POV: Cynthia / LOCATION: Neo Galactic HQ
Lucian is back! Just in the nick of time!
"I'm so sorry!" I blurt before he can open his mouth. "I-I didn't mean to hurt your feelings like that. You have every right to be angry at me after how I've taken you for granted…"
A firm hand grips my trembling shoulders. "I'm sorry too, for storming off like that. It was very… unprofessional of me."
"Where did you go? How did you know I was here?"
"Home," he grunts. That's all I get from him on that matter. "I took it upon myself to investigate Neo Galactic. I know about your penchant for rushing in, so when I saw the helicopters approaching Veilstone, I had a hunch you were in here.
"Using my Pokemon's telekinesis allowed me to tap into Interpol's lines. I overheard that an obscenely large sum of money has been transferred to Charon's account, coincidentally on the night of Cyrus's disappearance.
"Moreover, after an unauthorized visit to the guards' homes, I discovered that Charon had paid them to keep quiet about his last visit… which happened to have taken place mere hours before ours! And hear this: someone else visited Cyrus on that same day!"
"The federal prosecutor?"
"No, it's—"
"ENOUGH!" Charon roars. "Meddling brats, you've forced my hand! Slowking, imbue your psychic energy into Hydro Pump!"
If Garchomp isn't hunched over in pain, I would've retaliated with a devastating finisher. But currently, it's curled into a ball, wings gripping its head. Those killer frequencies must've fried its poor brain.
Lucian's Gallade swiftly counters with a well-timed Leaf Blade, slashing through the magical geysers with the dexterity of a silent swordsman. While his Pokemon fend off Slowking's assault, the helicopters draw closer.
"Charon of Neo Galactic!" Looker booms into his megaphone. "You are under arrest! Hands where I can see them!"
Searchlights sweep into the office, all honing on Charon's glowering form. The only barrier between him and justice is that mysterious black pillar.
Then he chuckles.
"My dear rookie detective. It seems like you haven't learned anything from your last raid."
Looker blanches. "E-Enough games, Charon! Surrender now, or else—"
"Or else you'll face the ramifications of underestimating me. Don't say I didn't warn you… Looker."
Suddenly, the ground tears from beneath my feet. As if the airlock vent has been ripped open and everything inside the ship is being sucked out. The air pressure drops so drastically that my ears pop like punctured drums.
As a great rumbling rocks HQ, Lucian ushers into his arms. From deep within the building comes a deep moan. Pipes grating against themselves. Steel tearing from foundation, bending, warping, becoming undone.
Something has awakened.
With a coy waggling of his finger, Charon yanks the lever on the black pillar.
And Neo Galactic HQ rises to the sky. Up, up, breaking through clouds, sideswiping Staraptors, towering as high as Fogbound Lake. Gales whip into the broken windows, scattering debris to wherever the wind blows.
Far below, giant metal legs protrude from the base of the building, stomping a slow, indiscriminate path of destruction through Veilstone.
The city in flames reflects off Lucian's scratched glasses. "This is madness," he murmurs.
"Madness?" Charon huffs. "This is genius, boy, one befitting of the Great Charon!"
Somehow, a brave, lone helicopter clings to the peeling infrastructure. His beige coat slapped around by the wind, Looker attempts to shoot the heart of the moving fortress—only to be swatted aside by a giant claw.
"LOOKER!" I scream.
"Has retired!" Charon finishes gleefully. "And so. Will. YOU!"
As Lucian maneuvers us through the falling debris, Charon hops into the safety of his space pod. Opening the black pillar, he extracts the contents within: the two stolen Time Gears.
Suddenly, the world tips to its side. Red lights flash overhead, computerized voices wailing about the rapidly depleting power supply.
"Each Time Gear contains an unimaginable amount of energy," Charon says. "Enough to bestow the gift of life.
"Alas, our time together draws to an end. Ta-ta, children! Give Cyrus my warmest regards—"
Then something whizzes across the room, impaling the space pod, leaving a crunchy hole where it struck.
From the billowing smoke steps a petite figure with hair as fiery as her temper. In each hand is a pistol. She stands there, as confident as a lone ranger, unaffected by the swaying floor.
A line of sweat trickles down Charon's temple. "You!"
Mars happily lights a murky glass bottle with her lighter. "Da bambina, my bastard father made one thing clear: traitors can't expect to run forever."
"Who is that?" Lucian mumbles.
"A trigger-happy child whose parents I need to have serious word with," says Jupiter from behind us. When she leans down, I glimpse Looker's head dangling from her shoulder.
"He'll be fine," she says to our unspoken question. "I grabbed him just in time. Anyway, you kids need to get out of here."
"Charon has the Time Gears!" I yelp.
"We have more important things to worry about!" Looker snaps—and cringes. The nasty burn on his leg is crawling with pus.
Saturn's head pops out from behind Jupiter. "Give me time and I'll deactivate the self-destruct sequence. But without a sufficient power source to restart the fortress, it'll topple and take us with it!"
"If this thing blows up, millions will be killed!" Looker hisses. "Saturn, you have to redirect its path to the bund!"
"Hurry up!" Mars yells. "I'm running low on Molotovs!"
Jupiter juts her chin to the windows. "Lucian, it's all in your hands now. Don't worry about us. I know HQ like the back of my scalp."
After his initial shock wears off, Lucian nods. "You can count on me. We'll leave on my brother's Xatu—"
My first mistake is breaking away from him like I did. "We can't let Charon escape! The fate of the future depends on us gathering all five Time Gears!"
My second mistake is calling Garchomp. My Pokemon has shaken off the awful effects of that mind control device. Now it's quavering with rage. Ready for revenge.
Charon pulls up in his dented space pod, dangling in the clouds like he did at Foggy Forest.
"Well well," he purrs. "You sure are a stubborn one. Think you can finish what you started, O Great Champion of Sinnoh?"
"Cynthia!" Lucian shouts. "Grab my hand! Don't fall for his—"
My third mistake is exactly as Lucian warned: I turn my back on him. Instead, I raise my hand to the heavens, Garchomp towering above me like the dragon of judgement. Power surges up my veins, accumulating as a roar of conviction.
"Grachomp! Draco Meteor!"
"CYNTHIA!"
Flaming boulders tear the fabric of the sky, plummeting to earth with unimaginable velocity. We're nearing the Veilstone bund, so I don't have to worry about trampling houses like what happened at Celestic Town.
"Heh heh. I suppose you're learning your lesson the hard way too then."
Charon evades the falling meteors by skittling to and fro like a drunk Krabby. In a world faraway, Mars and Saturn are clinging onto Jupiter who's wrapped around the pillar for dear life. At that moment, I only see the end of the tunnel, which happens to be Charon's downfall.
Then the sly old man pops up behind me, waving a neon "RIGHT HERE" sign. I send a barrage of meteors to his direction…
And boom! Impact!
It's over!
"Congratulations, Champion Cynthia. Have fun explaining why this wasn't an accident."
When the tunnel expands, I see the full breadth of the destruction: fires, scattered glass, melting steel beams. Beyond the smoke is Charon, unscathed, who juts his chin to the side…
And my heart stops.
In my blind rage, the Draco Meteor have decimated the office. A section of floor has shattered, and the person that had been standing there, pleading me to snap out of my power-hungry delusion…
In the heartbeat of time when Lucian's body floats in the air like a drop of dew suspended in space, our gazes connect. As his Poke balls splay from his belt, as his glasses fly off his nose, he stares at me with such immeasurable, heart-churning disappointment.
Then time flows again, and Lucian falls off the crumbling ledge.
Somewhere within the pounding in my ears, I hear Saturn screaming, "The engine is overheating! It's going to blow!"
Everything is happening so slowly. Yet so fast. When I next blink, I'm being thrown into a flying Galactic company car with Looker, Saturn, and Mars. Jupiter floors it, propelling us out of Veilstone seconds before the mobile fortress explodes.
The resulting blast is so scorchingly powerful that it flips the car over.
When the light dies, we shakily survey the carnage. On one hand, the fortress has detonated in the bund, far away from the evacuated residential areas. On the other hand, the lake blew up, sending an impromptu rain to shower down the smoldering skeleton of Neo Galactic HQ.
After a stunned silence, Jupiter gives a low, shaky whistle. "I-Is everyone all right? Your limbs intact?"
"My leg," Looker moans. "My eyeballs. My bladder…"
My heart crawling up my throat, I scramble out of the car, sprinting into the darkened horizon, back into the city of drizzling rain.
Oh. Oh no.
A crowd of evacuees have gathered, whispering and pointing to the gruesome sight floating in the shallow river.
Looker hobbles over, his battered agents in tow. "Call an ambulance!" he roars. "NOW!"
Behind me, Mars holds a hand over her eyes, shielding them from the stinging rain. "Wow. This is my second time seeing someone's skull get bashed in. All those shiny fragments look like shells on the beach!"
Saturn makes a face. "Mars, something is definitely wrong with you."
I gawk, mortified, as the medics in white gently load Lucian onto a gurney, paying special attention to handling his twisted neck. Pink quickly stains the unblemished fabric, blossoming like flowers in spring. My last impression of my dear friend before the doors close are his eyes:
Wide open.
Unseeing.
"He'll be fine," Jupiter says, her voice faraway.
Back then, I believed her. I believed that everything would turn out fine, that the ambulance sirens signaled the end of this bad dream, that I would wake up soon, and that we would save the world without losing anyone.
That would be my fourth mistake.