Pokémon: Wings of Beginnings
Chapter 22: At the Worst Possible Time
August 14th, 2020
8:55 a.m.
Battle Subway
"...Haah... Ahh..." Fran held his chest quietly, he didn't know why he was feeling some sort of pressure now ever since he left HQ for this mission to dispatch of an dangerous Dulled finding its' way through the undergrounds beneath Unova in the form of the Battle Subway.
He was feeling perfectly fine the previous day, no symptoms detected. So, why...?
"Fran, are you alright?" Fran looked over at Sunai inquiring of his condition. "You've been showing many signs of discomfort since our departure."
"I...I-I'm... alright..." Fran assures. Even as he said that, he felt some form of aches surge around his figure.
"It's better if we find some help." Lusiane interjected. "Who knows what you have..."
"N-No, I'm alright... Really..." Fran insisted. "We're already at the Subway... We can't turn back now just for me..."
"It would jeopardize the mission and get us all in trouble," Lusiane countered, reaching for the comms. "You won't like any harm to come to us right? Leave this to us and go back to get medical attention."
"B-But..." Fran huffed. "I'll be... fine... P-Please..."
"You're surprisingly adamant for who you normally are." Sunai remarks.
"You're not feeling so good." Lenna analyzed.
"I-I am-" Fran stutters.
"I had already contacted them," Lusiane cut off, showing great concern for this adamant Flygon. "Remember to take care of your own health, Weiss will be taking over your spot. Please, never forget to take care of yourself, how will you help if you push away your pain to help others? You will just do more harm than good, remember that."
"..." Fran looked down quietly.
"Do you understand?"
"...Y-Ye-"
Fran suddenly collapsed before he could finish his sentence, breathing weakly.
"Fran!?" The trio spoke in shock. They quickly went to work and examined his condition. However, what he's experiencing right now... it wasn't like anything.
Lenna moved one of her bouquet arms off his forehead. She didn't feel any form of fever.
"His heartbeat... it's oddly fluctuating greatly. At one moment, it's accelerated, and the next, it's... decelerated to a calm...before it rotates back to that previous state." Sunai speaks in astonishment.
"We need to send him back to ASAP!" Lusiane screamed into the comms.
The surprised tones of the voices handling communications now scrambled before complying. They kept watch over Fran... All of a sudden, he's fine. And just moments after, he fell into a dangerous condition never seen nor heard of.
What... what is happening right now?
"Alright, they'll be here in an hour. Rght now, we have to get Fran some attention." Lusiane informs.
Sunai and Lenna nodded in response.
"Come on, here, eat this Aspear Berry, it will help with heating up your body," Lusiane told Fran, holding out said berry.
"..." Fran opened his eyes, but just narrowly. He took the berry, but lethargic as he did so. His mouth opened slightly, nibbling onto the berry and taking out small chunks of flesh from it.
What was this feeling? He didn't know but he heard a voice.
"N-nn...?" He whimpered, curling as he heard the voice's whispers. It was like... a line spoken by many collective beings, echoing to bring understanding to him.
Chosen? What did it mean?
"S-Stop... I... I'm..." he begins to mumble quietly, hoping the voices stop reverberating inside of him. Alas, the voice grew stronger, pulling him more into each wave of sound.
Then suddenly, darkness overtook him. He couldn't hear his friends call for him.
August 14th, 2020
9:54 a.m.
Battle Subway
"...And that's what happened." Lenna finished after Weiss had teleported Fran back outside.
"I see..." Weiss frowned, taking a glance back at the stairway leading outside to Nimbasa City. "To suddenly collapse like that in an unknown state..." The rest nodded silently in agreement. "We need to hurry down to the trains. They allowed us to use one to travel across the tracks."
"Careful." Lusiane added. "There may be some electricity that may shock you if you fall onto the rails."
Sunai nods in agreement while they walked down the stairs to one of the many platforms of the Subway.
"It seems to be void of life..." Lenna commented, looking at the normally busy subway where trainers usually come around to test their skills.
"It is. Seeing that it has to be closed from the public right now due to this threat." Sunai speaks in agreement. Their feet touch onto the platform, at the end of the stairs. Just in front of their view is a train car connected to several other cars to complete one train. "Right now, Pokémon like us are the most capable of handling the Dulleds."
"I wonder..." Lusiane looked. "Are the trains still operational?"
They heard a call from the comms. "Don't worry. They allowed us to operate this train right here." Came Zakh's voice. Back at HQ, he tapped onto the keyboard. "Preparations had to be done late night from Atad. He did all the work to connect the controls of the train and the train tracks in the Subway."
"Too bad Iron's not here after that incident with his glass eye..." Safka lamented. "It feels like an incomplete family now."
"No thanks to someone." Zakh grumbles. He turned to the side. "...By the way, why did you choose to wear that today?" It was true. This day, the serpent has worn something around her serpentine figure.
"What, you like it?" Safka flirted. "I made it myself."
His face burned. "But, this..." He took another look, this... dress around her. It was a purple dress that covered her chest and entire waist but left the back exposed with golden outlines having matching stitches. The part on her chest parted in the middle to show some cleavage. Her skirt was separated from each stitched by the golden stitches. She also wore a choker around her neck, the choker had some see-through cloth around it.
"Say, I am not a typical damsel-in-distress, I can help you, my Hubby~" She flirted.
"I am not your Hubby!" Zakh yells, his face much redder. "...And what do you mean, 'help me'?" He questions, feeling unnerved at his very own words.
"...I shouldn't let you fight alone with Rena gone," Safka answered. "Fighters in the Research Department are rare so I can't let you do all the muscles all the time. Even if you got some nice muscles."
"...I...I see." Zakh looked down quietly at the hear of that name... the one who gave him these prosthetic parts... There was some truths in that very statement: he still went out on his own to Frost Cavern despite the hauntings of the outside world. Even if many Research Department members are less able at combat work, he still headed out on his own decisions.
Perhaps... it reignited some parts in him that he left untouched...
He circled his right arm by the side, looking at the display of the Subway map. "...I need extra eyes on signature detection."
"Okay then~" Safka sang her usual cheerful tune.
Zakh nodded and he spoke to the comms. "So... you all head into a train and prepare yourselves. It could burst out of the walls at best." There was a pause as he trails off.
...He realized that he didn't silence the radio just now. The white fur on his face hit a bright pink as it steams and he screams out his next words. "You didn't hear anything, got it!? Don't speak a word! I'm NOT over her clothes!"
"Clothes?" Lenna wondered.
"Are you two talking about Rena?" Lusiane guessed.
A pause for a while before Zakh murmurs, "...Yes."
"Rena Neuron, one, if not, the top Researcher from the Research Department." Sunai recalls.
"She used to be just a researcher until one incident happened and since that incident, she is among the better researcher with skills in combat." Lusiane added.
"Yes. She partook in missions which were more fruitful with her analytic skills. Even more into studying about otherwordly planes, worlds different than ours." Weiss states.
"...If you recall, she is responsible for giving me these parts." Some silence came when they heard about the risk needed to do this. Even with her intellect, it still had some flaws. Zakh's survival was slim when he took these implants but he still took them despite the risks. It was a miracle that he survived it but it left him in a coma for several days.
"And the information about Dulled after she disappeared..." Lusiane finished, looking over the bestiary they had.
"...Yes... Many that we are given knowledge of for the ones we know." Zakh nods.
"Indeed. With that collection of reports, we found out more about ones we have yet to encounter during them, and learning how to effectively deal with those who are reactive upon near-death conditions." Sunai agrees.
"...Yes." Came a quiet mutter from Zakh. It was more clear that he still deeply regrets about the events that caused him to be this. The regular cup of water with dissolved aspirin said so.
"...Well, no need to beat yourself over the old scars." Safka curled around Zakh, snapping him out of his regrets. "Mission start!"
"Aaah! Let my arms out!" He shouts.
The team looked around and saw some lights on a trailer open up. Some covered their eyes upon the sudden lighting and held their comms.
"Taking control." Safka declared.
"Get... inside." Zakh instructs. They nodded and did as he told them. The interior was quite clean, managed well after maintenance, it seems. Other than the set of doors at the front and the back, glass windows by the sides to provide a view outside of the underground tracks. "We'll start the train. Again, keep a close watch around."
"Roger that." Lusiane affirmed, scanning the clarity of each window.
The doors of the trailer closes and the group felt the train begin movement above the tracks. They wobbled a bit from the sudden movement before remembering what Takan taught them when fighting on moving platforms. They deployed their weapons out and analyzed the surroundings.
"Appears everything's clear for now." Sunai observes. "But it's just the beginning here." The other three agreed and readied their stance. They read the bestiary of the Dulled signals found here. "It once only ate earth, but growing larger allows it to consume more harder minerals... even through metal..." Only the metallic plated tunnels greeted them with some lights working on the walls.
"It's appearance is that of a worm..." Lusiane read. "Radius, six feet long. Length, twenty or thirty kilometers long. This must be the reason why many stations were blocked off. It attacks mainly have with the number of teeth the mouth has."Lusiane read more about this Dulled. Extendable tongue reinforced with growth... It could reach to the evolution to slice diamond apart... But it was noted that it suffers more damage on impacts to its' tongue compared to even inside of it.
Better to take note of it than later. Lusiane looked at the rest. "How long was it underground?" She asked.
"It started around here roughly yesterday." Zakh answers. "It can continue to eat down at the Subway until above can't hold it any longer... And let it keep growing, it will eat more and more, emptying the undergrounds of Unova."
"If that were the case, Nimbasa City..." Lenna began with dread.
"Yes. Without any foundation to hold it, it will collapse, if that's what you're thinking." Zakh finished.
"...So that means, we need this item to attract it to us." Lusiane looked over the bag Sunai brought along. He brought out one clear capsule from there. Inside of it, brown energy circulates around the space in a loop. Even holding it... the breath of the earth could be felt... "Essence of the Tremorforge." Lusiane guessed.
"Roughly." Zakh scanned the map system. "It is naturally not much, but releasing even minimal lets earth energy feel reverberation."
"Enough to follow us," Lusiane took a deep breath while Weiss sent out a card.
"And just as I said that... I think I see a massive signature coming over here."
The group of four turned, eyeing the walls they are passing by, all prepared for a sudden attack. The sounds were just the running of wheels against the track, the slight turns from a turn...
...And the tear of metal as a mouth appears from there just behind where the train travelled.
"Engaging Terra Eater!" Lusiane declared while she vaulted back to evade a tongue that was aimed at her, putting some distance back while taking note of the direction the train was going.
"Quick..." Weiss notes, ducking to evade one tongue swing, watching it easily tear through metal and glass as it did just now.
"We'll keep the front in check!" Zakh reminds them. "But we'll inform you if we have to make turns with the track junctions!"
"Understood." Sunai replies, aiming and firing two successive shots at the Terra Eater. Its' tongue moves to evade the speeding bullets projectiles and it begun to rear its' body back, some distance growing between it and the train.
"Fall back!" Lusiane alerted as she ran back while Lenna fired an Energy Ball with a back step. The Terra Eater then shot forward, mouth wide open and covering most of the car before it clamps it's jaws down, tearing off half of the train car. Sparks sprays out of the frayed wires hanging from the remaining half of the car, smoke fading off from the Energy Ball it took during the lunge.
"Next car!" Sunai slid the doors by the end of the cars as they retreated to the next train car.
Lusiane grabbed her chakrams back and leaped toward the door while evading a tooth fire at her. Lenna followed Sunai after she sent several leaves above her and remained stationary. Weiss placed down cards in front of him and used the leaves Lenna deployed to increase their firepower. He waited and stared defiantly at the Terra Eater as it fired its tongue at him.
"Hydro! Freeze!" He announces. Upon announcing the attack, the cards glowed while Weiss teleported into the next trailer.
Sunai loaded a bullet and aimed for the jawlines while he swerved to evade a tooth shot. "Flood Wall." He speaks and fires the shot.
The combined effects hit the tongue that caused it to suffer a blast of high-pressured water and making the appendage flail while a pained screech rung out from the mouth before more water burst and then afterward began to freeze up.
Lenna waved her sword. "Withered Storm." The leaves she left that Weiss drained of their fragrance and beauty that left them dry and ugly. They flew at the teeth fired and crashed them. They pierced through and hit the frozen layers of the tongue.
The creature roars again as its' tongue is brutally damaged by the relentless withered leaves, dealing more than what many assumed would do for dead plant life. As it did so, poison reeked against the surface while chakrams flew down toward it like a cyclone.
"Whirlwind Vacuum!" Came Lusiane's announcement. The rapid rotating chakrams moved to a speed that they themselves created pressurised blades around them to release in a frenzy. "Turn to shreds!" Lusiane barked and waved her arms down to increase the speed of the chakrams and struck the weakened spots of the tongue.
The Terra Eater howls with the attack able to slice against the flesh of the tongue, coming to a halt as the chakrams spun about.
With the train's movement, it soon is cloaked away from visibility. "It's still alive," Zakh informs the group. "Don't let your guard down!"
"Back up!" Safka announced. The group responded with affirmation, moving through the next car and feeling a violent shake, causing near stumbles. "What?!" Sunai turned back and saw teeth appear from the left side, tearing the previous car off from the train, presenting the view of the Terra Eater crunching onto the metallic car from there as the train continued on its' way through the tracks.
"Brace yourself for a right turn!" Zakh alerts them. Ahead from the train's travelling track, there were overthrown train cars blocking the left turn from that junction. Lusiane grabbed a hold of the railings while looking back to see if the Terra Eater would lunge itself again while ready to push herself onward, Lenna had vines spread around her while some sprout in front of her to avoid any projectiles from hitting her, Weiss held a railing while channelling energy into a card and ready to throw it should the need arise, Sunai prepared at the left handed side while changing the shots in his bayonet and he prepared to aim.
"Now!" Safka exclaimed, pressing the button that caused the rails to turn to the right side. The train followed the turn, avoiding the potential crash into the trains.
"Beautiful Mirage!" Lenna announces and waved her rapier to send out seeds to bounce off the walls and fall on the rails with the Terra Eater approaching them. The seeds then emitted a rainbow-colored miasma out.
The Terra Eater saw the miasma, turning to a different direction into a wall, but that didn't stop it from taking in some of the miasma during its' redirection.:
"Thank you for lending me that book." Lenna thanked Safka. "The poison was effective."
"The pleasure is all mine~" Safka declared with pride.
"Yeah, you were always good with envenomation techniques..." Zakh comments.
"But don't get distracted now." Safka reminded. "The venom weakened its movement but it is still pursuing you."
"Affirmative." Sunai nodded. He held and aimed carefully, his eyes covered by membranes and making them appear dark. Everyone nodded about Sunai's accuracy being very exceptional that he can aim using his sense of hearing. They watched as Sunai took aim and listen for anything approaching them. He heard the rumbling that was weaker than before, the trains that it rammed into and poison it took caused much damage for him to easily aim it. He waited for the exact moment while the communications checked for the number of trailers left.
"You guys only have three trailers left." Zakh tells them.
"We shouldn't rest easy, either." Sunai notes, targeting the wounded tongue trashing about in an attempt to dodge any more hits harming it's more vulnerable tongue.
He waited, then he heard it about to lunge at them from the side of the trailer.
"There!" He instantly swerved and moved back, pulling the trigger with it aiming at the side. Just at the Terra Eater bursts from the wall, a bullet left through shattered glass.
It hit the top of the worm's mouth, glowing a bright blue inside from its' latched spot.
Lusiane grabbed Sunai by the tail and yanked themselves to the vines Lenna deployed to pull them into the next trailer while Weiss deployed a card to separate the trailer before it could cause the entire train to derail from the impact. The two managed to get out of the trailer before it was destroyed by the Terra Eater.
"Great save." Sunai commented, now with them only with two cars remaining.
"It was risky for you to do that." Lusiane replied. "I was just increasing your chance to escape."
"I know what I was doing with that shot. Now when that moment arise..."
"Indeed," Lusiane readied her chakrams as the other two laded the second last trailers with some traps. "This must work, Weiss."
"It was a good thing there was no Dark-type that would make communications impossible to give us this plan," Lenna eyed Weiss while she let out some leaves at the seats."
"...Yes..." Weiss mutters as he double-checked what he has set, looking and shifting two bright yellow cards by the side along with a blue and a red. "It was well enough..."
"Otherwise, we would likely... perish." Sunai remarks.
"Don't say that!" Safka suddenly barked, causing everyone to stare at her while the Terra Eater was trying to recover. "...Oh, I mean, you ready? We're nearing a dead end so hurry up."
...A... dead end? "You have four minutes before you'll crash against some overthrown trailers."
And unfortunately, further ahead of the tracks they were on that weren't obstructed by damaged trailers, there was a cluster of those all cramped together in the tunnel.
"Crash?" They all said at once.
"Yes, now hurry up!" Safka exclaimed.
"And if you want to ask us to speed up, you can derail from the tracks and shorten the timing to crash!" Zakh reminds.
The rest already retreated to the last trailer as Weiss prepared the makeshift bomb they were supposed to deploy as the Terra Eater approached. Three minutes left, they had to end it here and now.
"..." As Sunai aimed, he begun to weave his fingers across the air in front of him. At that, faint lines started to spread around in front of the barrel of the bayonet. The lines intertwined and weaved around, creating the form of a pale blue sigil.
"I'll use these." Weiss looks at the two glowing yellow cards. "Make great use of it."
"I never wanted to use this but..." Lenna waved her rapier in front of her while toxic mists form around the blade. "...No choice then."
"Alright," Lusiane spun her chakrams around to make them glow. "End this swiftly."
They all had to wait, for that moment to come. All or nothing, nothing that would lead to more devastation to life... And come it did, as the Terra Eater once again came into view, chasing after the train.
"Here it comes!" Safka warns.
It screeches, now evident of fatigue catching up to it with the damages done onto it with the attack, lunging in with a stretch and tearing the car off from the train, just like they all needed.
"The bigger they are..." Lenna started as she was about to unleash Twisted Flora.
"The harder they fall, no?" Sunai remarks, Final Testament readying.
"Then let us..." Lusiane let her chakrams glow to use Madness Swarm.
"...end this!" Weiss finishes, unleashing the two yellow cards to conjure Super Galvanize.
The trailer exploded once it was devoured, the Terra Eater screeched in agony.
"It's wide open!" Safka exclaimed.
"Now!" Zakh yells.
The four nodded.
"Madness Swarm!" Lusiane threw her chakrams forward, that seemed to multiply due to the speed she threw them.
"Twisted Flora!" Lenna thrusted her rapier forward to launch vines with toxic thorns out that rammed into one side of the Terra Eater while toxins that could kill an elephant in an instant implanted in the Dulled.
"Final Testament!" Sunai releases a bullet into the sigil, but what came out from that was a salvo of blue beams streaking through the space and bombarding the Terra Eater with each relentless beam that homed onto it.
Weiss nodded as he initiated his plan. "Magi Chain: Exceed!" At the announcement, the cards residue energy bursts into lances, all following after another. At the middle, a grand spark of energy forms in there, combusting into several blasts inside of the giant worm, there was an impossible rate for the tongue to even escape any of the bursting magic inside of it.
"Jump!" Lenna yells and threw seeds out of the trailer. They all responded, running and jumping out of the train. The seeds planted themselves on the ground and vines sprouted to catch the group while some vines blocked the path the train went and a large explosion erupted with the vines blocking the debris from hitting them with Weiss sending out cards to block some that went through the vines.
They all remained there in silence before feeling the heat lessen. Letting some vines down, they could see from the front, the dissolving remains of the base of the Terra Eater.
"Well there we go, mission complete~" Safka congratulated.
"Indeed." Sunai remarks and he dusts himself off.
"Alright... Repairs need to be reported for the Battle Subway..." Zakh starts. He grumbles. "This damage report will be long to note and to support the government..."
"Yes, seems we'll be joining Professor on one of his errands then..." Safka commented.
"...Time I have to put on those again, huh."
A hum came from the comms. "Glad to see you out and I know a nice shirt you can put on~"
"Wh-what shirt?" His voice returned to wary.
A light, teasing giggle. "It is the right size."
"Right si-" Zakh was heard yelping from shock.
"...Anyways, the mission is complete." Lusiane spoke out. "Let's check up on Fran."
They nodded to each other, looking at the tracks. While they walked, Lenna began to wonder about the sudden illness Fran received. True, he was okay during the entire journey but now he got deathly ill all of a sudden. She wonder if it had something to do when he spotted that the way to Castelia City was...
...It was still under heavy work to defrost the entire metropolis covered in ice. She had the same feeling of failure upon seeing it for she was among the members who took on that mission but she didn't get ill as he did. That may not be the case. She continued to walk alongside her teammates when...
"!!!" Lenna gasped in surprise, stopped on her tracks, and looked back at the tunnel behind them, feeling an ominous aura coming deep within. Yet she never knew why.
"Lenna?" She heard Weiss's voice.
"...Yes?" Lenna asked. "I've felt something but...I don't know what it was."
"...Hmmm..." He pondered. "...I'd say that this morning mission had worked plenty of more than a sweat on us, but..." There was a slight pause. "...Honestly, it's a suspicion, but we'd best think about it when we've rested enough to have a clearer mind."
Lenna looked down quietly. Perhaps he is right. Thinking about it right now... must be because of her being exhausted. She never fought on a moving train before and that Dulled still took much of their stamina due to its high rank. It was better to head back but she knew that they would return back here one day. Huh? Why did she had this feeling?
"Lenna?"
"...I'm fine," Lenna assured, after one final look, she followed the others back to HQ.
August 14th, 2020
11: 21 a.m.
WINGS HQ
"It takes a week for a new glass eye to be made..." Iron told Claus. "Will this work?" Claus looked at the Shiny Metang wearing an eyepatch over where the Dynacrystal was located. It was silver to match his framework with the strap around his entire body that it almost felt like a normal human can wear it to cover their entire torso. He was pardoned a day-off until the glass eye was made, it all happened because of some porn magazine destroying the previous one.
"It is what could be managed right now." Claus explains. "...At least, I hope."
"Feels itchy..." Iron commented while rubbing the sides near the eye socket.
"This is the first day..." Claus comments. "Your body might be adjusting to this."
"I've never been let outside since the Dynacrystal won't hide." Iron spoke out. "It cannot replace my eye."
"Mom? Da-AHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Iron felt something rupture into his eye in that very moment. It burnt and twisted about inside his eyeball, making red appear everywhere...
He was a little Beldum before, this was his only eye. It was then that the red begun to spread about, he couldn't see anything from outside the red. What was happening outside? Did it even matter compared to what was happening inside his eye?
He only could hear static around him. He hit the floor hard, nothing came. Just the younger him on the floor.
"Iron."
"Huh?" Iron blinked a couple more times with his other eye. "I...I remembered the time how I got it...Not my mother and father."
"What?" Claus questions.
"Just how I got it, nothing else..." He answered. "How a Dynacrystal flew toward my single eye when I was a Beldum. Seeing red always, all my childhood was that I only had audio books to know things."
"...Then what Blitz does while you were in that state..."
"He never spoke much and became pretty withdrawn." Iron answered. "I didn't know much when we were held in that orphanage. They said that they found us in one research facility."
"Him? Withdrawn..." Claus held a flipper under his beak. "The thought befuddles the mind..."
Iron nodded slowly. "Must be really hard, seeing me confined in bed..."
"Then, after evolution to this form..."
"...I was glad that it didn't took both of my eyes but only on the right..." Iron continued. "I am only half blind but not seeing through both..."
"You never got a full view of the world every second since then." Claus remarks. A nod came. "Then Blitz afterwards..."
"Didn't know what he is thinking..." Iron lamented. "When I came to, he is always that wild younger twin I always knew. Gray told me about how he felt the same way, saying he was like that after Guy..."
"After Guy...?"
"...Severely injured when Dulled destroyed their hometown and only survived because of the Dynacrystal." Iron answers. "The Dynacrystal saved him but my Dynacrystal...Made Blitz see his blind brother for years."
"...Oh..." Claus looked down. "I... I see."
"...I've never known how a child lives besides studying books and audiobooks."
"...This-"
"Gah!"
The ground shook, Iron attempted to help prevent Claus from falling but because of his missing eye, he failed to catch him.
"Agh... what happened?" Claus questions.
"It came from the training grounds..." Iron looked at the direction to that area. "That was Treant's scream."
"Treant?" Claus ponders for a while. "She was supposed to have a sparring partner today for training... It was..." He paused. "...Ubis." At realization, he quickly headed to the direction in an instant.
"C-Claus!?" Iron exclaimed in confusion and followed from behind.
August 14th, 2020
11:30 a.m.
Training Grounds
"Hah...hah...hah..." Treant panted as she looked at the sword planted on the ground with tree stumps and cracks around the entire area as if she was facing an A-ranked Dulled that attacked HQ. However, she wasn't facing one right now. Instead, this was supposed to be a training session. Not fighting to kill a Dulled. She looked at her startled partner while tears ran down her face.
"T-T-Treant?" Ubis stutters nervously, hands trembling and making his held boomerang visibly shake.
"..." Treant stayed silent as her mind went wild with static voices of a male baritone. She couldn't remember until that day.
He... was supposed to be there.
If anything, he should have been there.
"..." She dismissed her sword before running out of the field, the tears continuing to flow from her eyes and down onto the ground. Claus and Iron, who accidentally hit Arubo's belly due to not seeing him at his right, passed her. They called out, but she didn't answer.
"Treant?" Iron muttered out while she headed further away from the Training Grounds.
"Treant!" Claus reached out a flipper to her, but it was obvious that she was completely ignoring everything else around her...
"...Ubis..." Iron looked at where Ubis was.
"..." Ubis continued to stare at the direction after Treant left. Through that whole session, her behaviour... it was so violent... As if... she treated him like a Dulled, an enemy she has to cut down...
"Are you okay?" Iron went at him with concern while he spotted some wounds healing on their own. Treant was trying to kill him? Why?
"...I... I should be used to this..." Ubis still looked down. "Ever since that incident... she had been very cold to me... And the worst thing... I don't know why." He looked at his chest. "Yet... I feel so... hurt..."
Iron looked away for he knew he was a part of that team as a communication support. However, he wondered why Treant didn't give him the cold shoulder like Ubis . He trembled and looked at where Treant went.
"...You were supposed to be in that mission until someone else took it." Iron said. "The reason was that you took some alcohol."
"...Yes..." Ubis looked ashamed. "I know I had weak alcohol tolerance but everyone was drinking... and I ended up taking a mug..."
"The mission was sudden," Iron assured him. "We're adults now and it is alright to give in to vices once in a while. However, even it may be selfish...It saved your life." Iron looked away after saying the last part. Even though he had forgotten them, the bodies retrieved after the massacre...
...And yet, the only thing they could do, he could do, is stare at them, look at the gravestones made afterward based on the badges recovered... Then, he saw the wounds the Rampardos sustained that caused his death. Staring at it, armor broken to expose the torso which made him open for attacks. A Mega Garchomp gruesomely impaling the silhouette until he died.
...He is supposed to feel grief... But... He never knew who he was. When Treant saw that body... She stared, but she cried for some unknown reason. She stayed near that body for long. Not knowing why, it hurt her even more. And that appearance... that face... it looked like those images of someone she doesn't recall ever meeting...
"Rutile Ore...Data said that he grew up with Treant Gaian for long but I don't know how close they are," Iron wondered and looked at Claus. "You lived at the same village but neither met Rutile nor Treant till joining WINGS, right?"
"No, I have not... until when I know Treant arrived in WINGS as a recruit after I have." Claus replies.
"Oh..." Iron looked.
"It's hard to be able to understand Treant's thoughts right now... Seeing... this." He quietly gazed to the direction behind him. Iron knows that from his files, Claus' Dynacrystal is located on his back. Putting those behind him while he shouldered the pain. "...Never a choice... For power comes a price..."
Like Iron had lost half his sight and Claus losing his honor.
They continued to stare at Treant's direction, then looked at Ubis quietly leaving the Training Grounds. "Ubis..." Iron reached out but Claus stopped him.
"Don't." Claus shook his head.
Iron complied and looked at where he went off to. Was he crying? For what? "Forgetting...Is a gift..." Iron told himself. "But...Is it really worth the long-time pain?"
August 14th, 2020
10:50 p.m.
Fran's Room
"Impossible!" Pentaster exclaimed. "This isn't cancer nor an airborne virus that came from a Zubat!"
"What is it, if it isn't any of those?" Gardious scanned the clipboard, detailing all the analysis done through day to this nightly hour.
"I do not know..." Pentaster answered. "I've checked his vitals, blood pressure, and heart rate. They seem to be working well but Veildert isn't actually a great actor to feign illness. Something must had done something to his nervous system that he began feeling this way. Something that goes through magic if it ever defies the law of the mortal realm." Pentaster began typing on the monitor to find anything about what happened to Fran the previous day. "...Nothing, he is physically healthy and fit." he shook his core. "He managed to do several of Lainuiki's regimens and missions without much strain. Yet why did he say that he felt burning?"
He looked over at Fran and placed one of his spikes on his neck. The touch was regular. Very oddly regular at body temperature... And after a certain period of time, it begun to heat up. "Huh!?" Pentaster exclaimed and checked the thermometer again. "At it again, rising then falling to regular once again."
From that feverish temperature, it begun to fall back... back to regular body temperature as it was before. "What's happening to him?" He wondered as he looked over some blood samples he took from Fran. "...Commander, come with me into my office. "
"...Alright." Gardious nods, tucking the clipboard under his wing.
Gardious followed him to his office located not far from his own office. He looked around the numerous apparatus located around with some files and a wide clear window that showed the rest of the HQ around that Pentaster covered with blinds to block the view. The only source of light was the light inside that shone the entire room while Pentaster motioned him to the microscope.
"Take a look," Pentaster told him while he scanned his desktop computer.
Gardious did so, peering into the lenses. Pentaster placed a drop of Fran's blood on a tray and slid on the microscope. There, Gardious spotted small shards? Small, crimson shards familiar to them but upon zooming further, having some sort of mark on them...
"...This is what Cornus and his team found when he first joined us." Pentaster seemed to know it so suddenly, Gardious looked at his core flickering as if he got some migraine that he shivered a bit.
"Professor." Gardious asks. "Are you alright?"
"These visions again where you summoned an Eidolon..." Pentaster complained with some irritation from the pain. "You were the last one I ever saw before my core gave out..." The old starfish looked at the raven beside him. "Do you remember seeing yourself dying?"
Gardious looked at the blood cells again. "...Yes. Whether those are dreams or not, I still do not know..."
"Summoning an Eidolon..." Pentaster muttered. "We only can summon a Legendary who agree to join us but it cost us our conscience."
"The strain of maintaining focus is too much even for us to remain standing..." Gardious nods lightly.
"...Eidolons...Another realm that cut its connection to us..." Pentaster nodded. "Even when we know the secrets of Summoning Magic now lost, we could never summon an Eidolon unless..."
"...Unless a great amount of magic is contributed. Not from one, but many life forces are needed to call one out from even the realm." Gardious finishes.
"...This bird..." Pentaster looked again at the picture. "Could it be..."
Gardious looked over the book about something about the Gods who ruled the world before Legends came. l'Cie and some prophecy gained. He looked at the individuals in front of this bird. He didn't know what those were and just kept on looking the patterns on the blood. Just then...He looked at one of those individuals.
"...Professor."
"Yes?"
"...Take a look."
Gardious took the mouse and went to Fran Veildert's profile. He showed the bow he wielded...Then back to the picture.
"...What?" He went to Iggy's file... "!!!..." Aria, Luigi, Weiss, Lusiane, Lenna, Brandt, Claire, Arubo, Sunai, Guy, Gray, Claus, Treant, Pretzel, Swamp, Blitz, Zakh, and Scorch...
"It...can't be..." Pentaster muttered.
Was it fate for them to be together? Their bonds and comraderies...Was it a prophecy?
"..." Gardious stared at the images silently. Two...erased out of it. He looked over some members, going over Eos Lightspeed and Rutile Ore... Names... Pokémon... they can't remember...
They matched...Eos was shown lying on something, Rutile being gutted by the one that symbolized Luigi.
"...Professor. This could be..." Gardious darkly mutters.
"...The end..." Pentaster dreaded. "Is coming and...They're our only hope." Now, the message and reports from the International Police were making perfect sense...
...The end... will come.
August 14th, 2020
11:56 p.m.
???
"..."
"..."
"...Time is running short..."
"...And the sooner that day comes... the more... they come... from me... a living Nest..."
"..."
"...Answer... the world..."
Chapter 22 Concluded