Satori in Kalos

Chapter 10
Voltage 2

"What's Yveltal?" Satori asked.

The officer looked over with a strange expression. "It's, uh...hold on, I need to go..." he said, and ran off before Satori could say anything else. She watched him go, and then rested her head back on her pillow. She couldn't really reach down to grab her bag, so she just stared off into space.

From reading the thoughts of everyone around, Satori got the impression that something important was happening that she wasn't a part of. But it was hard to pierce together exactly what, and Satori had a feeling they didn't even know. She was so busy trying to figure it out she didn't notice when her friend came into the tent.

"Satori," Tierno said and walked toward her bed. "Thank goodness you're alright."

"Oh, hey Tierno." Satori said.

Tierno started laughing. "I can't believe that plan of yours sort-of worked."

"Mmhmmm," Satori grunted. There wasn't really a place for Tierno to sit, so he stood by her bedside awkwardly. "Hey, Tierno..." Satori said leading into a question.

"Sup?"

"Do you know what, er, 'Yveltal' is? I remember you guys talking about it..."

"Yeah, it's a popular legend. Really old."

"I've never heard of it before."

Tierno looked sheepish. "Well, er, no offense Satori but you're not exactly the most worldly person. Your knowledge seems kind of lacking in most areas. What brought it up?"

"An officer said it. What's the legend?"

Tierno scratched his head, and Satori could hear his thoughts trying to form the tale into a story. She kind of learned the gist of it just through that, but she would have a better understanding once he told the story properly out loud. Thoughts were notoriously disorganized in general, and stories were much more interesting when they were told aloud.

"Well," Tierno said after a moment. "I guess the story goes like this. Yveltal is a monster who appears every thousand years, bringing death and destruction to the world. It drains the life out of all living things, making itself immortal as the world around it dies. It irradiates darkness from its very body and its screech is said to strike terror into all that hear it. Oh, and it's shaped like a giant Y."

"A Y, huh." Satori commented. "Sounds scary."

"There's some terrifying stories about it. They say it's like a hurricane, a force of nature. Just stories though."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Satori said as she watched the officers scrambling in the corner of her eye. One of them whispered something in Eirin's ear, and her expression soured. A different officer started approaching the patients in the tent and eventually came towards Satori and Tierno.

"You're Komeiji Satori, right?" He asked. Satori nodded and he jotted something down onto a notepad. "Listen," he said, "normally we would take your statement and process you before taking you home. However something has come up, so we're going to put that off until later. The KPD will ask you at some future date to come in, is that okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine with that."

"Good. There's a bus a little ways that way that will take you to Lumiose and drop you off wherever you want."

Before Satori could question him about what "came up," the officer had left. Satori shrugged and Tierno looked around funnily, but otherwise didn't respond. Satori turned herself sideways and swung her legs down over the side of the bed, preparing herself to stand up. When Eirin saw she was active, she hurried over.

"Wait," she said. Satori stopped moving. Eirin seemed at a small loss for words. "The next...the next few weeks or even months might be really tough, if what I'm hearing from the officers is even tangentially true. The doctors are going to have higher priority things to deal with than your dislocated shoulder. It's something you need to follow up on in a week, and maybe another time after that. But you might have trouble finding a doctor who can spare the time."

"Doctor Eirin," Satori said sternly, "what's happening?"

But she just shook her head. "I don't know. Something bad. Just be really careful with your arm, because you may not be able to find help. I'm sorry."

"No, thank you." Satori said. "I'll be careful."

Eirin nodded, and turned back towards her other patients. Satori pulled herself to her feet, being careful not to rock the sling her right arm was in. She grabbed her bags from next to the bed and rooted through them for a minute to see if everything was still there. It was, even her knife. Although Satori didn't want to say it, she had to give Team Flare credit for not stealing or trashing her things.

Satori and Tierno made their way over to the bus. The seats were comfy. The entire bus was full except for a single empty seat behind Satori and Tierno. Everyone who was hostage in the power plant was on it, along with some officers.

Satori was only wearing a light undershirt, and although it concealed her body it was somewhat embarrassing. Tierno didn't seem to notice though, and from his thoughts he really hadn't. What he was thinking about was a large amount of guilt and regret at letting Satori get into this mess.

She thought it was kind of sweet.

"Is something on my face?" Tierno asked. Satori blushed and turned away.

"Nevermind."

The engine of the bus roared five or ten minutes later, and it began making its way towards Lumiose. The trip wasn't supposed to take too long, only a few hours. Satori wanted to pull out her Pokemon and talk with them but there wasn't really any way to in the bus. It was too cramped and people would object if she just summoned a bunch of Pokemon.

The bus faithfully went on its journey until it reached the gates of Lumiose. The sun had long since set, but the city was dark. Only a few buildings had power, Satori guessed maybe the hospitals and labs that had dedicated generators. The rest of the city was completely without power.

The older passengers had homes and apartments where the bus driver stopped at, and after most of the others had gotten off he asked Satori and Tierno where they would like to go. It was mid-evening, but Satori was ready to go to bed.

"The Pokemon Center, I guess." Satori said looking at Tierno. He nodded.

"Righto," said the bus driver. Satori remembered Lumiose being incredibly hard to navigate, but the driver seemed to know his way around. He stopped off at the Pokemon Center that Satori had been to before, but the light inside was dim.

The doors of the bus opened, and Satori nodded to the driver as she stepped out. Tierno followed behind her, and they walked off the sidewalk into the Pokemon center. The power to the center had been shut off with the rest of the city, but light was coming from seven or so lanterns that had been placed around the lobby area. There were quite a few people in the lobby, more than Satori would have thought.

Satori walked up to the nurse standing behind the counter. "Can I help you two," she asked quietly.

"Can we have two rooms, please? We're trainers."

The nurse nodded. "The computers are down, so I'll have to register you manually. It will take a minute, can you please wait?"

They nodded, and went over to the lobby area to wait. There were a few adults standing around solemnly and a couple more sitting down. There was also a group of five children a few years younger than Satori sitting down in a circle. She found them peculiar, and as she approached she realized everyone was listening to an old radio that had been set up on a table.

Satori sat down next to one of the children. She had a peculiar ribbon tied around her yellow hair, but Satori shrugged it off and focused on the radio.

"...local forces and trainers are trying to fight it off, but it seems to have been ineffectual. KPD forces are heading to Geosenge as we speak, but due to an incident at the power plant their response is slower than ideal.

"We'd like to urge everyone to prepare to take shelter at a moment's notice. We're not sure as to where Yveltal will travel next, but it's expected to leave Geosenge. It will likely go either northeast towards Shalour or south towards Cyllage. Residents from either of those cities, please find shelter as fast as you can. Anything underground should be safe. Basements, cellars, things like that.

"For those of you just joining us, the legendary Pokemon known as Yveltal has currently risen from beneath Geosenge and is currently attacking the city. The legends seem true, all true. Please, protect your loved ones, your family, and be safe. We'll be bringing you updates on this airwave as we get them."

One of the children to Satori's left shifted and looked up at her friend. "H...hey...Cirno..." she said. "Are we going to be okay...?"

The girl named Cirno smiled and wrapped her arms around the two children sitting on either side of her, bringing them close. "Don't worry you guys. I'm the strongest, I'll protect you."

Satori noticed a glimmer behind Cirno as she shifted in her seat. It was hard to make out in the low light, but there were two nearly-transparent wings on her back. They reminded Satori of icicles. It was hard to see, did no one else notice the youkai in their presence? Satori scanned their thoughts.

They were far to focused on the radio.

The announcer on the other end kept describing the events happening in Geosenge. It was a small town, but apparently the destruction Pokemon was laying waste to it in entirety. It was surreal, hearing about it through an old-school radio. But it somehow made the situation feel more real.

"Can this...can this really be happening?" Tierno asked. She just shrugged, and other people made similar comments every once in awhile. Everyone in the room's thoughts were aligned, it was fear for their lives and the lives of their loved ones. Harmonizing, in a horrible way.

The nurse walked over towards the crowd, Satori specifically. She stood up.

"Your room is ready at the adjacent hotel," the nurse said. "I have the keys here. Yours two, sir." She added turning towards Tierno.

"Thank you," Satori said taking the keys. She and Tierno left the Pokemon center, heading towards the hotel. It turned out they had adjacent rooms, so Tierno bid her good night and agreed to meet her in the morning. Satori then opened the door to her room and went inside.

She threw her bags on the table, and took out her roster. She didn't even hesitate throwing out all four balls into the spacious room. All four emerged in a bright light before the darkness took over again.

Huh, what are we doing here? Said Delphox. Hey, master- Delphox stopped talking when she turned around and saw Satori. Master! What happened?

The other four pokemon turned towards her as well. Satori had her arm in a sling, as well as numerous cuts and bruises all over her body.

And her wall came crashing down.

The front she put up to deal with everything, the facade, the brave face. All of it came crashing down when she found herself alone in this room with just her Pokemon for support. Everything that she had been through and had bottled up. Everything kept in check by her adrenaline. All of it surged fourth.

And Satori cried. She fell to her knees. Delphox and the others came towards her. Satori wrapped her good arm around Delphox and buried her head into its soft fur, sobbing. None of them pressed her for the story, or demanded anything of her. They just stood by and let her weep.

It was enough. Delphox returned the hug, Absol leaned against her and even Pikachu nuzzled up on Satori's lap. Wobbuffet didn't have the limbs to help like they did, but it stood by close and wobbled back and fourth soothingly. It all helped her, more than anything. She didn't know how long she stayed like that, but it was a long time.

She heard gunshots all throughout her dreams.

Her Pokemon were already awake when Satori rose from her bed, watching guard. Except Absol. Absol was still asleep. But she stirred a minute or so after Satori had awoken and followed her as well. Satori smiled at them as she swallowed her medicine.

She knew they deserved to know what had happened, so she pulled out a chair from a desk and sat down, facing them. They gathered around and she told them everything that had happened to her, without leaving any details out. Their reactions were much as she would have predicted, initial shock followed by some humorous laughing followed by horror. And then Satori finished off with the kicker—Yveltal was flying around.

Way to go, said Pikachu. Didn't even bother to mince words. You summoned Yveltal.

Delphox kicked Pikachu in the gut after he said it, but Satori just gave a nervous laugh. "Thanks, Delphox, but he's sort of right. There's no way it's just coincidence that after the power plant fails, Yveltal just happens to appear."

Maybe not, but even if you caused it there's no way that the moral responsibility falls on your shoulders. Delphox put her hands on her hips. Assuming that destroying the power plant would lead to the release of an abomination wouldn't just be ridiculous, it would be reckless.

Satori smiled and scratched the top of Delphox's head. Delphox had grown almost as tall as Satori, and it was less like having a Pokemon and more like having a friend now. They talked for a bit longer before Satori decided to take a shower and get herself cleaned up and presentable. She was careful with her arm.

It was disappointing for Satori to realize that she had exactly one outfit left. They weren't exactly expensive or top of the line or fashionable, but they were hers. She would have to go buy spare clothing, but at least it would give her something to do today. Before that, however, she headed to the Pokecenter.

There were still a few people around the radio, including some of the children Satori had met last night. Only two of them today, the ribbon-girl and a green-haired girl. The latter had wings too, but the girl with the ribbon didn't outwardly look youkai. The other people in the center gave them a wide birth. Satori approached them.

"Excuse me," Satori said softly to get her attention. The green-haired girl and her friend turned towards her. "Can you tell me what's happening?"

"The m-monster is attacking Shalour now..." she responded hesitantly. She looked really nervous, but that was understandable. "T-The radio man says it will probably head to Coumarine after..."

Satori was alarmed at that. It appeared in Geosenge, now has gone to Shalour, and it's going to hit Coumarine next? If it followed that trajectory, the next destination would be...

...Lumiose. Where Satori was now. It was a jarring thought. A few seconds later though, Satori came to another realization. Her friends were in Coumarine and in no position to defend themselves.

That was jarring too.

Satori sat down on the couch in the Pokemon center, trying to calm her thoughts while waiting for Tierno. She tried to call Calem on the holo caster, but when she pulled it out she discovered it had no reception. Which was odd, because it was supposed to work even in the most remote areas of Kalos.

The power outage seemed the likely culprit, but Satori didn't feel that was quite right. Holo Casters replaced cell phones, and Satori thought that the technology wouldn't be dependent on something like cell towers. Weren't they supposed to be beyond that by now?

Not that it was her area of expertise. Satori shrugged and awkwardly put the device back in her bag.

"I like it," said the blonde girl. Satori looked over, and didn't really have a choice except to eavesdrop. She had caught both their names in their ambient thoughts too. Rumia and Dai, although the latter might have been a nick name.

"What? W-What do you mean?" asked Dai.

"It seeps darkness, right?" Rumia said. She seemed entirely too enthusiastic. "That's totally my schtick. We'd be awesome together."

"B-But what about...you know..." Dai said, hesitating to finish her statement.

"Bah, people are tasty!" Rumia exclaimed. "Come here, Dai, Imma eat you~"

Dai tried to back away as Rumia tackled her, playfully nibbling on her arm. The commotion caused a few people to look over, but they were nervous and kept their distance. Dai was clearly a youkai, after all.

Though to Satori's surprise, it seems their presence was tolerated. No one really adjusted their behavior around Dai except maybe just standing a little bit over there. Then again there were bigger things to worry about.

"Hey you two," Satori said. Rumia and Dai looked over. "Where are you guys from?"

"Lavarre," exclaimed Rumia. "But it's way more fun here in Lumiose."

Tierno made his way into the Pokemon Center before Satori had time to ask a follow-up question. He saw her and made his way over. He paused when he noticed Dai's wings, but then kept moving and sat down on the couch.

"Mornin, Satori." He said. His enthusiasm seemed to have drained away slightly, but Satori didn't blame him. Thoughts of the situation kept pressing on her mind. Right now, there was a flying monster over Shalour killing people.

Satori couldn't help but think back to yesterday, the corpse in the doorway. She shook her head around and tried to make the thoughts go away.

"You okay?" he asked. Satori looked up, and realized she hadn't responded to his greeting.

"I guess," she said. "Between yesterday and...now this, I think I'm better than I have any right to be." At those words, Delphox leaned a little closer. Satori appreciated the effort.

Tierno sat down. "I think the right advice is supposed to be to talk about it with a psychologist," he said. "But at the moment I think we should both forget about yesterday and focus on right now."

Satori glanced up at him. His thoughts confirmed what she was thinking. "It's the calm before the storm right now, isn't it?"

A sullen look came across his face. "...we came to the same conclusion, didn't we?"

Yveltal, the being of destruction and death. Naturally it would want to cause as much as possible, and to do so it would have to go to Lumiose. Right for them. And it probably wouldn't take more than a day or two, it was iffy at best.

"Could we leave?" Satori asked. "Find a safer city?"

"Ha, good luck!" Rumia said loudly. Satori and Tierno turned, not realizing they were being listened in on. Rumia continued. "Entire city is locked up with people having that same idea. Line to leave through the gatehouse is a mile long!"

"Just perfect." Satori said. "What a great idea, surround the entire city by a fucking wall."

Rumia gasped. "You said a baaad word."

Satori ignored her, it felt justified.

"Come on, solutions." Tierno urged. "We gotta think of solutions. If leaving isn't a reasonable option, what is?"

"The radio announcer said to get underground," Satori said.

"Yup, bingo bingo." Rumia said. "But you guys got a place to go underground? Not as many as you'd think, you know."

"Let me guess," Satori said. It wasn't a guess. "You have such a place?"

Rumia laughed, and Dai seemed very apprehensive. "R-Rumia," she said. "we aren't supposed to tell people..."

"But they can join us," Rumia said. Then she turned towards Satori, and got serious. Sort of. It was a mock-seriousness. "For a price," she said in a low tone.

Satori rolled her eyes, but scanned Rumia's thoughts to see what was really going on. She was being truthful, for the most part. They did have an underground area in Lumiose to themselves, and it wasn't a bad idea either. Get underground where the flying, airborne monstrosity of doom can't reach you. But Satori had a partner here, so she turned to Tierno.

"I dunno..." Tierno scratched his arm. "That one's a, you know..." Youkai.

"Would you rather take your chances with Yveltal?"

He shrugged and shook his head. "Alright."

Satori reached down into her bag, awkwardly unzipping it with only her left hand and reaching in. She pulled out her wallet, and brought it close to her chest so she could use both hands. She fished out 10,000P and held it out to Rumia.

"Can this buy our way into your club for the immediate future?"

Rumia and Dai just stared at the cash. Satori suppressed a smirk, she knew it would be a lot to them. Hell, it was a lot to her. But living seemed like a good investment. A few seconds went by where the two kids stared in shock at the cash before Rumia snatched it from Satori's hands and stared at it closer.

"Ah, uh, yeah." Rumia said, thrown off her game. Satori smiled, and Rumia led Satori out of the Pokemon center. Tierno and Dai followed them.

It didn't take long for Rumia to return to her abnormally high spirits, although the smaller girl seemed even more shy with Satori and Tierno walking with them. Rumia led Satori through Lumiose for a bit, and they passed by one of the gates. She had been right, there was a huge crowd formed at the entrance and a line that stretched for quite a ways down the sidewalk.

If Yveltal was going to attempt to cause as much death and destruction as possible, it would probably be best not to stick around the massive crowd of people. That, and Satori really really didn't want to. She wasn't sure she would be able to take standing in a line like that, hundreds of people around her. Their every thought intruding in on her peace of mind.

Passing by was bad enough.

They went past the gate though, towards the more industrialized part of town. It wasn't doing much industrializing at the moment because of the power outage though. The buildings were larger, more like warehouses.

Rumia finally led Satori to one of these warehouses. Or more precisely, to a stairwell leading under one of the warehouses. There was a small metal door at the bottom of the stairs with the word "Maintenance" engraved at eye-level. The stairs were narrow, and the five of them had to stand single file. Rumia was in front, and pulled down on the handle.

Despite being a heavy-looking metal door, it opened silently and effortlessly. The warehouse looked fairly new, but with the power out it didn't seem to be in use. Probably why they were using it as a hideout.

Satori and Delphox followed Rumia into the maintenance room, with Tierno and Dai following behind. It was actually rather large, and numerous pipes and electrical boxes littered the walls. But there was a personal touch as well, sleeping bags and futons were laid out, and a box or two of supplies sat in the center. They were likely using this place long before Yveltal emerged.

The only other person in the room was the girl Satori recognized from last night, Cirno. Wearing a blue dress and short, blue hair. She turned as the group entered the room.

"Hey, Rumia!" Cirno said strongly. "Who are you bringing into our secret hideout?"

Rumia trotted over to Cirno and waved around the cash Satori had handed over. "Look what they gave me. They wanna join our gang," Rumia said playfully.

Cirno's eyes widened slightly, but she quickly recomposed herself. Satori caught her thoughts though, nothing could hide from her. "Ah, well, I guess if they pay tribute then they're cool," she said. "Welcome to Team Nine, minions!"

Satori stood up straight and saluted. "Yes, boss!" She said. It was kind of fun to play along. A second or two later Tierno shrugged and followed Satori's example. Even Delphox raised it's small arms and gestured, which Satori thought was cute.

"Ha ha," Cirno laughed. "I like you guys."

The new recruits nodded, and Satori eyed the space Cirno and her gang found. It wouldn't be as comfortable as the hotel rooms, but it was underground and looked pretty sturdy. It was far from a bomb shelter, but it was probably the best Satori would be able to get on such short notice.

"Well then, better put you guys to work." Cirno said. Satori and Tierno glanced at each other, but didn't have time to say anything before Cirno continued. "We're all on rotation. Rumia and Daiyousei were...supposed to be listening to the radio...Mystia and Wriggle are trying to go get us some food, and I'm here holdin' down the fort."

Satori smiled as she and Tierno got thrown into the rotation scheme they had set up. With the money Satori provided to Team Nine, they purchased a sizable amount of food and other supplies, along with a few luxury items.

The entire team met up after each task in the rotation, and consolidated their knowledge. Satori wasn't too concerned with the gathering of food, but neither was anyone else really. Most of the gang's focus was on Yveltal. Although having a task to put her mind to served as a small distraction, it wasn't enough.

Yveltal was still over Shalour at the day's end, and the police had not stopped it. The radio had given the reasoning that even after taking immense amounts of damage, Yveltal simply absorbed the life energy from around it to rejuvenate. They didn't have the firepower to put it down.

It had made its way to Coumarine by the next day, still free and causing destruction. Satori could only pray that Calem and the others had made it somewhere safe. Trainers had gathered from all over Kalos to try to combat it, but still couldn't kill it. The radio had said trainers were being called in from other regions, but it would take time for them to arrive.

The third day Yveltal turned towards Lumiose. The city was in a sort of informal evacuation—the gates were major choke points and a riot had broken out of the people trying to escape. It wasn't safe to go leave, andthe terrible monster of death and destruction hadn't even arrived yet.

Satori sat in Team Nine's den along with all the others. They were attempting to have a lighthearted conversation to take their minds off of what was about to occur. Satori didn't really understand it though, something about pulling pranks and being arrested by some mean-spirited officer named 'Reimu.'

DEATH

Satori's eyes widened when she heard it. She looked around at all the others, but they hadn't sensed anything.

KILL

"Oh god..." Satori uttered. The rest of the room heard her quiet voice, and turned to her. But she could barely pay attention to them, the thoughts entering her mind were more powerful than anything she had encountered before. They overtook her senses.

DESTROY

"What's wrong, Satori?" Tierno asked.

Satori didn't respond right away, trying to get a handle on her own mind. The raw emotion behind the creature's thoughts sent shivers down her spine. "It's..." Satori started. "It's here."

The room froze at that. No one doubted her words, even though they weren't aware she could read minds. In the silence, they could hear screams coming from above though. That confirmed it, it was here. Yveltal had arrived.

Satori tried to block out the thoughts, but it was no use. She was a satori, her ability could not be turned off. The connection of thoughts was forged, and Satori did everything she could to quell the anger and fear that overcame her. Delphox, Absol and Pikachu stood around her in an attempt to comfort her, but it was clear they were affected nearly as much as she was.

DESTROY THE INVADERS

"H...Hey, are you alright, Satori?" Tierno asked. "You look really bad..."

Satori curled up into a ball. She wasn't going to explain it, not now. "...afraid." She said instead. It wasn't a lie.

I'M GOING TO KILL YOU

Its thoughts were pressing its way into Satori's mind, dragging her into its own feelings. She took deep breaths to calm down, to reassure herself that she was safe in Team Nine's little bunker, that Yveltal would destroy Lumiose to its heart's content and move on, and she would come out of it safe.

I'M GOING TO KILL YOU SATORI

…

…

What did it just say?

I'M GOING TO KILL YOU LITTLE SATORI. INVADERS. MANIPULATORS. MURDERERS. I WILL DESTROY YOU.

"Oh god no," Satori uttered. "Oh god..." Everyone looked to her, and she looked back at them in turn. Satori's pokemon had looks of similar fright—they understood what was happening. However it was that Pokemon could communicate with each other, they could understand Yveltal's cries. The others didn't though, the humans. Yveltal was after her. What the hell had she done to it? It was after her, it wanted to kill her.

And if she stayed here then it would probably also kill them.

Satori wasn't really the type to sacrifice herself for others.

But she didn't really know what else to do. It wasn't a choice between her or them, it was a choice between her and them, or just her. She had to leave, to get away. She would...go find whoever was fighting this thing, and ask them for protection. Yeah, that was the best plan.

Leaving her little sanctuary of safety, however, was not something that she wanted to do. She reached out and grabbed Delphox, bringing her into a one-armed hug. Satori's right arm was still in a sling.

What the hell am I going to do, Delphox?

Delphox didn't have an answer. Instead, Tierno shuffled towards her. "Satori, what's going on?"

"I...I..." Satori didn't know what to say. "I...think I have to go..."

"What?"shouted more than one person. Cirno followed up. "You're completely crazy if you want to go out there."

Satori shook her head back and fourth. Yveltal's thoughts were still drowning out the majority of her own thoughts, its presence that loud. Was there anything she could say to explain? Would they believe her?

"I'm sorry," she said after a minute. "If—if I survive, I'll explain everything."

Tierno tried to stop her, but Satori swiftly backed away towards the door of the factory, and pulled it open. Her Pokemon chased after her, and Tierno too. But Satori closed the door in his face, and whispered "I'm sorry" one last time.

It would have been easy for Tierno to just open the door up again and chase after her, but he didn't. Satori could have found out why if Yveltal's own thoughts weren't drowning out everyone else's. Communicating with her own pokemon was hard enough.

Satori turned away from the door, and it immediately became clear things were wrong.

For one, it was dark outside. At two in the afternoon.

There was also an unnatural light coming from the other side of the city, and billowing smoke from the same location. Fires had started, the only light in the entire powerless city. Satori ran away from the safety of the factory to try to get a better view of the sky and of the area on fire, but the buildings blocked her line of sight.

If she tried to get to higher ground, she would have a better sense of what was going on. However, if she did that then she would be putting herself in more danger. The safest place to be was underground, away from the sky and the flying Yveltal.

But it was after Satori, specifically. She wasn't safe underground, she wasn't safe anywhere. The chance of a bomb shelter or something similar just appearing in the nick of time was nonexistent. She couldn't outrun it, she couldn't escape it.

"What the hell am I supposed to do..." Satori asked in desperation. She hadn't addressed anyone in particular, but her Pokemon all stood beside her listening. Delphox and Absol didn't offer any response, but Pikachu took a few steps forward and stood in front of Satori.

She looked down at it as it looked up at her. Satori had tamed it by being above it, being the alpha. But right now she felt like the afraid little girl that she was, and Pikachu's glare cut through her.

Fight back.

"W-What?" Satori asked.

Fight back, Pikachu said again.

"I can't do that," Satori argued. "It's a legendary monster, I'll—" Satori didn't want to say what was going to happen to her.

To hell with that, boss. Fighting back is what you do, it's why I respect you. You fought me, you fought against Team Flare twice, hell, days ago you fought against being taken hostage against fifty guys with guns. And you won.

"That was—"

It was you, Pikachu said. So stop feeling sorry for yourself, pick yourself back up, and let's go fight back.

Satori stared at the Pikachu, and it glared back. Its look was serious, cold. Delphox and Absol weren't offering their opinion, standing by for Satori to make her decision. She hesitated for a long moment.

Then nodded her head.

Before Satori could do anything else, a loud screech echoed throughout the city followed by numerous screams. It was the sound of crashing metal, and the ground rumbled underneath Satori's feet. A building collapsed somewhere.

Satori bolted into an alleyway on the other side of the street of the factory. She may have had a goal now, but she had no way of carrying it out. Fight back? How the hell was she supposed to fight back?

Well, other people were fighting back, weren't they? The police, the trainers...they were going into the fray to fight against Yveltal. Satori needed to find them, get involved. Tell someone in charge what was going on.

There was another screech, but this one wasn't the sound of crumbling metal. It was Yveltal. Satori turned towards the sound, but she was in an alleyway. She couldn't see what was happening or why it had made that noise.

It took all of Satori's willpower to run towards the noise, but that was what she had to do. If she couldn't flee, she would have to fight. And to do that, she had to get closer.

The alleyway opened up into a small park, with a fountain at the center. Satori leaned over into the fountain and splashed water onto her face, trying to jolt her senses.

Yveltal's thoughts still pressed on her mind. She suppressed them to the best of her ability with little effect. The Third Eye didn't have that large of a radius, but Yveltal's thoughts somehow made it to her even from across the city.

There was probably a clever insight there, if Satori was thinking at all rationally.

Mistress, do you have a plan? Absol asked.

Satori looked over a her Pokemon, who were loyally following her every move. "No," she admitted. "I was going to try to find out whoever is in charge, and tell them what we know. Then help fight." Absol nodded at the response, and Satori looked around at the two other alleyways leading to the park.

Lumiose was a notoriously convoluted city. The plan doesn't seem complex at first glance, though. The center of the city is a massive tower that doubles as the gym, as well as a great tourist attraction. There is an inner main road that circles around the tower, and an outer main road that circles around the perimeter of the city. The inner and outer main roads are connected by a number of large avenues, with smaller roads an alleyways interconnecting in between.

The idea is that you can circle around one of the main roads, then head down an avenue and then further refine your path to get to your destination. Theoretically easy to navigate. The reality turned out to be, however, was that it was ridiculously hard. While a circular city was a more novel idea, apparently grids were the way to go for ease of navigation.

Which sort of led Satori to having no idea where she was or where she was supposed to go. When the city was under normal operation, there were numerous maps and quite a few cab services had sprung up to take people where they needed to go. But none of those were available to Satori. She didn't really have any idea how to get from point A to point B.

She started to run in the general direction of the fire, assuming that Yveltal and the people fighting it were around there. She dashed down one of the alleyways in that direction.

The alleyway turned out to be a dead-end.

"Dammit," Satori cursed.

This city sucks, Pikachu commented.

Satori had no choice but to retrace her steps. She made it to one of the main avenues. It probably wasn't a good idea to travel along the main roads, but Satori didn't know the city nearly well enough to traverse entirely through back alleys.

Towards the Prism Tower would be the quickest route, assuming Satori didn't make too many blunders in navigation. But she was hesitant. It looked like an "obvious target," something that was obviously going to attract the attention of Yveltal.

Isn't that what we're trying to do, asked Delphox. Satori looked over at her.

It was, of course. But Satori turned away from the tower anyways, and headed towards the outer ring of the city. Satori rationalized it as the better, safer strategy, but in her heart she knew it was mostly cowardice that drove her decision. She didn't think she could handle going straight for it. In fact, she was doing her hardest not to think about what she was actually doing.

DESTROY

KILL

Yveltal's thoughts still echoed throughout her head and the heads of her Pokemon. It never really stopped, but the more Satori concentrated on other things the less she noticed it.

Despite Satori clearly hearing Yveltal call her out specifically, it didn't seem to be chasing after her. She had a better view of the skyline from the main road, and she kept her eyes on the sky as much as she could without tripping over herself. It didn't appear, and seemed to be at the western edge of the city.

"Can it...can it not track me?" Satori asked.

Delphox just shrugged, and the three pokemon exchanged glances. We, er, Delphox started. We kind of assumed it could. I mean, it's a legendary, so it's a fair assumption.

Perhaps the others are keeping it at bay, Absol offered. There are numerous trainers that are more than capable of fighting.

"Safer to assume it can," Satori said. "The safest thing for us to do is to surround ourselves with the others who are fighting."

The others agreed, and they ran down the main avenue. Satori's stride was awkward, since with her arm in a sling she couldn't use her arms for balance. She also was trying to be careful not to hurt her arm too much, recalling the doctor's words from earlier.

Satori realized how foolish it was to be concerned with the long-term healing of her arm when she was running to almost certain death. She realized, but thought about it anyways. It helped to give her hope, in a way.

Lumiose was, as Satori was realizing, a very large city. While the plan to go join the action sounded...well, "good" wasn't the right word, but it sounded like a plausible plan. The issue was Lumiose was large, and getting to the action would take awhile.

She took the opportunity to try to think about how to attack Yveltal and actually make a difference. Unfortunately, she didn't know a lot about it.

It sucks the life out of people, right? Delphox ran a bit ahead of Satori. It's how it regains its health even after being attacked.

"Yeah," Satori said as she jogged down the road. "Presumably the key to killing it is to either cut off that power, or to deal enough damage to it so it can't keep up."

I don't think we will divine the former anytime soon, Absol offered. And we don't have enough firepower by ourselves for the latter.

Which is why we're joining with others. To add to the overall firepower. Right?

Satori thought a moment. Killing it wasn't necessarily the goal though. The goal was to stop it, not kill it. It was a subtle difference, but would it open up more options? Yveltal was technically a pokemon, albeit by only the most lenient of definitions. Satori thought of one way of stopping it, but it was dumb. It was even dumber than escaping through air vents. That had worked though, to some degree.

"Hey, what if we just—" Satori hesitated in saying it. Her companions looked up at her. "I mean, what if we just threw a Pokeball at it?"

Pretty sure if it was that easy this wouldn't be an issue, boss.

Before Satori had time to press the issue, they came across the main road adjacent to the outer wall. The streets had been completely deserted so far, understandably, but that changed once they reached the main road. There was a large crowd of people rioting around the gatehouse. Satori couldn't believe it.

She couldn't in good conscience call them stupid, since she was also out and about despite the city under active siege too. But escaping the city hardly seemed valuable anymore, the window of escape should long be past.

The people were desperately attacking each other to get through the gate. A few of them had even summoned Pokemon, and were attacking the others with them indiscriminately.

Satori didn't blame them. But she didn't like it either.

A few of the rioters had noticed her, but none moved to attack. They kept her in the corner of her eye, and Satori could hear their thoughts. Barely, over the continual pounding of Yveltal's rein of destruction.

Since escaping wasn't part of the plan, Satori carefully turned to the right and stuck to the sidewalk across the street from the gatehouse. Once she had shuffled far enough away and made sure she wasn't trying to join the fray, she ran off.

The sight of the city was eerie. Completely deserted, cars abandoned in the streets with their doors left open. Satori jogged at her awkward pace due to her arm, slowly getting closer to the action.

She still didn't have much of a plan for stopping Yveltal. It was no doubt going to be more difficult than just throwing a Pokeball at it, but she wanted to at least join the fray with a better plan than Delphox and Pikachu throwing attacks at it.

"Do any of you guys have ideas on stopping Yveltal?" Satori asked her Pokemon.

So we're throwing out all pretense of killing it, then? Pikachu asked. Satori nodded.

Make it docile, get it to run away, capture or contain it, Delphox rattled off. Satori thanked her.

Ideas. That's what Satori needed, and Delphox just listed three potential ones. She tackled thinking about them each in turn, starting with making Yveltal docile.

Satori bounced thoughts around in her head on how to make Yveltal docile. To get it to stop attacking all together. She didn't want to write it off as impossible, but doing so seemed close to it. Presumably to get it to stop attacking would be to sate its lust of destruction and death. Somehow, willingly feeding Yveltal things to destroy and people to kill seemed counterproductive.

Although, it might best to funnel it to areas that were less critical targets than elsewhere. But she wasn't in a position to make that sort of decision.

Yes you are, Delphox interrupted. Satori looked over at her, questioningly. Yveltal wants to kill you. Presumably, it will follow you. You have the power to lead it out of the city if necessary.

Satori's eyes widened. She would need speed to do that, a car or motorcycle to outrun Yveltal. But it was an idea, one that might actually work. Problem was she didn't know how to operate either, but maybe she could find someone crazy enough who could. A policeman, maybe?

The road seemed to never end. A couple of times she thought she saw Yveltal's figure in the sky, maneuvering around columns of fire and ice and other pokemon-generated effects. But the buildings really obstructed her view of the sky.

Satori had a plan, though, which folded in Delphox's second idea into it. Satori could lead Yveltal away from the safety. It would last only as long as her life did, but it was something. Unless there was a way to capture it. Pokeball was a long-shot, and she didn't have access to nets or anything. Maybe topple a building on top of it?

There was another rumble, and Satori was almost knocked off her feet. She could see a plume of dust rise up not too far in the distance.

And with a loud inhuman screech, Satori caught her first glimpse of the legendary Yveltal. Between the gap in two buildings, she saw the black and red figure in the sky. A rectangular beam of bluish light spreading from its maw. Satori froze for a moment to watch the sight, before moving on.

It would be bad if it saw her.

Satori sped up as she saw another avenue another block ahead of her. One of the main ones that would stretch to the center of the city. She hurried her pace even further, and could see flames licking up buildings just a couple blocks beyond.

There was another screech from the legendary creature as Satori rounded the corner onto the avenue. In the distance was the Prism Tower, the center of Lumiose. Further down the avenue were police vans and tanks, firing their weapons at Yveltal.

Satori began to approach, but her feet glued to the ground a second later as she looked forward. Yveltal had risen above the tower in its full glory, the tower pointing to it. Its red and black wings spread out forming a 'Y' shape with its tail.

There was nothing she could do as Yveltal opened its jaw and released a beam of blue energy. The beam shot down towards the base of the tower, the entire city shaking from the impact. A horrible grinding noise echoed throughout the avenue as the tower suddenly lurched down and teetered to one side by about ten degrees.

It seemed to stabilize for a second before a squealing of metal sounded, and something at the base of the tower gave way. The entire building slowly caved in on itself, smoke and dust billowing out as the debris fell to the ground.

Satori couldn't see anything through the dust, but she didn't have to. It was clear the tower had fallen, collapsed completely and utterly. And she realized.

Realized the futility of fighting it.

Realized the power it commanded was unbeatable.

But seeing Yveltal fly above the collapsing tower made her realize something else. Something she had written off and taken for granted. She had run towards it with little to no information, forming a loose-fitting plan based on false assumptions. Because she hadn't asked herself something important. The question that could slay monsters and topple gods. The question that was staring her in the face.

Why?

Yveltal's wings beat as the clouds and ash swirled around it, and darkness itself radiated from its body. Tierno had compared it to a force of nature, a hurricane or tornado. But that was wrong.

Because it was thinking.

It was conscious, it was planning, and it had a goal.

WHY?

The monster turned its head from side to side, but then it centered, focusing on a single point. It took a moment for Satori to realize what it had focused on. Her.

"WHY?"