Moyasu-Chan here! Drama, all the drama! Yay for excitement! And don't forget to check out my friend TheImaginatorAK47's side of the story! *hint hint, plug plug*
Steven panicked, first jogging a few steps one way, and then the other. He had no idea how to proceed and it terrified him. Jethro tried his best to console the man. "Don't worry," he looked more determined than ever. "We'll find her." Steven halfheartedly nodded and took a deep breath.
Meanwhile, Lainey sat in the underground transit car with the rest of the scientists. They had built the system before she had come to this world, and as she gently rocked with its movement, memories flashed through her mind.
She had been an ordinary Pokémon Ranger, with her trusty Lucario. Things had been fine, until a crazed maniac with hair like a Pyroar mane had fired a giant weapon that had wiped out nearly everything. It was only by the strength of her Lucario's Protect that either of them survived. Thousands, hundreds of thousands of people and Pokémon just...snuffed out. She had been devastated.
She had spent a few weeks scrounging out a meager existence with Cairo until she had come across a strange little Pokémon with horns on it's head. It was pink and dark blue-gray, with golden rings hanging from its arms and horns. It had big eyes and an unnerving grin. It had given no explanation and had simply flung a ring at her. That ring had grown to an enormous size, and had sucked her and Cairo in like a big round vacuum. They had been plopped out in a familiar and yet entirely foreign landscape, and were immediately contacted by the Pokémon Rangers.
After a brief meeting, things had been sorted out, emotions had flooded over things, and eventually she had come to work to prevent the destruction of this world as an undercover agent with Cairo.
She turned, looking down. The still slumbering Grand Champion was beside her, wrapped in a series of gold containment rings. It was so strange to her. Frida Warmheart had been perfectly normal, but this world's version of her, Frita Warmhart was entirely inhuman. It made her wonder if things would have turned out differently for her if the two had been switched around. Even their personalities were opposites. Her Frida was quiet and reserved and this one was...quite frankly rambunctious, reckless, and all around overwhelming. She just hoped this plan worked. She had no idea how the Grand Champion would survive the destruction of the ancient weapon, but if the scans of her energy levels were accurate, she would probably be fine. Even if she wasn't, the Rangers had prepared a statement to cover all of it up anyway.
She looked up as the train began to slow and come to a stop. She was greeted by Lysandre as several grunts hauled the sleeping Grand Champion off the train. They were straining under her weight, which Lainey dismissed. "She's prepped and ready to go, sir." Lysandre nodded. "Excellent. Take her to the chamber," he gestured at the grunts, who lifted Frita up again.
When Lysandre was gone, Lainey looked up at the air vent where a girl and her Lucario had been hiding. Cairo was far more experienced than this one, and had picked up the aura disturbance almost immediately. Judging by their auras, these two were here to help Frita. Lainey had Cairo establish a telepathic link. "Listen carefully, there's not much time. Lysandre's going to use her as a power source for a massive weapon, but I can delay them for a short time, allowing your friends to take action against him if they get here soon enough. You need to hurry and contact them before everything gets destroyed!"
With that she turned and followed the grunts as they carted Frita off to a test chamber. She delayed the test for as long as she could, but as the Grand Champion began to stir, Lysandre became insistent and the testing was started. Frita thrashed upon regaining consciousness and glared at Lysandre with a glowing green gaze.
He shivered, feeling the same power he had the first time she'd stared at him, but he knew what it was now and the fear of the unknown was no longer holding him in place as it had before. "Load her into the chamber." With that he turned away, ascending to the top of the stairs so he could watch the test. After several very painful tests had been done, Lysandre was satisfied and shot Frita point blank with a tranquilizer dart. As she passed out again, things were going far faster than Lainey had wanted them to. Everything was moving too quickly, despite her lagging and procrastinating. She began to get antsy.
There was a loud boom and a rumble, then alarms began to sound. One of the Team Flare members came over the loudspeaker saying Building A had been attacked. After that, Lysandre ordered everyone to the transit system and stated they were moving to the secret base. He hefted Frita over one shoulder and they rushed down a hallway, only to run directly into the girl Lainey had seen earlier. She was in a defensive position, and had drawn a small blade.
'Stupid girl! She'll never be able to confront Lysandre directly, not like this!'
"Let Frita go, you overgrown nutcase!" Lysandre shook his head. "You don't understand, none of you do. It's not like I want to do this, but this is all necessary. For the world!"
"Same story with all the other psychopaths we've come across," the girl scoffed. "Only they never used a human being as a power source!" Lysandre gave a condescending smirk. "That's where you're mistaken, I'm afraid. The Grand Champion is far from human." He went for a Pokeball from his jacket pocket.
"I have no idea what that's supposed to mean," she said, raising her sword, "but I'll sort it out with Jethro later." Lysandre lowered his hand for an underhanded toss, but a split second before the ball opened, a Pikachu leapt out from an air vent and smacked it back at him.
Pyroar burst from the ball, falling directly onto him and knocking himself and Frita onto the floor. The scientists tried to release their own Pokemon, but a Lucario came up from behind them and kicked them all to the ground. Just as it landed, it was tackled from behind by Cairo, slamming it into the Pikachu. The girl glared at Lainey who darted her eyes from Lysandre and back to her.
'Believe me, I didn't want to have to do this. But I can't risk having my cover blown. I'm sorry.' The girl rolled her eyes, showing a good deal of attitude for such an important fight. She lunged at Lainey, who easily knocked her off balance and tossed her into the wall, knocking the wind out of her. Lysandre and the scientists got up, groaning, and Pyroar was returned to its Pokeball.
"What should we do with her?" Lysandre turned to one of the scientists, but before he could answer the question there was a voice from down the hall.
"LYSANDRE!" It was Jethro Striker, with his male friend and the Hoenn Champion, Steven Stone. They were surrounded by Pokémon, and a grunt was swinging from the mouth of a Tyranitar. As they came barreling down the hallway, Lysandre grabbed Frita and ran. "Forget about her! We leave now!" He jumped into the transit car with the others. Lainey just managed to squeeze in as the doors slid closed. A Blaziken was rapidly approaching with a punch at the ready, but the attack bounced feebly off the reinforced fiberglass as the car sped away.
Lainey sat down, letting out a sigh. She looked up to see Lysandre toss Frita on the floor of the car like a ragdoll. 'I suppose the way he treats her doesn't matter to him. He has a bit of a point. I doubt she would've felt that even if she were awake.' It was a fairly short ride to their secret base below Geosenge. When the car stopped, Lysandre threw Frita over his shoulder again and hauled her into the lab and down to the source chamber, where the core of the ancient weapon was.
He dumped her onto the floor and ordered the scientists to fit her into the body suit they had made. It seemed ridiculous, to change her clothes, but the suit was fitted with nodes to receive the plugs on the inside of the chamber that would be used to syphon power from the Grand Champion. The suit was also designed to be highly conductive with Frita's natural power, making it even easier to take it. After changing her clothes, they loaded Frita into the machine. The plugs automatically connected to the nodes set in the suit almost immediately, and the initial surge of power was more than enough to start the weapon up and raise it to the surface. Through the video cameras, Lysandre could see it had knocked over several cabins, a trivial matter to him.
He started up the Holocaster program and made a broadcast about his plan to cleanse the world of cruel, selfish people and return it to it's rightful beauty. It was a pity that he had lost Elite Four Malva, he could have put her to good use in his new world. She had refused to be a part of his plan after she had learned all the details. Likewise, all of Alain's hard work to research Mega Evolution was still relevant, but the boy himself was another story. He was rambunctious and reckless and a loose cannon that Lysandre couldn't afford. He had already left, after finding that his air headed little companion's Chespin had ruined Lysandre's experiment with the Legendary Pokémon, Zygarde, and had suffered ill side effects.
Lysandre started up the energy syphon system, causing Frita's muscles to involuntarily lock up. After a few minutes, the process brought her back to the waking world, and she screeched in utter agony. Everyone in the building covered their ears, wincing. The noise was so loud it nearly shattered the glass of the observation deck, let alone the chamber itself.
Frita wanted to flail, but her muscles were locked up so tight she couldn't move. She could barely think. All she really COULD do was scream, so she did. It felt like her body was being viciously ripped apart atom by atom. After a few more minutes, she couldn't even scream anymore. She was barely able to keep conscious, and her vision was blurry and fading. She was aware of her own heartbeat pounding in her head painfully and what sounded like a lot of commotion. She had no idea how long it had been since she had been put into this machine, whatever it was, and had lost all sense of time.
And then she could hear Steven's voice. It sounded so far away, like he was across a big field and was calling to her from the other side. She opened her eyes, which she had closed a while ago apparently, and looked down. She could just make out his silvery hair and the glint of the metal on his clothing. He called her name again and she tried to answer him, but she was so tired and in so much pain. She couldn't manage to get the words out.
As she watched, a large black and orange blob appeared behind Steven. Her brain worked at a Slugma's pace, and she realized too late that the shape was Lysandre. Her eyes widened and she tried to call to Steven to warn him as the big man stealthily bore down on him. "Ste…," she tried. She could barely hear her own voice. "Ste...v...en…" It wasn't enough. He couldn't hear her, and he was so wrapped up in trying to figure out how to free her that he didn't know Lysandre was there until an arm locked around his throat and lifted him off the ground, choking the life out of him.
Steven flailed wildly, but it wasn't enough to free himself, and slowly he began fighting less and less. Tears filled Frita's eyes and rage filled her body. She could feel the well of power it gave her and she began to fight the machine, feeding it far too much power. As it began to overload, someone shut it down, stopping the power syphon and causing the plugs to suddenly release, dropping Frita from the center of the chamber straight to the bottom. She hit like a small meteor, crushing the bottom of the machine and shattering the glass of the chamber.
She got shakily to her feet, her arms limp and swinging back and forth as she swayed, trying to stay upright. Her face was filled with rage, and her body glowed slightly. Her arms glowed brighter, turning a gently glowing red-orange with lighter patches, like Primal Groudon's back. They widened until they reached her hands, which were much larger, with long claws on the end of each finger. Steam shot out of her nose and she fixed Lysandre in her furious gaze.
He opened his mouth to speak, but before he could say anything a bright orange beam shot from Frita's mouth. It never came close to touching him, but it still managed to singe his hair without physically making contact. As it hit the large metal doors behind him, it made a massive hole, which continued in the far wall of the room beyond, and a good distance into the stone behind it. As Lysandre turned, he dropped Steven, more out of shock than fear. It slowly clicked in his brain that the beam hadn't been raw power, or a Pokémon-esque attack, or anything similar. It had been condensed heat. She was able to condense and fire sheer heat into a deadly beam. It had melted both rock and solid steel.
While Lysandre tried to process what he was seeing, Steven had managed to choke and cough enough to be able to breathe again. He had been close to passing out until Frita had freed him. He looked up at her. She was crouching beside him, and her eyes were glowing brightly. She let out a breath, the air hot on Steven's face. "F-Frita?" She gave him a sympathetic look and leaned against him. He was warm, and surprisingly sturdy, and she was so exhausted. She knew it couldn't last though, not with Lysandre so close. And he had taken more than enough energy to fire the weapon twice, maybe three times if he wanted to.
He was staring directly at her, and she glared at him while slowly getting to her feet. "Enough." Her voice was hoarse and barely audible, but Lysandre seemed to have heard her. He shook his head. "No." He was horrendously calm, and it unnerved Frita greatly. She noticed he had donned a pair of strange orange glasses and some sort of backpack-like machine. Frita's reaction time was horrible after her power loss, and she couldn't process what was happening fast enough to get out of the way as several Combee-like appendages shot from the machine and grabbed her. Their pointy little claws latched onto her skin and the large circular ridges in the middle began draining power from her. She screeched, trying to flail but ending up unsuccessful.
In a flash, the glass of the observation deck shattered and two Pokemon came flying through it. They destroyed the machine's arms in one motion, setting Frita free again. As she fell forward, she landed on something furry. She looked up to see her Arcanine, growling menacingly at Lysandre who was inching toward the now opened doors.
The other Pokémon, Steven's Metagross, was tending to it's trainer. Just as Lysandre turned to run, he was stopped by the approach of one completely furious Jethro. He had drawn his sword, and his intent at stopping Lysandre no matter what was clear. "Where do you think you're going?" Lysandre backed up a few steps, looking between Archaic and Jethro. He looked down and closed his eyes before grinning. "I don't really need to go anywhere. I can accomplish my plan from right here." Jethro frowned at him, "What-?" Lysandre pulled back his sleeve to reveal a control device, which he activated. There was a heavy rumble and the ceiling of the chamber began to glow.
Outside, Charlie and Rayquaza started into action as the flower-like weapon started to glow. The light spread from its center down its "petals" until the whole machine lit up a pale orange. The ground quaked, and the glow suddenly drained back into the center of the machine before it fired a massive blast directly upward. As the two Pokémon followed the blast, it rose into the upper atmosphere before looping back down toward Kalos. Rayquaza tried blasting it, which reduced the size of the blast, but at the rate it was going, it would still destroy most of the region.
There was no time for another try at breaking it up, and Charlie made a split second decision as the blast neared Kalos. He dove under it, a single tear falling from his eyes, and flared his wings to stop himself. The blast crashed into him with an explosion of white-orange lightning and flung the massive Pokémon straight into the ground with a rumble. As the dust cleared, Rayquaza landed next to the Charizard, sniffing at him. His tail flame was out, and he was motionless. Rayquaza roared in anger and attacked the weapon, breaking parts of the strange crystals. While the Pokèmon broke pieces of the weapon, it began to cave in on itself and sink underground.
Meanwhile, Frita, Jethro, and Steven had heard Rayquaza's roar. "What did you do?!" Jethro roared, raising his blade. Frita gasped, a terrible feeling washing over her. She shook her head, confused as the feelings brought tears to her eyes for a reason she didn't yet know. There was a rumble, and the chamber began collapsing around them. If it went, the whole base would go with it. Frita shook her head and let out a roar, forcing Jethro, Lysandre, and Steven out of the room. "Frita wait-!" Jethro yelled as she threw him into the hallway with Lysandre and Steven. "Frita!" Steven yelled to her. "Go!" She rasped, coughing. "Go."
To keep them from coming back in, Frita raised the temperature in the room until it was unbearably hot for any ordinary human. With the heat keeping them out and the building collapsing, they had no choice but to leave her there. Steven got on Archaic's back and Jethro ran while Metagross grabbed and restrained Lysandre. They rushed from the quickly collapsing building along with their friends and the Team Flare grunts.
Frita sucked in a breath as they left, and let herself sink into her full form, growing massive enough to support the weapon for a few precious minutes before it became too heavy and caused the base to collapse in on itself. 'At least they'll be ok. I saved them. I saved him.' She let out an exhausted breath as the weapon fell on her.
Outside, everyone was met with a sad sight as Jethro's shiny Rayquaza circled Charlie, roaring and howling. Steven's eyes widened. "The crash earlier…" There was a great smashing, grating and rumbling sound as the giant weapon sunk into the earth. It was accompanied by a loud, pitiful, painful roar. And then there was silence.
