"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." - Arthur C. Clarke
Mount Hokulani Observatory, Ula'ula Island, Alola
The observatory had always held such unimaginable wonder for him. Ever since the first day his cousin had brought him into the facility, Sophocles had hardly gone a day without visiting. There were even nights where he'd lost track of time and had to ask Big Mo to call his parents for him so he could stay over. Those were his favourite, nights where he would stay up all night charting the constellations with his big cousin. But not once had he seen quite so many people stuffed into the observatory at the same time.
They were all packed into the main observation room, poring over the screens. Every single one of them showed the same thing, a looping video of the green streak that had lit up the night's sky and the shining green aurora it had left behind. The adults kept using big words that he didn't understand yet, but the worried look on Big Mo's face told him that something terribly exciting had happened.
Sophocles elbowed his way through the crowd, a trick that he'd learned to get through big crowds at father's big tourist conferences. A few of the adults yelped and looked down in shock, but none of them said anything when they realized he was just a kid. He shoved his way through, finding Big Mo's blue jacket and tugging on the hem.
"Not now, Soffy," his cousin said in an annoyed tone. He turned, brushing Sophocles off of his jacket with his free arm. "I'm on the phone with professor Cosmo in Hoenn." He looked back up at the screen, lifting the phone back up to his face. "The meteorite looks like it came down near the antarctic after it passed right over us. I'll contact Mossdeep and see if we can't get one of their orbital spectrometers over the-"
Molayne's expression of wonder died and Sophocles watched a spiteful frown replace it. "What do you mean, you'll be appropriating my work?"
There was a long pause, where the only noise came from the other onlookers in the room. Sophocles looked back up at the screen, studying the short video as Big Mo's expression soured. There was something there, a small shape visible in the flash of green for a fraction of a moment.
"Might I remind you, professor Cosmo, that our partnership is exactly that." Molayne's voice was rising, something that Sophocles had only heard when he nearly smashed his cousin's homemade telescope when he was only five. "You are not entitled to exclusive possession of our data, no matter how much money you offer."
Sophocles reached up for the screen controls. He paused it, inching forward frame by frame. A few of the adults were shouting about the shape now, yelling for the screen to show a better look.
Molayne swore loudly, pitching his phone across the room. He looked down at his cousin, raising an eyebrow as the boy pointed excitedly up at the screen. He followed his cousin's finger up the the screen, his jaw dropping as his heart skipped several beats.
There on the screen, outlined clearly by the flash of pale green light, was the unmistakable outline of a humanoid figure.
The room was dead silent. Molayne couldn't help but stare in awe at living proof of an extraterrestrial. He glanced down at his cousin, a wide grin of wonder spreading across his face. "Soffy," he started gently. "I think you just made the discovery of a lifetime."
Sophocles looked up at the screen, cracking a grin wide enough to be seen from space. "You mean I'm a scientist like you?" the boy asked.
Big Mo shook his head, dropping down onto one knee. "No," he replied. "Even better than me." He beamed down at his cousin, proud of the discovery he had made.
Camp Russell, LaRousse Science Expedition, Antarctica
"Professor Lund!" shouted a snowsuit clad man. He trampled through the blowing snow, one arm held aloft to shield his face. "We've found the visitor." He sighed angrily. "It keeps burning out our equipment with its presence. I'm not sure how long we can keep up before we need to resupply."
Professor Rondo Lund turned, grimacing as a particularly strong gust of wind whipped a million tiny pellets of ice up into a vicious spray. "Get it into containment as soon as the truck gets here. That would be the EM radiation killing our equipment," he shouted over the wind. "I want the specimen intact and ready for analysis by the end of the week." He threw up an arm to shield his face from the blowing ice. "The world is watching us. Ever since that damn picture leaked out of Alola, we've had no end of uproar. It is up to us to learn whether that furor is earned or not."
"Yes sir!" replied the worker "Nanite construction should be done by the end of the day. You sure they'll hold up on the cold?"
Doctor Lund nodded. "I designed these particular nanites myself. They'll hold up to the cold. I'm more worried about the radiation, but I've shielded them as well as I can."
The worker nodded. "We'll get it done, professor." He turned to leave, nearly bowling over the bundled up child excitedly bounding through the snow.
"Daddy, daddy, daddy!" blabbered the boy. "I found a buncha pokemon! Come see with me!"
The professor got down on one knee, grunting with the awkwardness of his bulky snowsuit. "Daddy's busy right now, Tory. Where's Yuko?"
The boy pulled his oversized toque back, looking up at his father with bright blue eyes. "She's somewhere else," Tory said. "I was with all the pokemon."
Professor Lund sighed heavily. "I'll help you find her, but daddy can't play right now. I'm busy working on something very important. The whole world is watching me, Tory." He stood up, holding his hand out for his boy.
"I wish I had a pokemon, daddy," Tory said with innocent happiness in his voice. "Then I could change the world!" He took his father's hand, wading back through the snow towards the snow drift that he'd clambered over.
"You will," said his father. "I'll buy you any pokemon you'd like once you earn your trainer's license." He smirked. "Maybe even that rare one you were looking at, if you're good."
"You'll buy me a munchlax?" Tory burst out.
They crested the top of the snow drift and looked down at an endless sea of pokemon. The ice shelf was alive with movement, the cries of the wild pokemon echoing loudly over the flats. The blowing snow served to dampen the sound somewhat, but nothing could drown it out completely. Herds of titanic walrein watched over the younger sealeo and baby spheal. The large pokemon watched dutifully from the edge of the ice, huddling together from the wind.
"There's Yuko!" Tory shouted, pointing at the snowsuit clad figure picking her way through the herd. "She found all my pokemon!"
Professor Lund sighed heavily, leading Tory back towards his assistant. "Why did you wander away from her?" he asked. "She's looking after you while daddy is busy."
Tory looked up at him again with those bright blue eyes. "I wanted you to see the pokemon. Aren't they amazing?"
"They are," he replied. "But they aren't why we're down here in the snow. Daddy is here for something very important and I don't have time to play."
Tory nodded, looking away from his father. His expression hardened and he put on his serious voice. "I know, I know."
Yuko tramped towards them, holding up one arm. She waved to Tory, smiling widely as she approached. "There you are, Tory! Did you go find your daddy?"
Professor Lund's expression soured as he handed his child off to his assistant. "Please try to be more vigilant, miss Yuko. We can't have Tory wandering off alone. It could be dangerous out here."
She bowed her head apologetically. "Sorry, doctor Lund. It won't happen again."
"I know it won't," he said. "I'll be in the camp if there's anything urgent. Try not to bother me unless it's an emergency." He turned away, trampling through the blowing snow and fighting every step.
Tory slipped his hand into miss Yuko's. His disappointment was written clear as day on his face. "I wish daddy could come play with us. He never gets to have fun anymore."
Miss Yuko dropped down to one knee. "You know he loves you very much. He's just busy. This is an important expedition. This is the way things are, Tory.m."
"I wish they could be different," Tory said quietly.
Miss Yuko smiled. "Me too, kid. Me too." She held out her hand again, taking Tory's hand in her own. "Wanna go make some snowballs and pretend we're famous pokemon trainers?"
Tory's eyes lit up with excitement. "I'll be Champion Stone!"
"And I'll be the gorgeous Miss Phoebe, challenging you for your throne!"
Tory knelt down, packing a handful of snow down into a lumpy ball. He stood back up and his jaw dropped. The sky was lit a brilliant green, wavy auroras of emerald light stretching as far as the eye could see. He was vaguely aware of miss Yuko gaping up at the sky beside him, but couldn't bring himself to look away. All he could look at were the lights and try as he might, he couldn't tear himself away from their undulating patterns.
Mossdeep Space Centre, Mossdeep City, Hoenn
Whatever the visitor was, it had ceased to be when it had crashed into the ice. The expedition had only managed to locate what was left of it by the powerful waves of EM radiation streaming off the thing. The crater it had made when it crashed was already completely covered in snow and it had taken the expedition's pair of machoke nearly two whole weeks to dig it free. In the end, all they'd managed to extract was a block of ice with a glowing green gem in the middle. There were signs of organic material encased in the ice around the gem, but it evidently hadn't survived the entry into atmosphere.
Whatever it was, it wasn't from this world. It was clear to Commander Jackson that they were dealing with something beyond any of their understanding, and they had half the department heads of Hoenn's space program on the call. There were more experts that he didn't recognize, but doctor Parker from the xenobiology department assured him that they were well qualified.
Doctor Lund had his researchers gathered around the makeshift containment room. They'd erected a research facility at the South Pole remarkably fast, surprising everyone with the speed and efficiency of their efforts. Jackson supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised. LaRousse City was a technological marvel, with doctor Lund's innovative nanobots enabling things that the rest of the world could only dream of.
The visitor was still encased in ice, though the research team had begun to chip away at the block. They'd sampled the organic material around the gem, finding that the cellular structure didn't resemble anything found on earth. There were significant amounts of silicon and ammonia found during their preliminary analysis, leading some of the experts to theorize that the visitor was the first known silicon-ammonia based life form.
Doctor Lund waved at the camera. "If everyone could give me their full attention, we are about to begin."
He turned, gesturing to the machine behind him. "Our preliminary scans seem to indicate significant amounts of activity inside the gem. This activity is not unlike that of a human brain." He rapped his knuckles on the gem twice. "It is my theory that this gem serves as a neural centre of some sort. As well, it appears to be attempting communication of some kind."
He waved an arm, bringing up a screen of shifting nanites. A visual representation of the signal they had found appeared, overlaid on an image of the strange auroras in the sky. "It's emitting a repeating pattern of EM radiation, one that seems to correlate to the movements of the aurora currently covering the majority of the Southern Hemisphere."
He waved away the screen, dissolving it into a floating swarm. "I have designed a device that should replicate this signal and project it back into the containment room. Hopefully this will open some sort of dialogue with the visitor." He finished speaking and stepped out of view as an array of nanites buzzed past him.
The swarm of minuscule machines lifted doctor Lund's devices into place. Four projectors locked into position, pointing up at the ceiling. The nanites locked into place, snapping together in clusters large enough to be visible.
Doctor Lund stepped into frame again, a large pair of shaded goggles on his face. "Beginning initial test. Twenty percent power, just enough to produce a miniaturized aurora."
The contraption that doctor Lund had built lit up, a prism of laser light crisscrossing the room. The feed crackled for a moment, before clearing and revealing the spectacular swirling patterns of light.
"No response in activity. Nothing at all."
Doctor Lund frowned. "Raise the intensity to thirty percent. Continue raising it in small increments if there is no response."
They repeated the experiment three more times, pushing the light intensity up to eighty percent.
"Cut it," doctor Lund ordered. "Perhaps we should attempt a more direct contact." He waved his hand and the nanites shifted. The devices pointed down towards the gem as the nanites rearranged themselves.
"Commencing secondary test."
A plume of static erupted from the gem as pale green light lit the screen. Jackson shielded his eyes as his screen flared to a blinding white. Then the screen cut to black and the feed died.
Commander Jackson leaned back in his seat, looking across mission control at the rest of the support staff. There were only five or six other people in the room, all of them monitoring the Clef-7's transit to Luna station. It was the middle of the night and they weren't expecting anything until the Clef-7 had to insert itself into lunar orbit in the morning. They were all looking at him now, nervously tapping at their consoles and whispering to each other.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
One of the aides, a young woman fresh out of Lilycove University glanced over at him fearfully. "We just lost contact with the entire Lunar expedition. We're getting nothing from the station and Clef-7 just went dark."
His eyes widened and he couldn't help the torrent of obscenity that poured out of his mouth. He was across mission control in moments, doctor Lund and the visitor at the forefront of his mind. Something was wrong and he had a sinking suspicion that they were related.
"Get me the wide-band. Maybe we can raise them that way."
Clef-7 Transorbital Command Module, Lunar trajectory, Final approach to Luna Station
He woke slowly, the blaring alarm punching through the haze and echoing in his skull. His brain throbbed with each klaxon, seeming to drive spikes through his ears. The ship was uncomfortably still, telling him that the main generator was offline.
He opened his eyes, still in a confused daze. The command module was small, cramped even by the standards of modern spacecraft. There was room for him and his copilot, whose seat lay mysteriously empty behind him.
He craned his neck, looking down at the minuscule airlock on his left. One of the two EVA suits was missing. He breathed a silent sigh of relief and leaned back in his command seat. He was groggy and in pain, but he was fine for the moment.
He reached for the headset as it floated by, grabbing it out of the air. He slipped the local communicator over his head and flicked the switch on the side.
"Greaves, you ugly bastard. Where did you go?"
Quiet static was the answer. The man reached up for the screen in front of him, fiddling with the dials on the side of his display. The screen stayed stubbornly black and the power indicator remained dark.
He tapped on the old analog display beside the screen. They remained dead and silent.
He unbuckled his harness, slipping out and pulling himself up towards the capsule's lone viewport. They had been facing towards home, a small blue marble shining in the vast darkness. Endless blackness greeted him, only a strange purple-blue light shining on the edge of the viewport catching his eyes.
The screens roared to life, a cacophony of alerts and alarms screaming to life. He swung himself back into his command seat, silencing the alarms and dismissing all but the most urgent of the alerts. He felt the vessel jerk and grunt as her electrical systems stuttered to life. Something ground along the outside of the ship, maybe the solar panels, or the antenna extending.
A bolt of living lightning crackled around the edge of the screen. A pair of disembodied eyes floated above the screen, blinking sleepily.
"R-7, what happened?"
The rotom blinked in confusion. The strange little creature must have been inside the computer when it had shut down. They didn't take too kindly to that. He'd seen malfunctioning rotom go berserk and possess machinery, massacring the poor humans that just happened to be in the vicinity. He much preferred the safer porygon series, but even the latest models were not capable of what a rotom could do.
A garbled string of static warbled through the speakers. The disembodied eyes blinked one last time and the last few blinking alerts fell silent. "Hello, Commander Pritchard. I apologize for the d-d-delay. I was damaged in the event."
"What event?" He replied. Something had happened. Something terrible had happened. "Give me a full report."
"We lost tight-beam connection-n-n-n with Luna Station-n-n-n at 23:52. Exterior cameras show structural breakup of Luna Station at 23:56-6-6-6. We lost power at 23:58, when some kind-d-d-d of radiation-n-n-n burst hit us." There was a long pause. "I'm still analyzing the d-d-d-data, but it's like nothing I've ever seen-n-n-n before."
Pritchard sighed. "How's the ship?" he asked. "Is she seaworthy?"
R-7 paused again and he knew that something was wrong. "Our e-e-electrical systems have taken severe damages-s-s. It appears as though someone manually-y-y repaired some of the exterior connections."
"Greaves probably did," he said. "One of the EVA suits is gone."
R-7's disembodied eyes disappeared through the screen. He heard a loud spark and the muffled thump of an impact on the hull of the command pod.
The Clef-7 Orbital Command Module was a powerful machine. She roared to life now, groaning and whining under the stress of a cold start. The familiar hum of the ship's generator returned, offering some small amount of solace.
"Oh d-d-dear," R-7 spluttered. "It appears that we have been n-n-noticed."
"Noticed?" Pritchard asked cautiously. "By what?"
R-7's eyes were full of fear. The tinny speakers did nothing to calm the utter terror that Pritchard could hear in the rotom's voice. "By it."
Unknown/Undefined
Alone.
Scarce whispers in the endless dark.
Lost.
Tumbling, tumbling down through fire and light.
Cold.
Frigid impact, freezing wastelands.
Lonely.
Unanswered calls in cold darkness.
Found.
Rough hands, unfeeling steel. Not friends.
Trapped.
Lost the sky. Endless darkness. Confusion.
Quiet.
Terror, fear of silence, calls cannot reach the sky.
Hope.
Hear something. Distant friend calling me.
Closer.
Friend is coming. Must call for help.
Silent.
Help Jade-Self! Help Me!
Help Jade-Self! Help Me!
Help Jade-Self! Help Me!
HELP JADE-SELF! HELP ME!
Pain.
Camp Russell, LaRousse Science Expedition, Antarctica
He looked up at the ceiling, blinking the blinding lights away. Try as he might, the undulating lines of that strange green aurora stubbornly refused to disappear.
"Doctor Lund!" shouted a woman's voice. He felt hands grabbing at him, hauling him back up to his feet. It was Mari, blue hair let down from the tight bun she'd had it in. "Are you-"
"The visitor," he interrupted. His vision cleared slightly and he saw the distinct blue of his research assistant's hair, a young thing fresh from LaRousse Academy, supporting his weight. "What happened?"
"I don't know," Mari replied. "I can barely see."
An unintelligible shriek ripped across the room. Doctor Lund felt himself hit the floor as he clamped his hands over his ears. The scream was not audible though, and his efforts did nothing to stymie the scream.
There were more voices now, angry and surprised shouts of pain joining his and Mari's. He had to do something, had to stop the screaming before it drove them all mad or worse.
"Double the containment shell!" he roared, unsure if he could even hear his own voice anymore.
The his nanites heard him though. They didn't rely on fallible things like human frailty. The command chip was implanted in his brain, removing the need for verbal command. Still, he often found himself slipping back into the old habit of shouting orders.
He felt the rush of cold air as parts of the structure streamed towards the gleaming gem. He felt entire swathes of the swarm simply flicker off and die, vast amounts of EM radiation burning out the unshielded nanites before they could even reach the visitor.
Doctor Lund swore even as a twisting and shifting shell wrapped around the gem. The screaming pressure in his mind faded slightly and his vision cleared as the swimming aurora faded from view.
"We have to get to my fabricator," started the doctor. "My regular nanites can't take the radiation."
One of his assistants, a burly young man from Unova, stepped forward. Lund had never bothered to learn the young man's name, something he now regretted. "Sir, the containment shell is collapsing."
Doctor Lund looked down in fear and awe. "Then we have even less time than I had thought." He pointed at a pair of assistants, the burly man and Mari. "You two, carry it between you. I can swap in nanites from the facility construction as we go. We should have more than enough to reach the fabricator."
Mari looked up at him, her eyes shifting from the decaying shell of nanites and the good doctor. "Sir, are you sure that's safe?"
Doctor Lund shrugged. "At this point, leaving it here exposed could be more dangerous. We don't know what happened and allowing the visitor to break containment could prove apocalyptic." He glanced back and forth between the two assistants. "I'll have the nanites fashion some sort of sling to make it easier."
The burly man nodded. "Then let's hurry."
Doctor Lund closed his eyes for a moment. A swarm of nanites flowed down from the ceiling, slinging under the crumbling containment shell. Great patches of the facility exterior were missing, more nanites streaming down every moment to replace the dead and dying ones. A gust of frozen wind ripped through the disheveled lab, chilling the five humans down to the bone.
Mari looked over at the man as they looped their arms through the sling. She couldn't suppress the shiver of cold running down her spine. They shuffled through the blowing snow, nanites swirling around them to replace the ones that were falling dead to the ground.
It was cold.
Her hands were numb.
Her eyes frozen shut.
She couldn't hold on any longer.
The nanites tried to compensate, grabbing to her hand even as it let go. The screaming radiation was too much, killing the nanites before they could even grab hold.
The sling gave way, smashing the shell down onto the ground and killing yet more nanites. A silent scream forced them all to their knees, exposing the gleaming gem as more nanites swirled around them.
Doctor Lund was shouting order to the nanites that he couldn't hear. He could barely think, hands clamped over his ears to block out the screaming.
It suddenly went quiet. The scream died and Doctor Lund looked down. The shell was intact again, more and more nanites steadily replacing dead ones.
"We have to move," the doctor said. "Mari, get out of the way." He looped his hand through the sling, lifting it as the burly assistant did so.
They shuffled another few feet and the sling shifted as part of the bottom dropped out. The assistant grabbed the bottom of the shell, his hand crushing through layers and layers of dying nanites.
Doctor Lund saw, too late to do anything. He shouted incoherently as the psychic scream returned. He dropped to his knees as the mental pressure took over, removing all spare thoughts.
The assistant struggled as his hand crushed through the last of the nanites and directly touched the gem.
Doctor Lund felt a wave of power hit him, felt himself sailing through the blowing snow. He hit the ice, sliding to a halt in the freezing cold.
The screaming was gone, but the sky was alive. The aurora was on fire, flecks of light and power sparking between wavy lines. A beam of vibrant green light shot into the sky, painting new lines that stretched past the horizon and far into the atmosphere. He stared up in horror, realizing that they'd unleashed something terrible.
He got to his feet, watching as the assistant turned to face him. He couldn't see the gem anymore. Then the man, coat shifted and he saw the faint green glow under his shirt. He saw the man's face, or rather a vague facsimile of it replicated as if crudely drawn by a child. Then the man shifted and he saw the second body being absorbed into it, Mari's distinct blue hair flecked with snow and ice.
Doctor Lund ran. He ran and didn't look back.
Something that had once been human stumbled after him, groaning in tongues that were not it's own.
Clef-7 Transorbital Command Module, Lunar trajectory, Final approach to Luna Station
Pritchard furiously keyed in a series of commands, feeling the vessel respond under him. "Get me a course back to earth," he ordered." "something that'll slingshot us past the moon."
R-7's terrified eyes blinked dumbly.
Pritchard swore, tapping in a series of commands and hoping that he'd made the correct calculations. He slipped his harness back on, barely managing to get the buckle shut before the thrusters fired and jerked him to the side.
The local communicator sprung to life, tiny speakers crackling out a string of static. "—~**¥—"
Commander Pritchard lifted the communicator as the thrusters fired again to arrest their spin. "Say again?"
"-riT-~arD!"
"Greaves, is that you?"
R-7 shook off whatever was freezing him in place and disappeared through the screen.
"Pritchard, its fucking looking at me!"
Commander Pritchard pounded on the outer airlock release. "Get back in here," he ordered. "We're getting out of here."
"It's already coming," Greaves said ominously. "Close the hatch. Get yourself home, it's going to take me."
"What the hell are you talking about? What's noticed you?"
Something hit the ship, forcing it into a desperate spin. Static screamed out of the communicator and he could feel the scream of metal rending apart. He could hear atmosphere venting, could feel the air getting thinner with every breath. A brilliant purple shone through the viewport, blocking out the earth with its glow.
R-7 was shrieking, bouncing about the cabin and sparking in terror. Pritchard shrunk back in his chair, praying that the rotom didn't accidentally kill him.
The Clef-7 was the pinnacle of human ingenuity. It was designed to function as the command point for humanity's first permanent lunar outpost, and possessed the space for twelve adults to live in the habitation module. It was designed to withstand micrometeor impacts, the hard ride up through atmosphere and withstand the constant bombardment of cosmic radiation. It opened like a tin can.
Commander Pritchard didn't fight it. He let his breath rush from his lungs, knowing that fighting it would only kill him faster. He felt his skin begin to freeze, felt his vision swim as he started to pass out.
Red tendrils reached past him, rooting through the Clef-7's interior as if it was looking for something. He felt a presence touch his mind, watched R-7 drift away unconscious. The purple glow was all he could see.
It was gone as quickly as it had come, tossing the Clef-7 away like garbage. Pritchard felt the same screech in his mind, watching the strange spindly tendrils tear open the habitation module and rip out the humans struggling inside.
Then he turned, the remains of his vessel turning back to face the earth. He would have gasped if he had any air left to do so.
The earth was lit up a vibrant green, twisting auroras of unnatural light wrapping around the southern pole.
Pritchard felt a scream like no other and watched the purple glow rocket towards the earth. Then he felt nothing at all. Nothing but the cold darkness of the void as he drifted over the moon.
Mount Hokulani Observatory, Ula'ula Island, Alola
Big Mo had let him stay. Even after everyone else went home, Big Mo stayed with him. They stayed up all night, watching the different constellations and looking at the night's sky.
They'd spent half the night trying to get some good pictures of the fancy new aurora that was billiowing into space over the South Pole. Big Mo was a genius, but even he couldn't get a good picture. He said that we'd have a good picture in the morning, once one of the satellites orbiting the earth got close enough to get a good one.
"Here," said Big Moc in a hopeful voice. "You want to see our new moon base? It's not quite there yet, but…" his voice trailed off.
The sun was already starting to peek from beyond the horizon. Soon he'd have to go home, back to boring old school. But he had time for one peek at a new moon base.
But Big Mo was staring through the telescope intently, like something big had happened.
"What's wrong?" Sophocles asked.
Big Mo seemed to shake to life. "Go get my book," he ordered suddenly. "The big one with all my phone numbers in it."
Sophocles dashed off, running up to his big cousin's office. He grabbed the big book off his desk, grunting as he lifted it and ran back down the steps.
"Got it," he huffed proudly. "What next?"
Big Mo tossed his phone to Sophocles, diving back over to the telescope. "Start calling everyone on the 'Really Big Emergency' page. Start at the top and call until someone picks up."
Sophocles nodded and proudly saluted his cousin. He flung book open and flipped until he found the page labelled 'Really Big Emergency'.
C. Shirona
S. Oak
J. Rykker
W. Mikuri
He looked up. Beside each name was a phone number. "Who are they?"
Big Mo looked back, worry etched on his face. "People who can help us."
Sophocles nodded, picking up his cousin's phone while he furiously took notes and stole glances through the telescope. He'd phone someone and help Big Mo, like a good cousin.
Mossdeep Space Centre, Mossdeep City, Hoenn
"Something just lit up over the South Pole," called one of the aides. "Bigger than before."
"Putting it on-screen now," said a different aide.
The big screen changed, cutting to a feed from one of Unova's new orbital imaging arrays. The aurora was billowing into space, vibrant green lights twisting and folding back upon themselves.
"What's going on," Commander Jackson shouted across the room. "Somebody get a hold of Doctor Lund, and for Rayquaza's sake get me comms with the lunar expedition back!"
"Sir, I've got something coming from Alola. Guy says he's the one who first saw the space-man."
"The ones who leaked the pictures?" Jackson asked.
The aide nodded, passing over a cell-phone.
"Look here," Jackson started. "This is-"
"Hi!" shouted a kid out the phone. "I'm with Big Mo and we just found something really bad."
Jackson looked at the phone like it was growing arms and legs. "What did you find?" he asked cautiously.
"I dunno," he replied. "He won't tell me." There was a small pause. "Here, one second."
Jackson heard him put the phone down for a moment, trying to get someone's attention.
The phone picked up a moment later. "Hello, who is this?" asked a different voice.
"Commander Roger Jackson of Mossdeep Mission Control." He rolled his eyes at the unprofessional conduct that these two had displayed, trying not to sigh audibly. "Who do I have the pleasure of speaking with?"
"Molayne from Alola University, I'm preeety sure we met at the last Hoenn space expo."
Jackson thought back, recalling an awkward and lanky blonde that was more at home among orbital charts and thrust calculations than other people. "I remember you," he said. "Why are you calling me right now?"
"Something destroyed the Luna mission," he said quickly. "I'm sending the image over now."
There was a long pause as the shock of his words set it. "I'm sorry," Jackson started. "What did you just say?"
"I said I'm sending you the evidence now. It doesn't look good."
Jackson looked up, signalling for one of the aides. "We're getting something from Alola, something I want up on the screen the moment it's here."
The aide nodded, taking the phone away and running back to his station. Jackson sat heavily in his seat, looking up at the screen in dumbfounded terror.
Then it changed. The screen flicked to the photo that Molayne had sent, a crystal clear image of the expedition's fate.
The Clef-7 was in pieces, the orbital module spinning away into space. The habitation module was torn open, debris leaking out slowly and bodies still clearly strapped into their seats.
Behind them, the Lunar station was a ruin. It no longer resembled a structure of any kind and was just a debris field floating in front of the Clef-7.
The room was silent, not a breath in or out. Nobody dared to say a word, not with the images of utter failure still on the screen.
The aide passed him back the phone. "Is this a trick?" he asked numbly.
The answer on the other side was simple. "No," he replied.
"I have to call the champion," Jackson said. "He must be notified."
"I've already done so," the voice replied.
Jackson sighed heavily. "Then that's all there is to it," he said bitterly. "We're all out of a jo-"
"Sir!" shouted another aide. "We've got movement from Sky Tower! Rayquaza is mobile!"
Commander Jackson rose from his seat, trying to keep his breathing calm. "He hasn't moved since he quelled Groudon and Kyogre…"
"We've got something else entering our atmosphere as well, Southern Hemisphere."
Jackson's eyes widened. "Then he flies to save us once again." He lifted the phone up to his face. "I'm sorry, I have to make a call." He hung up, slowly and methodically dialling the number for home.
Rayquaza had only risen last time to stop Hoenn's deities from destroying her completely. For it to stir again, so soon after expending so much strength… Jackson couldn't fathom the danger that they all must have been in.
The phone answered on the third ring. His wife's happy voice greeted his. It was good to talk one last time, just in case.
Camp Russell, LaRousse Science Expedition, Antarctica
It was still following him. He could see it sometimes, a bright green glow through the blowing snow. He could see shadows, what looked like a thousand fingers reaching out towards him.
The truck was gone, along with the workers. The tracks led off into the snow. He didn't know when they'd fled, perhaps when the building had started falling to pieces around them, perhaps when the aurora in the sky had bathed them all in winding green light.
"Tori!" he shouted.
He climbed the hill of snow overlooking the ice shelf. He had no idea where his son might be, no idea what had even happened. For all his intelligence, all his knowledge, he had made a terrible mistake.
"Tori!" he shouted again.
A purple-blue star cut through the green light. The streams of winding green contracted around it, entwining with the beams of purple and blue shining off the newcomer.
Doctor Lund fell back, gazing up at the Visitor in awe.
It stumbled past him, a dozen tendrils of remade flesh stretching out where arms should have been. The torso was triangular in shape, twisted and contorted from its former human form.
He gazed up at the purple star and watched a thousand tendrils of waxy red descend from the purple star. It looked closer and realized that the star was no star, but a symmetrical triangle.
"It remade them…" Doctor Lund said slowly. "In its own image. This creature is unlike anything I've ever seen before."
The green gem turned to face him as the purple star descended towards them. He caught a glimpse of Mari's face atop the triangle and shuddered. Then it turned back and looked at its kind.
Waxy red tendrils wrapped around the green gem, prying it from the chest of its stolen body. The misshapen corpse crashed to the ground, a puppet who's strings had just been cut.
The lights in the sky retracted, retreating back into their respective gems. Both pulsed together in unison, casting the ice shelf in a green and purple hue. The tendrils of red wrapped tighter around the gem, melding together and forming another triangle around the green gem.
A burning beam of white hot light engulfed the Visitors. It carried on, plunging into the ice from above and superheating the frigid water below.
A plume of steam erupted from the ice shelf, the ocean below violently boiling in an instant. The entire ice shelf bucked and cracked, splintering in a thousand places. A geyser of boiling water exploded, huge chunks of ice catapulting into the sky.
Doctor Lund fell back as the ice below him buckled, sliding down towards the impact centre. He rolled uncontrollably, sliding on the ice as sealo and walrein plummeted into the ice all around him.
He rolled onto his back, opening his eyes to the white-gold fire burning in the sky. He saw the green scales, marvelled at the golden light shining from the sky god. Rayquaza had taken notice of the Visitors.
He saw the sheet of solid ice falling towards him. He saw his death rushing up to meet him. He didn't feel the end.
The Ice, Antarctica
The truck engine roared over the sound of the storm. It revved higher, the driver gunning it towards the coast. The ship that had brought them here was still anchored off the ice shelf, waiting for the return journey.
Tori Lund peered out the back window, clutching to Miss Yuko's hand. He watched the green dragon come from the sky. He watched the explosion of steam that cracked the ice beneath the truck. He watched the shining monsters emerge from the plume of steam unharmed, twisting and writhing arms reaching out for the sky god.
He watched the terrible creatures do battle with Hoenn's saviour, casting it down into the ocean with flashes of vibrant light. But the sky god was stronger than both, and burned with furious golden light. Rayquaza grew stronger, angrier. It laid waste to the frozen wasteland, carving burning furrows into the rocky land and melting great glaciers that had stood for millennia.
The Visitors fought back valiantly, conjuring shields of strange light to defend themselves. But it was for naught. The sky god was not to be defied. It cast them down, burying the shining gems in the shifting ice. There they stayed, trapped as the ice refroze around them.
Tori sat there in shock and fear even after Rayquaza announced its victory over the broken ice shelf. He didn't move until they got back to the boat, only shuffling quietly to the waiting helicopter.
Tori gazed silently out the window at the ruined landscape as they flew away. He didn't stir, didn't speak even when asked a question. He was silent.
Just like the ice.
Unknown/Undefined
Alone.
Scarce whispers in the endless dark.
Lost.
No answer, no friends.
Weak.
Punished by golden fire.
Alone
No answer. No friend.
All alone.
Silence.
