Chapter 35: Invasion

Kamina and I arrived at the PokeCenter at about the same time, and he was already through the doors with the wounded blonde before I could even get Moka back in her pokeball. Unfortunately, PokeCenters weren't cut out for healing humans, and they had to airlift Barry back to Eterna, the nearest city large enough to have a hospital. I rode with him in the heli, carrying his bag that held his pokemon. As soon as we landed in Eterna, and Barry was in the hospital staffs hands, I traveled to the local center, dropping off his team and filling the nurse in on what had happened. She was more than willing to heal Barrys team and look after them while he rested. I thanked her and moved over to the lounge area, a line of video phones my destination.

I sat down at the nearest available phone and punched in the number for Rowans lab. Unsurprisingly, it was Dawns father who answered. "Nick! We were starting to get worried! Did you- wait, why is this call coming from Eterna? Didn't you go to Snowpoint?" he asked.

"I'll explain later, can you get Rowan for me please?" I groaned, exhausted from the eventful day I had. Thankfully, he didn't ask any more questions, immediately getting up and fetching the old professor. Once Rowans face filled the screen, I launched into an account of what had happened. "So in the end, Galactic has all three guardians, Barry's hurt badly and I have no idea what to do from here." I sighed, slouching in my chair.

Rowan watched me for a second, analyzing my like he always seemed to do. "The first thing you should do is get some rest." he decided. I started to protest but he raised a hand to silence me. "You've been across the country repeatedly in the last two days. You're exhausted, I can see it in your eyes. Rest, and call me back in the morning. I'll see what we can do next." He hung up before I could say anything else. I decided to take his advice, fatigue washing over me from the countless battles I've had in the last few days. I turned my own team over to the nurse for a quick healing session before checking out a room and piling in for the night.

The next morning I checked in on Barrys condition before calling Rowan up again. The doctor I talked to informed me that he was alive and stable. "He's in no condition to receive visitors yet, but he'll make it." he said in a low voice. "Now, I need to ask you a few questions about how he got these injuries." A female police officer with dyed teal hair stepped out from around the corner.

I threw my hands up in protest. "Whoa, I'm not the one you're looking for." I said warily. "I was on my way to back him up when I found him like that. It was Team Galactic that did this to him, not me."

The officer stepped forward. "Team Galactic you say? So you're one of those kids Professor Rowan had trying to help the legendary pokemon?" she asked, her voice stern yet soft.

"Yes, though I think kid is a little harsh." I muttered. "He is too, my buddy Barry." I added, jamming a thumb towards his room. I explained what the plan had been, and what had happened at the lakes in the last few days. "Long story short, Team Galactic has three pokemon in captivity, and they need to go down."

The officer nodded. "Agreed, and there's already plans for a joint operation between Interpol and the local authorities in Veilstone to take down their HQ." she revealed.

"Great, then it's all wrapped up." I said, moving away.

"Not exactly." the woman said. "It'll still take a few days for the operation to get started. Unfortunately, that's just how police work goes."

"So what, while you're all trying to get your shit together, they can just do whatever they want? Whatever, I'm done with this." I snapped, stalking down the hallway and all the way back to the center. Once there, I gave Rowan the call I had promised, and he answered almost immediately. "So did you hear about this police thing in Veilstone?" I asked.

"Yes, but apparently they can't move in until everything is organized." Rowan muttered, just as disgusted with the situation as I was. "I shudder to think what those people could do with the guardians given a days time, but there's nothing we can do about it."

"Maybe you can't do anything, but I'm not going to sit here twiddling my thumbs." I growled. Now it was my turn to hang up on him, heading straight back to my room and gathering my stuff. Once outside, I let Moka out. "Come on girl, we're going to Veilstone." I said.

A relatively quick flight later, we had arrived at the Veilstone City PokeCenter. I walked down the street, walking right up to the front doors of Team Galactic HQ. Standing in front of it was a single guard, dressed in the typical garb of a grunt, electric blue wig and all. "Stop right there!" he ordered. I kept walking. "Hold it! No one's allowed in! The doors are locked and I don't have the key!" he explained.

I glared at him from under my hat. "You think locked doors mean anything to me? I'll break them down." I growled, reaching for Mufasa's pokeball.

"Wait!" a voice yelled behind me. Looking around curiously, I found Looker running towards me. He stopped when he caught up, doubling over. "I knew it was you walking so seriously towards the HQ." he wheezed. "Come on, let's go before you do something drastic." I started to protest but he was having none of it, grabbing my arm and literally dragging me away from the building. We got a few blocks away before he finally let go.

"What the hell man! I'm trying to save the pokemon!" I barked, rubbing the sore spot on my arm. "I thought you wanted to help out too!"

"I do." Looker replied. "But you can't just go barging in their front door like that! Don't you have any idea how to sneak into a building?"

"So, what, we just wait for your Interpol pals to get their shit together while they do God knows what to those poor pokemon!?" I was yelling now, and Looker tried his best to keep me quiet.

"Keep your voice down would ya?" he hissed. "I didn't say we should wait, I said that you were going about this all wrong. Come on, I know a better way in." And with that, he took off down an alley, leaving me with only a few seconds to process what he had said.

"Hold on!" I yelled after him, following his brown coat as it disappeared behind various corners and streets. As we ran I started to vaguely recognize the buildings around me as they grew taller and wider. I've been here before, when was I here before? Realization hit me. The warehouses! We're sneaking in through the warehouses!

Right on cue, Looker stopped in front of one of the many steel structures, only this one was connected to the vista the HQ sat on. I swiftly moved over to the door, trying to open it and finding it locked. "Don't bother, they've locked everything down tight since yesterday." Looker explained. "They either got spooked from the incoming assault, or they're prepping for a siege. Either way, we're not getting in without a key."

"Well that's just great!" I shouted, kicking the wall. "Why'd you even bring us here if we can't get in?"

"You really need to listen to what people say." Looker said, rummaging in his cloak. "I said, we can't get in without a key. I didn't say I didn't have one." He produced a keycard with a flourish, moving over to the electronic lock by the door and sliding it through. It beeped and the door slid open. "Shall we?" he asked as he waltzed in. I followed, grumbling to myself about him listening to my foot up his ass.

The room we found ourselves in was a normal warehouse except for what appeared to be a small administrative room built into the wall on our right. Another door with an electronic lock guarded it, and Looker easily opened it like he did the first one, revealing a hallway with branching paths. "Alright, we should probably split up now." he said, handing me the card. "Take this. Try not to cause to much of a ruckus, but if you do, distract them enough that they won't find me. Our goal is to free the guardians, so don't get distracted by the grunts. Got it?" I nodded and he stepped into the hallway. "Oh, and one more thing. What we're doing here, totally illegal. So don't get captured, or they have every right to counter any legal action they try to use in the op. Cheers!"

He took off down the corridor, turning left at the branch. I followed, taking the right path and continuing into the bowls of the building. As much as I'd like to think of myself as some kind of stealth master, I ran into a pair of grunts almost immediately. "Hey, you're not supposed to be here!" one yelled, releasing a Dustox while his partner sent out a Croagunk.

"So much for being quiet, let's hope I'm enough of a distraction." I muttered, sending out Cerberus and Moka. I battled my way up through the basement, constantly switching pokemon in an effort not only to keep everyone from getting exhausted, but to take advantage of any type superiority I had. The grunts were nothing special, each and every one of them going down after getting one, maybe two hits in. After what felt like forever, I arrived in the building proper. Curiously, there were no guards patrolling the hallways. That's odd I thought. Shouldn't there be more guards in the main building, not less? I got my answer as I opened a door and walked into a large auditorium. Gathered in the center of the room, facing the opposite way thankfully, were about a hundred identical grunts. "Oh shit!" I would have gasped, if a hand hadn't slapped over my mouth as I was dragged into a corner, behind a potted plant.

I struggled against my attacker, until I realized it was Looker. Once I calmed down, he let go of me, uncovering my mouth. "Jeez man, you couldn't have warned me first?" I asked.

"Sure, let me be all nice and easy on you while you're about to reveal our location to every grunt in the place, go ahead." he hissed. "Now be quiet, I overheard one of the peons earlier. Apparently, their leader Cyrus is about to give a speech." Looker then produced what looked like a decent sized satellite dish connected to a pair of headphones and strapped them on, pointing the dish out towards the room. I looked out as well, just in time to see Cyrus walk out onto a balcony above the mass of underlings.

"Team Galactic!" he boomed, holding his arms out wide, gesturing to the people below. They cheered, glad to be addressed by their leader. "When I first created this company, this group of individuals, it was because I had a goal. And over the years, others have come sharing my goal. All of you have come, believing that we can do the impossible. That together we can create a new world!" The crowed cheered again. "A world without sadness! A world without pain! A utopia, one for humans and pokemon alike!" The cheers were practically deafening now, but somehow Cyrus' voice rose above them. "I, like you, have looked out into this world and seen it's corruption. Seen it's evil. Saw the beauty and wonder that had once made this world great replaced by the sins and stupidity of men who do not know what it is they are destroying!" He paused, waiting for the cheers to die down once again. "But, my brothers and sisters, this goal of a new world is not without cost. We have cried, we have sweat, we have bled for this new world of ours! And at times it seemed impossible! That the goal was beyond our reach! That the damage done by evil men was to great, and could. Not. Be. Undone!" Another pause, this time filled with silence so great, I feared they could hear me breathing. "But today, our goal will be realized. With the power taken from the legendary pokemon, the foolish beings that sought to maintain this wicked world, we will forge a new paradise! Tonight, from the peaks of Mt. Coronet, our new world will come to LIGHT!"

The crowd went ballistic. Even I had to admit, the guy had a few points. Regardless, he was still nuttier than a squirrel. After Cyrus left the balcony and all the grunts filed out of the hall, Looker and I stepped out from behind our hiding place. "Well, that was certainly not what I expected." Looker said, putting his recording equipment away. "I knew Cyrus was a bit off, but I didn't think he'd be like this."

I nodded in agreement. "Did you hear what he said about the guardians? That he took their power? What did that mean?"

"I don't know, but it can't be anything good." Looker said solemnly. He moved back towards the doors I came through. "I'll try to dig up some more intel on this plan of theirs. You try to find the pokemon."

I was already making my way through the opposite doors. I stopped suddenly, when I found that there was barely a hallway past it. It was more like a small room. At the other end, sat three circles that pulsed lightly with orange light. "Oh god, not warp panels." I groaned. "Anything but warp panels." Sucking it up, I stepped forward and onto the middle tile. Immediately, a feeling of weightlessness washed over me, and my vision blurred, everything melting together into a smear of color. Shortly, my vision returned, along with gravity, as I stepped off the warp panel and into a different room than I had been in. The whole process had taken less than a second, but it was extremely unpleasant. "God, why do these people use these as transport? Can't they just walk?" I gasped, my stomach threatening to loose it.

I pushed on, moving through the different room either by stairs or warp panels. Since nothing was labeled in this crazy place, I got lost fairly quickly. Having to double back and try different panels in different rooms. The grunts weren't any help, causing me to switch focus from remembering where I came from to keeping my team alive. I was starting to get concerned that I would run out of potions when I stumbled upon a room the held a healing machine from the PokeCenter. "Huh, wonder why they have this?" I mused out loud, but decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth. I healed my team back to fighting shape and continued on.

Shorty after the healing room, I found the first sign in the entire building. It had just one word written on it. LEADER CYRUS' OFFICE and an arrow pointing down the hall. I paused, looking around for another way and retracing my steps mentally. This can't be the only way I haven't gone I thought desperately, but I already knew I was kidding myself. I'd have to go through his office to move on. "Okay, maybe he's not there." I muttered, releasing Moka just in case. I stepped up to the double doors at the end of the hall and pushed them open.

At first, I thought the room was empty, just like I hoped. Red carpet and black walls spread out in a decent sized area. Two plants sat in the corners of the room, next to bookcases stuffed with folders and ancient texts alike. A thick black desk stood directly in the center of the room, behind which was a chair. The Team Galactic logo was painted on the front of the desk. Looking at the chair, I noticed it had its back to me. "Okay, I know you're there. No point in doing the bond villain thing with the swivel chair, it's a stupid cliché anyway."

"Very well then, let's not waste any time to cliché." Cyrus said, getting up from his chair and walking around to stand before the desk. "This is the part where you call my plan crazy, announce that you're here to rescue the poor guardians and save the world through the power of friendship, correct?"

I shrugged. "Not really. I was hoping I'd just kick your ass and save them anyway, especially if you already know your plan is crazy. No need for me to point it out to you."

Cyrus sniffed haughtily. "What you heard in my speech to the lower grunts, my grand scheme to create a perfect world, was mostly a farce. You see, it is crazy to think you can change the world. One man cannot change the world, even if he has great power, because he is far outmatched by the number of imbeciles who refuse to make the world better. So there's no point in trying to change a world that refuses to do so." He smiled darkly. "That is why I'm going to create my own world."

I stared at him for a few seconds. "Seriously? You say that the plan to change the world is nuts, but your actual plan to make yourself god isn't? That's a solid case for a straightjacket if I've ever heard one."

"Laugh if you will, I know the legends." Cyrus sneered. "The last time we met, at Celestic Town, gave me all the information I needed." He raised a hand, three fingers raised. "Three lakes. Three guardians. Three champions."

"So, what, you think you're one of those champions?" I asked.

"I do not think. I know." Cyrus replied. "The champions spoken of in the prophecy have a key identifying feature. The aspect of humanity that their guardian represents is amplified, while another is suppressed."

"Oh yeah? So which one are you then?" I asked, getting bored with this conversation.

"Uxie, the being of knowledge." he answered. "I have little trouble understanding the ways of the world, having a fine grasp for knowledge ever since I was a young boy. But my sacrifice for this has always been my emotions. I've never been one for feelings, they distract me from my pursuit of knowledge."

"Alright then, champion of Uxie or whatever you want to be. How about we skip ahead to the part where I beat you and you go home crying?" I scoffed, not believing a word of it.

Cyrus smirked again. "A battle between champions? Very well. I accept." he said before releasing his own Crobat.