It quickly became clear to Hau that Type: Zero was not like any other pokémon. It didn't seem to think for itself; its newly electrified eyes were wild and hateful, and it attacked relentlessly. Whereas most pokémon would have paused to think on occasion or to catch their breath, Type: Zero just kept coming. Hau's own blasts of electricity, no matter how intense, seemed to do little more than aggravate it, and he had to throw himself in the way of its return fire, for fear of the deadly Thunders striking Popper. His other teammates had little hope of facing the devastating Electric-type attacks, either; they were either far less trained than Popper, or also weak to Electric-, such as in the case of his Talonflame.
So, as he skidded away from one of the pokémon's deadly blows again and started to pant for breath, Hau realized he was really just buying the rest of the group time to find Lillie, because there was no stopping this beast. He had been far in over his head in telling the others that he and Popper had this under control. Popper darted to his side and warbled a loud, powerful Disarming Voice at Type: Zero, and the opposing pokémon roared its frustrations, digging claws into the streamlined deck until it broke the surface. Hau's eyes widened as he watched the curved claws break the pristine, heavy-duty steel. That alone spoke to the power he was dealing with, and that high he had been riding earlier from the exhilaration of their rescue mission to Aether Paradise started to fade as he realized the gravity of his circumstances.
And something told him that Type: Zero recognized that. The pokémon abruptly lunged at them both, raising its right front paw high over its head, and bringing it down with swift, violent force in an attempted Slash. Hau stumbled out of the way, and Popper took the brunt of the attack, a gash ripping open in the Primarina's left side as it withstood the strike. Hopping away as Popper slammed him with his tail in retaliation, Type: Zero snarled at them again. Despite the blood leaking from his fresh, painful wound, Popper only raised his head to the sky and started to sing, a bright, blue bubble forming over his nose. Sparkling Aria.
"Popper, stop!" Hau called, but the Primarina didn't hear him. Hau knew that the attack took too long and too much energy to perform, and that it wouldn't even hurt an Electric-type that much. But with Popper failing to listen, he froze as he watched Type: Zero narrow his eyes knowingly and lunge at Popper again, cutting the attack short with a wicked Crush Claw. Both front paws of the beast were outstretched at Popper's face and throat, and Hau could only clench his eyes shut and look away as it came into contact with his partner.
There was the booming sound of a large splash of water, and Hau fell over on his knees as a wave of it pulled his feet from under him. He brought his hands up just in time to stop his chin from slamming into the floor and looked up anxiously to see what had just transpired. He felt a cold chill seep into his bones at the sight that came into view.
Popper's face had a massive gash down the middle, through his left eye, and more gashes and slashes continued down his throat, ripping the soft, blue veil around his chest to tatters. His entire face and the waves of hair rolling off the back of his head were stained pink. Yet, he had summoned a ball of water over his nose and was holding Type: Zero within the bubble by placing powerful flippers on the pokémon's head and chest. Type: Zero kept firing violent shocks of electricity from its bladed head, but Popper somehow withstood the super-effective strikes, quivering and straining with the effort of doing so. The Primarina's chest heaved and shuddered with haggard breathing and aftershocks of Type: Zero's attacks.
Popper, in a last-ditch effort, was desperately trying to drown Type: Zero.
Scrambling to his feet, Hau skidded over to his Primarina, and frantically dug the Waterium-Z he had received from Lana from a pocket. He touched the glittering stone to Popper's upper left shoulder, grimacing and fighting the urge to vomit at the sight of all the blood. It was so much… That couldn't have been right… To have all been from Popper…? Shaking his head, Hau kept the Z-Crystal pressed hard to Popper's side, and he struggled to half-perform the pose he had been told to use with it. "Popper, H-Hydro Vortex!"
The watery bubble Popper was holding Type: Zero in began to grow larger and the water swirled violently, and an equally as powerful surge seemed to course through Hau's body, making him and Popper both emanate a pale blue. The motion of the water kept Type: Zero trapped within his soon-to-be grave without Popper having to hold him there. The Primarina immediately collapsed, half-dragging himself away from the raging vortex of water, coming to lie in a heap just a few feet away from it. Hau went to run over to him and slipped in some of the mixture of seawater and redness coating the Aether docks. Watching as Type: Zero quit struggling in the vortex as he finally fell victim to the water, looking around at the blood smeared across the deck, and at Popper's heaving, broken frame, Hau became acutely aware of just how dire the situation had gotten, even though his head swam with how fast it had happened.
Yet, they had managed to kill Type: Zero. He felt a bit numb when he thought about it that way, but there was an undercurrent of relief as well. He shook his head. That thing had been a monster, and he was sure that anyone would have done the same in similar circumstances. Forcing a slack smile, he turned to Popper, and slumped to his knees, digging in his bag for Potions or the Primarina's Poké Ball. Finding none of the former, he decided to simply recall Popper, and heal him later at a Center, properly. Yet, when he touched the button to the round, pink nose of his starter… nothing happened.
"Popper?" Hau called in an unusually high-pitched tone. He worriedly surveyed the pokémon again, noting that his chest was still rising and falling, indicating he was breathing… Yet, his eyes looked dazed. Almost glassy. Feeling a rising surge of panic, Hau brushed the thick, blue hair out of Popper's face, and he flinched at the close-up view of the deep laceration through his face. He saw Popper slowly blink, his chest shudder, and heard an audible, rasping exhale—and then the Primarina fell completely still. His breath catching in his throat, Hau didn't believe what he was looking at. Starting to shake all over as if he were freezing to death, he went to push on the pokémon's shoulder, only to stop himself as he noticed the red, thick sparks of electricity dancing over his trembling fingers. Somehow, he knew that even if he were capable of touching the Primarina to try and wake him… it wouldn't work.
Falling back to his rear and dazedly looking around, Hau took in the environment. There was just so much blood spilled everywhere… He had thought at first that it had just been tracked and smeared across the deck… Yet… it wasn't. It was all Popper's. Just a short distance away, Type: Zero lay lifeless in a few centimeters of reddish saltwater, the hate in its eyes finally gone.
A burning shock of electricity flew out from Hau's chest, feeling like it was eating up his limbs as it traveled through his body. Hau saw red as he clenched his fists and brought them close to his chest, his entire body lighting up in a fantastic mix of gold and scarlet as he screamed. He simply screamed, a guttural, infuriated howl, dismayed and unable to believe how fast everything had just played out, and then he brought his fists hard down against the floor.
A shockwave of red electricity shot out in every direction from the point of contact. It swept across the floor, up the walls, and made the entirety of Aether Paradise glow a horrible, painful crimson.
Yet, just as quickly as it had started… it was over. The lights in the ceiling of the docks went out after, and Hau panted and gasped for breath as he felt the very ground below him lurch.
If only it had stopped there.
"Null, hold 'em back!"
Before Selene and the rest of her group entered Lusamine's office, Gladion sent his Null ahead of them (the rest of them had recalled their partners, as they were badly injured from fighting their way to this point, and they hoped the confrontation with Lusamine to be less violent). Null was simply their fanged backup. He pushed through them all and threateningly growled, waving its own weaponized head at Lusamine, Dr. Faba, Dr. Wicke, and all others in the room. Lusamine stumbled away from it, staggering near a box in the center of the room, while Dr. Faba looked on in apparent awe. Selene breathed a sigh of relief as she noticed Lillie amongst them, then anxiously gnawed her lower lip as she eyed the person standing across the room, the one wearing armor that matched her father's. An aching pain flared in her chest and she almost audibly mewled, Mom…
"It's at its full potential," Dr. Faba raspily called, shaking his head in disbelief. "How can you control it…? That Type: Full…"
"Miki!" Selene's father exclaimed as he entered the room. He marched up to her mother, shaking his head as he grabbed her shoulder with one hand and used his other to grab the flickering visor off her helmet. It was strobing blue at the top, but as Dad began to pry at the glass, it began rapidly flickering between red and blue.
"Stop that at once!" Lusamine shrilly snapped. "Inaba!"
"He doesn't answer to you!" Selene hotly shot at her, feeling a surge of fury. When Lusamine turned her focus to Selene, though, it faded as she remembered what she was there to do. She could only shake her head. "Lusamine… This has to stop… Let me help you." Raising a hand, Selene intended to rush at the president, force contact, and—
Selene's attention was drawn by Lillie leaping up from the floor, and ecstatically shouting, "You all are here! Oh, my Arceus, you made it!" She looked frantically between them all, her eyes scouring them all. "Where's Elio?"
"Elio?" Selene, Gladion, and Nanu all but echoed, shooting confused looks between one another. Selene's mission to force contact with Lusamine was all but forgotten.
Lillie's expression fell. "He's not with you? But they said there was a guy with an Incineroar—"
A flash of red light suddenly surged through the room; across the floors, up the walls, through the eerie icy statues of pokémon around the room, through the ceiling, and was gone. A few of the frozen pokémon shattered to pieces after it was over, making Selene yelp and jerk her head to avert her eyes, and she felt a stinging pain in her legs, as if the shockwave had traveled up her body some… In fact, it did more than stung, but she whimpered and shrugged it off. She was sure adrenaline was all that kept her from yelping in pain. What the hell is wrong with this place? she thought almost despairingly, her knees buckling in the aftermath of the turbulence. She shouted again in a mix of fear and surprise as the lights in the room abruptly went out, the only light then coming from a few small windows at the top of Lusamine's office, as well as a golf ball-sized light forming over the box in the center of the room. For a moment, nobody said anything as everyone, friend and enemy alike, wondered what had just happened. Then, the very floor below them violently lurched, throwing anyone that hadn't already fallen over to their hands and knees, and the entire room felt like it was permanently tilted. The ground was no longer flat, and Selene found it quite difficult to stand back upright.
"What just happened?" Nanu demanded, urging Selene, Acerola, Gladion, Inaba, and Miki to get behind him. Apparently, the shockwave had thrown Miki to the ground, and caused her helmet to break from the side. Selene watched in relief as Dad waved away the broken glass of her visor and helped her pry off the entire helmet, and they embraced one another in a tight hug.
"The power is out," Dr. Faba scarcely whispered from the other side of the room. Even in the dimness, Selene could see his blue eyes were ringed with terror, given how much of his sclera was visible.
A burly man sporting Skull colors on their side of the room spoke next. Selene had no idea who he was or why he was there, but he sounded as terrified as she felt. "Wh-what's that mean? This fancy b-bitch o' an island ain't got backup generators?"
"It does," Dr. Faba seemed to start hyperventilating, "but none of them turned on, that's never happened before, that means we're just operating on some battery power right now… Without the proper generators—"
Lusamine abruptly snatched him by his chin. "I don't care!" she shrieked at him, then pushed him away. She strutted to the middle of the room, in front of that ball of light, and laughed, looking absolutely… deranged, as her hair started to fray and frizz. "You're all too late! This box can't be destroyed, and this process"—she thumbed at the hole forming over the box—"can't be stopped! You're all too late!"
The hole had grown to be about half Lusamine's size. The floor lurched again, and the incline of it became increasingly difficult to stand on. Selene found herself grasping for something to hold onto instinctively, even though she found nothing.
"Mom!" Gladion was the one to shout this time. He was clinging to a podium that had shattered ice all around it… as well as the unrecognizable remains of whatever poor pokémon had been frozen within it. He looked like he might be sick and Selene herself was further distracted by it, gawking in horror. "Mom, please, maybe that can't be stopped right now, but you don't have to do anything with it." He pleadingly tilted his head and looked up at her. "Please. Let's all just leave. Right now, together." Panting, he hastily added, "M-maybe talk to Selene. She can help."
Ripped from her stupor, Selene looked up at him like a Deerling in headlights. "Wh-what?" she barely managed to choke out. Then, she remembered. "Right! I'm—I'm supposed to—"
"Save your breath, Glad," Lillie mumbled as she panted and strained to try to stand up next to him. "She's too far gone."
"I DON'T CARE WHAT ANY OF YOU HAVE TO SAY!" Lusamine howled, her voice crackling under the stress. Her chest heaved and she dug the toes of her shoes into the floor to try to keep her position at the center of the room, though the box had begun to slide slightly. Selene was further caught off-guard as she swore she saw small tears in the corners of Lusamine's eyes. Fuck! Selene, focus, you've got to— "I DON'T CARE! I'll meet him again if it's the LAST THING I DO! He and I will create a perfect world, of perfect creatures, of perfect people, unlike this horrible, painful wasteland! If you all love it so much, YOU CAN KEEP IT!"
With that, Lusamine whipped around and was able to squeeze through the hole opening above the box. It had grown to be about three quarters her size, but with her thin and flexible frame, she easily vanished inside. Null attempted to rush at her to stop her, his claws outstretched to grab her by her frilly, white skirt, but he lost his grip on the floor and skidded across until he hit the far wall. Selene was suddenly spurred to grab her as well, reaching wildly to try to snatch the woman's thin arm, but she missed.
"Wait!" Selene yelped, staggering, and nearly falling over. "Wait!" I didn't even get to do what I was supposed to do! I was supposed to grab her arm and try convincing her this was insanity… by showing her some memories… Or, at least, I was supposed to try to see her memories to see what she was planning, exactly… Selene just stared after where Lusamine had gone. "No, damn it!" she whined, clutching fistfuls of her hair in frustration. I had one job out of this entire operation, and I blew it!
Dr. Faba sank to his knees and he, too, slid somewhat. "We've got to get out of here," he breathed, "now, we have to go, now!" Dr. Wicke, at his side, nodded in agreement as her face drained of color, still staring at the hole in the middle of the room.
"What's happening?" Selene asked, shaking her head in confusion.
Any attempts of his to explain were cut off as another powerful lurch made the room tilt at a perilous 45-degrees, with the bottom of the slant aimed toward the far walls and not the door. Everyone lost their footing and began to slide and skid; more blocks of ice crashed from their podiums and fragmented across the floor, making a few of them yell and curse. Yet, Selene found herself clinging to one of the pillars that had displayed a frozen Popplio seconds earlier, because she was angled in such a way that if she let go… She was sure she would fall right into the portal just above Nebby's box, which had remained stubbornly rooted in place, likely due to the motherboard-like texture on its exterior.
"Selene!" she heard her father yell. "Let go! You can climb along the wall to get back to the door, we have to get out of here!"
Wrapping her arms tighter around the pillar she was clinging to, Selene looked into the swirling, colorful hole. Perhaps 'tear' would have been a better description of it; reality looked distorted and frayed around its edges, and yet, the colors inside were so comforting and bright… Despite the visceral fear coursing through her, she swore it ebbed as she stared at the hypnotic colors. Somehow, it looked so inviting… A way out of this… chaos…
Then, she felt arms wrap around her, and the sounds and voices of the nightmare happening around her flooded back. She squeaked and fought against the hold of whoever it was, but then she heard their voice.
"Selene! Stop, please!"
Looking up, Selene's jaw fell open as she recognized Elio hugging her. He kept from sliding by keeping a leg wrapped around the other side of the pillar, but he was obviously straining, gritting his teeth with effort. His Incineroar was nowhere to be seen. "Where did you come from?" Selene gasped, though she half-blubbered the last few words, immediately reduced to tears upon seeing him. Before he could even reply, she hugged him back, squeezing him for all she was worth. "I'm so sorry, Elio, I shouldn't have—!"
"Selene, let go," he insisted, pushing on her shoulders. That statement made an icy sensation crawl up Selene's spine. "I'll push you toward the wall!"
He's… still not listening… Eyes widening in a panic, Selene asked breathlessly, "Wh-what about you?"
"Just let go, Selene, please," Elio whined, pressing his forehead to hers. He closed his eyes, and she could hear his breathing come in ragged puffs. "Please."
Although she prepared to fight him on that, when their foreheads met, she saw a swirling, rapid vision of him meeting Grimsley just outside of Po Town. She saw him struggling across the seas to Aether Paradise, and she saw him confronting Aether Paradise employees at the docks. Most of all, though, she saw him collapse in anguish at the base of an elevator shaft after having been tricked by Dr. Faba, saw that he had recognized just how much Alola had wrenched from him, down to his very sanity. Then, as Aether Paradise began to tilt at awkward angles following the surge of red light, he was thrown against the elevator shaft… and he found himself able to haul his tired, hurt body up it with the help of Macho. She felt the exhilaration he must have felt in that moment, upon realizing he still had a fighting chance. Once he crawled out of the top, he had shakily withdrawn Macho, since he was having difficulty standing.
When the vision was over, Selene abruptly found herself slipping down to the far wall of the room, where she was caught by Mom and Dad. Breath caught in her throat, Selene jerked her head up and, propelled by sheer panic, called out in blind fear, "Elio! Get your ass over here with us, now! It's Mom and Dad, we found them!" I know you didn't mean anything you did before, and I'm sorry I pushed you to behave that way, but we're on the same page now, if what I saw in that vision was right! We have Mom and Dad, and we can get off this island, and we can figure everything else out together!
He was still clinging to that pillar. Leaned over it, panting hard, she could see his legs quivering under the exertion. He looked like absolute hell, his blue-gray hair a tangled mess, his eyes watery and unfocused, his clothes stiff, faded, and ripped at parts. "I'm glad," he weakly called out above the calamitous groaning of steel as Aether Paradise further tilted… and just like that, he let go. As if he hadn't the energy to hold on or angle himself differently so that he would slide to where Selene was, he simply slipped past the pillar, free-falling due to the perilous angle of the floor, and was swallowed up by that tear in the middle of the room. The box slipped then, at long last losing its grip on the ground. It slid across the floor and crashed into a pillar before careening into a wall, where the tear above it vanished in an instant, likely due to all the jostling.
"We've got to go!" Dr. Faba yelled above them, even as Selene started to howl and shout incoherently after her brother. "Aether Paradise is sinking!" He took a second to spit out the next part. "That's what I was trying to tell everyone earlier! Without any of the backup generators, Aether is going down! I just don't understand why none came on…"
"What about that flashy red light earlier?" the Skull man piped up. Selene couldn't see him, she had no idea where he was. "Did that break everything?"
"I don't know!" Dr. Faba snapped in frustration. "All I do know is that Aether Paradise is less a manmade island and more of a massive, permanent houseboat! Hydraulics, powered by generators, keep it balanced! Without power, they can't do that, it's capsizing, we've got to GO!"
"Where's Hau?" someone else asked.
"He never came back up!" came a response.
Nanu. His voice was unmistakable. "That blast might'a been from him!"
"Climb along the wall! We have to talk about this later, we have to go, now!" Dr. Wicke's trembling voice interrupted them all. She sounded so powerful when she wanted to, Selene thought idly…
Yet, at her insistence they leave, Selene just went limp and just sobbed until others forced her to move with them to leave the doomed island. She thought she had felt numbness before, but she hadn't; not in this way. She felt like she couldn't hear anyone and was being dragged along through sludge.
Why couldn't I have just fucking grabbed Lusamine?! That was all I had to do!
Part of her didn't even want to leave the island. Almost like how the tear above Nebby's box had drawn her in, she wondered if… she should just go down with it…
Selene, let go.
The worst part was, she hadn't even had a choice. She had been suckered into a vision, and she wasn't sure if she had let go or if he had pushed her. That guilt melded with her pre-existing guilt for having pushed him to be so protective in the first place, and she just longed for that tear above Nebby's box even more.