The pouring rain over Veilstone City returned, and a darkness loomed throughout. Looker and his team of agents and police were hard at work, putting in immeasurable hours in trying to crack the codes on the computers in the Galactic Headquarters. They had only managed to break one of the four passwords, so their work was nowhere near complete. Looker was growing increasingly anxious to get to the bottom of this mess quickly before the Neo Team Galactic's plans could come into fruition, and that showed in the urgency he displayed in getting his team to work. A great amount of time had passed since the initial raid on the Galactic Headquarters, so Looker was determined to get this finished soon.
Unbeknownst to Looker, the three commanders were in the midst of their march on the city. Eileen, Marc, and Lisa soon reached the Galactic Headquarters, and the two ladies turned to Marc. With a sigh, Marc stepped up and fished in his pockets for the keys he had to the building. Once the door was unlocked, he froze, and slowly he turned his head back towards his other two commanders.
"Are you certain that we should be doing this?" Marc questioned, voice and expression clearly indicating his unwilling, torn nature over the situation, "Who's to say it will even work?"
Eileen crossed her arms, raising her chin, "We have a responsibility in this matter, do we not? We're doing what we must. I see no fault in it." She turned to Lisa, "Do you?"
Lisa cast her gaze away, narrowing her eyes and clenching her jaw tight, "...I only want this over with. I don't want to drag out my part in this longer than I have to."
Seeing as that was the closest thing to agreement Eileen was ever going to get out of her, she turned back to Marc, "I suppose it's your decision, but you know as well as I do that this cannot be done in the time that it has to be without your help. We all must cooperate. There's already one hurdle in our way, but if we work together, it will stand as nothing to us. Decide as you will. Just know that it is very likely that all of this will be for naught if you do not come along with us."
There was still that look of reluctance in Marc's visage, but he eventually closed his eyes and opened the door and held it open. Eileen grinned widely, a confident and pleased look on her face, and she walked inside with Lisa behind her.
"Don't worry…" Eileen said in a drawl as she went inside and towards the stairs to the upper levels, "This will all be over soon enough…"
"And… Action!"
Cynthia rested her head in her chin, letting out a quiet, unnoticable sigh. The cameras were rolling, so she didn't want her extreme boredom to be accidentally caught in the tapes. She didn't want to look so bored and uninterested, but watching the same scene play out over and over in front of her with little to no change in the action got old to an outsider in movie production. It didn't help that the entire backdrop for the scene was a huge green studio with absolutely no character whatsoever. It did not capture the integrity or the sensation of the actual experience facing off against legends atop Spear Pillar. Not that Cynthia wanted to relive that traumatizing moment in its agonizing tension, but there was a component to the atmosphere that was simply missing in this rendition of it. She wasn't an expert in reading acting or anything, but even she could tell how the cast's performances were lacking. Diantha could feel it too, and she was growing increasingly agitated in her own acting.
Eventually during one take, Hugo looked over towards Cynthia, who shot a glance back to him as well. Hugo raised an eyebrow, silently asking for her input, and after a pensive pause, Cynthia shrugged and shook her head. With a disappointed sigh, Hugo stepped further on set and clapped his hands together.
"Cut! Cut!" He yelled, "What on earth is going on here? Where's the emotion? The drama? The suspense?!"
Diantha slinked out of her character's persona once the cameras stopped filming, and she went to rub her temples with a sigh. The other actors in the scene looked to be just as exasperated as she was. Cynthia simply closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair, bracing herself for the inevitable tantrum.
"That was pathetic! You need to sell the fear and suspense! I felt nothing from that! Nothing!" Hugo shouted, "Again! And make it good!"
Everyone was too exhausted to fight back at this point, and they all got ready for the next take. Diantha and Cynthia shared a knowing look before the cameras started rolling again.
"Action!"
At first, the scene was going pretty well with some improvement in the acting. However, a few moments into it, it started to slip back into mediocre territory and eventually Diantha just let out a groan, placing a hand to her forehead and shaking her head.
"I'm sorry. This just isn't working." Diantha said, disappointment dripping from her voice.
Hugo shook his head, obviously greatly frustrated, "That's a wrap for today! All of you get out of my sight!" With that, he stormed off, leaving everyone else in the dust.
Diantha slapped her hands to her face, still disappointed and angered with herself, and Cynthia saw that as incentive to go and check up on her. She walked to Diantha's side, placing her hands on her hips and tilting her head to get a better view of Diantha's face.
"It's just a bad day." Cynthia consoled, "I'm sure tomorrow will be much better."
"There's just… something I'm not getting." Diantha sighed heavily, letting her arms drop to her sides.
Cynthia raised an eyebrow, "Hmm?"
"There's part of me that just can't capture the feeling I'm supposed to for these scenes." Diantha explained further, "I can't get an authentic reaction out, for some reason…"
Nodding her head, Cynthia bit her lip. Part of her didn't want to bring it up, but there was still a curiosity that she couldn't suppress about the situation, "The Distortion World is a...strange place. It's quite hard to capture the true feeling of being there if you're an outsider, but… wouldn't you think those nightmares of yours could've helped with that?"
"That's why I'm so frustrated, because that should be the case." Diantha let out a sigh, "But… the more I think about it… I didn't focus a lot on the world itself. I was more so worried about… other things… and I don't think that kind of feeling is relevant in this case…" She said vaguely, averting her gaze. In her dreams, Diantha was always more focused on Cynthia than anything else, so she picked up very little about the Distortion World itself other than the fact it was a strange, foreign place.
"I see…" Holding her chin in her hand, Cynthia narrowed her eyes. Again, she had a terrible idea, and she hated how it entered her mind but she couldn't fight it, "If you want to get an accurate reading of the Distortion World… I think I may just have the fix for that, if you're willing."
Diantha immediately shook her head, her gaze turning serious, "If you're thinking about returning to that world, I won't let you go. I'm not letting you relive those memories just for my and some blasted movie's sake. It's not worth it."
Cynthia looked taken aback by Diantha's concern for her, but eventually she regained her composure, "W-Well… That wasn't what I was insinuating. There's this one place down near Pastoria City, and the division between our world and the Distortion World there is the weakest. It's the closest thing to feeling the Distortion World without actually going there. I think I could manage that much, as long as I don't go back…" She coughed awkwardly, grabbing onto her arm and glancing off to the side.
"Well…" Diantha seemed apprehensive, but there was still a side to her that wanted to get the correct feeling down for the movie. Cynthia's comfort came first, though, and that was for certain, "If you are positive that you'll be fine, then I'll go there. But you have to promise me this, Cynthia: we leave the second you don't feel safe anymore. I don't want you getting hurt because of me."
"...I promise." Cynthia responded, clenching her jaw tight.
Diantha smiled softly at that, "Thank you. Now, should we be off then?"
Cynthia returned the smile, albeit weakly, "Yeah. We need to keep this quiet, though.. This place is kept secret. Only a few people know about it."
"Darling, just who would I tell otherwise?" Diantha teased, words laced with a laugh.
"I suppose that's true…" Cynthia laughed to herself, "I'll drive to Pastoria, then we have to go the rest on foot."
"If that's what it takes… Alright, lead the way!" Diantha held out her arm for Cynthia to take, and Cynthia looped hers with Diantha's and started walking from the studio set.
Along the way, Cynthia scratched her cheek with her free hand, "I, uh…I hope you're not afraid of the dark, heh…"
In Veilstone City, the three commanders had recently infiltrated the Galactic Headquarters building, and quickly after that they were on the top floor and on their way to the computer hub where Interpol was surely working on cracking the secrets hidden in the Galactic databases. Eileen could hear the voices behind the doors, and she stopped and looked at her fellow commanders.
"This may not be pretty." She warned, placing her hands on her hips, "Are you ready?"
Lisa and Marc both remained silent to that, but Eileen could see that they weren't trying to back down. Taking the initiative herself, she stepped forward and took ahold of both handles to the doors before flinging them open to the computer lab. Marc and Lisa walked in first, and Eileen stayed in the back. The Interpol agents seemed startled at the sudden intrusion, and after a moment of disarray, the agents trained their guns on the three commanders, including Looker.
"Freeze!" Looker shouted, "Stand back!"
Eileen took that moment to step in front of Marc and Lisa, completely unbothered by the dozens of gun barrels she was staring down at the moment, "Oh, please. Put those down. No need to cause a scene here."
"This is a classified investigation! Interfere, and we will arrest you!" Looker yelled in a warning. Though, he was confused why the commanders took so long to finally come to throw a wrench into his investigation. That part he could not find any explanation for.
"Interfere?" Lisa shot back, crossing her arms and tilting her head.
"I think you misunderstand…" Marc continued.
Looker's grip on his gun faltered, and slowly he started to lower it, "What do you mean?"
Eileen couldn't help but grin, "You know, the fact that Interpol has yet to crack the codes on the Galactic database really does nothing to make us ordinary citizens put our trust in the organization.. That's where we come in."
"The four encryptions to the databases were drafted by us commanders, you see. We know exactly how to undo them." Marc explained, grinning a bit himself.
"Do you really think we were gonna let Interpol make fools of themselves, floundering about trying to hack into the system?" Lisa sneered, "Nah. It's about time us three step up and put an end to this pathetic display!"
"So…" Eileen lifted her hands into the air, "I think now would be the time to put those silly guns down, and to pave a way for the experts here to solve your mess."
"You're going to help us?" Looker holstered his weapon, furrowing his eyebrows. This certainly was different than what he expected, though he wasn't going to complain…
"We did not spend the entire trip over here drafting up the perfect speeches for you to not even understand it!" Lisa growled, "Yes, you idiot! We're helping! Now move out of the way!"
Eileen walked up to Looker's side, placing her hand on his arm, "Forgive her. She was not the easiest person to persuade to the cause. She's doing this whole good-guy stuff her own way."
"'Her own way' isn't very good-guy like at all." Looker commented with a shake of his head.
"How many of the encryptions has Interpol managed to crack?" Marc interjected. He was one of the few still on topic.
Looker closed his eyes out of shame, "One."
"Which one would that be, by any chance?" Marc then asked.
"Mine." Lisa said with a sigh, running her hand over the interactive screens to scroll through the data on the computer, "Ugh… Of course… I finally let you two losers convince me into coming down here, and I'm not even needed. Just great."
Suddenly a shadow cast over Lisa while she was sitting, and Lisa looked up to see Eileen towering over her, arms crossed and a less than pleased expression on her face. "Now… Don't you believe you're missing something here?" Eileen stated in a threatening droll.
Seeing as Lisa's only reaction was an annoyed and confused glance, Eileen simply carried on, "There are four encryptions, Lisa. Yours has been cracked, and Marc and I can handle ours. That still leaves one encryption unaccounted for. Charon's."
Lisa leaned back in her chair, huffing and crossing her arms in a pout.
"You worked with him the most. You knew him best. While Marc and I work on deactivating our firewalls, you have to work on Charon's." Eileen leaned closer, eyebrows furrowed and incredibly determined, "You're needed here. You are the only one who can crack this final code."
Lisa let up a bit at that, loosening up and calming down. She looked over at Marc, who nodded at her and cracked a small smile. Letting out a heavy sigh, Lisa then brought up Charon's firewall and started to get to work.
"Alright…" Eileen turned her attention towards Marc and the other Interpol agents, "Now that that's being handled… we'll work on our encryptions in the meantime. Though, if you lot are all set on putting a stop to whatever these idiotic Galactic diehards are doing, you should get ready, now. You all took so long to decrypt this database. Who knows how far along the plan actually is. We could even be too late."
"Doubtful." Looker said, shaking his head, "There have been no significant evidence of a change in readings at Spear Pillar. The plan hasn't been set into motion yet."
Eileen raised an eyebrow, "Yeah? Well… Who's to even say that it'll happen at Spear Pillar?"
Looker fell silent at that. Where else would Team Galactic put their plans into place if it wasn't Spear Pillar…? Regardless, he focused back on his group of agents and nodded, "You heard her. We must prepare for whatever we find in the system. We cannot waste any more time than we already have."
A few seconds later, Marc gave the interactive screen one final tap before looking at the large display on the wall, "Decryption complete. That leaves two more until this blasted secret is unveiled…" Now that he was finished, he went to Lisa's side to see if he could be of any assistance to her.
"And I'm blasting my way through encryption number three…" Eileen stated, inputting codes at an unfathomable speed.
Looker glanced between the three commanders, watching them all be hard at work. Their motivations were still elusive to him, and as an investigator, he wanted to get to the bottom of it, "What brought on the change of heart to help? If what the Champion told me was correct, I could have sworn you all wanted nothing to do with either the revival or the investigation."
"That's not true…" Eileen muttered, tearing her gaze away from the computer for a moment to glare at Looker out of the corner of her eye.
"Nah. I made it crystal clear I wanted to be left the hell alone…" Lisa grumbled.
"That's only slightly true…" Eileen amended.
Marc shook his head, "Anyways… I think the three of us, regardless of our initial perceptions of this whole ordeal, realized just how troublesome a Galactic revival is. We nearly destroyed the universe the first time around. Hopefully us three all learned our lesson from the first time, too. That's why we're here, to make sure that something like last time doesn't happen again."
"J-Just to clarify, I'm only here because these two wouldn't give me two minutes of peace and quiet..!" Lisa stammered, doing her best to fake an annoyed expression.
Marc sighed at that, "Focus, Lisa…"
In that moment, Eileen let out a proud laugh, glancing up at the main display, "Well, that's done. Lisa, the rest is up to you."
"Ugh… Of course… Leave the hard one to me, why don't ya…" Lisa had managed to break through a majority of the encryption already, as it did not stray much from the default settings all the other commanders' firewalls had, but she found herself utterly baffled by the final, five-character passcode to shut everything down. She wracked her brain for answers, shaking her head from the futility of it all, and with a loud, defeated groan, Lisa slammed her fists and let her head fall onto the display.
"Easy, easy!" Marc placed his hand on Lisa's shoulder to try and calm her down, "These machines aren't as sturdy as Pokémon are! Please try and be careful with them!"
Lisa slowly lifted her head, a blank expression on her face, "Tch… Maybe they should make machines that are like Pokémon…" In the midst of her muttering, suddenly her eyes went wide and she let out a gasp, "Wait…! That's it! Ugh, how didn't I think of it sooner?!"
"Did you finally figure it out?" Eileen asked, taking a step closer out of eagerness.
"Charon… That annoying geezer… He would never shut up about this Pokémon he encountered one time…" Lisa rubbed her temples, trying to recall the memories, "It was a Pokémon that inhabited machines! It was… It was R-O-T-O-M!" She typed out the letters as she said them, and then she entered in the passcode, waiting for the feedback. When a few moments later the final firewall went down, Lisa threw her head back and let out a relieved sigh, "Oh, thank god…"
Eileen took over at that point, fishing through the database for the recently used files. She came across one that stood out to her, and in opening it, it showed Team Galactic's plans for all to see, "...I wish I could say I was surprised."
There was a moment of silence, and then Looker hurriedly went to pull out his phone, "I need to call Cynthia…" He said to himself, but he was cut off by… an incoming call?!
[champion edgy:] May have to cancel our plans. I'm helping Diantha out with something last minute
[Elizabeth:] wow. can't believe i'm the third wheel here
[champion edgy:] Oh shut up. It's for the stupid movie. I'm not too thrilled about what's going on either
[Elizabeth:] What else could they possibly need you to do for that movie? haven't they made you suffer enough?
[champion edgy:] Hah tell me about it. Diantha didn't like how her acting was during the Distortion World scenes so I'm taking her to Turnback Cave so she could experience some of what it's like down there herself
[Elizabeth:] If she's got you strong enough to go back and relive even a portion of that hell, she must be something else. Don't push yourself Cynthia. The blasted movie isn't worth the pain
[champion edgy:] Trust me, I'm aware. I'll leave if I need to. It's not the real deal either, so I should be alright…
[Elizabeth:] If you say so… Just text me if you need me
[champion edgy:] I will
Elizabeth set her phone down on her desk and sighed, rubbing her forehead and closing her eyes, "Can't believe she's really headed to Turnback Cave… I forgot that place even existed." Brushing that off, however, Elizabeth turned back towards the Research Center monitors, keeping an eye on any shift in Spear Pillar's readings. There was absolutely nothing different than before besides a few slight shifts, but those fluctuations were normal. It was a move of curiosity and boredom, especially because Elizabeth had forgotten that Turnback Cave even existed, and she wound up changing the display from Spear Pillar's electromagnetic readings to Turnback Cave's instead, just to see… And she could not be more surprised.
The display started beeping once Turnback Cave was analyzed, and the electromagnetic frequencies were off the charts. Elizabeth might have forgotten about Turnback Cave's existence, but she knew that it never gave off those level readings. Something was going on there, and in that instant, she might have just cracked the case. Pulling out her phone, Elizabeth scrolled through her contacts; part of her didn't want to frighten Cynthia about what was going on, and she also figured that it would be better to report it to someone else first… so Elizabeth called Looker. Luckily, she got a speedy answer.
"D-Director Elizabeth!" Looker stammered on the other line, "What is it?! Forgive me, but I believe we just made a huge breakthrough in the case and I must make haste to-"
"Yeah, well I just made a breakthrough too!" Elizabeth interrupted, "But what have you discovered?"
"The reason why Team Galactic decided to have this revival in the first place, and what their plans are…" Looker began, "There were leftover parts of the Red Chain from their original plan, and apparently, the revival members were to give the Red Chain to Cyrus in the Distortion World, but I haven't the foggiest idea how they would do that…"
"I do! They're opening a portal through Turnback Cave!" Elizabeth growled, shaking her head and snapping her fingers, "I feel like an idiot! Turnback Cave is where the line between the Reverse World and our world is the weakest. Where else could they open a portal?!"
"How do you know that they're opening a portal through Turnback Cave?!"
"The electromagnetic frequencies coming out of Sendoff Spring… It's… It's crazy! It's happening right now, too! And… I have good news and bad news on how we're going to stop it."
"Please, tell me!" Looker glanced at his agents. He lowered the phone from his ear for a moment, "Contact VCPD and PCPD! All personnel should head to Sendoff Spring and Turnback Cave immediately!"
Elizabeth paused for a moment, letting out a shaky breath. She wondered if she should share the situation or not, but she figured now was not the time to withhold any information, "The good news is that someone's on their way to Turnback Cave as we speak, so they can stop the commotion going on in the Reverse World…"
"And the bad news?"
"That someone… is Cynthia." Elizabeth closed her eyes. She knew that Cynthia would absolutely not want to return to the Distortion World under any circumstance…
Looker fell silent for a moment as well, and he glanced at the three commanders. He shared Elizabeth's worry, knowing too that Cynthia was in no condition to return to the Distortion World. Even with his agents on the way, he wondered if they could make it on time, whereas Cynthia was already nearby… "...I'm going to conference her in."
"Yeah…" Elizabeth nodded to herself, "Do that…"
"Hang on…" Eileen trailed off, "Don't leave us out of this too!"
Once Looker had added Cynthia to the call, he put the phone on speaker so that the three commanders could hear as well. Cynthia picked up on the last ring, much to everyone's relief.
"What is it?" Cynthia asked, "I can't talk for much longer. I'm at Sendoff Spring and about to head into Turnback Cave, and there's no reception in there. I'm a bit busy…"
"She's already there… Thank god, that's a start…" Elizabeth breathed easily.
"It's not so fun when you're just minding your own business and suddenly you get ambushed, now is it?!" Lisa cut in, shouting into Looker's phone, "Now you know how I felt when you cornered be at Floaroma!"
"Elizabeth?!" Cynthia sounded shocked, "And… And was that Lisa yelling at me? What's going on? Why is everyone in this call?"
"We solved the case for you, of course. We're still going to need your help, however." Eileen cut in, crossing her arms.
"And?! What do you need me to do?"
Elizabeth sighed again, "Team Galactic is using Turnback Cave to create a portal to the Reverse World to give Cyrus another Red Chain… And… fortunately you're right there."
Looker felt terrible in asking, though given the convenience of the situation, he had little choice if he wanted to stop Team Galactic, "We don't know how much time we have. My men are en route, but I'm not sure when they will arrive. Cynthia… You have experience with the Distortion World, and you are in the immediate vicinity. We could use your help right about now."
There was dead silence on the other line, understandably so. Swallowing harshly, Marc clenched his fist, trying to reach out to Cynthia, "Please, Champion Cynthia! We must stop Cyrus and the rest of Team Galactic! I promise us commanders are here to help! Once you're in the Distortion World, we'll be right there behind you! Cyrus had a comm unit that still managed to work despite being in different dimensions! It's how he contacted me once before, and it's probably how he contacted the remaining Galactic members! If you can get your hands on that, we can be right there with you even on the other side!"
"We'll do our best to help from this world." Eileen said in a voice far more sincere than she's shown before, "Anything else we can dig up from this database, we'll share it with you. You won't be doing this alone this time."
"Cynthia…" Elizabeth began, voice weak and losing traction, "You don't have to do this! I'm sure my Staraptor can get me there in a few minutes! I'll go instead!"
Over at Sendoff Spring, Cynthia wound up lowering her phone from her ear, and she turned to Diantha with an unsure look.
"Cynthia, darling…" Diantha stepped forward, eyebrows knitted together. She placed a hand on Cynthia's arm, "What's going on?"
"Team Galactic opened a portal to the Distortion World inside Turnback Cave…" Cynthia said in a small voice, almost as if she didn't believe it, "I have to stop it…"
Diantha shook her head from disbelief as well, "Cynthia… You don't have to do anything you don't want to. Surely the authorities can handle it."
"They don't think that they'll make it in time… And Elizabeth won't make it here in time either…" Cynthia fixed her gaze on the ground, thinking it over for a moment before she lifted her phone back to her ear, "I'll go, and I'll find that comm unit too… But Looker! Make sure you and your men keep Diantha safe and away from this mess! That's all I ask!"
Before Cynthia could even get a response from the others, she hung up her phone and slipped it into her pocket, focus instead going to the entrance to Turnback Cave. She looked ready to head in, but Diantha stopped her from stepping away.
"Hold on… I'm not staying behind, if that's what you meant." Diantha said sternly, "I'm coming with you."
Cynthia shook her head, "No, it's too dangerous. This is my problem to handle. I'm not letting you go into that hell. I can't risk you getting hurt, nor can I risk the same thing happening to you that happened to me when I went in…"
"I can handle myself, you know. I'm not just some actress that needs protected." Diantha countered.
"I never said that you couldn't handle yourself. I'm just saying that I can't risk you getting injured! You still have your movie and your region to get back to! I don't want you throwing that all away!"
"Please, Cynthia! I can hold my own out there! Have you forgotten that I'm a Champion too? If you could handle the Distortion World, then so can I! Please, just let me help you!"
Cynthia grew quiet at that, looking Diantha over hesitantly. The truth was, Cynthia didn't know if she could handle being alone in the Distortion World again, so having Diantha, especially Diantha, alongside her was something she needed. Part of her still wanted to protect Diantha from the horror that was the Distortion World, though. Diantha had it bad enough with those nightmares, and the last thing Cynthia wanted was to have Diantha be as traumatized and terrified as she was from that world. "...Please, just… Be careful in there."
"I will be. I promise you that." Diantha looked at the cave entrance, drawing in an unsteady breath, "So… how do we stop this Team Galactic?"
"The good old-fashioned way…" Cynthia placed her fist in an open palm, cracking her knuckles, "By force! Now, come on! We have to hurry! And stay by my side!"
With that, Cynthia and Diantha both ran into the cold, twisted labyrinth that was Turnback Cave, where Team Galactic was lying in wait.