Chapter 103:

Prepared to Do Anything

(Dust)

There was a gaping hole in the roof, cracks running across the floors and multiple artifacts of immeasurable worth knocked off their pedestal.
This room looked absolutely trashed. However, if I narrowed my eyes and expanded my imagination just a little bit, I could convince myself a big party had just taken place, and everyone got drunk and passed out.

Sadly, things weren't that simple.

"Okay…" I stumbled across the room, towards my knocked out Pokémon. "Luna, can you detect anyone coming our way?"

{You need medical attention.} Luna said sternly. {Let me get someone!}

"Not yet," I urged her. "I need to see if Midna is still conscious. Check on the others please."

Luna rolled her eyes but still obeyed. I focused on the matter on hand.

Where were those two?

I found them in the back of the room, in front of 2 display cases.

Midna was lying on the floor, curled up and looking like she was just asleep. Next to her was Fay. She didn't look nearly as peaceful. Her fur was dirty and had pieces of glass nestled inside it. Another thing, small Aura flames started to grow on her palms. Weakly trailing towards the sword I was still holding.

I knelt down to check if I could get Fay to wake up.

No reaction. Still passed out cold. Her chest was still moving up and down though.

{On my side it's the same.} Luna telepathically shared. {I don't see any wounds so they must be alright.}

What the hell was even the thing that knocked them out? How would anyone even call that?

At least it wasn't lethal. Otherwise I wouldn't have been standing here.

Okay, I went over to Midna.

I needed her to wake up the most. I hadn't expected her to black out at all, considering her resistance to Psychic energy I thought any mind fuckery Lovesick could pull would be useless. However, the Lustrous Orb conveniently bypassed that process.

Luckily for me, out of everyone here, Midna still looked mostly fine. She appeared to be in a better state than I was at least. Well, she hadn't done much besides thrashing around as a Gyarados.

Her breathing was relatively calm, she was lying in such a cossy position, she might as well have fallen asleep. I considered it odd that she was the only one not straight up in a Orb-related-coma, but I shelved that thought for later.

"Midna," I whispered. Not really sure why, but it seemed appropriate somehow. I whispered her name a few more times, each time louder.

Only when I was practically shouting it into her ear did the Zorua finally stir. Still drunk from her sleep-like state, Midna murmured some obscenities.

Running out of patience, I poked Midna.

This caused her red eyes to finally open themselves, lazily gazing forward. "Eh...w-hy am I on the floor?"

Her eyes widened. The realization finally struck, she hopped back up and started to glow. All within a second after opening her eyes.

Before I could tell her to calm down the Zorua was replaced by a, slightly bigger, Tsareena.

"Where are they!?" She growled, frantically looking around for an unseen enemy.

"It's over," I said, trying to calm her down. "We won. The girl and the other Rockets fled."

Midna paused. "What the hell happened?" She finally asked when seeing that, indeed, there was no one around to kick. "And why are you holding a sword?" Her eyes fixated on Luna. "Oh, and look who decided to show up."

{Just in time to save the day.} Luna beamed, either unaware or ignoring Midna's sarcastic remark.

"Long story, look, you got enough energy to do a few more shifts?"

Midna scowled, unconsciously she backed away. "You were serious about that?"

"It's risky-"

"Extremely risky." Midna said.

{People and Pokémon are nearing the Museum.} Luna interrupted suddenly. Her eyes were focused on the Southern exit. {I count at least 8 humans.}

I nodded and turned to face the Tsareena again.

Midna's red eyes darted across the room, nervously looking for any kind of distraction. "You know what I told you."

Midna still wasn't convinced, or she was too scared. {They are moving around the building.} Luna helpfully added.

I decided to play my trump card. "Remember what they did."

"Fine, I'll do it!" Midna growled. She let out a sigh of resignation and closed her eyes. She cracked a smile. "You better ask me not to swallow.

A burst of light filled the museum.

(Hylla)

The list with names had been growing smaller over the past few days. The seemingly endless rows of names, dates and photos had been intimidating at first. But as she crossed through each and every name from top to bottom, she had to admit the names in the list were starting to become less life-like to her. The lives that were behind these names were now nothing more than data and bullet points. No more life-like than characters in a book.

With a concerned grimace Hylla striked through the final name on the list. She felt conflicted, on one hand. She was glad to be finally done with all these names. On the other hand she felt guilty for speeding through all these files as if they were nothing but a to-do list.

The photo included in the final report resembled a black haired individual with some distinct stark grey eyes. Those were the only identifiable features visible on the photo.

It belonged to some poor kid who got mauled to death by some wild Pokémon in Twinleaf Town. Seeing the photo, that must have been gruesome.

The circumstances of his death were rather odd and suspicious but it was clearly not the name she was looking for.

Her eyes drifted to all the casefiles she had gathered. Some barely contained more than a photo and some rumors while other files held more words than the Pokédex user manual.

Hylla quietly contemplated if it was worth going back yet another year. She had covered the last three years already very thoroughly. The chances of him being from before that were slim, the odds were bigger that his casefile was simply never made. For whatever reason that might have been.

She stared at the document that was displayed in full size on her monitor. Almost all of them had been dead ends.

She had checked every missing person file, manually going over every report and cross referencing details. Although she didn't find her target, she did find a concerning amount of people with scientific knowledge disappearing off the radar. Not enough to raise any serious concerns but high enough to be more than a statistical anomaly. With the entire Galactic situation it probably meant nothing good.

But most of them didn't have any children, and the ones that had didn't match up.

She went back to the files of the previous years but her search didn't bear fruit.

Neither did any of the other leads she followed. None of the regions held citizen information that conformed with the details.

And now, she has reached another dead end.

Her latest hope for a match had disappeared tragically near Twinleaf town's borders. The chance of this being her target had been high. The age matched up and the rough area of discovery and mysterious circumstances of disappearance.

There had been a big chance. But the poor victim named had been found dead.

With a heavy sigh she closed the case file of the victim and put it on the left side of her make-shift desk.

Hylla started tapping her desk, going over all the details again. Seeing if there was another angle to approach this.

"Dust," Hylla murmured. "You must have come from somewhere, right?"

(Cyrus)

It happened during a board meeting with shareholders when Cyrus got the message.

The room filled with greedy people that were out for his money had so far only managed to bore him.

Cyrus kept pleasantly smiling and nodding at his guests. Wishing them luck and spouting back meaningless buzzwords, as if it was some kind of corporate ritual.

Internally he despised everyone in the room. All of them were blind idiots who wouldn't be able to see a real opportunity if it was shoved down their throats. Despite this, they still tried to find ways to leech of his wealth.

Even more, he hated the fact he was associated with them, and from an outsider's perspective, he was the same. Another blind idiot.

His mind had started to drift to other, more interesting, business ordeals.

It was only pure luck that he decided to check his phone and that he found the message.

Immediately after reading the message his eyes fled to the electronic watch on his wrist. Practically on instinct, but with solid reasoning behind it.

The device on his wrist had become something of a sacred mantra for him. At some level, the red thread of his continued existence.

Every morning the first thing he would do was check the time and date on his watch. Every major decision was preceded by a glance at the time. Timing was everything.

It was because of this habit that Cyrus' felt a cold shiver run across his spine when his eyes read the date on his watch.

He enlarged the news report on his phone; forgetting about the meeting around him, forgetting about his supposed persona of rich Entrepreneur. Forgetting about the entire world that mattered.

Cyrus' hand started shaking almost uncontrollably.

"Anything wrong?" A question was asked.

"It's nothing." Cyrus replied. He looked up from his phone and tried to add a smile to his answer. "Actually,"

He got up from his luxurious chair at the board. "I think there was something spoiled in my lunch today, I need to take a little break. If you excuse me."

Cyrus turned around. The muscles in his face relaxed and fell back to his usual cold expression.

Cyrus checked once again his watch as he left the board room. The numbers didn't lie.

There was a break in at the Eterna Eternal History Museum.

2 days too early.

(Luna)

Luna enjoyed sightseeing from atop her trainer's head. Eterna City offered quite a pleasing view. And with all the people still asleep inside their beds, it almost felt like the entire world belonged to just herself and Dust.

However, as much as Luna wanted it, she knew things wouldn't remain the same. That much was obvious but the path to the future started to concern Luna more and more.

Things were changing too fast, and the direction things were going was far from desirable.

And it would only get worse. Luna simply knew it.

Behind the distant horizon she could almost feel the place her trainer was talking about.

A place where two legendary Pokémon would clash.

And he…he was about to head right into that place.

Luna understood why. The reasoning was solid. In fact, she agreed with him.

If only, it wasn't him who was going Luna would have fully supported the plan.

But Luna was smarter than most Pokémon, she knew that much.

She knew this was only the beginning. Her trainer was special, far more special than she had wanted. She wished he was just an ordinary person. But nope. That Fate person of course had to screw everyone over.

And it would only get worse with every step.

Again, that wouldn't be much of a problem if Dust was strong, but even Luna recognized that she was much stronger than Dust could ever be.

He was made of weak flesh that could be easily torn, stripped and mutilated by anyone who wanted to harm him.

Unless she was with him.

Luna was far stronger than her trainer in terms of power. Stronger than Fay and much stronger than Midna.

These two couldn't protect Dust well enough, only she could.

If only Dust realized.

She needed an edge. Luna needed to do something. Something to show Dust that she was the only one who could protect him. The only one he couldn't do without.

And just like that, Fate intervened.

Luna felt something, on the far edge of her telepathic range. With effort she reached out to it.

{Luna?} The weird girl's voice telepathically came through. {What are you doing here? Is your trainer here too.}

{Yes.} Luna answered. She looked down at her trainer, who was still lost and walking without clear direction.

{Sabrina was your name right?} Luna asked.

{...uh yes?}

Luna's eyes glowed.

{I have a proposal.}

A/N CEO Entrepreneur, born in 1964! Cyrus….Cyrus….no last name given? That's always so annoying with Pokémon. Means I have to make up shit.
Anyway, I hoped this shorter interlude chapter was fun and all. Thank you all for leaving the kind reviews. They do help a lot with making me push forward.

Also, Pokémon Arceus came out. I am still mad they stole my plot without even asking. Though, I should have said: I own nothing but the plot, ahead of time. That way, I could have sued them. Big sad.

I hope you all are enjoying Pokémon Arceus. And if you are part of poor gang just like me; I hope you enjoy watching youtubers play it.

Also, definitely not self advertising here, but I uploaded a video on my channel on How You can Survive A SuperHero encounter. I would encourage you to check it out on my youtube channel Captain Pointless but because I don't do self promotion I decided not to advertise it ;-)

Anyway reviews: (We have two Loveless now, isn't that interesting?)

Randomreader: Ah, that's cool! Heartless are surprisingly cute.

Exomatt: Well, thanks for reviewing all the same.

Guest: Yes.

Cya!

-CaptainMoonShine-