Chapter 34 – Arc 3 (Ula'Ula Island) One Way or Another
We interrupt this broadcast to bring you the URS, Rosa, Faba, and Lusamine lol.
"Zossie."
She ignored him. She was busy. If he wanted to sit there patiently and do nothing, waiting for Soliera and Phyco to take care of it, that was his decision, but she had her own ideas. Every tool hidden in her suit's arsenal, from pliers to even a pocketknife, were being tested on the door that locked them both away in one of Aether's many, many compartmental rooms. Of course, the door was sleek, without even a knob, designed to work with a keycard or fob rather than primitive keys… And without any of the Blinding One's crystals at her disposal, she had no way of disrupting the technology within to make the door malfunction. For once, she missed Ultra Megalopolis, and the abilities the Blinding One's stolen lights had once granted her.
"Zossie, I insist you stop. You will do nothing but potentially aggravate the situation, causing Lusamine or any of her followers within the Foundation to aggress. Captain Phyco and Captain Soliera immediately terminated agreements with the Foundation and are working on a solution now to maintain access to the machines Dr. Colress Harmonia is working on, as well as combat the Foundation. They will bring reinforcements."
How could he just be so calm? "We can't just sit here!" Zossie burst, frustratedly hitting the door with her right hand after failing to find a way to wedge it open yet again. "Didn't you hear those sirens, and the people yelling a little bit ago?" What if she's already doing something to threaten Alola? To bring some of those monsters from Ultra Space here? Or worse… She cringed. "What if Soliera and Phyco are too late?"
He thought for a moment, from where he was seated along a white, simple bed, farther in the room. Even without the helmet and dark goggles blocking out most of his face, Zossie was sure Dulse would have looked just as expressionless as he seemed. But then, he briefly flicked the goggles up, revealing his paler, pinkish eyes, similar to her own. With him staring intently at her, it struck Zossie that this was possibly the most emotional reaction she was going to ever get from her stony partner. "Tell me, what good will inviting aggression to yourself bring, Zossie? You know the stories and the facts as much as I do. You know what every single Ultra Beast the Ultrarians have encountered is capable of. And we both understand what power the Blinding One has. You know why the Ultra Recon Squad was created, yes? None of us on our own can stop any of this. We need each other, and that is why work as a coherent team."
That seemed to sap the strength from her muscles and she sagged, panting for breath. Trembling somewhat, she shook her head back at him in refusal. "But—"
"Zossie. We do not even have our usual weaponry here with us. We are wearing equipment that is forged between our own and Dr. Colress Harmonia's design. I was stripped of my pokémon and you have none on you, and even if we did, we are novices at best at using them. We are out of our element, we are outnumbered, and we are in hostile hands. Please. Listen to me…" He trailed off, then looked slightly down, and away from her. "We have been partners in the URS for only a few months, but I would like us to remain that way longer."
"This was a lot more fun when you both weren't acting so gloomy."
Yelping at the sudden feminine voice, Zossie scrambled closer to Dulse instinctively, who jumped from the bed. His goggles snapped shut over his eyes again. "Rosa Blakely, is that you?"
Materializing just to the right of the door leading out of the room, Rosa was flicking a strand of her hair, seemingly nervously gnawing on her lower lip. Her diamond-shaped visor shielded her head from above, having been flipped up to reveal her face. She had her brown eyes trained on the floor below her. Snorting, she muttered, "Yeah, that's me. Do you go around saying everyone's full name, or did I just make that much of an impression?"
"What do you want?" Zossie pressed nervously, clinging closely to Dulse then. She hated the way Rosa could just seem to… appear, anywhere, at a moment's notice. She knew that Colress was a madly intelligent man, and he had managed to rig her and Dulse's suits to render them invisible at times, but this room had been sealed. Rosa had led them there, she had left, locking them inside! How had she gotten inside without the door ever moving? "A-and how—"
"The Shadow Triad," Rosa replied without looking up, tiredly cutting her off. "Look, that's not important. I—"
"Then what is?" Dulse growled, shouldering Zossie to the side and stepping ahead of her slightly. "State your business, Rosa Blakely."
"If you'd shut up, I would," Rosa hissed back, glaring daggers at him as she slowly rose to her feet. Part of her metallic skirt was caught on another part of her outfit, and she irritably smacked it to dislodge it, brushing herself off to compose herself. Taking a deep breath, she looked them both over, before settling on Zossie. "Colress isn't planning to let Lusamine get away with what she wants to happen. He's just using her company and her money for the time being to work on the Solarizer." Zossie thought she saw the ghost of a playful smirk on the woman's face, but it disappeared in an instant, making her next comment seem less amusing than she intended it to be. "Me and him aren't very well-liked, you know. Would be hard without someone covering us up to work on it."
Yet, despite getting the sense that Rosa was certainly someone nobody should ever trust, Zossie felt a rush of hope. "So, you're not—you're not just letting her get away with this?" Zossie beamed, almost bouncing from foot to foot. "All of that was just an act?"
Cutting her eyes at Zossie, Rosa growled, "I'm not a bad person."
"I… what?" Zossie blinked. "That's not what I—"
"You didn't have to."
"Enough," Dulse barked, still stiff as a board and standing defensively between the two of them. "This is not the focus of the discussion. Rosa, was siding with Lusamine outside an act, and you are still intending to assist the Ultra Recon Squad?"
Nodding slowly, Rosa looked at the ground again. Quietly, she said, "I have heard what you've said about the, uh… Necrozma…" She shuffled her feet and then moved her hands to adjust her helmet, or so Zossie thought, until she completely disengaged it. After pressing a few buttons on the inside, she tucked it in the far corner of the room. Without the helmet covering her head, they saw that she looked far younger than before; she was a lot smaller without the helmet, making it that much more obvious how much weight and stature the suit she wore added. "I don't want Colress to hear this," she explained to Zossie's curious look.
Why wouldn't you…? Zossie thought fleetingly. You cling to him so much, I assumed you liked him a lot…
Rosa continued. "There are a few people in this world I don't want getting hurt over this… Of course, Colress is one, but there are others…" She scoffed. "I assume if the o' Blinding One comes here and swallows the sun, or whatever, that it'll be bad for all regions, not just Alola."
"Others?" Zossie chanced questioning after a momentary, awkward pause. At Rosa's pointed look, she scrambled, "I mean, sorry! Just… I haven't ever seen you with anyone but Colress, and…" She took a deep, shuddery breath and gave a small smile. "You're right. The Blinding One would destroy this world, all of it. Whatever you've done in the past, Rosa, you have no idea what good you and Colress are doing by helping us to… stop the Blinding One… to stop Lusamine." I just wish we could help Necrozma, instead of just having to stop it, like what Phyco and Soliera want us to do… What my ancestors did was so awful, but… at least this way, nobody else has to suffer for their mistake. But why does there have to be people like Lusamine to stand in the way…? Of course, she felt a little guilty for that errant, internal comment. Zossie, you saw that she was under Nihilego's toxins… those make people basically lose their minds. You've never met the real Lusamine.
Seeming to almost cringe at her words, Rosa clenched her jaw and looked away sharply. "Yeah," she mumbled, tone breaking under her words, "yeah, uh… thanks, I guess. Anyway. Try not to call your space buddies to blow the Foundation up yet, or whatever he said Soliera and Phyco were going to do." With that, she retrieved her helmet, tossed it back on after making a few adjustments, and vanished all over again. Yet, her disembodied voice was heard again, sounding so uncharacteristically regretful: "I'm not really a good person, either, though, Zossie. Maybe you shouldn't thank me."
Zossie just shook her head. Whatever Rosa was talking about at that point, it honestly didn't matter. She had hope! "I'm just…" Zossie turned around to face Dulse, convinced Rosa was gone or at least no longer going to entertain her questions, and excitedly bounced. "Dulse! Did you hear that?!"
"I did," Dulse replied, reserved. He shifted and took a seat once more against the bed, back still stiff as a board. "I just don't know what to believe. I'd like to believe what she just said, as otherwise, she's helping destroy her own plane of existence. Yet, I think it would be unwise to trust her or Dr. Colress Harmonia, Zossie. They do not seem to have loyalties to anyone but themselves… and even then, concerningly, she cited her only reason for wanting to save this realm is because of others that would be put in harm's way."
"Why's it weird that she wants to protect some people she cares about?" Zossie questioned, genuinely puzzled. "I feel like most people would want to do it to protect others they care about…"
"Her motivations lack self-preservation. Do you not find it odd that she does not wish to save this realm to save herself?" he explained. "I found it very strange. I am not sure about Dr. Colress Harmonia, but Rosa Blakely's motivations are inconsistent. She does not know what she wants. That is concerning, and untrustworthy."
"Yeah…" Zossie nodded, excitement ebbing as quickly as it had come.
"Yet," Dulse admitted, raising a hand to place on her left shoulder with a hint of a smile on his face, "you're correct in that, at the very least, it seems they are uninterested in allowing the Blinding One to leave confinement. That is a victory for us, and hopefully, if they keep to their word, we will get out of this without as much nasty conflict as previously believed… And, not that I ever doubted this, but Zossie: we are going to be okay."
Zossie relaxed under the soothing weight of his hand and his smile. She was so glad she and Dulse had been matched as partners all those months ago back in Ultra Megalopolis following their individual training for the program helmed by Captains Phyco and Soliera. "Yeah. Yeah, we are, Dulse."
"We will be safe back in Ultra Megalopolis, with the Blinding One handled, before we know it."
Yet, somehow, that reassuring statement felt far less comforting. She couldn't help but hear a tiny voice in the back of her mind asking her, "Is just controlling the Blinding One and calling it a day really the best we can do?" Yet, all she expressed was a forced, "Yeah, of course," and gave a vigorous nod.
She missed being out in the fields of Alola and not having to be so serious… And she really wished Dulse's Furfrou hadn't been taken. She could have used some more mindless playtime right about then with that cheerful pokémon.
Type: Zero had not been nearly as difficult to apprehend after it had handled the Nihilego as Wicke had feared it would be. As the two handlers that Dr. Faba had (begrudgingly) accepted the help from to create Type: Zero led the beastly pokémon away, back to the depths of Aether Paradise, he had stretched his arms and headed for a bathroom to check the damage that unhinged brat from earlier had caused to his face. People were already hard at work repairing the slashes and the stray rocks wedged into the floors and walls around the conservational deck, making it annoying to pick his way to the bathroom, and he was further irritated to find that power had been lost to that particular one, but with his phone's flashlight, he was still able to see himself in the mirror. At least, well enough to notice that a few small cuts were on the bridge of his nose from where his goggles had shattered, and the center of his forehead and part of his left eye were lightly bruised.
Beyond frustrated, he had marched out of there and straight to Lusamine's office—her private one, since he didn't find her in her public one—and found her pacing the length of the room madly, stopping occasionally to glance at the pokémon in their icy prisons on pedestals about the room. She failed to react to his entry until he cleared his throat and called, "President Lusamine?"
"Saubi," she said, sounding as if she were about to cry, "he was here. But he left…"
Bewildered and already uninterested in entertaining her nonsense in that moment, Dr. Faba sighed. "My work, as I have said before, is already done, President Lusamine. I just need Cosmog to continue. Have you found a plan to capture that wretched girl?"
"Yes, Cosmog, we need Cosmog," Lusamine distractedly said, nodding vigorously with his words. Without warning, she suddenly rounded on him and brought her hands up to his face, cupping his cheeks tenderly. Yet, the wild, distant look in her emerald eyes, where her pupils had shrank to little more than pinpricks of black, sent a pang of unease up Faba's spine, and he tensed under her hold. Lusamine frowned. "You're hurt. Did he hurt you?"
"The… Nihilego?" Dr. Faba blinked. "No, no… It was one of those brats I invited here to get away from… Cosmog." He had nearly said 'Lillie,' there, instead of Cosmog, and with her hands so close to his face and her increasingly agitated state, that could have been disastrous. No, of course Lusamine wouldn't hurt him… yet, even so… he was glad he had decided against taking that risk. It wasn't worth it, right? Nothing more to it than that. "He decided to be a hero after I put Wicke back in her place," he growled, "and attacked me. No more civilized than any of those Skull savages if you ask me."
"Funny you should mention," Lusamine practically purred, grinning in his face. She felt far too close for comfort… Dr. Faba's back stiffened and he pressed his hands to her shoulders, wondering how he was going to ask her to step back without exacting an unexpected negative reaction from her. She was just too close, holding on too tightly, he felt… trapped, by that look on her face, the almost twisted smile. "I know exactly how I'm going to get that girl and my Cosmog." With that, she leaned in to kiss him suddenly, moving her hands to roughly grab the lapels of his jacket. Upon breaking the kiss, Dr. Faba gasped for breath (as he hadn't exactly been expecting it), and she was panting heatedly, too. "And I need you for that."
That piqued his interest, drowning out the rising panic in his chest telling him to push her away. His hands relaxed on her shoulders. "Y-you do?" he asked curiously. See? This isn't any worse than normal, Sauboh. Get it together, he thought tensely.
"Mhm. I need you to make the brutes at Po Town an offer they can't refuse," she mused, moving her head to kiss along his neck then. He jolted in shock when she paused to nip at his Adam's apple somewhere in the midst of it all. His heart pounded with a frightened mix of excitement and panic, yet he still found it impossible to pull away. She was frightening, she was alluring, she was vindictive, she was vulnerable—she was his, and that was suddenly not such an endearing thought. He swallowed hard and tried to find his voice to respond, but all that came out was a strangled noise that she only snickered at. Pulling away from him for a second, she clarified, "I have found out that the Skull Gang is led by a man named Guzma, and a woman named Plumeria. Plumeria leaves there all the time. Some employees have spotted her recently and could give you her exact location." She leaned in close to his ear and huskily whispered, "I need you to find her, and offer her whatever it takes to get them to help us in capturing my Cosmog—and my horrible daughter…" Lusamine's voice took a darker edge and she growled through clenched, bared teeth, "I want her to see what she has been keeping from me, and I want her to watch everything she threw her life away for burn."
Her grip on his jacket had tightened significantly, and it was pulling painfully against his neck. Dr. Faba nodded quickly and flinched when Lusamine moved to kiss his neck again. "Of course, President Lusamine," he replied right away. He had barely understood what she had told him, given his compromising and unsettling situation, so much so that he hardly had the brainpower to be outraged that he was being tasked with speaking with lowlife nothings like Skull Gang members. In his muddled mind, it completely was lost on him to mention that Gladion was part of the gang, and that this plan of Lusamine's might not work out as well as she hoped.
"I don't care if they want us to rebuild that cursed Po Town from the ground up," Lusamine stopped to whisper to him again. "Do you understand? After all, it's not like we exactly have to keep the full promise. Nobody cares about the Skull Gang, and they can't touch us with your Type: Zero coming along so well…" She drew a finger up his chin, digging her nail in slightly, teasingly, tauntingly. He cursed himself for the way he felt like quivering. This just felt so wrong… even to him! "Can't you do that for me, Saubi…~?"
Before he had the chance to respond, she brought his chin forward for a messy kiss that finally ended up scaring Faba into action. There were no words in his thoughts that brought his hands to her chest, shoving her away at last; he was just too intimidated and confused by the situation to take it any longer. Panting for breath, he quickly nodded, submissively avoiding looking her in the face again. "M-my apologies, Lusi, I didn't mean any harm—I just—well, I—" Fuck, fuck, think of something to say, moron! Why are you so scared anyway? Stupid… Finally, he thought of an excuse. "Well, if you want me to do that, I need to prepare! Po Town is a ways away, I assume this Plumeria is still on Ula'Ula Island at the very least, so even if she's not in the town, I should still get prepared to visit Ula'Ula. It's a bit more dangerous than the others and the people are definitely of character there, to put it kindly, so… I should get started as soon as possible! Should I not?" Please buy that. Please let me go.
"Of course, Saubi, but…" she quavered, sounding upset, or frustrated, or perhaps both. Her lips twitched as if she couldn't decide on an emotion to portray and she whimpered as she stepped toward him again, wrapping her arms around him in a tight, needy hug, a far cry from the intimidating, controlling hold from earlier. Cautiously, Faba slowly relaxed, uncertainly draping his arms around her as well. "I just… wanted to touch you…"
Awkwardly shuffling in place, Faba realized that he still wanted no part of this. Normally, such a comment from her would have had him weak and begging for her to carry on, but this… no. He needed to go. Every sense in his person was warning him that this was a horrible mistake, to entertain her this time. "Sorry, Lusi," he briskly said, "but I have to go prepare some things, okay? You will get your Cosmog, I promise."
"Mm… I guess you're right, as it is you getting it for me, yes… Thank you, Saubi." With that, she reluctantly unraveled herself from him.
"Of course, Lusi…" Faba forced. As soon as she was far enough away, he scrambled to leave the office, and he swore that the pokémon in the frozen blocks around her were watching him as he did.