Chapter Eight: Entanglement
Shrew, Quill and Krane, who was still carrying Bagon, made it to the offices of the teleportation division, Krane locking the door behind him. Shrew and Quill stopped to take a breath, but Krane carefully lowered Bagon on one of the desks and grabbed his first aid kit.
"There's no time for a break!" Krane yelled at the two Pokémon. "Block that door before the glitches get through!"
Shrew and Quill obeyed, Shrew feeling almost nauseated by the guilt. He blocked the entrance to a safe place, fully knowing there were five Pokémon fighting out there to save him. Was he really worth all that? He already had the blood of two Pokémon on his paws – not to mention all those Pokémon who died in the fire he saved Quill from.
As Shrew and Quill finished putting heavy crates full of metal appliances in front of the door, they ran to the professor to see how Bagon was doing. But Krane had already given up on the dragon, having merely put his finger on her neck to feel her pulse. Shrew and Quill didn't have to ask the results as they saw Krane burying his face in his hands, groaning quietly.
"I promised her," Shrew muttered to himself. "I told her how much she would enjoy life once she would get outside."
Krane left the Bagon with an oddly determined look on his face, marching up to one of the computers and started typing furiously. Quill looked around the offices.
"There's two more doors here," Quill pointed out, referring two one reinforced steel door and one regular door.
"There's apparently another entrance into this office," Krane said in the midst of typing. "The heavy door goes to further chambers. We have to go through many more doors until we reach the teleport. They had to shield the workers here from radiation... DAMN IT!"
Shrew and Quill flinched as Krane slammed the desk next to the computer with his hand, making the computer shake. He grimaced and started to rub his temples.
"We need someone with more technical skills than me to calibrate this thing," Krane groaned. "Someone has tampered with the settings. If I don't set it right... well, there's a good chance we all get blown up or vaporized or something by the energy burst."
Shrew felt panic creeping up on him. Everything he had worked so hard for hinged on Krane being able to use the teleport – and now he was telling him that it couldn't be done? And with the zombie humans and glitch Pokémon almost literally knocking on their door, what could he do? He tried not to hear the sounds of the five little Pokémon as they still fought in the hallway, but the screams and roars wormed their way into his brain anyway. Quill was valiantly trying to build a barricade to block the other door while Shrew just stood still. He had promised to get her out of there.
He had promised.
"Those humans from the strike team," Krane said suddenly and snapped his fingers. "There was a technical expert in the team. She managed to hack into the controls of the doors. If she can get access to any notes left by the workers here..."
Shrew groaned.
"Do we really have to wait for them?" he said. "They could be dead for all we know!"
"I can't think of any other way," Krane said anxiously. "Though, unless we hurry soon, Quill will..."
Shrew stared at Krane.
"Will what?" he asked.
Krane nervously adjusted his translating device, buying himself time as he tried to answer, but only sputtering sounds came out of his mouth.
"Will what, professor?" Shrew asked again. "You cured her, right? Managed to stop the degeneration?"
"Shrew," Quill said suddenly, Shrew noticing she had sneaked behind his back. "He already told me everything he found – I asked him to be honest, and he was."
"What did he find?" Shrew asked her, but didn't want to raise his voice at her, focusing his current frustration on Krane instead. "What did you find?!"
Krane licked his lips and wrung his hands before answering. "The reason why Quill can use her attacks now... I managed to give her a temporary boost with a drug specifically created for that purpose – but I don't have enough knowledge about Pokémon medicine to completely reverse the effects. Slow them down, maybe, but even that's not for certain."
"Is she going to make it?!" Shrew yelled.
Krane sighed. "I don't know. Yes, no, maybe? Shrew, I have to confess – I wasn't entirely honest with you before. Yes, I tried to talk to the administrator about the cure, but after he rejected it... I didn't really work on it that much. You have to understand," Krane said quickly when Shrew scowled at him. "My work took precedent! I kept telling myself that I would find a cure later, but Kaminko said there was no time to slow down our work. I... I'm sorry."
Shrew, Quill and Krane just stood in silence. Krane leaning against the barricade at the door, awkwardly shuffling as far from Shrew as he could manage. Quill didn't look sad, scared or otherwise affected by what Krane had said. She just went back to trying to barricade the other door, while Shrew remained still, glaring at Krane.
"I thought you were different," Shrew said coldly. "Can't you tell anything about her condition?"
"No, I'm sorry!" Krane said again as he wrung his hands even faster. "All I know is that the effect of the shot I gave her won't last long. Shrew, she wanted me to do everything I could to make sure she could still fight. That's all I could do."
Krane took off his glasses as he sighed deep and rubbed his eyes, the day's events having exhausted him to his limit.
"Shrew," he said. "I understand if you-"
Krane was drowned out by the door and the barricade suddenly getting shattered from behind him, skeletal talons grabbing Krane by the shoulder and attempting to pull him through the door. Shrew and Quill froze in horror as they saw the head of a skeletal Aerodactyl through the hole in the door, accompanied by smaller glitch Pokémon. Krane kicked and struggled against the Aerodactyl, its talons having dug deep into his shoulders and spilling blood on his lab coat. For several seconds, Shrew just stared at the struggling the scientist, who stared back, not crying for help or even shouting in pain, just growling as he struggled against the skeleton Aerodactyl's strength.
Cursing to himself, Shrew extended his claws and lunged at the door, ready to break each one of his claws if it meant getting the Aerodactyl to let go. But before he could do that, the Aerodactyl spread its wings and pulled Krane through the hole it made. The last thing Shrew saw on Krane's face was a look of sad resignation before the professor disappeared from sight.
Shrew backed from the door – the other glitch Pokémon were still pounding at it, trying to make the hole Krane was pulled out of even bigger. Shrew ran to Quill, and together, the two Pokémon quickly fled through the reinforced steel door and further into the chambers.
~o~O~o~
One level above, Wes, who was carrying the wounded Jasmine on his back, along with Jasmine's Mawile, burst through the emergency doors and down the stairs leading to where the escape pods were located. The whole building shook again as Wes carefully descended the stairs.
Has it started already?
Finally, Wes, Jasmine and Mawile made it to the escape pod chambers, only finding out that four of the five had already been launched, three people ready to climb into the last one that two Rocket Grunts were already in. There was Domino, the scientist from the tram tunnels and a grunt who was struggling with Domino, attempting to squeeze into the pod.
"Ms. Domino, please, this place is about to blow!" the grunt argued as he was being pulled away by Domino. "Please, there's room for one more!"
"Sorry," Domino said as she kicked the grunt square in the chest, knocking him to the floor. "Much as I hate to say it, this scientist is worth more than you are now, and this is a pod for four. Get in, Gideon!"
The scientist obeyed hastily, the grunts already in the pod glaring at him. The grunt tried to get up, but Domino stabbed him in the chest with her tulip, putting the grunt permanently out of commission.
Domino swept her hair back and turned to look at Wes, acting completely cavalier as she put her other leg inside the pod.
"Ah, so you're back on you feet, Orrean!" she said. "I'm impressed – most of our people were killed by that skeleton monster. I didn't give you enough credit, it seems."
"Jasmine, could you please?" Wes asked Jasmine without bothering to answer Domino.
"Oh, right, sorry," Jasmine said weakly. "Mawile, use Iron He-"
But Domino was faster and managed to charge and stab Mawile with her tulip as well. The shock would have probably killed a human, but Mawile was merely knocked out. Pointing the weapon at Wes and Jasmine, Domino climbed back into the pod.
"Too bad it had to end this way, though," she remarked. "If you manage to survive, I'm looking forward to testing your endurance again."
Grinning, Domino closed the pod's door. Wes stared as the pod was launched into a tube that apparently connected into the ocean somehow, a dumbstruck expression on his face as he was stuck in a room with the smoking body of a Rocket Grunt. Jasmine didn't react, just raised her arm weakly and returned Mawile to its ball.
"At least you tried," she told the Pokémon.
Wes let out a surprised shout as the building shook again, his hand almost slipping and letting go of Jasmine, whose breathing got more shallow.
"Okay, crap, looks like we have to use the teleport anyway," Wes said. "Do you know how to use it?"
"'From the notes of Dr. Faust, head of the teleportation division'", she quoted monotonously. "When I got into the security footage, I combed through all of their files. I felt that one was relevant – she left detailed instructions on how to calibrate the teleport properly. I took the opportunity to memorize them... I think."
Wes ignored the last remark. "You're a genius, Jas!" he praised and turned around, groaning at the thought of having to climb more stairs with a person on his back.
"No, Wes, wait!" Jasmine said, forcing Wes to stop. "I can calibrate it, but I don't know how to control all that energy. We would have to get to their computers, and we'll never make it in this state."
"...flank me in the Alph," Wes grumbled. "Okay, what's the worse that can happen if you can't 'control the energy' or whatever?"
"Worse?" Jasmine asked calmly. "We all get vaporized and this entire archipelago will be irradiated, meaning there's a chance hundreds, maybe thousands of others will die, too."
Wes wanted to scream his lungs out in frustration at that. Are you f***ing kiddin me? This was not what I signed on for! All I wanted was a big ol' pile of...
"Wait," Wes said and crouched, Jasmine's weight starting to wear him down.
He let go of Jasmine for a moment, allowing her to hang on him by her arms, using his own hands to operate the Xtransceiver. His plan was a long shot, but he also knew the people he were about to call could show up and move the entire mountain away in minutes if they wanted to. Rejoicing as he managed to pick up a signal, Wes made the call.
"Ah, I was getting worried for a second," the smug, anonymous mystery man who had called him earlier spoke, picking up almost immediately. "I understand you were able to get the Griseous Orb and Dr. Kaminko out safely. Good work."
"Yeah, you have that stupid thing now, I bet you're happy!" Wes said quickly. "Listen, this whole place is falling apart and we're about to get blown to kingdom come! Whoever you are, you have to delay the bombings!"
"I'm afraid that's not in my power. I'm not even close to them, for that matter – they're heading your way as we speak. They will commence their operation at 5 AM just as the operation parameters say."
"Not in your... then get us a ride out of here! Don't try to pull anything on me, I know you can do it!"
"Well, I'm not saying that can't be arranged." The man's irreverent, lazy way of speaking made Wes' blood boil. "But, I do have a note of concern. You remember what we talked about earlier. I assume some of your teammates are still with you."
"Well... yes, one of them is," Wes admitted – for all he knew, the man could see him as they spoke, laughing from the comfort of his office. "What does that-"
"I understand your time is running a bit short, so I won't resort to silly euphemisms. We told you to eliminate all witnesses if you wanted your reward."
"I'm not killing anyone!" Wes yelled – he could hear Jasmine breathing in his ear again. "Look, you got what you wanted, and almost everyone here died anyway! An escape pod with Team Rocket members inside got out just a minute ago, so I don't think it matters who else leaves! I've worked with you people before, I know what you want. Just get us out of here and... I don't care, you don't have to pay me, I'll become you personal whipping boy, I'll work for you for free, just get us the hell out!"
"Hmm... you do make a good point and we do need people like you in our ranks. Then again, I'm sure you understand that it's better to be safe than sorry – and, to be honest, your tone is kind of getting on my nerves. I'm sorry it had to be this way. Goodbye."
"Listen you-"
But all Wes could hear next was static. Soon enough, the signal was lost and Wes couldn't call the man again. His hands shaking, Wes tried to select another frequency and attempted to contact Marshal. By now, he had to have delivered his package already.
But it was no use. The signal was being blocked, and after a while, he lost it, too. Wes threw the Xtransceiver away, a feeling of bleak helplessness filling him almost entirely.
"Wes," Jasmine said quietly. "I don't know if this means anything, but... thank you. Are you okay?"
"...yes," Wes said sharply. "Better than okay. Jasmine, you said you memorized those notes entirely, right?"
"Um, yes. I mean, almost."
"That'll have to do. Hold on tight – we're getting out of here."
~o~O~o~
"Damn it, we're not getting out of here," Hilda grumbled to herself as her Emboar punched through another zombified human.
The arrival of the skeleton Aerodactyl on the level below didn't go unnoticed by Hilda and Yellow, who got separated from each other when the monster launched its Hyper Beam attack, completely leveling part of the floor and blocking access to the elevator. Hilda and Emboar were now fighting their way through the monstrosities, aided by the fact that they were mostly too busy fighting a sudden swarm of small, weaker Pokémon that attempted to overpower the glitch Pokémon with sheer numbers.
Hilda's face was covered in sweat, dust, blood and various other grime, but she pressed on, gritting her teeth as she made her way towards the room she left the hostages in.
Screw Lance, she thought. Screw orders, screw the greater good, I'm here and I have to save these peopl-
Shit.
The door she had intentionally left unlocked had been blown to bits. Blood had splattered all over the room as Hilda observed the signs of combat. The office she had left the hostages in was practically demolished, desks reduced to splinter, the metal chairs mangled into an unrecognizable state, couches and cushions blown to bits and the whole macabre sight decorated with various dead hostages and Pokémon littered all over the room. Hilda cringed when she noticed there were less dead hostages than there had been alive ones when she left – either they made a desperate and pointless run for it, or they had been turned...
Hilda shook her head. It was awful to think about, but that wasn't what unsettled her. The sheer realization of something far worse made Hilda double over and vomit, her Emboar looking at her in concern but unable to help her.
She had allowed this to happen. Buck and Cal dying, that she could handle. She could blame it on the circumstances. But these people...
Even after throwing up, Hilda still felt a sense of stomach-turning nausea in her, trembling all over as she stood surrounded by bodies. But she had to snap out of it when Emboar cried out in surprised. Another skeletal Pokémon, a Kabutops like Jasmine had mentioned, stood near what used to be the door. Emboar prepared to fight it, dodging as the Kabutops swung its scythe – and to Hilda's horror, the wall the scythe hit broke apart even before Kabutops had touched it.
"Emboar, back up!" Hilda ordered the Pokémon, who narrowly dodged a second slash from the Kabutops.
Hilda recalled the Emboar and fled the room through the other door, one that was fortunately still intact, and without thinking, charged towards another office nearby, the Kabutops managing to keep up after her, making up for its lack of speed by taking long steps. Hilda turned to fire her blaster at it, but at this point, she could have done more damage to it by screaming angrily.
"Hydro Cannon!"
Hilda didn't see who called out the attack, but she recognized it immediately. An enormous ball of water hit the Kabutops and knocked it several yards backwards before exploding with immense pressure, drenching the entire corridor.
The attacker was a Samurott, whose brown-haired trainer covered in dust limped closely behind it. Without hesitation, Hilda signaled them to storm into the office, closing and locking the door behind her as they did so. Taking a deep breath, Hilda smiled at Hilbert.
"...thanks," was the best she could do now.
"I figured that Aerodactyl would be coming here next," Hilbert panted almost deliriously as he held on his stomach. "It blew us right up, but I got up, just like I always do... Hilda?"
"What is it?"
"Can you catch me?" Hilbert mumbled before falling on the ground, revealing that his hands and shirt were soaked in blood.
Hilda ran to him, checking the wound on his stomach – it was deep and wide, practically running the length of his torso, as if something had cut him there. He was also covered in burns, cuts and bruises from earlier and his face was getting drained of its color alarmingly quickly.
No, damn it, no! I deserve it, but don't let this happen to him!
"Well," Hilbert said, blood coming out of his mouth as well, "at least we completed the mission. That's all that mattered, right?"
"No!" Hilda shouted, not sure why she was screaming into a wounded person's ear. "We matter too, Hilbert! Dying here just for the sake of that crappy artifact would be the most pointless thing ever. Now get up!"
Hilbert gave Hilda a pained smile, but only moved to point a Poké Ball at Samurott. Hilda glanced at the water Pokémon – it was wounded, though not nearly as bad as its trainer. Moving slowly, Hilbert recalled the Pokémon and handed the bloodstained Poké Ball to Hilda.
"Take care of Samurott," he pleaded, his hands shaking as he dropped the ball on Hilda's hand. "Tell it that-"
"Oh, shut the hell up," Hilda snapped. "I'll hold on to it until we get you fixed up. Where's Bianca?"
"Hopefully in a better shape than me," Hilbert groaned. "I have no idea. I got split up after the beam blew up most of the level above us. I didn't see anyone so I came back here to help you."
"How wonderfully stupid of you," Hilda said and looked around the office. There was a back door, and next to it, a map with a large red dot saying 'you are here'. "Hilbert, look!" she said, pointing at the map. "Through that door, we'll get to the employee locker rooms and the warehouses... and there's a door leading to the teleport chambers in there. C'mon!"
Hilda got up and lifted Hilbert up roughly with one arm, ignoring his pained cry. She helped him move closer to the sliding door, opened it with a push of a button and peeked into the cold, dark stone corridor before her. She could hear faint groans no doubt coming from glitch Pokémon from there, so she let Emboar out of its ball.
"Go a bit further and survey the situation, but if there are any, don't let them see you!" Hilda instructed her Pokémon, who grunted in acknowledgment and did as told just as Hilda started to hear frantic banging and more glitch Pokémon noises coming from the door she had just locked – it wouldn't hold out long. "And not a moment too soon!"
Hilda moved past the threshold, but Hilbert stayed still, shaking Hilda off him and leaning on the wall by the doorway, clutching his stomach again. Hilda turned to glare at him.
"You're seriously wounded, there's no time for this!" she snapped.
"It's a pretty long way to the teleport from here," Hilbert observed as he glanced at the map. "That corridor goes around this entire level."
"Well, we should get moving, then!" Hilda said. "Come on."
"I still have my Pokétch," Hilbert said. "I can... slow them down a bit."
"Yeah, cool, but keep your head down while I escort you through, leave the fighting to Emboar, so-"
"Hilda," Hilbert wheezed. "I didn't mean that. There's no way I'll make it that far. And if you stop to drag me around, you'll end up the same way."
"You've lost a lot of blood!" Hilda said and tried to forcibly drag Hilbert over the threshold. "You're not making any sense, now come on!"
"Listen to me for once!" Hilbert yelled, though doing so caused him more stomach pain and almost made him double over. When he recovered, he wiped his mouth and looked at Hilda, managing a small smile. "Sorry... you know, when Wes came on board and talked about how we could die here, I didn't take him too seriously. Even when we realized just how bad things were down here, I just assumed we'd pull through anyway, and if I had to go, you and I would save the others in some heroic fashion, sacrificing ourselves for the greater-" Hilbert stopped to cringe and hold his stomach again.
"Fine, if that's how it has to be!" Hilda shouted, her eyes welling up. "No matter where we're going, we're doing it together!"
Hilbert just shook his head. "...but only now I realize how stupid my little fantasy was. If this is how things are, one of us has to live on."
"No... No... Hilbert, I..." Hilda closed her eyes and clenched her fists, wanting so hard to confess, tell him how she felt about Lance's orders, about what she did to those people, how she felt when Cal had died, but the shame was overbearing. "I'm not worth it," Hilda managed to spit out.
"Yes you are," Hilbert said and mashed the button that closed the door.
Hilda gasped and opened her eyes as she heard to door get locked and the other door give in, hearing muffled sounds of the glitch Pokémon storming into the room.
No...
~o~O~o~
Location: Floe Island Harbor, Sevii Islands
It was 4:17 AM. Marshal and Dock had finished delivering Kaminko and the Griseous Orb to four stoic agents who all wore identical suits and sunglasses. One was rushing Dr. Kaminko into a helicopter waiting near the harbor, while another weighed the Griseous Orb on his hand.
"It's lighter than we assumed," the agent said flatly.
"Yeah, whatever," Marshal said quickly. "Look, I told you already, we have to get back. Our people are still stuck in there! And have you forgot about the hostages?"
"Too risky, sir," the agent told Marshal calmly as he put the Griseous Orb into a large briefcase which he then sealed with an electronic lock and handcuffed into his own hand. "You'll be in the center of the explosion by the time it takes you to get there."
"No, we won't, Dock got us out there in record time, and that was while dodging Team Rocket's artillery!" Marshal argued. "We don't need your permission anyway. Dock, get it fired up!"
Two agents standing behind Marshal aimed their weapons at him while the one with the briefcase did the same to Dock, who meekly put his hands up.
"The submarine is Pokémon Association property," the agent holding the briefcase said. "I'm afraid building a new one is costlier and more time-consuming than training a new strike team. As a precaution, we have prevented them from contacting you."
Marshal glared at the agent for a while before roaring and punching one of the agents behind him off the pier and into the water. The two other agents tackled Marshal and wrestled him down, but as even they weren't enough, the third one and even the helicopter's pilot had to step in to subdue him.
~o~O~o~
Back at Navel Rock, Wes felt his legs burning. He had never run as fast as he did now, ignoring the massive battle between small captive Pokémon, the glitch Pokémon and zombie-like humans going on level B3, only caring about the teleporter. Despite having to carry Jasmine, he dashed past the hallways, keeping his head low as Pokémon attacks and debris flew all over the place. In the flashing lights of battle and the inhumane noises all the Pokémon made while wounding and maiming each other was a perfect cover for Wes and Jasmine, but while the combatants didn't care about them, it was ridiculously easy to get caught in a crossfire.
The hallway shook again as Wes felt another tremor, but he didn't even bother checking how much time he had until the bombs dropped. The floor was slippery with blood, the bursts of fire, electricity and energy flying around burned his and Jasmine's body, but nothing could stop the two.
That was until something grabbed Wes' leg. Wes and Jasmine both fell, Jasmine getting hurled against a wall and Wes feeling splitting pain in his nose as he cracked it on the floor. Wiping his face clear of blood, Wes didn't care what had grabbed him, he simply kicked it away, hearing a satisfying otherworldly squeal, thinking he had hurt a glitch Pokémon.
But the glitch didn't mind the attack, but instead lunged at Wes again, exposing its wide, shapeless mouth and long rows of sharp teeth.
Wes covered his head in desperation, but didn't feel an impact. Instead, he felt the glitch being bounced back and forced to scuttle away. Daring to look, he noticed Yellow standing next to him, being perhaps the only person in the damn place without any signs of injury on them.
"Can you walk?" Yellow asked Wes as they held their hand up, casting a protective shield around Wes and Jasmine.
"Yeah, yeah," Wes replied with a wave of his hand as he pinched his nose. "It's not like a frickin' nosebleed will stop me at this point! Jasmine needs your help more than me."
"I can't heal her and keep up the shield at the same time," Yellow said matter-of-factly. "Can you get her to the office next to you, please?"
Wes nodded and didn't question the order. Wes grabbed Jasmine's arms and roughly pulled her into the office behind him. Slowly, Yellow backed into the room after them, locked the door and finally let their hand drop and taking a breath.
Realizing that they were in one of the offices of the teleportation department, Jasmine wasted no time dragging herself towards one of the computers. Pitying her as she struggled to get herself up without using her legs, Wes lifted her into the computer chair. Jasmine muttered a hasty thank-you before she started typing.
"Where's Hilda?" Wes asked Yellow, who had knelt and started to apparently meditate – Wes didn't feel like questioning that at the moment.
"Unfortunately, we got separated," Yellow replied serenely. "I presume the same goes for Bianca and Hilbert?"
Wes shook his head. "Hilbert, yeah, but Bianca is dead, as are Rosa and Nate," he said. "And we didn't find any hostages up there – if any were alive, well, after that blast, I doubt... goddamnit."
Yellow's meditations weren't bothered, however. They just simply said: "I see."
"I... I wanted to save them," Wes continued, having been wanting to spill his thoughts out for the longest time now. "Arceus, how I wanted to save them! But I'm useless! They should have never brought me along! When I met all of you I thought I finally... but what does it matter now?"
Yellow opened their eyes. Watching Wes from a lotus position on a floor, they tilted their head slightly.
"You want to atone," Yellow observed. "You've done bad things in your past – unintentionally, perhaps, but you are aware of them."
Wes wasn't surprised Yellow knew. "Thanks for the privacy invasion," he grunted. "I wish I could read minds like that."
"I wouldn't have needed to, anyway," Yellow said. "The way you spoke and acted revealed all I had to know."
"Fan-friggin-tastic."
"It is still not too late," Yellow said, even smiling during a situation like this.
"The body count here says otherwise!" Wes snapped, his patience with Yellow starting to dwindle. What use was going to the Distortion World if they were all going to die anyway?
"Yes, don't get me wrong," Yellow said calmly. "I regret that this had to happen. I blame myself too – perhaps I should have been more honest with you from the beginning. I didn't just come here to prevent the Griseous Orb from falling into Team Rocket's hands, you know."
Wes looked at Yellow. He had wanted to hear them tell him more about themselves ever since the Distortion World, but things had obviously come up. Unfortunately, he couldn't bring himself to care nearly as much now.
"The one who set me on this path, Red," Yellow explained, "disappeared a few months ago. He was investigating the Pokémon League he had resigned from and the organization they answer to, the Pokémon Association, as well as the 'Committee', as they call themselves. He uncovered some extremely sensitive information about them before disappearing, the most urgent one related to the Griseous Orb and the secrets of this facility. I knew members of this strike team were about to be assigned to guard this place, so I had to join, but with Red gone, we lacked a charismatic leader, and only Cal was willing to risk themselves and infiltrate this unit."
"You're doing this to continue his legacy," Wes reasoned. "Well, sounds like a real hero, that guy."
"I'm doing this," Yellow pressed, "for the good of everyone, all humans, all Pokémon and myself, too. It would take too long to explain the details, but the Griseous Orb can not fall in the wrong hands. I don't mean just the beast of the Distortion World, Giratina, but any human could use it as a potent weapon – not to mention attract Giratina's wrath."
"And we gave it to those assholes," Wes grumbled.
Of course, Wes thought. No matter what, it always comes down to the same thing. But even Wes had never believed the Committee would sacrifice dozens of lives to get their hands on something – especially when those lives could be of some use to them. Whatever the Griseous Orb was...
"You didn't, actually," Yellow smiled.
Wes stared at them dumbstruck and even Jasmine stopped typing when Yellow pulled something from the bag they kept hefting around. Wes' jaw practically dropped when Yellow pulled the octagonal, gold-colored artifact from their bag, letting it shine brightly over the room.
"But," Wes stuttered. "How – which – how did..."
"It wasn't easy," Yellow said. "Me and Cal made a copy of it a long time ago, hoping to switch it to the original once we got guarding duty here. We had to scrape every sketch and description ever made about the artifact, and then carry it around without anyone noticing for hours on end. Cal slipped it into the bag he put the explosives in before we went through the portal. And thanks to my shield, even the glitch Pokémon didn't detect it while I carried it around in the Distortion World."
Jasmine's eyes were wide as she stared at the real, brightly glowing Griseous Orb for a while, but soon went back to typing without saying a thing. Wes still couldn't believe it, but just seeing it lightened the feeling of hopelessness immensely.
"This is-" Wes was about to say, but was interrupted by loud screaming. "Hey, do you guys hear that?"
While Jasmine kept typing, Wes and Yellow walked to the other side of the room, to another door that led to another part of the level. Wes unlocked it and saw a dark, stone corridor open before him – and one filled with glitch Pokémon and one human plowing their way through them, screaming all the while.
It was Hilda. Wes watched in awe as she punched and kicked the monsters out of her way while using her blaster to keep others at bay, all the while making her way towards them. As her blaster finally run out of energy, she still didn't stop, instead using it to club the monsters away.
Wes and Yellow ran into the corridor, Yellow once again extending their hand and creating a shield around them that repelled the glitch Pokémon. Wes grabbed Hilda, who wordlessly collapsed on Wes' arms, and helped her walk back into the office, Yellow following suit and keeping the shield up until they were all safely in and the door was locked. Without saying anything, Yellow focused their attention on a heavy crate full of electronics, using their powers to levitate it in front of the door.
"...the others," Hilda mumbled when she finally realized she was safe. She grabbed Wes by the collar of his badly burnt shirt. "Where are they? Where are-"
"We are the others, Hilda," Wes told her bluntly. "We're the only ones left."
Hearing that, Hilda's face turned blank and expressionless. She simply nodded at Wes and walked over to the desk Jasmine was working on. Jasmine looked up at Hilda in a mix of concern and fear, but Hilda just sat next to the table and leaned on it, wiping some blood off her face. Her arm was bleeding badly as well, but she didn't seem to mind. As she closed her eyes, Hilda just muttered one simple phrase:
"Hilbert's dead."
And after that, she fell silent, still breathing and conscious, just worn down by sheer exhaustion. Jasmine resumed her typing.
"Then I believe it's time to go," Yellow said and gave the Griseous Orb to Wes. "As soon as Jasmine is ready, that is. Wes, I want you to have this."
"M-me?!" Wes squealed and backed away. "Hold on, if we ever get out of here, I'm not making myself a damn target with that thing-"
"It'll be a while before they realize they have a fake one on their hands," Yellow said. "Kaminko is the only one who can confirm it for sure, and I'll doubt they will let him handle it after failing to keep it secure here. You'll have plenty of time to hide it before that."
"But why me?" Wes asked. "You're the one with psychic powers and crap."
"It will take several minutes to get the teleport ready," Yellow insisted. "Someone has to stay behind and make sure no glitch Pokémon get through to you."
"No!" Wes yelled. "Enough of this crap – no one else dies here today!"
"I have no intention to die," Yellow said firmly. "And I trust we will meet again. That is, if you're willing to dedicate your life to a purpose now. I can understand if you don't – what I'm about to ask you will be far more dangerous than going to the Distortion World was."
Wes hated himself for this, but slowly and treating it as if it was poisonous, he took the Griseous Orb from Yellow. But he still didn't understand why.
"What purpose?" Wes asked quietly.
"The coming years will be hard," Yellow said. "Giratina will do everything it can to restore its power and return from the Distortion World. Even disposing of the Griseous Orb is only the beginning – and that alone will prove a challenge. If my estimations are correct, it is impossible to destroy it via conventional means."
"Well dang," Wes muttered, "but what I am supposed to-"
"The only way we can even hope to prevent this," Yellow continued, "is by rallying everyone we can under one flag to fight this. To do this, we need people who are willing to fight and spread the word. And even then, there is a condition we must fulfill..."
~o~O~o~
Having made their way past another radiation-shielded room, Shrew and Quill started moving objects in front of the door. But even after this, the glitch Pokémon kept pouring in and were soon banging on the door. Shrew had to stop to catch his breath.
"They just keep coming," Shrew panted. "How much further?"
"It shouldn't be too much," Quill said. "Just hold o-"
Quill stopped talking as she sneezed suddenly. Then, before she knew it, her knees buckled and the flames on her back were getting dramatically smaller. Shrew ran over to her.
"What happened?" Shrew asked as he watched Quill tremble.
"Just what you think," Quill grunted, her flames eventually burning out, leaving her back bare. "I think the degeneration is... oh, no..."
"We'll get you fixed up!" Shrew said as he tried to get Quill to stand. "You heard, Krane, right? A Pokémon doctor can-"
"If that's how you interpreted him, you're being pretty optimistic," Quill said weakly. "I took you for a cynic, but I guess all this really changed you, huh?"
"Please, just keep moving!" Shrew pleaded.
"I have to confess something too, Shrew," Quill said. "I don't think there's anything out there for me. The only human I ever knew properly before this turned out to be responsible for my condition."
"Of course there's something!" Shrew snapped. "We'll find it together, right?"
Quill shook her head. She looked up at the ceiling, pointing at it weakly.
As Shrew watched, his ears popped up in surprise. There was a surveillance monitor near the ceiling, and it was showing dozens of small Pokémon just like Shrew and Quill fighting the glitch Pokémon without pause. The Litleo who had helped them was still there, along with plenty of other species Shrew didn't even recognize.
"They're fighting to make this place the home they deserve," Quill said. "I told Krane the same thing while you were gone: if these really are my last moments, then I want to spend them fighting for the same cause."
"They're fighting so we can get out of here!" Shrew argued.
"So you can get out of here," Quill said warmly. "You saved them, and they're paying you back in return. And Shrew..."
"What?" Shrew asked, frightened by what she was about to say next.
"I know you want to blame all humans for this, but don't. You saw it yourself: not all of them are out to use us and hurt us. Giratina was the one who started this all, even if humans are partly to blame. Don't spend your life hating them."
Quill grabbed Shrew's paws and held them softly. Shrew couldn't find the right words. All the fighting he had done to get him and Quill out – had it all come to this?
"You have to go on," she said. "Get out there and keep up the fight – so that maybe one day you don't have to anymore. And most importantly: don't forget about me..."
Quill suddenly powered up, the flames on her back re-ignited. The sudden burst of energy knocked Shrew on his back, and he watched helplessly as Quill blasted one of the doors in the room with a flamethrower attack, creating a hole big enough for her to squeeze through.
"...because I have a feeling this isn't goodbye," Quill finished and dashed away.
Shrew didn't follow her, just watched her slip out of sight, leaving Shrew alone in the cold chamber, his only company the frantic sounds of glitch Pokémon banging on the door. One particularly loud bang alerted him, so he quickly moved into the next chamber, and with tear-filled eyes, sealed the door behind him.
~o~O~o~
Yellow had finished their speech. Still holding the Griseous Orb, Wes stared a them with no words to describe how he felt, but all he knew it was a lot of things. Honored, humble, afraid, devastated, frustrated, enraged and Arceus only knew what else. But he couldn't put this to words, just watched Yellow as they waited for him to give his answer.
He looked at the others. Jasmine just stared at him back, while Hilda did the same, only frowning while she did so and most likely not caring as much, having apparently figured out why Wes had the Griseous Orb. Not that Wes could blame her for not caring – he couldn't even get a grip of his own feelings at the moment.
"Time's running out," Yellow reminded.
"Yeah, I know, damn," Wes muttered. "Is... is all that really true?"
"I believe in it – to an extent," Yellow said simply. "That doesn't mean it's necessarily true, but it may be only hope right now. So what do you say?"
"...I guess I can't sleep on this decision," Wes said anxiously. "I... apart from the vagueness issue, that also sounds like it's a one-way trip. But..."
He could see Buck talking wistfully about his life, Cal making a dark observation while smoking a cigarette, Bianca's cheerful face as she stopped to heal their wounds.
"...to have all this happen for nothing would be even worse," Wes said shakily.
He remembered the relief on Rosa's face when Nate had been recovered, and how Hilbert had talked about Hilda like he practically revered her.
"I'll do it," he told Yellow. "I don't care what happens – I'm in."
Yellow smiled. "Thank you. I think you made the right choice. Jasmine?"
"Oh," Jasmine said with a flinch, carefully standing up in attention, Yellow having healed her legs while telling her story to Wes. "I actually finished the calibrations while you were talking. Someone had switched the other end of the teleporter to a warehouse on Chrono Island, then deliberately scrambled the settings. I think I managed to put it back to the teleport on Silph Co. in Saffron, where it was supposed to be."
"Good work," Yellow said. "I have to go now – take care of yourselves. I'll be seeing you, Wes. You can use my bag to carry the orb – I won't need it anymore."
"Uh, sure," Wes said and put the artifact in the bag and swung it on his shoulder. "But I really don't feel right leaving you here like th-"
With a snap, Yellow was gone. Wes shrugged, and together with Jasmine and a quiet Hilda, went through the thick steel door.
The trio passed through several radiation shield chambers on their way, having to make sure to seal the door behind them every time. Finally, after the seventh shield had been closed, Wes, Jasmine and Hilda found themselves in a humongous room mostly dominated by machinery, some kind of platform right in the middle of it.
Jasmine immediately went over to work on a terminal while Hilda sat on the floor, her eyes empty and her expression vacant. Wes' mind was too full of questions to try to comfort her, not that she would accept it, anyway, but had to snap out of it when a steel door at the other end of the room opened.
Wes tensed up, but instead of a glitch or a Rocket Grunt, it turned out to be a small, exhausted Sandshrew – one that Wes recognized immediately.
The feeling seemed mutual, as the moment the Sandshrew noticed Wes, it extended its claws and assumed a fighting stance.
Before it could jump at Wes, however, a deafening sound of explosion from above made everyone's ears ring and caused the entire room to quake. Ignoring the Sandshrew, Wes walked over to the completely passive Hilda and grabbed her arm to see the time from her C-Gear.
"It's still ten minutes before five!" Wes wailed. "I swear, if I get my hands on that bastard who-"
"You mean Lance?" Hilda asked weakly, talking for the first time since she announced Hilbert's death.
"Nah," Wes scoffed. "Lance is just a putz who relayed the orders. I'm talking about the smug prick who had the bright idea to send us all out here in the first place! The whole plan was all of you to complete your mission and then die – I'm pretty sure they had the same in mind for me as well."
"Uh, Wes, not to alarm you, but we a problem," Jasmine said in a tone that made Wes shiver. "I can adjust the calibrations, but we have to route the energy output manually unless we want to see what it feels like to walk on the sun."
"We came too far to let that happen now!" Wes snapped. "How do we do that?"
"Team Rocket really made sure to tear up the place when they came in, so they probably deactivated most of the manual controls," Jasmine said, "but there's an emergency switch over there!"
Jasmine pointed at it – it was a heavy-looking switch that had to be pulled located very high near the ceiling in a narrow crawlspace between some heavy machinery.
"What the hell?!" Wes yelled. "Who designed this place?"
Another explosion drowned out Wes' further rantings and the entire chamber shook even more violently now. Jasmine covered her head as dust fell off the ceiling while Hilda just sat still. Wes' and Shrew's eyes met, Shrew still ready to sink its claws into Wes' neck.
"Listen, little Sandshrew," Wes said calmly. "I know you can understand me, so hear me out: this is no time to fight. I can't even begin to imagine what you've been through, even before this incident happened, and I'm sorry for whatever humans have done to you. I don't know what happened when we got back here through the portal, but I swear I didn't do it on purpose. Do you see that switch over there?"
Shrew glanced at the switch and nodded.
"If you pull it, I swear we can all teleport together," Wes promised. "I trust you – and besides, we won't even have time to pull a fast one on you. The switch just makes sure we don't all go kablooey... right?"
"Yes, in a sense," Jasmine said nervously. "But Wes, that's not all – the energy caused by the teleportation will be rerouted into the facility itself. They didn't have time to fix the machinery after the last time it was used, so combined with the bombing... I don't think this place will last once we go. I'm guessing even the lower levels will collapse..."
Wes pondered Jasmine's words as he looked at Shrew, who stared back intensely.
"That might actually be the only thing that can stop those monsters from getting out," he pointed out.
"Yes, but... Yellow," Jasmine reminded.
"I know!" Wes snapped. "They had to know about this. They had to have a backup plan ready! Yellow just couldn't use it, because if they left with the Griseous Orb, they'd be the first one the Committee will go after..."
"If you say so," Jasmine said. "I hope they're okay, though."
"Well, Sandshrew," Wes told the Pokémon. "Go and flip the switch. We're counting on you."
But the Pokémon didn't budge. Instead, it narrowed its eyes and flattened its ears, as if it was ready to pounce on Wes. Looking straight into its eyes, Wes realized something.
"You have friends still here, right?" Wes asked the Pokémon, who looked surprised. "We lost people, too – important people," he glanced at Hilda. "But if you're here, that means they want you to go on and save yourself. I can't say I'll know what's gonna happen to them – but I know they wouldn't want you to die."
Another explosion, this one the biggest one yet. The machinery and computers around the room shook dangerously.
"If you don't do it now, we're all going to die!" Wes told the Sandshrew. "None of us are fit to climb and none of us certainly fit into that. You're the only one who can... please!"
The Sandshrew stared at Wes for a few seconds more, but with a pained squeak, it obeyed. It ran to the machinery, climbed up them effortlessly and flipped the switch. The machinery whirred to life, and the Sandshrew was quick to return, its black eyes damp with tears.
"You did the right thing," Wes told the Pokémon. "Come on!"
Wes dragged the uncooperative Hilda with him to the platform, followed by the Sandshrew. Jasmine put in a few more commands, but when another explosion boomed above them, she quickly limped over to them and joined them on the platform.
Little by little, all the machines around them were starting and the platform below them was sparkling and emitting a bright light. Wes, Jasmine and the Sandshrew looked nervously as the steel doors leading into the room started to give in as glitch Pokémon were banging outside them, trying to force their way in. Hilda just sat on the platform with no regard to what was happening. Then, a mechanical voice spoke through the loudspeakers:
"Teleport activated. Beginning transfer in five. Four. Three. Two-"
Both steel doors were forced open by the skeletal Kabutops and Aerodactyl, followed by a bunch of other monstrosities, but just then, a bright white light surrounded Wes, Hilda, Jasmine and Sandshrew. As an enormous burst of energy filled the room, they were gone.