Lane paced back and forth behind the computer, growing increasingly frustrated as the minutes passed. Within her little barrier the strange influence emanating from the ruined ship could not reach her—but maintaining such a powerful mental effect for so long was wearing her down.
"How much longer?" she asked, nudging the Pokémon's shoulder gently. "Not to rush you, Akiko. But I'm rushing you."
She glared over her shoulder at Lane. She would probably think it was strange to see such human expressions coming from a Pokémon, if she didn't already know what Akiko had been. And it was all kinda-sorta her fault, so...
"Do you want to take over? There are two distinct systems here. I already know what the human half is doing—we have a flood of electricity. Those pipes, with the steam rising from them? Those are liquid nitrogen. Megawatts are pouring into that bit of metal, and the energy is just... gone."
Even Lane knew something was wrong there. "You mean like—conservation of energy? Breaking physics?"
"I know it doesn't look that way, but there's a working computer in that metal wreck, and Team Plasma is connected to it. It keeps sending an instruction, repeatedly, but I can't even read it. I don't know the language."
"Let me see." Lane leaned over her shoulder, staring down at the screen.
Elisa shifted, circling in annoyance. "Can we just get the flower out already? At least let me fly while I wait!"
And make the shield big enough for the whole room? No thank you. Lane shifted the satchel away from Elisa, making sure the strap was secure. Just in case.
"I don't know why you would expect to know it." The screen flashed, then was filled with a strange image of glowing blue lines. "This is as decoded as I can make it."
Lane's eyes went wide. She reached past the gardevoir, her fingers on the screen. She moved the image around, rotating it in simulated 3D space. "That's the language the ancient explorers used who settled this planet. Only... that's barely readable, what a mess."
"You speak it?"
She nodded absently. "You could too, with practice. It was designed for psychics. It's a visual translation of a mental pattern—a thought, along with the emotions that went with it. Big ones can hold sensations too, signs and sounds and memories. This one... doesn't say anything at all. It's gibberish, but the emotional undertone is here. It's... terror. The ruins are afraid?"
"No." Akiko pushed her back, then straightened her dress. "The Plasma computer is transmitting this. It's receiving something back, but their computers can't interpret it. The important part is this. I think this signal is making the debris produce the influence we can feel."
"Lane, you need to see this!" Elisa called. But her voice was so small, so easy to ignore.
She was figuring it out. "I wonder if we're looking at some intact part of the Starfall's defenses. Plasma blasts it with this fear signal, and it responds, still trying to protect its crew."
Something bit her ear, as hard as a little toothless shaymin could bite. "Lane! Stop with the computer and look!"
She reached to the side, snatching the Pokémon off her shoulder and into her arms. But as she did so, she finally turned, and saw what Elisa wanted her to notice.
Shadowy figures had appeared in the doorway. Two men and a Pokémon. None carried weapons, or wore Plasma uniforms. Lane settled the Pokémon down onto her shoulder. "See if you can stop the signal," she whispered. "I'll deal with this."
Akiko didn't even react, lowering her head to the keyboard to return to work. But there was a feverish energy in her fingers now. Something about having humans around always had that effect on her.
Lane had felt that nervous fear, once. Humans were so much bigger than her natural form, and more dangerous in groups. There was every reason to be cautious when they were around.
"Anyone who could make it this far obviously knows what they're doing," she said, gesturing over her shoulder. "We think we know what Team Plasma was doing here, it's just about finding a way to reverse it."
The two humans shared a look. Lane recognized the taller of the two, the one with the fancy yellow and orange jacket. She'd seen him on television before. He liked to... endorse products?
That costume only made it more obvious: he was more fluff than man. Yet his hand was on his belt, and five poké balls rested there. So he was a trainer, and apparently a well-equipped one too. Any one of those could be far more dangerous than a gun.
Lane would never have worried about human interference when they were somewhere so isolated. But while she kept up her shield against the artifact's mental effects, that also meant she couldn't feel the emotions of anyone outside.
She could only watch his face, and hope he got closer. "You don't work here?" he asked, eyeing her jacket. "We saw those uniforms on the way in."
She laughed nervously, then winced as Elisa bit her shoulder. She dropped the shaymin, who seemed prepared for that, angling herself directly for the satchel. She landed on it, then started worming her head inside. Jerk! You could've asked!
"Obviously not." She gestured with one hand, and the badge lifted from her breast-pocket, then crushed itself down into a little ball. Such simple manipulation took almost no effort from her, but it was enough to make the man's mouth hang open.
Exactly the reaction she was hoping for. Lane took another few steps closer to them, putting herself squarely between them and Akiko. The Pokémon needed uninterrupted time to work. "I have no interest in this facility or anything beyond this room. But the chunk of debris there, I believe it's responsible for the way everything is acting."
The man extended his free hand towards her, grinning. "I'm Shiloh Lehman, Pokémon Master. I've come here to save the world."
Lane took one of his hands, then shook. The contact brought a flood of emotions with it—the exhilaration of a hunt finally over, the pride of accomplishment, and only a single thread of fear. That was the feeling of... ambition?
She yanked her hand free, eyes widening. Maybe she should use her powers on him the same way she had on that Kanto Defense soldier. "I think we have things under control," she went on. "It might take a little while, but we're figuring things out."
"You said you knew." Hadn't there been two of them there? Lane glanced suddenly to the side, but there was no human standing there anymore. Nothing at all, other than the faint whirring of little electric engines, but without a source. "We just need to destroy this. There's no reason to wait!"
One hand snapped down to his belt. He lifted a poké ball squarely in both hands, then released its contents into the room. Lane backed away on instinct, in case it was something particularly dangerous. This time, it was.
She was right to be cautious. The light flared, expanding well over her height, before depositing something on the ground beside her with an earth-shattering thump. Finally the light faded, and she saw what he had called.
A massive tyranitar, big even by Pokémon standards. Its eyes were hardened, its rocky coat covered with hundreds of tiny scars and imperfections. This was a Pokémon who had fought many times, and won.
"Tyranitar!" he yelled, voice commanding. "See that pillar? Destroy it with Dark Pulse!"
Lane's stomach twisted in revulsion as she felt the powerful attack ripple over her. She had barely opened her mouth to protest before it struck the debris, detonating in a terrible explosion.
She didn't think of the consequences, she just acted, crossing the room in a single rapid teleport, and reappearing beside Akiko. She tackled the Pokémon to the ground, abandoning her shield against the strange energy-field in favor of a hard, pink bubble.
Good thing too, because metal shrapnel rained down around them, ripping through the console Akiko had been working on and several of the nearby banks as well. There was a smaller, secondary explosion, a flash of sparks, then a huge blast of fog, as liquid nitrogen became a smoky gas in an instant.
She cowered there for a few more seconds, until the sound of shattering rock began to fade. It was replaced with several alarms, all blaring together, droning in her ears.
"What... was that?" Akiko asked. "I didn't even save the signal, Lane. What are we supposed to do now?"
Her satchel shifted, and something emerged from within, expanding until it wouldn't fit anymore. Elisa hopped out onto the stone beside her, shaking out his larger form, like stretching after a long time sitting down.
Lane too sat up, turning to look back towards the entrance. The fog was fading now, blasting away down the hall. As it cleared, she saw another Pokémon standing beside Shiloh, a lean dragon-type with red goggles over its eyes. Flygon's wings beat powerfully, clearing the air.
Lane dropped her shield, rising to her feet. She tossed the torn lab coat to the ground around her, leaving only the tank-top and trousers underneath.
"And with that, Orre is saved by the intrepid bravery and preparation of Shiloh Lehman!" he proclaimed, striding dramatically through the fog. The tyranitar followed just behind him, as though it expected another fight before too long. And maybe it should.
Lane watched him come, her hands balling into fists. "Do you have any idea what you've just done? That computer had the key to reversing this. My hacker wasn't even close to figuring out how it worked yet. We had hours of work left!" Korina would chastise her for failing to keep control of herself. But Lane wasn't even trying anymore. Her eyes burned, radiating directionless energy. Any tiredness she had felt before was gone in the face of this overwhelming stupidity.
"The source is gone," he said, stubbornly. "There's no more reason to fear. Thanks to my help, you're done. You can turn your attention to more important things." He adjusted his jacket, then posed, surrounded by shards of broken metal and cracked glass. "I suspected who you were. But how was I supposed to know you could master such a perfect human disguise? Those powers were beyond any human psychic."
He drew something else out of his pack, a long thin cable almost as tall as he was. In it were a dozen different openings, each one filled with an identical ultra-ball. The first few were empty, suggesting he had already used them. This man was wealthy enough to burn them like candles.
He tore one free, then tossed it up and down. "I've been hunting you a long time, Mew. My fans have called me a Pokémon master for years, but I've always known it wasn't true. How could I be, without the oldest and rarest Pokémon of all?"
Then he threw it at her head.
Lane was so utterly dumbfounded that she didn't react at all, and the ball struck her right in the chest. It opened, blasting her with white light.
It shouldn't have worked. Balls used genetic identifiers to prevent them from working on humans. A mew disguise went right down to the genetic level, or at least it could.
But Lane didn't bother with such precision—indeed, she flaunted the boundary, keeping certain changes in brain structure that made using psychic powers easier, and visual identifiers like her hair as well. It was just enough distinction for the ball to know what she was.
With one last gasp of protest, she vanished from sight, leaving a pile of empty clothes behind her.