Chapter 37

Perseverance

Earth 63, 2050,10:30 PM

Charlie's POV

I woke up with a throbbing headache, instinctively checking my surroundings to see the rest of the team was lying unconscious around me, soon enough they woke up as well. We were in a massive cell with paneled walls, ones that I recognized as my mind cane back online. If someone was psychically knocked out they had their higher brain functions shut down instantly instead of gradually like when someone falls asleep.

Just to be sure I tried to summon a little electricity between my fingertips and nothing happened, that confirmed exactly where I was, and that was the first good news today. While I was hesitant to go along with Cassie's hair brained idea, the mixture of grief and the logic she used one me over. It infuriates me at times how well she knows me.

The panels emitted a one of a kind radiation that Connor had perfected for the MRPA, it deactivated shifter powers at the genetic level, but despite the pressure he had never given them the data for how to make them, if they needed more he would personally deliver them. He trusted the MRPA director before Jake, but he never trusted his computer, or the people who supervised the servers, or Ivan's assistants, or the data archives.

Connor's trust was hard to win, and he could count the people who earned it onone hand. However my parents had told me that while Connor trusted them, he was the only one that truly had all the secrets. I had never been able to learn why they trusted him so unconditionally when they didn't get all the answers.

"Good to see you all are awake, now that you've had you nap, ready to listen" Z asked via the intercom, as he talked the right wall panels slid away at the top revealing an observation room.

"Where's Connor?" I asked as the others stood up and looked at Z, who was back in his usual human disguise

"Getting some intel, but you all need to realize how much you hurt him with what you pulled" Z stated in a voice that was very clearly holding back anger.

Nixilliun shook his head and said "these too lost their father and you talk about hurting feelings, you don't have any idea how it feels to lose someone like…."

"Shut your mouth, the adult is talking now" Z snapped.

Z gave a sigh and said "losing your dad is rough, but try losing all of your friends right in front of you and waking up to realize that your entire planet is gone, I carry that pain every day!"

Everyone, myself included flinched at Z's statement, we had so quickly forgotten his past.

Z then began to say something that would haunt me for the rest of my life, the mere thought of it was enough to make permanent regrets.

"But even my losses pale in comparison to the amount of horrid and personal trauma Connor has experienced. His sister turned into a bloodthirsty psychopath under his nose, he never saw the warning signs until it was far too late. His sister sold out the entire herd to Cipher. He was in a cage for 20 years, forced to watch as his friends and family were taken away from the cages and never came back" Z began, we were too shocked at this reveal to speak.

"After he escaped he could have been free and lived his life in peace but he helped Pokémon and people from the shadows because he was too good of a person to hide and do nothing. He was taken in by Professor Malcom and trained your parents to use their abilities. Then his sister showed up and killed Malcom, once again taking his happiness away from him as soon as he got it. He went off and started his own family but no matter what he couldn't rest until he faced his sister again. He killed her after begging her to stop but no matter what she wouldn't" Z ranted on.

Z took a deep breath and continued saying "but as it turns out life still wasn't done using Connor as a punching bag. After the MRPA fell, his mate, the love of his life took his son away and went with someone else because he refused to give up what he did here. He gave up the only people he allowed himself to love as family because this job means more to anything than him"

We all bowed our heads in shame, we had nothing left to say,

Z finally calmed down and finished his speech "Connor is gonna come back with his intel and then HE will let you out, that will give you a few hours to think"

He turned around and the window was covered by the panels again.

"We need to get our act together" I announced.

"Why? Giovanni has the sample he needed to control the betas. He won" Lucina admitted.

I shook my head and said "we've only lost if we've decided we've lost"...

Earth 93 , 2050, 12:30 PM

3rd person POV

Giovanni sighed and said "damn it " as he looked at the massive smoking crater on the monitor of the conference room.

The 8.9 squad mile crater was all that remained if Archie's base. The refinery and metal ore was gone, Connor had vaporized the entire base in a few luster plurges.

"We've got 82 percent of the needed metal, Maxie is set to deliver the rest of the necessary technology and Ghetsis has remaining metal needed" Colress assured.

"How can we entice Ghetsis to pick up the pace?" He already has the powers we've offered to the others" Giovanni reminded Colress.

"Everyone wants something, such as this DNA sample he needs to finish his collection" Colress said as he waved a vial with a black scale inside it.

"Good but there's still one problem, the real reason I'm concerned with the loss of Archie's base" Giovanni admitted.

"Which is?" Colress asked as he pecked on his tablet.

"This means that Connor has taken the gloves off and has no problems using his full power. Our timeline needs to accelerate or he'll stop us before launch. Problem is I have no idea how to speed up fabrication anymore than we already have" Giovanni confessed, there were few people he would admit to about having no idea how to proceed, but he knew Colress was the only one who could find a solution.

Colress sat down and put his feet on the conference table. Giovanni had no reaction to the lapse in decorum, after all he knew Colress did his best thinking when he was sitting like that. Colress pondered for a moment and gave a smirk, one that Giovanni was waiting for. The smirk he gave when he had found a perfect solution to a problem.

"What would you say if we give the other bosses the rewards we promised now, on the condition that they consolidate the entirety of their armies and their workers. I roughly estimate with all those resources we could complete fabrication in a week and a half" Colress offered.

Givoanni gave a dark smile and said "I'd say send out the call….."