered when she had people respect her for her rank. Hell, she'd killed people in the line of duty before. But no, just because she was a woman, the only woman in Lysandre's inner circle within this magical scientific nightmare of a place besides that strange Dr. Celosia, that meant she had to look after the kids.

So sure, she took them into her home, into her apartment, made sure that went to school, while they still had one around here, at least, and made sure they played nice when sent into the field to fight the divines with those monstrosities they could barely call Pokémon. What if she wanted a night off? What if she wanted to go out, get drunk, and made a bad decision with some hot guy she barely knew? Nope, she had to be on duty 24/7 nowadays. Though, if she really was honest to herself, it's not life she'd ever really do that anymore. She hadn't been that same wild girl since August.

The professor and a soldier. Not the first combination people went for. She met him first when she was just starting on the base, back when FLARE was first formed. He and Lysandre would get into the longest of debates about this and that, but he always had his eye on her. He could do this thing with his eyes that made one dance and feel like he was looking right down into one's very soul and he would pull out that small intimate part of you, that little, girl, even the toughest of soldiers thought they had long since buried. It was funny, he specialized in pokemon, but he always made her feel the most human.

Which is why, even now, ages after she had last seen him, felt like she owed it to August Sycamore to investigate his lettered request.

Major Aliana didn't hate her job, really. There was a sort of peace not being directly on the battlefield that one could find comfort in. She would place herself more as one of the generals among FLARE, residing under the organizations leader, but still impactful. But that only went so far with her. At least, though, she could take some sort of pride in being one of the chosen few handpicked to save the world from the divines. It didn't, however, mean that she agreed with everything their fearless leader did, or said.

Most notably, even though I was her main job here at FLARE, she disagreed with the use of the children. Sure, young teens always left their mother's and father's nest around that age to being their trek across the countryside to explore the world and come into their own around that age. She too remembers growing up back in Hoenn and traveling alongside her best friends Annabelle and Jordan, as the three of them went from gym to gym battling and braving the wilds. Out of the three of them, only she ever made it to the Pokémon league, though even she claimed defeat there. Back then she had a medicham that was the funniest thing ever, always pulling pranks on her when it got the chance, or her zigzagoon she had had since she was barely older than a baby. But that was different. Sure kids got hurt and all out in the wilds, but overall they were fine. There's always a difference between adventure and war. Pokecenters were littered around the world, ensuring the safe care and health of any trainer and their team, and the routes people traveled were never too remote to not see strangers that always would lend a helping hand. In war, people died, children cried, and Pokémon and human like did unspeakable things. This was war, this battle against the divine. A war fought by children as the adults looked on from the safety of their underground bunker.

So she did her best to make life for the three youths meaningful and happy. Truth be told though, her best was never good enough. She never wanted children. The topic came up between her and August during the good times a bit, with august always trailing her resounding no with maybes and perhapses. She wasn't actually the three's mother, she knew it, and more importantly they did too. Out of everyone on the base, most of the staff were in their 20-30s, like most military organizations. She was no different, and despite her famous record, she was a lot closer to the children's ages than her peers within FLARE command. So she tried to be less of a figure of authority, and more of a sister to them.

They were quite different, the three kids. Serena was the loudest, and fiercest. The girl relished her role within the organization as the trainer partner to Gyarados Red. Aliana thought that she might even be able to take on the world, maybe even become one of the Elites one day, if anyone of them had that much time left. Then there was Shauna, who despite being the quietest, was also the most independent. When she was introduced to the girl by Lysandre, Aliana asked if she wanted to live with her, but the young woman turned her down. She had a small apartment within the main complex, and spent most of her time in there, though Aliana didn't know what that might entail. It was also so hard to read that girl, her emotions were like a minor ripple on a vast still lake, unnoticeable unless you knew where and how to look. And then there was Calem.

She felt sorry for the boy, which probably didn't help. If she gave him freedom to do whatever he wanted with his day he'd do nothing, but if she tried to get him to do anything he'd rebel. It didn't help that the relationship between him and his father was one even she didn't want to touch with a ten foot pole. So she just let him be, always trying to be there when his depression got too much, but even then he'd just shy away like hugs or kind words were hot glass to his skin.

So she owed it not to just August, but to these kids as well to find out that secret that FLARE was keeping even from her, as according to the letter Sycamore left for her.

Being so high up on the food chain, it was easy enough walking through FLARE HQ into the very belly of the beast. Her credentials got her far, and her skills she so long go picked up got her even further. August Sycamore had left her a note, claiming that something so obviously true was a lie. That Second Impact was no meteor.

Red.

Flashing Red.

Bryonny's fingers could barely move to keep up with what she had to type as warnings and systems went either offline or unreachable one by one. The flashing of the red alert lights nor did the siren's help. It's not like she hadn't heard them before, but those were during divine attacks. This was entirely human.

"Outside connections lines 1-17 are being systematically severed!" Kaguya shouted.

"They've breached the 4th firewall! I can't lock the main database!" added Albin.

Xerosic rushed into the command center, spilling coffee along the way. The look on his face was unreadable, but harsh. "Initiate protocol 076, seal all exits!" he barked.

Fingers flew and keys clacked, one by one red and yellow turned to green and black. They had initiated divine attack proceedings. This wasn't good in any sense of the word.

"Sir! What's going on?" Kaguya asked while trying to hide the panic in his voice.

"Trojan attack detected! Quarantining lower drives!"

"Is the Porygon compromised?" Xerosic demanded.

"Infiltration is infection systems at accelerating rate, if we don't act now the Porygon system will be completely compromised within 15 minutes!" Bryonny shouted back. The commander furled his brow and let out a huff.

"Get me Dr. Celosia. And someone go inform Lysandre. We're on lockdown" Xerosic commanded.

He threw her in a hole. And to think she called him lover at one point.

Lysandre was the type of guy who could spin grand tales that anyone could not help but get caught up in with his words. He possessed vision, and the charisma to convince others of it as well. When the man recruited her for this project, she scoffed at it at first. But he elaborated in ways that no man, woman, or pokemon could ever say no to. He was, beautiful, both in mind and in body. But, as she had so terribly found out, not beautiful of soul.

What a fool she was in believing in that man. That person who had become a monster in the process of fighting monsters. He who gazed into the abyss, and the abyss gazed back at him. Well, now she knew, that upon her gazing at him, she too had the attention of the void.

Dr. Celosia earned her reputation as a PhD studying computer science back in Unova, partnering with the great Dr. Fennel on digitizing and studying the link between pokemon dreams and reality. She should have stayed there, we her dear friend and partner, yet the allure of the project, of Lysandre was too great.

Around a few decades ago, a strange creature emerged from the deps of the labs of men of science. Porygon, the first artificially created pokemon became reality. They claimed it was digital data brought to life, but the act of just how this came to be was unknown. Despite all of mankind's millennia of knowledge about the creatures, they still had yet to master everything about them. True, it wasn't the first time a strange pokemon came into existence. Professor Juniper back in Unova based her entire dissertation on the existence of a pokemon that to all outward appearances was just a collection of floating, rotating gears given life, Klink. How this thing naturally evolved from organic process was an outright mystery, and its resemblance to machinery uncanny. It evolved by assimilating more of its kind into its body, fusing together into a hive-mind like structure until its became what was colloquially known as a Klinklang. She concluded in her research that its kind literally did not exist more than a 100 years ago, as nothing in the fossil or mythical record even hinted at its predecessors' existence. Pokemon, it seemed, evolved from their environment. The nature of Porygon, in that light made somewhat sense. Mankind had just entered the digital age, and lo and behold along with it came a digital pokemon.

Around this time, as well, were the first adoption of digital storage centers. While the technique for creating pokeballs was as old as the age of sail, the idea of transferring their contents into another computerized medium was revolutionary. The Kantian Bill, who pioneered the technology rapidly became a household name soon after, as it became a possibility to not only store hundreds of pokemon in digital space, but also trading between regions became less of a physical affair, and took drastically less time. Pokeballs wored by transcribing the physical being of a pokemon into what was known as DeMalgian energy. Like in their pokeballs, digitized pokemon acted as if they were in a kind of stasis, their physical forms transferred into nodes of pure, DeMalgian energy before being released unto the world at a later date. The creatures didn't seem to mind the treatment, had they expressed distaste in mass numbers the practice of even pokeball storage would have been outlawed and discontinued generations before. Yet Porygon was different. Unlike its brethren, it seemed to maintain consciousness when in its energy form, in fact thriving and interfacing with computers as easily as if it were using a keyboard.

From there, the idea became simple. By digitizing a porygon and keeping it within the computer system itself, the user could task the creature to help with computations and other applications. In practice, this became so much more. With the backing of the Elites and Lysandre's urging, Dr. Celosia bred and create a porygon which could outpace even the best of supercomputers at that date. The system was brilliant in its inception, with scripts and programs designed so the pokemon could easily interface and improve them. And the invention had earned her Lysandre's attention, and love, at least for a time.

And oh, what a time it was.

Instrumentality. The idea first leaked from his lips one night as they both laid in bed, wrapped in each other's arms. It was a novel idea. A way to bring all mankind together, as one, without any of the separations that keep us from fully knowing one another. Back then it sounded like a dream, a dream whispered by a man who made his living pedaling those to people in power, and eventually making them real. But Lysandre couldn't do that. He was aptly named, too, because Lysandre was full of lies.

The door to her cell opened, and one of the guards presented himself.

"So those were sirens I heard." She told the guard without meeting his gaze. "And you've come to me to help with the Porygon's self-defense system?"

"I'm going to need you to come with me mam, but you seem to have the lot of it." The guard said, his hand outstretched to her. She got up, but didn't take it.

"He expects the woman he abandons to jump when he calls. That arrogant bastard," Dr. Celosia muttered under her breath. She wished she could tell the guard to go do something obscene, in the vain hopes that Lysandre would get the message. However, the porygon systems were hers, her babies, her children, her pokemon. As much as she hated Lysandre, she loved her creations, and would do anything to see them safe.

One thing she had resisted even unto this day were heels. They were completely impractical, made walking or even running difficult to impossible, and caused one's feet hurt even after just an hour in them. So what if they made a woman look prettier or more professional? Aliana wore flats and swore by them. In times like these, there was a reason as well. She dashed through the hallways at top speed, trying to ignore the flashing lights all around her. This was not good. Not good at all.

"Talk to me!" She yelled into the phone.

"They only gave us the one warning. We barely had time to respond at all when the cyber-attack came. It can't be just from one place, we're getting high network traffic on all of the lines in and out that we have left!" Kaguya responded.

"Bryonny here," She added in, "Xerosic gave the order to have Dr. Celosia install additional defense software to the three porygon systems. Its keeping them out but I don't know for how long. She's amazing at this."

"Got it, and give me the updates on the remaining megas when you can". She hung up. Surprise attacks like this weren't just some random rogue organization like Rocket or Galactic. FLARE was supposed to have the backing of the Elites, and now this?

She stopped in the hallway on a dot. The kids. FLARE had a few things to it that made it unique and valuable, with the entire organization devoted to their development. The porygon system was one, a supercomputer above all supercomputers. The others were the megas, and the children who were their partners. An attack on one meant an attack on all of them.

"Kaguya, give me to last known locations of the kids. We need to move them to the inner base as soon as we can!" Aliana demanded.

Kaguya, Bryonny, and Albin worked away furiously at the keys. This wasn't good. Behind them, Lysandre entered the command center without a word, but everyone immediately knew he was there. The man was tall, and carried himself with a presence few men had. His large shock of red hair stood on end, as if nothing in the world could break his calm demeanor. Not even when the world was against him.

"Thanks to Dr. Celosia, we've managed to halt their cyber assault on the Porygon systems for now. But we've learned something far worse. There appears to me a large massing of military personal and troops advancing on the city. I think they intend to take this base by force." Xerosic reported.

"Of course," Lysandre responded. "We've got both Yveltal and Xerneas. Let them come."

Xerosic looked back at the leader of FLARE with confused eyes. That meeting earlier with the Elites still fresh on his mind. Did Lysandre know about this in advance? Did the council always have this course of action in mind when they set up FLARE? In that case, why let the megas and the two seeds co-exist within the same space?

"The old bastards are too nervous." Xerosic added. "Have we not done our duty? To not trust us after even all this time is madness." Lysandre did not respond.

"My men are reporting that the Lumiose Porygon system has been encrypted with a 64-bit file chain, and set up behind a three-layer firewall. While possible, it'll take us around 3 years to crack." Elite 4 reported.

"Lysandre is a tough bastard. He knew we were coming." General Surge gruffed. The conference call with the Elites wasn't going the way he hopped. He was no stranger to combat, but ever since he retired from the military years ago to become a gym leader, war left a sour taste in his mouth. It was only Second Impact that made him reenlist, and subsequently got him promoted from Lieutenant. He wanted this to be crisp and clean. A shutdown of the porygons would have crippled the base, and no one would have had to get hurt. Not so, apparently.

"They leave us no choice. Launch the invasion force now." Elite 1 ordered.

General Surge's tactics were not complicated. FLARE headquarters was set up underground, with its access to the outside world limited by design. What were precautions enacted against the divines would be used to his advantage. They were set up for combat against massive creatures with fearsome power, which meant conventional explosives and ordinances wouldn't work. They could outlast anything they threw at the place. No, the strategy would be to use their advantages against them.

He had the infantry units move in, and set the aerial squadron ahead. Flying pokemon and their partners would circle the base and systematically cut off any and all communication or surveillance equipment FLARE had. The Elites funded the FLARE project, and thus had an exact layout of the base's construction. General Surge only prayed that it was still accurate, and that the snake Lysandre didn't alter or lie in any of the details. He knew better than to expect that though.

The plan was to set the infantry units to FLARE's main gates and try to pry their way inside as a distraction. The main force would tunnel underneath with the help of the pokemon excadrill and come up from underneath. FLARE was built to survive blasts from above, not insurgents from below.

Calem tried not to panic. The worst part about trying not to panic is the fact that one knows they really are afraid, but they must summon the courage to pretend not to be. The halls were empty, and the alert locked down all the windows and doors to the outside. He could hear explosions in the distance. Was this another divine attack? But Aliana promised they were all dealt with! Even Mew, they were all gone.

"They're coming for you. For us."

He ran through the halls, confused, until he bumped into Shauna. The two fell over, and Calem fell on top of the girl. In a rush fueled by hormones, he jumped off her.

"Sorry, sorry…" he apologized. Shauna didn't respond. She wasn't like Serena, who always berated and hated him. The two sat up. "Do you… do you know what's going on?"

She looked at him, then through him, in some cold stare. He was glad to see she was doing better since she left the hospital last week, but she had become even more detached since then.

"It's because you killed Y."

"This whole base might not be here soon. What are you going to do about it, Calem?" She asked.

"What am I going to do about it? Why do I have to do anything at all? What do you think I can even do?" Calem responded. She got up and took a couple steps towards the window that had long since been sealed behind plate steel reinforcements. No light poured in from them.

Shauna and him first met during the third divine attack. Calem barely lived through the first encounter with Zapdos, and X hated him for it. The pokemon that was supposed to be his partner haunted him, in his waking, and in his dreams, sending him visions of his failures, and taunting the boy. When the second Divine attacked, the freezing Articuno, Calem could barely get the ring to work. X fought the bird alone, unpowered by the might of the ring, and almost died because of it. The biting cold flowing off the great divine nearly managed to freeze Calem and X to death. Articuno was once known as the bird of the winter calm, sending flurries across the land and making for white winter days. But in its fury, it was the blizzard incarnate. Calem spent nearly an entire day underneath a heated blanket trying to recover. He still swore he had frostbite in his left foot.

The failure of X and him to work together during the fight with Articuno left the adults no choice but to bench Calem. He remembered Aliana chiding him with harsh words, but that might have been how he imagined it. He certainly didn't imagine the look of disgust on his father's face though.

Shauna was seen on the base soon after. The FLARE project he learned was never only about X. There was always plans to expand and create more megas. Y was the second, and she was paired with the new girl. Y and X were related, two cuts from the same cloth of Giovanni's making. Whereas X was strong and tough, capable to taking anything heaven was capable of throwing at him and returning it tenfold, Y was quick and preferred to work from a distance. Shauna and Y immediately synced, but in a different way than Calem and his. Whereas X demanded Calem rise to the challenge, Y took control of Shauna completely, with the girl serving as her puppet. It honestly freaked him out, seeing the young woman controlled by the pokemon like some psychic marionette.

Outside of battle, he never really got to know her. She didn't talk, not much anyways, and anytime he tried to know anything else she would bare a lot more than he was expecting. The awkwardness of the situations caused Calem to retreat like some scared puppy.

"You couldn't possibly make her happy."

"If you would excuse me then, Calem, Lysandre needs me." And then there was that. Calem's hair was brown and shaggy like his mother's. Most people said he looked more Johtoan than Kalosian, but he was a straight mix between the two. What memories he had of his mother were rare, and beautiful. He remembered her smile most of all, and how when he scrapped his entire back falling down a hill on his bike one summer she carried him home and made even the pain caused by the accident melt away. Every once in a while, he had the idea that maybe if he dyed his hair, and maybe if he looked a little bit less like his mother, that his father might look at him and actually acknowledge Calem for once. But that was a fool's dream, a dream which X chided him for. So, it pained him the most, knowing that this girl, this young woman had the eye of the man he most wanted to appease, Lysandre, his father.

She left down the hallways and into the stairwell, descending down into the very heart of FLARE headquarters, down to the red headed leader of this accursed place.

"If you were stronger, this all wouldn't be happening"

Calem curled into a ball, as the sounds of violence echoed in the distance.